Berlinfusion

Queue

Quiet.

It's not that quiet here really. Sorry to keep harping back to Japan, but we were lucky enough to live in a tiny cul-de-sac and it was incredibly peaceful.

Not here though. It's not actually noisy. Well, apart from the building work going on next door I mentioned in my 'N' post. But it is different from what we're used to.

We've had more thunderstorms in the past couple of months than in our entire four and a half years in Tokyo. I love thunderstorms! Fireworks are set off from time to time. I don't like fireworks.

And OMG, we're back in a football-loving country. Ugh. Apparently the Women's World Cup tournament was held here which meant groups of drunken revellers could be heard making their way home late at night.

Again, something to get used to.

"I'll have a 'P' please, Bob"

Public Holidays.

Japan had squillions of public holidays - but at least the shops never closed.

I truly cannot get used to everything closing on Sundays and public holidays. I have never lived anywhere where I can't buy an emergency pint of milk on these days. It means that Saturdays are usually spent dashing around doing compulsory shopping-type activities (as opposed to happy Carole-type shopping).

Easter was a revelation. I've never 'done' Easter so to see so many Easter-related traditions around was unusual. Plastic eggs were hung on trees, shops and malls had eggstravgant yellow displays everywhere. Including real bunnies!

Christmas will be fascinating.

Pollen.

There's far too much of this sneaky allergen around. My newly developed hayfever season has lasted a long time.

At one point in early summer, everything was coated with a layer of yellow. Atchoo!

 

 

 

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...

 

 

 

Holiday Planning

Summer holidays start next week. On Friday afternoon to be precise; school finishes at midday. At least the holidays are only for seven weeks and not nine or ten as they were in Japan.

So we're heading off to the UK for the first time in two years. It's turning out to be harder to organise this trip than sorting out our move across continents.

Our lovely neighbours will look after Raymi-cat while we're away: we're currently looking after theirs. We're driving to the UK so Kita can come too. Apparently it's 'only' 1,000km...

Originally we'd planned to do the journey in one go, but have now decided to leave a day earlier and stop off half way. Tim used to live in Germany as a child so we're spending the night in a dog-friendly hotel near his old home. It will certainly make the 12 hour drive more survivable: for all of us.

Naturally, with the dog coming too there will be a very different dynamic to our usual UK-visit-activities. As yet, I have no idea how this will work out. I'm worried about her escaping from the various places we'll be staying.

In previous years there was a standard formula for our UK visits. We'd arrive in the UK in time for Mum's birthday and my oldest friend, Penny, would come from Wales to stay for a few days. We would have a big, family, birthday lunch for Mum followed by a fun walk on the Common.

Later, Penny and I would go out for an evening of girly catch-up at the fabulous Lainston House.  Then the rest of the time was spent helping Mum in the garden and doing a lot of shopping for things we couldn't get in Tokyo. Usually clothes for me and Rhiannon. And tea. Lots and lots of tea.

At some point we'd go to Devon for a week or so for a proper touristy-type holiday. Even though I grew up there, I take pleasure in being a grockle for a while. And I meet up with other friends from the Devon-Days. And eat a proper Devonshire Cream Tea.

This visit will be very different. Although the basics will remain as above, the nitty-gritty has changed. For a start, Tim will head straight off to work. That's right, he has to work for three out of the five weeks we're there.

There will not be a family birthday party for Mum, which makes her very sad. But I will do my best to make her special day memorable for her regardless.

Tim's parents have just moved back to the UK from the States, so we are also heading to Buckinghamshire to spend some time with them.

I want to see a very dear friend from Tokyo who now lives in the UK and Rhiannon wants to see someone special too. Luckily, both are based in roughly the same area as the in-laws, so I'm trying to organise dates and times to combine the visits.

We'll go to Devon as usual, but I will probably make two trips. Tim's working of course and I want to see other friends who already have dates fixed for their own holidays. Then I need to collect Tim after his work is finished. I'll be spending a lot of time on the A303...

And again, more worries about Kita - Britain doesn't seem to be as dog-friendly as Japan or Germany. In Japan we could take Kita into most attractions and here in Germany, dogs are even welcomed into some restaurants. From what I've heard, even some pubs in the UK refuse to have dogs in them now. Not to mention the many reports I've heard of vicious off-leash dogs...

Our shopping list is pretty long: school uniform, riding gear, various food-stuffs and bed linen... the Germans only have giant square pillows, not the rectangular ones, we don't have enough pillowcases! 

There are lots of other friends I'd love to catch up with too, but I really can't work out how to see everyone. It may be five weeks, but it all disappears up its own backside very quickly!

Add all this to everything I have to finish before next Friday afternoon and I feel very much like this...

 

 

 

 

The Expat Child

Over the years, I've heard various names for the expat child including global nomad, army brat (!) and third culture kid.

Are you an expat? Do you have children? How have they coped with the move?

Or were you brought up away from your home country? Were you (gasp) an army brat?

I'm doing some research for a book I'm writing about expat children and would appreciate your input, please.

I've created a couple of surveys with some questions and reactions I'd like to study. If you're interested in sharing your knowledge please email me at [email protected]

All responses will be strictly confidential and you don't even have to give your name.

Thank you! And please spread the word; I'd like to get as much feedback as possible. 

 

 

 

 

Calling all parents of ‘expat children’ or adults who lived overseas as a child.

I am researching for a book I’m writing about expat children and would appreciate your input.

All responses will be strictly confidential and you don’t have to give your name. If you have any questions or would like to share more information with me, please email me at [email protected]

The Garden Invaders

I had high hopes for my new large garden. When we first arrived my inner gardener awoke and immediately started planning. Put some colourful plants in and make a Japanese garden in the corner next to my desk to start.

However, these plans disappeared after I took a closer look at the soil and lawn.

The soil is so compacted I've bent the fork, even though it's mostly sand. It's very poor quality. How anything can grow here, I don't know. The only thing that's growing well is the enormous tree in the centre of the lawn.

And therein lies the problem. The beautiful beech tree is so huge, it's sucking all the life from most of the garden. Lining the borders are conifers of different types which destroy the rest of the ground. Nothing will grow near them, either. We have completely bare patches everywhere. And no, we can't remove the trees - it's against the rules...

As for the lawn, well, that's a misnomer for a start. When we arrived here in April it was green, but mostly moss. We've had very little rain until the past couple of weeks so even the moss has died. The lawn is brown. Part of it is a complete dust bath of ants nests. Just past this desert is an interesting green patch near the end of the garden which is lushly filled with 'meadow flowers' aka weeds. And dog diorr diaho shit (see previous post for details... she's better now, by the way).

I've put in three plants: an acer near my Japanese stonework and a couple of buddleia. Not very interesting or unusual, but I'm reluctant to pay out too much in case the bitter winters kill them off.

My little patch of Japan

However, the other members of my family have other ideas on how to fill up the garden and add colour to my vista... so far we have two vivid yellow plastic swings on the tree and a large green and blue trampoline that I've unsuccessfully tried to hide.

A quick glance out my window now as the twilight descends into night, I can see two pink and purple hula hoops, a turquoise and white baseball and a fluorescent orange and blue water bomb. Scattered elsewhere are brightly coloured tennis balls secreted away by the dog. Colourful, yes. But not quite what I was after. I spend a lot of time looking out of the window - especially when I have work to complete. I want it to be a happy, beautiful and inspiring scene...

Yesterday though, Tim and Rhiannon bought back the most hideous item of garden 'adornment' I've ever seen. An inflatable water-slide.

This monstrosity was bought back from an afternoon they spent with friends while I slaved away writing in an attempt to finish before the summer holidays.

Triumphantly it was dragged around to the patio where Tim attached the loud pump in order to inflate it. I was making dinner so didn't really register what was going on. Until I returned to the living room to find almost the entire width of the patio blocked by this multi-coloured eyesore.

Rhiannon was already in her swimming costume ready to try it out. She had time for two happy slides before dinner even though it's rather chilly here right now. I asked if it took long to inflate.

"No, not long, just a few minutes"

"Good, then deflate the thing and put it out of sight until the weather gets warmer, please."

