Sorry guys, been very busy lately but just now something happened that first made me think and then sit down to write this. I was thinking about writing this in German as it might only be relevant to a small group, but then I decided against it. Very few, if not nobody of you will be able to connect to what I'm trying to say anyway...

I think I can honestly say that I'm generally not someone who tends to be homesick. I don't call home every few days or any stuff like that and I get along just fine. I'm okay, wherever I am. Most of the times anyway. A few times however, it does hit me, and then it is usually is quite strong. Today is one of these days. I believe it's down to a combination of factors...

I have an exceptionally busy week (the boss is away you see) that is far from over and I'm drowning in work. To top it off, I'm Manager on Duty tomorrow, something I've grown to looking forward to about as much as a visit to the dentist (even though it must be said I do have an excellent dentist).

That in itself is probably not so unusual, but I did screw up a few things this week that now need fixing and I'm not particularly good at that. In one particular case involving a pretty lady it unfortunately seems even beyond fixing.

Moreover, today is my brother's 30th birthday and I somehow can't get rid of the feeling I should be there with him and the rest of the gang.

Happy Birthday Runzel! Thinking about you in a land far far away. Hope you have a good one.... I wish I could be there...

I also missed the stag night of one of my best friends' last weekend, but as I was in New York, that somehow seemed an acceptable exchange. Of course it is not. Can someone please report what happened?

Anyway, it's a Saturday afternoon and after having spent 5 hours at work, I'm sitting at home trying to prepare a presentation. Powerpoint is not something I would call my friend at the best of times and I have trouble concentrating anyway. I'm thinking about how stupid you can be, how I'm not cut out for my job, that I will never understand girls and god knows what else. This I actually do a lot.

What is different this time is that I have iTunes running in the background which is on Shuffle so it's randomly sifting through the about 1000 songs I have on my laptop. Now here is what happens when I have all these thoughts going through my head:

iTunes selects a song from a band called Haindling called Irgendwie und Sowieso. This is the name and theme tune of something of a cult Bavarian TV series and it triggers a serious bout of homesickness. I cannot begin to explain. Those of you who know the song and the series and have been away for a while might understand.

I used to watch this program quite a lot because like nothing else it manages to bring across what a great feeling it is like to grow up in Bavaria, where, for the lack of better words, the world is still in order.

I think the last time I watched more than one episode must now be about 6 or 7 years ago at about 3am guarding a Maibaum with my mates from the fire brigade. Again, I couldn't begin to explain.

Liebe Freunde und Kameraden,

Ich würd jetzt so gern mit euch im Stüberl oder sonst wo in Erding sitzen und ein Weissbier trinken (es gibt hier kein Weissbier!!). Ich weiss es klingt albern, aber ich vermisse tatsächlich um halb drei in der früh aus dem Bett zu rollen um dann halb die Treppe runter zu fallen um 3 Minuten später einen Einsatz zu fahren. Ich bin in Gedanken bei euch. Es gibt nichts was eine sinnvollere Beschäftigung wäre... Glaubt mir, auch wenn vielleicht grad keine Bahn fährt, ihr wohnt in einem wunderbaren Fleckchen Erde und wenn wieder mal ein Maibaum fällig ist, sagt Bescheid. Wir können die ganze Nacht Irgendwie und Sowieso schauen....

Und Wuschi, ich weiss ja nicht ob ich zur Hochzeit eingeladen bin, aber bitte jede Menge Vorwarnung geben!!

Missing you all like crazy!!