We’re having to watch it middle of episode to middle of episode because #MrsPferd is so bad at cliffhangers we’d never stop otherwise.

#MrsPferd is at some work training being led by some lad from Cork and she’s just described him as talking like his tongue is glued to the top of his mouth and it might be the most accurate characterisation of the Cork accent I’ve ever heard.

Anyway, now that the dust has settled, my highlights of the rugby yesterday:

#BabyPferd crafting a wee headband out of paper so she could look like the players.

#MrsPferd encountering Heaslip's punditry for the first time and immediate going, "He talks like he's on LinkedIn."

Oh, it was definitely laughter. There's a great German word, "fremdschämen", which basically means "embarrassment for others". #MrsPferd suffers from it terribly... Her response to the experience of it is laughter...

That's the one. Drove through it around marching season once. Had pictures of the royal family on their orange arch. So badly blown up and horribly pixelated, could only work out who it was from context. #MrsPferd (German and never seen the like before) went into hysterics and near crashed the car.

I’d flown home overnight from somewhere or other and was delirious from tired, and then that game… #MrsPferd, unaware of any of the history against New Zealand, including the increasing number of near misses, thought I’d gone mad.

Think it took #MrsPferd until her third or fourth trip to Belfast before she realised just how futile asking, "Why don't we take a taxi?" is there. I love spending time back home but every single aspect of travelling around that isn't driving your own car is like a time warp back to the 70s.

This is one we made from the bits of Lego that #MrsPferd and I have kicking around from our own childhoods, so totally independent of the birthday castle, which still stands. At least until our battle tomorrow 😂

#MrsPferd is growing increasingly weary of me pointing this out.

Homer Simpson is sitting on a couch. In his right hand, he holds a can of beer. In his left, a small triangular flag that says, "TV Sports". He's wearing a replica American Football jersey instead of his usual white shirt.

#MiniPferds off at friends' houses. #MrsPferd out, too. Fridge full of beers;whole chicken to bang on the spit later; perfect run of four provincial games one after the other; and a weekend pass on EPCR TV. Sort of day I haven't had since the kids came. Bit sad but I'm really looking forward to it.

Needs must over here, sadly. Process, honestly, wasn't that bad and the result a close enough approximation. #MrsPferd has drawn at the line of the idea of doing my own black pudding, mind...

Doing our traditional watching of Return of the King the day we come back from Bavaria because, funnily enough, #MrsPferd (who normally claims she doesn't much like the series) is never satisfied with where The Two Towers ends.

2) Celebrating a decade since #MrsPferd and I went for dinner as friends, messed up the reservation, went to a pub instead, filled up with wine, and figured out why we got along so well; by finally going to the restaurant we'd meant to. Well worth a celebration. The restaurant wasn’t worth the wait.

A massive box full of Lego with Neuschwanstein Castle on it.

The parochial house from father ted; a large grey box with a roof, effectively. A massive sign made of bedsheets is hung all over it. The sign is crudely photoshopped to say, “#MrsPferd, please get me a Lego Schloss Neuschwanstein for Christmas. Signed: Das Neilpferd.”

Best thing about Christmas in Germany is that we’re already allowed to open our presents. The bad thing is that trying to get kids who’ve opened presents to sleep is worse than getting kids excited in anticipation of presents to sleep.

Somehow, #MrsPferd picked up on my hints about what I’d like…

When I started watching rugby with #MrsPferd, she'd ask what's going to happen. I'd say, "This, this and this, so this will be the outcome," with probably a 95% hit rate. Now... no idea!

7th anniversary of the time I made #MrsPferd a ridiculously good white chocolate and thyme cheesecake. Said to her after the first slice, “I smashed that, huh?” Then I immediately turned around and bumped a wine glass that fell over smashed, scattering shards of glass all over the cake. Smashed it.

So begins that mad week where #MrsPferd and both #MiniPferds have their birthdays within six days of each other. A week, solid, of family, screaming kids and dealing with other random well-wishers popping in. Every waking moment spent baking cake after cake. Wish me luck.

For the week that’s in it:

#MrsPferd and I had been together less than a year last time Ireland played All Blacks in Chicago. I’d flown home overnight from a work trip. Rwanda, if memory serves me right. Already delirious from tired, the game unfolded in front of me.

Homer and Marge are in their pyjamas. Homer is pleading with marge. The text reads, “Besides, jts a victimless crime. The only victim is the ghoulish bookmakers and it’s brought #Babypferd and me together.”

Was having lunch down a wee gastropub that had horse racing on the TV and #BabyPferd is right in the middle of her horse obsession phase and was fascinated. Anyway, she picked five winners in a row and now I’m imagining explaining to #MrsPferd in a few months the slippery path this could take us on…

A close up picture of an ancient standing stone. It had a near perfect circle cut through it. Behind, through the hole, you can see some autumnal trees slightly out of focus.

Near where I grew up is a love stone. Story goes that couples place their hands through the hole to declare their love. My wee auld aunt, a lover of local myths and then in her late-70s, once marched #MrsPferd and I up there to do the ceremony. Musta worked ‘cos we came back with our two kids today.

"What are you watching there?" asks #MrsPferd. "Chile against Samoa in the rugby," says I. She gives me a sort of sad, pitying look and walks off without a word.

8 years ago today, #MrsPferd and I got married. It's gone fast, which I guess means they've been good years.

Lucky to have guests who came from as far away as Mexico & Hong Kong. Luckier to find a cèilidh band in Berlin. And smart enough to ply our guests with enough drams to get them dancing...

#WeePferd just reached over to the plate #MrsPferd was eating from, nicked a big wedge of potato, and went, "Yoink!" and now I'm in trouble because I laughed, since a two-year-old doing a "Yoink!" is objectively hilarious, thus accidentally encouraging a continuation of that sort of carry on.

Ahhh, good. #MrsPferd is here to join and the best way I can describe her experience of watching football is the same as a novice skier going down a black diamond. Just what I need to take the edge off this! #GERESP

Direct train from Berlin and all. Already been on the phone to #MrsPferd about it... 😂

Fully justified, too, I think, such Ulster have the temerity to be on tour to South Africa when we're doing our annual visit home this year!

#MrsPferd off at a Brandi Carlile concert, as you do... Both kids asleep. Realising this might be the first time in at least a year when I've been at home, by myself, with no responsibilities at all and nothing to do.

Flowers made out of Lego. On the left, dandelions, one in the yellow stage one in the white stage. On the right, two sunflowers.

Got these for #MrsPferd.
Has me in the good books for a while at least!

#MrsPferd will be delighted to know we’re moving into a warehouse so we can store my future Lego LOTR collection!

Got the Germany Poland game in the Euros on and one of the German players is called Minge and, for some reason, #MrsPferd is getting increasingly angry that I keep mentioning it.

My first Lego set as an adult, so fairly new to this. Don’t think #MrsPferd could have chosen better. Fun to build and something cool to look at when it’s done (for a day or two until the kids get their hands on it, crash it and lose all the pieces, anyway).