All posts by Helle Møller

Retired from a long working life as secretary/assistant in UN and EU institutions. Freelance stress counsellor and proofreader/copyeditor. Now living in Berlin.

Opportunities to play bridge in English in Berlin in the first half of 2025

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Last updated: 31 March AM. Will be changed and updated regularly.

During the weeks where for one reason or the other there is no bridge course at VHS, we can play occasionally at my place. Where nothing else is stated, we aim at arrivals from 18.15, ready to start playing at 18.30, but for those who can only come later, that is also OK. We’ll start playing as soon as enough people have arrived.

Playing privately is a good opportunity for newcomers to get an introduction to the game, to the teacher, and to the rest of us without committing to a ten-session course right away. Some very basic prior knowledge is an advantage but not a requirement.

SCROLL DOWN TO SEE LINKS TO THE COURSES STARTING IN MAY.

The occasional opportunities to play bridge privately in the weeks where VHS is closed, are marked with *** below.

PLEASE feel free to start letting me know if this is of interest. So far, I have heard from nobody, and I do have a life to plan ….. :-). I have already had to delete three options (9, 22 and 23 April) since the last update.

***Week 15: We can play at my place Thursday 10 April. So far, KS, MS, HM, QL and RC are available.

***Week 16: (!! Easter !! – Friday 18 April is Good Friday). As far as I am concerned, we can play:

Thursday 17 (AD, HM, QL and RC available) or

Friday 18 (CE, GE, HM and RC available), or if there is interest:

Saturday 19 (CE, GE, HM, QL, RC and TP are available) or

Sunday 20 April (TP available).

***Week 17: 21 April is Easter Monday. As far as I am concerned, we can play on 21 April (QL, TP and HM available) or 22 April (QL, RC and HM available).

***Week 18: We can play at my place on 1 May.

Week 19: New courses starting, now available for registration: Course starting Wednesday 7 May here, and course starting Friday 9 May here.

Week 19: 7 May VHS 1/10; 9 May VHS 1/10

Week 20: 14 May VHS 2/10; 16 May VHS 2/10

Week 21: 21 May VHS 3/10; 23 May VHS 3/10

Week 22: 28 May VHS 4/10; 30 May VHS closed, presumably a “bridge day”

Week 23: 4 June VHS 5/10; 6 June VHS 4/10

Week 24: 11 June VHS 6/10; 13 June VHS 5/10

Week 25: 18 June VHS 7/10; 20 June VHS 6/10

Week 26: 25 June VHS 8/10; 27 June VHS 7/10

Week 27: 2 July VHS 9/10; 4 July VHS 8/10

Week 28: 9 July VHS 10/10; 11 July VHS 9/10

Week 29: 18 July VHS 10/10

Week 30 onwards till the autumn courses start there will again be opportunities to play privately at my place. Watch this space.

The best ways to keep informed are

Comments? Questions? Attending the private bridge evenings at my place but don’t know my address yet? E-mail me here.

Everybody please stop the habitual whining and fussing!

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Increasingly, wherever I go I am surrounded by fusspots and whiners.

Are you even hearing yourselves? The light is either too dark or too bright; the temperature in the room is either too cold or too warm; the air too stale or too fresh; the bridge cards too big or too small or too sticky or too slippery; too much or too little milk in the coffee. And on and on and on.

It is as insufferable as it is incesssant, and one gets the impression that most of the time, it is just a bad habit.

And today people are claiming that the switch to daylight saving time/summertime is f…… up their circadian rhythms, or whatever it is, for days. Such bollocks. Do most people still have dozens of devices which they need to spend time on resetting manually? No. Do most people have to get up extremely early to catch a red-eye on this partcular Sunday? No. Do most people have a disease which causes them to need to be extra-ultra-meticulous with the timing of their medication? No.

In fact, if the press did not make such a song and dance about it, nobody would even notice nowadays.

So please stop and think before you mindlessly blurt out all these eternal, petty complaints and focus on dealing with the real problems in the world.

Exhibitions to visit

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Purely as a reminder to myself, since Microsoft Word no longer synchronises documents edited on several different devices.

