Wheels

Oldies on Wheels

I have just got back from a cycle tour. I think I can post a report before I switch on The Box to watch the game between ManU and Barcelona. I forecast the latter will win. Their advantage is that they don't have Rooney playing for them :-)

It was my turn to organise a bicycle tour so I took four Oldies on the same tour I took Andrew on a few years ago. Jan knows this tour too. I discovered it with him even more years ago.

We took the S-Bahn to Petershagen Nord. Got out and cycled to Eggersdorf village. Had a refreshing coffee and chat. Cycled to Bötzsee and took the path along the side from south to north. At the top we stopped at the one and only restaurant.

I ate a 'deftiges Essen' which means something substantial = ANDREA - ME EATING AGAIN! It was a Schnitzel with fried egg, potatoes and salad + a small Berliner Bier. Just the thing to prepare the legs for the main part of the tour! I also posed with the lake behind me so you could see what a pleasant view I had as I ate!


We cycled onto Fängersee and stopped to admire the view. We then took the track west and landed at Wesendahl. The Oldies wanted to eat 'Eis' (ice cream) so we stopped at a place next to a horse riding school.

I don't eat 'Eis' so I left them to eat and wandered over to where the ponies are kept. I took this shot of them. Even the dogs were asleep, as you can see. There was a little pony and a girl led it into the training area and she was about as old as Scarlett!

We then took the slow scenic track to Altlandsberg. Of course we stopped in a field on the way to have coffee and cakes which they had brought with them. Back onto the bikes and we finally hit Altlandsberg.  There they stopped again to have more ice cream but this time with fruit and cream. I just looked on!

An easy ride to Neuenhagen after the ice cream took us to the S-Bahn station and the train back to Berlin. They were all very happy about being in such nice countryside and, of course, having such a nice lunch, ice cream, coffee and snacks.

What would an Oldie bicycle tour be without these essential additions? :-))

PS: Just made it. The game starts in 4 minutes!
PPS: I was right. Barcelona 3: ManU 1. Nothing more to be said!

Moodle Workshop

Moodle Workshop

I have just got back from a Moodle workshop. Can I hear you asking what a Moodle is?

It is a 'virtual learning environment'. It is a free source e-learning software platform for educators to create online courses. Now you know!

It was held at the Hochschule Wildau, which is on the S-Bahn line to the south of Berlin, and lies in Brandenburg. I have been to a number of workshops there and always enjoyed the learning atmosphere.

It was organised by Martin, who I used to work with at the British Council years ago, and given by Noema. She spoke in German, Spanish and English to cover the languages of the participants. And she did it flawlessly.

It was very interesting and I now have access to their platform, so I can practice from home. Learning even more! Here is a pic of our hosts, plus pics of a train at the entrance to the Hochschule.

The town was famous for its train factory many years ago and this steam train was built in 1943, my year :-)). It retired in 1999.  Now a happy old train!

Big Kid

Big Kid Eating Again!

I went to Jüterbog yesterday. It is to the south of Berlin and was a thriving market town when Berlin didn't even exist! I went to visit Jürgen and Dieter. The excuse for meeting was to celebrate my birthday - again!

I really like going there for Jürgen is a hobby cook and the meals are excellent. I also like going to their garden and seeing all the flowers, vegetables and fruit. Most of what we eat comes from their garden.

Here are a couple of pics showing me to be a Big Kid. I could not resist climbing on the train and being a five year old again! I got some strange looks but I enjoyed it.

We ate potatoes, tomatoes, herbs, fruit from the garden. The main meal was asparagus from the area with a Schnitzel. Mmmmh delicious!  After a gallop around the town and around the garden, we returned to sample Jürgen's cherry and strawberry gateau with coffee of course! We finished with a glass of Becherovka from the Czech Republic. One of their finest products!

A short bus ride to the station and then the journey back to Berlin. Looking forward to the next visit. Wonder what we shall eat and drink then!

Oldie

Becoming an Oldie!

When I worked on the photos taken in Köpenick with Andrea yesterday, I noticed my receding hairline, gray hair and more lines on/in my face. It took me back to my last birthday and discussing this topic with some other 'oldies'! I add a few photos which show this.

It also came up in conversation last Friday during the Marzahn garden gallop. I am not the only one in the group to go to  an 'oldie' fitness training course. The consensus was that you have to keep moving and try to keep fit.

Sounds like good advice to each and all of us, but I was left with how one deals with clear evidence of ageing. I have just checked the word/spelling in the British National Corpus and found 1253 examples of its use.  Some are very funny!

I think each of us has to deal with it and there is no simple remedy or solution. Now that sounds nice and rational, and I wrote those words immediately. Glad my rational self is so quick, but my irrational self still has doubts and is unsure about how I am dealing/will deal with this.

