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Soon Summer (Nicht mehr weit)

At Shiawase no mura (Happy Village)
Wenn der Sommer nicht mehr weit ist, 
Und der Himmel violett,
Weiß ich, das das meine Zeit ist,
Weil die Welt dann wieder breit ist,
Satt, und ungeheuer fett...

Click to play

Being the sometimes exhausted parent of three children hardly leaves the energy to appreciate, much less realize, the potential of this great song by Konstantin Wecker, yet nearly thirty summers after I first heard it, it continues to move and inspire me as much as any other in his repertoire. And, as the weather on Rokko mountain oscillates from dense cloud to clear blue—this evening at 5pm, it was 23 degrees on the hill (28 on Rokko island earlier in the day), while yesterday evening after a beautiful day, you couldn't see more than 10 metres—it's clear that summer is on its way, and we mustn't hesitate.

After a somewhat grim start to the week, reflected in the last post, I'm pleased to report that things have improved considerably in our small patch of Earth, at least...

Working backwards from today, Seán (and now Julian too!) started playing Sunday football at an altogether friendlier and more relaxed training session for kids 5-13, organized and run in English by some teachers and senior students of Canadian Academy on Rokko Island. I'm still somewhat ambivalent about Rokko Island, as perhaps I can discuss in another post, but this morning it was about as attractive as planned ex-patriot communities on tree-lined grid-plan boulevards with all amenities built on an artificial island constructed of landfill can get, which was very—and the kids were able to play on real grass! Yesterday, we spent part of the day with our friends Rob and Hideko, and their child Eureka, at Rokko Country House (aka, some months ago, as the Rokko ski hill) now transformed from ski resort to go-kart park and boating lake). On Friday, I was treated to a welcome party by colleagues at Kobe College—thanks to all who came, and to Yumi for babysitting and staying over so that we could both go out. And on Thursday, we spent the afternoon at Shiawase no Mura (Happy Village), Kobe City's answer to Centerparcs (I guess, not having visited the latter) which was though Golden Week-crowded, an extremely pleasant way to divert the children on yet another public holiday, during which Julian managed to ride his bike without stabilizers. So all things considered, some reasons to be cheerful. If Justin would only sleep past 5am, I might even have the energy to enjoy it all...











Wenn mein Ende nicht mehr weit ist,
ist der Anfang schon gemacht.
Weil's dann keine Kleinigkeit ist,
ob die Zeit verta'ne Zeit ist,
die man mit sich zugebracht.
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