On reading...

Lately I did not have much time to read. Work, a puppy and other obligations lead to the fact that the time I had in between was too short to sit down and actually read (I mean read and really be there and pay attention and enough dedication to the classics). It was here 10 minutes and there a 30 min slot, but mostly I cannot find enough relaxation to look forward to and be drawn to that very book I am reading right now. Mostly it is the kitchen calling "clean the dishes" or the laundry even louder "iron me" or the phone is ringing or or or...

Anyways, times have been busy lately and soon I will hopefully be able to sit and read a bit more: From tomorrow I will be at hopefully sunny funny Tenerife (Canary islands) to only relax, lay in the sun, spend time reading, take a swim in the pool, enjoy cold cocktails and ice creams or complain about how warm it is (ha ha -- joking). 

For me reading is a feeling of balance and quietness. If I have the time and the patience to read, my fantasy is placing myself into the scenery and the scenes and enable me to observe the plot from very close. I have friends, enemies and feel the emotions of the characters. I am drawn away of the real world and explore another world for a moment. 

If I do not have a real balanced feeling and too distracted from other things, I cannot really enjoy my read (a little bit similar to the feeling when reading obligatory texts for uni just before the lecture, to at least have the feeling and can say, well, I have read it. But. Not. Really. In Fact.) And that is what I had mostly during the last couple of weeks. 

My started books are surrounding me: Persuasion (some of you might roll your eyes, how is it possible that she is putting Jane Austen's work out of hand...), The adventures of Tom Sawyer and one contemporary novel. I also picked up a few books which I still had stored at my parents place: Great Expectations (very tempting!!), the last of the Mohicans (not on my list though, but I could add it and read it once more), Middlemarch (I am not - NOT taking it to Tenerife, I am on holiday) and Jane Eyre... One of my favorites - forever! Therefore, enough food for Tenerife, I would say :-).

My allowed baggage weight of 20 kilos will be filled (or shall I say killed??) by books - hahahaha. 

I am already looking forward for this particular feeling of having the luxury to have no obligations at all (besides getting a small sun tan - I know, I am so girly) and indulge in my book!

To really feel entirely holidayish I always need an out of office reply in my emails. This time I am thinking of something special....

Like this one:

The person you are looking for is not available. Please try again later ! (Of course including this wonderful picture) Or: Your email will not be read or forwarded. I am busy with seriously important things and will get back to you after I finished Middlemarch! Or: Life is too short to not read - I will get back to you asap!!!

OK, maybe not.
But it would be so -- refreshing?

Any other suggestions?

Love,
Svenja

Nordic Impressions

Rainy regards from Northern Germany

Just a short hello from the very Northern German town of Flensburg in Schleswig Holstein - my home town. 97 % of the time it is raining - all kind of rains, gentle rain, but also strong rain - with a "nice" wind so that it rains directly into ones face...

One day it stopped raining and we decided to have a look at the beach, which I have not seen in ages... It is called "Solitude" and the name was really suitable that very day....

Also Josie enjoyed running on the soft sand for a moment and giving all the speed her short legs could give,,,

All in all we are having a good time... BBQs, drinks, coffees, ice creams, traditional Danish hot dogs, beach (Josie looooved it), family, friends, hospitality and a feeling of being home. 

Josie looking at some bird in the garden ...

My lovely sister and my sweet cousin with the pup...

Love,
Svenja

Winter Repose

Rendezvous with Frankfurt

Last weekend I have spend in Frankfurt aM and in the Rheingau area close to Frankfurt - for the very first time. To be honest I have been a bit prejudiced and thought in a very cliché way, that Frankfurt is just full of skyscrapers and other grey monstrous buildings and showing the cities' even more grey face. But it turned out that I was (once more) terribly mistaken. Frankfurt has definitely a beautiful side next to their grey banking towers which do not seem to have heard of the financial crisis and still innocently whispering invest!- invest!-invest!! and helps to protect the people of the real truth...

What brought us to Frankfurt was a huge fair - in fact the worlds biggest fair for architecture and technology - the light and building 2012 at Messe Frankfurt. My darling successfully developed a product for a big light manufacturer, that is why we had no booth of our own.

