Tuesday - I had to get my Toyota serviced, I knew it needed doing because they rang me while I was in England, so when I got back last week I called them to book it in. They couldn't find it on their system - rather odd seeing as 1. this the garage that sold the car to us & 2. they rang me to tell me that it needed servicing. Anyway eventually the man got my car into their system and told me it would need to be Tüv'd* as well being serviced. Fine.
Except that on the day they didn't Tüv my car...after saying that they could squeeze it in and consulting the man who was going to be doing it I was told my car would be ready to collect at 12.45, they not only didn't do it, but they didn't tell me that they hadn't done it. It was only because I felt unsure about the whole thing, being used to the MOT system back in the UK where you get a certificate, so I asked friends what you get with a Tüv here - the sticker on the reg plate apparently reflects when you next need Tüv-ing and mine, when I checked, clearly shows the 10 from 2010 and not the 12 from 2012. I rang the garage to confirm this lack and also to vent - but there's only so much venting you can do when you don't know the German for 'but why didn't you tell me my car was still illegal you moron?' so I hung up instead and cussed loudly.
Wednesday - is my Step day, and we were informed by the lovely Petra that on September 26th there's going to be an open day at the 'alte bahnhof' (where we do step & pilates) and she wants to have a step class running during the day, so now we have to practice until we can do one of her challenging, twizzly routines perfectly, without falling off our steps, bumping into each other or just grinding to a halt because we've forgotten that we should be mambo-ing and not salsa-ing. It's a step class, I know, but Petra has a lot of dance training under her belt and I guess once a hoofer, always a hoofer, it's always good at the start of term when we get some fresh meat who're worse than the rest of us at the routines - for a couple of weeks anyway!
As if th
at weren't exercise enough for the day I then went to a yoga class in the evening, which was so good, although next week I shall make sure to eat only a snack for my tea, I'd eaten 2 hours before the class but that was clearly not a long enough interval to prevent my cottage pie threatening to reappear with every downward dog we did (and last night we seemed to have our arses in the air a lot).Thursday - expats at Lulu's otherwise known as the martini meetup. We arrived to find 4 expats already in situ, including a visiting US author who was touring old haunts from when he was last here at the age of 17, and our numbers were later swelled by 4 more - so a good haul in all. Due to the size of the group the conversation was divided and seemed to split between the sexes - I was in the fortunate position of being piggy in the middle which meant that I not only got to discuss the weird encounter with a Frauenartzt** that is the German yearly health check (it involves a chair with stirrups and pretty much no seat) and an internal scan that you watch on the monitor next to your head while the doc comments on the health of your ovaries/womb but I also got to talk cars & bikes and the smell of the pit lane with a fellow speed fiend who has also made the trip to the Nurburgring (but whilst I was merely watching Si go round in the BMW Ringtaxi, Martin actually rode his bike (motorbike) round).
The most surprising discovery for me at Lulu's was that H thinks he wont live till he's 75 (he's just turned 50) I was astounded that he couldn't see past that and it's almost as if he's counting down the days and it's not as if he's sick or unhealthy, he just seems to have decided to draw a line on his life in 25 years time, maudlin or what?
Last night was a 3 martini evening, so this morning has been a slow one, please accept my appologies for any errors!
* Tüv is the same as MOT in the UK - where a car after it's 3rd birthday has to have a health check
** doc who deals with all things feminine
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