The View from the Towers 塔からの眺め A web log by Nigel Ruddock of life in Germany as an expat, with excursions to Japan and the UK.

Month: March 2026

  • 💥 Connectivity ケーブル?

    💥 Connectivity ケーブル?

    March 22nd 2026年3月22日

    ✔️ Cables

    What? You don’t still use a cable to listen to music do you?

    え？まさかまだケーブルを使って音楽を聴いてるの？

    Yes, in fact I do, and I’m glad I have an older iphone that still has the socket. According to a recent reputable newspaper, (one which is not beholden to shareholders) people are getting fed up with Bluetooth, on top of losing their airpods or buds, either because they are so loseable, or because they don’ t fit into your ears. As for myself, I can hardly open this smooth pebble-shaped container…….

    人々はBluetoothに飽き始めている

    And even if I succeeded, I would need to carry a pair of tweezers with me to extract the wretched buds Then one would fall on the floor, probably the floor of a train carriage, straight into a pool of fetid beer…….

    Airpods….buds…..bluetooth 🔵yellowtooth 🟡blacktooth ⚫……damn them all. Give me a cable anytime. It’s connectivity. And it’s what people are yearning for.

    ✔️ It’s physical

    Ever pulled a pair of trousers 👖 out of the washing machine and discovered something in one of the pockets? Happened to me last week……It’s from the Onsen in Kita Hoshikawa . And because it is a physical photo on a piece of card I can hold it in my hand. I stop and think about sliding into that hot water…..connectivity. So much deeper than an image on my monitor.

    ズボンを洗濯したらこれを見つけた。温泉で過ごした素敵な一日を思い出させてくれる、まさに記念品だ。

    ✔️ Just the ticket.

    A friend of mine once showed me a fine dinner jacket which he had inherited from his grandfather. He had found a real tailor in Dublin who adjusted it to his size. And he had discovered something in one of the pockets – a modest little ticket – almost like an old bus ticket 🎟️.

    On it ROH was printed in strong capitals. It took me a moment to realize what this meant. His grandfather had been to the ROYAL OPERA HOUSE 🏛️and had left a little momento behind.

    Now would you keep the QR code of a concert ticket today ? – no chance, it was on your phone and got deleted soon afterwards.

    ✔️ Discs

    And what’s this? apparently there is a resurgent demand for DVDs 💿 Another backlash it seems. This time against streaming. Is that film on Netflix? or Amazon Prime or where? So you find it eventually. Is your subscription up to date?….Oh, what…I thought I had cancelled that one……

    You settle down eventually to your film. In a crucial moment of high drama your internet connection does a wobbly (even though you are paying good money for it) and the film starts buffering……don’t tell me that has never happened to you!

    I find there is something very satisfying about picking a DVD or book (not a kindle) off the shelf and settling down at your own pace to enjoy it…..

    DVDは実物媒体です。ストリーミング配信はありません。

    It’s a physical experience. You are in charge.

    ✔️ Connecting Cities

    After years of under- investment, DB (Deutsche Bahn) are finally getting around to upgrading their tracks and signals etc. But they haven’t got enough people to drive the trains. Isn’t that bizarre? 🧑🏼‍✈️. So we here in Germany are all trying to be very patient, and hoping that in a few years time things will be better. I saw these two ICE (that means Inter City Express by the way – no relation to Donald’s thugs) pull up in Frankfurt last week. They looked rather impressive. Sadly neither of them stopped in Langen…….(😐)

    DB ドイツ鉄道。写真は素敵だけど、私の乗っている列車じゃないな…。

    ✔️ Hold on to your seats...

    ……we have a short disconnect…….

    少々お待ちください。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。！

    ✔️ Ah, that’s better.

    Now will everyone just slow down for a minute…..? Thank you. She’s just walking. He’s talking on his phone whilst hugging the Bröttchen 🥖 and he’s performing a graceful right swerve….🚴🏼‍♂️

    皆さん、もう少しゆっくりしてください…😆

    ✔️ Connect a violinmaker with his ‘cello

    ….. and the musical niveau is of course due to the instrument, not the player….😄

    Leise flehen meine Lieder
    Durch die Nacht zu dir,
    In den stillen Hain hernieder,
    Liebchen, komm zu mir

    (My songs call out gently
    Through the night as they beseech you;
    Come down here into the quiet grove of trees,
    Beloved, come to me!)