The area around the congress and fair area was actually quite beautiful, very metropolitan, compared to our home base Eindhoven. Opposite was a small park, comparatively quiet of traffic, as most people seem to travel by underground / train to the area.

A perfect place for Josie to play and make friends...

This time a Jack Russel lady.. whose food is from a special shop, I would say - equivalent to a person who is eating vegan. The owner was a hippie lady from Berlin...

This is the view to the huge Messe show hall where all big lighting manufacturers tried to show their very best achievements and engineering research results. Philips Lighting alone had a whole hall on its own, but for my taste there were not that many interesting new things to see..

Josie making more friends...

This time a small girl whose parents were originally from Burma. She was such an enchanting little girl and was completely head over heels with the dog -- and vice versa... When saying good bye, she had tears in her eyes, and would beg her daddy to stay a bit longer for as long as we could see and hear them.

This weekend I did not only see Frankfurt for the first time, but also booked a place via airbnb for the first time: It was a little adventure. What is airbnb? Well, airbnb is a similar concept of a social network, but this time it is a network of people offering private places to stay for travelers. It does not matter wether someone travels for business, as a student, or even for a family vacation, everyone could find a temporary home. Usually it is offered by private persons having a spare room, interested in meeting new people and to contribute something to the connectedness of the world and to a travelers' network. The use is super simple, as someone does not need to go through a long registration process, but can easily connect via Facebook or twitter. The only disadvantage is , that short term inquiries might not be replied to soon enough, so that it is always good to contact many, or at least a couple of hosts. Another was, that we landed not quite in Frankfurt, or close to, but around sixty kilometers away...

We actually stayed - in the end - in a place called Oestrich- Winkel, for most people just a too difficult to pronounce name of a place. For many it is a place very familiar, as it is the same location of the European Business School, a privately held university offering elite graduate and undergraduate programs in finance and business management.

The place is so BEAUTIFUL! Surrounded by vineyards and the river Rhine the scenery is overwhelming! Even though the wind was blowing so hard and the temperatures were arctic it still caught our attention big times.

Sunday evening we had dinner in the idyllic village of Oestrich-Winkel at the restaurant of Hotel Schwan ****.

The old place was spreading a warm and cosy atmosphere offering great food and great wine and a huge deal of hospitality.

The owner of the hotel was incredibly friendly, offering great service and a warm welcome. Classical music in the background and free wifi (we had none in our b&b, that sucked, so we were more than happy) made it a perfect stay and a definitely more than recommendable place to eat (and certainly also to stay at the hotel). The hotel Schwan is located approx. 50 meters from the shores of the river Rhine, and we could watch big Rhine ships (mostly from the Netherlands) passing quietly by.

By the way - I had an awesome salad with honey coated goat cheese which was heavenly and a nice glass of dry white Rhine wine with it - especially from that area (She told me from which vineyard exactly, but I could not remember). It is really nice to taste food and drinks were you exactly know where it comes from.... The Rhinegau area really impressed us and I already cannot wait to go back!

To sum it up - it was busy, quiet, beautiful, impressive, delicious and successful - and not to forget, I am grateful to have been able to meet up with my dear friend Sandra again! Hope to see you again - soon!

Love,

Svenja

Home

Sometimes I ask myself what and where is home. Having lived in quite some different places throughout the last decade including foreign countries I wonder if I will ever consider a place my real home. Yes, I was born and raised in the Northern German region of Anglia (yes, that is where the angles came from, to found England - together with the saxons) close to the Danish border.

The mentality is rather Nordic, you can hear that already on peoples names, like Petersen, Hansen or Nielsen, also first names are frequently routed in Scandinavia: Such as my own name, Svenja, but also Finja, Finn, Niels, Bjoern, Tjark, Thies or Ole.

The difference is the openness: When students in Scandinavia name their teachers by their first names and make a party out of nearly everything to gather together, the Northern Germans are rather distanced and with an awaiting attitude. I grew up here: Close to the seas, salt water smell in my nose, fighting on the bicycle against strong winds and ever-changing weather, far away from urban areas such as the Ruhr-area around Duisburg, Duesseldorf and Koeln. I loved it. But it is not my home anymore.

