Yes, I’ve not written much … because the weather here is worse than sub-optimal and has frozen any semblance of creative juices that may have been thinking of leaking to a keyboard. Despite the rain, we’ve had two successive days over 40°F and in self-disgust I’ll try to bring you up to speed.
Of course, catching up shouldn’t be real hard since my last entry: in September I took the train back down to the Alps alone and hiked up the Wendelstein mountain … a very interesting weekend of solitude, I can’t recall ever spending three full days without conversation. Therapeutic, I might do it again. Lisa and I went to London in November, it was a fabulous trip: we saw the musicals We Will Rock You (fantastic!!) and Wicked (pedestrian after We Will Rock You); ate lots of ethnic food, got real good at using the tube and generally played tourist in lousy weather. It is, after New York, the coolest city I’ve ever visited. My pal Chip and I went skiing in January down in Austria … two of seven days were fabulous, the rest sub-optimal at best. I finally gave in to prudence and started wearing a helmet; and with such lousy visibility actually put it to use while auditioning more than once for the Wide World of Sports Agony of Defeat. I’ve made two or three boring and rushed business trips to the states and a few interesting ones in Europe … Vicenza, Italy again proving to be of interest. This time I opted for a hotel on the edge of the UNESCO world heritage city and spent quality time wandering its alleys and parks … yet again, mostly in the rain or snow.
After moving up a league last season and getting clobbered, the old men of Sulzbach basketball finally bit the bullet and joined five other clubs in an over 30 league (alas, no over 40 teams to be had in the entire region). Unfortunately, only two other clubs actually fielded teams or managed to schedule games and we’ve a meager 1:1 record. A much more casual league, the hosts usually bring a case of German beer for the immediate aftermath and the refs crack jokes about giving technical fouls to anybody who tries to do a fast break (who, us?). We’re debating if the fun casual quality of guys closer to our age is better than the quantity of playing kids (ok, young men) less than half our age.
Culturally, work has generally beat out reading or flicks but there have been a few gems to pass on. If you’ve not seen “Slumdog Millionaire” … do so … today! It was a very pleasant surprise during a recent trans-Atlantic flight. Expecting a Bollywood dance flick, it actually had a real edge to it and still remained suspenseful fun. As a birthday present, Lisa got me Tiziano Terzani's “A Fortune Teller Told Me” … a delightful book by an American educated Italian journalist working for a German news magazine in Asia. He decides to head the twenty year old warning of a Hong Kong fortune teller to avoid flight in 1993. He proceeds to travel throughout Asia by land and sea (difficult anymore) for a year checking out all the “best” fortune tellers in an odd attempt to debunk them. The “Reluctant Fundamentalist”, by Mohsin Hamid is short but riveting as it recants the life of a Pakistani Princeton graduate post 9/11 via a discourse with an American stranger in Lahore. Both will make you think. If you’re into a bit longer American history, Robert Morgan’s “Boone” is a long and slow but worthwhile look at the man that conquered Kentucky. At times astonishing, it’ll make most of us 21st century desk jockeys ponder our chances of survival without technology.
What am I up to now you ask? Looking out the window at rain and wishing the wonderful Bavarian Beer Gardens were open with a rush of Spring-like weather! Cheers.
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