christmas markets

I know I won´t be making many friends with this post now but I wanted to share my humble opinion anyway (it´s my blog so if not here then where can I!?):
Next week the christmas markets start again in Germany, the craze has made it´s way to the UK as well and there are some open already.

I don´t like christmas markets. I think nowadays they are overpriced, stinking, commercial germpools which are nearly identical no matter where you go.
Suprising that everywhere you find people getting all excited about the wonderful christmassy smells wafting through the markets...is it just me who mostly smells kidney shashliks, sickly sweet chocolate popcorn, greasy chips and overpowering mulled wine? who thinks the atmosphere, assuming there ever was one, gets destroyed by an overload of people squeezing past each other while trying to save their grilled sausage, their wallet and spreading some flu viruses? Groups meet up there but are not able to communicate properly with each other for the whole evening...teenagers make themselve sick with mulled wine overdoses.

And after you have looked at all the fancy candles and decorations and knitted gloves and even might have bought some - you don´t really need them again the year after. At exactly the same stand, the same product, just 1€ more expensive probably.
No, even a non-christmas person like me is not immune to some festive mood, original products, indulgent food and contemplation but the markets are one of the most overrated things of this season.

"Die Bombe is´eh im Koffer" von Achim Lucchesi

Da es sich um ein deutsches Buch handelt das wohl nie ins englische uebersetzt werden wird, hier mal wieder eine Review in meiner Muttersprache :-). Obwohl ich mir ja weiterhin einen Buecher-Kaufbann auferlegt habe (mit Ausnahme von gebrauchten oder fuer die Uni benoetigten), hatte mich der Titel hier so fasziniert das ich doch schwach geworden bin:

Achim Lucchesi berichtet aus seiner Zeit als Mitarbeiter der Fluggastkontrolle am Frankfurter Flughafen. Es ist im eine Mischung aus Anekdoten und Informationen gelungen die unterhaelt jedoch auch mehr als einmal zum Nachdenken anregt.
Auf amazon wurde das Buch von einigen Lesern zerrissen, als das Werk eines beleidigten ehemaligen Mitarbeiters und als "billiges Nachtreten" eines Menschens der fuer seinen Job ungeeignet ist.
Verstehen kann ich dies nicht. Natuerlich wird hier mit einigen Typen von Passagier abgerechnet jedoch nie unberechtigt. Wie oft habe ich mich schon in der Security Schlange gruen und blau geaergert ueber die lieben Mitmenschen die zwar zum 100. Male eine Flugreise antreten aber doch noch literweise Fluessigkeiten bei sich tragen, sich darueber brueskieren doch tatsaechlich abgetastet werden zu muessen oder eben auch den allseits beliebten "Bombenwitz" reissen muessen und sich damit wahnsinnig cool und ueberlegen vorkommen. Das ein Mensch der tagtaeglich damit umgehen muss da mal Luft ablassen muss, ist doch selbstverstaendlich und hat rein gar nichts mit Menschenverachtung zu tun.
Vor allem geschieht dies hier in sprachlich wirklich ueberraschend guter Form. Alles liest sich fluessig, humorvoll, ironisch und intelligent - Hut ab!
Als relativ haeufig fliegender Mensch mit sehr grosser Flughafenaffinitaet habe ich das Buch regelrecht verschlungen. Viele Hintergrundinfos wusste ich so noch nicht und mein Verstaendnis gegenueber den Herrschaften an der Schleuse ist definitiv gestiegen was nicht heissen soll das ich unfreundliche Exemplare nun eher toleriere...
Empfehlenswert fuer jeden Leser der Flughaefen ebenso faszinierend findet wie ich und der nicht nur auf der Suche nach einer Anekdotensammlung voller Schenkelklopfer ist (wie es z.B. "Sorry, wir haben die Landebahn verfehlt"). Auf jeden Fall erkennt man sich das ein oder andere Mal wieder...ich moechte nicht wissen was die Herrschaften in der Vergangenheit schon ueber den Inhalt meiner Gepaeckstuecke gestaunt haben...frischer Spargel, Katzenfutter, Kerzenwachs, Geranienableger, ...

11.11.

11.11. in the UK...Armistice Day...minutes of silence at 11h...

www.dailymail.co.uk

www.dailymail.co.uk

11.11. in Germany...the start of the infamous 5th season at 11.11h...carnival has started again

 

 

 

www.allgemeine-zeitung.de

www.rundschau-online.de

Blog Advents Calendar

If you like taking pictures and are not completely opposed to anything christmassy, I have come across the perfect opportunity to show one of your shots to a larger audience.
Manu is organizing a photographic advents calendar on her blog where everyone taking part has to pick one date and send in a suitable photo polaroid style. I love the idea and have already secured the 23. 12.. There are still free dates so check it out if you´re thinking about taking part (page is in German though):

Ist Weibsvolk anwesend?

