charging, seeing, toytowning

Our friends Tom and Danika have had a bit of a rough introduction to Berlin so far. Already, within a week of them being here, their flat has had the water supply disrupted and also the power switched off (because the host didn't pay his bills). Without power they were unable to keep all their devices charged and were also unable to shower. After a few days of this mess they came over to our place this morning to charge and shower.

After a nice relaxed morning with them, we left to go an see my optometrist dude Herr Milster at Fielmann. I am still not fully adjusted to the new glasses and I also wanted another shot at the führerscheinsehtest.

Milly was working today and I had a chat with him. He checked my glasses and they had been made to the correct prescription. He also did a brief re-check of my eyes and said that everything was correct. He pretty much said I just need to get used to the glasses.

I went on about the drivers license test and that I wanted another go at it and he obliged.

I faced my nemesis and read the circles, with and without the glasses.

Without the glasses I thought I had done enough to pass. But Milly wasn't having it. He said the left eye was okay, both eyes together were okay, but the right eye was not good enough to pass the test. We had a bit of a stand off where perhaps he got the perception that I was asking him to fudge the result. I was simply asking if my eyes were good enough to pass. After some hesitation he insisted that the result of glasses being required should stand. Well, that settles it, my German drivers license (whenever we get it) will say I need glasses. Time to start dealing with it.

In the evening we went to another Toytown Germany meet up. This time it was again in Prenzlauer Berg, but at a place called 'Scotch and Sofa'.

Tom and Danika also came along and we all settled in at some couches along with some other people - and our drinks of course. 

Everyone again was really easy to get along with. Colin, one of the organisers, was even wearing his Australian rugby top, which he promised to wear last week - but didn't.

This week there was a really good turn out and the group quickly swallowed up the whole bar space. This made mingling a bit difficult but we were pretty much settled on our couches anyway.

Again it was a good night of meeting others in similar situations to ourselves. It is funny to hear similar stories of battles with the district office, furnishing your apartment from Ikea and planning to maybe possibly look for a job sometime soon or perhaps next year. There were some familiar faces from last time, and plenty of new ones too. Maybe we will become the 'familiar faces' over the coming weeks.

We stayed till almost midnight and could have easily stayed longer. Our barking dog is a little more settled down though we don't want to push it too much in case he does start barking in the early hours while we aren't there. So we left the group and headed home on the U-Bahn.

And we made it home after midnight to a happy and seemingly quiet well behaved dog.