Loreley 2007

At last, the day came!

I slept a couple of hours on Saturday night before getting ready to be picked up by a cab that would take me to Stansted. When I arrived at the airport my flight wasn't showing on the check-in board... took me a few minutes to realise I'd got the wrong time and the flight was an hour later than I thought. Despite being so early I still almost missed it due to huge queues at security, and of course whose bag did they have to randomly pick for extra checks? As soon as they gave me my belongings back I legged it through the duty free area, ignoring somebody's attempt to tackle me for the shoe check as soon as I sprinted. Because of the delay at security, the flight took off later than scheduled and was almost an hour late at Frankfurt (obviously my friends' flight was about 30 minutes early, so they were stuck there waiting for me for almost 2 hours).







The guys had booked two small-ish cars to keep costs as low as possible, but one of the two wasn't available so we were upgraded to an Alfa 159... phwoarrrrrr! That baby did 0-150 in about a nanosecond, despite running on diesel fuel, and we kept losing the other guys on the petrol Smart who couldn't keep up with us :)))
The only problem was that we couldn't work out how to shut the radio up without losing the satnav too, and of course the instruction books were in German! We did crack it in the end though.







After meeting the last member of the group who'd already been there since the day before, and having some lunch (and several beers) on the Rhine, we then drove up to the rock and proceeded to put the banner at work. This is the official banner that will unfurl at future events too, replacing the countless sheets that were used over the years and that needed to be remade after almost every gig.




We were moved by the big man opening his heart to us and unburdening the hurts of the few past months on us. He obviously needed to unload and we were speechless that he was so candid and honest... we felt honoured - hopefully it did him good too :)

After the obligatory signing and photo session (and more beers!) we moved to the stage area and enjoyed a fantastic show by Jethro Tull.










The real fun came an hour later or so though, when Fish came on stage. The crowd had grown although he wasn't the headliner, and it was an incredibly fun gig. At the end he even had to come back out while the stage was being dismantled as a few hundred people were still there chanting they wanted him back.

Tired and achy but deeply contented, we made our way back to the cars for the long-ish drive along the Rhine, back to the airport, where we snoozed for an hour or so before it was time to check in again.

Roll on next year!

Cuties!

I went to see some friends yesterday. They live near work and have a garden, so they call me for a barbie now and again.

They're both keen gardeners and attract a lot of local wildlife on the look out for food. Recently they've had everything from fox cubs to squirrels and the neighbour's cat roaming their garden, but what they really love is a blackbird nest they spotted hidden in the vines. There's mother and father blackbirds and 4 chicks. The parents take turns in watching the nest while the other one goes looking for worms, but occasionally if all is quiet they both fly off hunting for food.
And that's what they did yesterday evening, so I jumped at the chance to take a couple of photos.





Evidently I lingered too long, trying to sneak between the vines, as mother blackbird found me there when she got back. She stopped on a nearby tree with worms squiggling in her beak, keeping en eye on me to make sure I wasn't doing anything nasty. My friends had another blackbird family a couple of years ago and told me that when a chick fell off the nest and they went to pick it up to put it back, the parents dived on them like a scene from The Birds!
She also chirped at them to let them know she was nearby, and they peaped back, maybe telling her to hurry up as they were hungry.

I stepped back down the ladder and feigned indifference and finally mother blackbird rejoined the nest and fed her brood to a chorus of thanks. I had to move slowly in order not to scare her away but eventually I managed to get close enough again to take another few shots while she was keeping watch!

Talking about which...

I called my sister yesterday and had a quick chat with my niece too,
who was on her way out with some friends.
She asked me what I was doing and I told her I was going to have some
of that nice cheese with that even nicer pear and vanilla confit that
I bought with the baked figs (I added that I'd had it with the figs
the previous night). She said, "Oh... don't worry auntie, when we are
there in few weeks *we* will cook for you!"
Bless!

Today I was thinking of going to some jazz festival near where I
work, but the downpour settled that internal struggle... For a moment I pondered
giving the guy a ring, but then excitement took over and, hear hear!,
I have just put a little pork joint in the oven with spuds. Yay! For
the first time in years, a working oven... I can't wait for it to be
ready, it's only been in there twenty minutes or so and I've already
gone to check it 5 times, turning the light on, making sure it's
working, admiring the (very) slowly changing colour, noticing how the
herbs look pretty on it... Yes, very sad I know :)))

I was washing the potatoes in the sink when the rinse water from the
washing machine bubbled up from the plug hole. Roast pork with
potatoes à la Ecover and Comfort, yummy!

