Date: Friday, January 14, 2000 12:23
Subject: slowly returning to life
Folks,
It's taken a while to spool up the engines, but we're finally getting down to work.
My job is supposedly underway but I haven't been sent the files I need to start, so I'm feeling a bit frustrated. I've got a few other things to do in the meantime, but it's irritating. (I don't really care, as long as I get paid.) The company in Munich that wants a web site just contacted me again so perhaps that will also materialize.
Annette has finished wading through a big pile of administrative chores and is now doing some academic reading, finishing off the last of the Klemperer diaries. Well, at least that's what I thought she was doing when I went into the bedroom at 11:30 this morning.... It's a tough life. Then Vita woke up and made straight for the nearest nostril.
So, Annette is off to Halifax a week tomorrow for another interview. Then off to North Carolina (oh my god) in late February, and probably at least one more, hopefully Oregon.
Otherwise, we've been pretty calm this week. We bought groceries. We did the occasional chore. We worked out - skating and running. We bought Annette a gorgeous, long gray wool winter coat, on sale. No more complaining about the lack of a winter coat.
Three more weeks until we can sell the our shares. I'm trying not to count the chickens before they hatch, but it's difficult. This is going to be more money than we ever imagined. After paying off the student loans and a few other debts, the remainder is going straight into some form of secure long-term investment, though we may buy shares in a few potentially rewarding high-tech companies as well. And we will set aside a small amount so that we can do a little travelling this spring - long weekends here and there, that sort of thing.
And that's basically all the news from Berlin.
Regards,
Scott
Date: Saturday, January 15, 2000 1:04
Subject: bonk!
Everyone,
So I got "doored" on the way home from skating tonight. I was riding along, maintaining what I thought was a safe distance from the line of parked cars to my right, when out swung a door. The timing was perfect - I had no chance. While clearly I wasn't the regulation one door-width away, I was far enough that it only clipped the end of my handlebar - which was still enough of an impact that it knocked me off balance. For a split-second I thought I might have saved it, but then the bike flipped out from underneath me and down I went. Luckily I fell to the right, out of the line of traffic, though the van behind me was able to stop before drew even. It was one of those weird crashes where you just seem to bounce and a second later you're back on your feet, stunned but substantially unharmed. The bike wasn't damaged at all, my clothes weren't torn, there's barely a scratch on me. Actually I have a bit of a headache but I think it's more from the shock of kissing the pavement than from any sort of bean-bonk. Though I am, once again, extremely glad to have been wearing my helmet.
The driver was very apologetic. She was "late for yoga" and forgot to check her mirror. Where else but Winterfeldplatz (sort of a Berlin Kitsilano) do you get creamed by someone in a rushing to yoga. I stood there dazed and startled, saying "Ich bin okay" with such a poor accent that she immediately replied in perfect English. As there was nothing obviously wrong with me or the bike - and it wasn't entirely her fault since I should always leave enough room, even though it's tough to ride that far out in traffic sometimes - we continued on our separate ways.
Pretty sobering, though. I'm getting more and more religious about that helmet. I feel fine now; any ill effects are probably due to the adrenaline that has been rushing through my veins ever since.
After this eventful trip home Annette and I went out to the Teeladen on Goltzstrasse - disturbingly close to the scene of my accident an hour earlier - to meet with some of my skating friends. Having mulled it over for a while, I decided to go on the Majorca trip. I'll be there for one week at the end of March, training every day, working with a coach. I've tried to justify it as a German Immersion course, but of course I'm already living in the country so that's not much of an excuse. Should be an interesting experience, linguistically, culturally and athletically. I've met most of the dozen or so who are going, and they seem like a good group of people. The coach speaks good English and is keen to practice using it, recognizing a good opportunity to run these camps for Brits and Americans, no doubt. My skating friends back in Vancouver will be very jealous, as they spend their rainy weekends rolling around an underground parking garage at the university.
In other news, there isn't any. We stayed home today, working, more or less. (As I write this, I'm downloading a monster file containing all the stuff I need to work on for the next few weeks.) I felt strangely out of sorts skating tonight, sluggish and sloppy. I'll probably go skate again tomorrow morning to make up for missing Monday's workout, then ride on Sunday. And I'll try to get some work done on the weekend. We're still in the mood for quiet days and nights.
Regards,
Scott
Date: Saturday, January 15, 2000 16:48
Subject: Saturday afternoon
There's really no excuse for this email except that I took some pictures this afternoon and want to post them.
Other than a stiff neck and a slight headache, I seem to have escaped any lasting injuries from my accident last night.
Saturday is normally shopping day, as everything shuts down between two and four and you're dead if there's something you need before Monday morning. So, after sleeping a bit too late and then working (working!) for a bit this morning we trooped out into grey skies and light snow, heading for the Markthalledown on Bergmannstraße.
Looking across the square towards the Markthalle building, about a five minute walk from home.
And here's the scene inside the Markthalle, which looks like it hasn't changed much in the past century. It's a fun and convenient way to shop. We didn't buy much, a hunk of chicken for tonight's curry, a few vegetables and some balsamic vinegar.
