Right, so I'm just about up to the end of June, and what is it now? Ah, approaching the end of August! I'll try to have a bit of a catch-up session now. Let's see how we go...

Summer in Munich is lots of fun, especially if the weather plays along. What with being unemployed at the moment, I am of course able to take advantage of sunny weekdays & don't have to hope for nice weekends like normal people. And this is what I've done - yay! I'm so brown it's unbelievable. And all thanks to the river Isar and its accommodating banks. (And to the fact that Germans have no problem with nudie sunbathing in public places...)

There have been a few lovely hot sunny weekends too, though. And one of them was in early July, when Christian & I cycled up to the Olympic park to visit summer Tollwood, the arts & crafts fair with funky jewellers and tasty ethnic food stalls and all that malarky. I munched my way through crêpes, hemp wraps & the ubiquitous sugar-crusted almonds, and washed it all down with Czech schnaps, organic elderflower cordial & a pint of Guinness. Multiculturalism ROCKS!

I cooked a proper English roast dinner one Sunday, and Michaela, the boys & Christian were all very pleased with the result of my efforts. Which is nice, because it's ages since I did a roast, and I was a little nervous. Christian's muffin trays came in very handy for individual-sized Yorkshire puds.

There have been a couple of times where I've got on my bike at EXACTLY the wrong moment: once I went to meet Bénédicte for lunch and managed to get drenched just going down the hill into town. I was sodden! Like a drowned rat that's been doused in yet more water, and then thrown in a washing machine just for fun.

And then another time I went down the same hill to meet Christian at the Auer Dult one evening (this is a crockery/antiques/food market that happens three times a year just near my flat) and got totally drenched again. I really should have known that time though, because as I was getting on my bike someone in my courtyard was talking on the phone to his girlfriend and she was telling him how it was pissing down in town. But the weather in Munich is deceptively microclimatic: it can really dump a load of rain in one part of town and be sunny in another.

Christian & I headed out into the rain for Munich's Gay Pride (known as Christopher Street Day in Germany - and I've been to Christopher Street now - yay!) one Saturday too. We ran into a bunch of people unexpectedly, as one does at such occasions. We had a few drinks with Harry & Dieter and then ended up spending the whole afternoon & evening in town eating, drinking & making merry with Christian & Wolfgang from Salzburg.

I went out one (not rainy) evening with my mate Uwe and we did a whole load of bars that I've never been to: we dined at Zoozie's, desserted at Café Glück, and drank at Moos. I love the fact that I've been living in this town for over two years and there are still stacks of places for me to discover!

I had a weekend of concerts with my choir. First we sang a "home" concert in the St Markus church in Schwabing. It was a cappella and went pretty well considering how ropey some of the sopranos are. And then the following day we did an "away" concert in Weilheim, a town just west of the Starnberger See lake. This went down very well with the locals - the church was packed!

We were lucky with the weather for our visit to Christian's parents, which coincided with a visit there by Christian's brother Ralf & his wife Bettina & his kids. It was great to see them again. I felt I got to know them both much better this time than at Ralf's birthday party back in February. And his daughters are lovely too! They're the same age as Sophie & Livi. The two highlights of our visit were a walk up a sizeable hill near Alban & Renate's house (where we had ridiculously cheap & tasty drinks & cake in the hostelry at the top) and a visit to the nearby village of Schweinlang, for their Day of the Open Village (where we got to look at lots of tractors & agricultural equipment).

Okay, well that's July covered off! Except to say that I had a few job interviews, which was a nerve-racking experience. The one slight problem in my ongoing search for work is that I haven't the faintest idea what I'm looking for! In the words of Sheryl Crow, "all I wanna do is have some fun" - and get paid for it...