March 2019 Things

End of February and I am still coughing which is now compounded by the start of my allergies! We are also having sunny days with blue skies. I note that there have been outbreaks of ‘bush fires’ in different parts of the EU. One was on the Yorkshire-Lancashire border, which rather surprised me. But then they also recorded record temperatures for the time of year. What is happening to the climate and I wonder what it all means for the summer?

I’ve had a week of trying to return to normal with my usual meetings. Not always successful as sneezing and runny nose attacks made me decide to stay at home on a few occasions. I had a nice start to the week when I met Barbara. I have already told you she is my new(ish) German teacher. We settled into chatting as we sipped coffee and I munched on a few biscuits. Later she checked my 4 pages of writing and then I did a dictation.

While having another cup of coffee she gave me some presents. The background is that an old friend of hers died recently and she has been busy helping to clear out his flat. She found a large collection of films, music of all kinds and TV shows from the DDR. She decided to share a few things with me. I got a DVD box of Beethoven, a DVD box of Mozart and 10 CDs of Chopin piano music. What a wonderful surprise!

Karajan and Böhm are still world famous conductors so I had to smile when I later saw a joke about a conductor. I hope you can see ‘the notes’ clearly :-)) The Beethoven set includes the voice of Gundula Janowitz, who I discovered many years ago. I just ‘freeze’ when I hear her voice and have to stop whatever I am doing just to concentrate on her singing. Wonderful!  A quiet weekend is on the agenda for me, so let’s see who has a birthday in March?

Actually not a lot! My MacBook will be 11 years old on the 19th – a day it shares with Colin in Australia who will be a ‘bit more over 60’. Dr. Porsch will celebrate his big day with family and friends on the 22nd here in Berlin. Dr. Bernd W. has his big day on the 28th and will celebrate with his family in Bernau-to the north west of Berlin. My special friend Johanna will be ‘over 70 again :-))’ on the 31st and I am sure there will be a big party with her friends and not only with family.  Have a wonderful day no matter where you are!