local festivals

In this region there is an important festival to celebrate the end of winter called Fasching.  Most things were shut here and there was a parade and party in the town square for most of the day.  As with the bank robbery, it seems that paying attention to what is happening in my town is not my best skill.  This was slightly further away than the bank but not much and I didn’t notice it all.

the secret’s out…

If you’ve really been paying attention you would already know that about 6 weeks ago I left Jastrzebie in Poland and joined a new club in Germany, SG Eschenbacher Eltmann.  As the head coach, I’ve had a little less time on my hands for such things as blog posting.  Add to that moving in and getting settled and that leaves even less time.  But those are just excuses.

The town of Eltmann is a tiny village near Bamberg in south Germany.  The region is Bavaria and the normal greeting here isn’t ‘good day’ but ‘greet god’. I don’t really know what they say after that because the accent is quite distinct.  The town is really nice and every day I feel guilty about driving my car to practice despite it being only about 1 kilometre from my apartment.  I have mostly used snow and rain and cold as an excuse but the one day I did walk it made my knee sore for the next week (it is slightly uphill).  So that has been the excuse for the rest of the time.

The team had been struggling and has continued to struggle.  We’ve had strong positions in nearly all of the matches we’ve played but anyone who says luck doesn’t play a part in sport is kidding themselves.  In one match we had an incorrect referee overrule on one decisive point AND a decisive service series that turned out to be ALL foot faults.  But we’ve kept working because, well, that’s the only thing you can do when things aren’t going well.

There are probably a hundred details I could relate but I haven’t the time.  Or the security clearance.   But to make up for it a few videos.

Here is the interview I did in the VIP room after the first match.

Here is a video of an interview I did before my first home game.

Here is a fan montage of our most recent match against the current German champions.

And to prove that Eltmann is a really important place, a news clip about a bank holdup that happened less than 100m from my apartment… without me noticing it until the police knocked on my door.