life

i was wondering why my part of berlin was so quiet. there didn’t seem to be many people about for sure. i thought berlin was meant to be party-central. i had a feeling something was going on somewhere else and i wasn’t invited (probably for my anti-freedom of speech leanings or something).
however, it was because they were all over in the old West side of the city having a street party and doing shopping and eating at brand named takeaway restaurants.
this is how they must have felt in east-berlin before the wall came down. but it was probably worse for them. i suspect.

i went to a flea market near the Tiergarten. it was full of fantastic things like thousands of rusty door handles
and boxes full of ceramic doll limbs

pictures of russian leaders


(where’s the birth mark)

here is a jolly face only viewable from the top of the reichstag

here is the top of the reichstag. i arrived at 7.30am to avoid a two hour queue. it worked very well. my queuing lasted 30 minutes (ie until the door opened at 8am). If i had arrived at 8am then my queue would have lasted no minutes as they let everyone in when the doors opened. very early Sunday morning is the time to go.

i caused trouble with the security people because i stepped forward when i shouldn’t have despite being told in incomprehensible German what to do (i assume). i then forgot i had some spare batteries in my pocket and the more he quizzed me the more confused i got and it was all very stressful. i made it through in the end though.
later that day this experience would be repeated at Berlin Airport where i even had to take my shoes off and have them put through the machine. i used to look like a hippy, but these days i obviously look more like a terrorist.

here is one of berlin’s busiest roads. it’s empty because it was 7.30am on sunday. much of berlin seemed empty. i later found out why, but you’ll have to wait until later this evening for me to upload those photos !

saturday evening was the reception to end the conference. after my walking i was little tired and only did some small dancing.
here was a view of the sunset:

here are some of the people from the conference:
warning. this man sells PONS (passive optical networks)

this chap was the jolliest man at the conference. he’d been retired from BT for 12 years but still comes back for more. probably similar to watching open university in your spare time. i hope i’m like that when i’m retired.

this man is one of the nicest on the planet. he’s also just like the dad from the kumars so he’s also one of the funniest !

this man is called jos and he has the same dancing style as me. we had a jelly legged dance-off. it was a close thing. i thought he had won for sure, but he graciously conceded defeat to my younger more nimble legs.

this man was a contendor for the greatest dancer award. he’s greek so it’s in his blood. we made sure all the plates were well out of the way

i found a tall building and went up it at sunset. it was such a clear night you could see the sun go down over the horizon. very nice.

click for big version:

i went to the reichstag last night. there was a massive queue for the dome so i wandered about in the park in front of it. the charilion was playing and there was an echo almost as loud as the original sound itself from the nearby buildings. this made it sound even more fantastic !

i used to be a goth so i liked this sign. should appeal to latter period stone roses fans too

there was time for a quick look round after the conference and before the reception last night:
checkpoint charlie (replica)

old wall:


an old watch tower had been overtaken by hippies paying “jigger jigger” music

more things seen:
church against eery sky

famous things

peeping tower

i suspect we will be hearing more from the shoe grinder. it’s quite an agressive foot tickler.

i love post offices. they are dark, hot, stinky and full of old people collecting their pension. well maybe that’s an exageration, but they are a special type of shop.
the people who work in them are good value though. i was sent back and forward 3 times to get my E111 form.
“you haven’t filled that bit in sir”
“i know, it’s not clear what i have to do”
“yes it is sir, now go over there and fill it in”
my favourite bits are the pigeon holes for all the forms and leaflets. these things have been around since the 70s and look like it too.

i went to bed at 7.30pm last night with a dodgy stomach and got up at 6am this morning only to decide that working from home might be a safer option (for all involved). so here i sit at 6.45, bucket ready …
update: here is the (empty) bucket

we had a multitudinal luncheon activity today. 10 round the table which was great. children played in one room whilst adults chatted in another.
well, that’s not quite true.
the children DID play in another room, but the adults played dressing up in wigs:

and doing the jigsaws and a marble run which we originally put out for the children:

it’s still august and not lets forget it. i thought it might be the first of September today, but we have 31 days in August. it’s like we are pleading for the summer to continue forever.
my advice is just to go with the flow. the quicker we get this winter started, the quicker it will be over with. let’s get our coats out the cupboard and start enjoying some cold weather.
i can smell a chicken cooking downstairs (because there is one cooking) and I feel very Christimasy.
Let’s hope Jesus doesn’t come back before lunchtime else we won’t get to taste it. I suspect they’ll have some nice lunches in Heaven though.

we tried to go to Hillier Gardens today.
It looked great but it was closed when we got there because of a concert in the evening. we will visit this place another time …

after visiting jane’s granny we went to Broadlands, which was the home of Lord Mountbatten.

It costs £3 each (for the growned ups) to go for a walk round the grounds (you can go round the house if you pay more but that didn’t seem a great idea with the kids). for £3 you got to go round the exhibition and we spent about an hour there and the guides were really nice. i still felt it was a little expensive.
we picnic-ed in the carpark, but there is a nice picnic area inside
kezia enjoyed shutting these massive gates:

i have never seen either of the following:
* a piece of cheese riding a space hopper down the street
* a bearded man who can actually fly
both of these relate to transport which is interesting