Perhaps I have made the first step by acknowledging the fact that there are clear signs of my ageing. I like the way that babies in prams in a tram or S-Bahn look at me, smile then say, "Opa..opa!"- and smile again. It means Grandfather and I always smile back. Babies are nothing if not honest!

Andrea

With Andrea in Köpenick

I had a very nice afternoon yesterday. I went to Köpenick with Andrea and enjoyed the afternoon seeing the old centre. Later we relaxed in a restaurant overlooking the River Spree, which flows through Berlin.

We arranged out meeting sometime ago on the basis that we usually meet over a plate and glass, but hadn't done so this year. She gave me a present. It is a book called Winter in Madrid. She had just read it and knew I had read a number of history books about Spain.

This one is a novel and set in Madrid in 1940, just after the end of the Civil War. Madrid lies in ruins and provides the backdrop to the drama. Thanks liebe Andrea. I shall start reading it tomorrow for I finished my current book in the sun on my balcony this morning.

We talked about all kinds of things and it is nice to be so open with each other. She is starting work soon in a new part of Berlin and one closer to home. She is looking forward to that. She is very photogenic so I couldn't resist taking a couple of photos of her with the river as background. You can see the results for yourself.

Köpenick is famous for its inner centre with its Schloß built on a small island in the middle of the river. Das Rathaus (Town Hall) is also famous for its architecture and the figure of Der Hauptmann von Köpenick at the entrance. We had to have one of me with him. Pity this area in the south east of Berlin is not on the tourist route.

We relaxed in a restaurant with a view to the water and enjoyed some traditional German food. I added a good Czech beer, which was sold from the barrel. I'm not a fan of bottled beer! Delicious - and I cleared the plate!

Can't wait for another nice afternoon with her before the sun sinks into winter!

China

China

I've just opened my e-mails and found one from Ian and Birgit. They are now in Beijing after a very interesting Far East tour. Their blog link is below.

We talked over Skype a week ago and now I have the update. Last Wednesday they signed a contract for a  "lovely apartment" and hope to move in next Friday = 27 May.  They sent me a photo attached to their e-mail with the title- "Your Room". Wow and wow again!!!

They signed it with "See you in Beijing". We talked about me visiting them back in February when they were in Berlin, but suddenly to see my future room in their apartment is really a surprise.

They told me the best month to visit is September for it is warm, but not too hot or humid. Now all I have to do is work out how I can find the money to finance this experience of a lifetime!

Garten

Marzahn-Garten

I went to the famous Marzahn Erholungspark this afternoon. I met members of my Friday Photoshop Gang. Last week we decided to have an afternoon out and chose the Marzahn park.

I have been there a few times before and even reported about my visits on this blog. Even so, I really enjoyed meeting the Gang in such a pleasant green setting.

 Unfortunately the initial greetings were not as nice as the park. A fat and ugly women sat in the cashier room and was not only rude but tried to cheat me out of €5 when I bought my entrance ticket.

In the Moorish Garden, a women guard complained when Stefan and I started to eat a chocolate bar - we finished it outside.

Next we wandered into a section with parts of the old Berlin Wall and then was told by a security man that we were not allowed to enter the area - there was no sign saying so!  At that point I felt like leaving and asking for my money back.



We decided to wander further and just enjoy the park and its relaxing sights. The different gardens were more pleasant than the workers we met in the park! I think it will be a long time before I return.


We ended by having coffee and chatting about summer plans. We decided to close the course earlier for most will be away at different times during summer. I shall be in a workshop next Friday, then start my travels shortly after so today was my last meeting with the Gang.

I shall miss our meetings on Friday afternoons, but we meet again next October for another round of learning how to use Photoshop to change and create new pictures.

Laptop

Dead Laptop

My nice, friendly, dependable Asus laptop died last Monday :-((

The graphic card melted/exploded/had a heart attack or something, and stopped working. Unfortunately it is fused into the motherboard, like most laptops, and so to get a new graphic card you have to buy a new motherboard.

Can I hear you asking what the problem is? A motherboard will cost €400+delivery/secure post costs + three hours work by a specialist and the total comes to €550!

We can all buy a new laptop for the same amount of money.

I'm not going to. I shall wait until late summer and see what the new Google Laptop looks like!

Dallgow

Dallgow-Döberitz

Yesterday I went on a walk in Dallgow-Döberitz. Isn't it a great 'double-barrelled' name. It could also be the name of an illness!

I was one of nine people, mainly oldies, who gathered at a railway station and set off for an adventure.