FromTillNameAddress and/or commentsOpening hours
MARCHEuropean Month of Photography EMOP
    Dresden 
27.03.30.03.WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THE REST OF YOUR LIFE?
Die Abschlussausstellung des Seminars von Anne Schönharting

27.03.-30.03.2025 im Kunstraum Kreuzberg (@kunstraumkreuzberg), Kunstquartier Bethanien, Berlin
Eröffnung am 27.03. um 19 Uhr

Mit Arbeiten von:
Florian Bolk (@florianbolk)
Stefan Fröhlich (@stefan_froehlich_photo)
Jannes Jaeger (@jannes.jaeger)
Sibylle Kölmel (@sibyllekoelmel)
Benjamin Meinberg (@benjaminmeinberg)
Andy Plötz (@un.art_images)
Suzanne Reichenbach (@_suz_anne)
Lisa Schulz (@itsleecee)
Annett Stenzel (@annettstenzel_music.film.art)
APRILMany EMOP exhibitions continue
01.03.05.04.Chert Lüdde
06.04.Deutsches Historisches Museum Hinter dem Gießhaus
12.04.Galerie Max Hetzler Potsdamer Str. 77–87, Tiergarten, Di–Sa 11–18 Uhr, www.maxhetzler.com, bis 12.4.
19.04.Galerie Anahita Sadighi
20.04.Museum für Photographie Braunschweig Di – Fr 13 – 18 Uhr, Sa + So 11 – 18 Uhr
01.03.20.04.Robert GrunenbergKantstraße
27.04.Willy Brandt Haus
27.04.Brotfabrik Galerie (Photo Noir)
MAYMany EMOP exhibitions continue
01.03.03.05.Chaussee 36  
04.05.n.b.k. (Neuer Berliner Kunstverein) Chausseestr. 128/ 129, Mitte, Di–So 12–18 Uhr, Do 12–20 Uhr, www.nbk.org, bis 4.5., Finissage-Wochenende Fr, 3.5., 20 Uhr, Sa 4.5., 14-16 Uhr
04.05.Akademie d.K. Hanseatenweg
04.05.Alte Feuerwache (EMOP) Marchiewskistr. Fr.hain.
02.03.04.05.Galerie Koschmieder Thu+Fri 14-18Oranienstr.
 02.05 04.05.Gallery Weekend  
03.05.04.05.Frühlingsrundgang Spinnerei LeipzigGoing 4 May with JC and perhaps a few more
04.05.Access Kafka, Jewish Museum (PERHAPS – right now anything that even remotely evokes thoughts of Israel makes my skin crawl and I even feel like taking a detour in order to avoid walking straight past that place a few steps away from my home – not rational, but there it is).
01.02.07.05.C/O Berlin
04.04.23.05.Borssenanger, Chemnitz
25.05.Friedrichshain Photo Gallery
01.06.Bucerius Kunstforum https://www.buceriuskunstforum.de/ausstellungen/in-her-hands-bildhauerinnen-des-surrealismusVisit planned in connection with trip to Hamburg (course with Blende2) and Bremerhaven 12 to 16 April
16.06.Berlinische Galerie Alte Jakobstr. 124–128, Kreuzberg, Mi–Mo 10–18 Uhr, 10/6 €, bis 18 J. + Geflüchtete frei, www.berlinischegalerie.de, bis 16.6.
22.06.Stiftung Volksbank Tue-Sun 10.00-18.00
29.06.Wolfgang Tillmans in Albertinum Dresden
14.06.14.09.Biennale
10.09.14.09.Berlin Art Week
13.06.12.10.Surrealism Kunsthalle Hamburg
26.09.2525.01.26Netzwerke der Surrealismus, Neue Nationalgalerie
September 25January 26William KentridgeDresden and Essen

Bamberg and Nürnberg end of April 2025

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Main purpose: This photo course with Artistravel.

Görlitz first weekend in April 2025

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To attend two photo tours to what for some strange reason the Germans call “Lost Places”. I am not sure what to expect, there are no details on their website, but they did promise me that the Saturday tour and the Sunday tour are two different tours. I am still skeptical though, not least because they were incredibly rude and unfriendly in their communications. We’ll see.

Hamburg and Bremerhaven April

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This photography course with Blende2

This exhibition in Bucerius Kunstforum.

And in Bremerhaven: Stare and the “sea”, enjoy the maritime flair, and breathe some fresh air.

Birdwatching with VHS at Moorlinse/ZickZack Graben/Bogensee

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With Rob Crouch. Another great walk and as usual fun to meet other bird nerds, and great to be out in some lovely nature.

And we did not even notice the partial solar eclipse!

By the way, it has come to my attention that not all nature lovers in Berlin are aware of the Umweltkalender, so here it is again. Depending what you look for, there are filters, and I personally filter for “Führung” and then in Zielgruppe for “Erwachsene” – that weeds out a lot of activities in which I would not be particularly interested.

I will be out of Berlin the next couple of weekends, so the next event found in Umweltkalender which I will attend is this one in Wuhletal.

Some of VHS’s birdwatching events are listed in Umweltkalender, but unfortunately, in true, German IT-angst fashion, not all (and consistency is not Volkshochsschule’s Spitzenkompetenz in any case – VHS in each Bezirk seem to function as completely separate institutions that have nothing whatsoever to do with each other (???). For example, this one, to which I have signed up, is not in Umweltkalender: https://www.vhsit.berlin.de/VHSKURSE/BusinessPages/CourseDetail.aspx?id=712215, and I recently discovered one of Rob Crouch’s walks that is also not listed there, so if you want to stay in the loop, you unfortunately have to keep checking the VHS website which is still really heavy and time-consuming to navigate.

