12 of 12

Another 12 of 12! And it's a Saturday, which means that I actually had something interesting to do! To see what everyone else's day looked like, see Chad's blog.

1) 02:30

These boots were made for dancing... Just came home from a night of Dixieland at a club. Fabulous!


2) 11:00
Waking up...


3) 11.30
An apple-cinnamon muffin for breakfast...

4) 14:45
Done washing and drying my hair. It takes 45 minutes of blow-drying to make it look this good...

5) 15:45

Enjoying some self-cooked rhubarb. Yummy! I love its typical mixture of sweet and sour.

6) 16:30

Ready to go, everything I need is packed up in my new purse, which I bought 2 weeks ago.

7) around 17:25

It's the annual Dixieland Festival in Dresden - the biggest Dixieland/Jazz festival in Europe! There are Jazz and Dixieland Bands in every club and every corner of the city. Thousands of Dixieland fans are crowding the inner city...

8) around 17:30

...and that's what will be left of them at the end of the day...

9) 17:50

Going with the flow of the crowd. Target: the building on the right side of the picture.

10) around 18:15

Listening to The Dixie Ramblers from Belgium. I already heard them at the club I went to last night with a friend and they were really great! So I was more than happy when I read that they'd be playing today outside a building that is only a mere 100 feet away from the building I was supposed to be in later on.

11) around 18:30

I liked the reflection in the mirrored windows of the building.

12) 18:55

From Dixieland to Bach - after listening to the Dixieland Band I went around the corner to "my" church. We had a rehearsal at 7 pm for our 8 pm concert.


13) Bonus pic: Dreamscapes
I took this picture in March 2006, on a choir trip to Japan.

The latest addition...

...to my puzzle collection. It's a pretty famous German comic strip by an equally famous German comedian. The line in the bubble says "The egg is hard!", which - in itself - isn't all that funny, but in the context of the cartoon it belongs to it's one of the funniest lines ever delivered by a comic creature. lol

I already have a new puzzle project piled up, and it's going to be even more difficult than this one...

Another YouTube find of the day

Hilarious!!!

12 of 12

It's this time of the month again, but I almost forgot about it... But luckily I remembered just in time to make it to 12 pictures for the day. Thank you to Chad for this wonderful idea. *hugs*

Here's my day...

1) 09:09
On my way to class. The weather has been beautiful today, around 75°F...

2) 13:05
On my way to work... One of the blue windows is mine.

3) 17:47
The literature I'm using for my paper. I've been writing and writing and never seem to get any closer to the finish line. *sigh*

4) 19:19
Watching some season 2 episodes of Lois and Clark, one of my favorite TV shows ever!

5) 21:33
Listening to one of my favorite oldies...

6) 21:57
On my way to the cinema... Had to stop at a red light, which gave me enough time for this picture. This is the city hall of Dresden.

7) 21:59
Crossing a bridge...

8) 22:12
Someone stole the parking space that I wanted to take right in front of my nose, so I had to park my car in a garage.

9) 00:34
Empty streets...

10) 00:35
The beautiful scenery, this time crossing the bridge on my way back home. It's fuzzy, but it's dark and I'm driving...

11) 00:36
A sign on my way home. At the top it says "all directions", which is the sign you love the most when you are in a city you don't know. Luckily, I am quite familiar with my city and have no problems in finding my way home.

12) 00:44
Okay, technically it's not the 12th anymore, but this picture marks the end of my day. I'm back home from the cinema and about to exit my car, taking one last look at one of my favorite parts of the car. Blue makes me happy. :)

13) Bonus pic...
My random word was "watch", so this was an easy one for me...

This has been fun. I can't wait for May...

YouTube find of the day

I found this on YouTube a couple of minutes ago and I think it's awesome:



The two are very, very talented, yet not free of faults, which makes them all the more likable. I spent 12 years of my life playing the violin, but I never got this good (though I'm proud to say that I played first violin in J.S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio twice, which is a pretty good thing to achieve when you're not a professional violinist).

I have three professional violinists in my family - two aunts and an uncle. My grandfather has been building violins for more than 30 years now. I play his "Number 8" out of a current total of more than 40. He is currently working on his first cello. My parents were spared from musician genes, instead they directly transferred them to me. At one point I played violin, piano and organ and I've been singing in choirs for more than 15 years. Singing is what I'm really good at. Maybe - one day - I'll be able to turn that into my profession...

Yay!

