Party prep

Today is party preparation day. The party is tomorrow. Guests will arrive from 12:00 noon with the ceremony starting at 12:30 pm. It is called a Richtfest which translates as a topping-out or roofing ceremony. The buildings concerned are just in front of my flat and I have shared stories and photos of this construction since it began.

This morning a new gang of workers arrived to add to the banging and shouting of the construction workers. Their task was to construct the tents/pavilions and wooden flooring needed for the party. At the moment the weather here is very nice with 25°C blue sky and sun. The tents are just in case the weather changes and we get rain.

Tomorrow morning I am going to Kerstin's Oldie Keep Fit Gang, as usual, then taking about ten steps from my door to enter the party tents. I expect a number of speeches before the free-for-all rush to the buffet, drinks table and grill area. I shall be at the back of the guests so I don't have far to run to get to the food and drink :-)

With so much munching and slurping the guests will need you-know-what. Yes, the toilets arrived after the tents were put up. There are eight of them. Four for ladies and four for gents. Guess what the toilet company is called. Yes it is Toi-Toi!  They were set up right in front of my bedroom window. Why me? 

der Tagesausflug

I have just got back from a day trip/excursion to Königs Wusterhausen. I've been there before and posted stories and photos on my blog about the town and my trips. In case you Silsdeners have forgotten it is a pleasant old town south of Berlin in the Bundesland called Brandenburg.

The main attraction is Schloss Königs Wusterhausen. It started life as a small castle surrounded by a number of farms and houses. A modest beginning. The medieval castle was later transformed into a Schloss, which in this case best translates as a country manor house. It hardly passes as a palace which is sometimes the translation of Schloss.

When the later 'Soldier King' Frederick William I was ten, his father gave him the Schloss as a birthday present. Not bad! I wonder why my father didn't do the same when I was ten. I think I got some new grey short trousers for school.

King Freddie-Willy seems to have liked the place for he spent each autumn hunting there. I don't think the deer, rabbits, wild pigs were too happy about this. When he got older he founded a Tobacco Club which met in a large room at the top of the Schloss each evening. Can you imagine the smell for there is only a small window. Phew!

I went there today with my SPD Oldies organised by Gabi who is the 'Bossin'. We had a short business meeting to nominate members to stand for various positions before setting off. We had good weather for our visit. It ended with a long lazy lunch in a restaurant on a river behind the Schloss. You must go there the next time you are in Berlin.

Tree Cutting

Some people have interesting jobs. Tree Cutting must be one and with an element of danger. I posted photos months ago showing a man running up trees to cut down the branches then the trunks to clear the ground for the building site opposite where I live.

I enjoyed the same spectacle yesterday. Different man and different company, but I enjoyed his performance. He was contracted by the company which maintains our gardens. The problem was that in the last storm some branches had knocked off tiles from a roof and were growing into a wall.

Time to call in Mr. Tree Climber. He wears a special safety harness and always works with someone on the ground. He also has saws and cutters hanging from his clothes. He climbs about like a large
monkey and clearly enjoys the work.

He saw me taking photos. I used my extra long lens to get close in. He saw me and smiled - as you can see. After clearing away all the branches near the end of the house/flats, he descended, took of his harness then sat with his workmate and had a coffee break.  I wonder when retirement age is when you have such a job?

Muscles August

Muscles has just arrived in Berlin. He sent me an interesting e-mail at midnight from Keleti railway station in Budapest. It was full of what he had done in August.

He was on the move a lot. I think I must be the only ex-Sildsdener to have been to all the places he mentioned. He went to the Basilica in Esztergom - somewhere in my blog are photos of me at the same place and many others he mentions.

He then went to the castle at Budapest, Eger, which is famous for red wine, Wien/Vienna, Szigat, Miskolc to stay with his parents, Lake Balaton to stay with his grandparents, to the High Tatra mountains in Slovakia, Bukk on a bicycle tour and Debrecen.

He met his old school friends, Denes and Csaba, who are also the subject of earlier blog posts. In Debrecen they celebrated Csaba's 21st birthday. They were also together in Eger where I think this photos must have been taken. Denes is holding a bottle of local red wine.

Looking forward to meeting you Marcel and catching up on your news. Welcome back to Berlin, your university, and lots of studying!

Fifty Thousand

When I opened my blog to post about the Fotoclub and Stefan I noted my counter recorded 50,008 hits. Hit means the number if times my blog had been accessed. I think I shall continue to write my blog. Actually I enjoy trying to match photos with text.

