Rainy Day Activities

This is the view from our flat this morning. I'm busy with my to do list anyway (as far as being indoors allows) but I thought I'd share some ideas for what to do when you're stuck inside.

• Play a board game or cards.
• Do a jigsaw.
• Ring a friend - I'll be catching up with my gran today.
• Write a letter.
• Get crafty! Painting, sewing, knitting...
• Have a hot bath.
• Experiment in the kitchen. Try to make something from your cupboard ingredients (saves shopping in the rain).
• Have a clearout - that wardrobe is still on my list.
• Read a good book.
• Watch a film.

The possibilities are endless. I'm off to get cracking!

Shopping!

On Monday we went into Bremen to do some shopping ready for our holidays.  It did mean a lift on the clothes ban but I think I've done well to say those were the first trousers I have bought in over two years.  Anyway, the holiday clothes will be in our holiday pictures but I thought I would share these piccies with you now.

I've been thinking about getting a lightweight waterproof jacket for a while now as my waterproof coat was bought for a skiing holiday and is way too warm in Spring never mind Summer and my other lighter coats are not waterproof...and I live in Germany.

I fell in love with this one at first sight.  I love the colour, it had everything I wanted and was in the sale.  We had different pictures to decide which size was best.  One of the interesting things about shopping on Monday was that I don't know European clothes sizes and it was actually quite a nice experience to shop for comfort rather than a number.

I'm also hoping that buying a raincoat will secure us this gorgeous weather for the rest of the holidays!

Cycling in all Weathers

So even though I have stayed the same for three weeks running in terms of my weight, I have been cycling for an hour a day to school and back.  The weather over the past two weeks has been totally changeable.  Whereas some days like yesterday, it's been scorching hot and I've wished I had a change of clothes at school, other days, I've been caught in thunderstorms and thought the same.  It's to this end that I borrowed Nico's old rain poncho to try and minimize the damage.  Luckily for you, Nico thought this was so funny, he got up early to take pictures.

PS I'm not a hunchback, there is a backpack under there too until I get paid next week and can buy bike bags!

Goodbye Summer!

So it's the last day of the 'Summer Holidays' already.  I knew it would go fast but that really has crept up on me!  In a way I'm quite happy to go back and ready to get back into a good routine with work, especially since the weather is so rubbish.

I know the English are famed for talking about the weather but it's also a bit of a teacher phenomenon - especially when we have to put the heating on to keep warm in our homes in the holidays.  

I'm looking forward to cycling to and from work this year.  I know I will regret saying that but it will save me a fortune in gym membership and transport costs and it will also give me time to build up to and wind down from school.  I am having to search for a rain poncho though - especially given the weather this morning.

I've heard rumours of an Indian Summer.  Part of me wants them to be true so we can appreciate our two balconies before next year, but I'm not looking forward to working in that.  We will see...

Weather

Being English, it's only natural for me to tell you all about the weather here.  One thing I loved about my past experience in Germany is that the country has proper seasons.  Winter is cold, and Summer is hot, certainly the latter part of that seems to have disappeared in England.  However, even here in Germany the weather is starting to get temperamental.  

As I have already mentioned, the weather has been glorious since we arrived in the new flat.  It's been in the high twenties most days and even with our balcony doors and all the windows open, we don't get much relief.  Then on Wednesday night, the weather broke after all the humidity and we had one hell of a thunderstorm.  So much so that Bremen looked like this yesterday:

bild.de

Many Bremen students, our house guest Frankie among them, struggled to get into uni yesterday or basically anywhere north of the city centre, where roads, sewers and cellars were all filled with water.  What really surprised me on the news reports were the number of car drivers who really thought they were better than all of the other (sometimes bigger) cars turning around and actually tried to drive through it!

One sad little part of the whole thing was right on our doorstep.  Although we didn't have flooded streets, we do have a water channel running up the side of our house where we had been observing a mother duck protecting her eggs in the nest since we moved in on Saturday.  Unfortunately there is no sign of mother or eggs.