Dear friends and readers,
quite predictably I am here to wish you all a very happy and merry Christmas and also all the best for the new year 2012 - whereever you are in the world, may it be peaceful and quietly happy.
This year 2011 has been full of new challenges and changes for me personally - more are coming up for the next year, as moving house, sending a child of to university ( well, let's hope so?), trying for getting a better job,with some more perspectives on the long run, perhaps and hopefully some nice week-end travelling ( Stockholm? Wien? Lisboa? Paris? Cannes?), hopefully a new musical project, some coming back to charity work, etc. etc. I give up consciously on loosing weight and stopping to smoke. Life is hard enough!
My wish for this new year is to see more of the people who are dear to me and have time to spend with my friends and children. To be more patient and optimistic. To hear more to my inner voice. To laugh more. To have more courage and endeavour - but where to buy if not to steal?
This Handbag business here has up to now been an adventure. Unfortunately I have right now so little time, that the source is quite dry. But I hope that circumstances will make it well up again and new posts and horrendous opinions will be thrown at you at a more accelerated pace.
And, last but not least, I thank you all for looking into this blog with an amazing steadfast regularity. I am thrilled to find you in all parts of the world - in South and Northamerica there is a growing number as well as regular visits from China and Australia, the Philippines, South Africa, Oman and India!! The very constant crowd though is in Europe - Belgium, France, Germany Portugal and Austria are regular visitors. The other day I went to my favourite hairdresser and he told me, that somebody had turned up at his place without knowing me personally, but had read my blog. Is this not great fun?
I am very humbled by this regular crowd who comes and has a look at my ramblings. There are in average 350 clicks every month, sometimes well more, sometimes a little less.
You can imagine, that I like it...
Thank you very much and all the best for the new year,
Jola
Thursday 22 December 2011
Saturday 17 December 2011
Hearing Music LIVE
It is "Christmas Time" again and concerts are showering upon us - the choice is dazzling and even my choir is having its share: one concert yesterday and another tomorrow here in Brussels. We sing the "Messe en Si" or in german, as it should be, the "H-Moll Messe" by Johann Sebastian Bach. Great fun - and so dependent in its success on our public! Yesterday went well, the church was outsold and some people had no places to sit - I think we did pretty well. Doing a concert is always also question of nerves and the state of mind of the moment. Let us see, what will come out tomorrow!
In my older post about music I mused about the choice hearing music in the best available quality of interpretation and musicians out of the box or hear it, perhaps in lesser quality, live, with your ears, eyes and body.
With so many lovely concerts available I thought once again about this and come to the same conclusion every time. It is simply always a treat and a complete adventure to hear music "live", more adventurous then, to do it oneself. Sometime not for the fainthearted! Once we sang a concert, also in the Minimes, and for at 20 mesures we simply did not sing - but all the 30 people together kept silent, as if directed by a magic force. And we started all together at the most appropriate moment again, which very fitting was the exclamation "My God"! Apparently nobody noticed!! Afterwards great many laughters and also wonder about the fact, that we all did keep silent and nobody made a quack. These are the adventures of having music "done" in the moment....
If you go to a concert it is indeed a multitasking experience. Not only are you going to hear music in a condition, where it is not remixed and worked upon, but comes out and is consumed the moment it is produced. As it is human and made in the moment, it might well be that there is the odd hobble or a wrong tempo or even a false note sneeking in.
Fact is: you have many other people around you, some of them coughing, others talking and shuffling around. There might be a portable shouting out loud or somebody reading a newspaper. Sometimes smelling strongly of perfume or, worse, an used shirt.
Then you have to watch - or you can watch - the musicians or the single person alone there on the stage. Everybody who has had the experience of being obliged to see a bored orchestra knows what I am talking about.You might even watch one of the soloists taking a little nap during the aria of her collegues ( I am not kidding!).
Last but not least: You cannot go out, if it not pleases you - bad disadvantage of you do like Beethoven, but have to sit through some Stockhausen first.
Actually, I think it is a good education in our impatient and fast world to sometimes sit through music you do think to find awful. Just give it a chance and be open to new stuff....?
But back to the roots: the advantages are so much bigger: the feeling of communion with your other co- listeners, the immediate reaction of your body to great moments and the loosing of oneself in the music is an experience you cannot buy or produce alone at home on your sofa. The utter fascination seeing such a star like Cecilia Bartoli wooing and playing the public or the animalic iciness of Philippe Jarousky singing on the top of his voice, or even being lost in tears with John Eliot Gardiner and the Brahms Requiem: Seeing and watching and feeling all together in this magic, immediately lost moments "makes" music. And this is so much more.
In my older post about music I mused about the choice hearing music in the best available quality of interpretation and musicians out of the box or hear it, perhaps in lesser quality, live, with your ears, eyes and body.
With so many lovely concerts available I thought once again about this and come to the same conclusion every time. It is simply always a treat and a complete adventure to hear music "live", more adventurous then, to do it oneself. Sometime not for the fainthearted! Once we sang a concert, also in the Minimes, and for at 20 mesures we simply did not sing - but all the 30 people together kept silent, as if directed by a magic force. And we started all together at the most appropriate moment again, which very fitting was the exclamation "My God"! Apparently nobody noticed!! Afterwards great many laughters and also wonder about the fact, that we all did keep silent and nobody made a quack. These are the adventures of having music "done" in the moment....
If you go to a concert it is indeed a multitasking experience. Not only are you going to hear music in a condition, where it is not remixed and worked upon, but comes out and is consumed the moment it is produced. As it is human and made in the moment, it might well be that there is the odd hobble or a wrong tempo or even a false note sneeking in.
Fact is: you have many other people around you, some of them coughing, others talking and shuffling around. There might be a portable shouting out loud or somebody reading a newspaper. Sometimes smelling strongly of perfume or, worse, an used shirt.
Then you have to watch - or you can watch - the musicians or the single person alone there on the stage. Everybody who has had the experience of being obliged to see a bored orchestra knows what I am talking about.You might even watch one of the soloists taking a little nap during the aria of her collegues ( I am not kidding!).
Last but not least: You cannot go out, if it not pleases you - bad disadvantage of you do like Beethoven, but have to sit through some Stockhausen first.
Actually, I think it is a good education in our impatient and fast world to sometimes sit through music you do think to find awful. Just give it a chance and be open to new stuff....?
But back to the roots: the advantages are so much bigger: the feeling of communion with your other co- listeners, the immediate reaction of your body to great moments and the loosing of oneself in the music is an experience you cannot buy or produce alone at home on your sofa. The utter fascination seeing such a star like Cecilia Bartoli wooing and playing the public or the animalic iciness of Philippe Jarousky singing on the top of his voice, or even being lost in tears with John Eliot Gardiner and the Brahms Requiem: Seeing and watching and feeling all together in this magic, immediately lost moments "makes" music. And this is so much more.
Friday 25 November 2011
The Importance of being Groomed - Messieurs!
Life is unfair, we all know it. Therefore a little bit more fairness here in writing about grooming to you, gentlemen, as well.
When I was writing the post for the girls, it came only naturall to think about the men in our lives, the sons we educate and the friends we have. To be a male in these days is not always easy, we all know it. Therefore here a little support to your cause, to the boys out there.
Actually, it seems, historically seen, that in times past it was much more fun to be a chap.
The old egyptians would use all sorts of delicious oils, mascara and shaving themselves at all possible and unpossible places. The middle ages started with the myth that a real man does not need to be clean - poor ducks, all those women, who had to put up with smelly beards and feet...
Still, in the 17th century somebody like Louis XIV had it all: Not just a great house, nice tapestries, water in the gardens and a lot of lovely and funny women, but he also was using perfumes ( he was highly partial to Jasmin, did you know that? And as a matter of fact, there are still some of his original orange trees alive in the hothouses of todays Versailles...) and high heels and having glorious baths built in Versailles. Using make up was de rigeur for The Gentleman.
After that, right up to 1968, it was normal for a man to be clean and not to offend eyes and noses of their environment. Now, after a short relapse into the hairy world, it looks like, that grooming "for him" is back.
Today, so tells us the telly, men are once more invited to take care of themselves. This is true, but also with a little twinkle: I do not believe, that the prediction made by a make-up artist last year, that men will start once again to use rouge and real red lipstick, will come true.... OR?
One thing is not to be avoided: men and their washing habits have become a huge industry - but the truth is, there is no secret. It has all to do with cleanliness and cleanliness again.
So, some thoughts, nevertheless.
First things first: we are all lucky to live in circumstances, which allow us to have a regular shower or bath. So please, make it a habit right from the early ages of manhood, to take a shower daily and use a bar of good smelling soap or douchgel. There are marvelous thing out there, and you can find good products in all prize categories, just shop around a bit. If this is the only beautyregime you follow, it is already great and your glamour factor will go up 56%. Cecil Beaton said, that for him glamour in a man is the "Cleanliness, nothing else". And right he is!
I will not come back on the imperative of brushing our teeth twice a day, this will be hopefully so automatic, that you even have to think about this.
But beware: bad breath is a super killer for elegance and good grooming.
If you smoke, please, for our sake, go regulary to the dentist and have your teeth cleaned. Who wants to kiss a man who smells of cigars or cigarettes? Many a man has lost his credits with bad breath - and it is so easy to do something against it, like drinking much more water ( very often bad breath has something to do with being dehydrated), having a little package of mints in your jacket and/or once in a while brushing your teeth during the day in the washroom of your office. Eating regularly enough is also a good idea...
Bad breath is a great and difficult theme to talk about, there fore it is much easier if I write it here and you just think about it.
Another not negotiable Fact: To wash your hair regulary. One is amazed, if you start to look around clean, shining hair makes all the difference - over all ages. Especially, if you like to wear your hair long, which can be lovely! But if you have long locks, then you have to take care of them. Nothing more revolting than long and dirty hair on a man - brrr!
On the other hand I cannot understand this fashion of shaving off a head completedly - I mean, if this is not a sort of political statement or something else, why would you??. It is simply not attractive and the economies you make on time, shampoos and water is a joke. If your hair thins, then let it be thin, take good care of it and don' t go bald on a voluntary basis. Please.
A real big no-no for a gentleman is dying one' s hair. A man who needs to colour his hair is always suspect - sorry to be so blunt, but here it is. The mixture between Sugar Daddy and pimp comes immediately to the mind of every well educted woman.
If you have white hair, go to the hairdresser and have one of those treatments, which take the yellow shimmer out of white hair - by all means. White hair that is clean and shimmering is a great asset indeed.
Speaking of hair: please please take care of the woody hairs growing in your ears and nose as you grow older - do cut and trim them. Every good barbershop will do this for you at your regular cut. Another major sin: not having a haircut regularly done...And a welltrimmed beard, if it has to be, is neccessarily also a clean beard, which is smelling good and is soft and does not remind people coming in nearer contact with a bushy wildernis with a life of its own...
It is no shame to use some bodylotion on those very dry legs or arms. Please take care of your fingernails - this comes without saying: not long and clean. All you need is soap, water and a brush. Nothing else. And toenails..... no need to put vernis on, but file them and clean them regularly. Especially the feet suffer quite often. It has never been presumed that you are a coward if you will have a pedicure once in a while and take care to slap some cream or oil on those poor old feet as well. Rather on the contrary. Many a loving relationship found its sudden death in poorly maintained feet and their toenails...
Using a good after shave is today quite normal. Even better, when it is discreet and not shouting out loud all over the chef-etage...
And last but not least: having not only clean underwear and socks, but also a clean shirt, which has made some aquaintance with an iron is helpful, as is a jacket, which is not smelling of the pub you spent the evening before or which is sprinkeled with a lovely coat of whitish dandruff.
If you get also your shoes right - (so lucky, you do not NEED so many variety as we do and can use shoes for 20 years, if they are well made..) and clean them properly, than only more thing to be a real gentleman is only one: a wonderful smelling and clean and ironed cotton hankerchief. In case you have to console a weeping princess somewhere.
Fazit: Especially as we all grow older, good or bad mother nature is kinder to you, gentlemen, than she is to us. Most men, when well taken care of and discreetly groomed, are looking better with age. So, take advantage of this unfair fact and give us the pleasure to be proud of you. Though it is really unfair, that an embonpoint and white hair give you more glamour than it offers for us poor women. For you, gentlemen, the silverfox existence means experience, wisdom and very often also financial security. For us girls it looks simply equal for old age. Mostly.
!
When I was writing the post for the girls, it came only naturall to think about the men in our lives, the sons we educate and the friends we have. To be a male in these days is not always easy, we all know it. Therefore here a little support to your cause, to the boys out there.
Actually, it seems, historically seen, that in times past it was much more fun to be a chap.
The old egyptians would use all sorts of delicious oils, mascara and shaving themselves at all possible and unpossible places. The middle ages started with the myth that a real man does not need to be clean - poor ducks, all those women, who had to put up with smelly beards and feet...
Still, in the 17th century somebody like Louis XIV had it all: Not just a great house, nice tapestries, water in the gardens and a lot of lovely and funny women, but he also was using perfumes ( he was highly partial to Jasmin, did you know that? And as a matter of fact, there are still some of his original orange trees alive in the hothouses of todays Versailles...) and high heels and having glorious baths built in Versailles. Using make up was de rigeur for The Gentleman.
After that, right up to 1968, it was normal for a man to be clean and not to offend eyes and noses of their environment. Now, after a short relapse into the hairy world, it looks like, that grooming "for him" is back.
Today, so tells us the telly, men are once more invited to take care of themselves. This is true, but also with a little twinkle: I do not believe, that the prediction made by a make-up artist last year, that men will start once again to use rouge and real red lipstick, will come true.... OR?
