Friday, June 30, 2006

worse than I thought

Remember when I sort of took inventory of my bag-collection (the Vienna branch therof) in February? Seems like I'm a very deluded creature indeed as I had totally forgotten I had another 15 or so SUMMER BAGS stowed away in one of those infamous IKEA boxes up on one of my wardrobes. Last week I frantically searched for a pair of strappy white sandals, only to unearth them in one of said boxes, together with a good 7 or so canvas and straw bags. Oh! The other day I rummaged around for another pair of summer shoes and eventually got lucky in another box labelled "shoes". That box should have read "shoes & bags" as guess what - another half dozen of pastel-coloured or otherwise "summery" bags turned up, slightly offended I'd forgotten them.

Reasoning that it would be rude to obstruct those positive summer-sale vibes (i.e. the voices in my head whispering "Mandarinaducksale") I hastily grabbed a correspoding number of "autumny" and "wintery" bags and stuffed them into the vacant space in the IKEA boxes. Phew! Close shave. There's 4 more boxes up my wardrobes. I almost dread looking into them for fear of stumbling upon more testimony to my shopping addiction.

Lunch-break purchases: Only a new battery for one of my many SWATCH watches as I had to queue at the post-office to return a dress to La Redoute. I got a LaR-delivery l earlier today(by the way, it's getting slightly embarrassing how all the postmen know me by name from the many Amazon deliveries I get) and immediately tried on the goodies in the office loo. The dress I decided to send back was too loose and I didn't like the fabric (silk, but rather cheap and washed-out looking). I kept a funky top (with tiny beads and sequins and a kind of floaty chiffon belt-thingy, not sure about the latter but I can always cut it off) and another black silk dress, though.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

not so blind date

sexy bags (photo: Tomaz) As planned, I met Tomaz for lunch (me) and coffee (him) at one of my favourite haunts from my student days, Café Stein. If only all computer-guys looked so un-nerdy and cute, the profession would have a much better press! A locally well-known radio and tv presenter was sitting two tables down from us, by the way.

I finally got the bag-photo Tomaz took when travelling, see above. That's two hot bags, eh?

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

virtual reality

Tomorrow, I'm meeting fellow blogger Tomaz for lunch. In the course of arranging the details for our little blogmeet with Novala next week we found out (or rather I did, thanks to Google) that my workplace is basically round the corner from his. It's a small world, eh?

Speaking of which - when taking a digestive walk through Vienna's "Bermuda triangle" with my Mum last night I spotted the wedding-guest Chiquita and I had dubbed "Frankenstein", minus his Lolita-esque companion. Wearing a hawaian-print shirt. Puke.
Lunch-break purchases: Hard as we tried (on), my colleague B. and I couldn't find anything at Mango that fit us. Frustrating, but ultimately good for the budget. Well, there was one rather nice white skirt that did fit like a glove but I couldn't be bothered with the endless queues at the cash-desk.

Monday, June 26, 2006

family wedding

wedding reject (onemorehandbag) On Saturday, I attended the wedding of one of my Mum's cousins. It was his first wedding at the tender age of 57 so I guess there's hope for me (the bride was 43, by the way) yet. Quite the womanizer, the groom didn't wait so long for lack of likely candidates and it actually took all of his mother's persuasion to get him to propose. My great-aunt is 89 and more or less blackmailed him into getting hitched by reminding him that she only had ONE wish before she died - to see her only son walk down the aisle. Be that as it may - the bride is very nice and I think they'll be happy together.
I spent the greater part of the afternoon, evening and night bitching with my favourite cousins about the other guests, few of which we knew, giving them nicknames such as "Count Dracula" and "Frankenstein". The latter was a hunch-backed, greasy-haired chain-smoker in his late fifties who was in the company of a pretty, buxom blonde at least 25 years his junior. Chiquita and I kept wondering whether he was her father or else...VERY rich.

Most of my relatives already knew that TD and I had split up so I didn't have that much of awkward explaining to do. Even so, there were some rather tactless remarks (some to me, some to my parents) that made me wonder how hypocritical people can be sometimes. And I'm not talking about the inevitable "Well, you'll be the next one to get married, I'm sure" of which there were some as well.

