Finally...

Made some progress in my revisions-I ´ve finally found a new beginning for my MS!! I nearly gave up hope, because either I had no time and patience for writing or I got no new ideas.
The secret of my "success"- enough sleep and time;-)

...sounds easy, doesn´t it? But sometimes the easiest solutions are the most difficult ones to implement. Well , but this weekend I had enough time and calmness for writing:-) I really missed it. And after writing and reading for the next block, I have got a new idea for my MS. And that feels great!!!!Creativity is back again! I´ve to be careful with my enthusiasm, because it´s a long way to go-or write;-) And I only changed some sentences, ....but at least I changed something.

It´s fascinating, how a point of view , a mood can be changed with the help of some letters only. If they are ordered in the correct way, they make sense- it´s the same with music, there are just a few notes, but arranged in the right way, you´ll hear a great melody.

But what´s the right way to write, to compose? Is there really a norm for performing these artforms? Well, off course there exist rules, for writing as well as for composing. But beyond these rules everyone has the opportunity to create a special piece of art- his own.

Philosophical? Theatrical? How could I describe my thoughts during rereading the last paragraphs? Maybe it´s a bit too much, but I don´t care about my writing style today. I´m just happy about the progress in my writing-that´s my piece of today´s creativity- and that´s all.

Wood and glass

At the moment I rearrange some pieces of my livingroom- decoration. Many of them are of glass or wooden. I love nature, therefore I love to surround me with wood , glass and pottery -these materials make me feel comfortable.
This vase was a present from a Romanian woman for playing guitar at her party. I love to collect wooden or glassy mementos from journeys and my family and friends know that and so I have a little art collection from all over the world.

Each continent is represented in my flat- the spirit of the big world in my little flat:-)

And I collect shells and special stones as well, but just a few from each country, otherwise the rooms would be overcrowded with all that stuff and that´s what I don´t like .

Again:-(

Too tired for reading, for writing, going out, ....too tired for everything at the moment-except music.It has been a hard week again, have to bring my car to the repairshop next week- again another unwanted thing to do...but my bumper has to be repaired, another driver didn´t realize, that I stopped before a cross-walk, so, the accident wasn´t my fault. Calming to know, but....... But noone was hurt, just the cars are a little bit damaged... had to think of my dad´s accident months ago- but his car was a total loss. But they are/were just cars, they are replaceable...
So I had luck , too. Not a good driving year for my family...

To change my mood I have to listen to some music-
here we go-

Music-corner:
Vangelis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_U4k_lc3pE&feature=related
I love those 2- Domingo and Villazon with Denver´s "Perhaps love"- I had to sing a duett with a friend of mine during a concert- it was great! Well, in my youth I was a member of different choirs and I had many singing lessons in V. Was really a great time, somtimes I miss it as much as dancing, but I sing as often as possible, although without much training my vocal range is changing from mezzo -soprano to alto-voice...maybe I´ll sing tenor or bass voice one day:-)

Lehar´s "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz"- from the operetta "The Land of Smiles"- with the great A. Netrebko, P. Domingo and R. Villazon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa58TdbRGJ4&feature=related

Music really helps a lot to relax and calm down!

Time for everything

Again a week of nearly no writing- but reading. Have to read a lot till March and it´s sometimes hard to get in the mood for a special kind of literature. But I make progress, slowly, but progress is progress. I have to be a bit more satisfied with my work;-) At the moment there is so much to do at work and I want everything to be done as quickly as possible. And then there are the Olympic games... But " there is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven"....I know, I know, must be more patient;-)

Olympic-corner: Again Gold!! For Ski-jumping!

Bronze-Silver-Gold!!!!

Olympia-corner:
Great race-excellent skiers! Congratulations!

1. Andrea Fischbacher 1:20.14- Austria
2. Tina Maze 1:20.63- Slovenia
3. Lindsey Vonn 1:20.88 -USA

www.vancouver2010.com

New books!!

CELEBRATION! Received my course-books today!!!!!! Yeah!!!! Let´s celebrate and read!:-)

Music-corner:
Celebration-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H229IlRnzA&feature=related

Opening 2010

Highlights of the Opera Ball 2010: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2QbLzrCxrU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO2LrTo7T-A&feature=related
Great pictures:-)
Enjoy!!

Highlight of the carneval season-the Viennese Opera Ball

Opening of the Viennese Opera Ball 2009- to get a sense how it is like-the Polonaise;-)--> worth seeing;-) unfortunately the commentators are talking the whole time,but that´s typical too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_Ly0v3xoIo

Here you can find about the Ball´s history
http://www.tourmycountry.com/austria/operaball.htm

Tonights Opera-Ball reminds me of my ball-openings- with long white dresses and cloves as well- but I didn´t attend this famous ball. Very famous, too expensive, too many TV-cameras, too many wannabees- all in all too many people and therefore nearly no space to dance.

And I love dancing! Love hearing music and moving/ dancing to the rhythms.During my teenage years I attended about 10 balls in Carnival season (Jannuary/February)... those days are gone;-( I didn´t attend any ball this year-and the year before.

I loved participating in dancing lessons, there I learned all Standard - and Latin-dances-after Bronce and Silver I earned the Gold-star, that is one dance badge you can receive after an exam as an amateur.

One year I also attended Flamenco-dancing-lessons with my sister- that was funny, interesting, but I love the Latin- and Standard-dances more. :-)))

I think I should start dancing again- I miss it sometimes. But at the moment I don´t have time.Better I want to spend my time on other things. But maybe one day......................

Again;-)

http://www.schmap.com/venice/sights_panorama/p=85032/i=85032_187.jpg

My picture from the Rialto bridge in the Venice -guide;-) Funny.

