Arrival

I'm usually pretty well organised when going away, but what with one reason and another I've been seriously behindhand this time. Firstly, I'd been way behind when it came t getting a design proposal to one of my regular clients for an annual report I've being doing since the mid '90s. That meant I was out of bed at 4:00 am putting into usable terms the ideas which have been floating around in my head for the past couple of weeks. I managed, and sent off an email by 8:30.

Then was a bit of cleaning and tidying to do so the house wouldn't disintegrate around itself before I get back in a week's time. Then there was a last-minute email to an ex-member of the music group who now lives in Zürich, wondering if there was any chance of meeting him on my last day away (this led to a flurry of to-and-fro emails, at the end of which Martin indicated that he might manage to travel from Zürich to Freiburg to spend the day with us on Thursday, and might even come to the concert with us that night).

I'd booked a taxi for 3:15 and somehow managed to finish packing by 2:00 and grab a last-minute nap. Music-group Bernard and I were on the same flight, to Zürich even though we'll be based in Freiburg. We arrived at Zürich at 8:25 pm to be greeted by nasty grey clouds and what looked like the aftermath of a heavy rain shower. A lovely surprise when we got through to Arrivals was being met by Martin, who'd made a point of coming to the airport to welcome us. We're only three on this trip, with music-group Ron (originally German, but now 'more Irish than the Irish themselves') completing our complement. He's been with his family in Constance since last Friday, and came to meet us and take us by car to Freiburg.

I'd rather Ron than me, doing this drive through the Black Forest on twisty roads in unpleasant conditions, but he got us safely to our various hotels (thanks be for sat-nav!). I got to my hotel close to midnight and fell right into bed (not a great night's sleep, unfortunately).