so this was christmas

Yes, I know it's mid-Feb, but here, nonetheless, is my Xmas blog! I celebrated this Festival of Eating with Andrew's immediate family (all the way from Melbs) and extended family in London. Christmas Day was hosted by Judy Kennard, Andrew's Mum's cousin. The British connection was forged by one John (Martin) Royal, who came out to Australia after the war to start a family (enter Andrew's Mum, Pam) and read the nightly news on the ABC for years and years. So Judy and her sisters Lucy and Suey are John's nieces. Simple.


Above: Judy's son Dan (Andrew's third cousin?) is startled whilst tending to the Indian curries which had superceded the traditional roast turkey.


Above: A bunch of crooks; Andrew, Sarah and Lucy.


Above: Pam and her British cousins Suey and Lucy sing rousing Christmas carols to piano accompaniment.


Above: Andrew and his Mum, Pam, at Boxing Day lunch.


Above: Dan reclines, satisfied and hung over, after Boxing Day lunch.


Above: Andrew struggles with a kebab, before paying £8.50 (A$21.30) to see the children's animated film 'Happy Feet', the tragicomic story of a dancing penguin.

weihnachts ampelmännchen kekse

What better way to say 'Thanks for having us at Christmas', than to bake some homemade Christmas biscuits? This is precisely what Andrew and I did, very late at night, the day before we were due to fly to London for the festive season.

My track record for self-baked goods ain't flash. I tried to make choc-chip biscuits once, but added the choc-chips while the dough mixture was still warm from the liquid butter, so all the chips dutifully melted and left me with vaguely chocolate biscuits instead.

Anyway, we baked these biscuits in the shape of Ampelmännchen (East German trafficlight men) for our British hosts. The Ampelmännchen are famous in Berlin, as they were nearly made extinct when Germany reunified; when the homogenisation of East and West began. There was apparently much protest (Rettet die Ampelmännchen - Save the Trafficlight men!) from the Ossies, so that East Berlin is now a preserved habitat for this endangered species. And, of course, Berlin souvenir-purveyors wasted no time in producing an entire range of Ampelmännchen parafernalia. Including cookie-cutters.

Many biscuits somehow shattered in transit and we had to do a lot of Ampelmännchen-explaining (it seems no one outside of Berlin knows about them, and rightly so), but they all got eaten so I guess they were given the green light. Hoho.


Above: Andrew hard at work creating Ampelmännchen.


Above: The red Stop Men. Note how the icing appears to have applied by a five-year-old.


Above: Guten Appetit!

London Vs Berlin: the view from above

UK's rival to the Fernsehturm, the British Airways London Eye is an enormous ferriswheel situated on the river Thames (pictured above, made sensible by cocking your head 90 degrees to the left). Look at it there. Isn't it grand? There it goes. Whoooo. So here now are some of the views made possible by said Eye.


Above: People wandering, ant-like, along Southbank.


Above: Andrew, whose hobbies include great heights, blue jackets and not shaving for days, surveys his birth-city with nostalgic gusto.


Above: Myself, noticably crusty from an early morning start, posing for the camera.


Above: The Millenium Bridge over the Thames.


Above: "Hey kids! Look! There's Big Ben! And Parliament! Big Ben...Parliament...Big Ben..."


Above: London in winter on a good day. ...I miss the sun!

So is London's amusement ride better than the pride of Berlin? You decide.
SMS 0178 445 LOADOFGUFF to evict the London Eye
SMS 0178 445 BERLINSCHMERLIN to evict the Fernsehturm

Berlin Vs London: the view from above

There it is; the ubiquitous Fernsehturm (TV Tower). Visible from just about everywhere in Berlin, this gargantuan eye-on-a-stick no doubt encouraged residents of the former east to feel small and monitored. Nowadays this Big Brother has been usurped by its reality TV cousin, and boasts a wonderful viewing level and a revolving restaurant.

Here are some of the happy snaps I took when Andrew and I visited Der Himmel über Berlin:


Above: The main drag, Unter den Linden, with the Berliner Dom in the foreground and the barely visible Brandenberger Tor located just before the start of Tiergarten.


Above: Berliner Dom and some other building which I believe is a casino.


Above: Alexanderplatz, formerly the major Fußgängerzone (pedestrian square) of East Berlin, now home to constant construction works.


Above: Karl Marx Allee, bloody enormous boulevard which runs from Alexanderplatz through to the outer eastern boroughs. Previously the site of government displays of Communist power, but also of many anti-GDR rallies.


Above: A lovely sunset. Awwww.


Above: The city lights dazzle and amaze.


Above: Andrew, whose interests include maps, town planning and bright lights, was overwhelmed by the Fernsehturm experience.