Deutsche Märchen ♥

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

So a whole week without updating, which is possibly a little telling of said week's nondescript-ness. However, I have also been ridiculously busy and being the faithful little blog beast I have foraged around for interesting things to write... it's interesting that as soon as you have a portal to write in things just jump out to be written about. I've started making a list so as not to forget things to mention, we all know how terrible my memory is...

Talking of which I completely forgot to mention the Swiss travellers who were rather too interested in the fact that I lived fairly near Stonehenge. I don't really know where this came from, I told them it was at least two hours drive but apparently this denotes being up the road from something in Switzerland. Eh well, one of them was on drugs and had a terrible tattoo, the other was really not taking the hint that one of my friends didn't want him coming on to her as she was a) ten years older than him and b) had a boyfriend...so we quickly scarpered. Moral of the story: I don't think I've ever spoken so much about Stonehenge in my life as when I did for those few minutes. Weirddd

Onto important things (or not :p) the Harry Potter series is certainly getting better. The first book is by far the worst and, three books down in a little under two weeks I am starting to see the appeal although it actually galls me to say that..ouch. Unfortunately, subsequent installments are about the volume of my head and so I can't see myself finising it quite as quickly as I started. For now, I'll just keep plodding...

Work-wise, the beginning of this week marked the first seminar whereby the mother went away for work purposes, and I had to look after the girls single-handedly for three days. However, this was made a whole lot easier by the fact that Gemma (previous au pair\all round nice lady) agreed to come and help me, mainly to do the driving part which I'm still not so hot at. Everything went smoothly, only one little grump from the youngest and it was interesting not having the mother around to see how the dynamic changed. I even drove the car home by myself, and it went rather well if i do say so myself - I got a little lost but it actually enabled me to get in some more practice including all the crappy manoevres which actually came in useful...

Other than that, all my shopping woes have been fixed with the discovery of two little shopping centres...well, one small, one absolutely bloody massive - i have discvovered New Yorker which is amazing! Think Miss Selfridge on a H&M budget - although as with most great stuff you have to be prepared to sort through the rhinestone encrusted items, which seems to be a trend here at the moment, not cool! And amongst the tat I even managed to find a cropped grandad tweed jacket for 5 euros from Tally Weijl and a polka dot boob tube for €3.50 from C&A - remember them (!)- a blast from the past indeed. Let the bargain hunting continue...

I have been continuing the exercise effort, as circumstances dictate that I might be paying a visit to some Spanish girl's house sometime in September with some of the girls from Derby. I know, right! Not only are we making plans but it all looks (so far) like we might be able to stick to them, fancy that. But anyway, if there is any chance this bum is being got out on a beach, it sure as hell is not going to look like it does right now. Therefore this woman is the current bane of my life, and she actually looks hideous on the website, I apologise. In the DVDs she looks a lot less orange, even if she does keep looking herself up and down whilst pouting...unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, it really works so for the moment I am having daily meetings with Miss Anderson. I'm thinking of muting her and following the moves with my iPod on...

I have been meeting up with my non English speaking friend from Georgia, therefore practicing more German and learning all about Georgia. I am so fascinated by countries I know nothing about. Incidentally, here...



...is the Georgian traditional dress - I love it and think it looks like something out of Star Wars. What do we have in the UK....oh yeah that's right, Morris Dancing.


-1 for UK -kind...and if anyone from MMS is reading this I have now begun laughing about Mrs Binding and her ridiculous upside-down glasses\West Somerset Morris Men attire. They were the best of times, they were the worst of times...

Moving schwiftly on, I finished Deutsch class one day and the family went away - therefore I had a whole afternoons worth of exploring to do :) and ended up at the Sea Life CentreI'd already spied at Olympiapark. Although it was €15 to get in (!) I have to say it was just what I was after, the water and all the wee fishies\scary fucking massive lobsters had a really calming effect and I left feeling as if I was floating an inch off the ground.

