Where am I today?

So, it's now September and I'm occupying the sofa at Nic's place rather than the office in Germany for the morning before I continue on my trek around the UK tidying things up after completing my move. Yep! I've moved! I now officially live in Germany! Well semi officially as I'm not entirely sure I've sorted out my tax position or informed everybody that I've gone but I'm sure I'll get there eventually. That said, some things have to stay UK registered so I have officially moved back to my sisters place too. It's no wonder I don't know where I am or what day it is!

So, this week is run around week. Today it's Peterborough and Norwich, tomorrow it's Barnsley and Rawtenstall, Thursday it's Oxford and Bournemouth, Friday it's Poole and Brigend. And finally, on Sunday, it's back to Peterborough before hopefully Norwich (again) and then a ferry back to Germany with the garden loaded in the back on Tuesday at the latest. Phew. I'm worn out looking at the list of places and driving I'm doing this week let alone the work I have to do at each place!

The good news is that pretty much everything has now moved across the water (except the herb garden, some tomatoes and a few odds and ends) so all that remains is to finish sorting stuff out and finding places for things to live in my new home. This is not an easy task, to say the least - (a) because I have quite a bit and (b) because Inga is already moved in and settled so the arrival of another complete house has rather an impact on things. I'm sure we'll find a balance somewhere along the way that doesn't involve a skip and my possessions but I had better make sure I'm home a bit more often just to make sure! :-)

I'm also hoping that having all this finally sorted and the fact we're living in one house in one country will mean life becomes a tad calmer and I'll have more time to blog both personally and work related (the list of outstanding Gina entries is quite long) so you may well see an increase in the number of inane ramblings on this blog (not that many people read them but I quite like writing them so who cares). Things on the agenda are An Introduction to Wallace, Say Hello to Sam, A tour of the new house and no doubt alot of entries about life in a different country and how I'm coping or not as the case may be.

In the meantime you get the normal rubbish! :-)

Other news is that Rachael is now settling into her Gap Year in Thailand at the college with Clem (her teaching buddy/partner) and is actually managing to post pictures and the occasional blog entry (get her to add you as a friend on facebook if you want to keep up to date or add her blog) She seems to be enjoying herself immensely and I do hope it stays that way. It's not yet hit home that she's gone away for a year as I've been too busy with work and the move but no doubt I'll start to miss her at some point. Probably.

The family have all buggered off to Australia too to see Jason, Dani, Rex and the growing bump in their new house. Would have been nice to have been invited even if I couldn't afford the time or money to go, but I am the black sheep of the family and so quite low on the list of considerations when anything family is being discussed (poor me!) so it's not that surprising I suppose. If Inga and I ever get some time off for holidays then maybe we'll go but for now I'm looking forwards to less travel (especially driving!) and exploring my new home country and the areas around it.

Enough waffling about nothing, time to do some real work and sort out my last appointments for the week. With luck, there'll be more rubbish from me in the near future. Tschuss!

All change!

My attempt to blog on a regular basis has failed somewhat in the last few months due entirely to work, pressure and maybe a little bit of stress over all the happenings that have been going on. Thankfully they are mostly coming to an end now and a more relaxing way of life is beckoning (I am being a tad optimistic there it has to be said!)

So, the news. First, in just 5 days, Rachael finally flies off to Thailand to begin her year of teaching English in a vocational college. This is a great opportunity for her and I hope she grasps it with both hands and wrings every last drop of opportunity from it. Being a teenager (yes, she finally succumbed to that brainless, listless state where she can't be bothered with much) I have my doubts she'll get everything she could out of it but I still have hope. We shall see.

