Facts

...as seen at Alice in Astonishland...decided it's a great way to spend another hour not doing any uni- or housework ;-)

Do you know already what to wear tomorrow?
yes, I always plan that in advance, for special events I even make little sketches...and end up wearing a scarf in sunshine and shorts in a storm but in England that doesn't matter too much

What is on your left and on your right?
left: empty breakfast plate, right: packet of biscuits

Who did you kiss last?
some poeple will now be digusted but: my cat on the head

Last time you had alcohol?
a beer after dinner on thursday

Do you like the tooth paste you currently use?
Sensodyne hasn't got an amazing taste but it makes it possible for me to eat ice cream without any pain


When do you get up in the mornings?
varies...normally between 8-9 o' clock

Dog or cat?
cat! Hate the typical dog smell...


Fried egg or scrambled egg?
scrambled


All your first and second names?
only have one which makes me feel a bit "naked" in the UK

How many sinks do you have in your flat/house?
one in my flat, 3 in our house

Which colour is the nail varnish you wear right now?
a warm lilac from Nails Inc.

What did you eat last?
toasted fruit loaf with butter and a pear for breakfast

Do you like drinking milk?
not really...I can but prefer it used in something

How often do you clean your teeth?
Honest? I know the better the best but I'm happy if I manage 2x a day

Favourite subject in school?
Art, German


How many plants do you have in your room?
right now in the living room, two small cyclamen

Last word you have said?
"Tiggy"...I was talking to the cat ;-)


Last person you had an argument with?
hmm...my husband


Advise you would give to your younger self?
don't worry about being single, you WILL find someone eventually. And go to see doctors more regularly so you won't end up being scared of them later.

How old were you when you learned how to make chewing gum bubbles?
primary school...with pink Americans bubble gum

Favourite profession as a child?
vet, palaeontologist, interior designer, theatre manager


What can you laugh about most?
silly situations...Fawlty Towers, Black Books, Blackadder, Hennes Bender.

If you could pick an instrument which you could play, which one would it be?
piano or guitar as they are most versatile...but the melancholic in me loves cello too.

What do you do when you're angry?
losing myself in a wave of self-pitying...and writing complaint emails

Favourite desert?
depends how hungry I am. Raspberry jelly? Mousse au chocolat? Tarte tartin?

Favourite pizza?
anything with spinach and pepperoni

Would you like to be able to read minds or become invisible?
don't want to know what people think but always have dreamed of having Harry Potter's invisibility cloak. I could travel for free, go to the most dangerous places without any risks, have lunch with the Queen and sleep next to Colin Firth ;-)


If you would have one wish free...
health for my family and me

Do you have pets?
yes, a cat. As a child I had budgies, a canary, guinea pigs, a rabbit, hamsters and a cockatiel

Google or yahoo?
google, at least 30 times a day

Cocktail or icecream?
like both but the ice cream is a bit more suitable for everyday life

Are you funny?
I think so...but I must be in the right mood for it.

Are you happy or sad right now?
neutral


Shopping or being online?
shopping online ;-)?


Would you describe yourself as mad?
yes, in a fun way. But on top I definitely have issues with which I should see a psychiatrist one day...

Monday or friday?
as a student with a shift working husband and retired parents that doesn't make any difference

School or work?
never have worked and really enjoyed going to school so the first

Which languages do you speak?
German, English, mediocre French, a liiiittle bit of Finnish. On my to-do-list: Italian.

Tea or coffee?
both and lots of it


Landline or mobile?
mobile...but I hate making phonecalls and try to avoid it as much as I can

Email or text?
email, doesn't cost and is more flexible

Where would you like to be right now?
quite content right now...if I would have to be somewhere else: Paris, Quartier Latin.

You enjoy doing sports?
no, but at least I'm trying to run every now and then now...

Do your family and friends know that you blog?
yes, it's all linked to my Facebook page


City or country?
grown up in the city, lived in a village, now close to a town...it all has it's advantages and disadvantages. Right now I'm happy to be out a bit with all things within easy reach.


Horrorfilm or romance?
romance...even slightly scary things seem to disturb me a lot


Which animal would you like to be?
not sure...never thought about

Leafy tree or christmas tree?
Leaves in all forms and colours

Do your make-up products look like they get used?
not really...have too many to really make them look used

Do you like eating unhealthy stuff?
who doesn't ;-) ?!


