Even if Everyone's On Vacation

...and the town is deserted by locals, there is always the MQ and magazines (not glossy, in this case, but ever so readable).

Niceties

So. Nice. I spent a wonderful 4 days with a university friend (let's call her Mademoiselle, because she's a real francophile) who rents an apartment there every summer and did a great job as a tourguide and interpreter for me. Apart from the obvious things like sight-seeing and enjoying the beach

we made a trip to nearby Monaco

saw recycling meet fashion is the shape of a dress made of bottles (at the Museum of Modern Art)

wore sexy footwear to brave the pebbles lining the beach all the way to the sea

and encountered a futuristic new form of portaloo, camouflaged as a heap of pebbles

What more can you possibly ask of a weekend break?

La Thérapie de Retail

Until I find the time to download the hundreds of pictures I took during my truly wonderful mini-break in Nice and send out links to the web album to the select few I intend to bore to death with them, I'll show you the (textile, there were others, too) purchases I made there, true to my mission to preferably buy local brands or at least things I cannot get at home:

Tunic-dress and bag from Bensimon, long-sleeved top from Comptoir des Cotonniers, cardigan from Monoprix.


One more addition to my international series of pictures-of-me-with-shopping bags...

Very Nice

This afternoon, on what is allegedly the hottest day of the year (37°) I am flying to Nice, hoping for a cool breeze from the sea. I'll be back on Monday night - try not to melt here...

Loaner

Remember when I told you about contributing to a microloan via Kiva last year? Well, my USD 25 have now been repaid and I decided to reinvest the money to support a woman in the Philippines whose name, Jean Adorable, I like just as much as her project. Some people I had told about it last year were sceptical I'd get my money back, but with that small an amount I would not have even minded. As it is, I am proof that it works and it feels good to have helped somebody with what for First World citizens is peanuts.

One More Cheesecake

Bad weather (although it was quite nice again yesterday) always brings out the domestic goddess in me and I decided to make a cheesecake:

I experimented with the cheese part as well as the base for which I used Cantuccini biscuits, hence I'll call it:

Vanilla Cheesecake with Cantuccini Base

Ingredients:

250g (almond) Cantuccini biscuits, ground
150g melted butter

350g cream cheese (I used one full fat and one light packet of Philadelphia cheese)
500g curd or quark cheese (= Topfen, I used the 10%-fat-variety)
3 table spoons cornflour
2 eggs
115g sugar
grated zest of 1 (organically grown) lemon and 1 lime
seeds of 1 vanilla pod

Grease and line a (24 cm) spring form and preheat your oven to 180°. Blend the ground biscuits with the melted butter and press flat on the bottom of the spring form. Bake for 10 minutes and allow to cool.

Mix the cream and curd cheeses, the cornflour, eggs and sugar with an electric beater. Add the zest and vanilla seeds. Pour over cooled cake base and gently shake to get an even surface.

Bake in 200° hot oven for 45 mins approx, i.e. until the surface is slightly golden. You might want to cover the top with aluminium foil to prevent it from getting too dark too soon.

Easy-peasy!

20 less

Yesterday: 32°. Sunny skies. Bikini

Today: 12°. Wind and rain. Barbour jacket

Just as well I rushed to the swimming pool after work, but still: IT IS A F****ing CONSPIRACY!!! Perfect weather during the week when everyone who's not retired, on maternity leave or works up a tan as a lifeguard by the poolside has to work in either overheated (perferably with computer periphery warming you some more) or arctic (hello, AC-throat!) rooms.

...and if I had too much money

...I wouldn't mind the Valentino bag full of red fabric roses. Should you happen to know of any sugardaddies who don't want any favours in return - send them my way!

My Suspicions Confirmed

Source: http://www.luckyicons.com/

When I worked at Coma HQ, people would often drop by to ask my Japanese colleagues to write the Japanese translation of lofty concepts like "love" or "philosophy" on a piece of paper so they could use it as a blueprint for a tatoo. I always joked that they could write anything as nobody would be able to tell the difference anyway and there were probably hundreds of people out there already whose fancy tatoos read "idiot" or "child-molester" without them having the slightest.

Well, I recently found out there is a blog devoted to just such mistranslations. My favourite is the tatoo reading "prepaid public transportation card" - priceless!

Good Mood Shoes

On Saturday, I walked past the Crocs flagshipstore. Hm, I might pop inside to "have a look", I thought. Not really surprisingly, the look turned into a purchase and I left the shop with a pair of extremely comfortable "flip flops" in a cool summery lime-green. A bit like a Mojito for your feet. I don't like the classic super-chunky Crocs that look like garden clogs, but the pink/orange pair I have been using as slippers for the last 2 years is very comfortable, if not exactly flattering to the foot, either.

