Week 12: Mindfulness | Which Mountains?

Last week, I was in Tallinn. As always, when I am in Scandinavia, or the Baltics, I was fascinated by the Northern light. So magical and soft and totally different from what we are used to in Central Europe. When I pointed it out to my colleagues, one of them Estonian, one Latvian, they remarked that they didn't in fact notice. I have to say that I was not really surprised. It reminded me of an epiphany I had 20 years ago (OMG, getting old!) when a friend from Dublin visited me in my hometown and said something along the lines of "it's so cool that you can see the mountains from everywhere!" and I automatically replied "what mountains?". For me, this had always been the natural backdrop of my hometown and I was not consciously aware of them at all. Ever since then, I occasionally marvel at the cool scenery when waiting at a red light and appreciate it much more. 

SLG for Me

Until a few weeks ago, I was not quite on top of the lingo, but a few videos of Chase Amie later, I knew that the shorthand for "small leather goods" is simply SLG. After my frustrating shopping expedition to Louis Vuitton, where the sales assistant lived up to the stereotype of super unfriendly staff at most luxury outlets in Vienna, I placed an order at Smythson on my phone (!) on the way to the cinema on a Monday night and was happy to receive two beautiful blue boxes already on Thursday afternoon the same week, personalisation included. Both items were 50% off, by the way. Like most people I am a sucker for personalised things and I am in love with my pink monogrammed wallet. Join me in drooling over it and its little card case cousin:

The only drawback of downsizing to this wallet is the fact that it does not nave a coin compartment, but I can live with that. Last Friday, I also picked up a super cute and super inexpensive printed leather mini-clutch at the Fossil outlet in Parndorf that now houses both pink babies plus my earphones and business cards for easy transfer between bags:

What do you think of my pink friends?

Week 11: Last Straw | Resolutions

While I do have a suitable picture to illustrate this post, I have no intention whatsoever of inserting it. Last week somebody who has been annoying me for quite some time now, seriously overdid it and I may have reached the necessary level of pissed-off-ness to tell him to do exactly that: piss off. It's in everyone's own hands who they choose to get annoyed by, after all and piece of mind is only a blocked contact or unanswered call away.

And then THIS Happened

Ooops.

 We kind of saw this coming, didn't we? I still have not sold any of the stuff I put on the classified site (got stood up by 2 people who said they wanted to buy some of the cheaper things) but while I was in Sofia I searched for "vuitton" again and discovered this vintage (as in 10+ years old) backpack in Epi leather that is as good as new for a very, very attractive price. Believe it or not, this type of LV bag, called "Gobelins" was my first exposure to the brand which I previously thought only came in its characteristic and often (badly) copied monogram variety. My ex-boyfriend's lovely sister bought this backpack in brown on a Visit to Vienna and back then, having just begun working for peanuts at Coma HQ I was beyond shocked that somebody in their right mind could possibly fork out as much money for a handbag, brand or not. Seriously, I found it obscene, even though it worked out somewhat cheaper for her as she was able to claim a tax refund at the airport. I now got mine for the price of an entry-level Marc by Marc Jacobs or Michael Kors bag and didn't even flinch when handing over the cash. My new 11" laptop also fits inside.

 The only branding is a discreet embossed monogram on the front pocket, which I like:

Since I got a big fat amount of money back from the tax office after filing my tax return for last year I was contemplating the purchase of a new (smaller) wallet and card holder and walked into the LV store close to my office on Monday. There, I had to deal with the bitchiest, unmotivated SA ever. It turned out they did not have any of the items I was interested in anyway, but even if they had, I would have been tempted to ask for someone else to prevent her from getting commission (which I assume they get). My guess is that I looked like a thief of leather goods and her personal time, but she really annoyed me and I ended up placing an order online. Not at LV. Stay tuned.

Week 10: Goodbyes | And Cut

My fondness for Sofia is well-documented. Over the past 4 years, it has been my home away from home and the one business trip destination I visited most often. Last week I went on my last business trip there for a while. From April on, I will work for another department at the Firm and it is unlikely that I will have any business reason to travel to Sofia in the near future. With this at the back of my mind, I tried to revisit some of my favourite hunting grounds and of course visited Vessy, "my" hairdresser. Nobody has ever cut my hair as well as she has, without me having to explain what I wanted. I thankfully have thick and healthy hair, but believe me, not every hairdresser can work well with this supposedly good "raw material" and I have had my share of frustrating hairdresser experiences in the past. Anyway, Vessy is awesome and I decided to make the most of my potentially last visit by getting her to chop off more than usual. My farewell visit was made easier by the fact that she is expecting a baby in July, so regardless of my travel schedule I probably would not be have been able to get an appointment with her any time soon anyway. All in all, I did not get overly sentimental, since I am confident that I will be back either for business or pleasure at some stage for sure.

Week 9: Prejudices | A Visit to the Step-Child City

My Mum and I spent the weekend in Linz, Austria's third-largest city. With the exception of a few business trips this was only my second visit and I really enjoyed it. Friendly people, great museums, nice shopportunities and cafés as well as a good concert we attended on Saturday night at Bruckner Haus. Interestingly, when you tell an Austrian who is not from Linz or the surrounding province that you are planning to spend a weekend there, you invariably get a puzzled look or the question whether you are visiting relatives. Unlike Vienna, Salzburg, or Graz, Klagenfurt even, this is not a city you tend to pick for a weekend-break. You definitely should, though!

Miss and Hit

More than two weeks ago, my colleague who is also a member of various "gated shopping communities" asked me if I had seen that Westwing was selling preloved Louis Vuitton bags. I had not as this was one newsletter I had long taken to filter and mark as read to bypass my inbox and reduce chances of me buying random s*** on a daily basis. Well, back to the LV bags - there were lots of boring monogram classics, which are not my style and then 2 bags in Epi leather, one of which I liked. It first appeared as "currently in another member's shopping basket" for ages until I managed to grab it. Result! The price was decent and I thought it was a good idea to buy from a realiable site who would authenticate the bags. I was counting the days until it arrived and when it finally did this Monday, I was disappointed and ended up sending it bag. The condition was worse than described or visible on the photos and, worst of all, the bag smelled AWFUL. Think your granny's cellar or attic that hasn't been aired for 50+ years and multiply that smell by 5. I could not imagine putting any belongings of mine there. I mean, if the bag had cost 60 as opposed to 600 Euros, I would have considered it, but at that price...It was obviously not meant to be and I am not that much of a bucket bag type of person after all.

The day after this bag miss, I was rewarded with a hit. Last week, as I was killing time at the office, I put some "luxury items" of mine on Willhaben and also some other platforms. Nobody has yet expressed interest, but in an idle moment or two, I started researching what preloved LV bags could be found there. Again, lots of monogram bags in various conditions and a handful of decent ones. Among them, I found an old listing for a rare bag (that I had not known before, but I did my homework, researching the year of release, data code, etc) that is a lovely dusty lilac colour and called "Verseau" (=Aquarius, which is my star sign). It is in excellent condition and the owner delivered it to me downtown yesterday. It cost way less than the blue one and is in pristine condition. I already wore it to work yesterday and am very happy with my purchase.

Now I only need to keep my fingers crossed that somebody will buy my advertised things because I already have some other items bookmarked...