My Rainbow

 an inspirational "Blogstöckchen" by Miss Winkelmann

www.flickr.com

Brown:
Bobbi; favourite colour for leather products; I like it

Pink:
Lady; Grapefruit; Champagne; love the soft, broken and powdery variety not the Barbie end; ballet shoes; a singer people think I should like but I actually don´t; hair colour I´m experimenting with

www.flickr.com

Yellow:
lemon; current love for mustard yellow; submarine; my new Fossil wallet

Green:
my eyes; favourite colour of them all (light warm apple green and olive); still the better colour for police uniforms

Red:
overrated; my favourite magazine in the UK; nails; Alfa Romeo

Turquoise:
Keira Knightley in "Love actually"; last weddings peacock inspired outfit; seventies; big fashion crush

Violet:
the other favourite lot of colour, love all dusky and broken ones- not the cold blue or pink tinted ones; best eyeshadow colour;  Beauregarde; Aubergines

Blue:
a bit boring; in my weird synaesthetic brain "4" is blue and monday is as well (can´t tell you more or you will be able to find out my pin codes from my notes ;-)); Oystercult; Dabadee; Delft

Black:
not a colour (Little Miss Know-it-all); artists and wannabe-artists; Bernhard; feline flick

exhibitionism

Another questionnaire found at the wonderful Alice in Astonishland:


1. Are you social network/community addicted?
yes. I started with studivz...had a quick go with wkw but quickly decided it was too common and now limit it to Facebook. But spend hours on it every day and seriously get nervous if I can´t. I met my husband online so I probably will always have a very positive attitude towards online communication.

2. Would you rather live without tv or internet?
TV. I don´t really watch tv when I am on my own. Sometimes I leave a hotel room after a few days noticing that I never turned on the telly there. But life being offline is close to unthinkable.

3. Do you listen to the radio? Which is your favourite channel?
Only passive. I don´t have the patience to wait for songs I like and get easily annoyed by new songs in heavy rotation. But I like my wireless internet radio and sometimes listen to Indian/ Finnish/ Russian/ Malaysian radio stations just because I can :-)

4. Do you read magazines or newspapers?
Lots of magazines and really take several days to finish one "Red" or "MarieClaire". *careful, complete show-off answer following* Newspapers I only pick up at the airport gates...


5. Do you like mobile phones?
I feel naked without it but only use it for texting or talking to my parents. I´m known for never answering the phone thats why it´s nearly always on silent...I used to be quite proud of my newish phones but now mine is over 5 years old, the keys have lost all the paint and I don´t wanna spend money on a new one.

6. Do you own a laptop/pc/tablet?
A laptop...with access to more laptops in the family.

7. Your favourite type of books?
can be anything...but I´m not a thriller, crime or horror reader.
8. Would you rather give up on books or films?
films I guess


9. Favourite tv series?
Sex and the city

10. Favourite films?
Le destin fabuleux d`Amélie Poulain, Pane e tulipani, Matchpoint, Love actually, Singin in the rain, Once, Ronja Räubertochter, 5x2...and some others


11. Watching dvd´s on the sofa or in cinema?
I like going to cinemas (on my own as well) but it is ridiculously expensive and means leaving the house which sometimes I simply can´t be bothered to do. But watching dvd´s is not a thing I normally do when I´m on my own too...so I guess I´m just not a big film person.

12. If you would star in a film, which genre should it be?
If I would like my male co-star it should be a romantic film of course ;-)


13. Which fictional character is your soulmate?
Amélie Poulain

14. Which celeb would you like to meet?
I find it exciting to bump into famous people on the street and I´m not picky which one I see. But if this means meeting in a "having a date" sense; Colin Firth and Robbie Williams.


15. Favourite computer game?
The Sims...the only one I own as well.


16. Favourite music genres?
My music taste is very varied and I should never say never but I think I dislike techno, hip-hop and things like Rammstein, Slayer, etc. But even there are exceptions to the rule...


17. Which band/singer did you have a crush on in your youth?
Jordan Knight from NKOTB...I kissed his poster good-night*cringe

18. Why did you start blogging?
to meet new and exciting people, to document the more superficial sides of my life (for everything else I write a proper diary), to share my opinions, get inspired and probably, to exhibit myself a bit

One day (Zwei an einem Tag)

I finished reading "One day" only recently (as you can read about here) and now really wanted to see the film.
Normally I am quite sceptical if a film adaption will ever be as good as the book or as true to the book but who isn't?!
This film follows the book really closely. A few settings have been changed (London instead of the countryside, Paris instead of Italy, etc) but all in all you could find all major events and thoughts from the book in the film. The cast has been critized a lot, most important Anne Hathaway is seen as being too much the smiling American sunshine and not ironic, grumpy and confidence-lacking enough to play Emma Morley. People might have a point there but I like her and thought that there could have been much worse choices been made...Never seen Jim Sturgess before and liked him. Handsome, beautiful dark eyes, cute. Never looked pathetic when his characters was a lot younger or older than his real age is. He is playing Dexter in a way that makes you think that this role is what Hugh Grant has been missing in his career in order to make the transition from shallow sunnyboy to grown-up man.
Anyway, I unfortunately only saw it in the dubbed German version so can't say anything about the American becoming British accents...not something I normally like and that can wind me up a lot.

It's hard for me to form an ultimate written verdict on the film now because, as expected, it was a really emotional evening at the cinema and I'm sort of still under the spell.
The film is good but as expected the book has so many more layers, such a beautifully crafted language and makes you feel with the characters much deeper. I guess that for an audience who doesn't know the book the film can be too sentimental and melodramatic at times and that loads gets lost in snogging and meaningful looks.
The Rachel Portmann music gave the whole film a sort of timelessness...more of a modern debate of a timeless subject than a film focusing especially on the 80s/90s...(though they gave all the clues in the set, from typewriter to Mac, from curls to smooth, even a Trabbi parked on the road in 1989!!).
For me the essence is that too much hesitation in life can lead to missed opportunities...and that you should listen to your heart, as disgusting as that might sound now.