Buying beauty

I bought a Sony ns36 dvd-player, installed it, and enjoyed a better looking crackling fireplace and "Last holidays". All in one hour.
Before watching "Les poupées russes", I went to IKEA to take a damaged lamp back and get the huge photo I had been attracted to on sunday. At second glance, it was a bit on the dark side, and another pic had a better feeling about it. In the end, I left without any piece of art, but a second lamp, with lots of glass pendants, a bit on the indian side. My bedroom looks so much better now!
On the web I checked the artists selling at IKEA, again, and found Mari Rantanen is finnish (!) and will have an exhibition in Helsinki museum this spring! Hmmmmm - maybe I should buy the painting after all. So back to IKEA for the third time in four days today. ;)
I had been invited to the Celtic Cottage to a gig by HC-members staying with Gabi, a teacher living just round the corner. The GilmartinPotter Band" or "B1" from New York City with Indie, Rock, Pop sounded just the right thing to enjoy. Listen here!
But I was way too tired, even though it was only 15 minutes by bus. Instead it was a looong day of movies, and I went to bed around midnight to read in my newly decorated bedroom. So comfortable and beautiful and just the right amount of light!

Movie night

After a day of doctors and therapists - shoulder gets slowly better, poor wobbly tooth has to be replaced by a verrry expensive implantat - I decided I deserve some fun for a change. So I went to "Globetrotter" with my 10-euro voucher and spent it on books, and to the videostore with my 3-for-3-days-for-6-euro voucher, and went home with the goodies to enjoy a great night of movies.
I had chosen "Last holidays", "Sommer vorm Balkon", "Les poupées russes" and "Torremolinos 73", a nice mix of fun and prize winning stuff.
In the middle of the first (!) my dvd-player broke down for sure, so it was an evening of checking websites for cheap, but good dvd-players. And some reading, later.
Cross your fingers I'll find a new one just round the corner, and can make it a movie day today! :)

Art at IKEA

After a breakfast on cake leftovers and a delicious fruit salad with Karen and Massimo, I met Hanne at IKEA. Since it was an open sunday afternoon in quite a few shops in Berlin, Hanne wanted to look for a new mattress taking her time lying on some to be able to decide better upon the matress of her choice.
In the end we spent four hours at the swedish furniture shop, and it was too late to go to the preview of "Bamako" at Hackesche Höfe. We found lovely pillows and flowers and carpets though, and left the place quite loaden. On my way out I happened to pass some huge pictures looking quite different from the usual IKEA stuff. I especially was attracted by a portrait of a woman in a magical garden going towards a small romantic hut.
When back home I had to check the web to look for the pictures, and found it was a special sale of swedish art for very cheap prizes. The one I had loved at first sight was by Denise Grünstein, a famous photographer and teacher at Stockholm art school. Checking google a bit I managed to hit this website on her. Hope you'll like it as well!
I wonder: Should I buy the pic and hang it onto my white bedroom wall?

Kaffeeklatsch in Schöneberg

A few days ago I had written an invitation in HC and CS forum. Women living or travelling in my neighbourhood in Berlin were welcome to visit me for some coffee and tea and a nice german kaffeeklatsch this saturday afternoon. They were asked to bring cakes and cookies, a laugh and a hug.
Nobody knew how many would arrive, we ended up being six women and Massimo. Everybody brought cakes, some homemade, so we had a great buffet to choose from.
A crackling fire on tv (a dvd giving lots of atmosphere), some jazz music in the background, candles and flowers added to the great feeling.
But best of all, of course, were the people! Three from Hessen and three international guests. Hanne, my friend and collegue from work, Viviane, 23 yr old student, my neighbour Karen from two storeys above, whom I had met at the doorstep one hour before, her friend Massimo from Tuscany (living in Pankow since more than 15 years), Zsuzsa from Budapest, a journalist, and Rachel, the opera singer from Florida, both living in my neighbourhood since several months. We will meet again, for sure, and enjoy more quality time together.
We started at 4pm, the last guests left at 11pm. That's how much we liked each other's company!
I would never have met them without Hospitality Club, Couchsurfing and internet! And the wonderful idea to have a kaffeeklatsch!

