It’s been one of those weekends where I feel I need to make a few changes. Maybe that “new year” feeling, which seemed absent at the actual beginning of the year, is finally kicking in. Or maybe it’s the fact that, after a very mild autumn and winter with unseasonably warm weather, we’re finally getting a cold spell. I started spring cleaning yesterday, despite the fact that it’s not yet spring. I started by going through my lingerie and swimsuit drawers. It’s something I haven’t done in ages. I threw out a lot of stuff. I just got a new order of underwear in from La Senza UK (I have yet to find anywhere that sells underwear I like in Germany that also has good sales), so I figured it was as good a time as any to throw out all the older stuff that I never actually wear. I also threw out old, misshapen bras and a few “what was I thinking” purchases from when I was around 22. These included a copper lamé bikini from American Apparel, which I really can’t explain. I actually do NOT know why I have it. See for yourself:
Scary
Scarier

If you’re asking yourself “why would you buy that?”, I’m asking myself the same thing.

I also hung out some fabric and coats outside, because moths descended on my apartment this summer and I want to make sure they’re all dead and wont come back. I really chose my moment well, because as I was letting them sit out there to get cold, this happened:

(sorry for the picture quality…I took it with my phone).

Luckily it was fairly powdery snow, so nothing got too damp and I just brushed it off and hauled it all back inside. It’s supposed to get colder next week, and it will be clear out, so I’ll finish my moth-obliterating then.

In the evening I met a friend for wine at Weinerei, which is always a great place to go if you like wine and are on a budget. It’s a pretty well-known wine bar where you pay 2 Euro for a glass, which you free-pour, and then when you leave, you pay what you think you drank. They also do food, usually a pasta dish, soup and salad, and it works along the same principle, but I’d already made nachos with home-made salsa and guacamole. When we left we got fries at the curry place on Rosenthaler Platz, and I noticed they had hot sauce, which they’d labelled with degrees of hotness. I love hot sauce on my fries, but I was a bit skeptical that it would actually be spicy, since most Germans have a very low spice tolerance. Still, to play it safe, i ordered 2 (out of 4) and I have to say, I’m pretty humbled. It was spicy. Very, very spicy. I had to go to the Späti next door and get a carton of milk to dull down the burning. If you like spicy food and find yourself in Berlin (or live here) check it out. I dare you to try 4…apparently you have to sign a release form!

Today is low key. I’m continuing my cleaning project and making a cheese, olive and rosemary loaf. I’m also reworking a short story I did years ago, which I’d shelved for 9 years, but I’ve decided it has promise if I heavily rework it and change the setting.