They'd planned to leave it up in the garden... I think not.

After all, where would Kita catch her sunbeams then?

 

Poorly Puppy

OK, she's not really a puppy as she's almost two, but she's definitely poorly.

I've been trying to move Kita to a raw diet with a thought to maybe going to BARF or prey model in due course. Introducing the new diet slowly, I tried her with rabbit first. She adored it! Great start - this was a couple of weeks ago.

I'll fill in my other experiences with this new diet another day.

She had rabbit again on Sunday.

A couple of days later, she started suffering from diarrhoea. (That word is so hard to spell - I have to Google it each time to get the British English spelling.) 

Oh no! Had I caused it by feeding her raw food? I didn't think so, dogs have a different digestive system from us. But still...

She went very reluctantly on her walks and seemed to be constipated too; she was straining a lot. I kept a close eye on her but she was fine at home. Lively and eating as normal.

But then she kept Rhiannon up all night by whining to get out. I let her into the garden at midnight whereupon she did the unthinkable and pooed there. Why is it unthinkable? Well, Shibas tend to 'do their business' well away from their 'den' or home. We were told it's because they are a primitive species and they don't want to advertise their presence to potential enemies. Usually, we have to walk some considerable distance before she 'goes'. In Tokyo, she got it up to two miles!

Anyway, I slept on the sofa with her, sort of, as she needed to go out ever couple of hours. I have to admit it was really lovely having a real teddy-bear dog to cuddle, and she was very cuddly. But poor, poorly puppy <sad face>.

As I mentioned here, I wasn't too keen on the vet we'd found. So first thing yesterday morning I emailed the hostess from the 'do' the other night for advice. She was fabulous and telephoned me straight away as well as emailing the address and phone number over. She even offered to come over and drive us there. What a truly kind and lovely lady.

I couldn't get an appointment until 5pm and told Tim to get home early as there was no way I could deal with a sick dog and a potentially over-dramatic child.

Poor Kita went downhill quite quickly. She refused to drink anything and slept so deeply I felt the need to poke her regularly to wake her up. On the occasions she went outside I could see she was in pain too. I Googled and panicked myself by thinking she may have an obstruction.

I spent the day getting fluids into her, but it was not easy. She'd lick drops from my fingers but would have nothing from the bowl. I improvised a syringe with a straw and managed to keep her going to the extent she was much perkier by the time we had to go to the vets.

Oh they were wonderful! It was a proper surgery rather than a slightly grubby front room and all the staff made a huge fuss of Kita. And they spoke English. And the vet knew about the Shiba Inu species, which is very useful. 

The vet immediately attached her to a drip, took her temperature - which made her very cross -  well it would, wouldn't it? No raised temperature, thank goodness. He gave her painkillers and antibiotics and said she'd probably picked up a virus by inhalation, something similar to Rotavirus - they'd had a lot of cases recently.

I've got antibiotic tablets to give her and she's been better today. Still not particularly keen on drinking, so I've had to continue that palaver, but she kept following me out to the kitchen for food. So I mixed some up with a lot of water and she wolfed it down.

This evening, she wanted to go for a walk, so she's obviously on the mend. Thank goodness!

What a worry.

Success!

Good morning! Just a quick update on yesterday evening's night out.

In my opinion, it was a great success. This means I wasn't over or under-dressed and I did not drink too much and embarrass anyone. The people were interesting and (very) intelligent. And further entertainment was provided in the form of a small, well behaved dog.

I was very taken by the floral displays everywhere. They had a touch of ikebana about them and made me realise I miss my classes in Tokyo and probably need to find a florist's soon so I can practise more.

There were about a dozen guests and at 9pm we were served the most incredible supper. Silver service all the way with a dizzying array of glasses and cutlery. I remembered how to use them too!

A mouth watering selection of salmon started off the meal, followed by delicious, tender beef and gnocchi as a main course and for dessert, mixed berries with a parfait of some description. I couldn't translate the menu and I didn't feel I should ask what was in it.

I was placed next to our host and at one point was put on the spot to talk about the subject of an article I'm writing this week. All I've done so far is light research, so I surprised myself at being able to recall an 'interesting' fact about it. The whole table went quiet to listen, so perhaps it's more interesting than I thought! That's a very good way of clarifying thoughts on a tricky article though. Now I'd better write the damn thing before I forget - it's due at the end of the week...

After supper, we went to the drawing room for coffee and everyone headed outside. The garden was beautiful but I was cold so went back in with the charming hostess and chatted with her for the rest of the evening.

We left early to rescue our new babysitter. After all, it was a school night. She was extremely lovely and level headed and Rhiannon adored her. So did the dog, to the extent of jumping clear over the sofa several times and generally being a typical OTT Shiba Inu.

All in all, a fabulous night out and I feel so much brighter having had other adults to talk to for a while.

What to Wear?

Well here's something new. Tim and I are going out to a function tonight and... we finally have a babysitter!

It's taken a long time, a rather complicated set of phone calls, emails, and text messages, date misunderstandings, a bit organisation and a lot of help from someone I've not yet met, but it's all come together at the last moment.

The 'do' doesn't start until 8.30pm though, which, as our new babysitter is still at school, will mean we will somehow have to make an early getaway. Tim will collect her and take her home afterwards. 

As usual I have no idea what to wear. I never do. I really need a stylist and a bottomless wallet.

I bought a new dress by mail-order for my birthday / sayonara party that didn't happen due to the earthquake in Japan. However, I only tried it on an hour ago... and of course, it looks dreadful.

One day I will remember that I'm no longer 21 years old and a svelte size 10 with pert standalone boobs. One day...

Perhaps I should stick to my tried and tested all-black outfits, but even I'm bored with them now. Besides, I fancied a bit of colour to cheer me up a bit. So in desperation I've settled on a bright reddish-pink skirt and a black top. Which meant I had to take off my newly applied nail varnish as it doesn't match. Yes, it's been one of those days.

Inevitably, whatever I choose to wear will be wrong. Either everyone will be in evening dress and I'll be 'smart casual' or vice versa. Yes, it's happened before.

When Rhiannon gets back from school she will insist on 'helping' me with my make-up and accessories. Which reminds me, I still haven't unpacked my jewellery. Probably just as well the 'do' doesn't start until late. Oh, and another thing, I have no idea if it's a drinks and nibbles event or a full-blown sit-down dinner. I shall either starve or over-feed. (I'm going to eat a little something in a moment in case it's the former.)

So in a few hours time I shall be meeting a few new people, a couple of VIPs and even more importantly, my new and hopefully long-term babysitter.

I just hope it stops pouring with rain by the time we need to leave.

Wish me luck!

 

School Residential Trip

School started last Tuesday with Rhiannon heading off on a residential trip to the north of Germany somewhere near the Polish border.

For four days and three nights. Three whole nights!

She's been away before, but only ever for one night at a time. To be frank, she doesn't really do too well away from the comfort of her own home (and mum!). She gets over-excited then over-tired swiftly followed by over-emotional and over-wrought.

But she was incredibly excited about the trip, albeit tinged with a little nervousness and a lot of bravery considering all the changes she's been through recently. For example, I'm still having to reassure her that there will not be an earthquake here...

However, by Wednesday she realised that she'd be away for another couple of nights and I received an incoherent phone call from her. Sobbing her heart out, she told me she wanted to come home. I can't say it was unexpected, but it was upsetting for this mum nonetheless.

Her mobile phone reception wasn't good so we resorted to texting - me with reassurances and advice to speak to a teacher, Rhiannon with vague, almost monosyllabic comments. As far as I could gather it was purely homesickness and nothing more worrying. (This turned out to be correct, by the way).

Finally it all went quiet on the phone front. I pondered contacting the teachers, but decided they were aware of the problem and knew how to deal with it. 

Apron strings need to be loosened sometime and now was as good a time as any.

Thankfully I was right and when Rhiannon called later that evening she was much perkier and stated "Well, I must give it a go". Good girl!

On Friday she texted me to say she was on the bus heading back to school and was very tired. For her to admit she is tired means she's about to drop. The bus arrived at school an hour earlier than expected and the next message I received was "when are you coming to collect me?" 

