Deutsche Märchen ♥

A change of life, although Germany was incredible it was time to move on.. I live in Canada now, here's the link if you fancy a gander...

x

walking around the house in your knickers, learning to play Sufjan Stevens songs on the piano, and posting about said activities in blogs you've not used for weeks does not constitute packing.

TV On The Radio were the absolute shit. The best! There is literally nothing better than watching a group of musicians who really inspire you with everything they do. Makes me very sad that due to moving out and having to afford my own place (which I am continually procrastinating on, sigh.. some things never change ! ), etc my plans for music lessons have had to take a back seat. But, soon! Anyway, the show kept me going inspiring-things-wise for now, it was comprised of an excellent choice of songs and they did this re-stitching together of tunes I already loved, which worked but is so hard to explain. In short, if they're going to be anywhere near you, go and see them! And you will see for your very self... The venue was the Muffathalle, it was my first time there and I found it a really decent set-up, for starters the sound was incredible.. but there was also a really good view.. :) in fact, I think I'll be hard-pushed to better that show this year, but time will tell... reason to go to more gigs I'd say..

A whole lot else, quite simply, hasn't been occurring of late. I know, this is an unfortunate theme of my posts lately but I'm counting down the days to some trips I have planned in summer. How exciting ! Then, I will surely have more to write about, you have my word... as a small point of interest, I spent most of this evening decorating cakes, if I have to see another cake again in the next year I'll scream like a banshee.. but before I entered cake hell via a caprese salad and many dayglo sugar-based cake garnishments (sugar high, lolz), I popped quickly to Tollwood for the afternoon which was really nice. Caught up with a friend and wandered around the festival, had a couple of Aperol Sprizz and then wobbled off home on my bike. Also, I set myself the task of cycling from my house to the Olympiapark which is about an hour each way. Got a tad lost in both directions, but otherwise am pretty pleased with how my navigation of the city is coming together, one point me ;)

Anyway, it's 2am and I have just over 12 hours before the house is full of 30 screaming 5 and 6 year olds.. so to bed for me. Have song 10 though, and a song that makes me fall asleep, in a good way, Mogwai have always been my favourite relaxingsleeprecord... :) I remember the first time I heard this song like it was yesterday, so clear... it was somewhere around 4am on MTV2 late night, I immediately downloaded the album and have been in love ever since <3



A tad perfect or what.. :) xx

Found out TV On The Radio are playing here next week, so freaking stoked :)) other than that jewel in a rather dull looking crown, not much to report. Went dancing to Kultfabrik last night, it's still a complete hole.. surprise surprise! By the time everyone else wanted to leave I was in the not-so golden hour of no trains so had to hang around a bit.. only an hour or so but I got chatting to some people who were nice enough.. felt a bit weird being there alone though and got me thinking about situations that are simply not that acceptable being alone in. So then why does every little British town have a resident old guy that's always out on a Sat night alone ?! At what point does that stop being weird and become normal for them, if it was me I just wouldn't bother because everyone else still finds it, and by association you, weird ... ? Needless to say, after returning finally home about 5 due to falling asleep on a train (sigh.. will I ever learn?) today has then been a total writeoff.. I've accomplished nothing on my to-do list except sleep. Lots. The weather's been shit so I've not even been able to go cycling, sniff :((( never mind! I still have Lots Of Very Important Things To Do ie, find somewhere to live (!) so I guess I can use tomorrow and the continuing rain onslaught to make some inroads into that.. we'll see...

Anyway, I've just been told I have a couple of hours to myself, the family have relatives staying and I might not even have to babysit, scorre :)) although I will definitely just sleep again rather than use the time productively, of that I'm sure. Sometimes it's the best just to sleep! Wish I hadn't left my onesie in the UK.. :'(

Whilst I'm here, have song 9 and a song I can dance to. I love the first Friendly Fires album so, so much <3 it's just a damn shame the newest one is worse than being bad and has strayed into mediocre territory.. I honestly think I hate mediocre music more than bad music, at least the bad makes you feel at least something towards it.. so here's a reminder of times past.. :)



Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzback-to-bed.. x

Sitting at a table feeling kinda nondescript. So many things going on! First off, I've decided to call time on the aupairing, and have made the family aware. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be, my host Mum was really nice about it and I think she understands that I'm doing too much and that it's just time. She's been showing me some prospective new people and it's all very exciting. I'll be sad to leave the girls (they don't yet know.. hmm not sure how that's going to go..) but for now I'm really happy with my Kindergarten job and still have a long way to go with my German abilities.. also, I've not seen the half of Europe and my brother is moving not that far away in Sept, so it seems the obvious choice to stay here a while yet. Just.. get an afternoon job, find a flat and be a rent-payer, do bills, have housemates, you get the idea. I guess it's a good thing I really enjoy all that self-supporting stuff and also enjoy testing myself as completing the whole exercise in German will be the hardest thing I'll have done so far, definitely whilst I've been here and possibly even in life thus far :/ here goes...

Other news.. many shoestring-budget trips to plan on a brain-saving-sanity exercise.. they say travel is the best education you can get, so I'm going to explore whether I agree. There are so many places nearby, and I was so good at popping away for the weekend when I was in England. So why not repeat it here.. this means I've bought guide books to Ljubljana and Zurich, to somehow commit myself to going. I'm planning to Mitfahr and Couchsurf my way around to save the pennies but also get a more "real" experience of the way of life in a city. Hopefully I won't encounter any murderers.. and if I do, I guess that kind of experience is character building, I need a bit of excitement! (Don't really want to meet murderers)

As for life right now, I'm supposed to be moving a new bed into my room to get it out of the way for my family.. so best get moving. I'll leave you with the next song, although 30 days is suddenly seeming like a lot of days. Too many days! Anyway, here's a song I know every single word to for day 8, apply this also to the album which I've not listened to in so long, strange considering it was my favourite album for so many years. Interesting how our tastes change, but atdi will always be rather special to me, in the kind of way I already know it, and don't have to listen to them all the time.. :) would have been nice to post a proper video rather than a picture but the only live performances I could find were so shambolic I didn't think they did the song justice, so here..



