sprouting desires

On my last wander through Brighton I did something quite out of character for me - I went into
Claire´s and looked through their "so ridiculous and over the top that I start liking it again"- christmas collection. There I spotted these:

Large dangly Brussels sprout earrings.
(you remember, Brussels sprouts belong to UK Christmas as potato salad with sausages to a German one)

I really wanted to have them as I love green, like sprouts, adore everything unusual and enjoy any form of provocation.
But then rationality jumped in and thought "No, you will never wear them. Search online for alternatives". So I did and found those babies (is there really anything you cannot find online these days?)

Cute and dainty little sprout studs from by the Shed.
I love them!

 PS: But on the Claire´s website I now have seen this fascinator and really, really, really want it...not so sensible after all...

diamonds are forever

In March this year I went swimming in Wiesbaden together with my husband as we regularly do during the colder months.
While I make a point of always taking off my engagement and my wedding ring off I never worried about my dainty white gold necklace with the small diamond pendant.
A present my husband gave me earlier on in our relationship, the necklace was still very new as I had managed to rip the old one.
When leaving the pool I suddenly noticed that the necklace was broken again (without me doing anything!) - it was liying on my shoulders...without the diamond.

We had a quick look on the floor but looking for a 7x3mm large item in a large swimming pool full of people is equal if not worse than the search for the proverbial needle in the haystack.
We left feeling quite down. I tried not to get upset as there is really no point in worrying about something material but still, the mood was spoilt.

In the following week I exchanged some mails with the thermal bath in case something was found but as expected, nothing.

This week now we went swimming again.

In the pool I re-arranged my swim suit as you do and felt something unusual, what can I say, between my legs. It was small, hard (I will get some very interesting traffic here soon I´m sure) and I first thought it might have been an earstud that somehow got caught there.
Then I realised it.

My diamond pendant had got stuck between the fabric and the liner of my swim suit!
Was with me all the time!!
Survived another pool, several rounds of breast stroke and two washes!!!

I told my husband, he had a feel (isn´t it good no one really sees what is going on under the water surface sometimes?!) and I carefully retreated to the changing room to get my treasure back and store it safely like Gollum.

Even though I´m an atheist you sometimes really wonder...I mean, how high was the chance for this to happen?

We left exhilarated and happy.
And are looking for a hopefully much stronger necklace now.

treasure-hunting

Earlier this year I had one of my more strange ideas again - we were planning to spend a few days in Mallorca again in early October and a good friend of mine was going again in early September as every year - wouldn't it be fun if she would hide something, a "treasure" somwhere and send us on a quest to find it?
Well, as I normally stick at least to my odd ideas I told her and she, being as mad as me, agreed and henceforth planned what to hide and where to hide it.
Time went on and in September, while sitting in her garden for a BBQ, she handed me the lovingly decorated treasure map...

On our third day in Mallorca we headed for Calas de Mallorca in order to find it, didn't look too hard.
Well, as most times, it turned out to be not as straightforward as it looked on paper but with the help of my more logical thinking and more determined husband we made it!
Found a carefully wrapped empty cigarette box in a bush nestled between houses, inside was a 5€ note, a business card of a local bar and the invitation to spend the money on a coffee there and say hi to everyone from her and her family.

Thinking about this makes me so much happier than any ridiculous christmas present could ever make! We have created a happy memory even though we were hundreds of miles apart.
Friends are important but slightly nutty friends are the best.

PS: On our walk back to the car we had a very strange experience.
Henry Mancini's "Baby Elephant Walk" was playing loudly from somewhere and seemed to follow us but we could see no car, no ice cream van, no nothing that could be the source if this.
My friend thinks it might have been the aerobic class in a nearby hotel but honestly: who does aerobics to this tune?!? Creeeepy...

