Birthdays in September

Birthdays and things in September

Teaching at the institute will reduce over the month and then I shall fly to England at the start of October. There are already some day trips planned such as to Steczien in Poland, Rostock on the Baltic coast and a Mugglesee-Gang meeting at Larissa's ranch near Bernau.

Birthdays start with Lynne on the 1st September (Thanks Andrea for reminding me) then  Charlotte who will be partying her 18th on the 6th September. She shares the day with Nevand who will be having a quieter party in Berlin to celebrate her 5th birthday. Andrea hits 24 on the 8th September and will be celebrating with Sir Ken without a shadow of a doubt. My nephew Stephen hits 39 in Cambridge on the 22 September, followed by Robert Gast and his 31st on 23rd. That week ends with Sylvana celebrating her 49th with Mathias and family on the 25th. My nephew Jefferson rounds off the month on the 29th September with his 36 birthday which he will celebrate with his wife and now two wonderful children.

Happy birthday to all and each and have a super day with all your dearest and nearest!

Time to say goodbye

Time to say goodbye to Jan

And the day arrived when Diplom-Ingenier Herr Jan Trautmann M.Sc., arrived for us to say goodbye to each other. And it came to pass yesterday!

He looked better than I thought given a series of all night parties taking leave of all his many friends in and around Berlin. I noticed he drank only tea - in fact two teapots full which says a lot about his condition, but he managed a couple of cakes with the relaxing liquid. See the photo.

It was great to see him and catch up on events in Rhode Island after I left, then his adventures in Spain, Prague and Hungary. He is flying to the north of Spain tomorrow where Arancha will meet him and they will live together in a flat owned by her parents. He has booked a Spanish course already and has contact to a large company for a job on a local highway project.

He will be okay for he just needs to fuse theory and practice in a successful career as a civil engineer. I value our short time together yesterday and am not worried about the future. We have computers and e-mail and skype and telephones so lots of means of contact even if not face to face in the immediate future.

The new me

The NEW me!

Here are the results of Joachim and Cindy's work. One is a casual shot without tie, a more formal one with black jacket and tie, and a lighter summer one also with a tie.

I have got positive comments so far - with the exception of our 'lieber' Jan yesterday afternoon. When he saw the casual shot he said. "Oh no, it's terrible, it's too gay!" I just smiled. He liked the others though!

Actually only the shots with jacket and tie will be used for the new business web page. Here they are. What do you think? Judge for yourself.

The Photographer

Joachim the Photographer

Last Wednesday Joachim the Photographer, his lady Cindy and Lord Max of Whitelake arrived at my palace to take photographs to update my business web page. A very pleasant evening was had by all and I was very impressed by Joachim's skills behind the camera.

Thanks also to Cindy for picking the three outfits from my wardrobe and to Max, who now has to do the web update. Here are some photos I took. Joachim is working on the photos in his netbook while Max is sipping more pure malt whiskey he had brought with him. Cindy is relaxing in the easy chair and watching it all.

The Chef

The Chef

I cooked Sunday lunch a week ago. It didn't turn out as expected. Instead of Oldie Hermann cooking when I visit him I decided to cook and invite him to my palace, but I had to cook something rather traditional. I had no idea so Hermann gave me a list of things to buy over the phone and off I trotted to the shops.

Problem was that is was Saturday morning when the greengrocers close at midday so I couldn't buy all the things fresh. I got the main ingredient called 'Wachsbohnen' (translates as Wax Beans) which I had never heard of. Finally got them in a jar. Later that night I knocked the jar onto the floor and it broke = all beans into the rubbish bin.

Fortunately I had some cauliflower and fresh carrots as back up so I changed the menu a little as you can see from the picture. I added gravy after I had taken the picture in case some of you are thinking that it looks rather dry. It tasted nice and Hermann ate all his portion!

Eisenhüttenstadt

A day in Eisenhüttenstadt

Last Friday I had a really great day exploring a town called Eisenhüttenstadt. Where and why should anyone go there? From Berlin with the autobahn or railway you go east until you hit the river Oder at Frankfurt-Oder then head south a bit and you are there! I went there just after I arrived in Berlin and have distant memories of the steelworks and that the town was then closing down - it was!

I later heard that the town was making a recovery so decided to explore. I was very surprised at what I saw. The town is really three parts in one hiding behind this interesting name. The old town on the river was founded by German immigrants in 1250 and called Fürstenberg. It slumbered on for centuries with the locals earning a living from agriculture and fishing.

In the late 1940's a decision was made to expand the town so a new section was created to the west of the old centre. It was given the name of Eisenhüttenstadt in 1961 as the first section of the steel works started production. To house the new workers four story blocks of flats were built in the style called 'Stalin Allee' after the famous street in Berlin built at the same time. They are now protected buildings and people visit to look at the architectural style.

The Eisenhüttenstadt museum is in the middle of this early 1950's new town and has a display under the theme of 'Living in the DDR' in two parts. One is about furniture, clothes, cars, TVs, radio, food and drink, clothes, music, films, work, schools and how society was organised. My favourite picture is of the first Robotron Computer, and all the instructions and keys were written in English = they were a copy of what was happening in the 'Wicked West'. The second is about how people relaxed and what they did on holiday. I think you can see the different themes in my photos.

