There are good days.
And then there are excellent days.
Today started off as a good day.
10°C, not a breath of wind, patchy cloud, forecast of 17° in the afternoon
70km (analogue) gravel biking at a 20-ish pace on a regular route through the countryside to Ingelheim, back down and across the Rhine in Schierstein, cross the Main and the Rhine again and a coffee at the Kaffeekommune before the slog up to 220m ASL and down to the homestead.
At Kaffeekommune, it turned excellent.
Very quickly.
Saruna-from-the-Baltics and Jan-from-across-the-river, both pretty much my favourites, working the cafe.
And at the next table a group of people talking English.
Two were native speakers, quietly spoken, so not American, soft accents, so not Australian.
At some stage, I said “I’ll admit to having been eavesdropping and I’m hearing New Zealand..”
“Yes” said Brian “We *are* from New Zealand”
Meet Brian Peak, Lorraine Parker, Katharina and Heike (being Brian’s daughter-in-law, once removed if that what a daughter-inl-aw’s sister is)
Turns out they’re (Brian and Lorraine) in Mainz on their way to Berlin and on to the UK.
The conversation went as it always does – within a minute, we’d identified shared acquaintances and experiences.
“I grew up in Northcote. I was a dentist in Devonport for 37 years -(where my surrogate kid sister Robby lives…) I went to Westlake. Then you must know John Russell. Yep, same class. (Shared a table with him when I addressed the Graduation Dinner in 2015). Then you’ll know Graham Marwick too. Yep, also Westlake, also same class. Has a house on Lake Pupuke. He now lives in an apartment next to the Mon Desir hotel. Man, THAT was a dive, Was it ever.!Not as bad as the Northcote Pont Tavern, though. I used to live in Milford. So you’ll have known the Pirate Shippe (dancehall, restaurant, tea room)? Absolutely. Lorraine; Did you go to Surfside? Yep. Lorraine: We might have been there at the same time… (We might have even danced together)
This must have been just so weird to eavesdroppers, but just so normal to we New Zealanders BECAUSE IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME.
Met Gabi Landvogt at the Kaffeekommune and they first visited, then rented the cottage we had in New Zealand in our absence and liked the area so much that they built at the end of the next peninsula.
Met a young couple in a cafe in Mapua in January and established that we went to the same school, separated by 40 years, and he asked if I knew Grant Moynihan. His uncle. (He was in the same rugby team I was in with John Russell – see above. I have a photo…).
Heike and Katharine were sitting there with eyes like saucers on stalks and their jaws on the table and Saruna (surreptitiously observing the proceedings) saying later how much she enjoyed sharing our enjoyment.
So we’re set up to meet in Devonport next year and if Heike and Katharina are reading this, I’d love to shout you a flat white at the KK sometime.
Anytime.
Postscript
It occurred to me later that Brian – a few years my senior and a pupil at Auckland’s arguably best school – may have encountered Jack Bremner, my French teacher and hockey coach at high school and someone one whom I greatly admired and was fortunate enough to know well.
Brian confirmed it – he was fortunate enough to have had Jack as his form and French teacher at Auckland Grammar…
Mainz Daily Photo 