The Holiday is Over...

Okay, I guess I will have to use this word again - neglect. I haven't written anything since June and there are 2 reasons for it (not excuses, I am just trying to explain): First of all I discovered facebook and because the purpose of it (or at least one of it) is to keep people kind of up to date on what's happening in one's life I thought that maybe keep writing a blog is a bit useless. But I think I have changed my mind about that because what I post on facebook is only ever a fraction of what's happening, and not always the most importatnt stuff.

Reason number two was a far more serious one: My life was completely dominated by the wait for the holidays in Mallorca. I know you already know this because it's quite obvious from my last posts, but let me assure you that you hardly have an idea how obsessed I became from - let's say July - on. I could hardly think, talk or write about anything else. Sometimes I thought I would die from impatience, I felt physically sick thinking about the number weeks/days I still had to wait!

And here I am now, back from these holidays I couldn't wait for. Most of you might think that I am very sad now, depressed that it's all over - but I am not. I hardly ever am after a holiday, because as much as I love going away for a break (and holidays are precious to me!), I always like coming home, too. Here's where all my stuff is and there is no bed in the world as comfortable as my own. And of course the 3 P's - I miss them terribly when I'm away!
As much as I love getting away from my routine at home I need this routine to appreciate the more special times. As much as I love going out for dinner sometimes a home cooked meal, eaten on the sofa is better than the fanciest restaurant food. And as much as I like my beer and wine (and you know I do!) and have (reasonably!) larger quantities of each when I'm on holidays, I don't want to indulge in it every day. So being back home is fine!

And being back home after one holiday always means one thing: Planning the next - and that's also something I love to do! First we have a short break coming up next month, going to Duesseldorf for 2 days and then on to some village (I cannot remember the name) in the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) to visit a friend. I am very much looking forward to that!

And we have also started thinking about next year's holidays. The (preliminary) plan so far is to go away twice. In the last few years we have always only had one holiday a year (except for maybe a longer weekend here and there) and the time inbetween seems too long. So in 2011 we would like to go away twice, once in spring (or maybe around Easter) and again in September. Except for the places where we have already been and would always love to go again (Mallorca, Formentera, London, Paris...) there are only a few new ones that I "have" to visit:
1. New England - but we would need a bit more time than we actually have, especially when we split our holidays in two, so I don't think it's an option for next year
2. The UK - easy for us to reach and drive around in our own car and I would love to drive through Scotland/England/Wales exploring the country
3. Italy - something we have been talking about for years, a tour through (some part) of Italy! And that's definitely high on the list for next year, so we will start by getting a travel guide and trying to decide which places/which part we would like to visit. And if we decide to finally do it, it's time to learn some Italian which is a nice project for the winter months ahead!
Of course I won't try to learn the language to a high standard, but I definitely want to be able to understand the very basics and get around without expecting the whole of Italy to speak English or German. And I need to be able to read a menu because Italy and food definitely are one for me.

So now is not the time to whine but to look ahead! And as autumn is definitely here now it's time to get back to nice dinner parties, watching DVDs, reading lots of books and drinking red wine again (which I don't like in summer). And of course to writing a lot more about Nat's World:-)

51 Days...

My books from Amazon arrived in 2 batches, the first one-luckily-on Friday, in time for a weekend of reading! I started with the biggest one, “London – The Biography” by Peter Ackroyd. I’m on page 576 of 793 now, it is one of those books that’s narrowly printed and so are the other ones, which is good. Have you noticed that some books you can buy today are printed in such a large and widely spaced font that you can read them in something like an hour? It’s ridiculous and a complete rip-off!

So I am satisfying my hunger for London by reading at the moment and with every word I read my desire to go there for a few days grows, but I am quite sure we won’t be able to go there again this year (unless we win the lottery, can quit our jobs so time is no longer an issue and then we can buy a house in Highgate and I will join the “Friends of Highgate Cemetery” and wander amongst the graves all day, unless I am shopping or eating at Fifteen or roaming the streets of London and live happily ever after).

But there is a light on the horizon growing steadily bigger – today it’s “only” 51 days until we go to Mallorca! I am always impatient when it comes to holidays, but this year is one of the worse ones for sure. Not only am I counting the days, but how often I have to do certain things at work, for example I have to prepare the weekly tender reports 7 more times, I will receive the monthly invoice for the shopping I do in the mornings one more time and so on. Sometimes I am driving myself mad, but hey, doesn’t that show how badly I need a break?!

