Folks, it's time for a final blog for 2008. Yes, I know it's already 2009 - and I haven't even wished you all a Happy New Year yet! - but there were some fun things that I got up to after I was back from Japan that I want to share with you. So here goes:

I got back to Munich on the Friday night, and on the Saturday afternoon we had a final choir rehearsal. The concert was on Sunday, and it was followed by a big dinner for the whole choir at our nearby Greek restaurant (amusingly in Türkenstraße). I was luggageless and consequently lensless for the whole time, but I managed to sing in glasses okay.

I went to visit my mate Uwe in the hospital at Neuperlach on the Monday. He had had some minor surgery, and I remember myself how bloody boring it is to be in hospital, so I was more than happy to go and see him for a couple of hours. On the Wednesday I had the beers with Holger (as mentioned in my last entry) where I got the whole luggage story off my chest.

Michaela, Ryan & Charlie seemed to spend the whole of the rest of 2008 bouncing various diseases amongst themselves, so at various times I was over looking after one or other or all of them. I thankfully didn't succumb myself; but I'd been ill enough a month previous to last a while! Despite illness we still found the time & energy to go to Sealife Centre Munich for Charlie's birthday. It was much better than I was expecting, but still not a patch on diving in the Red Sea.

Christian & I went to Bussone for great pizzas and cheesy karaoke one Saturday night with Lorna & Tomasz. But as soon as the regulars in that place started smoking - despite the smoking ban, and with the naughty acquiescence of the owner - we headed off for a coffee in a restaurant in the Glockenbachviertel. I can't remember what it was called, which is a pity as the menu was enticing; I'll have to wander around there until I find it again.

I had a lovely afternoon & evening of food, photos & conversation at Christoph's flat with Martin. These two are tenors with me in the St Markus Chor, and Christoph wanted to show us his new flat and photos from his summer walking in the Alps. All accompanied with piles of cake & cheeses - my kind of evening!

The following week I had dinner with Rocky, who I used to work with at E.ON when I was first in Munich. I haven't seen him for literally years! I think the last time we met up was early in 2007. So it was great to catch up with him - and to savour the delights of the Italian pizza place just near his office by Westfriedhof. I'll have to go back there; the wood-fired pizza oven worked wonders.

It being December, and Advent, of course the many Christmas markets of Munich sprung up on squares across the city. I visited a good few of them, meeting up with Tom, Fritz, Susi, Thomas, Lorna, Christian, Michaela, Lisa, Claire & Bénédicte at various times at Sendlinger Tor, Marienplatz, Stephansplatz & Tollwood, enjoying Glühwein, Feuerzangenbowle (Glühwein with even more alcohol in it), 1/2 metre sausages, exotic foods, schnaps & hot coconuts (hot coconut milk with rum -ooh yeah baby!). It's a cold time of year, so you need to warm up well...

The run-up to Christmas itself was actually quite quiet, the one big Christmas-themed exception being Moyra's Christmas party at the EPO, where once again Michaela, Christian & I stuffed ourselves silly with lashings of traditional English Christmas dinner & divine mince pies. Being unemployed, I of course had no office party of my own to go to. Instead, I got to spend a day being bored OUT OF MY MIND on an absolutely pointless training day during which I was supposed to learn how to write an application letter. Oh my God. That day, I earned the dole money I've been getting, I tell you!

I managed to eat stupendous amounts of non-Christmas-themed food during December as well: notably at Molos, that fab Greek in Maistraße, with Lorna & Tomasz; a couple of times at Bénédicte's house (her parents were over for a weekend and we ate a full raclette with several wines & champagnes from her dad's exceeeeeedingly extensive wine cellar); and one evening at Christian's, where the Kloster gang gathered to feast on pizzas & chocolate mousse. There was a large brunch at Christian's too, when Wolfgang & Christian came up from Salzburg to visit.

Christmas Eve we spent at Michaela's. I cooked a gulasch, while Christian did the bread dumplings to go with it. Michaela rustled up a fantastic trifle, and the meal was complete. Apart from all the wine & Baileys of course.

