#photofail

The end of an era... My lovely neighbours left Rosenheim for good on Monday.
Sunday we went for our final dinner together. As I had realized that I don't have any photos of them, I asked the waitress to take a pic. The result after several minutes (I was assuming she was taking quite a number of shots...) was this:

😂😂😂😂😂
(in all fairness, she did manage a second photo which was kind of decent 😉)

getting back into the swing of it

As a belated birthday gift, I got a monthly subscription to Headspace and have been doing their Take 10 meditation introduction. Having meditated before, I've been finding it easy to get back into it. Especially being patient with myself. I recall taking a colleague to a class back in London and she was so frustrated with herself, and felt she was doing it wrong. When really it's about accepting that our minds very often flutter around and that with practice one generally gets better at letting thoughts go instead of holding on to them - and then berating ourselves for not succeeding in 'simply' being present in the moment.

Just like sports, meditation is one of these things that I find so beneficial and still don't make time for it regularly. The beauty of life is of course, that we can start over at any given point in time. Such as right NOW! 😉

coaching with love

coaching with love (aka Nina and Jenni) were hosting an evening at the Hasenöhrl in Bayerischzell. Four women were invited to talk about their personal journey, all in the spirit of: Do your (own) thing!
And I was lucky enough to win a free ticket via their fb give away.

The evening started with punch and roasted chestnuts. Outside. Yes, it was freezing cold! So the fire came in handy. Nevertheless, when I couldn't feel my toes anymore, I ventured back inside, to sit beside the fire there. And I got to know Linda. Of course I was excited when I heard about her international career including 7 years in my beloved London!

Then the main event of the night started, moderated by Nina's fiancee. A lot of it sounded familiar and all four of them were brutally honest about some of the tough stuff they had to go through. Once more, I am grateful that (so far), I haven't experienced a physical or mental breakdown. I do believe that certain experiences in my life make me determined not to 'suffer through' bad phases, or to at least get myself out of them before any significant damage is done.

Afterwards, we enjoyed some cold meats and cheese (the typical Bavarian Brotzeit). And Linda and I were joined by Rosi and Martina. A lovely evening, which ended with us exchanging contact details and me having gained a potential new coaching client, too!

At the end, Rosi said something about what a positive person I am. Which made me very happy indeed 😊

It took me about 45 minutes to get there. And what can I say?! I enjoyed the drive!!! Crazy, right?!
The landscape looked so beautiful, driving up into the mountains was a tiny bit scary at one point as my Seat Ibiza has no power and I was struggling up the hill...
Besides, after about 30 minutes, my tank warning light lit up. With no petrol station in sight, I figured, I'd be able to make it back to Rosenheim. And I did. Probably not advisable to test the limits like this again... When I had made it back to Rosenheim, I was so relieved and went straight to the first petrol station. Just to realize that it was closed already (it was just after 23:00) 😞

5 years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Exactly five years ago, I wrote my first ever blog entry.

I don't think I expected to keep it going so long.
The motivation for starting it back then was really two-fold: 

1) practise my writing as a preparation for my plan to write a book

2) use it as platform to advertise the jewellery I was making at the time

Well, you guessed right: neither happened. In five long years...

But this has become a collection of a lot of wonderful memories. Some tougher times, too, but overall, I love looking back over my entries, having captured many fun times and amazing experiences (in mediocre pictures).

To the next 5 years!

💫💞🎆🌸🍹🎂🎂🎂🎂🎂🍹🌸🎆💞💫

pizza and unintentional compliments

After I missed the last usability testing get together back in the autumn because of bloody roadworks combined with my ignorance of this area (ie. inability to find another way quickly), I attended the meet up this Wednesday.

I like the concept:
Either you attend and present a new business idea, this could be a website, an app, a new product or really anything you would like feedback on. Or you attend as testing person and are asked to give feedback on those ideas/products etc.

All of this accompanied by beers and pizza.

This time, there were six different testing stations. Some of them more interesting and 'relate-able' than others. Some of the testing stations were also better than others at not making you feel like an idiot for not being able to complete the given tasks. Even though it all started with the premise that as a testing person, you cannot give 'wrong' feedback. One lady in particular - and I am not sure whether at that point she was simply so frustrated with their crappy product - didn't do very well at hiding her feelings.

Anyhow, an interesting evening.
And twice I got asked what I study at university....It does make me wonder whether it's my young looks or my childish demeanor that causes people to think I am least 10 years younger than I actually am. Also with view to coaching, I feel it would be beneficial for people to know my actual age - then again, I can of course simply state that on my website!And at the end of the day, I take it is a compliment. Still preferable than people thinking I'm older than I am!

Up on table mountain

During the various exercises I've been doing during the NLP weekends, I kept having issues with going meta - which means finding a position external to myself, from where I can look at myself from the outside and with significant distance.

The interventions from the assistants signaled me that I somehow wasn't doing it 'right' and I kept slipping back into being 'me'. I suppose a sign of how self-critical I am, as well as just how many thoughts keep swirling around my head at all times.

Anyway, I asked one of the assistants for advice (what a useful skill it is to reach out for help!). And she did a mini exercise with me. It took me all the way up table mountain. And suddenly I was filled with warmth. Warmth towards myself. And this strong feeling, looking down at myself, that everything is ok. That I am doing well and that things will develop the way they need to.

Going forward I shall try to take that image with me. And take a moment to step outside for a moment, to get some distance to whatever is going on and whatever is frustrating and upsetting me and to take that view down from table mountain.

2014 - actually physically being up on Table Mountain

La La La

I love Ryan Gosling. No secret there. And I will admit that I primarily love him because he is so gorgeous. I have this thing, that I enjoy looking at beautiful people. No further agenda or anything, I just like looking at them.

La La Land has of course been all over the media since it came out. While I love musicals, I wasn't sure I would enjoy a movie with so much singing and dancing. And jazz. But Ryan is good enough a reason to watch any movie really (which reminds me that I still haven't watched my Half Nelson DVD...).

As it happens, I had gone to the movies with P some time last autumn. He picked the movie at the time, and our agreement was, that I would get to pick the next one. And then he disappeared off the radar... Anyway, I don't give up easily and with quite a few movies out that I wanted to see, I got back in touch and out of three options (cause I am generous like that), he picked La La Land.

I watched the trailer afterwards and actually think it's a bit misleading. The movie is much better! And I loved the ending.

For those, who want to read a proper review:

The Guardian 5*

Telegraph 5*

Empire 5*💖