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Second Thoughts
Apr. 17th, 2022 09:59 pmI arrived back in Berlin this afternoon, albeit without Wolfie. I am really missing him. He has had to stay back in the UK as his new passport did not get delivered on time, resulting in him extending his stay for an additional two weeks. Further to this, upon arrival back in Berlin, I was greeted to the news that our warm costs are going up by an additional €240 a month due to increased energy prices. The number is quite a surprise and I am starting to wonder whether all this is worth it. I do love living in Berlin, but the money I could save on rent I could plough back into the UK mortgage and get that paid off incredibly quickly. However, if I do come back, I also have to surrender any hope I have of ever returning to live in the EU, making it quite the dilemma. While back in the UK, I did realise that the vast majority of our friends are there and we cannot yet replicate the good times we have had there over here. Furthermore, I do like our little house in Pudsey, even though I was also acutely aware of the myriad of problems facing the UK while I was back there. The decision is tough and will need level heads, but with Wolfie currently looking for a job and my work easily transferable back to Leeds, all options are open. We can also get out of this flat in a little over two months' time.
Seeing our friends was undoubtedly the highlight of our stay and there were a number of days when it was like the old times. Last Sunday, eight of us headed over to Liverpool to mess about, largely because Procyon didn't want to go into Manchester and Stray had never been to the city before. Unfortunately, as was common throughout our stay, the trains messed us about, meaning the one we were due to catch was cancelled. This meant we had to spend an hour in Manchester, which we didn't particularly want to do, but at least it enabled us to tick off the Brewdog Doghouse hotel, which we hadn't visited before. Indeed, our trip was quite Brewdog heavy as in addition to visiting the Huddersfield, Bradford, Headingley and North Street bars previously highlighted, we also got to visit our 80th bar in the shape of Hull last Thursday along with the bars in Liverpool and Canary Wharf, which I swung into after a work trip during the middle of last week.
We met Caleb and Duveux in Doghouse, with the four of us heading west just after three o'clock in the afternoon. Skavi joined us en route from Warrington before we met up with Procyon at Lime Street station. The six of us then headed down to American Pizza Slice, a New York-style eatery which had been brought to my attention through the Fat Man on Rate My Takeaway. It was indeed very good, with the base crispy on the bottom while having an element of softness in between it and the toppings. Two slices were definitely enough - I had the margherita and the pepperoni - although I did embarrassingly drop my pot of garlic sauce all over the floor. Katsura joined us here, after which we all decamped to Brewdog down the road to wait for Stray, who had been visiting his family over in Bradford. This was the first time that I had seen him in over two years and it was like reuniting with a lost brother, only a brother who is ginger. We bounced off each other like we had done the last time we had met at Gdakon, talking about 'Treedophiles' down near the Albert Dock area in a nod to that weatherman from This Morning. Stray hadn't seen this or the Liver Building before, so he was quite absorbed by the quayfront, which had a number of ships docked there too. The one-and-a-half-times sized likeness of the Beatles in statue form was a bit creepy though. After this, we did a little dive around some of the backstreets of Liverpool, where Stray was delighted to discover the accurate depiction of a WWI soldier in full regimental regalia in a poignant war memorial. We then ended the evening at The Dead Crafty Brew Co on Dale Street for a swift third of 10% before our train back over to Yorkshire (via a demanding yomp from Manchester Oxford Road to Manchester Victoria stations).
Another good day was Friday evening, when we enjoyed the company of Arcais, Taneli, Tony and Fioxy at our house. The weather was an acceptable 16C and while it wasn't too sunny, we decided to crack out the BBQ. Alas, I ended up filling myself on 56 Pringles before we even started cooking, so I was as bloated as a barrel once I had consumed the hot dogs and burgers. Arc had brought around her Violet Leapfrog toy, which we had bought for her about nine years ago, and so I went upstairs to grab Scout, with the two dogs lounging on the bench as we cooked. Fiox brought around some shackles which we had ordered back at the start of 2021, while the evening was marked by good craic with friends, along with an exquisite pink sunset.
