Quarantine Diary. Part 3 by Rebecca Kinsella
Welcome to the second wave....of my excellent blog posts! Berlin has started to open up again, resulting in droves of people taking to the streets like it ain’t no thang.It’s very much still a “thang”, but this is not the place for health advice or providing any kind of information that could be viewed as useful or intelligent. Been sweating a lot around the Berlin/ Brandenburg area over the past few weeks. Mostly to do with bike riding. As some of you may already know- I’m not a regular mom, I’m a cool mom. The Kita has started to screen my calls as a result of an “enthusiastic campaign” on my part to encourage them to take my lovely energetic daughter back,who has so many questions about everything! Questions all day long. Morning - questions. Still morning - more questions, and so on. Between questions and demands, I’ve been taking her out in the Anhänger a lot. There are many benefits to this; it’s difficult to hear her questions when I’m cycling and time spent outdoors with a kid is infinitely better than being trapped indoors with my beautiful “blessing “. She’s a great kid, don’t get me wrong but holy fuck 8 weeks without a Kita would have you attempting a “selbstgemacht” sterilisation in the kitchen as the 9,887th episode of ‘Paw patrol’ plays in the background. Anyway, less about my reproductive decisions and more about biking! I’ve been back to Gorinsee a number of times with the Anhänger, which is a really fun way to make a 40km cycle feel like a 300km uphill ride with flat tires. The cafe has reopened since Friday so I will return again and bring shame to my family by eating the famous ice cream sundaes until I’m quite ill and need to sit down.I also cycled to Liebnitzsee with aforementioned child and we took our first swim. I was so hot after the cycle there that I jumped straight in, the water was so cold I went into shock and felt like I was simultaneously having a heart attack and breathing malfunction. I waited for the sweet release of death in that cold water , but it wasn’t to be, and actually it was quite nice after a few minutes.
Gorinsee (Again) Myself and Tamara of She 36 fame made this route together on a Sunday afternoon recently. All was good until we arrived and the cold gripped us like a big cold bastard. I resorted to wearing my sweaty base layer as a crap looking hat, and Tamara resorted to two cups of imbiss coffee and swearing like a docker. The ride was redeemed beautifully on the way back though, we cycled through the forest and over some small bridges and it was wonderful. We even took some time out to critically review some of the art installations along the path on the way, ‘Utter rubbish’ and ‘total fucking bullshit hahaha’ were some of the eloquent and considered phrases that summed up our experience of these pieces. Tamara also took some time out to search for some massive sticks for her “asshole cat”. When she jumped off her bike to look for sicks the size of her leg I was ravaged by mosquitoes the size of a fist.
Müggelsee Maria and myself kicked off this ride this is good old fashioned shouting match with a dick head driving a car, he put across his invigorating and well considered argument.....actually no hang on it was so stupid he sounded like he grew up in a dog kennel and huffed the car fumes in his spare time.
Unmarred by such insolence we pushed on toward our luxurious destination, our ultimate goal was somewhere between enjoying a tranquil lake side moment and smoking loads of delicious cigarettes. We were not disappointed on both accounts. The road to paradise may be paved with pot holes, but enlightenment awaits for those who truly desire it.
Tegelersee While attempting to stave off ‘The boo-hoo’s’ (I believe the medical term for this is crippling depression), I have started to do some very early morning cycling. Does it work ? Sort of! Unless you consider getting out of sweet, warm ,cozy bed before the hour of 7am a crushing concept . Did a tasty 40km with a man (boo! Hiss!) friend of mine who kindly mapped the route out for us with accordance to my strict and precise requirements which were ; “ around the water “ and “ make it good, not shit”. With such masterful guidance ,there was no way he could fail. And fail he didn’t, we set off at 9:08am and we were home and showered by 12. Good way to start off the day, I didn’t feel too guilty about not leaving the house again for another 26 hours. Well earned.