Celebrations

Working for the union for 25 years - a reason to celebrate! Henrik Müller, editor of "druck+papier", had invited all his old collegues from IG Druck und Papier and IG Medien and a few more from ver.di to a wonderful evening of food, drinks and good company at "Chefetage" . They came through the heavy falling snow from all over Berlin and places as far as Stuttgart and Cyprus, and even our former president Detlef Hensche joined us.
I was sitting with the journalist crew, besides my friend since many years Ulli Maercks-Franzen, exchanging memories and listening to the latest trade union news.
Ulli invited me to a carneval singing session at "Ständige Vertretung" next saturday, to learn all the latest songs. I'd love to go. She's from Bonn and I'm from Düsseldorf, and being from those traditional carneval places along the Rhine we have so much fun at carneval, both of us.
But I already bought the ticket to Den Bosch (special offer, 39 Euro), to join the HC meeting on February 3rd, and of course eat one or two of those delicious and rich bossche bollen. It's my sister's birthday the day after, and Düsseldorf on the way from the Netherlands to Berlin anyway. Hmmm. Now what?
Whilst pondering on this problem, I enjoy the snow in Berlin, even though all the traffic slowed down after not even half an hour of heavy snowing, and even if it makes me feel (and look) like a snowwoman just walking across the street. :)

Jobs and work (outs)

Did you hear the interview yet? Not bad, hein? It wasn't live, so I could go home and listen to it. My voice sounds strange on radio! Anna complained a bit about my story on her and the weblog, sigh. A guy from HC was missing, and Jens and I had to make up for it. No wonder I was a bit nervous. Everybody else liked it, so we must have done a good job in promoting HC.
The building "Haus des Rundfunks" is fantastic, I was inside for the very first time, and really love it.
On my way into the studio I met Til Schweiger - famous, but didn't know me, of course - and Hanne Daum - famous at work and in our union, and of course she knows me. Since many, many years in fact - even before ver.di and even before IG Medien. Must be more than twenty years now, when RFFU and other unions from Gewerkschaft Kunst and IG Druck und Papier built a new trade union. She's still working for her collegues, all these years.
In the afternoon I had a date with the physiotherapist, did some work outs, and was told to take it easy, and just keep on trying to improve my shoulder and arm by working with a ball everyday. No balls here. So this is what I look like at home now. Hope it helps!

Interviews, coffee and the weather in Germany

First things first: coffee! I found this poem in a Stuttgart tram last week, and only now remembered. Enjoy!
A favourite topic with everybody lately is the weather. Did you know this was the warmest January in Germany since 150 years? And why it is? Here's the answer!
When looking for the weather forecast I found this great new thingy for my weblog: so called homepage weather. It's on the right side, underneath "About Me". So now you always know what I'm living through, weatherwise.
Talking about the weather: snow all over Europe, not in Berlin. Until now. I looked out of the window when the weather forecast said snow not on friday, but on thursday already, and found the garden had turned into a white fairy tale. :)
Last but not at all least, rather best and most important of all: Don't forget to listen to Radio Multikulti, Metro, around noon today. I'll be on air then - live from the Berlin broadcasting studios. :)

Waiting, waiting...

... at the doctors (shoulder is 80 per cent fine, so still 20 per cent missing), for a date with the physiotherapist (to work on the missing 20 per cent), a new wlan modem to be brought and installed, snow to come to Berlin (it had hit southern Germany last night).
NOT waiting for another interview on my travels, which will be done (live!) at Radio Multikulti on Thursday around noon, friends sending me the link to my interview with "SestDiena" in Riga, and the lists of movies shown at the Berlinale (February 8th to 18th)and nominated for the Oscars (February 25th).
Otherwise it was a day of unpacking, washing, cleaning (a bit), cooking with whatever was left in my fridge (made a great potato pizza), decorating my flat with spring flowers, candles and incense. And the new lamp bought at IKEA Düsseldorf, which fits perfectly into my dressing room.
Waiting to find more lamps for my living room, curtains to match, the perfect colour for the still white bedroom wall, hmmm - and friendly people to help me fix all that. ;)

Trains run again!

