a day to remember

today has been an awesome day – full of sunshine in every way – and this is to remember it by – sunshine, funshine, sunshine

looking up

don’t be sad now, there’s always something to look up for

whether ’tis the bright and beautiful autumn sun or the colorful plenitude of the leaves above, the endless twinkling of the stars or a stormy wilderness of clouds about to spill rain or thunder, snow or hail, there’s always something there for you

lazing on a sunday afternoon

I go out to work on a Monday morning
Tuesday I go off to honeymoon
I’ll be back again before it’s time for Sunny-down,
I’ll be lazing on a Sunday afternoon
Bicycling on every Wednesday evening
Thursday I go waltzing to the Zoo
I come from London town, I’m just an ordinary guy,
Fridays I go painting in the Louvre
I’m bound to be proposing on a Saturday night (There he goes again)
I’ll be lazing on a Sunday (oooo)
lazing on a Sunday (ooooo)
lazing on a Sunday Afternoon.

sunny afternoon

i think it is about time for another update of life – if it were just as easy as updating your computer, that would be nice – well, my life is not as easy as that, my life is a rollercoaster (gee, gotta stop speaking in song titles, that is so annoying) – anyways, my life at the moment consists of juggling two jobs, theater (where i always do more than originally planned), a phd and being kind of still sick

being sick is getting better, but there are days when i lack all efficiency and all energy to get up and go about my chores – and then there’s days where i jump out of bed and do the duracell bunny without stopping until i hop back into bed – that’s somehow unnerving because it’s neither here nor there

then there’s the two jobs – seriously, needing money is such a drag – but four months of not earing any money, traveling in england and living in berlin, left a black hole in my finances and so i am trying to get that filled in – it is a dreary task – but at least one job includes a trip to berlin next week (plus one more later this months or next) and is fabulously paid – and the other – as much as i’d love to say, same old, same old because it sounds cool, it is also pretty exciting to say it’s not same old, same old

it’s much better new, much better new – i am not so much bothered anymore by things that have bothered me before and there is loads of cake to go around whenever i work and, to tell the truth, it is not the cake i baked, but cake others provide for me – lovely – still not my long over-due birthday-chocolate-delight, but cake nevertheless – i am just not sure if the motto “carola’s flowers grow at cron & lanz” (http://www.cronundlanz.de/) is something i really like getting around – it seems rather presumptuous, doesn’t it? – but then, i do like cake

and i also like red clover schnaps, which we had yesterday – self-picked and self-distilled red clover schnaps – it sounds fancy, but it tastes very much exactly like it did when you sucked the little bit of sweet honey-stuff out of the clover flowers when you were a kid, which i am sure you did – we all did!

result of red clover schnaps was my being very happy indeed and going ’round hugging and kissing everyone, even at the theater – it really was a blast, as no one usually gets that much cuddling from me, usually only special people, not just everyone – but yesterday – yesterday i loved everyone

and i am getting married – or not and still have a fabulous party? – well, that is another story and shall be told another time – for now, let us enjoy the sunny afternoon

©2009 =Leonidafremov

a leaf

london

christmas shopping in london – here i come – i love cheap ryanair flights – o my, booked without luggage again, just carry-on – ah well, it’s winter, i’ll just bundle up and wear a whole lot of layers – it’ll be fantastic – hope it snows

foot of the mountain

g

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g

they were right – berlin’s got mountains – yesterday i climbed the great bunkerberg in friedrichshain and today it was the original kreuzberg – well, more hills than mountains, but who’d have thought? – this truly is summer in the city and all for no money and on a weekday like this even without so many sun-crazy working berliners like it would be on a weekend – really, this city has too many nice places for me, i could chill someplace different every day, but the waterfalls at kreuzberg, alongside the landwehrkanal are my favourites – you can guess why – of course, water and my feet in cool, fresh water – ahhhh, sigh, almost as good as walking barefoot on fresh green gras – almost!