Secondly, I'm into the last month of wrapping stuff up prior to moving out to Germany. The house is mostly empty and indeed looks like we've been burgled. The worst thing is that you can now clearly see how bad your cleaning skills have been over the years! The final trailer load is going early Sept and then I have a week to ten days of 'camping' in the house before the final professional clean and handing the keys back. I'm both excited and nervous about moving to another country - not because it's foreign but because I'll be living with Inga again :-)

Thirdly, the house is finished! I was supposed to have done alot of small jobs but everytime I was there for anything more than a couple of days we were at an event and I always had to rush back so Inga got the handyman to finish all the bits off. I'm a bit disappointed to be honest as I was looking forwards to doing something of the renovation (other than ripping stuff out) but she hated living in a building site and patience has never been one of her strong points so it's not really surprising she wasn't willing to wait until late September for me to arrive and start.

So, three bits of news that hide a whole six months of running around screaming like a bunch of headless chickens. All I have to do now is sell more tents so we can pay for the house renovation and adjust/adapt to living in a new country. Which means finally pulling my finger out and learning the language at the very least - after four years I may have just run out of excuses :-) Maybe we'll take a short holiday first, no doubt in a tent.

Breaking the silence

Well, it's been quite a while since either of us entered anything in this blog so it's probably about time that changed. Hello again! It's been quite a 10/11 months since we, well I, last blogged so here is a quick catch up on everything that is going on.



Family first. Yes, Inga and I are still together despite the fact that we're now in different countries (or should that be because we're in different countries?) but this September I will be moving to Germany to live. Rachael on the other hand is off to Thailand to teach English for a year with an organisation called Project Trust and after that she hasn't got a clue but I'm hoping she'll realise that the world is her workplace, not just the UK.



We'll be moving into the family house in Bochum, Steffi having moved next door into the refurbished flat - not that she's there much anyway as she gads about the world (currently in Cyprus and probably not that bothered about being stuck due to flight chaos) - so it has been gutted. Seriously. We tore down pretty much everything; walls, ceilings, light fittings. The Kitchen has gone and the bathrooms are due to be smashed and replaced in May. I don't think there's a single room that isn't being pulled apart and redone unless you count the basement. All this is supposed to be finished by June which is when Inga and I are hosting a joint 30th birthday (she's so young!) and house warming party. Should be fun even if we are still crying over the expense of it all.



Work. I am now working full time for Tortuga Tents Ltd! Yay! I've quit the contracting rat race and now just sell tents for a living but, I have to say, it's tough at times. Costs just seem to keep going up whilst everyone and their granny wants high quality tents for cheap Chinese prices. It's a tough balancing act but the company is standing on its own two feet so far this year so that's a good sign of things to come.



What else? Well, not a lot really. Apart from some trips back and forth we've been very quiet. No holidays, no more trips to exotic places. the most exciting we managed was a couple of days in Galloway and Dumfries just before Easter and even then we had a meeting and did work before we went to Andrew and Fiona's wedding reception but I'll blog about that separately.



So, I at least am back and I'm going to try and write something at least once a week from now on even if it's just dull rubbish as I need to get back into the habit of writing again. I'm doing more work related blogs which if the site ever gets finished will be published but I need to get back into the writing habit in general so I can get some of the stories stuck in my head out and onto paper as it were.



I'll try and nab some of the house destruction pics from Inga and post them too, just so you can see the scale of the renovation!

Day 10 - Homeward bound

Our last day started lazily, despite being woken up early by departing guests, and we eventually dragged ourselves downstairs for breakfast and the fast-becoming-traditional "what do you have on your laptop I can steal?" session. We didn't swap any music or movie files or anything honest. We wanted Max's pictures but when he went upstairs to get a memory stick he fell asleep instead - something about an exhausting evening? Not sure what he was on about.

As we had the day to idle away and the sun was once again shining we were going to go to the Garden of the Gods before departing. As were other people, it transpired, so we all went together in different cars (bad of us I know, but we had different places to go straight after). The Garden of the Gods are a strange set of red sandstone-like rock formations that you can walk around. With a backdrop of snowy mountains and a brilliant blue sky they did indeed look great. As we had time we strolled slowly around - we had Bill, Irma and Maraliese (probably spelt very wrong) with us so the pace couldn't be that fast and it was very relaxing. We took lots of pictures, talked and relaxed, all in all, a very nice way to end our trip. Then we headed off to find something to eat in Manitou Springs, stopping at balanced rock to take more pictures including what Harold likes to call "hero" pictures. This one is of me posing and looking into the distance, keeping an eye out for "Injuns".

