Stories from all categories
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Rounding the corner on my bike just now I accidentally took part in a mass demonstration. I don't know what it was about, maybe just a celebration of biking. People seemed easy and relaxed, it ...read more
A federal election approaches Germany, they've a Conservative government to vote back in. It's an unequal fight: the sitting Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is called "Mummy" by the press and one of her would-be opponents is ...read more
Walking along a quiet street feeling grumpy I heard a loud, juicy burst of fat laughter. Coming towards me was a man on his phone, shortish, gleaming, African, with laughter rolling through him, like a ...read more
Passed a remaining section of the Berlin Wall and saw tourists of all languages leaning up against it for photographs, posing with big smiles and often two thumbs up; one Japanese girl had a coy, ...read more
This afternoon riding the Underground (the above-ground Underground, speeding through the trees) I saw a bearded man put up his hand to the steel pole at the end of his bench seat. In doing so ...read more
When I leave I will miss the magical wildness of Berlin, that is already being built out for apartments and hotels; the overgrown factories with railway lines running through them; the fact that on every ...read more
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Voted! Gosh it feels wonderful. For those few minutes with ballot paper in hand, we are utterly sovereign, entirely free. It turned out something of an odyssey to get there: which feels also appropriate and ...read more
Saturdays in the studenty district of Berlin where I am living have been infested with a gobbling string of raucous hens' parties. You'll see a dozen young or not so young women all wearing matching ...read more
Yesterday morning I woke in that state known so satisfyingly as A Towering Rage. Must've had infuriating dreams. The sun came in my window and all the injustices of life lined up around me and ...read more