Did my German test. On the one hand, it was a bit disappointing as after 3 months in the country I test at the same level as I did before. On the other, that was on three hours sleep and the nuances of the test are relevant. I am, on average, splat in the middle. My reading comprehension measures above the upper middle scale. My spoken is in the middle of the middle. My grip on grammar is towards the lower end of the middle. However, unlike the test back in Ireland, I was more confident of the correctness of the answers I was giving, I understood all bar one word in the two reading comprehensions and it took a fraction of the effort to get the same score. So, my only question is, how to make this great leap forward?

Now that that is sorted, I think it is time to start exercise again. I need to find an appropriate gym and/or tai chi class, the latter having the side effect of meeting non-work people. Probably the biggest thing that has struck me about .ch is that people my age are very likely to have one or more children and hence no spontaneous social life at all, and little work based socialisation even planned. This isn't just a language barrier with me - I observe it in others.