Rooftops

About eight months ago I moved from the suburbs into the city. Now I live on the fourth floor and I have a wonderful view on the rooftops of the other houses and into the sky. When I look at the antennas in the evening or I see snowflakes on the dark roofs at night, just like in movies that take place in Victorian London and start with the camera moving across the sleeping city, I am (almost) reconciled with the 82 steps I have to climb every day. Sometimes I look at the chimneys and would not be surprised if suddenly a chimney-sweep appeared and started singing a song about his work, but so far it has not happened...

When life is too sweet to bear

I love websites where well- but originally -dressed people show their wonderful, creative, charming ideas for decorating or crafting or just display the things they love. (I occasionally do that myself here.)

However, sometimes I am not in the mood for all this pastell-colored vintage loveliness and feel like I am stuck in a giant sugary marshmallow... Then it's time to visit my favourite "sour" websites:

http://www.theanticraft.com/
As they claim on their facebook-page, the Anticraft is "fucking up craft since 2005". And they do it amazingly well. Unfortunately, their homepage is in a bit of a hiatus, but still their archive contains more great projects than I could ever finish. If you want to knit a toxic tea-cosy, plan to make a tiara out of bacon or know somebody who would love to get a hat with tiny impaled figures on it this page is for you.

http://www.geekgirlsrule.net/
The GeekGirlWhatRules blogs about feminism in geek culture as well as about roleplaying games, movies and other stuff. Although I do not always agree with her (but hey, I do not even agree with myself quite often), I admire her clear style and enthusiasm about RPGs and maintaining a "geeky" lifestyle as an adult.

http://badassdigest.com/
My main source for information about movies and popculture topics. Especially the long and rather academic essays by Filmcrithulk are worth reading.

Yeah, so now you have the opportunity to make a bleak day even more uncheerful!

Toxic Presents

As I told you in my last entry, I got a wooden box with a toxic content for Christmas. (You could call it a "gift" if you like puns. If you don't, just call it "present").

The box looks like this:

The background is the following. Although I am definitely an adult now, I just don't do some grown-up things. For example, I do not drink wine. I am not interested in investing any amount of time and energy in learning something about the different kinds of wine or trying to find my "favourite vintage" or whatever. I am a beer person. However, I thought it would be nice to know at least a little bit about the "stylish" side of drinking, and therefore I decided to become a spirit-person instead of a wine drinker.
Naturally, I asked my father to help me with this project and give me some high quality spirits for Christmas in order to have a sophisticated alternative to beer.

And this is what I got:

Cognac, Sherry and Whiskey. I am so happy, this is really a great start for my journey into grown-up drinking... (Just to make this clear: I don't drink that much and I am not an alcoholic, but I am not a Puritan either. You should enjoy the good things in life, and drinking responsibly and not too regularly is definitely fun.)

And just for fun, here a recipe for one of my favourite alcoholic drinks, liquorice vodka, or, as they call it in Northern Germany "Schwarze Sau" (what a great name!).

"Schwarze Sau" (Liquorice Vodka)
You need one bottle of vodka (in this case a very cheep brand works just fine, I always use the one from Aldi), two packs of "Türkischer Pfeffer" (very strong liquorice sweets) and a large glass bottle.
Smash the sweets with a heavy object, e.g. a hammer or a bottle, and put them into the large glass bottle. Fill in the vodka and just let it sit somewhere for about a week, shaking it once a day. After some days, the sweets are dissolved and the drink tastes just wonderful.

  

Christmas Presents for me

I did get a lot of beautiful and useful things this year, I am so happy... My hobbies are pretty clearly defined and I have a lot of them, therefore I suspect that it is not very difficult to find stuff to give me. Yeah for me!

Some of the highlights this year were for example:
- the complete "Torchwood"-Box
- the 4th and 5th season of "Doctor Who"
- a very exotic perfume from Saudi-Arabia in a beautiful red flask
- a Dalek-poster (Yes, I am very interested in Doctor Who at the moment...)
- a large wooden box the content of which will be the topic of my next post, I can only say so much: It has something to do with toxic substances...

Finally... -Holidays!!!

I am so glad because the holidays have arrived at last. I've never been so exhausted before Christmas, usually I feel like a wreck before Easter, but the last two or three weeks just sucked.
I love my job and my students but I am so happy to meet only people I want to meet during the next three weeks... Hurray!

Christmas Presents Part One

The good thing about having neglected my blog is that none of my friends or family members reads it anymore. Hurray! Thus I can post pictures of my selfmade presents before Christmas Eve without spoiling anything. Although I did not have much time this year because of the ridiculous amount of tests I have to correct I still managed to make some presents myself.

This is the first: A flock of small birds made of fabric which can be hung into windows or anywhere else in the house. They have a very simple design, two flat pieces for the body and little wings made out of two oblong pieces each. I stuffed them with special stuffed animal filling which gives much better result than the ordinary cosmetic cotton I used in the past. The eyes are small black beads. Most of them will go to my mother, but one or two will be a present for my partner's mother.

Things I love in December

I stole the idea for this post from the wonderful Bronwen's Blog "Teaparties and Fairytales"...

1. http://www.swordandlaser.com/
This is an online book club, but they also publish great podcasts and videos which focus on fantasy and science fiction literature. I really enjoy following the online discussions about books and I am trying to read their "book of the month".

2. My Kindle

In spring I have moved and after having carried about 800 books to the fourth floor my enthusiam for the printed word has somewhat vanished. A few weeks ago I bought a kindle and although I feel a bit guilty because I don't support the local bookstores anymore, I am very happy with my e-reader. It has already saved me from having four more books on my shelf.

3. Watching The Sopranos
Work is really exhausting at the moment and the weather does not encourage me to go outside in the evening. Watching The Sopranos is therefore what I do after work. It helps me to relax, is not too difficult to follow and I still get the feeling that I am working to fill a gap in pop-culture knowledge.

4. "Les Petit Marseillais" - Shower Gel

My parents went to Paris last week and I asked them to bring me some shower gel by "Les Petit Marseillais". As always, they were a bit too motivated and I won't have to buy any shower gel until summer I guess.

5. Six-Ply Sock Wool
It makes knitting socks so much faster, I almost can't believe how quickly I can finish a pair of socks with this thick yarn. Especially useful to make a Christmas present in a hurry.