crystals © Lilly Schwartz

As so often on weekends, I didn’t really go out on Sunday. I often prefer to just sit, watch something and have my peace and quiet. Since I’ve been feeling a bit rough these last few days thanks to an approaching cold I also didn’t go to tango. Another reason to just stay in the warmth of my flat and have a good meal as the real highlight of the day. After all temperatures are falling to 0°C and it’s uncomfortable outside. By Sunday night I had run out of my usual snacks and was rummaging through the kitchen to find something sweet. No gummibears, no strange fruit lying around, I even had run out of juice. Finally I remembered that I still had a banana.

I didn’t used to like bananas much. The reason is probably that I come from East Germany. Let me explain: Before the German reunification bananas were special in the East, you just couldn’t get them easily without queuing for hours. I even vaguely remember that my dad and my brother once had the most awful canteen lentil soup – gooey brown stuff that I also remember with horror from kindergarten days – just for the banana that came with it. However, once the wall came down and bananas were everywhere I think my parents got a bit overzealous. They gave us bananas every day, until I personally couldn’t see them anymore. After I moved out I never bought bananas for about 4 years. I sometimes would eat one if I was visiting my parents or if my boyfriend had bought some, but I never had enough of a craving to buy them myself.

I think that only changed when fruit became somewhat more special for me. That was the case after I first moved to England and I found myself with too little money. Sure, I could have asked my parents to give me more, but I was too proud and I also wanted to see whether I could handle it myself. It definitely meant to cut down on stuff like more special fruit. Instead of eating raspberries or mango, I had to make do with clementines and bananas. I even realised that I quite like bananas again. I’ve eaten a lot of bananas in the last 4 years. During that time I was also a bit surprised to find out that bananas in England are actually much better than the ones they sell in Spain. However, here in Germany the only problem I have with them is that they are not always sweet enough, especially if they’re not quite ripe. Usually it’s fine, but on Sunday I found myself putting sugar on my banana to make it sweeter. In retrospect I find that incredibly odd, since I never put sugar on anything. I must indeed be ill or something.

That I almost never use sugar was probably the reason why the sugar in the dispenser was one rock solid block now with sugar clinging to sides of the container. I had to use considerable force to loosen it up a bit. After I succeeded and enjoyed my banana I realised that the sugar crystals on the sides of the dispenser actually would make an interesting abstract macro. Lucky me, even my daily picture didn’t keep me from staying in the warmth!