now this says everything you need to know about the berlin retail trade.
i'm fully enjoying the general vibe here, even though, it does occasionally mean you rock up to a shop like this and discover that it's closed, with no sense of when it may open. if indeed it ever will!
it was kinda annoying at first (such as when we went to pick up concert tickets FOUR times because they had decided to be shit, I mean shut - Freudian slip?), but now, well, it's all just part of the charm of the joint.
all ya can do is go away, get a coffee and chill the fuck out. Oh DAMN! (That was sarcasm by the way.)
this is a fantastic wall near the art shop we go to.
it's massive - both the wall and the shop, actually.
don't ya just love the slightly anxious party monster at top?
i got my hands on a set of 10 drawing pens, part of my birthday present.
sooooo excited! i got six 0.3s, two 0.5s, one 0.2 and a 0.8 - staedtler pigment liners.
now that may not mean anything to those unaccustomed to the delicate glide and consistency of stippling, cross-hatching and general mark-making achieved by a fine quality pen,
but let me assure you, these puppies are the bees' knees.
Oh you are so cute Kent - the bees' knees indeed. I finally picked up some replacement scalpel blades (was running very low) and some gouache that doesn't turn to a powdery piece of shit when you use it - super exciting. Aaaaah art supplies. I can't decide what I love shopping for more: art supplies, stationery or boots - they really should invent an all in one emporium for those three things. (I am now leaning back in my seat, with eyes glazed over and some dribble forming on my chin.)
i dunno what this is supposed to mean - maybe the end of deutschland? who knows.
but what a brilliant colour.
i half expect some of the less visually gifted birds to fly into it, invisible as it is against a cloudless sky.
goes perfectly with this little lawn we stumbled on, not 50m away from this wall...
how's that for a colour segue?!
THAT'S how you spell segue??? Really??? I always thought it was segway!
The red squiggly line under my version says no though. Phwaor.
actually, now that i put this post together, i notice the same blue again in the graffiti photo above.
i wonder if there's a connection there... like that there is blue in all of them?
or maybe they just had a massive sale at the local hardware store on a mis-tint.
yeah, that's my bet.
ok ok ok - this image is way random.
that's right, i said 'way random'.
this is a bakery we pass on our way to the supermarket. it is frequented exclusively by old grannies.
what on earth they think of the massive semi-naked women on the wall is a mystery that needs solving.
Possibly that they all sit along that wall with their backs to the porno bread ladies explains it - bless them.
So fucking weird. "oooh look at meeee, I am climbing a ladder made out of BUNS in some denim knickers!"
mmm, lecker-lecker. so, now to the actual intended theme of this post.
this weekend, by some bizarre quirk of luck, brought us two consecutive days of 20+ degree weather.
what's the odds of the first two good days falling on a weekend?
it doesn't necessarily mean a great deal to us personally, coz everyday is a weekend at the moment, in a way, but we get to see the noticeable impact this has on the people of the city.
lucy concocted some delicious picnic delights (she's literally over my shoulder now, saying 'some people have been known to call her the sandwich queen'). Well it's true. 'Some people' might be myself, saying these things whilst buttering. haha - i can't argue with that!
yes! sunshine! and check out the greenery on the trees.
(You probably can't see it too well, mostly cuz I changed the picture.)
omg you so did!
Well it was much nicer - I looked like (even more of) a gimp in the one you previously put in.
Look! No shoes! No socks! Spring spring spring SPRING!Actually, it was pretty hot today, in a 'ooh I really don't have any cool clothing
and now I am sweating like a bitch' kinda way. It was fabulous.
we managed to find a section of the park that was free of annoying 12 year old boys kicking soccer balls, babies screaming (but don't worry, now that we are back in the apartment, the screaming babies are ever present - what do these parents DO to their children?!) and the stench of kerosene. you're able to cook barbies in the park (well, not every part of the park) and there's hundreds of mini-grills belching out smoke everywhere.
This is actually a picture from yesterday's picnic - but every day is a picnic when the sun comes out! Aaah, the good life! it's pretty awesome, by and large, except that, due to what i can only assume is a lack of practice and acquired expertise in the art of the barbie, quite a few berliners believe that pouring kerosene or lighter fluid onto those black fire-starter thingies that look like coal, is a suitable way to cook their wurst. so, in amongst the occasionally home-sick rendering delights of sizzling snags and chops, you get a waft of nausea inducing petroleum in plumes of black smoke.
but if you don't wanna cook up your own outdoor feast, you can always buy a snag from these dudes.
they wear a barbie on their shoulders! It's like a gigantic sausage satchel. But not.
genius.
wow - these guys were amazing.
we stumbled on a troupe of drumming buskers in the park, and yes, the park is that big, and that crowded, that it is indeed possible to stumble upon an entire drumming quintet banging out some tunes under the spindly trees. i totally had to record some of their beats coz they were killer.
Absolutely mesmerising stuff - the energy of these guys was brilliant, they literally did not stop.
It was one gigantic piece of music, where occasionally one dude would stop for a breather.
Each time the piece sounded like it was well on it's way to winding down,
they would burst into a new frenzy of rhythm and beats.
All with babies in prams being glanced at every few minutes,
clearly lulled to sleep by all of that noise (See bottom left of above pic!) - amazing!
and the karaoke was going off too.
it was like being at a music festival, there were hundreds and hundreds of people,
and it goes on for hours every sunday in a local park. Excellent vibe.
You know Kent, we could probably go back down after this - buy a beer and a brownie out of a man's suitcase (true story - they're everywhere) and kick on!
we could - it's 730 and still light!
I am thinking of shaking it up - making a hot chocolate and taking it down with me.
Yep, I am crazy like that.
it's really great fun coz even though the singers are belting out some pretty lame tunes and not doing it technically well, the crowd just gets into the spirit of 'everyone gets a go' and they cheer and clap at even the most widely missed high notes.
oh, and also, there's people who just set up shop and sell stuff. right there on the footpath.you can get things like earrings, muffins, rolls and beer. this is completely separate from the market. it's just random people trying to earn a buck by flogging off stuff they either make or buy from the shop around the corner.
hilarious! luckily, for these kiddies on the right, they don't check id either.
And now, literally overnight, the cherry blossoms at the end of our street are bursting forth
some merry blossomy (huh - apparently 'blossomy' is a valid adjective!
I thought I was headed for more red squiggly lines for sure!) joy. Tis is sight to behold.
(ugh I really am turning into Kent - gasp! We are going to be one of those couples, that talk the same and start wearing matching tracksuits and buy small dogs!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!)
- what I mean to say, is that it looks fucking awesome and livens up the whole street.
If it were possible to hug cherry blossoms, I would.
(Now that would be an interesting project - how to get enough cherry blossoms in one space in order to give them a good hearty hug, the type where you need to say 'nnnnnnngh!' to get the hug fully across.)
All we need now if for that child in the courtyard to stop screaming for 4 consecutive minutes,
and it will be another perfect day.
indeed. what at first was a charming array of kiddlies has now morphed into a mind-bendingly, teeth-grindingly, total pain in the ass. What the fuck could they possibly be crying about NOW?!
shut up you little shits!!
(Or the nice people across the hall from you might have to call child services.)
xxx
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