Dolphin Address 10
March 12th 2005
As my Sony dictaphone began to talk back to me ever more unintelligible I bought myself a new one, a Panasonic. With the necessary, exorbitant, software you can even let the recorded text appear in writing on your computer screen. I don't need that. The write-out inertia rather gives me time to adjust and insert logs into the entirety. Together we went into town and that yielded the following observations.
It is beastly cold in the street and this furnishes the most insane headgear: someone who apparently is so attached to his baseball cap that he had simply pulled a bonnet over it, an elderly lady with a bonnet that had rays going out in many directions, as if she could go to Heaven any moment; somewhat curious is the Russian military fur cap, that is there in numbers as if there would still be an occupation.
Most people slow their pace down in the sun.
A pram is skidding round the bend.
At the zebra-crossing you can look around at ease. There are plenty that watch the light. Still sometimes someone walks through red. Got to keep alert.
Many people here walk with a rucksack, sometimes on the chest to prevent robbery.
This may be a millionic metropolis, I do sense, especially with elderly people, a rustic glance, an 'us' feeling, the mild expectation of awareness, the communally born cross of a besieged stronghold.
With my Metro plan I travel under all of Berlin: 'Einsteigen bitte, zurück bleiben bitte. There is always someone in my compartment with blushing cheeks, a Tibetan fantasy bonnet, jamjarbottom glasses or a bicycle.
The foxy old lady with the bookmark immediately spots my dictaphone. The sportive dressed elderly gentleman with his yellow smoked moustache too. For some people the wall will never come down. An Asian is reading his passport attentively and a Turkish girl is making herself invisible opposite of me.
In the U-bahn everywhere double monitors are hanging that bring the news, culture and of course advertising. For sometimes breathtakingly beautiful graffiti you'd better take the S-bahn. The latest U-bahn train has no compartments. You can look through the inside as a long swinging street.
The bookshop Hugendubel in the Sloßstraße looks almost more like a library. In this bookworms paradise everywhere there are comfortable benches and seats to where you can take and read as many books as you like. There also is a coffee-corner with rolls and soft drinks and a view upon the Sloßstraße. An ideal meeting point.
In the scope of my little game 'Hunt a head' I had the privilege today to see Robert de Niro, Sophia Loren and my grandfather walk by.
As the scent of neoprene stands for diving, so that of canvas stands for camping. At 'Globetrotter' they have an inside pond where you can try out canoos.
Many busy crossroads you can cross underground.
Finally a good news announcement: after being absent since half December Dusty has been spotted again. Read all about it on
www.irishdolphins.com
Jan Ploeg, Berlin, March 12th 2005
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