I also received a masking-tape clad package from someone good, enclosed therein some veggie treats and a picture of a man I've never met...amongst other things. I am working on a reply, and love love love getting stuff in the mail...hint! :p

Anyway, it's approaching 3 now and I really want to do some more exploring - the family continue to be away for this whole week so there's no urgency, but that doesn't mean I want to waste time t'internetting. I will write next time about the other things I meant to mention - namely my hatred of the tram mapping here (I actually hate a tram system...shocker) and not forgetting the atmosphere in the city yesterday (I actually liked having football fans around...shocker x2) and of course the SONOS, which I am completely bumming and will totally have installed when I have my very own home. I'll leave you with this, as someone asked me it last night...if you had a slogan for your life, what would it be? I still haven't figured mine out.

Laters...x

PS. Ask me a question, if you like.

Oooooooooooooooooooook, last night absolutely marked the high point of my time here thus far, but not to get ahead of myself I should backtrack a little as the days beforehand housed a few nice (and not so nice) little details that are probably worth mentioning... :)

Getting the crap stuff out of the way I got grabbed by the arm one afternoon by some weirdo on the ubahn! YAY, or not - I swiftly\obviously pushed him off and kindly\loudly told him not to touch\talk to\be near me. Did the trick and he went away...score 1 team Q. Moving on.....

I have started German Sprachschule (language school) and the best thing about this is I have made my very first non-english speaking friend :) This means maximus practice of die Deutsch which is obviously no bad thing. It's actually not that hard either, what it's made me realise more than anything is that communication goes so much further than just the words we choose, and as a result i rarely find that i don't understand the gist of what she's saying. Awesomesauce...

This week I found myself at a loose end one evening and so found myself at Gemma's flat with a bottle of red wine and some Ritter Sport. We sat for ages and chatted about general life stuff, it was dead nice to get to know more people and generally feel like a social panda as opposed to a filmwatching quiet pyjama-clad panda. It was just as nice when Katherine came over too, weird fact of the day - she was in the video for Freddy Kreuger so is pretty much my new hero. Long story short (HA, as if I can atually do that but I'll try...) I happened to mention that Saturday was the last date of this Corsetry exhibition I wanted to go to at the Münchner Stadtmuseum - turns out she had also wanted to go so we went together. It was really interesting (even if there was no option of reading the info in English) and simply about the history of women's underwear and how the female silhouette has changed since the 1800s. Loads of really amazing clothes from various periodic times, we wandered around and cooed and imagined ourselves in Pride and Prejudice and generally had a lovely time. She also happened to mention that she was heading out again that night with Gemma and that I should go along...I was babysitting til late but said i might think about it, depending when the parents got home. Which brings me to...........

A completely unexpected reincarnation of the wonderment of Beard Night :) A little history on this, I lived with some people after I finished university in 2008, one Sunday we happened to go swimming till about 10pm, after which we all had the next day off and really felt like doing something. Not really sure how this evolved into us drawing beards on our faces and going to Scream but sometimes these things just happen... :p Anyway, I'd mentioned it to the girls in passing conversation on wine night and they'd been rather enthusiastic, but to be honest I didn't think too much of it. That was until the parents came home early, I decided to pop out for a bit afterall, and arrived to meet two girls with beards. I was swiftly given a Craig David, joining Poirot and Guy Fawkes and we were then joined by the dad from Matilda, an old wise Chinese man, a Grandad, and a Mexican Bandito amongst others... One thing I've learnt from going out in Hostel bars is that travelling folk are pretty much up for any kinda stupid idea, the beard thing really caught on until we were drawing on complete strangers...even people who already had actual beards wanted us to draw an eyeliner one on them, it was actually ridiculous but simply the most fun I've had in ages. I've decided that each time I live in a different city, I'm gonna try to resurrect the beard thing and spread the beardy word...and if only my original bearded amigos had been there to see it all they would have appreciated it so much!

