Berlinfusion

Oh.

Odour.

This house smells quite musty. Still. It wasn't lived in for a few months and, with an allegedly damp room in the basement, I need to find some classy room scents. I like the wooden wands in pots of oil, but need to actually smell before buying, so can't purchase off the internet.

Another deeply unpleasant smell we experienced a few weeks ago was when a drain outside our house was blocked or something. A big lorry appeared to deal with it - two days in a row. Whatever they did pumped the worst stench in the world into the entire house. That was not good.

What is a good scent though, is the all-pervading perfume emanating from the trees and flowers in the neighbourhood. It's particularly and deliciously strong in the evening. I think the main notes come from lime trees (linden).

It's heavenly and very good for the soul.

 

 

N is for...

Neighbours.

Our immediate neighbours have a stunningly beautiful landscaped garden. I am envious, but it takes a lot of work to keep it that way.

Currently though, they have been having some urgent heavy-duty work done on their equally beautiful house. This entails builders starting up noisy equipment such as pneumatic drills at 7am every weekday morning. The racket continues all day. It's very draining.

The only other neighbours we've met are colleagues of Tim's. They're adorable and we've set up mutual cat-caring duties. We looked after their two fluffy felines while they were on holiday and they are looking after Raymi. Fantastic solution!

Networked Blogs.

If you enjoy reading my rambles about my new life in Berlin, please consider following my blog on Networked Blogs.

Thank you!

Mmmmm!

Mice.

There aren't many meeces left around here any more. Raymi has been doing a sterling job at keeping the rodent population down to reasonable levels.

Unfortunately he doesn't clear up after himself.

Kita is also showing her primitive hunting side and regularly tries to dislocate my shoulder on our walks when she spots a mouse in the undergrowth. One day she was successful in her hunt.

'ell

Language.

At least we can read the signs here as the letters are familiar. Japanese kanji was not easy to read.

I spent two or three years studying German for 'O' level many moons ago. Our teacher was dreadful but the class was worse with many "challenging" pupils. Unsurprisingly, I was graded 'U' in the final exam. In my defence, so was the entire class.

But I do have a few words, and can understand a little more than I can speak.

I have a couple of very favourite words: Krankenhaus and Botschafter. They make me smile.

Tim has a new hobby - counting the number of letters in the crazily long words. His record sighting had 27 letters. But he can't remember the word.

oh KAY!

Kitchen.

I still haven't remembered where everything is in the kitchen.

The floor still annoys me - it gets absolutely filthy; white stone tiles seem to attract more dirt than anything. Or is it just because it actually shows up?

Jay

Jay.

Beautiful birds in my garden. One breed of many visitors.

Japan.

I'm homesick - not for the UK but for Japan. I miss almost everything about this incredible country. Apart from the horrendous summer heat and earthquakes. Rhiannon is very homesick for Tokyo and is worried because she's forgetting her Japanese language skills already.

Somebody asked us recently if we would go back for a visit but I don't see how that would be possible. It's so far, so expensive both to fly to and to live there, even for a short time. we just don't have the money. One day I hope to be able to go there again.

We've got a corner of the downstairs room set up as a sitting room. It's entirely decorated with Japanese objets d'art.

Jet Lag.

Horrible. Led to waking very early and an annoying bladder problem.

Janitor.

Wonderful Polish gentleman who comes to fix things from a jammed gate to teaching me how to open the windows. He also lent us a TV when we arrived because "you have a child? You need a TV!"

Read about both these 'Js' here.

 

 

 

It's all about 'I'

Isolation.

I'm not feeling particularly deep and meaningful at the moment, and I don't do navel-gazing. Just stating the facts here.

Our house is very isolated. Not from other houses or people, but from shops and amenities. Public transport is by bus and I haven't got to grips with the system yet. No train station is within easy reach.

As for shops, there are no corner shops nearby and the supermarket isn't within walking distance. It was only at the end of June that I discovered a small collection of shops about a mile away.

So I don't get out much and I haven't met anyone yet that I think I could call a potential friend. Well, I have, but they're leaving this month. Typical!

Luckily for me I enjoy my own company. However, I do realise that socialising is necessary for mental wellbeing so I hope when the summer holidays are over, I can find ways of meeting other people.

In the meantime, I shall continue to talk to all the lovely people inside my computer (and the ones in my head... oh, should I not have said that?!)

Ha-ha-choo!

Hayfever.

Within a day of arriving in Berlin I re-developed hayfever.

