Danke Schoen

Berlin is such an awesome city. Shopping, art galleries, museums, markets, and lots and lots of bars with cheap beer. Hard to fault it really. Especially because there is also such incredible history - both very recent and very distant. Some photos on the right.

We did all of the above. A walking tour on the Friday (all day, much of it in the rain!) then we went for dinner in a small Italian restaurant and did some bar hopping in the uber trendy Mitte district. Saturday we went shopping after breakfast, first around Mitte and then we went to an area a few people had recommended. Sadly, they had not been specific about the street we should go to so we walked around and around for ages! Thankfully the weather wasn't too bad. That night we had a drink with a friend of Felicity's, Adina, who was very nice, and her boyfriend Paris. They took us to Billy Wilder's - and they were somewhat taken aback by how excited I was by the theme of the bar! Sunday, Fliss and I went to a market near our hostel (we stayed in the excellent East Seven Hostel - which I would recommend to anyone. Clean, good location, nice staff) then went to the Pergamon museum (which Fliss found a bit boring, but I liked the Ishtar Gate!) and the Helmut Newton gallery. Lots and lots of naked ladies. We'd never seen so many breasts and vaginas.

This week has been busy and next week will be even more so. iceandfire had a performance on Monday of a new show (Listen to Me, in collaboration with Save the Children and EveryChild), then I had more iceandfire work plus recces for filming next week. Driving to the prison in Surrey was soooo stressful on Thurs - no GPS or proper road map, just GoogleMaps directions and a couple of map print outs. So if I took a wrong turn (which I did a few times!) I had no way of knowing how to get back. GoogleMaps said it would take me 50 mins to get there, I allowed 1 1/2 hours... it took 2 1/4 hours! I was so tense. Turned out OK in the end. And the prisons that I saw were really interesting.

I'm on the shortlist to pitch a new web series idea I have at Channel 4, through the Stallar Network. It's very scary! I'm not that good at pitching so will have to do a lot of work. Exciting though.

Social butterfly

Fliss and I are off to Berlin tomorrow - hoorah! Any suggestions or tips welcome - be sure to email them through. I went to Berlin about 4 years ago and loved it but would love to see more this time.

Had a very social week this week - 2 dinner parties chez nous. Sara from iceandfire came around last night with her lovely boyfriend Tom. They're both very tall so Fliss was suitably impressed. And on Sun eve Pete & Thea came over with their friends Hugh & Tash. Pete had asked me if I knew Hugh and I wasn't sure, but of course I did. I think we met first year politics at Melb Uni! He's someone who I've run into every now and then over the course of the last 8 years!

Sat night was bonfire night - Guy Fawkes day was officially on Thurs but they have the fireworks etc on Sat. Victoria Park had a full carnival set up and the fireworks were great. I went with my former housemates, Aurelie and Cinzia. Foolishly I wore my new ankle boots and got them covered in mud - the crowds of people had churned the wet ground up pretty good!

Prison film is in full swing now. Had a 2 1/2 hour meeting about it yesterday. Will probably start shooting the week after next, but having trouble getting the mental health organisation to commit to shoot dates.

C'est tout, en ce moment. I'll take photos in Berlin and put them up soon. Also have some photos of the fireworks, if I remember (don't have the cable with me right now!)

Bisous.

Comedic capers

Yesterday Fliss and I went to the football (Arsenal v. Tottenham - mortal enemies. It was a charged match but we won 3-0! Ha!) Then I went to meet my friend Sara (with whom I work at iceandfire) to see more comedy in Forest Hill. Really liked the MC, a guy called Chris Mayo, and absolutely LOVED this guy, Tom Allen. If he comes to the Melbourne Comedy fest next year you should definitely check him out. Charming, confident and with the ability that really good comics have of being able to look behind an incident, which on the surface might be rather nasty, to bring out the absurdity - not only making it funny but also thereby undermining the nastiness. He was great.

Today I have cleaned my room, which is enough achievement for one day. Later, dinner at Christine's. A busy week this week - on Tues I have 5 meetings, thankfully I've managed to make them all in Central/East London! One is a meeting with a signer/songwriter, Aisling Stephenson, who I might make a music video for. I really like the track, it's called You Took the Sun Away.

Laters.

Cops and Meerkats

This is an extremely popular and successful series of ads for a car insurance website. They are incredibly odd and random and yet it's easy to see their appeal!

In other news, I have had 2 experiences recently that demonstrate why the London Met police are so slated over here. I'd heard that they were racist, but I didn't experience that (Australians are not usually their specific target) I have instead witnessed their incompetence!

I rang 999 the other night. I've never called an emergency number before, but there was a guy who had been buzzing my neighbour's doorbell for about 10 minutes, then someone let him in and then he went up and knocked on the door inside the building for about 15 mins! It was, of course, the one neighbour for whom I don't have a phone number so when the knocking started to sound aggressive, I called the cops. About 10 mins later, the neighbours came home and obviously let the man in, so it must have been OK, but 5 mins after that I got a call from the police saying they hadn't forgotten about me and would try to come by soon! What if I was being murdered?? I told them they didn't have to come (I was actually relieved they didn't turn up, in case the neighbours hated me) but it did seem a bit hopeless.

The next day I needed to get a certified copy of my passport to apply for Ben's visa. I went to the local police station and waited for quite a while (people kept pushing it - grrr). When I eventually spoke to the policeman at reception and asked him if he could certify a copy he said "I don't know. What do I have to do?"

"I think you just have to sign and stamp that you've seen the original."

"Well I mean I can stamp it for you, but I don't know if it would be official or nuthin."

WHAT?? Of course I need it to be official! Then he said something strange about having done something similar for South Africans before, but not Australians. What difference would it make? Maybe he was being racist towards Australians.

I went to the post office. They knew what to do and even gave me some advice when the copies I made were a bit dark.

The funniest bit is, after going to the police station I got a text message from the Met Police asking me to go to their website and fill in a survey about their performance when I'd called 999! Hilarious.

But man, I hope I never have to rely on them to rescue me.

Jesse

My lovely aunt Jesse Sherlock died last week, of cancer. Cancer is such a horrible, insidious way to die, but Jesse lived exactly the way she wanted to and was incredibly outgoing. I loved and admired her.

On the off chance that anyone reading this knew Jesse, you can donate to a fund, to preserve a part of British woodland in her name. This is the link.

Last time I saw Jesse was in January and she treated us to a wonderful evening at a pub in Scagglethorpe (the BEST name for a town EVER! Like something out of The Lord of the Rings!)

And Fliss and I are thinking of you Mum, and of Cissy and everyone else who loved her.