Pick-A-Day

December 2012
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The week that was.

Friedrichstraße

Friedrichstraße!

I really meant to blog sometime this week, but it escaped me – but now that it’s Saturday night, I have time.

Some how I managed to have something important (mostly fun) to do every single day of the week, after 4 o’clock. The icing on the cake was the fact that my washing machine broke – on Monday.

I’d left work early Monday with three objectives: first was to hit the gym. Second, after the gym I wanted to wash my clothing. Then, last but not least, I wanted to wash and dry the towels. This last thing was going to happen while I was off at a party. So I did – the gym was great, and then the laundry – well, it was done. In retrospect I realize that I thought it was funny how cold the clean clothes were when I took them out of the machine, but I didn’t assign any value to it – instead I pulled the clothes out, hung them to dry and tossed in the towels, leaving immediately thereafter for the party.

The party was good – by the way – and when I got home at 11, the towels were washed, but cold and damp. My washing machine is a dual purpose machine, one that can wash but can also dry – and towels are the only thing that I regularly dry in the machine because I like my towels to be soft.

S Potsdamer Platz

Not a photo of an S-Bahn worker, but pretty cool!

Tuesday was awesome: I met up with Der Irische Berliner and his son for a bit of art and a bit of Glühwein – the exhibition featured photographs of S-Bahn employees – as in the employees who fix trains – I showed up long before Herr Berliner, and ended up looking at a bunch of art from Cuba, some of which looked cool, and some of which, well… wasn’t really art. Once Herr Berliner showed up, we looked that photographs (both noticing that only one woman appeared in any of the photos) and headed off to the Potsdamer Platz Winterwelt – otherwise known as a Christmas Market.

Tattoo Love

Art from Cuba. I’d hang the one of the left on my wall.

Herr Berliner Junior had a splendid time, awed by the lights and actions of the festivities. Herr Berliner Senior and I drank Glühwein, ate bratwurst, and wanted Junior make random decisions about what he wanted to do.

Impressed at Potsdamer Platz

Junior isn’t sure what he wants to do.

Eventually we moved on a wee bit and found better Glühwein – my top tip for Glühwein drinking: if they use simple, plain mugs and do not charge a deposit, it will probably be excellent. The best Glühwein I’ve had in my eight years doing Christmas in Germany have never charged a deposit.

Winterwelt am Potsdamer Platz

Glühwein in fancy glass that had a deposit. It was adequate.

At some point it became clear that Junior should probably go home, so Senior and I parted ways – and I went home.

Wednesday’s plans included an afternoon at the gym and, in the evening, I called a friend stateside and talk to her for an hour.

Thursday was excellent – I received a call mid-day informing me that my framed poster was ready – and so, on my way home, I stopped by the framing shop and picked up my framed nackte Männer poster – and may I just say, it looks excellent. The woman had an awesome sense of humor and asked me if she should put paper over the naked men before she put some clear bubble wrap around the glass – I pointed out that I was only going to be walking for five minutes and that it was dark out. Nobody, along the way home, objected to the fact that I had three naked pricks under my arm. (I hung the poster this morning at the foot of my bed. I shall have sweet dreams tonight.)

poster for nackte Männer

A copy of this poster is now framed and hanging on the wall at the foot of my bed.

Friday I ended up staying home in the morning awaiting a washing machine repairman – promised between 10 and 12, actually showed at 12:30. He tested it, and informed me that the new part, with a 48 month warranty, would be, uh, around 230€. He couldn’t take the machine with him, and asked if I would be home later –unfortunately I couldn’t be, since I had a work obligation at 4:30 in the afternoon.

His parting words to me – and he must have read my mind – was to not use the machine at all, lest I damage it more.

This morning I went to the Laundromat, where I got lucky. Nobody smoked until just about the time I started packing up my clean clothes to head home.

5 comments to The week that was.

  • AnkiH

    230, € for fixing the machine? You can get an entirely new one for such price. Please consider. I will be happy to see the backed men poster soon.

    • AnkiH

      My auto correction transformed the naked men into backed men. Hmm, yummy.

      • Viva Autocorrect!

        Unfortunately my machine is expensive — remember that it’s a washing machine and dryer in one. The repair will cost more than what I paid for it (I bought it used), but it comes with a 48 month warranty, which I think is a reasonable insurance policy. 🙂

  • koko

    so many new changes to your apartment…i won’t recognize it!