No Transmission

Hey, everyone. Unless I feel motivated to post while in Japan (somehow I have mental images of Chiquita and myself collapsing on our hotel beds totally knackered after a day of sightseeing and shopping), you won't hear from me until the first week of November. Tough, I know, but be brave and hold out there!

And this season's hottest accessory is...

On Monday, I rushed out of the office to meet a Japanese ex-colleague for lunch, who promised to give me some more last minute hands-on information. I had already walked down one third of Graben on my way to St. Stephen's Square, when I noticed something...heavy brushing against my right thigh. At first I thought it was the buckle of my trenchcoat's belt. When I reached back to retrieve the offending object, it turned out to be a big fat blue coat-hanger!

It had obviously slid down and become entangled with my belt when I took the coat off the coat rack.

Thankfully, I did not hear any people laughing behind me, so I furtively snatched it off and was glad I had a collapsible shopping bag in my handbag.

I arrived at our meeting point with the hanger safely hidden in the bag, but had to tell my friend anway because I could not help giggling as mental images of the interesting sight I offered kept replaying in my head. Who knows, maybe I ended up on some tourist pics which will get stuck into an album with the caption "the Viennese certainly are a bit peculiar".

Desperate Measures

I think I might have mentioned here before that I tend to feel obliged to make a purchase when the nice people behind the nice online-stores send me those nice online vouchers or even just nice suggestions to patronise their shops. Well, as this tends to have a) a not-so-nice effect on my resolution to seriously start saving money when I'm...erm...grown-up and b) brings my bulging one step closer to explosion, I've decided to use the handy filter-function that GMail offers and divert those kinds of mails from my inbox, sending them marked-as-read to the respective label. It also works quite well with all kinds of newsletters I subscribed to ages ago and hardly ever read anyway. You might argue that I could just as well cancel them, but it seems easier to just filter them. Even if you don't need a flight-ticket or a job at the moment, you never know. Did I say I mark e-mails as read? Well, not all of them. Even though I also divert the daily (!) mails from Brands4Friends to the "shopping" label, I sort of prefer to manually mark them as read. And sometimes read them. Which results in the inevitable. Such as today (CK rings for less than 30 Euros!) . Still, we're getting there...

(Soon to be) Well-Travelled Loo Paper

For my birthday, Frida gave me all sorts of designer articles, including a roll of toilet paper with a baroque pattern. Since a) I didn't want to use it up right away and b) am very OCD about my interior decoration mottos and use exclusively blue toilet paper at home (you may laugh), it is is still in mint condition.

When I saw it sitting on my toilet shelf, I thought I'd take it to Japan. After all, I've read that there apparently are only 2 extremes of public toilets in Japan: high-tech contraptions with heated seats and optional bum-washing functions or holes in the floor with no paper. So in order to be prepared for the latter variety, I'm packing my fancy toilet paper to go about my business in style.

Yet Another

Laptop bags. How many of those do you actually need? Well, quite a few, if you are me. It's probably like my hunt for The Perfect Carry-On Luggage - as I sometimes need to carry my (extreeemely heavy) work laptop around, I've been on the quest for the Holy Grail of laptop bags that look business-ish but not too boring. Many people who've just finished building a house will tell you that it takes the experience and trial-and-error of several attempts until they know with any authority what the perfect house for their needs has to be like.. Do you see the analogy? Well anyway...

I recently got this OGIO bag via Brands4Friends and while it turned out to be bulkier in real life than I thought it would be, I still really like it. What I particularly love are the cute pictograms inside the many pockets, like the envelope symbol in the outer pocket (see above pic) and the one in the so-called "no boyfriends allowed pocket":

Getting in the Mood

...for Japan, with a bit of "Austrian tea ceremony". Last night, MC and I went for an after-work...erm...tea (I know, we're wild ones, the two of us) at a nice little tea and coffee shop near our office. Her tea (Assam with milk on the side came in a gorgeous lime pot and saucer), mine in an Asian metal pot. Bot arrived with "tea-timers" that started beeping like alarm clocks when the tea was "done".

28°

Sprinklers in action in October? In Austria? Yep, up to 28° in Vienna yesterday and today...

