überlin

Author: Zoe

  • A Day in the Life

    by

    Zoe
    Category:

    A friend just asked what we do on a typical day now that we’re freelancing in Berlin, and we thought we’d share it here so you can get a picture of our “exciting” new life. Warning: contains offensive slippers.

    1. James wakes up at 8am and makes coffee from a machine that sounds like a pneumatic drill
    2. I wake up shortly thereafter
    3. We sit at the table and mess around on our laptops checking Twitter/Facebook then we get down to some “work” in our dressing gowns
    4. Sometimes we break for shower at around 11am… sometimes not
    5. At lunchtime we get clothed and either eat pitiful sandwiches or we venture out to a nearby hipster café for human contact
    6. Back in the flat we pretend to “work” some more before boredom sets in and social networking takes over
    7. Around 6pm it’s tea time, but it seems that without Tesco Online we can no longer function as normal human beings and have to resort to pasta and pesto every night, as it’s the only thing in our cupboards
    8. For our evening’s entertainment we have hopefully downloaded something to watch, or like tonight, we will force ourselves to go out in the freezing cold to some hip Berlin event to be able to write a blog post about it
    9. Get to bed around midnight, making a pact to work harder tomorrow

    Working from home

  • Café Matilda

    by

    Zoe
    Category:

    What a difference a bit of sun makes! This weekend the temperature topped 20°C, and the Berlin we’ve been cursing through the winter months, was finally transformed into the city we all know and love. If you’re one of those weirdos who (like us!) decide to move to Berlin during winter, then the most important advice you’re likely to receive from anyone, is to make sure you stick it out until summer. They claim you haven’t seen the REAL Berlin unless you’ve enjoyed idyllic walks along the canal and cold beers in the sun, surrounded by smiling happy Berliners… AND THEY’RE RIGHT!!

    Today was the first time this year we’ve been able to sit in the sun and brunch at Café Matilda, one of our fav haunts, and it felt goooood. As depressing as winter can be here (-20°C anyone??), it’s the thought of Berlin in the summer that keeps you holding on and stops you running to the hills. How long this recent hike in temperatures will last, no one knows, or cares… as most importantly it’s a taste of things to come!

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  • What I’m Wearing: 3.1 Phillip Lim

    by

    Zoe
    Category:

    3.1 Phillip Lim 4

    Many MANY weeks ago, I made my first purchase on my-wardrobe.com and bought the perfect summer sandals. I know, hooray indeed. Designed by 3.1 Phillip Lim, whose items are permanent features on my wishlist, these babies finally pushed me into purchasing. Perfectly formed, featuring a flash of silver that’s going to pop in the summer sun, these beauties came super quick and certainly didn’t disappoint. Sadly they’re still boxed up, waiting for weather good enough to wear them out in! We were taunted with a wonderful week of sunshine recently, only for it to be callously snatched away and replaced with hail and even snow!?  Until Berlin gets its act together, “my preciouses” (said in a Gollum stylee) aren’t seeing the light of day – so outfit posts will have to wait I’m afraid!

    3.1 Phillip Lim 1

    3.1 Phillip Lim 2

    3.1 Phillip Lim 3

    3.1 Phillip Lim 5

    3.1 Phillip Lim 6

    4 Responses to “What I’m Wearing: 3.1 Phillip Lim”

    1. Liz says:
      April 12, 2012 at 12:44 pm

      whaaaaattt?!?! ;) ))))))
      niiiice
      x

      Reply

    2. papaerk says:
      April 12, 2012 at 11:00 am

      look great !!!

      Reply

    3. Katie says:
      April 11, 2012 at 8:22 pm

      PRETTY! Hope you can wear them soon! xx

      Reply

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  • What I’m Wearing: Black Fur

    by

    Zoe
    Category: ,

    So Berlin gets cold in Winter, no big deal right? Wrong. Until you’ve suffered its sub-zero temperatures and Siberian icy winds you haven’t experienced cold like it. Last year we were shamefully unprepared. With more important things to think of like where we were going to live and how we were going to earn money, purchasing some wooly winter warmers wasn’t really on our agenda… we were idiots. We rocked up with our skinny jeans and smiles and then stepped out of the airport to a blizzard of snow and ice that lasted three months. Lesson – painfully – learnt, this year we have a wardrobe that would make an Arctic explorer proud. The skinny jeans will always remain (too tight to get off!) but there will at least be a good few pairs of thermals under them this time.

    Cape and Hat: Vintage | Cardigan: COS | Shirt: Just Female | Jeans: Just Female | Shoes: Churches

    4 Responses to “What I’m Wearing: Black Fur”

    1. leigh says:
      December 13, 2011 at 6:15 pm

      Your Shoes!!!! AMAZING!

      Reply

    2. Au Courant Distilled says:
      December 12, 2011 at 4:34 am

      Your haircut – FANTASTIC! The ensemble is perfection, as well…

      Reply

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  • A Year in Berlin – Five Things We’ve Learned

    by

    Zoe
    Category:

    Not much German, unfortunately.
    We started with good intentions. We did an intensive course for two months when we arrived, but three hours after a full day’s work, four times a week, was clearly too much German for anyone. By the end I was ready to shoot myself AND all Germans, just for the Dative case alone! Not the attitude I wanted to have with my new countrymen so a break was probably a good thing. Only now are we getting back on der Waggon – join us on Twitter where we are posting a word a day under the hashtag #dailydeutsch.

    A German accountant is your best friend.
    With our limited understanding of German, receiving letters with official looking stamps on them can be quite scary. Opening them to see pages and pages of text, some of it bolded AND underlined, with intimidating words like “Lastschrifteinzugsverfahren” (“Direct Debit”, for God’s sake!) can be quite unsettling. After James took over three hours to Google Translate one letter which simply informed us of our tax reference number, we knew, for our own sanity, that we needed to get an accountant.

    Germans stare.
    This one took a bit of getting used to. For the first few months we just couldn’t understand what the hell was wrong with people or, more importantly, with us! We initially put it down to the locals not being used to seeing exotic London folk like us (we’re the only ones here, right?), but we now know this is just their way and not to take it too personally. Also, I’ll win any staring contest so BRING IT ON BEATCHES!!

    To carry cash at all times.
    Debit and credit cards aren’t accepted in 99% of Berlin’s restaurants, cafés and bars. We English are so used to handing over that little bit of plastic for everything that this was hard to get your heads around: “You don’t accept THIS card you mean, right??” Er no… So off James would go in search of a cashpoint, leaving me alone for twenty minutes, looking like a jilted lover. Lesson learned – we now carry a wad of cash that would make Tony Soprano feel self-conscious.

    Everything is shut on Sundays.
    Seriously, everything – supermarkets, clothes shops, IKEA…the lot! This can be frustrating when you haven’t got any food in the cupboards or desperately need to buy that new oven mitt, but when you get used to it, it can actually work to your advantage. Sundays are now perfect for that lovely stroll along the canal, cleaning up the house or doing all those odd jobs you keep putting off. Or even better, going for brunch and then off to pump some fists in the air at Berlin’s best club Berghain!