Manitou Springs was lovely, very old west in style and very laid back. We found a nice restaurant which served Buffalo burgers and had a very pleasant final meal with some of the family before Inga and I had to say goodbye and head for the Interstate and Denver airport. It had been a wonderful trip but, as they say, all good things have to end. And our good thing was over (don't cry too much, we're going to go back to the US sometime and see them again plus visits to Cairo (Max and Rebecca) and China (Harold) so don't feel too sorry for us. Oh, you weren't...). We headed for home in the (turned out to be) vain hope the flight would be reasonably empty and we could sprawl out and sleep our way back across the ocean. I'll end with the last two shot, Inga and I outside the Stagecoach restaurant, site of our last US meal, and one of the few Tipi's we actually saw despite the fact we'd been travelling through 'Injun' country for ten days. Make of that what you will. Adios Amigo's!

Day 9 - The finale and all that jazz

The last day of the graduation week is the big, and I mean BIG, graduation ceremony that took place in the Flacon's stadium (that's the Air Force football stadium on site at USAFA). The graduating cadets marched in very neatly, and I should hope so after 4 years of practice, to take their seats on the field. The sun was blazing down (finally) and the sky was blue with wispy clouds. This event was going to be a killer - at least four hours with no real shade, ouch. (I've avoided mentioning the stupid security checks that were totally random in their thoroughness and seemed designed to allow petty minded little power-mongers a chance to abuse their powers than actually ensure security cos if I do I'll start ranting).

After the cadets were in we had the speeches and then introduction of the VIP speaker, in this case, Vice President Joe Biden (next year is President Obama in which case security would no doubt suck even more!). So, on it went, speech, music, heat, speech, more heat, and then graduation; 1046 diplomas to give out and Joe Biden did them all - a salute, a handshake and a quick word with every cadet. I will admit that I was impressed. To stand for that long in the sun and still be going strong at the end is no mean feat.Benn's group was 31 out of 40 and every cadet got a cheer from parents and fellow group cadets as their name was read out, but the biggest cheer was for cadet 1046 as he signalled the end. This is (I'm pretty sure) Benn walking down the ramp after collecting his diploma and shaking the VP's hand - Max has a seriously good picture of that happening with the VP pointing directly at Max while holding Benn's hand. Absolutely superb, but then he is a pro and had a press pass. When all the cadets were done there was the traditional "throwing the hats away" picture (which again Max captured perfectly. I'd hate him but he's too damn nice and encouraging about everyone else's pics too. I starting to think that the definition of a professional should be someone who actively encourages anyone else to try or aspire to reach and even exceed their level without any belittling or rancour. Max has that quality in spades).

So, that was that. Nothing left but the Thunderbirds display (I know, I know, to us here in Britland that means puppets on strings, perilous situations and the lovely Lady P). The first flyover is always timed to the hat throwing so you get this iconic picture of cadets throwing hats with a flight of F-16's in the background (Max's camera took 7 digital photo's in less than a second. Seven! I want one!). The flew nicely, doing some amazing stunts and showing off their flying abilities but I do have to fly the flag just a little bit and say that the Red Arrows are better. The display lasted about 45 minutes and was very loud at times, they did stunts about 500 feet above the stadium - even one with a 2 mile vertical climb, which was pretty impressive. After the display came the 'getting out'. This was very badly organised and led to Inga almost getting stationary road rage! It took almost an hour to get out of the car park mainly because Americans, God bless 'em, can't drive to save their lives.

