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Gut Und Gunstig
Nov. 12th, 2020 11:28 pmIn the end, the move went reasonably smoothly, albeit not without a huge amount of stress. The nadir was reached last Thursday, when I had to inform the mortage company and insurers about our intended relocation to Germany. Alas, initially the mortgage provider wasn't best pleased and our insurers basically told us we could not renew our policy past December, meaning we had an almighty scramble to get new insurance. This was done later on that afternoon, but the almighty stress was horrendous. Wolfie was as stressed as I have ever seen him, not aided by the need to pack away all of our things ahead of the removal company coming on the Friday. This we managed to do, and indeed they did come at the time they advertised, but perhaps we should have not left all this arranging until the last minute.
On Friday afternoon, the aforementioned work project finally came good, with an offer landing at the most inopportune time. This led to a number of phone calls made later that day and the situation is still not fully resolved, although I hope it will be by the start of next week. It would be good to get a regular income coming in again after four months of barrenness, although things with the company are continuing to pick up and I am quite confident on its future. Aiding my bullish spirits was the increasingly clear victory for Joe Biden in the US Presidential Elections. We had been following the race pretty closely since Tuesday evening - indeed staying up until 4am that night in the hope Florida would go his way - and although it wasn't quite the landslide we wanted, at least the US has a sensible president once again. Furthermore, it emasculates the UK even further and puts our own ridiculous PM in an even worse position. Alas, the US could always undo Trump after four years but it'll take at least a decade to undo Brexit.
Leaving our house was tougher than I imagined. We first saw the place seven years ago this week, moving in just before Christmas 2013. We have many happy memories there and gutting it of our most heartfelt possessions felt a little like desecration. I know that we are likely to be back there at some point, and that we'll still see our friends and neighbours again, but I was very teary when we locked the door ahead of our departure. Wolfie's parents and one of the neighbours from over the road will be looking after it for us, and we do hope we can get back there again soon once COVID has reduced in potency.
We were driven to Manchester Airport on Saturday, with there being no real surprise as to how quiet it was. With the UK and Germany both in Lockdown II, there were only about 25 people on our flights, which were face-mask mandatory. Furthermore, if we wanted to go to the bathroom, we had to ask permission from the flight attendents by dinging our little calling buttons. Food and drink was being served though, which added to the limited range of the airport, which saw all bars and most food outlets closed. In the end, we went to Costa Coffee where I had a cheese and ham panini, with melted cheese like lava squidging all over my hands and coat. It was a lactose bloodbath. I also wished my sister a happy birthday, knowing she was alone in Surrey, far from the Saturday she had no doubt imagined.
We arrived in Berlin's old Schonenfeld Airport terminal, a part of the new Brandenburg Airport complex. We were saddened that we didn't experience the new building, but immigration was understandably swift. We had to fill some additional forms for the authorities, which they took at immigration, while my heavy purple suitcase ended up blocking the carousel where I was due to retrieve it. By law, we had to get a COVID test, but we soon found out the place to do this was in the new Terminal 1 not the old Terminal 5, where we were (Terminals 3 and 4 were oddly absent). We therefore had to get a train over to Terminal 1, a local S-Bahn, highlighting just how far away it was. It must have been about an eight minute journey. By the time we got to the COVID testing centre, they were shutting up for the night, and they told us to register there and then but come back the next day for the test. Why this was the case when we had gotten there as quickly as we could from the Manchester flight - a COVID hotspot - I don't know, but there we go. Frustrated, we got a taxi to our hotel and quarantined ourselves with leaden pizza from their chef and participating in our usual Saturday evening Jackbox festivities.
Sunday morning saw us go back to the Airport to get ourselves tested, a formality now that we had registered, before heading back to our hotel, the Adina in Berlin Mitte, to quarantine once again. We had also downloaded the Corona Warn app, which is basically like the NHS app but reskinned. With little else to do, we ended up having a four-hour conversation with Arakin over Discord before enjoying the music of the Eels and Killers with Stray and Patter as part of the regular Sunday evening music session we enjoy. We weren't expecting to do either this week, so it was a real bonus that we could. In the middle of all this, we also managed to pay for our new flat and insurances, meaning we could pick up the keys the next day.
The COVID test promised results within 24 hours in 95% of cases, and Wolfie was the first to get a negative result confirmed at 10:30am Monday morning. I had to wait a few hours longer, largely because the email struggled to reach my Googlemail. Upon logging into the portal, I too could confirm I had tested negative, meaning we could leave the hotel. This was a positive, as although this boutique place was fantastic and the staff incredibly understanding, it was getting a little stir-crazy being able to look out at the huge television tower at Alexanderplatz and not get out there. Of course, most places were closed, but I still wanted to explore. Breakfast at the hotel was a room service affair, with a man bringing you what you ordered to the room at a set time (in our case 9:45am), while on the Sunday evening we used Lieferando for the first time by ordering some falafel and houmous from a local Lebanese place. Lieferando is very much like our Just Eat.
