Far Afield Twice on the Bicycle

Earlier this week I felt sleepy, properly sleepy, which was great except that it was before 10 p.m., which felt too early in the day. It was a nice change from having the feeling that there is more, and more left to do, and not being able to rest as a result. But I've also been late to start working twice this week, which is awkward.

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Most of this can probably be attributed not just to the workload being smaller, but also to T. hauling me out of the apartment to go on bicycle trips with her. First it was the Drachenberg, a mound that is respectably like a hill for Berlin's geography, where despite the cloudy day there was a vast view of windmills, a radio tower, the Fernsehturm and Potsdamer Platz and City Hall grouped together, the green dome of the Berliner Dom, then the buildings near the Technical University at Ernst-Reuter-Platz, etc. The wildflowers have mostly shriveled and turned brown, but green crept underneath near the roots of the grass, it was not too cold, and the foliage on the adjacent Teufelsberg was still thriving. The only thing that disgruntled me (because I am that petty) was that the silhouette of people against the crest of the hill was reminiscent of Caspar David Friedrich's paintings.

Then, in the middle of the week, we went through a settlement near Tempelhofer Feld and to the airfield itself. The acacia trees with their dark, deeply grooved trees (like twisted and split bread crust) looked like a Claude Lorrain painting, and the evening sunlight had a bronze colour that looked like aged varnish; the sky had washes of cloud in pastel colours that had the kitsch of nature; and the sun itself dissolved behind the trees in a glowing globe of dark orange.

T. bought a currywurst to eat near the basketball court, and I took one of her French fries. While we talked, the person at the stand kept yelling that halloumi was done, to the people gathered at the picnic tables.

Across from Tempelhofer Feld, on the way there and back, the rush-hour vehicular traffic took ages to stop flowing, and to leave enough of a gap so that we could cross the Columbiadamm.

But altogether it was still relaxing, and leaving the apartment (insofar as it is my place of work) appears to do wonders for my mood.