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The Charity House
Give a little bit – Give a little bit of your love to me Give a little bit – I’ll give a little bit of my love to you There’s so much that we need to share So send a smile and show you care Over the weekend we went to visit my German family. We have always called it “the village”, one long road in a town of a few 100 people, where my grandmother, uncles, aunts and cousins and all their children live one house after the other. It’s a lovely place to visit, as once we wake up in the morning, all we have to do is…
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Museum Blindenwerkstatt
“We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it.” Dwight D. Eisenhower One of the many museums that show the humanity shown by so many people towards the persecuted during the Second World War. This small museum portrays the story of Otto Weidt, who employed mainly blind and deaf Jews to help him in his workshop between 1940-1945. Here, they helped make brushes and brooms. Since 1933, the Jews began losing their civil rights. Business and shops owned by Jews were boycotted, marriages between Jews and non-Jews were no longer permitted and at the end of 1938, Jewish men started being deported to concentration camps,…
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Scones
When in Rome… So today my grandmother and her two Japanese friends descended on us. In true German style, we thought we would welcome their visit to Germany with afternoon tea, British style. Ahem. You will need: 350g flour and a little more for dusting 3 teaspoons of baking powder A pinch of salt 100g butter 120ml milk but a few teaspoons for brushing Most recipe books will tell you to sift the dough, barely knead it and add one ingredient carefully after another. I’m much more laid back when it comes to cooking. This used to drive my cooking class in Japan crazy. They always wanted to know…
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Gallery Den
I see a red door and I want it painted black… Last night we were hungry and had no plans, so, enticed by free Japanese food, we popped into an opening event at Gallery Den, opened three years ago by the delightful Tomoko. She has lived in Germany for over 25 years and it was surreal to speak to someone from Japan in the German language. Gallery Den displays contemporary art by Japanese artists. The current exhibition is a collection from various artists in Japan who asked for their work to be shown in Germany. Apparently not all artists want their work displayed everywhere in the world, so we were…
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Swimming in the Sun
The summer used to be a time when I would need to draw the curtains extra tight so I could still see my computer screen. Nowadays, it would seem I’m getting better at taking advantage of the warmth from the big light bulb in the sky and went swimming with Vanessa at an outdoor swimming centre in Neukölln, Berlin. When I say we went swimming, I mean we mostly raced small children up the steps of the water slide. The pool is called Sommerbad Neukölln, located on the north eastern tip of the old Tempelhof airport.The weather was perfect and the water is impeccably clear, which completely surprised me for…
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The Best Cheesecake in Berlin?
Food, glorious food… Bingo! Success! Yippeeeeeee! We have discovered it! After nearly ten days of searching high and low, far and wide, and all over town, we have come across the most perfect cheesecake. It is thick and creamy and it coats the inside of your mouth. I tried to eat it quickly, worried that the world might end before I finish this morsel of perfection. However it was hard. Each bite I took made me utter “mmmmmmmmmm” loudly. To add to my pleasure, it was a slice of lemon cheesecake. My hand was almost shaking as I cut the cake and put it onto my fork. My eyes looked…
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Guest Blog: Kim comes for a visit…
Hello, my name’s Kim. Vanessa has invited me to write a guest blog post as I’ve just got back from visiting her and Jason in Berlin. I felt very proud (and a little guilty) to be their First Visitor, elbowing my way past other friends and relatives to land on their doorstep and scoff their delicious homemade apricot jam just four days after they arrived. On Saturday I visited the Otto Weidt Workshop for the Blind, an incredibly moving museum about a brush factory owner who employed blind and deaf Jewish workers in 1930s and 1940s Berlin. He forged papers to allow them to work, helped them hide from the…
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Apricot Jam
We’re jamming, we’re jamming, we’re jamming, we’re jamming, I hope you like jamming too… So, it’s summer, which means the tropical fruits are in season. My favourite time of the year! Plus, there can be nothing better to spread on delicious German bread than homemade jam. I remember each time I would come and visit Germany as a child, my grandmother and all my aunts would pack us home with jars and jars of jams and chutneys. While I am living here I want to make as many of these as I can and when I visit the little village where my family are from, I would love to bring…
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Registered as a Berliner…
I’m an alien, I’m a legal alien… I thought it would be inconvenient and complicated. Registering yourself in another country is normally a hassle and a half and it takes hours if not days. Not so in Berlin. And it is all done with a smile and a giggle. The image of German bureaucracy is people in suits. Everything must be in order. Problems are not tolerated. I could not have been more wrong. You have only one week to register yourself after arrival in Germany, otherwise you face a fine. This afternoon we popped into the local Bürgeramt (Local Registration Office), immediately received a ticket number and went into…
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Donner und Blitz
Singing in the rain, just singing in the rain… As we sit here drinking champagne in our underwear on the balcony, Berlin welcomes us with the craziest thunderstorm we have ever experienced. The photos below are taken within the same five seconds. The sky lights up in every shade, making it look like the middle of the day, whilst the thunder makes us jump out of our skin. I have never seen lightning bolts so clear. They cover the sky and you can even see their outlines breaking apart and spanning the night sky as they reach down towards the earth. As the sky changes colour, there are noises from…