Tah tadadah tah dah DAH!! It's 2009! It's a blog! I've got a new job!

Yes, earthlings, my time of relaxed participation in the non-work aspects of daily life in Munich has all but come to an end. As of Monday, my nose will be back at the grindstone. More on that once I've had my First Day and then picked myself off the floor...

But January has been lots of fun until now too. I mean to give you a little taste of what I've been up to:

German media considered it newsworthy that, at New Year 2009, there was roughly a doubling in the number of SMSs sent by revellers to wish their friends & family health & prosperity. I did my bit, sending an inordinate number of texts and receiving quite a few in turn.

But the best text was sent by a German friend of mine who had spent Christmas visiting friends in the UK. I quote (translating): "This year I celebrated in your ex-homeland. We pulled apart exploding sweets and I received a crown. Lovely traditions!" It took me a second to realise she was talking about Christmas crackers. And then a wave of pleasure ran through me at the sheer deliciousness of something so familiar being described as a first-time experience!

I started the New Year as I mean to go on, by heading to my gym for a workout. No, dear readers, you haven't suddenly gone mad, I did write - and I do go to - "gym". Argh!!! It's only five minutes down the road, it's cheap as chips, and somehow the press of hot, sweaty bodies surrounding me when I'm there spurs me on to greater heights. It SO beats exercising alone, that's for sure!

The next few days I spent at Michaela's house, helping her to sort through stuff old & new. We really got a lot done, in part because the boys were at their father's so we weren't so distracted. We rewarded our hard work with a day's skiing with Claire & friends of hers from Ireland. It was my first ski day of the season - and, it being January, a much better start than last year, where I didn't hit the slopes until April.

We were at Söll, in Austria, where a surprising number of the guests - and an astonishing number of the staff - were English. I found it quite amusing, but it actually freaked Michaela out to have English-speakers where they're not supposed to be! (She's been living here too long...) The weather was pretty good, and the snow good too, so we had a nice easing back in to things.

The first memorable meal of the year was at Karin's house. Most of the Stammtisch crew were there (me, Christian, Edith, Chris, & Bine) and Karin cooked up a storm! Her parents both have Lebanese heritage, and she put on a spread of Mediterranean marvels for us. Her stuffed vine leaves were particularly subtly flavoured, the secret being to cook them resting on a joint of lamb. Fabulous! Later, Karin showed her love of whisky in an eloquent introduction for us to the joys of that tipple.

Christian & I met with Rudi & Sabine at the theatre later that week. Rudi's sister joined us too. Sadly, the play was well-intentioned but awful: some miserable Austrian piece droning on about World War II and its psychological aftermath in the German-speaking lands. I could see where the playwright was trying to go, but it was too undigested.

One Thursday evening I amazed Christian with my cooking skills. I decided to try out some of the recipes from the tapas cookbook that Michaela got me for Christmas, and they all turned out pretty well, especially the little spinach & anchovy empanadillas. One of my New Year's resolutions is to invite more people to dinner at my place & to cook for them; I reckon I'll get into the swing of it pretty quickly.

I've already been to a couple of parties this year with Bénédicte. First we had dinner with her friend Frank at SAF, the vegan place (the food was not quite as amazing as it had been last year with Christian, Richard & Christian) and then we went on to the French Party at Ampère, a small club just by the river near the Deutsches Museum. We drank a lot of prosecco but didn't do a lot of dancing, because the music was pretty dire.

The second party was just the other day. It was organised by http://www.internations.org/, a networking site for expats that has its origins here in Munich but has groups all over now. The venue was a new one to me, called Beach 38°. I wasn't sure whether this meant the whole place was superheated or what. Sadly, the number relates to the house number not the temperature, but in fact it's pleasantly warm and done out like a tropical beach bar, with sand & decking. Also, they have an attached beach sports hall, which was full of people playing beach volleyball when we were there. I might be tempted to go back there...

And another party I've been to was at the EPO's SkyBar, for the 50th birthday of a friend of Michaela's. The buffet was splendid, the drinks free and the atmosphere buzzing! I've been in SkyBar before, and it's always been a bit disappointing, but now I see that it can really get going in there once there are enough people. There must have been 200 of us in there, with good music getting people onto the dancefloor in droves. A good time was had by all!

Lorna has finally left Munich for good now, handing back the keys to her flat the other week. We had one last weekend of fun, first with Tomasz at the Augustiner in Arnulfstraße & at Ryan's Muddy Boot, the Irish bar in Neuhausen, and then the next night just the two of us, starting at Pardi & ending up back at Ryan's Muddy Boot for midnight crisps. I shall miss her, and our spontaneous beers! But, like Lorna says, we'll still have the planned beers to look forward to.

I spent a fabulous three hours at Therme Erding, Europe's largest spa & sauna centre, the other day with Matthias from Augsburg! There are SO MANY different saunas, spas, jacuzzis, whirlpools, and just plain old swimming pools to choose from! And it really is special to be swimming along (naked, of course!) in hot water, steam billowing up in clouds that obscure the buildings behind you, and snowflakes landing on your head as you lazily make your way around the outdoor section of the main pool, before heading back indoors and perching on a seat at the in-pool bar for another beer.

Last weekend was most relaxing too. Christian & I drove down to his parents' place in the Allgäu because it was his mum's birthday. We didn't do much apart from eat & drink while we were there, but it was really cosy in their warm house on such cold days & nights as we've been having here recently.

The weather has been unrelentingly cold since the start of the year. It snowed on New Year's Day, then hasn't been above zero since, so there are still scraps of snow around & about. It's been sunny on a few occasions, but mostly overcast. I'm already kind of over the whole winter thing, and it's not even the end of January yet! Ah well, I'll be heading into the mountains again this weekend for a spot of skiing. Perhaps the weather will be cheerier there...