A major sufferer of this in my teens, it faded away when I moved to London but returned with a sudden vengeance here.

I can't take antihistamines. So I'm lumbered with streaming, unbearably itchy eyes as a main symptom and sneezing as a close secondary problem.

I take a little comfort in the fact that it is transitory.

But it's not nice.

Geeee!

Garden.

I have a garden. It is big. Here are my first thoughts on seeing it. And later, when the Garden Invaders took hold.

Mum's coming in September with instructions to bring her gardening gloves. She's desperate to have a go at it and I am happy to let her!

Eff

Late one night, while slaving away at my computer, I heard a strange sound outside. It sounded like water, but it wasn't raining.

I went to the door, and there in my garden was a....

Fox!

He was quite large and noisily lapping water from my Japanese stone water basin. Unaware of my presence he turned and sauntered slowly across the lawn, sniffing intently at the ground, picking up the scent of my pets.

He was very close and I marvelled at having such a beautiful wild creature in my garden.

However, I was a little worried as Raymi was still outside somewhere.

So I hissed at it.

The fox froze and looked at me, the light reflecting off his eyes in a disturbingly spooky manner.

Then it walked right towards me!

Not a good idea, I thought to myself, recalling some scary stories in the UK media in recent times. So I scared it away.

I have no idea how it got through the tiny hole we left for Raymi in the fence.

 

Eeeeee!

Everything begins with an E...

Everything.

Here's the post I wrote when all our everything arrived.

Unpacking ground to a halt around mid-May due to severe apathy and a lot of everything is still awaiting its final place in the house.

This will pick up after the summer holidays as Mum is coming to stay in September and her bedroom is currently the holding place for everything.

Having visitors is a good way of ensuring everything is tidied up.

Well, it works for me.

E-coli.

It wasn't my fault! See below.

Earthquakes.

I have a catastrophic history. Many places suffer some kind of disaster shortly after I leave. Normally it's earthquakes, but sometimes floods, revolutions, whatever - I've blanked most of the details out of my mind now.

Several towns in Peru no longer exist. I'm sorry.

Immediately after I left South America in 1996, this happened - bolded places were those I'd just left. Data from the USGS website:

NOV 12 1996   16 59 44.0  14.993 S   75.675 W   33 N  6.5 7.3   1.1  365  NEAR COAST OF PERU. Mw 7.5 (GS), 7.7 (HRV). Me 7.3 (GS).

Ms 7.0 (BRK). Es=2.2*10**15 Nm (GS). Mo=2.0*10**20 Nm (GS).

Mo=4.6*10**20 Nm (HRV). Mo=7.7*10**20 Nm (PPT).

At least 14 people killed, 560 injured and 12,000 homeless from Chincha Alta to Acari. Over 4,000 houses damaged or destroyed (VIII) at Nazca. Felt (VII) in the Marcona area; (VI) at Ica and Palpa; (IV) at Arequipa and Camana; (III) at Lima and Tacna; (II) at Huancayo and Pucallpa. Felt by people in high-rise buildings at Guayaquil, Ecuador and La Paz, Bolivia. Tsunami generated with maximum recorded wave heights (peak-to-trough) of 25 cm at Callao, Peru; 35 cm at Arica and 21 cm at Caldera, Chile. This thrust earthquake is associated with the subduction of the Nazca Ridge (a major feature of the Nazca plate) beneath the South American plate. It originated near the southern end of a seismic gap between the large Peruvian earthquakes of August 24, 1942 and October 3, 1974, with the aftershock sequence progressing southward into the zone of the 1942 event. Complex earthquake with at least two larger events occurring about 18 and 30 seconds after the onset.

OK, so I hadn't actually left Japan when the Great Tohoku Earthquake hit on 11th March 2011, BUT... we were supposed to leave in December 2010. 

 

I told you these posts were going to be a stream of unconsciousness, didn't I? I do like to ramble on...

Deefer

What? Don't you get it?

It's Dee-fer Dog!

Dogs.

Most specifically my adorable Shiba Inu, Kita.

What does Kita mean? Well, as she's a Japanese dog, born and raised in Japan, her name actually means 'north'. It's a pretty word. However, in German 'Kita' means nursery or kindergarten! So we get some very strange looks here sometimes.

Kita is exceedingly people-friendly and cannot understand why so few people here make a fuss of her as they did in Tokyo. I think she finds this depressing.

