Last day of the year

2007 has been a weird year in some ways. Dear ones died, my mother-in-law in March, my sweet tomcat Gustav in October. We buried his ashes in our garden this afternoon. My health was getting from bad to better, back to worse. My shoulder, broken in November 2006, had been operated on in July and is healing, but will never be the same. Teeth, hearing and eyesight are those of an elderly woman. Sigh. What happened to the laughing, young girl I felt like 365 days ago? Last week I was called a grandma for the first time in my life. Yeah, well. You live and learn and grow.
Still: I'm back to work with a new job and nice collegues, my kids are the best you can ask for, making me proud of them every day, Emil is purring besides me whenever I'm with him, and family and friends are calling and writing, staying in touch even though I'm far away. That's not too bad, is it? Actually, it's great!
So, 2008: Here I come!

Cheer up in 2008!

Here's how:
1. Give yourself the permission to be human
2. Simplify your life
3. Exercise regularly
4. Focus on the positive
Happy new year to you all! :)

One week is not enough

It's been a week and a day now in Stuttgart for Emil and me. We enjoyed our time here that much, we decided to stay longer instead of leaving tomorrow, and I bought a ticket to ride back on January 1st. Kurt called this evening, and offered to meet us at Berlin station. So nice!
Now we'll spend more days (and nights) relaxing at home, cooking and eating and drinking, talking, walking doggies, reading books, and watching movies. Family life can be so great!
We had our traditional get together on Dec 25th and homemade cheese spätzle with my former husband (and the kids' father) Roland, his partner Sabine, and brother Uli who came from Lake Konstanz. Since everybody had a wonderful time, we invited them to brunch in our house on Dec 26th. Amazing to see what our fridge holds to make a delicious on the spot brunch for seven from scratch! Caviar, salmon and champagne included!
What a lovely Xmas! We even had some snow!
Today I met my friend Tina in Kunstmuseum downtown Stuttgart to catch up on our lifes lately, whilst Volker and Anna were cleaning his flat and getting everything sorted for his flight to the States. He'll be staying and working in Texas and New York until spring. Lucky guy!
And now on to another winter weekend, getting ready for New Year's Eve. Last year I was partying and celebrating in Helsinki. This year is a lot quieter somehow. But still - I like it, for a change. :)

Xmas cards

This year I decided to send Xmas cards to all my friends (ok, not ALL, but a lot), either by mail or by e-mail. I managed more than 50! Well, piece of cake: I sent this sweet Hoops and Yoyo card to most of them. And I got lovely wishes and greetings back! Thank you all, especially Meenzer!

Merry Xmas!

Fröhliche Weihnachten - God Jul - Glaedelig Jul - Häid jõule - С Рождеством Христовым - Feliz Navidad - Vrolijk Kerstfeest - Buon Natale - Wesolych Swiat - Bom Natal - Joyeux Nöel - Veselé vánoce - Boldog karácsonyt - Καλά Χριστούγεννα - Весела Коледа - Noeliniz kutlu olsun - Hyvää joulua!

When I was a little boy

Erich Kästner wrote a book about his early years, comedian Walter Sittler made a theatre show out of it, and Anna invited us to go to "Theaterhaus",and see it with her. Our first Xmas present this year!
Alex, Volker, Anna, and I enjoyed the evening, the show was done wonderfully, Anna bought the cd, and the actor signed it for her. What a nice start into celebrating Xmas!

Holidays with cats

We made it safe back home just before midnight, and fell asleep soon. Alex had offered his room and moved into mine for these days, which is a lot easier with Emil. My dear tomcat seems to like his new home, and is curious to get to know all the house and its cat owners Felix, Emily, and Justus. But we're afraid we'll have trouble with them fighting to decide who's the boss. So he'll stay inside, and we're visiting him ever so often.
All day today we were shopping for Xmas, wrapping up gifts (Emil helping a lot with paper and string) and made it just in time to post the parcels to Düsseldorf. My sister's family's presents arrived today, too, we put them underneath the beautifully decorated Xmas tree.
More letters and cards came from my friends Tina from Stuttgart and Susanne from Kaarst, and mails from Audrone from Lithuania and Christine from Switzerland. So nice to have friends remembering me every year for the holidays! :)

Driving home for Xmas

Bag is packed, Xmas gifts included, a small backpack holds Emil's food, medicine and water, and Emil's huge cage is set up to host him for the trip to Stuttgart. So we're ready to leave. Anna and Volker will meet us at the station at 11 pm. Home for Xmas! :)

Ready for the holidays!

