Aeth Wolf

I have spent most of the weekend with Arakin and Ben, whose friend Dark Wolf was staying over. We had never met, but we have been speaking online, while he also seems to share a number of old school friends. He arrived on Thursday evening and we decided to go out on Friday, with Pizza Rosso at Alexanderplatz being the destination of choice. This was largely done at Dark Wolf's request, but it's also far easier for me to get to than out where Arakin and Ben live, which is about two hours from me point to point. I was a little skeptical about whether the restaurant would be any good, with it being tourist central, but it turned out to be most excellent. The bruschetta tasted fresh and the salami pizza was satisfying. Only the bread as an entre could have been improved. The staff were also very friendly and it's definitely a place I'd take friends to, should we need something good when doing the tourist sights. What with it being Halloween, there were many people in costumes out, which was wonderful to see, but alas my friends didn't really want to stay out past the meal so I got back home at 10pm.

Saturday was the start of November and it was an incredibly down day. Wolfie's foot has struggled to recover since The Offspring concert on Monday, meaning he wasn't able to come to Qualgeist. I had suggested going with Dark Wolf, but he didn't fancy it in the end, and although I could have done at Al Song's request, I feel there's no point going to a BDSM dungeon if there's no-one to play with. This part of my life, like my sex life in general, is feeling incredibly unfulfilled right now and it's getting frustrating. My chronic tiredness is not helping though and yesterday was certainly a day of immense fatigue. After writing off the munch, in the end, I hopped on a bus and checked out the Johannistift Evangelical commune, which is about 20 minutes away. This has been on my list of places to visit for quite some time, and is basically Spandau's equivalent of the Moravian Settlement in Pudsey. It seems to be a dedicated religious community focused around a central square upon which sits a neat little church. There's some interesting steel modern art structures dotted around which looked like something out of the 1980s, while the brick buildings were all rather neat and well-aligned. I enjoyed just wandering around and was interested to note that this area wasn't too far beyond my previous walking limits. I did try and walk back to home from there, but halfway through the fatigue really hit me, and I ended up catching the bus then going to bed for two hours.

When you are this tired, rousing yourself early is difficult, but this is what I did on Sunday with the aim of going around to Arakin and Ben's place. As I mentioned, they live about two hours from me, having moved to the far south-east of the city just over a year ago. I had never been to their house and it is a rather nice three-floor semi-detached home, very in keeping in the German style. They have a bus stop right outside their house, which is convenient, while passing through Köpenick meant I could take the S3 most of the way. The roadworks are still there outside Köpenick station but it was interesting to note that they may have finished the roof work at Ostbahnhof. The new station without the wood and scaffolding looks a lot airier and pleasant than it looked before, not to mention lighter.

We met at Presso Cafe & Lounge, a place familiar to both Arakin and Ben, where I picked up a Fritz Cola and some delicious scrambled egg and ham. This was served with a bread roll and it made for the perfect brunch. The cafe was definitely family-owned and the lady knew my friends, so it did feel rather homely. After this, we headed back to Arakin and Ben's for a few beers and a chat, before the usual flicking through YouTube. It was great catching up with everyone, even if the beers did start to hit me quite hard due to the tiredness. By 5pm, we all fancied some dinner, so we headed into Köpenick for Indian food, again at a place recommended by my friends called Aao Ji. They had only been here once, it turned out, three days ago, but they felt it worth a visit. I did enjoy the mango lassi, but perhaps my curry choice wasn't the best. It was a little like Indian mushroom soup, with no spice whatsoever, so I think next time I'll choose something else. Dark Wolf is heading back to the Netherlands tomorrow and with a near two-hour journey to get back to Spandau, we decided to split after this. I walked back to the S-Bahn station at Köpenick and then hopped on the trains I needed to get back home. Once back, I crashed again, only just waking up two hours later. 

Last night, we headed down to the Uber Arena to check out The Offspring. I wasn't feeling up for it to be honest, largely on account of a very poor night's sleep, but we had bought tickets a year ago and we knew the gig would be good. We timed it perfectly, entering the arena just as support act Simple Plan came on. These guys are quite big in their own right and we knew a few of their songs before going to the show. As befitting a band of their size, they also played a near hour-long set, unleashing inflatable balls towards the end too. These balls would return for The Offspring.

Wolfie and I grabbed a couple of beers as we watched the show, balking at the €7.80 asking price. We stuck around the back as from there you get a half-decent view, while Wolfie's ankles are still struggling with lengthy periods of standing. I resolved to get seated tickets going forward, but he generally lasted well, only having to leave to sit down for the final two songs. Alas, these were "You're Gonna Go Far Kid" and "Self Esteem", two ecstatic crowd pleasers that made the evening end on a high. There was a significant energy to the band, remarkable considering they're in their late-50s, while the cartoon backdrops provided another dimension to the show. There was even a roaming blimp, which filmed people shaking their booties for Booty Cam during the gap between bands as well as providing aerial shots of the crowd. There was also a Fuck Yeah cam too. I didn't really pay attention to this as we were outside in the main concourse sitting down. This sort of audience participation scares me anyway, like those Kiss Cams you get at American sporting events.

The whole show was incredible. It started frenetically, then calmed down a little midway through when the band did a tribute to Black Sabbath. Their new tracks were interspersed with their greatest hits and there was plenty of space to dance, even with the sell-out crowd. The only two negatives were people wearing hats, which obscured the view somewhat, and people filming the show repeatedly. The number of times I had to see the stage through someone's phone screen was irritating and I felt sorry that they felt they couldn't just live in the moment. It was a shame. The full range of special effects were on show too, including smoke machines and confetti cannons, which added to the positive vibes of the place. Both Dexter Holland and Noodles are incredible showmen and the songs are infectious, so it was very easy to get lost in the music. The highlight for me, however, was the moving "Gone Away", which Dexter played on piano, urging us all to light our torches to remember someone who is no longer with us. I thought of Entei-rah and found this really moving, tearing up as I sang along. I sang along to other songs too, but those were a far more ecstatic vibe. And of course there were the people dressed as Scooby Doo running on the stage during Simple Plan and then a guy in a gorilla suit messing about too. At one point, there was some crowd surfing too. All the kind of fun anarchy you'd expect at a pop punk gig.

After the gig, Wolfie was feeling pretty limpy, but we wanted to stay out. Instead of going up to Brewdog, which tends to shut early despite their midnight stated time, we headed south, hopping on the U3 to Schliesses Tor. There, we had a choice of Hopfenreich or Space Medusa and we went to the latter. We didn't realise it was a smoking bar - I'm not sure it was when we visited there with Procyon during Berlin Beer Week - but we grabbed a couple of beers and chilled. I didn't realise it was a Ukrainian-owned bar and they were a little offended when I asked whether they were Ukrainian or Russian. They thawed quickly when I detailed my trips to Ukraine. We ended up leaving for pretty much the last train, changing at Fehrberliner Platz on the way back to Spandau. It was a brilliant evening and way to end what had been a difficult day due to the tiredness.