She's also very shocked at the sheer hugeness of the dogs here. Used to tiny 'handbag dogs' who sniff her ankles, she doesn't have a clue what to do when confronted by a large, bouncy labrador who rudely goes straight to butt-sniffing mode.

Our Japanese vet explained that Shibas greet in a cat-like fashion - nose to nose. I've seen this myself. There are rules to dogs meeting and greeting our Shiba Inu.

First they have to look right... I don't know why it is, but she really isn't keen on labradors.

A Chow Chow is absolutely fine because that too greets her in the 'correct manner'. After all, that breed is her ancestor. Most dogs with pointed ears are OK. Other than that, I can only guess at her "that's an OK dog" criteria.

She's also not a fan of any snub-nosed dogs; pugs, Sharpeis and so on. Perhaps due to the nose-sniffing thing? But she doesn't react too badly to them.

It's the instant arse-sniffing labradors that really annoy her. She screeches at them, teeth bared and obviously fearful. We get treated to the infamous Shiba Scream.

Most off-putting to the poor owner of the other dog. I do cringe and try to explain, but something gets lost in translation.

Mind you, it's hard enough to explain in my own language!

 

Big C, Little C...

Yes, I'm a Dr Seuss fan.

Guess what 'C' is for? Yup...

Cat.

But not The Cat in the Hat... it's Raymi, the well-travelled cat. He's come with us from Northampton to Tokyo to Berlin. And I think he's now a bit fed up with it.

Shortly after arriving here, he decided he was not going outside at all. Thankfully he's now fully recovered and is committing murder most days. He's got a new catflap which I had to teach him how to use. A quick learner, he's now popping in and out whenever he wishes.

To prevent the total demise of the small animal and bird population I got him a collar with a bell on. It lasted a couple of days before it went missing. I have no idea how he does it. Amazingly, the builders next door discovered it and handed it back!

When not stalking every living creature, he's  uncharacteristically friendly to me and strangely vocal, chirruping gently whenever he sees me.

He also aggressively demands strokes and lap-space. It's rather sweet, but the sudden change is a little unnerving.

 

B-b-b-b...

Continuing Berlinfusion's A to Z rambles.

is for...

Lots of things!

Blog.

And Berlinfusion, natch! I like the design of this but I may have a fiddle with the layout at some point. Well, as much as I can with Typepad. I like the pictures down the right of this layout but I can't make any further changes to the setup unless I lose these. Let's see how much time I have in the autumn.

Japanory remains popular according to its hit rate. People are still searching for earthquake-related information but increasingly it's being found by people looking for touristy stuff. So I really must add "write some more blog posts for Japanory" to my never ending to-do list.

Bread.

Oh heavenly bread! How I've missed real bread. I'd never do well on a no-carb diet. Bread, well toast really, is my go-to food for all hours of the day. Bread in Japan was strange, sweet and small. Bread here is brown. Proper brown. With bits in! 

I've eaten a lot of bread.

Biscuits.

Schoko Hobbits. Isn't that a fabulous name? Our cupboard is full of Hobbits! They are Chocolate Hobnobs. Or as near as dammit. There are non-chocolate ones too. I like Hobbits.

See? Not a chance going low-carb let alone no-carb.

Bells.

Church bells to be precise. Not the tuneful peals I remember from my childhood or visits to my Mum's. No, these are seemingly random clanging bells from a church not too far away. They ring at 6pm on most days. And for some unexplained reason at odd times in the morning. Often around 8.45am. And on Sundays. And religious holidays that I am unaware of.

If they were Change Ringing it wouldn't be so annoying, but apparently that's a typically English thing.

Birds.

My ornithological interest has reawakened as I can now identify most of the birds I see without searching fruitlessly through bird books.

 

 

A is for...

I've decided to set myself a little challenge. Berlinfusion’s own A to Z stream of unconsciousness.

Some letters may have lots of entries, others not so many. A few may just have a strangled "erm" attached to them.

And the next 26 posts will follow the alphabet. I may come back and add to these from time to time.

Let’s start:

Arrival.

Covered here. I've nothing to add to that post, but a few words have been removed in the interests of family disharmony. A closed mouth gathers no foot...

We've been here for three months now and I have very few memories of our actual arrival, so jetlagged was I. In fact, I still feel country-lagged, or perhaps this is the culture-shock I've heard about. I didn't suffer from this at all in Japan, so maybe this is reverse culture shock. Whatever it is, it's making my new life very strange but I'll plough through because that's what I do.

