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.

“The age of infantilism”

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I wonder whether Stephen Fry knew how prophetic he was going to turn out to be when about seven-eight years ago, he talked about “the age of infantilism”. Grown men wearing baseball caps back to front, and indoors. Silly socks. And later stupid icons with puppies jumping up and down, probably designed with the age bracket five to ten in mind, but now used by supposedly grown people.

And now, in this country, greetings such as “halli hallo” and “hallöschen”. Which of those is more annoying?

Yesterday, I received a phone call (and this was one of those occasions where I was reminded why I usually keep my phone on silent – I don’t like it when it rings, and only answer when I know it is family calling from Denmark) by a person whom I am sure would categorise herself as an adult and who started out with “halli hallo”, loudly and clearly, and proceeded to rattle off name, company and reason for calling so quickly that I did not have a hope in hell of catching any of it, and then, to add insult to injury, an overly enthusiastic “hallööööööööhschen!”.

I am very sorry but I don’t like being spoken to like a five-year-old, so all I could do was hang up in disgust.

Loop from Alt-Schmöckwitz around Wernsdorfer See with Empor Berlin 7 November

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First: The morning sky that day:

A beautiful walk with 15 other people, led by Eckehard Heiber, Empor Berlin. I definitely want to revisit the area again in spring, this time with bird-watching and -photography in mind. In addition to the usual cormorants, gulls, herons, mallards and swans, I saw several birds of prey, as well as several white egrets which is unusual, at least for me.

The route on MapMyWalk here.

And finally, what might have been a good idea, very badly executed:

From Grünau to Adlershof with Lisa K, “Berlin Walks”, and her groupies, 5 November

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IN PROGRESS

The route on MapMyWalk here.

Bonus tip: Very good sushi restaurant in Johannistal (yes, really …. :-)): Sho ga nai.

A relaxed get-together on New Year’s Eve 2023/24

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Taking up a pre-pandemic tradition.

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For now, long story short, my place from about 21.00 till about 01.00.

More details later.

Photography: Personal favourites 2023 October

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Bird-watching in Moorlinse Buch 4 November

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“Bird-watching in English” with VHS Pankow. The spring programme will be available on-line shortly.

Very nice walk in November weather at its best, although I only managed one bird photo, and even that was of a bird that was actually too far away to be photographed.

The route on MapMyWalk here. Total distance walked 12.2 km.

If I can find black lime somewhere …..

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Black lime tofu – IN PROGRESS

INGREDIENTS

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp caster sugar
1 small red onion, thinly sliced into rounds on a mandolin, if you have one, or by hand (60g)
600ml sunflower oil, for deep-frying
2 blocks of extra-firm tofu (560g), patted dry and cut into 2cm cubes
2 tbsp cornflour
2 onions (300g), roughly chopped
6 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
60ml olive oil
2 tsp cumin seeds, roughly crushed in a pestle and mortar
2–3 dried black limes, blitzed in a spice grinder to get 2 tbsp (10g – use a food processor if you don’t have a grinder, and pass through a sieve) (if you can’t get any black limes, substitute with 1 tbsp lime juice and 1 tbsp lime zest)
2 tbsp tomato paste
20g parsley, roughly chopped
250g baby spinach
salt and black pepper

METHOD

1. Put the vinegar, 1 teaspoon of sugar, the red onion and ⅛ teaspoon of salt into a small bowl and mix well to combine. Set aside to pickle while you continue with the rest.

2. Heat the sunflower oil in a medium high-sided sauté pan on a medium-high heat. Toss the tofu in a bowl with the cornflour until well coated. Once hot, fry the tofu (in two batches) until crispy and lightly browned, about 6 minutes per batch, then transfer to a plate lined with kitchen paper and set aside.

3. While the tofu is frying, prepare the sauce. Put the onions and garlic into a food processor and pulse a few times until very finely minced but not puréed. Put the olive oil into a large sauté pan on a medium-high heat. Add the onion mixture and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Add the cumin, black limes (or regular lime zest and juice) and tomato paste and cook for 1 minute more. Add 400ml of water, the remaining 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1¼ teaspoons of salt and a generous grind of pepper. Bring to a simmer and cook for 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until thick and rich. Add the crispy tofu, parsley and another grind of pepper and stir to coat. Add the spinach in increments, stirring until just wilted, about 3 minutes.

4. To serve, transfer the mixture to a shallow serving platter and top with the pickled red onion (or serve straight from the pan).

A couple of days in Szczecin, 1 to 3 November

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Poland being back in my good books (and good to see Donald Tusk back on the scene), with the real reason being a walk with Fritz Heiber, Empor Berlin, on 2 November, with a very early start from Berlin.

Despite the fact that I am a morning person, it did not take much self-convincing to decide to treat myself to a night in a hotel in Stettin in order to be able to get up and have breakfast at leisure before meeting the others at the train station. And then – what the heck – another night there in order to have breakfast at leisure on 3 November as well, given that that is my birthday. Not an interesting birthday – 71 – but considering that I am still around, and spent my 70th birthday in “Reha”, this will make a nice change. By the way, not a word against the Hamm Klinik Sankt Peter Ording – I thoroughly enjoyed my four weeks of “Reha” there this time last autumn.

More about my strained relationship with Stettin later, which is only getting marginally better, with all those damn barriers everywhere with seemingly no other purpose than to make life miserable for pedestrians. Cars can of course move around unhindered and are clearly still king in Stettin while pedestrians are unwanted.

Anyway, I played a bit with low shutter speed, as well as (unsuccessfully) my aversion to photographing people :-), and caught some vibrant autumn colours on the way too.

By the way, I saw large flocks of storks, both in fields and in the air, but was never fast enough to photograph them. Always a wonderful sight, though.

After I had checked in at my hotel and decided to stay and not go straight back home (which I might have done, had it not been for the historical city walk I was signed up for the next day), I headed for the river. Stettin is blessed with a lot of waterfront but does nothing to make the area particularly appealing. Such a shame.

At the Chobry Embankment I headed back and started to look for a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner later, which would have been one redeeming feature, but unfortunately, I did not find any.

Some photos of the relatively new philharmonic:

Today’s afternoon route on MapMyWalk here. Total distance walked: 13,5 km.

Day 2

After a leisurely breakfast, and before meeting the other fourteen people off the bus from Berlin via Angermünde, I went out to have a look at the area beyond the central station – very run down, full of barriers, supposedly because of roadwork, and even more difficult to navigate than the area around the by now infamous new central station under construction in Stuttgart. Incidentally, Stettin reminds me quite a lot of Stuttgart – full of barriers and stairs.

Despite the fact that the others travelled on a Deutsche Bahn “Ersatzbus” from Angermünde, they arrived punctually, and we had a very nice and interesting walk. Eckehard Heiber had put in a lot of work and effort to prepare and make this happen, and even booked a table for lunch for us in a very nice restaurant: Karczma Polska with modern Polish food and great service. Highly recommended.

After the lunch, the others headed towards the station, and I went to the contemporary art section of the national museum. Not wildly interesting, I have to say. Afterwards, I checked out the shopping inferno called Galeria Kaskada. Not too bad, actually, and had I been in shopping mode, I could easily have found something to buy, and at lower prices than in Berlin.

I can’t think of anything else to do here, so tomorrow, all that remains is another leisurely breakfast (what a shame – I hate that ;-)) and return to Berlin, hopefully in time for the bridge evening at my place.

And then I have to start preparing the next project – the challenge I have set myself to visit and try to take acceptable photographs of things and places I don’t like (Christmas markets).

Strausberg 25 October

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IN PROGRESS

With Empor Berlin: Loop from S-Bhf Strausberg to Lange Dammwiesen, Unteres Annatal, Hennickendorf, Gr. Stienitzsee.

Walk and weather both lovely, though a bit misty. Again I wondered why some people, instead of enjoying being in nature, feel compelled to talk ALL. THE. TIME. I guess that is the price I pay for having no orientation skills and sometimes just find it easier to walk with people and let them find the way :-).

Görlitz 16 to 19 October

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Day One – arrival, walkaround. Apart from walking from the station to the hotel, this is the route on MapMyWalk.

Görlitz (a.k.a. Görliwood, apparently) has been a popular film location for many mainstream movies in recent years. Films such as Inglourious Bastards, Monuments Men, Around The World in 80 Days, and The Book Thief were all filmed in charming streets of Görlitz. Because the city was spared from destruction during WW2, it serves as a perfect filming location for many films that try to capture the setting of pre-war Germany. Alledgedly.

Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel was filmed in this defunct department store:

Day 2, a bit more walking (the route on MapMyWalk here) and Naturschutz-Tierpark Görlitz.

The first photo is of the view from my hotel room. Blissfully quiet at night at this time of year, but probably not so much in the summer.

Day 3 – walk to Zgorzelec and Stalag VIII A. The route on MapMyWalk here.

It was still a bit misty when I crossed the river and quickly reached the café where I had decided to have breakfast (my hotel is nice, and well located, but the breakfast is nothing to write home about and the coffee downright appalling). Czarna Kaffka turned out to be a real find.

Although “Polenmarkt” sounds interesting (note the list of illegal products sold there :-)): https://www.holiday-zeit.de/polenmarkt-goerlitz-kleiner-markt-zgorzelec-schnaeppchenjagd/polen/1911/, I did not make it there but walked straight to the former prisoner-of-war camp Stalag VIII A, located at the southeastern edge of Zgorzelec. 120. 000 prisoners were registered there between 1939 and 1945, among them the French composer Olivier Messiaen.

At the outbreak of World War II, Messiaen was drafted into the French army. Due to poor eyesight, he was enlisted as a medical auxiliary rather than an active combatant. He was captured at Verdun, where he befriended clarinettist Henri Akoka. They were taken to Görlitz in May 1940, and imprisoned at Stalag VIII-A. He met a cellist (Étienne Pasquier) and a violinist (Jean le Boulaire) among his fellow prisoners. He wrote a trio for them, which he gradually incorporated into a more expansive new work, Quatuor pour la fin du temps (“Quartet for the End of Time”). With the help of a friendly German guard, Carl-Albert Brüll, he acquired manuscript paper and pencils. The work was first performed in January 1941 to an audience of prisoners and prison guards, with the composer playing a poorly maintained upright piano in freezing conditions and the trio playing equally old, badly maintenanced instruments. The enforced introspection and reflection of camp life bore fruit in one of 20th-century classical music’s acknowledged masterpieces. The title’s “end of time” alludes to the Apocalypse, and also to the way that Messiaen, through rhythm and harmony, used time in a manner completely different from his predecessors and contemporaries.

In large part due to the persuasions of Messiaen’s friend and teacher, Marcel Dupré, Messiaen was released in May 1941.

The idea of a European Centre of Education and Culture “Meeting Point Music Messiaen” on the site of Stalag VIII-A, for children and youth, artists, musicians and everyone in the region emerged in December 2004, was developed with the involvement of Messiaen’s widow as a joint project between the council districts in Germany and Poland, and was completed in 2014.

Warning: This is an outdoor exhibit, there is no staff, and no toilets, also not between this place and the centre of Zgorzelec.

On the way back:

Funny how a diptych can seem like a great idea in your head, until you carry it out hahaha:

And finally, Poland has some catching up to do: