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
Read More......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
happenstances dictated that i spent last night with a new zealander, a roman, a member of kiss, some israelis, d'artagnan, an angry canadian, zorro, a bulldog, a nun, jimmy saville, crazy frog and some guy in lederhosen. +3742872 for life weirdness...
also some of them went to derby uni. smallXworld..
tired, end.x
oh, i had the first vomit upon me today. a landmark indeed! and easily dealable with too. nothing to fear and nothing to doubt... :)
wah, so much to update! here's to keeping up to date (fail) but i guess i've just been busy living, one can get quite carried away with the days and the moments, you know how it is... :p
first things first, the perlacher forest! its the best thing in the entire world, i just love it and have been cycling there every morning and feeling very pleased with myself being part of the morning cycling crew. we smile at each other and everything! they all have better bikes and cycling gear than me though :p
but either way i can't get over the fact that this pure slice of countryside is on the edge of a massive city...it is exactly like two completely separate worlds side by side, there is just no traffic noise at all when youre there and its a massive escape from the busy-ness... :) i was cycling along the other day with my iPod on and We Can Be Strong by Willy Mason came on, i don't know if anyone even reads this and what their musical persuasions are but this guy is just something special, he's about the same age as me and just writes the most world-weary songs, his voice just knows about life, i love it. long story short, this song means a lot to me (lyricsgay) as i used to listen to it every day on my way to egg, and the words were just sorta appropriate for me at that time but this was the first time i'd heard it since that whole time...and it just hit me how much my life has changed, and in many ways derby knocked a lot of the life out of me, and especially towards the end i wasn't the me i actually am there, and to suddenly realise that i wasn't in that place anymore, and the sun was shining, and the scenery was so beautiful...i guess i just had a little moment. :) i also really have the urge to sleep in the forest one day, but i am completely aware this is probably the storyline to a book or a film somewhere and perhaps something that should not be attempted in real life. still want to..
on the cycling note i have been upping my daily exercise, being at home and doing pretty much nothing had turned me into something approaching a fatty. i worked out four times yesterday! and am already feeling the benefit, even if being outside in the sun too much has left my poor skin somewhat pink and itchy...a rather irritating development as until fairly recently i used to tan quite well, bah >:( fingers crossed it should go brown...blah
i have also sent out my first batch of postcards, and written and stamped the second batch to be sent after i finish this. i am sending them in fours, not really sure why, its just a nice number as doesn't take too long therefore keeps me interested in writing to those who mean the very most :)
on one of my evening runs around the neighbourhood i saw lots of little oddities including the largest hopscotch i had ever seen (100 squares)...this has inspired me to play hopscotch with the girls this week. also, some amazing individual has built a house, with a balcony and a slide coming off said balcony to the gate...what an idea...i would get out of bed every day smiling if that were my house...too cool!
on the subject of oddities there was a man with his very own tree on the u-bahn yesterday...it had all these oddments of ribbons tied to it, a very nice looking tree...and he was very late for the train...maybe the tree had an appointment, i don't know...but they were very keen to make said train and they just got it on time, and then nobody cracked a smile about this apart from me! perhaps trees catching public transport is normal around here. of course, in situations like this when perhaps one shouldn't laugh on one's own, i thought of hannah parker and had to do that silent giggling thing. damn knowing someone who will always find inapporpriate situations as funny as you... :p
which brings me to last night, aka- my first time sampling the delights of munich nightlife. before i lived with this family, a girl called gemma lived with them and she's been really ace in taking me under her wing and showing me about the place, as well as introducing me to some people all of whom so far are rather sound :)
first of all let me just mention (before i forget) that on the way to the station on the rickety old bike (srsly, its the noisiest thing you have ever heard...perhaps this is why the bike people smile...i'm not in a crew after all they're just mocking me... :\) who arrives but the german police....turns out that although its really cycle-friendly around here with seperate bike roads and such, if its night you have to have your lights on or can't ride the bike. mine weren't working...hmm...which lead to a nice friendly ticking off from them interspersed with much "i'm english and i don't understand"-ing from me. all ok in the end as i was actually about 10 steps from where i was supposed to be so, i locked up the bike and went on my merry way...
obviously, this had held me up time wise and i was by this time half an hour late to meet gemma, woops :\ we found each other ok though, AND i even asked for and understood directions in german, from a real german person - so chuffed as this is the first person that hasn't spoken back to me in english... :) so, we ended up going to some of the hostel bars near the main train station - really nice atmosphere, lots of au pairs and such to meet and chat to, lots of travellers just making their way through and more than anything, lots of english to be spoken AND i even found a place that sold cider and blackcurrant at which point my life was made. i only had one though as i felt incredibly typically english for spurning the local ale...so therefore had some Biers as well, which by the way were strong..! we then went on to a rather strange club with Very Laud Haus Musik and a very confusing layout. I was by this point verr tired and so got the Ubahn back to the bike and got in about 5...as before everything is so safe here, it's really not a problem going home by yourself which to me is interesting as i am a massive wimp when it comes to that...
anyways it's occurred to me i've been writing for about an hour now and i really must post these cards. Well done if you got this far ;) have a cookie.
Love
x