In some respects, we were carrying on from the events of the previous Saturday, when we had met Fioxy and his crew at Brewdog in York. We were down there to go to the Brew York Sixth Birthday Beer Festival and although I was somewhat reticent about going as the Covid rates had shot up in the UK during our time there, in the end I reasoned it was likely to be outside and I had already paid for the ticket. That morning, I was at my father's house and noticed that Fioxy had put out a tweet saying he was walking around York looking for new venues for the meet there. We had always intended to go to Brewdog ahead of the beer festival, to get the stamp, so I told him this and said we could meet there. In the end, he brought seven other people with him, including Char, Hell Badger, Tony, CD and Adcro. We all sat outside in the middle of the road, which had been sectioned off by industrial bollards, and we ended up drinking three pretty high strength beers. As Wolfie's train had been cancelled, he had ended up in Brewdog about an hour and a half earlier than the rest of us, so he must have had five before reaching Brew York. Anyway, it was great chatting to Fioxy in particular, as well as the bar lady who patiently dealt with my nonsense interpretations of their 'no inflatables, no inappropriate language' doorsign. Seemingly to deter stag and hen parties, I asked whether wearing water wings would be acceptable, before showing her a Puffy Paws toy, which she said was not appropriate. Meanwhile, she wasn't too happy when I suggested German as being an 'inappropriate' language for a bar in England.
One of the reasons we had stayed later was that Fioxy kindly offered to give us a lift to Osbaldwick, where the Brew York brewery is. They built this last year to increase capacity and it was good seeing it, despite it being somewhat inaccessable. Still, it was a cavernous space, which meant I wasn't too worried about Covid, with the only time we were close to others being the two tasting sessions at 6:30pm and 7:30pm. Alas, this only involved one beer each, but they were good ones, while there were only six guest breweries in total at the event. However, the lack of quantity was certainly made up for in quality, as the beers we tried were excellent. Alas, they were all around the 7-10% mark so we got drunk quite quickly. I was pretty bad on arrival and I think Wolfie was worse, with not even some delicious Japanese Yuzu food staving off the drunkeness. In the end, even after grabbing some pizza, we ended up leaving around 9pm, an hour before closing as we were just too gone. I felt a little bad for Adam and Vulpes, who it was great to meet again, but we had had enough. In the end, getting home was fraught as Uber taxis kept cancelling and we then had to wait 45 minutes for our train. Cue a trip to York Tap for another low strength beer, which Wolfie didn't appreciate. On our way home, we were held at Leeds station for 20 minutes 'due to a fight on the platform'.
Saturday, yesterday, was the Leeds Meet, my first in 27 months. I was quite surprised by just how busy it was, while it was great to be reacquainted with so many family faces. I even got to meet some new people like Sperunk and British Foxy, the latter having come to visit on a few occasions while we were back too. The fursuit walk looked massive, but I decided to stay in the bar, opting for a chill afternoon meeting and drinking with people. It was great seeing the likes of Oracle and Cosmo again, and in some respects it felt like I had never been away. The venue is very much the same as it was before, but they now do poutine, which was nice enough until the end when the chips turned all soggy. The gravy wasn't particularly flavoursome either. A number of our friends were going to Locked in Manchester in the evening and they wanted me to go, but I wanted a relaxed day at the meet, so I said I would go in May. It is very frustrating that all of the kink events are in Manchester, and with the trains now so poorly serviced, this would necissitate a stay over on most occasions. I wish Leeds had more going for it than it actually does, and this is indeed something to consider should we move back. Qualgeist here in Berlin is just too good and there is so much stuff that is readily accessable. Anyway, I didn't go to Locked but instead went to Trinity Kitchen with some friends where I got to try Archie's Burgers, which were good but overpriced. I did particularly like the pink foil though. Arc also wanted me to try some bubble tea, which I managed to spill down my leg, making it look like an alien has sneezed down my ankle. The tea was nice but, as is often the case with these things, once the ice starts to melt, the flavour disappears and it becomes all watery. Our final stop of the night was Friends of Ham before I headed back over to Patter's new house in Manchester, as TPE's strikes meant that I could not get to Manchester Airport in time for my flight this morning. This was quite annoying, but it was good staying over with Patter, even if I did sort of invite Procyon over too. It was a joke, but I think the raccoon took it seriously and requested a bed too. He slept on the floor while I nabbed the camp bed, on which I struggled sleeping.
