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Articles Tagged ‘recreation’

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Is Graffiti Art?

Monday, May 11th, 2009

by a non-draw-er
Berlin, Germany

In this arty bohemian city, where there are more galleries and design shops mingling with cafes concentrated in one spot than we’ve seen in any single place before, creating a relaxed beautiful atmosphere, walls are plastered thickly with posters advertising concerts, theatre productions and exhibitions.

Graffiti covers any space that obviously once was considered to be a blank canvas.

What do you think?

 

Posted in craft, postcard: Germany, recreation | 4 Comments »

yawn

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

by Rach
Berlin, Germany

more of the same ol’ same ol’

For a start, Berlin is just like Auckland – showers interspersed with heavy downpours.
Grey clouds all day. We’d forgotten about rain (and how nice it was to do so!)

We ate black bread, cheese and gherkin sandwiches for lunch. Again. Funny to think we were hankering after cheese just a few short months ago!

We did a load of washing in a machine and hung it up to dry on a clotheshorse. So that was a bit of a novelty actually (we were thankful to not be handwashing or stringing our too short laundry line somewhere where we would decapitate ourselves in the middle of the night)….but at the end of the day washing is washing.

And the motorhome saga continued.
We found a car dealer a couple of days back with a motorhome for sale. It looked like it might fit the bill as our second vehicle and it was in Berlin. Off Rob and Dad trotted to have a look yesterday. The dealer believed he could help us with insurance and registration for BOTH vehicles. Problem was….well actually, the list of problems is so long it’s boring…but the upshot was that a Canadian guy where we are living would be able to fill out the paperwork (and yes, theoretically, *own* our motorhomes). He seems like a nice bloke and is interested in international political relations, so he’s gonna be trustworthy, right? He even insisted he would love to come to Frankfurt for the weekend when we need to sell, so that paperwork could be signed. Nice bloke, I tell ya.

So today he toddled off to the dealer with our men, all of us hopeful that the deal would soon be tied up – but everyone aware that the fact he has no driver’s license might be an issue. If German officialdom will not sell a conviction-free passport-holding money-offering foreigner a vehicle, there’s every possibility they will not let an unlicensed guy buy one either.
Not to worry, when they got there it turned out the dealer couldn’t do the insurance as promised anyway.
BUT….and this is a very important but…..somewhere in the proceedings the fact that Rob holds a British passport emerged and Nice New Canadian Friend lit up like a Christmas tree in December.
“You can register yourself”!” he exclaimed.
But not today. The office was closed by mid-afternoon when enlightenment occurred.
And tomorrow it doesn’t open until 11, so we’re not going to know in a hurry. But by hook or by crook we’re going to explore that avenue to the very end. 
*If* it actually happens (though we’re not holding our breath!), we will be able to own the vehicles ourselves and drive them wherever we want and sell them whenever we want, to whomever we want. But if it doesn’t work out, there’s still that philanthropic Canadian.

After that dead-end saga, Dad went for a walk to find the wall.
Wall? Oh yes, we’re in Berlin, there’s a famous wall here. Every day our housemates ask, “Are you going to see something today?” So far we haven’t seen much unrelated to the motorhome quest, and even that has only taken the men out! The rest of us have been limited to watching the cars and trams and trains and bicycles and pedestrians and ubiquitous fire engines outside our window. We have managed to walk to the park and the supermarket. We have heard there’s a book shop with English books around the corner, but we haven’t made it there yet. We’re too busy finishing the books in the house! And playing musical instruments and board games and trying out an airbrush and cooking for twenty plus people (that is to say, the kids cooked tonight – I didn’t do anything, but the dishes).

Dad, however, found the wall; he’ll be taking the rest of us back to it another day. The main memorial is just a 2km walk away (although there is an even closer stretch and the kids have already played at The Wall Park)….but we just might wait and travel there in Das Womo!

PS Just for Nova, our most frequent commenter. The beans were removed from the window, some were even eaten, but the remaining ones were restrung on the fridge. And *that* I got a photo of. I also noticed some other remains of the young-men-with-too-much-free-time-and-not-enough-purpose-antics on the wall in another photo too, so here they both are for you! The chair was on the white bit of wall you can see in the pic beside the door. And all those knives were stuck to the wall too. Pity they don’t put so much effort in to doing the dishes at night so that we relatively-early-wakers-with-children would arrive in a tidy kitchen in the morning <wink>

Posted in book, children, food, grandpa's stories, history, learning, parenting, postcard: Germany, recreation, transport | 3 Comments »

booklovers

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
by the mama-book-lover Berlin, Germany We haven’t had much literature and so now we are feasting. Grandpa is reading a book he had been waiting to find at the library in NZ for months. Jgirl14 and Jboy13 have spent two days negotiating time ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in book, children, learning, postcard: Germany, recreation | 1 Comment »

berlin beginnings

Sunday, May 3rd, 2009

by Mama
Berlin, Germany

We arrive at 7 on a Sunday morning.
Everything is closed and will remain so all day, apart from the flea market we zip off to ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in children, health, housing, parenting, postcard: Germany, recreation, weather | 2 Comments »

colliding worldviews

Friday, May 1st, 2009
by the accommodation-sorter Riga, Latvia On The Bus There’s something about sitting next to a non-stop chatterbox for five hours! For a few minutes, as Tgirl5 processes observations that the rest of the world is not exactly like our family, the conversation goes ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in children, history, learning, parenting, postcard: Latvia, quote, recreation, transport | 1 Comment »

crafted

Thursday, April 30th, 2009
by a crafter Tallinn, Estonia What a wonderful array of handcrafted items – and what’s more, you can even watch the masters at work. For you wool-workers out there, you would have loved this shop. Just look at all those hand-knit socks ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in children, craft, history, housing, postcard: Estonia, recreation, souvenir, tradition | 7 Comments »

Old Town Tallinn Test

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

 

What year was knighthood abolished in Estonia? a) 1147 b) 1783 c) 1920 How many generations in a row of one family ran the town apothecary business? a) 3 b) 7 c) 10

And since when ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in history, postcard: Estonia, recreation, tradition | 2 Comments »

simply welcoming

Monday, April 27th, 2009
by Rach Tallinn, Estonia

We’re in a community house. Breakfast is shared with a red-hat-wearing dreadlock-bearded Santa Claus’s helper. This Finnish man actually went to school with Santa Claus. We certainly didn’t have any inkling we’d ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in book, children, craft, food, health, history, housing, intergenerationalism, justice, learning, money, postcard: Estonia, recreation, tradition, transport | 2 Comments »

Happy Birthday to Lenin

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
by Rach with children’s journal entry additions Moscow, Russia

 

Lenin’s birthday is the reason there are so many people, many with red flowers. It’s also why there’s a parade of Pioneers in their red scarves ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in history, learning, postcard: Russia, recreation, tradition | 2 Comments »

The Sixteen Second Snowman

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009
by Rachael Day 4 on Train 5, ending up in Moscow Our compartment is still pitch black when Mboy6 stirs for the toilet. As he cracks the door open light streams in and I catch a snatch out the corridor window ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in children, craft, dress, postcard: Mongolia, postcard: Russia, recreation, tradition, weather | 4 Comments »

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