Monthly Archives: July 2024

#weeklyreview 29/24

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est charity concert

On Sunday we attended the yearly charity concert for the est in Templin. Again the “lautten compagney” played together with the “Singakademie zu Berlin” and the Ukrainian choir “Kammerton”. This time the topic was the music collection of Sara Levy.

What I liked the most again was the narration that was given between the music to set context and provide historic information about the music, the author but also the school the concert took place in.

After the concert we attended a little guided tour across the property and learned about the progress of the renovations and the plans for the school.

last day of school

Kids got their report cards this week as it was the last day of school for the 23/24 school year. Both kids did good at their schools and we couldn’t be happier as parents given the particular circumstances. Schooling has really become challenging these days for various reasons. The decline of german school institution and system is certainly one big factor to it. We’re looking forward to when all kids are finally done with that system and can take more control themselves at their further education…

golden wedding aniversary

On Saturday we celebrated the 50th wedding aniversary of my parents. The weather was just perfect and they had booked a really nice venue at a lake in the countryside for the event. Was fun to see so many of the old relatives and friends. It was also fun to sift through old scanned films and photos to create the mandatory review slide show.

#weeklyreview 28/24

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Klassenfahrt

On Monday I handed off K3 for a week long school trip Frauenstein. A medieval castle where they learn something about the time the castle was in full operation. Apparently that was fun as the kids not only enjoyed the activities but also bonded together and grew their relationships. That was desperately needed as the class had some challenges with separation into small groups instead of being one strong community.

Car emergencies

two car emergencies strikes this week. Somehow my wife managed to unhinge the trunk door and hit her head rather hard with it. The cut on her head looked dramatic. But fortunately she got away without an ambulance.

The next day she somehow managed to set the car on the ground with one front wheel in the air. A small field track was apparently steeper on the sides than what was visible. So I had to get to the rescue and try to get the car out. Of course we didn’t had a proper towing rope at first. Snapped two ropes I had collected from my shed earlier. We had to drive to the nearest gas station to buy a proper towing rope. That did the trick and got the car out of the trench.

Polaroid stands

with the new gadget I needed some simple stand for polaroid photos. So I made one in Fusion360.

House decorations

cleaned up the property on the weekend and propped the house temporarily with a disco ball 😉

#weeklyreview 27/24

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Bier’n’Burger

This was our summer edition and last sitting before the holiday season. And it seems to be kind of a tradition meanwhile that the weather isn’t too great for outside dining. We’ve been meeting at Rembrandt Burger again and chose boldly to sit outside.

The food of course was good again. And we had fun conversing about good ol’ times and new gadgets mimicking good ol’ times 😉

Plumbing

Had to replace the faucet in the kitchen. Always fun to work in very confined space 🙄

HERE Summer Party

On Thursday we had our corporate summer party and our roof terrace and top floor. Was good to see the colleagues again in one place and also talk to some old colleagues which are still around.

We witnessed awesome clouds over Berlin

Beekeeping

My dad in law inherited the beekeeping equipment from my grandfather and is keeping up the tradition of making honey. K3 was very interested to help this week and got to uncover some honeycombs and then extract the honey. Always a spectacle for all the senses.

#weeklyreview 26/24

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fancy Chinese food

discovered a new Chinese restaurant in Berlin Mitte. It’s apparently authentic as you have a hard time finding labels in German or English. And the food selection is also rather exotic 🙂

They have kind of a buffet with ingredients you pick into a small basket. When you’re done, you go to the cashier and select a flavour of broth you like to have your ingredients boiled in.

The ingredients range from veggies, mushrooms over chicken feet, duck blood, chopped beef stomach to various sea foods components. Only think I was missing was insects. But maybe that doesn’t go well with broth.

It was definitely delicious

since it was very warm this week in Berlin (~ 30ºC ) I of course had to make a few cold brews with ice cubes. Always delicious and refreshing

Finally got my printer dialled in to properly print on the Zweckform labels for the automatic ASN assignment in PaperlessNGX

School concert

This school years concert of the instrumental classes at the gymnasium of K3 was again impressive. The kids really did progress with their skills over the last concert in winter. Given that most of them play the instrument only since almost a year. Especially strings don’t seem easy. Some kids are obviously more talented (and were also learning their instrument since several years at home already) than other and got a solo. One girl of the 6th grade was playing a harp – stunning.

Spicing up video conference

Took inspiration from a post on Mastodon and build a little LEGO stage to attach to the Laptop lid and spice up video conferences 😉

Weekend – Party time

On Saturday we went to a little party at friends in the next village. The weather was awesome, the food delicious and pets cuddly 😉