photo Britta Hügel26th November --- Wonderful lunch with my friend Francine. Wednesday "in normal times" is the day we meet at a restaurant - often at the excellent and very reasonable priced Japanese restaurant "Ishin" (sporting the secret charme of a disinfected third class waiting room), and on special occasions we book a table ("YES - for only two persons...Yes.. and please in the rear of the restaurant, we don't want to sit in that draught of the entrance door") "Colette" of Tim Raue: a celebrity cook who makes it possible for ordinary mortals to pay his bill by offering "business-lunch". (Business-lunch exists on an exceptional broad scale in Berlin).
Cannot suppress the feeling of sadness that so many restaurants will be forced to close forever now - so very, very unfair, because they did so much to keep us safe - bought expensive air cleaners, put distance between the tables thus reducing the number of (paying) guests to half, the waiters, almost fainting, had to wear masks all day long, collected lists with names and address of the guests (among them an astonishingly plenty of Smiths and Joneses), and, and, and - yet nothing helped.
Yes, government will support them - they talk about an 'anticipated payment' of 10.000 Euro - but that is the crux: politicians talk and promise, while administration is busy to create application forms in an even more cryptic language.
Well, we mustn't forget: the legal profession has to live too.
And, as the proprietor of more than one posh restaurant in Berlin yesterday on TV said: 10.000 Euro will be just enough to pay his 80 employees for one (!) day.
Yesterday, when Angela Merkel gave us new orders how to live till Christmas and New Year, I saw on TV Tim Mälzer (another famous German cook, the forename Tim must be a guarantee for gourmet success ) - he resembles a bear, and that fine figure of a man, always an optimist and a doer - struggled to gain his composure, chin quavering, eyes filling with tears - he left the discussion forum for a break - men still don't cry -- though we all did cry with him.
Well, Francine and I, accepting the inevitable of restaurants closed, rushed instead to Butter-Lindner at the Wittenberg Platz - an exquisite delicatessen - because we wanted to celebrate the now so rare occasion when we can meet each other.
Then back to my apartment - I give it three stars: very good ambience, lovely food. No draught.
We dined and then chatted till 7 o'clock pm (meeting at 13:15).
Not to be able to hug each other when we parted is absolutely sad.
So many lives have been ruined.
ReplyDeleteThat is exactly what I mean - and although I understand that lives must be protected, I cannot understand a lot of regulations they do here - and for every Bundesland other ones! - a hairdresser is allowed to touch me (I am glad about that cutting!), but a hotel has to close completely (I would understand that breakfast is not possible - but single rooms? Why?) Children in Berlin sit in awfully overcrowded busses - and, and, and....
DeleteWe have strange rules too Britta. They hurt too much to think about so I block them out for now.
ReplyDeleteI think that GB might have even sterner rules than Germany, Rachel. My old friend Trish (old in both meanings) lives in London - of course we can only telephone, and she will not go on WhatsApp - she tells sometimes breathtaking stories.
ReplyDeleteWe cancelled our Thanksgiving plans to travel(fly) to see family in Arizona - just couldn't take the risk, plus where to eat for 8 days would have been such a huge trial with everything closed!
ReplyDeleteWe cancelled our Thanksgiving plans to travel(fly) to see family in Arizona - just couldn't take the risk, plus where to eat for 8 days would have been such a huge trial with everything closed!
ReplyDeleteWe cancelled our Thanksgiving plans to travel(fly) to see family in Arizona - just couldn't take the risk, plus where to eat for 8 days would have been such a huge trial with everything closed!
ReplyDeleteDear Mary, in Bremen (where I come from) we say: "Three times is the right of every Bremer citizen!" - and you sent me 3 comments!
DeleteIt is sad that you had to cancel your Thanksgiving plans - your family in Arizona will be very disappointed too! But of course: when hotels and restaurants are closed - you can do nothing else. And as you say: the risk is high - so all we can do is hope for vaccine and a normal life hopefully soon.
So many rules seem like knee jerk reactions. COVID has create chaos and leadership in chaos is proving not to work well. This seems to be the case generally worldwide. It is also very sad to know many people have lost jobs. Your lunch with Francine sounds very enjoyable. We all look forward to more normal times.
ReplyDeleteIt is the same everywhere, I think, dear Susan. In spring everybody said:"Well, it is a new situation - so politicians have to find their way and I do not want to be in their place." But now we think: they have had time - (almost) everybody thought that in autumn a second Corona wave would come. But we do not see much planning or thinking-through of ideas and help.
DeleteIn TV a scientist suggested that the politicians forgo their 13th month-salary (which absolutely not many people do get!) - there was silence in the discussion forum - absolute silence.
Secret charm can be endearing, but only three stars at home is surprising when the precis sounded so promising. You're a tough clientele!
ReplyDeleteHaha, Pipistrello: I was talking of the 3 Michelin-stars - you can't get more than these - even Tim Raue has "only" 2 stars, Tim Mälzer: none (so as Jamie Oliver - also no star at all)
DeleteBritta, I've just seen your Happiness blog on the sidebar. It's beautiful! And the little flipcards are very fancy :) You've got a German one going I see, as well. Busy busy!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Pipistrello, thank you so much! In "Happiness of the Day" there is my heart blood: feelings and photos, and sometimes I do try to translate (I do that professional for German publishers, but that is always from English to German- being a native German speaker one would never do it the otherway round - it's Harikiri. I commit that sometimes in Happiness - for instance the Peter Handke translation - and in half an hour I had a note from the official NY translator - but before I had written to the poet and asked his permission, and I don't do it for money...)
DeleteThe German blog I stopped after two days (I have a life! :-) - no, I thought "What you focus on grows", as my beloved late Barefoot Doctor used to say - and I do not want to focus on Corona.
That's a bit trying for you, but at least you know you've a critical audience reading your work within 30 minutes! ... I hadn't checked your German blog closely enough to see it was about the plague, so no, that's a garden that doesn't really need tending.
DeleteOh Pipistrello, so you speak German? I would like to know more of you - by your comments my mind starts to form a very nice picture and I am highly interested. And it is so fine to know that someone actually reads my "little dabs" - as Miss Mapp would say.
DeleteOh Britta, I must disappoint you here. Google translate is my friend on foreign language blogs. Lazy but it opens up the world.
DeleteWe are all longing for the time when we will be free to circulate as we wish.
ReplyDeleteYes, Emma - it is so distressing, and people in the whole world are afflicted. I wish for us all that we will see the light at the end of the tunnel soon!
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