Visit of Friends from the US

I had not seen my friend Paul and his girlfriend Linda since 2005 - he had worked also at Rockwell Scientific and had left around the same time as I (summer 2005). At one time we had driven around Thousand Oaks in my Eldosaurus (the 1974 Caddy Eldorado Convertible), and they had fond memories of this. Now they were coming to the UK, and they planned a stop in Leeds, during their trip from London to Glasgow. After Ken had been here in autumn 2005, nobody else from my US friends had made it to Leeds, so Paul and Linda were the first ones since then.

My schedule allowed to take Wednesday off, and I planned to drive them around a bit. Unfortunately in my Smart car there can be only one passenger, and I hesitated to take the Citroen, because I might get some problems - there had been recently a flicker of the lights and the RPM meter. Not sure what this meant, but I did not want to take a risk with my guests, and so I decided to rent a car for a day. Got an Astra, with automatic transmission, from Enterprise.

First I thought we could visit the Peak District and see Chatsworth House. But the drive took longer than expected, and after a short break at Chesterfield we decided to cancel this plan and move on straight away to another friend whom Paul wanted to visit. This meant driving into Lincolnshire, where I had never been before.

We made it back in time to Leeds Station for their evening train to Glasgow - it was great to spend some time with them and to catch up after more than 4 years!

Meeting my friend Marius

Right now I am sitting in a train, on its way from Peterborough to Leeds - I will arrive after midnight in Leeds. The free WIFI is nice, although a bit slow, and the connection breaks down often.

I had met my friend Marius once again, who is in London for a conference. I know Marius from my work in California at RSC since 1996, where he has been my colleague, group manager, and function director until 2003. The last time I met him in 2006 in Stratford, when he was in the UK at another conference. This time we decided to meet in Peterborough, as this would be easily reachable by train both from London and Leeds. I did not want to drive by car, as this would be a bit stressful. We had a great time. Saw the magnificent cathedral of Peterborough (from the outside only), had dinner in one pub (he had Fish and Chips, I had a Sunday Roast) and desert in another, and told stories about our ongoing and past activities, travels, and funny hoaxes.

The outside temperature was quite chilly (it had been a very nice sunny Sunday, without any clouds in the sky), but he wore a baseball hat and was ok with the cold air. I hope we have another opportunity to meet again!

Meeting my Friend Kevin

Kevin is the first person I knew in Leeds. His photographs about Leeds were the first images I saw from Leeds when I checked out the place on the internet, before my move from the US. I have been friends with him and his family since, and once in a while we meet for a chat in a pub. This happened this Ssturday, in the "Greyhound" in Tong, a nice oldfashioned pub. There was a lot to catch up, as our last meeting had been more than a year ago.

Highschool Class Reunion - Abiturklasse 1982

Every 5 years, our "Abitur" class from 1982 meets for a reunion, around our town where the high school is. Last time, in 2002, I was not able to join them, as I could not find the opportunity to travel from Los Angeles to Germany. But this year, it could be quite conveniently arranged with the travel from Leeds, and so I was looking forward to met my former pals from high school ("Johannes-Butzbach-Gymnasium Miltenberg") at this 25-year reunion celebration.

On Saturday morning, we met in Grossheubach at 11:30. The plan was to walk up to the "Rosshof" and have a rustic lunch there.

I have not been very often in Grossheubach in the past 25 years. Spent my childhood and youth there, but was not very much rooted in the town. I visited the first 4 years of elementary school there ("Grundschule"), but then my main focus of activities had been nearby Miltenberg at the high school. Most of my friends lived there, only a few lived in Grossheubach. Since 1975 I was always going with the bicycle to the school in Miltenberg - it was just a 15 min ride.

My parents had no relatives in Grossheubach - we had moved to Grossheubach for reasons of my father's job. So when they moved away from Grossheubach almost 20 years ago, there was no reason to visit the town. I had once in a while stopped by, to see the change. This time I was looking for the old grocery stores, just to buy something to drink. But they were all gone. One had closed for good, the other had been converted into a "Schlecker" drugstore. For groceries there was only a NORMA supermarket outside the town - how pathetic.

We met at the agreed place at the Sportplatz. Not everybody was sure if this was the right place, but since we all showed up there, it must have been ok.

I could still recognise everyone - nobody seemed to have changed since the pictures of the last meeting were taken. We had a lot to catch up, telling our stories of life and career.

In the aftenoon I decided to visit some old friends in Grossheubach whom I knew since 39 years. Then our class met again in the main street of Miltenberg, for a nice ice cream. The day concluded with a visit at our professional wine maker colleague Hans-Herrman Knapp, who had organised a wine tasting evening. As I wanted still to drive home with the car, I had to skip most of the delicious liquid delicacies which he presented.

I left early, since I still had a 1 1/2 hour drive past Wuerzburg. Would have liked to stay longer, as there is so much to tell and to listen to - but I had decided to visit one of the people who had influenced my life quite significantly during my youth: Msgn. Alberth Schlereth. Now 83 years old, he is still bright and intellectual as always, and I was very glad that I did not miss the opportunity to briefly stop by, say hello, and update him briefly about my life in the past 25 years.

Good-Bye to Colleagues

Monday afternoon, a celebration was held in the "Ghandi Hall" (formerly the "Great Hall") for those members of staff from our faculty Innovation North who will leave us with the end of this semester. Due to restructureing of the curriculum, a significant number of staff members had been offered "redundancy" packages, allowing them to move into early retirement or pick up new challenges at "pastures new". A nice gesture from our management to celebrate these members and to acknowledge their contribution.

Barbecue at Falk's Home

The "Bank Holiday" weekend (Monday, 28. May, was a day off) was a bit cool and wet - not suited for any excursions or outdoor activities. But this weekend the sun came out, and temperatures went above 20 deg. C (> 68 F). On the occasion of his birthday, Falk had invited to a barbecue in his backyard. A nice late afternoon into the evening, with talk, chat, and some beer.

Meeting with Marius

My friend Marius Vassiliou, former colleague and supervisor from my work at Rockwel Scientific (RSC), visited England for a business meeting, and suggested that we could meet. We agreed to meet halfway, and that turned out to be the Shakespeare town Stratford-upon-Avon. Lena and myself arrived before Marius came, and we walked a bit around. Nice pedestrian zone, Shakespeare's birth place is covered by a
concrete visitors center. When Marius arrived, we have dinner in a pub and catch up on events and stories.


Marius and myself in Stratford-upon-Avon. 

Meeting friends

From reading my blog entry a few days ago, a friend of mine found out that I was again in the US: Ken Wang, a former colleague from RSC, who had left the cmopany 2 years ago and had moved to Taiwan, was in town (Santa Monica), and so we decided to meet for lunch. We were joined by Ivy Yang who had been working for me as a student intern in summer 2002. Nice to see them both again! We had a nice lunch at the Japanese restaurant Ahio's in Janss Mall in Thousand Oaks, and it was great to catch up with them again. Ken had visited me in Leeds last October, and he was curious how things were developping.

Ken, Ivy, and myself outside of Ahio's restaurant in Thousand Oaks after our lunch 

Charity Dinner

On Wednesday evening, after the first day of the graduation ceremonies, Meg Soosay from Leeds Met organised a charity dinner for friends and colleagues. She prepared excellent Malayan food, and we had a great time chatting - and gossiping! Very interesting, what goes on "behind the scenes" of the daily work routine at Leeds Met... (but I will be quiet, and not divulge any of the stories I heard...).