Eventually we escaped and made our way to the Visitor Centre so we could go and look at the chapel. I should point out that by this point I was hungry and tired, which makes mark a very grumpy person. The queue at the onsite Subway was horrific and then we went in to see a film - or rather Inga saw it and I snoozed through it. Mmmmm, dark with air conditioning...zzzzzz..... The chapel is very futuristic, which is surprising as it was built quite a while back. inga thinks it looks like a ship from Star Wars and she's right - Queen Amadala's shuttle from Star Wars Part 1 if I'm not mistaken, which I often am - and it houses two decent sized chapels (Protestant on top and Catholics below, guess we know who's the 'boss' religion...) with Hindu's and Jew's tucked away at the back in little chapels. the Hindu chapel is lovely but Inga wouldn't let me go in and "meditate" - something about my meditative snores reverberating throughout the building. Spoilsport. Touring over we headed back with me now in full tired and grumpy mood to the joint Graduation/Engagement party. We stopped to look for cards (and for me to get grumpier) until finally Inga drove back to the house, threw me out and screamed off with burning rubber and howling engine (I think she might have been a tad annoyed with me...). So, in good Mark fashion, I went for a snooze. The party started and I was noticeably absent due to being mostly asleep in the attic so Inga came and bullied me in to writing cards, eating food and then being reasonably social. I did make a full recovery once the food hit home - very yummy rice salad - and assisted in getting cards signed without recipients noticing before we had a surprise visitor and I so regret not having a camera with me so you could all share this unique experience (harold has pics and if I get one I'll add it to the blog). Elvis, yes THE Elvis, is alive and paid a special graduation visit to Benn and Amanda. Elvis was back in the building! He bounded down the stairs and regaled us with songs and words of advice. It was so cool that cool doesn't even close to describing how cool it was. Cooler than cool. Cooler than Sub-cool (for fans of Top Gear). He departed only to return for an encore. And then, he came back again, to sing a tender love song to the happy engaged couple. Finally, Elvis had to leave the building before all his other fans found out and descended on the house to try and get a glimpse of the icon at his best. I cannot describe how good the show was, but there are video's too which we'll try and get for you. The only downside was that Max missed it all and, while he was asleep, someone shaved off part of his beard. Co-incidence? Hmmmm...

After that rain stopped play and we all dispersed with John and Kim heading homewards, which is back to CA, so Benn would have a bed for the night having been unceremoniously tossed out of college once he had graduated (yeah, I know, a gallery of the assembled cast would be useful but you're not going to get one). Finally we all retired, looking forwards to not having to get up at 6am unless of course you had a flight to catch like Dustin and Stacey or Nena and Stuart (both of whom were on our floor so it would be an early awakening if nothing else for us). Ah well, graduation over and it had been a great experience with a great family.

Graduation Day - das Finale

Mittwoch, 27. May 2009, das Finale von Benn's Graduation.

Selbst die Sonne kam heute heraus!
Mal wieder frueh am morgen hieften wir uns von unserem Sofabett und machten uns bereit fuer den letzten Tag der Graduation. Keiner traute dem Wetter so richtig, obwohl die Sonne schien und es nur ein paar kleine Woelkchen gab. Zwar packten wir die Sonnencreme ein, aber dennoch nahmen wir Pullover und Jacken mit.

Die heutige Veranstaltung fand im Football Stadion der USAFA Falcons statt. Wir hatten unsere 35 Tickets dabei und mussten erstmal durch die Security durch, die Mark nicht mochten, denn er war der einzige der seinen Rucksack nicht mit ins Stadion nehmen durfte. All die Damen die Handtaschen hatten die dreimal so gross waren wir unser kleiner Rucksack durften diese mitnehmen und wir nicht...... Etwas veraergert brachte Mark den Rucksack zurueck zum Auto und kam dann nur mit dem noetigsten mit.

Waehrend wir auf den Beginn warteten, begannen wir bereits in der Sonne zu braten.... Die Wolken verfluechtigten sich sogar, so dass der Himmel strahlend blau war und ich Mark ueberreden musste sich eine Baseballkappe zu kaufen.....

Die Kadetten marschierten ein und die Reden begannen und wir brieten immer mehr..... noch mehr Reden und dann kam der Vizepraesident der USA, Joe Biden, der auch noch eine Rede schwang.

