A Christmas Promenade in Kreuzberg, etc.

It's been a cloudy Christmas Day with gaps of sunlight - even that is a relief after a few rainy and snowy days and nights.

We ate Christmas breakfast: bread rolls with cheese, mezze and Mediterranean dips from yesterday evening, etc. To go with those and the usual chocolate and gingerbread and Spekulatius, we had coffee, and taper candles were lighted on the tabletop. Only brother Gi. was sadly missing, as he is in quarantine in Brandenburg.

As presents there were a Christmas stollen and a book from one of my mother's professors, Greek Christmas cookies from one of my professors, a bag of assorted sweets from a family friend whom my mother met through her former bookshop, malt whisky fudge, more chocolate, and origami papers for T. (Besides I'd bought myself a book from the shop where my aunt S. works, a few weeks ago, and began reading it today. It feels quite self-affirming to be a good gift-giver to one's self.)

Earlier than the usual last-minute timing on December 23rd, the tree has already been selected, bought, and hauled by Ge. and J.  for a few days. J. did the decorating. As we have at least 5 moving boxes full of ornaments from our paternal grandparents as well as our own stores, only a fraction will fit on the tree every year. But the blown-glass balls with trapped bubbles, in marine cobalt blue, pale blue, and green, are obligatory; so are the two strings of fairy lights.

After breakfast and the admiration of presents, the youngest brothers, my mother, and I went for a walk to Kreuzberg.

Snowberries were stippling the darkness, light green buds have appeared on the tips of lilac twigs and in a sprig of yew or hemlock in early preparation for next spring, flocks of birds flew around, and other people had also come out for a Christmas stroll. In the sky, foreboding grey clouds alternated with glimpses of clear blue sky, and pools of pale sunlight occasionally brightened the scenery. The fine branches and ornamenting seed pods of the plane trees were very pretty against the sky, like antique ironwork.

The visibility was so perfect today that not only towers, domes, chimneystacks, and building cranes were sharp regardless of distance, but also the dark ridges of the low Brandenburg hills that ring the city.

I was photographing constantly. Maybe next year I'll have gathered skill and will use the hybrid digital-analogue camera that was my high school graduation present, instead of my smartphone?

Back at home, T. led another intensive session of learning a Christmas song in 4-part harmony, which she introduced this year. She sings alto, Ge. tenor, J. bass, and my mother and I the soprano part. I haven't been a proper soprano since I was a child, but it's getting a little easier. First we rehearsed "In the Bleak Midwinter," then "Prepare the Royal Highway" (which was more familiar to me as an Easter song, when we went to a German Lutheran church in Canada when I was very small). Today we finished struggling through Mozart's "Ave verum corpus" (which we'd forgotten had very grim lyrics until we started rehearsing it) and then breezed through "Angels We Have Heard on High."

In between I brewed a pot of herbal tea, mended the sleeve of a dress as a sort of Christmas present to myself, and it was all very cozy.

In honour of the day I've put on hold the book research (about Berlin from 1900 to 1929) that I've otherwise been madly undertaking as the university holidays set in.

The Ups and Downs of Early December

It was a brooding, November sort of day, but weak sunlight in the afternoon as well as a pale purple sunset were a welcome change of pace from monotonous rainfall.

My Greek class was cancelled, so I went on an unnecessary trip to campus. But I analyzed the bulletin boards before leaving, took an impromptu architectural tour on the way home, and generally enjoyed myself. The ice and snow have of course melted from the streets and sidewalks, and it's a relief that it is safer to cycle again.

Greatly impressed that I'd managed to wake up before 9 a.m., when weirdly I've found myself struggling to wake up before 11 a.m. throughout the past month, I went on a few errands.

At the zero-waste shop I stocked up on pasta, chocolate, dried mint, apples, and vegetables. The Mediterranean cookbook I'm working through has a hispi cabbage and roast hazelnut recipe next, but aside from the cabbage, pumpkin was on the shopping list too for the sake of a pumpkin eggnog recipe.

The pumpkin eggnog was fine. The youngest brothers certainly appeared to appreciate it. But the pumpkin type at the store had more of a watery, squash-like flavour and colour, so I wasn't wildly enthusiastic about the result.

Then I went to an organic food store hoping to find Christmas delicacies, but it didn't have many aside from Christmas punch and tea blends.

Working briefly at a Christmas market selling lanterns two weeks ago has made me re-think the value of money again. A 20€ bill that I'd have earned by sitting at a laptop last April, now represents 1.5 hours of standing while trying to engage with dozens of strangers, remember the sales pitches, keep the booth presentable, process and respond to ongoing coaching from my boss, and gift-wrap the merchandise quickly and accurately.

Anyway, now that my amateur choir's Christmas concert is over, I can devote time and energy to journalistic outings again. But there's also a big Greek homework backlog to reduce; I've done a bit of that this morning.

Besides I'm thinking of recording myself at the piano, as the Christmas concert has nudged me back into regular playing.

The plan to give myself daily Christmas presents, mentioned in the last post, fizzled out a long time ago. But on the whole I feel pretty happy and I think it served its purpose.

I've also put myself on a diet because of recent depressive episodes. More fruits and vegetables, more water, more protein; less sugar and processed food: I figured that these guidelines certainly wouldn't do much harm, and I do feel more awake.

That said, I think the depressive episodes likely come from 'crashing' after a few intense weeks of covering pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian protests.