Finally! Stu finishes his 3 months probation at his new job and can take some holiday leave! Unfortunately, his probation ends the week before my university year starts... But that's ok, I'm going to completely abuse the purpose of my reading week in November. Instead of spending the week doing study, we're going to Berlin! Why? All that history aside, it's the only place in Europe I can see a real live Panda at the Berlin Zoo http://www.zoo-berlin.de/! On a more serious note, it's also one of the places my Grandmother stopped in, as a prisoner of the Germans, on the way to labour camps. She remembers the train doors sliding open, and amidst fighting for food and water, observing the German women in floor length fur coats, warm against the bitter cold of winter, while she and the other prisoners has no shoes or coats, and huddled together for the warmth to survive. She also remembers Berlin at the end of the war, on the way to a Red Cross camp. The same women were trying to trade their fur coats for food, any food... Funny how the value of an item can alter so radically.