Hindsight...

 Dear You, 

I fear that I tried to bite off more than I can chew - to write everyday a post is too much for me (especially in the days before Christmas) - and evidently for you too: we all have so many things to do!  

I will return to normal posting and use the time to read and comment yours, to follow my many interests and tasks - in short: have a good time. 

And that is what I wish for you too: a very good time, stay healthy, don't overdo the preparations for Christmas - just enjoy! 

Yours truly,   Britta  

Very sweet "Kitsch"

 

Dear You, 

I love Japan and the relaxing atmosphere of calmness in their houses. 

To create calmness in a room, one needs space and order.  As dear William Morris said "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful", (I love "or believe to be" - so undogmatic!).

Yet sometimes I need a little bit of heartwarming "Kitsch". 

I smile when I see my very kitsch cat-bank - it has two 'golden' bells in its paws which wobble when I put money into the bank. The cat sits fat on a little silk cushion and smiles (in a minimalist's way). 

So: A little bit of kitsch: fine. But one has to beware of too much. 

"Beguiling beauty - Betörend schön: Chinese reverse glass paintings from the Mei-Lin Collection" in Munich

 

Dear You, 

yesterday I finally succeeded to visit the exhibition "Betörend schön" - Beguiling beauty" Chinese reverse glass paintings from the Mei-Lin Collection" in the grand old Museum Fünf Kontinente in Munich.

Reverse glass painting was adopted from Europe to China in the 18th century.   

Specialised studios painted on the back of glass or mirrors - and the colours become especially bright and radiant. 

"So-called 'shinü hua' (...) are among the established themes of Chinese painting and often associated with seduction and the world of the courtesans" - write the curators of the exhibition and ask themselves - and us - "What makes a woman beautiful?" - and answer evasively with "Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder". You bet. 

Shown are 70 works from the Mei - Lin Collection (Rupprecht Mayer and his wife Haitang Mayer-Liem - they hunted them in antique shops and on flea markets in Peking (Beijing) in the 80's. 

I loved the exhibition. Well represented, completed with gowns and shoes etc. 

Well, well, well: the shoes... In my home city Bremen, where the "Übersee- Museum" displayed all the treasures that captains and rich merchants had brought home from Africa and all the world (I wonder how they deal with those treasures nowadays), I saw those tiny shoes and shuddered... the feet of the poor women were bounded from earliest youth to keep them crippled. 

Those women (even in the 19th century it was done!) could not walk on those feet, size of a baby foot - they were transported in litters, and men thought it very sexy and the forced gait of it, so I read in a novel, were good for circulation - everywhere... 

And I saw those very very long nails of all the depicted women (shuddering again - yet I see them nowadays too when I travel by train - on young women!) 

One meaning, of course, is: "I don't have to work". Another ... a special group of men will be able to work that out in a second.  

In the left edge of the display above you see jewelled "nail protectors". 

There is a lot more to tell about the exhibition, but I see you look a bit weary. Sorry! 

(Want a little scratch to become wide awake again?) 

 

  

My teeny weeny little new coffee machine

 

Dear You,

if I were free to show you photos of the triplets when they  opened their presents on St.Nick's Day - having polished all their shoes so well that Shunmyo Masuno, the Zen Priest would be convinced of their "radiant hearts through cleaning", I would be happy - but of course I do understand the wish for privacy. 

So I show you another cute thing instead: the Melitta "Aromaboy". 

Because I drink only one cup of coffee in the morning, I bought the tiniest coffee maker of Germany: you can only prepare two normal cups with it. 

Wonderful! Quick! Delicious! And: no waste.

But a lot of fun, if you take this teeny weeny little coffee pot into your hands! 

PS: Today I came back from a trip Munich, thus I am a bit tired. I promise something "substantial" for tomorrow.   

Matt Haig: The Midnight Library

 

Dear You, 

this is what I read at the moment. 

I love Matt Haig's fascinating idea: to be able to test different lives that would have been the result of not choosing the one option you actually took. 

Consequences of choices that one made - or didn't take. 

Makes me think a lot ... what would have been if... 

On the other hand - to stay content and sane - my motto is: 

"Yesterday is over and the door to tomorrow is still closed. Today is all you (really) have."

That was a close shave!

 

Dear You, 

saved by the bell!  

To become a little bit more "green",  one thing I decided was to bid adieu to my Nespresso capsules (aluminium) and use an old fashion manual Italian coffee pot instead. 

From Berlin I took one with me. It had an added electric plate beneath, no need to use the stove. It worked fine. 

In Bavaria I thought: might be quicker without that plate, put on the stove. 

It wasn't. Instead lots of fume in my kitchen!  Big clouds of grey fume! and a fire!  

I hadn't seen that underneath this special espresso cooker was a rubber plate. Well: rubber on a hot stove = fume. 

The flames were a hand's breadth high - and a hand's breadth wide. I thought: this might be the first time that I have to use my little fire extinguisher, Uii, uiii, uii. 