Well, mostly. And even the new Berlin main station that had to be closed down last thursday, and then again last sunday (and will have to be during any storm, due to construction problems), was open. For how long, I wonder.
So when my niece Cathy told me in the morning she couldn't meet me because of a very bad flu, I decided I might as well take the next train back to Berlin after my sister was home from work at the tax office. It's getting colder, winter and snow are coming at last, and I'd prefer to be at home before the frost. I'm feeling a bit flueish as well, so I'd love to stay in bed at home and get well soon.
Cathy and Helen, my younger niece, will be visiting me in April, hopefully, and Marius (Cathy's son) and Felix (Helen's boyfriend) might join them. Looks like I'll host quite a few nice people starting this spring! :)
The journey was rather dull, no adventures whatsoever. I had a nice book to read on the way though, bought at Cathy's bookstore in Düsseldorf main station. Another iceland crime.
Back home at Crellestraße I found the flat slightly cold (heating it up only took like ten minutes), but all windows unbroken and all flowers watered and alive, plenty of delicious food in fridge and deepfreeze (I had chicken pasta), and even rose wine with just the right temperature. Not the right quality, though. ;)
Ahhhhhh, how nice to be back home! For a change! :)

Cologne: cathedral, kölsch, carneval, and... chocolate!

Sunday morning I drove to Cologne with Thommy, getting out the car at Alter Markt in the middle of the old town. He went on to a meeting with other oldtimer lovers, and I walked through another upcoming storm towards the famous cathedral (world heritage and Germany's most loved spot) to wait for Kliment. He had been sent here for two weeks by his university to work on an EU-project, and since I was just round the corner of course we had to see each other. I didn't dare to take the train though, they're still not running smoothly.
The wind almost blew me across the cathedral square, so I looked for shelter in one of the huge entrances, and when Kliment came, we decided to rather visit a museum than walk along the rhine. Cologne is all about history, a rich merchant city since many thousands years. In "Römisch-Germanisches Landesmuseum" on roman Cologne we had a look down on the marvellous Dionysos-mosaik, sadly damaged by Kyrill.
Then on to "Im Früh" for some regional lunch (hard to find veggies for Kliment) and a Kölsch or two. Lots of soccer fans and carneval jecken around. They have carneval sessions every day now until the carneval high season and Rosenmontag in February, we were told.
When walking out the door again, the weather had changed, wind ceased and sun was shining bright, so we had the stroll along the river after all. Towards the chocolate museum we went, and after buying some weird and exclusive bars (with ginger, orange pepper and even seasalt!), had another hour to explore the museum and learn on the history of cocoa and chocolate, and watch chocolate bars being made in the museum. Hmmm, soooooo tasty!
Four hours went by fast, then it was a last hug and a promise to join me and so many of our good friends end of march in Berlin. It'll be a week of celebrating the end of my 18 months sabbatical and starting work again, and my birthday on march 28.
Sofia had called when we were on our way to the chocolate, and told us she'd booked the flight from Athens already. Elsis will come from Helsinki, Jeena from Riga, Annabel from Leuven, Sarah from Ghent, Ingria from Granada, ohhhh - and a few others from other places all over Europe. Looking forward to it! :)

Family dinner

My father's wife Uschi was 60 last thursday, and had invited family and friends to a delicious italian dinner in Eller this saturday. We had all the restaurant for ourselves, and enjoyed a long evening of eating, drinking, and chatting.
Anna and Alex had to stay in Stuttgart studying, but everybody else was there, dressed up and happy.
Even my father! He had found the napkins saying "We're learning italian" and giving translations on the most important words and sentences, like "I love you" f.e. He enjoyed reading and repeating the new vocabulary over and over again, and we did with him. He was really nice last night, caring for others as well as he could.
Well, it's not easy, seeing he'll be 85 this May, and his body and brain are getting weaker. But still: He even saw when somebody needed an ashtray and moved as fast as he could to fetch one from the other side of the table and pass it over. He hadn't done anything like that for months. So sweet!

