Resolve

A few house keeping items, as I say hello to 2010 (exactly one year later) and to a Berlin muted by a blanket of snow (hoorah!) You can just make out my bike's white basket under the pile of powder. I'm very happy to be home, yes it feels like home these days... and yes Bron is showing up on here a lot  but it was her birthday and we made a snowman!

Now, I'm not one to dissect what I hate about myself and then commit to changing it starting January first but this year, I got to thinking that there a few resolutions I could say "out loud" and be bullied into keeping, or at least shamed.

I call them the 3G's of Twenty Ten and they are: Green (because I should). German (because I'm here). Gym (because I payed for a 6 month membership). I also resolve to sing more whitney houston (below) and cypress hill (above) at karaoke with workmates (thank you Sarah for documenting). Don't you know I'm loco?

I've posted a few pictures and thoughts about Paris (City of Lights) on By World Of Mouth, which can be found in the links on the right hand side of the page or temporarily at the top of the page or by clicking here. I'll hopefully post more pictures soon, but be warned they are mostly buildings that aren't famous to anyone but architects, and even then I question where Luke has heard if these places.

Some forgotten photos and an ode to those who (hopefully) read my blog, who are in another home that is less than 3 months away! Thank you, your comments (and skype chats) are cherished.

She's Crafty (Weekend Arts)

As this year is my first away from family for the holidays, I haven't exactly been in the "spirit" of things. Christmas markets and school festivities, staff parties and even watching "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" (the original, not the Jim Carry version) have kept me busy enough but there was something missing. It's the lack of turkey and tourtiere, the last minute preparations, the anticipation of a blizzard or gathering around the tube to watch the game. It's the late nights, the poker games, the young cousins being allowed to drink and knowing that you are surrounded by people who love you so unconditionally that they forgive you for getting them the same present every year.
For the past couple of years I have made presents ( "you don't gnome me" and "that's the tooth") but I couldn't ship bags and t-shirts to everyone with the outrageous cost of postage here so, to keep everyone close to my heart (cheese alert) I decided to make my own holiday cards this year. This is also the first time I've even sent out cards, so to those that I missed, I apologize. I set up shop in the living room and carved out potatoes, traced stencils and mixed colours. It was a great weekend and it was fun to custom make them for everyone so far away. I think they turned out allllright, in the future I might consider using this technique to make wrapping paper or t-shirts.

A few tips and tricks that I learned while making potato stamps:

1) use a small paring knife to carve the potatoes, i used an exacto knife, which was a bit tricky to manipulate. Of course, simple shapes are easier to carve. When drawing your design on the potato, large wax or coloured pencils worked best.

2)Acrylic paint works fine, but it was more practical to paint on the colour i wanted rather than to dip the potato directly into the paint. the third and fourth stampings are always lovlier than the first ones.

3) The potatoes can be used for up to a week (maybe more) after being carved out, just wipe clean and store in a plastic bag in the fridge (NOTE these do not make tasty mashed potatoes!)

Trip to the Zahnarzt

As most people do, I put off going to the dentist as long as humanly possible, and in a place where I don't know the language, nor a good dentist, I was hardly inspired to make a termin. Well nothing gets you going faster than dental discomfort in the old talk trap, which is how I (only now) have made my first trip to the dentist in Germany.

After struggling through the new patient forms and checking no to the only 2 words i could decipher, pregnant (schwangere) and diabetes ( diabetes) I pieced together enough of my German to tell the doctor about my mouth woes (Ich habe ein Problem).

As he sat me down in his chair, pried my mouth open and stuck in one of those saliva suckers, I noticed that he didn't have friendly googly eyes on his overhead light. Since i generally hate going to the dentist, I closed my eyes, thought of Italy and waited for it to be over.

Now usually, I trust medical professionals and had no reason not to trust this Zahn doctor but as he's sticking one of his mini drills into my mouth, he says " kein angst" (no worries) and I had no choice but to worry a little and adjust my facial expression from "get this over with" to "i just drank chunky milk".

At least he was consistent with my doctors of tooth pain past and tried talking to me while it was clearly impossible for me to respond, not only physically but mentally too. You try saying mein Zahn weh tut with a mouth full of cotton.