Christmas Day we were at Christian's parents in the Allgäu, along with Ralf, Bettina & the girls, who were down from Osnabrück for the holidays. It was quite a quiet one, with Bettina actually in bed almost the whole time with an evil flu. Christian brought his new projector down with him and we showed photos from Israel & India. It was strange to see all these hot places while it was cold & miserable outside.

Boxing Day had me heading down to Salzburg airport to pick up Kate, my Aussie friend who I met on Samoa back in 2004. She is currently living in London, and was at a loose end "between the years", so I said she should come over. Boy did we have a ball!! If the pre-Christmas week had seemed a little quiet, the post-Christmas week was anything but. We did many many fun things! Here are the highlights:

• A WHOLE LOT of shoe shopping in every shoe shop in the whole of Munich - but of course, in true girly style, Kate failed to buy a single pair! - as well as lots of shopping of the non-shoe variety;
  
• Coffee & cake, Asian snacks, Ethiopian dinner, an Australian pub, German food: Jungschweinbraten mit Kartoffelknödel (roast baby pig with potato dumplings); Kaiserschmarrn mit Zwetschgenröster (scrambled eggy pancake with plum compôte), big fat cocktails, coffee in an Italian bar called Box, Thai food, Italian food, bakery food...
  
• Quick desserts in Salzburg town centre (Salzburger Nockerl, a kind of meringue that looks like a wobbly tit on a plate, and Topfenknödel mit Marille, curd cheese dumplings with apricot compôte);
  
• Amusing comedy deafness moments: Kate heard me saying "that's where I had tram sex" when in fact I was saying "that's where our tram stop is"; I heard Kate saying "do you want it up the bum?" when in fact she was saying "do you want lip balm?"
  
• Upmarket shopping in Ludwig Beck, where we saw a puffer jacket that looked like a sundried tomato and felt like when you put your finger on an old balloon, and in many branches of Zara;
  
• Many a happy hour spent browsing the Viktualienmarkt, including a lunch of grilled ox & Weißwurst (traditional Munich veal sausages), as well as tucking in to the free pralines we got with our coffees just behind the market;
  
• Culture, in the form of Kate going to the Kandinsky exhibition while I did the next-door Glyptothek & Antikensammlung (many great statues!), not to forget the book of street art that Kate bought in the funky Kandinsky art shop, which we spent the 3/4 hour of queuing for tickets reading;
  
• More culture, in the form of the Salzburg modern art gallery, where we saw a Paul Klee exhibition as well as a bunch of photography, some of which was even good - and I suppose the Austrian lunch with Wolfgang & Kazumi was sort of cultural too, what with the traditional Austrian restaurant and the classic Austrian dishes (Fritattensuppe or pancake soup, Fleischfleckerl or pasta with pork);
  
• Yet more culture, in the form of the Nymphenburg Palace, but we didn't hang around there because it was BLOODY cold that day, so instead we headed into the Backspielhaus for more coffee & cake. And we gave up on the idea of ice skating at Stachus for the same temperature-based reason, settling for the Glühwein instead;
  
• A trip to the cinema to see Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which was bloody good (let's agree to disagree about Scarlett Johansson, Kate - either she's wooden & boring & can't act, or she was very convincingly playing a wooden & boring American - but the other actors were all fantastic);
  
• Some interactive wildlife pleasure, in the form of the butterfly house in the Botanical Gardens, where we were attacked, Hitchcock's The Birds stylee, by enormous butterflies, before taking refuge in the other, plants-only parts of the palm house.

Kate's visit ended on 31st December, when we caught a train down to Salzburg and had lunch with Wolfgang & his friend Kazumi, who was over from Japan for a few days of mountain pleasure. Then Kate & I headed up to the gallery.

As the sun was setting, Just after the ridiculously loud musket fire from all the hills around Salzburg's city centre, and a cheeky hand-made Mozartkugel chocolate in town, I put Kate into a taxi to the airport and headed back to the railway station to catch my train back to Munich.

And then it was suddenly New Year's Eve, which Christian, Michaela, the boys & I spent at Jackie's house, along with a bevy of other British expats from the Patent Office. Oooooh the stilton!! Happy New Year everyone!!