1, 2, 3 Holidays!

Oh there was so much going on lately, I don't even know where to begin.

Biggest, bestest news maybe are that we are leaving for Germany in less than 24 hours. And I am incredibly happy and excited, cause I do miss it, I do and it's been ages. We will go for walks at my lake, go on a boat, drink lots of schnaps for breakfast and dance with the witches. And I can't wait to see some of your German faces, you lovely German people, who I miss. (AND YOU BETTER REALLY COME, CON, OR I WILL CRY AND BABY JESUS WILL CRY AND KUNIBERT WILL CRY AND I WILL EAT THE Boots' Blueberry Nougat Bar I BOUGHT FOR YOU MYSELF!!)
So my next blog entry will probably describe how Ros and I managed to lose all our important possessions (=2 crappy mobile phones, 2 sets of keys and 2 wallets) while getting drunk in the medieval streets of Konstanz being dressed up as chess boards or something. Don't miss it.

The most amazing fact about us going to Germany tomorrow is, that I actually managed to sort identification papers out that will let me fly to Zurich and travel to Germany tomorrow. I think I already described how ridiculously complicated it is to get a new ID card when you're not actually living in Germany. Anyway. I also told you that when I went to the embassy a few weeks ago they asked me to come back within a week before my flight goes. So I did. On Thursday. Then I was told that as my flight was going into Zurich (which I had told them last time I went there already, by the way) they couldn't promise that the Swiss boarder people would actually let me into Switzerland with the letter they could give me stating that I am a German citizen and allowed to travel to Germany. They might let me in, I was told, but they might just as well turn me around and send me right back to London.
Great, I said, and what happens then when I am back in London and still don't have papers, will they let me back in or will I end up living in the airport like Tom Hanks in Terminal? They said they didn't know.
So I went for the slightly less risky option of applying for a provisional passport, which is valid for a year and a 60 quid bargain. Miraculously they actually managed to get it ready for me in time to pick it up on Friday just before they close down for the weekend and I am now the proud owner of a pretty, green little passport, which I love and won't ever, ever lose.

Apart from embassy troubles, the first 4 days of my holidays were nice and relaxed. Thursday felt a bit like summer and so Megan, Ade (her new girlfriend) and me had a beer picnic in London Fields and even though Friday the weather wasn't quite as nice I had another beer picnic on Friday with Gabby in St James' Park.
Talking about Megan, it was her birthday a little while ago and last weekend she put on a brilliant birthday party. Ros and I only wanted to pop in for an hour, as we were incredibly tired from a long, long night at the Outpost, but of course we ended up being the last people leaving the Treehouse in Finsbury Park at about 1 pm the next afternoon. Too much beer pong. Too much weed. Too many nice people and too much dirty chicken in the early morning hours.

In general I got way too little sleep lately. Lisa and I hardly ever see each other anymore, even though we still share a flat, but since her sister moved to London she's always at her house in Walthamstow and I am at Ros' place a lot. So whenever we happen to both be home for a
night we end up drinking and talking into the early morning hours. Sometimes we go for a game of pool at the Trafalgar Arms, which is a slightly dodgy pub down the road, but mostly we wrap ourselfs in blankets and stay in the kitchen and drink beer out of cans or wine out of tea cups. Oh the glamorous life of Shad volunteers...

Yesterday, for the first time, I went on a UK Uncut protest with Ros and Dom. They've been to a few, but I was always working. Now, holidays and I could come along. It was fun, we turned a bank into a launderette: http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/actions/372
Lots of lovely people doing important work here. Reminded me that I should go protesting more often again, especially as I only just learned that Germany got rid of tuition fees in general, which was something I did lots of protesting for during the last few years and it shows that sometimes you do get heard, you just mustn't give up. So well done everyone from Bildungsstreik in Germany! We got what we wanted and didn't break a single window!

Shocking, tho, how little I know about what's going on in Germany at the moment. I occasionally have a look at certain German news homepages, but not often enough and I only have a vague idea about the Guttenberg scandal and everything else that's happening at home. Maybe I should get some information in tonight or there might be horrible surprises when we get to Konstanz tomorrow morning and the place is not only burned down but the whole of Germany a completely different world... you never know.

Everything

The little explore in Chalk Farm turned out to be quite brilliant. I took Ros to the Museum of Everything, not really knowing what to expect. It turned out to be an amazing mixture of circus-funfair-taxidermy-littlepeople-everything and definitelty worth a visit. Unfortunately it will close on Monday, for good, so either you guys rush there today or you'll miss out on the weird amazing everything.