Anschliessend wurden die 1046 Kadetten namentlich aufgerufen, salutierten dem Praesidenten und schuettelten seine Hand bevor sie ihr Diplom al Bachelor of Science erhielten. Herr Biden hat wirklich allen 1046 Kadetten die Hand geschuettelt, ganze 4 Stunden lang.....

Als die Kadetten dann als Leutnants berufen wurden, warfen sie Ihre Huete in die Luft und die 6 Thunderbirds donnerten ueber das Stadion und die Show begann.
Man haette sich kein besseres Wetter wuenschen koennen (obwohl wir inzwischen medium gebraten waren). Die Stunts die die F-16 zeigten waren atemberaubend und selbst der Praesident blieb und schaute sich das ganze an und mischte sich anschliessend noch unter die frisch gebackenen 2. Leutnants und plauderte (obwohl das nicht geplant war.....)

Max, der diesmal unten im Stadion Bilder machten durfte, zusammen mit den anderen Presseleuten, hat ein paar geniale Bilder gemacht, die wir versuchen zu bekommen.

Erneut gratulierten wir Benn zu seinem endgueltigen Abschluss und machten uns dann auf den Weg unser Auto vom Parkplatz zu holen um uns nochmal das Besucherzentrum der USAFA und die Kapelle anzusehen.
Leider koennen die Amis kein Auto fahren und haben weder was von Freundlichkeit, noch Verkehrsregeln gehoert und mich so dermassen auf die Palme gebracht, dass ich fast ins Lenkrad gebissen habe!. Ueber eine Stunde haben wir gebraucht um vom Parkplatz zu kommen!

Enndlich im Besucherzentrum schauten wir uns einen kleinen Film and und stoeberten durch den Shop (die machen echt aus allem noch Profit, fast wie in Disney Land. Es gab fast nichts was man nicht mit dem USAFA Logo kaufen konnte.

Anschliessend ging es dann in die Kapelle die fuer mich mehr aussieht wie ein Raumschiff aus Star Wars.... oder?

Oben gibt es die protestantische Kirche, unten drunter die katholische und am Ende, hinter der katholischen gibt es eine kleine Synagoge und einen Raum fuer die Buddhisten.

Da wir immer noch nichts gegessen hatte und Mark schlechte Laune bekommt wenn er nichts zu essen bekommt, suchten wir nach einem Einkaufszentrum wo wir noch eine Dankekarte kaufen konnten und was zu essen konnten, und auch noch das Auto fuettern konnten. Leider fanden wir ausser einer Tankstelle nichts (sehr ungewohnt fuer die USA). Zum Schluss habe ich Mark im Lnnox House abgestetzt und bin alleine shoppen gegangen.

Abends gab es dann eine Graduation- und Verlobungsparty fuer Benn und Amanda.

Nachdem die Graduation und auch die Hochzeitsgeschenk (das Waffeleisen von Mama und Silke kam super an!!!!! und auch das passende Waffelrezeptbuch!) hatten wir einen ganz besonderen Gast zu besuch!

ELVIS persoenlich kam vorbei um ein wenig akapella fuer uns zu singen und zu tanzen. Goettlich! Wir haben gelacht bis der Bauch weh tat. Es war einfach nur genial! Leider hatten wir unsere Kamera nicht dabei, aber Harold hat sicherlich ein paar Fotos.
Was haben wir gelacht, es war wirklich unbeschreiblich. Nur Max hat komischerweise gefehlt und tauchte erst wieder auf als ELVIS has left the building.

Was ein Tag!