My new purchase looks refreshingly un-crocsy and comparatively "streamlined".

Entertaining

On Saturday, I showed a colleague who is visiting from San Francisco some Viennese attractions she wanted to see. This included a visit to the Naschmarkt fleamarket, where I hadn't been for a long time. It is held every Saturday morning and popular among locals and tourists alike. Accordingly, there are hordes of people there and it's not exactly a place I'd recommed to claustrophobes. We didn't buy anything, but strolled through the rows of stalls and "heaps" on the ground, taking pictures and trying to avoid collision with other strollers-around.

Flip

This morning at around 9 we noticed a gigantic grasshopper sitting outside the Gazelle's window. It's almost 10:30 now and it still hasn't moved a fraction of a centimetre. What a hectic life!

Ready to Scratch or the Silica Miracle

As long as I can remember, I've had awfully brittle fingernails that would literally brake when I tried to peel off a price tag or perform similar tasks. Also as long long as I remember, my Mum (who has superstrong nails) has taken silica as a dietary supplement and tried to get me to take it, too. The white powder which she would mix into plain yoghurt and eat did not exactly appeal to me, nor did pills or capsules. Therefore, my preferred method would be to keep my nails nice and short, which I prefer anyway, filing them even shorter when yet another "peeling accident" occurred. I also tried applying nail hardener, but that seemed to have the opposite effect rather than make my claws stronger.

About a month ago, I was looking for fizzy magnesium tablets at my local DM drugstore. I'm not a fan of dietary supplements at all, but in summer, I sometimes get cramps in the calves at night, which are immediately remedied by taking extra magnesium. Anyway, as I was scanning the shelves, I noticed that they had sorted the supplements according to topics, e.g."pregnancy", "kids", "menopausal", "shiny hair"..."strong nails". Hey, they had onw-brand silica lozenges with cherry flavour. Worth a try for just a little over 1 Euro for a pack of 30. What can I say - not only do they taste really yummy, but they actually work! Never in my life have I had such even and strong nails and should they ever need a testimonial I'd raise my hand.

Catfight, anyone?

Newsflash

...for users of public transport: the following utensils have long been invented which make life indefinitely more bearable for people temporarily trapped right next to you :

• soap and deodorant
• nail scissors
• garments that merficully disguise the least perfect parts of your body rather than draw attention to them.

(Just saying)

Orange Raspberry Friday

On Friday, my first order from Brands4Friends (aka Brands4PeoplewithPatience) finally arrived. Among other things, I had ordered a childish but cute bag saying "Wonderbär" from the German label Adelheid - handy as a sports bag, for example:

On Friday evening after work, the Empress, the Gazelle and I went for an after business drink at Huth's Bierbeisl, next door to our former "canteen", da Moritz. It was quite nice and as you do in a beer place (if you are us), we ordered anything but, the Empress and myself going for a raspberry lemonade in a funny bottle that was just as sticky-sweet as it looks in the picture. Nevertheless, we were as giddy as if we had downed a keg of beer each.

Crushed Ice

As you might have gathered by now, I quite like making necklaces and bracelets, an activity both calming and gratifying (perfect for impatient people like me: most pieces are finished in less than 30 minutes). The greater part of my beading production I give away as I hardly ever seem to wear pieces of my "collections". Today, however, I'm wearing a rock crystal (clear and "cracked") set I made last night as it reminds me of ice-cubes and puts me in a summery mood:

Dog Days

In between heavy rain (thunderstorm, floods, hailstones, you name it), Austria is currently experiencing heat and humidity, also known as Hundstage (canicular days). When I saw the above pair right outside our office, I just thought "I know the feeling, guys".

I've Always Favoured the ORs

When Michael Jackson's death was announced in the media last Friday, I was totally ... unperturbed. Whereas other famous people's deaths have really shocked me, whether I liked them while they were alive, or not, I somehow never expected MJ to live to an old age, too excentric and OTT was his life.

Besides, I've never been a fan of his music. Granted, he WAS a very talented singer and arguably, live performer (if you like studded leather gloves and suggestive gestures in the crotch area, that is), but at that decisive moment in my teens when it was of utmost importance to publicly declare your tastes to your peers in order to know exactly what group to belong to, he was not my choice. Back then, when lists were cirulated in the classroom or you had endless discussions about your preferences on the bus, I seemed to always prefer the "or" options of any list:

Michael Jackson OR Prince

Madonna OR Cindy Lauper

Nena OR Herbert Grönemeyer

"seawashed" (as we called it) OR stonewashed jeans

moped OR Vespa

etc, etc