On friday I had my 3 months review meeting (after 5 months...) with V., which went very well. Loreena MacKennit wrote me an embarrassingly positive review, the thought of which makes me blush. I also told V. (and Loreena MacKennit) that I will stay with them until April, but then it will be time for something different. Something that, like, pays minimum wage, for example.

Then, seeing as the next trip to Germany is less than three weeks away, I went to Belgrave Square, where all the embassies are, one next to the other and they all have their little flag waving above their entrance door. Apart from the German embassy, which has it's little flag waving randomly from some other country's wall. Cause while Spain and Finland are content with a nice pretty old house looking out on the Square, Germany needs a massive ugly new building around the corner from it. Show offs. Anyway, was told to come back within a week before the flight. Ordnung muss sein.

So yeah, only 15 days till Germany and carnival now! I am actually very excited. Can't wait for German food! I will eat it all, watch me. Have been living off beer and dry bread rolls for months now. It is time for currywurst-kaesspaetzle-schupfnudel goodness! NJAM

Orion

I begin sitting here not knowing what to write about, because things start seeming less and less exciting, which is a shame. There are still moments when I look out of the bus window and am instantly in awe because of how amazing this city is and because I live here! - But it's been almost six months now.

Don't get me wrong, tho, I still love it, am enjoying myself massively and discover new things every day.

Two days ago when walking home from work, I saw the stars!
I can't remember the last time I did, but I feel like it was in August somewhere in southern Germany or Switzerland. I guess if I'd look up more often at night time, I could see stars in London from time to time, but I don't, cause there is so much to look at in the streets.
But yesterday it was one of those deep sea blue skies as well, not black. My favourite kind of sky and the stars were yellow and big, not white. I saw orion.

I saw my second man pissing in the street as well. But I was a bit grumpy that night and wasn't as happy about him as I had been about the first. See how things change?

Seeing as I have to be a bit careful with money right now I haven't been out much. Apart from... there's a pie shop in Hackney that turns into a gay bar selling beer and cocktails in jam jars on friday nights. Brilliant place.
Othe rthan that I had some nice evenings in various friends' homes and one in my own flat in Tooting with Lisa, her sister who just moved to London and Leonard. Was definitely time for a catch up, hadn't seen any of them in a month. Not even Lisa, and we live together.

Ros took me on a surprise date the other week, tho. Made me stand in a queue for two hours in the cold. All worth it, though! We went to the John Soane Museum at Holborn. He was a famous architect and crazy collector with a sarcophagus in his living room and incredible artwork and other interesting and beautiful things all over the house. And every first Tuesday in the month the whole thing is just lit by candles and the atmosphere is incredible! Definitely worth a visit.

So yeah, there's still lots to discover. And now I am off to Chalk Farm for my next expedition!

Juggling

So I read this book by Pete McCarthy about his Ireland holidays. It's, you know, one of those trying-a-bit-too-hard-sometimes funny travel reports, that make fun of Germans and Americans all the time, but do often contain nice anecdotes and insider tips for where to go or what to do on your holidays. (Bit like this blog here...)
There's lots of them about Ireland and I like to read them, because I like going "oh, I've been there" and "yes, exactly, that is exactly what people there say all the time" and "shit, I forgot about that"! Fun, innit. Anyway, in one bit of his book McCarthy meets a guy who shows him around Inishmore and lends him his bike for a day. AND I KNOW THAT MAN! He runs an organic farm on the island and one of the girls (German one - of course) who worked for him and lived in his house in 2008 always used to come around our house in Galway unannounced and eat all our food, because on their farm they only were allowed to eat what they had grown themselves and unfortunately they didn't grow chocolate, oranges, beer or fish fingers. At least in return she let us visit them on Inishmore sometimes and I once spent a brilliant day there with my mum.

Yes, reading about someone I have met in a novel was pretty much the most exciting thing that happened since my last entry. Apart from maybe that night last Friday when I went out for a beer and then couldn't sleep all night, because some bad bad banker with mad eyes had shoved a tea spoon full of badness up my nose. Apart from that I was just working, watched a street artist in Trafalgar Square juggle knives and, later the same day, Loreena MacKennit juggle sprouts (literally) in her kitchen. Sometimes she really surprises me.

Apart from that work is rather boring at the moment. BUT - It is February! That means Gabby will be back in London in a couple of days, I only have to get through 3 more weeks before my holidays, football is back to look forward to on the weekends and I can count the days until carnival!

Football, by the way. Lautern is being boring in Germany and anyway, the whole Bundesliga seems so far away. And here I am in the motherland of football and all that and don't even care, cause I don't have a team. I want a Premier League team to support please. Just no idea, which one!? How do people chose a football team when they don't get raised to support one special one by one of their parents?

I know, since I lost my wallet my problems get more and more serious every day.