I have to spend this week at home. Sweetheart was at the dentist’s on Monday. Only to receive a call from said dentist (a friend of us) on Monday evening to be informed, that he (the dentist) tested positive for Covid 19. So sweetheart and I are quarantined until our own test results are in. Which we hope to be the case tomorrow.

We have separated as good as it is possible in our small living quarters to sit out the required three days of incubation period before a test is possible. I inhibit the living room, sleeping on the settee. Sweetheart stays in the office and bedroom. We still have to share kitchen and bathroom, but do so in turns. Both of us are well and I hope, the one hour treatment on Monday, where sweetheart’s dentist wore a face mask, a shield on top and gloves, didn’t lead to an infection. Meanwhile, the dentist – a friend of ours – fell ill, but only mildly so and can stay at home so far. To get tested, we had to stand in a long line for one and a half hour this morning in the freezing cold. I hope, we both are ok and I can return to work on the weekend. We’ll see.

As a result of this, sweetheart obviously could not look after his mom this week. So I ran all the errands, putting everything she needed in front of her door. Avoiding all contact until we are cleared. His mom is 93, so we want to keep her safe. But we have to keep her fed, too. And she needed a new stack of audio books out of the library. To stock up for the lock down time. She’s almost blind and listening to audio books is her favourite past time, ever since even the tv screen became obsolete to her.

This brought me to Tegel, a part of town, where the Humboldt Library is located right at lake Tegel. I arrived an hour before it opened, so I took a stroll on the lakeside to pass the time. And once again I was taken by the beauty of Berlin. You park your car in a busy high street and yet: you are only two corners away from nature and breathtaking sights. Have a look at Berlin’s own riviera on a drab Dezember morning this week: