As I said in closing my last update, life's good. So good, in fact, that I've once again been so busy drinking from its merry cup that I haven't had a second to blog anything at all.

But that's about to change, my hearties, as here comes November! (In bullet form, as far as possible...)

- I drank a rum, chocolate and bacon (yes, really!) cocktail with Jürgen
- I had drinks with a bunch of gay expats (the monthly meeting is called Queer Beers!)
- I baked scones for Bénédicte, Ivi & Rüdiger
- I had dinner with Josef at Kreuzberger followed by drinks at Café Glück
- Caro visited HOORAY! and we had dinner with Michaela & Christian
- Matthias visited from Zurich and we spent a whole Sunday in Europe's biggest sauna complex in Erding, just near the airport
- I played badminton a few times and went to the gym a few times
- I caught up with Frank, Richard, Oliver, Bernie, Richard, Olaf & Peter
- I had lunch with Michaela (who is now finally, after several years, back in the EPO building just near my office HOORAY!)
- I had cocktails & a burger with Susi in Schwabing
- I went to the Skybar with Bénédicte, Marie-Laure and Corinne for a Latino night
- I had lunch and later coffee & drinks with Colin, and met his delightful friend Josephine
- I had a whole weekend of choir rehearsals, interspersed with a WHOLE WEEKEND of drinking: first with Matthias (up again from Zurich) in a variety of bars on the Friday, and then with Martin & his mates for his stag do on the Saturday...
- Karin popped in for port and cheese one evening
- The Christmas Market season started just in time for Advent, and I consumed much Jagatee and Glühwein (and indeed am continuing so to do...)
- I found a new yummy coffee place called Café Crème (with Wendy from work), which is almost up there with Café Loretta and Café Vits and the place on Viktualienmarkt!

There's one chunk of November that I just can't do justice to with bullets, namely a long weekend I spent in New York. Yay and double yay!!!!!!

I flew over on the Thursday, to be met at Newark airport by Rich's chauffeur and driven to his house in Teaneck. Paul was home, and we chatted for hours, nibbling a variety of foods that I hadn't had since last I was in the States. All rounded off with a soak in their outdoor hot tub. Ahhhhhhh.......

Friday was cool: Paul dropped me off at the park & ride and I caught the bus into Manhattan, then walked all the way through Chelsea (seeing cool galleries and the Sky Line park, a converted disused elevated railway) to the West Village to meet up with Kate at NYU Law School. We walked across to the Clinton Bakery, then grabbed a cab to Bryant Park to go ice skating. From there I caught the Subway to Long Island City and walked to Dan & Shoshana's 40th-floor penthouse apartment overlooking Manhattan - yay! Dan & I had a cheeky drink, then we headed back toward Grand Central station to have dinner with Shoshana, followed by some drinks back in LIC.

Saturday started quietly, with the splendiferous view from Dan's floor-to-ceiling windows out over Manhattan and Queens (his windows open disturbingly wide, and it would be way too easy to just topple out to your death), but things quickly got stressed when I discovered the Subway doesn't run at weekends (engineering works - felt just like London!) so I had to dash off to catch the ferry so I could walk briskly up to Grand Central to meet Claire. Thankfully she was still waiting for me, even though I was hideously late (she never got my message; bloody AT&T!)...

We went and had some brunch, chatting and catching up (she lives on the Upper East Side now with her hubby; I haven't seen Claire since a boozy evening in Düsseldorf ages ago!) before heading across to Brooklyn to meet up with her husband Noel and a friend of theirs, Lisa, to walk their dog around Prospect Park for a few hours. It was bracing weather, with a chill wind, but luckily it was mostly sunny and it was a good walk. I then tackled a journey with several changes all the way up from Brooklyn to LIC to have dinner with Dan & Shoshana in a local bistro before a spot of wine and a well-deserved, leg-restingly long sleep.

On Sunday I helped Dan reposition every single furnishing in his living room to pretty much every possible position, before finally settling on an arrangement that made what we felt was the best use of the space, with due consideration of Feng Shui, incident light, and colour coordination. Then, my (very occasional) interior-design urges satisfied, I headed back across to Manhattan on the East River ferry, and on to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where I met Rich, Paul and Steven. We spent a good few hours in there, heading first for the new Muslim Art suites, before going to Café Loup in the East Village for dinner followed by a few beers in Ty's. Next stop: that divine hot tub in Teaneck!

Monday was a short day. I was still knackered from walking all around New York all weekend, so another hot tub soak was definitely called for. Then Rich took me for proper Jersey pizza and on to a huge cash & carry supermarket, where I picked up a fabulous hunk of mature cheddar among other delicacies. And, before I knew it, it was time to head back to Newark airport. Rich drove me there, with a last-minute panic thanks to crazy amounts of unexpected traffic, and a few short hours later I was back in Munich, and heading pretty much straight to work from the airport.

What a MARVELLOUS weekend it had been! And what a top-notch month of amusements it was embedded in too! Amusements which have continued into December - but that, my friends, is for another blog...