Very merry Christmas

One of the best Christmases ever: peace and quiet, just me, chilling out all day. Heavenly!
And while I was alone, I did not feel lonely in the slightest, connecting with friends from all over the world. I know I keep saying this, but I am so grateful for all the love and support in my life.

Xmas donut while relaxing in the bath, listening to music

merry Xmas from Steve's dressed up cat

More foxes

I've been making an effort to tidy a bit in anticipation of my friends' visit. And while tidying, I came across my ticket for the play First Love is the Revolution, which I went to see in London during my visit in early November: according to the Soho Theatre 'a viciously funny new play about love, lust and foxes'.

Pretty accurate synopsis, I'd say. Nevertheless, it came as a little surprise to us all, when we realized that the (human) actors were indeed playing animals. As well as humans. It was bonkers and brilliant and indeed very funny. I especially loved the chickens :-)
In short: boy of a broken home falls in love with a fox and said girl fox falls in love with boy. Beautiful, right?

The next night, we went to see Green Day's musical American Idiot. I keep referring to them as Green Park, which gives you an indication of how big a fan I am. I did grow up with them though and thought it sounded like a cool thing. And it was. We had great seats (and thanks to Time Out, a bargain, too) and the music was played live and was pumping (not sure that's a cool thing to say...). Story was a bit thin. I really enjoyed it.

foxy

This year has not been a good sewing year. Especially since I moved to Germany. Which is quite ironic, given that I even have a sewing room now!! Anyway, I shall try to make more time for it next year!

To finish the year, I did these cushion covers to brighten up my black sofa. The first one was an absolute pain to finish. Yes, quite embarrassing given that cushion covers are really the most simple exercise that every sewing beginner starts with... Somehow the bloody zip didn't go in very well.

Anyhow, second one on the other hand was much quicker. And isn't the pink foxy fabric super cute?

I am aware that the hammock doesn't really fit in... A friend was suggesting dying it pink. Not a bad idea at all. :-)

Alf

I used to watch and love Alf as a kid. And I happened to come across the Xmas episode today.
Who would have thought that even Alf would make me cry?
Well, dying kids tend to do that to me...
Lovely episode.

bruised

About a month ago, I discovered a tiny lump in my left breast. By coincidence, I had an appointment at the dermatologist scheduled for the next day anyway, so I showed it to her. And she immediately sent me to the gynecologist for a check. Having lived in the UK for the last eight years, I didn't have a single breast-check during that time so of course I have no idea how long the lump had already been there.

After calling a couple of doctors who either didn't accept any new patients or only from January (the dermatologist had urged me to get it checked asap...), I found one where I got an appointment within a week. I went, had an ultrasound and got a referral for yet another ultrasound at the radiologists. So, I get an appointment there, the week after. They decide to also do a mammogram as well as the other ultrasound. Whatever she saw was not conclusive but she says I should come back for a check in three months time. I ask what the other options are and she says, she could also do a biopsy to get an immediate result. I ask how she decides what to do and she replies that it depends on the patient and that some people simply don't want to wait.

Well, I think, I am not worried. My logic is that if she is worried, she'll recommend the biopsy and otherwise, it's just unnecessary faff. So, I make an appointment for the end of February. I tell a couple of my friends who all think I should get it checked now. Better to know for certain than risk that it is cancer which doesn't get treated. They have a point.

So, I call back to ask for a biopsy. First I need another consultation with the doctor. Who also tells me I need a blood test first. Of course, I don't yet have a GP, so I find myself a GP, get a blood test done (results all good) and get the biopsy done. Under local anesthetics. The first injection hurts quite a little but it's over quickly. And then I don't feel anything. It is weird so to lie on that table half naked...

I then get bandaged up which is a little uncomfortable but otherwise feel fine.
The biopsy was done on Friday and I should get the result on Tuesday. On Tuesday, I call them after lunch time. The receptionist tries to put me through to the doc, who is busy though but I get told that I will get called back within 10 minutes. This is when I actually start worrying. All along, I felt pretty confident that it would be nothing. And not because I think I am invincible, simply because. And besides, worrying would not change the outcome. But the fact that the receptionist is not telling me anything, worries me.

