I was back home in Scotland last week and it was still as bright as (a cloudy Scottish summer day at) midday at 9:30 pm. The evening light is rather delicious. It’s only really dark between about midnight and 4 am at the moment. Twenty hours of brightness is obviously splendid… we just try […]
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The Tiger of the Highlands
Today I’m sitting in a bar in a Turkish area of Berlin with The Canadian, as my nephew Wee Joe calls her, having just flown back from Spanish islands off the coast of the Western Sahara, where I was writing about Scottish-Texas. Confusing. In between attempting to drown out the screeches of a hyperactive German […]
A quarter step away from war
Mighty Scotland, the 140th largest country in the world, slumps to 141st place next month when the creation of South Sudan shunts us further down the list of nations. Except, well, we’re not actually on the list of nations. The UN does not recognize Scotland as a country. Neither does America’s train provider Amtrak. Neither […]
First unofficial visit to Poland
I paid my first unofficial visit to Poland yesterday, it being just up the road and all from Berlin. Poland! How exciting! I had never been to Poland before. I saw a lot of very white people, some very impressive buildings and many, many, many shipyards. We discovered on our epic one hour and 54 […]
Hielan Coo picture of the week
I probably won’t actually get around to posting one coo picture every week, but I don’t have a whole lot else to do with myself over here in Berlin (other than puzzling over the numbers of bear-shaped meat products on sale and finishing the Scottish Ambassador book), so maybe I will. Anyway, this is a […]
Scowling in Scottish
Berlin, Day 10 The herd of kinderbeasts that we have the misfortune to live below have been particularly exuberant the last few mornings. Occasionally, perhaps every two or three hours, they settle down to graze or destroy stuffed animals or whatever it is their parents try and get them to do for a moment’s peace […]
A visit to the Luftfracht
Berlin, Day 6 Excitingly, today was the day we got to trek out to the northwest of the city to Tegel airport to retrieve the boxes we’d shipped. I was sure the message had said we were to collect them from the “Luftwaffe”, but Adrian thought this was unlikely. After a friendly German in a […]
Plumbing in German
Berlin, Day 5 Some things are definitely harder in German. Such as simple domestic tasks. I discovered this today. After my attempts to assist with working the coffee machine resulted in both Adrian and I (and all surrounding walls, floors and kitchen appliances for 15 feet) being pelted with generous servings of boiling coffee grounds, […]
Kinderbeasts
Berlin, Day 3 Our new abode is gargantuan! If we crammed my last three apartments and one of the more compact Getrankeshops from Frankfurter Allee in here (and made them wear lederhosen), there would still be enough room for a currywurst stand. I am getting a lot of exercise loping between my desk and the […]
The Scottish Ambassador to Germany
Day 1 We’re on an EasyJet flight from Glasgow to Berlin. So are a number of exceptionally inebriated Scottish stag party loads. The seats all around us are filled with the distinctly boisterous stag crew for an Aberdonian called Flumpy. His shiny red face beams out from all of 15 matching t-shirts his friends wear. […]
