man-icure

today i found out that i could never have a man with bad nails – and this had nothing to do with this specific specimen cuddling the doors of the tube – it’s just terribly unaesthetic and rough and a total no no

sugarplum fairy

brunch à la berlin – take a sunny saturday morning, two friends and a small hidden-away treasure of a coffee shop – zuckerfee berlin – having lusted after a real great american breakfast for the better part of the last month, this was divine – sugarplum fairy, including pancakes with butter, blueberries and real canadian maple syrup, scrambled eggs and bacon, toast, hashbrowns and loads of fresh fruit – cute pink chairs with punched-out flower design, a charming waitress and an interior design to die for (violet walls and just enough kitsch not to be too much) – i must say, i am in love and lucky to be living half an hour by tube (about an hour on bike) away, otherwise i’d have to go every day and try all the other lovely ideas for a yummy breakfast and then i’d quickly only be able to roll back home

if you want to try for yourself, click on the logo and you’ll be directed to the homepage, where you can find the mouth-watering menu

a perfect way to start the weekend!

miss dior is …

french for happy-go-lucky – must buy immediately for carefree, summer-loving days in the city

wait a minute

she remind’s me of someone or something  – but i just can’t put my finger on what or who it is – can you?

oh, now i have it – the crazy sister from notting hill

shocking news

some things you just do not want to know – urgh, delete – delete – delete – delete – that’s all i can say

ps: category explanation – definitively NOT my date from hell – very much relieved about that!

last night…

… my notebook died on me – i am quite sad – it is like loosing a dear, dear friend – we’ve gone through so much together – my master’s thesis – three months berlin – seven weeks california adventures – many, many photos and music sessions and oh so much more – but then again, my extensa was quite sick in the end – many things that didn’t work quite right anymore and i was going to buy a new on quite soon anyways – now, i will cry a little and carry it to it’s grave – may you live in notebook heaven for eternity

que viva la noche

johnny, dear

add

plus

and you get

not only magically happy me, but also

looking very much forward to 2010 and johnny as mad-hatter in alice in wonderland – it’ll be a party! – and: would you like some tea?

steffi – just for you

happy unbirthday

spoiler alert – steffi don’t read!

some loves never die – they just grow weaker and are pushed aside by new loves -  but then something triggers the mind and it all comes back – harry, harry, harry, that’s all i can think of – or as shakespeare put it: cry “god for harry! england and saint george!” – bless the british, my literary heroes – shakespeare and j.k. got it damn right – harry, harry, harry

so, as you can guess quite rightly, i went to see the new harry potter tonight – two and a half hours of me being glued to the screen and not wanting it to stop, even though i knew the sad, sad ending it would take – after film five i wasn”t expecting much – that one not being my favourite, mainly because i also like that book least of them all – but this was no disappointment, only way too short and of course some of my favourite parts of the book were cut out, but some others, i’d been dying to see, were all there – hermione and the canaries – lovely – ron and the love potion – to die for – anyways, all the teenie-love-drama – a little bit american high school movie, but so very british and so very j.k. – you gotta love it

but there’s not only the mushy bits, there’s action and we’re back on some good quidditch scenes – there’s also scary parts and even if you know, what’s going to happen, you get freaked out at times – goosebumps, whole body goosebumps!

the magic bits are still as fascinating as ever – even harry still shows signs of amazement at all the things you can do with your wand, or should i put it differently – all the things dumbledore can do with his wand – one of my favourite scenes, when dumbledore puts right the demolished livingroom, slughorn’s been camping out in (by the way – a delightful plushy armchair with shoes said prof. s was just momen’s before) – anayways, harry watches in amazement and he wears chucks, he’s my hero!

alan rickman, as cool and delicious as always and i simply loved the tiny bits of foreshadowing  – if you know the books and know that he’s really the good guy (i hat to boast, but i’ve really known all along!), you’ll recognize the signs

harry, ron, hermione – daniel, rubert, emma – what can i say, they’ve grown up – it’s so amazing, how they’ve grown along with their characters and as always i feel like i want to board the hogwarts express and be there right alongside them – i think i’m a luna – god, i love her, she’s one of the greatest characters of the whole series and comes so well alive

regrets, i’ve had a few – but then too few to mention – just one, though – i missed neville – where was neville? – hardly in any scenes at all – not good – maybe in the take-outs – have to see the take-outs

so, that’s all for now – i am still over-whelmed and will be half-living in the magic world for the next couple of days – but big plans ahead – come next autumn and the first big stormy nights, it’s me and harry and loads of food in my apartment for three days and seven books

one more night

naked truth

first rays of sunshine alight on the city and people forget to put on clothes – they dress to impress with less – and a variety of people show it all – in tiergarten it’s nude party time and no one seems to care – there’s some pretty sights and some not so pretty and all of that right in the middle of the city, with cars going by and tourists from around the world gawking and sometimes even (most oblique of course) even taking photos – c’est la vie en berlin

smell ya later

the world is full of smells and there’s nothing as smelly as a large city – not all bad smells, but a great variation of smells of all kinds – i wish i could forward you some samples, but since internet is not yet that far developed, a good description will have to suffice – so, here goes – a smelly journey through the city

