Inside or Outside. For many, this is a very critical question. For example for the German social democrats, the SPD. They have decided to turn around 180o, all in the interest of the country, of course, and join the christian democrats, the CDU, in government in a ‘Big Coalition’, a ‘Große Coalition’, or: Groko. Tens of thousands of Germans, mostly young Germans, have joined the SPD over the past weeks, so that they can vote against that agreement. So, whether this ‘Groko’ is actually going to happen or not, whether they will be inside or outside of government – who knows…

The days here have been fabulous: blue skies with almost no wind. But: it has been really really cold. The Irish met office would have issued a code ‘red’ warning. Dark red. Today we decided not to stay inside, but to go out, to face the arctic sun, and the elements. We walked all the way across the long wooden bridge towards the sea up to the Arche Noah. And, of course, back. To be honest, the ‘back’ bit was worse than expected because now the wind (and the wind had increased today) blew right into our faces. Pádraig was the lucky one, because he wore ‘Stollen’ a really good and caring friend had bought for him the other day. Don’t know what ‘Stollen’ are? Think of them as really long socks without the feet, to keep your legs warm. (And no, they haven’t got anything to do with Christmas.)

It was outside for us today. Followed by a warm-up in our favourite café overlooking the marsh and the huge sandbanks. Pádraig’s waffles were even better than the other day: they came with hot home made chocolate sauce and vanilla ice-cream. We decided to have a glass of white wine to remember this afternoon that was as close to perfect as an afternoon can get these days.

We were all really happy. Really.

(I promised myself to remember this afternoon, especially when times will be difficult again. And I’m sure that time will come. Happiness usually does not last. But neither does sadness. Both come and go. And even when you’re wondering what else on earth could go wrong next, because everything seems to go wrong, there will be happy, really happy moments. Like this afternoon was for us.)