I moved to England. My first abroad experience of a 20 year old. I worked in a local pub in the town of Doncaster / South Yorkshire and learned that there is more than the traditional "queens-English" which we learned in school and struggled to understand on school BBC movies and documentaries. I was introduced to the true England: Lovely and warm people, all helpful, sometimes a little bit prejudiced towards Germans ("I usually do not like Germans, but you are a good lass!" -- no problem, though) due to our non-glourious history and always up for a party, a drink or a cup of tea. I have found a handful of awesome friends with whom I am still in touch, even after 8 years!! I loved it. But it is not my home anymore.

Move to Bavaria. Yet, lower (!!) Bavaria. Thought, nothing can happen to me here, at least they speak the same language. It turned out to be terribly mistaken, the cultural clash was big...The language in lower Bavaria can be further away than I thought - never heard words, known words, "strangely" pronounced - and though not realized and different melody. Welcome to Passau! I spend quite some years in that small little town right at the Austrian border. Parteed at Frizz!, studied in the B.I.B., frozen beans at Black bean, running around (not around, but you Passauers, you know what I mean) the Inn, Trivial Pursuit at Wahn'sInns, etc etc. And I loved it. But it is not my home anymore.

I moved to Munich. For work. I worked a lot, I went to parties a lot, I enjoyed the awesome cultural scene, the pure beauty of the city, the mediterranean flair, etc etc. I loved it. But it is not my home anymore.

Back to Flensburg for my Master's study: I had a good time, enjoyed to have my dear family around, but realized almost immediately - it is not my home anymore.

Eventually I moved to the Netherlands. Found work. Found love. Found out about the Dutch culture and the Netherlands. I do not love it that much. But it is my current home.

When I think about home, I think about three different definitions: Home is where I was born. Home is where I live. Home is where my heart is. In this case I have three homes. Flensburg - Eindhoven - and Munich.

Next week I am going to be in the first one - yahoo!!

Delicious spring colors

People who know me also know that I am totally NOT a fan of Louis Vuitton and Dolce & Gabbana. I completely dislike all those leopard - zebra and other zoo patterns / prints on Dolce's design. I also do not like these "classic" LV (hand)bags with those LV logos everywhere. You know what I am talking about. Even though the label is already really old and considered classy by many, I am mostly more reminded of those fake handbags distributed on rubbish markets, bed sheets in Venice or manufactured from plastic by some other countries. Pfuiiii.

BUT: I found some truly nice things: The spring make up collection by Dolce & Gabbana: Cajal / Eye liner in the brightest colors of the season:

And not to forget: The nail polish in the same colors! I particularly love the yellow one!

Here are some very dishy spring handbags: I particularly like the one on the left: Very much 80ies retro, but nicely pimped with some soft textile in it. The one on the right is top too: Much more suitable for formal occasions. Matched with anything (light) blue - perfect! The one in the middle: I would make an exception and break with my "no LV print bags for me" and get one of those cool & hip half shine through bags. I like.

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

Today I was able to accomplish my second read - Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

Yes, I liked it. No it is not an ultimate pleasure for me to read texts from a 500 year old guy, using the language beautifully sometimes, and sometimes made me feel like driving on a rocky road with my first super old VW Golf II, which was born in 1987. But this is - I assume- due to the fact, that the English language is not my native language.

I did enjoy the read as I could place myself easily as an invisible observer into the scenery of (I suppose) Northern Italy. As I have recently been to Venice and surroundings I could imagine those pastel colored scenes: Light blue milky sky, terra-cotta colors everywhere and those huge family estates they have in Italy. Huge houses, with a kind of coat of arms somewhere at the gate or above the entrance, a masterly managed and designed garden, green window shutters, cypress trees etc.

I enjoyed some lines particularly, like for example the opening scene, where it says:

If music be the food of love - play on.

Oh mistress mine, where are you roaming?

O stay and hear, your true love is coming.

She sat like Patience on a monument.

Smiling at her grief.