Monday was my last day in the office, shared with Kurt whom I gave a book for Xmas, a funny story in the frankfurt dialect, and a few others, too("Erna, der Baum nadelt!"). Tuesday I worked some more on our website, but at home, and then was ready to forget about my job, and turn all my thoughts and deeds to the holidays.
Well, my tooth wasn't, nor my stomach. So off to the doctors, again. Sigh.
But all's well that ends well, and here I am back in my flat with my cat, packing my suitcase for Stuttgart. :)
Oh, Frosty! I met him in a shop. Cute guy. And smart, as well. Just the right outfit with the cold outside now!

Cosy corners in posh Mitte

Sunday was even colder than the days before. But the sun was shining brightly, so after a few lazy hours in the morning I left flat and cat and went downtown. The new bus M85 took me right to the main station, where I checked where Emil and I would have to get into the train to Stuttgart, and where we could spend the time between arrival by taxi and departure by DB. Since it's gonna be even more freezing then, a restaurant seems the appropriate place to go and warm up a bit.
Everything arranged nicely, the next s-train took me to Hackesche Höfe, and - another Xmas market. Sophienstraße market is well known for it's handicraft and ecological stalls, I had been there years ago and loved it.
To warm up, I felt like having a bite to eat, and fried sausages or african spicy food (wonderfully delicious normally) did not attract me, or rather my stomach. I wondered where to go in posh Mitte, and discovered a small cosy cafe just to the right of Starbuck's. A friend of mine had taken me there for breakfast when I came to Berlin in summer 2001 to check whether I should move there, but since it had been a lot warmer then we had stayed outside in the small yard.
"Cafe Cinema" in Haus Schwarzenberg is a place I loved from the first second, dark, with candles on wooden tables, a piano, a couch that looks like it's seen 100 years, and still feels comfy to sit upon. It reminds me a lot of the cafes I used to go to in the 70s. The customer's age was the same as mine then, too.
A big bowl of hot soup and a slightly smaller bowl of camomile tea later, I left and walked slowly back to Alexanderplatz and my bus. On the way I discovered a spanish tapas bar, "Yosoy". It looked just like a tapas bar in Spain, even the guests, and they all spoke spanish. So I have to get back one day and check it out. Hmmmm, tapas! It's a pity there's only one spanish restaurant at Crellestraße, and "Pasodoble" doesn't do tapas the way I like them.
Talking of my street: A new pizzeria opened up this weekend, "Mauro", just across the road. The owner has won prizes at the annual world wide pizza competition in Italy, he's the best pizzaioli from Germany. Wow! The pizza is tasty, and for 1,50 € for adults really cheap, kids only pay 1 €. They sell great italian espresso and cappuccino as well. Sigh. I wished my diet was over and done with...

A lovely winterday

It's cold outside. Around freezing point during the sunny hours of the day, and a lot less at night times. So just right to stroll around the streets wrapped up in woollen sweaters and trousers, hat, gloves, a down jacket, thick socks and warm boots, avoiding the hustle and bustle of families rushing past with bags and parcels. I almost managed.
Another castle, this time in the west of Berlin: Schloss Charlottenburg, world heritage. It's the first time they have a Xmas market there, and a beautiful old fashioned one, as well. Quite lovely, with old fashioned shops selling old fashioned Xmas decorations, cookies and presents, and carefully chosen food stalls.
No tasty chocolate salt sticks nor mulled wine for me, instead I bought some tea leaves: camomile, greek mountain tea, and sage. But I had to try the ukrainian borschtsch at the russian house with wooden handcrafted decorations and the waiters done up like russian soldiers - hmmmmm! lecker! I wished I knew where they found the brown bread in Berlin, it was mouthwatering!
After a trip back downtown on one of the many crowded busses, I enjoyed crisscrossing Berlin center, which seems to have transformed into one huge Xmas market. All afternoon I surfed the shops for Xmas presents and cards, it was fun, but exhausting. Late I went back home for a quiet evening on the couch with a cup of my new tea, and fell asleep soon, Emil snoring by my side.