It's certainly taking me a long time to get used to being in a European country again. Because everyone here "looks like us", according to Rhiannon (!), we don't get the automatic "oh, they're obviously foreigners so we'll give them a break" attitude. What I'm trying to say in my rambling way is people assume we're German and our language isn't yet up to scratch yet. It makes me feel stupid and isolated. But it is something I can sort out in time.

AARGH!

See above...

All in all, this year has been pretty stressful with no immediate sign of it easing in the immediate future. With the earthquake in Japan and the move here, along with major and minor problems that don't bear airing here, 2011 has been a pain in the butt so far.

It can only get better.

Can't it?

 

School's Out for Summer!

End of term means visiting the school to watch the end of term assembly.

And Report Time.

The assembly was OK. Not on a par with the productions put on at the school in Tokyo, but there are far fewer people here. I was also a little perturbed that a certain level of strictness wasn't carried out so children and teachers chatted throughout the presentations. Somewhat disrespectful, in my opinion.

Yes, I have very high expectations of schools!

Prize-giving commenced, with certificates of merit given for various achievements. I was as proud as punch when Rhiannon's name was called for the Best Non-Native German Language award! She's only been learning it for two months and had very little confidence in her abilities, saying she had found Japanese easier to learn. This recognition boosted her morale significantly. Clever girl!

School finished directly after so we drove home in high spirits listening to loud music.

Then it was time to read her report.

Very good indeed, I'm happy to say. 'A's across the board apart from a couple of 'B's - for science and geography. But to my horror a 'C' for PE. How on earth can anyone get a 'C' for PE? (Yes, I can get a little bit "Tiger Mother" sometimes. Especially with the only two subjects dear to my heart - English and PE.). I shall attempt to instill some competitive spirit into her this summer.

The rest of the day was spent frantically doing laundry and packing ready for our trip to the UK tomorrow.

Regarding my post yesterday on the changes due to happen at the school, I've come to a decision.

As it's too late to talk to anyone at school about the changes, and with us going away for a while, I've decided Rhiannon will go back to the school in the new term as normal. We'll see how it goes and take it in stages. I have other schools bookmarked, but on the whole I'm not impressed with any of them. You may probably gather, I do not like schools very much. (One day I'll spill the beans on the horrible experiences we had in Tokyo!!)

With Rhiannon's newly commended language skills I have confidence that she will cope well. And if class sizes remain extremely low, there will be plenty of assistance for her.

It's pretty much all I can do for now.

 

 

A Whale Boat and School Bombshells

An end of year school trip was announced last week. Yes, very little notice again, but thankfully we were able to go.

The trip was a family cruise on the Tegeler See, a massive body of water in the Charlottenburg district to celebrate the end of term and thank the class teacher.

It was a beautiful day - I got a little sunburned - and the kids had an absolute whale of a time on a whale of a boat.

Meet Moby Dick!

The cruise lasted about an hour and the scenery was wonderful.

Unfortunately neither Tim nor I could understand the German commentary. And very little of the other parents conversations either as all were conducted in German. Occasionally someone would say something in English, but on the whole, we were left out. Need to get some language skills soon.

After the cruise, we were supposed to go somewhere near our home for dinner but ended up wandering through the lake area looking for a place to eat. We ended up at an Indian restaurant.

Then someone sensible brought up the fact that most children won't want spicy Indian food, so we all traipsed back to our cars to return to the original venue.

After an accidental six mile detour we arrived and tried to find everyone at this place called Ku'damm Beach. Eventually, by following the shrieks of children we climbed down a load of steps to discover a burger restaurant on a little sandy beach by one of our local lakes.

What a find! I think we will be returning there on a hot day. All the children splashed around in the lake while us parents talked. Or rather, they talked and I tried to join in, but my German wasn't up to it.

Luckily someone translated a few very important and extremely worrying points for me.

The school we carefully selected for Rhiannon because it was the only school to offer the English curriculum is changing to a German curriculum next term! Some lessons will only be conducted in German.

This is horrifying, to be frank. Rhiannon will drop far behind in these classes as everyone else is a native German speaker. Nobody actually knows which classes will be held in German either.

The communication is appalling at this school. The fact that I only found this out tonight shocked the other people there. And with only half a day left of term I have no way of discussing any of this with the head teacher.

Also, the class has only ten children in it, and five of these are leaving. Mostly because of this change of curriculum. And the turnover of teachers is worryingly high too.

