regular

Coffee shop writing…..

| Mairead

(Coffee Time)

Since I’ve been sitting on the sofa resting for the past four days, I’m a bit stir-crazy. So today Denis dropped me to the door of a coffee shop in Dublin and I can get back to my “coffee-shop writing”. He was going to Maplins, his craft shop, so I’m nearby on Abbey Street at 3fe. Strange name for a coffee shop? It stands for third floor espresso. There’s a story….

(Big lizard outside Berlin aquarium)

This guy, Steve, used to work in banking or the stock market or something and he gave it all up to become a world-class barista. True story… He set up a training room in his  apartment (on third floor) and within a year he had entered the world barrister finals in the US and had come in a respectable fourth. Now he sells coffee in different ways using very geeky gadgets. He and his team also sell very nice sandwiches and very yummy muffins.

But it was the story that got me to have coffee here. Well of course it did, he gave up everything to do the thing he wanted to do? I’m in. Now that I’m here I’m ready to notice what’s different about this coffee shop? And it is different. It’s not squeaky clean, the colours are very bright, the shelves are like granny’s kitchen, not completely square, not exactly fitting and not plastic.

(Close-up of zebra stripes)

So that means it’s not exactly perfect either. Surprise, surprise. If it didn’t have a story I wouldn’t be here. Stories are really attractive to us and they are also really useful. The stories that lulled us to sleep as children. The stories we watched at the cinema or on the TV. The stories we believe about ourselves.

What do you believe about you? Mairead.

Ok we’re home now….

| Mairead

(Charlottenburg Palace)

Right, let’s get a few things straight. I will want you to remind me of these if I mention another holiday.

So pay close attention:

1. Irish-type weather suits me, even though I love sunshine…. it’s not my friend.

2. My delicate constitution is allergic to insect bites…… always bring bug spray….. and use it.

3. One museum a day is quite enough.

(Walk along the river Spree)

4. A rest in the afternoon is essential if I wish to go out “clubbing” (my word for going outside after dark).

5. Early morning starts help no one, all alarms should be set for a time after 10am.

6. Stick with the packing policy of just enough clothes, it’s working…… but maybe some more shampoo would be good.

7. Factor in some all alone time…. no comment.

8. Go for longer.

(Pink flamingos in the zoo)

Ok that’s it, my recipe for a happy holiday. I did have a great time, loved Berlin and the museums (I think we did five?) and the jazz clubs and the symphony orchestra and the zoo and the palace at Charlottenburg and the market and Unter den Linden and the cafes and the people and the history and the street theatre and loved, loved, loved the Segway! Possibly did a bit too much in five days though?

And so to sleep, Mairead.

Taxi Tour Guide

| Mairead

(Lunch…. looking like a green moustached little man?)

We had a very interesting conversation with our taxi driver on the way to the airport. He’d lived in Berlin for sixteen years and loved it. As a teenager he’d been taken on a school trip to east Berlin, while it was still under Russian rule. He was fascinated by the place and wanted to come back. So after he left school he visited Berlin many times, but just the west part.

(Anyone for some Sachertorte?)

It was a difficult journey. It took twelve hours from his home, the same journey now takes five. Going back to our history lesson….. the free Berlin, the west part, was surrounded by a wall (well.. two walls with the no-mans land filled with mines and guard dogs in between all watched over by guard towers…. to be precise). The further complication was that Berlin was also situated in the Russian (not so free) part of Germany, to the east. Maybe a picture would help?

(Former West Germany in purple, former East Germany in yellow. City of Berlin in middle of yellow. Barbed-wire lined road corridor ran from purple west Germany across Sachsen-Anhalt to Berlin)

So…. to get to Berlin (while the wall was still up) our taxi driver had to drive along a road corridor through east Germany to west Berlin. Are you keeping up? He was questioned at the border checkpoint and if anything was amiss he would not be allowed through or could be held prisoner. If he did get through his journey was timed and if he arrived at the Berlin checkpoint later than expected then he was in trouble. If he arrived sooner than expected this was also a serious problem. And yet he continued to make the journey…..

(Checkpoint….. Charlie!)

Incidentally….. the first border crossing checkpoint at the start of the corridor was called Alpha (from the phonetic alphabet for A), the second one was called Bravo (B) and the one between the American sector and Russian Berlin was Charlie (C)…. thus Checkpoint Charlie.

Over and out, Mairead.

Berlin Speaks English

| Mairead

(Part of the brick line that replaces what was the Berlin Wall all around east Berlin)

You may or may not remember from our tour of France and Spain earlier this year that the thing I most regretted was not knowing the languages. Because without a working knowledge of the local language it’s very difficult to have a conversation with the local people. Without conversation there’s no way get their view of the world, or even to hear the local stories.

