Looking back on 2016
While for the world in general 2016 was bad, it was generally ok for me - I am thinner and richer than at the end of 2015, and don't seem to be suffering my usual winter down-ness although I do currently have a horrendous snotty cold. The last couple of months of 2016 were pretty bad because we were trying to get an air source heat pump installed* and because we had to put our birds in marquees to comply with Swiss regulations against H5N8 bird flu, which is sweeping Europe and the Middle East. The heating finally works so that should be better in 2017, although the bird flu panzootic shows no sign of abating.
Bjoern continues to work on his PhD, which was scheduled to be finished by now, but this is perhaps not a surprising result. I have neither finished writing my book (although it is about 21,000 words long and many of them are not too bad) nor signed up for a 5km running race, although I did jog 7km this holiday without notable discomfort. I also lost about 4kg on the 5:2 diet, although it turns out that I can eat an extra 3,000 calories in the remaining 5 days if I show no self-control at all, and then I do not lose weight. It is nice to fit comfortably into my clothes again.
We had another batch of lovely goslings although no perfect exhibition specimens, and sold most of them to good homes before the bird flu hit, so one less thing to worry about. We now have seven geese - David and Victoria, Percy and Heidi (offspring of my parents' Humphrey and Stella/Splash), Mildrith/ Millie who is Percy and Heidi's daughter, and Nikki and Alisha from Cornish smallholder stock. We did plan to sell Millie, but she had a limp at the wrong time, and we could not ship her to Germany with Gisela and Curtis when she was not 100% well. She is currently well integrated with David, Victoria and Heidi (who has decided she prefers David to Percy for this breeding season), and maybe in 2017 we will hatch a gander for her. We lost Aethelflaed, the best marked young goose of the year, to a mysterious muscle wasting disease; Bjoern, who took her to the vet when we knew the situation was hopeless, is still a bit traumatised by this and can sometimes be moved to tears by thinking about wristwatches. We sold Uhtred and Kelly to a lady up in the hills above Balsthal.
Generally, I feel more socially integrated than I was in 2015. I have relatively low social needs, and the combination of visits to London with the odd D&D session and book club, and parties with Bjoern's friends, kept me pretty sane. My German improves slowly, boosted by two weeks in Iceland with a German touring group, though there is no evidence that grammar is emerging. Bjoern's father did ask whether I planned to improve it, and I said No, mainly because I couldn't stand for the miserable old bugger following me around correcting me whenever I said anything. He already has a tendency to do this on factual matters, in a manner I find distinctly irritating because I am not always wrong, and him being 40 years older than me doesn't make him right. Still, it's only a few days per year for me and I will probably outlive him by a lot. I do feel sorry for Bjoern's mother.
We're off to Cheltenham for NYE with Liza tomorrow, and then back to real life in a hopefully warm house, and trying to cheer up geese who don't understand why they are stuck in a tent.
* The timeline on the heating was this:
November 2012: we buy our house, knowing that the oil heating dates back to 1982 and will need replacing in the foreseeable future. We get it maintained by Herr Bader, whose number is on a sticker on the boiler.
Winter 2014: We have problems with our boiler. We call Herr Bader out, and discuss replacing it with an air source heat pump (apparently ground source heat pumps are a bit dodgy to retrofit). He puts in a stopgap measure to make our heating limp over until spring, and we agree we'll do the heat pump installation in summer.
Spring-summer 2015: we phone Herr Bader every few weeks asking when we can get started, but it is not urgent and he doesn't get round to it.
August 2015: Herr Bader visits. He explains there are two types of air source heat pumps, a high-efficiency, high-cost one he recommends, and a cheaper, less efficient one. I say "we'll take the better one you recommend please". He says we should view both types in their natural habitat. I decline a guided tour of heat pumps on the basis that I just want one installed asap, but Bjoern is shocked: "so sorry she is English they are hasty people". Bjoern signs up to guided tour of heat pumps. This takes a further six weeks to arrange. He agrees we should have the one recommended and we ask Herr Bader to draw up the documents.
