May 2016 Things

Posting the monthly review a little early for tomorrow I'm off an a days bicycle tour with my Muggelsee Gang. I've talked about them before and posted photos of our various events. I hope to get some good photos tomorrow. The weather is slowly improving after a week of switching between rain, hail and bright sunshine and all within a few hours.

Looking back on April, I can say it was a good month but with nothing particularly special. I wonder if that will change in May. One change already is that the S-Bahn service will be out each weekend until mid-June. Repairs and building new things are given as the reason. On 1 May, I plan to go to our local town hall for a Fest in the park in front of the building. I may take the family with me if the weather is good. The kids will like the amusements.

Next Friday I am flying to Dublin to see the city and celebrate my birthday. Really looking forward to that. On my return I shall settle into the usual routine of activities and events that occur each month.

Who has a birthday in May? Max in Berlin starts us off with his 33rd on the 2nd May. He is followed by Mr Beard = my godson Marcel! He will be 22 on the 6th. On the 8th May I shall celebrate my 73rd birthday in a restaurant somewhere in Dublin! H.J. will celebrate his 65th in Berlin on the 11th. Dwahlin Trish celebrates her 63rd at her house on the south-west coast of Turkey on the 13th. Heike D. in Berlin has her big day with her family on 16th. On the 21st my wonderful cousin Barbara will celebrate her 71st at her home in Silsden. She is one of the two people for whom I write this blog. She shares the day with Sylvia in Brighton who will be 60 - I hope to see her there in summer. The month ends with Holger's 52nd which he will celebrate with his family near Bremen.
 Happy Birthday to all and each of us :-))  PROST!

In a Park

After the handing over of a razor ceremony last Saturday, the kids played football with me for a bit then agreed to cycle to a local park. They have 2 bicycles from the bicycle repair service in the home and borrowed another one. The park is big and called Wuhlheide (Thanks for correction Uli ). It is only about 10 minutes from where I live.

I quickly noted how they adjusted to cycling and paid attention to traffic/safety rules. We finally arrived in the park and began to explore all the facilities. I know this park well but it was the first visit for the children. I decided to stop at a small cafe and bought them ice cream. From their faces on this photo you can see they enjoyed the cold stuff in the cone.

Off again and around the corner we found a play area. They wanted to stop and play. I readily agreed. Here you can see them having fun. It was great to sit back and just watch them play. No language problems, no cultural problems. They were just children of different ages having fun in the playground just like children from anywhere. I think you can see that on their faces.

We then cycled over the park area and they saw all the facilities on offer. The boys were interested in the football field and facilities for skateboarding. I wonder if that will be the next thing they ask for! I noted that sister P was getting tired so we slowed down and gently cycled to an exit and then to their refugee home.

'Vadda' was waiting for us and the children told him all about the park visit. Son A2 asked me if we could go there again and spend more time exploring areas they had not seem. I told him that we would do that and so I got a very large smile :-))

I really liked the time I spent with them and look forward to cycling to other areas in the next few weeks - perhaps with a picnic stop. We need to get more bicycles so that the parents can join in. I'm sure we'll find a solution to that problem.

Daily Ritual

Peering into a mirror and shaving is a daily ritual for most men. Growing a beard is the best way out of this ritual. The first shave is an important 'rite of passage' for all boys whose voice has deepened and noticed hair growing on the face. And lo it came to pass for A1.

Thanks to a donation from a nice couple who do not live in Europe, I had the funds to buy A1 an electric razor. His father had told me that some of the other boys in his class made fun of his growing 'hirsute' appearance. Time for action. Step 1 was get a razor.

Step 2 was organise a little ritual to mark the event. I went to the Refugee Home where A1 lives with his family in one room. The 'boys' gathered in a wooded area outside the home.  We then started another ritual which generated lots of smiles and laughs.

I told A1 to stand on a stone to make him higher. He then had to hold out his hands. The rest formed a semi-circle and then we bowed to him. Lots of laughter. We bowed three times as A1 started to really like the attention. 'Vadda' then stepped forward and offered son No.1 a present. Son No.2 helped his brother to open the packet. Lots of Ooooohs and Aaaaaahs as the family saw it was an electric razor.

I then told A1 that all men make faces when they shave so he had to practice. He enjoyed that and I got some nice shots. Later they came to my place and I gave the boys a hair trim before A1 switched on the razor and gave himself his first shave. He beamed like a sun as he guided the machine over his cheeks. I took a photo of before and after. The difference is clear.

