Heavens!

Haven't blogged in a while.I can't imagine this affecting anyone other than myself, really (though, hello eight readers! Very heartening, thank you.) but still.

Things that have been distracting me from blogging:

Awesome Casella's visit. Wowee, how much fun was had? Too much. I miss you ladee, come back to us soooooon.

Reading Nora Roberts. Again. I know, I know, it's sick and wrong. I have a BA in Literature for fuck's sake. But can I stop, no I bloody well can't. The one I finished last night finished with a cougar killing a criminal to save the woman he loved. A cougar, a big mountain cat thing. there was alot about cougars and such, since the leading "strong woman" (so the blurb tells us) is a leader in her field of big cat preservation. All while managing to be beautiful and sexy and slim and ever so slightly vulnerable (even if she won't admit this vulnerabilty, even to herself). But it's okay, she ultimately lets herself admit her vulnerabilty, and succumbs to the love and protection of some man. I mean, it's angering me so much to even vaguely outline the plots of these things (the last one I read had exactly the same plot but instead of wildlife reserves the woman was really great at refurbishing houses. Seriously.) but I cannot put them down. It's like really awful, patronising, cliched heroin.

Cleaning the flat. Not something we often do, but yesterday it became a matter of neccessity after the flatmate and I discovered that the leak coming from under the sink was in fact soy sauce.

Adjusting to the new Butter Cutting Regime that the flatmate has me under. Apparently I cut at the paper too much and that creates some kind of trouble for her. But I have been shown the Error of my Ways and am Truly Sorry.

But, wahey, it's the weekend again. So if you'll excuse me I have to go get gussied up (as my grandfather would say), or at the least amake an attempt and femininity.

Soooo, I was in London last weekend.

And spent the whole damned time missing Berlin. Well, nearly the whole time. Any time I had a sausage roll or a Rich Tea biscuit in my mouth I was pretty much the U.K.'s biggest fan, but you know what I mean. Yeah, 'tis good to be back. Berlin is very definitely home now, which is a good thing as I live here and it's always awkward feeling out of place the whole time.

And Berlin is being particularly AWESOME to me these days. First of all I have a Besuch, Sara, who has come all the way from NEW YORK CITY to see us and our city. So exciting. We are showing her all the sights. Like the inside of various bars and Das Perfekte Dinner. She is Loving It.

Secondly, I went ice-skating last night and it was freakin' cool. (No pun intended. Seriously, that would be an awful pun, and I take my puns seriously. You're talking to the woman who recently made an AMAZING pun involving knitting magazines which referenced the Smiths.) We all went and had fun times and gluehwein. Lots of gluehwein. Seriously, the state of us. Literally on the ice for about fifteen minutes before we established a gluehwein station, whereby one person would wait off the ice with a cup of wein and proffer it as each person glided past*. Like the water station at a marathon**. Good times.

* For "glided past", in my case at least, read "shuffled by in an awkward and terrified manner".

** Well, nothing like, really. I mean it wasn't water, it was wine and, exciting as it was, 50 minutes ice skating ain't no marathon. But still.

TWENTY YEARS!!!!

So it's been twenty years since the auld wall came down. Big day. Here's how I chose to mark the historic occaison:

Woke up feeling awful. Have slept little since, oh god, maybe Wednesday night. Staggered to work, which was quite a feat. Managed it though, with only a hint of possible vomit action around Koepenick, when I contemplated leaping off the train for a quick tactical puke. Didn't though, which was probably a good thing.

Lamented repeatedly the loss of my iPod, circa 4.30 a.m. Friday night. My own, stupid, irresponsible fault. But still.

Failed to prevent a four-year-old destroying a pot plant. Soil, plant and general embarrassment all round.

Listened to some world leaders address Berlin on ye old BBC World. Got all emotional, and also slightly perturbed by the fact that I now seem to count myself as one of "the people of Berlin".

Managed to miss the flash mob thing I had planned on doing. Went to pub instead. Good times.

(More) Uncomfortable Confessions.

At the risk of this blog becoming little more than a weirdly candid series of posts detailing my eventual and inevitable total failure to be a proper human being there are some things that have been perturbing me of late.

I am getting more and more drawn into the world of Nora Roberts, romance novellist extraordinaire. It's not even trashy (read graphic) romance either. It's like proper "her pleasure drove her to the peak of the mountain and down over the other side into the valley of dreams as he ravished her"-type romance. But goddamnit, she spins a damned good yarn. Better, I suppose, than the weird vampire romance/porn/sci-fi/street-fighting "novel" I was so entranced with this time last year.

Last night the lovely ladies that I teach English to were joking that I needed to find a nice boyfriend and then I'd stay in Berlin. And what did I reply to these lovely women who PAY for me, as a PROFESSIONAL, to TEACH them stuff? "I like boys who are in rock and roll bands". Good one, Super Teacher.

I had a sex dream about Kerry Katona last night. I really don't think this one needs much explanation. That and I really, really don't want to talk about it.