Reporting live from the heart of the action

Check me out! Here I am, in possibly the most happening city in Europe, staying in and talking to the internet on a Saturday night.

But that’s okay. Once this deadline is out of the way, I’ll be able to work on my Berlin social life for real. You know, just in time to have a few drinks, catch the Withered Hand gig and then head to the airport for my next trip.

I went to the Turkish market yesterday, bought a parsley plant (this is a significant commitment) and what may or may not have been a variant of tulumbe. Somehow I was there for fifty minutes, even though I was by myself and shopping is not something that generally takes me long. It felt like I spent most of the time trying not to trip over hipsters’ toy dogs.

The hipster thing is really kind of fascinating. Edinburgh is too busy playing host to hippies and goths, I think, to cultivate a real hipster subculture (although perhaps I am naive; I tend not to club, so I could be missing out). As a result, it’s still a novelty to come face to face with the sort of fashion disasters previously seen only on LATFH.

Small victories

• Identified vegetarian halloumi cheese. Or, if I’m wrong and it’s not actually vegetarian, it’s better that I just don’t know.
• Found some sage after three days of effort. The word is Salbei.
• Speaking of which, I appreciate that German makes it so obvious when a noun shows up. At least there’s that.
• I bought skype credit for the first time and called my dad. It feels so weird to sit and talk into my laptop. I have taken a while to catch up with living in the future like everyone else does. Remember those joke e-mails people used to send around, that claimed that thanks to developments in technology your computer was about to take a picture of you?

Sandra booked to come visit next month! I’m touched that a friend has already gotten organised to do that, and super-excited because it will be fantastic to see her again. I’m looking forward to showing her around, even though I barely have a clue myself yet.