Tuesday 8 December 2009

The Wanderer Returns

So we’re back. From outer space…

No, from Germany actually. And do you know, we had a good time.

I shall, if you will permit me gentle reader, start with a rant. And it is this: at the airport, going through security, I am forced to question the wisdom of having me remove my shoes and belt to be x-rayed but at no time whatever checking my passport and boarding card. I find it difficult to imagine how the security of the western world is assured by having people waddling around barefoot with their trousers round their ankles. It is pointless and silly, as is so much of this sceptred isle. Even Fella was rather annoyed. Though I think the root of his mood lay more in the lack of sleep, whereas for me of course it is due to nothing so much as that I am rapidly becoming a grumpy old woman.

But, after all of this we met the sun in the sky and 1004 kilometres later were in the centrally heated bosom of my mother’s abode. Fella, mother; mother, Fella.

Actually they hit it off rather well. Annoyingly well, in fact. I hardly needed to be there it seemed on occasion. Of course Fella achieved this by slavishly agreeing with everything he said, a strategy of sycophancy that earned him no small ribbing from me. I gave that up when I was about seven years old. Nevertheless, on that score the trip was a success. We did some shopping at the Weinachtsmarkt in Ulm, and wandered through the pretty village where said mother lives. We ate out in a traditional German restaurant; I had goose, he had wild boar (yum, and double-plus yum).

And then we came back, with plans to visit again next summer. My dislike of flying enhanced neither by my experience, above, or the violent turbulence on the way back I am now firm in my foot-downedness that we will drive next time. And Fella rather brilliantly suggested we make something of a road trip of it and go on to Berlin after.

So, there we have it. I must say it is only looking back whilst blogging this that I dimly perceive the milestone that has been passed. I have not only introduced my partner to my mother – but I have done so as an acknowledged gayer! Actually, it went well enough that it was a good relaxing break, which was also timely. And I was able to shine a bit with news of my promotion too.

Success!

6 comments:

Monty said...

Wahooo! Well done and welcome back! :-)

Nik_TheGreek said...

I'm so happy for you! Well Done...

Sorry about the troubles at the airport...

Mike said...

Yeah, it's good to be back. I'm glad it's done! The trials at the airport aren't too bad; it's just me in my grumpy-old-womanness. I refuse to back down!

Bill said...

It sounds as if it was good :) Congatulations!

Some airports are worse for security checks than others, but all are now pretty strict, certainly in Europe. I don't necessarily think 'security' is the real motive for all these checks, though.

Mike said...

Thanks Bill. Godd knows wha tthe thinking behind it is. I'm mildly chastenend by stories around the trial of those convicted today for trying to blow up planes by smuggling liquids on board... but - and I know what I maight sound like - checking my shoes but not my boarding pass is a bit of a joke.

Gauss Jordan said...

Great!

By the way, until the shoe bomber guy ruined things, I actually owned shoes (Eccos) that had no metal in them, and a belt with a low-enough metal content that I could actually walk through a checkpoint just by dumping my keys, change, and watch. Hopefully things get relaxed a bit, sometime...