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.

Chapters 5 & 6

So on to Chapter 5. A bit later than I promised. My new housemate is... Felicity! Yes, little sis has moved in. She finished at Arsenal in June then went on holiday for 4 weeks (to Spain - poor thing!) but when she got back she struggled to get a job. Being unemployed, I offered for her to move into our small room so she could avoid rent until she could afford it again. She has now been offered a job back at Arsenal, so she is working there until she goes back to Melbourne in December. Arsenal really needed her back, so Fliss is enjoying being the person who came to their rescue!

Chapter 6: My crap week. It started with my new bike being stolen... from inside my apartment building! Yes, the one Ben bought me for my birthday. It lasted 2 1/2 weeks. Bikes are just really hard to hold onto in London! I was so pissed off, am still really annoyed actually. I was enjoying riding my bike around. I put in a police report and everyone said to go and look at Brick Lane market, where a lot of stalls sell second hand bikes, but I haven't found it yet. *sigh*

Then the day after my bike got stolen I had the 11 hour shift from hell at the Barbican! In the whole time I've worked there I've never needed to call security or the medic, or even call the manager to sort out an issue, but I had to do all 3 on my last shift! I was looking after the cloakroom at a wedding and the patrons got SOOO drunk. They weren't allowed to take drinks outside while they smoked, but we had to tell them about every 5 minutes. They started sneaking drinks outside under their coats, in their jackets and bags. They only had to put it down for 3 minutes, but apparently that was too much to ask. One gentleman, upon being asked (by me) if he could please leave his drink inside said "What is this, the Third Reich?" To which I replied "Are you calling me a Nazi??"

Later in the evening, there was a fist fight between patrons (thus security was called), then some drunk guys picked up their mate and dropped him on a terracotta pot, knocking him out cold (medic) and my manager caught them doing cocaine OUTSIDE OFF THE PAVEMENT! So wrong. It was the longest shift of my life.

Then I got rejected by 2 agents. One of them, to be fair, liked me and my work but said to get back in touch when things had progressed further because he doesn't have any contacts he would consider useful to me at this stage in my career. AND my rent got taken out before I got paid by iceandfire, so in the middle of my crap week I had £18 in the bank! It's better now though.

I've just drawn a line under that week. Moving onwards and upwards. I hope.