Your Story : How We Play the Game of Life

 

 Your Story Addendum Ep 9 [9:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Welcome To Episode 9 of Your Story Addendum.

Here is another of my personal raves recorded while walking home through Potsdamer Platz about what I’ve seen and been doing but this time with a spin.

The first is the cafe that I had the wonderful meeting and conversation in.

As I walked in off the stark street-scape into the styled aura of what could have been Berlin in it’s heyday of the 1920’s I gasped in surprise because of the contrast to outside. An extraordinary cool and groovy place is the Joseph Roth Diele and a delight to spend some time in.

Inside while waiting and afterwards I drank fine beer from stoneware mugs and ate good wholesome home cooked food all for a price a third of what I would have paid back home.

Shortly I meet the gaze and had the opportunity to connect with two wonderful women, Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries, who publish a very different travel magazine in Hidden Europe about the not so common but wonderful secreted away areas of Europe.

Continue Reading »

 

 Your Story Ep 23 [40:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Welcome To Episode 23 of Your Story.

Today we talk with Roco Menzel of Metroccolis who in along with his collaborator Stefan Wabner is a Mime artist performing as Metroccolis.
Now after 14 years developing the skill of mime Rocco is starting to achieve real international success, earning a living and well on the way to achieving the success that is his passion.

Rocco explains that as an nearly unknown art-form there is much more to producing art than seen on stage and it’s necessary to to spend 60% of the time as an office worker to dealing with agents and negotiating the stuff in the background.

We discuss the lifestyle of Berlin, the culture and where it is going and the fact that there is still a difference between East and West Berlin and how East Berlin is the vibrant place of growth and change.

His website is metroccolis.com
email is mail@metroccolis.com

There are several YouTube clips of Metroccolis performing but here are a couple for you to look at.

To automatically receive this podcast freely to you, click on one of the links to the left or search in iTunes for “Your Story.”

Subscribe freely in iTunes by Clicking here.
If you use another Podcast software Get the feed here.

 

 Your Story Addendum Ep 8 [9:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

On a this beautiful summer night I went to see the Obama Show when it came to Berlin.

Initially I was reluctant thinking that it would be the usual political hoopla but on second thoughts I thought that this is one of those cities in the world that history is made in and wouldn’t it be a shame if something was to happen and I was to miss it.

Would he make a mark in the history books like Kennedy or Reagan or would there be a tragic event like Bobby Kennedy while he was running for election in ‘68?

In the end neither event happened but instead it was simply a good night out in the summer air drinking beer for the people of Berlin and I don’t think many people really cared about the Obama Show at all. What they did care about was being out and about as the people of Europe seem to do. Especially when they can appreciate how wonderful things are when the weather is good.

And that is my point. I don’t think many people would have turned up if it was a wet and cold day in January. As for the cheering crowd. Well no one back about 500m where I was were cheering so I think the usual rent a crowd were up the front getting all the attention.

On the way home I looked around the old East Berlin that I was walking through and decided to give my thoughts on how wonderful and contradictary Berlin is with the starkly beautiful Eastern architectural style and the still developing commerce.

As I say in the audio, Berlin it’s like a run down share house of vibrant 20 year olds determined to make it work in any way they can. It’s a young city in an old skin.

Stunning.

 

 Your Story Addendum Ep 7 [9:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

My surname is Kath, pronounced in the Germanic languages I’ve been told recently here as Kat with a short sharp “T”. I’ve also found out that the Germans would automatically spell it with a “K” unlike how most Australians would, as my family have found want to spell it with a “C”. The Germans should know, as this is the part of the world that my name comes from.

I have Prussian heritage on the side of my family that the Kath name originates from. Even though I’m seven eights British it is my surname that is the one eighth. So while I’m here I have a small opportunity to explore my heritage and I have company.

So three friends and I we went to Swidwin originally named Shievelbein in the days of Prussia but is now part of Poland to see where in the middle 19 century my ancestor Eduard(57) & Antonia(52) Kath with their four children Hermann(22), Wilhelm(18), Heinrich(14) & Auguste(11) eventually travelled to the ends of the world. The children were Christened in Pielburg now Pilawa but we chose not to go there as it’s a tiny village and we had limited time even though this is where they all probably lived but Swidwin is where Eduard came from.

They travelled from Europe in 1884 to settle at Glenco on the Darling Downs about 150 km west of Brisbane. Sadly from the information I have, old Eduard died within a year.

We had a look around and here are a few images of the area including a quick trip to the Baltic Sea coast to relax before driving back to Berlin late into the early morning. There are more images on my flickr page linked on the left.

 

 Your Story Addendum Ep 6 [5:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Walking home I realised it was time to share a few thoughts on what I’ve been seeing in Berlin particually that there are still a few reminders of the the war  with the damage still visible either because you can see the repair with replacement of perfect stone or the original stone with the dents and chips of battle still present.

Berlin is a vibrant city with a huge amount of construction happening to the extent that it seems a little overgrown I suppose because it’s difficult to find the resources to maintain the city when it’s so necesary to build and replace the damage of primarally the GDR times and to a lesser extent the war so many years ago.

I also walked around the Holocaust Memorial which I had heard was an opressive and overwhelming place but I found it to be a stark but life filled space full of people exploring the mini canions and children playing hide and seek. Not a sad place at all but still a place of reverence.