Esqout.x

ps, Spent the next hour after posting this listening to Relationship Of Command on full blast, it had been too long, so freaking awesome... a reminder of what was, and what can be re-attained indeed. Big smile :)

I have 12 whole followers! How odd. Thank you for following me, and please be aware that my adventures these days are a little less adventure, a little more sitting down with a cup of coffee.. either way, welcome :) I hope you enjoy my interminable ramblings. And please thank yourselves for inspiring me to write today, for I should do you the honour of at least posting once in a while, non?

Today finds me back in England, for various reasons. Mainly, I'm at this whole life crisis crossroads point but less about that, as all I've been doing is thinking about it and I'm bored of the words constantly buzzing around my head. I'm sat here eBaying some pieces of past lives away to pass some time and get some extra pennies, as it happens. What they don't tell you is, although a great idea, eBaying takes forever and is so freaking boring! Those people who made millions on it must have gone mad long before the extra zeroes were added to the old bank balance. Yawn...

Not a whole lot has been happening, apart from me working my whole life away. Due to being a complete fool at times, I found myself in a position where I had three jobs and no time to breathe. There was a period of time where I actually felt like I was on the verge of having some kind of mad episode, and so I paused everything for a bit, quit the least demanding of my three jobs and came back to England to just sit and be in the countryside. So far, it's lovely! I have a whole lot of nothing planned, apart from a shopping trip and dancing session with friends up in Bristol. Any other things I end up doing, will be things that present themselves to me rather than things I seek out. So happy to essentially be doing nothing! Ah, nothing... it's been too long my old friend.. ;)

In other news, looks like I might just have a kick-ass summer. Not entirely sure what the plans are yet, but I've made a vow to myself to use all my free time (of which there will likely be much, well.. more than usual) seeing places that aren't so far from MUC, this means anywhere within about 4 hours drive. So far Zurich, Milan, Ljubljana, Frankfurt and Prague are possibles on the list, and I'm so happy at the prospect of seeing more of my almost surroundings. Keep you posted..

Anyway, tired and fed up of goddamn eBaying for now. Going to take a break and make one of my family members cuddle me! For that is what being around family is all about.. in the meantime, have a song from this challenge I keep forgetting about, something that reminds me of a particular event and the offical song of Day 7. For some reason I play the first Mystery Jets album every time I move out of somewhere.. I love it, and love them, Mystery Jets are just magical, or should that be were magical as their newest album was freaking terrible. How annoying :(



Bai.. x

This week's been a mischung... had my first bike crash, enjoyed the sun, told off some rude people, found a whole new area of the city that I LOVE on my newly-adopted travels as a Cycling Commuter, did something that truly terrified me on purpose (cycling in the forest at night, as you ask.. or even if you don't), got my brain cut into pieces (not literal) by a constantly screeching child, got happy for no real reason (not that I was massively sad but.. yknow), had a wee beer at a beer fest, heard from some potential visitors, felt too exhausted to do anything but lie down, took some time to just breathe and appreciate everything, made a few plans... the list goes on.

Tomorrow and the weekend see a whole lot of things I can't quite be bothered to write about, just now. Although a helicopter just went over my house, I guess that's news. Also, I've been sorting out the old photo collection, in order to purge my poor camera of all the pictures stuffed on it. Hopefully, this will jog my memory somewhat of things I've been upto recently, and I'll therefore have a little more to write about. Blame the screaming child... brain no function..

Hmmm... I'm tired and need sleep, again blame the child. Oh! I also have terrible accidental self sick making alcohol stories, but I've not quite come to terms with those yet haha. In time you will know...

And now, have a completely non-consecutive day in the challenge. As we left things a whole nearly 2 weeks ago (!) with day 5, here's day 6 and a song that reminds me of somewhere. Not feeling particularly imaginative right now, plus I do have a terrible short term memory.. so let's pick my kitchen, whilst eating a bowl of cereal and having a dance, every time the family are out. This song never fails to make me happy, the words in particular own life.. although the video disturbs me somewhat and doesn't really fit as far as I'm concerned.. sorry little boy! See what you think though ;)

Happy almost Saturday...

Foals - Blue Blood from Blink on Vimeo.

Today started as a disastrous one all round, but surprisingly I've turned it around a bit and am now in a super good mood. Zum Beispiel, I forgot my phone, there was a confusion at work which was then solved, I fell up the stairs pretty spectacularly, that kinda thing. But perhaps as a result of this faily beginning, I've spent the afternoon finally picking up my newly-serviced bike (that I got for free donchaknow, score one me), finding my way home on said contraption, and doing PRODUCTIVE SENSIBLE BANK ACCOUNT RELATED THINGS, and have made a couple of decisions with regard to things I'm going to go back to (hint: not the UK (sorry) more of the musical persuasion.. so freaking excited! More on this as it develops..) and am now listening to Total Life Forever incredibly loud, about to have a bath and currently have the coldest beer known to man in my right hand, that I unexpectedly found in the fridge. Life, whilst back to the template of boringness known as "normality" after all that happened last week.. is pretty OK at this precise second!

So, the gap in posting then.. my netbook touchpad is severely broken (boo hiss) and I'm too lazy to buy a replacement as yet... this means I am having to operate my whole computer with keystrokes, how retro. Good job I'm fairly competent with our robotic laptop friends and can actually even do this I suppose ! But also, I find myself kinda reluctant to spend yet MORE money because, in more exciting news, I've had loads of visitor types :) so.. in-between running away for the day to fairytale castles and such (€€), catching silly amounts of trains (€) and eating rather too much stodgy German food (€€€) I've not really had time to slope off and write anything. I'm sure my 8 followers will understand, it doesn't pay to be rude and ignore guests in order to type a blog, now, does it... but I have had fun, and will tell you about it.. however.. I do find that this leaves me in a bit of a pickle writing-wise. The reason for this is, that so much has now happened I'm never going to have the patience to write it all in an average of 5 paragraphs. Hm! The logical thing would be to split it all into manageable chunks, but the danger with this is that my memory is such a sellotaped-together pretender these days I'd probably forget it all. I guess it's patience vs. ongoing bad memory-finder, and I think the patience is going to lose ha. So I will most likely make a list, and start today by adding a picture of Neuschwanstein which was certainly the highlight of my excursions...