The day after Kyrill

Watching the news and talking to friends and family, we found how very lucky we had been in the hurricane, one of many more to come due to the climate changing.
Thommy had been called in the middle of the night from his collegues at Wasserwerk Flehe, providing water for the area, he's responsible for everything out there, workers, supplies, the lot. He left at once and spent half the night there. We were worried about him and glad when he was safely back home. The storm had damaged the buildings, but luckily noone of his men was injured. But more than hundred trees blown onto the streets and into the small river Düssel. The men were working hard to clear the area. Until then almost all roads through the woods are closed, it's too dangerous to cross.
All over Germany Kyrill had hit. In some places, only a few roads are open, schools still closed, people asked to stay at home. Stations and airports had been filled for long hours all through the night with stranded passengers waiting to get on. I might have been one of them.
Otherwise it was a fine day. At around 11 pm Marius, my great-nephew, came home from school with the results of his schoolyear so far (not bad at all, but he could do better if he only felt like it). As a special treat to celebrate a bit, we went to IKEA by bus (only 5 minutes to go, wow!), had some köttbullar, and looked for frames and lamps. No frames, but a nice lamp for my Berlin flat, at a reduced prize because of winter sales "Knut". Knut is celebrated in Sweden on January 13, as the traditonal day to remove the xmas tree, and throw it out the house. Talking of falling trees...
In the evening Helen and her boyfriend Felix joined us for a quiet family evening watching tv, wondering who might win the dance contest. I went to bed early with a book and an ibu-ratiopharm like I always do when I feel a cold approaching. My sister talked me into reading the crime series on the lower rhine region north of Düsseldorf, great stories, the first almost won the Glauser prize in 1992. Check them out here, buy at your local dealer and enjoy!

Along the Rhine into the storm

Anna and Alex were astonished when I told them at breakfast I would take an earlier train than planned. Instead of around 3pm or 5pm I felt like leaving at 11 or 12 already. I was so lucky to do so!
The train took me along the lovely Rhine valley (world heritage) into the middle of Kyrill, the worst hurricane in Europe since more than 20 years!
At 5:15pm all trains in North-Rhine Westpalia (NRW) stopped at the closest halting point. The hurricane had struck! Soon afterwards, all over Germany trains were driven to stations and stayed there for the night. Even now there's hardly any public transport going.
My train was in a small station in Cologne, only 40 km from my destination. I called my sister, and she and her husband Thommy grabbed some blankets, water, and a map, and came to rescue me. At 7:30pm we were at their home in Düsseldorf-Eller. We had made it safely through the rain and storm.
First thing I did was calling Anna and Alex to tell them I was alife and well. Anna had been worrying already, listening to all the bad news on tv, most of them on NRW. Cologne had been one of the worst places with 140 km/h.
But hey - weird, I had felt the urge to take an early train. Lucky me!

A spur of energy

All of a sudden I got this rather rare, but usually most welcome energy to clean and rearrange and sort papers and pictures. I got tight hold of it, bought some albums, and started work. It took me more than eight hours, and still doesn't look like I'm anywhere close to an end. But I liked it.
I even missed out on going to the museum with Anna, instead sorting pictures together, quarelling about those that had to be destroyed forever for being so ugly, and laughing our heads off on crazy situations and memories.
Just wait till I start on the slides! That might take two weeks! ;)

Friends and collegues

Whenever I'm in Stuttgart, I call my friends and collegues to say hello and see how they're doing. I had left here to Berlin in 2001 due to our union ver.di going there, and with it my job, working with the website editorial staff.
Time with family and everyday tasks at home take up some time, of course, but I still try, at least, to meet a few of them. Like Heike and Andreas yesterday afternoon.
It hadn't worked out last autumn, they had been busy with finding a new home and a new job, but the old troubling flat is sold now, the new one in Cannstatt looks great, the first shelves are built up, and job offers there are a few promising. Cross my fingers, Andreas! :)
The afternoon and evening was spent with chats on past and future, more mutual friends and collegues - Heike is working with the media section in ver.di Baden-Württemberg -, and a wonderful dinner Andreas had served us. Time flew, and I hope to see them again soon. When will I be back to Stuttgart, though? To their warming up party in June, latest! :)

