jonnywright.co.uk

“Of course, there are strong connections between Malta and the United Kingdom - but I suppose it could always just be a matter of musical taste …”

Today is special. Today, I’ve finally racked up 24 weeks in Berlin. (That’s allowing for holidays spent in the UK - obviously it’s more than 24 weeks since I arrived.) The relevance? I have now spent the minimum amount of time abroad for this to count as a gap year, as far as Oxford University’s concerned.

Incidentally, I’m back in Oxford briefly at the end of 5th week  - hopefully I should have a chance to catch up with people and wish everyone good luck before exams kick in.

It’s been an interesting week. A “mixed bag”, as Ming Campbell might have said.

Let’s start with the good:

My new guitar arrived! A reissue 1952 Fender Telecaster, from Japan. You can’t usually get them in Europe, as they’re not supposed to be exported. I had to buy directly from a shop in Tokyo, and pay import duties to the German Government. It’s lovely!

Mum and Dad are having a great time on their anniversary holiday, which is great. They fly back today, so I should be expecting a call tomorrow morning to say they’ve arrived. It’s fantastic to know they’ve enjoyed themselves so much. I think they really needed a break and some time together, and I’m really thrilled for them.

Dresden last weekend was amazing. We had a really good time and got to see lots of the city, as well as plenty of the nightlife.

Now onto the bad stuff:

The Lib Dems got stuffed in the local elections. The party media machine is trying to put a good gloss on it - Labour did worse; our losses seemed to be confined to specific local areas;  there were some very good individual gains - but to be fair, it’s their job to do that. I think most activists feel pretty disappointed right now. I’m especially gutted that we missed out so narrowly in Timperley, where I’d been canvassing.

And I got wasted last night. I got roped into playing strange German drinking games - the Germans can cope with it, and I can’t. I hit my limit embarrassingly early, just about had enough presence of mind to crawl off to bed, and woke up this morning afternoon with a thumping headache. You know everything I ever said about continental social drinking culture? Forget it. I’m going on a three-week detox, and then I’ll crack open some bubbly for my birthday on the 28th.

And now I’m going back to bed. Bye!

I’m off to Dresden for the weekend. Going tomorrow afternoon. Franzi’s parents are away so she’s got a free house. Knowing the Germans, we’ll probably be ridiculously civilised, and will behave just as well as if her parents were watching over us. But maybe with more alcohol.

I bought myself two new discs for the journey - Funeral, by Arcade Fire, which was a recommendation from my musically-savvy Lib Dem mate Leo; and The Clash’s London Calling, which was on offer at the record store, and which I thought I ought to own!

In other musical news, I am (fingers crossed) getting a Fender Telecaster. At the same time, Alex Pinder has taken up piano, and is by all accounts taking it very seriously. I need to write us a concerto for piano and electric geetar. Judging by my current repertoire, it would probably consist of snippets of Led Zeppelin solos, glued together by random riffs from Rock Guitar for Dummies. Yummy.

Sorry for not getting the Strasbourg photo diary up yet. I loaded all the pics onto Truprint for my family, and that took care of about 60% of the people who were going to look at them anyway, and I just ran out of steam after that. I’ll get them resized and loaded onto facebook, that’s probably easiest. Wait till I get back to Manchester this weekend, then I’ll sort it out.

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I went to Nuremberg with Ben last weekend. We had an amazing time; the city’s fascinating but also very scary. It had a great deal of mediæval and early modern history, but also strong links with the Nazi party. I’ll write it up later, but I want to publish it in German before I blog about it in English.

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I’m never going to buy chips again. I worked out an amazing recipe for home-cooked ones, and at a fraction of the cost of pre-made frozen ones. Unfortunately, in a moment of carelessness, I made a very big hole in my finger with a knife, while I was cutting potatoes. First time I’ve ever done that. It’s not too bad, but it’s frustrating because I can’t practise guitar for a few days now!

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I went out for a drink with Franzi last night - we had Andechs Klosterbier, which is amazing, but it obviously had a dodgy effect on my subconscious, because when I get to bed (at about 4am), I had one of the dodgiest dreams I’ve ever experienced. Tony Blair was in Parliament, giving the Queen’s Speech. (I have no idea why Tony was doing this, and not the Queen, but that’s dreams for you.) He was wearing, for some reason, long red-and-gold robes, and a full-length judge’s wig. Most bizarrely of all, he was delivering his Queen’s Speech in fluent German. It was a massively boring and technical description of his entire legislative programme. There were dozens of German journalists, and they kept on interrupting him and asking detailed questions, and he answered back with even more detailed and boring answers. And I understood it all, although conveniently, I’ve forgotten all the details.

Crazy no? I’ve learned two things: my German’s getting much better, and my subconscious is way too focused on politics!