One thing is not to be avoided: men and their washing habits have become a huge industry - but the truth is, there is no secret. It has all to do with cleanliness and cleanliness again.
So, some thoughts, nevertheless.
First things first: we are all lucky to live in circumstances, which allow us to have a regular shower or bath. So please, make it a habit right from the early ages of manhood, to take a shower daily and use a bar of good smelling soap or douchgel. There are marvelous thing out there, and you can find good products in all prize categories, just shop around a bit. If this is the only beautyregime you follow, it is already great and your glamour factor will go up 56%. Cecil Beaton said, that for him glamour in a man is the "Cleanliness, nothing else". And right he is!
I will not come back on the imperative of brushing our teeth twice a day, this will be hopefully so automatic, that you even have to think about this.
But beware: bad breath is a super killer for elegance and good grooming.
If you smoke, please, for our sake, go regulary to the dentist and have your teeth cleaned. Who wants to kiss a man who smells of cigars or cigarettes? Many a man has lost his credits with bad breath - and it is so easy to do something against it, like drinking much more water ( very often bad breath has something to do with being dehydrated), having a little package of mints in your jacket and/or once in a while brushing your teeth during the day in the washroom of your office. Eating regularly enough is also a good idea...
Bad breath is a great and difficult theme to talk about, there fore it is much easier if I write it here and you just think about it.
Another not negotiable Fact: To wash your hair regulary. One is amazed, if you start to look around clean, shining hair makes all the difference - over all ages. Especially, if you like to wear your hair long, which can be lovely! But if you have long locks, then you have to take care of them. Nothing more revolting than long and dirty hair on a man - brrr!
On the other hand I cannot understand this fashion of shaving off a head completedly - I mean, if this is not a sort of political statement or something else, why would you??. It is simply not attractive and the economies you make on time, shampoos and water is a joke. If your hair thins, then let it be thin, take good care of it and don' t go bald on a voluntary basis. Please.
A real big no-no for a gentleman is dying one' s hair. A man who needs to colour his hair is always suspect - sorry to be so blunt, but here it is. The mixture between Sugar Daddy and pimp comes immediately to the mind of every well educted woman.
If you have white hair, go to the hairdresser and have one of those treatments, which take the yellow shimmer out of white hair - by all means. White hair that is clean and shimmering is a great asset indeed.
Speaking of hair: please please take care of the woody hairs growing in your ears and nose as you grow older - do cut and trim them. Every good barbershop will do this for you at your regular cut. Another major sin: not having a haircut regularly done...And a welltrimmed beard, if it has to be, is neccessarily also a clean beard, which is smelling good and is soft and does not remind people coming in nearer contact with a bushy wildernis with a life of its own...
It is no shame to use some bodylotion on those very dry legs or arms. Please take care of your fingernails - this comes without saying: not long and clean. All you need is soap, water and a brush. Nothing else. And toenails..... no need to put vernis on, but file them and clean them regularly. Especially the feet suffer quite often. It has never been presumed that you are a coward if you will have a pedicure once in a while and take care to slap some cream or oil on those poor old feet as well. Rather on the contrary. Many a loving relationship found its sudden death in poorly maintained feet and their toenails...
Using a good after shave is today quite normal. Even better, when it is discreet and not shouting out loud all over the chef-etage...
And last but not least: having not only clean underwear and socks, but also a clean shirt, which has made some aquaintance with an iron is helpful, as is a jacket, which is not smelling of the pub you spent the evening before or which is sprinkeled with a lovely coat of whitish dandruff.
If you get also your shoes right - (so lucky, you do not NEED so many variety as we do and can use shoes for 20 years, if they are well made..) and clean them properly, than only more thing to be a real gentleman is only one: a wonderful smelling and clean and ironed cotton hankerchief. In case you have to console a weeping princess somewhere.
Fazit: Especially as we all grow older, good or bad mother nature is kinder to you, gentlemen, than she is to us. Most men, when well taken care of and discreetly groomed, are looking better with age. So, take advantage of this unfair fact and give us the pleasure to be proud of you. Though it is really unfair, that an embonpoint and white hair give you more glamour than it offers for us poor women. For you, gentlemen, the silverfox existence means experience, wisdom and very often also financial security. For us girls it looks simply equal for old age. Mostly.
!
Saturday 5 November 2011
Some thoughts about fashion magazines
What would we do without fashion magazines?
We would be at a complete loss: not the faintest idea what happens in Paris, in London, in Milano and in New York. Full blown catastrophy: So essential to be informed!
Who would be otherwise so easily convinced, that painting your nails in a shade remembering more the glibber of a corpse in stagnat water than of a supposedly embellishing colour, is the utmost of stylishness, if you would not have seen it in all the major papers?
The hold those pages have over us - we all wait for the autumn issues of our favourite fashion magazines with the same impatience as we wait for school to begin again in september - to unveil all the secrets and must-have´s, do´s and dont´s of the upcoming season fall/winter. And every year it is the same stuff we see, the same counsel we take and the same ridiciulous readiness to believe it all.
By browsing for a first "overview" through this years paper harvest I had the distinct feeling once again, perhaps never so clearly expressed, of wondering, WHY do I read that stuff anyhow? Why do I look at those pictures of beautiful and heavily retouched young girls, in outrageous wardrobes, far away from my metro station and lunch cantine?
You will say, that this exactly is the appeal and magic of a good ( and I say good!) fashion magazin - it should make us dream and get creative about who we want to be and also the way we present ourselves to the outer world. (Ok, not very philosophical or intellectual, but then normally intellectuals are rarely well turned out.) It is meant to be an inspiration to the masses. An incentive to go out hunting for a little glamour at Zara´s - where you find the copies of all great inventions boiled down to wearability and affordable prices. A sacrifice on the altar of consumerism: the quality is bad, you throw it out after wearing 4 times and hop, off a new circle starts and our economy is happy and well. Yesterday I went with my daughter to H&M and, I tell you, the place was buzzing. No crisis in sight, far from it.
Fair enough - let us not discuss this - it is obvious.Everyone of the people there hunting for some style and glamour, all on remote control of the imense fashion machine. Why would those magazines otherwise have such a hugh editorial number and be big bussiness? Why would I buy them all the same?
But to come back to my train of thought: How many times have I laid down a magazine - happens particularly often with french Vogue, which I do not even bother any longer to buy once in a while, so much it gets on my nerves - with the distinct feeling of looking at a Bilderbuch for big girls, with no what so ever relation to my reality: the way I live, I look, I dream, I think, I eat, I work - the environment I live in etc etc pp. Said French Vogue is, in my personal dowdy view, so disconnected from reality - and I believe also from french reality - that they miss the point totally.
Another interesting fact: For the last 20 years, models have been all about 15 years old and heavily underweight. Now, apparently there is a new crop of Supermodels out there, in their glamourous 50ies, selling us the fact, that 50 is the new 30. Hurray!
Just think about the huge potential group of buyers with well equiped purses and the time at their hands to go out and shop indeed. At least, the beloved glossy pages make us normal people believe, that they do so. And off we go and buy the copie of the copie of the copie of that Galliano dress, which would not be recognizable to all but the insiders of the fashion industry. ( Remember the cool drydown Meryl Streep gave the newcomer Anne Hathaway about the colour "blue" in The Devil wears Prada?)
But to keep things straight: I love to read them all the same - my favourites being English Vogue and american Harper's Bazaar.
The magazines are a lifeline to glamour and an ideal projection of personage. All of a sudden we are not mothers and cooks and drivers and secretaries and but all in the grasp of becoming the next grace Kelly and it seems all right and only natural that the Valentino dress for 8000 £ is for us...
So even if we cannot wear almost nothing of the things we see, we go on buying the next issue and will read with utmost interest what is the latest in make-up and fashion for the upcoming season.
And then go out and do as we like anyway.
As I said, information is all and the query as old as humanity: Which fur is it this year Darling, Mamut or Seal?
We would be at a complete loss: not the faintest idea what happens in Paris, in London, in Milano and in New York. Full blown catastrophy: So essential to be informed!
Who would be otherwise so easily convinced, that painting your nails in a shade remembering more the glibber of a corpse in stagnat water than of a supposedly embellishing colour, is the utmost of stylishness, if you would not have seen it in all the major papers?
The hold those pages have over us - we all wait for the autumn issues of our favourite fashion magazines with the same impatience as we wait for school to begin again in september - to unveil all the secrets and must-have´s, do´s and dont´s of the upcoming season fall/winter. And every year it is the same stuff we see, the same counsel we take and the same ridiciulous readiness to believe it all.
By browsing for a first "overview" through this years paper harvest I had the distinct feeling once again, perhaps never so clearly expressed, of wondering, WHY do I read that stuff anyhow? Why do I look at those pictures of beautiful and heavily retouched young girls, in outrageous wardrobes, far away from my metro station and lunch cantine?
You will say, that this exactly is the appeal and magic of a good ( and I say good!) fashion magazin - it should make us dream and get creative about who we want to be and also the way we present ourselves to the outer world. (Ok, not very philosophical or intellectual, but then normally intellectuals are rarely well turned out.) It is meant to be an inspiration to the masses. An incentive to go out hunting for a little glamour at Zara´s - where you find the copies of all great inventions boiled down to wearability and affordable prices. A sacrifice on the altar of consumerism: the quality is bad, you throw it out after wearing 4 times and hop, off a new circle starts and our economy is happy and well. Yesterday I went with my daughter to H&M and, I tell you, the place was buzzing. No crisis in sight, far from it.
Fair enough - let us not discuss this - it is obvious.Everyone of the people there hunting for some style and glamour, all on remote control of the imense fashion machine. Why would those magazines otherwise have such a hugh editorial number and be big bussiness? Why would I buy them all the same?
But to come back to my train of thought: How many times have I laid down a magazine - happens particularly often with french Vogue, which I do not even bother any longer to buy once in a while, so much it gets on my nerves - with the distinct feeling of looking at a Bilderbuch for big girls, with no what so ever relation to my reality: the way I live, I look, I dream, I think, I eat, I work - the environment I live in etc etc pp. Said French Vogue is, in my personal dowdy view, so disconnected from reality - and I believe also from french reality - that they miss the point totally.
Another interesting fact: For the last 20 years, models have been all about 15 years old and heavily underweight. Now, apparently there is a new crop of Supermodels out there, in their glamourous 50ies, selling us the fact, that 50 is the new 30. Hurray!
Just think about the huge potential group of buyers with well equiped purses and the time at their hands to go out and shop indeed. At least, the beloved glossy pages make us normal people believe, that they do so. And off we go and buy the copie of the copie of the copie of that Galliano dress, which would not be recognizable to all but the insiders of the fashion industry. ( Remember the cool drydown Meryl Streep gave the newcomer Anne Hathaway about the colour "blue" in The Devil wears Prada?)
But to keep things straight: I love to read them all the same - my favourites being English Vogue and american Harper's Bazaar.
The magazines are a lifeline to glamour and an ideal projection of personage. All of a sudden we are not mothers and cooks and drivers and secretaries and but all in the grasp of becoming the next grace Kelly and it seems all right and only natural that the Valentino dress for 8000 £ is for us...
So even if we cannot wear almost nothing of the things we see, we go on buying the next issue and will read with utmost interest what is the latest in make-up and fashion for the upcoming season.
And then go out and do as we like anyway.
As I said, information is all and the query as old as humanity: Which fur is it this year Darling, Mamut or Seal?
Wednesday 2 November 2011
Why I love Autumns
Finally it is autumn - even on the chance to repeat myself: it is my favourite season.
Not only are the days cooler and the skies bluer, the air clearer and the the promise of Christmas coming up, but there is some promise in the air of cosy days and a fire lit at home in the evening.
I always loved this time of year, already as a child. The colours of the trees, the huge loads of fallen leafs we had to take care of in our garden at home, when all the family was out and about and we had a lot of fun. One of my brothers made huge tents, like indian tippies, where we could hide and play; my other brother threw my little brother and me into the huge mountains of freshly gathered leaves, us shrieking with pleasure. The smell of the freshly worked fields in the countryside. The smell of fresh apples in the cellar, stored there for the winter. The first autumn fog between the trees in the morning, the sun shining through the countless spidernets, glittering with dew. I loved this and miss it a lot in my urban existence.
A propos urban existence: October is also the ideal month for travelling - for example to the lovely and wonderful cities in Europe. Ever been to Venice in october or november? There is a tip, go there! You will love it. Almost no tourists, heavenly weather - not too hot, but sunny, all those stylish and beautifully dressed natives, empty shops and museums and the good small restaurants in the sideways producing the best food you can imagine. Or take Munich - ok, I bore you. Vienna? Great in autumn, I can assure you. Ever tried Prague? Warzaw? Lisbon? Rome? Stockholm? All you need is a blue sky, slightly fresh temperatures and good company. Well, you get what I mean. On top of all this, the theater is open with the new seasons' programm and most cinemas show the latest films. Go there in the late afternoon and come out again when the day is getting small, buy yourself some maroni and a glas of white wine and prepare for a cosy evening in a good restaurant. Just an idea.
Speaking of travelling: The best season for serious shopping is also the autunm. Choice is abundant, the weather helps to think about being "dressed" again: finally we can admit, that elegance is only achievable when you put clothes ON the body. Being really elegant half-naked in summer, is very very difficult and on the verge of exstinction....