These are just a few of my favorite lines, which I can remember from scratch. Those lines make me think of joining in at a dedicated Shakespeare project, if there is one - to really deep dive into the works of shakespeare, with commentated versions of his works, interpretations maybe to help me, fool, understanding the maybe considered greatest writer of all times.

What I stumbled upon was the importance of - legs- . Yes, legs. I read many times that legs, and socks they were wearing were of a higher importance. Does that have something to do with the fashion of the high middle ages / Elizabethan times? Those short fluffy (sorry, I do not find a better word here) trousers, combined with tights? Did they compare the thickness / thin-ness / muscles of their legs maybe? Were thin legs considered as more elite as thick / muscular legs (as those came from training for battles etc.)?

All in all - it was an entertaining - though not easy read. I really would recommend to read this play in two or three - or yet one sitting, as it was always difficult to dive back into the language of Shakespeare. It always took me a while to be back in the flow. Once I was "in" I really enjoyed the language which was so bold and beautiful; that I also needed to check more words than usual, which made more interruptions - next to highlighting parts. I am really thinking of getting closer acquainted to the great Shakespeare, I think it is worth it! I assume it is a bit like a treasure with a lot of gold and diamonds in it - once you - or I - found the key, it is literary heaven!

Lovely Easter weekend

This year I really took Easter as a time to relax and enjoy the wickedness of doing (almost) nothing - the next business trips are already waiting ahead: Frankfurt aM and Munich. After that a fun holiday is awaiting us at my home area in Northern Germany, close to the Scandinavian border. We will be spending some nice couple of days "at home" to visit my parents, my grandparents, friends and attend the communion of my cousin in Hamburg.

Therefore a lot of things coming up and to look forward to...

Meanwhile in Holland it has been quiet around these days and the cold weather has made me feel comfortable to stay inside the house. Nevertheless, we have been a little active and went to celebrate the 6th birthday of my niece on Saturday and went to have an Easter dinner at the house of my darling's parents on Easter Sunday.

Strangely enough I almost spend the whole weekend having terrible hiccups. One time I even had to sneeze at the same time when I had to hick. Strange.

The rest of the days I have been snuggling up on the sofa to read Twelfth Night (almost finished, yahoo), Persuasion and a little less demanding stuff, the new Vogue.

This is my Easter weekend in pictures:

Happy Easter: The pink ribbon stayed on for approximately 57 seconds: Enough time to shoot two or three pictures, the the fourth picture was already too late....

I received such lovely cards! And chocolate Lind Easter eggs. And flowers =)

And I am such a shopping victim: This time the Vogue has been presented gift wrapped in a lovely white (I love white) carton box. I could not resist!

The birthday party of my niece - not without Josie: With flying ears on the trampoline...

Happy Easter Everyone!

How was your Easter weekend? Did anyone of you had any exciting plans or went to exciting places?

Love,

Svenja

PS: This lovely rose card was designed and hand made by my dear auntie Anja over at littlehomeforallseasons. Please have a look over there for more inspiration!

Love letters

Did I ever mention that I love letters? Probably. I cannot say that often enough, and I don't do that because I hope to receive more through that, I just want to emphasize how much I love and appreciate real letters. Ha ha, not such a long time ago, for example around the time I was born - people would have looked at me - confused - what I would mean with real... yesterday I received a "real" one. From my lovely Oma in Flensburg, Germany, sending her love over to Holland, with a lovely card. And I must say - it really made my day! This handwritten piece of paper, thoughts on paper! How lovely. The amount of emails I write per day is kind of huge, and I am absolutely sure that with 95 % of all emails I write are completely free of any emotion. (Oh, maybe anger, if accountants do not do their work properly, and ask to much money for it ha ha). I write them in a quite automatized way, using the same phrases and words, excuses and questions all over and over again, just trying to avoid any redundant things, repeating words or starting too often with "I". Before sending it out I do a spell check and that is it.

Real letters are written with love. With emotion, with real thoughts towards the receiver. It is by far beyond pure exchange of information. And that is the beauty in it.

I find we - me too, write too less. Usually it is only the obligatory (I do not want to downsize it) Christmas or birthday card. A real card or letter just in between of something, without any special purpose - that is something which can at least quite lighten up my day. Is that only with me, or is anyone else also feeling a little bit the same? Or is it maybe a particularly "girly" thing to write and be happy about letters?

