Tale of the Rebel Waves

Alexander attends an English theatre group every Saturday.  This year they have worked most Saturday and Sunday afternoons to put on a performance written by their teacher, Priscilla.

The performance was fantastic. They all worked really hard and had a lot of lines to remember.

Templehof Flughafen Park

While Alexander is at theatre club, we take Cameron to Templehof Flughafen Park. 

This is the Templehof Airport which has now been closed and been turned into a large park.

The runway is perfect for bike riding, skateboarding, rollerblading and so much more. 

you can even windsurf on a skateboard.

We got some waveboards for the boys, so we took these down to Templehof to practice.

Phil was determined to have a play too!

Cameron managed to get on the board and take off really quickly.

Phil managed to get going after a little while and was great at it as well.

Fussball World Cup starts again

World Cup starts again.  We had so much fun with the World Cup being in Berlin 4 years ago.

We are in the same group as Germany this year, so not particularly hopeful.

But we hang our flags over the balcony anyway!

5 km x 5 km run Berliner Wasserbetriebe TEAM Staffel

Alexander has been training at lunchtimes with a few of the teachers and some of the students for the 5 x 5 race for a few weeks.  Initially he had not signed up, and didn't know anything about it.  But he wanted to run at lunch time with the group.  Then someone had to pull out, so he filled in for the student who couldn't come.

The team race was for 5 people, who each ran a 5 kilometre track.  His team included Victoria, Katharina, Emily, Kirsten and Alexander.

Cameron gave Alexander a massage before his race.

Alexander was the last runner for his team, so he had to wear the tag to record the team's time.

Before the race, we sat under a tree and relaxed.

As their team members were running, the next runners would wait until they came to the end of their 5 km.  Here is Miss S and Alexander waiting.

Alexander coming to the end.

So fast, I couldn't focus my camera! ;)

through the finish line.

Afterwards there were lots of smiles

Emily and Alexander

Our school teams did really well.

In 375th place the Year 8-9 boys came 5th in their age division. 1:57:11

In 1460th place the male teachers came in 2:10:26

In 2929th place the female teachers came in 2:24:14

Alexander's team came in 3030th place, 22nd in their age division. 2:25:22

There were 3942 teams over the 3 day event.  We were really pleased with how everyone ran.

Alexander wants to train for the next one!

Our neighbour's team won first prize for the best baton!

So it was a great day all round.

Polish Pottery

Another mad trip to Poland...this one was great fun!

Up at 3am, to be at Schoneberg S Bahn by 4am.

Picked up by Karen at the S Bahn and we drove 3 hours to Poland to the town called Bolesławiec.

Bolesławiec is well known for it's painted pottery, and there are lots of factories and shops selling all sorts of designs.

We were there before 7am, and previous times that Karen had visited, all the stores were open at 7am.  Possibly due to the econmic crisis??  the shops now open at 8am.  So we had  a little bit of a wait, but Karen explained some of the things to look out for, and we had food and drink to keep us going.

Karen's advice to us newbies at buying Polish Pottery was fantastic, and we managed to work our way through the shops and factory outlets. 

I have lots of mugs in a certain size that I have collected over the years I have been in Berlin, and each one I have collected had a different pattern.

My aim for this trip was to buy some more mugs, and some serving dishes, but ensure that I had nothing in the same pattern in the same shape.

Being super organised, I had this photo of my current pottery in my camera.  As I made purchases at the different stores, I took photos of the things I bought, so I could double check on the camera that I didn't buy the same pattern.  My plan worked really well!

Here is a display of pottery outside one of the stores.

One factory had their designs hanging on the tree.

There were these large pots sitting in many of the roundabouts in the streets.

The mad shoppers....

Nicole, Becky, Janet, Emy and Karen.

One of the displays in one of the stores

A mug for Michael Jackson, I am not sure when he will be in to purchase it!

We got home about 5pm, exhausted, but had a great day.

The boxes of pottery sat in the corner until the next day, as I was so tired.

Here is the stash.

The serving dishes are a perfect size for us.

The new mugs to go with my current collection

Frog Hunt

Cameron loves to go frog hunting in the Grünewald forest.  He always manages to catch quite a few with his net.

Early on Sunday morning, Phil and Cameron set off on their bikes to the Grünewald. They carried a camera and a butterfly net.

It was a beautiful morning, heading for quite a warm day. They arrived at the swamp, locked up their bikes and went off in search of some frogs.

Cameron has a keen eye and quick reflexes, and in the next hour or so circling the swamp was able to nab 11 frogs. He would catch them, get them to sit on his hand for a photo, then gently release them - before searching for more.

He also nabbed some dragon flies and a tadpole, and together they had a fantastic time!