paper-ponpom-decoration

What to do with all this packaging paper?

Before




















After

Getting domestic/winter weekends

Travelling a lot for work and also for friendships
I somehow have developed now a sense of just wanting to stay at home and calm down the weekends. Doing simple, maybe shallow things. Making my place comfortable. Looking for nice home-items.

Christmas is a hard time for me.
It´s just stressful, klimbim, I can´t have the glitter, green and red combinations, the too much...
my people are known for bad taste

But if you can´t beat them, join them?

I was out with a friend, collecting walnuts and left over apples
and climbing trees for mistletwigs.

My mom send me some advent candles. Someone gave me this left over frame on a fleemarket, I got some nordic inspiration on how one can also decorate more beautiful. This is my try. I have already eaten all the clementines.




















I tried to make some chocolate-butter-truffles. Some with sesame.














Found these perfect eggholders in Stockholm.

nord

work has been extremely stressful
so I was glad to have holidays

visiting friends in cph and sthlm
thank you
























One thing i enjoy while travelling is to look for simple (domestic) beauty
which I found e.g. in Jess´house

födseldag

In Copenhagen

A friend of mine made me aware of this video,

which is also wonderful to me as it is so against the present anti-immigrant discourse (not only) in DK, trying to select people according to their "usefulness" for society.

In the vid people are singing the Danish birthday song. I like that different countries have different birthday songs. The "Happy Birthday to you" has become all too common. In one of the traditional German Birthday songs there is is verse:

"...How nice that you were born,

otherwise we would have missed you very much..."

I want to keep that in mind.

wise said

was lately on a conference on "migration and development"
Gibril Faal, Direktor von GK Partners und Chairman der
African Foundation for Development (AFFORD), London/UK
was saying
"there are 3 reasons for people to migrate:

• learn,
• earn or
  
• yearn"

And "Europe would break down if all illegal immigrants would go on strike"

grün muss es blühn

`happy about a few new (for me) greeneries:

• A former flat mate made me aware of a few mates of him that started the avocado online store which sells all kids of stuff which is either organic, fair trade, produced with little energy or what ever else falls under the "sustainability" label
  

• Read and saw lately stuff about the work of professor Michael Braungart which I find very interesting. Having his background in greenpeace activism he is nowadays a very respected chemician proclaiming eco-effectiveness by cradle to cradle desgin of products
  
  
• Schuhsign is a new onlinestore for shoes which are mainly produced in Europe, organic dyed leather, organic materials, bla, bla... a few of them quite wearable from it´s looks
  
  
• My favourite drugsrore lately sells organic cotton q-tips and tissue stuff in easy recyclable packaging
  

whats on a kitchen table

it´s harvest time
let´s have late roses
and pumkin pie

women without men

want to see this movie since so long

step on it

Germany has something in common with Afghanistan, Bhutan, Burundi, Haiti, Libanon, Mauretania, Myanmar, Nepal, Northkorea, and Somalia.
These countries don´t have general speed limits, as it is with a lot of parts of the German Autobahn.

Driving school goes like this (2nd time on the autobahn):
" Go left, step on it." My driving teacher puts some techno music on.
So loud I can hardly understand her, only: "I said, step on it!"
Me: "Ehm, i´m already at 160 km/h?" She: "So? Come on, step on it!"
I step on it. 170, 180, 185.
Finally she was satisfied. Yes, I had fun.
I had to switch to the left lane again. The BMW behind me was pushing.
It´s pure megalomania.

