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The Grey Door
Dec. 11th, 2022 11:22 pmThis week has been characterised by an incredibly strong headache, which started on Wednesday and lasted until the weekend. It has been here some of the last few days too and I am pretty sure it's caused by stress. My main area of concern is the cold weather affecting the UK right now, and its potential effect on our heating. While we have set the thermostat to 12C, up from 11C, and we have a few monitors in the house too, I am still concerned about the pipes leaking, particularly as Wolfie's parents are back in the Gambia and can't check on the place for the next few weeks. I am sure I am worrying unduly, this being our third winter away with similar temperatures, but I struggle to stop worrying about things in general and I fear this may be one of the reasons why we will have to leave Germany as I haven't felt completely relaxed in months.
I initially thought the headaches were due to drinking too much on Tuesday, when we went out with Snowi. This was initially going to be a small meeting between herself, Wolfie and I, but then she mentioned Zuckris wanted to come and he had three friends from Poland staying the week too. Upon hearing this, I decided to invite Fiasco too, meaning there was a gathering of seven of us down at Braugier that evening. We had initially wanted to go to the Ostkreuz one where they serve some delicious curry burgers but Zuckris broke his leg last weekend and requested a shift to the Prenzlauer Berg one as he could get there using only one tram. We were happy to oblige but this did mean that we had to eat food at home, which saved money at least. Aside from two other people, we were the only ones there, so much so that the head of marketing for the company ended up chatting beer with us for much of the evening. At one point, he even showed us out back, where they brew the beer. This is an incredibly small space which contains just six moderately sized tanks and a mash tun. It was fascinating to hear how they got the tanks through the narrow back doorway, as this was just a pub before they took it over. They're essentially brewing in a residential area and it's incredible to think just how much they have grown, particularly as they now have the second bar. It was interesting to hear that Brewdog down at Mariendorf also help with their brewing capacity. Snowi in particular was delighted with this turn of events and she has vowed to come out more often now she has fully settled.
Due to my headache on Wednesday, we decided to skip the English language BDSM munch again, which was a shame as I had been promising our Brazilian friend Jose, who we met during our first visit on 2 November, that we would be there. Initially, I said we would go on 23 November but this was the day after we had returned to Germany while Wolfie was ill the week after. I didn't want to make it three in a row but I was feeling incredibly sick, with this continuing into Thursday, where my headache and dizziness were so bad I had to turn down an online Discord chat with Arakin through The Game Awards as I felt so bad. Wolfie joined him instead and had a good time, while I'll admit that gaming in general isn't really my thing.
With confirmation of a place in the main hotel at Confuzzled being confirmed on Friday night, our decision to stay in and save money this weekend has proven to be wise. I was quite surprised by the sheer number of furs who had missed out, including many of my friends, so I can only hope that some people drop out and they manage to secure a place. I understand the frustration of the lottery system, but I do think it's the fairest way, and certainly exonorates oneself of any F5 related blame. We have been successful twice now but there's no guarantee we will be again. It will be great to see all our UK friends again, but this does mean that we'll now be doing four conventions at least in 2023 as we'll be at Scotiacon, Nordic Fuzzcon and EF too. There are many trips I would like to do next year on top of this, and maybe other cons too, so again a frugal December and January would be wise. I must put into perspective that despite how frustrating it is to make these sacrifices, they will be worth it, even if I have been opining about not being able to go to MFF last week and FURUM this week. Ultimately, I know that I can't do everything, but it is starting to get a little frustrating being stuck in doors all the time.
One thing aiding the lack of spending is the football, although it's sad that England crashed out of the World Cup against France at the quarter-final stage last night. They did play very well against the World Champions and I do feel that this team is more than capable of winning a major tournament in the next ten years. It was all fine margins, with Harry Kane's missed penalty being crucial, but it's fair to say that the French took their chances while England did not. They had to rely on penalties to score despite the higher amount of possession and number of shots the Three Lions enjoyed. Still, they equipped themselves well this tournament and had a lot of attacking intent, so it was definitely great to watch them. While my interest has waned a little since England's elimination, I probably still watch the semi-finals mid-week and the final next Sunday.
Aside from that, it's largely been the same old with work. The football has meant I haven't gotten as far as I would have liked with things like finding a dentist and sorting out a psychologist, but I cannot do everything all at once. We did get down to the Christmas Market again on Thursday, before we headed to the supermarket, enjoying this time a Thuringer Bratwurst that we discovered you could just get next to Spandau railway station at any time of year. We also did become reacquainted with our empanada friend and again I did make the order in Spanish.