My new TV arrived on Thursday and this time it's working! What a relief... I'm not a TV junkie (okay, maybe I am), but I like to have something playing in the background when I'm reading or working. I'm a born multi-tasking person. *nod*

Usually, I am not a list person, but I think I need to do one for this weekend. Maybe writing things down helps in getting them done eventually... So here's what I plan to do today:

• finish the reading for my history paper
• clean my windows (3 windows and a balcony door)
  
• work on my blog - done!
  
• throw away old newspapers (at least some of them)
• watch the last episode of Charmed on German TV - done!
  
• watch Casino Royale on DVD - done!
  
• watch an episode of Alias Season 5 - done!
  

Okay, those last three points should be a piece of cake... I think my to do-list looks pretty doable. Let's get started!

Sometimes old is better than new...

So... I got my new TV yesterday. I had to get up at 6.15 am since the TV people were supposed to stop by between 6.30 am and 1 pm - isn't that precise? They came at 7.20 am, brought the new TV and took away my old one. I unpacked it but didn't turn it on immediately, since it came in from the cold. I waited an hour and then - thinking that the TV had adapted to the room temperature - I turned it on. And ... the TV is broken! So now I have a brandnew, dysfunctional TV instead of an old one that had its flaws, but still gave me a picture. I called the store and they promised to send me a new one, but that might take a while...

*grumble*

12 of 12

This is my first 12 of 12!! I'm very excited to participate. Thanks to Chad Darnell for this wonderful idea.

That's what my Monday, 12th March looked like:

1) 07.50 am
Wakey-wakey... I love my alarm clock, it plays a typical Bavarian tune. *lol*

2) 08.15 am
Reading the newspaper and eating some oatmeal. It takes at least an hour (the paper, not the outmeal *lol*) since it's one of the biggest - if not the biggest - daily newspapers in Germany.

3) 10.30 am
The weather was beautiful which allowed me to let the laundry dry on the balcony.

4) 10.31 am
While I'm on the balcony, this is what I see: the city that is Dresden.

5) 03.23 pm
No mail today...

6) 05.00 pm
Rehearsing for tomorrow's informal audition at a music college.

7) 06.30 pm
Watching my favorite cooking show on German TV. I'm getting a new TV tomorrow, so this is farewell...

8) 06.45 pm
I burned today's lunch (for the first time in my life...), so in order not to challenge fate I opted for a cold dinner: a nice salad.

9) 06.50 pm
Lovely scenery on the other side of my balcony. The days are getting longer...

10) 07.25 pm
Checking the last things for tomorrow's audition, which involved calling two people and taking some notes.

11) 08.20 pm
Continuing "Summer Crossing" by Truman Capote.

12) 11.30 pm
My pre-bed tea. Today: chocolate cinnamon Rooibosh.

Bonus pic - Green...
When you squeeze him he makes a frog noise. Oh, and next to it is an energy saving lamp, so the picture is green in a double sense. *lol*

That was fun!

In loving memory...

Today would have been the 24th birthday of one of my former classmates. He died of brain cancer in July 2002, shortly after our graduation.

It's days like today that I think about all the people I've lost - beloved family members, friends, people I shared my hobbies with, or people I "only" knew. They were parts of my life and therefore I miss them...

Christin in the city...

It's been a long time since my last post... But I've been very busy. And sometimes not so busy at all... And so much has happened!

1) The Oscars (25/02/07). It was a nice show, I liked Ellen DeGeneres as a host and the general flair of the whole event. There weren't too many surprises (but - as every year - I lost the Oscar bet with my best friend and now I have to pay next time we go and see a movie - as every year *lol*), I was especially glad to see Helen Mirren and Jennifer Hudson win. And though it was nighttime and completely dark outside (in German time the Oscars air from 1 a.m. to approximately 6.30 a.m.) I didn't yawn. Not.once. Oh, the things that make me proud...

2) I turned in my law paper - one day before its due date!

3) I visited my father in Berlin. I love Berlin, it's a great city. And now that I finally remembered to bring my camera, I even took some pictures. The weather was lousy, but the pictures aren't too bad.

Here are a couple of my favorites:


There are a couple of things lying ahead of me, like for example driving to an informal singing audition at a music school. Or finishing (better yet: starting) my history paper that is due at the end of this month. And there are a couple of choir things: a rehearsal weekend and lots of concerts.

Oh, and I'm getting a new TV. *grin*