August

heulen kannste, wenn du Urlaub hast

( u can cry when you´re on holidays)

Polska- Ukrajina

had the pleasure of a small-roadtrip to the east
in the sprinter- bus of my cousin

i love to see the kilometres running by
morning swim in a lake of the karpaty
climbing mountains
flowers in krakow
we tried to find a man in the mountains where my cousin has promised to bring him some solarcollectors for his roof so he can live from solarenergy

We spend hours at EU-borders
I wake up as ukrainian borders guards enter the bus and start to check everything
borschtsch and huge markets
an blaubeeren satt essen
old ladies letting their cows eat from the roadside

visiting friends in the small towns and villages
watching german world-cup-games in the house of the local footballtrainer for the small boys
blümchentapete und limonade mit kaugummigeschmack
the wheatfields have the color of grapefruit
always, always black coffee

"I give you stronger wodka" for my swollen knee
Dill and sour cream
night train to kyiv
sleeping on the park bench with people looking strange at us
halwa for breakfast
your mother is somewhere else in Europe working in care and household

getting our backs set by an old lady in the tourquoise house
I could hear the sound of my bones

+7

Sheep.
My cousin is a shepherd.
She is taking care of a big herd of about 200 mother sheep and more lambs.
They are used for landscape conservation ( keeping the gras short) in a landscape full of fruit trees where no machines are used.
Visited her for one weekend and liked feeding the lambs and helping guiding the herd from one green place to another.
I miss animals in my daily life.

+6

ehm, crafting something.
yes, I know its quite a trend right now.
And yes it´s something positive.
No special skills, no plan.
Kitsch is ok.

+5

balkan beats, russian polka
nu klezmer

I recommed "electro trumpet"
"Ausgelassene Stimmung" is the codeword.
Sweat and flowers.
My body became immediately happy.
Honestly, we should dance more.

+4

public book storages:
what do you do when public libraries are for free but need your identity card for registration...
or are too far away when you are just hanging out in the park and could need a nice book?
Public book shelves where people can just bring and take books as they like.

(picture from www.dayinmylife.de)

+3

living communes.
Still.
So many.
I love it.

Dance-floor-music-laundry-cellar-... of the house my friend currently lives in with 7 other human beings.

+2: we discovered something unbelievable: every woman is different!

says the window of a lingerie boutique.
they honestly had mannequins in different sizes.

+ 1: weekends away/ RUHR

working here and spending weekends somewhere else
now many of my friends again live all over the country
had the priviledge to spend some weekends again in capital and former capitals
many nice things to discover in this country, I thought of posting some positive stuff which I spotted and liked:

+ 1:

Ruhr 2010
many shut down coal mines become places of culture and design
now european capital of culture




















a 360° cinema in an old coal hopper




















gallery in huge old salt storage hall







































café in da industry

use your voice

there is a e-petition (a real one) online on the German Bundestag to decide about ending the "Residenzpflicht" (obligation to stay in the municipality where you are registered) for asylum seekers, you can register and give your voice for this here

Pro Asyl has started an action of sending postcards to German Minister of Interior de Maizière and EU-Commissioner Cecilia Malström to advocate for unaccompanied minor asylum seekers in Greece. The card reads following:

"in the EU member state Greece child refugees are
detained, harassed and left homeless without any
protection. They are not provided with any care and
accommodation that is suitable for children. The
human rights and dignity of these unaccompanied
minors are being violated systematically.
The best interest of the child is the highest priority.
A humane solution has to be found. Please advocate
personally for their relocation to other
EU member states."

You can order these postcards for free here. More information on the topic for example here
Maybe there are similar action to the ministers of interior of your country?

the march post

spring
hayfever

read a few interior blogs
and thought I could show my new room,
vanity, I know
but making a home

to put it like in the blogs:

- box from grocery store
- white table found on the streets at 2 at night when returning from work
- bed: flat
-wooden floors: original, with dirt between the panels telling from the last 50 years
this house used to be a "red-light-bar"

I appreciate how the owner of the house has kept all the old details and floors, just rebuilding the necessary and building the whole house as a community building. And yes energy-efficient and the whole stuff, hardly have to use heaters. Feels strange to somehow have so much "luxury".


clock: was having a walk on the hills in another city with friends. We passed an old villa, where some people held a sell-out of their furniture
is good for watching time while boiling eggs

flowers: dutch































lamp: Danish trödelladen
phonetable from fleamarket
it was raining- she sold it for 20€























sunlight: for free

celebration

Celebration of womenhood is celebration of life

Malta resettlement

yes,
yesterday the news finally became official: Germany is going to take up 100 refugees from Malta in 2010, mostly from Somalian, Eritean and Sudanese people. I´m really happy to hear Germany is finally showing a little more responsibility towards this issue.
I think of all the young people I have met, desperately hoping for a better life, not really getting a life outside their camps and how hard is was to try to encourage them for patience, keeping on hoping and in the meantime getting as much education as possible when you don´t really know yourself what will happen.
It might be a drop on a hot stone, or rather a cup of water. But it hopefully makes a positive difference for these 100.

In the meantime Frontex warned Malta to advertise too much on resettlement as this would be "exploited by organised crime in Libya to market Malta as the destination to send asylum seekers and irregular immigrants."
Ok, its surely neccessary to be aware of the structures of organised crime who are exploiting the hopes for a better life and will to survive of many people. But first of all we are only talking about resettlement of people who have a protection status which means they are coming from countries which are either war-torn and/or where political persecution is on the daily agenda.
So the choice to leave is not just made upon the information of possible destination countries but also on a will to survive.

The will to survive will find its way.

Organised crime in Libya was also able to flourish, because the EU build up its border control structures, where Frontex is part of, in a way that people are not able to enter the EU regularly and seek asylum and protection.

Moreover, people don´t just get their information from smugglers quoting Maltese government on advertising resettlement programmes. People have networks, use the internet, have friends or relatives who´ve been resettled, etc.

It´s not just a "problem" to be dealt with, or naive victims who´ve been misinformed. WE are people with each individial and collective stories making our choices mostly based on a will to survive and live dignified lives.

People will find their way.

random

the T9system of my mobile suggests "EU" before "Du" (you), quite scary

Unexpected compliment of the year 2009. During a lift-conversation: "I never met a women knowing so much about refridgeration engineering."
haha, I hardly know anything about it, I´m just interested in the topic, was just listening to him and giving some thoughts on what I read in the newspaper... fun anyway

from the age of 24 years one has to pay more into the compulsory long term care insurance, in case you don´t have children. With the age of 23 it was still ok not to have children, but now, really girl, you should get going;)

reality check

"Everything that meets the eye
Is everything there is to life" this beautiful mess, 2003

Dreams are not enough
Good intentions are not enough
Words and declarations are not enough
it only can be a beginning.

I´m more and more convinced:
If the invisible does not manifest in the visible it does not mean anything nore becomes reality.

Uhm, it´s sometimes quite sad looking at myself. "But I have pleaded in prayer for you, ..., that your faith should not fail."Luke 22,32

Also:
Der universale Anspruch, der in 1989 steckte, das Rahmensprengende und Grenzüberschreitende, die Neubelebung der schon müde gewordenen demokratischen Idee: Daraus haben die Europäer wenig gemacht. Ein Jahrzehnt Verfassungsdebatte, die mit dem Lissabon-Vertrag minimalistisch zu Ende gebracht wurde, hat den Geist der Selbstbeschäftigung und der Überschätzung des Institutionenwesens in die EU zurückgebracht. Großzügiger als jede andere Weltgegend gibt sie staatliche Entwicklungshilfe – und macht den praktischen und moralischen Effekt durch eine engherzige Schutz- und Bevorzugungspolitik für die eigene Landwirtschaft wieder zunichte. Die EU begrüßt die Mühseligen und Beladenen, die über das Meer bei ihr Zuflucht suchen, nicht mit einer Freiheitsstatue, sondern mit Patrouillenbooten der Küstenwache und Auffanglagern für illegale Migranten. Vor dem anderen, Fremden, vor dem Draußen hat Europa Angst – nicht nur vor der Konkurrenz, der Globalisierung, den Billiglöhnern und Outsourcing-Standorten, sondern auch vor jenen, die im EU-Paradies nach Wohlstand und Lebenschancen suchen. Der »europäische Traum« ist den Europäern selbst unheimlich.