(The last remaining guard tower. Young east German guards sat (or maybe stood?) watching the wall from this tower on twelve hour shifts)

This problem was not a problem in Berlin! No, I didn’t learn German overnight, everyone speaks English! Probably not everyone, but most people and the others were so friendly that you almost thought they were!

(Beautiful church on beautiful square in beautiful Berlin)

For example in the hotel one of the waiters was the spitting image of (looked very like…) Ryan Tubridy (for those not living on our little island he’s a talk show host). Of course I told him. And was very entertained as he googled some pictures. Unfortunately I like the original Ryan and had never noticed that he’s not really that handsome…. So there was a tense moment when our new friend Rodger (the waiter) found a picture and noticed the big ears he had in common with Ryan (the famous one). But we all laughed….. well I did.

You see that’s the deep kind of conversation we’d have missed without a common language.

Conversation is good, Mairead.

Where’s Walid?

| Mairead

(Walid and my very serious training session – lean forward to move forward, lean back to move backwards, a bit of both to stand still)

We went on a great tour today. For four hours we sped around Berlin on Segways. A Segway is a two wheeled battery propelled method of transport (see photo below). Our guide was Walid from London. Although we thought we were going on a take-lots-of-photos, listen-to-lots-of-information about Berlin tour, it turned out to be something else entirely.

(What’s left of the Berlin Wall – yes, it is thin, isn’t it?)

We did get lots of information and Denis took some photos, but the main attraction was Walid. I recommend him to everyone…. go visit Walid and take in a bit of Berlin since you’re there anyway. Walid has been in Berlin for three years. He came over to work in the software industry and to enjoy his great love… heavy metal music. At some point he fell out with software and began taking people on Segway tours.

Now, because I’m on holidays, I didn’t ask Walid if he was living his dream, but….. there are some clues to indicate that he is. He smiles a lot. He’s very entertaining. He makes history interesting. He remembers everyone’s name and uses them liberally throughout the tour. He gives you a pretzel if it’s your birthday and you’re the same age as the Berlin Wall….

(Our happy group – we’re laughing because Walid is shouting rude things, tut, tut)

And my biggest clue? Well, this will require some sharing, but hey its just you and me talking, right?  I was a bit cranky this morning. Yes, I know, unbelievable, but true. Why? At the beautiful outdoor amphitheatre listening to lovely music last night I was bitten many, many times by flying things, (yes, we forgot the “bug off” spray again.) I didn’t sleep much with all the itching so….  But in spite of all that, within minutes of meeting Walid, I was laughing and smiling and competing for his attention and of course I had a brilliant time.

To get an idea of the impact you could be having when you’re doing what you love, go meet Walid.

Thank you Nolene and Chris for a great idea, Mairead.

Market Day in Berlin

| Mairead

(Flowers for sale at the Winterfeldplatz market)

Saturday in Berlin. Today it’s the Winterfeldplatz market at ten am, the Musical Instruments museum at noon and the Technology Museum at three. The boys sleep through the market and the girls market through the musical instruments and we all meet in the technology museum. We’re off to a Jazz club tonight.

We went to a Jazz club last night too. My first time. After a late dinner we set off on the underground. There’s a strange thing that happens here, we saw it in the zoo and now here it was on the underground. People searching the rubbish bins. They are taking out the glass bottles, although last night one man also took a beer can and began to drink from it…. They put the bottles into a plastic bag or box and move on to the next bin. My best guess is that they get money for returning the bottles?

(Beautiful hand painted delph for sale at the market comes from a little village in Poland)

But it’s just as well because otherwise the bins would be overflowing with bottles. There’s a lot of bottles of beer consumed on the streets, in the parks, on the platforms, and in the trains. And the drinking is generally done by ordinary looking people, not down and outs. At 11.30am as we wheeled our suitcases from the airport there was someone sitting on a platform waiting for a train and drinking a bottle of beer.

But I haven’t seen anyone drunk….. in Berlin drinking in public doesn’t seem to cause drunkenness in public. And in spite of the bin-searching, and the beer drinking this feels to me like a very safe city, a very friendly city and it’s definitely a very entertaining city. I like it.

(Huge Lego giraffe for Lusi… may have to take it apart to fit in suitcase)

Jazz last night was at a club in the east side, called Schlot. They played contemporary jazz and the drummer came from Montreal. My music education is taking a steep upward rise lately… I’m going to my first open air classical concert on Sunday night….. I may soon need to take up an instrument.

What’s an easy musical instrument to learn? Mairead.

We’re going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo

| Mairead

Berlin Zoo today. Up early was the plan. Plan failed. After a breakfast of orange juice, coffee, custard Danish and currywurst (the boys only) we set off. By midday we had arrived. It’s a very old Zoo in the heart of the city, the trees and plants are as interesting as the animals. We saw the elephants first, followed closely by the giraffes and then the monkeys.