The doctor calls back: preliminary result is negative but they are still doing more tests. Which she had said might happen if it was unclear. Not a great sign, I'd say. But she promises to call me back the next day.

I go back to not thinking about it, and get the call on Wednesday while out shopping: results negative but I should come for a check up in six months time.
Merry Christmas!

left with a bruised boob

self-love

I keep venturing out to get Xmas presents and somehow always come back with stuff for myself.

Thank God for my massive wardrobe in the corridor - always space for more shoes!

The Tower of Babel

Our IT guy was setting up my laptop in my new office. He joined about a month ago and so far I haven't had much chance to chat to him. So, I was making an effort. To be pretty much greeted by non-responsiveness. Friendly silence, I'd say. But I guess some people are simply not interested in chatting.

Anyway, I suddenly remembered that he was looking for a new office chair (quite frankly, I can't work out why he didn't order himself one but was instead looking for one that was not being used. For weeks now...). So, in my new office there were two office chairs, so I offered him one of them. And he just gives me this weird look. So, I explain again - and suddenly realize that I was speaking English to him...
Oops.

Spacious and bright

So far, I've only ever once had my own office. Seven years ago. And it was connected to my boss' office (so, not ideal either). After an office refurb, I then had to put up with sitting in an open plan office. And while I got used to it, I always thought back fondly of my own space.

And now the time has finally come again! Yesterday I moved into my new office. Which is so spacious and bright and lovely. Most of all, it has a door. That I can close. It also has a little corner and I am now thinking of how to decorate it. Idea at the moment is to get a (pink) beanbag and create a chillax area. :-)

Which also reminds me of this article I read on Tiny Buddha:
 "7 Ways to make your workday awesome" - good stuff.

I just need a gentle push

the hammock arrived and it's more comfy than it looks in the photo

Friday Night Dinner

Sunday Roast on a Friday night. Potatoes followed with a slight delay. And no, of course not self-made. More than 10 years in the UK and I still haven't made a single roast...

Dear Mr. GLS delivery man

PLEASE DELIVER MY PARCEL TO MY ADDRESS AND DON'T LEAVE IT OUTSIDE A HOUSE THAT HAS A SIMILAR SOUNDING ADDRESS.

Thank you.

Dear Mr. Postman

PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE MY PACKAGES ON MY BALCONY!!!!
I have a number of lovely neighbours who are happy to accept them on my behalf and otherwise I'd rather collect it from the post office than find it soaked on my balcony.

Thank you.

Harold says

Life is simple.

You make choices and you don't look back...

This shall be my motto for next year!

Ms Clumsy

Well, actually, it was not clumsiness really: this morning I flooded my bathroom... While I was having my shower, the shower head came loose, fell off and the water was therefore all over the place. Besides, I am having a cold and a headache. But the prospect of only another three days at work before the winter break is cheering me up immensely.

Ms Efficiency

I called the garage today regarding my light bulb hat needs replacing to check whether I could just drive by to get it fixed or needed an appointment. Most likely an appointment I was told but that they would need to check it. So, I drove by tonight, and the guy fixed it there and then. Took less than 5 minutes and we got chocolate, too (you ask, you will get). Sorted.
Very, very happy :-)

miracles

or How a mishap turned into something good.

I left work unusually upbeat last week. We had had a good interview in the afternoon and I generally felt, I had had a productive day. I was also looking forward to seeing the kids for the English tuition. I get to my car, then remember that my colleague had pointed out that one of my lights needed replacing. Key is already in the ignition, I get out again, the door falls shut. And then I hear the noise. The car locks itself automatically.
Like a fool, I try every single door. All of which are locked. And as you may have guessed: all my stuff is inside: my mobile, my flat keys, my purse. For a moment, I have no clue what to do next. A girl arrives, whose car is parked near mine. And she is lovely: offers her help and agrees to give me a lift back home. Once inside the car, we realize that we are actually work colleagues!

