*sigh*

There's a hostile atmosphere on the streets of Mainz at night when it's carnival time. You put your head down, avoid eye contact when walking past groups, and get from A to B as quickly and directly as you can.

It's taken me the best part of four years to realise that this reminds me of Newcastle city centre on any given Friday or Saturday night.

The Heerenveen game was oversubscribed and we didn't get tickets. We don't have a Plan B, so I suppose now's the time to think of one...

I'd forgotten - or at least repressed - the fact that my stint in Mainz coincides with Carnival season, or "Fassenacht", as the people here insist on slurring it. Last night was Altweiberfastnacht, which ( Read more... )

OK, so I've succumbed to the pressure - the Jack Duckworth look is gone, with some (thankfully fairly transparent) glue taking the place of the tape. I have no idea when I'm going to get to an optician to get me some new frames, though... February, for all it's a singularly useless month, is looking frighteningly busy right now.

Walked to work again today, with Death Cab For Cutie's "The Photo Album" as my soundtrack. Magical stuff, if perhaps a little on the downbeat side for 8am. The only disadvantage of taking my Discman on the road with me is that I tend to end up getting songs stuck in my head, which can't be too pleasant for those around me - still, I was worried I ( Read more... )

I walked home from work last night, across and along the river, through a gentle but insistent snow flurry, while listening to Breton harp music on hr2 radio. It felt remarkably like being alive.

You join me in my old office in Mainz-Kastel, sitting at a desk directly opposite where I spent two and a half years of my life slaving away in the world of financial translation ( Read more... )

Too much beer can be a dangerous thing.

More specifically, it can turn you from a reasonable, rational human being into the kind of person who, in a fit of despair after losing the pub quiz yet again, turns to his fellow ex-pat Geordie and slurs something along the lines of "tell you what, let's spend 200 euros each on an overnight trip to Holland ( Read more... )

The concert... was great. I don't possess the words to describe the music - "hyper-romantic, fragile but stormy" is a phrase I've lifted from a review, and that seems to sum it up quite nicely - but the boy Hecker, despite coming across like an emaciated geek version of Vernon Kaye, is a remarkable performer and, dare I say it, entertainer. And ( Read more... )

I've just been out to get a ticket to see the lovely Maximilian Hecker live at the Molotow club tomorrow night. Typical that I only found out about it the day before - and I call myself a fan? - but rather that than the day after, I suppose. At least there were tickets left, and only €10 a pop, too ( Read more... )