The third aspect of the town is the steelworks that were built in the 1950s, then expanded in the late 1960s and again in the early 1980s. It was the major steel producing centre in the DDR with a large part of production going to the auto industry. This collapsed after re-unification in 1990, and the population is now only half it was then. Part of the steel works were sold to an international company and is still in business. The rest was closed down and the people left. The town is now trying to create new businesses and one is to promote tourism - hence the museum and events to bring tourists there from other parts of the country. I can recommend a visit!

Hello sailor

Hello, sailor!

Had a great day on the water today. The background is that 'oldie' Rolf damaged his left arm trying to get his boat trailer onto wooden supports and his wife could not help him, nor his family for they are all on holiday at the moment, so he called me. Help, John! 'No problem', said I 'But I want a gallop around the lake in exchange for help'. 'Done', said the captain!

He picked me up and we drove to the south of Berlin, in the direction of Storkow, where I went a couple of weeks ago. We arrived at Walsige See (Walsig Lake) where he keeps his boot. Lots of chopping and sawing of wood by me and then jacking up the boat trailer and putting wooden supports underneath and banging around and then .... success! Big smiles around then we drove 1 minute around the water to arrive at the boat.

I fell in love with it immediately. It was built in Poland where he bought it in 1996. Classic design to which he recently added a Yamaha outboard motor which has more power than the original. We removed all its covers and put the motor on and gently eased our way onto the lake. I was on the rudder as you can see on the photo and steered it through the posts into the lake. At least I had not forgotten my sailing/rowing lessons from Sweden in 2003.

I steered it into the middle of the lake where we switched off and had coffee and cake and a chat ( mainly about his 10 grandchildren which is a common theme with 'oldies') as the boat gently drifted in the wind and current. I then steered into the wind so that Rolf could unfold the two sails and really get into sailing. You can't make this switch without sailing into the wind and turning off the motor as the sails take over. I had a fabulous time sailing it across the lake and then suddenly 'tacking' so that we turned against the wind and headed back from where we had sailed, and all with wind and sails and no motor. I really enjoyed it and hope you can see this on my face.

Later we eased our way onto a berth at a restaurant on the north of the lake where we relaxed over a beer and Zanderfillet, caught in the lake I was told, which melted in my mouth so I believed this claim. More sailing and tacking until evening and then slowly to the berth and secured the boat. Drove back to Berlin and I got my tram with the promise that we would go sailing again. I hope so for I had one of the best days I have had so far this summer. I took a few photos of the day including one of Herr Kapitain and the view from the restaurant as we ate our fish.

Oranienburg garden

Landesgartenschau 2009 Oranienburg

Yesterday I went to the garden exhibition at Oranienburg, next to the Schloss. It was my second visit to the town but my first to the garden exhibition. The first visit to the town was on Herren Tag in May and I reported this on my blog.

I went with a small group with a leader who talked about the different kinds of plants/flowers/trees on show and what it all meant in terms of growing in harmony with each other. Nice idea - pity that people can't do it! The weather was perfect for such a day and I really enjoyed it. At the end of the day we stopped at a Thai restaurant one of the party knew.

I discovered he is married to a Thai lady and speaks the language and they also have a house somewhere in Thailand and so spend half of the year there. He explained a lot about Thai food, for I have no idea, and with his help I ordered something he said was typical but not difficult to digest. It was delicious! The perfect end to a remarkable day.

Last Thursday I went with many from the same group to the Natural History Museum in Berlin to see a special exhibition about Charles Darwin and his successors. It really was outstanding and can only recommend it to all who might be in Berlin before the end of the year when it ends.

Although I know quite a lot about his adventures in the Beagle and the development of the theory of evolution, I still learnt new things and found the presentation clear even though the subject is not always simple to understand - or so it seems to the simple minded religious drum beaters who still believe/think that the earth is only 6,000 years old!

August events

August events

Let's start with birthdays for a change :-) Petra is 50+ a bit today and no doubt celebrating with family in their weekend cottage for the temperature is 33°c at the moment and other areas of Berlin are registering even higher temperatures. I had a few hours after breakfast in the sun on my balcony reading a new book and then retired indoors. My skin doctor will be very pleased!

Beatrix Dix who lives behind Köpenick Rathaus will be 36 on 6 August, Peter and Andre will be opening the champagne on 9 August to celebrate one year of marriage and I have been invited to a party at their place on the 8th. Looking forward to it - but this time without the fire! Nicole will be 61 on the 21 August - oh la la - and we shall meet just after for a meal.

The end of the month sees an explosion of birthdays. Jürgen will be 65 on the 24th, Angelika will have a party on the 25th to celebrate her 57th - with lots of other musicians from the Komische Oper Orchestra My sister Pauline with be 65 on the 26th, Dieter in Jüterbog will be 65 on the 27th and he shares this day with Ziya. We don't know how old he is and his partner Anne-Marie doesn't know and told me she has given up asking -- we think he is about 60.

Who else but mein lieber Jan could end the month. He will be 26 on the 28th and I have no idea if I can share a beer with him, or if he will be in Spain with Arancha. I hope the latter. He has graduated with two degrees - congratulations!! - and is now looking for work and planning his future with Arancha. He deserves lots of luck and a really memorable birthday after graduating.

Have a wonderful day with your family and friends with lots of good food and drinks!

My month ends with visits to my skin d0ctor for new tablets and to my allergy doctor for checks before we start the end of the year treatment :-( ready for the attacks at the start of 2010. I also have some new teaching contracts to finish and am trying to book a flight to the UK in the second week of September. Some problems with my membership details so will try again to wake up easyjet and make the booking!