a year in books: October

As I mentioned before, I decided to take part in the year in books.

Reading is something that I do everyday. I can't imagine a life without books. It's so great to emerge in a story, slip into another world and get soaked up in the life and stories of other people - fiction or not. I can get totally lost in a book, though this only happened with a few books. The feeling of totally being IN that story. The feeling, that these characters must be real, that these stories really happened somewhere! And the total sadness and disappointment when the book is finished and you have to face reality again!

Since August books are not just my passion in my freetime but also the thing that I earn my money with. I work for an Austrian association that represents the rights and the interests of all Austrian booksellers and publishers. I love my work, I love being able to earn my living with books. And my new work means commuting by train, I also have again more time to read each day.

Right now I'm reading "The Medicus" by Noah Gordon. I just started it, so there's not much that I can tell about it - so far! A little review will follow next month! ;-)

Instead I can talk about books that I've read in September. Now I thought about including these books, as these are written by Austrian writers and as far as I know are not available in other languages. But as I really like these books and authors I'm going to talk about them anyway!

The first book is "Polivka hat einen Traum", by Stefan Slupetzky. (The title translates as: Polivka has a dream) and is a work of crime fiction.

photo source

I only started to like Crime fiction in the last few years. I've read a few books of Slupetzky before. He has written a four-volume-series about a a detective called "Lemming". All of his books are situated in Vienna. I've you've ever been to Vienna you probably know, that the Viennese people have their own charme and way of live. They surely like to moan and complain. They're very negative but in a very lovely way. It's really hard to explain! But let me assure you, that Slupetzky really knows how to capture that "Wiener Charme". And he knows how to write a intricating plot.

The second book is "Brennerova" by Wolf Haas.

photo source

If you're able to speak German - go and buy yourself all of the "Brenner" crime fiction novels. Brenner is the name of the main character. And he's a real character! Kind of a loser type, used to work for the police but got sacked (which isn't really easy in Austria!) and now he's working as a private detective. He's something that you would call an anti-hero. He makes mistakes, he gets himself and those around him in danger. But he's also incredibly smart and somehow always manages to capture the bad guys. Well, most of the time. Some of these books have also been made into movies and have become quite popular and successful in Austria.


I don't know what else I'm going to read in October. Normally I don't plan my readings. If I have new books, I read them first. If I don't, I sit in front of my bookshelfes and just take out whatever seems inviting at that moment. If I like a book, I need to read it more then once. I'm a really fast reader, but I tend to forget what happened in the book very easily. So to REALLY read a book, I have to read it. Again and again. There are books that I've red ten and more times. Because I like them so much. Because I have memories attached to them. Because the stories never seem to bore me. I'm sure some of those will appear here over the months!

Happy reading, everyone.

three things

FIRST:
I decided to join the year in books from Laura at circle of pine trees. The idea behind it is a monthly recollection of the books one has read and a little outlook on the ones that one wants to read. As I am an avid reader and wanted to have some kind of "reading diary" on my blog anyway, I thought that this might be a good way to keep track over all those books that I am reading. I'm trying to write my first book-post on the weekend.

SECOND:
Look what finally made its way into our kitchen:

YES, a Jura coffee machine. We're so happy with it and I haven't been tired for days! ;-) It has cost more money than our TV, but for us it was really worth it. It's the new heart of our kitchen! 

THIRD:
We're going to London! Not now, but at the end of October. As I know that many of you readers come from the UK I ask you to share your London-tips with me! We have a hotel in Westminster, so we're really central! 
We have three days time. It's my first time in London so we will visit the obvious tourist attractions. But do you have any special tips for me? Any restaurants that have great and cheap food? Any bars that we really HAVE to go to? A really lovely book store? Anything special? I would really appreciate your help! 

Have a nice weekend you all! :)

Washi madness

My man and I moved into our new appartment in March. We moved from about 100m2 to 45m2. Quite a change, but at that time it was necessary, due to some personal reasons. We're still adding some decorations, slowly, whenever we feel like it and when we have the time.

On Saturday evening he baked an apple cake (sooo delicious) and we started to go through some photos that I printed a few weeks ago. And we started to put them up the walls.

My favourite tool to do this is Washi Tape. I learned about it a while ago on some blog and loved it ever since. See, we really like having pictures on the wall. And we don't want to have to hammer a nail through the wall for every single one. This appartment is just for rent. We would have to cover all those holes up, when we move out.

So we worked and worked and chose pictures and hung them up our walls. Our bedroom is full of pictures of us kissing, taken somewhere around our journey round the world. We kissed in front of the Hollywood sign, in front of the Sydney Opera House, with the Machhu Picchu before and the Colca Canyon below us. 

There are pictures of us kissing on the Titicaca lake, under water, on the most beautiful beach at the Philippines, in planes, on busses and trains. 

