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

We will rock you!

This last weekend the Haddock family went to visit the Juniorette’s Godparents in Köln. We met up with them at Phantasialand on the Saturday for a day of rollercoasters and fun. The Black Mamba rollercoaster ride was the highlight and the Juniorette was extremely pleased that she just made the height restriction. We of course had to be in the front row. The ride was exhilarating and I felt a bit wobbly on my legs afterwards. Fortunately the Godfather really likes rollercoasters so the Juniorette didn’t have to rely on her wobbly old papa to escort her on every single ride. The weather was good and we had a terrific day out.

On the Sunday we were due to go and see the afternoon viewing of the Queen musical ‘We will rock you’. Luckily Mrs H checked the tickets early in the morning and discovered that we had tickets for the evening show – oops! – We all had a bit of a laugh about this, and then Godmother had the great idea of visiting the Köln Zoo. It’s the best zoo I’ve been to. The animals looked really healthy, had a reasonable amount of space, and I didn’t notice any repeat behavioural problems that many captive animals demonstrate. We had a wonderful time there and got to see the baby elephant which is only a few weeks old.

In the evening we went to the musical. As it was the Sunday evening showing the theatre wasn’t full and we had pretty good seats with a great view. The Juniorette really enjoyed the show. I thought she would as she is a bit of a queen fan, and plays her ‘Best of Queen’ CD quite a lot at home. I found the show very entertaining and really quite funny in places. After the show we said our goodbyes to the Godparents and returned to Marburg, albeit a bit later than planned. Köln is easily my favourite German city and we had a fantastic weekend there with really great friends.

Technorati Tags: Juniorette, Köln, Musical,Phantasialand

I hate Mickey Mouse

Well perhaps not hate, probably more like severely dislike, but that's what happens after 2 weeks in Orlando. To be fair I never liked Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald etc when I was a kid. The Disney gang just didn't appeal to me. I liked Bugs Bunny, Scooby Doo, Danger Mouse, and Rhubarb & Custard, to name a few.

The Juniorette on the other hand is really into the Disney gang and she's now got the cuddly soft toys to prove it. But to balance it out we both got a couple of Star Wars light sabers which we have had a lot of fun with since our return to Germany. They light up and make noise, which is quite good for chasing the cats when they have been naughty (incidently our cats are called Mickey & Minnie - I was vetoed on calling them Mickey & Mallory!)

We are back safe and sound in Marburg, but we are parked out, shopped out, and roller coastered out. I rode some rollercoasters that I thought I would never do. The Juniorette made the height requirements in all parks we visited, so it was coaster hell for me at Busch gardens, but coaster heaven for the Juniorette. It was a great holiday and we found the place where we want to stay next time we are in Florida, it's on the Gulf coast and its further away from Disney!

Technorati Tags: Juniorette, Disney, Vacation, Rollercoaster