Monday afternoon saw us come to our new flat in Charlottenburg to pick up the keys and deal with the paperwork. It was a 25 minute bus journey on Route 245, of which I was feeling apprehensive due to the lack of social distancing. It was also rush hour, with our pre-arranged 2:30pm meeting pushed back by two hours, meaning by the time we got to the futuristic and glassy Berlin Mitte station, the bus was full. There are no taped off seats on German buses and trains like there are in the UK, but there is a greater compliance regarding mask wearing. Unlucky for me, I was sat opposite the Russian woman whose mask kept sliding off her nose and who was gesticulating to her son wildly.
We were twenty minutes early for the flat viewing, so we explored the local area, which is in the family-focused middle-class area of Charlottenburg. It's a rather expensive place and I already know that it's not one for us long-term, but the flat is nice and they will help us with registering with the authorities which is what we need. Alas, what they didn't tell us was the ongoing construction work next door nor the thin walls and floors, through which we can hear the family upstairs talking and their children crying for good chunks of the evening. Better that than late night parties I suppose, and the double glazing makes the building work not too disruptive. I just hope I can work through it next week when I start back up again. Anyway, we met the estate agent who made us sign a million forms and then performed a full inventory of everything here, down to the last knife and fork. The place is fully furnished - again another reason we went for it despite the high price - but as it's only a three-month lease (with the option to extend by a few months), we felt it was worth it, not least because COVID means we are going to be stuck indoors anyway. I do worry we will make too much noise, particularly on weekends, but we shall see.
We decided not to move in on Monday, deferring to Tuesday as we already had the hotel booked and therefore had a free substantial breakfast. As a result, we walked to nearby Brewdog Berlin Mitte to pick up some tasty beers from their bottle shop, beers we barely drunk after enjoying an exceptional 12" salami pizza from the restaurant immediately over the road from the Adina (annyoingly they only accepted cash payments so I had to walk to a cash point to withdraw money). This made me feel rather bloated. I also liked the hotel, with its balcony overlooking the natural history museum and it's living room area separated from the bedroom. It was a good place to be holed up for three days. Anywho, on Tuesday, we got a taxi over to our new digs, driving past the Bundestag and myriad other sights, which made the journey rather exciting. Arriving, we unpacked our belongings and started to settle in, making our way to two of the local supermarkets to check out their offerings - Edeka and REWE. The former has a better beer range and far friendlier staff, while the latter is bigger but had a right grump pot working the tills. We only went to the second one as we had forgotten key essentials from the first, but we did manage to get a range of produce too, even tea, which doesn't taste too bad despite the hard Berlin water.
Wednesday was something of a dead day, which I'll cover later in the week, with today bringing the delivery of our stuff shifted from the UK. We were expecting it between 4pm and 8pm, so once this deadline had passed, we started to get worried. What concerned me most was that Amazon had attempted a delivery yesterday and the packages had failed to get to us, largely on account of the name placeholder not being available for our door bell. With our names not on our little letterbox either, they ended up leaving the parcels with a neighbour and sticking a note on the front door window. Later yesterday, I had to go and pick up the packages, speaking with a delightful woman in her fifties who spoke no English. Fortunately, my German was just about acceptable enough to explain the situation, but I have a long way to go in terms of learning this language. Still, I am picking up some new words already, so the signs are encouraging. To mitigate against missed deliveries, I've hooked a post-it note through the hole in our letterbox detailing who we are - a system that worked when my N26 bank card was successfully delivered today.
We had paid for the delivery driver to carry all our stuff up to our third floor apartment, but in the end, Wolfie and I did most of the grunt work. There were five boxes plus my guitar and Wolfie's chair, with me doing the lion's share of the lifting. At least all our stuff got here, but my computer had taken a massive dent, even though it had been meticulously bubble wrapped. Fortunately, all of the internals were unaffected and it's still working. Wolfie has since set up his computer too. I have quite enjoyed not having a computer this week - Wolfie and I have definitely grown closer while the time has afforded us the opportunity to watch movies and the like. We have seen four this week - The World's End, Armando Iannucci's David Copperfield, The Mask and Fantastic Mr Fox - aided by Wolfie's Amazon Firestick, while we have also blasted through all of Series 4 and half of Series 5 of Futurama, a series upon which I unfairly gave up at around Series 3. Hopefully we can watch more soon, but I fear the computers may get in the way. Due to the aforementioned noises, and Wolfie needing to call more often, we will be working in separate rooms initially too. Hopefully, we'll still see each other lots.