Little brother A2 looked at me sadly and asked if he could have a razor. I said he had to wait another year. Let's see how long it takes before his beard grows and we repeat the handing over ritual!

All that glitters

All that glitters is not gold! I was reminded of the saying by Daniel for he likes the glitter of silver. We somehow got into conversation about metals for he collects coins and silver objects. I mentioned I had some silver and other things in the cellar and had not seen them for years.

This immediately roused his curiosity and he asked to see them. On a couple of his visits I had forgotten to look in the cellar but last Friday I took the time. I found things covered in newspapers dated 1994/5 in plastic bags. I brought them upstairs and left them for Daniel to unpack.

This he duly did and you can see what was inside. I was very surprised for I had forgotten about most of the things. They represent a much earlier period in my life and when I lived in a house in the UK much larger than my current flat.  I do remember driving to the UK a number of times so I must have packed them into the boot of the car and brought them here.

My problem is a lack of space to display them. They represent India, Turkey and a couple of other countries and I am not sure they will fit in with other objects in my flat. Daniel liked them all and promised to ask his father to repair a broken candlestick when he returns to Berlin.

Now all I have to do is clean them, or just pack then up again and return to the cellar!

Bumming Around

The day after the smoked fish adventure, a postcard dropped into my mailbox. It had taken a couple of weeks to travel from London. Normally you allow 5 days maximum but sometimes I get cards posted even up to 3/4 weeks before delivery. I sometimes wonder if the postal service has gone back to using horses to move mail.

It was from Holger and Gabi - from Bremen area. They went to London for a break and to see their son who is having a 'Gap Year' (it's modern American jargon!) before starting university. I helped his parents to find a very nice family to stay with while he has his 'Gap' and discovers life in London. He is staying with a couple I know from uni days and they have two sons, both of whom are studying. 

I liked the humor of the postcard so decided to share the smile with you. As you can read the card is titled, 'Just Bumming Around in London'. This is a word play on the words ' to bum around'.

It also made me smile for the ladies are running towards The Houses of Parliament wearing nothing but high heels! It reminded me of the culture and values of 1968 when things began to change in Brit-Land. Thanks both for I still smile and have happy memories when I look at it.

Smoked fish

In my last post, I told you I was going to Honow to take Oldie H out for a walk. Yes, we went for a walk but not before a new adventure. We telephoned before my visit and he said he wanted to cook Sunday lunch. I agreed and that I would arrive at 1.00 pm.

All went as planned and I settled into his flat on time. I noted the flowers growing in his garden and the sun shone between hiding behind dark clouds. We returned to his living room and chatted. I could hear the sound of something cooking in the kitchen. Then I saw white smoke coming out of the top of the kitchen door. He didn't.

I told him something was not right in his kitchen. He went in and I heard him say a common swear word in German. I asked what was wrong as I noticed the smoke turn to black and start to fill the living room as well as the kitchen. He said the frying pan was on fire. More black smoke poured in so I opened the door to the garden and went out.

I looked through the kitchen window to see him holding the frying pan. This time there were flames as well as black smoke coming out of the pan. I shouted that he should come into the garden immediately and with the pan. He did just that. Black smoke went into his neighbour's area and I wondered if his/their fire alarm would go off.

It/they didn't as the fat burnt itself out. We waited in the garden for the smoke to leave the rooms. After some time we entered the kitchen with the pan. To my surprise he just poured more oil into the pan, added a couple of pieces of fish and cooked them. The top of the cooker was black as was the kitchen wall.

I did not eat the fish he fried. It was black from the old burnt oil but he clearly didn't notice that. During all this he was not wearing his glasses! I settled for a couple of potatoes with a cucumber salad. That was enough and without the remnant of black, burnt oil in a frying pan.

We later went for a walk and I took a few photos of Spring struggling to burst out. At least we had clean air to breath after the black smoke from his kitchen. Did you eat smoked fish last Sunday?

From above

I'm having a very lazy day and really enjoying it. This morning I cleaned my palace, did all the lesson preparation for next week followed by an hour of Spanish homework. It is for Maria because the class is not meeting next Tuesday afternoon.

On Tuesday afternoon I'm meeting my SPD Oldies for a visit to the Post Museum. I have been there before but it is many years ago. I always enjoy visits to places with this group. Next week is a 'normal' one for me with nothing special - but then this could always change!