When I was a teenager I used to have pen friends. I loved it - friends - and letters from South Africa, Norway, Spain or the US, it was always fun, and it was such a happy moment to receive one of those colorful letters, with the best, almost calligraphic teenager- girl handwriting, mostly decorated with a lot of stickers.

This of course went away at a certain moment, we moved, lost sight of each other, but with some I am still in touch (*thanks, Facebook).

Too be honest, email serves very well - I find that writing a thoughtful email is also possible, but to receive a letter became so seldom that I just find it worth a while to encourage - mostly myself to get out my old ink pen and some beautiful paper and write more letters, secret love notes, cards and love letters ....

From Holland with love

Svenja

Puppy school

To have a puppy is seriously such a pleasure: Josie is always happy and can always bring a smile to my face! Especially when waking up in the morning she mostly also wakes up and stretches her short white legs and yawns. After that she is rolling around to lay on her back for a moment to stretch herself again, before she finally decides to get up an makes a cat back (so funny, thought that only cats can do so!) and that the waggling starts! What a joy! This small tail is moving so fast and it seems Josie smiles all over her face.And this waggling and smiling appears anytime she sees one around the corner, when returning into the room or when talking to her.

Most of the time she actually is asleep. I did not know nor expect that puppies are sleeping 70% of the day, a little bit the same as babies, isn't it? And if that is not the case she req

uires quite a big deal of attention: Playing, going out, playing again, some training - she can already sit and lay down!

As I really find it important, that dogs can behave very well, I decided to go to attend a puppy class with her. We registered at Martin Gaus Hondenschool for the puppy cursus. And it was fantastic: We learned tips to walk on the lead on a certain side (mostly left side), giving them a call to come, which was proposed to do with the word here! as this is short and clear. Of course the little ones than get a lot of dog candy and hugging to show that they did things well. Further more we learned some theory and were allowed to ask a hell lot

of questions.

Tomorrow will be lesson #2 and I am really curious.

This is how it looks like in the morning, just before getting up..

This seems she has the same taste if it comes to handbags ...

And this is her favorite toy - the rope -- which might be destroyed completely soon ...

Something to look forward to...

That's how I will feel in 4 weeks... I like!

My new habits

Sometimes I wonder how habits are sneaking into one's, well hmmm, my life. For example I used to be a really bad coffee addict that I seriously could not function properly without a mug or two full of this delicious dark brown stuff in it, with a small kiss of milk. I needed it. I was craving for it when being late for lectures and not having the time to grab one before it was the time. Eventually I sneaked out to come back five minutes later with a hot cup of coffee. I felt so rude towards the lecturer / professor doing his best to keep everything interesting (Lectures with bad lecturers I skipped. To keep up with the material I indulged in self study - at the time I wanted haha. After coffee). But I was an addict.

Lately this habit seems to be cured without much trouble. In fact - without any trouble at all.

And -- surprise, surprise replaced by drinking tea. Masses of it. All kinds. Especially white tea, and the good old English tea is serving me right now.

Another habit seems to be completely broken without thinking about it. I used to eat meat on a regular bases. Not much, not every day. But now I kind of had it with it. Maybe it is going over again, but I completely feel no need nor appetite to eat any kind of meat (did not like many sorts of them anyhow, for example I never ate pork, lamb or goose or duck, and sticked pretty much to chicken and beef.). I wonder if this is strange? I never intended to eat vegetarian, but somehow I just find it much more delicious to combine all other sorts of food with each other. There are even Michelin starred restaurants who offer Vegetarian menus, like this one for example. I could never imagine to eat vegan, like some people do. Incredible. How can some people do not miss cheese? Or eggs? Omg- or chocolate (this habit seems to be the worst one, and I can say with total confidence: it will never stop!!)? They even have also dessert restaurants, among these I found this here - amazing!! which means - I HAVE to go to Florida one time. Soon.

Did anyone had similar experiences with leaving out meat more and more and found out - hey, I kind of eat vegetarian?

Many abstinent regards

Svenja