And also some sunshine! For the past few days the weather has been quite nasty, wet and windy. If it was cold (not that we have anything like this heat wave that’s apparently going on in the rest of Europe, but that’s something I am very grateful for) one might well think it’s November. Which suited me well last weekend as all I wanted to do was stay in and read, but now I wouldn’t mind being able to sit outside to do that, or have a barbeque again. Well, 7 weeks and 2 days and hopefully sunshine and outside living and barbeques galore!

Until then there is one more bank holiday (first Monday in August), on 24th June it’s the Heaven 17/Human League concert and Daniela is coming to Galway for a day, and I am sure we’ll go to Connemara again some time soon. Maybe we’ll make a trip to Kildare Village again too before the holidays. We are trying to distract ourselves in any way we can!

So, enjoy the fine weather if you can and mind the storms!

Another binge?! London!

Another month gone, July already. 58 days today until we are finally going to Mallorca, we are so impatient!

I am just starting my next reading binge I think, have just finished re-reading "Necropolis - London And Its Dead" and I am currently re-reading "The Victorian Celebration Of Death"...I don't think I have ever read the same book(s) twice in just 3 months.

Tonight I will order some books from Amazon, all about London and/or death - it just keeps fascinating me. There are about 20 books on my Amazon wishlist but I have already narrowed it down to 6 - unfortunately they don't come for free.

So, I will try to do a proper update soon (hopefully next weekend...although I hope I will have my new books by then, so I cannot make any promises).

Take care all of you out there!
Nat

Some photos to accompany the post below...

Eurovision Song Contest Party - us girls having a glass of bubbly

Resting with a full belly

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm, yummy!

What ya lookin at?

Reading, Writing, Summertime

It's the June Bank Holiday Weekend - amazing and scary how time flies! For me June has always been the beginning of summer, lasting until the end of August - although by the time August is here I'll be looking forward to the slightly more autumnal September, which along with May is my favourite month of the year, not only because for he past 7(?) years it's the month we have been going away on holidays. We are counting the weeks, less than 13 now until we'll be in Mallorca, and the good thing is that there is the whole summer inbetween.

There's always a lot going on in Galway in June and July, at the moment we have a powerboat race festival with food and crafts stalls, concerts etc., some Latin American festival, than there is the Film Fleadh and the Galway Arts Festival in July. This year one of the many bands playing is The Human League (together with Heaven 17) and although I am hardly a fan I think it's an opportunity not to be missed - and so I am hoping that Phil and the girls will be a positive surprise when they play on July 24th. Even more exciting than a (once) popular band coming to Galway is that Daniela (yes, the one who abandoned me in October last year to move back to Hamburg - as you might have noticed I am terribly resentful!) is coming and we are going to see them together! I guess she might only be here for one day, but we will surely make the most of it!

The past few weekends we have been quite busy partying, eating and drinking with friends and that is nice for a change. We tend to be more of the couch potato variety, especially in winter, but the change in the weather and the long hours of daylight make a huge difference. We had barbecues twice at our friends' place, last week had a little "Eurovision Song Contest" Party at home (well done Lena! I don't think your song was that great but you sure deserved to win!) with food from 7 of the participating countries (German, Turkish, Greek, French, Cypriot, Serbian and Spanish) and yesterday went out for dinner with friends - which ended with the staff asking us if we could leave because they wanted to go home. Normally I would have been very upset about this, but in this case it was okay as the place had been quiet all evening and we had been there for 4 hours, had finished all our food and most of the drinks.

I am still reading quite a lot at the moment (still re-reading Stephen King novels, I have to get new ones soon, also I think he has a new one out and tomorrow I'll check if it's available here). Also I have started writing a bit which at the moment is giving me a lot of pleasure. I guess it's a bit of a writing exercise as I don't really have a plot (yet) and mainly write about my characters' past and current situation, but I will hopefully come up with something - we will see and I'l keep you updated on this!

Oh, I have to mention one last thing: Last month The Cure's Disintegration was released as a Deluxe Edition and although I have known the album since 1989, when it was originally released and it has always been ONE of my favourite ones, I can now solemnly declare that IT'S THE BEST ALBUM EVER! Kyle (the little Southpark guy, for those of you who have not seen the episode with Mecha-Streisand) got this absolutely right! I mainly listen to the live versions on the Entreat Plus part of the set and there is nothing better music-wise in the whole wide world! Even the universe, I am sure of that! And it reminds me of such great concerts I saw, mainly the one at the Bizzarre Festival at the Loreley in May 1989 and the one in Barcelona on June 21st 1989 - a date and event I will never forget! No band ever will mean more to me than those guys. NEVER!

So I guess that's it for today. I will go and prepare dinner now and then go back to writing about my fictional characters for a while - let's see what they are up to.