It looks like this:

I purposely blurred out the pictures, mainly to keep our privacy but also to spare you 50 pictures of us smooching our hearts (or lips?) out! 

But you get the idea of the "picture frames" the Washi tape creates when the pictures are directly put on the wall with it. 

On the weekend I decorated some plain, white picture frames, because they looked way too boring and, well, too white for my taste. I love our new picture wall, it makes me smile, everytime I walk by. 

For me, pictures are the best decoration ever! I love looking both at pictures that I took myself but also like to look at other people's pictures! A great way to share some memories, to keep my beloved ones always near me and to keep people in mind, that are no longer here! 

Plus: Easy, beautiful and cheap decoration: It's a win-win-win-win! 

Travelling Europe: Malta. And the mug story.

It all started a few years ago, when I moved in with my brother. We both needed a new appartment at that time and so we thought it would be practical (and fun) to move in together. We found a lovely appartment in Vienna and began our little adventure together. My brother is three years older than me and as long as I can remember - I have looked up to him.

One of the first things that my brother bought for this appartment was a coffee machine. Not just an ordinary machine. Oh no, he bought a Jura machine. Rumour has it, that this is the Rolls Royce when it comes to coffee machines. And it was the best investment EVER! We loved this coffee machine (he still does, it moved in with his girlfriend. WHO DOESN'T USE IT!!! She drinks coffee, but prefers her Nespresso machine. I really like that girl, but when it comes to this, I just don't understand that woman!) and it was used daily. A few times daily, actually. He worked at a newspaper at that time and was a really busy journalist and I used to study back then and thought that I would actually write my master thesis. (which I didn't. But that's a different story).

Anyway, lots of coffee drinking means lots of used coffee cups. We both practically just moved out of our parents house. We took some used mugs with us that my mother didn't need any more. Needless to say, that these weren't the prettiest cups in the world.

And then came Malta.

In 2010, my parents asked my brother and me if we wanted to travel to Malta with them. Our last full family holiday was ten years ago. Then came our complicated teenage years and we were way to embarrassed by our parents as to travel with them. But now we were grown up. A little more, at least. And so we were very excited, not only because that meant our parents would pay for everything but because we actually looked forward to travel with the whole family.

Now I've travelled a lot in the last years. I've been to France, to Spain, to Croatia, to Hungary, to the Czech Republic, I've visited Dublin and Paris and Greece and I've travelled around the world.
But this one week family holiday in Malta was probably one of the greatest holidays I've ever had. It was lovely, to spend so much time with my family. We did everything together and really had a lot of fun. In the following winter my mother got really sick and will stay sick for the rest of her life. So the memories of this holiday are even more precious with us, because she was still healthy and still says, that she is so thankful for this great holiday with her family, before our lives changed so drastically.

Here, have a look at some of the picture my very talented brother took at this Malta trip: I've been there a second time ever since and will definitely visit it again. Never again had a holiday destination such an impact on me. I can't really explain it. It's just such a happy and great feeling I get, whenever I think about this little island.

The "Hera", we took a round malta cruise with this beauty! 

the dingli cliffs, the highest cliffs in Malta

Comino, Blue Lagoon

The Azure Window

Hera, again

Golden Bay

View from our hotel pool

Me.

Beach in Sliema.

Beautiful, isn't it? And so it shouldn't come as a surprise, that I wanted to take a souvenir back home with me, to always have something to remember this special holiday.

I looked and looked, wandered through shops and markets, but somehow nothing seemed right. Everything was just junk or made for the tourists. Nothing special. Until one day, I strolled by a little shop. The woman there sold the most lovely ceramics. And that's where I spotted THE MUG!
A pretty, yellow-blue coffee mug. "It's perfect!" I shrieked. And it was.

And thus began my collection! Everytime my brother and I travelled, we brought home a coffee mug. This way we had something to remember our holidays, but not just another pretty object that sat in a corner and accumulated dust, but something that was loved and cherished and used everyday.

I present to you, the MUG with which it all began. My MALTA MUG:

It is one of my favourite mugs, until this day. Three years later, my brother and I moved out of our appartments. We divided our mug collection. Whoever bought the cup, took it back with him/her.

I now live with my man. We have a little used Nespresso machine (though I'm planning on surprising him with a Jura, as I saved a little money in the last few months) but we still love to drink our coffee. And I love to use my travel mugs. I plan to introduce them to you. One by one. Because every mug has a history behind it, tons of memories attached to it and with every sip I take out of it I can close my eyes and travel away for just a minute.

brrrrrr

God almighty it got cold over the last two days! We had a really lovely weekend, warm and sunny, no jacket needed, no scarf, no thick sweaters. We spend the whole weekend outside. This morning I went to the train station - like every morning. But that morning the walk was different. I usually enjoy those ten minutes. I have an office job and sit the whole day, but these ten minutes to and from the train station are sometimes the only time of the day that I move my body. But today I was sorry that I didn't take the car. Not only was it extremely windy. It was also really, bloody cold. You needed a scarf. And a thick sweater, a jacket and most importantly: you needed a hat. A HAT for heaven's sake, it's still SEPTEMBER! The fact that it started to rain halfway through my walk (rain and strong wind. You get the picture. Did I mention that it was really, really cold?) didn't improve my mood.

