Wednesday 7 September 2011

Wouldn't it be Nice

What is a girl to do when the Summer in Berlin is just not meeting standards.? I guess she just has to head for the Cote d'Azur for the weekend. Sigh.

Nice, it turns out, is not a bad looking city.

And I got to catch up with the lovely Kerry. Mwa ha ha. Elegant laughter.

Until Michael said something to get these glares

A room with a view

And a cliff out back

On the promenade you can watch people diving off the cliff

Splosh


We went to a little village, Gilette, the best a man can get.

With the bast man I could get.



In Nice we admired the ruins...

...and the stonework

Until Kerry pointed out that it wasn't real. It's trompe-l'oeil.

Soon you start to doubt everything. How much of this is real?

What about this garden?


These people, are THEY just trompe-l'oeil?

Thanks so much to Kerry and mon petit bureau de change, Fabrice, for fouxing du fa fa with us. You made it the perfect weekend.
Ai-ah!

Friday 26 August 2011

Foux du Fa Fa

Heading to Nice for the weekend. Can't wait to foux du fafa with Kerry.


Saturday 6 August 2011

Gärten der Welt

Guess where Julie and I are.

It's not Seoul (sigh), but Gärten der Welt in East Berlin, where several cultures are represented by traditional gardens.

The Balinese Garden







The Korean Garden
할아버지!







The Japanese Garden



The Christian Garden






The Chinese Garden





The Oriental Garden



The Renaissance Garden


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Tuesday 28 June 2011

Chessboxing

Chessboxing is a hybrid sport that involves alternate rounds of chess and (you guessed it) boxing. Recently this video appeared on the Berlin Chessboxing Club's website:



SHOCKING!

Enraged by this insult I went to cheer on London at the match/fight/game (?). Michael and I arrived at the train station and were offered sparkling wine and a lift to the venue (my sense of outrage dwindled due to the good hospitality, and perhaps the alcohol).


We were stamped with the chessboxing logo...


...and waited for the match to begin (Who's that lovely lady? Why, it's me!).


After careful preparation...


...the fighters entered the ring...


...the real lovely ladies declared the first round (I've never seen two more bored looking girls in my life)...

...and the two men sat down to a four-minute round of chess

Each player has a maximum of twelve minutes to play chess during the whole game, and there are a maximum of eleven rounds, including the three-minute boxing rounds. The commentator explained the game and we could see the moves on a large screen.

Then it was up for a round of boxing.

Who is that lovely lady whose job it is to move the board in and out of the ring between rounds? It's Sabine, my house-mate and chessboxer.

The chess rounds became increasingly more intense as the fighters tried to slow their breathing, recover from the punches and focus on the task at hand, their sweat dripping onto the board. Understandably, most mistakes are made at the start of the round.
There were three fights, and it was interesting to see how the players tactics played to their strengths. I think I might take up the sport.

So, how do you move horsey?

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