You should never meet your heroes

But it's great to meet people who you kind of think are great.

Last night we went to see Fran Healy of the Scottish band, Travis play a benefit concert for the Berlin Kids International School. A few of my friends came along and a friend of Stevie's from work came with his brother and their girlfriends. It was a great night. We all felt desperately old as we walked in and were all muttering "it's a bit dark, isn't it? We'll need a torch to find the toilets", though in fact we did adjust to the light, or lack thereof, in time to find the toilets. On my way back who should I meet on the stairs but Fran Healy himself who said "Hey!" to me. If I was a little more star-struck, I'd say WOW! and say it made my night, but you know, I didn't even realise it was him until a split-second afterwards. So at least I didn't say anything moronic back.

Someone who also wasn't star-struck, but quite tickled was Stevie, who on meeting his friend from work's brother couldn't help but think he recognised his voice. And it turns out, that it's a voice he is very familiar with and hears every day of the week on his way to and from work, because he's the Asia correspondent on BBC World News. Anyway, keep your ears open as I asked him to give Stevie a mention "... and coming up next it's the latest Asia Business Report going out especially to Stevie in Berlin".... or maybe not.

Hamish meanwhile was back at the house honing in his womanising skills with our new babysitter who's a rather stunning 18 year old. I knew he was keen on her after 2 minutes as the giveaway symptom was him rolling around on the floor making kind of crazy noises and rolling his eyes. It's what he does when he feels there's a bit too much emotion in the room, except the direction of the emotion in this instance was coming from him. He went from that to full scale showing off, and was busy showing her all his best body parts when I went through to get him to brush his teeth. When I was done he asked me whether I thought she liked kisses. I said she probably did, as most girls usually do, though perhaps he should ask her. So this morning he told me that he had asked her and then kissed her, and then told her he couldn't sleep on his own and managed to talk her into lying beside him in bed. I'm not sure if all his lines will work as well when he's 18 (Though I'm pretty sure "I'm a little bit Spiderman" will win most women over) but he's got enough time to practise.

So everybody had a lovely night :-)

How to prepare a hearty meal...

Mostly I go food shopping on a Friday evening to one of the big supermarkets where I can get pretty much everything I need. If I want fish I usually go to the market, and if I run out of something and need it desperately for the dinner I am making I tend to dash round the corner to Nah und gut.

I've never been able to work out what Nah and gut's criteria is for product selection is. It's always struck me as a wee bit odd. But I suppose I've never really thought about it that hard. I go in, spot Hob Nobs and just think 'oh, that's a funny one-off product to have in. I wonder if that got sent to them in error'. Because Nah und gut's food section often seems like a whole bunch of incongruous stuff that have accidentally been sent to Berlin instead of Burnley and these strange one-off boxes have ended up in Edeka, where the products haven't been able to sell, and have been sent on to Nah und gut as a last resort before it goes into a skip out the back. Because the other thing about it is that products come and go. One week they will have 30 great big bars of Cadbury's Dairy Milk, and then you won't see that again for a month or two; another time it might be really odd looking Russian biscuits; and the next time maybe it will be Rocky Mountain marshmallows (both regular & mini) or Strawberry Fluff.

One time I had been out all day with the kids and got home at 6pm to discover that I didn't have anything in for dinner. So I nipped round to Nah und gut quickly to get something. As I recall, it was a night when Stevie was playing football so generally he likes to have something hearty and full of carbs and protein. Our local Nah und gut stores all their meat and chicken in an ice-cream style freezer (you know the ones with the slidey-tops that you have to lean into?) , and there's never exactly tons to choose from as there is only one shelf. Anyway on this occasion I got there and all they had were 5 little boxes of quails eggs.

Today I went in to pick up something I'd forgotten at the weekend, and as I walked past the meat fridge I peered in. This time they had packs and packs of chicken hearts - CHICKEN HEARTS! What do you even do with chicken hearts?

So I finally did a search on Nah und gut and discovered (I think - from translating the garbled translation that Google kindly provided me with) that Nah und gut try to provide specialist food catering for the tastes of their local community. So the bigger question is, what kind of people am I living amongst??????

(Incidentally, I went on to the BBC Food website where you can enter an ingredient and find recipes. Should you be salivating at the thought of chicken hearts you might fancy one of their suggestions which actually calls for 12 duck hearts: Salad of duck livers and hearts, snails and bacon with a dandelion and apple salad. ) I know I should be more adventurous, but if it's alright with you I'll pass on the duck livers, duck hearts, snails and bacon, and dandelions and just have the apple thanks.

Hands up if you want me to post you some!

Do you remember just over a year ago when Kraft foods took over Cadbury's? Everyone was worried about the outcome for Cadbury's with union bosses prophetsising factory closures and job losses. One year on, and there is still concern for both jobs and factories. (See links below for further info)

Kraft also own Milka. Milka is lovely. You more than likely know that because you can get it everywhere. Only people like Stevie who neither eat chocolate nor give shop shelves more than a passing glance would not be aware of it's existence. (Though who knows, maybe there are places outside Europe that you can't get it. I wonder, is there any airport in the world where you can't buy a Toblerone?). Anyway, back to Milka...

Well, of course, sometimes not everything turns out well. We tend to dislike the idea of big companies like Kraft coming along and tampering with our Milka bars and our Dairy Milks. Kraft just don't have the right to play God when it comes to our chocolate products. Did you click the link? Did it make you feel just a little bit sick? I saw a massive billboard with that advertised on it, and it literally made my stomach turn. Though from scouting around the internet for images, it certainly gets a lot of positive reviews.

I wouldn't like to think that one day I might buy a Creme Egg or 12, only to discover that they were filled with a mix of fondant and cream cheese. There's a chance the shock could kill me before the sugar rush. But, have you seen the pictures? Have you gazed longingly at what I found in the shops? It seems like a genetically engineered dream! A cross between a Creme Egg and a Milka bar! And the box! How...just...'delightful' is that? I think I love everything from the eating guidelines, to the 2 little plastic spoons. Though I can't work out if that means you are meant to share with someone else and eat 2 in one sitting, or whether the spoons are flimsy and getting through all 4 will cause you to snap your spoon in reckless abandon!

I bought these for my neice to whom at Christmas I gifted a year of chocolate. Each month I try and find her something different that she might never have tried from 'over here' and send it with a different Berlin postcard and a little note. The trouble is, that these are meant for March - it's not that long since I sent February's, and I was fearful that they might not survive when I knew where I had hidden them. So I bought another box. The kids and I will road test them, just to make sure they are not off or anything.

Now you could look at the links below, or you could just scroll back up and lick the screen.

• Cadbury's Chairman speaking about the takeover - (BBC News)


• The founder's great-great-grandaughter talking on the Today Programme about 'the horror story' (BBC)


• The Kraft/Cadbury takeover - 1 year on. (BBC News)