Blessed opaque thights are de rigeur and also a good and wellcut jacket now comes into its own right. Wonderful cashmere turtle necks will help you throught all the hours of the day, dressed up or down from 6 am to 6 pm. A pair of chic boots does wonders for elgegance and your mood. In short: The Onion Look is a good one for the differing temperatures outside: just peel on and off what ever you need, to feel warm and stylish.
Friday 28 October 2011
The Importance of Being Groomed - Mesdames!
The other day I saw in one of the glossy magazines a very serious article about grooming.
There was a happy lady, who had a budget of around 2500 Euros to try everything under the sun to make her more groomed and therefore, hopefully, more happy/attractive/beautiful. The poor girl had such a terrible schedule for stripping, zapping, perming and colouring, that even a CEO of a major word enterprise would have paled facing those tasks. My sympathies and interest dwindled in due course as the result of all those guineepig-actions was her affirmation that she would definitively hang on to do - on a regular base - her "Eyelash Perm". Yes, you read right. Apparently it has to be redone every 6 weeks and you should be prepared to lay down 250 Euros, at least. And then you have that sexy swing in your eyelashes, or better, should have. Perhaps I need spectacles to read more clearly, but it looked like this figure.
Well, I leave this all to your personal preferences and also to your personal taste. Lucky the people who have good genetic eyelashes! One problem less in their life.
And to be fair: I hope for our guineepiglady, that her beauty, or let us say, Essential Grooming Regime (EGR), has in the meantime found some other source than the magazine to pay for her necessities, the simple bare necessities etc. etc.
I thought all this definitively worth for a serious word about grooming to us girls. After all the saying goes, that you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. So lets work on that and on maintainance.
Nothing new under the sun, that we all need to take a shower/bath regularly, that underware needs to be changed OFTEN and that a good shampoo does not have to be expensive, but applied regularly. Actually, the opinion goes that the less stuff you smear on yourself, the better your skin will be.
So lets get through the things one by one.
From top to toe and some generalities for fun.
Hair should be glossy, well cut and washed regularly. If you colour your hair, please please take care of those roots - one of THE Nr.One killerfactor in good grooming. Better to be a silverfox than a horribly dyed middle-aged woman. A good haircut can be expensive, but does NOT need to be redone every two weeks. Actually you can see, if your hairdresser knows his job, if your hair normally looks even better when washed the first time at home after you have been for a cut and a brushing. If your hair does not live up to your expectations after the visit and first wash, perhaps you should look out for another hairdresser, but not start to pur even more stuff on your hair to make it look like you expect it to look. A good hairdresser will cut your hair for you, and you alone, and not like it is shown in a glamorous magazine under the title "One for all". This reminds me, that I wanted to write a post alone about haircuts... please do remember me..
Back to grooming.
Dandruff on your shoulders is not good. Take care of that, look at your diet and perhaps even go to the doctor, should the problem persist. Very often a change for a gentler shampoo and letting hair dry naturally is enough to get rid of snowy shoulders.
Concerning the grooming of your face, there are many possibilities and in our age one should have slowly slowly found the routie which makes your skin glow and happy, well nourished and clear. Important is the routine, religiously followed - this is the big secret of good skin, nothing else.
Good grooming does not need too much make up neither - and if you use make up, use it so, that it is your face who looks well and nobody takes you for Winnetou on his warpath. Do take good care of your teeth!!! Very important - regular visits to the dentist are a must and no luxury. As goes for a good maintainance of those eyebrows - quickly done, once you have found the shape which goes well with your face.
Never forget wo take care of your neck... poor old neck is often the stepchild of a grooming regime. But it needs only soap, water, a good cream and a regular "skin polish", i.e. peeling. Does wonder! A perfect peeling also for the body is the good old recipe of some good oil and a cup of sugar mixed and rigorously applied all over your body. If you want, put some essential oils in for fun. Your skin comes out of the shower all soft and clean.
We talked already about washing yourself regularly - a good bar of soap is your best friend in more than one cases. Depilation is also a question of personal preference, but wearing sleeveless shirts in summer make some epilation necessary - shave, wax, whatever makes you more happy. Same goes for the odd legs... Some people are luckier than others, in any case do not look like a pin-up for "Welcome in the Hairy World"....!A bottle of bodylotion is essential - and a dry brush. Another good way for getting this poor old body exfoliated and soft. The sugar thing is more practical, as you are cleaned and creamed at the same time....
A word to hands and feet: Having a regular manicure and pedicure is no luxury, but keeps your extremities in good shape. I personally do not like long fingernails, and think that only impeccable lackered colour is worth the maintainancepain on short square fingernails. But this is a personal preference I have and with me painted fingers do last ca 20 hours, so it it not worth th effort and I prefer to buff them into some gleaming softness and put my beloved Dior Creme Apricot on top for that groomed look. It really works!
Toes should be coloured, at least in summer. So much more fun. No effort to keep the poor old feet groomed, if you buffer them while sitting in your bath and put also bodylotion on them, Creme Apricot on the nails. Works.
Clean clothing, some little colourcombining and a good-smelling scent, not overwhelming but agreable to seek you out, is another must for good grooming. As are shined and cared for shoes and if possible, a handbag which may be old, but has from time to time a good coating in Nivea Cream and afterwards a good polish, with a lot of ellbow grease.
Take care of your jewellery, better less than more. If I see pictures out of the 80ies, we all had big earrings and chains and rings and bracelets, with big hair and many colours in our outfits. This is a nono today. If a bracelet, then earrings, if big earrings, than no chains, if chanins, no earrings - you get the idea of less is more?
All in all, we do not arrive here at the budgetline of 2500 Euros, I am sorry to say. Let's have a look. You need a good bar of soap, a shampoo, some good face cream, a bottle of bodylotion, a scent, some lipstick ( which doubles as rouge), mascara and one good concealer, a scent, toothbrush and paste, a good hairbrush, 2 bottles of vernis pour l' ongle, one red and one transparent, a buffer and a file, a shaver, a tweezer, a body brush and that is it. The budget line can go from 50 $ to 500$ if you want, but the essential factor is taking care of oneself, having respect for one's features and being kind to ourselves. Time spent in grooming is time well spent: all in a good ratio of effort and result....
AND: Have fun!!!
There was a happy lady, who had a budget of around 2500 Euros to try everything under the sun to make her more groomed and therefore, hopefully, more happy/attractive/beautiful. The poor girl had such a terrible schedule for stripping, zapping, perming and colouring, that even a CEO of a major word enterprise would have paled facing those tasks. My sympathies and interest dwindled in due course as the result of all those guineepig-actions was her affirmation that she would definitively hang on to do - on a regular base - her "Eyelash Perm". Yes, you read right. Apparently it has to be redone every 6 weeks and you should be prepared to lay down 250 Euros, at least. And then you have that sexy swing in your eyelashes, or better, should have. Perhaps I need spectacles to read more clearly, but it looked like this figure.
Well, I leave this all to your personal preferences and also to your personal taste. Lucky the people who have good genetic eyelashes! One problem less in their life.
And to be fair: I hope for our guineepiglady, that her beauty, or let us say, Essential Grooming Regime (EGR), has in the meantime found some other source than the magazine to pay for her necessities, the simple bare necessities etc. etc.
I thought all this definitively worth for a serious word about grooming to us girls. After all the saying goes, that you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. So lets work on that and on maintainance.
Nothing new under the sun, that we all need to take a shower/bath regularly, that underware needs to be changed OFTEN and that a good shampoo does not have to be expensive, but applied regularly. Actually, the opinion goes that the less stuff you smear on yourself, the better your skin will be.
So lets get through the things one by one.
From top to toe and some generalities for fun.
Hair should be glossy, well cut and washed regularly. If you colour your hair, please please take care of those roots - one of THE Nr.One killerfactor in good grooming. Better to be a silverfox than a horribly dyed middle-aged woman. A good haircut can be expensive, but does NOT need to be redone every two weeks. Actually you can see, if your hairdresser knows his job, if your hair normally looks even better when washed the first time at home after you have been for a cut and a brushing. If your hair does not live up to your expectations after the visit and first wash, perhaps you should look out for another hairdresser, but not start to pur even more stuff on your hair to make it look like you expect it to look. A good hairdresser will cut your hair for you, and you alone, and not like it is shown in a glamorous magazine under the title "One for all". This reminds me, that I wanted to write a post alone about haircuts... please do remember me..
Back to grooming.
Dandruff on your shoulders is not good. Take care of that, look at your diet and perhaps even go to the doctor, should the problem persist. Very often a change for a gentler shampoo and letting hair dry naturally is enough to get rid of snowy shoulders.
Concerning the grooming of your face, there are many possibilities and in our age one should have slowly slowly found the routie which makes your skin glow and happy, well nourished and clear. Important is the routine, religiously followed - this is the big secret of good skin, nothing else.
Good grooming does not need too much make up neither - and if you use make up, use it so, that it is your face who looks well and nobody takes you for Winnetou on his warpath. Do take good care of your teeth!!! Very important - regular visits to the dentist are a must and no luxury. As goes for a good maintainance of those eyebrows - quickly done, once you have found the shape which goes well with your face.
Never forget wo take care of your neck... poor old neck is often the stepchild of a grooming regime. But it needs only soap, water, a good cream and a regular "skin polish", i.e. peeling. Does wonder! A perfect peeling also for the body is the good old recipe of some good oil and a cup of sugar mixed and rigorously applied all over your body. If you want, put some essential oils in for fun. Your skin comes out of the shower all soft and clean.
We talked already about washing yourself regularly - a good bar of soap is your best friend in more than one cases. Depilation is also a question of personal preference, but wearing sleeveless shirts in summer make some epilation necessary - shave, wax, whatever makes you more happy. Same goes for the odd legs... Some people are luckier than others, in any case do not look like a pin-up for "Welcome in the Hairy World"....!A bottle of bodylotion is essential - and a dry brush. Another good way for getting this poor old body exfoliated and soft. The sugar thing is more practical, as you are cleaned and creamed at the same time....
A word to hands and feet: Having a regular manicure and pedicure is no luxury, but keeps your extremities in good shape. I personally do not like long fingernails, and think that only impeccable lackered colour is worth the maintainancepain on short square fingernails. But this is a personal preference I have and with me painted fingers do last ca 20 hours, so it it not worth th effort and I prefer to buff them into some gleaming softness and put my beloved Dior Creme Apricot on top for that groomed look. It really works!
Toes should be coloured, at least in summer. So much more fun. No effort to keep the poor old feet groomed, if you buffer them while sitting in your bath and put also bodylotion on them, Creme Apricot on the nails. Works.
Clean clothing, some little colourcombining and a good-smelling scent, not overwhelming but agreable to seek you out, is another must for good grooming. As are shined and cared for shoes and if possible, a handbag which may be old, but has from time to time a good coating in Nivea Cream and afterwards a good polish, with a lot of ellbow grease.
Take care of your jewellery, better less than more. If I see pictures out of the 80ies, we all had big earrings and chains and rings and bracelets, with big hair and many colours in our outfits. This is a nono today. If a bracelet, then earrings, if big earrings, than no chains, if chanins, no earrings - you get the idea of less is more?
All in all, we do not arrive here at the budgetline of 2500 Euros, I am sorry to say. Let's have a look. You need a good bar of soap, a shampoo, some good face cream, a bottle of bodylotion, a scent, some lipstick ( which doubles as rouge), mascara and one good concealer, a scent, toothbrush and paste, a good hairbrush, 2 bottles of vernis pour l' ongle, one red and one transparent, a buffer and a file, a shaver, a tweezer, a body brush and that is it. The budget line can go from 50 $ to 500$ if you want, but the essential factor is taking care of oneself, having respect for one's features and being kind to ourselves. Time spent in grooming is time well spent: all in a good ratio of effort and result....
AND: Have fun!!!
Tuesday 18 October 2011
Autumn
It is really a pity, that I do not have enough leisure for the moment to get all those ideas on paper, respectively getting the post written I would like to talk about. So here just a quick word, so that you do not feel too neglected!
It is right now the most beautiful time of the year - at least for me: the sky, if it is blue, is really blue and clear, the air is crisp and the trees are getting into a golden light. The days are getting shorter and the nights cooler. You still can have lunch outside in a cafe and get a sunburn, but dinners have to be inside now. People are busy, but not hectic. The first scent of roasted chestnuts are in the air. Time to start the fire in the chimney and also to start thinking about those Christmas Presents.. not to talk about the cards...! Those of us, who do not have the pictures already selected are in trouble ( I for one...). Every year Christmas comes as a surprise, it seems. Nobody has been seeing it getting up on the horizon latest from the first of september...
But back to Autumn - I do not know, why I love it, but I do, always have. It is also the ideal time for city traveling, visiting friends and going to museums to see the just opened new exhibitions. Have a stroll and look through the galleries and then also through the shops. In an ideal world, we would all have enough time to stroll more and see more beautiful things around us. I cannot say it often enough, how important it is for the soul, to see and do beautiful things. Beauty is essential for a happy life.
And to be a bit mondaine: the nicest thing is that one starts again to get dressed as one should be. Elegance is coming back and with it the feeling of wanting to be well groomed and in a good mood is essential. So off ou drag yourself to the hairdresser and get those boots you have been contemplating already for the last 6 weeks.
And not to start about scent again...
Oh, I really need some more time to write some posts...