Aside from this, everything seems to be on track. We are still awaiting our Anmeldung meeting where we register with the authorities, but we have people working on our behalf to secure this. We'll then get a tax code and can register in this regard too. After that, we should be done. Wolfie seems happier and although I still have my reservations, I am determined to make it work. I have also been heartened by the support and interest generated by our friends, both those in the UK and here in Germany, which is giving me a real boost. I am looking forward, to what Wolfie has been calling, our new adventure.
On Friday afternoon, the aforementioned work project finally came good, with an offer landing at the most inopportune time. This led to a number of phone calls made later that day and the situation is still not fully resolved, although I hope it will be by the start of next week. It would be good to get a regular income coming in again after four months of barrenness, although things with the company are continuing to pick up and I am quite confident on its future. Aiding my bullish spirits was the increasingly clear victory for Joe Biden in the US Presidential Elections. We had been following the race pretty closely since Tuesday evening - indeed staying up until 4am that night in the hope Florida would go his way - and although it wasn't quite the landslide we wanted, at least the US has a sensible president once again. Furthermore, it emasculates the UK even further and puts our own ridiculous PM in an even worse position. Alas, the US could always undo Trump after four years but it'll take at least a decade to undo Brexit.
Leaving our house was tougher than I imagined. We first saw the place seven years ago this week, moving in just before Christmas 2013. We have many happy memories there and gutting it of our most heartfelt possessions felt a little like desecration. I know that we are likely to be back there at some point, and that we'll still see our friends and neighbours again, but I was very teary when we locked the door ahead of our departure. Wolfie's parents and one of the neighbours from over the road will be looking after it for us, and we do hope we can get back there again soon once COVID has reduced in potency.
We were driven to Manchester Airport on Saturday, with there being no real surprise as to how quiet it was. With the UK and Germany both in Lockdown II, there were only about 25 people on our flights, which were face-mask mandatory. Furthermore, if we wanted to go to the bathroom, we had to ask permission from the flight attendents by dinging our little calling buttons. Food and drink was being served though, which added to the limited range of the airport, which saw all bars and most food outlets closed. In the end, we went to Costa Coffee where I had a cheese and ham panini, with melted cheese like lava squidging all over my hands and coat. It was a lactose bloodbath. I also wished my sister a happy birthday, knowing she was alone in Surrey, far from the Saturday she had no doubt imagined.
We arrived in Berlin's old Schonenfeld Airport terminal, a part of the new Brandenburg Airport complex. We were saddened that we didn't experience the new building, but immigration was understandably swift. We had to fill some additional forms for the authorities, which they took at immigration, while my heavy purple suitcase ended up blocking the carousel where I was due to retrieve it. By law, we had to get a COVID test, but we soon found out the place to do this was in the new Terminal 1 not the old Terminal 5, where we were (Terminals 3 and 4 were oddly absent). We therefore had to get a train over to Terminal 1, a local S-Bahn, highlighting just how far away it was. It must have been about an eight minute journey. By the time we got to the COVID testing centre, they were shutting up for the night, and they told us to register there and then but come back the next day for the test. Why this was the case when we had gotten there as quickly as we could from the Manchester flight - a COVID hotspot - I don't know, but there we go. Frustrated, we got a taxi to our hotel and quarantined ourselves with leaden pizza from their chef and participating in our usual Saturday evening Jackbox festivities.
Sunday morning saw us go back to the Airport to get ourselves tested, a formality now that we had registered, before heading back to our hotel, the Adina in Berlin Mitte, to quarantine once again. We had also downloaded the Corona Warn app, which is basically like the NHS app but reskinned. With little else to do, we ended up having a four-hour conversation with Arakin over Discord before enjoying the music of the Eels and Killers with Stray and Patter as part of the regular Sunday evening music session we enjoy. We weren't expecting to do either this week, so it was a real bonus that we could. In the middle of all this, we also managed to pay for our new flat and insurances, meaning we could pick up the keys the next day.
The COVID test promised results within 24 hours in 95% of cases, and Wolfie was the first to get a negative result confirmed at 10:30am Monday morning. I had to wait a few hours longer, largely because the email struggled to reach my Googlemail. Upon logging into the portal, I too could confirm I had tested negative, meaning we could leave the hotel. This was a positive, as although this boutique place was fantastic and the staff incredibly understanding, it was getting a little stir-crazy being able to look out at the huge television tower at Alexanderplatz and not get out there. Of course, most places were closed, but I still wanted to explore. Breakfast at the hotel was a room service affair, with a man bringing you what you ordered to the room at a set time (in our case 9:45am), while on the Sunday evening we used Lieferando for the first time by ordering some falafel and houmous from a local Lebanese place. Lieferando is very much like our Just Eat.