    チェロと持ったバイオリン職人

    Yes, it’s Schubert’s Serenade isn’t it? Thank you Sabine …😊

    ✔️ Meditating on the Universe….

    …….the Universe being Frankfurt am Main naturally….

    フランクフルト

    ✔️ Time to get the tiles on

    …..before the April showers…..🌧️

    Such cool nonchalence, standing on a roof 3 floors up and lobbing the things around……

    I’m sure I suggested red ones, not black ones. Come on guys…this is after all The View from the Towers ..!..😆

    タワーからの眺めが変わりつつある…。

    As a consolation, the gods provided some colour around the next corner….

    春の色

    and elsewhere……

    As always, thank you for your interest, and if you know anyone who might be interested in this blog then do forward it on.

    Wie immer vielen Dank für euer Interesse. Wenn ihr jemanden kennt, der an diesem Blog interessiert sein könnte, schickt ihn gerne weiter.

    読んでくれてありがとう

    See you……. matane!

    Nigel 💥

    nigelwruddock@gmail.com.

    https://www.instagram.com/nigelruddock/

    THE END

    終わり

  • 😊 Simple pleasures….小さい幸せ

    😊 Simple pleasures….小さい幸せ

    March 11th 2026年3月11日

    ✔️ A small collection

    Over 40 years ago………It was with a sort of relief, when, on a cold Sussex morning in 1971, I looked at the coloured flyer which had arrived in my parents letter box. Apparently we were changing to decimal currency. It was time to think in tens, so much easier than twelves. But what to do with all this old money, the Farthing; the Half-penny; the Penny, and the Half Crown? I decided there and then that this was a BIG moment, so I put some aside…….

    奇妙なコレクション

    …and then, as the years went by, my collection gathered…..a Deutchmark here, a French Franc there….even a Reichspfennig which fell out of an old violin case… a weird collection, supplemented by usable Danish Kroner or Japanese Yen.

    ✔️ A good job done

    A lot of my time is spent repairing violins which people bring to me. However, sometimes these innocent looking instruments carry a heavy history with them. Here’s a snapshot of a violin which arrived in my workshop last week

    美しい「f/hole」

    It has a beautifully cut F-hole, but not a beautiful corner. This is because this violin wasn’t built by one individual Meister in his workshop, but in an instrument factory. It would have been made by several skilled craftsmen, working on a sort of early production line. In fact the factory in question mainly produced brass instruments. But it is where this factory was located which brings the heavy history. Frankfurt. But not Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt an der Oder. Here’s the label inside….

    フランクフルト・アン・デア・オーダー製

    And when the elderly lady came to pick up her instrument she wanted to tell me the story. The flight to the west in front of the Red Army, the camps, the hunger……the childhood violin teacher who had the wrong religion at the wrong place and time….. I realise that I did not really want to know. The February days are gloomy enough already I thought. I want to enjoy life now, not be reminded of this. But it’s history staring at you in the face.

    Now that I have completely overhauled the instrument and given it a new case and a new bow, things are looking up. My customer will play it in a retirement home orchestra in Frankfurt…….am Main.

    バイオリンが新たな人生を始める

    ✔️ The bright lights…..

    I always thought that the UK was the awkward one in Europe, driving on the “wrong” side, refusing to join the Euro etc. etc. But really, I’m glad that I have never had to drive in Japan 🚗. It’s those traffic lights. Red for stop, yes? Amber for wait, and Green for go, right?

    Actually no. The green can take on a distinctly blue hue in many cases. Why’s that? Well, since the 1930s, when traffic lights were first introduced into Japan, people described the “go” signal as “ao” (あお )- a colour spectrum which covers green and blue.

    緑ですか、それとも青ですか?

