Berlin day 4.

Day four was hogmanay. So we had a relaxing day to save our energy for the night. We made a second attempt to visit the Reichstag Dome but it was closed due to being covered in snow. Lynne and I shopped for dinner (it was stressful) we made some soup and ate crisps, drank Sekt and then headed out to the huge outdoor party at Brandenburger tor. The photos below show us eating dinner in the flat then on our way to the street party.







When the clock struck midnight there were fireworks, a Michael Jackson medley and snow falling. We danced in the snow to some German folk songs for a while then entered a dance tent and had a boogie to some dance classics and pop tunes. While we were dancing Claire kept trying to put all of her clothes onto the ground which was wet, dirty and beery so I was rescuing her clothes and balancing them on my head while dancing. Lynne took a few good photos of me with my huge turban on.   It was good fun, we got home around 4am and all felt crap the next day.

Lorna flew home on the 1st. Lynne, Claire and I had a walk on the 1st and wen to an award winning cocktail bar named after Claire's crush du jour. (Gainsbourg) it would have been a nice walk if I wasn't so hungover and kept getting waves of nausea. Berliners seemed to be out for kaffee und kuchen too and it was nice to be in a less touristy part of town and to get to feel a bit like a local.  

My new toy

I am excited about my new Blackberry and wanted to show it off. No one in my office knows what it is. They appear to think that e-mail and text messages are the same thing.

What century is Stirling stuck in?

Pecha Kucha

Lynne and I went to a Pecha Kucha night at Tramway. It is an interesting concept created by a Japanese Architecture firm who were inviting tenders but knowing who much people like to waffle on created a strict code 20 slides 20 seconds per slide.

So in Tramway the same rules applied - Pecha Kucha events happen in many cities across the world. The event was running as part of Glasgow International Festival of Visual art and it was mostly artists who were represented. The presentations varied a lot in style and topic and the short time scale meant that if you found one boring you weren't bored for long.

My favourites were the funny ones David Shrigley did an almost alphabet and Neil Bickerton's Prison game. but other were academic and talking about the idea of identity and anonymity - or the film Point Break as a political message.

Bruising update.

None of this discolouration is shadow. I am at once proud and a bit frightened.

Co-ordinating leg and trainers is very on trend this season.

Los gigantes

Mairi with her mercado.

Los gigantes.

Fishbowl cocktail. Called katarina.