Okay, so I've just jumped off the plane from Hong Kong. Let's see what happens to me in wintry Europe.

(And the sad thing is, I could be talking quite literally about today - the weather is DISMAL here!)

Monday was my first day back at the office, and to celebrate we went for a team lunch at Pho Ha Noi. It was so nice to see everyone again! And I think they were pleased to see me too - at least, I remember someone saying "Ah, Richard's back!" in response to some rude-language-larded base comment of mine...

That evening it was time to head back to badminton for the first time in ages, and then on to Stammtisch, which was delightful as always. Later in the week I had Bénédicte over for dinner, I went back to choir, I had dinner with Christian, Sabine & Rudi before they went to the theatre, I caught up with my deaf friend Stephan and my non-deaf friend Oliver, and then I had my kitchen photographed as part of an art/history project documenting everyday life in my part of Munich.

And so the weeks went on! Catching up with folk, eating & drinking, reconnecting with Munich life. And, given the weather, one of the ways to do that was to head to Therme Erding with a bunch of mates and sweat it out whilst admiring the snowy, icy grounds - and occasionally dashing across said grounds in nothing but a towel, to head to the Celtic sauna building...

The highlight for the end of January was a late Christmas at Michaela's, complete with too much food, presents, and telly.

And then it was February: time to get on my skis! I headed out on teh EPO bus to Kitzbühel with Russ, Claire, Nuala & Aibhoin (Michaela I think was ill) and remembered how to get down a mountain with a couple of (high-tech) planks on my feet.

Later that month we had dinner at the Perlacher Hof to celebrate Ryan's birthday. Fifteen! How old I feel! Another ski day with the EPO, this time to Steinplatte and with my darling sister, was good fun - but the full English breakfast the next day at Michaela's with Diane, Christian & Patrick was better!

Goodness! Here I was in the middle of February already, without having stepped on board an aeroplane for almost a month!! Time to change that: so I flew to London, had dinner with Hugh & Justyna, then jumped on a train and went down to North Devon to celebrate Dawnie's wedding to Richard. It was SO LOVELY to catch up with the whole Siobhán crowd - even if Siobhán herself wasn't there!

We drank FAR too much, danced loads, talked a whole lotta shite (with my supersexy deep husky voice - the onset of laryngitis; not that I realised it at the time), and even did a spot of sightseeing around the area, including a visit to the only-just-unveiled Damien Hirst statue at Ilfracombe entitled Verity. And Helena kindly took me part of the way there and back, so I didn't have to sit on a train for quite as long as I thought.

By now, though, I was getting really ill. And that was the way things were going to stay for quite some weeks. No, it wasn't just a fluey coldy thing. The laryngitis really set in after our first chori concert of the year - but I'm really glad I didn't miss the concert itself; we sang such beautiful works. I worked from home for a week. (To be honest, I should have just slept for a week, it would've done me a favour, but hey.) And then slowly, slowly started to feel better.

And then it was March. Time for Starkbierfest, meeting friends old and new in a haze of 9% strength beer. This was followed by a visit by Ruth & Andy for the weekend, my personal highlight of which was getting home on Saturday night and having a craving for shortbread - which I then sated by just bloody well baking some there and then! The weekend also saw an impromptu visit to Munich by the lovely Caroline, who came to our office for coffee before we went round the corner for food at Marc & Frankie's - what a great restaurant that is!

The following week we went to the Nockherberg for an office outing to the Starkbierfest. It was hilarious! Then I headed down to Austria for a long weekend's skiing with 24 - yes, twenty-four! - mates in Maria Alm, all organised by the supremely capable Alexander. It was a total hoot!! I was in the middle chalet of three with Christian, Michael, Alexander, Christian (another one) and Simon; to our right was what ended up being the party chalet with Felix, Sebastian, Frank, Ralf, Thomas, Kay, Tom and Stefan.

How we laughed! How we drank! How we skied! I was actually amazed that on the Friday, when eleven of us set out together to do the entire Hochkönig valley (which is fabulously linked all through with ski lifts), we all managed to stick together for the whole day. In my experience, groups of any more than seven people tend to fall apart. But here we were, all skiing at pretty much the same pace, and loving it!!

I should mention that the weather was ABSOLUTELY PERFECT for skiing: no wind, blue skies, sun, not too cold, not too hot, simply IDEAL. Looking back at that weekend now cheers me up when I glance out of my window and see the rain coming down in torrents.

The following weekend was dominated by the visit of Billy from Hong Kong. He was doing a bit of a pan-Europe tour, and came and spent a few days here. It was so nice to see him again so soon! we had dinner everywhere, including with Béné at Blue Nile and with Felix at Faun; we shopped; we drank; we partied; I showed him the sights of Munich. It was a good weekend.

And it was good training for the last weekend of March, when I had more visitors: Gareth & Gail and Hollie & Marc, who I'd met at G&G's wedding. We ate OBSCENE amounts. I met them at the airport and we had Bavarian sausages etc in the brewery there, then dropped their bags in their apartment, then went for an emergency espresso which turned into pizza, aperol sprizz, and tiramisù - and THEN we went for dinner!

The evening ended in my favourite new Bavarian place - and it's only just up the road! The Klinglwirt is owned by a woman who I knew from when she was working as a waitress in the Alpenhof Italian round the corner from me. Her new place has great organic food, tasty wines - and a DIVINE selection of schnapses.

The weather was unkind to us on the Saturday, when I took G&G and H&M up the Zugspitze. We saw not a single one of the reputed thousand peaks visible from the summit! But we did have a nice meal up there. And the following day we dodged snowflakes to get some culture in the Brandhorst museum and the Alte Pinakothek, before returning to form and stuffing our faces at Sushi Cent (with Béné).

And so a fabulous couple of months full of fun and frolics with visitors and friends drew to a close. April held the promise of more of the same