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Bollern Sind Freiheit
Jan. 5th, 2023 01:36 amAfter a torrid Christmas, New Year turned out pretty well. On the Saturday, we met up with Levia and her partner in Spandau. They wanted to look around, and with the weather being an unseasonably mild 17.9C, it was all quite pleasant. We showed them the main sights - the river, the Spandauer Brauhaus, the Mauer and the church - before we embarked on a quest for a local doughnut. Alas, as it was New Year's Eve, most of the shops and cafes were closed, meaning we reluctantly had to leave empty handed. The duo headed around to our house - where I quickly had to clean the toilet such was the state it was in - and we had a happy two hours drinking coffee and chatting. Levia's partner didn't really say much, being shy about her English, but she did enjoy playing with Bondowolf, and indeed now wants a toy of her own. I was feeling pretty fragile going into Saturday on account of another run-in with my shouty boss on Friday, but I am glad I mustered up the energy to meet our friends as it turned out to be a rather good day.
The lack of close social contacts is a constant concern here, and this resulted in us having no plans on New Year's Eve itself. We had initially wanted to go to Furvester, knowing a few friends there, but we had to cancel due to Wolfie's inability to get time off work (oh the irony). Berlin is like Beirut on New Year's Eve, with fireworks being let off relentlessly for around twelve hours from 5pm onwards, so much so that just walking outside is taking your life into your own hands. We headed down to the Spati at around 11pm to pick up some Pringles and saw a discarded fireworks box on fire on one crossroads of our backstreet while on the other, a man was allowing his eight-year-old children to launch rockets in a residential area. Down by the river, someone had a pack of nine, which fell in the breeze meaning they went horizontally rather than vertically while near the Spati, opposite Pizza Route, a group of Turks were just letting rockets off on the pavement, oblivious to anyone walking past. There has been a huge debate since as on 30 December there was a fireworks battle involving 150 people and police, while 23 officers were attacked at New Year itself. A bus was bombed in Neukolln while firefighters were attacked too. The politicians have been talking about banning fireworks for next year, but we all know that won't happen - Bollern sind Freiheit as they say.
We ended up staying in on New Year's Eve, although once we had dropped Levia and her wife off at Spandau station, we did stop off at Capuccino, the pizza place around the corner from our home. It was about 7pm and although they were a little perturbed by our lack of reservation, they did fit us in. The pizza was delicious and it was a nice way to round off the year. Aside from that, we ended up on Discord, chatting with the Bazersea Cats' Home crew, something we hadn't done for a while. After this, we were back on VR Chat to talk with a few people too, all the way past 7am. This meant we got to ring in the new year with loads of our friends and it was a really fun social experience.
The year has started well, with a few writing projects looking like they may get over the line. As Monday was a Bank Holiday in the UK (but not here), I took advantage of the quisence to sort out my 2022 German tax affairs while on Tuesday I managed to write a fair bit of a new story I am working on. This evening, I just chilled with Wolfie, getting through the last of the Christmas vegetables by doing a traditional roast lamb dinner. We were going to do this on Sunday but we had forgotten to take the meat out of the freezer, while we also were unsure whether we would get to Qualgeist. Ultimately, we didn't, with both of us not feeling the desire to leave the house, as has been the way since we returned in November. Kink has been the only minor disappointment of the Festive Season really, although we have done a little, while I have a few friends who are encouraging me to do other things too.
The one big thing we did do, though, was see lots of movies. We watched 2001: A Space Odyseey on New Year's Day and I followed this up with the sequel, 2010, with Arakin on Monday. The former is a classic film, but does become quite arthouse in places, while it is a little unnecessarily long. The latter, filmed sixteen years later, is punchier and does tie up quite a few of the loose ends in the original. I quite liked both, although they were quite unsettling. It was also interesting, like Blade Runner, they thought that Pan-Am would survive. They went out of business in 1991, a good period before when these films were set. Watching the anticipation of the future when we are already beyond those dates was fascinating, but it did take some of the veneer off the films. Meanwhile, today we saw Naked Gun, which was delightfully silly. This means I have now watched eight classic films over the course of the last fortnight and I'm hoping we can continue this deep into January. It certainly makes sense considering neither of us want to spend any money.
