Is it Contagious?

As I've told you, I've recently developed an unhealthy habit - watching inane make-up tutorials on YouTube. When I checked to see what "Blair" was up to these days, I saw in the video description that she had swine flu. Huh? I was also quite surprised to find so many comments saying"I have swine flu, too" in between "I love your hair" gushings.

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Royal Engagements, Even?

This restaurant sign in Vienna's 15th discrict left me puzzled - shall we tell Prince William that they'd be happy to cater for his engagement party?

Unlucky Streak, Continued

My roller blinds, or rather, shutters are being installed at this very moment, so that's progress. However, as I wanted to synch my little-used iPod yesterday after...months, I realised it didn't work anymore and refused to be reset or give in to any other tricks recommended in online forums. I'm actually not a listening-to-music-everywhere-person at all, I bascially only use it when on vacation to drown out noise or to kill time when I've run out of printed matter. I did want to take it to Japan with me, though (assuming Chiquita will take hers) and am now trying to make my mind up whether I really want to buy a (new) one again. I could use my G1 phone, but the battery is much worse than an iPod's. Decisions! Expenditures!

Not that I Need Much Convincing

MC sent me a link to an interesting article (we haven't quite decided yet whether the study is supposed to be serious or not) on the different approaches of men and women when making a purchase. Sounds reasonable enough to me!

Speaking of purchases...right now, I'm on the look-out for The Perfect Grey Bag, because, as we all know, grey is the new black. My readiness to splurge large sums of money is slightly curbed by the fact that tomorrow, more than EUR 3,000 will be deducted from my bank account for the second half of my upcoming holiday and 4 roller blinds. Gulp.

I Fully Expected That to Drop on My Head

Yesterday was not my day. Well, let me rephrase this - yesterday MORNING was definitely not my morning. First of all, I got stood up by the company who was supposed to install my blinds. Then a carton of cocoa milk (left over from Saturday's kiddies party) leaked in my handbag on the way to work, spilling its contents all over my its contents: cardigan, book - you name it. In the process of extracting the soiled items, I manged to get attractive brown spots on my white t-shirt. In the office, my laptop, which I thought I had successfully shut down at home turned out to have frozen. I could not shut it down so as a last resort tried to remove the battery only to find out that the release lever was broken. A colleague managed to get it out using a tiny LEGO flag (long story how that got to be in the office in the first place). Then my docking station was not working (the cleaner must have unplugged it). When I was finally online again, I got to read the stroppy e-mail of a disgruntled customer. By the time I went to buy a clean t-shirt in my lunch-break, I was convinced the concrete slabs dangling from a crane right next to our office would fall smack on my head and squash me, Tom&Jerry-style. Surprisingly enough, it didn't.

Dropping By

On Sunday, the sun was shining and I was itching to get some exercise. My bike was slowly rusting away in the yard and I decided to take it for a spin. I ended up cycling across town to the Danube Island, all the way to the Cherry Grove, where I gave an origami workshop earlier this year.

In this tranquil environment, I took out the "thriller" we're supposed to discuss at our next book club meeting.

Entertaining

Yesterday afternoon, I had Mademoiselle and Amica with hubby and kids over at my place. After all, the KGB agents had sternly reminded me that they had never been to my flat. Obviously, I wanted to be in their good books and therefore decided to go for kids-friendly food and presentation thereof:

Well, I should have anticipated that light-switches, sockets and sofa cushions were infinitely more attractive than heart-shaped sandwiches and muffins, but at least the cross-examining was up to its usual standard. While the parents cringed, I couldn't stop laughing about the endless game of "But OURS is better/bigger", which I assume they picked up in kindergarten. It goes like this: "Do you have a bedroom for guests?". "Yep, I do, do you want to see it?" "So small? OURS is MUCH bigger." "Do you have a study?" "Well, I have a room that I use as study and spare bedroom." "WE have SEPARATE rooms for that!" "Do you have a car/oven/microwave/washer-dryer/weekend-house...?" And on and on.

Admitting to one's inadequateness has rarely been so much fun.

