Busy in Germany

It is very strange. Right now it seems I am not really busy at work, but in my spare time. The last weekend again was a proofed it. It was a weekend in Germany. One of the few I spend here. And I spent it with Dave, Marcus and Eva, Juergen and Ingrid. I picked up Dave at the airport Weeze. Ryan Air (one of our cheap airlines in Europe) claims it at Duesseldorf, but Duesseldorf is an hour away. And it is also one hour drive from my house to Weeze. But that's okay for a Friday night.

On Saturday Juergen, Ingrid, Dave and myself first went to the dive store with Marcus and Eva. We planned on going diving in the Netherlands on Sunday so we needed to fill up our air tanks and get rental equipment for Dave.

But the main plan for Saturday was to drive around and look for a place for the wedding reception next year. I really want to make this decision together with Dave, but this gives us a very limited amount of time for it. And believe it or not, some places are already fully booked for next June. We looked at different ones: an old coal mine, an historic railway station, a castle, normal restaurants and a classical restaurant with a great view. The decision was not easy, but we think we will go for the classical place with a view. The owners have a lot of experiences with organizing weddings, the place is very nice and has a little stage for music and there are not roads around so that the kids can play outside. I wrote a note to them on the internet, but got no answer yet. I really hope it is available on June 14th.

Driving around, having a coffee or water at the different places, took us the whole Saturday afternoon.

On Sunday morning Marcus, Eva, Dave and me got up early while Juergen and Ingrid slept in. We wanted to go to the Netherlands on that beautiful summer day and go for a dive. That was fantastic. The visibility was good and there were schools of little fish everywhere. We enjoyed it very much and Dave did very well for his first "real" dive. But again, it was busy. Packing everything into two cars, drive for approximately one hour, assemble the equipment, go for two dives, disassemble everything and go back. Uff. We arrived home at 14:00. 4 Hours before Dave and I were supposed to meed my brother and sister-in-law for a Blackmore's Night concert. It was already 23:30 before we made it home on that night. And the night ended at 4:00 since Dave flew out on the first plane to make it to work on Monday morning. Believe me, I was more than just tired the whole Monday.

Monday evening Juergen, Ingrid and I went to the "Cranger Kirmes". A fun fair not far away from my house. It is a very traditional one (started 572 years ago and takes place the first week in August). I went there every year since I can remember. We got a little bit wet, because the weather changed from nice, hot and sunny to a warm rain. But it was okay.

The last thing to report was the first day at school for my niece Alena. I went there yesterday and we had a little family party for that. Now I am back to work and don't expect anything really exciting for the next weekends. Just relaxing, but this is good.