Things that make me happy

A dancing (and reading) Japanese outside the train window.

Green grass.

The thin layer of that green fuzz on the trees having grown thicker since the day before, it means the spring is on its way.

Blue sky.

And yes, being on the way to work. Yes, really. I like home office now and then and I do like the lunches better from home (at least the food), but I really like to have colleagues around me.

SPRING is here

Spring is here, for real, chilly one day, warm the other, chilly the next, the spring flowers are on the way, in a week the trees will start to bloom - right now there is thin green haze, just indicating that somewhere there, deep inside the buds, there are leaves that are on the way out...

I adore the spring, the smell of the wet soil and hot asphalt, the sound of children's laughter, people starting to use their bicycles again - although to be honest the Düsseldorfers use their bikes most of the year anyhow, but traffic increases this time of the year. But never hte less, now you hear it more, I love being able to be at home, forgetting to close the window, and it still doesn't matter, because the wind is pleasant and it carries the streets from the city mixed with the sounds of the birds and the rest of the nature.

It is an amazing time of the year, when everything is waking up after a long winter sleep...

German men can't take care of themselves?

This ad makes me angry, not just because I think it's crap that German women are expected to take care of the men, but even more so because it seems to be assumed that German men aren't able to take care of themselves but they need a wife/mother to take care of them? And that's one of the reasons why I'm sorry but it would be very hard to have a serious relationship with a German.

Although the men that grew up after the wall came down are different, they seem to be looking after an equal. More often at least.

And yes, my studies are limited to Nordrhein Westphalia but it's still the general impression I have. Looking forward to being proven wrong.

But it's clearly so that the German job market is one of the least equal, especially in the western world. But that's a different discussion...

And yes, maybe the sender MEANS something else but all I can see when I see the ad is a woman who has to take care of herself AND the man. I always thought grown-ups should take care of themselves. Which doesn't mean there shouldn't be caring and sharing but it is definitely not a woman's "task" to take care of the person she is married to/dating or whatever it may be... 

SPRING is here

Spring is here, it is nice and warm (or at least it will be, mornings are still chilly, like mornings in the spring usually are).

I didn't realise when I moved to my current flat that I had moved to the biggest pickup street in the whole of Düsseldorf though, but I have, and the guys trying to pick up the girls are not exactly discrete, no, not at all, they are the loudest ever, and they are hanging out just outside my window.

But it is OK, I still love the birds... And it is just a month or so and then the babies will be on the way, and the parents will not have time to be quite so flirtatious...

Ooops...

Should I worry when the coughing meds that I received from the doctor isn't even available in Sweden and the substance was deregistrered 1958...?
To be honest though: Anything so I can sleep. But I AM a bit surpriced that I didn't get the question whether I am pregnant or not before he subscribed it, it is meds you can't buy without subscribtion. For someone who normally doesnt' even take paracetamol it may be a bit... rough...
I'll do my best to survive the night... :-)

Flu

So I haven't had the flu in years, normally it just doesn't bite, and this week, a really busy week, it decides to have an outbreak, after I spent a week away out in the fresh air. What's with that? I clearly don't have the resistance to the Swedish viruses anymore.

And there is no one to feel sorry for me or bring me water or fruit juices. This sucks.
Just shoot me, will you!!!

And up until today I have been working but from home as I havent been able to get to work. I've dragged myself upto the couch every freaking day. Which I know is idiotic but I haven't been able to sleep much anyhow, because of the stupid cough.

Kill me now.

Thank you.

(And if you read my diaries afterwards I'll comeback as a horrible ghost and make your life miserable so you better burn then. Just saying...)

On the plus side: Now I'll have natural protection against the next coming strains and won't get I'll for a few years...

Things I don't understand

Why does the Brittish Royal family have to look so OLD, Will and Kate haven't even turned 30, have they? Why do they have to dress like they were really old? And especially Kate? There is so much nice and representative to wear without looking like an old lady. And she has the beauty for it so it is just silly.

Other thing I don't understand: Why should age in general decide what you can and can't wear? If one has the legs for it, wear a short skirt. Trashy is not pretty regardless of who but other than that? And anyhow, even trashy can look right on some people.

Or you just use it for carnival, that is another option.

And yet another thing I don't get: If one can fix something one isn't happy with, why not do it? I know that is very un-Swedish but really; If it can be fixed and you want to do it, fix it.

I'm going to dye my hair and wear contacts when I want to and if I was desperate for bigger breasts, well, then I would get bigger breasts. It just so happens that I love my body so I am not going to but really - why should people suffer unneccesary? I don't get it, I really don't get it. (That said I still think people should think it through before doing a major change that is difficult to reverse, and work on the self esteem if possible, but if it means a lot - have it done.)

And hair grows back out and fake tans as well as hair colour wash out. Eventually.

That is all I had on my mind today...

And by the way, those who don't accept me for who I am - you can go and stand in a corner. What I do I do for me, not for someone else. I need to/want to feel good. Opinions are as many as people - so the only thing that really matters is what I feel. Not someone else, me.

Beyonce

So Beyonce is breast feeding her baby at the table and news media are upset? (Well, it may just be Swedish media making a big thing out of US reaction, who knows).

All I can think is: Feeding the baby at the dinner table - that sounds like the right place and time to do it (unless she was drinking hot coffee at the same time, obviously). Everybody eating at the same time. Perfect.
If you ask me.

And I'd much rather have a happy, well fed baby in the restaurant than a screaming one, one that is screaming becasue it is hungry...

Carnival and the Germans - or at least hte Rheinlanders

Carnival, a yearly event - the fifth season - escalate week by week after the opening (November 11 at 11:11). Christmas breaks the carnival period but that just means there is a pause for Glühwein and Christmas parties so in reality - nothing changes.
But it is this week, the week before lent, that the grand finale is taking place.
Someone posted a comment saying that a huge number of Germans are cheating on their partners during carnival - I think someone mentioned 20%?

And apparently it really is rather common. You are also "supposed" to make out with someone - my German friends are telling me off for not doing so.

And in Köln they have even got a scape goat - "The Nubbel" - he is apparently burned after carnival and gets to take the blame. I had to google it as I didn't know what "The Nubbel" was, even though I had heard it mentioned - and I found this article, from German Times Online, about Carnival...  Carnival that is typical for my area but isn't really celebrated in other parts of Germany...

(But don't come to Düsseldorf and ask when the October festival starts. We don't do October festival here, that is down in Munich - München - not in the Dorf...)