Which car would you like to drive?
don't give a shit...to drive a car at all would bean amazing achievement first.

What would you like to grow in your garden?
I already have loads of the things growing that I always wanted (e.g. a Ginkgo tree, a trumpet vine, a white climbing rose, a witch hazel and a whole collection of geraniums). What is next on my list is a multi-coloured climbing rose called "Maequerade"

Sea or pool?
sea to be near but pool for actually going in

Gibt es intelligentes Leben? von Dieter Nuhr

(as the book is in German and written by a Comedian only known in Germany I thought it makes sense to switch to German for this)(<--should use Thesaurus to stop over using th "G" word here ;-))

Ja, es gab Zeiten da habe ich Dieter Nuhr mal sehr gemocht. Ich war 2002 bei einem seiner Auftritte und fand ihn grandios. Lustig, intelligent, die richtige Dosis an Boesartigkeit und gut ausgesehen hat er dazu auch noch.
Er wurde immer populaerer und tauchte ueberall im Fernsehen auf (und das ist selbst mir aufgefallen die an sich kaum TV schaut). 2009 war ich dann erneut bei einer seiner Shows und fand es ok, aber merkte das sowohl er als wohl auch ich mich veraendert hatten. Ich fand ihn zu politisch, langsam und dieses staendige in sich reinkichern weil der eigene Witz grad so lustig ist hatte mich nur noch genervt....

www.amazon.de

In der Buecherei griff ich dann vor kurzem zu einem seiner "Werke" als leichte Lektuere fuer zwischendurch. Wie gut das es nur ausgeliehen war...
Er geht der Frage nach intelligentem Leben Kapitel fuer Kapitel nach, aber es ist kein roter Faden zu erkennen. Gespickt ist das ganze mit willkuerlich ausgewaehlten Urlaubsfotos von Herrn Nuhr selber.
Klar, wenn man mir eine Weltreise sponsort und organisiert dann wuerde ich auch "hier" schreien und das danach dann gern in einem wirren Buch verwursten. Manche Gedankengaenge sind intelligent, manche sogar lustig aber vieles ist einfach vorhersehbar und beschraenkt sich auf Plattitueden (Amerikaner sind doof, Bayern essen gern Schweinebraten, Oesterreicher sind gaenzlich gaga...wobei, letzteres vielleicht doch gar nicht so ...lassen wir das ;-)). Er spielt sich selbst als unheimlich intelligent und philosophisch auf und ist es letztendlich nicht. Ausserdem finde ich es teilweise ziemlich billig und unverschaemt wie er ablaestert und der Welt seine Weisheiten aufzwingen will (z.B. dicke Menschen haben keine Disziplin - er sieht nur so rank und schlank aus weil er sich zusammenreissen kann - woooow).
Insgesamt eine langatmige Lektuere die mich endgueltig von Dieter Nuhr kuriert hat. Vielleicht irgendwann mal wieder, wenn er medial weniger praesent ist und eine grosse Portion Selbstironie in sich reingefressen hat...gaenzlich undiszipliniert.

e.l.f. Make-up Mist &Set

As promised I will start reviewing the tons of products I bought in my recent e.l.f.-haul (look here).

First: the "Make-up Mist&Set "which promises to "keep your makeup in place all day with a radiance boosting invisible hold.". Hmmm...

 I have used it several times now and still have no real opinion on this. It is a nice fresh and neutral smelling spray. It refreshes...but keeping the make-up in place? I think they are promising a bit much there. Due to the pump mechanism it doesn't spray very fine and even so you have to be careful not to end up with a tear like effect. I will happily use it up as I like face sprays in general (like e.g. the Evian one) but I'm not convinced that this is a necessary product. and worth the 3,50£ (but with all the special deals on their website you hardly ever pay the full price).

www.elf-kosmetik.de

mirror mirror...

...on the wall..NO...on the window sill! A teeny weeny detail and absolutely and completely insignificant, but: Going past English houses you see the back of small standing up mirrors in so many windows. Is the view so ugly that it is the better option to admire yourself? Or are they such make-up freaks that only the sunlight will do? Mysterious...

