Britta Tried and Tested: How to Feel Bright after a Nap

 

Yes, I want to try something new. A Wednesday special. With tips I discovered (through reading or by friends) that really work. For me, that is. So I want to share them with you. And I am highly interested what you think of them - if you agree or not, if it helped you too - or if you have another tip for the same situation. 

Here the first one (which I tried since half a year): 

If you take a nap and wake after half an hour (the experts recommend not more than 30 minutes, so I set the alarm button on my cellphone) I sometimes came back to earth feeling a bit grumpy. 

Then I read: Drink a small espresso before taking your nap. The caffeine needs about 30 minutes to get your body into motion. Hurrah - I feel as fresh as a daisy after that! 

 

Sheer Willpower

 

There are some days I feel like that flat tyre on the photo above. 

I took it today, when I walked down the hill (notice the double meaning, haha) and saw that a rural neighbour, lets call him Onslow, had put a lot of ancient farming rubbish a few metres further from the spot he put it on last year.                                                   

"Picturesque", I mumbled - but then I am only a romantic city-plant... 

I have been in Berlin for a wonderful week - though this time very much engaged to cultivate my friendships rather than hurrying from one cultural event to another. 

No, we hurried from one restaurant to another - and if you fear now that Yours Truly might have become fat more portly (I saw that the publishers of Roald Dahl picked out anything that might aggrieve somebody - and am still discussing what I think about that within myself) by so many meals, I can reassure you: NO WAY! 

 This (nothing eaten till after taking the foto) is the meal that our famous vegetarian Chinese served me - not Business Lunch (which is always cheaper) but a regular serving at a quite horrendous price. 

New was: only two-third of the normal portion (ah, the price of gas!). 

New was: "We have to charge 2 Euro extra, if you want rice to your meal." 

New was: I - and that is really new, because I am a person of small portions - I was still hungry when I had finished the mix of onions & paprika & a few chilis (which I did not eat), a few nuts and a minimalist copy of two vegetarian chicken-chunks. 

I translated a huge English cookbook for a German publisher and I can cook and I can do arithmetics and know the price of these few ingredients, and how long you have to stir them in the wok (can't be the price of gas, noway!). Chop, chop - that's what I will do with that restaurant... 

As to the flat tyre above: you know that normally I am quite active. 

But after a few days of sunshine and hope and Lebenslust it became very cold again, look at this gloomy landscape today: 

                                           

But I went out for a long walk - whether I wanted or not. (I didn't, but my internal Slavedriver painted pictures of decline and immobility). 

That gets me going. Always. On Autopilot. 

 

Snippet: The 2-Minute- Rule

 

I love helpful tips that enlighten my life. Or to express it one size smaller: bring a sort of "aha"-moment. Tips that are easy to follow - and work. 

For me "The 2-minute-rule" really does that. (Of course I sometimes forget it). 

It just says: "If a thing you have to do will take no more than two minutes - do it now!"

Interesting how much one can do in two minutes! Interesting that one's brain is so much lighter if one follows that rule! Just thinking about what you still have to do consumes so much energy - and takes much longer than two minutes. 

Seldom two minutes are not available to put the cleaner back into its place (looks so much more orderly), rinse out the used pan immediately (nice if it doesn't greet you first thing in the morning) or soak your oats in the evening for your morning porridge. 

"A stitch in time saves nine" as my Grandma used to say. 

  

A Short Visit to Potsdam

When you are in Berlin, it is easy to visit Potsdam, the Hauptstadt of Brandenburg. Now it is a beautiful little town (184.154 inhabitants) - I write "now" because I have seen it before the turnaround/Wende - the beautiful old buildings were derelict and decayed, grey, and very depressing. 

Now they almost overdid the renovation - so very colourful and sweetly pretty that you might think you are in a charming scenery of a theatre.

 

For me the most outstanding parts are the Castle Sanssouci of Frederic the Great, and his oh so wonderful park Sanssouci. I would go from Berlin on foot if it were the only chance to see it - but no: you can comfortably use the S-Bahn and be at the main station after a cheap, nice ride of 29 minutes. 

Other views: 

Red brick houses in the Dutch quarter - King Frederic welcomed many Huguenots. Another time I will show photos of the castle, park and town - this time we were there for the beautiful museum Barberini: 

We wanted to visit the exhibition "Surrealism und Magie. Verzauberte Moderne" (Surrealism and Magic. Betwitched Modern Era").  

I have to confess that we were neither bewitched nor enchanted nor spellbound. I quarrelled with myself, scolded me that maybe an impostor  of dear Emmeline Lucas (Queen Lucia by E.F.Benson) had crept into myself...

