Day One..

It wasn't always like this - not too many moons ago, I was just scrap heap - overweight, jiggly, half a centimer tall, paranoid, clingy, tired, scared and above all, lonely.

Entering Duesseldorf felt like being thrown into the streets of Pamplona - during the annual bull run. Smack in the middle of danger and no idea where to run.

So you just try to walk really fast and pray that you are heading in the right direction. It would have been okay if enthusiastic spectators were abound - pointing the right way to safety and cheering you on. But it was not okay for me - because though I had a spectator - my husband - he was jeering instead of cheering, pointing the way to more dire danger instead of to safety.

And I was lost, wounded, "stabbed" countless times, bled tears - for a good amount of 3 years. It was a very long bull run.

So one day, whilst recounting my bull run and how it was still a bull run for me - right then, up to the minute with no let up - to my very good friend, Endoo - I came forth with the idea...

Would it not be great if the regular coffee ladies - at any one time, mostly the five of us , made it a point to meet up once a week for coffee - like a Stammtisch of some sort?

How to define Stammtisch? - Let's see - direct German to English translation would mean MajorTable. In Germany, a Stammtisch is an event where a specific group of people would meet up - once a week, once a fiscal year, once a fortnite, every full moon - at a specific location to just talk and of course, drink. Mostly, to drink but that's beside the point.

It's the company, the camaraderie - the casual banter and jokes and anecdotes that you share with people that you have a mighty lot in common with. Everyone leaves at the end of the Stammtisch do - somewhat relieved, somewhere enlightened and I believe, somewhat happier. The happy hormones - perhaps given a smooth passage by the beers drunk beforehand - are deeply saturated in your body, in your mind and in your system- so you feel like you flow....and by God - ready to face the onsalught of bulls till the next Stammtisch!

I will report as events unfold....in the life of a Yummy Mummy...