August was a tad busy. In all the right ways, mind! Here's a little roundup:

Kev & Cath at their girls Molly & Ruby were over visiting Michaela, and we had a few fab days together, including down at the Flaucher on the Isar, and out by the lake at Murnau. They were generally lucky with the weather while they were over. Lots of laughs, lots of fun - as always with Kev!

Bénédicte & I drove to Zurich to visit Bezi and Moustapha, and while we were there we went to the Rheinfall, Europe's most impressive waterfalls. Okay, it's no Iguaçú, but it's a huge amount of water nonetheless, and very pretty (apart from some '70s crimes of architecture on one side). We also drove to Luzern for a swim in the Vierwaldstättersee there, stopping for lunch in the middle of nowhere on the way, and finding a delightful mediaeval square in Luzern to eat fondue in that evening. And we visited Einsiedeln, site of a huge Baroque monastery. Not to mention the copious amounts of wine we drank on the first evening, with my mate Reto...

I went for a swim & a sun at the Gretelmühle lake outside Landshut with Bernhard. That evening we had delicious tapas in Landshut, right on the Isar, sitting on crazy neon orange beanbags and drinking a very smooth Spanish red.

We had more tapas later the same week, in Munich with Bénédicte & Marie-Laure, but they weren't nearly as good - or as filling - so we ate Ethiopian food that night too! Followed by more than a few drinks (beers with schnaps chasers - yikes!) at Schwabinger 7, which is very different now that there is no smoking any more in bars in Bavaria.

One evening we had a choir reunion meet-up in the beergarden at the Parkcafé. After all, it had been some weeks since we'd last seen each other!! Plus I think it was only about the second time I'd actually been to a beergarden this year, what with inclement weather & various travel plans. Good fun was had by all.

Michaela & I went for a boogie at an over-30s disco party (ohmigod that sounds so tacky! - well, it sort of was!) with Rosanne, who was over visiting her with her son Alex. We left Alex looking after the boys & went out on the tiles. It was held at the Löwenbräukeller, upstairs, and there were two dance areas, with the more intimate one playing some really good tunes!

On 14th Bernhard & I travelled to Straubing to visit the Gäubodenvolksfest, Bavaria's second-largest beer festival (after Munich's Oktoberfest). It was HUGE! And they had the hugest deep-fried onions for dinner!! Incredible! They made up for some serious food faux-pas that I suffered earlier in the day, including the dodgiest horsemeat frankfurters (they really looked disgusting - and tasted it too) and a plate of cold chips. At least the beer was tasty - and cheaper than Oktoberfest too.

And then, in the second half of August, I was all over the place again - just like the old days! I flew to Barcelona with Bernhard, Michaela & the boys, and we met Chris, Kate & the girls off their plane, then headed into town, where Bernhard & I put the others onto their train to Port Aventura and then headed down the coast to Sitges for a few days of sun & relaxation. It's really a lovely spot! Full of tourists and yet not in the least bit tacky.

Bernhard flew home on Thursday, and the others came back up to Barcelona that evening. Our rented apartment on Passeig de Gràcia was supercentral, right opposite La Pedrera, Gaudí's crazy block of flats. And we did LOADS of lovely things, quite a few of which centred on eating & drinking!

I headed up the coast to L'Escala to catch up with my friends Carles & Maica, and they had a fabulous surprise for me: we went for a scuba dive at the Illes Medes marine reserve! I wasn't expecting to see so much variety of sealife in the Mediterranean, but there were huge fish (including eagle rays) and loads of nudibranchs too! And the many, many culinary delights of L'Escala, both in Carles' kitchen and in the fishing village itself, were just incredible.

I caught up with my friend Olga (a wonderful soprano: www.olgamiracle.com) a couple of times, once in Barcelona with her partner Jordi and once in Vilanova (just west of Sitges) with her uncle who was visiting from Marseilles. It was a delight to hear all about the ongoing struggle for Catalonian independence and to talk in depth about some of the music she is singing at the moment.

And then it was time to fly home again - but only for a day! The next morning I flew with Bénédicte to Amsterdam, where we met up with her friend Suzie for lunch, then Kim & Linda for a beer, then Kim, Linda, Nath, Marcel, & Mélo for an evening of French cuisine interspersed with French chansons, in an intimate little dining room in central Amsterdam, with live guitar & singing between each of the courses of the five-course meal. And plenty of wine!

Saturday was even madder: we ended up spending twelve hours in ONE bar! The original plan was a beach picnic, but the poo weather put paid to that plan. So then it was going to be just a quick lunch in town, at this place on the roof of an old office building just south of central Amsterdam called "Canvas op de 7e", but they had really tasty white wine and comfy seating, so we just stayed. And at ten o'clock the whole place turned into a nightclub, with a fancy dress party laid on! So we got dressed up and shook our stuff on the dancefloor until one in the morning.

On Sunday I popped down to The Hague to see my friend Simon. It was a filthy day, with flash flooding and wall-shakingly heavy rain, so we just stayed in, drank tea & caught up on news. Then I just had time to mix some Pimm's & lemonade at Kim & Linda's place in Haarlem before Béné & I had to go back to the airport. Busy busy busy!

And that pretty much wraps up August, my lovelies!