Lunch-break purchases: None, as I met my Mum for lunch. She made me a gift of my first ever "self-help" book, or rather a book on the phenomenon and the myths of love written by a well-known psychologist. Completely new genre for me, I must say, but I appreciate it anyway. She gave it to me with the words, "I know you'll laugh and find it silly", but she's underestimated my degree of desperation, obviously.

Friday, June 23, 2006

...and the little Austrian seamstress

it's a jungle out there (onemorehandbag) Ta-dah! I finished the dress last night, sweat dropping from every pore as it was 27° in my flat. I need to seriously work on my Paris-Hilton-pose as I look somewhat matronly and club-footed in the photo above, but otherwise, I'm pretty pleased with the outcome. It's a little too wild to wear to the family wedding I'm attending tomorrow, but definitely not too wild for the office, methinks.
***

Thanks to everyone again for the nice reactions on my last post both in my comment-box and via e-mail. Most appreciated!

Lunch-break purchases: In spite of the fact that we got our so-called 13th salary (Urlaubsgeld) together with the regular salary today, I managed to exercise extreme restraint and only went food shopping, picking up the July UK Marie Claire on the way back to the office. I started reading the History of Love this morning, but will attack my glossy instead, I think.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

It's been 50 days

.... since I split up with TD. It was one of the hardest, if not THE hardest, decisions of my life and the first time I actually broke up with someone. I don't regret it, though, and deep down I know that it was the right decision, but apart from having to hurt someone you still love it also means burying all the dreams of a future together you once had. Eleven years are a long time and we've shared lots of beautiful moments together. He knows things about me nobody else knows, helped me overcome all sorts of crises and gave me many things I longed for. Most of all, he gave me lots of love and affection. I refuse to think of those years as a waste of time.

It took me a long time to realise that gradually our relationship had drifted into a direction I was not happy about, that I had slowly - or perhaps not so slowly after all - taken on far too many responsibilities for my liking. Ultimately, that I couldn't see any perspective.

I've deliberated for a long time and in retrosepct probably should have ended things earlier but deep down I was a coward and kept hoping that a Plan B was going to materialise, the way you don't quit a job unless you have another, more glamorous one, lined up. Well, first of all, that would probably have hurt TD even more and second - no such Plan B, alas.
He still hasn't moved out from my place which is making things rather difficult. No, make that VERY difficult. There are no fights, there are no loud words, we're very civil to each other, but it's putting a lot of strain on me and it's very confusing to suddenly have to switch from lovers to mere flatmates.

I really hope that we'll manage to stay friends and that eventually we'll both find partners we are happy with and who make us happy. Secretly, I think the two of us are too similar in many respects and therefore stagnated in this relationship. I'm a hopeless romantic as much as I am a pessimist (who's convinced she'll die lonely and have her decomposed body discovered by neighbours who barely know her name) and do hope that "somewhere out there" the ONE will be waiting for me.
My friends have been wonderful and bravely put up with my mood-swings. I sometimes get a bad attack of "bridgetjonesiness" when I feel the odd one out among smug marrieds and happy parents. (see pessimist above). Scary, life. An Irish friend of mine recently sent me a card with the following quote by "unkwnown" which I have decided to make my new mantra and which adorns the wall behind my desk here at the office:

everything will be okay in the end.

if it's not okay, it's not the end.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

stuffed

woof,woof no more (onemorehandbag) On Sunday, TD and I visited my great-aunt and -uncle in Burgenland on occasion of great-uncle T.'s 82nd birthday. We were treated to lunch at a restaurant in the village next to theirs. We'd eaten there several times before but as we'd always sat in the big function room I'd never before noticed a particularly charming decorative feature, a stuffed St. Bernhard's dog perched on the tiled stove, its fur soaking up Schnitzel-fumes, cigarette smoke and other country restaurant smells. Yum, yum.

Lunch-break purchases: Summer sale at the Body Shop. Hurray!

Monday, June 19, 2006

mineral daughter

On Friday night I made another necklace of semi-precious stones (top picture). As you can see, I'm in my long-dangly-mineral-necklace-phase now. Like?