It is right now the most beautiful time of the year - at least for me: the sky, if it is blue, is really blue and clear, the air is crisp and the trees are getting into a golden light. The days are getting shorter and the nights cooler. You still can have lunch outside in a cafe and get a sunburn, but dinners have to be inside now. People are busy, but not hectic. The first scent of roasted chestnuts are in the air. Time to start the fire in the chimney and also to start thinking about those Christmas Presents.. not to talk about the cards...! Those of us, who do not have the pictures already selected are in trouble ( I for one...). Every year Christmas comes as a surprise, it seems. Nobody has been seeing it getting up on the horizon latest from the first of september...
 |
| The Opera in Munich in early octoberlight |
And to be a bit mondaine: the nicest thing is that one starts again to get dressed as one should be. Elegance is coming back and with it the feeling of wanting to be well groomed and in a good mood is essential. So off ou drag yourself to the hairdresser and get those boots you have been contemplating already for the last 6 weeks.
And not to start about scent again...
Oh, I really need some more time to write some posts...
Sunday 9 October 2011
Why don´t you...? 9
Some new food for thought!
Why don´t you:
- do more "Kitchen-Dinners"?
Not the latest newest thing to do, but always great fun and not too difficult to organize. Just make sure, that the kitchen does not look like a battlefield and that there is enough space for everybody to sit comfortably. The big advantage: the poor cook does not have to slave away alone, but can enjoy the talk while carving the chicken...
- do more "Music at Home"?
Just invite some good friends over, open a bottle of wine and get copies of songs all of you now and off you go. If you have a piano and one friends who knows to play it, even better. Great fun and after an initial shyness the most entertaining evening you will have passed in months, loads of laughter and fun guaranteed...
- do more "Little Travels"?
Even just a day away from your ordinary day to day life is refreshing. Going to Paris for lunch with a friend sounds complicated, but is not the end of the world: Just jump in the train and here you go. Or to London for buying some tea and having a sip with another friend over there? If you plan well ahead tickets are affordable and the exitement of being alive and seeing the world gets you going for another 2 months in the daily treadmill. If you can stay overnight by all means do: it is a real break and feels much longer than only 24 hours. Proof that time is definitifely "relativ"...
- do more "Tea Parties"?
Even less work that an kitchen dinner, it is the ideal way of spending a lazy sunday afternoon in the company of good friends. The advantages are serveral: not only is the timeframe generally a shorter one than for a dinner, children are welcome, so there is no problem with babysitters, food preparations are minimal, as you in the last of all events can rush out and buy some cake, toast and butter. Some juice for children and really good quality tea in huge quantities for the adults make a feast for every one without the stress of formal entertaining with a 8 course dinner. Highly recommended also for inviting new aquaintances - just the right thing to decide whether you will be friends or stay better on a more formal footing...
- do more "Operas and Concerts"?
Get some friends together and organize between yourselves the concerts and operas you would like to see. This is a good incentive to go out to hear good music and do it in good company. Much more fun, than sitting in your pijamas alone at home with a CD or, even worse, alone through a Wagner Opera, without anybody to comment on the horrible soprano or share with you the desperate glas of bubble in the intervall...
Why don´t you:
- do more "Kitchen-Dinners"?
Not the latest newest thing to do, but always great fun and not too difficult to organize. Just make sure, that the kitchen does not look like a battlefield and that there is enough space for everybody to sit comfortably. The big advantage: the poor cook does not have to slave away alone, but can enjoy the talk while carving the chicken...
- do more "Music at Home"?
Just invite some good friends over, open a bottle of wine and get copies of songs all of you now and off you go. If you have a piano and one friends who knows to play it, even better. Great fun and after an initial shyness the most entertaining evening you will have passed in months, loads of laughter and fun guaranteed...
- do more "Little Travels"?
Even just a day away from your ordinary day to day life is refreshing. Going to Paris for lunch with a friend sounds complicated, but is not the end of the world: Just jump in the train and here you go. Or to London for buying some tea and having a sip with another friend over there? If you plan well ahead tickets are affordable and the exitement of being alive and seeing the world gets you going for another 2 months in the daily treadmill. If you can stay overnight by all means do: it is a real break and feels much longer than only 24 hours. Proof that time is definitifely "relativ"...
- do more "Tea Parties"?
Even less work that an kitchen dinner, it is the ideal way of spending a lazy sunday afternoon in the company of good friends. The advantages are serveral: not only is the timeframe generally a shorter one than for a dinner, children are welcome, so there is no problem with babysitters, food preparations are minimal, as you in the last of all events can rush out and buy some cake, toast and butter. Some juice for children and really good quality tea in huge quantities for the adults make a feast for every one without the stress of formal entertaining with a 8 course dinner. Highly recommended also for inviting new aquaintances - just the right thing to decide whether you will be friends or stay better on a more formal footing...
- do more "Operas and Concerts"?
Get some friends together and organize between yourselves the concerts and operas you would like to see. This is a good incentive to go out to hear good music and do it in good company. Much more fun, than sitting in your pijamas alone at home with a CD or, even worse, alone through a Wagner Opera, without anybody to comment on the horrible soprano or share with you the desperate glas of bubble in the intervall...
Thursday 29 September 2011
Women and Tears
You will wonder what a weird title this is - it came to me - as always I have the best ideas in the early morning - when I had to get up today. Loads of checklists in my head and then, this popped up at 6.30, to be exact. Not that I felt tearful - more tired and in need for another 2 hours of undisturbed sleep perhaps, but otherwise in good mood and form. Having started to work again has done wonders to my "Morale".
But back to the essentiels on tearful women.
First, it is important to know that we women have only two ways of crying - or out of sheer misery, helplessness and compassion - or, out of pure rage and the bloody feeling of being powerless.
There is a third, very rare way: crying as manipulation - but beware, this is a high art, not to be mastered easily and highly dangerous to employ - it is indeed very difficult to look beautiful when you cry and the effect of smeared mascara all over your cheeks may not help you in your quest. It is wise to be aware that at least after 17 a tearswollen face is not attractive.
One more and important thing to be aware of is also, that men in general do not know how to behave when a woman is crying. If a child cries, it is easy - men start to utter bearlike sounds and we females get motherly feelings, go down on our knees and try to consolate the little person. If a child is miserable, we react immideately - child -tears-compassion: in a second, the reaction is on. Not to be confused with the almost icy reaction towards a tantrum in the supermarket...
If a woman is crying, male mankind normally gets very unconfortable. It is more than rare to find a grown adult male, who is capable of staying put, stay calm and quiet and who does not instinctively try to inhibit the female counterpart of letting liters of salty water flowing down his shirt.
The normal reaction is bewilderment, uneasiness and an urge to flee the premises.
Another reaction is the famous angry shut-down to business mentality: stop it, nobody is impressed by this show. Both things are the wrong reaction, messieurs.
Ideal would be to endure it while it lasts and then move on to some nice other topic, giving the wet producer the feeling, that it is ok and we do not talk about this any longer. Believe me, there is a lot of relief to be found for both sides in this attitude.
But back to female tears. I think we are lucky - having this legal way of letting of steam, which otherwise would end up in suicide or manslaughter - depending which kind of tears you are on.
It is common knowledge that having a good cry is one of the best therapeutic things to indulge in, cheap and feasible whereever you are. Best alone for a real therapeutic effect, or only in very good and beloved company. Place and time do count as well. A good place could be in your car, at the parking of the supermarket or shopping malls - nobody looks at you there, and you are not completedly alone. Or your bed - but this is dangerous, as it can be a long session, especially during the little hours of the night, where the mind is randomly picking horrors and fears and indulge in them. But one advantage: a foolproof way of falling asleep - a little cry and hop, off you go into Morpheus´arms like a baby.
All that said: too much crying makes your eyes wrinkled and baggy - so please try to remember, that laughing is much better for you, your face and your environment. Anyway - both are so close, that it is always much more fun to laugh. Even in the worst circumstances.
But back to the essentiels on tearful women.
First, it is important to know that we women have only two ways of crying - or out of sheer misery, helplessness and compassion - or, out of pure rage and the bloody feeling of being powerless.
There is a third, very rare way: crying as manipulation - but beware, this is a high art, not to be mastered easily and highly dangerous to employ - it is indeed very difficult to look beautiful when you cry and the effect of smeared mascara all over your cheeks may not help you in your quest. It is wise to be aware that at least after 17 a tearswollen face is not attractive.
One more and important thing to be aware of is also, that men in general do not know how to behave when a woman is crying. If a child cries, it is easy - men start to utter bearlike sounds and we females get motherly feelings, go down on our knees and try to consolate the little person. If a child is miserable, we react immideately - child -tears-compassion: in a second, the reaction is on. Not to be confused with the almost icy reaction towards a tantrum in the supermarket...
If a woman is crying, male mankind normally gets very unconfortable. It is more than rare to find a grown adult male, who is capable of staying put, stay calm and quiet and who does not instinctively try to inhibit the female counterpart of letting liters of salty water flowing down his shirt.
The normal reaction is bewilderment, uneasiness and an urge to flee the premises.
Another reaction is the famous angry shut-down to business mentality: stop it, nobody is impressed by this show. Both things are the wrong reaction, messieurs.
Ideal would be to endure it while it lasts and then move on to some nice other topic, giving the wet producer the feeling, that it is ok and we do not talk about this any longer. Believe me, there is a lot of relief to be found for both sides in this attitude.
But back to female tears. I think we are lucky - having this legal way of letting of steam, which otherwise would end up in suicide or manslaughter - depending which kind of tears you are on.
It is common knowledge that having a good cry is one of the best therapeutic things to indulge in, cheap and feasible whereever you are. Best alone for a real therapeutic effect, or only in very good and beloved company. Place and time do count as well. A good place could be in your car, at the parking of the supermarket or shopping malls - nobody looks at you there, and you are not completedly alone. Or your bed - but this is dangerous, as it can be a long session, especially during the little hours of the night, where the mind is randomly picking horrors and fears and indulge in them. But one advantage: a foolproof way of falling asleep - a little cry and hop, off you go into Morpheus´arms like a baby.
All that said: too much crying makes your eyes wrinkled and baggy - so please try to remember, that laughing is much better for you, your face and your environment. Anyway - both are so close, that it is always much more fun to laugh. Even in the worst circumstances.
Wednesday 21 September 2011
Traffic in Brussels - Impressions
The other day I had to rush home after work, to relieve my poor old dogs - they had been staying alone at home for the whole day and I was fearing the worst - at least for my curtains and perhaps even for the carpet in the living room...
So, off I dashed and guess, what happened to me: Traffic Jams all over the place.
There were no traffic lights - apparently the whole "European Quartier" had no electricity... So, please, imagine a rush hour + roundabouts+buses+pedestrians+drivers of different nationalities all together trying to get out of this mess and to go home to their respektive dogs, cats, children, ovens or shops.
No police far and near and up and down to be seen. We were all on our own.
It felt like being in a huge malstrom - you simply cannot move in any direction and have to wait until, centimeter by centimeter, you can gain territory and then take all your courage to speed into the smallest little spaces available for you and your car: Furious looks from all parties. Resignated frowns. Some start to toooooooooooot. One feels like killing the innocent neighbour - who turns out to press so near to your car, that you are indeed in danger of getting scratched - and he hears loud beat music and smokes in his car. Indignation starts to mount its ugly head.
I feel transported back to my times in countries far far away, where 6 files of cars instead of 3 was a normal situation, but not as stressful as this, as everybody was driving according to the "rules" and the traffic eventually moved.
Here we have the famous clash of civilisations - north versus south, east versus west ( please not the political correctness in this statement), young versus old and lawabiding against entrepreneurial styles of driving. Oh God. It was hell.
It took me almost an hour with a quick run through fury, impatience, resignation, dumb acceptance and the rare flickering of sportive search for an oportunity and muchmuch patience to get home after all, but I did it - expecting the worst. But the children had arrived before me and there was no catastrophe. Clever dogs - all the stress for nothing!
So, off I dashed and guess, what happened to me: Traffic Jams all over the place.
There were no traffic lights - apparently the whole "European Quartier" had no electricity... So, please, imagine a rush hour + roundabouts+buses+pedestrians+drivers of different nationalities all together trying to get out of this mess and to go home to their respektive dogs, cats, children, ovens or shops.
No police far and near and up and down to be seen. We were all on our own.
It felt like being in a huge malstrom - you simply cannot move in any direction and have to wait until, centimeter by centimeter, you can gain territory and then take all your courage to speed into the smallest little spaces available for you and your car: Furious looks from all parties. Resignated frowns. Some start to toooooooooooot. One feels like killing the innocent neighbour - who turns out to press so near to your car, that you are indeed in danger of getting scratched - and he hears loud beat music and smokes in his car. Indignation starts to mount its ugly head.
I feel transported back to my times in countries far far away, where 6 files of cars instead of 3 was a normal situation, but not as stressful as this, as everybody was driving according to the "rules" and the traffic eventually moved.
Here we have the famous clash of civilisations - north versus south, east versus west ( please not the political correctness in this statement), young versus old and lawabiding against entrepreneurial styles of driving. Oh God. It was hell.
It took me almost an hour with a quick run through fury, impatience, resignation, dumb acceptance and the rare flickering of sportive search for an oportunity and muchmuch patience to get home after all, but I did it - expecting the worst. But the children had arrived before me and there was no catastrophe. Clever dogs - all the stress for nothing!
Thursday 8 September 2011
An Ode to La Rentrée
Voilà, c´est la rentrée! Back to school!
Life is getting back to normal.
The children started school two days ago and are happy to be busy, seeing their friends again. The lovely fresh and clean folders and books with their names on them are not yet mutilated by bored graphic training during the lessons and they are reliefed - to be honest - to have some more structure in their lifes.
Nothing more boring than endless days of holidays without programmes and duties for them.
