a chill wind

The Berlin we have come back to is a different place. The weather has changed. It's around 15c and though this morning is nice and sunny, the past few days have felt grey and cold. Almost as soon as we got back I was feeling chilly and thinking about the heating. We were told that the heating gets turned on in September - as in, for the whole building! Stevie seemed to recall he'd been told that it went on after we'd had 3 consecutive nights of X degrees C or less. The heating is turned on by one of the neighbours, who is an engineer and is the only person able to operate the antiquated system. After 2 days feeling chilly, I was starting to think of knocking on their door and asking when we might be able to have some heat, but our already bad reputation (we complained to our landlord that the appliances weren't working properly, and he told the neighbours, and now they don't speak to us) has prevented me from making such a bold step.

We'd been told that we need not worry much about heat in this place anyway as we have the Canadians below us, but alas, in the time that we've been away they've moved. I feel a little sad that they've gone, they have been a great help to us settling in, but given that their apartment has been rammed full of tradesmen refurbishing the place since they've gone, I am living in hope that the apartment actually belongs to the Canadian Embassy and they might send us some more nice Canadians to be friends with.

Anyway, day 3 of our return and suddenly we had heat. I couldn't have been happier. Stevie of course felt too hot and complained that the place felt like it was in the high 30's. But it turns out I have been feeling chilly for a reason and have come down with Stevie's terrible cold. Today I am having the luxury of lying in bed recuperating while he takes the kids to the aquarium. I've already read a book, 'After the Wall', a fantastic boook by Jana Hensel about being a child of the GDR, and I have managed to catch up with a few blogs.

Which leads me on to the photo. 'Is there a Plan B' has had a fantastic idea of recreating masterpieces. Her mention of Tracey Emin's bed got me thinking I should join in. Our bedroom as usual is a tip. Fortunately though, this is just a small segment of the room - I would be too ashamed to show the rest of it. Oh and I'd just like to say, I didn't choose the orange gingham curtains.