PS: And yes I am still alive and have tons of half-ready blog posts waiting...just life is coming into the way at the moment...be patient, thank you :-)

Papa-paparazzi

better late than never, Miss Winkelmann's Blogstoeckchen about the world of read carpets and yellow press. 

Do you have a favourite celeb? If yes, who is it?
I have actors/singers/artists/etc. that I like but I don't have favourite people that are simply famous like Paris Hilton or Katie Price...urrrgh. There should be at least some sort of achievement.

Favourite actor/actress?
not really have "the one" but: Colin Firth, Scarlett Johansson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Bill Nighy, Jeremy Northam

Favourite athlete?
in my opinion they all are a bunch of useless overpaid idiots...you could say I'm not into sports I guess ;-)

anyone else?  
all European Royal families! Especially the Windsors of course :-)

Do you follow celeb gossip?
yes, I have to confess that I read bild.de every day

Do you collect autographs?
if I get one, yes. But my collection consists nearly only of German musical singers

Does it make you happy/sad when something good/bad happens to your favourite star? 
Sometimes...I felt for Liam Neeson when his wife died as it was so similar to what happened to his character in "Love actually". And e.g. Lilly Allen and her miscarriages...sad.

Which famous people have you met yet?

This is going to be a very colourful mix in no particular order:

Dalai Lama, Bob Dylan, Orlando Bloom, Michael Ballack, Erol Sander, Mario Adorf, Angela Merkel, Horst Koehler, Michail Gorbatschow, and loads of German TV and News people

Favourite star from your childhood?

Michel aus Loenneberga (and he still is very dear to me), then came Jordan Knight followed by Jan Fedder (yes, I adored "Grossstadtrevier" and still do) followed by Uwe Kroeger...*sigh

Music Challenge (30): Your favourite song at this time last year

This one, my proper 2010 girl crush. I love the song, love her voice, love her style and simply find her adorable. Still one of my favourite songs one year later...

Paloma Faith: "New York"

Paul

Being a huge Simon Pegg/ Nick Frost I wanted to see this film. Being not interested in Sci-Fi and hardly knowing any of the mentioned films made me worried that all jokes would be lost on me.
Here´s a summary of the plot followed by my opinion: 

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost ("Hot Fuzz," "Shaun of the Dead") reunite for the comedy adventure "Paul" as two sci-fi geeks whose pilgrimage takes them to America's UFO heartland. While there, they accidentally meet an alien who brings them on an insane road trip that alters their universe forever.
For the past 60 years, an alien named Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen) has been hanging out at a top-secret military base. For reasons unknown, the space-traveling smart ass decides to escape the compound and hop on the first vehicle out of town -- a rented RV containing Earthlings Graeme Willy (Pegg) and Clive Collings (Frost).
Chased by federal agents and the fanatical father of a young woman that they accidentally kidnap, Graeme and Clive hatch a fumbling escape plan to return Paul to his mother ship. And as two nerds struggle to help, one little green man might just take his fellow outcasts from misfits to intergalactic heroes. (source: filmjabber.com)

www.screenrant.com

Yes, without the help of my husband I would have missed the majority of intertextual (can you call them intertextual if they refer to films?!? intermedial??) hints and jokes. Therefore the film for me probably wasn´t half as funny as for someone who has seen "Alien" or...can´t even think of a second example, oh dear...
But I still liked it! I just love the combo Pegg/Frost and find them adorable. They make me laugh even though I don´t know what they are talking about. The plot gets, again, too fighty at the end and I drifted off not even trying to follow it anymore but that´s just me.
Definitely a funny, harmless film worth seeing...but it helps to be into sci-fi ;-)

PS: My favourite moment?:

Paul: “This is pretty strong shit. I got it from the military actually. This is the stuff that killed Dylan.”
Graeme Willy: “Bob Dylan’s not dead.”
Paul: “Isn’t he?”

e.l.f.

Recently I placed a big order of e.l.f. make-up products. Isn't it great to open a parcel and find such an abundance of nice things waiting to be unpacked?! I'm starting to try them out now and see if they live up more to the high expectations raised by the stylish packaging or to the low expectations I have thinking about the cheap prices...only tried the nail varnish so far and this was not good. Took ages to dry so I ended up with a lovely fluffy pattern on my nails...hmm.
Anyway, if you like to try out their cosmetics range, have a look on their website (with lots of discounts most of the time): http://www.eyeslipsface.co.uk/