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!

The Willy Goal

After a long winter layoff I have started playing football again with the Alter Herren. It has not been easy as my fitness has dropped somewhat sine last year, and my legs & feet don’t always do what I tell them. An evenings training with the Alter Herren consist of standing around and talking bollocks for 30 mins, before finally playing footie for an hour.

This week the score was tied at the end of 6o mins so we decided which ever team scored next would win the game (The Golden Goal). Well I scored that Golden Goal! – Unfortunately it was at the wrong end. I scored an own goal, but to make matters worse, the offending appendage that poked the ball over the line, wasn’t a foot – It was my willy!

Although rather funny it was bit on the painful side. But I soon recovered.

Fathers Day

Today is Fathers Day here in Germany and I am currently sat here in Frankfurt working day shift, whilst my family are up near Köln visiting an adventure park call Phantasia Land, with the Juniorette’s godparents. The Juniorette has been there several times and loves it. She’s a bit of a rollercoaster junkie I think. This shift is my penultimate one. On Monday I become a normal office hours worker. After 24 years of shift work normal days is going to be a bit weird.

The Magnolia that I planted for Mrs H has finally bloomed (see upper photo). The flowers have a really sweet smell and could be a bit overpowering for some people, but I really like the scent. I also planted another Japanese Maple (see lower photo) this week. This one has red leaves and is called Fireglow. The leaves look terrific when strong sunlight shines through them. I have spent quite a bit of time in the garden doing various jobs, and it’s almost been nice to come to work today for a bit of a rest from the physical activity