Bea visits

At the end of March, start of April 2015, Mama Bea came to visit us.

We went to pick her up at Tegel Airport. It got off to a shaky start when her bags went missing and we had to go to the 'Baggage Tracking' office. The bags were left behind in Dusseldorf and couriered to our house the next day. No probs.

We went 'hiking' in Plotzensee,

At at our favorite restaurant a couple of times,

Went sightseeing,

East Side Gallery,

Tiergarten,

A bit of shopping,

More sightseeing - Rathaus Schoneberg where JFK made his 'I am a donut' speech,

Bea loved the Bears all over the city,

We checked out the Berlin Half Marathon,

Had a steak dinner,

Sightseeing at Tempelhof,

Tempelhof community garden,

Soviet Memorial Treptower Park,

Playing with the bread cutting machine at Lidl,

Hiking in the towns and forest near Müggelsee, here admiring an owl sanctury,

Taking the 'Bus 100' past the major sights on the way to Kurfürstendamm,

Confronting Berlin's ugly history with the Stolpersteine,

And Gleis 17 at Grunewald,

And before we knew it, the two week visit was up and we were back on our way to the airport,

To say goodbye, we all look happy to see each other go. Barney is confused.

And once back at home, Barney passed out. Too much excitement.

Northern Hemisphere Solar Eclipse

So in the Northern Hemisphere today we had a solar eclipse.

I went to check it out as it peaked around 10:45am in Berlin. It wasn't a total eclipse, but an eclipse nevertheless!

I didn't have any special equipment so I put on some sunglasses, walked outside and looked into the sun. Rookie mistake.

Pro Tip: Sunglasses are not sufficient.

I got some retina burn and I think I will be seeing the eclipse for quite a few more days every time I blink.

Despite the lack of proper equipment, I could see a nice filtered view of the eclipse through the awning of a nearby building which was very convenient.

Ta Da!

*update, my eyes are fine :)

Fabrikarbeiter und die Rote Karte

When you achieve your goal to retire, a funny thing happens. You feel like you should go back to work. Well that's what happened to me...

In all the options available to me, I decided to follow my misguided fantasy of working in a factory.

Think of the Industrial Revolution, the mighty World War I & II factories, the East German workers uprising of 17 June 1953, Germany's Wirtschaftwunder, Laverne & Shirley, Industrie Mädchen, Livin' on a Prayer, An Officer and a Gentleman, Unions, Demontage and Treuhand.

I wanted to work with Germans and I also wanted to work for a Berlin startup company.

I managed to combine that all in one with a part-time job as a production worker in the 'culinary area'.

As a food handler, before I could even start work I had to do some 'training' to get a 'Rote Karte' (Lebensmittelpersonalhygiene). This cost me 20 Euros (had to pay it myself), at a state of the art training facility, the Gesundheitsamt in Lichtenberg. That's irony by the way, Lichtenberg is a bit of a dump and the Gesundheitsamt didn't look so gesund (healthy).

To get the pass you just roll up during their odd opening times (varies depending on the day), register with a lady through a small cut out in a door and hand over your passport, then wait in a room.

Then another lady comes and instructs you in German for about 10 minutes. Telling you about the legalities of handling food, that you can be fined, you can make other people sick if you are sick, that you should go to the doctor if you are sick. The biggie is you are legally not allowed to work with food if you are sick.

Then you have to watch a poxy 20 minute video which dramatizes what she just said. We are told the story of a food worker who became ill and went to the doctor. The doctor told him to stay home. He did until he was well again. The he returned to work when he was healthy. It was fascinating.

There was also some other additional gems, such as if you go to the toilet you should wash your hands afterwords. Shocker. A Vietnamese guy in our group fell asleep during that presentation due to its gripping story line. Hopefully someone fills him in.

As soon as the video stopped, people rushed to the little lady behind the window to pick up their hard earned Rote Karte - and pay the 20 clams.

And I got mine...

And then I started my work as an 'arbeiter' in an East German factory complex (in plattenbau Lichtenberg) for the Berlin startup.

I even get to wear an 'open all hours' shop coat.

And after my first day of picking, packing, boxing and cleaning, we arbeiters got to take home the leftovers.

After one day of work I think I've had enough of living out my factory fantasy :P

Hausgemacht Cheese Burger

It all started with wondering 'what are frozen burger patties like these days?'

We've been making our own burgers here in Berlin ever since we got here, such as our super taster Blue Burger. We've also eaten a lot of Burgers out and about, with Burgermeister and Burgeramt our faves so far.

But back to these pesky frozen patties. As usual, we had to scour every supermarket chain to find a reasonable pack - that being that Kaufland et al insist on selling the minimum quantity of 14 - 16 patties per box.

Netto was the answer, 8 frozen patties per box, still too many but I can manage...2.49 Euros.

Pre-packaged hamburger buns are atrociously stale in every market I've checked, and I didn't want to eat it our of the normal crunchy Schrippe (small breakfast type rolls). So, we went with an old fashioned option, plain white bread. At least the bread is soft.

To do a cheesburger properly (if its not a blue cheese burger) one needs melty cheese. I am loathe to buy this as every single slice is individually wrapped. At least we recycle.

We had everything else in house.

Removing the patties, they two were semi-individually wrapped, 2 per wrapper. Grr.

These things are 98.8% beef mince, so that's a good start. They looked pretty decent too, albeit a bit thin.

They fried up nicely, much better than the last frozen patty I cooked, maybe 15 years ago. I guess things have changed a bit.

