i’ve been to berlin and back.

i’d like to describe it in touristy detail, but unfortunately i spent a lot of the week in ikea and bauhaus (literally, buildhouse, a monstrous hardware store). and also trekking around the junk shops filled to the gills with salvaged furniture, clothes and kitsch from dead granny’s flats. they were great.

we decided on a new game while out there. in august, when i’ll be there for a month, we’ll play the alphabet game where we have to eat at places according to the letters of the alphabet without repetition. 26 different places, that’ll take aorund 2 weeks if we include breakfasts and lunches into the game. but perhaps it’ll only be dinners. we’ll see.

coming back to london is always a relief, but i hold my breath (not literally, though) until i swing the door of the flat open and see that everything is still there. one of my greatest fears is to arrive back at the flat and see nothing.

anyway, as i’m still on holiday till next week, it’s been catching up with reading and pottering on the balcony. salads are in sprout, as are tomatoes. the herbs have been divided/re-potted, and the chillies are rallying round to the warm weather. i’ve managed to finish i capture the castle by dodie smith, and am three-quarters of the way through the mandarins by simone de beauvoir.

next up: a second reading of the magus by john fowles, or finishing the naked lunch by william s. burroughs which i’ve left languishing for the past year or so.