Viel zu tun

Managed to spend a weekend in Berlin between trips away, and crammed as much into it as was humanly possible. This included a night at my local, a spießig party in my Kiez (complete with Irish ambassador and lots of Israelis), gorging myself at brunch at Frida Kahlo then topping up with beer while watching ManYoo v Chelski in the Oscar, and a great gig at the Mudd Club. Cold War Kids are apparently Christian, but luckily I didn’t know that until afterwards.

Just when I’d stopped worrying about having a dodgy ticker, I nearly gave myself heart failure by the unexpected discovery that my (new) brakes had failed, just as I was speeding down a hill into the path of an oncoming police car. Luckily I kept my cool. If you overlook screaming Fuuuuuuuck at the very top of my voice, that is. I’m not sure what exactly it was that the policeman shouted after me at the top of his voice, but it didn’t sound terribly complimentary. I think it’s the constant rain that has buggered the neue Bremsen; this city is definitely the wettest place I’ve lived since Manchester.

Sankt Pauli

Had a very nice weekend in Hamburg, if a little on the damp side. It appears that the city is famed for its rain, so we were actually lucky that it didn't piss down during the St Pauli match. They managed to draw one one with Rot-Weiß Erfurt (whose fans appeared a little bit too psychotic for comfort). Standing on the terraces took me back, as did the riot police everywhere afterwards - though not in a good way. The less said about the Leeds Southampton match the better.

Was passed on the road last night by an extraordinary little vehicle. Less than a meter off the ground and barely longer than it was high, it was woodlouse-shaped, fully enclosed, and moving very fast. I was so curious to get a closer look that I actually cycled out into the middle of a junction to follow it. Before it sped out of sight I was able to ascertain that it was peddle propelled, presumably by a fairly small person with some very musclely legs.

Hearts are the easiest things you can break

Found myself, somewhat to my surprise, at a cardiologist's today. Seemingly I’ve got a heartbeat irregularity and it needed to be looked at sooner rather than later. After being hooked up to several very clever machines (including a spot of topless cycling) I was informed that there’s some valve which isn’t closing properly. Luckily this is apparently nothing to really worry about. If only I’d known that last night when a google of the health sites (never a good idea at the best of times) turned up the words ‘fatal’ and ‘sudden death’ so often that I scared myself half out of my wits.

My friend Cindy and I are heading to Hamburg at the weekend, to watch St Pauli play live. We're also somehow going to have to find a way to follow Leeds v Southampton, since she's a Saints fan. It might be for the best that it's not on TV though, because one of us (let's face it, me) is likely to be depressed afterwards as we head out to the Reeperbahn.

Armageddon - The Musical

Saw an advert in the paper today for ‘Aida - The Musical.’ Another small but bitter blow against the hope of maintaining some form of intelligent life on earth. Operas rewritten as musicals, reality shows and celebrity gossip (about the contestants of reality shows) - don't all of these things eat away at people's brains until finally they can converse about nothing but house prices? Point proved by the fact that here in Berlin, where many people have never even heard of Kate Moss, the probably longterm fallout from capitalist globalisation is a more likely topic of after dinner conversation.

Football of course is now part of the same brain-numbing side show, but you can't abandon your team when they're down. The Leeds situation is getting more and more desperate. At this point I feel about Dennis Wise the way I felt about George Graham - if he can keep us up then I’ll forgive him for everything. Of course with Mr Bung we were only threatened with relegation to the then Division 1. No amount of name changing can make the third division anything other than the third division, and I quake in horror at the thought of it, though my Lincoln City supporting friend is full of glee at the prospect of playing us next season. I suppose at least I might finally be able to afford to go to matches again.

Fortunately, thanks to my kind brother I now have the entire second series of Green Wing to cheer me up.

Kalt

Am currently struggling with Adjektivendungens in my German classes. Was pleased to find that these vary not only according to gender, number, and case, but also depending on whether you’re using the definite or indefinite article (or indeed no article at all, when they change altogether). Unglaublich.

And apparently children go trick or treating for Halloween in the UK now. Does this mean that they’re too busy to make a guy for Bonfire Night, I wonder?

The wind had a familiar icy sharpness to it today. I think it may be time for Big Coat.