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Author Topic: The Wurst is yet to come : generally jaundiced jottings from German jaunts.  (Read 5470 times)

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ajb95

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You might be able to get back to watching football before most JCFC, as if the English professional game returns at all this season, you’ve always got the German pyramid!

JCFC

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So football returns in Germany after a long break - and the captain of Sandhausen lasted just four minutes before receiving a red card and getting himself suspended.
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JCFC

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Sunday morning saw me make my now regular virtual visit to Alloway. The "Sunflowers" theme was appealing and (free this week from Sydney Carter!) was accessible yet uplifting, while full use of attractive visuals enhanced the experience.

Suitably encouraged, I pointed my laptop in the direction of Clevedon Presbyterian's 17th May service, this being the local church of relatives in New Zealand. The building seems to be very modern and possibly multi-purpose, the minister (in open-necked shirt rather than the Alloway clerical collar) speaking slightly awkwardly from in front of crowded bookshelves. Despite the distraction they posed, his traditional and more cerebral sermon (longer by far than the Alloway address) managed to hold the attention. Indeed the service as a whole was almost twice as long, though less skilfully produced. There was an anthem, performed (over-performed for my liking) by a trained singer, so that the sense was lost. Overall one should commend the service, though it was sad that the hymns were performed by a lady soloist (you can only use what you have, of course) - resulting in a hideously warbled and emasculated rendition of Blaenwern, normally one of my favourites, both in terms of tune and words. A good try, but if we are "spairt" the mouse will be pointing Northwards again next week!
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Microscopist

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Still no bees though, despite all the sunflowers! 

We have from time to time had a problem with wasps - which took us a long time to discover.  Over a period of a couple of years we would occasionally have a burning smell in the Church.  We had previously had a near disaster when part of the electricity supply running in conduit under the floor had overheated but thanks to the conduit (which in itself had probably contributed to the overheating) there was no oxygen to allow flames and the circuit breaker tripped before any real damage was done.  So we were conscious of any burning smells, and it did only seem to appear when the Church was in use - it didn't normally happen if folk went in on their own.  We considered blaming the Brig o'Doon Hotel for burning their toast or the gardeners in the Burns' Monument Garden burning rubbish but it was a fairly distinctive, though not readily attributed smell.  In the end it all harked back about 20 years when new lighting had been installed.  The installation was a great improvement in appearance on the old but rather less effective at providing light and so the installer added a large number of halogen spot/flood lights - quite high up.  It appeared that these lights were not all awfully well sealed and that the wasps, for reasons best known to themselves, liked to congregate inside some of them - and die.  When the dead bodies built up they would start to be cremated by the halogen bulb - when sufficient bodies had been despatched the cremations would stop for a while.

Thank you for your comments on the services, I like the short service and could be quite tempted to stay at home on a Sunday in future.  However, that leads to a problem as the format and technology behind these short services is different to that for producing projected images on the screen in the Church - so what to do when "normality" returns?   

With regard to bookshelves I have taken quite an interest in the tendency for folk speaking from home to position themselves with bookshelves behind them - such is my nature that the tidier the bookshelf the more suspicious I am of the speaker.

The Lutheran Church in Germany are now meeting again and helpfully sent their required procedures to the Church of Scotland who circulated them to its congregations - like the Bundesliga I feel the effect would be to produce a fairly sterile atmosphere.  We did have a "virtual" installation of a new Moderator on Saturday - though with no General Assembly for him to moderate.  The previous Moderator and his wife for the last seven weeks of his term had returned to their manse (in Morningside) and gave morning reflections on the website which my BLFG and I enjoyed watching - particularly Ruth's contributions.

Neil's preaching style is quite light but pleasant and now he has realised that his "jokes" dinna work in an empty Church (perhaps the offer of canned laughter got that message home) and his accepting the concept that looking at the camera is a good thing to do, he comes across very well I think.
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bmb

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With regard to bookshelves I have taken quite an interest in the tendency for folk speaking from home to position themselves with bookshelves behind them - such is my nature that the tidier the bookshelf the more suspicious I am of the speaker.