The only other thing we did socially was visiting Brewdog's Hull bar on Thursday evening. We had intended to see Iffy and Starpaw there, but they couldn't make it in the end, so it was just Wolfie and I. I have been having something of a crisis of confidence when it comes to fitting in recently, particularly as so many of my friends seem to prefer visiting gay bars. I have always been uncomfortable here, largely because they don't really cater to my interests, and it was on Thursday when we were in this cavernous Brewdog that I realised that I much prefer craft beer bars and that's okay. The staff there were great and we even got free burgers and drinks, as part of getting 10 stamps and 10 stickers in Visa 2.0. The main reason for going though was to get our 80th stamp in Visa 1.0, which piqued the interest of some other people in the bar, resulting in the bar staff showing them our visas and detailing the scheme. We could only stay for three hours in the Hull bar, with its fantastic view over Princes' Quay and the new futuristic bridge they had completed - the last time we were in the city, they had been constructing it. Hull itself hasn't really changed, typified by the three ladies drinking vodka and coke on the pavement outside the Hares and Graces shop, who asked me as I walked past whether I 'have any bunions'. After our trip to Hull, we decided to go to the Head of Steam in Leeds but I suddenly crashed here and demanded to go home pretty quickly. I am not sure why.
I have found being back in the UK quite mixed. It has been great seeing friends and family, but the lack of heed given to Covid has been alarming. The little mask wearing in particular has been most grating, although I noticed today in Spandau as I was getting my McDonald's that there was no mask wearing indoors either. I think the law has changed so you no longer have to do it in shops here. Obviously, the political situation is still dire, with Partygate and the inhuman Rwanda policy really not making me want to return. And yet again this is where our close friends and family are and, right now, I don't think I can replicate those good times here. As I say, it's a dilemma, but we're back in the UK again in mid-May so let's see how that goes before any decisions are made.
Seeing our friends was undoubtedly the highlight of our stay and there were a number of days when it was like the old times. Last Sunday, eight of us headed over to Liverpool to mess about, largely because Procyon didn't want to go into Manchester and Stray had never been to the city before. Unfortunately, as was common throughout our stay, the trains messed us about, meaning the one we were due to catch was cancelled. This meant we had to spend an hour in Manchester, which we didn't particularly want to do, but at least it enabled us to tick off the Brewdog Doghouse hotel, which we hadn't visited before. Indeed, our trip was quite Brewdog heavy as in addition to visiting the Huddersfield, Bradford, Headingley and North Street bars previously highlighted, we also got to visit our 80th bar in the shape of Hull last Thursday along with the bars in Liverpool and Canary Wharf, which I swung into after a work trip during the middle of last week.