(We, on the other hand, now being oldies and without illusions any longer, love endless "idle" days - the luxury of sitting in your salon and just looking stupid in the air... Not so the young. And they are right.)
After this very wet summer, it looks like we shall have a very wet autumn as well - so goodbye to the hopes for a lovely and cosy Indian Summer with high temperatures during golden Septemberdays and the twilight pleasure of getting your cardigans out to put them over the lovely linendress in the afternoon. Finally we can start to dress more like grown ups again - so difficult in t-shirts and shorts to look respectable.
For me this slow change in temperature, light and quality of air is one of the great pleasures of the approaching autumn.
Indeed, september and october are some of my favourite months - the summer/holiday feeling swings over in the happy forecast of things to come, of cooler days, the first fire in the open fire place, putting another woolblanket over your bed and storing away those summersandals. You willl think of changing your handbag from the white summer one back to the - in my case - green - autumn one. Out go the corals, whites and bright blues in your wardrobe, in come the soft greys, the first dark greens and you will have to inspect your socks and stockings. This also is the time to have a look through your silk scarfs and accessoires...
And book a date with your favourite hairdresser to get the glory on your head back into the best possible condition after all that beach and bleach in the sun! For the very conscious, a dive into facials, pedicures and manicures is de rigeur. We other mortals go and have a look at the first collections of lipsticks at MAC and Maybelline.
We wait eagerly for the september and october issues of our favourite fashion magazines, just to be sure, that orange and red this fall/winter is the colour to sport. Lucky the ones who have a Red Handbag!
Careful consideration is required for boots and coats - right now the perfect time to go shopping, as the collections are just in freshly arrived and choice in models and sizes (just think of shoes in size 40 - gone in a moment!) is still vast. The other good opportunity to shop for those items are the sales in january - quite a clever move, if you are more on the classic side.
Once again we study the programmes of the opera and concerts coming up until Christmas. There are some treats coming up... And the idea to go to the cinema is not longer prompted by the need of aircondition, but by the genuine desire to see the latest Woody Allen, or if you prefer more darkish thoughts, the last Lars von Trier movie.
In September, also the first cocktails show up pretty soon, followed by belated birthday parties and perfumed by the genuine desire to see ones friends again - everybody is tanned and happy to be back.
Until Christmas now time will fly.
Start to think about presents and Christmas Cards now - especially if you have not yet a picture of your dear ones in the box...! On our fridge, the Christmas list is hanging since yesterday - together with the new busschedule and timestables for school.
In the end, for me the "year" starts in september - not in january.
My life goes from summerholidays to summerholidays - linked to the schoolrhythms and the two big changes in the year - winter to spring in march/april and then summer to autumn in september/october.
I could forgo happily the 6 weeks from the first of january until the 15th of february. Most dreaded time of the year.
Life is getting back to normal.
The children started school two days ago and are happy to be busy, seeing their friends again. The lovely fresh and clean folders and books with their names on them are not yet mutilated by bored graphic training during the lessons and they are reliefed - to be honest - to have some more structure in their lifes.
Nothing more boring than endless days of holidays without programmes and duties for them.
(We, on the other hand, now being oldies and without illusions any longer, love endless "idle" days - the luxury of sitting in your salon and just looking stupid in the air... Not so the young. And they are right.)
After this very wet summer, it looks like we shall have a very wet autumn as well - so goodbye to the hopes for a lovely and cosy Indian Summer with high temperatures during golden Septemberdays and the twilight pleasure of getting your cardigans out to put them over the lovely linendress in the afternoon. Finally we can start to dress more like grown ups again - so difficult in t-shirts and shorts to look respectable.
For me this slow change in temperature, light and quality of air is one of the great pleasures of the approaching autumn.
Indeed, september and october are some of my favourite months - the summer/holiday feeling swings over in the happy forecast of things to come, of cooler days, the first fire in the open fire place, putting another woolblanket over your bed and storing away those summersandals. You willl think of changing your handbag from the white summer one back to the - in my case - green - autumn one. Out go the corals, whites and bright blues in your wardrobe, in come the soft greys, the first dark greens and you will have to inspect your socks and stockings. This also is the time to have a look through your silk scarfs and accessoires...
And book a date with your favourite hairdresser to get the glory on your head back into the best possible condition after all that beach and bleach in the sun! For the very conscious, a dive into facials, pedicures and manicures is de rigeur. We other mortals go and have a look at the first collections of lipsticks at MAC and Maybelline.
We wait eagerly for the september and october issues of our favourite fashion magazines, just to be sure, that orange and red this fall/winter is the colour to sport. Lucky the ones who have a Red Handbag!
Careful consideration is required for boots and coats - right now the perfect time to go shopping, as the collections are just in freshly arrived and choice in models and sizes (just think of shoes in size 40 - gone in a moment!) is still vast. The other good opportunity to shop for those items are the sales in january - quite a clever move, if you are more on the classic side.
Once again we study the programmes of the opera and concerts coming up until Christmas. There are some treats coming up... And the idea to go to the cinema is not longer prompted by the need of aircondition, but by the genuine desire to see the latest Woody Allen, or if you prefer more darkish thoughts, the last Lars von Trier movie.
In September, also the first cocktails show up pretty soon, followed by belated birthday parties and perfumed by the genuine desire to see ones friends again - everybody is tanned and happy to be back.
Until Christmas now time will fly.
Start to think about presents and Christmas Cards now - especially if you have not yet a picture of your dear ones in the box...! On our fridge, the Christmas list is hanging since yesterday - together with the new busschedule and timestables for school.
In the end, for me the "year" starts in september - not in january.
My life goes from summerholidays to summerholidays - linked to the schoolrhythms and the two big changes in the year - winter to spring in march/april and then summer to autumn in september/october.
I could forgo happily the 6 weeks from the first of january until the 15th of february. Most dreaded time of the year.
Sunday 4 September 2011
In memory of Loriot
You all know our pugs. The reason why I have always adored pugs is, or unfortunately has been, the responsibility of Vico von Buelow, alias "Loriot". If the german language has ever had a congenial satirist and humoristic artist, then it was him - the greatest german humourist, if one can say so and if something like that in Germany is possible. His death at the age of 88 is a great loss to all of us.
It was him who said, that, roughly translated, "A life without pugs is possible, but not desirable".
He is, of course, right.
To show you what I mean I have included here 3 youtube films - spoken in german by Loriot himself and starring his own pugs. Unfortunately the spoken text is very important to get a grip of the films - sorry for those of you, who do not speak german. For all the others: have fun!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kV27_jIIw4 "Der wilde Waldmops"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh5R6dFgEsA&feature=related "Moepse am Nordpol"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh5R6dFgEsA&feature=related "Moepse auf dem Mond"
It was him who said, that, roughly translated, "A life without pugs is possible, but not desirable".
He is, of course, right.
To show you what I mean I have included here 3 youtube films - spoken in german by Loriot himself and starring his own pugs. Unfortunately the spoken text is very important to get a grip of the films - sorry for those of you, who do not speak german. For all the others: have fun!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh5R6dFgEsA&feature=related "Moepse am Nordpol"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh5R6dFgEsA&feature=related "Moepse auf dem Mond"
Wednesday 31 August 2011
Wet Weekend at the Belgian Coast
You would think that august is a nice time to go to the beach. But apparently not in Belgium: I went to DEHAAN, or as the french say, "Le Cocq" - more than happy to get a bit out of town, rain and computerprogramms.
And then, finally on my last day....
Voilà, the loveliest fresh weather and sky! And I headed back to rain, office and the usual supermarket.
Voilà, the loveliest fresh weather and sky! And I headed back to rain, office and the usual supermarket.
Friday 26 August 2011
Bed and Breakfast in Brussels
Brussels is a city full of hotels and accomodations - of all sorts of colours. But if you ever have felt not at ease in a hotel in Brussels and craved for the luxury and privacy of some more unique settings - especially concerning quiet, green surroundings and a wonderful breakfast, than I would highly recommend you to book into "La Villa".
I got the address from friends and, as we all know, the best publicity is always mouth to mouth - at least you know whom to blame, if the place is not up to your expectations! And the word is true - a friend of my friend is my friend as well - I have been welcomed as an old friend and felt at home the moment I entered the beautiful garden - this house is a jewel, lovingly renovated and comfortably settled in the middle of one of the lesser known, very green parts of Brussels. Not in the tourist area, but not far neither. You have even a private parking lot - if you need a car - otherwise you just hop into the Tram or a little bit further on in the Metro and dash off to all destinations of your choice in Brussels. The Best of two worlds - a quiet villa in a quiet and green garden, very kind hosts, good food, even better talk and a lovely comfortable room. As there is only one room to be rented out, it has a very private atmosphere - you get your key and have your own little sitting room with a TV, books and magazines. Breakfast is served here, or, if the weather allows it, in the garden - the top of luxury being to be acquainted personally with Mesdames Les Poules, whose eggs you are eating in the morning. They are called Marina and Samatha.
But best is, to let Nicolas speak for himself and describe their home and the idea behind.
"Petrus, mon compagnon, et moi avons ouvert une chambre d'hôte dans notre maison il y a exactement un an. Au départ, c'était à vrai dire plutôt mon projet: mes enfants ayant pris leur envol depuis quelque temps, j'avais l'impression qu'un certain silence pesait parfois un peu trop sur notre grande "villa", comme on l'appelle dans le quartier. L'idée d'ouvrir une chambre à des hôtes de passage est alors venue assez naturellement; nous aimons chacun le contact, nous avons tous les deux un emploi du temps relativement souple et la maison et son jardin fraichement rénovés ne demandaient qu'à être partagés. Pour ma part, je pense aussi que ce projet plongeait ses racines dans des souvenirs d'enfance liés à l'hôtel que tenaient mes grands parents au bord de la Lesse. Un endroit aujourd'hui disparu qui me paraissait ,enfant, immense et extraordinaire. Un lieu associé à tant d'émotions et de sensations que je ne peux m'empêcher parfois d'y penser sans un peu de nostalgie je l'avoue....
Au bout d'une année, le plaisir de bien recevoir, de partager avec nos nombreux hôtes de petits ou de grands moments d'échanges mais aussi de préparer de savoureux ( j'espère!) petits déjeuners est resté intact. Il faut dire que nous nous sommes limités à une seule chambre, autant pour pouvoir procurer un accueil qualitatif et personnalisé que pour ne pas nous sentir nous-même débordés. Une garantie en quelque sorte de rester dans une certaine forme de disponibilité et surtout de plaisir ce qui est essentiel. Qui plus est, nous avons aussi fait quelques belles rencontres, la dernière en date étant celle notre chère "bloggeuse", Jola pour ne pas la nommer. En deux mots, arrivés à l'heure de l'évaluation que nous nous étions fixée au bout d'un an, la réponse s'impose d'elle-même: on continue !"
Nicolas & Petrus
Karrenberg, 64
1170 Bruxelles
1170 Bruxelles
Nicolas and Petrus have opened this little jewel just some short while ago - so it is still a secret, told by one friend to another. Strongly recommended!!
All pictures by Nicolas.
All pictures by Nicolas.
Tuesday 23 August 2011
Dogs...
Our dogs are growing old - and are more and more beloved.
An old dog is like a member of the family, you know his likes and dislikes, his naughty habits, like making pipi always at the same place of the curtain ( this means he is furious about something) - the cost of dry-cleaning...
Or the way they eat: in the morning one, in the evening the other - polishing off both portions of food, if we do not take care. Best incentive to eat is to provide a tiny piece of Paté with the food. This does the trick for Plop to take his medication. He looks like a happy child, waiting for his favourite vitamin-sirop in the morning.
If you take one on your lap, the other will immediately awake from his snoring depths and sit longingly at your feet. Then you get the very-sad-pug-look. Makes you feel awful. And you end up with two pugs in your lap and covered all over with tiny little hairs. Not for the faint hearted, indeed!
If one starts looking busy, prepares a bag or rustles along with keys, there are two happy chaps sitting tail wagging at the door. If you do not take them for a walk, be aware of hurt looks piercing your back...
They are both such personalities - very distinct different and very kind. The kindest dogs one can imagine.
And very hairy - we should get one Vacuumcleaner "Cats &Dogs" for free!!
 |
| Ploppy |
 |
| Mick contemplating Life |
An old dog is like a member of the family, you know his likes and dislikes, his naughty habits, like making pipi always at the same place of the curtain ( this means he is furious about something) - the cost of dry-cleaning...
Or the way they eat: in the morning one, in the evening the other - polishing off both portions of food, if we do not take care. Best incentive to eat is to provide a tiny piece of Paté with the food. This does the trick for Plop to take his medication. He looks like a happy child, waiting for his favourite vitamin-sirop in the morning.
If you take one on your lap, the other will immediately awake from his snoring depths and sit longingly at your feet. Then you get the very-sad-pug-look. Makes you feel awful. And you end up with two pugs in your lap and covered all over with tiny little hairs. Not for the faint hearted, indeed!
 |
| Plop feeling lonely |
They are both such personalities - very distinct different and very kind. The kindest dogs one can imagine.
And very hairy - we should get one Vacuumcleaner "Cats &Dogs" for free!!
Thursday 18 August 2011
The less you diet, the more you lose
Finally a word we can trumpet out without hesitation!
A good friend asked me to promise her NEVER to write about diets - well, here I will not write about a new diet which will make you lose those 15 pounds in 3 hours, but will share with you the wisdom of yearly aquired pounds and old age. I do hereby postulate, that all the talk about diets and how much you should weigh and how much you may not weigh gets increasingly on my nerves.