At home, I go to my neighbour who - after a long weekend away - is luckily back! I call the children's home to apologize and tell them I won't make it. He calls my landlady. Who is not home. He calls her brother. Who is home and who agrees to go over to his sister's to collect the spare key. My neighnour then drives me to a meeting point half way between us and the landlord, where we get the key. Back to my place to collect my spare keys, back to the car park to get my car. When we arrive, somebody has just driven out, so the gate is also open, so I run inside. And lastly: the battery had not yet died, despite the light having been switched on.

All done in just about an hour.
I hope it won't happen again.
But most of all, I am so grateful how easily it was all solved.

melancholic

One way to immediately induce melancholia is to read back through my blog.
I know it's still two weeks to go but I was wondering whether I had come up with any New Year resolutions for 2015 (seems like I didn't). So, I was reading back over my January entries.

Thinking back about my Australia holiday makes me sad as I miss my Aussie friends. And while I am currently waiting for a work related invite to Melbourne, I have little hope that I will be going down under any time soon. It also reminds me of all the awesome food I had and how things have changed and I hardly eat out these days.

Then there are all my London posts - full of love for the city I called home in the last few years, and my friends, of course. It's not quite six months since I moved to Bavaria. While I don't regret it, it still seems surreal. And I am not entirely sure I was aware how much things would change when I took the decision to accept the job.

2015 has definitely been a year full of ... stuff. Lots and lots of great moments and a few tougher ones, too.

the wisdom of the youth

'You know, I don't take any of this too seriously.'
Said my 26 year old colleague to me. She has a very good point, which at 35, I still haven't truly internalized.
Live and learn.
Slowly at least.

holiday feeling in my living room

I'm in shopping mood (and still haven't bought a single Xmas present...). This week my two rugs arrived. I love the one for my living room, which I feel makes it look less bare than before. Not so sure about the one I got for my sewing room. I think a size smaller would have done for that room...

Anyhow, this week, I've also been looking at rocking chairs. And my sensible self decided not to get one. So, instead I just ordered a hammock. Much more sensible, right?

My parents used to have one, which would occasionally be set up in the living room. I have high hopes that gently swinging in the hammock will be THE antidote to my job. And it's even big enough for two people :-)

As it happens, it looks as if I will get my own office from January. The one that I think will be mine, has this corner space which you cannot see when you get in at the door. And I would LOVE to have a hammock in that corner, too. Or maybe a beanbag or a comfy chair at least. Being relaxed and not thinking about work, will surely bring on loads of Eureka moments, no?

a splash of colour

Moderately nefarious

Check out the BBC test of evil.

My result:
Scoring highly on 'Macchiavellianism',
slightly lower (but still high...) on 'narcissism'
but in the lower quarter on 'psychopathy' (what a relief... to my environment!).

"Like Don Draper, you are moderately nefarious. You walk on the dark side of humanity, 

but your ruthless streak may just help you get ahead."

Time of month

When anything nice makes me tear up, I know it's my time of the month...

Two steps forward, one step back

Even if it feels like one step forward, two steps back...
Another day of realization that I haven't changed as much as I think and how deep some of my beliefs clearly sit. And how patience is simply not my strengths. And how I can always count on my friends to pick me up.

and more comedy

I also love James Corden. This is hilarious!

*snort*

I love Bradley Cooper. 

I saw the Elephant Man in London.

And this clip made me snort with laughter. The best kind, right?

familiar faces

I am meeting new people all the time. And I like it. I am drawing a lot of energy from it. And I love that moment of meeting somebody interesting (man of the week: NY cop, then turned private investigator, then bounty hunter, then opened in art gallery in Norway and now lives in a tiny village near Rosenheim).
Nevertheless, it also tires me sometimes. And just this weekend, I was missing my friends very much. Not having to have the same conversation (that's what I do, that's where I come from), over and over again.

And just by 'magic' the last couple of days have been marked by reconnecting with some of my friends all over the world. Balance restored.

on TV right now. Still haven't watched the whole movie or musical...

on the road

A typical case of 'Don't judge a book by its cover'.

