A lilac lunch

Markus and Carola have come Wiesbaden to Cologne for some shopping and a lilac lunch. We met at 12:30 and they were already carrying a couple of plastic bags. So was I. I had picked up my new trouser suit for the office (everything I buy has to be shortened by a dressmaker) and I had not been able to resist the Alprausch shop. I bought a new t-shirt from their basics collection: it's red and has Bambi printed on the front. Will I ever grow up?

One of Markus' bags was for me. It contained Astronauts on vinyl (which I did not have) and the original Ups & Downs magazines, which I will scan for the publications part of duffypedia. I didn't want him to send them by post, because if they'd got lost, I would never forgive myself. Thanks again for letting me borrow them!

We had a nice lunch and chatted for a couple of hours. Markus is the kind of person, you end up telling your life story too after minutes. But Carola assured me that everyone does that and that he is able to cope with it.

We said good-bye in the afternoon. They wanted to continue with their shopping and I headed for the marathon fair on the other side of the Rhine (tomorrow: the 10th Cologne marathon, I am running the half distance). My intention was to buy one pair of shoes, I bought two. But Uli once said, that a runner needs a lot of shoes. At least I think he did. He is in Nepal now, so he cannot complain if I quote him incorrectly.