More Tea Goethe?

Our Berlin kitchen looks pretty much like every other Berlin kitchen.
A casual observer might even leap to the conclusion that it was an entirely German kitchen, populated by very German inhabitants engaged in absolutely German activities.
But anyone paying attention would notice this Leaning Tower of Tea-za.
A definite sign of British kitchen-contamination if ever there was one.
I don't know why my used teabags end up like this.
It's just what you do, isn't it?
Very un-German.
Oder?

Leaf It Out!

Ok, I promise this is my last post about leaves for the rest of this year.
I've just been so captivated by the incredibly well organised mission to rid the city of stray plant matter in the past month. As far as I can see, the efforts of the leaf squad have been incredibly successful, although I have noticed one or two mottled stragglers blowing down Berlin's leafless strasses in the past week, late droppers I suppose. Anyway, I'd like to shed some light on a couple of the many leaf removing processes that I witnessed. Or at least the ones I photographed. Alas I didn't get any photos of the incredible Zeppelin Leaf Hoover as it hung awesomely over the metropolis.

The Spaceman method:

Futuristic back-mounted blowing device that also doubles as a jetpack in order to reach those annoying high up danglers.
(Non-Germans will greatly enjoy the Hasselhof poster)

The Hoover monster:

Orange truck pulls a trailer carrying a large robot (out of shot) possessing lengthy octopusesque arms that slither about on the street. Orange overall bedecked human drones busily brush stray leaves (and kittens) into wide funnels at the end of each arm. Terrifying.

Humour:

Part of a huge campaign to liven up the image of Berlin's street cleaning company, BSR. Occasionally quite funny in German, but this attempt at joking in English left me feeling confused and disoriented.

Westhafen - a barrel of laughs

Here's a photo I snapped on the bridge near Westhafen station at noon today.
Such a beautiful scene, so cosy and warming, and I wanted to capture the moment to show that special "welcoming" glow so typical of Berlin in November.
Gorgeous.

Leaves Left

It's autumn here in Berlin.
I can't speak for the rest of Germany (I don't have the correct forms from the Standesamt) but it's definitely autumn here.
Last night a real screamer of a wind storm was happening outside - had to turn the tv up to block it out - and this morning there are almost no leaves left on the trees.
Something like that could bring a modern city to a complete standstill, but here in Berlin those naughty leaves are dealt with most severely.

It's only noon and already the teams of men in orange overalls driving insectoid little orange street cleaning trucks have hoovered up the majority of the mess. The leaves that don't fit into the insect trucks are left in great piles at the ends of each street, to be collected later by much bigger orange mother trucks.
Bafflingly, the huge piles of leaves stay where they are despite the wind's attempts to redistribute them.
And why? Because the chaps in the orange overalls spray the leaves with magnetischerblattkleberspray (magnetic leaf glue spray).
Leaf chaos under control!