I used to make snap judgments all the time and would put people into drawers on first impressions. Sometimes, even before even properly meeting them, I would form opinions that were often difficult to change. That of course led to a lot of self-fulfilling prophecies: me expecting a certain behaviour from somebody meant of course that I was displaying a certain behaviour, which in turn provoked the reaction I was already predicting...

I'd like to think that I changed. Maybe it's got to do with believing that there usually is something interesting, and/or nice to discover in every single person. Or maybe it's got to do with trying to make the best of every situation. I am stuck with you: well, I might as well try to have a good time.

12 hours in the car is a long time. Tiring but interesting.

And 1 hour can still be enough time to hear about somebody's life story.
When I was younger, I always admired people who were comfortable and at ease with themselves when I just felt massively awkward in most social situations. For some reason, I felt that the ability to chat to your taxi driver stood out for me. Not entirely sure why...
So, when these days, I have a chatty tour in a taxi, I still feel proud of myself.

Which also leads me back to the 12 hour car journey: Which once again made me realize that I am still very much holding onto old beliefs I hold (relating to myself). And it feels as if I need to tell myself over and over again that I have indeed changed. And often still can't truly believe it. Weird.

Leytonstone

When I moved to London, our first flat was in Leytonstone. This morning, I found out about the stabbing at the station last night.

I'm not a very well informed person at the best of times, and usually just skim read the headlines online. When travelling, I often completely lose track of what is happening in the world. And I have to admit, I hadn't realized that Syria is now being bombed...

What do we do with all of this information? It's depressing and sad. And my way of handling this is to bury my head in the sand.
Equally depressing and sad, I guess.

Barcelona - part 3

MACBA - we need more confetti machines in this world!

Barcelona - more pictures - part 2

Barcelona - in pictures - part 1

Renaissance Fira Hotel

Dinner at Can Travi Nou

Barcelona

Once again, I am not sure how this happened, but nowadays I am beyond myself with excitement at the prospect of having just a day off work. On the upside, I like to think that I am really treasuring the little things! :-)

Anyway, after the work event in Barcelona (don't get me wrong: this actually also was fun, and I really enjoyed being on site with my team), I had two days off to explore lovely and sunny Barcelona as well as to catch up with S, an ex-colleague who now lives in this beautiful city.

Exploring a city with a local is of course always the best! And despite having very limited time, S gave me a great tour including lots of nice food in quirky places, with a bit of shopping thrown in, too (there was a reason, I travelled with a half empty suitcase!).

of course

Getting up for work is a daily struggle. I know - in the grand scheme of German average office hours - I am pretty lucky: I have to be in the office by 9:00 and given how close I live, I can get away by getting up at 8:30 the very, VERY latest. Which doesn't help either though.

Come the weekend, I am up by 9:00 the latest... (is this saying something about how I feel about work? Rhetorical question ;-))

like mother like daughter

Growing up, I was always embarrassed about the chaos and mess at home. Despite the fact that my parents had a decent (or even big) sized house with sufficient storage, there was always stuff everywhere. Including on the sofa, which regularly pissed off my brother. 

Well, what can I say... When I lived in London, I blamed my tiny flat and lack of storage for the chaos. Now, in a much bigger place, I really cannot use that excuse anymore. And still, my place is a mess. And my sofa especially is full of crap, with only space for myself to sit...

Plan for the weekend: TIDYING and trying my very best to keep it that way. 

How did this happen?

I honestly don't know how this all happened... I did not expect to be travelling quite as much. Back from an event in Zurich, I then went to Barcelona. I was already looking forward to staying put in Rosenheim until the end of the year (again: how did THAT happen???), when I had to go to Zug (in Switzerland) at short notice. Such a pain to get there, too, 5-6 hours by car, particularly pleasant when you are stuck in a traffic jam and the autobahn gets closed off.

I then thought: now THIS is it for the rest of the year. Just to find out that I am off to Zug again for a couple of days later this month.

Not sure whether it's age, but I constantly feel exhausted and tired these days. I am so looking forward to having time off over Christmas.
Having said that, I do enjoy not being in the office. If only I always came back to an inbox filled with emails I need to reply to :-(