Weekend thoughts

I must choose this weekend between two events which just might jolt me out of the routine I have constructed over the past weeks and months, events which could possibly entice me out of my cosy quartier of Schwabing.

Downtown the streets will be abuzz with the Christopher Street Day activities.



And in what used to be a village outside Munich, but is now more or less a dormitory suburb, the Feldmoching Brass Band host their annual shindig for lovers of beer and oom-pah music.



On the face of it, a choice between two worlds, neither of which I actually belong to. Both will be replete with celebratory atmosphere, both will have a unique festive vitality. In both cases the buzz will be allied with booze.

As a (lapsed) heterosexual I can nevertheless identify with the liberal, hedonist mind-set of the CSD community. But the prevailing metronomic thud of the post-disco sound systems might get on my nerves.

And the attitudes and politics of the Bavarian hinterland are far removed from my own. But I do have a weakness for music played by brass bands.

Maybe I'll find a way to pack a visit to bothe events into my Saturday...

Or maybe I'll just spend the weekend as I usually do, at the computer working on the novel. My 25 square metres now constitute an agreeable 'living machine', with Schröder der Schrank now hidden behind curtains, a choice of functioning computers and my Gabrielle Mucchi lounger inviting for regular sessions of otium addiction.





There's a leafy square if I need to indulge in people watching and new wine boutique half way between flat and square specialized in the product of my favourite region, the Languedoc-Roussillon.



Contentment, possibly, is about having agreeable options.