My favourite animal was a female gorilla who was born in 1957. Well I think that’s what it said on the sign…. it was in German. If you’re a regular reader you’ll remember my language ability leaves a lot to be desired. But German is different…. it’s easier to guess…. Anyway, she sat watching all the people watching her, in the manner of an old man sitting on the street corner watching the world go by.

(Two young Orang-Utans didn’t let a cage and a glass partition keep them apart. Right after this picture was taken the Mum of the one on the left swung over, picked up her baby and swung upside-down from the ceiling of the cage all the way to the other side of the huge space.)

Then we came to the nocturnal animals. They were underground, in a long winding corridor with glass fronted rooms on each side containing the animals. The lighting was very dim and the walls were painted black. When I walked in first I couldn’t see anything. I could only take very small steps, holding the wall and feeling uncomfortable. These animals normally only come out at night, but the zoo is closed at night, so…. day is turned into night down here in order that we get to see them. After a few minutes my eyes had stepped up to the challenge and it seemed like the lights had been turned up.

(Nice cobbles in Berlin Zoo)

When you really want something you may have to turn your world upside down and get a bit uncomfortable but soon everything will seem brighter!

Auf Wiedersehen, Mairead

What’s a server?

| Mairead

(Liam and Kate’s flowers)

On Thursday I did the work. I wrote my blog and added some pictures, even took some pictures of pictures. Then I posted my blog to my site from whence it goes out as email. But on Thursday afternoon the post failed….. It failed on Thursday night too and when I got up early this morning (Friday) it failed again, it continues to fail….. The site didn’t get updated, the email didn’t get out…. I checked with my tech people (again…. Denis) and it turns out the server is down.

I don’t really understand what that means. I don’t really care either. That’s not the bit I’m finding interesting.

(Mount Usher flowers)

The bit I find interesting is….. I am writing my next blog, even though the server is still down, even though I don’t know when it will be up again. How is that interesting? Well, usually I get quite discouraged if something I’m doing doesn’t work. Or if something I’ve planned has no interested takers and has to be cancelled. Usually, I make up a big story about how it’s obviously a silly thing to do, it’ll never work, I should just give up. This moment feels a lot like those times and yet I’m still writing.

(Can’t remember flowers… probably not forget-me-nots then?)

So I’m wondering… why? And the answer that pops into my head is because I love writing this thing! So now I’m wondering… what would happen if I put my biggest effort only into things that I love doing? Would I keep doing them through thick and thin? Through lack of interest from others? Through lack of money? Through breakdowns with servers or whatever? Would I just keep going? Can I dare to believe that I would?

And if I dare to believe that I would, then what?

Now what? Mairead.

Just Married!

| Mairead


(Our Wedding…. first time)

I have been making brave attempts to get more comfortable with Facebook and last Wednesday I decided to edit my profile. A sort of…. help people to get to know me, kind of thing…. There wasn’t much in my profile and I hadn’t prepared any story about myself but I added my marital status, meaning to come back later to add more. But now it looks like I just got married!


(Oooh nice ring)

Should I begin to act like I just got married? Maybe add some photos? Or mention my honeymoon, I mean our honeymoon? Maybe add a little piece about how happy we are together? Talk about our first argument? Get advice about the toilet seat or the lid on the toothpaste?

What about something like….. Yesterday Denis and I got married. The ceremony took place at home, our cat, Fred was present. We have known each other for a long time and this moment seemed right. For our honeymoon we sat together on the sofa and watched a box set episode of The Wire. During the complicated bits Denis paused the DVD and helped me understand who had killed whom….. tender moments…… really should have taken a photo.

(Cake by my friend Helena’s Mum… beard on plastic groom by my Mum!)

And then I could say we are very happy together…. because we laugh a lot. He does something stupid…. like buy another gadget and I give him the lowered eyebrow face and he laughs sheepishly. Then I do something like get into a panic about how “bad” my blog is today and he gives me the raised eyebrow, tilted head face and I laugh. There’s a possibility that we’re both laughing at each other and we should be taking this a bit more seriously, maybe even as a personal attack….. but we’re not…. luckily!

Oh the first argument? Well the real ones were a lot more painful until I woke up and took responsibility for my own thoughts and behaviour, so the newly married one…. but who in their right mind would make up an argument? And if anyone has advice…. don’t bother, we’re ok with the irritating things now, they provide more ammunition for laughter!

(Honeymoon in New York…. still wearing the pearls)

But the truth is today we are twenty-six years married and if someone had told me back then that facial expressions would keep us happy, I’d have been very confused.

Here’s to twenty-six more, Mairead.