Isn't it amazing ! I know many places where the pictures look so much better, and after a whole day of travelling you turn up to this two foot high thing and think.. well I paid €2837 or however much to get here.. ?! Wtf etc, but I can safely say that this picture doesn't even do the view justice one percent! If you get the chance to go DO IT, it was the inspiration for the disney castles and, although it costs about €2837 to get in (we just walked around, the view was good enough), and there are the obligatory other fifteen thousand tourists with their clashy clothes combinations, pushy tendencies and bad B.O. problems it's totally worth all that, just to be able to set your eyes on not only this castle but the other one that was built just down the valley.. apparently when you're King Ludwig II only 84375676474 castles will do, there are at least another 3 that I know of, all built with the state of Bavaria's money of course... ! Terrible for those that had to starve at the time, but makes for a rather good yarn nowadays, don't you think? Of course there are many other facts I could add but, mainly, I forgot them all and to be honest... I want my bath now hah :p before I post today's song (song "challenge" fail) here's a shot of castle number two:



Anyway, enough about pretending you live in the medieval times (la la dream music....), as more than anything the hill up there would take at least 28 days by horse and carriage.. and it would be most draughty alone there, although apparently a family still live in one of the wings today. How cool, yes you may send me a letter, my address is Fuck-Off Huge Castle, Massive Hill, Middle Of Bavaria, Germany.. ?!

So, day 5 on this silly thing that I'm wishing I hadn't started and a song that reminds me of someone.. well, obviously being a popular chap such as myself, I couldn't just pick one person ;) so... I therefore pick precisely 7 other people, and more specifically the snowy week we spent in Centre Parcs 2010, as well as many subsequent cidery nights in front of Rock Band.. enjoy :)


Soundgarden Spoonman von skinandbones

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First things first, MY IPOD IS FIXED :)))))))))))) a big thankyou to my friend Becky, I am considering employing her as my Official iPod Saver (TM) <3 <3 <3

Other than that, feeling posi-posi-positive if a little itchy-footed (metaphorical, not actual :p). Pretty uneventful weekend, went dancing at this amazing Dubstep night Friday but got a little lost and ended up paying a small fortune for a taxi home.. babysat Saturday night and had a couple of really mind-clearing chats with people - one on my very own porch, one with someone I'd not spoken to in too long.. crossed a couple more locations off the old S-Bahn line project today, but this was mainly due to both places being ridiculously dull than any kind of productivity on my part. Met a couple of friends a little later for a short sit by the Isar, until the sun started disappearing and it got a little cold. Walked home.. hm.. feeling that life, if good, is a little humdrum at the moment.. I guess I've just got used to everything now, and something that was originally novel has just become real life. I don't suppose I find my own daily life all that worthy of being written about, I'm too busy working to do much exploring these days, and not (I hope) narcissistic enough to define myself as any kind of Captain Wow-type..

(This would be the perfect place to put the captain wow clip from Black Books up.. but I can't goddamn find it.. fuuuuuu internet..)

Anyway, this boring lull should hopefully not last any longer than about four days, as I'll be having a fair few visitors in the coming weeks. Really excited to see some sorely missed faces as well as use their time here (and co-inciding time off work, scorez) as an excuse to get out and about exploring again. What fun :) I will update you as and when interesting things happen...

In the meantime, I've become a little bored already with the song thing but perhaps it's cause I found this one really hard. Day 4 is a song that makes you sad, and there was no context.. did they mean sad in that you hate it..? I'm pretty aware that, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter a bit, but I couldn't think of anything I hate that much. So I chose a song about something I was reading about for a while, and it's the subject matter that makes me sad, even if the song itself I find really beautiful. I guess it makes me sad in that thinking-about-stuff way when you've just finished reading about serial killers? Not sure where I was going with that.. but anyway, I'm off to watch an episode of Being Human which I've become rather obsessed with of late. Have a bit'o Sufjan, and marvel at his talent as I do, whilst being kinda pissed off you weren't born like that, as I am. Ha.



xx

I hate the following expression but: I'm exhausted. I'm alone with the girls for 3 days and the thing I've found out is that I never, I repeat, nevernever, want to be a full time housewife.. it may come as a shock to you to hear ;) I just don't see the joy in it?! Does that sound nasty? I really don't mean it that way. I love the girls, I really do.. but, I think I hate feeling needed by anyone. I guess I just like the possibility of being able to swan off and do something if the whim strikes. Not that I always take advantage, but it's nice for it to be do-able. Blah.

In brighter times, the weather is following the pattern it should do in life and doesn't in the UK.. that means spring > summer > autumn > winter like you read about in books, and therefore, it is SUNNY and I am HAPPY if also TIRED. Both friends and family will be gracing my presence in little over a week, so you can add a rather large whack of excitedness in there too. I wish my day to day life was as interesting to write about. If you're particularly interested, and to mention them for a third time (it's as if they're my friends?!) I have realised the frogs in the pond are actually toads. This makes me feel a little grosser about all their eggs, I'm not sure why. Blame Kermit, he's all cute and puppety, do you know a cute and puppety toad? I think not..

Right, bored of this now but was aware I didn't post anything yesterday. I'm well aware this, cough, "challenge" (as if, climbing Mount Everest is a challenge!) doesn't state 30 consecutive days, but I know what my habitual self is like.. besides, we all need bad posts to compare the good ones to and so know there's such thing as good, anyway. So there. (I'm even re-using material. Terrible..)

Day 3 then, and a song that makes me infinitely happy. IF ONLY I COULD LISTEN TO IT ON MY iPOD which is currently being retarded and unlockable and therefore in the doghouse. By which, I mean in my bag with me silently pleading that the battery will run out soon, so that the next time I charge it it will magically unlock..? I was just saying how vital it was the other day too, famous last freaking words.

I'm going to make myself feel better about the whole affair by dancing manically to this, and so should you.



