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Christmas Is Ruined
Dec. 20th, 2021 12:34 amLast night, Germany added the UK to its list of countries of highest concern, meaning all travellers coming from there must quarantine for fourteen days, regardless of whether they are vaccinated or not. This will also include Wolfie, who is due to arrive back in Berlin on Thursday following a two-week stay back in Pudsey. This means that we now have two choices for Christmas - either we both stay at home and isolate until 6 January or Wolfie stays in the UK and I end up celebrating the Festive season without him. Neither are particularly palatable. If he comes back, it means I will need to cancel some plans, while if he stays in the UK, there are still certain things I would have to cancel as we had planned to do them together. I am working a fair bit over the Festive Period, but with a lockdown almost certainly coming in January, I am in two minds as to what the best thing to do is. I guess we will wait to see what Easyjet say about the flight that Wolfie has booked, as there is a chance that will be cancelled, but with things looking like they're about to get worse before they get better, it may just be best for Wolfie to come here and we'll isolate. Alas, he couldn't get over here today, the final day he could have done without the need to do this, as there is only one flight to Berlin from the north of England on a Sunday because the north of England is a forgotten backwater.
Compounding my negative mood today was receiving the news that our friend Monika from downstairs died from cancer on 17 November. When I hadn't heard from her for a while, I feared the worst, but it was stomach-wrenching to have this confirmed by her son earlier today. While we only met her on a handful of occasions, she really helped us settle in to our new place and she was very tolerant and understanding regarding helping me practice my German. My last conversation was about going to get her a crate of beer, which I couldn't do on the day she wanted as Wolfie was leaving back to the UK for the first time back in October. I offered to do it the day after but she didn't get in touch. I do feel bad for not being there for her then, but work was hectic on that Friday and I had to help Wolfie pack. She will be greatly missed and I will raise a drink to her over the Christmas period. Indeed, I still have some of the drinks she gifted us in her house, so it would be appropriate.
Adding further annoyance to Wolfie's quarantining is that the Leeds Meet he had travelled back for had to be cancelled last minute due to the rising number of coronavirus cases in the UK. The main reason behind this was staff shortage due to a number of members contracting coronavirus at the LondonFurs Winter Party the week before, a situation of high frustration for a number of reasons. However, we felt that with Omicron surging, it wasn't fair to run a meet and potentially infect people a week before Christmas either, ruining everyone else's Festive periods in the process. It is irksome in the extreme that we are back in this situation again of having to self-isolate and cancel events, but this is where we are. In the end, we teamed up with the Birmingham Furs and FursOfLondon to host a Discord extravaganza that saw Tonks do one of his famous quizzes along with some Jackbox games which went deep into the evening. It was quite a fun evening all told, but it was quite hard to be SFW as we had a 16+ age limit installed. Once the watershed had been breached, it did become easier, and I even got to make a couple of new friends despite my initial anxiety.
This weekend has been incredibly busy, with a number of people requesting my presence at a number of things. Earlier on Saturday, I had met up with Skaugen, who fancied a walk in Johannestrift, a forest a short bus ride away from where we live in Spandau. The day was grey and drizzly, but it was fun picking our way through the trees, where we heard woodpeckers pecking. As we entered the forest, we saw an enclosure containing some deer, with a little kid feeding them stale bread rolls, which they ate with a satisfying cronch. We also saw some lazy looking boars, the adults lying in the mud while the kids were squealing about, as well as some beautifully painted ducks as well. Deeper into the forest, we saw some lakes and an old Eisenbahn railway that used to transport products from the industry by the River Havel deeper into the interior of Brandenburg. There was a small dock here too, abandoned, next to a canal that linked to the river, with the old trackbed a source of much interest indeed. Indeed, it was the sort of place I'd like to do a YouTube video at at some point. Skaugen also generously spoke to me in German for the entirety of the three hours, which is very much appreciated. My German is definitely improving, evidenced by moving up from level A1.2 to A2.1 on the language test at the Warschauer Strasse language school I'm hoping to attend in the new year. Earlier in the week, Skaugen and I also met up to go to the Spandau Christmas Market, where again we spoke a lot of German and I got to try fatty langos and Handbrot, of the shincken and kase variety. It was surprisingly quiet, although it was a Tuesday evening, and afterwards we headed back to Skaugen for a drink and a chat, this time in English, where he gave me six beers to take away, surplus stock from Qualgeist.