Not that I am immune of the sporadically emerging feeling of utter and complete desperation concerning the numbers on the scales, or even worse, the feeling in my favourite slacks - oh, here we go again and cannot breathe as we should. There is always a choice of "fat clothes" in the wardrobe, carefully hidden in a corner and only refered to in deepest distress as "safe clothes".
Well.
Let´s face it: if you are NOT belonging to the Rubens section, the fun of buying dresses and frocks, decent fashion and even shoes is much more fun. This is a fact. It is just more easy to find a dress in 38 and look tremendous, than a dress in 44 and have the feeling of being elegant, crisp - in short: CHIC.
Is it possible to be chic in dress size 46? Not in the eyes of the fashionable - funnily enough being more of the compact party, you are disregarded as someone who has no will power and is too lazy to lose those 10 kgs with an iron regime.
Believe me: WE ALL have tried ALL the iron regimes, and here ist startes to get interesting.
Experience, commonly aquired in many a last try to get back into the cothes you were wearing 24 years ago, will let it dawn on you, that this is not a walk in the park. Not the loosing, but keeping the pounds out of creeping back on those hips I mean. After 45 you are prone to get some "pneus" round your rib cage, if you want or not ( ha, finally life is just - even the skinny ladies get them!).
And then there is the saying of choosing between two alternatives: to do look nice and have a bottom, or to be thin and have wrinkles in your face and no bottom - up to you to decide.
I therefore decided now and here, that I will give up the horrible habit of dieting and trying to be 13 pounds thinner than I am.
I will enjoy my life and eat and drink and have fun.
I will not chew on a salad leave 45 times to look more like Wallis Simpson - no thank you. ( But she looked good in those Mainbocher dresses - let´s admit it once again)
I will smell deliciously and have always my hair in good order - at least here the issue of weight is neglectable.
I will be properly dressed: no tent dresses and no sausage dresses neither.
I will refer only in extremis to my favourite diet: the Peach Diet. You can eat and drink everything you like, three times a day, but NO peaches, never! Attention: It never worked for me, as I love peaches...
The old wisdom of the last century applies still: The less you diet, the more you lose.
After all it is all in our mind....
A good friend asked me to promise her NEVER to write about diets - well, here I will not write about a new diet which will make you lose those 15 pounds in 3 hours, but will share with you the wisdom of yearly aquired pounds and old age. I do hereby postulate, that all the talk about diets and how much you should weigh and how much you may not weigh gets increasingly on my nerves.
Not that I am immune of the sporadically emerging feeling of utter and complete desperation concerning the numbers on the scales, or even worse, the feeling in my favourite slacks - oh, here we go again and cannot breathe as we should. There is always a choice of "fat clothes" in the wardrobe, carefully hidden in a corner and only refered to in deepest distress as "safe clothes".
Well.
Let´s face it: if you are NOT belonging to the Rubens section, the fun of buying dresses and frocks, decent fashion and even shoes is much more fun. This is a fact. It is just more easy to find a dress in 38 and look tremendous, than a dress in 44 and have the feeling of being elegant, crisp - in short: CHIC.
Is it possible to be chic in dress size 46? Not in the eyes of the fashionable - funnily enough being more of the compact party, you are disregarded as someone who has no will power and is too lazy to lose those 10 kgs with an iron regime.
Believe me: WE ALL have tried ALL the iron regimes, and here ist startes to get interesting.
Experience, commonly aquired in many a last try to get back into the cothes you were wearing 24 years ago, will let it dawn on you, that this is not a walk in the park. Not the loosing, but keeping the pounds out of creeping back on those hips I mean. After 45 you are prone to get some "pneus" round your rib cage, if you want or not ( ha, finally life is just - even the skinny ladies get them!).
And then there is the saying of choosing between two alternatives: to do look nice and have a bottom, or to be thin and have wrinkles in your face and no bottom - up to you to decide.
I therefore decided now and here, that I will give up the horrible habit of dieting and trying to be 13 pounds thinner than I am.
I will enjoy my life and eat and drink and have fun.
I will not chew on a salad leave 45 times to look more like Wallis Simpson - no thank you. ( But she looked good in those Mainbocher dresses - let´s admit it once again)
I will smell deliciously and have always my hair in good order - at least here the issue of weight is neglectable.
I will be properly dressed: no tent dresses and no sausage dresses neither.
I will refer only in extremis to my favourite diet: the Peach Diet. You can eat and drink everything you like, three times a day, but NO peaches, never! Attention: It never worked for me, as I love peaches...
The old wisdom of the last century applies still: The less you diet, the more you lose.
After all it is all in our mind....
Thursday 11 August 2011
Little Pause
I am busily learning loads of new things, adapting to working hours, new environments, new computertools, new "speak", new people and faces - and I am really well and happy - it is great fun!
After 20 years of children, dogs, kitchen and gardens there is still some life in my old brains - but the multi-tasking is in the moment abundant - so writing posts is right now out of the question.
Therefore not really much news here and not really interesting new posts... Apologies to my faithful readers - please do not give up on the Red Handbag! Just right now too busy.
But the adventure will continue and ideas are abundant...
Jola
After 20 years of children, dogs, kitchen and gardens there is still some life in my old brains - but the multi-tasking is in the moment abundant - so writing posts is right now out of the question.
Therefore not really much news here and not really interesting new posts... Apologies to my faithful readers - please do not give up on the Red Handbag! Just right now too busy.
But the adventure will continue and ideas are abundant...
Jola
Saturday 6 August 2011
Thoughts and pensées
"Ausdauer wird früher oder später belohnt, meistens aber später."
Wilhelm Busch
"Holzhacken ist deshalb so beliebt, weil man bei dieser Tätigkeit den Erfolg sofort sieht."
Albert Einstein
"Die meisten verwechseln Dabeisein mit Erleben."
Max Frisch
"Misfortune shows those who are not really friends."
Aristotle
"Wirklich gute Freunde sind Menschen, die uns ganz genau kennen und trotzdem zu uns stehen."
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
"Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway."
John Wayne
And last but not least something I learned only recently:
"La vie est nulle sans bulle."
Wilhelm Busch
"Holzhacken ist deshalb so beliebt, weil man bei dieser Tätigkeit den Erfolg sofort sieht."
Albert Einstein
"Die meisten verwechseln Dabeisein mit Erleben."
Max Frisch
"Misfortune shows those who are not really friends."
Aristotle
"Wirklich gute Freunde sind Menschen, die uns ganz genau kennen und trotzdem zu uns stehen."
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
"Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway."
John Wayne
And last but not least something I learned only recently:
"La vie est nulle sans bulle."
Thursday 4 August 2011
Back to work - follow up
Day 4 of ny new life: I am still alive, the head full of loads of new information, mixed with the exiting of learning new things all the time, meeting new people ( just to remember ALL the names...) and having to adjust to a very different rhythm of my life is really a full-time job.
The children are at home and have taken over ( until now) the household chores - and the nicest thing of all is, that we now start to spend time again round the dinnertable. Which is nice, as this is now for the time being the only moment we are all together at the same time at the same table.
To see to it that they are ok and happy is my greatest "stress" right now.
My new collegues are great - very helpful and kind. And as it is august and most of the people are in holidays, I have enough chances and time to get myself aquainted with all the new computerprogrammes and all what I need to know. I have to learn the "speak" - abbreviations without end and everywhere.
So, please don´t be too astonished if one day a post will be appear and you understand nothing. Then I am truly and really a part of THIS new life!
The children are at home and have taken over ( until now) the household chores - and the nicest thing of all is, that we now start to spend time again round the dinnertable. Which is nice, as this is now for the time being the only moment we are all together at the same time at the same table.
To see to it that they are ok and happy is my greatest "stress" right now.
My new collegues are great - very helpful and kind. And as it is august and most of the people are in holidays, I have enough chances and time to get myself aquainted with all the new computerprogrammes and all what I need to know. I have to learn the "speak" - abbreviations without end and everywhere.
So, please don´t be too astonished if one day a post will be appear and you understand nothing. Then I am truly and really a part of THIS new life!
Tuesday 2 August 2011
Back to work
I did it!
Starting a new job today and am exited as a young 20 year old, entering a new stage of my life.
Up to now, all seems to go smoothly and people are very nice - have two days of "welcome" and introductions, then off to the real thing.
I feel elated and full of energy. Will make that work. And I proved to myself, that it is, after all, possible to get a good job after the saintly age of 45 ( will turn 46 this year - can´t belief it).
So. Here I am, I did it. Rejoice with me!
Starting a new job today and am exited as a young 20 year old, entering a new stage of my life.
Up to now, all seems to go smoothly and people are very nice - have two days of "welcome" and introductions, then off to the real thing.
I feel elated and full of energy. Will make that work. And I proved to myself, that it is, after all, possible to get a good job after the saintly age of 45 ( will turn 46 this year - can´t belief it).
So. Here I am, I did it. Rejoice with me!
Sunday 31 July 2011
My day in London - "Cultural Exploits"
One of the big advantages of living in Brussels is the fact that you are in the middle of Europe - it takes just 1,5 h to go by train to Paris and a little 2 h to go by train to London. Beat that!
So, off I went with the Eurostar: you can be in London just in time for the opening of shops and museums in a wink - and with the time difference you have even gained a full hour - leaving here at 8 am makes you arriving in London at 9 am.
My dear friend Fiona picked me up and we started with a coffee in the British Library - now rebuilt in another place than the original - I liked it inside better than outside; the space and structure inside is very good architecture indeed, the outside disappoints with a lack of ingenuity ( after all, this is a place for thought, no?) and some feeling of "homely schoolyard".
I was introduced to the London Bus System - always good to learn something new: very easy, once you get a grip - I am now a converted user of buses - you see so much more and get a feeling for the huge dimensions of this huge and beautiful city!
But then we went of to a real treat - please, go there, if you have time: The "Sir John Soane´s Museum" Lincoln´s Field nr.13., try www.soane.org for more information.
I wonder, if all the students, trying to become successful bread-earners do have a notion of the jewel situated around the corner of the LSE?
A humble selfmade man, becoming a great architect and collector created here one of the most amazing monuments to human willpower and creativity.
I was stunned indeed. What energy and knowledge of a lifetime to be found here - paradise for the art interested indeed.
The wow factor of the "Picture Room" with its hidden pictures, the world famous Hogarths series "A Rake´s Progress" and some wonderful Canalettos; not to talk of the 12 Piranesi I counted. Curiosities as the tomb of poor old lap-dog Fanny seen from the "Monk´s Parlour" and the description of an opening-reception given by Soanes to celebrate his aquisition of an egyptian sarcophagus are fascinating. What a mind and what determination....
The house itself is a jewel of Regency architecture with one of the loveliest staircases I have hitherto seen in a townhouse. The staff was very kind, given to the constant flow of visitors they must have the patience of saints to explain and transmit their passion for this house and its collection day after day. Entrance is free and a nice lady at the entrance keeps the queue in good humor - there are only a restricted number of visitors to be admitted, very sensible thought I find, not only because of the damage possible, but also for the visitor to get a feeling for the place.
Next stop was Somerset house.
Had never been there and it felt on the first entrance in the courtyard like entering a huge filmset - please forgive this secularistic allusion. Lovely second impression was to see all the children playing in the fountains in the full afternoon sun - happy shrieks and bustling laughter made the place alive with a carefree feeling of holidays.
We came to have a look at the Courtauld Gallery Collection, which I had never seen but had read and heard about a lot. Not to forget the interesting minor fact that Anthony Blunt, one of the Cambridge Spies spent much time and thought in and on this collection...
Prepare for happiness - it is a small but very fine collection indeed.
Some of the most famous pictures of the world are to be seen and and enjoyed, starting with some Rubens ( especially one of his very rare landscapes!!!), a Goya, "Mont St. Victoire" in some variations by Cézanne, some of the most famous Manets, the famous little early Picasso blue child with a dove, van Gogh and Gauguin, one sad and beautiful Modigliani, french early 20th century painting, some Blaue Reiter ( even a Werefkin!!) - in short: GO AND VISIT.
Can´t be too much insisted on. www.courtauld.ac.uk
What gives me great consolation in a sense of relief and hope is to see how many people of all backgrounds, ages, colours and intentions are taking advantage of the possibilities offered to them to enjoy beautiful things, to see and contemplate some of the greatest works of art in the world: There were loads of people in the British Library to see the Magna Carta, quite a queue for the excentric Soanse´s House, an intense crowd for Somerset House. This is really a gift to mankind.
I just wished most people were better dressed... Well, one cannot have it all.
So, off I went with the Eurostar: you can be in London just in time for the opening of shops and museums in a wink - and with the time difference you have even gained a full hour - leaving here at 8 am makes you arriving in London at 9 am.
My dear friend Fiona picked me up and we started with a coffee in the British Library - now rebuilt in another place than the original - I liked it inside better than outside; the space and structure inside is very good architecture indeed, the outside disappoints with a lack of ingenuity ( after all, this is a place for thought, no?) and some feeling of "homely schoolyard".
I was introduced to the London Bus System - always good to learn something new: very easy, once you get a grip - I am now a converted user of buses - you see so much more and get a feeling for the huge dimensions of this huge and beautiful city!
But then we went of to a real treat - please, go there, if you have time: The "Sir John Soane´s Museum" Lincoln´s Field nr.13., try www.soane.org for more information.
I wonder, if all the students, trying to become successful bread-earners do have a notion of the jewel situated around the corner of the LSE?
A humble selfmade man, becoming a great architect and collector created here one of the most amazing monuments to human willpower and creativity.