We met Caleb and Duveux in Doghouse, with the four of us heading west just after three o'clock in the afternoon. Skavi joined us en route from Warrington before we met up with Procyon at Lime Street station. The six of us then headed down to American Pizza Slice, a New York-style eatery which had been brought to my attention through the Fat Man on Rate My Takeaway. It was indeed very good, with the base crispy on the bottom while having an element of softness in between it and the toppings. Two slices were definitely enough - I had the margherita and the pepperoni - although I did embarrassingly drop my pot of garlic sauce all over the floor. Katsura joined us here, after which we all decamped to Brewdog down the road to wait for Stray, who had been visiting his family over in Bradford. This was the first time that I had seen him in over two years and it was like reuniting with a lost brother, only a brother who is ginger. We bounced off each other like we had done the last time we had met at Gdakon, talking about 'Treedophiles' down near the Albert Dock area in a nod to that weatherman from This Morning. Stray hadn't seen this or the Liver Building before, so he was quite absorbed by the quayfront, which had a number of ships docked there too. The one-and-a-half-times sized likeness of the Beatles in statue form was a bit creepy though. After this, we did a little dive around some of the backstreets of Liverpool, where Stray was delighted to discover the accurate depiction of a WWI soldier in full regimental regalia in a poignant war memorial. We then ended the evening at The Dead Crafty Brew Co on Dale Street for a swift third of 10% before our train back over to Yorkshire (via a demanding yomp from Manchester Oxford Road to Manchester Victoria stations).
Another good day was Friday evening, when we enjoyed the company of Arcais, Taneli, Tony and Fioxy at our house. The weather was an acceptable 16C and while it wasn't too sunny, we decided to crack out the BBQ. Alas, I ended up filling myself on 56 Pringles before we even started cooking, so I was as bloated as a barrel once I had consumed the hot dogs and burgers. Arc had brought around her Violet Leapfrog toy, which we had bought for her about nine years ago, and so I went upstairs to grab Scout, with the two dogs lounging on the bench as we cooked. Fiox brought around some shackles which we had ordered back at the start of 2021, while the evening was marked by good craic with friends, along with an exquisite pink sunset.
In some respects, we were carrying on from the events of the previous Saturday, when we had met Fioxy and his crew at Brewdog in York. We were down there to go to the Brew York Sixth Birthday Beer Festival and although I was somewhat reticent about going as the Covid rates had shot up in the UK during our time there, in the end I reasoned it was likely to be outside and I had already paid for the ticket. That morning, I was at my father's house and noticed that Fioxy had put out a tweet saying he was walking around York looking for new venues for the meet there. We had always intended to go to Brewdog ahead of the beer festival, to get the stamp, so I told him this and said we could meet there. In the end, he brought seven other people with him, including Char, Hell Badger, Tony, CD and Adcro. We all sat outside in the middle of the road, which had been sectioned off by industrial bollards, and we ended up drinking three pretty high strength beers. As Wolfie's train had been cancelled, he had ended up in Brewdog about an hour and a half earlier than the rest of us, so he must have had five before reaching Brew York. Anyway, it was great chatting to Fioxy in particular, as well as the bar lady who patiently dealt with my nonsense interpretations of their 'no inflatables, no inappropriate language' doorsign. Seemingly to deter stag and hen parties, I asked whether wearing water wings would be acceptable, before showing her a Puffy Paws toy, which she said was not appropriate. Meanwhile, she wasn't too happy when I suggested German as being an 'inappropriate' language for a bar in England.
One of the reasons we had stayed later was that Fioxy kindly offered to give us a lift to Osbaldwick, where the Brew York brewery is. They built this last year to increase capacity and it was good seeing it, despite it being somewhat inaccessable. Still, it was a cavernous space, which meant I wasn't too worried about Covid, with the only time we were close to others being the two tasting sessions at 6:30pm and 7:30pm. Alas, this only involved one beer each, but they were good ones, while there were only six guest breweries in total at the event. However, the lack of quantity was certainly made up for in quality, as the beers we tried were excellent. Alas, they were all around the 7-10% mark so we got drunk quite quickly. I was pretty bad on arrival and I think Wolfie was worse, with not even some delicious Japanese Yuzu food staving off the drunkeness. In the end, even after grabbing some pizza, we ended up leaving around 9pm, an hour before closing as we were just too gone. I felt a little bad for Adam and Vulpes, who it was great to meet again, but we had had enough. In the end, getting home was fraught as Uber taxis kept cancelling and we then had to wait 45 minutes for our train. Cue a trip to York Tap for another low strength beer, which Wolfie didn't appreciate. On our way home, we were held at Leeds station for 20 minutes 'due to a fight on the platform'.