Xmas with the collegues

Friday was a day of Xmas meetings at ver.di. In the afternoon, Kurt and I were surprised by our "boss" Hartmut with a short speech thanking us for all the work we had done this last year and being the nice collegues we sure are. We both got a lovely book, and Hanne was given a klezmer cd. What a sweet surprise!
We felt a bit sad though, since we had not known before, and had no chance to give each other presents as well. And it was the last day of all of us working together this year! Let's see how I can make up for it...
In the evening, all of us working at ver.di with Frank Bsirske, our general secretary, had been invited to a wonderful concert in the Köpenick castle church, and a delicious dinner in the cosy castle cafe, with beautiful cuisine. Just to thank us for last year's efforts, and to wish us happy holidays with family and friends, away from ver.di.
I sat at his table, and told him about my travel adventures last year, and how I miss it and making friends all over the world. Even though I really love my new job. But with a sick cat travelling can't be done easily. Thursday we'll give it a try and go back home to Stutgart. Looking forward to Xmas with the family! :)

Have a laugh, have a neologism!

Ever tried to find new meanings for well known words? Well, the Washington Post does, and readers compete to find the best and funniest. Here's a few winners!
Coffee was No 1, by the way: the person upon whom one coughs. :)
(The photo has got nothing at all to do with today's topic. It's a wooden handcrafted huge nutcracker at one of Berlin's 60 xmas markets. Why people call it "more than lifesize" I have no idea. Never have I seen a living nutcracker, leave alone had a chance to check how big it is. Or small. So far.)

The best xmas market in Berlin

So far it's the Neukölln one, for sure. Spandau, one of the biggest xmas markets in Europe, tonight wasn't bad at all, but Rixdorf market at Richardplatz yesterday evening was lovely and romantic and topped it all, with hundreds of market stalls underneath oldfashioned street lamps and windows and balconies decorated with thousands of lamps, mistletoes, xmas trees and branches, red ribbons, the lot. All of the stalls were done by charity organisations, schools, churches, and congregations. The decorations and goodies they sold were handmade, cheap, and the money went to people in need. I left with ten books for 2 Euro, one of which was a mistery and crime story about my neighbourhood (!). So it was a nice long evening on the couch with a book and Emil, after all.
No mulled wine, though, the doctors had told me I had to cure my heartburn. I wonder what I'm gonna have for xmas dinner, without coffee, wine, cookies, chocolates, oranges, roast meat, well, anything roasted or grilled.
It was a bit hard to find something delicious on the xmas markets that followed the diet, but I managed, and had a wonderful pumpkin soup. Soup and oats is what I'm gonna live on these days, until the heartburn stops. Hopefully before New Years Eve. No champagne then? What a boring way of starting 2008!

Too busy/lazy to write

Quite a few days passed since my last note. Work as usual, in the evenings a goodbye party to a collegue, sleeping a lot, and phone calls with Anna. She got her exam certificate on Wednesday in Stuttgart castle. I'm very proud to announce she's 38th out of 518 in Baden-Württemberg. :)
Weekend started with Hanne coming to my place to check my wardrobe, and leaving two hours later with three bags full of lovely sweaters that look great on her and didn't on me lately. Another bag went to Humana, the second hand shop round the corner. A few more hours of having a good look on my trousers and t-shirts, and I'll be rid of stuff I don't acutally need any more. They looked nice on me 15 years ago, though.
Christel came yesterday early afternoon for a walk around Berlin xmas markets I had promised her weeks ago, since she's so sweet to look after my flat and my plants when I'm off for a week. She had been especially caring for Gustav in October. Without her I wouldn't have been able to leave.
So off we went to the jewish museum first, just in time to the lightening of the candles at chanukka market. Then on through the dark night (at 5 pm!) past Unter den Linden and the big fair to Gendarmenmarkt and its posh and expensive xmas market. Strolling around and enjoying the special program was fun, but we wouldn't think about buying anything there. When we left, hundreds of people were queuing up to get in. We would have hated to be stuck in the crowd!
Instead we thought about going on by bus to Potsdamer Platz, but so did lots of others as well. In the end we preferred to walk it, crossed Brandenburg gate where the demonstration to save the climate had finished a few minutes ago, families and people of all ages carrying lanterns they had been given on the demonstration passing us, skipped the xmas market, and decided to have a hot drink and a hot meal inside instead. "Maultaschen Manufaktur" was just the place to go, with special suebian food and lovely hot tea. Perfect when it's cold outside!
I was back home to my purring cat around 7 pm - and it felt like 10! Winter is here for sure. And today? Another xmas market maybe? Or a day on the couch with Emil?