The wow factor of the "Picture Room" with its hidden pictures, the world famous Hogarths series "A Rake´s Progress" and some wonderful Canalettos; not to talk of the 12 Piranesi I counted. Curiosities as the tomb of poor old lap-dog Fanny seen from the "Monk´s Parlour" and the description of an opening-reception given by Soanes to celebrate his aquisition of an egyptian sarcophagus are fascinating. What a mind and what determination....
The house itself is a jewel of Regency architecture with one of the loveliest staircases I have hitherto seen in a townhouse. The staff was very kind, given to the constant flow of visitors they must have the patience of saints to explain and transmit their passion for this house and its collection day after day. Entrance is free and a nice lady at the entrance keeps the queue in good humor - there are only a restricted number of visitors to be admitted, very sensible thought I find, not only because of the damage possible, but also for the visitor to get a feeling for the place.
Next stop was Somerset house.
Had never been there and it felt on the first entrance in the courtyard like entering a huge filmset - please forgive this secularistic allusion. Lovely second impression was to see all the children playing in the fountains in the full afternoon sun - happy shrieks and bustling laughter made the place alive with a carefree feeling of holidays.
We came to have a look at the Courtauld Gallery Collection, which I had never seen but had read and heard about a lot. Not to forget the interesting minor fact that Anthony Blunt, one of the Cambridge Spies spent much time and thought in and on this collection...
Prepare for happiness - it is a small but very fine collection indeed.
Some of the most famous pictures of the world are to be seen and and enjoyed, starting with some Rubens ( especially one of his very rare landscapes!!!), a Goya, "Mont St. Victoire" in some variations by Cézanne, some of the most famous Manets, the famous little early Picasso blue child with a dove, van Gogh and Gauguin, one sad and beautiful Modigliani, french early 20th century painting, some Blaue Reiter ( even a Werefkin!!) - in short: GO AND VISIT.
Can´t be too much insisted on. www.courtauld.ac.uk
What gives me great consolation in a sense of relief and hope is to see how many people of all backgrounds, ages, colours and intentions are taking advantage of the possibilities offered to them to enjoy beautiful things, to see and contemplate some of the greatest works of art in the world: There were loads of people in the British Library to see the Magna Carta, quite a queue for the excentric Soanse´s House, an intense crowd for Somerset House. This is really a gift to mankind.
I just wished most people were better dressed... Well, one cannot have it all.
Tuesday 19 July 2011
The Pleasure of being alone at home
Please, do not get me wrong: I love my children dearly.
But since some 48 h I am alone at home. Something which has not happened during the whole of my last 20 years in my life, really. And I must admit, that it is - until now - very very nice.
There is still quite a lot os household chores to do in the aftermath of the family leaving for holidays, but this can wait - because, when things are done, they stay done. Not like the eternal repetition of cleaning a kitchen, bathroom or bedroom and within 15 minutes, there is again the milk spilled, wet dogpats on the floor, the chairs pulled out, the garbage open, etc - just in the kitchen.
Now, for the last 48 hours, nothing has changed when I have left a room. The sofa is "normal" and not "deranged" - even the carpet looks clean, and I did the vacuumstuff only yesterday in the morning! No need to do it today. The bathroom is perfect, no open toothpastes, no hairbrushes and no dirty clothes on the floor. In the boys rooms, the lights are out and no clothes on the floors neither.
I am NOT cooking. No noodles and no pans; the fridge has been cleaned yesterday and fruit has been bought. I schlepped home several liters of water for ironing, cleaning products and new supplies of loo paper. The dishwasher is almost empty. And I am thinking, what I shall have for dinner tonight: some soup? Or just a jogurt? Unfortunately there are still some reservoirs of chocolat in special places - dangerous, especially in the evening: I will have to eat it rapidly, so it is out of my way.
But: no cooking! No noodles! No pizza!
New is also the luxury of not having to talk or to listen. I ponder around and hear music, if I want to talk to other human beings, I take the telephone and can call - nobody comes in to ask what is for dinner or where the scissors are, and nobody watches "How I met your mother" in 24 decibel. It is quiet. Well, almost, as the dogs are with me and keep me company - they sleep most of the time and there is happy snoring to be heard through the whole house. Yesterday afternoon I was lying reading on the sofa ( DURING THE DAY!) with dogs snoring next to me on the floor. Now tell me, is this luxury or not?
Today I will attack the ironing. And then perhaps mown the lawn - when it does not rain. In the evening, I will watch a film, which I like - no dead bodies, no blood, no Simpsons and no news. I hesitate between "Il Gattopardo" by Visconti, or "All about Eve" by Mankiewicz. My population here would just shout - No.... not that!
No, I will even not watch the news: I cannot help the US getting out of debt and am not interested, if there has been another busaccident with 23 dead in Bangladesh ( hopefully there has been no such thing..)
I go on a diet for news and television! Wonderful. But fullblast Mozart concertos for Klarinette and perhaps later a little bit of Bach, H-moll Messe - to start practising for the new choir season.
I do not go to bed at 21.00, but at midnight. Very unusual, me pondering around. And I sleep tight and well. SO, there is a future!!!
Tomorrow there will be a dinnerparty at a friends house, with all the lonely rangers who are still in town - will be fun. And on thursday I go to a museum of my choice. Perhaps I will even write a post about it?!
Most probably in 2 days time I will have a crisis and miss the children terribly. I will go into their clean rooms and have a sinking heart. After all it is so much more fun having the house full of shouting teenagers, rock music and ABBA blasts, and some movement in the now so well-behaving rooms. And a bursting fridge. Some dirty socks on the stairs. And someone to chat to. And somebody to laugh with.
Still, almost 8 days of "conditional leave for housewifes and moms". Terribly wonderful!
But since some 48 h I am alone at home. Something which has not happened during the whole of my last 20 years in my life, really. And I must admit, that it is - until now - very very nice.
There is still quite a lot os household chores to do in the aftermath of the family leaving for holidays, but this can wait - because, when things are done, they stay done. Not like the eternal repetition of cleaning a kitchen, bathroom or bedroom and within 15 minutes, there is again the milk spilled, wet dogpats on the floor, the chairs pulled out, the garbage open, etc - just in the kitchen.
Now, for the last 48 hours, nothing has changed when I have left a room. The sofa is "normal" and not "deranged" - even the carpet looks clean, and I did the vacuumstuff only yesterday in the morning! No need to do it today. The bathroom is perfect, no open toothpastes, no hairbrushes and no dirty clothes on the floor. In the boys rooms, the lights are out and no clothes on the floors neither.
I am NOT cooking. No noodles and no pans; the fridge has been cleaned yesterday and fruit has been bought. I schlepped home several liters of water for ironing, cleaning products and new supplies of loo paper. The dishwasher is almost empty. And I am thinking, what I shall have for dinner tonight: some soup? Or just a jogurt? Unfortunately there are still some reservoirs of chocolat in special places - dangerous, especially in the evening: I will have to eat it rapidly, so it is out of my way.
But: no cooking! No noodles! No pizza!
New is also the luxury of not having to talk or to listen. I ponder around and hear music, if I want to talk to other human beings, I take the telephone and can call - nobody comes in to ask what is for dinner or where the scissors are, and nobody watches "How I met your mother" in 24 decibel. It is quiet. Well, almost, as the dogs are with me and keep me company - they sleep most of the time and there is happy snoring to be heard through the whole house. Yesterday afternoon I was lying reading on the sofa ( DURING THE DAY!) with dogs snoring next to me on the floor. Now tell me, is this luxury or not?
Today I will attack the ironing. And then perhaps mown the lawn - when it does not rain. In the evening, I will watch a film, which I like - no dead bodies, no blood, no Simpsons and no news. I hesitate between "Il Gattopardo" by Visconti, or "All about Eve" by Mankiewicz. My population here would just shout - No.... not that!
No, I will even not watch the news: I cannot help the US getting out of debt and am not interested, if there has been another busaccident with 23 dead in Bangladesh ( hopefully there has been no such thing..)
I go on a diet for news and television! Wonderful. But fullblast Mozart concertos for Klarinette and perhaps later a little bit of Bach, H-moll Messe - to start practising for the new choir season.
I do not go to bed at 21.00, but at midnight. Very unusual, me pondering around. And I sleep tight and well. SO, there is a future!!!
Tomorrow there will be a dinnerparty at a friends house, with all the lonely rangers who are still in town - will be fun. And on thursday I go to a museum of my choice. Perhaps I will even write a post about it?!
Most probably in 2 days time I will have a crisis and miss the children terribly. I will go into their clean rooms and have a sinking heart. After all it is so much more fun having the house full of shouting teenagers, rock music and ABBA blasts, and some movement in the now so well-behaving rooms. And a bursting fridge. Some dirty socks on the stairs. And someone to chat to. And somebody to laugh with.
Still, almost 8 days of "conditional leave for housewifes and moms". Terribly wonderful!
Thursday 14 July 2011
About re-reading old favourites
I have the theory that good literature is to be re-read every decade in one´s life. A really good book will surprise you every time you read it and will give you food for thought and pleasure which have been undetected hitherfore.
For example take Leo Tolstoy.
You read "Anna Karenina" for the first time in your teens and it is long and neverending and the lovestory really really tiring - what is all the fuss about? Mystery.
Then you read it in your late 20ies and get a grasp on the beautiful writing and the perfect locations, the great rhythm of the narration.
In your 30ies you start to get some more understanding for Anna, as you realize that her marriage is definitively not the right thing - or is her husband right, after all?
In your 40ies you start to think, if she really could not have managed all together more satisfying and better? You start to reflect on your self - what would you do in such circumstances??Mhh?
I am not yet in my 50ies, so there are some years to go until I will discover another question on the subject, but discover it I will.
Or, take "War and Peace" - not the old kitschy filmthing with Audrey Hepburn - although she looks great, especially in the famous first train scene. No wonder Mel Ferrer fell for her. You need at least 2 weeks of holidays to read this epic novel - and a good stomach too.
But the book is so much more filled than a film can ever be - there are only some very few great and geniuslike films made out of books - believe me, the older you are, the more you get out of good literature...
This is perhaps the greatest of pleasures in re-reading the old classics: one digs deeper and deeper into the "message" of the book, discovers new things every time and the surprise to re-discover an old aquaintance always full of new facets is as wonderful as re-discovering an old friend as full of surprises, even after 35 years of knowing each other.
It is like Looking at Art - the more you know about what you look at, the more you can see.
The same principle applies to reading.
I make a manifesto here ( I love to make manifestos!) for reading and re-reading. It is not essential to read always the latest newest books - sometimes it is fun, but often those bestsellers of the moment do not stand the test of time. You read them once and that was it. The urge for re-reading is minimal.
But the cumulus of pleasure is to find someone you like and respect and who can embark with you on a lengthy discussion/conversation/exchange/contemplation about the whys and why nots in a book you both know well enough to saviour this exchange. But who has time for good conversation nowadays?
Rare pleasure indeed and one of the very great ones.
For example take Leo Tolstoy.
You read "Anna Karenina" for the first time in your teens and it is long and neverending and the lovestory really really tiring - what is all the fuss about? Mystery.
Then you read it in your late 20ies and get a grasp on the beautiful writing and the perfect locations, the great rhythm of the narration.
In your 30ies you start to get some more understanding for Anna, as you realize that her marriage is definitively not the right thing - or is her husband right, after all?
In your 40ies you start to think, if she really could not have managed all together more satisfying and better? You start to reflect on your self - what would you do in such circumstances??Mhh?
I am not yet in my 50ies, so there are some years to go until I will discover another question on the subject, but discover it I will.
Or, take "War and Peace" - not the old kitschy filmthing with Audrey Hepburn - although she looks great, especially in the famous first train scene. No wonder Mel Ferrer fell for her. You need at least 2 weeks of holidays to read this epic novel - and a good stomach too.
But the book is so much more filled than a film can ever be - there are only some very few great and geniuslike films made out of books - believe me, the older you are, the more you get out of good literature...
This is perhaps the greatest of pleasures in re-reading the old classics: one digs deeper and deeper into the "message" of the book, discovers new things every time and the surprise to re-discover an old aquaintance always full of new facets is as wonderful as re-discovering an old friend as full of surprises, even after 35 years of knowing each other.
It is like Looking at Art - the more you know about what you look at, the more you can see.
The same principle applies to reading.
I make a manifesto here ( I love to make manifestos!) for reading and re-reading. It is not essential to read always the latest newest books - sometimes it is fun, but often those bestsellers of the moment do not stand the test of time. You read them once and that was it. The urge for re-reading is minimal.
But the cumulus of pleasure is to find someone you like and respect and who can embark with you on a lengthy discussion/conversation/exchange/contemplation about the whys and why nots in a book you both know well enough to saviour this exchange. But who has time for good conversation nowadays?
Rare pleasure indeed and one of the very great ones.
Wednesday 6 July 2011
Summerholidays...
Dear all,
the summerholidays have started - I will therefore be on and off here in Bruxelles and will not - as in the last week already the case - write posts regularly.
Which does not mean, that I will not once in a while DO write something...
Up to now the Red Handbag has been great fun - a really interesting experience I started in february - now there is a little summerbreak coming up.
Useful for collecting ideas...
I wish you all, where-ever you are, very happy and restful summer weeks, full of good experiences, laughter, good friends, lovely places - well, in short: Enjoy Life, through and through!
Jola
the summerholidays have started - I will therefore be on and off here in Bruxelles and will not - as in the last week already the case - write posts regularly.
Which does not mean, that I will not once in a while DO write something...
Up to now the Red Handbag has been great fun - a really interesting experience I started in february - now there is a little summerbreak coming up.
