Paul Green visits.

It's now the end of July and I've moved out of my place in Huttenroderweg with Paula and Angeline. I've taken on a room in a shared flat not too far away with a guy from Australia and a girl from Austria - both seem like nice people with a similar sense of humour. I don't move into this flat until the 12th August so for the time being I am homeless. I've got places to stay though, James has gone away until the end of the month and Seb and Charlotte have also gone away on holiday for a few weeks and both have very kindly left me the keys to their flats. So I write this from the relative luxury of Seb and Charlotte's brand new massive sofa bed.

One of my best friends ever, Paul Green, has just been to visit me and we had such a good time. It was great to see Paul. Paul suffers from manic depression (I don't think he'll mind me writing this as he was diagnosed a few years ago and also he told a lot of people here that, in his own words, he has mind problems) and at the moment he has just come out of a long spell of depression and is in a manic stage. Paul and I have known each other since I was 19 which is nearly 11 years now and we've been through quite a lot together. We've had some absolutely amazing and magical times and we've also had some really shitty and frightening times together. This trip to Berlin can be counted amongst the amazing and magical times (as are most tbh)...we had such a laugh from the moment he arrived here holding a sick bag with my name on it in the air. He helped me out at Liquidation on Thursday night (which was one of the busiest ever), then we had a great day on Friday drinking and playing pool and giggling and singing and then on Saturday, Pete turned up with his band, 'Pete Bentham and The Dinner Ladies', so we hung out with Pete and co all night and watched them do really great gig.
By Sunday we were both pretty done in so we just hung out at my place and ate some proper food (not kebabs, not pizza, not ale) and then on Monday we pretty much done the same and then I put Paul on the bus to the airport in the afternoon. It was a bit of a whirlwind but it was so, so good to see him and I hope it happens again soon. He's a beautiful person. If you want to see around 600 photographs of Paul's visit, you can go on his facebook and have a look.

Last week I had the responsibility of finding the cast for a video shoot that James was directing for a band called Twin Atlantic. I had to muster up 20 people to fill out a Berlin street. In the weeks/days leading up to the shoot I had gathered up the troops and managed to get 20 of my friends to promise that they will be there at 7am on what could have been a cold and wet July morning. I was so, so worried in the days and hours leading up to the shoot because if the people didn't show up then the whole shoot would have been a disaster and I would have gotten into loads of shit. The night before I didn't sleep at all worrying about it. Anyway, I needn't have feared as on the morning of the shoot there were about 25 or so people that turned out for me and the weather was boss!! I'm hugely grateful to all those who came along and did such a good job!! It was, at times, very boring with lots of waiting around and it was so hot too, but everyone was totally awesome and I think overall, we all had a really good day. The shoot went well and we had a big ol' BBQ afterwards and then went down to the canal for a bit of Kubb.

Right now I'm going to crack on with recording and then I'm going to go on a bit of a bike ride alone. I think I gained about 5 stone in ale whilst paul was over and I've just watched The Fighter so I feel dead motivated.

Just information.

Time seems to move super-fast-warp-speed-turbo boost here. I think I'm 54 years old already. No, that's not true. Sometimes I feel like I'm 54 years old though. My liver in particular. A 54 year old tramp. It's impossible to stay sober in Berlin. If you really want to stay sober I've found the best way is to not leave your bedroom. At all. You have to stay in there. Even if you leave, there might be a flat mate with a bottle of wine or some beers. If you actually go outside the house then there's nothing down for you - you're going to be pissed within minutes. It's cheaper to buy a bottle of beer here than it is to buy a bottle of water. Anway, I'm being dramatic and of course you don't have to drink if you don't want to, it's just way easier to find yourself drinking if you are that way inclined.

I've been working with James a little bit the last month on a music video for a norwegian band called Katzenjammer. I've recently seen the final edit and it looks cracking! I'll stick it up here when it's ready. I was mostly preparing the sets for the shoot - drilling and hammering and painting and re-wiring stuff. Good fun though and it was great to work with and meet loads of boss people.

I played a gig a couple of weeks ago at a kindergarten. I was a bit sceptical at first but once the hangover had been shaken off and we started playing it was kind of amazing! The kids all wandered over to us like tiny zombies and we had layed down a load of percussion instruments on the floor for them to grab, which they did...they went mental!! It was boss! We're doing it again tomorrow afternoon and I'm really looking forward to it.

It's been nice playing more with Silent Sleep. We went to Trier last week and played a couple of gigs there. It was so nice to see Alex and Katrin and Marius and all of those guys again - they're some of the best people in the world and I'm glad I can call them friends. The gigs were great and we had about 47 laughs in total. One of the things I like best about playing with Silent Sleep is that we can pretty much turn up anywhere and do our normal set - we've done quite a few gigs in parks recently and it's so much fun. People just turn up with a bottle of wine and some butties or whatever...it's absolutely one of the most civilised things ever. I've been recording the 2nd part of the trilogy too. It's taken me way longer than I expected but only due to me being too easily distracted. I'm looking forward to finishing it and getting it out there. James is going to make a video for the song 'Love Never Lasts' which is going to be great. I think that song is my bleakest ever song. I enjoy playing it to the children in the kindergarten. It's a valuable lesson that needs to be learnt.

I have to move out of the place I've been staying in since March at the end of this month so I'm looking for new places. It's tricky though - I've sent SO many emails replying to ads and out of maybe 40 I've had 1 reply. Not panicking just yet though.