The realities of life

There are some things that are pretty much guaranteed, no matter where you are in the world, certain truths that are inescapable. Well, ok, this particular truth only usually applies to the UK, but I can now confirm that if one plans a BBQ in Germany, whatever the weather forecast may be divining, rain is going to appear sooner or later.

Today is Germany’s worldcup battle against Argentina in the world cup quarter final. I know, I said I wasn’t going to talk about football following the England departure, but it’s all around me here still, so it is almost impossible not to mention. The game is at four, on a Saturday, which means we planned to have a BBQ, enjoy the heat and watch the game over a few beers. A fine plan.

The day dawned rather beautifully at around 5.24am. I know this because it was far too hot too actually sleep, so instead I watched the sky turn to crimson out of the skylight. Yes, it is hot. Over thirty six degrees now, with some intense humidity to boot. People are wandering around perspiring gently. Unfortunately, it seems, the intense heat in leading towards some kind of huge thunderstorm. The humidity is oppressive, add a few crocodiles and we could be in the deep South of America, swatting mosquitoes and chewing on dead squirrels. Or whatever it is they do down there. My experiences are largely drawn from watching The Waterboy, and that episode of top gear.

So, intense heat, building thunderstorm, planned BBQ. A perfect combination. Luckily there is a large covered area so the BBQ can still go ahead, even if the rain comes (it has come, with accompanying giant rips of thunder, as I type). We popped to the shops to get supplies for the BBQ. I rather foolishly thought that doing this on blades would be a good idea. I can now reveal that exercise in this weather that doesn’t involve a large body of water is a serious error. Rivulets of sweat literally poured off me. I think I made a fine sight wandering around the thankfully air-conditioned supermarket.

Speaking of lakes, I went for a swim in the lake yesterday with Vera’s sister and one of the housemates (slight Big Brother moment there, my apologies), where we decided to swim across the lake and back. This is a little over 1000m total distance, which I can now confirm is a long long way to swim when there are no sides or bottom. We didn’t even get to have a break on the far shore as a swan family looked at us rather threateningly. And swans do seem somewhat more threatening when they loom over you. Anyway, lake swim complete, death by swan avoided.

I now sit under the covered area pondering the rain, chewing on water melon, pretending it is chunks of squirrel, and thinking that perhaps it may be about to cool down a bit, possibly even dropping below thirty five for a time, which would be ok by me.

Finally, I spent a while sorting out some of the videos from the Australia trip, and these are now on youtube for your viewing pleasure. Find them on my youtube channel, here.