Smooth ball and fast tyre...

The second part of my holiday in partly cold, partly sunny Texas simply did me good. I stayed with a family friend with five children, enjoyed good food, life and the peace and quiet.

At a tasty brunch in a famous barbecue restaurant with live gospel music from real musicianverans - half the band was 70+ and sang and played their hearts out. I went all cowgirl - with borrowed boots. The real cowboy boots were way out of my budget - 370 dollars!

In between, I read, drank endless cups of coffee - my hosts are the owners of a coffee chain. And I spent a lot of time with friends and - finally - learnt how to hula hoop. I don't know why it took me so long, but now it's going really well.

The most moving thing for me was that I went to an exhibition about a Bible manuscript from the 13th century in advance, which only opened later. I explained that I would no longer be there and said that I was interested because I had written a biography about Gutenberg. Which is true. But I didn't mention that the compact biographies in our Weltveränderer series are only 32 pages long. Nevertheless, I spent a long and intensive time with him.

The Bible there was unique. Four-coloured sheets - the first quadro ? - each with four scenes for one story. Beautifully painted in great detail - with biblical figures dressed in very European clothes, but that was just the way it was back then. The Bible was produced in France and later travelled to Poland. There, Latin commentaries were written under the pictures. It then travelled on to Persia. Persian additions were then added at the bottom or sometimes across, which were then commented on by a Persian Jew in Persian, but in Hebrew letters. Some commentators complained about the others, who had no idea about anything. So it was a lively theological discourse. And a few pages that didn't quite fit in with the ideology of the Muslim rulers were cut out, but fortunately have been preserved in other museums.

I liked the visuals, the richness of detail and not least the humour. I never thought I would see a picture Bible with King Saul's naked arse. He was relieving himself in a cave. David, whom he was pursuing, secretly cut off a piece of his cloak, but left Saul alive. Today's editions of the Bible are much more discreet in their visual depictions. I assume that the shining gold on the right-hand side is intended to express the greatness of David's grace and mercy, which also reflects God's heart. I find that beautiful.

Unfortunately, I fell ill towards the end, with a purulent throat infection. Which minimised my enjoyment somewhat. But it was still really nice.