What!? I'd not expected that. I thought she'd be coming back on the bus as usual - oops, assumptions again!

Time for mum to be brave now and drive the 12km to school - a particularly complicated journey involving massive roundabouts (my personal nemeses) and the potential to accidentally get onto an autobahn of massive size.

To my relief I made it without incident although I will admit to being very shaky at the end of it.

It was fabulous to see my girl again and instantly noticed in her a new maturity hidden under the dark circles of tiredness. All in all she'd had an absolutely brilliant time, although not all the promised activities happened for various reasons.

She arrived home to a fabulously enthusiastic welcome from Kita; Tim arrived home from work and we went out for a celebratory meal at the trattoria.

Rhiannon slept for 12 hours and is still tired this morning. She's gone riding now. What a busy week for her.

 

Animal Assassinations

Yesterday was quite traumatic.

After our return from sight-seeing in Berlin, we let the pets out into the garden.

Almost immediately, Raymi the cat reappeared with a mouse. The mouse was not dead and Raymi was doing that revolting cat thing of playing with the poor creature.

My inclination was to let the cat finish what he'd started, as I presumed the mouse would already be mortally wounded.

I told Tim what was going on out there in case the dog tried to muscle in. Since we arrived here Kita has realised she's a hunting dog and spends her morning walk wrenching my arm out of its socket in her unsuccessful but enthusiastic pursuit of various rodents.

I also told Rhiannon not to go out there. She's way too sensitive for that kind of scene. Besides, we'd already had a pretty stressful day.

Did she take any notice of me? Of course not.

Anyway, Tim rescued the mouse which, as it happened, was uninjured, just in deep shock, understandably.

The squeals from Rhiannon started, "Ohhh it's soooo CUTE! Please can we keep it as a pet? Please, please, pleeeaaase? I love it!". Repeated at top volume until your ears melt...

They released the little mouse outside our fence at the end of the garden. I didn't like to tell them that's where a neighbour's cat lurks...

Anyway, a few minutes later piercing screams of the utmost horror tore through the quiet air. I thought Tim, Kita or Raymi had been injured in some kind of accident, such was the intensity of Rhiannon's freak-out.

Nope. Yet another mouse had popped up through a drain on the other side of the house.

And Kita made her first kill.

I've wondered for some time what Kita would do if she did actually catch one. Would she lick it and try to make friends with it? Or did she have the killer instinct to dispatch it quickly and cleanly?

I suspected the former.

I was wrong. Apparently she was extremely efficient. And very proud of herself.

Shame she had to do it in front of Rhiannon.

I'm afraid my warped sense of humour kicked in and I suggested we send it to my friend to be stuffed... Rhiannon was most unimpressed and I think Tim was a bit horrified too.

Yes, I'm evil... sorry.

 

 

Holocaust Memorial

Today is yet another public holiday here. So we took the bus and a train into the Mitte - the centre of Berlin. This is near Tim's workplace so he knew the area a little.

In the muggy heat of a June day we went for lunch at a very mediocre café.

Across the road was a mass of rectangular blocks. Hundreds of them. It's the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe aka the Holocaust Memorial.

19,000 square metres of 2,711 concrete slabs. They look like slate - dark grey and very smooth to touch.

We weren't allowed into the information centre as it's not open to children under the age of 14. Understandable, but tricky to explain to Rhiannon why is was unsuitable for her. I feel everyone should know about the Holocaust and I've explained a little to her, but her young brain cannot conceive the unparalleled horror of it. Neither can mine, really.

You can wander around amongst the stelae, as the slabs are called. They are arranged in a grid pattern on sloping ground and are of varying heights. Undulating paths lead through the slabs. According to Wikipedia they "are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere".

That description is not wrong.

Just after I took the photo above, I was overwhelmed by the largest dark cloud and burst into tears. I sobbed "I can't stay in here" and ran out to the edge.

I'm not claustrophobic. The thought that popped into my head was something along the lines of "these look like the huts in the concentration camps".

At least I could leave.

I can't explain my reaction. I'll try another day.

Once I'd composed myself and met up with Tim and a concerned and slightly confused Rhiannon we went to see the Brandenburg Gate.

This is where the Berlin Wall used to be. Only marked by the right-angle of bricks in the road.

And a slightly wonky photo of the Reichstag.

Then we went home.

I feel weird.

 

 

The Mysterious Stranger

Once upon a time, a family moved across the globe.

From East to West they travelled, with many memories, treasures, and rather a lot of trauma in their baggage. They weren't quite ready for the journey but higher forces decreed that it must be made. Their faithful animal companions travelled separately and after a few days, all living members of the family were happily reunited in their new-to-them abode.

Goods and chattels followed later, whereupon the family tried very hard to make the house a home. Most of this work fell to the head of the family because the other two members were out at work and school. She was perfectly happy with this situation.

Around the time of this vitally important settling-in period the head of the family was invited to an ancient ritual called a "coffee morning". Unfortunately she was unable to attend due to the timing of the event and its location in between the lands of Ihaven'taclue and Notransportavailable.

Pressure in the form of phone calls was put upon the her, but she was under the more important pressures of work deadlines and just couldn't make it. It was accepted that she couldn't meet the tribe this time and would make it next time.

Or so she thought...

A couple of other invitations have been sent, but as there is nobody to care for the youngest member of the family, these too have had to be refused. Other requests include courses and classes that do not appeal due to time constraints and reallynotinteresteditis.

Very recently a phone call revealed certain interesting speculations circulating. Apparently the head of the family is considered to be mysterious, unusual, and possibly a 'wild card' in the potential circle. She thinks this translates as 'unsociable and downright weird'.

All descriptions suit her very well and she revels in them. Who wants to be considered 'normal'?

She was informed that she "couldn't hide forever" and "rumours are starting about you". Promises were made to "just drop in on her one day" and inferences that a party should be held at their home very soon.

It's unusual in the particular life the family leads for a woman to work from home. Many people do not understand this concept, even in this day and age.

Take a look at the current To-Do list she is currently working through...

• Plan, research and prepare my book.
• Create a questionnaire interview for my book.
• Send above interview out to as many people as possible.
• Write numerous articles before the summer holidays which start in 4 weeks.
• Care for child, dog and cat.
• Take child to the Pony Club.
• Find a 'baby'-sitter.
• Plan and organise play-dates and sleepovers.
• Plan summer holiday visits in the UK.
• Write extra articles that have been commissioned.
• Study and submit modules for my graphic design course.
• Wait in for various workmen to fix broken household items.
• Blog on Berlinfusion.
• Build a Wordpress website.
• Learn the following software properly;
  -Adobe Photoshop
  -Adobe Illustrator
  -Adobe Indesign
  -Wordpress
• Update Japanory blog.
• Do tax return.
• Sort out my office.
• Tackle the two Everest-like mountains of ironing.
• Housework (yes, it's at the bottom of the list for a reason)

It's no wonder she has no time for anything much else!

 

 

 

A Prize and A Pony

I've won a prize! A real one!!

This is a massive event for me because, although I have been lucky in life (for the most part), I never, ever win prizes for anything.

Only once did my raffle ticket come up - I was 14 years old and I won a bottle of sweet sherry. I think it was out of date. Dad was happy because it went into several trifles - his favourite dessert.

How did I win? I bought a book I'd been thinking of getting for a while - called Expat Women: Confessions. Then I discovered that if I bought it during May and sent the receipt to the group, I'd be entered into the draw. Every single prize was covetable. As it was a global draw, I didn't think I stood a chance, but if you don't try...

Anyway, on Twitter yesterday I saw they'd put up the list of winners, and lo and behold, my name - sort of - was at number 9. I spent the afternoon on tenterhooks wondering if there was more than one Carole Mobbs (without the Hallett) in the world who had entered this draw.

But this morning it was confirmed by email.

It was me! I've won a Kindle! I am so happy it's ridiculous.

I wonder if this has broken the never-win-anything spell? Now I would like to win an iPad please...