Normansfield Theatre

Two weeks ago it was Open House Weekend again in London - I had a few things on my list (the choice was massive with more than 800 buildings taking part) but my cold and the fact all things seemed to be very busy held me back.
Nevertheless we made it to one venue - the Langdon Centre in Teddington.
Inside the main building is an original Victorian theatre hidden, the Normansfield Theatre, one of the last private ones left.
There was a tour but we were left alone to take photos and explore this impressive venue on our own.
The theatre studies BA in me was having a party and so did the photographer :-)
Already looking forward to the Open House Weekend next year to explore much more unusual things right in front of my doorstep!

PS: And if you think that this place looks vaguely familiar - it has been used in series one "Downton Abbey" when the Dowager Countess hands her "Best Rose" award to Mr. Molesley senior.

God save the King

Sitting in the park, reading, enjoying the warm September morning sun.
I´m turning over a page, look up and there she is as I remember seeing her in the yellow press:
Prince George´s Spanish nanny...with the bundle of joy waddling beside her, William and Kate´s son, the future English King.
I start shaking, I want to take a picture but hesitate as I don´t wanna be rude, don´t want to upset anyone and destroy the moment.
I pretend to read, I can´t stop staring though. I take some photos when it is nearly too late, pretending to look at flowers.

Little George is playing with chess figures that are his size - if I would be a sleazy journalist I would conclude "already a great strategist".
I walk away, a bit wobbly on my legs, ecstatic...I will never forget this encounter.
London, I love you.

aesculus

Autum has come early this year and as much as I hate coming to terms with the bleak reality that summer might really be over and done with once again - it has it´s positive sides as well.

Conker season!

Yesterday on my walk to Kingston I spotted the first ones in Bushy Park - shiny and auburn they were flying from the trees, peeping out of their spiky green shell and waiting to be picked.
And that´s exactly what I´m doing, every year again.

I don´t need them (who ever has had a real need for them anyway?), I won´t be feeding any wild animals with them, play typical British childhood games with them nor will I craft some funny little figures with toothpicks and string.

I just can´t leave them rotting on the ground.
Round, smooth and in a colour I would love my hair to be I will always have one or more disappearing into the realms of my handbag...or coat pocked. Until they are all dry, small and lacklustre again. My granny believed the helped against clothes moths and rheumatism - I just like them :-)

Tell me, can you resist the utterly useless temptation to pick up fresh horse chestnuts?

more from Eel Pie Island

...for more photos have a look at the  first part

Agapanthus...

...or memories from the island of spring.
In 2006 I went on my first ever "proper" holiday together with my other half to Madeira.
As the island is not exactly a shopping hot spot I decided to buy something slightly unusual as a souvenir:
An agapanthus plant or, to be more precise, a plastic bag with a wizened shrub bought last minute in an airport shop.

Since then it has been a rocky road, it hasn't grown much first and sometimes had to survive with very little water when I'm not at home.
But now, for the second time only, it has rewarded me with two beautiful and long lasting blue flowers.
One of the best souvenirs ever that currently makes me happy every time I look out of my bedroom window!

Cashier number one please!

Recently I stood in the queue at Lidl in England, not a situation that is particularly noteworthy.
I looked around me and my eyes stopped at the young women working on the till.
She was wearing her usual Lidl uniform, and: an alice band decorated with bold peacock feathers - so pretty much a fascinator.

How amazing is that?!?
Not only that I own nearly the same one, no.
The fact that she is wearing a beautiful fascinator to work at the till!
Here in Germany I sometimes don't even dare to wear one at a wedding as I fear to get stared at and then feel like a barmaid who escaped from her saloon or something out of trash tv.
I doubt any of the English customers took notice but I was delighted - three cheers for the Lidl girl! Three cheers for the widely spread British ignorance of "appropriate dressing"!

Welcome to coffee

A week ago I saw this ad on tv and it suddenly caught my attention - it stood out of all the colourful, brash and noisy nags you usually see.
I can´t explain why but I love it.
The music, the playfulness, the magic...if this would be a 2 hour film I would happily watch it, if their coffee tastes like that I´m more than hooked too.
Next time I will buy Taylors coffee, mission accomplished.
Meanwhile I keep on dreaming...