Love thy neighbour (and baked figs with cheese)

The other day I was almost 2 hours late for work. This was due to my
neighbours shouting and screaming between midnight and 2 am right outside my door. Correction, my neighbour was trying to calm his girlfriend down who was doing all the shouting and screaming, and I couldn't get back to sleep.
I first met this woman a few weeks ago as I was leaving for work. She was leaving his flat shouting and screaming then too, calling him a cunt and all other sorts of nice names. She was pleasant and friendly enough to me as we shared the lift down, first wondering out loud how I could live with that cunt (it was too early in the morning to point out I don't actually live with him, and he's never caused any problems in the 8 years or so he's lived there anyway), then asking me if I was going to work and if I was using the overground or the underground. I just muttered I was going towards Finsbury Park - to which she replied, oh, I'm taking the overground here, going to Highbury. I was a bit startled and told her that trains from there didn't actually go to Highbury, but Gospel Oak. I'm sure there was some logic in her reply, but I totally missed it when she said that no, trains from there did go to Highbury, and she knew 'cos she lived in Kentish Town. Yes dear.
Anyway, the other night at something past midnight she stopped outside my door shouting the world down, and he whispering something back trying to shush her. It went on for a while then I heard them
grow fainter, then I heard them in the car park walking away, with her still shouting. A little while later they came back in good spirits, muttering something about how good that kebab was. An hour later or so it started again (minus the kebab part).

Tonight she went into one again. This time it wasn't so late, but enough is enough and after 10 minutes of her screaming outside my door again I actually went out and told her to shut the fuck up. She looked up at me as if I were a martian and asked: "Pardon? What did you say?" I told her she'd heard, but repeated it just in case, to which she started mumbling about him being a cunt blah blah blah. At this stage I blew it and informed her that he could be an olympic cunt, but I'd never had a problem with him in years, therefore "SHUT THE FUCK UP OR GO SCREAM SOMEWHERE FUCKING ELSE". She said that she would as he'd called the Police on her anyway (thank bob for small mercies), so in my poshest voice I said "Jolly good, good bye then!" and slammed the door.

Peace and quiet are now restored at Raingod's Mansions.

On my way to my afternoon job today I stepped off the bus right into a pile of dog shit (may the flies of a thousand camels infest the owner's armpits). On my way home from work a lady bird stuck to my hair and wouldn't budge. Both are believed to be good omens and to bring money in some quarters, and it kind of proved true when I popped into the local shop for some bread. I walked past the deli counter and some cheeses and things to go with them caught my eyes, including some oven baked figs wrapped in their leaves, which I'm sure were hideously expensive (I didn't look at the price, but the packaging was of that kind).
When I got to the till, for some reason they wouldn't scan. I didn't quite catch the meaning when the shop assistant told me: "Say a price" and performed my best impersonation of a dummy. Uh? "Say a price", she repeated. I offered to go back to the counter to check, but she went, no, no, 99p wasn't it? I told her that I was pretty sure it was quite a lot more than that, but she just waved me away and tapped in 99p. Nice, there's a reason I like to shop there :)))

Bits and bobs

I've been asked to help a colleague out as she's been under extreme
pressure for the past several months, with things peaking since
April. I jumped at the chance as my own workplace has been numbingly
quiet lately, and I was having problems not sleeping on the (lacking)
job. I hadn't worked in a really hectic place for a couple of years,
so I'd forgotten how crazy it could be and it's hit me like a ton of
bricks, with the result that I'm even more tired than usual.
The up side is that my colleague really appreciates the help. The
last couple of days she's left the office muttering to herself
"ohmegod, ohmegod, we'd never got this much done in this place as we
do now, I'd forgotten how it was to work with someone who actually
does what she's meant to!"
It's really good to see her laugh, grin and joke. In the past few
months, every time I'd talked to her she was in the dumps. I'm not
sure how she kept it up so long, had it been me I'd have freaked out
ages ago.
Of course I'll have to make sure I don't mention any of this to the
bosses or they'll think they can take it for granted, so I'll have to
think of some way to stay there a while longer, while making it look
like I'm doing them a huge favour (which I am, incidentally, I just
happen to enjoy it too).

Meanwhile, the preparations for Lorelei are under way, with cars
being booked and yours truly being the nominated second driver. Never
mind that I practically haven't driven for 2 years in the UK, and
much longer than that on the continent (which I didn't mention to the
rest of the group, hahaha). Just as well it's Germany, where drivers
are so polite that the last time I was there nobody beeped their
horn, not even flashed their lights at me, despite the fact that I
held up the traffic at a set of lights for three rounds of green
lights - I was looking at a map and hadn't realised there was a queue
behind me!
Anyway, the starting point was that we'd book an 8-seater, but we've
just been informed we can only have cars seating up to 5 people and
there's 7 of us, so we'll need 2. My suggestion that two could sit on
the roof was overruled *g*

Friend's baby is impatient. He's due in mid August but she texted me
tonight from hospital where she's being kept under observation as
she's having contractions. Probably just a precaution, but she was a
bit worried so we had a little exchange to cheer her up.

Guy I was meant to see weeks ago but never got round to came over
last weekend. It was nice but the boy needs to learn! He rang me this
evening asking if I wanted to see him again. I think I will, at some
point.

I have a brand new cooker which I also got last weekend... Is it
really sad if I say I was more excited about it than him?