So, I've been writing now for ages and must get up early...here endeth the chapter of pants and facial hair. Tomorrow marks the first three-day seminar (whereby it's just me and the kids and a schedule to keep to....) so wish me luck :)

...........Gerard Depardieu...........x

ps, something which makes me happy :)

Some more wee tales to tell...not too much mind as firstly, I really can't get away from the feeling that all this is incredibly self-indulgent...and secondly, not a whole lot has happened but i don't want to be in the place whereby I have a billion things to remember. My memory is bad enough at the best of times, let alone when i have to remember stuff :(

This morning the family went away for a couple of days, their grandma has just got good news re: some tests and its Feiertag (general bank-holiday esque thing) which means no German school for me! ...Until tomorrow ha. This means I am for the first time in the house by myself. This presents an oppurtunity to play music loudly (done) have a bath (not done...yet) dye my hair (about to do) and work out to my little heart's content (whilst dye develops). Reading-wise, old Holmes has really got me back into being the bookworm I naturally am, therefore I have finally bitten the bullet and started the Harry Potter series. A book and a half down, I have to say they're alright, but i honestly can't see what that amount of fuss was about. Ho hum. Something to pass the time...

Today I decided to go out to the Olympiapark, which was as grand as all the pictures make out...also there's apolcalypse type music on the site I've just realised! Unfortunately this wasn't playing, though I really wish it was... The atmosphere here was really nice though, what with it being a public holiday, lots of families milling about, and after wandering around for a while talking panoramic photos I decided to go up the massive tower thing (the name of which escapes me)... possibly a great idea for a day when it was clear and sunny...however it was foggy and so all i could see was cloud. Woop! Still, only a small entrance fee so nothing to stop me going back :) also I found a Sea-Life Centre and BMW World - but what with the date there were huge queues for both! So I decided to make a mental note of those too, and go back some other time.

It was at this point that I noticed a rather large concentration of Boy-Scouts...well, Person-Scouts really as there were girls, old men, little kids, everyone, all with these checkered neck ties on...maybe it was a cult, i don't know...but anyway, I walked a little further and found this little festival going on, the band who were playing were great! So I stayed and watched for a while, took some more panoramics and then had a browse around the stalls - nice but not so fun when it started to drizzle. It was then made again a little less nice by the large amounts of religious leaflets being thrust in my face - not really sure how the Scout thing is run here but perhaps it's slightly more Christian than at home. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with religion (or cults), believe what you like...but what I completely do have a problem with is people not just enjoying their beliefs (religious\otherwise) without trying to preach it to others. Seriously, I absolutely can't stand it! Just piss off and let everyone be what they want to be, thx...

At this point I decided to get out of there before I got mad, and happily\accidentally managed to solve the great Superdrug problem by discovering Müller, this sort-of Superdrug-come-Wilkinsons with Health Food section. My heart leapt when I saw it! And I stocked up on miscellaneous things such as contact lens solution, concealer, rice cakes coated in yoghurt...yawn...

The most entertaining part of the day, however, came with the arrival of hobo-saga part three, in which a middle-aged woman (stinking of beer) sat down and started rabbiting on to me about...well i'm not entirely sure. What is it about my face that says "Hi!!! Tramps Welcome. Please bore me with all your stories"...? But by the by, I told her that I was English and didn't really understand. She looked at me disgustedly, said "Don't you even understand German?", to which I replied "I understand a bit, but not too much..." - at which point she pointedly picked up her four pack and moved elsewhere, as if the thought of sitting with me any longer filled her with disgust. Nice!

With that little oddity I'm out, hair to dye and thighs to shrink with that pouty blonde cow Tracy Anderson (I'd totally sack her off if her exercise programme didn't work :p)

Yup x

ps. anyone who wants to buy me this is quite welcome... ;)

a busy few days that i will endeavour to put into words...

