The Rain in Spain

.....falls mainly in Germany if it's August. Germany has just had its rainiest month of August since records began. Eastern parts of the country had some flooding. Fortunately Hessen and Marburg didn't record the heaviest amounts of rain but it was still a lot wetter than normal.

The weather data for Marburg for the month of August 2010 can be seen here.

The online Marburg weather station from Wettereule is a great resource for finding out up to date weather information for Marburg and the surrounding area,

FV Wehrda Mädchen

Its been a while! - I haven't blogged in a very, very long time! I have a million excuses why not, but the main one is lack of time. Since stopping shift work, free time is at a premium, and something had to give, but perhaps I should do the odd entry now and then.

The Juniorette and Mrs H are fine. The Juniorette is still a very busy girl, excelling at school and still doing a lot of sports, primarily Football and swimming, but she really likes wakeboarding, and recently completed a surfing course when we were on holiday in England.

Football wise she has changed clubs to FV Wehrda Mädchen where she now plays with a girls team.

The team has been quite successful and the Juniorette is having a lot of fun.

The Five Generations

At the end of last year my nephew became a father. His son is lucky not just to have a grandmother, or a great grandmother - He has a Great Great Grandmother!

I'm not sure how often this happens in families, but I reckon it's not that often.

Featured from Left to right. Young Cody, my Nephew, My Brother, My Mum, and my Nana.

Christmas Greetings

A very merry Christmas and a very happy New Year to one and all!

I'm still alive, but with the changes in my job, I have very little free time, and therefore haven't blogged. Lots has happened - I gained a stomach ulcer, which is now healed.  The Juniorette is doing really well at school, and still doing lots of swimming, football and guitar playing. Currently she is quite into ice skating.

The garden continues to develop, but due to time constraints Mrs H has now taken over the lawn mowing duties which I am very thankful about. I haven't made any resolutions for the New Year, but perhaps I'll blog a bit than I have done lately.

Captain of the team

Earlier this week the Juniorette had the plaster removed from her broken arm. The X-ray was good but the doctors decided she has to wear a splint for the next 10 days. Once this is removed she can start some light swimming, but no vigorous swim training for should be attempted for a while. The doctors also said she should not play football for a couple of months. Hopefully she can start some light training with the girl's team in a few weeks, but competitive games with the boy's team that she plays for will have to wait until her arm is 100% again.

She is naturally disappointed about this, especially as she has missed the start of the football season. Her team is now in the E-Jugend, and now plays in a league rather then playing tournaments. But her spirits improved immensely when her team trainer told her that she is the captain of the team, even if she is out of the side injured for the foreseeable future. Personally I think it's a good decision for the team as she is a good defender, with a good overview of the game, and likes telling people what to do! :)

Slowly nearing the half century

My birthday hat got another outing this week, as I clocked up another run on my personal cricket innings. I now stand at 47 not out. My birthday hat has been in use now for seven years, and just gets updated every year. I had to work on my birthday this year, but I'll celebrate it quietly this weekend with Mrs H and the Juniorette.

Unlucky break

Last week the Juniorette broke her lower right arm. She fell off a rope swing at the local summer day camp. As they were in the woods at the time one of the helpers had to carry her through the woods and fields to the ambulance, which couldn't get any closer because of the terrain. She was very brave about it despite the shock. The break was quite bad which resulted in a lot of swelling. This meant that the Juniorette had to stay in the hospital for 3 days. Fortunately she was then allowed home and didn't have to have an operation to put a plate in her arm as was originally feared.

She is doing well, and is reading a lot of Harry Potter (she is now on the 4th book), although she is missing swimming and playing football. She has adapted quite well to using her left hand; probably a lot better than me, if I broke my right arm. School starts again in a weeks time, so she has tried a few times to write with her left hand. Hopefully in 4-5 weeks time the plaster can be removed and life for her will get back to normal.

The football in Spain.......

We have just returned from our holiday in Mallorca, and we had a very nice time. We stayed in Alcudia on the eastern side of the island. It was bit of a tourist trap, but the main reason for the holiday was the beach, and that was pretty good. We hired a car and had a good look around the island. It is definitely an island of contrasts, and my favourite part of the island was the eastern side, with the mountains and beautiful coastline. We met up with friends from Marburg that were also on the island vacationing, and that was good fun.

The Juniorette did a PADI discover scuba dive which she very much enjoyed. I did the dive as well. It was good to get back underwater after a break of a few years, even if it was only to a max depth of 4m. The most important thing was to share the experience with the Juniorette, who now cannot wait until she is old enough to complete the PADI open water certification.

The weather was very good for our stay, and we had a lot of fun, but I have now discovered where all the bald/short haired, overweight, middle aged, tattooed English people go on holiday (and that was just the women – jest!). Beer at 10am may be fun when you are young and partying with the lads, but when you have a wife and kids, it’s just a little bit sad. That aside, everyone was friendly and we had a good time. I would like to visit the island again, but next time perhaps stay a bit further away from the main tourist areas.

It's a shame that Germany didn't beat Spain in the final of the European championships, as I might of been able to sleep that night. But in reality the German team didn’t play well, and the Spanish were better.

My pride and joy

The Juniorette of late has been a very busy bee. She is still swimming 3 times a week, and is now football training 3 times a week. Twice with her normal team, and now once a week with an all girls team. She is really enjoying it all. Last weekend was her last football tournament as an F1 player, in a couple of weeks she becomes an E-Jugend player. She really is becoming a very good defensive player, and has a pretty hard tackle which surprises a lot of the boys.

Last weekend the Juniorette also competed in the Berirksmeisterschaften Bezirk West 2008 (West Hessen) Swim meet in Dillenburg. She improved her times in all the events she competed in, and in her age group she came 4^th in 50m backstroke and 5^th in the 200m breaststroke.

To top the week off she has just found out her results for her school report. All 1’s with two 2’s. She’s rather pleased with herself and, we are very proud of her. Next week we are off on holiday for 2 weeks to Mallorca. This holiday is really needed, and I believe relaxation will be top of the agenda along with lots of snorkelling and swimming. Only a few more years to go and then the Juniorette will be old enough to learn to Scuba dive – I just wonder if I’ll be able to squeeze back into my wetsuit then :)

Still alive & kicking

Since I have become a normal day worker, my time management has gone to pot. How people manage their lives with only 2 days off a week, I will never know, but as Mrs H says, I need to adapt. One of the consequences of so little free time has been my lack of blogging – both reading and writing. The Juniorette has had a lot of football tournaments in May which has eaten up a lot of my weekend time, and all my garden projects have been rather time consuming. Somehow I still have to find time to relax. This upcoming weekend is taken up with a football tournament on Saturday and a swimming competition on Sunday. I need more hours in day. Too much to do, and too little time to do it in.

I’ve just got to learn to manage my time a bit better, which I will do, and I will have to set aside some time for blogging, and if I don’t finish my garden projects this summer, it doesn’t really matter – there is always next year. The upside to all of this, is that I now get to see the Juniorette at all her sporting events, which really does make me quite happy.

Above is a photo of the the Juniorette & I when we were both a bit younger!