The place they call our own

We're back in Berlin. This time around (as probably almost every other time) our flat felt huge, empty and lonely after spending two and a half weeks living with my parents in Novosibirsk. We had a really great time and we (the adults) are in need of a massive diet. People keep feeding us so many yummy things that our iron will couldn't resist!

Generally we had a very good and relaxing time. The only downside to the trip was that parent's cat Sommerset got scared a lot and hissed often at Tim. So now Timmy is a little scared of some things that he wasn't scared of before - mainly anything involving sudden loud noises. We really hope this passes soon.

Some of the things we got up to:
- Tim went for lots of walks with Mum and Dad, and really enjoyed digging in piles of snow with a shovel
- we celebrated Mum's 60th, my brother Gleb's 21st and my uncle Yakov's 75th birthdays
- Gleb (who is getting married this summer!) taught me how to make sushi - very very cool
- I met up with a few good school friends
- we brought home about 20kgs of old parents' books (mainly Russian classics) and there's still more that I'd like to have here in Berlin
- Jack fixed parents' kitchen sink
- we all played cards on a few evenings and perfected our "500" skills. Usually it was Mum and me (Titans) vs. Jack and Dad (Giants)
- spent a couple of evenings drinking beer with Gleb in a nice little pub 'Garage' across the street (they have actual cars strapped up to the ceiling and the whole place done up in old Rockabilly style)
- flights there and back were really good and on the last leg of the journey (Moscow to Berlin) Tim kept playing peekaboo with a little girl on the seat behind us :)

Some photos...