Monday 28 May 2012

So its Monday, do we rest. do we f*ck! Up and out, not en femme today so we travel by underground. We know where we want to go but just like dear old London the line we need is partially closed for maintenance so a slightly circular route is selected. Check Point Charlie is our destination. Our daughter wants a Cossak hat. Yes I know but it has to come from there. Aaaanyway we get off at Stadmitte and stroll down Friedrichstabe to get the hat then its back to the hotel. Madam now decides that the hat is not good enough and has to go back and be exchanged before we go off to Peter and Sarah to drop off a case which they are taking home for us as they are driving back to the UK. So its back on the underground, same stop dragging a case, change the hat, back on the underground to Warschauer Strabe, over the bridge to the hotel Klassik where we meet up with them and several Swedes returning home. Are we out to dinner tonight, a tentative yes but by the time we eventually get back to the hotel we just can't face doing the journey again and elect to eat locally, well we have to up at six the next morning to go home !!!

Sunday 27 May 2012

Sunday. Another beautiful day and we are off out again. Pat wants to visit her grandfathers war grave in the South West Cemetery.  Well this is as far from central Berlin as the airport and has no local rail connection so its taxi again. An amazing place in the countryside, so quiet, so peaceful. The layout of the English War Graves is exactly the same as all the other CWGC cemetery's. The staff are most helpful and apologetic that we have to purchase a map for the princely sum of 1 Euro which goes towards the upkeep. A lovely walk of about 1.5 km around the cemetery gets us to the English section and we actually manage to find the grave. The first visit anyone has made in the 98 years he has been there.
A shorter walk back means we have made a complete circuit and we repair to a restaurant for lunch. Now we have the ball to go to that night, we need to get back, have a sleep, eat, get ready and go out so of course it means a taxi back. This is really costing us a fortune.
Back at the hotel with a coffee from the cafe opposite and a fabulous huge chocolate eclair each then a couple of hours sleep.
Up and out to find something to eat then back to prepare for the evening, by the time we are ready it is getting on for ten o'clock. Of course the ball is in the East so...... TAXI !
When we arrive the fashion shows have started, a quick look and then find somewhere to sit before the scramble starts. From our vantage point we can peruse the outfits. Me? I'm in a black Cherry Pie dress from Libidex and Pat has been dressed by both Libidex and our dear friend Dolenta at Breathless in maroon and gold. We see many glorious outfits from military to traditional fetish including one couple in traditional dress, he in lederhosen and she looking like Hedi but both outfits made from latex !
We meet up with our frineds Peter and Sara, Peter is the official photographer for both Skin Two and Marquis and is in fine fettle with the help of half a bottle of Jim Beam as he has managed to sell his entire stock of DVD's at the fair that afternoon. The English contingent is giving it some stick out on the dancefloor and stage as we take our leave at around 2.45. The toll of travelling and our dashing hither and thither is taking its toll and its out into the night and back to the hotel, by taxi of course :-(

Saturday 26 May 2012

Up before the crack of dawn, 1 a.m. to be precise after a paltry 3 hours sleep and get ready. We leave the house at 3.00, a taxi to Golders for the coach to Stanstead. Arrive, check in and by 6.30 we are winging our way to Berlin and the German Fetish weekend.
Bah to Ryan Air, you really are crap aren't you and oh so common. That fanfare as we land reminds me of America and...... cowboys so I suppose its rather appropriate.
Aaaaanyway Schōenfeld airport, hmmmmm. Well its not the airport its the railway station, so dire. You have an airport connected to a railway and there is no indicator boards and no information and no ticket office? Ah well we catch a train that thankfully is going in the right direction only to be told to get off at Grünbergallee to catch another. The only problem is this station has no indicator boards, well it does but they only give the end of the line and not stations along the way but it does have an office where can ask. Ah the next train is in five minutes, we reach the platform..... just as it pulls out, luckily the next is in another 10 minutes.
We eventually arrive in Berlin, phew my dears it is hot, hot, hot ! A ten minute walk with three cases to the hotel and yes the room is ready even if it is only midday. Dump cases and out for something to eat and drink, luckily there is a fab cafe almost opposite and suitably refreshed we return. Things to do, people to see and places to go are our watchwords. A quick shower and change, on with the slap and I'm Ann again, at last. Downstairs we totter, order a taxi and off into the scorching sun. We are in the west, just near the Zoo, where do we need to be? Deep in the east on Ohlauer Strabe. of course and there are road closures because of a carnival. We eventually arrive at the Fetish Fair, quite small compared to other years. We find our friends Peter and Sarah one of the sponsors,  have chats and run into the first of the British contingent, Drag Bitch, much merriment ensues. We troll round and see Velda Lauda corset maker extraordinaire, the guy from Bondinage and Jan fetish pics. After about four hours we have had enough, its time to get back to the hotel as we are meeting Peter and Sarah for dinner at 7.00. Outsidethe venue we also meet up with Mad Allan ! Of course this being the crap end of town it takes ages to find a taxi which of course costs us an arm and a leg.
Back at the hotel shower and change and off out, again. Taxi ! Yes we are off to the East again. Revaler Strabe and the Hotel Klassik. The taxi driver is fab considering he has a tray on board and we get a running commentary as we go through Berlin. As we get out of the taxi and cross the road I get that feeling. It doesn't happen often, silence, I feel all eyes on me as we cross the road, ah well never mind. Where re we eating? Oh next door to the hotel, ah well when in Berlin where do we go? For a curry of course !
Post dinner we take our leave, by taxi of course, well this is a iffy part of town. Back in the safety of the West and at the hotel we decide our liquid intake has fallen far below safety levels and repair to a bar opposite the hotel where the sight of a tranny who has had far too little sleep causes seem amusement but then us gurus are well used to that and so it is ignored. And so to bed……….

Thursday 24 May 2012

Well that was a busy day. Pick up Stephanie,  back home and into the photoshoot, some four outfit changes and 900 odd pictures later a spot of lunch and off out. A spankingly fabulous day out there, terrible for picture taking, so much sun and so many people my dears Aaaanyway the Hill Gardens, one of our favourite haunts beckoned where we managed another three hundred and eighty odd shots we repair to the Bull and Bush for a well earned drinkie.
Why is it we can go to places like that and not have any problems whatsoever, well so far. We are more or less ignored.  It was more or less the same as we call into Tesco's on the way back home. Sure we get 'spotted' but no problems. I am sure it is our collective confidence, look the world in the eye, treat whatever we are doing as an everyday occurrence and don't dress like an itinerant tranny.

Wednesday 23 May 2012

Widgity

Why oh why do these Widgity thingys not work. They are there in the HTML but not in the template or when looking at your blog
Ah there doesn't appear to be enough code...
Well a new day a new blog. Will I manage to keep this thing up to date or not.
 Can I be bothered? Only time will tell. Livejournal fell by the wayside, Myspace dropped into the dustbin of history, Xanga because no one else used it, Fastbuck got dumped for its triteness, over concern with the mundane and the collection of "friends" you will never meet.
Ah well enough of this witty badinage I'm off to massage my layout and plump up my profile.