Useful for collecting ideas...
I wish you all, where-ever you are, very happy and restful summer weeks, full of good experiences, laughter, good friends, lovely places - well, in short: Enjoy Life, through and through!
Saturday 2 July 2011
My mother and me
This is my mother, painted in 1942, and then me, painted by my grandmother when 3 years old.
She was a very very good portraitist...
Her aquarelles are signed "ASR" - you recognize them immediately, when you have seen them once.
She painted in all Europe, especially in Belgium and Germany - and also in the United States, especially in Washington political circles. After WW II the family settled in Quebec, Canada, where she died in 1974.
Especially in Belgium are a great number of her very best works. Is an old project of mine, to make a collection of them and perhaps organize an exhibition?
She was a very very good portraitist...
Her aquarelles are signed "ASR" - you recognize them immediately, when you have seen them once.
She painted in all Europe, especially in Belgium and Germany - and also in the United States, especially in Washington political circles. After WW II the family settled in Quebec, Canada, where she died in 1974.
Especially in Belgium are a great number of her very best works. Is an old project of mine, to make a collection of them and perhaps organize an exhibition?
Tuesday 28 June 2011
Writing Letters and Emails
What is the difference between an email and a letter? It is time. Who takes the time to write proper letters today?
Remember in Jane Austen´s "Pride and Prejudice", as Lizzie gets finally two mislead letters of her sister and her aunt, very discret, tells her to take an hour to read them, she would in the meantime go for a walk. Time indeed.
I for all communicate nowadays much more via email than via letter - which the other day struck me as a pity. I am not even a great telephone person.
I used to write quite a lot and used to keep letters I liked and cherished. I still do, but the letters nowadays are so few, that it is always a great delight to receive a proper one. A mail you do not receive neither keep in the same way - it is, in the best of cases, stored away in a folder and then you forget about it. Nor do you re-read a mail so many times as you would a letter... also very dificult to take a mail with you in your handbag. A printed version is so un-chic.There is no element of the sensual touch of paper and the joy of going to the letterbox and finding a nice envelope..
I do regret, that I have thrown away letters, which today I would have loved to read again - in my older age I would perhaps have detected things in those letters, I did not see when I was young. But alas, as many of us move around the world and the need to let things go and behind, we have thrown out many letters.
So, for me it will be difficult to be retraced in letters and in my correspondence, should the need arise to write my biography in the year 2145!
But there is still a bastion of writing, quite alive: Christmas Cards. Still the anticipation of Christmas is mostly the expectation and wait for the yearly flood of Christmas Cards - I do confess, it is for me personally the best part of Christmas - you just jump to the postbox every morning, curious to see who has written and how to their children look now, what their news are and if all is well. It is also a means of keeping in touch on a yearly basis - helps so much then to call, if you should happen to be in Milano and have over the last 20 years not met, but have had every year that faithful Christmas Card with Children, Parents and Dogs - great way of keeping in touch and great way of not inhibiting getting in touch again.
(Ok, I admit, it is a bit weird, writing about Christmas Cards in the middle of summer, but beware, Christmas is round the corner!)
I still write letters - but more to the older generation than to the younger. Which is a pity. If the young do not get letters, they do not have to learn to reply and a whole culture is getting lost in the process. I am always delighted, if a godchild writes to thank for a parcel which arrived for a birthday or any other occasion. But many godchildren do not even thank any longer for the gifts. Nor do they take care of their old aunts... My children are not better than others, it is always a fight to get them writing.
I vow to get back to letter writing - also as it is a very calming affair to do - you think differently if you write a letter. It is more fun, more joy and also more respect than a mail, it seems to me. So, here I go: will write more letters!!
Last but not least: get that handwriting of yours exercised again.
Remember in Jane Austen´s "Pride and Prejudice", as Lizzie gets finally two mislead letters of her sister and her aunt, very discret, tells her to take an hour to read them, she would in the meantime go for a walk. Time indeed.
I for all communicate nowadays much more via email than via letter - which the other day struck me as a pity. I am not even a great telephone person.
I used to write quite a lot and used to keep letters I liked and cherished. I still do, but the letters nowadays are so few, that it is always a great delight to receive a proper one. A mail you do not receive neither keep in the same way - it is, in the best of cases, stored away in a folder and then you forget about it. Nor do you re-read a mail so many times as you would a letter... also very dificult to take a mail with you in your handbag. A printed version is so un-chic.There is no element of the sensual touch of paper and the joy of going to the letterbox and finding a nice envelope..
I do regret, that I have thrown away letters, which today I would have loved to read again - in my older age I would perhaps have detected things in those letters, I did not see when I was young. But alas, as many of us move around the world and the need to let things go and behind, we have thrown out many letters.
So, for me it will be difficult to be retraced in letters and in my correspondence, should the need arise to write my biography in the year 2145!
But there is still a bastion of writing, quite alive: Christmas Cards. Still the anticipation of Christmas is mostly the expectation and wait for the yearly flood of Christmas Cards - I do confess, it is for me personally the best part of Christmas - you just jump to the postbox every morning, curious to see who has written and how to their children look now, what their news are and if all is well. It is also a means of keeping in touch on a yearly basis - helps so much then to call, if you should happen to be in Milano and have over the last 20 years not met, but have had every year that faithful Christmas Card with Children, Parents and Dogs - great way of keeping in touch and great way of not inhibiting getting in touch again.
(Ok, I admit, it is a bit weird, writing about Christmas Cards in the middle of summer, but beware, Christmas is round the corner!)
I still write letters - but more to the older generation than to the younger. Which is a pity. If the young do not get letters, they do not have to learn to reply and a whole culture is getting lost in the process. I am always delighted, if a godchild writes to thank for a parcel which arrived for a birthday or any other occasion. But many godchildren do not even thank any longer for the gifts. Nor do they take care of their old aunts... My children are not better than others, it is always a fight to get them writing.
I vow to get back to letter writing - also as it is a very calming affair to do - you think differently if you write a letter. It is more fun, more joy and also more respect than a mail, it seems to me. So, here I go: will write more letters!!
Last but not least: get that handwriting of yours exercised again.
Friday 24 June 2011
Thursday 23 June 2011
Galignani in Paris - Librairie - Bookseller
One of my favourtie places of all times!!
Galignani - THE bookshop in Paris, always worth half a day of hanging around and sponging in the atmosphere and new books and lovely people and and and.
Perfectly situatued as well in the Arcades of the Rue Rivoli, you can always have a little snack and tea at Angelina´s and then back to the Lettres... They are one of the oldest bookshops in Paris, tending to the english and american visitors for the last 200 years.
The last time I was there, good old Valery Giscard D´Estaing came over to have a look, whether his latest book had sold some more pieces than the day before.
He looks indeed like on the pictures, french and tall and old.
Especially happy is the large large section of Art Books - if you do not find your heart´s wish there, then it will be difficult to find the book somewhere else.
I also like to have a chat with the highly cultivated people who work there - fluent english is de rigeur, and they know almost everything in the wink of an eye. The choice is endless and I could happily spend hours and hours there browsing in peace and unmolested, and then schlepping home ( to the train - thanks God, the Metro is near!) books about all sorts of things...
But: they even have an international mailorder service.... isn´t that the top of chic???
Galignani - THE bookshop in Paris, always worth half a day of hanging around and sponging in the atmosphere and new books and lovely people and and and.
Perfectly situatued as well in the Arcades of the Rue Rivoli, you can always have a little snack and tea at Angelina´s and then back to the Lettres... They are one of the oldest bookshops in Paris, tending to the english and american visitors for the last 200 years.
The last time I was there, good old Valery Giscard D´Estaing came over to have a look, whether his latest book had sold some more pieces than the day before. He looks indeed like on the pictures, french and tall and old.
Especially happy is the large large section of Art Books - if you do not find your heart´s wish there, then it will be difficult to find the book somewhere else.
I also like to have a chat with the highly cultivated people who work there - fluent english is de rigeur, and they know almost everything in the wink of an eye. The choice is endless and I could happily spend hours and hours there browsing in peace and unmolested, and then schlepping home ( to the train - thanks God, the Metro is near!) books about all sorts of things...
But: they even have an international mailorder service.... isn´t that the top of chic???
Galignani
Livres Francais
Anglais & Américans
224, Rue de Rivoli, Paris Ier
Tél. 01 42 60 76 07
Tuesday 21 June 2011
The Pleasure of Throwing Things Out
It has been for ages one of my foolproof vademecums in troubled times: I start to tidy up, sort things out, clean the bathrooms thouroughly, have a sharp look at my lipstick collection, start to colour code my clothes. Some mechanic, intellectually effortless "doing".
So, you could say, the more my house and flat looks taken care of, the more troubles I have? Not necessary - because then people who live in clean empty lofts would have no problems at all, which is not true. "Weeding" is for me a great way of pondering about my own thoughts, having me-time and doing something almost mechanically, which afterwards shows an immediate result.
And on top of it much better than ironing, when you see what you have done after 2 hours sweating in the cellar.
It gives me satisfaction to see, that I can change something in my life for the better - even if it is only the cupboard of glasses or the bedsheets - but you have an immediate satifying result; it is therapeutic, looking at things and saying goodbye to them.
Making room for new stuff, indeniably. But why not?
If you keep things/life/cooking/car/etc. too static, it all gets very dusty and liveless. Concerning our possessions, it is the most obvious part. Unless you have such a big house, that you simply close one suite of and start to fill another one - good old times, when space was no question - then you are in trouble.
But nowadays, as most of us live a life of 150 squaremeters in the maximum, we have to control the weeds and gather impulses by weeding out a lot of the stuff we accumulate over the years.
Nothing better for that than the life of a diplomat - you have to change houses every 3 to 4 years - it makes you weed like crazy!
The most difficult move I had here in Brussels - we had stayed in a house for 5 years and with it the feeling grew, that this would have been THE house for our family. Unfortunately it was not meant to be and we had to, in the true sense of the word, uproot again. All the stuff which had agglomerated during 5 years, with 4 children and 2 dogs and a lot of space and a huge garden, you cannot imagine.
Now I am more vigilant, not to letting my Self get my roots too deep in a rented house - and I weed and weed and weed.
The same applies for clothes: we use so little of our wardrobe, hang on to so much stuff, we never ever will wear again - why hanging on to it? Let it go.
Loads of books do appear in our house, hard for me to get rid of them. But I have started to pass them on to others - the school library or friends - at least no need to keep the paperbacks you will not read a second time.
What is nicer than on a rainy sunday make a cleear over in the kitchen cupboards - taking stock and doing some shopping in your own house? Amazing, what sometimes comes back to the light of day - f.e. tins with tonic water which expired in april 2008. Or a friend found out, that she will not be in need of buying plastic folders until 2056.
Weeding out childrens stuff is important too - they do not play there, if they rooms are too crowded. Very educational for them and on top of it very good situation for talking to your children too - no eyecontact and concentrated sieving of legos and playmobil can bring much interesting information out of an otherwise quiet child.
They have too much stuff anyway and are as happy as we are, to pass things on and get rid of them. Provided it is not the most beloved teddybear, Tom.
So, you could say, the more my house and flat looks taken care of, the more troubles I have? Not necessary - because then people who live in clean empty lofts would have no problems at all, which is not true. "Weeding" is for me a great way of pondering about my own thoughts, having me-time and doing something almost mechanically, which afterwards shows an immediate result.
And on top of it much better than ironing, when you see what you have done after 2 hours sweating in the cellar.
It gives me satisfaction to see, that I can change something in my life for the better - even if it is only the cupboard of glasses or the bedsheets - but you have an immediate satifying result; it is therapeutic, looking at things and saying goodbye to them.
Making room for new stuff, indeniably. But why not?
If you keep things/life/cooking/car/etc. too static, it all gets very dusty and liveless. Concerning our possessions, it is the most obvious part. Unless you have such a big house, that you simply close one suite of and start to fill another one - good old times, when space was no question - then you are in trouble.
But nowadays, as most of us live a life of 150 squaremeters in the maximum, we have to control the weeds and gather impulses by weeding out a lot of the stuff we accumulate over the years.
Nothing better for that than the life of a diplomat - you have to change houses every 3 to 4 years - it makes you weed like crazy!
The most difficult move I had here in Brussels - we had stayed in a house for 5 years and with it the feeling grew, that this would have been THE house for our family. Unfortunately it was not meant to be and we had to, in the true sense of the word, uproot again. All the stuff which had agglomerated during 5 years, with 4 children and 2 dogs and a lot of space and a huge garden, you cannot imagine.
Now I am more vigilant, not to letting my Self get my roots too deep in a rented house - and I weed and weed and weed.
The same applies for clothes: we use so little of our wardrobe, hang on to so much stuff, we never ever will wear again - why hanging on to it? Let it go.
Loads of books do appear in our house, hard for me to get rid of them. But I have started to pass them on to others - the school library or friends - at least no need to keep the paperbacks you will not read a second time.
What is nicer than on a rainy sunday make a cleear over in the kitchen cupboards - taking stock and doing some shopping in your own house? Amazing, what sometimes comes back to the light of day - f.e. tins with tonic water which expired in april 2008. Or a friend found out, that she will not be in need of buying plastic folders until 2056.
Weeding out childrens stuff is important too - they do not play there, if they rooms are too crowded. Very educational for them and on top of it very good situation for talking to your children too - no eyecontact and concentrated sieving of legos and playmobil can bring much interesting information out of an otherwise quiet child.
They have too much stuff anyway and are as happy as we are, to pass things on and get rid of them. Provided it is not the most beloved teddybear, Tom.
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