Xx

A quick'en, as I've found myself feeling somewhat rubbish, and not even Sufjan Stevens can help me, even though he's been trying his very best. Thank you Sufjan, but please go away now and no you can't follow me into the shower :(

I've therefore come to the conclusion I need sleep er, nowplz as I did in fact oversleep for work today. Plus I seemed to spend 68.23% of my time catching up with myself so not the best of days, but we all gotta have them.. to compare the good ones to and know there's such thing as good in the first place. So there. :p

For continuity purposes, the froggies have stopped (SCORE) and pissed off somewhere (hopefully under the tyre of a passing car), but in their place is the most ridiculous amount of frogspawn I've ever seen, to ensure the whole sordid business continues next year. Result :|

All in all, boring day, the high(low?)light of which was watching Louis Theroux return to that bat-shit crazy family in Kansas that go on about God hating gay people/jews/elephants/everyone. If only they knew that what they are doing is indeed 100% disproving their own theory.. because if God existed, surely he'd have sent some snipers to mow the fuckers down by now, eh. Good for a few laughs at a) some exceedingly poorly constructed "fact" clusters masquerading as arguments and b) what it's possible for children to look like (shudder) after generations of inter-breeding. I wonder if any of my army of 8 followers saw it? Do let me know your thoughts, if you feel so inclined..

Anyway, not feeling particularly on form word and/or lifewise so not going to tippy typey tap along a whole lot more. Instead, I'll just let the words of this monstrosity describe life for you, OR NOT. If you relate to this song in any way, then good for you, I'm glad you finally found something after spending so long being misunderstood etc etc but please find the "close" button on your little internet window and use it accordingly. Like, now. Cheerzzz..

Henceforth I present to you day two, and my least favourite song of all time / candidate for worst song ever. Including Rebecca Black. (nb. If you are in aforementioned epihphany of understanding, and have been recently living under a rock, you might want to check her out too.. )



There are no words.x

I find myself halfway back on 04/04 at 23:31, although this is mainly due to being woken up for the FIFTH night in a row by randy frogspawn-spawning frogs in the pond, GO AWAY PLEASE, :(

Some things.. I started this weekend with heatstroke (fail) but ended it by finding out that someone I really didn't like actually pissed themselves, so six of one, half a dozen of the other. I'm attempting to recover from the former by thinking about the latter and laughing heartily as much as I can. Hahahahahhaha :)

Anyway, something I've been thinking about for a bit.. in order to forcibly hit myself around the head a little with the old writing inspiration.. I'm going to delve a little (ergh.. delve) into tosserish territory (yeah yeah, more than usual, let's pre-empt that one right there) and complete something of a thirty day song challenge. I say something, it's title is Thirty Day Song Challenge so I guess that's actually exactly what it is. I've seen it around on That Shitty Blue Logoed Website That Nobody Should Talk About In Real Life, but have major qualms with having to post something on TSBLWTNSTAIRL every day. So, this is a fingers up to Zuckerberg, and a step along the selfish road of rediscovering music I forgot I loved so much. Enjoy, or don't, I will :)

So, day one.. my favourite song, which incidentally I am going to use to put myself back to sleep, ahh....... <3

Radiohead - Pyramid Song from Wes Dorris on Vimeo.

One blog in a whole month then, wow, that's pretty crappy. Although, life hasn't been on fire with writeable opportunities... but that doesn't mean one page in thirty days is nothing short of lacklustre. I guess this just sums up the mood I'm always taken by as the nights draw in, I hate this time of year more than any other...I find it so hard to get motivated to do anything other than lying down, and more than anything I want endless balmy evenings dammit >:(

Ridiculous few days...in the nicest possible way! Only yesterday did I actually stop, and this was of course also the moment I realised how tired I actually was and began to fall asleep whilst playing mini golf....

So, as half-arsedly promised I'm going to elaborate a little on what have essentially been two lists :p today finds me sat once more at the red desk, the rain is raining itself down and my legs are full of that muscular pain you get when you work out too much. Every day when I've returned from camp I've been buzzing on the remnants of a day telling thirteen 9-year-olds what to do - even when I've been practically falling asleep on the train? This excess energy entails me either sitting in front of various screens - pointless as I don't gain anything and feel somehow more awake - or, better, going on an epic bike ride most days to tire myself out physically so that (logically anyway) sleep will arrive. Today is the exception only because I feel the beginnings of a sore throat tickling away, and don't want to be sickington gay for the weekend when I have my very first out of town visitors :)))

I made this thing a whole lot privater...not really sure why...just got a little creeped out about internet presences and such. There you go. That's that. This is this. Life is life. Etc.

A blog without a blogger, a sad affair indeed. After somewhat of a (...n improptu) hiatus I'm sat at the bright red desk with many a word working its' way down my arm, from brain to fingertip...and on to computer screen. The phone is ringing but it's a freephone number and i STILL don't have the confidence to speak on the phone auf Deutsch, my final hurdle. I'll be working on it, someday.

Argh! Life has done its perpetual life-type thing and taken me away with it for two and a half whole weeks... the family have gone away on Urlaub and taken the computer away with them so, although much has happened in this fairly small period its been reduced to bullet points that have sat not so neatly in the back of my travel journal... until such time as I lay my grubby fingers upon my rather fancy new baby pink netbook, ie now, its sweeeeeeeeeeet :) and so are you for bearing with me until rightaboutnow :)

Firstly, today finds me rather confused due to overtiredness. After going to watch a play in some outdoor theatre (where? now that's what they call undiscloseable information until...about 5 days time as it happens) i ended up out till about 2, rising at 8. I then went out and about, again at an undisclosed location, with some of the very best, getting home about 3 this morning. Therefore things like ordering the day and generally walking/breathing/being are proving rather hard, I'm desperate for a nap, and the fact some crappy little critter has decided to bite chunks out of my poor torso just makes the whole affair rather too upsetting for my taste. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Therefore, to minimise the distress to my poor nonfunctioning brain, I'm not even going to bother joining up the points I wanted to make into any sort of sequential sense, and instead am going to just copy the points I hurriedly scribbled down in pencil. You call this lazy, I call it an economical timesaving idea of maximus genoisity. Heh

First up,

FASANERIE
I went to a lake and swam in the proper outdoors, just like Ray Mears. It was most fantabulous and just the right temperature. Lots of sunbathing Germans were there (not naked, more about this later though. blegh) as they don't live nowhere near no beach dahn sarf innit, but the beach atmosphere was certainly recreated, acceeee. Me and my companions swam from one side of the lake, to the other and back, and debated comandeering a German lady's water raft. Then realised we were outnumbered 3 to about 384...so changed our minds. Note to self = next time bring raft or other such lilo object.

