Conflicting loyalties

Yesterday my former boss from Abu Dhabi phoned to say he really wished I would return to the Sandlands. There was, of course, no mention of the visit to the CabSat event which was scheduled back in March, but cancelled at the last minute when no ticket turned up!

Frankly, and although Munich is a pleasant place to be, when my daughter goes off to study in Holland later in the year what hold does this city have on me? A certain comfortable inertia, nothing more.

However I don't see much real chance of a return which would allow me to assuage the feeling of having left with 'unfinished business'... The boss said he first needs to find a client whose fees to his firm would defray the costs of engaging my services! Minus certain deductions, of course. For my flat on Shara Khalifa which, he cruelly reminded me, is empty and awaiting my reappearance...

Fine, from Shara Khalifa to Shara Leopold... Next Sunday Schwabing's main drag will be a midway of 'public viewing' sites when Germany and England meet in the quarter-finals.

Now were I in Abu Dhabi there is no doubt that this Scot would support the Sassenach team, in spite of the miserable performances delivered up to now. But here in Munich, my feeling is different. Funny that the third kilt in my wardrobe, the one most recently acquired and still not attacked by the moths, is in the McLeod tartan... almost Schwarz-Rot-Gold...

I reckon I'll be cheering for Germany, my adoptive Heimat, enjoying an afternoon of excitement in the midst of crowd which will, I believe, be a happy one, whatever the game's outcome.

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