So with this happy news buzzing around in my head I took Rhiannon to her third riding lesson. This time I had to drive without Tim's calming presence beside me and put up with Rhiannon's non-stop yapping instead.

Halfway there, a massive thunderstorm hit and the heavens opened. I had no idea how to turn the windscreen wipers on! So I had to hold the wiper control stick whilst driving. A little nerve wracking, but I'm now comfortable driving on the wrong side of the road.

Luckily, the torrential rain held off for Rhiannon's lesson which she insisted I watch. She's coming on tremendously well and, after just two lessons has mastered the rising trot. She showed me how to groom and tack up "her" pony. His name is Napumuk and he's a very well behaved 17 years old.

The teacher is fabulous and I'm considering taking lessons myself in the autumn. Although I can ride, ie I can stay on a horse while it's galloping and I can trot without shaking my body to pieces, I've never had a proper lesson. And I've only really ridden using a Western saddle.

Let's see how I feel in the Autumn. There's no point starting now as we're off to the UK for five weeks from July.

Anyway, today's main topic in my head has been "I've won a PRIZE!"

Alice in Tokyo

Today I want to send many thanks to ML Awanohara, Kate Allison and Anthony Windram of The Displaced Nation for inviting me to write a guest post about Japan.

It was such fun to write! Not only did it mean I could write about my favourite place - Tokyo, but also to include loads of references to Alice in Wonderland. A book I know well as apart from reading it to Rhiannon on several occasions, I also studied it along with its partner, Alice Through the Looking Glass, for my 'A' levels, many moons ago.

So here is a link to my published post - "For curious and unreal travel, Tokyo sure beats Wonderland".

Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

My Cat is Mended!

Well, it's taken almost two months, but Raymi the cat is back to his normal self!

Yes, he's happy to go outside again. (You can read about his problems here)

After a few weeks he was OK going out at night, albeit very nervously. Even then he'd come back and miaow every ten minutes or so - just to check we're here, I guess. He began to stay out longer and longer before returning to check on us.

Then last weekend he came downstairs at 11am. And went outside!

Now he's back to his normal schedule of going out during the day and coming back in at night. More importantly he is less demanding when he is inside now.

He's found himself a 'spot' and casts his baleful eyes around at Kita playing the fool with her special ball.

The mouse population is diminishing though. One per night so far.

We are going to have to put a cat-flap in before we go away in the summer. I cannot imagine the carnage we may come back to.

Luckily, he doesn't feel the need to bring me presents, alive or dead, he just leaves them on the patio.

Let's hope this practice continues while we're away.

 

I Drove, She Rode!

It's been a busy few days. But when written down it doesn't appear so.

Thursday was (yet another) public holiday and the start of half term.

Rhiannon had her first riding lesson and Tim had the day off.

I had to drive here for the first time as I need to take Rhiannon riding next week by myself. And I really have to get self-reliant as soon as possible to prevent falling into the trailing spouse culture shock depression. It makes sense to make my first attempt while Tim is next to me.

Driving wasn't too bad. Perhaps it was easier because we have a right hand drive car so the layout is familiar to me. Anyway, I did it!

We dropped Rhiannon off for her lesson and drove back to a garden centre nearby, which was actually open on a public holiday. And it was very well stocked too. However, it was only plants that were available for buying, everything else was cordoned off - so you can buy plants, but not tools, earth but not cat litter.

I treated myself to a couple of beautiful Acers to help create a little Japanese garden and two Buddleias for a little easy-growing colour. Digging the holes for them was nigh on impossible though. The ground is incredibly hard having never been looked after. The soil is very sandy and will need a lot of help.

After a delicious and much needed cup of coffee, we went back to collect Rhiannon who was grooming "her" pony and putting away the tack. She declared her first lesson "the best thing she has ever done".

Good, so that's a success. I shall wave goodbye to my Saturdays for the next few years then.

On Friday, Tim took a day's holiday and Rhiannon had another riding lesson. So the same procedure was performed. At the garden centre this time I just bought pet stuff. Although I am pondering getting some rose bushes. I am a bit of a rose addict, so am currently unwilling to embark on this hobby as it will get expensive. Also, the ground needs sorting out first.

I also adore bonsai, but have a poor record at keeping them alive. So I just gazed and wished. I may cave another day as they had a fabulous little Ginko tree.

Rhiannon had a sleepover at a new friend's home right in the city centre, so we dropped her off there then headed into a supermarket to get some goodies for dinner. And visited a DIY store to get more storage for the bathroom.

Then we had a nice, quiet evening.

 

Today we had been instructed to collect Rhiannon at 10am but were then persuaded by two enthusiastic 9 year olds to bring her new friend back with us. So today has been fairly restful too.

This will all change after this friend has been collected in a couple of hours though.

I suppose I should tidy the house up a bit!

Birds I've Seen in My Garden Today

Warning! Twitcher Geek post ahead!!

 

I've been hard at work writing an article about Japan today. I'll let you know if / when / where it's published in due course.

So I've had my head down most of the time, but when I look up for inspiration (ie... gazing into the distance, thinking) I notice my garden is full of birds.

Now I grew up in a bird-watching family so know most of the birds I'm looking at, but it's still a lovely sight to see them in my garden. There are also some of the more 'unusual' garden birds. There are a couple I'm unsure about as when I looked them up to find their Latin names, I discovered some alternate options, noted below.

Perhaps I should feed them, but Raymi-cat has become a little braver and ventures out in the late afternoon / early evening now, so it seems cruel to encourage the birds to what could be a premature and unpleasant death.

Anyway, here's my list of "Birds I've Seen in My Garden Today":

• Black Redstart - Phoenicurus ochruros
• Blackbird - Turdus merula
• Blackcap - Sylvia atricapilla
• Bluetit - Cyanistes caeruleus
• Chaffinch - Fringilla coelebs
• Chiffchaff - Phylloscopus collybita
• Coal tit - Periparus ater
• Common Redstart - Phoenicurus phoenicurus
• Great tit - Parus major
• Greater Spotted Woodpecker or Medium Spotted?  - Dendrocopos major / Dendrocopos medius (I didn't realise the Medium Spotted existed until I looked the Latin name up just now, so I'm not sure which I had in my garden)
  
• Lesser Spotted Woodpecker - Dendrocopos minor
• Hooded crow - Corvus cornix

• House Sparrow - Passer domesticus
• Eurasian Tree Sparrow - Passer montanus (Again, not sure about this - to me, it looks similar to the House Sparrow)
  
• European Starling - Sturnus vulgaris
• Jay - Garrulus glandarius

• Magpie - Pica pica
• Nuthatch - Sitta europaea
• Robin - Erithacus rubecula
• White Wagtail - Motacilla alba
• Wood pigeon - Columba palumbus
• Wren - Troglodytes troglodytes

There are Nightingales around too, heard but not seen. And probably Warblers, but I can't tell one Warbler from another so tend to ignore them.

Perhaps I'll finally learn their differences while I'm here.

Blackbird                                                                                                     Turdus merula

Bluetit                                                                                                          Cyanistes caeruleus

Chaffinch                                                                                                    Fringilla coelebs

Chiffchaff                                                                                                    Phylloscopus collybita

Hooded crow                                                                                            Corvus cornix

Jay                                                                                                                 Garrulus glandarius

Greater Spotted Woodpecker or Medium Spotted?                Dendrocopos major / Dendrocopos medius

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker                                                              Dendrocopos minor

Magpie                                                                                                        Pica pica

Great tit                                                                                                       Parus major

Coal tit                                                                                                          Periparus ater

Wood pigeon                                                                                            Columba palumbus

Common Redstart                                                                                   Phoenicurus phoenicurus

Black Redstart                                                                                           Phoenicurus ochruros

Robin                                                                                                            Erithacus rubecula

Nuthatch                                                                                                     Sitta europaea

House Sparrow                                                                                         Passer domesticus

Eurasian Tree Sparrow                                                                          Passer montanus

White Wagtail                                                                                           Motacilla alba

Wren                                                                                                            Troglodytes troglodytes

Blackcap                                                                                                      Sylvia atricapilla

European Starling                                                                                    Sturnus vulgaris

Pony Club Mum - Venturing into Unknown Territory

Still reeling from the shock of discovering that half term starts the day after tomorrow, I set about planning what to do to keep a demanding child occupied.