Not sure what my bookshelves would say about me, most books upright but with piles of books lying flat in front of them and all manner of junk shoved in around them! Tidiness is not a strength of mine!
Hajrá Lilák. Csak a Kispest. Hajrá Magyarok! Hajrá játékvezetői csapat! Soha ne add fel. Nincs sárga kérem!!! No Chris Kavanagh doesn't live in Ashton or even in the Greater Manchester area!!

Microscopist

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Ref Watcher

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That picture has made me feel a touch more comfortable with mine!  I did notice yesterday that I have a number of worthy tomes visible over my left shoulder when on video calls, while the rather more commercial offerings are out of sight to my right.  No planning has gone into this happy state of affairs.
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Ashington46

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Interesting to see the comments about bookshelves because I owned a specialist book business for 25 years and I used to find that some customers always managed to put a book back exactly where it  had been on the shelf, whereas, a great number either did not slot it back somewhere on the shelf or even left it on the floor. I never did work out why they left them on the floor, however, I and my staff used to spend quite a bit of time sorting them out. Fortunately, none of us suffered from any syndrome --imagine what that would have been like!

Anyway, suffice to say that it is an individual choice how you use your bookcase so do as you please because it doesn't really matter!
Referee's decision used to be final!
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bmb

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That picture has made me feel a touch more comfortable with mine!  I did notice yesterday that I have a number of worthy tomes visible over my left shoulder when on video calls, while the rather more commercial offerings are out of sight to my right.  No planning has gone into this happy state of affairs.

I know that feeling! I have a large bookcase that has books the right way up along every shelf, then books on their side in front of those nice neat rows, other books shoved on top on the nice neat rows along with folders, loose paper and goodness knows what else slotted into any spare gap! I have a smaller bookshelf that sits next to it, right beside my desk that has all my Hungarian textbooks, cook books, history books etc shoved in wherever I can fit them! There's also a Hungary flag, scarf and football shirt squeezed in there as well. My Lilák shirt is hung up the other side of my desk! This thread did prompt me to count the current number of books on my bedside table - 57! There's another 30 odd on the windowsill and about 500 in boxes in a cupboard! I never get rid of books!!
Hajrá Lilák. Csak a Kispest. Hajrá Magyarok! Hajrá játékvezetői csapat! Soha ne add fel. Nincs sárga kérem!!! No Chris Kavanagh doesn't live in Ashton or even in the Greater Manchester area!!
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JCFC

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I noted at the end of the service that the text of the hymn read "Hail him as thy chosen King" while the singers seemed to be saying "blessed King." I was not familiar with either, having always known the phrase as "matchless King," and one of my early work colleagues used that term whenever he required a light from somebody (not me!)

Listening to the repeat, I was doubtless wrong - I suspect that the congregation was indeed singing "mätchless" in a most refined accent!
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Microscopist

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Yes, they are definitely singing "matchless", not sure about the refined accent though, slightly slurred perhaps.  I was surprised that we had that hymn again - we still have plenty of recorded hymns stored.  I had forgotten about the word problem.
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JCFC

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The German 3rd Division has also resumed today.

JCFC

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The German 3rd Division has also resumed today.

And after 28 matches per side, only six points (42-47) cover the first 11 clubs, which should lead to an exciting end to the season.

nemesis

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The German 3rd Division has also resumed today.

And after 28 matches per side, only six points (42-47) cover the first 11 clubs, which should lead to an exciting end to the season.

Indeed and that's still the case after several teams have played their 29th.  With the League leaders having only won twice in 10 matches everything to play for.

TSV 1860 on their way back perhaps ?  I notice Bayern Munich seconds are in this division - are there constraints on potential promotions ?

JCFC

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MSV Duisburg will surely extend the gap to 8 points with a win against Carl Zeiss Jena tonight, though.

I think that the U-23 sides are not eligible for promotion to Bundesliga 2 - that was certainly the original plan, but who knows?
TSV are no longer allowed to share Bayern's stadium, though I believe Bayern ll still play at TSV's much smaller ground.