Please, do come in - you're welcome!

You asked me to tell you how we live in Berlin now. 

Please, do come in – you’re welcome!

Oh, I’m sorry – I have totally forgotten that there are no electric bells beside the entrance door, and no name plates.

There is only a brass button – you press it, it purrs – and then you have to fight against the really heavy door.

If it is not after 6 pm, that is. Because then we have a problem, at least when you have forgotten your cell phone, and you came around spontaneously (if you have rung me up before, of course I will look down from the balcony). Decades ago there has been a concierge here (another vocation that almost became extinct!) who after a sharp glance let vistors in. But you came in the afternoon and now you are standing in the entrance hall of our house. 

An estate agent has told me that in the Bavarian Quarter of Berlin there existed a directive that the entrance hall for the staircase had to be built in marble. 

What I like is another directive that said that ‘even’ in the rooms of the servants there had to be a stove (that was not at all common in 1900 – when we looked for a flat in Berlin we sometimes saw tiny rooms formerly built for servants: the high walls were divided with a sort of intermediate floor – so that two servants could sleep on two levels one above the other).

Even though there are no bell plates next to the entrance door, you can find out on which floor we live: in the direction of the atrium you’ll find a big old wooden frame with carefully drawn names of the inhabitants. 

Yes, there are many: the house is built like a U – the front house and two wings, the rear buildings.

We live in the front house. When an unknown neighbour rang to fetch a delivered parcel and I introduced myself and said: “Sorry, I haven’t met you before”, he said apologetically: “I live in the rear building only”, and I asked quite aghast: “Why ONLY?” Today I know that the expensive flats are those in the front house, in the rear wings live young academics, artists and the janitor.

On the staircase of our house lies a thick carpet – so the sound of the steps are absorbed.

But let us take the elevator! I have the key for it and will come down. 

The elevator was built in 1900 – that was a special luxury at that time, in which the building tycoon Haberland built all the houses of the Bavarian Quarter – all equipped with electrical light (normal houses had gas), warm water and bathrooms – and it is said that the houses also had a central vacuum cleaner station, but that station I cannot discover ;-)

The elevator was modernized in 1977 –I feel a little bit ill at ease when I gaze at the metal plate which reads: “Dear user of the elevator! (…)  In case of an entitled emergency call with good cause  you will be connected with the control centre (…)” 

See, I wonder: Who decides what is ‘an entitlement with good cause’?

Member of The E.F.Benson Society

I didn’t tell you before – because I thought it somehow a bit – inappropriate maybe? – I, always moaning about the trials of our move to Berlin – had the cheek to jump a few days before the actual moving day into a plane and took a flight to London – to stay for 3 days…

But the event had been on my agenda for so long – even before I knew that we would ever move to Berlin!

Because 2010 was a Silver Jubilee Year.

I am a member of the E.F.Benson Society, which was formed 25 years ago “to celebrate and promote the life and works not only of E.F.Benson himself but also of his fascinating family.” The Silver Jubilee was held at St.Paul’s, by kind permission of the Dean and Chapter because Fred would often come to services there.

Only a jubilee – and only my adoration for Lucia (or Mrs. Emmeline Lucas) could call me to London admidst our move – “in the swim, Georgie, in the middle of things”. 

In St.Paul’s Evensong gave service to Leo the Great, but also, in the words of the Dean of St. Paul’s, the Rt. Rev. Graeme Knowles: “… so give joyful thanks to God for the happy contribution of E.F.Benson to our literary life. (…) most especially Mapp and Lucia, in whom we glimpse the comedy and tragedy of life gently evoked.”  

Those beautiful voices of the little choir boys – demurely but proud in their white over black acolyte dresses, the chorally rendered office from the Book of Common Prayer, the stern woman with the black and white robe with a sort of silver sword in her hand – all those rituals were very impressing. Not only the Dean but also two members of the E.F.Benson Society preached.

On the way to Dinner in the Guildhall (“Formal”) we lost our group, but after asking two true Londoners (“Come stay with us, Love!”) we found our way. It had been a cold beautiful frosty day in London, so at the Ladies Powder Room that meant: out of the boots, the leotards and into the silk stockings and High Heels,  the LBD and a pink stole. 

It was such a jolly evening, with interesting people – on the picture you see an American lawyer at my side, coming all the way from America to partake! On the other picture you see the Dean (who had just come back from America from a successful fundraising tour) and one of our Vice Presidents.

If I were a name dropper or had only a bit of Lucia’s snobbery in me I would have told you that among our Vice Presidents are The RT. Hon.The Lord St. John of Fawsley; The RT. Rev. Graeme Knowles, Armistead Maupin and Aubrey Woods. But like all the people in Riseholme or Tilling: that would not impress you much ;-)

I loved the formal dresses of the gents: two even had capes! I felt like Lucia, talking to such an illustre group! Miss Mapp was missing, and I could not detect Diva Plaistrow either, but Georgie Pillson must have been there.

I want to thank especially the Vice Chair and Secretary of the E.F.Benson Society, Allan Downend, for all his work and The Dodo, the E.F.Benson Journal. I will remember that day as a wonderful gem in a chain of very hectic ones!

Au reservoir! 

PS: info@efbensonsociety.org

"A new dress for Mrs. Bach"

The Bouquet residence. The lady of the house speaking. 


This one goes out to GeraldGee, whose wonderful
lucent paintings I fell in love with,
and whose witty cartoons always make me grin.


This is a new dress for Mrs. Bach -

 - it might make her a more affable person.

See: www.geraldgee.blogspot.com  under "Best Bike Yamaha XT"  Sunday 22, August 2010

Ah - and this practical yet elegant little device might change her whole household routine!