A few years ago, my beloved Dell Inspiron was on its last legs. It started making a horrible, death-rattle sort of noise, and eventually the blue screen of death appeared. Luckily we managed to buy an external hard drive a few days before the blue screen popped up and I managed to save just about everything. 
Good ‘ol Inspiron was doing quite well with its new hard drive, that is, up until yesterday when the darn thing just wouldn’t boot. And just to shake things up a bit, this time, it gave me a black screen of death with a blinking cursor in the top left corner. The Mr. had to completely wipe the hard drive. Bizarrely, I had just used the external hard drive a few days ago (at the Mr.’s suggestion) as it had been ages since I backed anything up. But I didn’t save everything. Sadly, I had a few favorite NPR “All Songs Considered” podcasts that I’m pretty sure can’t be recovered, and I think my latest photos from the Bavarian Alps are also gone (thankfully I had uploaded 2/3 of them to Facebook). My website bookmarks are also toast. I don’t know why I didn’t try harder to back these things up. Laziness, I guess. That’s what you get for being lazy, huh?
Anyway, it’s been a while since I last wrote, so here’s the latest news:
*The Mr. and I took the above-mentioned trip to the Bavarian Alps for a couple of nights and stayed on Kochel am See. 
It was really lovely. On the day we arrived, we did a nice, peaceful walk along the lake. One of the highlights for me was discovering wild mint of some sort growing in a cow pasture. We didn’t eat any, of course, but it smelled wonderful. The next day we took a cable car up to a restaurant/guesthouse on Herzogstand mountain. We then climbed another 45 minutes or so by foot to the summit. It was a bit cloudy, but the views were still pretty phenomenal. On our last day we visited Glenleiten Museum, a sort of open air history museum with more than 60 historic buildings (houses, barns, etc.) that have been painstakingly moved from their original locations and reconstructed. We were fascinated by the history behind some of the houses we toured, some of which dated back to the 1500s.
*We’ve been busy making appointments and registering at various health practitioners around Würzburg. There were quite a few things health-wise I needed to take care of now that we’ve moved to Germany, and I have to say I’ve been really impressed so far with the both the environment of all the clinics we’ve been to and the quality of care we’ve experienced at each. It’s been interesting being able to compare the health systems between the US, the UK, and now Germany, and I really want to learn more about how the German healthcare system works here. So far, it’s looking to me like you get very good quality care for the money you put into it.
*And finally, I’ve been feeling a bit depressed as I MISSED MY BIG BREAK. Yup, I coulda been a celebrity, kids. Right now, as I type, there’s most likely a scene being filmed somewhere here in Würzburg for the new Three Musketeers moving coming out. 
It’s starring some pretty big names like Orlando Bloom, Christoph Waltz (of Inglorious Basterds fame) and Milla Jovovich. Back in July, ads were placed in the local paper, on the radio, etc. looking for about 1,500 extras to be part of the film. I nearly peed my pants with excitement and begged The Mr. to go with me to the casting. Long story short, we showed up, the line was long, and The Mr. wanted to bail. And I didn’t want to wait without him. Plus it was a beautiful summer afternoon and we had rented a car. So <cue the violins> , I’m still pretty broken up about it, but I guess with 1,499 other extras sucking up my limelight, Orlando might not have noticed me. I can wait. Oh, yes, Mr. Bloom…I can wait. Ahem.
The Grass is Always Grüner 
You’re kinda making me feel paranoid about not having everything backup up on my external hard drive. Hmm. New plan for tomorrow, I think.
Also, I heard this on an old Woman’s Hour podcast (BBC Radio 4) and it was about foraging so of course I thought of you! It’s the poisonous plants segment: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sz37d
Interesting! And I’m adding Woman’s Hour to my podcast subscriptions.
I ADORE Woman’s Hour. Glad you are a fellow convert. 🙂
Gah! That would have been incredible! You should have stuck around to do it.
got the pcard two days ago. ta very much!!
we went to a very similar museum in Switzerland. was really big. didn’t get to see everything.
off to London now! toodles
I saw a Star Track photo on people. com of Orlando Bloom filming the movie in Germany. Presumably in your town?
Probably so! I think they were filming in a few other cities as well, though.
Hey Holls. This morning on my train to work, I sat beside a couple at a table, and i THINK i saw a brochure for Arcadia University, and the woman (whose accent was a bit mixed) said to the man (who sounded American) mentioned “orientation” and they talked a bit about asking the students if they were eating healthy.
I was torn. I wanted to ask if they knew you and it was your former organisation, but in the end my British reserve and shyness held me back and the opportunity was lost.
still i’d thought i’d tell you. I wondered if they were going to Stirling. The train went through Stirling and ended at Dunblane.
Hmmm…interesting! I am puzzling out who it might have been. Did he look like this guy? http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=541262682&ref=ts Of course, not that you saw him with his tongue out! But my guess is that it was Dan and possibly either my former colleague or my replacement.
It’s been too long. you need to post again!!
I know! I’ll get to it immediately 😉