Sacraments

Walking back to my car after Frida's exhibition, I passed Zehrer, one of my favourite shops in KLU. It is a shop that I really miss in Vienna for its incredible variety of baking utensils and ingredients. They also specialise in candles and table decorations and this window display reminded me that happiness and pain lie close together indeed:

Tying the knot:

Forgetting them not:

Homebody

Last weekend I was in Carinthia. I would not have minded jumping into the lake for an end-of-season swim, but even though we all know I don't mind cold water, I did not want to risk catching a cold shortly before my holiday.

Even so, I had a good time, enjoying the garden and its offerings.

As usual, I was spoilt by my Mum...

had the cheek to disturb the Beast's beauty sleep...

visited Granny and went for a (short) walk with her...

followed by a very quick visit to an apparently award winning shopping mall...

and joined the admirers of Frida's exhibition which coincided with this year's long night of museums...

Fashion-Police, Mayday, Mayday!

Halfway on our way back from a meeting outside Vienna, the Empress and I got *interesting* company in our train carriage. Apart from exuding an equally interesting smell, the guy (the Empress who was sitting opposite him furtively took a picture with her mobile phone) wore an un-be-liev-able combination of patterns and boring colours. I would be hard-pressed to find such horrible shirts, ties and jumpers.

We tried hard to suppress a really bad a fit of the giggles all the way to Vienna by biting into our magazines and hiding behind our laptops.

Beauty Trivia

As I've told you, I've recently become rather too well-acquainted with the parallel universe of beauty channels on YouTube. The so-called gurus constantly show their viewers their new make-up routines, favourite products and, most importantly, "hauls". The always share their beauty secrets with the world at large, something which I find almost as intriguing as the "what's in my bag" concept, I thought I'd show you the (kind of weird) products I think I can't live without. Here goes:

It's a very rich calendula ointment from a rather famous pharmacy in Mariazell in Styria. Some years ago, my Mum got a pot from a friend of hers as a souvenir and since she already had another one, she gave it to me. I discovered that it is THE BEST THING EVER (yes, better even than the admittedly very good Dr. Scholl stuff) to combat dry skin on my feet/heels and religiously apply it every night before going to bed. I usually put on socks (très sexy!) to make it get absorbed even better. My feet are far from beautiful and in fact I have been troubled quite a bit by a bunion recently, but at least the skin is baby-soft. In case you're interested and your local pharmacy does not produce a similar version (note: calendula creams or lotions are not the same and don't do the trick), you can order it online from the pharmacy in Mariazell and they do overnight delivery if you live in Austria.

Some weeks ago, I was given a trial size of Clarins ' Huile Lotus. I was not terribly thrilled as a) I actually hate the feel of oil on my fingers (and under my fingernails in particular) and b) it says on the bottle that it is for combination/oily skin whereas my skin is rather dry. Anyway, I was curious and decided to try it. Believe me, it is sooo lovely! None of the nasty oily feeling, a gorgeous smell and incredibly pleasant feel on your skin. You just apply it on skin that's still moist from toner and gently rub it in. My skin feels really soft and relaxed afterwards and pores appear more constricted. I immediately bought the regular size when I had used up the tiny one and have been using it several times a week, usually instead of my night cream.

As I have very straight pigs-bristles-like eyelashes and am not adept with an eylash curler at all (I always ended up squeezing the skin of my lids and have long ago thrown out the one I had) I was happy when lash primers started to appear on the shelves in Austria a couple of years ago. The first brands I used were Clinique, Esthée Lauder and L'Oréal, but now I think I'm going to stick with the above "wonder wand": Lancôme's Oscillation Powerbooster lash primer. It has an inbuilt battery and the wand vibrates when you apply it, which results in much better results, i.e. more coverage and a nicer curve. Lash primers are basically a white base for your eylashes. You don't allow it to dry but apply the mascara right away. Should you be afflicted with pigs' bristles instead of nice curled eyelashes, too you might want to give it a try. I definitely recommend it.

I know that my (few) readers hardly ever comment, but I'd be really interested to hear about YOUR beauty secrets/the products you swear by.

All on Board

Other people spend hours plotting their holiday and meticulously read their guide-books (still have only leaved through mine). I, on the other hand, I spend hours trawling the web, searching for The Perfect Carry-On Luggage. Not a suitase (I don't like wheeling an additional trolley), not too heavy, not too small. I found it some weeks ago in the shape of a cute LeSportsac holdall: