Berlin

I went to Berlin all last week primarily for some work related education but decided to go a day early with two colleagues so that we could do some sightseeing before the class started. The weather couldn't have been better as it was 26 degrees and sunny so we spent the whole of the first afternoon strolling around the sights. The next day we did more stuff, had a long lunch, and did some shopping in KaDeWe which has to be the best department store anywhere.

I think Berlin really is a superb city and has the best of all worlds. It's pretty flat so is very easy to walk around and cover a lot of ground, and coming from the UK it's also very cheap. There's a lot going on there and it feels like a very safe place. There are some superb buildings both historic and modern and the mixtures of the old and the new adds an interesting twist.

Saturday by the ocean

Spent the day at Victoria Country Park, Netley at a fun Day for 'Simon Says' which is an organisation that helps bereaved kids and families get over their loss. Sheila works regularly with these people and was running a crafts stand at the event where she was making lots of stuff with all the kids. I went along too and ended up working on the BBQ all day with another husband, Danny, with whom I oddly had an amazing amount in common with.

Apart from being a very similar age we had both been PL/1 programmers during our careers, are both interested in sailing - him more so than me, and are both passionate about guitars. He has 12 to my 4 but like me he plays as much as possible and at some time every single day. We'd both been to a lot of the same places and had very similar opinions, likes, and dislike on them all.

As we were working together all day it was really nice to meet someone that was so easy and interesting to talk to.