Day 8 - Parading (in the military sense - behave)

Dawn had barely dawned when we were all turfed out of bed to prepare for another day at USAFA. The penultimate day is the graduation parade (the final day is the graduation ceremony, don't you know anything?) and was once again going to be a cold day, but this time we were alot better prepared. Bring it on cold weather, bring it on. The graduation parade is where the year 4 cadets are kicked out and the year 3 cadets are promoted to their 'officer' positions. Yesterdays parade in their lovely blue uniforms had resulted in lovely muddy trousers. Todays parade was going to be in their white trousers and short jackets - I'm sure glad I don't have their dry cleaning bills! More special than the kicking out ceremony was a surprise for all the cadets that had been organised by Benn's mum (what a mum). It is traditional to have a fly-by at the graduation parade and they have this done by planes that add up to the year of the graduating year, in this case 51 (51st class since opening - get with the programme). The Mustang P-51 was a fighter from WWII and Monika (that's Benn's mum), in her capacity as President of the Parents association of USAFA, had arranged for a fly by of 8 P-51's (let's just say it would be like having a fly-by of 8 Hurricanes if you were a Brit). One had pulled out with engine trouble and 2 hadn't made it due to the weather but 5 were in hiding at Colorado Springs airport. No one had a clue they were coming. So the parade paraded and then the fly-by started with 2 F-16's shooting overhead. I should also mention that the weather had closed in and the cloud base was around the 500-600ft mark - not good conditions, but they still flew. After the fighters came a B-52 which is a stupidly big plane that has no right whatsoever to hang in the sky! And then came the P-51's. And they sounded unbelievable. Truly amazing - better than the modern fighters could ever sound and I don't care if my picture isn't that good, I'm including one anyway. After the fly-by the graduating cadets were kicked out and , after the usual review (that's where everyone has to march very nicely past the senior officers so they can be eyeballed by their superiors and hopefully not get told off for anything - they were good cadets and no telling offs were given out), the year 4's were left on the field to be dismissed.

And then we had surprise the next. We drove down to the airport where we, as part of Team Slikker, were allowed to go and see the P-51's. In our case we arrived just in time to see 3 of them depart - what a sight and sound, so cool. Another had already left, but the one from Denver was still on the tarmac and we were escorted out to get up close and personal - and I mean up close. My problem with this day is choosing pictures to put in to the blog as, somehow, I've ended up with dozens of really good ones. This is Benn and Inga in front of the P-51 - he was the only graduating cadet that came down (how cool is his mum to arrange all of this?) To get this close to an operational WWII fighter plane was truly amazing - more amazing for Benn was the fact that the pilot allowed him to get in to the cockpit (Benn's degree and training so far is aimed at him becoming a pilot) - a truly amazing and unique experience that i'm sure he'll remember for ever.

After we'd watched the P-51 take off - such an amazing sight and sound - we headed back up towards USAFA to watch the Thunderbirds practice their airshow (these are the F-16 display team). Unable to locate the others we went to a shopping mall and watched from there for a bit before going shopping. We all then went for an afternoon snack of Bison burgers which taste absolutely amazing - better than beef by miles. Stuffed and tired we headed home to prepare the the next amazing event - Benn's commissioning ceremony that was to take place that evening - which meant we all had to scrub up and look nice.

After the usual panic of getting ready (trying to iron in a kitchen when people decide that they need to make messy sandwiches is not an experience I would recommend to anyone unless you like being on edge) we all set off, late as usual, for the commissioning ceremony. is the time when the cadet is formally sworn in to the Air Force and gets his or her bars. It's a BIG deal. Somehow, Benn's cadet group (31 - The Grimreapers) had managed to get their ceremony at the super-intendant's residence - the poshest of poshest places available. I have to say that we all scrubbed up pretty well. It was a very smart do and a very smart place but the downside was discovering that my digital camera really doesn't like low light and messes up loads whilst the flash chews up the battery life and makes everything harsh. Oh well, we had secret weapon in professional photographer and Uncle to Benn, Max, so good photo's could be had at a later date if required. Benn was near the end so we mingled or hung about, depending on your point of view until the time came to be ushered in for the main event. I have to admit that the entire affair was nowhere near as bad as I feared it would be - it was very formal and the whole thing was very simple, which is probably why it affects so many people - tip for everyone, simplicity tugs the heart strings far better all the time.

Sworn in and post mingle over we all headed back for another short nights rest. Tomorrow was the final big day and we'd need our rest.