StewBlog

After a very late breakfast at Anne Blume's I watched these two films, which I can now heartily recommend.

Laura came with me down to the Ikea in Tempelhof and I picked up a Futon bed for the spare room, to accommodate visitors. We went for Tapas afterwards in a place on Lychener Straße, but I can't remember the name of it. Ate too much...

Bernd organised a game of football between the guys here in the department at Kicker World over near Tegel airport. The venue was great with several indoor pitches furnished with soft astroturf. We played for one and a half hours though and I'm feeling it today!

Like all good sportsmen, we sat around in the bar upstairs after the game and supped several beers. They switched on the big screen for us and put on a show that switches between of the Champions League action as it happens, which is great. Bremen were 2-1 down on 83 minutes but pressing for the equaliser, so I made a 10 Euro bet with Tom that the game would end up 2-2 - Can't remember the last time I celebrated a goal so much when Bremen scored with minutes left on the clock! Sweet

Just across the road from Warchauer Straße U-Bahn is this rather seedy looking bar offering private karaoke booths. Several of us made the journey into deepest Friedrichshain after work and, fuelled with two-for-one cocktails, destroyed some of the greatest pop songs ever written. We managed to put in a 6-hour stint in the Jimi Hendrix booth, hence, today's generally jaded feeling. Unfortunately, some video footage was recorded which will hopefully never see the light of day

All the Christmas markets have opened up over here now so I will be visiting as many as I can before heading back to Canterbury for the festive break. Laura and I had a wander through the one in the Kulturbrauerei last night and it was great - I think it might be one of the nicer ones. We had some glüwein and a tasty pot of mushroooms and broccoli in a cheese sauce. I am looking forward to trying many of the other food options in there over the coming weeks; many types of sausage, I imagine I will also try and take some photographs later in the week...

after drinking too much coffee and over-eating at lunch... Damn that pork in pfefferrahmsauce!

Going to see this tonight...

Watched this after joining my local DVD emporium at the weekend. The rental is only 1 Euro per movie! Anyway, this latest Indiana Jones movie is woeful! I actually found it a bit of a chore to sit through the whole thing...

Served up daily from Schlemmermeyer near Zoologisher Garten... yum!

A wonderful music/dance venue within the Volksbühne. Tom and I ended up in here until 5am this morning!

This is just a short walk from where I live quite close to Alexanderplatz. A typical East Berlin institution which still thrives as a theatre/cinema.

What can I say, England beating Germany 2-1 at the fabulous Olympia Stadion here in Berlin - A truly memorable evening. I made sure I got hold of a commemorative scarf also...

This place is pretty cool actually... after a bit of faffing around out in the cold we eventually found the entrance to this place cloaked in the corner of a car park behind a garage called Pitstop... The entrance to the bar is odd in itself. It's very dark in there with only subdued lighting provided by numerous hanging illuminous portuguese-men-of-war. There is a desk to drop off coats and bags and then you hop in a glass elevator running up the side of the building to the 16th floor as the Berlin skyline reveals itself.

We sat up to the cocktail bar in the corner to afford a nice view over West Berlin and perused the extensive menu before ordering a Salfizz and a Moscow Mule. I could taste everything in my mule (lime, ginger and even the few thin slices of cucumber) except the vodka so I was pleased with my choice as I think this is a sign of a good, well-balanced cocktail - No flavour overpowers any other.

Realising I hadn't had any dinner we moved across to the restaurant section. The menu was small and mostly German except for the special they offer on Sunday and Monday nights which I plumped for, Mama's Bolognese. haha! It was superb though as was the walnut and leaf salad drizzled with a lovely balsamic dressing. I discovered a new beer that I like as well - Warsteiner so I'll be looking out for that from now on.

After dinner we made our way up the spiral staircase to the lounge which is filed with black leather sofas and swinging leather seats suspended from the ceiling. The design of the furniture means that you have to almost lie down and slouch rather than sit. We were lucky enough to get on the swinging double seat looking out over East Berlin and the Fernsehturm which was fantastic. A perfect quiet Monday night out really!

I had no choice in the matter as this video was shown in a meeting at work this morning... :O

I'm not really looking forward to seeing the latest Bond movie this evening as I've already heard from numerous sources that the plot is wafer thin, even for a Bond movie. In Casino Royale, Ian Fleming's 007 is portrayed far more accurately than any other Bond movie and for this reason, it's one of my favorites. I can't help feeling that Quantum of Solace, whilst being a fantastic title, will fall short of the mark... Still, I will have dinner and a few glüweins at the Christmas market in Potsdamer Platz before going in and maybe that'll help!

Tickets for Deutschland Vs England in 10 days time in the Olympiastadion, Berlin!

Ermm... Click on the image to get to Gav's Flickr set which will explain all...

There was also a chilli-down at the beginning of the evening for which each of the guests were asked to bring a sample of the signature Mexican dish of their own creation. I will come clean, for the record, and admit that I bought a can of Dynamite Hot Stag Chilli from Sainsbury's earlier in the day. I hasten to add, this is not because I can't rustle up a mean chilli myself, but more for logistical reasons as I'd never have got my lovingly prepared spicy number on the plane from Berlin to London...

Anyway, Gav's chilli won with a landslide, whilst Rick's came in second place. I enjoyed everyone's apart form mine! I actually thought Merle's was the nicest!

... and indeed I did, on Friday!

The venue for this month's gathering was Scusi, in Spreebogen. So, after helpings of hearty Italian fare and a few Hefeweizen we carried on boozing into the wee hours... again. At least we didn't end up at any 24 hour bars again, choosing instead to play several games of pool in a good old-fashioned West Berlin battle cruiser... I did end up with another maß though

I was also made to tell our German friends last night of the old dog poo in a bag trick, where you set the thing alight and pop it through some unfortunate soul's letter box - Not sure what they made of that, to be honest...

On Friday evening I will board a state-of-art aircraft (one of the Ryanair fleet) which will glide (stutter) across the North Sea beneath radar altitude (at 30,000 ft) whilst I make preparations for my descent (sink a few two-for-one Bullseye Baggies). Once I've safely arrived at the drop zone (landed and taxied for AGES) at the pre-arranged secret location (Stansted), in the dead of night, (20 minutes late), I will board the latest Maglev supertrain (The Stansted Express) which will accelerate to a top speed of Mach 1.2 (25 miles per hour) into the Big Smoke (London). From there I will make my way (via Threshers) to the rendevous point (Koko Club, Camden) and begin nocturnal surveillance activities (sharking with vodka/red bull in hand).

Tonight is November's group Stammtisch with the guys here from work, which I am thoroughly looking forward to! The action will take place at an Italian bar/restaurant in Spreebogen again from 18:30 I think I will lay off the maß tonight though...

Following an unexpected comment on my blog from a chap called Sven, I have managed to purchase 4 tickets for Milan, Tom, Bernd and I to see THE game in two weeks time at the Olympiastadion here in Berlin... They should be delivered here at work on Friday morning. Good stuff.