On Friday afternoon I met my Photoshop Gang as usual. Over coffee and cakes we got a report from one of the gang about his recent US - Caribbean ships cruise. It was very interesting, but I am still not sure I would like to be stuck on a ship with X thousand Oldies. Sister P. likes it for she goes on such a cruise twice a year with her husband. Perhaps I should try it sometime.

After that we moved into the computer room and started work on changing some photographs. I changed six but decided to show only three in this report. The topic was 'Berlin From Above' and based on photos taken earlier by Stefan. We tried a new programme and I had a lot of fun discovering what it could do.

You can see I played at being the creator of the universe. I decided to add lots of bubbles to the sky over Berlin, the moved to adding a fire explosion to the sky. After playing around with more themes I decided to add light peering into the city from the clouds. Great fun.

Off to Hönow tomorrow to take Oldie H. out for a walk. He needs the movement and it won't do me any harm!

Amtsdeutsch

Das Amtsdeutsch means officalese in English. Its rather negative in both languages. I'm both fighting against it and learning from it. This is a result of trying the help The Family to get a flat. Last Friday a gentleman called Rainer from my Friday Fitness Gang and his wife came to visit. Family Papa was also there.

We found 22 flats online and I registered for all in my name. Rainer helped and then phoned the state owned flat company for an appointment. That was today at 2.00 pm in the north of Marzahn. All a waste of time. The lady in the office was pleasant but it soon became clear that the family did not have the correct document to start the long and winding road to get a flat.

From the main refugee office they got die Aufenthaltsgestatttung but needed der Aufenthaltstitel to start the chase for a flat. All new blah blah to me. I later discovered the former means temporary residence permit and the latter means residence permit. Papa is going back to the responsible office tomorrow to try to get this sorted out. This office gave him all the documents needed to get a flat but not the right kind of permit!

I've had a good week apart from this bureaucratic blah blah. Last night Jan called and we shared news and told each other what was happening in the next stage of a European football match! It was on the box as we talked but we were watching different games.

Alan and Lynne shared a holiday at Butlin's in Skegness via a postcard. See photo. That really brought back memories of my one and only Butlin's holiday with cousin Jean and family about 50 years ago. I had a great time with them. I really like the 1950's imagery. Perhaps I could send The Family there to live :-))

Schoppen

This is a new(ish) word in Dinglish. I don't like it but then some academics say that there are now 11,000 Dinglish words. It starts from the English word shopping and is 'Dinglified' by adding 'c' to sh and then -en instead of -ing because this is the ending of all German verbs. Yuk!

So I met my adopted family at 10.30 am to go 'schoppen' in a 'schoppen' centre south of where I live and to which the family had not been. There is a new complex in construction and a couple of companies had opened shops. One was a sports shop. We headed there.

As we walked there an unexpected thing happened. A family approached us, local for they were speaking 'Berlinisch'. As they approached us they stopped talking and stared. There was a boy of about 10/11 in the family. As he approached the younger brother (A2) of my family, he pulled a plastic gun from his belt, aimed it at A2 and fired. In German he said the equivalent of 'Gotcher', swore at him then caught up with his family.

I just stared in disbelief too shocked to say or do anything. How can a boy of that age do such a thing? What has he learnt in his 10/11 years and from whom? Parents, family, school friends?  This really is the other side to those tolerant Germans who give clothes and time to support refugees.

We went into the new sports shop and the children loved it. They ran around looking at all kinds of things for sporting activities until we took them to the sport-football corner.  Big brother (A1) needed sport shorts for school sports. I had previously got him sport shoes and T-shirt. We found a pair he liked. He asked me to take a photo so he could send it to his friends who do not live in Germany. I agreed and you can see he really looks like a young football player.

We then went into the main shopping centre. There we bought the boys sports socks and then I discovered that they only had two pairs of underpants. Yes, one in the wash and the other worn until the washed one was dry. I could not believe this and so insisted we bought them more. The boys were happy as they chose different styles and colours. This was a bonus for them. Why hadn't the parents told me about this before?

The money I had collected was already spent so I financed this and other needed purchases via my bankcard. I am confident others will donate in the future and make up the deficit. Meanwhile, we have a happier family and two boys who can wear clean underpants each day when they go to school!

