And so it was February already!
On Friday night we headed over to a Games night at Butzi friends place. The evening was fun, but we did play one very bad version of Cards against humanity in German… Which dragged on and really was more offensive than funny – not quite my game, but hey, learning something new! I also got to try “Berliner Luft” which translates to “Berlin Air” – a Mint-flavoured liquor. Eventually we got to codenames, which I felt rescued the night and was good fun. I even managed to introduce Werewords, which we played for two rounds before grabbing a train home around midnight.
Saturday we enjoyed some time outside in the sun while chatting to Amy via WhatsApp, and enjoying the early spring sun for a bit.
On the way home we stopped by the storage unit to bring some more order to it before catching up for dinner with Vincent and Diana. It was a fantastic night, we chatted away the whole evening over delicious pasta. New favourite Italian restaurant found – they even make truffle pasta in a cheese wheel!
Sunday morning I spent some time chatting to Gabe in Australia before heading out to the storage Unit once more. Yes, we spent a lot of time sorting everything! The sorting was interrupted when we headed out to to play Squash… I managed to win the second game this time, but Manja got the third, winning 2:1 once more, but it was close this time!
The work week was busy, with either Manja or myself having an event each and every night. I started meeting some of our colleagues from our parent company whom we went to dinner with, and we had a Game night at work that week too. We played plenty of Werewolf, which I absolutely loved hosting for!
By Friday it was Valentines day, and we were exhausted. We agreed that we would have a quite night in and I would just make a nice burger dinner for Manja… and we would clean up because we would have visitors on the weekend!
On Saturday we picked Hagen and Henri up from the trainstation and headed to the Futurium – a permanent museum exhibition showing how technology might advance, and life might change. It is free and REALLY well done. I loved it! We still had some time left when we got out, so we grabbed some Burgers for lunch before heading to the Interactive Museum for technology, which had not significantly changed since I was a kid! I remembered many of the exhibits, and loved the trip down memory lane.
In the evening we wanted to go bowling, but all the bowling alleys were already booked out. But! Simons game obsession to the rescue! We spent the evening playing Mysterium, which was such a hit that Hagen bought it for Henry the next day 😁. That’s what I call being a good influence 😇
We played two rounds, only interrupting for some Chinese take-away. In the process we discovered a REALLY good Chinese place. Will have to order there again!
On Sunday we had breakfast all together – Simons Poached eggs on avocado with Salmon – before I dropped Hagen and Henri off to the trainstation.
By the time I got back Manja had packed everything and cleaned up, and we were off to her Christmas present: A Wellness “weekend” away. We chose the Sunday and Monday because it would be less crowded and about half the price 😃
We grabbed a smart, drove down and settled in before hitting the Saunas. I have to say that there is something much more relaxing about a Sauna in Winter. We even headed outside to the lake, but I could only make myself dip in my legs – it was significantly too cold to jump in entirely.
We really only interrupted our relaxation time for some cake and eventually for dinner. When we headed over for a reasonably early dinner, we got upgraded to the premium spot! The service staff were fantastic and dinner was really nice too. We both chose the chefs selection, which was definitely the right choice!
Relaxed and happy we dropped into bed early, so that we could use the Spa area again in the morning before heading back home.
And so we did – we got up early and had a massive buffet breakfast.
After which we hit the Saunas once more. We even braved the outside again although it was rather windy. Manja even put her legs into the water this time too, but as I put my bathrobe back on, it was picked up by a gust of wind…. and the room key, which was needed to get back into the sauna, dropped into the water.
We could see it, but the water was absolutely freezing. So I thought that I decided to head around the property to the front desk and explain what happened. Of course, Manja insisted we could reach the key… so convinced me to give it a try. Remember how I said it was too cold to go in past your legs? Turns out when you jump off the pier where there are no stairs, you get totally submerged in freezing water. But I got to the key and managed to get back out. I decided to go and dry off in the sauna to re-heat myself, but have to admit that I understand the appeal of it for the first time. I felt seriously energised for the next few hours!
When we got home we had one more task to do: Move into a smaller storage space. All the sorting of the last few weeks had meant that we were organised enough to use less space. We headed over and inspected a few, eventually settling on a long and narrow unit, where the shelves would fit perfectly along one wall and signed up for a year. We then spent the next 2 hours moving everything once more. By the time we got home it was late afternoon and we were feeling accomplished. I made us some mushroom carbonara pasta for dinner and we spent the evening updating the blog. At this point we were only up to August last year and had some maintenance to do!
The following weekend we had a game night at Katrin and Kilians, which we had to spontaneously cancel a few weeks earlier, and spent Sunday chatting with the family before doing a bit of a spring clean… Well we really just wanted to clean the windows, but it spiralled out of control and ended up with the scrubbing of the skirting boards. C’est la vie!
Saturday we headed out to do some shopping, but we couldn’t find what we wanted and ended up not buying anything. To make up for that dismal performance we headed over to an Asian place recommended by one of Manjas colleagues, which was like a build-it-yourself Japanese Curry place. You ordered by ticking the boxes of what you want in the curry, and you get a delicious curry containing only what you like. It was delicious and awesome, the place had a really great feel to it too.