we start out in berlin mitte, the sun is warm on the asphalt and the tourists smell of sunscreen and sweat – the smell of summer vacation – on to tiergarten – fresh green smells, mowed grass and a variety of flowers – the wood of a newly repaired bridge gives of a strong pine aroma, overlaying the yucky smell of piss and moldy water from the little pond below

on it goes from tiergarten back into the city – a hot summer smell – dried, almost burned  grass and hot stones, in between the buildings – it smells like childhood to me – i can’t exactly say why – a patch of lavender gives of a delicious fragrance reminding one of summers in the provence and romantic sunsets

a swift shower leaves the streets wet and smelling deliciously like summer – there’s nothing nicer than summer rain – gentle and cooling and scenting the warm asphalt with a smell that everyone knows and adores – on one corner, a short whiff of cinnamon – churros, it’s just a fleeting moment and makes my mouth water, then it’s back to sewage

the next corner brings grill fat and french fries from a gay bar, which drifts down the street with me towards home, before the final smell of the day makes me hungry for supper – the bakery ’round the corner, where i get my croissants in the morning and where every evening the breads and buns give off an odour to die for

living on the edge

art is everything – everything is art – these two brazilian brothers took that wisdom quite literally and are now living on a wall in downtown rio – me thinks, pretty cool

and a very good reason for a classic sing along song for today

leggins – in-style

leggins are god’s invention for people who want to wear tights and still show off their new sandals – but leggins are the in-clothes of the summer, so i want some – in black and blue and white and maybe red? – even if they work to make my legs look very much to their disadventage, i want some!

now, don’t go thinking, i don’t have any work to do – i do, but sometime you just gotta jot down your immediate thoughts before they vanish off the surface of the brain

but the photo-search-marathon has to wait until tonight – so, check back later for some pretty and not-so pretty photos of girls (maybe guys as well, it’ll be a surprise;) in leggins

so, here goes

so, there were really more photos of men in leggins to be found than female – shocking! – please let me know, what you think of this whole trend – like it or not – and which one’s your favourite – cookies to anyone who guesses mine

good morning, berlin

it is a shame to be at the office on such a beautiful friday morning – the sun is shining and the city’s alive – early on my way to work, i feel like singing and dancing and then find a cozy little cafe wich serves a croissant and hot coffee for breakfast – preferably somewhere near the spree and a good book and i’d be as happy as can be – well, there’s always tomorrow and that is WEEKEND – yay!

baby boom

it is not just me – everyone else noticed as well – there are more pregnant women these days and usually ready to pop out a baby or two – since we’ve not been able to determine a blackout or similar happening in novemer, we’re sure it’s a regular baby boom and we’re proud! – we need babies and babies are adorable, if sometimes smelly and annoyingly loud! – i’ve begun counting pregnant women and so far friday’s been the best day: at least ten of them during a two hour visit to the outdoor pool – sunday and today it’s been three to four and i’ll keep on counting – there’ll be an update if the magic ten is topped

shakespeare # 7 – summer edition

just so

flying visit of príncipe encantado in berlin – old feelings? – yes, a little, but much more just feeling good about it and having a nice day – summer in the city indeed – work is work and fun is fun – combination of both and someone beautiful and nice visiting is just perfect – a picnic at the spree, a walk around the sights – then back to work and coping with the frightfully difficult task of  forgetting about barbaro -who’s beahving more barbaro each day, if you can call whatever he’s doing behaving at all – anyways, some things are nice and best enjoyed as they come along

chaos week

it’s fashion week in berlin – it’s session week at the bundestag in berlin – but it’s also chaos week in my life – where to start? – between my mom going missing, work being simply to crazy for words and the abso-fuckin’-lutely hot weather, it’s hard to chose

so, let’s make a list of all the crazy, bad things that happened to me this week and then you can judge for yourself, wether i was jinxed or what’s been going on

1. crazy work
2. my mom going missing
3. hot, hot, hot
4. an in the middle of it all i find myself dancing in the rain
5. chaos with berlin s-bahn
6. train chaos – sudden track change 3 minutes before train’s supposed to leave – a man with a heart-attack, then going fast, fast, faster – hang on, slow, slow, slower? – that’s not right! – a broken engine (had to go to priort – where the f*** is priort? – to switch to the other engine) – then, after already 40 minutes delay, we stopped for a regio train of all things – crazy world
7. my cell phone display is broken – i can still call people, but only those, whose number i know by heart – no, it really was lucky i kept my old cell phone and i was home in göttingen for the weekend
8. a bird dropped it’s shit on me
9. somehow i managed to be at the train station an hour early – stupid me, completely unnecessary – i could have added an extra hour of afternoon nap

well, so far for all the major things that have happend, but as the week draws to it’s close, luck seems to change – i did get all my tube connections in berlin without having to wait one minute (something that never ever ever occured to me before anywhere int he world) – so i take this as a sign that luck indeed changed and that a week of chaos is followed by a week of luck and perfect happiness – i shall let myself be surprised by all the wonderful things that are sure to happen