Dracula Eyes

I started with Dracula Eyes about a week ago. It gets worse each day. So far I have spent the day hiding in my mini-palace with all the windows closed. It doesn't work. The pollen somehow gets into the flat. Late morning I dusted in my living room and the cloth was full of dust and pollen.

In my garden there are lots of trees on my Allergy List. Now is the time when they are pumping out pollen and my body reacts. In this case with Dracula Eyes. They burn as if there was acid in them and turn red. Here is a pic of the main tree and my eye-drops.

I have now put my dark glasses into my bag so that I can put them on when I am travelling on public transport. If I sit in the U/S-Bahn with Dracula Eyes all the kids start screaming and mothers look at me as if I had just come out of a horror film. So I wear dark glasses to disguise my reaction to this pollen.

Refugee family Papa came to visit a short time ago. We are having interesting problems trying to find them a flat. When we find a 5 room flat and register, then get permission to contact the provider, I always get lots of different ways of saying 'No'. Be it the documents the family have allowing them to stay, or the number of rooms, or that they cannot read the contract in German, the list of excuses grows each day.

All this is new to me and unfortunately I detect some anti-foreigner sentiment in the tone and vocabulary of some who answer my calls. In a couple of hours I am going to a political meeting about Care of Refugees and Providing for them. Should be interesting to compare what the speakers say with my daily experience of trying to get them a flat!!

Relaxen

Relaxen is the German verb for the English verb 'to relax'. I did it a short time ago on my balcony. Yesterday I cleaned my plastic garden/balcony seat and my white plastic table. Both live on my balcony and had gathered six months of dust.

They emerged shiny and white once the dust was removed. This morning we had nearly 20°C in Berlin and the sun shone through hazy clouds. I settled into my seat for the first time this year. I did some Spanish homework and then found this in my book.

It said the following was a Spanish song and I should learn it by heart. Perhaps you know it -
"Besame, besame mucho/ como si fuera esta noche la ultima vez./ Besame, besame mucho/ que tengo miedo perderte/ perderte otra vez."   

For non-Spanish speakers it means:  "Kiss me, kiss me with all your heart/ as if this night would be the last/ Kiss me, kiss me with all your heart/ for I am afraid to lose you/ to lose you again."   Now isn't that nice :-))

I then read another chapter in my History of Germany book. This time it was about Bismarck, including his relationship with Kaiser Wilhelm I. It covers the time from 1850 to 1890. A very important period in shaping 'modern' Germany. Hope you are enjoying a 'relaxender' day.

April 2016 Things

I got a call from Vater this morning to say he had received an E-mail from the property agency we contacted earlier about a flat for his family. He didn't understand it so I told him to send to me.

This he duly did and I translated and returned to him. He is allowed to contact the owners of the property personally. Now to step 2.

March was a pleasant month with lots of things I enjoyed doing. April has many of the same appointments and activities, but I have a feeling of seasonal change as the weather improves and we have more blue sky and sunshine.

I'm looking forward to bicycle tours and getting into the countryside. The month ends with a bicycle tour with my Muggelsee Gang. Looking forward to that!

And now you can pick up your 'smart-phone'  - see the photo! I hear they can only speak one sentence in English by adding 'like' ten times to other..like..er..like...words...like..er.. Is it really getting so bad?

Who has a birthday in April? Actually, more than in March. Horst from Kerstin's Keep Fitters will celebrate his 82nd birthday on 4th April with his wife and family. Now that is a good age to celebrate. Uli from my Mug-Gang will be 69 on the 6th. His wife Petra has her birthday on the 8th and Daniel B. in Australia will celebrate his 37th a day later. Dennis in California will celebrate his 61st with his family on 11th followed by book author and lecturer Neil D for his 59th on the 13th who will enjoy a few beers with his lady in Essen. My great-nephew Henri will be 6 on the 18th and Mathias, my business partner and executor of my will, can enjoy his 52nd on the 19th. Peter L. in Altlandsburg will celebrate his 53rd with Andre on the 22nd. Birgit F. will be 52 on the 24th and I am sure I shall be there to enjoy a glass of Sekt. And that ends birthdays for this month.
Happy Birthday to each and all, and many more of them. Cheers -  Prost!
UPDATE: Diane in Keighley told me I had forgotten her grandson Matthew's 18th birthday on  14th April. Sorry Matthew! Have a great day and I'll see you and family in July.