In the midst of preparing to move here, I'd rashly promised Rhiannon she could take up horse riding. She's not one of those totally horse-mad kids, but always enjoys pony rides at various places and has wanted to learn properly for ages. Besides, she has no after-school activities here and because she returns from school so late, there's no chance of starting any.

She needs some extra focus in her life, preferably sporty. In Tokyo she'd reached her 5th kyu in Aikido and we hoped she'd be able to continue here - she misses it - but sadly we can't find anywhere either nearby, or offering classes that work for her free time. We're still looking.

So, while Tim was off work yesterday we drove over to the Brandenberg British Pony Club to see what they offer. We were met by Nicola, the British owner and escorted under barriers to her office where we discussed options. Afterwards we went to meet the horses and ponies. They were roaming free and some were enormous!

I think I hoped we could get Rhiannon into a few lessons over half term and then random weekends throughout the year. It doesn't work like that - she has to promise to ride at least once every week. This may be a problem as the only days she can attend are Saturdays. So for now we've booked her in to take four trial lessons over the half term and Nicola has kindly agreed that her real lessons can start in September when we return from our summer trip to the UK.

What I particularly like is that it's not just riding - Rhiannon will have to muck in (and muck out), learn how to care for the horses and tack and everything. Nicola will keep her in check. Haha!

I'd also sort of hoped I'd be able to go for a hack while she attends her lessons, but as I've never had a formal lesson in my life, I don't think this would be in order. Besides, I can only really ride properly in a "cowboy" saddle.

I'll admit to being a little nervous about this new venture. Firstly because I will have to drive there by myself (eek!), secondly, all the worst case scenarios are jumping around in my mum-brain and thirdly, I really don't want to spend each and every weekend attending pony club events.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. Rhiannon may hate it or be allergic to the horses... I'll know more by the end of the week.

The Organised Mum

The organised mum has a calendar. This calendar may be colour coded with different shades for weekends, appointments noted for each member of the family, including pets, and kept scrupulously up to date.

On this calendar she writes down when school holidays start and end, when sports day is and when her darling child is due to go away on a residential trip. She will also have noted when public holidays are and when her beloved husband has planned leave or business trips.

She will also know when June starts.

I am not this mum.

I am this mum...

I don't even have a proper calendar because, for once, I wasn't sent 30 of the things as Christmas presents last year. So each month I use Word to generate a calendar and pin it up by my desk. This is what I did today. After some searching I found the school holiday chart and a separate planner I hadn't noticed on the website until now.

Although I knew half term was sometime in June I hadn't realised that a) June starts on Wednesday and b) half term starts on Thursday. To say I was somewhat dumbstruck would be a lie - I was not struck dumb, I was struck with expletives.

Tim has tomorrow off. Therefore, I have Tuesday and Wednesday to complete one of my numerous projects before I am thrust into the unenviable task being Rhiannon's entertainment manager.

Not only that, but Rhiannon's residential trip starts on her first day back at school and, because I couldn't attend the meeting about it as she was ill, I have no idea what I'm supposed to do or pack. An email has been hurriedly sent to school asking for further information ASAP.

And as luck would have it, the week of her residential trip is the same week Tim has planned to go away on business. I don't know if this is good or bad luck at the moment.

It looks like I'm going to have to drive here much sooner than I'd hoped. Not least because it turns out that sports day is also in June...

This has all quite ruined my Sunday.

Send calendars please!

I Hate Fireworks

I mentioned about Quiet Time rules in a previous post. But it obviously doesn't apply in the case of fireworks.

For the past three evenings we have been subjected to the racket of what are apparently professional firework displays, judging by the length and breadth of the cacophony. And the obligatory finale of ear-drum bursting loudness.

They start between 10pm and 11pm. How bloody ridiculous is that?

I spend an anxious time waiting for Rhiannon to wake up or the dog to get upset (they sleep together, so if one gets up, so does the other). Thankfully she hasn't been woken by them yet as her room is on the other side of the house.

As you may have deduced, I hate fireworks. Always have.

I loathe the outrageously loud bangs and - in my opinion - the massive and ridiculous waste of good money. Literally going up in smoke. And for what? A few oohs and ahhs? All that money could be spent on far more charitable (and quieter) causes.

Why do they have to be so loud? While I can fully appreciate the beauty and skill in creating explosives that turn into multicoloured flowers in the sky, I do not like the booms.

So far Kita doesn't seem to get too upset by them. We've yet to see how she reacts if they get more frequent and closer, which apparently we will have the "delight" of experiencing on New Year's Eve...

The only dogs I've ever met who actively enjoyed fireworks were a group of highly trained gun dogs. But they still had to be kept indoors so they didn't race off looking for game to retrieve.

I just want them all to go away. Forever. Bah humbug.

I'm Gonna be a Country Girl Again

This song has been running through my head this week.

Sorry if you don't like country music, I blame my Dad for this one! Billie Jo Spears, "Country Girl"...

 

I grew up in the Devon countryside, so country-living is not exactly a novelty. However, I do think I'm a city girl at heart. Or perhaps that's just because I'm a shopaholic?

Whatever, this posting will be an ideal opportunity to save money rather than spend it. Now that is a novelty!

Slowly I'm getting used to the idea that I will no longer have much, if any, opportunity to dress up or use my special handbags here. The only bag I carry every day now is the dog's poo bag... glamourous it is not.

Talking of the dog - she is in a particularly amourous mood today and I'm trying to write this while she's attempting to do unmentionable things to my leg. And god forbid I should get on the telephone; then it's open season (unintended pun...) for my poor legs! A Shiba Inu has extremely strong front legs and when she clamps on it is very painful indeed. When she's not doing "that", she's obsessively licking my shoes. They are now rather soggy.

 

I haven't even unpacked my jewellery yet. There seems little point when all I do is walk in the beautiful countryside, do a spot of birdwatching, pull up the countless oak seedlings in the garden and play ball with Kita out there. My Tokyo friends wouldn't recognise me!

The rest of my time is spent planning and writing a book.

As so many others do, I've been saying I'm going to write a book for years, but have never got around to it. This time however, I am determined to go through with it. To this end, I've actually put myself 'out there' and am in the process of creating a questionnaire for research purposes. So now people have expectations of me which gives me added impetus.

I still have "up days" and "down days". Today is an "up day". I woke to find requests in my inbox to write two guest articles about Japan. A guest article is one you don't get paid for, but never mind. It's all good writing practise.

In case you read my posts thinking "she can't be a writer, the writing's awful, her grammar's appalling" etc, well, I consider these blog posts to be my freefall writing sessions. It makes a change for me to write what I want to write with little concern for prescribed content and protocols.

As my mind is wandering back to Japan thanks to the article requests, I took a look at my Japanory blog. Judging by the people who are finding it through their searches, it appears that they are now looking for general information rather than just earthquake details. Perhaps they are looking to go on holiday there, which would be fantastic. So I may go back to Japanory and start bringing it up to date soon.

Yes, I do like to make my life as impossible as possible!

 

Added after first publishing this post... I've just had it confirmed precisely how isolated I am out here.
There's an office-owned house nearby that was going to be used as a meeting place for us trailing spouses. I think it was going to hold a library and so on too. I was really looking forward to this as all I'd have to do would be to walk down the garden and out the back gate in order to meet people. Unfortunately, all the other spouses have deemed it too far away to visit, so it won't be used now. What a shame. I shall have to find another way to meet people.

Some lyrics from the above song that have resonated:

"I said goodbye to city friends, department stores and bars
The lights of town are at my back, my heart is full of stars
And I'm gonna be a country girl again."

 

 

Berlin Rules!

There's a saying: "In Germany everything is forbidden until it is permitted". This continues with various other country's variations - I'll put a list at the end of this post, I'm sure many people can add to it.

One rule that particularly annoys affects me is "Everything Must Be Closed on Sundays". Sunday is sacrosanct. The church is surprisingly powerful here and insisted upon this law in 2009. I live near a church and they do not have a large congregation... [ETA: I've since been informed the Trade Unions had a big part to play in this law too.]