A long day at home in Vaihingen

Alex woke me up at just before 7 - the heating was to be checked, and the chimney-sweepers would come between 7 and 8. Gosh, I had slept only three hours, was awake until late, and then somehow missed the alarm ringing. Must have been the weather changing, it's getting colder now.
Today on the other hand I slept that deeply and long, I forgot the Golden Globe was on tv from 2am to 5am. :(
Well, it was fine to be up that early, because of Anna's birthday breakfast. We had some of the tasty applecake we had made together on sunday, Anna loved the presents she got, especially the book on potatoe recipes by Anne Wilson and the huge bowl of (healthy) sweets for her desk. She'll have to sit there and learn a lot the next months, poor darling!
She was away all day learning, Alex sat studying in his room on the second floor, and I did some shopping, went to the doctors, sent some letters, told friends and family to call again late in the evening to give Anna their birthday greetings.
After talking to my sister Ulrike in Düsseldorf, I decided to take the train to go there on Thursday. Family birthday party on Saturday. And Tuesday back to Berlin. Tickets are bought a long time ago, so to travel cheaper, but on www.bahn.de there are special offers all the time now with exactly the same prizes. Yeah, well.
It was a long day at home in Vaihingen. Enjoy the pic on our past: children bringing food baskets to their hard working fathers, like they used to do not even a hundred years ago. The small memorial is just across the road from the town hall, market and mall, two minutes from our tiny 17th century farmhouse.

Happy birthday, dear Anna!

25 years already! And doing great!
Have a wonderful day after such a lovely energizing start with latte macchiatto made by brother Alex in your new coffee machine, a successful year with your studies and exams, and an interesting job after long years of working hard for it! Part time, to give you time for leasure, cats and dogs.
And hopefully you'll have the chance to relax as well and travel, maybe visit your friend Melli who's going to the States today for a few months.
All the best, and cross my fingers you'll find some great doggie again. :)

Memories of days gone by

I finally set down at my desk to do some heavy sorting and cleaning of all the boxes filled with pictures and letters and things I couldn't bring my heart to throw away. Like my kids first paintings (of course I will not chuck them ever, but have to bundle them and make a book of sorts).
Ohhhh, those memories! Friends and lovers and more friends! Love letters from 35 years ago, can you imagine! Greetings from all over the world from students at the german language courses at university Stuttgart I organized since 1978.
So many we had visited later and they had visited us - then it was me, my husband Roland (divorced in 1986), since 1980 our son Alex and only 15 months later in 1982 Anna, the daughter. Tomorrow will be her 25th birthday already. Time runs fast.
Back to love letters: I even found a few of mine. Haven't changed much since then, it seems. ;)
I'll have to try finding a few of my friends I haven't met through the years. Students tend to move around a lot, so I lost track of them. Not Bettina, of course not, we stay in touch since more than 30 years now, moved from Düsseldorf to Stuttgart, both of us.
Others, I read about, saw them on tv even, or on the web. Lots of teachers, a few at university, celebrities. Regina and Frank, with whom I was into university politics for years in the 70s, now teachers at university. Bernd and Karin, then a couple, now married and still working together (at the Heinrich-Heine-Institute) on Heinrich Heine and the Vormärz, like we all did studying with Manfred Windfuhr, great teacher and famous editor of the Düsseldorfer Heine-Edition. Hubert and Volker who knew even on their first day at university they would be working on german literature and be famous one day. Well, they sure do.
All those friends haven't changed at all, just got older and wiser.
Then again so many of my very best friends are gone for ever.
Michael committed suicide, I received the letter he wrote to me just before he died, his brother Dieter sent the message on to me, with the special drawing Michael always attached to all of his letters, cards, and short notes to me. Helga climbed up the university building in Stuttgart and jumped down. I was sitting in my trade union office across the road then, only a few meters away. She and her husband Werner had helped me a lot when I was suffering before the divorce. How comes so many choose not to live on when so very young still?
Willi and Wolfgang died not long ago in their fifties; they are buried close to Wolfgang's brother Willy, in Kelheim. Three best friends, all gone in less than a year, together again, neighbours say.
Wolfgang died of cancer, same as Ernho, Hansi, Marion, and my dear friend Billy. We had had plans to travel the world together during my sabbatical. He died just a few weeks before. Sigh.
When Willi died in 2004, his former girlfriend and good friend of mine, Maria, found me on the web to tell me about it. I went to the funeral with her and her husband. Since then we stay in touch. With his sister Ursel in Madrid as well.
But all the others? In Denmark, England, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Poland...? I'll try to find them.
In the end, what matters is not work, but people. Family and friends.

