19th April, 2007 - My second old home
By Thursday it is time to pack the bags again and to make my way to Munich.
Hamburg and surrounding areas are home to me because of the people there, my family and many good friends. But I have never lived there in the past. Hence the town as such only means something to me because of the people.
In Munich, on the other hand, I have spent some 10 years of my life living and working and making friends there. So there is a somewhat different quality in my relationship to the city itself, which I love.
After Wuppertal, where I spent the first 13 years of my life – plus a few more after my school years in Berchtesgaden – and Sydney, where I lived for 20 years, Munich is the city where I spent the third longest time in my life in one place and those years between 1972 and 1982 were quite important in my adult life. So wandering down some of the streets in Schwabing, which I did on Friday, is always also some kind of trip down memory lane for me. And I have to say, those memories are very good and satisfying. Munich, as did Hamburg, presents itself in perfect weather condition. Sunny, warm and in spring colours. What more do you want?
Visited briefly Susie Eger. We go back some years as well and once in the early seventies worked for the same company in the field department of Infratest. This year, Susie and her partner celebrate 25 years of Shag's Wohnstudio, their furniture and interior design shop in Schwabing. I remember buying a matrass from them when they were still 'shaumies' and then my first sofa, a nicely designed piece of furniture which made its way into my house in Sydney.
Upon arriving in Munich I rented a little car since my usual mode of transport – the old VW Golf from Wille - has given up its life after some 25 years of reliable service, of which I have been the beneficiary for several decades as well.
Briefly stopped at Angela's house to unload before setting off to Rottach to visit my old friend Traute Wuelfing. For the first time in my life without her husband Bernd, who died late last year. And whilst it was sad for me to arrive there without being greeted by my long term friend and distant uncle as it has been for the last 35 years, I was pleased to see that Traute is managing alright with plenty of first class help from Jana and not to forget her daughters Angela and Addi.
I know full well that those relationships may suffer under the strains of old age (see above) but I guess that's part of life. And, as good old Malcolm Frazer once said so disarmingly in a politically difficult situation, "life wasn't meant to be easy".
Most of Thursday was reserved for business talks. On those days I usually spend quite a few hours in the TNS dependance in Fuerstenrieder Strasse, going from floor level to level, following the office plans on the front door. These plans are vital!
Infratest and now TNS have Herrn Wuehrer, an old hand whom I have known since my first days at Infratest back in 1972. And I think he is the ultimate removalist. I would not want to even begin to count, how often Herr Wuehrer has shifted the entire staff of the company from one office to another. And rarely, I must say, do there seem to be compelling reasons for such moving around. They were hard if not impossible to identify even in those days when I was still immediately involved in the company.
Anyway, I made my rounds and put my head into quite a few offices where people work, who already worked there when I first joined the company. Sometimes I find that quite reassuring.
On Thursday late afternoon I have made an appointment with one of my regular chat partners from OUT who lives in Munich and we meet for the first time in person. Wandering through the Inner City, from Marienplatz to Lehnbach Platz, I encounter quite a few buskers of a special kind. Classical Musicians and really good ones at that.
On Marienplatz there is a Xylophone player who does really amazing things with a very large instrument, playing two handed and with two… - well what do you call these things with which they bang on the Xylophone, in German we call it Kloeppel – in each hand. He plays classic pieces by Mozart or Bach and I am sure he has a fairly broad repertoire. Quite amazing and rarely seen/heard. Many a busker who I have heard, endured around the world could take a leaf out of this one's book.
One string quartet, not very far near Lehnbach Platz seemed to have done just that. Playing Puccini, some Verdi in very energetic and even amusingly entertaining fashion. As I spend more than an hour listening to those unexpected offerings of well known and well presented classical music, I suddenly realise that I have to hurry up a bit in order to be on time for my real life encounter with my chat partner.
Given that the chat site, which we both use regularly, is UK based and has a predominantly UK based membership, it is not very often that I meet some of my 'regulars' in real life. But when I do, it usually turns out to be a very pleasant continuation of our cyber activity. After all, that is how I got to know my friends in Kampala and see, what happened there! And I am pleased to say, some of those guys from the UK have also made their way to Australia and visited me in Green Point Palace.
The Friday was reserved largely for wandering around the Inner City, doing a fair bit of window shopping and just letting random determine my way through the streets of Munich up until 19.00 hours when my Stammtisch met at the Vinorant in the alte Hoefe.
This Stammtisch is a traditional Institution which we started some 25 years ago after I left Munich for Sydney. It's simply a group of friends who get together for a dinner and some drinks, just like a 'real' Stammtisch. The twist here is, though, that this one only comes together when I am in town. For me it is a wonderful opportunity to catch up with quite a number of good old friends whom to visit individually would be close to impossible since I rarely would have enough time for 10 or so evening visits.
As is common on these occasions, we sat together for some 4 hours of chatting, gossiping and I used the occasion to also promote Uganda as a travel destination next year for my 60th birthday celebration in Kampala. It's also an occasion which the locals amongst themselves enjoy and appreciate since they often don't see each other socially except for those Stammtisch meetings.
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