While attractions such as the zoo and museums are allowed to be open, no retail establishment is permitted to trade. This means that all shopping has to be done either during the week or on Saturday. Some out of town places even close at lunchtime on Saturdays.

I don't like having to be this organised. If I start some gardening project, for example, I'd like to be able to pop to the garden centre on a Sunday to purchase whatever it is I've forgotten. Or if, as is usual, I've run out of milk... I can't pop to the conbeni or local store to get more. I suppose I'll get used to it, but I'm already bored with trying to remember everything we need to get on a Saturday.

Another interesting rule is about washing your car. Basically you can't. You're not allowed to; it's against the law. You can wash your car yourself IF you happen to live near a special city-authorised car-washing drain. Otherwise you must use a public car wash. Some places even have restrictions on which day of the week car washing is permitted!

Gardens: You must keep your front garden looking good. But you are not allowed to cut any trees.

Quiet Time: During the hours of 1pm-3pm and after 8pm and all day on Sundays and public holidays you must not make excessive noise. Such as mowing the lawn, drilling, hammering or anything else noisy that may upset your neighbours. I think barking dogs and squealing kids are also included but we haven't been told off yet...

It's also illegal to cross the road at a pedestrian crossing when the light is on red and if the police see you do it, you'll be fined. (So just make sure they don't see you!)

And one of the strangest rules of all - it is against the law to have the ashes of your loved one stored in an urn at home after cremation. Lucky I don't have any then...

As for the rest of the list I referred to at the beginning of this post... these were contributed by an expat forum I belong to. I hope they are taken in the humorous way they're intended.

• In Germany everything is forbidden until it is permitted.
• In England everything is permitted until it is forbidden.
• In France everything is permitted even if it is forbidden.
• In Singapore everything is forbidden even if it is permitted
• In the US, everything is permitted until a marketing research study finds that it A) causes cancer or B) is fattening. Then it's forbidden, but only in certain states.
• In the Philippines everything forbidden can be permitted depending on your social status.
• In Italy, if you're the Prime Minister or know the right people...everything is permitted... otherwise, everything is still permitted, but you have to talk your way around it.
• In India everything is permitted if you can pay for it, and everything is forbidden if you can't.
• In Thailand, everything is permitted and everything is not forbidden!

Procrastination Overcome - Until Next Time...

It's one thing procrastinating madly when the chips are in the air, but once they come down, then I do (finally) get to work.

Wednesday was a washout, work-wise (see previous post).

Then Tim told me he was taking Thursday off so I wasn't going to get my work done then. But that's OK. If I know I can't work on a specific day that's fine; I don't get The Guilt.

So on Thursday we took delivery of a secondhand freezer and an old set of sofas and armchairs. Why? Well, the freezer we currently is too small and with no supermarket within easy reach we need more space. Now we have an extra appliance in the basement. Excellent! And as for the sofas etc, the ones here before were a vile off-white leather set - too small, too revolting and too uncomfortable. The ones we've managed to swap them for are much bigger, not quite so vile and have dark blue covers. They'll do.

A lot of reorganisation was done on Thursday, including a trip to the shop to stock up on lots of food for a change.

Therefore, Friday was designated as my Bloody Well Get Some Work Done day.

This is how it went:

After four and a half hours of dreadful sleep due to leg cramps and my mind working overtime, I finally got up at 5am. This is an unnatural hour for me (I'm a confirmed night-owl), but it was rather nice. I felt more than fine.

I booted up the PC, got a cup of tea and caught up on news, emails and so on while watching a pair of jays outside the window. They were gathering nesting material. A good start to the day.

Got myself some breakfast and another cuppa and continued as above.

Woke Tim and Rhiannon up for work and school. A new experience for me and both were shocked!

Usual mad rush to get Rhiannon onto the bus - she was going for a sleepover so needed to have a case packed.

By 0815 I was out walking Kita. This I must do more often. We met more dogs than usual - not such a great thing at the moment as she's on heat, but we escaped without incident. I also saw four tiny ducklings which were delightful soul-food.

Once I got home I was ready to work because all my usual procrastination websites had already been browsed and closed down. "Like"!

I motored through and wrote five articles out of the nine that are due by the end of the month. I give myself false dreadlines, partly to ensure I have plenty of leeway in case of unexpected incidents (such as Rhiannon being violently ill or Tim taking unannounced days off) and mostly to clear the decks ready for my other projects.

Yes, I took breaks, but these were necessary for health and not, in my view, classed as procrastination: a walk around the garden to stretch my crampy legs, a quick play with the dog - that sort of thing.

However, Tim returned from work early, so although I was on a roll by then, I had to finish it there.

I finished the day's work feeling rather pleased with myself.

As a reward to myself, I cut some branches and a bundle of unidentified tree flowers from the garden and lost myself creating my first Ikebana arrangement in several months. I'm actually qualified to teach Sogetsu Ikebana, but my Sensei in Tokyo would have been dismayed by my lackadaisical arrangement. It looked pretty to me though.

Tim took me out to dinner in the evening and then we watched a movie.

A Good Day!

 

Note: A lot of the reason for my procrastination problem is that I don't particularly enjoy the subjects I write about. As you've seen by this blog (and possibly my Japanory one,) I certainly don't have a problem with getting lots of words typed up. That's because it's all about ME and therefore a terribly easy subject to write about. For a start I don't have to do any research.

For this freelance writing job, I only have to produce these articles once every three months, leaving me plenty of time (in theory) to concentrate on my other, non-paying yet far more interesting, projects.

Overcoming Procrastination

I apologise if you've found this post thinking I can help you overcome procrastination. I'm afraid I'm the wrong person for that. You see, I am Queen of Procrastination. But if you have any tips for me, I'd gratefully receive them.

Today was going to be a Good Day. Lot's of work to catch up on and I intended to power through as much of it as I could.

Oh, before I go any further - re yesterday's rather self-pitying post. Sorry about that, I'm OK now - it was a blip. Thank you for all your supportive comments on Facebook, I really appreciate them.

And the school bus turned up (as I assumed...)

Back to today. After I'd taken the dog out for a nice long walk, read the news, caught up with emails and social networking, it was time to get down to some serious writing work.

Then the phone rang. It was Tim asking if the bus had turned up...

Back to work, but now not so fully focused I got carried away researching. Then the doorbell rang - someone to collect the garden waste. This involved me having to catch the dog to bring her indoors while they cleared the branches away.

Focus all gone, so I tried to regain it by double checking my research. I like research. I learn all sorts of interesting things, usually totally unrelated to the subject I'm currently writing about.

I wrote a few words.

The doorbell went. Yay! It was an Amazon delivery of some books needed for my course work and research for my book-in-the-planning-stages. So of course, I had to speed read part of one of them.

For goodness sake, concentrate Carole! Perhaps I can squeeze in a bit more work before Rhiannon comes home.

I wrote a few more words.

Oh, I need to do the laundry. Three loads of it.

Then a great friend of mine phoned from the UK. We haven't spoken in months so we had a lovely long and much-needed chat. She's a lovely, fizzy woman who enervates me. The polar opposite of an emotional vampire. I asked my friends what these type of people are called. The answer is apparently either "Violets" or "Enerangels"!

So after about 6 hours of "work" I'd produced 110 words, about half of which are surplus anyway.

And apparently Tim has taken tomorrow off work.

Therefore, next week will be ultra-busy. Although I do work best under pressure, all this procrastination is taking me further away from doing what I want to do rather than what I have to do to earn a few pounds.

I'll learn one day, I guess.

 

Assumptions

Yeah, I know the cheesy phrase about assumptions. Let's ignore it.

Tim and I had a discussion earlier; both of us have made assumptions today which may not have a great outcome.

 

Assumption 1 - mine:
Rhiannon was still off sick today. I won't bore you with the details - see the previous post for the gory details; let's just say I am enjoying a late night bit of quiet time. On Monday, I asked the school to cancel the school bus for today as the man I spoke to on Monday morning didn't understand me. This was done.

