I'm addicted...

I am 85% Addicted to Coffee

As if I hadn't known...

Happy days

Mostly. I'm still on sickleave and not allowed to type a lot. Hardly any. So not much blogging either. Still, besides this, the last days were quite nice.
Dakkus came last weekend to attend his eurobilltrackers' meeting, and Anna came this friday and left a few hours ago back home to Stuttgart, to study hard for her final exams in October. We had a great time together, but sour feet after walking around tv studios, the lord mayor's rooms (with him inside shaking hands with his Berliners), the reopened house of the cultures (beautifully situated at the river Spree and illuminated in ever changing colours) and several museums on the "long night of the museums", not to count shops (smashing jeans, nice blouses, and a heather jacket for her), hair dressers (new looks for both of us) and restaurants (brunch, brunch, and brunch).
Physiotherapy and doctors plus some heavy paper work filled the gap in between those visits, and now I'm invited to take some special therapy in a Berlin hospital for three weeks. I am supposed to bring sportswear and swimsuits, so went to Tchibo and bought almost all the latest Mitch & Co stuff - cheap, but stylish.
The evenings were great with some of the theaters and places opening up again for the winter season. I wished I was younger and had more energy to party through the nights. Somehow 56 doesn't seem the age to not be at home before midnight. The cats would hate me to leave them alone for longer, as well. Sigh.
And now off to some more paper work for the Reha tomorrow. And the new Kathy Reich's "Bones to Ashes" that Anna bought and left for me to read fast and send on to her soon. I'll try my very best. :)

Moviestars

My niece Helen had called a few days ago to tell me she will be in Berlin this week. She's starring in a movie and was invited to the first night celebrations at Kulturbrauerei, Prenzlauerberg.
I bought a ticket for myself, and we met yesterday evening. She was dressed in black like a real moviestar, looking smashing with her red hair. So of course we had to have some pics taken of her on the red carpet. I hope she'll send them soon, so I can show them off here.
The atmosphere in the cinema was great, all those collegues working together on a movie that was not easy at all to do: on Oświęcim and the Auschwitz holocaust terror, relations between polish and germans, life then and now and how to live with the history of such a place always around you.
Helen and her class mates had been visiting the Auschwitz museum last year when the movie was done, so the film crew had asked them to join. She actually had a speaking part, and was mentioned in the credits.
After the show and the moving speeches of director, actors, and Wolfgang Thierse, vicepresident of the german parliament, the invited guests left for the party, and I hugged Helen goodbye and went back home to watch tv. ZDF "heute nacht" had done a short interview with her, so I was curious to see it. But they didn't show her after all.
Anyway, the movie is one of the best I have seen this year, talking about such a difficult topic in a way you don't feel pushed into any direction and are allowed to see and think for yourself. It's a love story as well, and a story about a boy growing up through his work and especially by meeting the former prisoner whose self set task it is to tell the story of his murdered friends and to keep their memory.
The young director Robert Thalheim and the polish and german actors did a wonderful job. No wonder actor Alexander Fehling got the award as best young german actor in 2007 for this movie.
See for yourself, if you have the chance in your local cinema, and in 2008 on german tv, ZDF: "Am Ende kommen Touristen"

My neighbourhood seen by Daniel Levy

A video with director Daniel Levy about the kiez of Akazienstraße and around. It's his neigbourhood as well. :)
Have a close look and try to find Crellestraße, the street I live in.

Back 3

Oh noooooooo! Another visit to the doctors, and another whole month staying at home because of my shoulder! :(
In the last week I've been trying to have some fun all the same, in between physiotherapy:
- went to the open air cinema at Potsdamer Platz to watch "Der Himmel über Berlin" ("Wings of Desire"), Berlin in the 80s with lots of wellknown places close to my place,
- explored a great ball room place in Mitte, Clärchens Ballhaus, (no dancing for me),
- had a wonderful sunny sunday strolling around places of arts (street art exhibition in xberg) and music (at english garden and Bode-Museum) with Kliment's friends, Klaas from the Netherlands, his girlfriend Giedre from Lithuania, and Grigory from Russia (we were 19, 30, 44, and 56 years old - age doesn't matter when travelling)
- met an old friend and collegue, Christine, whilst shopping in my kiez who invited me to a lovely dinner of home made tomato soup in her spacious flat, not even 15 minutes to walk from my place,
- remembered my love for mint tea made from fresh herbs which I had tasted for the first time ever last year when travelling to Ceuta and Morocco, and enjoy it in the hot August days now,
- joined the crowd between Brandenburg gate and Siegessäule at Planet Pro Berlin listening to all kinds of life music on 12 stages, and getting soaking wet in the usual tropical thunderstorm over Berlin,
- watched the streets in Schöneberg get flooded from a safe place in a pub, but realized later I would have to wade through to get home (soaking wet again, from head to toe),
- and, last but not least, tried some new restaurants with tasty food for low prizes.
Ok, that's it for now, see you again when my shoulder is better. Sigh.

Berlin Summer 2007

Try here for better quality. Enjoy!

Back 2

Well, well, this has been a rough time of no blog writing and hardly any internet at all, because of my shoulder getting better verrrrrry slowly. I did not go back to work this week either, but I'm still on sick leave until 15th. :(
So even now I will have to be careful and not overdo it. But I'll try to at least write a short note ever so often.
I had quite some problems with my doctors, not telling me about the possibilities I have to get special methods of curing my shoulder. Now I found out and had to ask for myself, bureaucracy took over, and it will take months before I get prescriptions for physiotherapy etc. I could have had two weeks ago. Sigh.
The weather was lousy lately, I stayed at home with a few good books (Harry Potter 7, to name just one), and had more time to care for Gustav and Emil, my nice black tomcats. Not much playing around asked for, but lots of sweet talks and attention. Emil is a lot less shy and always around me, but cheerful Gustav gets weak, always lying on his own and hiding from us. I had to go to the animal home with him to have his health checked (they do it for free, and I found a nice guy doing the 20 km trip by car for only half the normal prize, since he loves cats ). Turns out his heart isn't strong enough any more, and I will have to go to another check-up next week. He might also have lung cancer. Poor dear!
What else did I do the last weeks? Finding some new restaurants, watching some movies, strolling the streets, parks, markets and festivals of Berlin, sometimes meeting friends. No travelling! Not even to Kiel to celebrate Bert's birthday! :(
Now I'm feeling better, and the sun is back again, I'll show a few people from HC around Berlin, friends of Kliment's will come and want to explore the city with me, Dakkus will fly in from Espoo, and end of the month my daughter Anna will spend a weekend with me. Looking forward to it! :)