April was a busy old month. What with moving in to my new flat, having a whole new kitchen put in, and having to unpack all my boxes, I thought it was time I took a holiday. So I went to Sri Lanka for a fortnight with Rainnie and (for the first week) Susi.

What a holiday!!! After the first four days on the beach at Hikkaduwa doing next to nothing, just trying to calm down from all the stress of the previous months, the trip really got going when we took a minivan and driver along the south coast.

First stop (after a quick walk around the centre of historic Galle and its fort) was Mirissa, where we caught up with Jackie & Steve, who were there with Jackie's daughter Georgina. After a bit of messing about in the water we headed to a beachfront café and ate the biggest crayfish I've ever seen!

I went on a whale-watching trip with Jackie & Georgina the next morning, then we headed further east to Tissamaharama, where we bought provisions for the night and for the next day's 4WD safari through Yala National Park, where we saw elephants, leopards, bears, crocodiles, buffalo, deer, birds and monkeys. And a lot of dust!

Our next stop was Arugam Bay, a cruisy surfers' town on the east coast. We stopped here for a few days to calm down again after all the action. I even had a go on a surf board - my first try since South Africa's J Bay back in 2003 - but I was more comfortable eating and drinking in the town's many various little places - including the first decent coffee we'd found in Sri Lanka.

The second week saw us heading inland courtesy of our new driver Jagath, first to Ella (where we overnighted and walked up Little Adam's Peak), then by train through the mountains and tea plantation country to Nanu-Oya, where Jagath picked us up and took us on past St Clair Falls to Kitulgala, where we were literally the ONLY guests in a fabulous ecotourism resort with AMAZING food and a crazy cabin on the river.

The next day's whitewater rafting was more of a gentle paddle along the river, what with the season's low water levels. Still nice though. And then we went to Kandy, where we saw the Temple of Buddha's Tooth and ate some South Indian food - just for a change from the heaps of divine Sri Lankan food we'd been stuffing ourselves with up to that point.

The tea factory & museum in Kandy was interesting the next morning. Then it was back on the road, heading north-east to Trincomalee for a spot of diving - OMG the sea was so warm (28°C even at 30m!) I needn't have schlepped my wetsuit with me all the way from Germany and then right around the whole bloody country. And we got kicker tans when our dive boat got stranded with no fuel...

Two days later we were already heading back across to the west coast for our last night in Sri Lanka, at Negombo. But we still found the time to do a cookery course and a load of last-minute spice shopping! Then, sadly, it was time to head back to the airport and for Rainnie & I to fly almost exactly the same distance - just in opposite directions...

Back in Munich, and back at work, I was soon back to my hectic social schedule, heading to Ryan's school play (he was Mack the Knife in a fabulous production of the Threepenny Opera) and then to the Frühlingsfest on Bénédicte's birthday (conveniently a bank holiday!) with Aleks, Marie, Franck, Marzena and Julien. At the weekend, Marcel & his two friends Gijs & Nico flew in from Amsterdam to surprise Béné for her birthday.

Béné's parents were  in town the following week, and so I invited a houseload of French people to come and eat English food (I did a roast chicken) - and the crazy thing is, they survived!! I fitted in a few more lunches (with Bernd, with Michaela, with Toni) before heading to the UK for the weekend.

In London I stayed first with Paul in his place near Elephant & Castle, then with Jezza & Tanya at their place near Warwick Avenue (heading for Eritrean dinner at Mosob and running into Andy Buglass of all people!). In Leamington Spa I stayed with Ruth & Andy (where we ate many many sausage rolls and roast potatoes in the pub next door to their house), then had all my remaining belongings packed into boxes and taken away, then had lunch with Frankie and Ali at Wofon before coffees in town.

I bought some new glasses. Very trendy they are too. Which I'm totally not used to. Can't help thinking they look like the NHS nastiness I had to wear when I was a kid. But other people say they're nice. Hm.

On my birthday I went to the Augustiner Biergarten in town with Toni and some friends of his. It was a low-key affair, as I decided this year to combine my birthday with a housewarming at the weekend. Now THAT was a party!! The first people arrived at 4pm and the last people left at 4am. And I spent all those twelve hours drinking and making sure all my guests were drinking. And guests there were many: I reckon 70 people came over the course of the day. I LOVE that my new house fits that many people!

A few days laster it was time for a trip out to Ronald's village near Traunstein with Julia & Jo, where we had the degustation dinner at Camba Bavaria brewery in nearby Truchtlaching. What beers! And then more food and more wine at Ronald's the next day, along with a long stroll through the countryside that ended just as the heavens opened. Time for a sauna. And yet more food and drink!

May ended in style, with a cabaret show at the Volkstheater with Thomas & Eddy, where we saw the Geschwister Pfister singing a medley of Deutsche Schlager songs from the '50s to the '80s. It was very well done, I have to say! And so was the wine & nibbles at Thomas & Eddy's afterwards.