Rhiannon is going back to school tomorrow. Therefore I assume that the bus will turn up as normal because it hasn't been specifically cancelled.

Tim thinks it will not turn up and what will I do if it doesn't? Apparently I should have phoned them today to confirm. I was a little busy and this didn't even cross my mind.

If the bus isn't here by 0810 I will phone up and hope for the best. If it doesn't come... I guess I may drive, but it's more likely I will chicken out (yes, I'm a wimp) and Rhiannon will have another day off.

We will see what happens in the morning.

 

Assumption 2 - Tim's:
His first words when he returned from work were, "Rhiannon has a sleepover on Saturday, hasn't she?"

"Erm... no."

"Well, haven't you phoned her to arrange one?" (The "her" is the mum of the girl who came her last weekend). "We've been invited out but can't go if Rhiannon's here."

All this in front of Rhiannon, by the way...

"I can't just phone someone I've only briefly met twice and ask her if Rhiannon can come for a sleepover on Saturday! It's just not done."

Or am I wrong? I don't know, but if feels rather rude to me. If I knew her better, fair enough. But I don't.

 

All this may change as the week goes on.

As we have no babysitter, my chances of meeting anyone new are somewhere between limited to impossible.

Of course, it's different for Tim, he meets new people at work and Rhiannon meets people at school.

I don't get the chance to meet or interact with anyone at school due to the bus service, which I still think is a wonderful invention. Without fluent language skills, I can't join any clubs or groups. Even if there were any nearby.

Such is the life of a trailing spouse.

The Best Laid Schemes of Mice and Mums...

My apologies to Robert Burns' poem To a Mouse, 1786.
"The best laid schemes o' mice an' men, Gang aft a-gley".

I had great plans for this week: write my dreadline-due articles, organise a survey in preparation for my book which is currently in the planning stages, attempt to catch up on my studying, learn German (hah!), find random MIA articles from the move, get some business cards organised... well, my to-do list is endless.

But I was all ready to get going today. I felt inspired. No procrastinating this week; I was ready to GO!

Sadly, Murphy and his sodding law had different ideas.

Yesterday, after a morning spent hanging pictures and an afternoon walking in the forest, Rhiannon complained of stomach ache. 

Her face looked a bit white.

She went and sat on the toilet a few times during the late afternoon, to no avail.

Then...

"Mum, I feel sick"

"Well, get into the toilet, QUICK!"

"But I feel si..."

Oh.

Timing has never been her strong point.

Projectile vomit all over the floor. Twice. Thankfully the rest made it into the toilet. Tim cleared up the mess - I'm not sure which shocked me more; Rhiannon's spectacular puking or Tim managing to clear it up without being sick himself.

Anyway, the sickness and diarrhoea continued ALL night, poor girl. I spent the night in her room; I can't say I slept as she was moaning in her sleep and racing to the bathroom every hour.

Incredibly, we have managed nine years without a major stomach bug like this. There was a short bout of food poisoning when she was a baby (thanks to a dodgy Mr Whippy ice-cream in Dawlish... say no more), but other than that, no sickness bugs. She's had a couple of other major problems, but I'll tell you about those another time.

So. No school. This involved contacting the catering company, the bus company and of course, the school. All before 0745. Emails sorted out the school and caterers, but I still had to get hold of the bus company. Who don't speak English. I managed to get through just in time though, so all was sorted on that front.

She's currently ensconced on the sofa with a temperature and feeling very sorry for herself. Still trotting to the bathroom every hour or so, but thankfully not being sick any more. I am providing water, sympathy and lots of cuddles, between writing this.

And she will be off school tomorrow too.

So much for my plans to get going on all my work and projects this week. Manic catch-up due as soon as possible.

Oh, and the mouse?

The mouse had plans to do mouse-y things last night - pottering around the garden, doing a spot of mouse-shopping and perhaps it had a date.

But unfortunately for said mouse, Raymi the cat has recovered a little from his agoraphobia. Only when it's dark though - there is no way he will venture outside in daylight yet.

When he returned from his night-time wanderings he came with a little present. Yup, a dead mouse. Or to be more precise, half a dead mouse.

I put a sign on the door saying "Beware of the mouse" to remind me to get rid of it this morning.

I have spent today feeling rather queasy myself.

 

KaDeWe

Woohoo! We went into the city centre today! My favourite hobby - shopping.

Well, it didn't quite work out that way (does it ever?). By the time Rhiannon's sleepover / playdate mate went home, it was 3pm before we caught the bus. Anyway, it gave me an insight into how to use the bus and what's on the main shopping street of Kurfürstendamm, aka Ku'damm. It's a bit like an elongated version of Oxford Street and Bond street all in one. Designer boutiques at one end, random stuff in the middle and at the other end, the famous store, KaDeWe.

KaDeWe stands for Kaufhaus des Westens, which means the 'Department Store of the West' and is comparable to Harvey Nichols. Seven floors of goodies. It was gorgeous! I can see it becoming a favourite haunt of mine.

With Tim and Rhiannon with me, I had no chance at all of browsing properly, but we did have a  good look around the incredible food hall. Oh, the cakes! And the bread... carbohydrate heaven.

The kitchenware floor looked interesting and there was an art and design bit downstairs. Apparently there is also a hobby store, but we couldn't find it.

It was all so busy. Heaving crowds disconcerted Rhiannon a little; "everyone is so BIG!" she exclaimed, "and so bad mannered, too". Yes, we are well used to crowds from living in Tokyo, but as a people, they are shorter and slighter in build and by nature, very respectful of others. Poor Rhiannon got buffeted a lot by some very large people with no apology. Buses are a free for all, so I taught her how to barge through - no queuing here.

Anyway, we also visited a mobile phone shop and now I finally have a SIM card so I can get some business cards printed for when (if!) I actually meet people.

As for the rest of Ku'damm - well, Tokyo it is not. Lots of beggars with and without dogs, pot-bellied men in shorts, dirty pavements. It was a lot like London really. Without the mountains of rubbish on the pavements. Or was it just like the when I last went to London in 2009?

I shall go back during the week one day for some luxury and a chance to remind myself there's more to Berlin than unpacking, gardening and dog walking.

 

What Makes a House a Home?

I seem to have spent the past week or so constantly tidying up, cleaning, putting things away and doing far more ironing than is healthy. But the house doesn't look any different.

Yes, all our boxes are unpacked. But stuff is still all over the place. I can't find homes for many things and the storage here is pathetic. It looks like we'll need to make a trip to Ikea to get some cupboards.

So does this house feel like home yet? Well, sort of... it's a mess, so that's normal!

Getting my books in place went a long way to making it feel homely. The next, and probably final step, will be hanging the pictures. Unlike the cardboard walls in our home in Tokyo the ones here are concrete so I am banned from attacking them. Therefore, I have to wait for Tim to oblige.

In the meantime I have been placing ornaments in place. My Imari porcelain is now in its own cabinet and I get great pleasure from looking at it every day. Other ornaments are proving trickier to place and I keep moving them around until they "find their home".

Now for the bit that made a few people laugh at me on Twitter yesterday... I've been sorting out my stones and feathers. And my Native American medicine bag. The latter was the first item I placed in my bedroom. I've had it for donkey's years and it contains numerous items of a very personal and spiritual (to me) nature. To read more about the sorts of things that go into this bag, look here.

As for the feathers and stones. Well, each to their own and all that, but I collect stones and feathers. I've had some of these as long as I can remember. And I can recall where almost each one came from.

My feathers: Amongst many others I have macaw feathers from the Amazon, buzzard feathers from the place in Hampshire where my Dad's ashes were scattered, owl feathers blessed by a Shaman, feathers from long-departed pets and peacock feathers from Sri Lanka.

In the background out of the window, you can just see my Japanese stone lantern which is now safely placed in view of my desk. In time, I shall make a little Japanese garden there.

These are three of my special stones, and yes, they've been in every home I've live in. I have many, many more, but decided to put some of them in storage for a while. I've also got a few fossils I've found over the years.

I may be considered bonkers but these items, placed in this house, have started to make it feel like a home.

Perhaps it's because of their familiarity? Who knows?!