And the next weeks will be spent in....

Berlin! :)
The doctors told me my shoulder needs more time to heal and will have to be worked upon, which takes up at least two weeks, if not more, in a run. So after Anna's birthday next monday, celebrated only with apple cake and flowers, and my father's wife Uschi's 60th birthday, celebrated next saturday with a big dinner at an italian restaurant in Düsseldorf-Eller, I will go back to Berlin and see what the doctors tell me to do - or not to do.
Seems like I'll be waiting most of the time, like the woman on the picture taken at Stuttgart's biggest bookstore Wittwer. Nice writing on the wall, hein!
So all my travel plans are over and done with, except for a few weekend trips. Sigh!
But still there's the Berlinale in February, and maybe I'll manage to attract a few friends to Berlin to help me redecorate my flat.
And hopefully mid February until end of March I can go to Portugal and Spain again. Almond blossom in Algarve, carneval in Cadiz and las Fallas in Valencia are soooo tempting! :)

Forgetting about fast and fiercy Franz

The hurricane crossing Europe yesterday (called Franz) didn't damage our house, we were lucky. The wind was blowing hard, Alex had a few problems on his way home by bike in the evening, and the rain hit the roof above my bed with a powerful rhythm. I liked sitting in my cozy bed below the storm reading best selling crime novel "Todeshauch" on Iceland by Arnaldur Indridason, and couldn't stop before the very last page. It was 3 am by then, and today I have to go to the doctors again in the morning. Not much sleep then.
Anna woke me up with a lovely cup of coffee, nice to have such friendly children - and with a coffee machine as well! :)

Sunny skies on Stuttgart

I love starting my trips in the early afternoon. It leaves me lots of time to get ready in the morning, clean the flat, get my packing done, water the flowers, and even check my mail online and do my weblog sipping on my coffee.
Since it's only three hours by bus, metro, flight, metro and bus from one of my flats to the other, I arrive at my second home in time for another nice afternoon coffee, and spend the evening chatting with the kids (or friends, in Berlin) and feel at home again.
The flight yesterday was great (though not as nice as the one by Fokker from Helsinki to Riga last saturday, when the cute little plane seating 50 hosted 10 passengers only, cuddled up in the back), sunny skies all the way, and at arrival in Stuttgart the weather was just splendid. Well, Stuttgart is one of the sunniest cities in Germany, with not much rain and even less wind, check the climate here.
Same this morning, when my first look waking up is always through the window opposite my bed onto the sky. Bright sunshine, blue heaven, and a few white clouds whizzing by fast from west to east. What a nice way of starting a lovely day! :)

Buzzing thru Berlin

Berlin busses (and a few metros) took me across the capital, passing from famous Kaiser-Wilhem-Gedächtniskirche, Kurfürstendamm and KaDeWe to Potsdamer Platz, along the former Berlin Wall, the comic opera and a few heritage sites, on to Little Turkey in Kreuzberg, the best curry sausage place of all Berlin (I had to have one between changing transport), old airport Tempelhof in the middle of the city, and the house where David Bowie lived, beside the first queer bar in Berlin, opened more than 30 years ago in Schöneberg, the multiculti place with fun hotspots.
It's great to live here and enjoy those sightseeing places going from one to another for everyday reasons like shopping for my daughter (hair conditioner at Lush), having an interview at work (ver.di) or looking for a new lamp (in vain). All for 5,80 Euro! :)

