Cameroon 2013: Day 6
Hey diary-readers! I can tell you’re all agog to see the (almost) final part of this unsolicited Cameroon diary. Settle down – it’s here. I’ll just saunter on this road of saying not much for a couple...
View ArticleCameroon 2013: Day 7
We have reached the apex of this unnecessary blog series! This is my final unsolicited diary entry about my recent work trip to Cameroon. If you want to read about my six-hour car journey from Bamenda...
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Bim Does Berlin: I
Yesterday was my full first day in Berlin. I discovered that I have a cold, that I am woefully unfit (ssshhh – this is not exactly breaking news), and that I did not pack an umbrella, having left mine...
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Bim Does Berlin: We Need To Talk About Berlin
Just a few observations after more than a few days of being here. 1. Your bogs. What is up with your weird ‘shelf’-toilets, Berlin? Who needs a tray mechanism in the loo? Is it there to survey the...
View ArticleBim Does Berlin: German Lessons
This morning on the way to work, I saw a tiny brown mouse at Mehringdamm station. I thought it was a smooth brown stone at first, one of the millions of brown rocks that sit around the tracks up and...
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Bim Does Berlin: I see black people
A few days into my Berlin sojourn, over-confident with the initial navigational successes of the previous couple of days, I took a wrong turn out of the station and got briefly but not scarily lost....
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Bim Does Berlin: The Cold Snap
Everyone – and I mean everyone – warned me about the cold. The Brits at home before I left: “Berlin! Ooh, they’ve got proper cold winters, you know”; the Berliners themselves when I arrived: “Only last...
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Bim Does Berlin: We Need To Talk About Berlin II
Okay, it’s been considerably longer than a few days of living in Berlin. Here are a few more thoughts. 1. Smoking. I’ve been to Paris a couple of times, and both times, was overwhelmed by the smoking....
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Bim Does Berlin: On naming conventions, briefly
Travelling to German class one day, I go through Weinmeisterstraße station on the U8 line of the U-Bahn. I think Weinmeisterstraße might be my favouritely named station (there’s some history on the...
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Bim Does Berlin: Berlin’s Bodacious Babes
On the way to brunch in Prenzlauer Berg, I sat opposite a drowsy young man in maroon jeans and brown suede boots. He had on a fisherman’s chunky sweater, not dissimilar to the type Jim Carrey wore in...
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Bim Does Berlin: Food, Glorious German Food!
Like dreams, food—the description and study of—is only interesting to the person it directly concerns. When you start the analysis of something that literally no one wants to hear, look closely into...
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Bim Does Berlin: We Need To Talk About Berlin III
At this stage in the game, the jig is almost up. I can practically smell London, and I’ve already begun to regain the ability to say ‘sorry’ to inanimate objects. This all means one thing: I’m running...
View ArticleBim Does Berlin: The Sedaris Temptation
If you are a writer, and one day find yourself in a classroom with other adults, learning a foreign language, you will not be able to help yourself. You will inevitably—joylessly, even—start to narrate...
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Getting to ‘carefree’– it takes work
Earlier this year, I was talking with a friend who is a writer about something she was working on, something which is a labour of real and deep love. You don’t need to know anything at this point other...
View ArticleEavesdropping in New York
The location: A launderette in Bed-Stuy A Tuesday in September Around 3pm “Mohammed, everything good? I missed you!” “He’s been gone two weeks,” this woman tells another brown skinned man fixing a...
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