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I got up at about 11, and (being in a ridiculously English mood) decided to make myself some poached eggs on toast for breakfast. I got them absolutely perfect, just runny enough, with a nice firm white. My flatmates were totally taken aback; I dont think they’d ever seen poached eggs before. Zey ver ferry confused, und asked me vot I vos doink to ze ekks.

I’m in Strasbourg for a few days. I’ve always wanted to visit, and I had a weekend free, so it seemed like a good idea.

I had a six-hour train journey yesterday, which wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I had a seat in a compartment, so there was actually a fair bit of space. I was pretty exhausted by the time I arrived, though. I moved into my hotel, went out to grab some dinner, and got an earlyish night.

Today, I headed out into the town to do a bit of exploring, using the map more as a safety-net than an actual guide. I got round a lot of the old city, which is very characterful and mediæval. I’ve got truckloads of good photos, but I’m on the useless wireless connection at the hotel, and I don’t fancy trying to get them all uploaded right now. I’ll put them all in a nice photo-diary when I get back to Berlin sometime during the week.

The city is great. It really does feel well-preserved, and I love the way the river is all around you, which you don’t get with all river cities. It splits up and flows several different routes throughout the town, so you’re always near to some flowing water. The downsides - the traffic system is odd, and Alsatian drivers are abysmal. Really abysmal. Look at this photo I took of a traffic jam in the Rue des Juifs:

Plan for now - a couple of hours off, recharge camera batteries, get showered and changed, then out into town for something to eat, and an evening walk around the waterfront.

Plan for tomorrow - visit the Quartier des Institution Européennes, and go to the Palais Rohan.

I am, I fear, defeated. Kat Wall, of Lady Margaret Hall, has vanquished me in my quest to become President of Oxford University Liberal Democrats.

I’m a bit gutted, but I can’t really argue with the result. Given that I wasn’t around in Oxford to mobilise support, and she was, I’m quite proud of getting so close. I was only two swing-votes from making it.

I suppose I should be gracious, wish Kat congratulations, and thank her for saving me from myself, and giving me more time to spend on my degree, not to mention my long-suffering friends in College (who must be sick of my political antics by now).

On the other hand, I could hide in a corner, and drown my sorrows with a bottle of Scotch, like Chucky used to do before we made him resign as Lib Dem leader …

Meh. I think I need to buy myself a present. How about a train ticket to Strasbourg? I’ve always wanted to go there. Next week maybe?

As promised.

Esther and me in the Telecafé:

Esther and me at the Brandenburg Gates:

My sister kicked up a massive fuss about coming on the plane as an unaccompanied minor. To start with I wasn’t very sympathetic, but now I can see why. I got to Tegel airport on Tuesday evening, as requested, “years early”, and was at the meeting point a good half hour before Esther arrived. When she did, she was accompanied by a woman from BA who, as far as I could tell, didn’t speak any English, and didn’t speak much German either, and kept me for 15 minutes filling in very pointless forms (in three different colours) to prove I was really Esther’s brother.

Last night was pretty relaxing; we just stayed in and chatted and discussed what we were going to do. Esther stunned me with an amazing revelation. (”Jonny, I’ve just worked something out. You know triangles? Well I’ve realised what it means. Tri means three. Angle means angle. And triangles have three angles! It all makes sense now …) She’s an extremely bright kid, but she still manages to surprise me sometimes.
Today I was going to take her for breakfast 200m above the Berlin cityscape, in the Telecafé Restaurant atop the TV tower. The plan collapsed when my flatmate Eric barricaded himself in the bathroom and decided to wash his hair. The last time I checked, you’re supposed to wash your hairs all at once, rather than scrubbing each one individually, but for whatever reason, Goldilocks had a 3-hour rendezvous with the showerhead, and Esther couldn’t get herself ready to go out.

So, we had a very lovely late lunch on top of the TV tower, and some pretty impressive icecreams for dessert. There are good photos, but they’ll have to wait till tomorrow (for me to be bothered to open Photoshop and take the files down to a sensible size).

Then we visited the Holocaust Memorial and the Brandenburg Gates, and a nice walk along some the old line of the Berlin Wall. And then diddums got a headache, so we went back home, and I grilled us some salmon fillets for dinner. After a bit of food and a couple of paracetamol, she was in the mood to watch some Top Gear - my dad’s been taping the new series, and mailing it over on DVD.

But there’s a problem. Every DVD he burns seems to cut out ¾ of the way through. So we missed out on seeing Clarkson launch a Robin Reliant into the air with several thousand tonnes of explosive. Grrr. Suggestion: don’t bother with the DVDs. Just keep them on the Sky+ box, and I’ll watch them when I come home for Passover! Alternatively, just buy me the box set for Chanukah!

Tomorrow: not sure yet. Possibly the House of the Wannsee Conference. I’ll be back on here with more info, and the photos. Till then, goodnight y’all!

… just a couple of hours now, I guess, and I’ll be heading off to Berlin Tegel to pick up Esther. This week’s going to be interesting.