I've recently started recycling some old, shop-bought, necklaces that had been gathering dust for years. When I don't like the new creation any more, I'll just undo it, too and wait for creativity to strike again. Clever, eh?

Speaking of DIY - yesterday I unearthed an almost-finished summer dress that I didn't finish last year as no real summer materlialised. My Mum actually did most of the cutting and sewing on a visit in Vienna and as she'll be staying at my place from Sunday to Tuesday I'm afraid she'll disinherit me and/or take away the expensive sewing machine she gave me as a very generous birthday present years ago if I don't finish the dress until then. She knows my lazy approach to sewing and offered to do the finishing touches (hem, neckline, sleeves) as well. I can almost hear her ask me "Oh, by the way, did you ever finish that dress you insisted on finishing yourself?" Well, I actually ironed the scrunched-up thing last night and got it ready for the sewing action to take place...uhm....at some stage this week.

The weather is lovely and hot for a change so chances for indulging in any housewifey or DIY activities are rather slim.

Lunch-break purchases: Stefanel. Summer Sale. Flowery skirt. Need I say more?

Friday, June 16, 2006

aimless, clueless, cashless

For the first time in years I haven't made plans for the Summer with a capital "S" yet. This morning, one of my colleagues printed out the annual departmental holiday-chart where people mark the dates of their respective vacations. What with summer officially beginning next week I felt somewhat overwhelmed that the holiday season (we're even having suitable temperatures for a change) has krept up on me while I was busy...NOT making plans. During a moan-fest on the phone to l'Italiana last weekend, she pronounced that the two of us needed a weekend-break in Ibiza (where I've never been) "popping Es". Hmmm...the idea of a weekend in Ibiza seems to be just what the doctor ordered but I'll pass on the Es, trying to get ecstatic from sunshine and shopping alone. Boring, I know.

In the past 11 years, I always spent at least week in Turkey. This year, that's not going to happen - more about that next week.

Well, something will come up and it better be cheap as I'm rather strapped for cash at the moment.

Lunch-break purchases: The plan was to buy a gift for my great-aunt and uncle whom TD and I will be visiting this Sunday but it's very hard to find things for people aged 80+ who claim not to wish for anything other than your company. I thought I'd get lucky at Tchibo where I ended up buying a set of airtight containers for myself...

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Southern Comfort

KLUinJune(onemorehandbag)Arrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, Blogger just chose to kill my post because the connection failed and I hadn't saved a draft. Well. Here we go again:

From Thurs to Mon I was in KLU, housesitting (or houseSHITTing, as our Japanese friends would say), bribing "the Beast" with goodies and following the written instructions (see top left pic) Dad had left on the dining-room table. Those ranged from hints on what tortures to inflict on the snails that like to feast on his lettuce to reminding me to call my paternal granny (and remember I told her we were going to Italy. Sounds less dangerous than Paris, don't you think?) at the same time every night like he does.

I duly identified all the plants to be watered and snails to be thrown over the fence and called Granny at the appointed hour. Easy-peasy.

On the whole, it was a very enjoyable and tranquil time. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want to live in Klagenfurt permanently at this stage of my life, but Vienna could seriously do with some lakes and mountains in closer proximity, eh?

On Sunday, I cycled to the lake (the very one I skated on in January), devouring the Accidental on a bench in lieu of my first non-chlorine swim of the season which I decided not to brave yet, given the rather modest temperatures. Because of a triathlon taking place I couldn't take my usual route back home and instead took a ride down memory lane, cycling along the Lendkanal with its beautiful mansions, passing the Steinerne Brücke (literally stone bridge) and its ice-cream parlour, THE undisputed teenager meeting and flirting point when I was young.

On Friday, I checked out the brand new Interio branch (and bought a birthday gift), right next to the super-sized new shopping mall. When did this best-kept-shopping-secret of a town suddenly morph into self-appointed provincial shopping mekka? Not that I mind.

