Sorry folks, it's been a while (well, a bloody long time actually) since my last blog entry. I think the UNENDING crap weather has sapped my will to live - or at least to type. But here's a quick overview of what I did in April (ohmigod has it really been that long since I updated this thing?):

At the start of the month, Ali was still here doing her German course. We played badminton, ate lots of food and had a couple of drinks here & there.

I did quite a bit of "local" tourism in April, visiting Munich's City Museum for an exhibition of photos by Andreas Gefeller (fabulous!) and taking a double dose of modern art, at the Pinakothek der Moderne and then the neighbouring Museum Brandhorst. The latter gallery houses a preposterous collection of huge Cy Twombly paintings that I dearly wish I could detest - but annoyingly the set of twelve pieces commemorating the Battle of Lepanto are actually quite good...

I popped out one afternoon with Bernhard to Walchensee, a lake near Garmisch to the southwest of Munich, followed that with a visit to Garmisch itself (where I had a delicous schnitzel). I also visited Landshut, and back in Munich I cycled along the Isar (looking back, there were at least two dry days this spring).

A highlight of the month was Munich's Spring Festival, the Frühlingsfest. This is kind of like the Oktoberfest but a bit smaller - which means it is still enormous, just not mind-bendingly so. Bénédicte's friends Nath & Marcel were down from Amsterdam, and I went to the Fest with them. It was sunshine & showers.

Of course, I spent many a pleasant evening in the company of friends, eating at a variety of locations and drinking plenty of alcoholic beverages. The bizarrest food experience was a Quebecker brunch at a small Canadian delicatessen, which featured random (and, I have to admit, not particularly tasty) preserved fruits.

The most amusing drinking took place at Bezi's 30th birthday party, in her cousin's flat in Schwabing. Bénédicte & I got to know lots of Bezi's Munich friends (Bezi now lives in Zurich, which is a great shame) and I ended up drinking & dancing in the kitchen until five in the morning!!

The most unusual thing I did in April was probably helping Bine film a mini-documentary about the lions' heads outside the former royal palace (the Residenz) that people rub for good luck. I've never been involved in a proper filming before, so it was great fun providing some cheesy lines ("You've got to rub it! Rub it good!") and generally getting all arty and creative.

D'you know? I think I'll leave April at that. Short & sweet. This blog misses some of the minutiae of life that enliven other entries I have done, but it is a masterpiece of concision, I think you'll agree!