    And when the Vienna Convention in the 1960s tried to standardize the colours, Japan didn’t sign up did they. So now? At some point the government decided that they should use the bluest shade of green possible for the lights. How’s that for a fun fact 🔵😊🟢

    But just to add to the fun…..In Japan you drive on the left….like all the countries coloured blue in this map….

    ✔️ Spontaneous design...

    When drivers discover too late that my road is blocked by a building site, they do a 3-point turn. However, I can’t quite work out how cars made this pattern……..🤔

    自発的なデザイン…

    ✔️ The end of winter…………….

    The horses are out being exercised…

    冬の終わり

    Although the countryside is still rather bare there is a new light…here near Idstein

    And the Fachwerkhäuser are intact after the long winter

    The Viburnam (thank you Adrian for the identification) is flowering in a neighbour’s garden…

    ….and the moon is full as we move into March….

    3月を告げる満月

    …with its sharp light……

    光は明るく澄んでいる

    and strong shadows…..

    ✔️ Good food and friendly service…

    Elementary my dear Watson. Order a plate of Sushi at Higematsu in Frankfurt. The best Izakaya this side of the Sea of Japan🗾 . I would have photographed the Gyozas, but my daughter and myself gobbled them up so quickly there was no time for photography…😄

    ひげまつ…日本西部で最高の居酒屋😄

    ✔️ A good laugh…..

    You gotta have a laugh……….😄……Friendly service at Higematsu, yes….but here on Langen station?

    ここの英語は私を笑わせる…….

    …….and whilst we are talking about a good laugh, I had one in Aldi this morning. The automatic checkout would not accept my Gherkin (Gurke). I called over to the lady at the human check out, waving my Gurke in the air. She laughed.😄 ” Das ist kein Gurke” she said, “das ist ein Zucchini!”…….

    これはキュウリですか、それともズッキーニですか

    Yes, ok, its a Zucchini.

    Actually the thought crossed my mind that it could be some sort of Snozzcumber.….that vegetable immortalized by Roald Dahl in his story The Big Friendly Giant…..

    ……

    ロアルド・ダールが書いた、とても面白い子供向けの本「ビッグ・フレンドリー・ジャイアント」

    ✔️ Pastime with good company

    They may look insignificant, lost in the sweeping fields near Gross Umstadt – but this is the merry group of hikers I joined at the weekend……

    良い仲間と過ごす

    Even more lively after a bottle of Tequila, which our Mexican friend Laura opened to celebrate her move to North Germany…..

    メキシコ人ハイカーのローラに別れを告げる

    Gross Umstadt has its own vineyards….🍇 hence not a drop of beer to be seen at our apres-hike….

    グロス・ウムシュタットはダルムシュタット近郊の町です。ブドウ園で有名です…

    ✔️ Simple pleasures

    シンプルな喜び

    …a pilot enjoys the wind-free blue * over Egelsbach…..(* あお!)

    ✔️ A good read…..

    “I still remember the day my father took me to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books for the first time.”

    Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s gothic mystery, set in a post civil war Barcelona, is rich in characters and plot twists. It is a superb novel…and our book group is repeat- reading it this month…

    個性豊かな登場人物と謎に満ちた素晴らしい本……

    ✔️ Music

    Is much more than a simple pleasure….The fools of this world are wary of it and prefer to start wars instead.

    Handel knew this language well. In 1711, he wrote an opera called Rinaldo. In it, there is a heartfelt plea for liberty…”Lascia chi’o pianga” (“Let me weep”)………….which has been a hit ever since….

    ゲオルク・フリードリヒ・ヘンデル

    As always, thank you for your interest, and if you know anyone who might be interested in this blog then do forward it on.

    Wie immer vielen Dank für euer Interesse. Wenn ihr jemanden kennt, der an diesem Blog interessiert sein könnte, schickt ihn gerne weiter.

    読んでくれてありがとう

    See you……. matane!

    Nigel 🖋️

    nigelwruddock@gmail.com.

    https://www.instagram.com/nigelruddock/

    THE END

    🟢終わり🔵