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

28.05.19 - Falar abobrinha

Hallooooo,

Greetings from Berlin, where this "working regular hours in a fixed location" lark shows no sign of letting up.  

At least I got a bit of cultcha at the weekend, heading to the Admiralpalast on Friday night to see FKA Twigs, which was a rollercoaster of emotion, interpretive dance, tap-dancing, pole-dancing, confetti, cellos, teeth-rattling bass and general awesomeness.  Then on Saturday I took in the food markets (on the right day, this time around!) and wandered down to Treptower Park to see the massive Soviet monuments.

On Sunday I was summoned by my boss for a family day out, which involved marching round the Schlachtensee, recovering over a glass of rhubarb juice and eating flammenkuchen in a very pleasant restaurant by the lake while deflecting about work.  Free lunch, I suppose, although apparently in return we have to go to Switzerland in July (?).

My phrase of the week is "to speak courgette", or ramble on with no defined purpose.  And my compilation of the week is this one 'ere.  Hope all well with you and speak soon!

Fred-dom ('s Just Another Word For Nothing Left to Lose)

21.05.19 - Quanto mais se abaixa, mais o rabo aparece

Halllllooooo,

I write from the confines of my new office, i.e. my boss's flat, which isn't even a proper office, and is far removed from the working-from-home comforts to which I have become accustomed over the years.  I've had to start making packed lunches and washing my clothes at night like some kind of pervert. Plus yesterday he absolutely laid into my co-worker for not pulling his weight, which I thought was a little unfair and has made everything just that little bit more awkward.

Anyway, I had a nice weekend at least, hopping on my bike to the Zitadelle which is an awesome fortress on an island and has about 5 separate museums, galleries and batcaves within its walls.  Plus I got to hang out in Spandau, which is fun to visit, and to say.  Then a train journey back in the company of a legion of Hertha Berlin fans.

On Sunday I went to the food market in Kreuzberg that we went to when you visited, but it was shut, as were all the other markets apparently, so I had some nice Sudanese street food near Tempelhof instead and waddled home to rest.  There was also a rather cool exhibition of classic cars on the Ku'Damm which made for a pleasant stroll in the sun. 

Elsewhere I've made a compilation, and my phrase of the day ("the more one lowers oneself, the more one's tail appears") refers to underlings who are so spineless that even their oppressors lose all respect for them, leading to more oppression. Quite a bleak proverb really, but that's where we are.

Tchau for now,

Die Fredermaus

14.05.19 - Cagar e andar

Halllooooo,

I write from Heathrow en route to Berlin, after a lovely few weeks back home.  On Thursday we headed up to Paraty to stock up on cachaça and wander round the old town, then the next day we went to Caraguatatuba (fun to visit, and to say) to meet our wedding organisers and have a chocolate tasting, which was pretty great, followed by a pizza in São Sebastião.

The hotel we checked out ahead of the wedding wasn't great, so we did some impromptu scouting the next day and found a few more that we would rather recommend to guests, then hopped on the ferry to Ilhabela for a quick trip to the beach and our restaurant of choice, before heading back, seeing some friends, white-knuckling it through a rather fraught Mother's Day and heading back to work, which will hopefully be more worthwhile than my last tour.

I've made a new compilation, and my phrase of the day ("to poo and walk") means to shrug things off and just GET ON WITH IT.  

Speak soon!

Frod Complex