My Daily Cuppa » 101 Things in 1001 Days

Seeing An Old Friend

mdc — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:39:49 +0000

View of Canary Wharf

photo: Julian Mason

Another task I can tick off my 101 list.

Today I spent a lovely afternoon with an old friend, Keith, who I met while I was at University. We hadn’t seen each other in ages. He lives in Oxford and I live in London. He called me out of the blue and suggested that we meet so we got together at a nice Italian restaurant called Zizzi near Canary Wharf.
The sun was shining and the restaurant overlooks the Quay. We spent so much time catching up on all our news that we kept forgetting to look at our menus. I have to recommend Zizzi 100%. The food was fantastic. We shared starters of garlic bread and tomato & mozzarella salad, which I followed with a bowl of tiger prawns with linguine. Keith had ravioli. We ended our meal with mouth watering desserts. He had pannetone and butter pudding with ice-cream plonked on the top while I had the apple crumble with ice-cream on the side. I have been told that I have strange eating habits, but I don’t like to eat ice-cream once it has lost its consistency – which is why I like it on the side. My friend seemed to find this highly amusing but hey, I don’t like soggy puddings.

After lingering over our coffees, we set off for a leisurely walk and ended up strolling along the banks of the river Thames, passing different quays, wharves and converted warehouses, which are now swanky and expensive apartment blocks.

Our walk lasted over an hour and we passed Tower Bridge, The London Mayor’s building as well as the oldest pub in London called The Town Of Ramsgate pub where pirates were hung without trial.

The Town Of Ramsgate Pub – Front

The Town Of Ramsgate – Riverside View

It was a truly wonderful day where I got to learn a little bit more about the town I come from. I find that it is only when you have visitors from out of town that you tend to do the touristy stuff. I certainly look forward to many more friends coming to London in the not too distant future.

Photo Credit: Fin Fahey

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I Used My German Language Skills!

mdc — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:31:42 +0000

On Wednesday I got one step closer to achieving my goal of improving my German language skills. I registered with a language group and actually took the plunge and went along to a meeting. This is a goal on my 101 things to do in 1001 days.

I made up my mind that I wanted to do this. I even told a couple of people at work about it. This made me feel that I had to go through with it now. If they asked me how it went, I didn’t want to have to admit that I chickened out of it. Once you say out loud that you are going to do something, you are more likely to actually do it. And that is what I did.

The meeting with organized via Meetup.com. This is an international website that simply brings together people with common interests. You register and then browse through the categories until you find a group that you like. Then you decide whether to take part or not.

My meetup was arranged to take place in a pub called the Bavarian Beerhouse. This was the real deal. All the staff were dressed in traditional German costume with the women being busty barmaids and the men adorning lederhosen.

I found the table of the group and introduced myself to the organizer. There were only about five people there initially but during the course of the evening more people turned up – around 25 – 30 in total.

I Spoke German!

I am overjoyed to announce that I did indeed speak German. It has been over 10 years since I have spoken the language and I was pleased with how much I still remembered. I was also complimented on my accent or rather, lack of an English accent, which was lovely too.

I will definitely go back to another meetup. I am so pleased that I pushed myself to go. Next time I will be brave enough to get up from my chair and actively introduce myself to other people who turned up. After all, we were all strangers and we all went there for one reason and that is to speak German. Jawohl & Servus!

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Good Bye Lenin! – German Language Film

mdc — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:00:14 +0000

I watched Good Bye Lenin! and it really was great to hear the German language again. I had to make a real conscious effort not to read the subtitles and listen to the words so that my brain could get used to translating the meaning without reading it. I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I could understand and how much German vocabulary I had retained.

About The Film

Good bye Lenin is a film set in East Berlin around the time of the reunification of Germany. Narrated by Alexander, played by the lovely Daniel Brühl, we find out that his mother, Christiane is a proud East German and proud communist. However she is injured during a demonstration and ends up in a coma. While she is unconscious, major changes happen in Germany such as the fall of the Berlin wall, the change in currency, the introduction of commercialism and capitalism and the removal of communist structures and statues.

Christiane awakens from her coma and because the doctors have warned that any stress could cause a relapse, Alexander persuades his friends and family to help convince his bedridden mother that nothing has changed and that her beloved East Germany still remains communist.

This was a sweet tragic-comedy about a son who wants to make life better for his mother while also enjoying the commercial advantages of reunification and the changes throughout Germany.

I visited Germany before and after unification so it was really fun to see things and places that I recognised and remembered such as going in the supermarkets and seeing the, to western eyes, old fashioned advertising and packaging as well as riding in a tiny Trabant car.

Watching Good Bye Lenin was a little bit like taking a walk down memory lane (when I was in Germany as an au pair) and I look forward to seeing more German language films in the future.

Find out more about Daniel Bruhl

Find out more about Good Bye Lenin!

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25 Things About Me

mdc — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 23:12:03 +0000

I thought it was about time I wrote a little bit more about me for my about me page. I started remembering random things that have happened to me in my life and thought that they were amusing so I put pen to paper and just wrote. I have completed my list so can now cross another thing off my 101 list. Excellent. So without further ado, please enjoy these 25 things about me. (This photo looks nothing like me but I am still a little shy. I will eventually upload pictures of myself some time soon.)

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