Oh my goodness gracious me! I am truly AWFUL at keeping this blog up to date! So sorry folks.

So, briefly:

Diving in Egypt - magical!! Sleeping under the stars, and seeing the Milky Way stretch from horizon to horizon, the stars stopping suddenly where the sky met the sea; swimming with dolphins, who were clearly enjoying showing off how much more agile they were than us for a good half-hour; bioluminescence in a bucket (the toilet flush didn't work at night when the generator was off); the underwater bonding that a night-dive can give a group when the guide is completely useless and sets off heading away from the reef instead of towards it (think Blair Witch with bubbles); and the shock of cold water in the toilets at Munich airport on our return!

A weekend in France - Christian & I drove up to Isa & Andy's combined 75th birthday party. No mean feat considering we'd only just got back from Marsa Alam International Airport (with its catchy "Deadalus" waiting lounge and unfinished terminal buildings). And I managed to see heaps of people I haven't seen in ages and ages.

Day tripping in the Allgäu - it was well worth it just for the jams! But in fact I enjoyed the whole day with Christian's parents in the village where he grew up, complete with abandoned railway station and odiferous cowsheds that reminded me of my own childhood village experiences in Austria.

A long weekend in Venice - Michaela & boys were accompanied by Lisa M, their erstwhile kindergarten teacher, as well as by me & Oliver. And we did plenty of sights, including a bird's-eye view of the whole town from the Campanile on St Marks Square, and tasty falafel from a greasy spoon in the Ghetto.

Partying in Munich - birthday feasts (Oliver), summer street parties (Lorna), warm farewells (Maggi) beer garden visits (Matthias), coffees in town (EPO colleagues), home-made cakes in pavement cafés (Christian), business lunches (Phil), pub crawls, a spot of shopping, evenings at the theatre, dinners out, dinners in...

Guests from New Zealand - yes, at last I get a chance to repay past kindnesses! Tye & Kirsten, good friends of Bernard's in Dunedin, spent a week at my place en route from the Czech Republic to the UK. And in that time I showed them how to make the best of a rain-drenched Munich. Yep, you guessed it, we drank inordinate amounts and ate ourselves stupid. Yay!!

Day tripping in Tirol - Michaela & I & the boys caught up with cousin Sue from Adelaide, together with her husband Barry (I stayed with them back in '05) in the pretty little village near the Italian border where their son Martin now lives with his Austrian wife Michaela & their two daughters, Maja and Lilly. A thoroughly good time was had by all!

Right, that's me pretty much up to date. Phew!