In addition to Skaugen and the Leeds Meet, on Saturday I also poked my snout into the FURUM online convention on VR Chat. Alas, I couldn't spend too long here as the timezones weren't too favourable, but it was great to see the recreation of the Armada Hotel while later in the evening, our usual friends reconvened (along with a few stragglers from the Meet) for another one of our Jackbox evenings. Speaking of online meetings, on Thursday, the office Christmas Party moved online after that too had been cancelled in real life. One of the guys ended up running a quiz through the Speed Quizzing app and I ended up finishing third, bagging a £25 high street voucher in the process. In a way it was good for me that the party was cancelled as this allowed me to meet a few more of my colleagues, as well as make my presence known a little more. Being out in Germany is a little isolating and I fear I am being partially forgotten about, with increasing pressure to come back to the UK to meet up with everyone. The rising corona rates may buy me a little time, but there could also be light at the end of the tunnel here as I have been sent a new link to register for an appointment in March or April, although that link doesn't go live until January 1. This is a little frustrating as I do know Brits have been given appointments already through the same email address that I had contacted, but it seems I need to jump through yet more hoops. I suppose at least it's a step forward though.
Sunday saw me head over to Kamsirius's place for a fursuit photoshoot with some of his Puffy Paws toys. We had intended to do this back in October, but he said he wanted to get a new camera and with a little bit of free time today, we thought it would be a good opportunity. I was feeling a little groggy with beer from the evening before, compounded by the aforementioned news, but it was a really fun afternoon. I had forgotten just how exhausting posing can be, but we took a number of really nice pictures, as well as enjoying a few really strong cocktails that Kam so kindly made. We also watched a lot of fursuit convention videos, making me wish that I was going to a con again real soon. Indeed, with COVID back in the ascendency, there's a real chance that February's Nordic Fuzzcon will be cancelled. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
The only other thing that happened this week was Hunter coming around on Wednesday, on account of some workmen working on his balcony and thus creating a load of noise. It was pretty much a last minute thing, with him telegramming me that morning asking if I knew office space he could use. I said that he could come around to our house, but that I was working and so I couldn't spend too much time with him. In the end, Wednesday was a bit of a quiet day and we ended up chilling a fair bit, with me even cooking schnitzel for him before he left shortly before 10pm. It was nice seeing him and hopefully we can hook up again soon.
Compounding my negative mood today was receiving the news that our friend Monika from downstairs died from cancer on 17 November. When I hadn't heard from her for a while, I feared the worst, but it was stomach-wrenching to have this confirmed by her son earlier today. While we only met her on a handful of occasions, she really helped us settle in to our new place and she was very tolerant and understanding regarding helping me practice my German. My last conversation was about going to get her a crate of beer, which I couldn't do on the day she wanted as Wolfie was leaving back to the UK for the first time back in October. I offered to do it the day after but she didn't get in touch. I do feel bad for not being there for her then, but work was hectic on that Friday and I had to help Wolfie pack. She will be greatly missed and I will raise a drink to her over the Christmas period. Indeed, I still have some of the drinks she gifted us in her house, so it would be appropriate.
Adding further annoyance to Wolfie's quarantining is that the Leeds Meet he had travelled back for had to be cancelled last minute due to the rising number of coronavirus cases in the UK. The main reason behind this was staff shortage due to a number of members contracting coronavirus at the LondonFurs Winter Party the week before, a situation of high frustration for a number of reasons. However, we felt that with Omicron surging, it wasn't fair to run a meet and potentially infect people a week before Christmas either, ruining everyone else's Festive periods in the process. It is irksome in the extreme that we are back in this situation again of having to self-isolate and cancel events, but this is where we are. In the end, we teamed up with the Birmingham Furs and FursOfLondon to host a Discord extravaganza that saw Tonks do one of his famous quizzes along with some Jackbox games which went deep into the evening. It was quite a fun evening all told, but it was quite hard to be SFW as we had a 16+ age limit installed. Once the watershed had been breached, it did become easier, and I even got to make a couple of new friends despite my initial anxiety.
