Friday, November 30, 2007

crack

tatecrack (onemorehandbag)

In London, I saw an interesting exhibit at the Tate, referred to as "the crack" by the locals, although of course it has a more sophisticated name, officially. It looked pretty impressive from the floor above, but less so from close up, with wire netting giving it the look of a model railway prop.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

No Duracell Bunny (Anymore)

London XMas decoration (onemorehandbag) So I was in London last weekend. Is it (old) age, I wonder, the fact that planes seem to have an obligatory 1 hour delay these days or the erratic service of London transport, but I felt I wasted half of my precious time waiting for some means of transport or other. On Sunday, K. (I've decided to call her Special K. for the purpose of this blog) dropped me off at Shepherds Bush tube station so I could take the direct line to Liverpool St. station from where I intended to catch the Stansted express. As soon as she had left, I was greeted by masses of people blocking the entrance to the station, all reading a notice saying that services had just been suspended because of a fire alarm at another station. Great. I ended up paying a whopping 27.60 Pounds for a taxi to the station, congratulating myself on the wise foresight of having left with plenty of time to spare. All in all, I spent the greater part of the day travelling - we left Special K's at 11 and it wasn't until 21:10 that I picked up my bag from the conveyor belt at VIE.
Abysmal quality of public and air transport and crowds of Christmas shoppers aside, I managed to squeeze in a good bit of shopping and a visit to the Tate Modern.
Lesson learnt - a free flight (remember, I had cashed in my frequent flier miles for the return flight) can be a bit like a Trojan horse. Whis is why I've decided not to spend my Miles and More miles in their shopping category, rather than on a free flight.

Friday, November 23, 2007

I'm Lovin' it


or "her", rather - London, one of my favorite cities ever. And that's why I'm flying there tonight for a pre-Christmassy weekend of shopping, museum hopping and catching up with an old friend. Not l'Italiana this time (she has moved to N.Y.) but my half English, half Austrian friend K. whom I first met when I was 17 . More on my retail and other exploits next week. Have a good weekend!

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Twenty. And Twenty-Two

Fuelled by the fact that my obscenely high (for my humble standards anyway) November salary had made its way to my bank account this morning, I decided not to go for lunch today but to take two companies of which I am a (store) card-carrying member up on their kind offers. Marionnaud, because they had 22% off everything today (the 22nd, get it?), MEXX, because they had sent me a € 20 voucher. A tub of expensive face cream and a pair of dark skinny jeans later I returned to the office.
Ah. Almost like the old times...

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

The Mysterious J

Some weeks ago, I noticed something strange in my work-correspondence - a character that looked like an elongated letter "J". It was usually right next to the person's name at the end of their e-mails. I had never seen it before and was puzzled as it seemed so random. I asked the guys in my room and they had no idea either but were equally intrigued. Was it some secret masonic handshake of the media branch? I even showed it to a software engineer who was just as clueless.

Yesterday, I forwarded an e-mail containing the mysterious character to another colleague. When she replied that she didn't get my question and what was it about a "J" anyway I at first thought I had accidentally deleted the character in question. Nope. When she asked if by any chance it was the smiley face I was talking about and asked me to come to her desk, the guys and I galloped to her room to see what she saw. Yes, there was a smiley where we all saw strange Js. She was the only one in our office using the Internet Explorer for her webmail whereas the rest of us are firefoxes...

Sunday, November 18, 2007

The End of an Era or Bye-Bye, Klippan.

My cousin, known to readers of this blog as Chiquita, has just picked up my Klippan bedsofa (pictured dressed and "naked" below). In a few minutes she will turn up for my other living-room sofa. Klippan was one of the first items of furniture I bought when moving into my flat 8 years ago, testimony to my impatience as it was the only IKEA sofa ready for "takeaway". For the others, you had to wait at least 6 weeks. Far too long for yours truly.
trusty old Klippan (onemorehandbag) After some time, I realised I'd rather have a corner sofa in my living-room and when I recently ordered a nice, affordable one (not at IKEA), it was a happy coincidence that Chiquita had just moved out from home and needed to furnish her new apartment, saving her a lot of money and giving me the reassurance that my two little (well, rather big and bulky) darlings have found a good home.



Friday, November 16, 2007

It can only mean one thing...

...when I wake up and don't hear traffic noise - SNOW, swallower of all sounds automotive and other.
snow in November (onemorehandbag)

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Working Girl

We don't want my laptop to get cold, now do we?

notebook bag (onemorehandbag)

Sunday, November 11, 2007

II

Exactly two years ago, on November 11, incidentally the official beginning of the carnival season, I wrote my first post. A lot has changed in my life since then. Mostly for the better. I don't read blogs as frequently, nor do I have nearly as much time for blogging, at least not on company time than I used to when I worked @ Coma HQ. Besides, I've come to the following realisation which is manifested on a custom-made t-shirt:isn't it? (onemorehandbag) I've even worn it to work, by the way, which is, well, kind of subversive.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Tree Hugger

tree hugger (onemorehandbag)Vienna, Stadtpark.

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Old habits die hard

Back in the old days when I worked @ Coma HQ, I would bore you with my lunch-break purchases on a daily basis. It's not that I don't fritter away money on treats of the textile variety any more even if lunch-hours are more devoted to calorie intake (speaking of which - I'm *happy* to report that I've re-gained all the weight I lost last year, thus living up to the stereotype that working for the Firm makes you fat what with all the free food readily available...). I picked up this over-the-bum jumper from Sisley last Saturday:new jumper (onemorehandbag)

So, erm ... versatile and warm and, you know - essential!

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Shrinks would have a field day

I've always prided myself of the ability to fall asleep in a matter of nanoseconds and enjoy a sound and dreamless sleep. I still fall asleep instantly, but recently, I've dreamed a caleidoscope of bizarre dreams of which I only remember snippets upon waking up. Last weekend when I was at my parents' I dreamt that I gave birth (who the father was remains a big question mark, he didn't figure in the dream) to a girl whom I named Jasmin. She was then given up for adoption in Ireland and renamed Roísín. In my dream, I was equally annoyed about the name as I was about the adoption itself. Not that I would ever consider calling a child Jasmin "in real life", either. In my defense, I had just finished a) a book set in Ireland and b) another one where adoption was the central theme.

Thursday, November 01, 2007

courtesy call

I seized the holiday today for visiting a dear old friend of mine:
volksgarten in autumn (onemorehandbag)
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