Hosting the host

Nice day at home, except for a visit to the dentist's and having my teeth checked. Everything was fine, so going there every three months just in case and paying lots of money for prophylaxe seems to work.
Kliment called from Sofia saying his flight will be late, which was ok, for then I could meet him at Kleistpark station after having been at the dentist, and still do some shopping for food in between.
The connection from Tegel airport to my place is really good, busses and metro every five minutes, and it takes less than half an hour. He arrived with a small enough suitcase, heavy though cos of all the books he had bought in Bulgaria. No big martial arts instruments this time, no swords, no big knifes. We hugged and walked the short distance to my place in Crellestraße.
He loved the streets and my flat and was considering moving to Berlin when he left today. He had offered to help redecorating my home sometime in February or March, just in time for my birthday party end of March, too. That's so nice, to come by plane all the way from Finland to spend a week with me painting and setting up curtains and polishing the floors. Nice guy!
Yesterday evening we went to my favourite pub "Cafe Mirell" with Steffi, a friend of Kliment's who had moved to Berlin a few months ago. She had been living in Finnland, and is a member if HC and Cs, so we had lots of mutual friends.
Later we went to my flat for a tea and some talks and checking pics from travelling. Kliment had been to Barcelona and loved it! The pics were great, too! When trying to get into the web with Kliment's laptop, we found they hadn't given me a w-lan modem two weeks ago when my old one had broken down, even though it said so in my contract. Weird. So I had to call the company again and complain and they promised to send somebody soon, but so far I haven't got a call yet.
I broke the lamp last night, too, such a nice reason to go to IKEA and check for a new one! ;)
That will be done late in the evening; IKEA is open until 21:00, even 22:00 on fridays and saturdays. Before that I have a date with my trade union to talk about the job I might take over starting this April. And before that I'll go to have my hair dyed a nice new red. So off I am. Wish me luck and cross your fingers everything turns out fine: hair, job, and lamp! Oh, and w-lan!

Riga! :) and Berlin! :)

Back at home. Here it isn't winter either. Rather warm, but not rainy. Well, it had been in former winter wonderland.
The weekend in Riga had been great: so many well known and loved places, so many well known friends! And a few new ones! :)
Since Lovas had forgotten about the keys, Jeena took over, and hosted me warmheartedly. We met Marta from Jurmala and Ieva Puke, a great travel writer and journalist, in the cafe with the best hot chocolate you can have (Emīla Gustava šokolāde), and later met Ieva at the Laima clock who had hosted me in Riga end of July last year.
There will be an article on all of us travelling with Couchsurfing and Hospitality Club in Diena, the biggest latvian newspaper, soon, they even sent their best photographer to take pictures of us!
We had a great time walking around Riga old town together, and after a lovely latvian dinner in my favourite small restaurant in the main busstation with a view onto the market halls (which they hadn't known about), they hugged me goodbye and I was off to the airport by the 4 pm bus. At 8 pm I was in my flat after a wonderful week up north. But it's quite fine to be home again, for a change!

Riga! :)

Just a short note saying I had a wonderful flight, but my host forgot to give me the keys and left to party. :(
Luckily more friends here to help me. So everything's fine, and soon I'll be in the newspapers. Again.
More tomorrow. :)

Last day in Finland

This picture is wishful thinking, alas! No snow today, but no rain either.
Everything's packed, and I'm ready to leave very early in the morning. Elsis gave me a map with the best way to get to her flat right in the north of the old town. My friends in Riga know about my short trip; I hope to meet quite a few of them. :)

Rainy winter day in Helsinki

What to do on a rainy day in January in Finland's beautiful capital?
Except for shopping, of course, which is always tempting here especially now when there's sales on. Well, there's cinemas (original version with finnish subtitles mostly) and restaurants and walks along the beaches, or even a trip with the ferry to Suomenlinna.
I decided to explore the finnish national museum, and I spent four hours learning on people living in the area now called Finland in the last 20 000 years. It was a fascinating lecture on life in the northernmost places in Europe.
Coming back to the 21st century when the museum closed for the day, I met Elsis (under the balls in front of the main station, as per usual) to go to Sofia's for a sauna party. Sofia is lucky to live in a wonderful spacy flat in a lovely house dating from early 20th century. With a sauna connected to kitchen and livingroom. The guys went first to sweat a bit, then the gurls. In the meantime the guys were so nice as to grill the sausages that go with a sauna. So nice and relaxing, especially on a dark and cold winter's day.
We were back home in Kliment's flat in Huopalahti just before midnight. Today Elsis had to work really early, and I slept until late. Tomorrow morning it will be me who has to get up soon to catch my flight to Riga. So it's packing and getting ready for my last day in Finland. Sigh.

What kind of person are you? Draw a house!