Anyway, since the temperature dropped so significantly, I am even more determined to finish my Mario blanket! I started to crochet on the train. It's not much, I get about two squares done on one ride, which means about 4 to 5 squares on one day. But it's still more than I made in the last few weeks - which isn't that hard when you know that I didn't crochet at all. But it won't be long before my beautiful blue larksfoot blanket isn't warm enough anymore. Don't get me wrong - I love that blanket, I really do. But it's made of pure cotton and it has too many holes in it to be really snuggly and warm. So I'm on a crochet mission.

But that's not my only crochet mission. I worked on my mother's top yesterday. The back is nearly done, here's a picture of my progress:

I know, not really impressive and you need A LOT of imagination to see the finished product. But believe me - it's going to be lovely. Yesterday my mom started a four-week-rehabilitation to get her back on track after her long stay at the hospital and I thought it would be nice if she would come home to find the finished top lying (pretty wrapped up, of course) on her bed. So I have four weeks. Should be doable.

Aside from this there isn't actually very much to tell you, so here I give you (again) some random pictures of my weekend. As I said, the weather was lovely and my man and I went geocaching. Have you heard of it before? If not here's a quick explanation: You download an app on your mobile. There you get the GPS coordinates for a specific location. Somewhere at this location the cache is hidden. It's like a treasure hunt. Sometimes you only find a piece of paper, sometimes there are little boxes with actual small treasures inside. I recommend this highly if you have children. My nephews love it, and it's a great way to spend a day outdoors.
We just recently started it but really like it. My man doesn't like to go for a walk just for the sake of walking. He needs a purpose, a destination. So geocaching is the perfect way to get him outdoors. He's going for a walk and he doesn't even notice it. S

o you'll get to see some more pictures of the beautiful landscape I'm surrounded with. I'm sorry if that bores you, there's just not much else to show you. Unless you want to see the pile of laundry that's waiting for me. Or the layer of dust that's slowly accumulating on the stairs. Or the mess on the kitchen table that just keeps reappearing, no matter how often we clean it up.

Oh, what was that? What did you say? You prefer the beautiful landscape? That's what I thought. Enjoy.

on our geocache mission

if you look REALLY closely, you see tiny white spots just after the houses. Those are sailing boats on the lake. 

I didn't take that pic while we were geocaching. We did a little boat ride on the lake on Sunday. The weather was turning by then. But to be honest - that's the real color of the lake. Muddy, groomy, grey. 

no filter or anything added to this pictures. I am simply to lazy. 

the weather is better

and not even a very bad rhyme can change that.

After really heavy rainfalls in the past few days, the weather got nice and warm and sunny again. Thank God, because I am not even remotely prepared for the cold season and the temperature has been way under my comfort zone lately. Have I mentioned that I LOVE summer and despite everything under 15 degrees? Winter is pure horror for me, if I would never have to see a snowflake in my life, I would be so happy. 

But right now the sun is shining through my kitchen window and I used the good weather to start running again. I somehow stopped about a month ago. I always felt bad and wanted to go but somehow I never managed to drag myself out there and do something for me. Which is stupid because I like running. I like the feeling I have while I'm out (I'm doing something good for me, my legs will look great next summer) and I really love the feeling once I finished a workout and step under the shower. 

So on Monday I went for a run. It was bad. Running never came easy for me and I always have to push myself a little but I made really good progress. Until I didn't run for four weeks. It's impressive how long it takes for the body to put up the stamina to run for 30 minutes without break and how fast this ability is lost. In my opinion, it should be the other way round. But I managed to run for 20 minutes. And then on Wednesday, I did it again. And because the weather is so beautiful, it's Saturday, my man is out to work and I have some precious time for myself, I will wait half an hour (until my breakfast isn't lying heavily in my stomach anymore) and then go for a run. 

I also went back to crocheting. With my new work, my new daily timetable and everything else involved, I somehow didn't find time to crochet. But yesterday I sat down and worked on the top, that I'm making for my mum. Remember this top that I made a while ago? Well my mum saw it and immediately requested one for herself. So now I'm working on that and when I'm finished, I will go back to my Mario blanket. The evenings are getting colder and a new and warm and cuddly blanket will be needed here soon.

