25.06.19 - Cama de viúva

Hallooooo,

Lovely to speak to you in sunny Italy, hope the rest of your trip was productive and filled with pasta.  Here in Berlin I'm literally just marking time until I head back home on Friday, with ridiculous heat and humidity forecast for the rest of the week, which should be fun.

At the weekend I went to check out Hackescher Markt and its delightful Hofes, then on to Museum Island for a stroll in the sun, down Friedrichstraße and back home, then on Sunday I went for a dip in the Olympic Stadium pool and went for a huge Syrian-style lunch with my flatmate before collapsing.

I've made not one but two new compilations, and my phrase of the day is one of the weirder idiosyncrasies of the Brazilian furniture industry: a bed which is somewhere in between a single and a double in size is commonly referred to as a "widow's bed", because that's obviously the only market demographic for them...

Speak soon!

Fred Up

18.06.19 - Uma mão lava a outra

Wa'gwan? Back to work here after an enjoyable flying visit to the UK at the weekend. 

I got to Isleham on Saturday morning to take in a farmer's market, meet Fred the dog, pick up my deliveries and eat an assortment of pies, only to relocate to Cambridge in the afternoon for practical transportation purposes, which worked out quite well as I got to see Henar, Brenna, Callum and the kids, have a jam in Tom's shed, eat lots of scones and eventually collapse before an early-morning trek to Stansted. 

The rest of the weekend was spent napping, eating Sudanese haloumi and watching The Young Pope, which is ruthlessly absurd and quite brilliant. I've made another compilation, and my phrase of the day ("one hand washes the other") is the (typically hygienic) Brazilian equivalent of "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours".

Speak soon!

StanFred Airport

11.06.19 - O sujo falando do mal lavado

Halloooo,

Lovely to speak the other day - as mentioned, we've been trying to crack the UK market with our forever-delayed website, holding several quickfire meetings with potential investors and partners in London (all either positive or at least not totally confusing), and grabbing home comforts like fish & chips where we could.

At the weekend I went to Potsdam to check out the Dutch Quarter and the Sanssouci Park, which had so many opulent castles that I got castle fatigue and had to wander back for a Lindt milkshake, which I highly recommend.  Then I stopped by the Film Museum which was most amusing, particularly my in-costume screentest as a character from Sonnenallee.

On Sunday I went to the Reichstag for a guided tour of the halls, the plenary chamber and the cupola, which was pretty cool (and free!), then on to the sunny East which had been taken over by pedestrians, food trucks and Brazilian samba troupes, before heading back and napping furiously.

I've made another compilation, and my phrase of the day ("the dirty speaking of the badly-washed") is a more hygiene-based take on the old "pot calling the kettle black" chestnut. Makes sense given the relative importance of tea and showers to the English and Brazilians, respectively.

That's all for the noo,

Freidrich der Große

04.06.19 - Die Ritter der Kokosnuss

Hallooooo,

Hope all well mit du.  Work is moving full speed ahead, apart from the actual website, which is still stuck in bug-laden purgatory, and we're off to London tomorrow for a whirlwind few days of meetings. 

This weekend, after consulting the Berlin book you gave me, I went to check out the Grunewald Hunting Lodge deep in the forest, where all sorts of weird Masonic Weimar stuff probably went on back in the day. And on Sunday I went to the Olympic Stadium and swimming pool for a few laps in the sweltering heat, which was rather fun.

Elsewhere, I've made a sparkling new compilation, and my phrase of the day comes from browsing German Netflix, which has translated "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" as "The Knights of the Coconut".

Speak soon!

Fredday I'm in Love