September 2015: we get preliminary contracts, sign, return
October 2015: no word from Herr Bader. Weather is getting cold and we are out of oil again. We call increasingly frequently. He does not reply. Finally we talk to his wife, who says he in hospital with carbon monoxide poisoning. We give our condolences and buy another thousand litres of oil.
Spring-summer 2016: we call Herr Bader every few weeks, he is out of hospital but we are not high on his priorities list.
September 2016: we run out of oil again
October 2016: finally Herr Bader comes round and does final measurements. We agree a final contract. And then he talks about getting planning permission and says he will submit the documents. He also proposes we leave it until next summer, but I decline on the basis of prior experience (also he says it is a weeks' work once they get started).
November 2016: we need to get all our neighbours to sign off on the deal. We do this in a few days. Planning permission is obtained by the end of November. House now extremely cold, Herr Bader has rigged up a way to run the oil heating off large cans of diesel from the gas station but this keeps breaking down - if it doesn't break down, a new can is required every two days, which nearly always means spilling diesel on the stairs as the cans are really heavy (35-50kg) and imperfectly sealed.
December 2016: oil heating completely broken down. Herr Bader taken to hospital, becomes incommunicado. We wait a week. He is let out, and construction begins on 12 December. We now have no hot water, as the electric emergency heater has been disconnected. The house is held at 10-12 degrees C by a wood fire and by us leaving the oven on all night. Washing is by pouring kettles into the bath and splashing really quickly before one gets chilled. Laundry is hung out for three days and then hung in front of the fire.
16 December 2016: scheduled date when we will again have electric heating. We return from badminton and we do not. A rather pissed off phone call gets an engineer out on Saturday. He makes the hot water work, but has failed to find the setting that actually heats the house.
19 December 2016: engineer opens the valve that lets hot water into the underfloor heating.
morning of 20 December 2016: we leave house, which is now at about 14 degrees, for Germany. We are told by neighbours that it is working.
Now we just need them to come and tidy up the old oil room, which may only take another two years.In retrospect, we should probably have gone with a larger and more responsive firm to start with.
Bjoern continues to work on his PhD, which was scheduled to be finished by now, but this is perhaps not a surprising result. I have neither finished writing my book (although it is about 21,000 words long and many of them are not too bad) nor signed up for a 5km running race, although I did jog 7km this holiday without notable discomfort. I also lost about 4kg on the 5:2 diet, although it turns out that I can eat an extra 3,000 calories in the remaining 5 days if I show no self-control at all, and then I do not lose weight. It is nice to fit comfortably into my clothes again.
We had another batch of lovely goslings although no perfect exhibition specimens, and sold most of them to good homes before the bird flu hit, so one less thing to worry about. We now have seven geese - David and Victoria, Percy and Heidi (offspring of my parents' Humphrey and Stella/Splash), Mildrith/ Millie who is Percy and Heidi's daughter, and Nikki and Alisha from Cornish smallholder stock. We did plan to sell Millie, but she had a limp at the wrong time, and we could not ship her to Germany with Gisela and Curtis when she was not 100% well. She is currently well integrated with David, Victoria and Heidi (who has decided she prefers David to Percy for this breeding season), and maybe in 2017 we will hatch a gander for her. We lost Aethelflaed, the best marked young goose of the year, to a mysterious muscle wasting disease; Bjoern, who took her to the vet when we knew the situation was hopeless, is still a bit traumatised by this and can sometimes be moved to tears by thinking about wristwatches. We sold Uhtred and Kelly to a lady up in the hills above Balsthal.