Over the last week or so, the tension in our block of flats has grown though. Mid-week, one of the elderly neighbours from downstairs rang on the doorbell to complain once again about the noise, while also noting there was a bright light shining into her apartment. This is the fourth time they have called and I am now pretty convinced that we are not responsible for the issues. During the middle of the day, I think we're the only ones who answer the doorbell, but I do hope these complaints are being voiced to others too. The lady who came round was hard to understand, while my German still isn't strong enough to decipher her accent, but calling the police was again mentioned and I hope it doesn't escalate this far, particularly as we're doing all we can to try and alleviate the problem (even though we now know we're not to blame).
The other issues stem from the messageboard downstairs. In addition to complaints about urine in the lift, where someone has suggested that pets should wear a pet diaper if they cannot control themselves (my gut feeling tells me that pet owners are responsible and this pissing is actually human, but I cannot prove it), on Thursday someone left a passive-aggressive note which started 'how low can you go?' before complaining about the removal of three pins which are used to affix messages to the corkboard. I couldn't help but feel that was something of an overreaction. Speaking of which, when coming back from the supermarket on Thursday, we were accosted by a man coming out of the lift on the ground floor, who was unhappy about the urine and a family leaving their shoes in a neat row in the corridor. He became so agitated while remonstrating that he kicked the shoes down the hallway, creating more of a mess in the opposite direction to where he was actually heading (which was out the main entrance). He had two black eyes, so clearly had form with rubbing people up the wrong way, so I decided to try and calm him down with what limited German I had. Surely he realised we weren't to blame, knowing we lived on the fifth floor (I told him) and that we were carrying our shopping, but there was a moment we feared he may resort to violence so I was glad to get rid of him and return to our flat. This, coupled with another arson attempt on a block of flats in Spandau at the weekend, is another point on the checklist for returning back to the UK but I don't feel threatened or anything so we'll see what transpires. Furthermore, the myriad of strikes this month does make me feel glad that I am still in Germany.
The final point getting me down has been the relentless grey skies. We haven't seen the sun since returning from the UK three weeks ago, with the forecast expecting the same at least until Christmas. We've had one day of snowfall, at least when it laid, while it has been bitterly cold, hovering around freezing. I have been doing well not putting the heating on, again in an attempt to save cash, but the last 20 days have cemented my view that Berlin is pretty awful in winter. I am buoyed by the fact the nights will start getting longer from Tuesday, but I long for the variability of weather in Leeds. Granted, the summers in Germany are longer and more reliable, but the weather in winter is reliably crap and at this time of year I do miss the variety of weather in Britain.
I initially thought the headaches were due to drinking too much on Tuesday, when we went out with Snowi. This was initially going to be a small meeting between herself, Wolfie and I, but then she mentioned Zuckris wanted to come and he had three friends from Poland staying the week too. Upon hearing this, I decided to invite Fiasco too, meaning there was a gathering of seven of us down at Braugier that evening. We had initially wanted to go to the Ostkreuz one where they serve some delicious curry burgers but Zuckris broke his leg last weekend and requested a shift to the Prenzlauer Berg one as he could get there using only one tram. We were happy to oblige but this did mean that we had to eat food at home, which saved money at least. Aside from two other people, we were the only ones there, so much so that the head of marketing for the company ended up chatting beer with us for much of the evening. At one point, he even showed us out back, where they brew the beer. This is an incredibly small space which contains just six moderately sized tanks and a mash tun. It was fascinating to hear how they got the tanks through the narrow back doorway, as this was just a pub before they took it over. They're essentially brewing in a residential area and it's incredible to think just how much they have grown, particularly as they now have the second bar. It was interesting to hear that Brewdog down at Mariendorf also help with their brewing capacity. Snowi in particular was delighted with this turn of events and she has vowed to come out more often now she has fully settled.
Due to my headache on Wednesday, we decided to skip the English language BDSM munch again, which was a shame as I had been promising our Brazilian friend Jose, who we met during our first visit on 2 November, that we would be there. Initially, I said we would go on 23 November but this was the day after we had returned to Germany while Wolfie was ill the week after. I didn't want to make it three in a row but I was feeling incredibly sick, with this continuing into Thursday, where my headache and dizziness were so bad I had to turn down an online Discord chat with Arakin through The Game Awards as I felt so bad. Wolfie joined him instead and had a good time, while I'll admit that gaming in general isn't really my thing.
