2012 in pictures

2012

We have gained a teenager, a puppy, seen puffins, been to Germany, France, London, seen wizards, fairies, monsters and football matches. All in all a very good year.

How much do cats and dogs know about Christmas - in photos

Look at my lovely hair clip

I wonder if the dog that lives over there has to suffer the indignity of reindeer antlers?

Small dogplus post = 

Mmm, that was a tasty fly

It's Behind You

It's Pantomime  time, and that means men dress as women, women dress as men people suffer the indignity of dressing up as cows, horses, donkeys and b list celebrities can not only find work but receive top billing in small towns up and down the country.

Yes folks, it a pantomime blog. Roll up roll up, no that's the circus, oh no it's not....oh yes it is. Whatever it is, it's behind you!

Friends won a couple of tickets in a raffle to see Jack and the Beanstalk (or should I say  Jack and t'beanstalk as we are in Derbyshire) at the Pomegranate Theatre in Chesterfield. We joined their party to make a night of it.  

We arrive, we meet up, I break the display of plastic swords, tiaras, and snowflake fan things that were for sale. I was only trying to see if the sword lit up. I contemplated blaming a child, but instead took the responsible decision to move away and pretend it wasn't me.

We are seated down stairs in a nice block, I look around to admire the Pomegranate, it has a certain music hall atmosphere and appearance, very promising. On to the performance.  I was particularly excited as the fairy was to be played by Charlie Dimmock who I may have had a crush on when she was involved in the Ground Force gardening show...not sure if it was her bubbly flowing ginger hair, or her blatant lack of a bra that did it for me. I was curious if this was to be the case in a family pantomime, portraying a fairy called Organic. It was at least appropriate the pantomime story involved a large plant.

And there she was, stage left, introducing the evening, sporting enough foundation garments to support the crooked spire.

Anyway...

I was armed with throat sweets in the event all the shouting of 'its behind you' and 'oh no it isn't' got too much. It was an excellent performance all round, the dancing was great, the singing was actually fairly impressive and the jokes were what you expect for a family pantomime.

I was a little disappointed the principal boy was played by an actual boy, tradition there had gone out the window, such a shame, nothing like a bit of girl on girl action for an evening of family fun. I also only remember only one thigh slap, maybe a health and safety initiative, in action.  Only one thigh slap permitted per performance?

There was a rather surreal scene involving wallpapering, maybe a misunderstanding of the slap stick element by the script writers, it was however a skilful bit of comedy and went down well with the crowd. I loved some of the fabrics in the costumes, and the dame character's outfits got progressively more outlandish.

A good night was had, sore throats all round, no repercussions regarding the tampered with display (the sword was still lit up when we left) and us adults may have embarrassed the teens with our enthusiastic joining in. 

Butterbeer anyone?

We had a Hairy Otter experience once at an aquarium, but today was the Harry Potter real deal. The otters just swan around, admittedly they were very cute, but didn't hold our attention for three hours, unlike today's experience.

Bundled into the car once more, sandwiches, minced pies and fizzy pop in a plastic bag, and we were set for a magical day out. Apparently by the fifth time I'd sung the first few bars of the Harry Potter theme tune, it was getting a little annoying. Well I guess the family had a point, we were still only in Chesterfield. Was that going to deter me? Hmmm.

 

We arrive, we scoff at the car parking guys sunglasses, we scoff our sandwiches in the car park, secretly hoping everyone would eat enough not to have to pay for overpriced junk food in way too much packaging, we make our way to the door. We navigate the complicated ticketing system which we had apparently created ourselves by pre buying a ticket to help reduce queuing. We then join the end of the queue to get in, I'm sure the queue had grown 20 car loads longer in the time it took me to exchange my queue busting ticket for a ticket, queue singing the HP theme tune to lighten the mood. Thankfully there was the set for the cupboard beneath the stairs to distract from the queuing. Not the singing as was apparent from the received threats.

We are corralled into a room full of posters, we wait in this holding pen until there are the requisite number of Potterites present. We go into a cinema and watch a funny little film of the three main characters. Pretty cute. Then...the screen lifts and reveals the door of the great hall, very cool. We shuffle into the great hall, decked out for Christmas, listen to a talk and are let loose into the rest of the exhibition. 

It was all very impressive, and magically, no one got hungry and all I had to buy were four glasses of butterbeer. 

 

Never trust green

Bauhaus museum

This was an excellent choice for a visit for all of us. We  were hopeful of a visit to the Guggenheim and we were disappointed that it was 'between exhibitions' and was closed. On the day we were visiting, we ended up in the Gallerie Laffayette instead, not the sort of gallery I was hoping for it has to be said!

The Bauhaus Museum was our second choice, supported by Maisie who is keen on design. The audio tour was fascinating, talking about the different teachers' influence and ways of approaching design. It was fascinating to hear about the designers behind the tubular cantilevered chair which we take for granted today. Although a seemingly simple design, was achieved through a complicated series of experimentations and building on each other's ideas. We loved that Kandinsky was deeply distrustful of green, seeing it as a nothing colour. Also, the first tubular stools which were made for the student canteen were a little unstable, and students regularly toppled over, much to the amusement of others. The design morphed into a table, and the tubes for the stool legs altered and a upholstered seat replaced the wooden one. This design is available today.