Back to this Saturdays’s walk: We saw many birds but unfortunately, I did not manage any particularly good photos. However, for purposes of identification, I am posting some here nonetheless.

On Moorlinse we saw a duck which on the spot we identified as a Pochard/Tafelente, and in ZickZack Graben a cute little thing which at first we thought was a kind of lark, then when seeing it in-camera some kind of warbler, but on seeing the photo enlarged, Agata suggests it might be a Blackthroat/Schwarzkehlschen. Walking along, we then saw cranes, herons and geese (as well as several birds of prey hovering over the trees at the edge too far away to be photographed).

We also witnessed, from a great distance, a bird being mobbed by a crow. This would normally happen to a bird of prey, and was initially identified as a Hen Harrier, or some other Harrier, alternatively as a Kiebitz (but do crows usually harrass birds other than birds of prey?). The photos are terrible, and the answer is blowing in the wind, but somebody in my trusty Facebook group on birds in Berlin says that the bird on the second photos is definitely a Kiebitz. If anybody sees this and has comments, they are welcome in an e-mail to me here.

In the forest on the other side of the road, after the lunch break, we saw traces of beaver, but of course no beavers in the middle of the day. We would need to come back at dawn or at dusk (and then still not be able to see those shy and elusive buggers). But there was one piece of some kind of cattle – sometimes there are many more of them – perhaps as from April.

Also a couple of Mallards/Stock Ente:

The following is a series of photos of a Nuthatch/Kleiber we saw moving in and out of what is probably his lodgings for the season, and yes, I know, they are quite common, and I already have hundreds of photos of them, but this one was too cute not to photograph.

Moving on to Bogensee, where I had hoped to see the Great White Egret, instead we saw a heron preparing to move in for the kill, and some ducks which we think might be Teals/Krickente.

Other photos taken along the way:

And finally, my favourite subject – the obligatory trees in black&white:

Schönower Park and Heinrich-Laehr-Park

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After a “successful” check-up (two years and eight months cancer free – and boob-free, but you can’t have everything) with my invaluable gynecologist, Dr Ursina Heil (who shares offices with my equally invaluable GP, Dr Thomas Heil) in Halensee, on a tip from Agata, a fellow bird nerd, and bridge buddy.

My main purpose was to finally get a decent photo of a Green Woodpecker/Grünspecht, which has become my Achilles’ Heel. The first couple of years in Berlin, I never saw any, and after I started seeing them from time to time, I have ever only managed really bad photos of them. Recently, I have been to places where, alledgedly, there should be several of them, but not seen any, and today was no exception, but I got lucky in other ways.

I started in Schönower Park, where there was a loud party, so I only photographed some of those invasive beasts – Mandarin Ducks – and a small section of the John F. Kennedy School.

Further south in Heinrich-Laehr Park, I had the priviledge of coming up close and personal with a Goshawk/Habicht, disturbing him in a freshly slaughtered meal of what I assume used to be a pigeon.

Other results: A Great Spotted Woodpecker/Buntspecht, what I think was a Redwing/Rotdrossel, and a cute, singing Robin/Rotkehlchen.

Birdwatching walk on Pfaueninsel

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With Frank Wissing from NABU Bezirksgruppe Mitte.

I don’t like peacocks, and luckily we did not really come across many. However, there were a couple of “firsts” for me (first seen, first photographed).

We also saw several birds of prey/Greifvögel – a couple of Buzzards, a Western marsh harrier/Rohrweihe, a Red Kite/Rotmilan, and two White-tailed Eagles/Seeadler. Unfortunately, I did not manage to get any good photos of any of those. Also on the island a lot of Greylags/Graugans.

First, while waiting for the bus from S Wannsee to the Pfaueninsel Ferry (218 – goes hourly), this Blackcap/Mönchgrasmücke  was singing (I had seen one before but never managed to photograph):

Once on the island, my first efter Chiffchaff/Zilpzalp:

And my first Marsh Tit/Sumpfmeise:

And some Goosander/Gänsesäger (which I may have seen before, but never photographed):

Other photos:

And finally, the island seems to have a resident fox:

Animal portraits at Berlin Zoo

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(In view of my ressistance to make human portraits ……)

In my opinion the most hyped and overrated animal in the world. All they do is eat and contemplate their big, and growing, bellies (much like some …. well, never mind) and they can’t even be bothered to have sex. This set of twins, and the last one about four years ago, in Berlin Zoo, came about by way of artificial insemination:

Some more birds:

I also like hoofstock …..

….. and almost all other animals: