Almost every time Max pees on an abandoned E-roller (which I have not actually trained him to do – I swear – but I have also never tried to stop him), he gets positive feedback from an on-looker or passer-by, in the form of a “bravo”, or “good dog!” or a thumbs-up or at least a big smile.
I set off in search of a photo to submit to 52Frames (as mentioned in the previous post, the theme this week is wabi-sabi) and ended up taking far too many photos – what else is new – including the last of the autumn colours, illustrations of what a city of contrasts Berlin is – certainly as seen on and from Stralau Peninsula, and much more. And one or two candidates for the wabi-sabi thing.
Mainly to take a photo to submit to 52Frames, where this week’s theme is Wabi Sabi but took some other photos too. I would only consider two or three of today’s results for submission and will continue that quest in Stralau Peninsula later in the week.
I had a dental appointment in Steglitz so had booked Max into Belloberlini for most of the day in order to profit from being in that area one way or another.
Leaving Max there was without the drama he staged last time – a great relief.
I went to the dentist and then to Brücke Museum and Kunsthaus Dahlem. Walking from the dentist to the museum through an area I had not seen before, I came across Restaurant Eierschale which was not only almost completely empty, but had mussles in white wine sauce on the menu – very yummy – a great lunch.
Back at Belloberlini, Max staged a pretty ugly scene when he saw me again, he was all over the place and barking so fastening the leash was a struggle, and the walk home was jittery although he must have been fairly tired. It took some vigorous gnawing on his hardest chewtoy – a sure sign of stress – and a good rub-down for him to wind down, and after I told him five times to go to his pillow, he finally settled down and fell into what seems like a deep sleep there.
Rome certainly was not built in one day when it comes to adopting a seven-year-old Podenco mix …..
Perhaps I should book him into Belloberlini more often so that he might get used to it.
I am immensely pleased and relieved at the way Max now handles new situations compared to earlier.
In the summer, not long after he had moved in, I had two friends over for an evening meal on the balcony, and Max was, quite frankly, a royal pain in the …. He clearly had no idea what to do, went virtually galloping in and out of the rooms when they arrived, and proceeded to – barking loudly – demand my constant attention throughout the evening. He was distressed and having an even more miserable time than us humans 😊.
Yesterday, I had again invited two – other – friends over to watch a film, followed by a meal. Max was much calmer both when the doorbell rang and when they appeared and throughout the afternoon and evening. He initially – on my command – spent time on his pillow, calmly observing us while we had some cake. After that, he did get a lot of loving attention from one of the guests who loves dogs, but he was completely calm, quiet and relaxed and obviously hugely enjoying himself, and he did not disrupt the watching of the film. While we had the evening meal, he again dozed off on his pillow.
After the guests had left, he behaved as he usually does when it has just been the two of us throughout the evening and did not come across as extra needy of my attention.
It has to be said that all morning, Max had had a good long run, off-leash, with Frank and friends , which obviously contributed to his equilibrium. I am grateful that that help is available to me.
I am also very grateful to our current trainer, Astrid Ribois-Verlinde, for making me persevere and not give up on Max when I was at an all-time low.
I find it so interesting how, 4,5 months after I adopted him, he is still changing for the better day by day – seemingly having a much better time, getting more and more relaxed around new people, and ultimately allowing me to spend some equally relaxed time with friends while being pleased with and proud of Max and the progress he has made and is still making.
If he is not careful, other people will end up regarding him as a completely normal dog 😊.
….. no literally, or rather: amazon prime and coffee and cake, followed by dinner.
Early in 2020, I made a mental note to go and see Persischstunden with, among others, Lars Eidinger, as soon as it hit the cinemas, and then Corona put a stop to that. I have since talked about the film several times with friends, and finally discovered that I can stream it on amazon, so a couple of friends are coming over today to watch it together.
This is a good occasion to start with coffee and cake, so I decided to try my hand at this baileys and white chocolate cheese cake. I always find that a full-size cheese-cake looks quite gross and unappetizing and the cheesy layer a bit too thick, so I increased the ingredients for for the base a little, and distributed everything in two 20 cm spring forms instead of one 23 cm. I baked them for 40 minutes, and since there will only be the three of us, I am freezing one of them.
After the film, I am cooking this old faithful: lamb shanks with dates and pumpkin, served with baked mashed potato. Yummy autumn food.
On another note, here is a photo I took with my smartphone during a morning walk on Tempelhofer Feld earlier this week:
Eisenhüttenstadt on Wikipedia.
I used this book to plan a route. Or rather two routes. There is a lot to photograph and I will have to go back a second time, preferably for a couple of days.
I hope I am not offending anybody when I say it is a most peculiar place, at first sight at least. I am curious to know whether it is really as clean and tidy all over as the part I saw today. Clean houses, clean streets, clean cars. Bizarrely, also very few restaurants, and even fewer cafés. I looked hard for dilapidated buildings and found a total of two ,,,,
And I did not see any hotels, so I might find it difficult to find some sort of accommodation, preferably where I can have Max with me. Right now I am thinking a few days around New Year’s Eve. It is on the river that forms the border between Germany and Poland, with lots of nature all around, so a good place to walk and walk and be away from the fireworks (although I have no idea whether Max is afraid of fireworks).
Anyway, for now, this is the route planned for today. I did not completely follow it, since I also had to walk the two km from and back to the station (there were also no taxis, and seemingly also no bus that went directly from the station to where I wanted to start).
Another thing that was unusual: somebody, sitting on a bench outside the hospital, asked me to take a photo of them. In Germany. Where people often pull something over their heads at the sight of a camera, or even sometimes very agressively ask me to put the camera away (although that is a rare occurrence, it has happened to me a handful of times).