"... while she herself, oblivious of the passage of time, was spending her last half-hour in contemplation of the Italian masterpieces at the National Gallery, or the Greek bronzes at the British Museum. Certainly she would not be at the Royal Academy, for the culture of Riseholme, led by herself, rejected as valueless all artistic efforts later than the death of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and a great deal of what went before."

No, I do love modern art and know that art doesn't have to be beautiful -  but these pictures were mostly really bad, second or even third rate, often Kitsch. 

Only some Yves Tanguys were accepted.   

  

But we were very happy that there was the other exhibition in the same museum: 

"Impressionism. Masterpieces of the collection Hasso Plattner" 

                              Beautiful pictures of winter.

The following one is from Alfred Sisley, "Snow Effect in Louveciennes" 1874 , from his participation in the First Impressionist Exhibition in Paris, which I loved so much: 

 

Snippet: Fortune favours fools

That was a saying I sometimes had to listen to from my late father - and now I heard his voice clearly speaking to me again. 

He was right. 

I was very, very lucky under the circumstances - got only one not too deep clean cut. 

Fate had given me only a slap on my fingers ("Idiot!" fate hissed - I protested "But all guidebooks say you should never take pars pro toto - or was it vice versa? - it was a foolish act, but I am not an idiot!" "You were", my Guarding Angel intermeddled with a mild beatified smile). 

                                             Agreed. Yes, I was.  

So: what had happened? 

As always, I went on my balcony in the morning, lit the star-blink-string, which the triplets adore so much, 

and then I wanted to "lit" the electric candle which hides its fake being in a beautiful glass container. 

We had had minus 9 degree at night. 

The pillar candle was frozen into the glass. 

The switch of the candle is in the foot of it. 

I tried to free it. 

Didn't work. 

It was very early in the morning and maybe my mind was not only sleepy but frozen too - the only excuse I can find - so: I pressed the glass with the left hand and pulled at the candle with the right. 

Klirr!!!

The result you see above: shards - and I felt it: a cut in my left hand, between thumb and forefinger. Luckily not soo deep. But blood. 

I was too shocked to think of "red as blood, white as snow" - I hastened into the bathroom, could not find any plaster - oh, good, a spare one hid in my little cosmetic bag - and after applying it I sat down, hand in the air. 

I thought of WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN. 

Stopped these thoughts, thinking of my New Years resolution (one of a few): "No drama queen anymore!" 

(Besides: I had no audience). 

PS: I had lots of plaster as I later found out. Maybe before it was   plastered around my brain...

 

 

Steps into the New Year 2023

Hi, I am back from Berlin, since ten days - but till now I was so heavily engaged to settle  down again (not easy for me - I always have to wait for my soul which follows me on feet) and chasing around for a "new" car (meaning: a used one - I never in my life bought a new car and definitely will not start now). 

Today is a very rainy day, and that's just fine with me: I have a Sunday all for myself. Ahhh! 

Christmas and my birthday and the start of the New Year in Berlin were wonderful. 

We bought a tiny Christmas tree, because we could enjoy it only for 10 days. 

Just before my birthday on 29th December it happened again (as so very often!): when I went to the famous and wonderful make-up artist, René Koch in Berlin, after a while he asked what my zodiac sign is. Astrology is not my cup of tea, but I looked at him and said "Guess." 

He has written 14 books - and one is about beauty and zodiac signs. He pondered - and then he said (as numerous people who are deep in the subject before him): 

"Gemini."

"Sorry", I said, "I am a Capricorn" - and knew exactly what would follow. 

"Then maybe your ascendent is Gemini." 

I was prepared. "Sorry, but my ascendent is Capricorn too." He was baffled, as so many before him, and said - "Maybe the position of the moon..." (Well, maybe, I do not know about that). 

We had a wonderful Happy New Year celebration in the Austernbank (Oyster bank - they serve meat too) near the Gendarmenmarkt. A delicious menu, and a DJ and a singer who made us all dance merrily. 

                                          As Geminis do...  

I think it is still time to wish all of you a good start into the new year 2023! 

Yours truly, 

Britta 

Merry Christmas!

 

      I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

As I go to Berlin till the first week of January tomorrow, I might have no good internet there - and thus I will be - once in a blue moon - silent. (Eventually   :-) 

I go by train tomorrow - we have lots of snow, and I am seriously nervous. I'll show you a German drawing (and translate it): 

Train: "Scheduled departure somewhere between 9:00 and 11:00 o'clock, scheduled arrival somewhere between 17:00 and 20:00 o'clock." 

People at the gate:  "Since these new train schedules the railway is finally punctual again!" 

Well, I try to enjoy THIS DAY: the beautiful landscape and the triplets, whom I will miss over Christmas very much.