I'FA short trip to make

I'm up this early, you get rotten puns; never rush a miracle man etc. After not nearly enough sleep during which I kept dreaming I was already awake, I'm off to Heathrow to fly to Berlin for IFA. I love Berlin but sadly I don't see a trip to KaDeWe in my future as I expect to be in meetings and messes all the time (German puns now)... Be good while I'm gone ;)

Too early for sense

Up, showered, cats fed, no traffic, checked online, no-one in the security queue apart from one guy with 'you must be joking' size 'hand luggage' sent back to check it and no gate yet so I'm wandering terminal 1 in a daze. Airports are surreal especially when I'm a zombie; empty shops full of nothing I want to buy and a man with two identical BlackBerrys in his bag and Pret is full of airport staff - the lady I share a table with is trying perfume strips. Double hit mocha and mozzarella croissant and wait for a gate. I snoozed in the car, catching a glimpse of the fair setting up in Kew and the wrought iron bridge reflected (do you wright or wring iron?) and the tunnel. Ah hah - a gate.

ostalgie

Many years ago tanais and I took a trip to Berlin; we went to the zoo and it snowed, we crossed the wall at checkpoint charlie and trudged for miles down Alexanderplatz without finding anywhere to spend the money we'd had to change and came out again through Friedrichstrasse station. The hotel I'm staying at is just around the corner and a million miles away.

Alexanderplatz is Unter den Linden again. There'a a pink and orange spotted grinning slug graffitied on a wall, a yellow banana stencilled on another and lots of restaurants, renovations and building projects. My room has an excellent view of the river - and the building site stretching along the bank from the station - and the Reichstag dome beyond it. Just round the corner is a platz stretching out towards the TV tower. It's all clean and cheerful and utterly different.