When I told Rhiannon what was planned, she freaked out, understandably. However, when I suggested moving schools she freaked out even more. She really does love it there, even though she's only been there a couple of months. We have no time to do anything right now. And, as I say, she adores the school. I guess it will be a massive incentive to learn German though!

I hate school stuff.

I just don't know what to do for the best now.

 

Tequila Time

Last night I finally got to meet some lovely ladies!

It was (sadly) a leaving 'do' for one of them - I always meet the best people as they are about to leave.

Tim dropped me off at her house and we caught the bus together. Which was just as well because I still have absolutely no idea how the public transport works here. She's Japanese so we had a wonderful time reminiscing about places.

First stop was a bar to meet the other ladies in the party. About eight of us altogether, but two left before dinner. One of those who left early had seen me at the school when I did my talks to the assembly! It's a shame that she is also leaving Berlin too as she seemed great fun. The other members of the group were from the office where Tim works.

After a couple of beers it seemed a really good idea to move onto tequila. I have no idea why I did this as it's one of the (many) drinks on my personal banned list.

The rest of the evening appears in a series of snapshots:

We went for an Indian meal in a beautifully designed restaurant. I was careful to order biriyani as most Indian food doesn't agree with me at all. It was delicious and stayed put...

Then three of us went on to another bar when I really should have gone home.

Frozen Margaritas for me. Oh dear.

Back in my much younger days, tequila would have me dancing on tables, being loud and rude (well, more so than usual...), and talking about men.

How things have changed.

We talked about the best ways to potty train children, schools and motherhood!

I did not dance, either on or off a table and I don't think I was rude, but I was loud - I always am.

And I do remember showing my tattoos off... luckily the bar was pretty much empty.

We made plans to drive to Poland tomorrow to go pottery shopping! No, it's not happening, it was just one of those wonderful, crazy, alcohol-fuelled ideas.

Thankfully, they other two had a much better sense of direction than me. I get lost just crossing a road.

They asked which bus I needed. No idea. Which direction do I live in? I waved in one direction.

"No!" they laughed, "You live that way", and pointed in completely the opposite direction. Oops.

I caught a cab; it seemed safer.

After a couple of hours sleep, the most appalling leg cramps woke me up so I came downstairs and stretched out on the sofa with the cat watching strange early morning TV.

I roused myself just enough to get Rhiannon out the door to school, then fell asleep on the sofa with both cat and dog on top of me.

It's taken copious cups of tea and several ibuprofen to get me to the stage where I can write this post.

My age is telling me to go teetotal, I think!

Meeting Mums

Last night I was excited to have a chance at last to meet some parents and teachers from school.

A few weeks ago, Rhiannon brought a letter home from school inviting parents to join a focus group to discuss improving communication amongst the school community, additional activities for the children and website development.

Perfect! I signed up straightaway and marked the date on my calendar.

The meeting was at a Japanese sushi restaurant. I felt that was a sign that it would be a good night out.

So yesterday evening I found something not-too-shabby to wear, called a cab and went off with high hopes of a great night out and perhaps making new friends.

The restaurant (more like a cafe, actually) was suspiciously empty.

Nobody spoke English. Then along came the lady owner who managed some heavily accented English. After some effort, I discovered the meeting was held the previous evening...

No, I had not got the date wrong. The school had changed the date and I wasn't informed.

I was very upset and more than a little angry.

The owner called a taxi to take me all the way back home again. While waiting for it we chatted - sort of. Her daughter attends the same school and she kindly invited us all over for a meal one day so her daughter can meet and make friends with Rhiannon.

She is Russian and the sushi chef is... Vietnamese. There were crab-sticks in the sushi display. Authentic Japanese this was not.

I returned home 25 euros worse off thanks to the cab fares - I believe I've mentioned before that there is no public transport nearby.

First thing this morning I called the school to find out what had happened. The headteachers were in a meeting so I spoke to the receptionist/administrator.

Apparently an email was sent out to all interested parties to advise of the date change - not received.

I was not on the list on 'interested parties' anyway as the tear-off slip didn't reach the organisers -  Rhiannon definitely handed it in to her teacher.

I queried other missed emails. Basically I've heard nothing from the school at all apart from replies to mails I've originated. The admin lady agreed to look into it and send me something as a test. After a couple of hours I did receive a calendar of events. Very useful with just one week of school left.

"To discuss improving communication amongst the school community" was certainly a fitting subject for this cocked-up meeting.

It's 2.15pm and I still have not heard from either of the head teachers...