With confirmation of a place in the main hotel at Confuzzled being confirmed on Friday night, our decision to stay in and save money this weekend has proven to be wise. I was quite surprised by the sheer number of furs who had missed out, including many of my friends, so I can only hope that some people drop out and they manage to secure a place. I understand the frustration of the lottery system, but I do think it's the fairest way, and certainly exonorates oneself of any F5 related blame. We have been successful twice now but there's no guarantee we will be again. It will be great to see all our UK friends again, but this does mean that we'll now be doing four conventions at least in 2023 as we'll be at Scotiacon, Nordic Fuzzcon and EF too. There are many trips I would like to do next year on top of this, and maybe other cons too, so again a frugal December and January would be wise. I must put into perspective that despite how frustrating it is to make these sacrifices, they will be worth it, even if I have been opining about not being able to go to MFF last week and FURUM this week. Ultimately, I know that I can't do everything, but it is starting to get a little frustrating being stuck in doors all the time.
One thing aiding the lack of spending is the football, although it's sad that England crashed out of the World Cup against France at the quarter-final stage last night. They did play very well against the World Champions and I do feel that this team is more than capable of winning a major tournament in the next ten years. It was all fine margins, with Harry Kane's missed penalty being crucial, but it's fair to say that the French took their chances while England did not. They had to rely on penalties to score despite the higher amount of possession and number of shots the Three Lions enjoyed. Still, they equipped themselves well this tournament and had a lot of attacking intent, so it was definitely great to watch them. While my interest has waned a little since England's elimination, I probably still watch the semi-finals mid-week and the final next Sunday.
Aside from that, it's largely been the same old with work. The football has meant I haven't gotten as far as I would have liked with things like finding a dentist and sorting out a psychologist, but I cannot do everything all at once. We did get down to the Christmas Market again on Thursday, before we headed to the supermarket, enjoying this time a Thuringer Bratwurst that we discovered you could just get next to Spandau railway station at any time of year. We also did become reacquainted with our empanada friend and again I did make the order in Spanish.
Over the last week or so, the tension in our block of flats has grown though. Mid-week, one of the elderly neighbours from downstairs rang on the doorbell to complain once again about the noise, while also noting there was a bright light shining into her apartment. This is the fourth time they have called and I am now pretty convinced that we are not responsible for the issues. During the middle of the day, I think we're the only ones who answer the doorbell, but I do hope these complaints are being voiced to others too. The lady who came round was hard to understand, while my German still isn't strong enough to decipher her accent, but calling the police was again mentioned and I hope it doesn't escalate this far, particularly as we're doing all we can to try and alleviate the problem (even though we now know we're not to blame).
The other issues stem from the messageboard downstairs. In addition to complaints about urine in the lift, where someone has suggested that pets should wear a pet diaper if they cannot control themselves (my gut feeling tells me that pet owners are responsible and this pissing is actually human, but I cannot prove it), on Thursday someone left a passive-aggressive note which started 'how low can you go?' before complaining about the removal of three pins which are used to affix messages to the corkboard. I couldn't help but feel that was something of an overreaction. Speaking of which, when coming back from the supermarket on Thursday, we were accosted by a man coming out of the lift on the ground floor, who was unhappy about the urine and a family leaving their shoes in a neat row in the corridor. He became so agitated while remonstrating that he kicked the shoes down the hallway, creating more of a mess in the opposite direction to where he was actually heading (which was out the main entrance). He had two black eyes, so clearly had form with rubbing people up the wrong way, so I decided to try and calm him down with what limited German I had. Surely he realised we weren't to blame, knowing we lived on the fifth floor (I told him) and that we were carrying our shopping, but there was a moment we feared he may resort to violence so I was glad to get rid of him and return to our flat. This, coupled with another arson attempt on a block of flats in Spandau at the weekend, is another point on the checklist for returning back to the UK but I don't feel threatened or anything so we'll see what transpires. Furthermore, the myriad of strikes this month does make me feel glad that I am still in Germany.
The final point getting me down has been the relentless grey skies. We haven't seen the sun since returning from the UK three weeks ago, with the forecast expecting the same at least until Christmas. We've had one day of snowfall, at least when it laid, while it has been bitterly cold, hovering around freezing. I have been doing well not putting the heating on, again in an attempt to save cash, but the last 20 days have cemented my view that Berlin is pretty awful in winter. I am buoyed by the fact the nights will start getting longer from Tuesday, but I long for the variability of weather in Leeds. Granted, the summers in Germany are longer and more reliable, but the weather in winter is reliably crap and at this time of year I do miss the variety of weather in Britain.
