30.04.19 - Juntar panelas

Hallooooo,

Wa'gwan from sunny São Paulo, where I've been reunited with Gaby and the cats after two bloody long months away.  

The last few days of my tour in Berlin were fairly nondescript - it turns I have new, Berlin-only allergies now, and I went to the Teufelsberg spy tower on Saturday, which had been condemned by the health & safety police (nice park though).  I also checked out the Preußenpark down the road, which was sold as a cornucopia of Asian fusion cuisine but turned out to be a lot of people sat on the floor selling cold rice.  Still, a promising stop for the summer months.

After an uneventful flight back home I was ushered straight into a BBQ and champagne tasting for my birthday, and tonight we're off to see "Avengers: Endgame" and finally use the 2-for-1 booklet we invested in earlier in the year, at a rather swish-sounding restaurant.  Good to be back!

My phrase of the week means "to gather one's pans", which is a particularly corny synecdoche for "get married", and this week's compilation is pretty damn good, if I say so myself.

Speak soon,

Freiheit, Recht, Fr(i)ed(e)

23.04.19 - Xenitia

Hallooooo,

It's a been a long bloody week on The Iron Lady, as we made our way up the Corinth canal and onwards to Corfu.  On the face of it, it was an extremely pleasant cruise with some nice people in one of the most pleasant parts of the world.  But of course we were there to work pretty much round the clock and without adequate facilities or WiFi, which took some of the shine off. 

The highlight was probably a series of epic walks around Kefalonia over two days - up to the wreck of the castle and then along the bay to Agia Effimia, via an underground lake and cave, lots of sun and plenty of cats. Corfu was pretty great as well, as we arrived in time for the Easter parade (including 17 village bands marching through the streets for hours on end) and had a showstopper of a Greek meal in the old town before everyone headed home.

Otherwise I have to say that boat life is not for me, and especially not for so much time - I was really looking forward to flying back on Sunday and getting back to real life, only for our flight to be pushed back until today for no apparent reason.  Nearly time to head home though, which I'm looking forward to.

I've made a new compilation, and my phrase of the day - courtesy of "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" - is the Greek word for "pining for one's homeland after prolonged and forceful separation", which seems appropriate.

Speak soon!

Fred Balls

16.04.19 - Am Arsch den Welt

Kalimera!  

I write from my gulet cabin somewhere off the coast of Greece, which is probably the most windswept and interesting start to an email of mine to date...

It's been an interesting few days, from our trip to Athens to a manic first night putting the world to rights until 3am with various tech chaps, a brutally cold first night wrapped up in a towel for warmth, with ambient techno drowning out the snores of my cabinmate, to the first windswept day above deck heading through the Corinth canal.  Since then it's warmed up a bit and we've found spare blankets, and the food and company have been excellent.  Bit of a mixed bag to be honest.

Otherwise I've made a new compilation, and my phrase of the day means "the arse of the world" in German, referring to a particularly far-flung destination. I've been reading "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" as we make our way to Cephallonia and on to Corfu, and I've found a site that creates a festival bill from your Spotify history (see attached - I would go to this festival...).

Speak soon!

Frod

09.04.19 - Handkäs mit musik

Hallooo,

Hope all good mit du. I'm back from a lovely weekend visiting Pierre and Iwona, and sampling the joys of the Frankurter lifestyle.  We started with bottomless brunch, which seems to be all the rage in the more gentrified parts of town, then staggered back to their flat in the shadow of the new European Central Bank building. 

Having wandered round the old centre, the cathedral, the commercial centre, the financial quarter and along the impossibly civilised riverside, we adjourned to a farmer's market for some apfelwein, then back home for a very sophisticated dinner party with Pierre's ECB chums.

The next day we went over the river to Sachsenhausen for more apfelwein, schnitzel and grüne soße (but not, somehow, any frankfurters - maybe next time) then rolled back, off to the airport and back home, where I've been grappling with app shenanigans ever since. Lovely stuff.

I've made a new compilation, and my phrase of the day is an infamous Frankfurter dish which even I couldn't face eating, some kind of gelatinous cheese with raw onions. I don't know why it's called "hand cheese" - and don't really want to know - but "mit musik" refers to the optional onions, which make you fart, hence the music.

That's all from me - next week I'll be writing from a boat in the Aegean, which should be interesting.

Tschüss,

Die Fredermaus

02.04.19 - Espeto de gato

Halloooo,

Good to speak the other day!  As I mentioned I've had a relatively low-key weekend - it was unusually warm on Saturday so I went for a wander around the Tiergarten and ran into some ostriches round the back of the zoo, went to visit and eventually book a room for May and June down the road in Halensee, then flopped about on Sunday making roasts and reading "Alone in Berlin".

On Friday night I ran off down the road to the Literaturhaus for an evening of readings by expat authors based around the theme of "Brexit - What Now?".  It wasn't as insufferable or anxiety-inducing as expected, and mainly involved short stories set on trains, communal typewriter circles and ping pong. Cool place too!

Elsewhere I've made another compilation, and my phrase of the day (the 200th on the Gringolândia SP blog, by my reckoning) means "cat kebab", used to designate the wares of shady cooked meat vendors who materialise outside most public gatherings in Brazil.  I was reminded of it when we were discussing why there are so few cats in Berlin...

Anyway... Ciao for now!

Fred at last