Generally, I feel more socially integrated than I was in 2015. I have relatively low social needs, and the combination of visits to London with the odd D&D session and book club, and parties with Bjoern's friends, kept me pretty sane. My German improves slowly, boosted by two weeks in Iceland with a German touring group, though there is no evidence that grammar is emerging. Bjoern's father did ask whether I planned to improve it, and I said No, mainly because I couldn't stand for the miserable old bugger following me around correcting me whenever I said anything. He already has a tendency to do this on factual matters, in a manner I find distinctly irritating because I am not always wrong, and him being 40 years older than me doesn't make him right. Still, it's only a few days per year for me and I will probably outlive him by a lot. I do feel sorry for Bjoern's mother.
We're off to Cheltenham for NYE with Liza tomorrow, and then back to real life in a hopefully warm house, and trying to cheer up geese who don't understand why they are stuck in a tent.
* The timeline on the heating was this:
November 2012: we buy our house, knowing that the oil heating dates back to 1982 and will need replacing in the foreseeable future. We get it maintained by Herr Bader, whose number is on a sticker on the boiler.
Winter 2014: We have problems with our boiler. We call Herr Bader out, and discuss replacing it with an air source heat pump (apparently ground source heat pumps are a bit dodgy to retrofit). He puts in a stopgap measure to make our heating limp over until spring, and we agree we'll do the heat pump installation in summer.
Spring-summer 2015: we phone Herr Bader every few weeks asking when we can get started, but it is not urgent and he doesn't get round to it.
August 2015: Herr Bader visits. He explains there are two types of air source heat pumps, a high-efficiency, high-cost one he recommends, and a cheaper, less efficient one. I say "we'll take the better one you recommend please". He says we should view both types in their natural habitat. I decline a guided tour of heat pumps on the basis that I just want one installed asap, but Bjoern is shocked: "so sorry she is English they are hasty people". Bjoern signs up to guided tour of heat pumps. This takes a further six weeks to arrange. He agrees we should have the one recommended and we ask Herr Bader to draw up the documents.
September 2015: we get preliminary contracts, sign, return
October 2015: no word from Herr Bader. Weather is getting cold and we are out of oil again. We call increasingly frequently. He does not reply. Finally we talk to his wife, who says he in hospital with carbon monoxide poisoning. We give our condolences and buy another thousand litres of oil.
Spring-summer 2016: we call Herr Bader every few weeks, he is out of hospital but we are not high on his priorities list.
September 2016: we run out of oil again
October 2016: finally Herr Bader comes round and does final measurements. We agree a final contract. And then he talks about getting planning permission and says he will submit the documents. He also proposes we leave it until next summer, but I decline on the basis of prior experience (also he says it is a weeks' work once they get started).
November 2016: we need to get all our neighbours to sign off on the deal. We do this in a few days. Planning permission is obtained by the end of November. House now extremely cold, Herr Bader has rigged up a way to run the oil heating off large cans of diesel from the gas station but this keeps breaking down - if it doesn't break down, a new can is required every two days, which nearly always means spilling diesel on the stairs as the cans are really heavy (35-50kg) and imperfectly sealed.
December 2016: oil heating completely broken down. Herr Bader taken to hospital, becomes incommunicado. We wait a week. He is let out, and construction begins on 12 December. We now have no hot water, as the electric emergency heater has been disconnected. The house is held at 10-12 degrees C by a wood fire and by us leaving the oven on all night. Washing is by pouring kettles into the bath and splashing really quickly before one gets chilled. Laundry is hung out for three days and then hung in front of the fire.
16 December 2016: scheduled date when we will again have electric heating. We return from badminton and we do not. A rather pissed off phone call gets an engineer out on Saturday. He makes the hot water work, but has failed to find the setting that actually heats the house.
19 December 2016: engineer opens the valve that lets hot water into the underfloor heating.
morning of 20 December 2016: we leave house, which is now at about 14 degrees, for Germany. We are told by neighbours that it is working.
Now we just need them to come and tidy up the old oil room, which may only take another two years.In retrospect, we should probably have gone with a larger and more responsive firm to start with.