After a delicious lunch at the cafe, off to kaDeWe. Europe's largest department store....gulp! Adults were looking forward to seeing the food hall, Maisie the cosmetics, of course. 

Time for a quick drive in a Trabant and back home

Fallen leaves

The Jewish museum, we were all a little nervous of how the displays would impact on us. The building itself is quite imposing, the new section is based around an exploded Star of David, and has slashes for windows to represent the cuts inflicted on the Jewish way of life through history.

I was keen to contextualise my grandmother's experience. She lived in Berlin, and is Jewish. Born in 1916, she was a teenager when antisemitism was gathering pace. We saw photos of signs posted around the country with anti-Jewish sentiments. Many Jews came to Berlin at this time from smaller towns and villages as the big city offered more anonymity and protection. My grandmother may have been amongst them; her past is unclear as she rarely speaks of her childhood. Unfortunately, she has dementia and her few stories are often muddled and frequently repeated.

There was a walkway devoted to the axis of exile. Many Jews emigrated to other countries in the years leading up to WWII. My grandmother travelled to London. I'm unsure of the year. There were, however, restrictions on what they could take; only possessions they could prove they owned before 1933, wedding rings were allowed, as was silverware.

It was sobering to think that moving to a strange land, speaking a new language with only your clothes and your knives and forks was a better option than staying in your own country. Thank goodness my grandmother chose this. Staying behind was documented by a series of artefacts donated by families of victims of the holocaust. The statistics of the number of Jews murdered during this time is shocking, but reading the stories associated with aged photographs, dolls, teddies, letters and drawings painfully brought home that all those murdered were individuals, all with a life lived, with family and friends.

The holocaust tower was a very powerful building. Lit only by natural light, from a small slit way above your head. Not heated and dark, you could make out traffic noise from outside. All you could do was stare at the chink of light and hope.

Moving on to an exhibition commissioned for the space. Called Shalekhet 'fallen leaves' consisted on 10000 faces made of thick metal plates. All crying out. You could walk over the pieces which made a powerful clinking noise. Like the sound of a noisy canteen, but much more sinister. We spent quite some time in there. Maisie felt guilty and uncomfortable walking on the faces, but was compelled to do it anyway. I explained my interpretation - that's what you do, you walk on people's past experience, and build on it to make a better life. Remember those faces and what they represent, move forward and challenge inequality and persecution. A very powerful piece, used the space and the sentiment of the building's architecture vey well.

After a quick look at the temporary exhibition, R.B. Kitaj, I realised I didn't like his work as much as I thought, maybe too much of it one place. His strongest works were those addressing his Jewishness. He was clearly a very talented artist, and there were elements of all of his works on display that I could appreciate.

Off to check point Charlie, a quick photo opportunity. A quick look in the gift shop (we were too museumed-out to got to another). Maisie said "I know where all the wall has gone, they are selling it look!" Yes indeed, you could buy bits of concrete reported to be part of the wall. Why you would want to is anyone's guess.

Afternoon tea and a traditional German konditorei was needed at this point. We managed to be attracted by the bright lights of the Rittersport cafe/shop. Hardly traditional, but warm, cosy and the promise of hot Rittersport chocolate was too good to resist! We were not disappointed. We may have purchased some chocolate too. Well, it would have been rude not to.

sprechen sie deutsch?

Half term and time for a trip...

We arrive at the airport at the appointed time, terminal 3 Manchester. I look for the flight details on the check in board, Leanne says "I've already checked in we don't need to check in." That's fine, but I can't see the flight on the board. Leanne says it won't be there as the gate won't be displayed yet. I insist it should still be on the board. We repeat this conversation maybe more times than was strictly necessary. Eventually, I ask a nice British Airways woman, who says, no that's terminal 1 you will be needing... off we potter. The stress of getting up at 3 a.m. was starting to show. We find the departure gate without much difficulty, it's amazing how being at the correct terminal can help with this.

We fly, we get train tickets, we arrive at the rented apartment; all good.

Trying out my best German to buy pretzels and a ham and cheese thing for Maisie, words were flowing, Bitter, Danke, Schinken (ham), anyone would think I was fluent. Unfortunately, I then blow it by trying to pay the guy the time it was displaying on the till, not the Euros #doh! I didn't retrieve the situation by saying some random numbers in German, it was all too late. The guy was, however, fairly understanding. 

We had a few other language challenges, particularly when going to pay for stuff. The lovely check out person would say something, we would stare blankly like rabbits in headlights, checkout person would repeat incomprehensible sentence. Eventually we managed to mumble out the word 'English' and they would repeat the sentence in perfect English. One bloke even sorted out my change for me, bless!

Back to the trip...We walk to Alexander Platz and catch a tourist bus to get our bearings. We all loved seeing the East Side gallery, the longest remaining stretch of wall with painting by various artists (with some amendments by graffiti artists). The sun was setting, the light was beautiful, it was all quite moving. 

My Grandmother comes from Berlin so it felt like I was getting in touch with my roots. I was looking forward to exploring and discovering over the next few days.