Later, we strolled down Bergmannstraße, window-shopping, looking for a place to make a few photocopies, and later had the inevitable coffee at Milagro. We have a difficult time not stopping for coffee. The rule is that we try to limit our coffee stops to one per day. At least Kaffee und Kuchen doesn't take as big a bite out of our income as it did back in '95.
Now we're home, where I plan to stay for the rest of the day, working a little, reading the second volume of the Klemperer diaries, playing with the cat, whose friskiness is quite remarkable after a few long weeks of lethargy. Carla might come over for dinner and crash for the night (she and Annette have to run early tomorrow morning) and we'll rent a movie. Or not. I might try to persuade Annette to spend tomorrow afternoon at the Martin Gropius Bau (a nearby museum) after or respective workouts, or we'll go back to work again. Quiet is good.
It's twenty past four and it's still not completely dark. This is a big improvement after December.
Regards,
Scott
Date: Monday, January 17, 2000 15:45
Subject: sore all over
Folks,
My body did not feel good when I woke up this morning. My left shoulder is still bothering me after a fall on the ice a few weeks ago. My neck and right shoulder are stiff after the crash riding home on Friday night. And my legs are killing me after my first dryland skating exercises, a set of bounding drills up the hill in Viktoriapark yesterday afternoon. I'm a wreck - I need to give up sports or something. There's nothing that doesn't hurt. I don't know what I'm going to look like skating tonight, but I expect it won't be pretty. Worse, I'm supposedly going early so that I can begin weight training at the gym next to the oval. Also, I don't feel like I've completely recovered from the flu/cold thing I had a few weeks ago. I'm fine, for the most part, but occasionally suffer from coughing fits and sudden bouts of fatigue.
It's three in the afternoon, and I'm taking a little break, not that I've been hugely productive today after writing a few emails in the morning, scooting out with Annette for a trip to the bank and the inevitable coffee. She's off meeting with a colleague this afternoon and was supposed to pick up some photocopies of records from the Stasi archives, but that trip might be deferred until tomorrow morning. We weren't moving too quickly today. It's gray and wet and warm and we feel sluggish.
At least the cat is not sluggish. Not in the least. Suddenly she has ridiculous amounts of energy, and is tearing wildly around the house, running up and down the hall, swatting and chasing rubber balls, pouncing on toys, and clawing the merry hell out of yours truly every time I try to play with her. Obviously she's feeling better. It was such a gradual slide over the past few months that we barely noticed how lethargic she was becoming, but now she's back with a vengeance. I almost preferred it when she was sick. She still gives us a few scares from time to time: last week she felt bad for several days after her annual shots and we almost took her back to the vet when she peed on the wall again; this week she suddenly became finicky about her wet food, which is a problem because that's where we hide her daily dose of Digitalis. But all in all, she's doing much better. Attached is a photo of Vita beating up on Mr. Hedgehog. She is extremely feisty this afternoon.
Feline craziness aside, it was, as predicted, a quiet weekend. Carla came over on Saturday night and we dined on Annette's withering-hot Thai curry. We watched Pulp Fiction on TV, dubbed into German, which did not work at all, except that I giggled a bit when I heard "Royale mit Käse" during the long dialogue about European McDonald's. The girls rose very early on Sunday morning and dashed off to meet Gerwin for a run. I stayed in bed. I was supposed to ride with one of my skating friends but he cancelled on account of a bad knee and then Annette reported much black ice so I decided to let discretion be the better part of valour - one crash per weekend is enough - and save the ride for another day. Dryland training was painful enough, as it turned out.
Later Sunday evening Annette trooped off to the airport to meet one of her advisors, who's here for six months on sabbatical. She and her husband and daughter had just spent the previous six months in Paris. I met them at the apartment to help drag suitcases up the staircase and see that they were settled in. Annette found the apartment for them a few months ago; it belongs to another academic couple, with twins, who are on sabbatical in Texas for half a year. After Paris, anything in Berlin looks like a bargain. The living room alone was bigger than their last apartment. The woman's parents were there to turn over the keys and offer instructions. The father would not shut up. His wife was standing there in her coat, telling him that it was time to go home, but on and on he went, for almost an hour, even reminding us that some bottles have a deposit and some are meant to be recycled. At that point it was difficult not to start laughing. It's going to be fun having them here. They owe us many dinners for Annette's work finding the apartment and helping to line up day care, which we're looking forward to, and I suspect that they will be happy to have us around as local guides.
And that was the weekend. Plans for the week include the usual training schedule, of course, working (a software manual for me, Dalhousie interview preparations for Annette) and few social events: friends for dinner tomorrow night, the Berlin Program roving Stammtisch (everybody meets in a pre-determined café) on Wednesday. We might make it to a museum one afternoon, and we'll try to see the pet show that's part of Grüne Woche (green week - duh) at the Messe (big trade fair and convention place) before Annette leaves for Halifax on Saturday.
And maybe I should stop writing now and do a few errands and have my pre-workout meal.
Regards,
Scott
