Britta's Letters from her life divided between city-life in German's capital Berlin and life in a Bavarian village
Thursday 1 December 2016
In Olden Times, When Wishing Still Helped...
This morning I woke up (early as usual) and thought about fairy tales.
- Those I liked - the funny ones as "The Town Musicians of Bremen" (and that not only because I come from Bremen - no, even as I child I thought that their motto "You can always find something better than death!" might come useful some day :-)
- Those I disliked - the sad ones as "Little Brother and Little Sister" (even the beginning is heartbreaking!)
- those I had mixed feelings about - as "The Frog King, or Iron Heinrich" - I remember that I utterly detested that blackmailing frog ("..but if you will love me and accept me as a companion and playmate, and let me ... sleep in your bed" - hahaha), but was very much impressed by the fidelity of the Iron Heinrich ("Heinerich, the carriage is breaking apart!" "No, my Lord, the carriage it's not/ But one of the bands surrounding my heart...") and that I thought it just, but very strict of the King to say "What you have promised, you must keep".
I internalised that, (if necessary I forgo of my golden ball, if the price is a disgusting frog in my bed - till today I am unwilling to listen to their croaking that they are beautiful Princes under a spell) - and do only promise what I can keep.
And expect others to do the same.
Which shows that I am still very naively believing in fairy-tales :-) - but, on the other hand, have a streak of pragmatic realism too.
What really interests me: which were your favourite (or disliked) fairy tales?
If you want to read them again:
- "The Town Musicians of Bremen" http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm027.html (great for old age optimism - after a little shock in the beginning)
- "Little Brother and Little Sister" http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm011.html
- The Frog King, or the Iron Heinrich" http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm001.html
Wednesday 30 November 2016
Thank You All, My Blogger-Mates!
I know that this year I was a bit unproductive in the blogger-world (I had a lot of other things on my plate, sorry).
But I want to thank you all for making my life richer: by reading your blogs, smile, getting ideas (thank you Elaine for the tip about the Christmas book - you see: I've got it!), lending an ear.
I hope that at least December will see more input of mine here.
Wednesday 2 November 2016
The Agony of Choice, Mr. Karl Lagerfeld
Yesterday I saw this "KARLBOX" presented in the KaDeWe in Berlin. Hundreds of beautiful colour pencils, crayons and pencils. For the
Ridiculous.
Every real artist - Rachel, Tom and Cro know that of course - needs good 'tools', and they have their price, but even a layman as I know that you mix most of your colour hues yourself - with a lot less pencils than those 72 in my Faber Castell Artists' Watercolour Pencils box.
When I stand in a drugstore in front of a shelf of 100 cream jars all promising everything under the sun - and we all know that in the end it all comes down to oil & water! - it happens that I walk out of the drugstore without buying anything.
An overload of choice, scientists found out, stands in no correlation to happiness - it produces - and do I really need a scientist to tell me this? - STRESS.
So: it is nice to have choice. But not too much.
Because the most important 'things' you can't buy anyway: creativity and discipline and talent and inclination to work really hard for success. (And a little pinch of luck).
The funniest thing, Mr. Lagerfeld, is, that YOU prefer BLACK.
Which reminds me of a passage in a German children's book, König Mauzenberger: eagerly the King (Cat) mixed all the beautiful colours he had in his new paintbox. The result:
Monday 31 October 2016
Highway to Hell - Bavarian Style
Dear You,
it's Monday - and Halloween - so here's a little uplift -from Bavaria :-)
it's Monday - and Halloween - so here's a little uplift -from Bavaria :-)
Thursday 27 October 2016
Berlin in Five Minutes - SWEET!
You came over by aeroplane to Berlin. You are in a hurry, maybe you have to attend a conference - so there is not much time for sight-seeing?
Here is my sweet solution!
In 1918 the family "Wilhelm Rausch jun." started to produce chocolate for their "Private-Confiserie". . Just follow your nose - the scent of chocolate - and lots of people - hurry to the Gendarmen-Markt in Berlin Mitte. Open the door to the biggest chocolate
And here you can see (almost) all important buildings in five minutes - created in chocolate!
The Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche:
The Reichstag:
The Berlin TV Tower:
The Brandenburger Tor:
But be careful and don't overeat,
though you might be tempted (this is only a little snippet of the truffle section):
The results of too much indulgence you see here - the Berliner Bär could not resist!
“When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain..."
Tuesday 18 October 2016
Patience... Solitaire...Banana Solitaire...
I'm not blessed with it. PATIENCE , I mean.
At the moment I take "Patience" - that's how we call your "Solitaire" - literally, and try to learn the game.
For a long, long time I regarded it as an utter waste of time - the voices of my late parents urged me to do "something meaningful" instead.(I still have difficulties to watch TV in the afternoon!).
But better late than never I try to free myself.
I take small steps, patiently. On my own.
Though Bananagrams, which, after Amelia Bullmore (wonderful DCI Gill Murray in Scott&Bailey) mentioned it in an interview, I ordered impatiently (the English version of course - and please don't laugh at my humble attempts) is even more to my gusto:
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves" as our poet Rainer Maria Rilke said in "Letters to a Young Poet".
I'll try. Have BUNCHes of them. Questions BANANAS!!!
144 files for a Bananagram Solitaire.
PATIENCE!! (Otherwise you go bananas)
Saturday 15 October 2016
I believe In Kissing
When I was in Vienna in August, I lost my pink Pashmina - in a tram, (well... after visiting a Heurigen(Wine)-Lokal, with son and daughter-in-love). And as hard as I tried: I didn't get it back.
So sad, because I loved it very much, it had the perfect Pink.
"I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles." Audrey Hepburn
Me too!
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