Mum´s b-day- just in a few days - K. and I try to find the perfect Wok-recipe, we´ll cook together on Sunday, that will be funny as well. We did cook together but never before a Wok-dish. I have to smile thinking of that event;-) On Saturday I´ll bake her favorite cake-with cherries, chocolate,cream,..lot of work but worth doing it.
My mother always bakes cakes for everyone´s birthday or namesday-so of course she has to get her own on her birthday-no question.
I love birthdays-I like mine, but that´s not so important. Why do I love these special days?
I love to bring joy to somebody by baking a cake, preparing a meal, ...it´s a good possibility to give something back and show them how happy I am to share parts of my life with them-it sounds a bit kitschy, but it´s the truth.
I ´m just wondering if namesday is celebrated in many countries too.

Well, my job is making me tired-will stop writing for tonight.That´s a hard decision, ´cause I don´t want to. My heart says "Don´t do it, keep writing"- but my brain tells me to go to bed, to be able to stand up at 5.55. How I hate standing up so early! During my holidays we usually had breakfast at about 9 in the morning- how great was that! And I got so used to that rhythm.....well, o well,......can´t follow my heart.....but I am realizing that I am writing in a theatrical and kitschy way -so I better stop for now;-) Good night!

Frustrating? Demotivating?

How long will it take to receive ordered books??? Maybe the cargo-plains are always too full to carry these orders or the ocean is just too big to send books from one side to another, or maybe all responsible people went on holidays, or the books weren´t ordered 4 weeks ago,or,or, or.....

Sometimes, especially in these situations, it´s so hard to keep calm and think positively. I thought I could start reading the books for the next course (during Easter-vacation) this week, but no chance getting them .I hope we´ll get our books at the end of February......it´s so frustrating and I was looking forward to reading them this week.
Well, that´s life, I have to find some positive aspects in the given situation, but at the moment I can´t find any.

I need time to read books, time to write the pre-course- assignments, time for my job and I ´m afraid I have to hurry. I don´t like that kind of pressure, because it isn´t necessary. But, so what?

I know I´ll do it, write the assignments, read the books-have to keep that in mind.
I´m not a real optimist, so thinking positively is a challenge sometimes- and what a challenge!
Have to think of revising my novel- that´s another challenge;-) but a positive one.

Best Museums in the World | World Reviewer

Best Museums in the World World Reviewer

Back home!

Travel-corner:
Back home again! But it was an interesting trip to Amsterdam and I enjoyed my stay there. The first 2 days we had snow, rain, wind and hail on the third day we had a lot of sun and so suddenly all the snow was gone. Tulips everywhere... Did we miss the beginning of spring??? Many of the Dutch people started to wear T-shirts!!
This land is a paradise for all cheese-lovers world-wide! You can taste all kinds of cheese there!
Delicious! Especially the long aged -the old cheese. You can get it nearly everywhere. It´s eaten with mustard, cutted in cubes and it´s really good. I had to take some old cheese with me for my family.
The architecture there fascinated me. All the houses had different gables, wonderful old doors and all of the old buildings were renovated- it was great to walk through the small streets, near the canals even at night.
We had luck with our hotel, a small, old one in the Herengracht-near a canal. It wasn´t a touristy area at night, so we could enjoy a quiet walk there. Although I like to travel and see the different sights in a country, I don´t like all touristy things. In Amsterdam I didn´t like the famous Red-light district- it´s embarrasing to see women standing nearly naked behind big windows waiting for a customer- such an inhuman "business"...
But all in all it was a nice trip and we saw a lot.

My picture-blog Amsterdam http://amsterdam-marty.blogspot.com/

Bike-natics

Travel-corner:
Second day in Amsterdam-an amazing city.Lovely small buildings and canals,...in the evening it´s so calm- the surroundings reminds me of a film-set, it´s a bit unreal.
It´s easy to differentiate between tourists and Dutchmen- the first wear caps, scarfs, gloves, boots- well, winter-wear. Natives just wear sneakers, sometimes rain boots, skirts,...don´t they feel cold? It´s winter! Cold, rainy...it´s really another culture. I knew they are a bicycle-nation, but I wasn´t aware of the fact that they use their bikes even in wintertime when the streets are icy and full of snow. I love riding my bike in spring and summer, but I wouldn´t use it during this season. But I´m in another country, not used to these customs.
Unfortunately I don´t have enough time to write because of sightseeing, but it´s a nice city. We have time enough to visit many museums because of the bad weather, that´s ok by me. We had some sunshine on Monday when we did the "Grachten"-tour by boat. But today´s weather was awful-wind, rain, bit of snow in between...but a good time for visiting museums.
We went to the Van Gogh museum which was all in all a bit disappointing-the whole new wing was closed. Then we saw paintings in the Rijksmuseum-some Rembrandt´s and his famous "Night-watch" -the largest painting in the whole building. Just 2 floors with paintings-that was all. Maybe I´m a little bit spoilt because I ´ve seen many great museums like my favorite the MMA, Louvre, .....I have to enjoy the present and don´t compare museums.
I saw a big American bookstore here, want to buy some books tomorrow. Some books from B.´s blog seem to be interesting ones.
Had to think of my parents when I heard the news about the bad weather in Cran Canaria. Streets flooded, mudstreams, uprooted palms...horrible pictures, hope they are ok and they make the best of their holidays there.

To my writing-K. wanted to know, when my draft is ready to be read. What a question! I wrote her about my aim. I want to start revising after my holidays, yes, I really want to and I really hope I will.
So that´s all for tonight
Goede nacht= good night;-)