Secondary Literature

Today in one month's time, Chiquita and yours truly will be travelling to Japan! We're very excited and whereas I haven't really tackled my fat guide book yet (I like to do this very last-minute, i.e. on the plane), I've been reading several books on Japan:

I particularly liked Sushi and Beyond -great writing even if you're neither into the country, nor its culinary offerings.

Loaner

Not for me because I am very "possessive" by nature, i.e. want to OWN bags, books, erm...boyfriends and all other things beginning with a "b", but it's a good idea to borrow bags. Should your longings for a Louis Vuitton bag have been conflicting with your budget, well, this site might be the answer. The friend who sent me the link also pointed my attention towards a really cool tote bag. Definitely something else.

Addiction (It's Serious)

Every now and then, I disover parallel universes. Like the time when Novala first told be about this thing called blogs. Until about half a year ago, YouTube for me was basically a kind of jukebox were you could find ALL the songs of your youth and beyond, including the most cringeworthy Eurovision Song Contest entries. I also associated it with practical hands-on demonstrations (I would sometimes watch Photoshop manuals), rants by all kinds of weirdos and funny(ish) home videos. A couple of months ago, I was doing some research for a work project when I discovered the phenomenon of make-up gurus and their channels. The first one I "met" was Panacea81, an extremely likeable and talented British girl who started out with few subscrivers and crooked teeth. She is now a MEGA phenomenon with shiny veneers and her own make-up-line and beauty-column in the Guardian who's on a mission to show that people from a disadvantaged background and with a less than perfect figure can make it big. Lauren (her real name) rocks!

Recently, when I hadn't watched any make-up tutorials for weeks, a video with the title "how I permanently go rid of my acne" on the YT homepage in the "videos being watched now" category caught my attention and although I'd never even had acne I watched it because it fascinated me that people would upload a video on that topic. Thus, I made the acquaintance of Allthatglitters21, another very popular make-up guru in the YT realm. She is the sister of Juicystar07, who in my opinion is not only prettier, but also a lot funnier to watch. The two of them aged 21 and 16 years respectively, live in an undisclosed Southern state of the US and have their own online shop (you can find many videos of their fans reviewing products they bought there), Glitzy Glam. Needless to say they also have blogs and can be found on Twitter.

My latest discovery and current favourite is RiceBunny, an American girl of Vietnamese descent whose videos are very origininal, edited really well and use backgound music and voice-overs. She often does tutorials on homemade masks and scrubs using fruit and veg and also has her own skincare range, IQQU.

Like other people are addicted to soap operas or gossip sites, these tutorials and vlogs hold a strange fascination over me and I would typically watch 10 videos in a row in lieu of watching TV.

When you type "make-up tutorial" into the search box on YT, you get 216.000 results. Oh-oh.

Hmmm...

I'm guessing this is part of a "match your dog"-line:

Stopping in Thailand on the Way Home

Last night, the plan was to attend a back gym class with the Mermaid. When I found out that the new class cycle would not begin until next Wednesday, we went to the ice-cream parlour instead. Afterwards, we walked from Schwedenplatz to Burgring and were contemplating which entrance to the U3 "Volkstheater" station to take, when I spotted nicely lit tent-like stalls on Maria-Theresien-Platz and people engaged in some kind of shopping activity or other. Always eager not to miss any shopportunites, we decided to check it out. It turned out there was some kind of Thailand festival going on and the Mermaid was very excited when she saw they were selling Thai groceries. She was on vacation there last year with her boyfriend and got very nostalgic when she saw "their" brand of beer and fresh coconuts. We shared a coconut, my first ever of this type, and I have to say it tasted very nice. This is the Mermaid enjyoing her Thai soft drink:

Afterwards, we perused the rather run-of-the-mill silk scarves and handicraft objects, passing food stalls (a pity we weren't hungry!) and a kick-boxing demonstration and had almost reached the end of the row of Thai attractions when the Mermaid sighed, "I'm so tense, I really wish they gave Thai massages here, too". Hey presto - as soon as she had finished the sentence, a massage stall turned up. "Come on, let me treat you to a massage, too", she said and so we both sat down for a 15-minute neck/head/shoulder massage executed by tiny women with a lot of strength in their fingers. I'd have found the experience even more relaxing if my masseuse hadn't giggled and shouted something to her colleagues all the time, but according to the Mermaid this is very authentic. At the end, they rubbed on some oil that smelled like tiger balm and left a pleasant burning sensation on my back. Colourful Thai (?) orchids in hand, we finally reached the subway station and felt we had just come back from a mini-holiday.

