...but it's a good thing that I'm so far behind myself in my blog, right? I mean, it shows I'm out & about, doing fun things, and not sitting around at home (like I am - shock horror! - this evening...) twiddling my thumbs, or indeed any other parts of my anatomy.

Okay, now where were we? Ah yes, January:

So I got back from Denmark and had one last meal with Ju (picking up my luggage from her house in the process) before flying home to Munich. You might have thought - cos I know I did - that January might be a bit quiet, after all the fun & games in December. But no! Because Dan and her new bloke Dan were over visiting Michaela. And I went to my first ever concert in the Munich Opera with Christoph & Ekke (it was Mahler's 2nd symphony). And that was just in my first three days back!

Matthias was up from Zurich that weekend, so he, I, Bernhard & Jo hit the town in a big way - including an emergency McDonalds trip for Matthias just before bedtime. Saturday was spent singing (an extra choir rehearsal; the first of many for this year's busy concert programme) and in the evening I had a last dinner with Harry & Dieter before Harry moved to Stuttgart with his new job. On Sunday I headed to the Therme Erding with a bunch of guys from the Munich Bears, and in the evening Bénédicte came round for dinner: I did a rather delightful chicken in pistachio sauce!

Highlights of the next week were a Galette des Rois dinner with Corinne at Béné's, a lovely evening with Felix, a lovely lunch with Colin, a visit from Diana who I haven't seen in eight years since NZ, and surviving a sudden snowstorm to cycle into town for drinks at Jo's bar Quattro Tavoli followed by a lovely evening with Richard (no, not me!). The highlight of the highlights was a raclette dinner at Corinne's with Eric, Béné, Franck & Marie-Laure. OMG I haven't drunk that much in a LONG time!

The last week of Jan was marked in particular by a dinner with Christian & Christian from Salzburg, and then crowned by a weekend visiting Matthias in Zurich. We went for dinner to some friends of Andrew's called Pascale & Thomas, where we proceeded to drink two bottles of champagne, six bottles of red wine, and a bottle of Appenzeller schnaps. Oh, and we ate some pizza too! Before getting stuck into the whisky back at Matthias' place with his crazy Greek housemate Niki. Saturday, once my hangover wore off, becamse fabulous as I walked from friend to friend: Andrew to Mirèia & David to Moji to drinks with everyone to the Kitsch Party to more drinks back at Matthias' with Gil, David & Jenny. Sunday was necessarily a little quieter...

And so we hit February: I got new contact lenses!! I can TOTALLY see - without scratchiness at the end of the day yay! This new power of sight was put to excellent use in coffees with Fritz, piano playing with Felix, drinks with Béné & Bezi, and shopping for a trunkload of Austrian wines at V-Markt before coffees with Ingmar & Carlo and then dinner at Michaela's with Russell and the boys. And rounded off with lots of wine & tapas at my place with Béné and Marie.

Week two of February started with Ryan's birthday party at Michaela's, before moving on to drinks with Robert at KraftAkt, lunch with Michaela; Diane & Jackie at Haguruma, an invitation-only piano recital and drinks with Felix at Christoph Hauser's place. It was capped by a ski day - my first and last of the season, will you believe! - at Kitzbühel with Béné, Marie, Fabien & Arnaud. The next day I was still a bit achy, so after a lovely brunch at Moro with Felix, James, Gunnar and Tom and a walk along the Isar in the fantastic crisp winter sun, I treated myself to a couple of hours in the sauna.

The next week started with a lunch with work people at L'Angolo dei Sapori, with Julia, Manu, Wendy, Slava & Jo. It had a decidedly quiet middle (at least, according to my diary) before peaking massively at the weekend: I flew to Hamburg for Martin & Barbara's wedding!! I met Bernd there and on Friday night he took me to a bunch of his old haunts from when he lived there - but not before we'd had a delightful dinner at his friends' place where we were staying. Our hosts Bernd & Wolfgang were extremely generous and entertaining.

The weather on Saturday wasn't the best. But the ice floes on the Elbe looked all the better for the intermittent sun. The wedding was a real delight - both the service in the bijou church out west, and the reception in the Turkish place in the centre. In between the two Bernd showed me the area he used to live in, the Schanzenviertel, and after the reception we had a cheeky drink at Tom's bar before walking home along the Reeperbahn and out through Altona. There was plenty more walking around in store on Sunday, when we hit the HafenCity before I met Marco for a coffee and then had to fly home.

There was no let-up in the last week of February, since as soon as I got back to Munich I had to get stuck in to Fasching, as Carnival is known here. Too many drinks! The Rosenmontagsball on Monday night with Dio, James & Tom was lots of fun (and lots of fancy-dress), and the drinks on the streets on Faschingsdienstag were great too. As is traditional, the weather was sunny and dry for the day, and I met up with LOADS of people, heading to Andy's Krablergarten for a schnitzel dinner with quite a few of them, before continuing the merry-making until after midnight...

And then, to mark Lent with a real bang, I flew with Béné to Dunkerque (okay, to Paris, then by train to Lille where we were met by Kim & Linda from Amsterdam) for Carnaval in her mum's home town. Crazy crazy crazy crazy crazy. The whole town was like a rugby scrum, pretty much the whole time. Organised chaos set to sing-along music with everyone in drag or silly animal costumes, and more champagne (and random bits of pickled animal) than you can possibly imagine. A real experience!

February finished on a slightly quieter note back in Munich, with a dinner for Erik's birthday with Béné and Corinne in the Bavarian place opposite the Opera that I've been meaning to go to for years. Really nice!

I'm going to stop there. Two months in one blog - and not even too babbly a blog at that - is a milestone that's worth savouring.