The bread was buttered and toasted on one side, a trick I learnt from the Wendy's burger chain in America. Extra fat..mmm.

When the patties are almost cooked, add melty cheese!

So dirty.

Once melted, assemble with mayo, tomato sauce, pickles, tomato. A double cheese burger and a more modest single cheeseburger. Perfecto.

These things were pretty tasty. The patty, the whole point of the experiment was good enough that I would try them again, but they are not up to the standard of home made of Burgermeister / Burgeramt ones.

After all that we had 4 patties left over. Rinse and repeat for the same dinner two nights in a row.

A funny thing happened on the way to the prüfung

So....

We have been undertaking a language course, which turned into us taking the official 'Integration Course' that some foreigners need. We don't need it, but did it anyway.

We already have had the grammar test, and today was supposed to be the 'Leben in Deutschland' Politics and Culture test.

Our class assembled at the correct place and time, but we couldn't do the test! Why? because DHL had stuffed the language school around.

Apparently our test papers were ordered 2 weeks ago and subsequently delivered by DHL to a depot in Saxony. Umm, we are in Berlin.

The school rang and suggested they send the package to the school in Berlin. DHL apparently delivered the package, but didn't leave a note. The school rang DHL asking where the papers where and DHL was told  the package was with a neighbour - but not which one!! The school went looking for it and none of the neighbours had it.

Then it gets a bit murky, but somehow the package got redelivered today (test day) to the school. But it was delivered early when the office wasn't open. A note on the door from DHL said the package would be available for pickup / redelivery on Monday. The teacher rang and asked if they could redeliver today ASAP, Not possible.

So with all of that, we couldn't do the test!

The teacher then had to ring the Government department responsible for administering the test and arrange something else.

We stood in the stairwell a bit dumbfounded. Everyone was annoyed as we just want this over and are sick of studying!

It was finally clear that nothing could be done about it today and we all could leave. The teacher came out to explain to us what had happened and when he had rescheduled the next test.

So another week to study...which is good for at least one of our lazier classmates who has done no study at all!

Ruckensport Abschluss

 Due to back problems, my German doctors prescribed me a series of 'Ruckensport' sessions. I had something similar in Australia, I was given about 6 sessions there. Here in Germany, 50 sessions!

I started last year and Ruckensport turns out to be going to a training room and doing some group exercises and also individually planned exercises from a trainer.

My trainer was really nice, and so were my fellow back pain sufferers. We've had a lot of fun in the sessions, as well as a few parties, a picnic and also celebrated the World Cup together. It's been quite social - and mostly all in German.

And so this week, my last, 50th session :(

Tradition dictates that the person who's last session it is MUST bring champagne. I've been the beneficiary of this in the past so only naturally I had to bring it this time. Drink of choice - Rotkäppchen.

Nearing the end of the session, the trainer asked 'What do you want to do for the last 10 minutes? Shall we just start drinking?' :)

As I retrieved the bottled from my locker, (out of sight from the rest of the group) I came back to the main training area to see them all on their mats with empty cups neatly placed in front of them....expectation!

Naturally we needed a group mirror shot (all faces obscured because they are Germans. Not sure what that means? just look at Google street view in Germany!)

And for the last time I signed my attendance sheet - with the long running misunderstanding that for some reason the trainer thinks my name is Antony. Its not.

A bit of a sad occasion, but I'm also glad I don't have to keep going there - especially in these cold dark winter months.

Kraftwerk 3D

And so for the second time in my life, I found myself standing outside a Kraftwerk concert.

Over the last few years, the incredibly influential electronic band Kraftwerk have been performing consecutive concerts at selected venues - playing each of their albums in their entirety. One album per night. Berlin concerts were announced in 2014.

From what I have seen, the ticket prices have always been very reasonable yet almost impossible to get. The Berlin gigs were no exception.

The concerts were held at the Neue Nationalgalerie, a classic Mies van der Rohe building which is to be closed for minimum 3 years for renovation following the concerts. Once tickets went on sale they sold out almost immediately. I heard stories of people who lined up for hours for the special midnight release of tickets at the venue itself, and still missed out. When I checked online that following day for when tickets were available to the public...all gone.

Which lead me to stand outside, with no ticket.

So I went on Monday 12 January 2015, which was the night the band would perform 'The Mix'. I hadn't been to earlier nights as the weather has been bad in Berlin. I had hoped to take a few photos of the Galerie with the Kraftwerk sign out the front and hopefully hear a bit of music.

When I got to the Neue Nationalgalerie, I was not so much surprised that others had the same idea as I did, but how clearly I could hear the music. I had already read that the almost all glass structure would be blacked out to shield the concert from outside, so I was even more surprised to find that we outsiders could see inside quite easily.

From several vantage points you could see the large screen, and several of the band members easily in their now well known skintight black with green grid uniforms.

As I arrived, 'The Model' was playing, and being 'The Mix' subsequent hit after hit was played. It was great to hear these songs live (even standing outside!) Like the Man Machine, Trans Europe Express, the encore of 'The Robots' in which the band reappeared as robotic versions of themselves, and finishing with 'Music Non Stop'...which afterwards, ironically, the music stopped. :P

While not ideal to be standing outside, it's all I could manage under the circumstance. Surprisingly it was actually a good experience and in some cases a much better concert experience than many other gigs I've been to (with ticket).

Maybe the third time I got to a Kraftwerk concert I will actually be standing inside the venue.