Lets look at the figures. Although registered earlier I actually started it in 2008. That means 7 years to get to 50,000. This is slightly over 7,000 hits per year = about 590 per month = nearly 150 per week = 21 hits a day. In fact, the number of hits has increased considerable during the last three years.

Some of you have even told me you like to look at the photos and only scan the text! This always makes me smile for these comments come mainly from people who have had a university education. I wonder what their Professors would say about that :-))

I decided to post a photo of Stefan showing his appreciation of a cool G & T. A nice way to celebrate all your visits to my blog over the last seven years. Here's to the next seven year. Cheers!!!

Stefan visit

Stefan came to visit yesterday evening. I can hear the Silsdeners saying. "Who is Stefan". He belongs to Jan's Gang who went to school together, grew up together and after university still keep in touch with each other. Dr. Peter is another member of the gang.

Stefan lives in Göttingen, which is a famous old university town south-west of Berlin. He was in Berlin visiting his parents and called to see if I would be at home. He duly arrived on his bike, with a rucksack full of electronic gadgets.

One of which was a stick containing all the photos from his recent visit to South Africa. He went to visit his lady friend who has just got her doctorate and is working there. We started with a traditional G & T which was Stefan's request. He certainly looks happy with his choice.

We talked about everything possible, including his new job and flat in Halle, which he is moving to at the end of this month. We also spent some time looking at his SA photographs. He did admit that he needed to edit them. Even so it was interesting to see a country which I have not been to.

They went on a two week tour of the south of the country taking in both coasts, mountains, wild animals, jungle areas and deserts. We had a break at 10.00pm, as you can see from the photo of me making a light salad for supper. Don't tell my doctor that I ate after 7:00pm!

It was really great to see him again and have the time to just chat and develop themes. He now only speaks English with me and has a good command of the language.
 Safe journey home Stefan and good luck with the new job and flat.

Fotoclub

On Friday evening I went to an exhibition of photographs. They were from members of my Fotoclub für Seniors - männlich/for men, which meets every second Wednesday afternoon. There is also a Fotoclub für Seniors -weiblich/for women.

I don't know why there are two clubs. Some women told me it was because the women do not like how the men analyze and talk about photographs. This may be true for they can be very critical of each others work.

The German advert for our event read: Vernissage: Fr: 11.09. - 17 Uhr. Der Fotoclub präsentiert in einer Ausstellung zum Thema "Faszination Spiegelungen" einige Arbeiten. The theme was fascinating reflections. From one of the photos you can see this for yourself.

I was surprised at how many people turned up. A musician had been engaged to play soft music on a keyboard. Again you can see this in one photograph. There were snacks, water, white and red wine on offer. Nice, and the guests seemed to appreciate that for the bottles soon emptied!

I found the photographs looked better printed out in a frame rather than being blown up onto a large screen, which is how we see them in the club. A pleasant way to end the week and start the weekend.

Lisbon - 3

Our last day in Lisbon started with a late breakfast. We then packed our bags and put them in the hotel storage room for we had an evening flight. We decided to spend the day in Belem. It was a recommendation from Jan and Arancha, and a very good one.

We found a tram to take us there via a scenic route along the coast. Lisbon was founded on a wide estuary that flows into the not far away Atlantic. The centre of the city is very hilly with the main suburbs to the north.

The area of Belem is on the estuary to the west of the centre. It is famous for two monuments. The oldest is the Torre de Belem and the other is Padrao dos Descobrimentos. The latter is a monument dedicated to the discoverers who got into sailing ships and discovered a lot of the 'New World'. There is also a nice garden area near the water and an old monastary.

You can see photos of all three here. We enjoyed the sunny weather and light lunch in the garden of a restaurant on the waterfront. We slowly made our way back to the hotel, picked up the luggage and took the underground train to the airport.

The usual boring routine at the airport. I really question all those stupid and largely unnecessary security checks. From comments made by other passengers it is clear that I am not alone in this! We finally got into the plane mainly filled with Germans.

Unfortunately we were seated near a group of passengers with lots of babies. After three hours of listening to babies screaming, we landed at Berlin. I think they should have a sealed baby and family section in all planes and so let the rest of us sleep/doze in peace!

We found all our bags and jumped into a taxi. It was strange to enter my flat and see all the familiar things. I missed Lisbon and the adventures we had - and still do. Thanks to Dr. Peter and Mutti for a wonderful week in an interesting old city.