Have a glorious summer time all of you, whether at home or on holidays, I'll be around again soon!

Not really a post...

...only a very short message to apologize (again) for not posting in such a long time. I haven't abandoned my blog, just lazy at the moment and on another reading binge. Found a book store 2 weeks back that sells used books and got a few of Stephen King's so I can re-read them in English (which is so much better than reading the translated ones). Also came across an amazing book I had not heard of before, Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese - fabulous! If you like John Irving you'll like this one!

So please be patient with me once again, I'll let you know all the news and gossip soon!

Take care,
Nathalie

Connemara - 10th April 2010

Lena, London, Summer

Hi Sweeties,

another month has passed since I last updated you on what's going on, this time not due to laziness but quite the opposite. The past 2.5 weeks have been exciting and lovely and dreamy (except for the 4 days that I had to work inbetween).

First of all my dearest Lena was here in Galway for 3 days and what a great time we had (at least that's what I think, I hope - and think - so does she). We spent the time eating and drinking and talking until the early mornings and oh how I miss(ed) that! There was no "sightseeing" involved as we had done that on her last visit (5! years ago) and except for a shopping/pub tour on Friday and a long walk (which - surprise - ended in a pub) we spent the time at home, cooking together, watching music videos on TV ("Telephone" by Lady GaGa and Beyonce will be my Lena-song from now on) and listening to music while talking about everything and anything. I thoroughly enjoyed every single minute of it and wish we could have this much more often!
From the minute Lena left it all felt like a dream, so surreal and at the same time as if it was possible for us to do this all the time. Unfortunately it is not, but I am sure one day it will be again...

Then the next weekend we were off to London where we met Marion & Philippe. I found every minute there simply perfect! We arrived later than expected because our flight was delayed (the good thing was that we flew from Galway to London Luton, so not much travelling was involved) and met Marion & Philippe at the hotel. Should you ever plan on going to London this is the one place I can recommend: The Hoxton Hotel! Everything about it is great (it was our second stay there). The rooms are small but modern and nice, the hall/bar is super comfy and you can spend hours there just watching people while having a coffee or beer. The people in general are very trendy (as is the whole area of Shoreditch, where the hotel is located). They are playing chill music all the time, everyone is friendly without being arrogant and it seems to be a meeting point for the fashionable lot of the area. You have fresh milk and water in a fridge in your room and in the morning you get a little breakfast bag from "Pret a Manger", which is a chain of eating places (I cannot really find the right word here to do them justice, they are not restaurants nor cafes, something inbetween) with a banana, a yoghurt with fruit and granola and a fresh orange juice. They have great food in general, everything is made in the shops from fresh and natural ingredients, nothing nasty and artificial!

So we arrived on Friday and went to a lovely Italian restaurant in the evening. Reception at the Hoxton recommended it and it was really nice, modern atmosphere, good food and just around the corner from the hotel. The next day was spent shopping (the four of us went to Harrods together on the tube but separated there because there's no point in 4 people trying to shop together). After about 2 hours in Harrods Stephan and I walked through Kensington to Picadilly, then to Carnaby Street, back to Picadilly, then to Waterstones which (as far as I recall) is Europe's biggest book store. Afterwards we were quite exhausted and after having a coffee we went back to the hotel where we rested in the bar for a while. In the evening the four of us went out for dinner to "Fifteen". Some of you might have heard about it, if not, here is a very short explanation: It is a restaurant that was set up by Jamie Oliver (now I am sure you know who he is) under the Jamie Oliver Foundation. Young disadvantaged people (these are my words now again, if you want to read more/more properly check out http://www.fifteen.net/) are given a chance to train as chefs and so given a chance to learn a proper job. Stephan an I had been there before last year and we loved it. Sometimes it is true hat "it's never as good as the first time", but fortunately this didn't apply on our second visit. The service is fabulous (very attentive without being stiff or annoying) and the food is to die for! One little thing I have to mention which is that in the beginning, the waiter asked us if any of us had any dietary requirements. Because the menue offers lots of vegetarian dishes I didn't bother to say that I am a vegetarian, but Stephan mentioned it, and so the amuse gueule I got was vegetarian, while the carnivors had meat. Now this should be standard, but 95% of restaurants would simply ignore it...as you don't pay for it (it's like a greeting from the kitchen) you have to eat what you get - but not at Fifteen!
The entire meal was fabulous, the ingredients used are simple but of best quality and that's what makes a good meal for me. And we all agreed - Fifteen rocks!
We went back there on Monday for breakfast which was equally good and along with the Hoxton it's a place I can only highly recommend. Good thing is that Fifteen is only 10 minutes walk away from the hotel (actually we found the hotel last year because it's recommended on the Fifteen website).Perfect combination!!!