first things first, sunday! completely perfect. i can't put it another way...i was just in one of my own-company moods (which people who i've lived with surely know about :p) and this just suited a day exploring by myself, foot to street, on and on until i got to wherever i fancied being. i went here there and everywhere, accompanied by the very best sounds, and after having become used to all the things that i see on an everyday basis my eyes were opened once more to all the strange little charming things that are around...if you have the botheredness to seek them out. the sun was even shining, i've realised this effects my mood quite a lot more than i originally thought but in short, i love being here right now. even the rain and subsequent storm which soaked me on the way home didn't phase...so now for some details, :)

i started off by going out to the nymphemburg palace which was just so much better than any of the pictures make it out...a bit like a german national trust property. pretty easy to find despite the appaling mapping of the tram system here (more on that another day) and when i got there, the gardens were free so i had a wander around, had a sit down and caught up on my postcard writing. there were all these cherry blossoms everywhere and they kept landing in my hair, there was this completely filmic feeling about the whole place which was only ruined by a russian couple sitting on my bench and looking over my shoulder at what i was writing. erm, rude! at this point i thought it wise to move on, people looking at my words unnanounced really gets to me so i saved the inside of the castle for another day (when people come to visit perhaps.. hint ;) ) and made my way back to the tram stop. it then came to my attention that the nympemburg\gern neighbourhoods nearby were really quite swish (and mentioned in my guidebook as worth seeing) so i took a slight detour and saw all the beautiful old houses and tree lined avenues, enjoying not really having to be anywhere.

as the book had been so helpful i decided to consult it again, and sat by the river looking at where to go next. as i'm on a major budget until i get work alongside the aupairing (i'm also trying to save) i wanted things that were free and so i looked at other areas to wander around. There were two areas that stood out from the book's description, Glockenbachviertel and Haidhausing, and luckily they were both on the journey back to my house so I stopped off at one and then the other. Glockenbackviertel was just amazing, all these tiny tree lined roads and streetside cafes (on-pavement seating is really a weakness of mine) alongside lots of interesting shops, boutiques and art galleries. pretty much like munich's northern quarter if you've ever been to manchester, but a lot more european than that. unfortunately, however, as it was sunday everything was closed. germany kinda shuts down on a sunday which is rather le gay, so all of this was more a mental note of where to return on real days. perhaps that made it all the more exciting, the thought that i can actually go back to these places... :)

anyway, then i moved on to Haidhausing (although on the net it says Haidhausen??) which initially i hadn't been so impressed with, perhaps as i'd liked the other place so much. But after a little while of nosing around i found this really pretty park, all these kids were playing football and there were some skating ramps and a basketball court...it was just such a nice atmosphere and there was this tiny outside cafe with red polka dot seats and recliners. i fell in love with it! even the rowdy german tramps seemed like a completely appropriate piece of the jigsaw. i then chanced upon a guitar shop, which was open...shock, and had a caravan shaped guitar which made me smile though i'm not entirely sure why. i am continually finding myself wanting one however. the more time i spent in this area the more i liked it, the book said it was munich's french quarter which i really started to see the longer i wandered around.

by this point it was about half 5 and, in my mind i had planned to head home about this time....the only problem with this was that i really didn't want to yet, and having bought a day ticket it was valid until 6 the next morning (a godsend if youre off on a long night out!). this took me to my favourite part of the day, taking a detour up to gieslastraße and having a wander around the english garden. words can not describe this place! it's simply magical. fair enough, i took the tourist route and ended up paying nearly 5 euros for a pint (!) but it was oh-so-completely worth it. the english garden, anyway, is pretty much like munich's central park and the place i ended up was just massive! it's the chinesischer turm and looks a little like this...

...ok this is it looking a little apocolyptic but on a sunny sunday it was still as striking. There was a german brass band on one of the floors and seats and seats and seats choc full of people, the advertisements for it say it's the largest beer garden here, but not having seen every beer garden i can't endorse that too much :p anyway, i sat here for about an hour, bought a pint and wrote yet more postcards, wrote again in the travel journal i carry about with me, and just existed. it was just the nicest atmosphere, everyone was smiling and laughing, the music was great and there were so many different languages floating about. it just felt really timeless i guess :)

which brings me to this week, again kinda quiet so far, but a lot nicer weather which has resulted in me getting out and exercising pretty much every day. sabine, the mother even said i look really healthy at the moment which is such an inspiration to get right back into the fitness lark. i forgot how much i missed it... :) other than that though, i've started german classes (easy so far but actually interesting to go over the basics...) and opened a bank account, which entailed me and the bank lady and a translator..(!) also, free bank accounts don't really exist over here so every 3 months they take 15 euros from me, for nothing!!! cheers germany...