NIGHT OUT
A few beers in the lake later (yuhuh classy), we were heading for mine and then the nightlife of Muenchentown. There's this club called Cord which is better on a Friday than a Saturday, but still indeed passable on a Saturday. A kind of electro indie mashup thing, and yes I felt like a twat writing that sentence. A friend even bought some Proper Germans from her office, and I spoke to them a lot and although feedback was that it was a bit strange I was still understood, KAPOW life points time... I award myself 50 :)) Not much else to say about this night apart from I danced, had a few beers and generally a merry old time. Ja

TOLLWOOD
Amazing! A little fairylighted festival in the Olympiapark which is on twice a year at Christmas and in summer, and free for anyone to have a wanderaround in the day or evening (until about 1am when it closes for the night). There's pretty much anything that you can think of, loads of different types of music and a recreation of a moroccan street inside a tent, complete with cushiony bar and shisha pipes. So atmospheric, and indeed the best place to take photos, if either time I went I had remembered to bring my camera. Loser

SCREWY U BAHNS
Imagine getting on the last train home and going one stop, then being told by transport police to get off, therefore being stuck in the city. Imagine then calling a friend and going to a bar instead. Yeah...imagine that. Fun night though, even despite my complete faildom with the public transport around here. All trains and trams should know that I'm a not-very-secret transport geek, why don't they return the love :(((

All the dogs in the neighbourhood keep barking in unison. I can only assume this is due to some two-colour-haired old crone stealing a bunch of dalmatian puppies somewhere over the hill? Perhaps she's hiding them in a nearby barn. I should get on to solving the crime, the first time it happened was about 2 weeks ago, they're probably nearly a coat by now...maybe they'll make a film of it :p a curious phenomenon indeed....

In other news, there is a house on my street I have fallen in love with. His name is Rufus Foxworthy and we are to be married. He is like something out of the pages of the most charming of storybooks, however actually exists on the corner of my street and a street I can't spell. He has windows everywhere and I can never quite figure out how many floors; a constant mindteaser at the very least. Once I've married a rich man or won the lottery I will acquire said house, life plan therefore sorted. I'm awarding myself 350 life points for that, this takes me to a total of 356, schwing!

Sunday was Won-day. After a rather late start I went for an epic cycle in the forest, popping down to Diesenhofen, back up through Furth and through some oddment little suburbs (all of which were closed = a little less win)...I chased the sun and managed to keep capturing it. Excellent :) I then popped home, got showered and met with a friend for chats and a general wanderabout. It was awesome, we went down to the park near Odeonsplatz and there were loads of couples dancing 50s-style in a bandstand-style building with marble floors. Their feet were all tapping in unison and they had their own vintage music creaking from a little rickety stereo. A fair few of them wouldn't have looked like they were able to dance if they weren't doing so, which was my favourite part of the whole affair :) as they all really could liek woah! We then decamped to a nearby bench, whereby I was told about people I'm glad not to have met. This was followed by meeting another (severely hungover) friend and a 9pm excursion to the Frauhoferstraße area which is by far my favourite place to be. Lots of little cafes and bars and benches full of people talking the night away, I love the european ability to just pop out for a late-night coffee, and will be indulging any visitors that might pop up from time to time in said priviledge. The nights just go on for so long, there's no rush for them to end and for a nightowl such as myself it's perfection +1. We (said friends and I) also discussed the possibility of making some kind of night-picnic for consumption in the middle of a roundabout sometime....which would be awesome :))))

As for now, I am currently just over halfway through my first lone seminar, whereby I'm the sole and only carer of the girls. It's....interesting, and hard work, and really fun, at times trying plus completely worthwhile but more than anything has shown me just how far away having children is for me. In fact, I will do everything I want to do until that gets boring, then...well, who knows? I never planned on being here in the first place, so...

Right now marks the end of a really nice afternoon, in which me and the smallest Kind went for a picnic in the forest. The other two are staying over with a friend, as I have German school tomorrow so getting them all to school, and myself would be practically impossible. Anyway, we packed all our picnic stuff up, she sat in the little bike trolley (a little like this, I want one :p) and we saw all the tall trees and sat under the shadows of a really old one (tree, not man) and ate our jam sandwiches and bananas and muesli bars. :) We then bought a little ice cream and came home just in time for bed. Awesome :)

Theme of the week, a rediscvoverance of the Zane Lowe show as a way of piecing a little bit of Britain back into my day...christ I love this man. He plays so many different types of music I always find myself pondering how he got it all authourised for Radio 1 who are usually all about the same-old playlist. His little set-up there is possibly my ideal life situation in theory, I'm aware the grass is always greener but as far as I can see, his field is flourescent. I want his goddamn job! plzzzzz

Right, moving rightaboutnow from here to a position rather more horizontal and snore-y. I'm bushed, haha leaving that in as it made me laugh, i-to the-mmature. This weekend, after many-a demand on my eveningtime, sees some freeness of the night variety and therefore hopefully an excursion or two to some new bars, as the ones I've been going to up until now are a massive laugh but a little repetitive. I also feel I should write more about the nightlife as I've neglected this a little! I guess I'm all about the silly small things right now like strange-looking fifties-dancing couples and their tapping feet or the way the light falls on a nighttime road-side cafe table. I'll try my hardest to snap out of it... (I won't)

As a closing thought, I am completely and utterly obsessed with Caribou. Check him out, if you perhaps happen to like music that sounds like it should be played in some deserted Eastern Bloc 80s-throwback disco, whilst simultaenously being really sweet...and I've sat for about ten minutes now trying to edit that sentence but I've come to the conclusion I really can't define it any better. Listen and seeeeeeeeee....that is all. x

I begin with the news(!) that I lost the current scrap of paper that I used to write everything down on, that I wanted to write down. Great...but there you go, gives me the chance to do a little Freistyle...mayte. The last few days have been uber nice, so I think I'll start somewhere around Wednesday.