Last but definitely not least worth mentioning is our (Stephan's and mine) excursion on Monday: We took the bus to HIghgate Village to visit Highgate Cemetery. First of all Highgate itself is really worth a visit. As the name suggests, it used to be a village outside London (but now is part of it) and it still has this village feel about it. All of a sudden you feel like you are in a completely different world, noise levels are low, the houses are small and old (but perfectly kept). From the bus stop it's about a 10 minute walk along a small street downhill to Highgate Cemetery. It was founded in the 1830's and is a monument to the Victorian age. As you can see from the books I have read recently this seems to be my latest "obsession", London, cemeteries, death, the Victorians and all that's connected with it. At this stage I could write an essay about this but you needn't worry, I won't get into these topics now.

So, after leaving London and our friends behind (which was really sad, I wish we could have stayed another week!) I was lucky enough to have another week off. So this is my last weekend of the Easter holidays. Today we drove through Connemara, the nicest landscape I have seen so far in my live, stopped for lunch in a nice little pub in Letterfrack and for me, today is the first day of summer. It was 20C this afternoon, blue skies and lots of sunshine. The weatherforecast is good for another few days and I will enjoy every minute of it as much as I can.

Monday it's back to routine, every day life, the rat race - whatever you want to call it. But that's okay too, because otherwise I couldn't appreciate the good times, the freedom of holidays and the lovely things in life.

In my previous post I just uploaded some photos of our stay in London. As you can see most of them are from Highgate Cemetery, but also one of the hotel (which looks like the inside of a castle, this is my favourite corner of the reception/hall/bar) and one of Marion, Philippe & Stephan. The one of me was taken by Stephan from inside the hotel while I was out smoking.

Take care all of you and as ususal I hope (but won't promise) to update this blog more often!

London April 2010 - Photos

Gingivitis

Oh, I am again guilty of neglect when it comes to my blog, another 3 weeks have passed without any updates. Well, not that there is so much going on at the moment anyway.

We had a couple of dinners with friends, one at our house and one at a friends’ place and last weekend went out for dinner because it was Stephan’s and my 13th wedding anniversary – WOW!

Two weeks ago we made a trip to IKEA in Dublin (which only took us 1h 50 on the way there and 1h 40 on the way back due to the new Motorway which runs from Galway to Dublin) because we were looking for a new TV stand. The one we have is nice, it’s actually the nicest piece of furniture we possess, but it is huge and our living room is a bit on the small side. I will finally go ahead and paint the living room this weekend (in the same colour that I painted the kitchen) and we thought it would be nice to get something smaller for the TV and DVD player…but we didn’t find anything. There were 2 pieces in IKEA that were okay, but we didn’t want to spend money on “okay”, we are looking for “really nice”. And when it comes to furniture shops in Galway you won’t believe what kind of rubbish they sell for incredibly high prices! So we have decided to stick to what we have, I am sure the new paint and a bit of a clear out will make the room look brighter anyway.

Pirate aka Herr Pirat

Tomorrow we will have to bring Pirate (one of our three cats for those who don’t know) to the Vet. He has gingivitis, which means his gums are badly inflamed and his teeth are in very bad shape. He will have to be anaesthetized and his teeth and gums will be cleaned and at least one tooth will have to come out. Oh, the poor thing, it will be horrible to leave him there! And just as horrible is the fact that he has to fast from tonight on, especially as that means we will have to make the other two (Pepper & Paul) fast as well. Okay, we don’t HAVE to, but I cannot stand the idea of feeding them and holding Pirate back, of course he wouldn’t understand why the others get food and he doesn’t, it’s just not fair. So they will all have to carry the burden. And so do we, because Pepper will start begging for food from around 6 tomorrow morning and once we are up they won’t stop annoying the hell out of us. But hey, nothing is more important than health and what has to be done has to be done, all five of us will get over it!

Pepper aka Miss Pep

I guess that’s it again for today. And today it’s

15 days till Lena comes
23 days till London
176 days till Mallorca

Don’t ever think we’ll stop counting the days!

Paul aka Paulo aka Paule

The End of an Era!

Wow, did I not write in my last post that it's almost February?! Well, here we are in the middle of it! It is still quite cold here but there is definitely spring in the air, the sun is gaining power, the days are getting noticeably longer, the birds are singing in the morning. This past winter has been the best since we moved to Ireland, lots of sunshine and hardly any rain at all. Optimist that I am I honestly believe that we will get a matching summer, dry, warm and sunny!

