In my last blog I heroically wrote up my story for the month of July. In this one, I'm going to attempt to condense all my fantastic life experiences from August into a digestible couple of paragraphs. It's not going to be easy! But let's have a go:

Michaela has moved to a different office building, out west past the main railway station, and I went to have lunch with her there. The area certainly has nothing like the charm of the little streets & squares around the Isar building (where she - & I - used to work), but at least there's decent coffee to be had within a 10-minute walk from her; not like the rest of Munich, which seems to be drowning in a wave of god-awful Alfredo coffee, which tastes like they removed all the nice aromas and just left the flat burned flavours no other coffee brand wanted, but which is appearing in far too many coffee houses for my liking. Okay, mini-rant over.

It was a month of hit-and-miss weather, with most of the hits (ie sun) during the week. Poor little unemployed me could take advantage of this and cycle off down the river to sunbathe midweek. This cumulative sunning, coupled with a relatively stress-free lifestyle in recent months, has resulted in a very healthy glow about me that people actually keep commenting on. Yay!

Food highlights in August were:

• Pardi, the Turkish restaurant right by Lorna's flat in Neuhausen (which sells the delightful Oyster Bay sauvignon blanc from New Zealand that I got to know & love out there a few years ago);
• Lucullus, my old standard Greek down the hill from me and not far from Tom's flat or Fritz's flat (so it made a great meeting place for the three of us one evening);
• Kastanienhof restaurant, a place very close to Michaela's house serving slightly upmarket German cuisine;
• Gast, the Italian cook-while-you-watch place in the Gasteig (Munich's answer to London's South Bank arts complex, built on the site of the beer hall where Hitler proclaimed the first Nazi republic back in the '20s);
• Chinesischer Turm, or rather the beer garden at the base of this huge pagoda in the English Garden (I was there a few times in August, first with Bénédicte & her Polish friend Aleks from Berlin, and then with Chris & Kate & the girls);
• Wassermann, a place in town near the EPO which basically does cocktails & pub food, but they're GOOD cocktails and it's YUMMY pub food;
• Harlachinger Einkehr, an out-of-town beer garden I cycled to with Tom one evening, where we rewarded ourselves for having cycled for an hour all the way to Grünwald & back with a Flintstones-sized mound of spare ribs;
• Café Glockenspiel, the restaurant that overlooks Marienplatz and the town hall (I had a most pleasing grilled goat's cheese salad there with Bénédicte & her two French friends Mélodie & Nathalie that live in Amsterdam, who I met there back in January);
• Pappasitos, a Mexican place that actually didn't have the greatest food (oh it was okay, but not earth-shattering) but gets a mention for its outstanding mojitos (of which I, Christina & Susi had far too many during the course of Tine's birthday celebrations);
  
• Coffee & cake in various locations, including but not limited to Christian's balcony when Matthias came to visit from Augsburg (cakes on this occasion courtesy of the wonderful Konditor up the road, and the Bodo cake shop & café by Sendlinger Tor (with Béné, Mélo & Nath)
  

Looking at that list, you wouldn't think I'm doing Weight Watchers at the moment would you! But, believe it or not, I have managed to lose some superfluous pounds; perhaps I would have lost more by now if it weren't for all the delicious restaurants I go to, but hey that's just wild speculation...

The most exciting thing about August was the visit to Munich by Chris, Kate & the girls. They were here for just over a week, and unemployed as I am I could spend the whole time with them which was great. It was delightful to see just how well my four nephews & nieces get on - and best of all they're getting to an age where they need almost no adult input, leaving us adults much more time for getting pissed & having a laugh!

The week was action packed, with visits to the air museum at Oberschleißheim (where we also had delicious lunch in the restaurant attached to the palace there), the mediaeval market at Schloss Amerang (down towards the Chiemsee lake), a swim in the Starnberger See (with unrivalled views into the snow-capped Alps), and a couple of days on a mountain (the Schliersberg, to be precise, which has Schliersee lake at its foot), as well as some Munich-based entertainments (I already mentioned the Chinesischer Turm stint, but we also ate at Gast & went to see Prince Caspian in English in the Museum Lichtspiel cinema next door).

I'm glancing at my diary to see if I've missed anything out. And dammit I have! Just when I was about to congratulate myself on summarising August really rather well. But it won't do to leave out another wonderful day: Michaela, Christian, Charlie & I went to see Ryan performing in a circus!!

He did a week's summer-camp-type training with a travelling circus just south of Munich, and he was part of a troupe of acrobats that got up to all sorts of mischief. He is really very agile & sporty, and he's got the sort of personality where he decides to learn how to do something and will just practise & practise & practise until he can do it. I admire that, not having anything like the patience required for such an approach.

Where there's yin there's yang: I feel honour-bound to mention the special time I had with Charlie in August too. I got the chance to look after him all day one day (Ryan was away at the circus & Michaela was at work), and we had a great time cycling to my place & back, having some lunch, playing lots of Lego, and then going for a swim to the Oberhachinger swimming pool, where Michaela & Ryan met us just as the sun was going down.

And that's where I'll stop. Before I remember anything else! Tootle pip, readers!