'Welcome to Coffee' takes viewers on a journey through a 'coffee cosmos' with Budgen taking three weeks in his studio experimenting with lights, sounds, shapes and textures to craft the advert.
Set to a version of an 1855 American composition called 'Listen to the Mockingbird' the ad has no dialogue and begins in the deepest, darkest region of the coffee cosmos. As the camera pans out past a series of abstract yet recognisable objects, the viewer travels through the coffee drinking experience.
Next, the advert illustrates the awakening of the senses with bird-like whistles and quick shots of bright colours. Alert and engaged the ad returns to the cosmos where all of the elements now feature with three packs dancing into the frame along with the 'Welcome to Coffee' tagline.
Jess Bacon, marketing manager of Taylors of Harrogate, said: "The vast majority of ads go unnoticed or forgotten; particularly in the world of coffee, where romantic liaisons and brimming mugs are the ‘beige’ creative norm. We want to disrupt that and deliver the unexpected, to be confident and distinctive. Ultimately, we wanted to create an ad just like our product; a complex, magical, and mind-blowing coffee experience."
(source)

40 Years of Playmobil

It´s already months ago that on a very sunny day we went to Speyer in order to visit the Playmobil exhibition there.

The first smiley-faced PLAYMOBIL figures entered the world stage in 1974, at Zirndorf in Bavaria, and since then they and their numerous siblings have achieved cult status. A total of more than 2.7 billion PLAYMOBIL figures now reside in children’s rooms around the world.
But what is PLAYMOBIL’s recipe for success?
Covering a total area of about 2,000 square metres, a large number of very detailed installations on historical and modern day themes – some filling entire rooms – will take fans both old and new on a journey through time. Ten collectors involved in setting up the exhibition will share their passion with visitors.
A walk-in cave, a Roman galley and an enormous PLAYMOBIL cargo ship are just some of the exciting play areas which will invite younger visitors to come and share in the explorations.
Other features will show how artists find inspiration in the unique play system, and how the product design has changed throughout the decades – partially reflecting changes in society. But how is PLAYMOBIL actually made? The exhibition will trace the development of a PLAYMOBIL playset in individual steps, from the initial idea right through to the finished product.

It was really quite interesting to spot some nearly forgotten figures and scenes and there were more than one "Ohh, I remember this!" moments. Another highlight for me was the Roman galley that originally had been put together for the German kids tv program "Die Sendung mit der Maus" and now I could see it live.
Surprisingly not many kids visited the day we went (which was nice, I apologize for being honest ;-)).
It is not the cheapest of exhibition but Speyer is worth the visit too with it´s impressive cathedral so maybe a day out for someone to consider while it is still on!?

Anniversary exhibition at the Historical Museum of the Palatinate in Speyer
1st December 2013 - 22nd June 2014

What is a weekend?

(sprucing things up with a bit of cat content)

Have a nice weekend everyone :-)

Esprit Montmartre

Last Wednesday I finally found time to go to Frankfurt and visit the hyped exhibition "Esprit Montmartre" at the Schirn Kunsthalle.

A notorious district in Paris’s 18th arrondissement held special appeal for a number of the most well-known modern artists: Montmartre. “The quarter resembles a huge studio,” a contemporary critic wrote in the 1890s about the hill on what was then the city’s outskirts. Having preserved its original rural flair, it represented a counter-world to the mundane Paris of the “belle époque.” The SCHIRN exhibition has set out to convey a sense of the special Montmartre atmosphere. More than two hundred works by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Suzanne Valadon, Edgar Degas and others will lure visitors into the milieu of the Parisian “bohème” around the turn of the century. Historical photographs and numerous posters and prints will shed light on further facets of one of the most colorful chapters in the history of art, but also one with which countless clichés are associated: the frivolous can-can girls in the Moulin Rouge, sumptuous coffeehouse scenes, or the penniless artist who indulges in alcohol, sleeps until noon and turns night into day. Yet to reduce Montmartre to these familiar images means to overlook the realism with which the artists recorded everyday life there. They were people who had consciously chosen to dissociate themselves outwardly from the bourgeoisie by embarking on lives as poor bohemians on the fringe of society. Their striking portraits of outsiders, thieves, beggars, street artists, prostitutes and drinkers mirrored their new perception of themselves. The exhibition will investigate the sociological circumstances of the period in question and its new definition of the role of the artist. 