Last Sunday marked the end of an era - we watched the last episode of ER! Hey, don't laugh, this is serious stuff! We watched the first episode on 6th December and since then watched at least 1 episode every day (with the exception of 3 days when we were on holidays in Duesseldorf). So whenever I will think back at the winter 2009/2010 this will be the first thing I'll think of. I was really sad when the last episode was over and still have to adjust to a life without the ER...and I am already planning on watching it all over again next winter!

But despite spending so much time in front of the TV I managed to finally paint the kitchen last weekend - and I love it! It looks so much cleaner now and brighter and cosy. I painted the ceiling white (as it was before) and for the walls chose a colour called "Wedding Day". What a stupid name for a wall colour, but it actually fits because it's a bit like a silk wedding dress, not a brilliant white but with a slight touch of yellow/cream in it. And now I start getting obesessed with painting the rooms in the house. The living room really needs a coat of paint, not only is it painted in yellow, which is a colour I don't like at all (the kitchen was the same colour until last Friday), the walls are also quite dirty because the living room is where we smoke our nasty cigarettes. So plans are made and the weekend after next will be spent painting again. I actually really like it, it's relaxing and most of all so rewarding!

Since my last post we have also finalized our trip to Mallorca, not only are the flights booked but also the hotel for the first 3 nights (we are going to the Esplendido Hotel in Port de Soller again) and we have booked the house in S'Arraco again where we also stayed last year. We spent some time looking at houses with pools, but the ones that look really nice are not affordable (unless you travel with a group of people as most of them are also quite big) and we simply didn't find any house that we thought was worth a try - and the risk of being disappointed. So, Sweeties, in 198 days we are off to our favourite holiday island!

In the meantime I am so looking forward to Lena visiting (in 37 days!) and going to London over Easter (45 days!) and of course a nice spring and summer here in Galway and oh, I almost forgot the Football World Championship this summer, that's another thing I am looking forward to as it means going to the pub, having a few pints and watching the matches on the big screen!

I hope you all have something to look forward to, too!

Never Enough - Time

Hi Sweeties,

Time flies, it's almost February (which is the meteorological beginning of spring here in Ireland, and one can feel that!) and I am quite busy at the moment. Busy partying (that was last weekend, friends for dinner on Friday and Stephan's company's party on Saturday), busy at work, busy planning to do stuff around the house (there are a few paint jobs in the queue) and squeezing in an episode of ER whenever possible. There really isn't enough time to get everything done and I am afraid that at the moment it's this blog that suffers from neglect.

So apologies for keeping this short, as soon as some of the things I have planned are done I'll let you know!

But I have to share this with you: Here is the list of things to look forward to (so far) this year...
- in 8 weeks today Lena will be here!!!
- in 9 weeks tomorrow we're off to London, meeting Marion & Philippe!!!
- in 31 (!) weeks today we're off to Mallorca!

And so much time in between - but it's never enough!

In a Good Mood!

Here we go, the first post in 2010!

I had a great start to the new year, having a party with my friends - and what a swell party it was! As usual the time spent in Duesseldorf was far too short, we only had 72 hours altogether, but we made the most of it and it was fabulous. Unfortunately I didn't take many photos ( I always intend to but then it feels somehow invasive), but here are a few:

Party People - it was a great mixture!

Lovely Lena!













Uwe & Sven enjoying a glass of Hierbas!

Olaf in action...in the kitchen ...and dancing with Marion

It was sad leaving and at the moment I have no idea when we will be in Duesseldorf again, but I hope that next time we can stay longer and I will be able to meet many more of you!

So last Monday it was back to routine and although it might sound strange I was kind of looking forward to getting back to work and everyday life. I still feel relaxed and at ease after the 12 days I was off over Christmas and New Year's and the weather here helps! Oh no, here she goes again, writing that she likes the cold and snow..YES, I do!It has been very cold here for the last 3 weeks, we are having lots of sunshine and it even snowed in Galway on Thursday night. That's very unusual and it's the first time since we moved here that the snow actually lasts. Everything looks pretty in white, I take walks during my lunch breaks and enjoy my walks home after work. Wouldn't it be great if we got a nice warm and dry summer ahead of us to contrast this unusually cold winter?!

As for my New Year's resolution: I made it 8 whole days without a cigarette, which is not bad! Yesterday I gave in and bought a pack of tobacco. So did I fail? Yes, of course I did, but I am not beating myself up over it. 8 days without a cigarette is better than not trying at all and one thing is for sure: I won't give up trying - until one day it will stick! Hope you are doing better with your resolutions (if you had any)!

I am leaving you now to go back to the ER (still the series, of course), we started season 9 yesterday, so still another 7 to go. I cannot imagine what life is going to be without it...