Lisbon - 2

The day after registration for the conference, there was a big 'get together' party on the campus. On my first visit I found a few men looking at the ground.

I asked what was wrong and was told that one of them had lost his keys. I looked at the ground and pointed to where they were. Here is a photo of that moment. They were very grateful:-)

The 'get-together' party was held in the garden area of the campus. A very nice setting. I wandered into the area and stopped in surprise.

In front of me was a cook grilling two pigs! Yes, two. Look at this photo. Poor Pinky and Porky - they were now being gently roasted in front of my eyes. Other cooks were preparing green salads and a few had started to grill large amounts of sausages. I wondered if I were back in Berlin.
I managed to secure one of the last tables for us while Peter brought some much needed cold beers. It had been a hot day. During my time in Lisbon the temperature was between 34 and 39°C. Sipping a cold beer as the evening cooled was a perfect combination. Here is a photo of guests at that party.

At the end of the party I noted that Pinky and Perky were no more. All that remained were a few bones. The healthier green salad had also disappeared. We returned to the hotel with full stomachs and enjoyed a G & T nightcap before turning in for the night.

We continued to visit more tourist places until it was time for Peter to present his paper to fellow academics. He gave a very good presentation and in clear good English. One of the best presenters I would say.

 On Friday, we all gathered at the campus and took a fleet of buses across the bridge and ended up at a restaurant area under a set of linked tents.

This was the Friday evening end of conference party. We sipped beer/wine in the garden as the sun slipped beyond the horizon. Here is a photo.

It created a very calm and restful feeling in the garden.Very good food, wine and service marked the end of conference party. We enjoyed all including meeting and talking to other delegates at the party.

We took a late bus over the bridge back to the campus and then public transport back to the hotel. Next day was our last and we decided to go to Belem. More about this in the next post.

Lisbon - 1

I hope to show my Silsdeners a view of Lisbon in this and other posts. If you get the chance to go there just do it. I noticed more German and Spanish speaking tourists than those with a Brit accent. Perhaps the Brits were on the coast/beaches/sipping Port wine on the Algarve!

After breakfast we always talked about where to go and what to do. We managed to cover most of the major tourist sights in addition to conference duty. Our hotel was in the centre of the city with only a 10 minute walk to the water.

We discovered a supermarket where I could buy lemons and Schweppes tonic water. Big smiles! Guess what I bought at the Duty Free shop? Well, I also bought water and red wine at the supermarket - as you can see. Notice my trusty knife/corkscrew. An essential and well traveled tool.

 We covered many of the central tourist sights in the first few days guided by Peter who has an almost uncanny knack of direction. There is a large square on the waterfront with a white marble gate and statue in front of it. We later had a meal at a restaurant there. We got to know the local tram system. The small ones which go up the hills and through the narrow streets look to have been built in the 1920s. They are a big tourist attraction.

We found the campus where the conference was to take place and discovered it was next to a very large white marble building. It is called the Portuguese Parliament building. Yes, this is where the MPs sit and discuss national matters. Not a bad neighbour to have.

We went to the old castle on the hill dominating the city. It is called Castelo de S. Jorge. It was founded in the 11th century by the Moors. In the 12th century it became the seat of Portugal's first Christian kings and government. Now it is a tourist ruin but one which offers great views over the city.

Later we went to the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum Park. It is a very large green area with many different sized/shaped buildings to house all the 6,000 works of art he collected and left to be displayed to the public. It is an absolute must to visit.

If you want to see all of the works then I suggest you spend a week in the different buildings. Just pick your topic and see the collection. After a few hours your brain may rebel at so many wonderful things to take in, so allow time. 

Dr. Peter

Many years ago, when Jan started school there was a group of boys in his class and they grew up together. Many of them went to his recent wedding, some with wives and children. One of the group is called Peter. Actually we call him Herr Prof. Dr. Peter von Long-Legs. Yes, he is tall.

Peter is writing the last part of his doctorate when not lecturing in economics at Potsdam University. Those of you with good memories will remember that at the end of August last year, we went to a conference in St. Petersburg in Russia. This time the conference was in Lisbon in Portugal.

Our host was The Lisbon School of Economics and Management for The European Regional Science Association (ersa) conference. Peter had agreed to give a paper, therefore, he was allowed to bring guests at a reduced price. His mutti and I grabbed the chance.

In my last post I told you I made a mistake about packing. Let's go back to the Sunday night of the wedding party when I arrived home later than planned. I decided to finish packing when I woke on Monday.