Monday afternoon saw us come to our new flat in Charlottenburg to pick up the keys and deal with the paperwork. It was a 25 minute bus journey on Route 245, of which I was feeling apprehensive due to the lack of social distancing. It was also rush hour, with our pre-arranged 2:30pm meeting pushed back by two hours, meaning by the time we got to the futuristic and glassy Berlin Mitte station, the bus was full. There are no taped off seats on German buses and trains like there are in the UK, but there is a greater compliance regarding mask wearing. Unlucky for me, I was sat opposite the Russian woman whose mask kept sliding off her nose and who was gesticulating to her son wildly.
We were twenty minutes early for the flat viewing, so we explored the local area, which is in the family-focused middle-class area of Charlottenburg. It's a rather expensive place and I already know that it's not one for us long-term, but the flat is nice and they will help us with registering with the authorities which is what we need. Alas, what they didn't tell us was the ongoing construction work next door nor the thin walls and floors, through which we can hear the family upstairs talking and their children crying for good chunks of the evening. Better that than late night parties I suppose, and the double glazing makes the building work not too disruptive. I just hope I can work through it next week when I start back up again. Anyway, we met the estate agent who made us sign a million forms and then performed a full inventory of everything here, down to the last knife and fork. The place is fully furnished - again another reason we went for it despite the high price - but as it's only a three-month lease (with the option to extend by a few months), we felt it was worth it, not least because COVID means we are going to be stuck indoors anyway. I do worry we will make too much noise, particularly on weekends, but we shall see.
We decided not to move in on Monday, deferring to Tuesday as we already had the hotel booked and therefore had a free substantial breakfast. As a result, we walked to nearby Brewdog Berlin Mitte to pick up some tasty beers from their bottle shop, beers we barely drunk after enjoying an exceptional 12" salami pizza from the restaurant immediately over the road from the Adina (annyoingly they only accepted cash payments so I had to walk to a cash point to withdraw money). This made me feel rather bloated. I also liked the hotel, with its balcony overlooking the natural history museum and it's living room area separated from the bedroom. It was a good place to be holed up for three days. Anywho, on Tuesday, we got a taxi over to our new digs, driving past the Bundestag and myriad other sights, which made the journey rather exciting. Arriving, we unpacked our belongings and started to settle in, making our way to two of the local supermarkets to check out their offerings - Edeka and REWE. The former has a better beer range and far friendlier staff, while the latter is bigger but had a right grump pot working the tills. We only went to the second one as we had forgotten key essentials from the first, but we did manage to get a range of produce too, even tea, which doesn't taste too bad despite the hard Berlin water.
Wednesday was something of a dead day, which I'll cover later in the week, with today bringing the delivery of our stuff shifted from the UK. We were expecting it between 4pm and 8pm, so once this deadline had passed, we started to get worried. What concerned me most was that Amazon had attempted a delivery yesterday and the packages had failed to get to us, largely on account of the name placeholder not being available for our door bell. With our names not on our little letterbox either, they ended up leaving the parcels with a neighbour and sticking a note on the front door window. Later yesterday, I had to go and pick up the packages, speaking with a delightful woman in her fifties who spoke no English. Fortunately, my German was just about acceptable enough to explain the situation, but I have a long way to go in terms of learning this language. Still, I am picking up some new words already, so the signs are encouraging. To mitigate against missed deliveries, I've hooked a post-it note through the hole in our letterbox detailing who we are - a system that worked when my N26 bank card was successfully delivered today.
We had paid for the delivery driver to carry all our stuff up to our third floor apartment, but in the end, Wolfie and I did most of the grunt work. There were five boxes plus my guitar and Wolfie's chair, with me doing the lion's share of the lifting. At least all our stuff got here, but my computer had taken a massive dent, even though it had been meticulously bubble wrapped. Fortunately, all of the internals were unaffected and it's still working. Wolfie has since set up his computer too. I have quite enjoyed not having a computer this week - Wolfie and I have definitely grown closer while the time has afforded us the opportunity to watch movies and the like. We have seen four this week - The World's End, Armando Iannucci's David Copperfield, The Mask and Fantastic Mr Fox - aided by Wolfie's Amazon Firestick, while we have also blasted through all of Series 4 and half of Series 5 of Futurama, a series upon which I unfairly gave up at around Series 3. Hopefully we can watch more soon, but I fear the computers may get in the way. Due to the aforementioned noises, and Wolfie needing to call more often, we will be working in separate rooms initially too. Hopefully, we'll still see each other lots.
Aside from this, everything seems to be on track. We are still awaiting our Anmeldung meeting where we register with the authorities, but we have people working on our behalf to secure this. We'll then get a tax code and can register in this regard too. After that, we should be done. Wolfie seems happier and although I still have my reservations, I am determined to make it work. I have also been heartened by the support and interest generated by our friends, both those in the UK and here in Germany, which is giving me a real boost. I am looking forward, to what Wolfie has been calling, our new adventure.