ok, again i have written far much more than i intended, the rest of this week sees work as normal today but thurs\fri is a public holiday and the family will be going away for a couple days. this means i can explore a whole lot (more castles please) and have a massive house to myself...kinda good but kinda scary... maybe i'll finally pluck up the courage to have a go on their piano, who knows...

x

So, a somewhat quiet week peppered with little funny interestments...the most disturbing of which is that it seems the german word for thirst is Durst, there's this advert eeeeverywhere, "HAST DU DURST?" which eternally has me thinking, most unfortunately, about a short, gobby, beardy, sweaty american in a red backwards cap. Lecker! (that's delicious to the more english of you :p)

Other than this, the weather has turned from amazing to most terrible, which although means less red skin is not the best climate to go exploring in :( however the rest of my clothes (and SHOESargh!) have arrived, and as a result of forced insideness i've not only put those away where they're supposed to go (most unlike me) but i've been catching up with letter writing and getting through the stack of DVDs i poached from the living room on my first few days here. These include watchings of jackass the movie (awesome actually...was completely taken back c2002), the brothers grimm (hard to follow\boring) and my super ex girlfriend (predictable) as well as rewatchings of some favourites...butterfly effect, trainspotting...etc...

I've also been getting back into reading a little, with a foray into the adventures of Sherlock Holmes which has been AMAZING :) Some of the language used is a little outdated but when i thought about it in more detail, to not only write the narrative but to both create and solve a mystery in what is essentially a short story is really some feat. There are twelve, and i am sad to say that tonight will find me completing the last. Only just made the connection between reading this before bed and the maximus fucked up dreams i keep having however...mainly to do with lack of eyes and pregnancy. not together!

other than this i have been making a People I Love To Love wall, and by doing so i have realised that Facebook can actually be useful when you want pictures of people that mean the very most...not just for everyone knowing your shit! a small victory for social networking. and i have had such, such fun reliving various moments from my past, a nice creative little task that has reminded me that times were never actually that bad in the grand scheme...eye opening +1 :)


i have also visited what can only be described as the german Waitrose, which was a whole experience in itself in that i realised that (shock) they actually have fairly good vegetarian foods here, even if their soya mince is dried and you have to un-dry it yourself...a bit like pasta? :\ also, all the shelves were boob-height so it was really open and you could see everything, i know its just a stupid little thing but it was simply an overalledly nice shopping experience :p backed up by the fact that i thought a) all orange juice was crap here, but then found some amazing stuff...and b) that there were no pine nuts...turns out there are, my life is made... ;) after that we went across to german Homebase And Pets At Home Together, looked at the bunnies and snakes and geckos and parakeets...and bought some fish for the pond :)

in fact the only two downsides so far are that sticking up pictures of people great has made me miss certain things, not in the stomachhurty crippling way you understand, just in the whimsical loss-in-thought type thing that can happen when you're cranially reliving times past... the other thing though is the driving. terrifying! as i suspectied, it turns out the BMW is everyone's car, three points. 1 - i havent driven since i passed my test in january. 2 - i've never driven on the right hand side. 3 - it's an automatic and MASSIVE which again i have no experience of. car wise, don't be dirty! so as you can imagine i'm not the best. however that hasn't beaten me as the mother here has been a star and worked out how i can collect the girls v public transport when she's away so all is not lost, and in the meantime i'll carry on practicing every day i can, with a view to getting better...here's hoping, :\

Anyway, day off tomorrow which i am going to force myself to explore in! Then back to school on monday, well language school...which means i will be able to put the german i am somewhat understanding whilst listening, into speaking mode, can't wait :)

This post was brought to you by rediscovering how amazing Biffy Clyro used to be (past tense) at 2am, then not being able to sleep for ages for the fact of just thinking about their lovely lovely songs and words therein :p

Ciao x