 The alarm woke me at 2.30am. I put the light on then dozed off again. I woke at 3.40am so I had 20minutes to sort myself out. I forgot to pack a number of things and had to buy them in Lisbon. The worst was that I forgot to put my health insurance card into my wallet!

The taxi arrived at 4.00am and off to the airport. I can't remember much except visiting the duty free shop. You have to get your priorities right! Three hours later we landed in Lisbon and Peter took over the organisation. Actually, he is good at that in addition to knowing where we were.

We settled into our hotel in the centre and relaxed. The rest of the week was a mixture of sight seeing and visits to the conference centre. Peter gave his paper on Thursday and on Friday evening we went to the big end of conference party. We also made it to the old castle on top of a hill which dominates Lisbon. Here are a few pics of our guide and organiser!  Thanks Peter.

A Wedding

As I wrote in my past post, I went to a wedding with Alan and Lynne. The civil ceremony was on Friday 21st August. The wedding service in a church took place on Sunday 23rd August. I sat with Johanna upstairs near the organ so I had a 'bird's eye' view.

It was an interesting experience. After the ceremony, we all went into the garden behind the church for drinks and snacks. There I was able to meet again Uncle Willy and his family after so many years.

He, wife Ilonka, son Willy II, his wife and children had driven all the way from the north of Hungary to attend the wedding. Vera and her friend had also driven from Budapest to join in. She speaks English and German very well so we quickly caught up on news. I spoke German to Willy II who translated into Hungarian for his family.

Jan and Arancha had flown in from The Netherlands. It was great to see them after their honeymoon. They looked so well and healthy, as you can judge for yourself in these photos. For Jan, Uncle Willy and family are part of his extended family, like Alan and Lynne and 'lads'. Jan stayed with the Willy family in Hungary many times when he was a boy and teenager. Speaking Hungarian also helps :-)

There was a wedding reception in my part of the city in a restaurant overlooking the River Spree. A very pleasant atmosphere, good company, good food, good wine made the evening special.

From there I went back to my flat later than planned. I decided to finish packing when I woke up at 3.00am for a taxi had been booked for 4.00am. That was a mistake as you can read in my next post.

Casland in Berlin

I met Alan when I was 16 and went to a college in Leeds. He is my oldest friend. He later met Lynne, married, had a family and opened their doors to many orphaned and disabled children. If they could they would adopt all needy children in the world. Their hearts are bigger than Mount Everest.

I can assure you I am not exaggerating. Jan and Andrea are just two of many people they have welcomed into their home/lives. They have a really nice house in Castleford, hence the title of this post. Alan and Lynne arrived in Berlin to attend a wedding. I had organised a hotel on the main road/tram way, near to the S-Bahn and not too far from my flat.

They really liked the hotel room, more like a suite actually, as you can see from this photo. It was not their first time in Berlin and they also like visiting the city. I met them at the airport, took them to the hotel, round the corner for a light lunch of soup, then into town to see some of the tourist sights.

We ended the day in my flat for a meal and so Alan could e-mail his sons in Ozland and NZ. He was also able to watch a cricket match via my computer. That was the main attraction!! Next day we went east into the countryside around Strausberg and ended the day at Johanna's large comfy flat. 

There Johanna played hostess to us and to Jutta and Gerald. A really happy evening with lots of talk covering many topics. Gerald loves to meet people and speak English so he was very happy.  Next day was Friday so we set off for the Rotes Rathaus = Berlin Town Hall. We arrived at 1:30pm in time for the start of the civil ceremony at 2:0pm.

There I was able to meet people from Hungary I had not seen in years. After the ceremony, we all went to a restaurant for refreshments and later a meal. Next day I spent with Alan and Lynne and started to pack my bag for the flight to Lisbon.

On this day we went to the waterfront at Köpenick to a 'Beer-and-Wine-Fest'. Alan and Lynne got to know a man looking rather green with hens sticking out of his clothes. Yes, a statue of a hen thief from the middle ages. I like this shot of all three!

That evening, we went to Gendarmemarkt. This is an area containing the German and French Cathedrals and the Berlin Concert Hall and all near to Friedrichstrasse. It is bang in the middle of a major tourist area. It was a hot evening so we sat outside for a meal with Nick, Julie, Laura and Matthew.

You can see that we enjoyed being together. Then it was time to say goodbye to the family. They were flying back to England next day and I was off to a wedding ceremony with Alan and Lynne.