I've already spoken about the Chinesischer Turm somewhere back along the line, and yes I am too lazy to link myself so you'll have to read back if you want to see what I said. I can probably save you the effort though by re-telling you now that its bloody great, it was bloody great when I went before and as far as I'm aware (natural disasters pending) it continues to be bloody great. HOWEVER! This time I went at night...(cue that stupid ooo noise what people make when fireworks are on) and it was greater, if this is indeed possible. By the time I had got myself ready, it was getting to be twilight, which is hands down my favourite time of day...the actual time not the shitty vampire thing, obv. So i got the tram across town, and sat right at the back watching the streets move away from me and the light dim bit by bit. People were entertaining themselves and each other with late-night meetings at streetside cafes, couples were walking along, fountains were doing their fountainy thing and it was such a nice journey. I arrived at Tivolistraße just as it was getting dark, and by this time the tower was completely lit up and everyone was engaging in international beer-fuelled chatter, it was loud and illuminated and simply magical. This was then topped off by the fact I not only managed to steal a genuine German beer mug, but then won a €15 bar tab somewhere else, which of course I shared with the people I was with. I've never won anything before! I think this takes me to a total of about 5 life points. Acccee

In fact, the only downside is the bank situazion, which is becoming more of a saga than I've got the patience for. All i want is a debit card, the orange one that arrived is the kind of crappy cash card they give 11 year olds and the financially inept - ergo me = not happy. I was 11 far too many years ago for my liking, and make more of an effort than is possibly healthy to be anything other than financially inept, THX. Therefore, I want a goddamn German debit card, and am prepared to do something emotionally low such as cry on the bank lady or some such. I will get one, or I will close my account. The end.

Today saw me attending the Flohmarkt, oder auf Englisch Flea Market. In the excellently chosen words of my Flohmarkt companion "It's full of stuff you never knew existed, that you definitely want." And I mean everything! Clothes, vintage stuff, strange patches, old cameras, little oddments, electronic stuff, toys....etc....I almost bought a bright yellow typewriter for €5 but then realised it would be entirely frivolous and pointless, not to mention how would I get it home etc etc...boring boring. I still covet it. But plumped for an ice cream instead. The only downside that I could see to the whole affair was that one has to get up ridiculously early to get the good stuff, but then this turned into an upside in that by the time I thought it was 6pm it was actually only 2. Nice for a change, but saying that I do still, and will always, prefer a lie-in to pretty much anything. At the 2/6pm mark I raided the sales for some cheap jeans as YET again mine have massive holes in the crotch. (Note to self; stop buying new jeans and look into getting new crotch?) And then I came home, changed and went for a cycle, stopping only to plumb new depths of pretentiousness by sitting and reading Dorian Gray in a meadow.

Well I think that about covers it...apart from let's just say my sleeves are jam packed with tricks, and I am currently babysitting for the parents who are off at some techno rave...? Yes, really. Rather them than me :p

Bye, then...x

HELLO THERE,

and let me welcome you to another installment of...whatever this is. This one's inspired by chocolate milk (the making, not consuming of) and the new Foals album, which by the way is in-credible. The weather has been as hot as hot can be, I've been getting to German school on time(!), I'm working on getting a p/t job for when the course is done, and I'm noticing that my brownness is not just grub (yay!). After two full days of kids' parties the weekend just gone, I am all caked and pretezlled out...in a good way :) in fact whist I'm there this nation does baked goods like NOWHERE ELSE, something I've been meaning to talk about for a while now, and beer too as it happens...in fact I'm beginning to forget what life is like at home? And am consequently starting to think about my next move at the beginning of next year, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.........

Yeah, so I started this all fired up and lost steam somewhere between 23.17 and 23.43...how are you? If you care enough to be reading these little letter arrangments, then surely you are lovely and I miss you the very mostest. I ordered a new pair of trainers, I guess that's news. Mine were killing my feet, and the replacements are FIT. I forgot how fun buying shoes was, good job most of the shoes here are a tad shite or I might have found myself going on a binge...

Other things, the German bank account card I coveted for so long (due to its' non-arrival) actually got here, it's orange and says "bequem" on it. I have yet to research what that means. I'll do it later. Elsewhere, I've been searching the SONOS for things to listen to - another thing that I keep forgetting to talk about, HOWW I ask myself, as it's possibly the best idea in the WORLD... kind of like an in-house mp3 player that's connected to Napster and means you can play all the music that ever existed in the world...ever...whenever you like. It even suggests new things every week, and some of them are nothing short of fantastisch, although some aren't. That's life I guess. I will surely miss it almost as much as the family when I finally move on...almost.

Talking of which, I have agreed to stay until the end of this year, when I have no idea what I'm going to do. At this moment in time I keep telling myself that it depends solely on the state of my German (which is coming along rather nicely, if i do say so myself) but in reality, who knows? I kinda like the idea that there are no exact plans in motion...until I realise that I'm 25 next birthday and therefore a lot older than I expected to be at this point. If I could have some decision or other in place by the end of the summer, I'd be happy. Happier, anyway, as these days I actually already am happy :) scorrrreee

Anyway, I digress. The part I was meant to mention was that, if any kind (nice only plzz :p) souls would like to show their faces around these parts, August will probably be best and if I like you enough, you can probably stay with me. If not, or if you want to be closer to the city or meet more travellers or whatever, I can also give you some hostel names so you could have a bit more independence, do the whole sightseeing part...

Right, tired now, speak tomorrow. Or the day after. Or another day. Remind me to talk about the German-only football barbeque which means I will never forget where I was throughout the Germany-England game of 2010. Ha.

I love each and every one of you, except............you. Yeah, you! You smell :p

x

ps, bequem means "easily"????? not sure why this appears on a bank card...spend money easily, perhaps...but srsly, there's not even a context. How annoying...

