Last night I watched the DVD of a film called ‘Wer früher stirbt ist länger tot” (He who dies earlier is dead longer).  My sister had brought it back for me from Tübingen, knowing that I like to watch German films but find it difficult to get hold of any.  This was actually one I had heard of and wanted to see; released in 2007, it has won numerous German film prizes, and I had seen it reviewed on the German news sender Deutsche Welle. (more…)

 The time between the end of the Christmas festivities and the start of the new working year is always a weird one for me.  A time for reflection on the year that has past, and speculation on the year which is to come.  I always maintain that if I had any idea what the new year actually held in store for me I would immediately decide that I was unable to cope and refuse to leave my bed on January 1st.  Certainly, I would have refused to get out of bed for 2007 had I had any inkling of the twists and turns it was going to take. (more…)

 I have been fairly lucky with my health of late, and have had several blissful weeks which have been virtually pain free.  In the week running up to Christmas, I experienced the odd random twinge, but it was really nothing to write home about, and so it was with considerable annoyance that I realised I was taking a turn for the worse on Christmas Day.  I spent the early hours of Boxing Day morning writhing around in my bed and gasping for breath in a most undignified manner, and it was only thanks to a painkiller which is stronger than that which I usually like to take, combined with just the right amount of caffeine to complement it, that I managed to drag myself out of bed and make the traditional Boxing Day journey to the little village of Broadway in Worcestershire. (more…)

My Christmas Day featured neither mistletoe nor wine, and there was also a regrettable lack of children singing Christian rhyme. There were no logs on our fire because we haven’t had the chimney cleaned recently, and it wasn’t practical to hang gifts on the tree because it’s an artificial one from Argos and the branches aren’t terribly strong. Finding time to rejoice in the good that we see was also a bit problematic, due to an unexpected electrical failure which temporarily plunged our home into darkness Despite what Cliff Richard may thus have determined as festive shortcomings, it was nevertheless a thoroughly enjoyable day, not least because I received so many lovely presents. (more…)

 Today I reached an important milestone in my life.  I finally got to the last page of Thomas Mann’s ‘Der Zauberberg’.  I purchased this book at least eighteen months ago, and have been reading it on and off for what I genuinely believe to be the best part of the last nine months.  It is without doubt, at just over a thousand pages in my edition, the longest book I have ever tackled in my life.  Reading it has truly been an ordeal and there were times over the summer, when I was too caught up with other things to get through more than a handful of pages a week, when I despaired of ever finishing it.  I have, I hasten to add, read a multitude of other books simultaneously, otherwise I might have gone stir crazy.  There were some days when the temptation to just admit defeat and fling the accursed volume, if not into a burning fire then, at least, into my paper recycling box was overwhelming.  However, I am proud to announce that I succeeded in overcoming such weak and sinful urges and the Lord gave me the strength to see the novel through right to the bitter end. (more…)

 Yesterday was the audit department Christmas lunch.  That is to say, to call it the Christmas lunch would be a trifle misleading, as we didn’t actually get a sniff of any food until half four.  We’d been booked in for the half past three sitting of Christmas lunch at a local bar, on the grounds that there was a 20% discount available for not eating your lunch at lunchtime.  What accountant could bear to turn down a discount?! (more…)

Doom appears to have missed me, which is really rather careless of it. Perhaps it decided I had already had my fair share of bad luck this year, and it was someone else’s turn.

In other words, I am now

Radio Clare ACA

No one can possibly be more surprised by this turn of events than I am. (more…)

In a little over an hour from now, I will know whether or not I am a chartered accountant.

 The probabilities point strongly towards this not being the case. (more…)

Since I was accompanied by my parents, this second weekend in Tuebingen was always going to be rather more sedate and rather less fun. We were all travelling out there together to celebrate my sister’s 21st birthday, and this time my mother had booked the flights, which were via Stuttgart and thus far less stressful. Stuttgart seems to be a small and quiet little airport, at least before 10am on a Friday morning. Quite why my mother had booked the flights for so early in the morning was something of a mystery. The weather in Britain had been so stormy during the preceding couple of days that a strong tail wind allowed our flight to arrive thirty minutes ahead of schedule and so it was that we found ourselves disembarking from the train in Tuebingen shortly after 11am. (more…)

 Apart from my website obviously, my best birthday present this year was a novel by the Swiss author Martin Suter. An old lady in a Davos bookshop recommended his books to my sister and I about four years ago, and ever since we’ve been avid fans. I enjoy reading Swiss literature in general; it’s subtly different to German literature, and Martin Suter writes in a conversational way which is easy to follow and doesn’t make you wish you were sitting next to a dictionary. (more…)