What's in My Bag

Recently, I've developed a whole new addiction - more about that another time - which led to the discovery that "What's in my Bag (or Purse)" videos are immensely popular on YouTube. I can fully understand as I find it very intriguing to see what other people, i.e. women, carry around with them.

Well, I won't put up a video on YT, so I've decided to post about it instead. Here goes:

This, by the way, has been my favourite bag this summer and I've worn it a lot. It is so roomy and lightweight that I even used it as hand luggage on my last flight. Not pictured are my keys, which typically would be in my handbag as well, but apart from that, the above things are what I always carry with me:

my wallet (from Fossil)

a store-card holder (from Muji)

my camera (Casio Exilim EX-Z1000

my phone (G1 from HTC)

tissues (in this case in a nice tissue-cover I bought from DaWanda)

a paperback (currently, The White Tiger)

chewing gum (mint flavour, mostly)

sunglasses (obviously only when it's sunny outside. These are from Calvin Klein, but the case is from Iceberg because I bought the glasses really cheaply at Century21 in New York and they didn't come with a case)

a biro

a foldable shopping bag (to match the bag in question; I've got loads of different ones)

a little make-up bag which was a birthday gift from the Scholar (well, it's a little zippered bag from Ordning&Reda I use as a make-up bag), the latter containing:

my favourite perfume in a little atomiser

a lip gloss (Clinique's superbalm moisturizing gloss in Apricot)

a little mirror (covered in kimono silk, a souvenir from Japan)

VICHY Normaderm corrective stick for skin-emergencies

a deodorant wipe

tweezers

a pack of soap sheets

spare contacts (I wear disposable daily contact lenses)

a nail file

a refreshing towel (the kind you get on airlines)

a sachet with a glasses cleaner

a sachet with sun lotion (SPF 30)

a sachet with hand cream

a band-aid

Anything you wouldn't leave home without?

Winter May Come

...now that I have got my hot pink cashmere cardigan - yay! As we know, I am somewhat...erm...susceptible to friendly newsletters offering me a discount. Well, this cardigan was the reduced "item of the day" with 20% off. Not that I'd have ordered it if I didn't like any of the colours, but I have to say it added some urgency to my need (no, make that Need!) for a(nother) cashmere cardigan.

Not Only the Supermarkets

... are getting ready for Christmas this early. I am too:

Super-Easy Summer Muffins

I have a theory. Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the fact that in my day-job I'm not actually producing anything tangible - perhaps this is why I've been quite productive in the jewellery-making department. Another quick fix is baking. Last night, I was in a baking mood and decided to adapt a recipe for muffins I found in a magazine. They turned out quite well and my "guinea pigs" liked them.

If you want to try making them yourself, here's the recipe

Very Berry Muffins

Ingredients:

125 g butter (room temperature)
180 g sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
3 eggs
250 g flour (I used 1/3 wholemeal and 2/3 normal wheat flour)
100g ground almonds
50 g almond slivers
baking powder (1 sachet - 1 used less because I don't want the muffins too "porous")
250g sour cream
100g blueberries
100g raspberries

Preheat your oven to 180° (fan). Line a muffin tray with muffin paper.

Whisk the butter with the sugar until foamy, then add the other ingredients apart from the fruits. Put some dough into the forms then add some fruits. Cover with more dough (try not to over-fill them because the muffis will "grow" considerably) and sprinkle with some more fruits.

Bake for 30 mins approx.

Enjoy!

Hard Landing

So Skyeurope won't take off again. It's almost a pity, since in the last 6 months or so when people divuldged their summer holiday plans, you'd often hear "I'm flying to XY with my family. If Skyeurope are still flying, that is." I said the same when I told people about my plans for Nice. It was our equivalent of the Chinese greeting "Have you eaten already?".

Actually, it's not really so much fun when you're stuck at some obscure destination and have to get back.

When the airline with the blinking fluorescent website has gone bust, too, I'll open a bottle of champagne and toast to an unlikely return to proper airlines flying for feasible prices.