 I really enjoyed the day. Perfect weather for walking - dry, sunny but with a slight cooling wind to make walking bearable. I had never been to this part of Berlin-Brandenberg before. It is just behind Spandau.

The area is protected, as you can see from one of the photos. You can only walk on a path marked on either side by fences. Another reason is that it was used by the military, so it is believed there are bombs and shells still to be found, removed or exploded.

Even so, it is a beautiful landscape but not original. Apparently, it was covered by oak and other harder trees until the late middle ages. These trees were cut down to provide fuel for houses and local industries.

For many years it was a tree-less area. Different small bushes then grew with flowers and grasses which prepared the ground for other kinds of trees to grow.

The things I learn on my walks!



My fellow walkers were really nice and at the end we enjoyed a 'solid' meal with good German beer at a restaurant run by the same family since 1860!  Excellent food and service. Now I know why they have kept going for so long!

Barcelona

Barcelona and Susan

Susan is a member of my Friday Photoshop Gang. She was a professional dancer, is very slim, fit and looks much younger than she is. She also speaks lots of languages.  I can't find a photo I took of her in 'dancer pose'. Hope this is not a case of Demenz on my part!

She recently visited her daughter and family in Barcelona, and took some photographs. She generously offered them to Stefan to use in our Photoshop Group. We worked on them last Friday. Lots of interesting photos from which I selected two.

The first was of the opera house in Barcelona. I liked a shot which included a large round light in the ceiling. I cut it out and placed to one side. Next, I looked for a background scene and found one of people relaxing on the beach at Barcelona.

I added the light cut-out to the beach scene then played around with the form and colour of the light and so made it look like a spaceship. The result you can see here = attack of the aliens on Barcelona beach!

Present

Birthday Present

I bought myself a birthday present. I went to Aldi and bought a Medion Wireless LAN Internet Radio. It was on special offer and I had asked Stefan, our Photoshop Guru, for his opinion. He gave it the thumbs up, so off I went with the cash in my hot little hand!

I spent four hours that evening reading every word in the instruction book. Congratulations to whoever wrote it for you can understand the text! But, on following all the instructions I could not get a connection over my LAN. Despair spread as I failed to connect over a cable.

After sleeping on the problem, and finding out how long I had to get my money back, I decided the problem was something to do with my router. I talked to Guru Stefan and he suggested I call him on Tuesday to see about bringing it to him so he could check the radio.

Meanwhile, the weekend came and I celebrated my birthday and tried not to eat and drink like a pig - I succeeded, but it was hard! The day after my birthday I bumped into Andreas. He lives nearby and I know he is a bit of a 'computer buff'. He came around and did all the right things. It still didn't connect.

He decided to take it with him and test it at home in case something on my router was blocking connection = the same thinking as Stefan. Next day he arrived for a coffee and to say it worked with no problems at his home. Mmmmh!

And so we opened the router. Clicked on all kinds of things and changed WEP to WAP and then more clicking....it still didn't connect. Then under the Security button I asked him why the MAC Filter was on. He said it was extra security to stop any machine entering my LAN which was not on my list.

We looked at each other and then came the AHA!! moment. We un-clicked this and the radio went onto my LAN. Big smiles :-))  I can listen to as many as 13,000 radio stations - but not at the same time of course!

You can add up to 20 stations to your favourite list and even listen to music on  your MP3 Player via a USB connection.  I tried it all and it works. I have even added it to my Cambridge External Speaker system (See last Photo) and the Medion Radio takes it with no problem. What a nice present I bought for myself!

The day

The  BIG Day

And lo, the day cameth! I had a wonderful birthday yesterday. Thanks to the eighteen who sent cards-gave presents, and nine of you who called to wish me all the best.

As I sat in the sun on my balcony yesterday morning, I realised that this was the first time in years that I had been at home for my birthday. Last year I was in Baton Rouge, the year before in Turkey, the year before that in Majorca and so on.  Next year I hope to celebrate my birthday in Hungary.

I tried to sleep late yesterday, but it didn't work so I wandered onto the balcony and sat in the sun. I added a pot of tea, a buttered bun and then a book. I read and nodded off until the sun disappeared behind the house early afternoon.

Then into action. Shower, new light summer clothes including my chic M&S shorts, quick tidy up then into the garden to clean up the table and benches. Placed cloths on the tables and benches then added cushions. Brought lots of dishes, cutlery and placed on the side table, then waited for the first visitors.

I have never been one for parties. The biggest I ever had was my fortieth celebrated over two days in Hapur then Meerut, but even then I didn't organise it! This time I told people to just drop in and bring something to eat. They did!

After a glass of sekt with nibbles, we had the traditional Kaffee und Kuchen. Allowing twenty minutes for digestion, I suggested we try the first Gin and Tonic of the year. Here you can see a nice photo of me offering the obligatory Gordons and Schweppes. I didn't need to offer twice.

Later we moved into my living room for a meal two guests had brought. Here is a pic of some of the food. I end this report with a photo of a present. A bunch of roses to which I added a book.

This is my new book. It is a history of ideas and will certainly take me through this month for there are 1015 pages to read. Nicht schlecht, John!

Day before

The Day Before

It is the day before my birthday. I have really enjoyed it so far even though it did not turn out as planned.

I expected to be on an 'oldie' walk along the southern part of the old Berliner Wall, but I got a call early this morning to say I was having visitors.

Quick call to cancel the walk, vacuumed the flat, washed the dishes and ran under the shower. Just in time to greet my guests!


Nice to see them, catch up on news and get a present. I shall unpack it tomorrow, but I think it is liquid and comes in a bottle:-) After they left I picked up a few things from my local supermarket. You can see them above - lots of bottles for tomorrow!

Yesterday, after my usual Friday things, I went to the Institute to pick up a few things then met Marga. She had a birthday a short time ago and we had arranged to meet for a chat over a meal and a glass. Very nice evening indeed, but then it is always more than pleasant to meet Marga.



She bought me a large plant for my balcony. It is a Jasmin plant and I have never had one before. I duly watered it this afternoon and put it on the balcony. In the photo you can see it in the upper left. On the table you can see a cool glass of beer, crisps and one of the books I am reading at the moment.

It was very nice to relax and just soak up these simple pleasures. I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Rheinsberg

Rheinsberg

I reported in my start of May report that I finally got to Rheinsberg. What is it, can I hear someone ask?

Rheinsberg is a town in the north  of Brandenburg on a lake south of an area full of lakes. It has a population of about 11,000. It is famous for its Schloss. Around 1720, the land and manor house was bought by the ruling family of Brandenburg. They built a Schloss on the water front and a garden to the south, This was in the direction of Potsdam from where they ruled the province.

The new Schloss was occupied by a small man later known as Friedrich der Große. He claimed to have spent the happiest years of his life living in Schloss Rheinsberg. Having sampled the area and the Schloss, I think I could happily settle there for the rest of my time. Of course I would need the income to support that lifestyle. Anyone want to finance it?

His father died in 1740, so happy times at Schloss Rheinsberg ended as he moved to Potsdam and Berlin to direct a series of wars that expanded his borders. Next to the Schloss is a theatre. Both are now the sites of music events, particularly in summer, which attract thousands of visitors. I must go to a concert the next time I go to Rheinsberg.

I finally got the photos out of my mobile phone this afternoon, via Marco, a new helper in my Oldie computer course. We had to transfer them to his mobile phone via Bluetooth and then from his phone via cable to my laptop. I'm going to play around with Bluetooth again so I can learn more about it :-)

May 2011

May and things

Brilliant end of April into May with hot, sunny days and blue skies.  May has my usual routines but things new including preparing to welcome Andrew and Gang and then Leeann. Looking forward to the next four weeks for they form my favourite month of the year!

Last Friday, the Photoshop Gang did a lot of talking after the break for Easter, so we didn't get a lot done with our wall and stones. Instead, Stefan let me have one he had prepared as an example of what we shall be doing next week. It is in this post on the right.


Last Sunday I went to Rheinsberg. Weather cooler but dry. This time all the trains connected so I didn't have to visit Templin again :-)  I forgot my camera and left my glasses in a bus. Not the best of organised days! I finally got my glasses back, twenty minutes before my train left for Berlin. A long story but one that ended happily.

I took three photos of Schloss Rheinsberg with the camera in my 'Handy', as they say in German, which is 'Mobile Phone' in English. Now all I have to do is set up the Bluetooth on my phone, and the iMac, to get the photos out of the phone and into my computer. Stefan had promised to help on Friday if I make a hash of it myself!

Who has a birthday in my favourite month? 
Max hits 28 on the 2nd of May followed by my godson Marcel in Hungary who will be 17 on the 3rd. I shall gurgle a glass of sekt or two on Sunday 8th May to celebrate my 68th. Sounds rather old! 
Hans will be 60 on the 11th and may be celebrating with a female carer in Madeira - thankfully not me this year.

Trish will no doubt have at least one G&T on the 13th to celebrate with Gemal at their home in Datca.  Heike will be pushing into her 40's on the 16th, Otto will be 80 on the 19th, Sylvia hits 55 on the 20th, and cousin Barbara will smile her way into her 66th year on the 22nd May.

Have a wonderful day each and all!  I'm having my usual quiet day with no party. Only a couple of friends to help me fill my glass.