The Germany photos entry
08.10.07, 7:28 pm
So, good news in that I didn�t die in either of the aeroplane flights that I had to endure. It�s not natural, sitting in a big metal box 35,000 feet off of the ground. Although thinking about it, I prefer the middle part to the taking off and the landing, as they�re the points when you�re most likely to die in a ball of flames. So I came off both of the flights feeling very pleased with myself, despite contributing nothing to the control of the aircraft and spending the majority of take-off and landing with my eyes closed, clenching a handful of James�s jeans in my fist.
Berlin was grand. I won�t blather on too much about it because, well, I think you might get bored. Suffice to say I did the usual Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag sight-seeing, visited a couple of the palaces and went to so many Cold War museums I may as well be Starlin myself. The weather was mostly cloudy but wasn�t cold at least, the apartment was brilliant and James didn�t get sick of me once. My tiredness was mostly okay� I had a couple of mornings when I felt God-awful, but it was manageable. All in all it was mostly fantastic.
Things that weren�t fantastic:
1. German food. I am not a fan of knobbing rye bread and never will be. Every morning I had to chew my way through two pieces of corrugated cardboard posing as bread, and tried to bet on whether my stomach or jaw would complain first. Also, Germans do not appear to be fans of fruit and veg, and I certainly did not have my 5-a-day on any of the 7 days. Since coming home that�s pretty much all I have eaten. James was very pleased with the insanely cheap beer however (25p a bottle).
2. German television. We had 38 channels of utter bollocks. Watching channel after channel of German rap videos made me consider knocking myself unconscious with the remote. In the end we either watched a game show channel (GlutSwine being my favourite, which means Lucky Pig and featured a lot of pigs) or MTV, where the programs were often American with German subtitles. Watching that God-awful Flavour Flav programme made me feel like the world had ended, however.
3. My German. Rubbish, as expected. James spent most of the time correcting my atrocious pronunciation, to the point where I did it on purpose to annoy him. I banked on the tactic of just nodding and agreeing to anything that anyone said to me, and praying that it wasn�t a question. As for German grammar, well knobs to that. Anyone who can explain that to me can have �200 in cash by the weekend.
Coming home was rubbish, and I�m already sick of work, especially as HR have messed up my pay since I�ve gone full-time (AGAIN), and I won�t get the back-pay until the end of this month. My balance is looking very sad, as I�ve already transferred �120 to my dad after all the abuse he gave me, and have to buy a bloody wedding outfit that looks good enough to satisfy my gran. Speaking of buying things, my Trevor Eve obsession has peaked and I have bought myself two series of Waking The Dead (cheap, I hasten to add). I�ve no idea where my strange Trevor Eve obsession/lust comes from. All I know is that I ADORE his grumpy detective character and would very much like it if he directed me into his office and told me off.
I haven�t spoken to my dad for coming up to three weeks now, although I apparently should just ring him, because he is my dad after everything, and does still love me, and will know it by the end. Sometimes I think James has been watching too much Oprah. James tells me to talk to him and smooth things over. Indie Chick tells me to ring him and argue it out. My sister tells me to ring him, and to say something if I want to, but it definitely isn�t a good idea to. I really have no idea what to do; all I know is that I�m still really angry, and really don�t want to talk to him. I also know that having a massive emotional argument 10 days before the wedding is not a good idea. I mean, what are you supposed to do? God, the wedding is just going to be hideous� I�m going to be fighting the urge to sock Amanda one constantly.
The weekend was spent watching sport. The Tall One was very sad that Scotland didn�t go through, and spent most of the 80 minutes going, �NO! God, what the hell are you doing?? DON�T KICK IT THERE! Jesus, that was the stupidest thing I�ve ever seen.� Me absently wandering over to him, ruffling his hair and saying thoughtfully, �Would it help at all if I sang Flower of Scotland?� was not appreciated. Ah well, the England match was still ace, although at the end all I got was a grumpy, �Humph, well they didn�t score any tries.�
Other stuff has happened, but I�ll save it for next time. Here are some photos.
That is the Brandenburg Gate. Not much else to say, to be honest.
I asked him to go and perv over the naked statue for me.
The Jewish Holocaust Memorial that we walked through. It was completely unsettling, which I think is the whole point. I almost felt bad taking a photo.
I�m afraid the photos of us together are self-portrait ones, because that�s what happens when there�s just two of you. We�re having a meal somewhere in Berlin. Just after that I heard some Bad News, but I�ll talk about that next time.
The church was hit during the war, and was left damaged and un-repaired as a tribute. Just after I took that I narrowly avoided being accosted by a scary German guy clutching a mug of what smelt like honey, who pointed at various passers by and yelled, �HALLO!� at them.
That is me outside of the Potsdam place where Stalin, Churchill and the American one met after the war. 
That is also me, at the Sans Soucis Palace (also in Potsdam, squinting into the sun. obviously that�s not actually the palace in the background.
The Chinese Sun House or something. Very gold. The grounds were absolutely massive.
Me trying to imitate the statue of the scary man eating the baby. I have no idea why I�ve just let you all see that picture.
We went to Potsdam the last two days of the holiday, and were sat eating a bratwurst (ha! Man, I�m so cultural) when suddenly 900 evil-looking crows turned up from nowhere and harassed us. James then very rudely pointed out that I was using up my last photos on birds.
Me and the boy. I have to admit that he is the loveliest of all lovely things. Even when he tells me that I�m too short to class as a real person.
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