On Friday night I was too busy. [no spectacular or glamour partying, but… Ironing *g*]. On Saturday I was just plain lazy. Yesterday evening I was spent and I thought I can write a post about the weekend first thing Monday morning, when there is not much to do at work. Which wasn’t the case today, as I was rather busy. Thank god for that change.
I had a truly wonderful weekend, with only two small downsides. 1.) I didn’t work as much for my studies as I planned to do. 2.) I had to accept that I have to share “my” garden with my neighbours. When the most annoying neighbour of the world moved out from next door, I was so happy about the regained solitude of my patio and the garden. Which is not MY garden, because every tennant of our building is entitled to use the lawn. But after the annoying neighbour left nobody else did until now, when the new familiy from the 3rd floor discovered what great place it is for their kids to play and for themselves to barbeque and just be outdoors. They’re the only ones without a balcony, so I can totally understand their desire to use the common lawn. It’s just that it’s next to my apartement’s windows and more important next to my patio. So whenever I want to be outdoors, reading or studying or just relaxing, I listen to private converstations I don’t want to hear. I have kids running around playing football or anything at all. There goes my solitude. *sigh*
Thank God living just a short walk away from our family home has it’s benefits. Because this family home comes with a huge and secluded garden. And a huge chestnut tree with a hammock, the best place to relax in the summertime. And we have to make good use of that, because we have to chop down the tree later this year / early next year when Bro2 will start building his house and the chestnut tree will be in the way.
So that secluded garden (and the hammock) was were I spent most of Saturday. I tried to read some study material, but my family is just so distracting. But in a totally nice way :-) We did some low-key barbeque and I just spent the afternoon doing nothing, except reading “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” for a bit and skimmed through a travelguide for my sea vacation in the fall. And I haven’t even fully planned my London trip.
Whe I returned to my place around 7.30 PM I couldn’t bring myself to do some more studying, so I just spent the evening watching DVD. I finally decided to “work” through my rack of yet-to-watch DVDs and watched “Pride & Prejudice”. Such a wonderful movie. I should recover my Mr. Darcy wallpaper I had installed after I’ve watched the movie at the theatres. I know a lot of people prefer the BBC version with Colin Firth, but I have seen that as well (after I’ve watched the movie) and I have to confess: I definitely prefer Matthew McFadyen. Anytime.
So Saturday definitely did count, according to the Calvin & Hobbes quote: “Weekends don’t count unless you spent them doing something completely useless.” Friday on the other hand was spent rather wonderfully useful. But as it doesn’t really belong to the weekend, it’s ok, I guess :-)
I spent about half the day in Cologne on Friday, mostly to get my annual fix of being on a TV set and watch the shooting from behind the scenes. And Seawolf in Halifax doesn’t really count for that, as we were just walking by most of the time and didn’t know anyone on the set. On Friday though I had the chance to visit my favourite German actress at work. Benefits of running a fansite for almost ten years now :). I guess for the 10th anniversary of the fansite’s launch I have to write a post about how profoundly that site has changed my life. Which might sound slightly crazy, but it really did. I made some great friends through it and to see this weird little idea turn into a pretty big and popular and serious affair, was a huge boost for my ego. More on that maybe later this year…
I had a great time on the set, watching the shooting, getting some background information on this TV movie, some scoop on the new projects and just chatting about anything and everything. When the cast and crew went back in to the basement of a building to rehearse for the next scene, it was my cue to leave though, because I didn’t wanted to spend a beautiful day underground.
I went shopping instead (as was planned anyway). After browsing through some stores I ended up at Sinn Leffers, which had a sale, due to some remodeling of the store. It was really cool, because at the check-out I got a 20% discount on the already discounted items, which was a pretty good bargain. I went into the Mayersche (BIG bookstore) as well to get a travelguide for my trip to the sea in September and I managed to not buy any other book while I was in there. *pats on my back*
I wish I could have ended that sunny and exciting day with something equally exciting and wonderful on Friday night. But all I did was to finally iron the huge pile of laundry. Boring on a Friday night, but it had to be done someday and I knew I probably wouldn’t have brought myself to do it any other day of this weekend.
Saturday was… completely useless (see above) but on Sunday I got up rather early to accompany Bro2 and Bro3 to the “17. Niederreinischer Radwandertag”. (17th Lower Rhine Cycling Day). Which is a pretty awesome event for cyclists. There were about 70 organized tours of various distances and routes. You could check in at any of the various startingpoints, got a map with directions and could just go on that tour. In groups or by yourself, on your own pace. The tours were very well marked on the roads as well, with signs and arrows, so you actually couldn’t take a wrong turn. But on my tour, I managed to do it anyway *g* and so did my brothers who choose to do a different (longer) tour than I did. But it was just a very small detour for me. A longer one for them though, so I had to wait a while longer for them to meet me at our starting point. Which was ok, because there were ice cream parlours and music and stuff to watch or just a place to sit in the sun and admire your own accomplishment.
It was only my second cycling tour of the year, the first one was a mere 25 km about two weeks ago. So basically it was insane to choose a 60 km tour now without any more training. But every other tour from that starting point was much shorter which would have made me wait much longer for my brothers to return from their 100 km tour. So I went for the 60 km tour, which was fun to do and it almost felt like vacation, because that landscape looks so different than the one I live in, although it’s not even 100 km away. The tour was even pretty easy at first, because it’s the Lower Rine (=lowland) after all. But at 48 km my thighs started to hurt. Really, really hurt. And of course it didn’t get any easier, when I realized that the tour was longer than the supposedly 60 km. I returned to the starting point with my cyclocomputer showing 67 km and got of my bike with pretty wobbly legs. They already wobbled when I had to use the bathroom ath half-distance :) I felt pretty accomplished afterwards though and actually still do today. Although walking up stairs is a bit of a problem, but I guess that will pass within the next few days.
Of course I didn’t manage to do anything “useful” on Sunday after that exertion and just plopped my body in front of the TV and watched another DVD. “An ideal husband” which was the right light and funny thing to watch after that day. I was even to spent do write a post about it, which should tell you something about my state of exhaustion. As should the fact, that I went to bed at 11.15 PM and fell asleep almost immediately. It felt pretty good though and the muscles aren’t as sore as I expected them to be today. Walking up stairs though…? :)