Gherkins are good for stress

What does your workspace say about you?

Mine has a postcard in Polish, claiming that gherkins are good for stress.  I haven’t actually tried eating them at work.  But probably it’s just the sight of a silly postcard, and a link to Poland, that cheers me up.

I work in an open plan environment, which has pinboards separating desks from each other. Occasional gifts from visitors can make their way to a desk or pinboard, looking for a home.  I also have a flower painted by a friend’s child.  A copy of another friend’s poem.  Nostalgic advert-style wrapping from some German chocolates a colleague brought back from holiday.

From time to time, we’re encouraged to clear our pinboards, and start again.  As a teenager, I used to find it very hard to change displays of cards, ornaments etc – what record would remain of that stage of life?

I’m less precious about it now, but perhaps keeping things the same around my desk is a way of standing still, while the work shifts and changes around me. A way of saying who I am, a snapshot to accompany the name tag on the edge of the pinboard. In these days of hotdesking, it’s nice still to have a space to call my own.

Playing with worms

For the squeamish, no, it’s not that bad. It really means playing with words.  Any excuse for a pun.

We all know that we grow up thinking that everyone lives like our family does.  At some point or other, we realise that not everyone does, which can be a bit of a surprise.

In my family, playing with words goes on to what others may see as a dangerous degree.  There is repetition of phrases from comedy shows (The Goons being a particularly frequent source).

Repetition of childhood words and phrases for things – not just mine or my brother’s, but going back to my parents’, or even their brothers’.  Literal pronunciation of words that are actually said differently, or puns with similar sounding words where we can possibly fit them in.

After over seven years, Dan has come on well in this area.  He can play word association games with the best of them.  He also beats me at Scrabble (this is not so surprising, given that he knows how to play strategically and I just like to make nice words).

The further gain is that now we have taken on each others’ families’ phrases, those of our friends’ children…So send yours on, and I’m sure we’ll find a place to incorporate them.

Quite Interesting

We’re not intending to do an account of lots of TV, music, film etc that we like.

Honest.

But we can’t go without mentioning Stephen Fry’s QI – quite interesting – quiz show on a Friday night.  For any lovers of trivia, it’s a must.  And for those who just feel tired and consider going to bed early on a Friday night, it’s worth staying awake a little longer for.

A lot of the delight comes from seeing the regular panel member, comedian Alan Davies, get a lower and lower score every week, while also practising his mock-Mexican accent from time to time.

Accents also get an airing with Mr Fry himself, who usually manages to include a range within each episode.

Even more impressive is the range of talents other panelists bring to the show, whether it’s Jonathan Ross’s seemingly limitless knowledge of comic books, or Roger McGough coming up with new poems during the show.

A.J.Jacobs – writer of that book about the Encyclopedia Britannica I mentioned in another post – would be proud.

For those who are still unconvinced, have a look for yourself.

 

…and the first mince pie!

Yesterday we went to a Christmas Fair at our local Church of Scotland, just across the street.

At 50p entrance which included tea and biscuits, a bargain afternoon’s entertainment!
Sadly, we didn’t win anything in the raffle, but we came away with home made jam and cakes, plus a few more second hand books for the collection.

Our tip off came from a friend’s mum, who lives up the road with us, and has got involved in the local churches.  After the fair, we went back to her flat to see how it’s coming along.

She treated us to our first mince pies of the year, as well as scones and some excellent blackcurrant jelly, also bought at the fair.

Wait for the little green man

Maybe it’s a year of celebrating small pleasures. A medium-sized pleasure was having the chance to be back in Berlin for a few days in September, as the mid-point of my work trip to Germany and Austria. But the small but perfectly formed pleasure is the traffic light men.

Some of you may know that East and West Berlin had different symbols on their lights for pedestrians. Both had a green and a red man, but of different shape. When the wall came down, there was talk of converting all the traffice lights to having the West Berlin type of red and green men.

East Berlin is becoming increasingly trendy, with films like Goodbye Lenin becoming more widely known. But part of the early assertion of East Berlin culture was the campaign to keep their traffic light men. My former German flat mate, G, even had a book about it, and about traffic light men in other countries. I also have postcards of the East Berlin ones in the bathroom (from a previous trip).

So, the great excitement was being able to visit the Ampelmann [traffic light man] shop, situated conveniently close to the office I was visiting. Many more people would have received Ampelmann Christmas presents, if only I could be sure you would like them as much as I do! But for those who are intrigued, you can also buy online: 

So, I stuck to buying an Umwelttasche [‘save the environment’ reusable bag] with the Ampelmaenner on. But a couple of months later, on a trip to one of these pottery shops where you choose the item and decorate it yourself, I decided to increase my stocks, and paint my own mug.

The delight of the blog is that I can also show you pictures to fuel your interest.

Just remember to look both ways before crossing over to the Ampelmaenner.

[PS The little green man has now become the home image on this blog! January 2013]