This weekend has been incredibly busy, with a number of people requesting my presence at a number of things. Earlier on Saturday, I had met up with Skaugen, who fancied a walk in Johannestrift, a forest a short bus ride away from where we live in Spandau. The day was grey and drizzly, but it was fun picking our way through the trees, where we heard woodpeckers pecking. As we entered the forest, we saw an enclosure containing some deer, with a little kid feeding them stale bread rolls, which they ate with a satisfying cronch. We also saw some lazy looking boars, the adults lying in the mud while the kids were squealing about, as well as some beautifully painted ducks as well. Deeper into the forest, we saw some lakes and an old Eisenbahn railway that used to transport products from the industry by the River Havel deeper into the interior of Brandenburg. There was a small dock here too, abandoned, next to a canal that linked to the river, with the old trackbed a source of much interest indeed. Indeed, it was the sort of place I'd like to do a YouTube video at at some point. Skaugen also generously spoke to me in German for the entirety of the three hours, which is very much appreciated. My German is definitely improving, evidenced by moving up from level A1.2 to A2.1 on the language test at the Warschauer Strasse language school I'm hoping to attend in the new year. Earlier in the week, Skaugen and I also met up to go to the Spandau Christmas Market, where again we spoke a lot of German and I got to try fatty langos and Handbrot, of the shincken and kase variety. It was surprisingly quiet, although it was a Tuesday evening, and afterwards we headed back to Skaugen for a drink and a chat, this time in English, where he gave me six beers to take away, surplus stock from Qualgeist.
In addition to Skaugen and the Leeds Meet, on Saturday I also poked my snout into the FURUM online convention on VR Chat. Alas, I couldn't spend too long here as the timezones weren't too favourable, but it was great to see the recreation of the Armada Hotel while later in the evening, our usual friends reconvened (along with a few stragglers from the Meet) for another one of our Jackbox evenings. Speaking of online meetings, on Thursday, the office Christmas Party moved online after that too had been cancelled in real life. One of the guys ended up running a quiz through the Speed Quizzing app and I ended up finishing third, bagging a £25 high street voucher in the process. In a way it was good for me that the party was cancelled as this allowed me to meet a few more of my colleagues, as well as make my presence known a little more. Being out in Germany is a little isolating and I fear I am being partially forgotten about, with increasing pressure to come back to the UK to meet up with everyone. The rising corona rates may buy me a little time, but there could also be light at the end of the tunnel here as I have been sent a new link to register for an appointment in March or April, although that link doesn't go live until January 1. This is a little frustrating as I do know Brits have been given appointments already through the same email address that I had contacted, but it seems I need to jump through yet more hoops. I suppose at least it's a step forward though.
Sunday saw me head over to Kamsirius's place for a fursuit photoshoot with some of his Puffy Paws toys. We had intended to do this back in October, but he said he wanted to get a new camera and with a little bit of free time today, we thought it would be a good opportunity. I was feeling a little groggy with beer from the evening before, compounded by the aforementioned news, but it was a really fun afternoon. I had forgotten just how exhausting posing can be, but we took a number of really nice pictures, as well as enjoying a few really strong cocktails that Kam so kindly made. We also watched a lot of fursuit convention videos, making me wish that I was going to a con again real soon. Indeed, with COVID back in the ascendency, there's a real chance that February's Nordic Fuzzcon will be cancelled. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
The only other thing that happened this week was Hunter coming around on Wednesday, on account of some workmen working on his balcony and thus creating a load of noise. It was pretty much a last minute thing, with him telegramming me that morning asking if I knew office space he could use. I said that he could come around to our house, but that I was working and so I couldn't spend too much time with him. In the end, Wednesday was a bit of a quiet day and we ended up chilling a fair bit, with me even cooking schnitzel for him before he left shortly before 10pm. It was nice seeing him and hopefully we can hook up again soon.
