Last week

It is Monday morning (well, it was when I started writing) and another week has gone by. Apart from going to the office everyday, a few extraordinary events did happen.
Monday evening I participated in a corps council of one of the corps in the division, who presently is without officers. This corps has done 3 NCD profiles and strangely enough we touched that subject. They were not sure how to proceed with the results of their last profile and so now I am going back for their next meeting, which will be entirely about NCD and especially their profile. I honestly did not manipulate anything!

Tuesday Lukas and I was of the the football game that got canceled before Christmas. For those who do not like or understand football it is probably difficult to understand, but for someone who grew up watching English football on the TV every Saturday, who remembers names like Kevin Keegan, Kenny Dalglish, Ian Rush, Jan Mølby and many others, then going to a football match at Anfield Road, sitting in the Kop, was something special.Even without being a Liverpool fan, I have to admit Liverpool belongs to one of the greatest football clubs in England and the Kop maybe the most famous stand in football.

This time the weather was fine, we got to Liverpool early, had the traditional fish 'n chips, strolled through the Liverpool shop (Lukas managed to persuade me to buy a Liverpool hat for him) and then into the stadium. No offense to Skonto Stadium in Riga, but Anfield has a somewhat different atmosphere. When the home crowd sang the traditional “You'll never walk alone” just before the kick off, the sound was absolutely amazing.

It actually turned out to be a quite painful experience. Liverpool might be a great club, but their fans are apparently not great, or at least not big. When we sat down I quickly realised the rows were so close together, that there was no room for my legs. I had to fold my legs under my seat to get me knees behind the seat in front. Not very comfortable and annoying for at least two reasons: 1) Although there are seats, then you stand up half the time. When something exciting seems to be happening (or when you get annoyed) the whole crowd jumps up. Because I first had to unfold my legs, I was a bit slow getting up, and so I missed a number of incidents, because my view was blocked until I finally managed to stand up 2) It took exactly 20 minutes of play before I got a cramp – and of course it happened while nothing really was happening on the field and so I could not stand up!

I was not the only one who felt pain though. Liverpool got beaten 6-3 by Arsenal (first time since the thirties they have conceded 6 goals at Anfield) so the atmosphere going home in the car was somewhat subdued! (Since then Liverpool have played to matches and won both of them, today the beat Chelsea 2-0 at Anfield, so for once Liverpool actually is popular in Manchester!)

Friday we went to a special evening. In the UK the SA arranges retirement meetings for officers, but since the precious DC here (won't write the name, because too many search the internet for the name of C.... Y.....) resigned, it was instead a celebration of 35 years of officership. First there was a meeting, which was both good and fun, and then a meal. It was by invitation only and about 150 people attended. It was also a chance to meet up with several people we had not seen for a while – managed to get an invitation to go to Dallas with a promise of accommodation and a car – unfortunately there had been a major accident on one of the motorways, so several people form London had to turn back and could not make it. Lisbeth had been drafted as part of the team helping with the food etc., so she did not have that much fun. I was supposed to help as well, but ended up only lightning the candles on the tables and helping put the tables away again (I am sure the candles were from IKEA – at least they seemed Swedish: Very difficult to get going!)

Saturday was a rubbish day! We spent the morning clearing out our garage of some of all the rubbish we had dumped in it while renovating. 3 trips to the tip with a full car and we managed to get a bit more than half of it away. At the same time Lisbeth was cutting trees and bushes in the garden, so we felt very active. Lukas was not feeling too well, so when Lisbeth went out shopping, I had to stay with him and together we watched a version of Robin Hood neither of us had seen before.

Sunday we were of to one of the corps we had been before. A very friendly and open corps. We went there because Lisbeth wanted to meet with some of the soldiers. Unfortunately their car had broken down, so they did not come! Back home we spent the rest of the day relaxing, apart from a trip to a camping shop, looking at stuff for our tent.

Well, that was the reasonably uneventful week