A few more days have ticked past, and once again I'm not updating half as much as I promised myself I would. Then again these lips always shun any form of obligation, so I guess I should shut up and carry on as normal ;)

In short, another rather quiet one, peppered with little moments worth mentioning...but going back to the quiet it's actually rather nice, there's no outward signs apart from the bagginess of my trousers and something of a spring in my step, but I can tell I will look back on this period of my life as a time of healing, from situations that were driving me mad and a life in the midlands which took its toll upon the saner parts of my brain.

The weather is still on a downward spiral, but I've been told that this will change by the end of this week - i hope so, as I'd love to get back on the Fahrrad once more. Other than that it's been surely about the simple things - avoiding the 24 hour clock as I actually have an irrational hatred for it, changing passwords so that they all have swear words in and make me smile each time I log in, rediscoverances of albums I loved once (specifically : Riot On An Empty Street) as well as some very welcomed suggestions from the Sonos (specifically, mark 2 : the namesake of this post by the rather lovely Sia, she's great). I've also been planning a few tricks to whip out of this dusty old sleeve; so watch this space, or don't, I guess it's up to you... :p

Theme of the week : train missing. This keeps happening to me through a complete and utter fault of my own. This entails me either having to walk home for an hour and a half, or as happened yesterday getting home at 6am after taking refuge at the local neighbourhood hostel bar. This also entailed me falling asleep on a tram and missing my stop. Fail x 38265455. And Missing German school. Fail x 38265456. Life goes on, and in the meantime I make a new week's resolution to write down train times...

OK so I have pizza a-waiting to be eaten and dvd's a-sitting, wanting to be watched. For the shoe lovers of you out there, check out these rather beautiful creations, and all completely unique too, if only I had a little more doshington...

Hearts and kisses, and this entire post is dedicated to the Most Outstanding Official Miss Parker, who I can't keep beaming about as she's off into the sunset to be the teacher that every kid remembers forever. :) I'm so proud of you dude!

x

A fail/unfail situation...x

So, its 00.08....09 and i really shouldnt be starting this, i had not a whole lot of sleeps last night and today has been pack-ed. Early tomorrow i am going to attempt not to oversleep for Deutschkurs. Again. However, i just read a catch up blog of a very dear friend of mine (you know who you are...) and it made me feel all kinds of happy, I feel really energised and like I should really try and transfer that happy feeling to anyone else who fancies catching up on the German Saga of Me. If there are any of you about, that is.. :p

Once again here we go...

The last week or so has been fantastically heiss. The weather simply beat beat beat down from the cloudless sky for well over a week, and whenever I logged into Facebook to see a complaint about the British rain the meaner part of myself did a little "ha!". Just like that. This does mean, of course, that I spent a lot of time away from the computer as sitting at it felt like a complete waste. Plus, it was simply too hot to do anything apart from sit, and even that made one perspire (in an attractive feminine way obviously), so I thought I might as well take advantage and get a little brown. And the result, scatman achieved - via slightly pink and some rather obvious white patches. I'm not at the place of popping down the nude bit of the English Garden quite yet!

Evenings generally saw things cooling down and me getting out and about in the forest, I went cycling every single day last week and am starting to remember the gym-bunny tendencies I had at one time in my life. (I was so tempted to write "backalong" then...then realised i would actually sound like Farmer Giles). One Sunday, a group of us decamped to the English Garden (non nude bit) to sit, listen to the drummers that seem to be there ALL THE TIME (seriously...it must be their job) and complete verious German homeworks. I'm finding myself in these last two weeks or so a lot more happy to converse with people in German - today I was admiring the umbrella of the eldest girl's piano teacher (which is AMAZING! all musical notes and scales incidentally) and found out she's Russian...I also chat with the cleaner and like it when Gemma's boyfriend (or anyone as a matter of fact) corrects my German. I'm learning things every day :)

With regards to this week, the weather has colded down rather too much, so i've hermited somewhat more than I'd like. Apart, of course, for a trip to Zorneding where one of the girls I've met lives - this is kind of the reason for me sleeping rather too little last night as I only just caught the last u-bahn home after realising its BLOODY AGES AWAY...however, it was uber nice to have girly chats and a change of scenery, watch Amelie for the first time in an age, and try to remember the theme to Ground Force (unsuccessfully) - so definitely worth the effort!

Harry-Potter wise, I finished the last book on the train back from "the Ding" yesterday, after four weeks solid reading. I am now distraught with what to do with my life, and am looking for other children's fads to go through. My money's on Twilight haha, though other contenders are...who am I kidding I actually have no idea about what's cool with kids these days?! Over here they like Pippi Longstocking, who is rather too goofy and ginger to be at all popular in the UK. Going back to the HP thing though, I am completely in agreement with those who say it gets better as it goes on, I actually found myself caring about the characters and what happened to them, when to start with I kinda disliked them all. Quite a feat...this means I am now on a mission to see all the films, and in the meantime I will fill my time completing my collection of pictures of immature German street names...coming to a Facebook near you soon...

Right, this is the point where I'm off as I've realised I've done two things, twice, that I hate more than life itself...a) mention/talk about the weather and b) discuss Facebook in real life. NOT COOL :/ in fact, in addition to that and while we're on the subject...current hatred : people who go for nights out and feel the need to drunkenly update their status every 3.762 minutes...srsly, have a pint and actually speak to your friends, mmkay!

Off to buy the first Twilight book rightabout.....now. x

kapow, well there you go a sound effect beginning, trying to make up for a rather standard time of late by using sound words, does it work? SMACK...CRASH...OOF...ok this is sounding rather a little too much like batman?

anyway! some stuff has happened, alongside a whole lot of other stuff that all wasn't soundtracked in my poor deprived ears due to lack of ipod charger, which i left on english soil...not cool. there was some sun, and i went to a closed off street fete type thing, but then there was loads of rain but it stayed really hot, and every time it rained it was like there was some pressure being let off, but even when i kept my window open to the maximum i couldn't sleep for the heat haze, and i would wake up with all the clothes i went to bed in thrown about my room, and this was the point i started missing home a lot...but then it got sunnier again and i spoke to important people - not all of them, mind, but some - and I braved some activities outside the duvet cocoon i had going on (today will mark me finshing the fifth harry potter book in exactly three weeks so it had all got rather too comfortable) so i went to this amazing 50s/miami vice combo bowling centre after walking aimlessly in the rain, and i sat on a bar stool in good company and tried not to fall off cause i kept losing concentration, which led to me missing my last train home by about 7 minutes (gah), which lead to me having THE best mindclearing walk home ever, even though it took me about an hour at the dead of night, but i wasn't scared once but just followed the tramlines whilst ignoring passing taxis, and i thought i might write a series of stories about a grumpy mermaid, but then realised i can't draw...