Happy birthday, Knut!

The cute little polarbear grew a lot these 12 months, and now he's a biiiiiig youngster and will celebrate his birthday tomorrow. Here's more news on him, plus a Knut advent calendar. Enjoy!

Bright days, dull days

Sunday was a verrry bright day, for sure. First to the swedish bazar, where I won a huge xmas teddy first thing, before even having the chance to drink some glög and/or eat the famous home made peasoup (with mustard, of course). Midsummer had been great at the swedish congregation, and xmas was even better. The courtyard and the many rooms buzzed with merry people selling and buying traditonal decorations, art pieces and more. It felt like surfing a market in Sweden, with all the specialties and women dressed up in country clothes. I couldn't resist a few postcards (featuring cats), and almost bought a lovely warm blanket with elks from the norwegian stands which had found their home at the swedish neighbours (would have been my umptiest).
I skipped the wizo bazar this year, but went for the big xmas markets around opera house and along Unter den Linden. They have a fun fair and bands playing as well. The picture was taken at corner Friedrichstraße, looking towards the huge wheel. The townhall tower and the Berlin flag are peeping thru the blinking trees.
I didn't even mind the heavy rain - there's no bad weather, only bad clothes. Mine were definitely up to german so-called winter.
Monday on the other hand was totally different. Emil refused to eat his medicine, and neither minced meat nor his favourite titbits could make him change his mind. He hid underneath the bed, and even growled at me. I managed somehow to grab him, and force the tiny pills into his mouth. Luckily, tonight he felt better and loved his turkey, with or without medicine.
Me, on the other hand, felt lousy, and I still do. Since a few days, tooth aches were coming and going, and I had to see the dentist to have it cured. Now it's worse than ever. But she promised my tooth will see 2008.
Even at work, nothing went the way I wanted it to. Except for lunch break, when Hartmut got us some nice desserts for a treat, and Heinrich, my boss from IG Media starting times about 20 years ago, told us about his speeches on tv and the "International Day of Solidarity" to support US-american authors on strike. That cheered me up no end!

Meeting Julenisse

Another lovely day of decorating the flat with branches, candles, xmas ornaments, and browsing the xmas markets to soak in the mix of happy people, candies, mulled wine, carols, and presents-to-be. At Brandenburg gate I met Hartmut, my boss from ver.di, and his wife/friend Heike. They treated me to hot spicy drinks, whilst we admired the norwegian tree being illuminated (it's an 18 year old tradition, the tree is a gift by the people of Frogn close to Oslo), and listened to famous scandinavian singers Siw Malmquist, Gitte Haenning and Wencke Myhre making the crowd join into the scandinavian xmas songs. It was fun indeed! We even met Julenisse, the norwegian Santa Claus, who gave us some delicious norwegian xmas cookies.
Then my friends went on to dinner before an evening at the opera, and I went on to some more xmas shopping. We might meet again today, either at Winterfeldt market, swedish bazar, or the WiZo bazar done by the jewish community.
It's a pity though the temperature rose, so there's no snow, but rain. That would have made it just perfect!

Advent calendars

Today is a very special day. Dec 1st is every year: the first day of Advent, when you start opening little parcels or calendar windows numbered 1 to 24, to help waiting for Xmas. Anna and Alex (plus Volker and all the cats) had sent me a parcel with a lovely calendar and lots of delicious home made Xmas cookies which I'm supposed to enjoy one each day. There's more that might be sent on demand, they wrote. Dear kids!
Doesn't it look lovely? To make these days before Xmas even better, I bought some xmassy books yesterday evening, and will have some hot winter tea or even mulled wine when reading them, Emil purring on my lap, and a fire crackling in my chimney close by (on dvd). December is so much better than rainy and grey November!
More advent calendars online I found on the web. I'll even try the rather challenging one on mathematics. And now off to a weekend of more Xmas markets... ;)