 

What a Difference a New School Makes

I am amazed at how quickly and well Rhiannon has settled into her new school routine. I'm immensely proud of her newly found confidence and she is thrilled with the school. Whilst I agree it's still early days, she seems to have got off to a great start.

Rhiannon's School Day. (Obviously not actually written by Rhiannon, but I did "interview" her last night!)

"I get up at 6.30am and go downstairs with Kita to make my breakfast. Of course, I don't wake Mum up - she doesn't do mornings. So I wake up Dad instead; after all, he has to get to work early too.

Dad takes Mum a cup of tea at 7.30am and hassles her until she growls and gets up. He leaves at 7.45am so I need Mum to open the gate for me because I just cannot work out how to use keys.

Mum gets up and starts yelling at me to get dressed. Well, I didn't want to spill breakfast on my lovely new school dress, did I? I really enjoy getting ready as s l o w l y as possible because it really winds Mum up. I can almost see her blood pressure rising as I decide what trinket to take to school today to play with. Mum says I shouldn't take my stuff into school because I always lose it. Well, I don't mean to lose it, I just forget about it because I'm having so much fun.

Yesterday was brilliant! I got up especially early as I wanted to pierce my ears.

Mum thought I was cleaning my teeth properly for a change but really I was trying to force an earring into my ear lobe. It didn't go through the skin though, and it hurt quite a bit too, so I stopped. Made my ear all red and it's got a little dent in it now. It's a bit sore; perhaps that wasn't such a good idea after all.

By 8am Mum has gone a funny colour. Well, I can't remember where I put my school shoes, can I?

Mum goes outside to open the front gate for me. The school bus arrives at 8.05am. Mum thinks this door-to-door bus idea is the best thing ever. She says it's great because she doesn't have to do the school run any more, but I think it's also because she gets Rhiannon-free time from 8.05 until about 4.45pm. Poor Mum, I wonder if she misses me?

There are seven other children on my bus. They are really interesting, a great mix of nationalities and religions. We had a really cool theological conversation the other day between a Christian, a Muslim and a Jew. I learned a lot.

This school is so much better than my old school in Tokyo. Although I do miss my friends there, I certainly don't miss the bullying. Everyone here is so nice. Our school is 'all-in-one', primary and secondary schools all on one campus, right the way up to 18 year olds. I've got three very special best friends and am having a sleepover this weekend.

Because it's summer now, we do most of our lessons outside! And our playtimes are longer than my previous school. One thing I am having a bit of trouble getting used to is the sheer amount of space at the school. There's a forest (but we're not allowed to go into the bit where the teachers can't see us), two playgrounds with climbing walls and frames, a slide and all sorts of other apparatus. And grass. So much real grass. It's weird - there was only fake plastic grass in Tokyo; or tarmac which really hurts when you fall over on it. I fall over quite a lot. And with all this space and playgrounds, I have had a lot of accidents. Not bad ones, but I usually end up with several new, big bruises every day.

Red squirrels are everywhere, foxes live in the forest - someone said they saw a dead rabbit outside the fox-hole with it's insides all over the ground. Eew! There are also some wild boar, but apparently most of them have been killed because they are dangerous. I think there may be two left. [UPDATE! I saw a wild boar in the forest today! We were really scared and didn't know what to do, but luckily it wandered away]

All that running around out in the fresh air makes me really hungry. Luckily we have this fabulous cafeteria at school. We can buy snacks and get a cooked lunch too. The waffles are the best things ever.

Lessons? Oh, they're OK I suppose. Because I started here in May, there are some subjects I have already done in my old school. That's OK because it makes me look clever. I do German lessons too, but find them really difficult - German is a lot harder for me than Japanese. Mum says this is because I started learning Japanese when I was just five which made it easier. Now I'm nine and a half and nearly grown up I suppose my brain doesn't work as well any more. Like Mum's...

At home time, it's back on the bus again. Mum's looking out the window for me so she can let me in.

I wonder if she's been standing there all day?"

Kitchen Chaos

I still cannot get used to my "new" kitchen.

It's much smaller than the last two I've had and, although there's quite a lot of cupboard space, it's all been filled with crockery. Why on earth do I have so many mugs and bowls? I love them all, so getting rid isn't an option.

Anyway, I've rearranged the storage so many times I can't find anything. It takes me about three tries before I locate the correct item. Nobody else stands a chance. Tim doesn't even bother to look, and just calls out "Where does this go?" or "Where can I find x, y, or z?"

It's quicker to find it myself.

There is no working space. That's not really a huge problem as I'm not a great cook. By that I mean I don't make pastry from scratch, make jam or spend hours slaving over a hot stove creating some fancy dish. No, simple and quick are my cooking by-words. But it becomes annoying when trying to dish up a meal as there's nowhere to put anything. And I used to like baking cookies. Can't see that happening here unless I roll the dough out on the floor.

Oh, the floor! It's white stone tiles. White! In a kitchen. With a dog, cat and child tramping all over the place. And stone! Just aching for me to drop some special plate or glass onto it. I have an old-fashioned scrubbing brush, for heavens sake! Haven't used it yet, mind you...

Once in a while I may bake a cake. But that will involve having to find the right ingredients. Like self raising flour, or at least baking powder so I can make my own. And caster sugar. Or brown sugar. neither of which I have spotted anywhere yet.

Yesterday, I made the obligatory Sunday roast dinner. The cooker is fierce! So the roast potatoes were done in no time. This is good. I also found rhubarb in the newly discovered supermarket and was instructed to make rhubarb crumble. Did I mention we'd found a supermarket at long last? It's a driving distance away, but has quite a lot of items in it; more than a corner shop but less than a hyper-market.

OK... that means finding flour. It turns out flour in Germany is labelled with numbers. I had no clue what they meant so just grabbed one and googled it once I got home. It was numbered 405, which apparently is "pastry flour" according to this site. It worked OK. However, I completely forgot to look for something to go on the crumble, so we had no cream or custard.

My food store cupboards need a lot of filling. So to do that, I will have to make a proper shopping list of the basics we normally take for granted. And for the life of me I can't think what they may be!

Perhaps you can help me compile a list so I don't have to live on pasta? What do I need?!

How did I manage in Tokyo, you may ask? Well, there were two big international supermarkets which kindly labelled everything in English. I wonder if there is similar here?

Dinner was a great success (yay me!) and Tim's job is to sort out the dishes. Our dishwasher is crap. There is no other word for it. Everything comes out all scummy and may as well be washed by hand in the first place. (Some weeks later Tim discovered the water intake wasn't working properly and was on the verge of giving up completely.)

And as for the freezer... totally pointless. Two and a half drawers, that's it. It holds a couple of loaves of bread and a small joint of meat. When we have some money we will have to invest in a second one. It can live in the basement.

But my lovely new Japanese water boiler kettle is wonderful. And has been much used today.

It's the Little Things...

It's the little things in life that make the transition from Tokyo to Berlin more enjoyable.

Thick, soft toilet paper. Yes, you did read that correctly! Japan may well be known for its fancy toilets (or not) but the toilet paper left a lot to be desired. It was thin and white. That was it. The first time Rhiannon saw coloured loo roll she was amazed.

Here we can choose thick, super-thick or so-thick-it's-no-longer-soft-but-a-bit-like-cardboard. And it has patterns on, dolphins and feathers so far. Like I say, it's the little things!

Basically, I'm trying to focus on the positives.

Something else that pleases me a great deal is the delicious bread here. I love hot buttered toast and have indulged a lot since I arrived. Bread in Japan was, quite frankly, weird.

And then this arrived!

It's a Japanese "kettle"

It took a long time to find one of these Zojirushi water boilers that work in Europe. The electricity in Japan is 100 volts - it would take a week to boil a normal kettle - so we had one of these and never looked back. You just push a couple of buttons and instant boiling water. For a tea addict like me, this is a must-have piece of equipment. Oh, and it plays a little tune when the water has boiled -Bach's Minuet in G major. Cute!

I managed to track one down that's been converted for use in Europe through this site; all we needed to do was attach a plug converter.

Tea on tap. Heaven!