Sutton in Berlin

I didn't get any visitors from Silsden this summer, but I got some from Sutton-in-Craven. I can imagine my readers scratching their collective heads and asking, 'Where is that?' It's in the Aire Valley slightly south-west of Silsden.

Nicholas and Julie with daughter Laura and son Matthew live there. I met Nicholas' father in my first job so I have known him since his birth. He is able to communicate in German and likes the country and people. It was not their first visit to Berlin.

I galloped to Schönefeld Airport to meet them. Here is a photo of that. I went with them to their hotel near to Alexander Platz, on the River Spree and opposite the Berliner Dom (cathedral). A nice place to stay. They had good weather during their stay.

We spent some days together starting with the centre where they said hello to Karl Marz and Herr Engels - as you can see. One some days we met to journey into the countryside where tourists don't go, on others I left them to visit the standard tourist places with their guide books.

One such collective day was spent at Muggelsee. The station is called Friedrichshagen and you can see them posing for a pic. A walk down one of my favourite streets with a stop at Julie's request for a large roast Thüringa Bratwurst. Tasty!

More walking before we reached the lake. It was a warm  day so time for a cool beer. You can see that those of us who did, were very happy with that choice. In the latter part of their stay I had to juggle time to welcome Alan and Lynne and go to a wedding.  More of that in the next posts.

Their visit was one of the high spots of my summer and I enjoyed seeing how relaxed they were in and around Berlin.  It was also nice to get to know Laura and Mathew again. This time as young adults and enjoy their spontaneous humour - and note they were masters on a 'Smart-Phone'!

das Whiskyfest

I ended Friday at the Köpenicker Whiskyfest. This is held each year. Köpenick is a district to the south and east of where I live. The rivers Spree and Dharma flow through the district and it is very green.

I met Falk and Elvira who are members of The Muggelsee Gang. The rest of The Gang could not make it so we decided to sample the whisky on their behalf :-))  Well, we felt it was a duty!

On meeting they showed me a photo of a baby clearly having a good sleep. I then heard it was their first grandchild and a boy. Of course, we had to have another glass of a very special whisky to 'wet his head' !! The baby had emerged into the world earlier in the day. Wow!

It was very pleasant to sit on the banks of the River Spree and catch up on news as we sipped a couple of special whiskys. Lots of people sitting around us and all enjoying being with family and friends. What we all had in common was what was in the glass!

I started the day with Kerstin's Keep Fit Gang for Seniors and it was nice to see them after a couple of weeks break. I discovered I had missed the summer party because I was in Lisbon. They reassured me that I had been missed, particularly when they played a game of French bowls. Another nice day. Hope yours was.

die Abschiedsparty

I have just returned from a farewell party for Colin. As I write he is packing his bag before traveling to Tegel Airport in the north of Berlin to take a flight which will eventually take him back to Sydney, which you know is in Australia.

He plans to return to Berlin in late summer next year. Meanwhile, he is going to start a German course when he returns home. He already speaks basic German and I noted how much it had improved during his time here. His cousin is Johanna and she gave the farewell party.

Gerald and Jutta were there, as was Gerd who is returning to Australia in a couple of weeks. I joined this very 'happy gang' late for I had been 'on duty' for the SPD.  This was to stand outside a primary school with another member to hand out plastic lunch boxes to kids who will start school next Monday.

Today the schools hosted a special party for the whole family. All came in their best clothes and it was wonderful to see so many children happy to get an unexpected present from us. What a nice day even though the weather was changing into autumn.

Hangman

When I was a child in England there was the death penalty for serious crimes such as murder. In the tolerant 1960s it was removed as England struggled to become known as a 'civilized' country. There has been an uneasy truce within the population ever since.

Let us move to 2008/9 and the financial/banking crash/crisis. It hit me hard as I reached retirement age and saw part of my hard earned investment in a private retirement scheme start to disappear. I moved what remained and managed to save part of my investments. Others were not so lucky.

And then I began to hear people asking why bankers were not in prison. Such questions and debates spread. People still ask the same question. No answer so far. I am thinking of contacting a number of international political and economic agencies to volunteer as a hangman!

Meanwhile, an enterprising company producing wine in Australia has come up with a half-way solution. They have produced a Shiraz wine called 'Hang the Banker', The Reserve 2013. I have just got this information from Ian and Birgit in Ozland for which I am grateful.

I must buy some bottles and drink from them as I carry out my new job. No more Mr. Nice Guy when it comes to bankers!! Pass the glass.