And now, it's far too lovely to be wasting time on the internet...i'm off to the forest.x

I have laid under a duvet and read nearly all of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, pausing only to a) listen to Ed Harcourt b) eat pizza c) drink diet coke and d) put some long-overdue photos on Facebook. Most excellent times.x

A little update before I forget any of the details, the last few days have been all different kinds of fun :) I am currently sat in the living room of the house I stay in, watching the DVD extras for the (quite frankly terrible) film 27 Dresses. I already fell asleep wathing it earlier in the week and so, consumed by the thought that I should really see it through, I popped it on whilst eating dinner tonight. I really shouldn't have bothered...

Anyhow, this week has seen the family go away for a while (as I think I mentioned but can't be bothered to check...) and so, initially pegged by me as a time to explore further afield, I actually still felt that I hadnt seen enough of the main city, plus found myself a little thin on the ground with cash whilst refusing to go into the little amount I have saved. Also, the sun has been shining x loads and I really want to know where things actually are, instead of just the Tram/UBahn stop. This means I've been donning my most comfortable of footwear and exploring zu füß, piecing together all the parts of the city into a mental map-type thing. I've also sort-of accidentally started this new project whereby I go the end of each UBahn line, just to see what it's like there...so far, Ive found a place that is pretty much exactly like the street my own UBahn stop is on (time-warpXcore) and visited the Munich version of some blocky soviet-y creepy-man-infested hole. It takes all sorts, after all...

Saturday saw an impromptu night out that involved (in no particular order) donations from a house clearance sale (including lovely hats), drunk americans x 4, shoulder-beards, horrendously rude german rap songs and people who knew all the words, as well as heads in recycling bins from certain members of the team :p - all in all a bunch of fun, and once again I found myself letting myself into the house as it was getting light. Woops :p

By the time Sunday arrived in my world, it was somewhere near 2 o'clock, and even though I was tired I felt pretty ok - nothing a couple shots of espresso couldn't fix. Although this was later than I wanted to be up, I knew that I still had plenty of time to have a wander, and was in no rush anyway due to it being Sunday and everything being closed. I decided to continue on my mission to see the end of each UBahn and ended up on a bench in Arabellapark, writing reply letters to those I'd received. The sun was shining still, and even though the area was somewhat grey and tower-blockish there was something really nicely done about it, there were plenty of people milling about and chatting, as well as a nice leisurely flowing fountain, so all was well at that moment... :) I had a write in my travel journal, caught the UBahn back to Isartor, and this is where my favouite part of the day happened in that I took a leisurely walk by the River Isar and just drank in the atmosphere. There were people everywhere, just sitting in groups and having picnics, students studying, old men in deck chairs, grebs sharing a spliff, dog walkers, people cycling and jogging and talking excitedly...it was just great, and my favourite bit by far was that it was a little bit run-down, so felt more like a meadow that everyone had just accidentally flopped down in together - rather than a government-owned public space. The sun was just about to go down, which is hands down my favourite part of the day anyway, and I was just...well.... happy being there :)

Monday I didnt't realise was a public holday yet again, they sure do love an excuse to close stuff here! This means I spent pretty much all day trying to find an open post office so I could send my written post and packaged packages. After a bit (possibly longer than it should have taken to realise) I gave up, catching the tram to the English Garden (in fact just by this monument) to sit about chatting with various people. I had a little sit, had a little lie down and some beer and was re-reminded of how crap I am at frisbee and why I never play it. Henceforth said afternoon evolved into yet another impromptu night out which started with an AMAZING (if a little spicy) burrito, went via a shared 5 litre bucket of rum, and ended in a coaster war which I'm ashamed to say was entirely my fault. Eh, whatev Trev, in the moment I was totally Gambit in my own X-Men fantasy. Put it this way though, I felt the same the next morning as that time I got everyone to write on Hanny at one of the West Avenue parties. Good Clean Fun, but just a little mean to the poor person being written on/sleeping people/bar-cleaners...woops :/ and as I once again found myself cycling home at stupid o'clock I decided to have a little listen to my iPod to break up the journey. Horror! It had run out of battery...this therefore resulted in me having a nice little (ie. quite loud) sing song to myself as nobody was around...think I might have disturbed/worried/scared a few 5am drunks however. Never mind, it made me happy!

Tuesday I had a few people round to the house in the evening and we had a rather scrummy barbeque, not much else to tell apart from I had a lovely time. I pretty much spent the rest of the day in the forest, flopped down on a piece of grass and continuing to read Harry Potter which is morphing from something I looked upon with complete disdain to something of a page-turner...

Which brings me to today, in that I really wanted to get out of the city for a bit so headed right to the end of the S6 to Tutzing (hard to find the beachy bit but worth it when I did, otherwise a little dull) and Starnberg (lovely and lots to do but by the time I got there everything was closed...I see a recurring theme here not sure about you :p). Both of these were on the coast of the Starnberger See and it was just so nice to be near the coast again, even if it was the coast to an inland and not actual sea. There were all these little huts on the boardwalk that reminded me of the ones at Dunster Beach, some of them were just covered boat moorings but some had been converted into shops and/or restaurants, and I suspected holiday homes for posh people for the summer. Pretty but I bet they cost a bomb... :(

Anyway, christ it's 2am and due to the fact I can't seem to turn the heating off bloody boiling. I am to retire to my quarters in the basement where it will hopefully be cooler...but before I do I urge you all to read some of these as they really are fascinating.

Ciao....x