Elsis and me accompagnied Annabel to the bus 615 taking her to the airport, then Elsis went to work and - after some sightseeing - I spend a lazy day at home doing nothing. Bit of washing, bit of cooking, bit of chatting. And checking this website Annabel had told us about.
After having drawn the house, they tell you what kind of person you are. Very interesting to know, especially around new year.
So here it goes: "You are sensitive and indecisive at times. You are a freedom lover and a strong person. You are shy and reserved. If you've drawn a cross on each of windows (no, i have NOT), you always want to live alone. You are very tidy person. (???) There's nothing wrong with that because you're pretty popular among friends. Your life is always full of changes. (Tell me about it!)
You will avoid being alone and seek the company of others whenever possible. You love excitement and create it wherever you go. You see the world as it is, not as you believe it should be.
You added a flower into your drawing. The flower signifies that you long for love. We also see that you are sensuous, sexual, and privately passionate. You don't think much about yourself."
Go figure! ;)

Helsinki nightlife

Winter nightlife in Helsinki starts at about 3:30 in the afternoon and lasts until 10 in the morning. That's how long the nights are, in early January.
To stay awake, the Finns and tourists alike drink lots and lots of coffee. If they don't, they change over to booze, preferably vodka. Yuk!
Since I had broken Elsis' coffeemaker, and Kliment, being the strict teadrinker, not having any, we had to buy a new one. Which we did in a mall close to Kaisaniemi. We had the rare chance to see the home departments of all the other big malls as well, Sokos, Stockmann, to name a few. But the new coffeemaker is so much nicer than the old one, we are all happy I broke it.
Early in the night (aka between 2 and 6 pm) Annabel and I did some sightseeing without Elsis who had to work. Helsinki looks great in winter, but would be even better if we had some snow. It's too warm and sometimes raining. To avoid getting soaked we took the tram 3T which took us once around the center. Pity we couldn't see more. :(
Later at night we met Theriel and a few more from HC in "Club Liberte". The group "Saaga" that had played at the HC-meeting at lake Kiljawa had a gig there. We had agreed on going there in chat and forum, so to allow others who were in Helsinki at the time to join us. And they found us! We enjoyed the music and chats with friends until after midnight.
And what with chatting (online and offline) it was 3 o'clock in the morning again when we finally went to sleep. So breakfast again at 11 am. Long nights indeed! :)

More friends, more parties

After sleeping long on the first day of the new year, the three girls of us found we were alone in the flat. All our guests had finally gone home to sleep.
So we had a hearty breakfast on leftovers, and decided to have some fresh air and go for a walk. And give Annabel the chance to see a bit of Finland, she will leave on wednesday already.
So off to the Seurasaari ethnographic museum on one of Helsinki's many islands. By the time we were ready, it was 3:30 and dark outside. Finnish winter!
The houses on the island were closed, but we could still enjoy seeing them from the sometimes illuminated walks. How easy to imagine what dark cold winter nights in the finnish countryside are still like.
Back home we feasted on some more leftovers, and invited a few friends over that had not made it to our party on new year's eve. Around ten or eleven of them had met by chance in Helsinki center and admired the fireworks together and shared the booze. The italian girls had loved the minttu a lot.
Claudio, Sofia and Tuomas came at around 10 pm. We had fun telling our fortune, checking astro websites and doing "Bleigiessen" I had brought from Berlin. The molten lead poured into the water mostly turned out to be either fish or dragons, but we had a few flowers and a shadow man (evil, evil) as well.
In chat Danswe had told me he was psychic and could see the future and he saw broken glass with me. Sure enough not even two hours later I broke Elsis' only coffee maker. Looks like we have to go shopping on Tuesday. ;)

Hyvää Uutta Vuotta!

The last day and night of the year were great! Lots of friends in Kliment*s flat where I had stayed last July already. Elsis and Annabel will be spending the next days with me here. But so many great people came for New Year's Eve! Elsis, Annabel, Sami and Stella, Temmihoo, Tnli, Theriel, Teema and his friend just before midnight, disguised as Father Frost and giving out small presents after we had done some song or poem. (See the pics at Elsis' weblog, from January 9.) We had a lovely party into 2007!
I hope you had as well! Have a wonderful new year, lots of joy and peace to all of you!