Saturday, yesterday, was the Leeds Meet, my first in 27 months. I was quite surprised by just how busy it was, while it was great to be reacquainted with so many family faces. I even got to meet some new people like Sperunk and British Foxy, the latter having come to visit on a few occasions while we were back too. The fursuit walk looked massive, but I decided to stay in the bar, opting for a chill afternoon meeting and drinking with people. It was great seeing the likes of Oracle and Cosmo again, and in some respects it felt like I had never been away. The venue is very much the same as it was before, but they now do poutine, which was nice enough until the end when the chips turned all soggy. The gravy wasn't particularly flavoursome either. A number of our friends were going to Locked in Manchester in the evening and they wanted me to go, but I wanted a relaxed day at the meet, so I said I would go in May. It is very frustrating that all of the kink events are in Manchester, and with the trains now so poorly serviced, this would necissitate a stay over on most occasions. I wish Leeds had more going for it than it actually does, and this is indeed something to consider should we move back. Qualgeist here in Berlin is just too good and there is so much stuff that is readily accessable. Anyway, I didn't go to Locked but instead went to Trinity Kitchen with some friends where I got to try Archie's Burgers, which were good but overpriced. I did particularly like the pink foil though. Arc also wanted me to try some bubble tea, which I managed to spill down my leg, making it look like an alien has sneezed down my ankle. The tea was nice but, as is often the case with these things, once the ice starts to melt, the flavour disappears and it becomes all watery. Our final stop of the night was Friends of Ham before I headed back over to Patter's new house in Manchester, as TPE's strikes meant that I could not get to Manchester Airport in time for my flight this morning. This was quite annoying, but it was good staying over with Patter, even if I did sort of invite Procyon over too. It was a joke, but I think the raccoon took it seriously and requested a bed too. He slept on the floor while I nabbed the camp bed, on which I struggled sleeping.
The only other thing we did socially was visiting Brewdog's Hull bar on Thursday evening. We had intended to see Iffy and Starpaw there, but they couldn't make it in the end, so it was just Wolfie and I. I have been having something of a crisis of confidence when it comes to fitting in recently, particularly as so many of my friends seem to prefer visiting gay bars. I have always been uncomfortable here, largely because they don't really cater to my interests, and it was on Thursday when we were in this cavernous Brewdog that I realised that I much prefer craft beer bars and that's okay. The staff there were great and we even got free burgers and drinks, as part of getting 10 stamps and 10 stickers in Visa 2.0. The main reason for going though was to get our 80th stamp in Visa 1.0, which piqued the interest of some other people in the bar, resulting in the bar staff showing them our visas and detailing the scheme. We could only stay for three hours in the Hull bar, with its fantastic view over Princes' Quay and the new futuristic bridge they had completed - the last time we were in the city, they had been constructing it. Hull itself hasn't really changed, typified by the three ladies drinking vodka and coke on the pavement outside the Hares and Graces shop, who asked me as I walked past whether I 'have any bunions'. After our trip to Hull, we decided to go to the Head of Steam in Leeds but I suddenly crashed here and demanded to go home pretty quickly. I am not sure why.
I have found being back in the UK quite mixed. It has been great seeing friends and family, but the lack of heed given to Covid has been alarming. The little mask wearing in particular has been most grating, although I noticed today in Spandau as I was getting my McDonald's that there was no mask wearing indoors either. I think the law has changed so you no longer have to do it in shops here. Obviously, the political situation is still dire, with Partygate and the inhuman Rwanda policy really not making me want to return. And yet again this is where our close friends and family are and, right now, I don't think I can replicate those good times here. As I say, it's a dilemma, but we're back in the UK again in mid-May so let's see how that goes before any decisions are made.
