In January it will be decided if the old Palast der Republik (Palace of the Republic also called Erich’s Lamp Shop by the Berliners) will be torn down or not. A veritable East-West-Problem: Many peopüle from the East want to keep it as a reminder of the GDR whereas many from the West want to replace it with a copy of the earlier place at the same location, the remnants of which were torn town during the GDR regime. But no money has been secured for the new palace, not even a concrete plan, so tearing it down woulld leave somje grass land right in the historic centre of Berlin. In principle I am against building old facades around a new building and therefore would recommend reading the interesting Article in the Hauptstadtblog and the web site of the Bündnisses für den Palast (unfortunately both only if you are able to read German).

Foto: palastbuendnis.de

Here you find an image of our house seen from the satellite. If you move around the area you will realise that the images from Google maps are not the newest: the Ostbahnhof is not rebuilt, the Modersohnbrücke is not completed, even the station of the tram at Warschauer Strasse is not finalised!

Today I want to show you some impressions from my wekly visit to the market on Boxhagener Platz.

Winter Gardens

The latest trend in Friedrichshain is sitting “outside” even in winter: you get the draft in your back and in the front you nearly get burnt by gas heating. Some sort of modern camping trip of metropolitans.

In order of images the euphoria, Havanna and Plusminuszero, all located on the same crossroads.

Kinderreichtum

Just heard in TV that the Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg has the highest birth rate in Europe. If you see the accumulation of children on the market it seems that our “Kiez” might not be far away from that.

The sausage “milker”

I wanted to present the man from Thuringia who lovingly prepares his sausage, smoothing it out (which looks like he is milking a cow). In the biggest rush he keeps calm and stoically turns the sausages on his charcoal grill and waits until he thinks they are finished. And they really taste well.

Unfortunately he just had disappeared into his van when I pressed the button, so I will present him at some other time.

You are still looking for Christmas gifts? Following some ideas, all found at Arktis Polarshop (descriptions in German).

With the new Double Shower you not only share your home, but also the relaxing fun of the warming shower. Not only lovers and twins appreciate this designer shower head, also children have lots of fun. Just replace the current head with the new double shower and get going. The new shower fits all usual appliances and is delivered in a beautiful metal designer box.

Sitting at the computer and drinking cold coffee? No longer with this special coaster. Just put your mug onto the sitzen und kalten Kaffee trinken? Das ist vorbei, einfach den Becher auf den USB-Coaster, plug it into the USB-Interface and your coffee will stay warm for 40 minutes! Even during hevy gaming your coffe will rest tasteful. Unfortunately the delivery is without this beautiful mug!

Have you ever had problems getting up in the morning, when the alarm clock rings? Did you ever feel like throwing the clock at the wall? No problem with this Throwable Clock. Just throw it wherever you like and it will stop. Available as soccer, basket or tennis ball (Random delivery – no choice when ordering).

And last but not least something for the jokers among you: the Radio-controlled Farting Machine! Just press a button and it farts through wireless control! The perfect article to embarass your colleagues and friends. It is sort of self-explaining. You have to hear this device as the sound produced by this small black box is explicit. And there are several nasty variations. It is controlled remotely (up to 20 metres, even through walls). What kind of child-like humour you need for this??Listening to ”Silver Bells”, by Dean Martin (Play Count: 0)

The waiter was quite a type. Of indefinite nationality, but looking professional. First he started to clean the table after an intermediate course even if someone was still eating. He realised that soon and just left 3 of 6 plates. When serving the main course (Duck with red cabbage and dumplings) he stated that he surely would have no duck at home for Christmas, he could not see that any longer. On the monthly menu since 1 December, he could not stand the smell of the red cabbage. “But enjoy your meal anyway!”

Otherwise we had a nice evening in the Restaurant Nil on Hamburg’s Neuen Pferdemarkt. The meal was of good quality and with 31 € for a 4-course dinner offered a good price/value ratio. The Sancerre was also very good for the meal. I just did not like the red cabbage. Due to the waiter’s opinion?

Listening to ”Wise Guys Opener”, by Wise Guys (Play Count: 6)

As users of IE 6.0 always saw a lot of empty lines in my other theme (not in Firefox or others, this is a known error of Internet Explorer), I now went back to a hopefully more compatible format. I hope you will gladly acknowledge it!

But I would still recommend to install a modern free browser. In our company we are even not allowed to use IE!

Yesterday evening we visited Dagmar and Hans-Peter for a mussels dinner. With two other guests it was a totally relaxing, funny and merry evening. After that Hanna absolutely wanted to visit the Spinnrad, but that was as could be expected, hardly any acquaintances there, but Hanna had fulfilled here nostalgic feelings. Finally we were in bed at some time before 3 o’clock.

Hanna’s new Dell still makes some difficulties, I gave up for the time being and have installed a USB-Wireless-Adapter, which is functioning, in spite of inbuilt WLAN connectivity. We will see, what I might achieve over Christmas.

Listening to ”Love And Marriage”, by Frank Sinatra (Play Count: 0)

As reported by the Hauptstadtblog, preparations progress for the World Cup 2006. Now an English version of the Berlin rail net has been published. If you want to come to us from “Zoo”, according to this map you take the S-Bahn and pass via “Alexander Square”, “Jan O’Joker Bridge”, “East Station” and “Truelooked Street” to “East Cross”. Hanna used to live at “Rude Home Square”, Axel at “Dawdlesplace”.

At least I now have the signed contract for a further 18 months. My boss told me that she had her doubt in the end because of lack of performance. This is only coming in phases.

Everything an expression of my mood. Reluctantly as always I went to the station only to realise that the train was half an hour late. Just across my reserved seat somebody hat put his trolley blocking my foot space. Just beside me somebody sleeping and snoring audibly. At the table on the other side of the aisle an ordinary and loud group of salesmen, in insurance or similar, having the typical telephone calls nobody dreamt of 10 years ago: “We are in the train and you? Oh, in a tail back near Hannover? Why didn’t you take the train?”

All that after a weekend in which I did not manage to configure Hanna’s new Dell for a stable wireless connection. Dell support promised on Saturday to call back on Monday afternoon, which they of course did not do. All that before a week where I have to improve a document hectically and urgently, which I just kept postponing and only was able to finish worse rather than better because of my intelligence (?). In addition I had these discussions with a friend about depressive moods and their consequences for work.

I am also depressed by my contractual situation. In three and a half weeks my contract is ending and I thought everything was clear with a new one. Supposedly the Human Resources people just had no time because they had to learn the new tariffs or similar. In the meantime they have payed two salaries according to the new tariffs, but I am still waiting for my contract. Really a depressing situation.

Just a winter depression? Or something more fundamental?