Several weeks ago now, the lovely Mercedes took us to see Orpheus in der Unterwelt. When we were growing up, my sister was obsessed with Greek mythology, so I felt pretty well acquainted with the concept of Orpheus: a man with a musical talent, who manages to woe the King and Queen of the underworld into giving him back his dead wife. (Christian Gottlieb Kranzenstien Stub: http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxicmppBsj1qbhp9xo1_r1_500.jpg) Of course he screws it up, and loses his wife forever. Happy endings are for Disney. In any case, this was.. not that Orpheus. But it was absolutely fantastic. It’s technically an ‘opera bouffon’, and played out very much as the name suggests- with a mixture of the operatic and the slapstick/farce. It began with a man (Orpheus) and woman (Eurydice) stuck in a loveless marriage. (Note- I couldn’t take any photos, but all the ones below are taken with the same main cast, scenery and costumes) http://www.operanews.com/uploadedImages/Opera_News_Magazine/2012/3/Reviews/InReviewBerlinOrpheehdl312.jpg She’s busy having an affair with a Shepherd, who, naturally, is actually Pluto, the god of the underworld. http://www.klassik-in-berlin.de/bilder/opern/sto-orpheus1658-600.jpg Also naturally, he has a slightly …

It’s the 24th of Feb., and the weather forecast to the end of the month looks relatively mild. Mild of course means in the high minuses (or low minuses? I’m not sure how counting negatives really works)… and seems at this time of year to come with the disgustingness of Sleet- the worst infliction of the heavens’ upon the people. Snow is cold, sure, but most of the stuff this winter has been fluffy and delicate, and dancey (I think I’ve already abused Tchaikovsky enough previously in creating this image.. so if you’re not getting the image you must go and scold your parents for raising you in a deprived environment featuring an absence of ‘Fantasia’.. and then go and watch Fantasia… obviously). Sleet is more of a ‘going straight for the eyes with tiny pinpricks of frozen pain’ type of monster. Nonetheless, what with Nature’s current plan of things, I don’t think I’m being overly foolish or chicken-counting in asserting that:                               …

Complete with Andy modelling… (*warning: rather dry post for those not caring about the intimacies of our living space) Welcome to the visual tour of our new Wohnung: You come into the apartment, to the Flur… you can see in this photo the front door handle sticking out to the very right hand side. The current view is through to the kitchen, with the photographer’s back to the bathroom. I’m kinda in love with that little chest of drawers, which we also got from the Spanish people. The shoe rack and big corner plant are from the Kaufland, and the shelfy thing that the plant is sitting on, and the baskety things that the ivy is in we found on the side of the road. Germans seem to really embrace this ‘trash is treasure’ concept: unwanted items are put outside for others to pick up. Last night I saw one of those portable clothes racks and the night before a pair or rollerskates! Going into the kitchen: (here you can see the edges of the …

Apart from the obvious: All kinds of wurst; Cabbages in their infinite varieties including juice;101 uses for a potato; Pork and the delicious smoking thereof; Socks with sandals (seriously- my supervisor is loving this look);and, according to our ‘secret blogger’; dogs in stores, Germans have another ‘secret’ obsession. Germans. Love. Kangaroos. It’s possible that I have some sort of confirmation bias/Baader-Meinhof thing going on.. but I have to say, I’m  pretty sure there is a LOT of Kangaroo based stuff going on here. If you were to divide the occurrence of kangaroo insignia, over the probability of every finding an actual real kangaroo in the country, I’m going to put my money on Germany coming out the winner (or maybe a close second to Austria, who has that whole ‘we-are-not-as-cool-as-Australia-no-kangaroos-in-Austria’ chip on its shoulder). And I know it’s an exotic. And I know that the idea of perpetually sunny Australia is enough to make Winterlanders froth at the mouth (as a side note- we have a 37 degree room in the institute for growing bacteria- I’ve started replying to the ‘it must be nice …