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

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!

summer breeze

with príncipe socorrido off sick – assumably with swine flu, i was next in line for a special treat last night – an exclusive dinner with important people from all over the world – i was the least important, only the little intern, but i enjoyed it so much – i met so many interesting people and it felt very nice to be talking in english again for a change

so, we took a bus to the wannsee, south of berlin and then moved on to be shipped across the lake in the “royal louise”, an exact replica of the ship that used to take five generations of royal prussians around the potsdam lake systems – fancy that add champagne and sunshine and you get one happy me

we landed at the villa thiede – right next to villa liebermann (where max liebermann lived and painted, probably my favourite “der papageienmann” as well – link, link, link – there it was dinner music, more champagne, some speeches by people i am still amazed at having now actually met in person and a rather nice dinner with bbq, salad, lemon butter and bread, sweet little nothings for desert and a choice of red and white wines – at ten o’clock the bus took us back to berlin and me, intoxicated with the day’s events into bed, where i slept soundlessly for the first time in days

spotted

gesine schwan, having lunch with her husband at the spree canal on this incredibly hot and humid day in the city

happy birthday, germany

yesterday was a day to celebrate for almost anyone in germany – wolfsburg is football champion – horst köhler is still president and germany turned 60 – so, berlin was one huge party, which i reluctantly attended due to my hatred of large gatherings of regardless, ignorant and hopelessly proletarian people, shoving their way through and not caring on who’s foot they step or which body they elbow – and it was good, apart from the people you always get – the large families, thinking just because they herd three small kids through the crowd, they’re allowed to push through with their bikes – the nasty smiling pretty girls who don’t seem to sweat even as the sun burns down from the sky – the drunk idiots who simply want trouble – but they weren’t many and the day was beautiful, the mood over-whelming friendly and the entertainment quite good

we got there a just as thomas gottschalk walked over the bridge between the two main stages and i got a couple of good shots – unfortunately we were far away from the stage, trying to get a good look at all the stands, when kathi witt (and other sports idols) were there – damn, i want to meet kathi witt – hero of my childhood, who’d keep me glued to the tv, when i was just three years old – http://teacaro.wordpress.com/2009/01/14/girl-skates/

then pur played some songs and it was rather nice – hm, i’d like a concert in that location every week or so – there’s nothing better than a blue sky, an amazing location and catchy sing-along tunes that everybody knows

i missed out on beethoven, but the day had wornd me out and so i made my way home and enjoyed beethoven’s 9th on tv with a cool drink and chocolate, whilepainting my toenails – that’s the way to celebrate your saturday

sommer is coming

time for new memories

sunshine …

… and no worries – not even a nasty pushpin in my bike’s backtube and a resulting flat tire could bring me down today – it’s springtime and it’s lovely and the sun shines and i am happsy happy happsy

in love with a dress

ah, if only i were rich and foolish enough to spend so much on clothes – if only – this would be my summer favourite – vivienne westwood anglomania atlantic sunday dress – if only – love, love, love

daffodils

i just feel like reciting poetry – pretty poetry – and this one, well-known as it is, is rather my favourite among all the romantic poems in the whole wide world and i really do know it all by heart -  i can’t wait for spring to peek around the corner and spread it’s loveliness across the land

Daffodils by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
and twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
in such a jocund company:
I gazed – and gazed – but little thought
what wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

last skating news

too showy, too flashy – fun, but that’s not what skating is all about – just too much – the romance is missing – he’s a show-off and skating is about grace and beauty and not about bragging what you can do, even if you can do it easily – ladies and gentlemen, as the last of my skating posts reaches it’s end, i present to you evgeni plushenko with an incredible performance – don’t laugh too hard ;)

shocking skating news

tennant trivia:

David Tennant hates ice-skating. For his ITV 1 drama Secret Smile he was required to skate, and kept falling over and bruising himself.

this is somewhat shocking, as is the film itself – david as a psychopath guy who drives a girl into suicide – ahhh, he’s still oddly attractive, but a lot more scary than i have ever seen him before, even more creepy than barty crouch jr. in harry potter and that’s saying something! – but here’s some photos of him skating nevertheless

and tomorrow – for my final skating post, you’ll get something to laugh…

girl skates

kathi witt – o, how i loved  her, when i was just a little girl – her ability to fly over the ice, pirouette like crazy and the eccentric costumes, she always wore set her apart from all the other girl skaters

o, and a little update on my skating skills – i am getting the hang of going backwards – it’s fun – more news tomorrow, along with a really shocking little peace of skating info

not bad at all

next to elvis, he’s one of my favourite skaters – he has this boyish charme that makes his performances absolutely fun to watch – and his feud with plushenko is just too good for words – ladies and gentlemen i give you alexei yagudin

and look forward to a jump back in time tomorrow – i’ll be introducing the girl, who kept me glued to the tv even as a four-year-old