In the morning, I head over to Frankfurt to meet the boss and go to a major business meeting. I'll then be staying with Blujay for the weekend. Despite my desire to esconce myself at home, I have also had wanderlust throughout the autumn and know that seeing more of Germany must be part of the plan for 2023. This will depend on Wolfie's job situation of course, but if work are paying me to go to over to Hesse, I might as well take advantage of it. I didn't think I'd travel so soon, but it will be a nice way to start the year.
The lack of close social contacts is a constant concern here, and this resulted in us having no plans on New Year's Eve itself. We had initially wanted to go to Furvester, knowing a few friends there, but we had to cancel due to Wolfie's inability to get time off work (oh the irony). Berlin is like Beirut on New Year's Eve, with fireworks being let off relentlessly for around twelve hours from 5pm onwards, so much so that just walking outside is taking your life into your own hands. We headed down to the Spati at around 11pm to pick up some Pringles and saw a discarded fireworks box on fire on one crossroads of our backstreet while on the other, a man was allowing his eight-year-old children to launch rockets in a residential area. Down by the river, someone had a pack of nine, which fell in the breeze meaning they went horizontally rather than vertically while near the Spati, opposite Pizza Route, a group of Turks were just letting rockets off on the pavement, oblivious to anyone walking past. There has been a huge debate since as on 30 December there was a fireworks battle involving 150 people and police, while 23 officers were attacked at New Year itself. A bus was bombed in Neukolln while firefighters were attacked too. The politicians have been talking about banning fireworks for next year, but we all know that won't happen - Bollern sind Freiheit as they say.
We ended up staying in on New Year's Eve, although once we had dropped Levia and her wife off at Spandau station, we did stop off at Capuccino, the pizza place around the corner from our home. It was about 7pm and although they were a little perturbed by our lack of reservation, they did fit us in. The pizza was delicious and it was a nice way to round off the year. Aside from that, we ended up on Discord, chatting with the Bazersea Cats' Home crew, something we hadn't done for a while. After this, we were back on VR Chat to talk with a few people too, all the way past 7am. This meant we got to ring in the new year with loads of our friends and it was a really fun social experience.
The year has started well, with a few writing projects looking like they may get over the line. As Monday was a Bank Holiday in the UK (but not here), I took advantage of the quisence to sort out my 2022 German tax affairs while on Tuesday I managed to write a fair bit of a new story I am working on. This evening, I just chilled with Wolfie, getting through the last of the Christmas vegetables by doing a traditional roast lamb dinner. We were going to do this on Sunday but we had forgotten to take the meat out of the freezer, while we also were unsure whether we would get to Qualgeist. Ultimately, we didn't, with both of us not feeling the desire to leave the house, as has been the way since we returned in November. Kink has been the only minor disappointment of the Festive Season really, although we have done a little, while I have a few friends who are encouraging me to do other things too.
The one big thing we did do, though, was see lots of movies. We watched 2001: A Space Odyseey on New Year's Day and I followed this up with the sequel, 2010, with Arakin on Monday. The former is a classic film, but does become quite arthouse in places, while it is a little unnecessarily long. The latter, filmed sixteen years later, is punchier and does tie up quite a few of the loose ends in the original. I quite liked both, although they were quite unsettling. It was also interesting, like Blade Runner, they thought that Pan-Am would survive. They went out of business in 1991, a good period before when these films were set. Watching the anticipation of the future when we are already beyond those dates was fascinating, but it did take some of the veneer off the films. Meanwhile, today we saw Naked Gun, which was delightfully silly. This means I have now watched eight classic films over the course of the last fortnight and I'm hoping we can continue this deep into January. It certainly makes sense considering neither of us want to spend any money.
In the morning, I head over to Frankfurt to meet the boss and go to a major business meeting. I'll then be staying with Blujay for the weekend. Despite my desire to esconce myself at home, I have also had wanderlust throughout the autumn and know that seeing more of Germany must be part of the plan for 2023. This will depend on Wolfie's job situation of course, but if work are paying me to go to over to Hesse, I might as well take advantage of it. I didn't think I'd travel so soon, but it will be a nice way to start the year.
