Ah, yes, well, ahem, I seem to have savoured for slightly too long the brevity of my last post... Anyhoo, here's another little splash of what I was up to some months ago:

Where were we? March, okay...

I popped over to London for the weekend to celebrate Hugh's birthday. It was great: we did a mini two-man pub crawl starting at - of all places - the British Library, and ending at 2am in some dodgy wine bar near St Paul's. The way you do. Sunday morning was revived with the fantastic fanTAStic coffee of Look Mum No Hands, on Old Street. I had a few drinks in Vauxhall in the afternoon (well it was wet out) and then had a marvellous evening of backgammon at Hugh's to round off a very relaxed few days.

Then it was Starkbierfest time. I imbibed a litre or two of the strong sweet black beer at the Augustinerkeller, bumping into a whole crowd of people I hadn't seen for a while, and finishing up with pizza at Oliver's place (who handily lives quite close by).

I had a lovely walk and sit and do nothing along the Isar the following weekend with Jo on the first hot hot hot day of the year (17th March), followed by a visit out to Ohlstadt to see Matthias, who took me to Christian's Italian delicatessen in Murnau before we all headed to a truly Bavarian hostelry for ooodles of pig and wheat beer. The next morning I did a spot of sunbathing in their garden. It felt like the end of winter at last... That evening I headed for more Starkbier with Jo at Nockherberg.

The last full weekend of March was a choir extra rehearsal weekend - so of course the weather was fabulous again, as it always is when we have to be cooped up indoors singing. But I made the most of the evenings: Friday night with Matthias, Bernhard & Josef; Saturday night with Alexander and his mates; and Sunday night cooking & eating paella at mine with Bénédicte.

And so on to April:

Rasmus, Lene, Johan, Marie and baby Elias drove down from Denmark to visit me!! They came down on Friday 30th and stayed until Wednesday 4th April, and in that time we did lots and lots! We went for walks around here, we went down to Neuschwanstein castle, we went to my Monday Stammtisch for dinner, and we had fab pizzas from Alpenhof, the great Italian round the corner. I was once again amazed by how proficient Johan is in English, and I managed to pick up quite a bit of Danish so I could talk with Marie too. (Although everyone was making fun of my accent boo hoo!)

For the long Easter weekend I flew to Spain with Bénédicte. We had a night in Madrid on the Wednesday (hoovering up culture then tapas in the rain) before flying down to Jerez, where we left our bags in a random hotel (there are no lockers at the station, damnit!) and wandered in the hot sun hoovering up more tapas. A train took us to Seville and we found our way to my colleague Colin's flat, where we were staying while Colin & his family were out of town. Then, after a bite to eat, we had an early night - ten o'clock!

It was early but it wasn't long: we got up again at one in the morning to head into the centre and experience the Madrugá. This is where seven or eight different massive processions wend their way through town following floats carrying Jesus or Mary and carried on the necks of eerily equally-tall stocky guys (well I guess they have to be the same height, otherwise the tall one would break his neck).

I've never seen anything like it, that's for sure. The milling crowds, the feeling of suspense as you wait for the next procession, the dreamlike quality of all this nighttime activity. Meeting up with my colleague James & his young son at five in the morning was bizarre too. In fact the whole thing was crazy. So many photos!!

The weather on Good Friday was poor - in fact, the Mary of la Macarena was literally just being carried back in to her temple when the heavens opened - and that day's processions were cancelled. It sounds banal, but in fact if you've been rehearsing pretty much all year, preparing for the moment of carrying your icon through the streets of your city, and then it all gets called off, I can imagine people aren't happy.

Not that we were in the weather much. After getting back from the Madrugá at about eight, we collapsed (back) into bed until one. Then we had a bit to eat here and there and bought wine & food to have at Colin's that evening. This time, when we went to bed at ten, we didn't get up again any time soon!

Saturday was quite like Madrugá, only by daylight. Same same but different. Still loads of people everywhere, just with better views of the floats. After a slow morning, we headed to the nearby supermarket and picked up some bits for lunch. Then Bénédicte went shopping and I met up with my friend David for a bit.

Later, Béné & I met up with James & his wife Sarah and their two kids Leo and Alma to watch some processions. We scored a table at a tapas bar on a square with a great view down a hill, and managed to stay there all evening eating & drinking, with the occasional jump up out of our seats for the processional highlights of Jesus or Mary being carried past. The evening wore on, we drank more sherry, and finally headed home.

On Sunday we made it up relatively early to go and see the Resurrección processions. Same same but dressed in white. The rest of the day was devoted to more traditional tourism. Fortified with chocolate con churros, we wandered down to the Guadalquivir river to do a boat trip, then headed to Plaza de España and walked through the lovely park there. I met up with James for more drinks & tapas, heading over the river for the first time to the Triana side (where he lives), which is much more Spanish and less touristed. Then I went home.

On Monday we went for tostadas round the corner, then met Colin at the station for a coffee, before jumping on the train to Jerez. We took a taxi straight to the airport, then flew back to Madrid, where we first had a drink at Plaza Mayor, then walked around all over, finishing with a stunning sunset just by the Palacio Real. We headed back to our hotel reasonably early, as we had an early plane the next day. Which we then proceeded to nearly miss. Oh dear. But we made it back in the end.

Okay, that was a whole lot on Spain. I'll try to be briefer for the rest of April:

It was Bezi's birthday the next weekend, and I met a whole bunch of her new work friends at her party in her place in Schwabing on Friday. On Saturday I went clubbing - no, proper clubbing in a real dance party! - with Tom, to the Inxomnia party, and then to the after-party in a sleazy bar behind the station.

The next week I visited Fritz in hospital after his fall; I visited Christian with Andreas and Patrick; I went to a fabulous winetasting at Rot Weiss Rot, an Austrian wine shop, with Jo, Karin & Bine; I went to see Hubert von Goisern live at Zirkus Krone with Michaela, Diane & Vera before we all went for a drink in the Augustinerkerller and met a mad young American lass called Elle, before I went on for drinks with Don, Joshua, Stefan, American Richard and Manfred; I saw my colleague Wendy playing in her big band in Grafrath out on the edge of Munich; and I went to the sauna to recover from all this nasty wet weather.

The last weekend of April was also action-packed: I hit the Nockherberg with my boss Anton on Friday night, then headed into town for drinks with Martin, Tom, Felix, Henning & Jörg; on Saturday after another choir rehearsal I went to Sabine's birthday party with Christian, Patrick, Edith & Chris; and on Sunday after the choir rehearsal I headed to the Chinese Tower beergarden with Bernd for a few.

And that, ladies & gentlemen, dogs, cats & babies, was March & April. Phew!