But luckily I could extinguish it without that.  I've been very, very lucky. 

And then I was very, very busy - to clean all those stinking sticky particles from the stove. 

Voyage Cancelled

 

Dear You, 

Here in Bavaria we have many many storks. 

They go south in late autumn, and return in spring to their old stork's nests. 

So yesterday I was surprised to hear very loud clatter (if that word is right): 

one pair of storks has decided to remain here, sent back their tickets for a ride to Africa and thus thankfully reduced their carbon footprint. 

Though, sitting on the best place of town - the church tower - maybe they only were afraid that if they leave others would squatter their nest? 

 

FELDENKRAIS - I favour it!

 

Dear You, 

it might not be the best idea to start writing a post every day at a time when we prepare for the Christmas festivities...

 

Above you see something I do very diligently: 

almost every day I do my Feldenkrais exercises. I have 4 CDs, (back, legs and feet, neck and face, posture) and each one I choose takes roughly about 1 hour.

I do that because since a year (or more) some little pains nag in my back, or my knee, or my neck. 

And Feldenkrais really, really helps! 

As I don't have much free time at the moment, I gave up the 30 minutes of meditation, because, as I do that at midday on my bed meditation often turned into a "power"nap :-) - and though I set the alarm on my cellphone, I often came back to this world feeling a bit grumpy. 

So I substituted it (at the moment) by the Feldenkrais exercises - and feel fit and glow with satisfaction. 

And my body and soul are happy.  

ORGANIZING (Martha Stewart) and SERENITY (Zen Magic, Shunmyo Masuno)

 

A big title for this little post.
Always dashing between two antipodes - that's me.
I admire Martha Stewart, and at the same time she unnerves me, as perfection often does.
The Zen-Priest Shunmyo Masuno spreads calm and serenity - though when I imagine how the Zen-monks really live, I shudder.

(I cannot find the English version of his book: I translate the German subtitle to: "How to tidy up and gain a pure heart through/by it"  Tasker: Please help me: through or by?). 

So: I'm muddling through, not by, and pick those pearls of wisdom that appeal to me. Sometimes I will quote a few. 

I have a new plan: 

As an eager diary-writer (hand-written diaries) I will try here to write a different version online. Daily finger exercises. 

If my name were Martha, I would promise: Every day. 

If I were Shunmyo, I would say: Wu Wei. 

Being Britta, I say: I try to give my best. 

First Sunday in Advent...

 

... and a present from Google! 

I can post photos! Hurrah! 

Seems that somewhere I has refused too let Google read all my mails, snoop in all my photos and send me billions of advertisements... How could I?!? 

Now I throw caution to the wind and just write, well knowing what I do. 

It is rule no. 17:

"Flip the Freebie...and Look for the Hidden Price Tag" 

from a wise little book that I will quote when I found author and correct title. I love it! 

You see: my Advent wreath is sophisticated Scandinavian design. 

The twigs I found on a street of the Bavarian wood, and - if you still have very good eyesight - you see 3 little fir cones in the middle of the wreath. 

I wish you a beautiful Sunday! 

Smoking on trains

 Talking with the triplets (I know it should be "to" but I am on even terms with them) I often discover things from my (very near) past that don't exist anymore and give rise to huge astonishment (to ALL of us). 

Take smoking: 

The children often play "train journey" with me - each of them has grabbed one of my posh little trolleys (two in soft silver pink, one in grey-black -- and the one triplet with a remarkable tendency to luxury and elegance always grabs the stylishly understated grey-black one!), sit on my sofa and present their tickets. 

I am ticket collector and locomotive driver in one person, and - as everywhere in the world staff isn't easy to get - also serve a hot chocolate in the on-board restaurant. 

Well, to come back to the "Once upon a time"- bit: 

I told them that in my youth people smoked in trains. 

I remember that sometimes when one could only get a seat in a smoking compartment after a journey the clothes in my suitcase stank of smoke (some of these compartments were only separated by a curtain, if I remember it right). 

Both, the triplets and I, were very astonished that smoking was allowed in trains, or at breakfast tables in a hotel, or in private households where a guest would politely ask if it is alright to smoke and then didn't even wait for the answer... 

PS: I have a vague feeling that it should be "smoking on trains" - would that be better? 

- Thank you, Tasker - I corrected it from "in" to "on". 

Work-Life-Balance

 I "won" a whole sunny Sunday: 

Google's User Helpdesk (if this is still the right word) doesn't work on Sunday. 

Hahaha: so not only Germany has a problem with "Generation Z", whom most older people insinuate that they will only work on four days a week - (they told us so), because that is better for their work-life-balance (but with the same full payment as before). If it weren't so dreadful and sad we would recommend a look at the VW - people who want to work but might lose their jobs, horrible. 

Google wants a work-life-balance too! 

Totally energised I had decided to resolve the "no-photos-on-my-blog"-problem - today - but: see above. 

So I'll take a long walk, and wish you a beautiful day too!