hello hamburg

and a belated hello from Munich! What a weird time in my life this is - my mum calls what happened to us the "black swan", and it's true - there's a book about these kinds of unforeseen tragedies that hit when you haven't even been looking out for them. My dad's situation is very sad - every night we hook him up to his bag full of artificial nutrition, he has a so-called food port, he is weak, exhausted, but so very brave. I am very proud of my dad. He is in so much pain. And there's no nice side to any of it. Except for people - everyone has been so great, supportive, caring and kind. And it's nice that I get to be home. Although putting my life on hold is more than weird - at 31, it's a bit odd to be living at home with your parents and not going to work. I feel like a weird unemployed bum! And I miss my sewing machine. I have been reading everyone's blogs. Keeps me grounded.

I got a little break last week and went up to Hamburg to visit a very lovely friend of mine. I love Hamburg - it's one of the few German cities with heaps of water (it actually has more bridges than Venice! I didn't know that!), a nice sea breeze and the people are ace! Hamburg is full of good stuff. Portuguese coffee and treats, Spanish tapas bars, Turkish launderettes, water, bikes, it's great. Part of Hamburg called Altona used to be part of Denmark. And Copenhagen is only four hours on the train from there! How tempting is that... but I managed not to go awol and run away to the Danes!