I certainly wasn´t disappointed by the huge collection of well-known and lesser known paintings, drawings, prints and photos. I love everything that is labeled Paris and Boheme so I didn´t need much to be won over.
As you can imagine with a popular and agreeable subject like this, the exhibition was very busy and numerous guided groups made it sometimes difficult to get closer to the exhibits (especially all the small scale sketches of Toulouse-Lautrec and Picasso).

I especially enjoyed discovering some new to me artists like for example Maurice Utrillo´s mother Suzanne Valadon and her fascinating biography.

Other drawings made me laugh out loud (please excuse that I´m posting pornography now) - the expression of that cat!

The exhibition is still on until the 1st June and as many of the exhibits are from private collections it´s a rare chance to see them on display.

All in all a beautiful exhibition well worth going to, but:

- the staff at Schirn Kunsthalle is a real pain in the arse - not once I have visited without being patronised about something (Ughhh, that bag is too big! Oooh, you need an international student card! Hmm, not sure how to deal with this voucher)
Art is supposed to be joyful! You grumpy buggers are responsible that people think they dislike art because they get treated with such an attitude!

- I found the written background explanations easy understandable and fitting but somehow the exhibition lacked something original and unique for me. Why those works, those artists, this hanging?
The suspission of it being a pretty crowd-pleaser lacking substance arose a bit in me.

- I always, always end up paying a fortune for the exhibition catalogue as I want to carry everything I have seen home and never ever find my favourite works on postcards, never! Sometimes I wish my taste could be mainstream :-)

balm for the soul

Yesterday I went to an exhibition in Darmstadt, Germany.
Before I was allowed in I was forced to leave my bag and coat in a locker.

(One of my pet hates!!! Why oh why do German galleries/theatres/libraries/museums make it so bloody hard for people to visit? What am I going to do with my handbag - knocking someone out whilst breaking their jaw? Bagging the entire exhibits in order to sell them on the black market? Argggh)

Anyway, stripped of my coat and scarf I went in, showed my ticket and then the most amazing thing happened. The girl at the door looked at me and said "I love your jumper!"
It felt sooooo amazing.
And I have been good - I smiled and said thank you and for once didn't spoil the moment by quickly downgrading it with "Oh, this one? It was cheap, nothing special. Got it on sale"
Even though it was a cheap, nothing special "C&A" jumper I got on sale.

Maybe it's time to start a fashion blog ;-)

Love actually

so, wer hier einen Adventskalender und eine gewisse vorweihnachtliche Stimmung vermisst dem kann geholfen werden. Nein, ich wechsle nicht die Seite und werde auch weiterhin keine Fotos von Kunstschnee, dicken Männern in rot und Glühweintassen posten aber:

Bei der lieben Manu eröffne ich bei ihrem Adventskalender heute den Reigen mit einer "wirklich wunderbaren Liebesgeschichte"...wer hätte gedacht, daß ich zu solchen fähig wäre :-)

In diesem Sinne, allen Lesern einen schönen 1. Advent.

'tis the season

As you all know by now I'm anything but a Christmas lover...but one thing I have to admit: the Brits do some very impressive Christmas tv adverts.
Pompous, cheesy, long...but nice. Let's have a look for yourself and enjoy cute animals, a creepy as always Helena Bonham-Carter, one hot mad hatter and some Disney magic despite the two sissies Ant or Dec :-)

Hip Hip Hooray

A beautiful baby for a beautiful couple - congratulations!
What an exciting day it was, spend yesterday glued to the Royal Baby watch livestream.
(And I always said it´s going to be a boy :-))

PS: Realized something scary last night...when this boy is becoming King there is every chance my generation will be dead or as good as already...oh dear.

the Kew left overs...

...some more impressions from this stunningly beautiful place at the edge of London. Will go again tomorrow and I´m already looking forward to it a lot!