Moving House

So up until now we have been living at Skizum Studios and if you click on the house photos link, you can see what it's like inside our world. The room with the Easter Island Mural is ours.

We were attracted to the place because a) it had a store front window b) it had a lot of potential to be a really interesting space c) we liked the people living here and were happy to make some friends when first arriving in Berlin.

After being here for 2 months, we realized that it wasn't the perfect space for us. It will take a lot of hard work and money for us to be comfortable here and we have to invest in our own lives (work, play, relationship). So we will be moving in the next few weeks to a place with our friend Dan who we met at the election party in the fall (see Once You Go Barack). We'll have half the people and twice the bathrooms!

The craigslist ad we responded to for Skizum Studios looked like this:

A large storefront , converted into a living residence that can also be used as a gallery/event space. The space is used to bring together active and intelligent international people who want to live in a comfortable, balanced, consciously humane and inspiring home. People who stay here have the option of enjoying private living and participating in creating more public interaction. Several people who have lived here are still in the neighborhood and are involved in contributing to our community.

The following resources are available to people who live here:
• 4 private bedrooms, a common room with storefront street access, a kitchen, a toilet/laundry room, a shower room and 2 storage rooms
• we have a large cellar that we have used for gallery openings, cultural events/parties and a workshop. We are planning on doing further renovations to the space to make it even more cozy.
• It’s your world, you can do what you like to create it including moving furniture, building loft beds, painting walls…I only ask that you show me your plan before beginning.
• You would have to supply your own bed sheets and pillow.
• Rent includes ALL utilities (gas, water, electric + heating) and wireless DSL + local phone. 2 months security deposit + 1 month rent moves you in. We share regular house expenses for basic maintenance costs, cleaning supplies, basic house needs (light bulbs, toilet paper, new kitchen utensils, etc.) These expenses average about 15 euro/person/month. Your deposit is returned in full when you return your keys and the room is returned to a clean state.
• Once we agree on the length of your stay, I only ask you give me 30 days notice if you decide to move out sooner or want to stay on longer.
• I have developed a few simple transparent systems to fairly balance housekeeping efforts while maintaining a healthy balanced vibe in the house. There is also a continually evolving house manual that describes more about the systems and the neighborhood in greater detail.
• pets - we have a 5 month old kitten named "Nurbps" that is very friendly an exceptionally playful

craigslist scams

Our first attempt at finding a flat almost had us wiring 350 euros to this woman, Caroline, who claimed she was out of the country. After we sent the money, she would send the keys. She even went so far as to tell us she was a 'God fearing' woman and would never rip us off. By creating a fake email address and posing as another potential renter, we caught her in her scam. Since then, more than a dozen others (including Caroline again) have tried to get us to wire money (using the same emails, word for word). Lesson learned, if it's too good to be true, it probably is. Below is her initial e-mail, had the high-lighted part been there to begin with, perhaps we would have been a bit more skeptical.


Hello,

Glad to know that you have interest in renting my flat. For now I
would not want to disclose the exact location of my flat for some
personal reasons.My flat is a 2 bedroom flat fully furnished and very
beautiful.

I have just recently moved to Africa, Nigeria precisely on a
voluntarily mission with a non profit organisation I have been a
voluntarily worker since last year assisting people and since I left,
my apartment has been empty and
this could be bad for the furnitures and other items
in the locked flat if they are not used.

For this reason I will be renting my flat to you just for your
monthly budget. It includes everything you need,
a fully stocked kitchen, Internet,
electricity, gassheets,towels, and other miscelleneous expenses
Unfortunately I wont be able to show you the flat as
I have left with keys of the flat with me
and the flat is currently locked since I have traveled.

Well I want you to know that the flat is well furnished just the
the way I left it, it is clean and needs no repair of any kind
and I hope you would take good care of it. But you would have to make an upfromt payment for the first month of the rent, please be informed this initial deposit will be deducted from the house rent.

After which I have received the upfront payment I will send down to
you the keys to the flat and other documents of the flat so you can
move in at your own time.

I await your reply soon,
Caroline