Yesterday I was - gasp! - actually busy at the office and couldn't even catch up on what my favourite fellow bloggers and bloggettes have been up to lately (I hope not all of them have succumbed to football mania like our Novala has. Don't do this to me, girls!). The definite highlight of the day btw was the boss -strange creature to start with - making me convulse in fits of helpless giggling during our weekly departmental meeting. He mispronounced the brass concert (Blasmusikkonzert) of a Japanese high school band as "Blasenkonzert", which of course made one-track-minded yours truly conjure up vivid images of some unsavoury blow-job competition. Ahem. In my defense I have to say that the colleague sitting next to me (she's in her mid-fourties, so there!) was just as afflicted by the giggles as I was and we tried hard not to look at each other and to focus on an imaginary spot on the far side of the room instead. Matters weren't helped by the fact that just as we'd managed to regain some control of our red-faced, tear-streaked faces he said it again. Embarrassing as it was (imagine the clueless looks our boss gave us, I almost pitied him) believe you me it felt damn good to get the giggles like a twelve-year-old!

Tomorrow's another holiday and we've been promised fine weather. Yipppeeee!

Lunch-break purchases: None today as I had a date with the Pampered Princess but in KLU I took yet another trip down memory lane by purchasing a (bright yellow, embroidered) pair of espandrilles, hip footwear of my early teens. Oh the fond memories of summer rain, rendering their sisal soles a rock solid and in fact rock heavy monstrosity...

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

...I never promised you a rose garden

roses at Volksgarten (onemorehandbag)After a nice (note: with that, I definitely don't mean the weather) long weekend full of shopping (a new pair of black ESPRIT trousers, new/old perfume: Bulgari's Eau Parfumée au thé blanc, which I love as a summery sent), culture, soaking in warm water and eating loads and sight-seeing during a short sunny spell, Coma HQ currently is somewhat less comatose and I have had to neglect this sad excuse for a blog a bit. Tomorrow after work I will be heading to KLU again to house and cat sit for my parents while they are in Paris. I don't know if I will have time to post tomorrow, if not: don't expect to hear from me before next Tuesday.

Right now, it's lashing down rain outside and my ice-cream-parlour date with the Mermaid will have to be followed by a warm beverage. Uncharacteristically, I am not wearing white trousers or shoes with leather soles today as I invariably seem to do when it rains...

At least the roses at Volksgarten are in full bloom and cheer me up a bit on my way to work.

Here's a book recommendation for you: Tourism by Nirpal Singh Dhaliwal. Very irreverent, very sexy, very un-PC. In other words: very much my kind of thing.

Lunch-break purchases: None today as I actually had to sacrifice my lunch-break to work (workshop at a school). Gasp.

Friday, June 02, 2006

sabotage!

The plan was to post about the relative merits of classic black & white Hollywood films today (I went to see Billy Wilder's Sunset Blvd. with K. from my book-club last night) but right now, the futile DESTRUCTION OF MY RUCOLA SANDWICH (remeber, I'm rather partial to my daily fix of rucola) is somewhat closer to my heart.

When I returned from a walk around the block, defying the chilly temperatures and gale-force winds, I opened the fridge @ Coma HQ's ground floor kitchenette, looking forward to my lunch of sandwich, carrots (my side-dish of choice) and coffee-flavoured yoghurt. At first, I didn't notice anything odd when I took out the sandwich, which was wrapped in tin foil. When I extracted the bag of carrots from the same - bottomomost - drawer, however, I immediately had a jet of water splashing all over my shoes. Interesting. A closer look at said drawer revealed that there was a massive puddle of water, or rather that the whole drawer was afloat. Great. When I opened the wrapper of my sandwich, my heart sank as I saw the spongy mess inside. It was too late to pop out again and I desperately needed some carbs to go with my carrots. I was saved by a colleague who'd just bought a whole loaf of olive bread which she readily shared with me.

I hope this is no bad omen for the (long) Whitsun weekend. The weather alone is enough to make one miserable and grumpy...

Back on Tuesday.

Still no purchases worth mentioning. I know...

Thursday, June 01, 2006

souvenir

bagged shades (onemorehandbag) Novala was in Canada last week. Before she left, she promised to bring me back something nice, a bag, she said. Last night she gave me this cool (sun)glasses case disguised as a girly bag. Cool, eh?

Otherwise, I'm being kept busy(-ish) at the office, hence the silence.

No purchases worth mentioning recently...

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