On my to-do list for today (I really like making lists) is also baking a carrot cake. I have this wonderful cook book that I got for my birthday, full with recipes for Austrian specialities (we really like to cook and eat here, and sweets are some of our favourites) and it includes a yummy recipe for carrot cake. And the best thing is that I have all the ingredients at home so no need to go shopping first.

Yesterday I also took some time to write my new pen pal in Norway. Melissa organised a pen pal swap a while ago and I thought that it might be interesting to join. I always had pen pals when I was a kid but in the age of internet and e-mails it got lost. I received my first letter from Pamela a while ago and I wa exited as a little kid when I opened it and read it for the first time. It's still nice to receive something other than invoices and commercials in my mail box! 
But it took some time to answer. After work I was always too tired or the post office was already closed. As I never write any letters I didn't have any stamps at home. So it took me a while to reply. But yesterday I did and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed sitting down with a cup of coffee, taking some time to write about myself and slowly getting to know another person from another part of the world. So Mel, if you read this, thanks again for organising everything!

I also want to write more on this blog and to bring some regular features like book reviews and updates on my running. The last one is more for me but who knows - some of you might be interested or are runners themselves. If you do any sports regularly - please let me know in the comments. I would really like to know.

And since this is a veeery word-heavy post I'll let you go with some nice pictures that I snapped on my phone when I went running on Monday. Have I mentioned, that I love my home? It's so beautiful. Nature is great. Have a lovely weekend, everyone! 

a wineyard, completely drowned. It isn't supposed to look like this.

My view on my running track. Stunning, isn't it?

the beginning of a beautiful sunset when I went back home.

I'm still here!!

Hello you lovely people out there? How are you? I'm back from my holiday in aitaly, back from the few days I spent at home at my family and right now on the train back to my home from work! It's nearly 10 pm on a Wednesday! Today we hosted an award event at our library in my work. The best austrian crime fiction writer was awarded. It was my first event that I had to organise in my new work and luckily it all went well. Do you want to see the beautiful location that is situated jn the beautiful house in which I work? Yes? Well then have a look at those pictures:

These are just a few random shots that I took while we prepared everthing. The tables were gone in the evening but there were a few gatherings in the afternoon that we also had to take care of. I really like my new job, it was the right decision to take it! 

Other than that I actually have nothing really to talk about. So I give you random facts that come to my slightly drunken mind (after show party, wohoo) while I sit on that sloooow train that stops at EVERY.SINGLE.RAILWAY.STATION along the way! 

- we drove 13.5 (let me spell that out for you: THIRTEEN AND A HALF) hours on the motorcycle on our way to Italy! And this doesn't even include the breaks! We decided to avoid the highway to drive the (what we thought) more scenic route across Austria. Turns out that the off-highway-roads have NOTHING to offer and that we just waster our time. Suprisiny it was still fun, though. We would probably do it again! 

- I managed to fly one time around the whole world (really, I did! I started in Vienna, heading eastwards and came back from the west) but this was the fiest time I visited Italy! Probably won't happen again anytime soon. Italian people are arrogant snobs. Pretty landscape, though! 

- my mother saw the top that I crocheted and immediately requested the same one for her! You can't imagine how happy I was about that! I already started when I visited them: look: 

- when we visited Venice I bought myself a pair of "New balance" shoes. Apparently very trendy right now, but I didn't know that at the time. My (future) mother-in-law saw them and immediately requested to buy the same pair. Somehow this didn't made me as happy as when my mum asked me about the matching top. I would never admit that, though. 

- right now, we're having real autumnal (is this a word?) weather. This is my view on my way to the train station this week:

Normally you would see the lake (and SKY) from here. Rain and fog and then rain again! 

- I still have 30 minutes to drive and I'm slowly running out of uninteresting and totally incoherenr facts to tell you. 

- riding a train when you can't look outside the window because everyhing is black outside and the only thing you see is the reflection of your alarmingly tired looking face isn't fun at all! 

- my man and I discovered geocaching! Apparently this is as trendy as wearing new balance sneakers. Up-to-date people we are not. But we really like it! My man is currently trying to give up smoking (one week cigarette-free tomorrow, woohooo!!) and he needed something to get his mind off of thinking about cigarettes, so we walked around our small town last sunday and already made plans for the weekend. Did you know, that I love really close to a beautiful national park? It seems, that there are quite a few caches hidden and we're going to check them out on Saturday after a family dinner for my uncle's 60rh birthday. 

- I'm not nearly anywhere near home, but I'm typing all of this (hence the massive amount of typos. This train ride isn't smooth bit rather wobbly. It's the trains' fault. Not the fact that I didn't eat anything but drank three glasses of wine. That's not why it took me about ten attempts to write the word 'cigarettes', oh no! ) on my cell phone and the battery is slowly but surely dying on me, so I better publish this thing. 

- I've you've read all the way through the end I salute you! Send me an e-mail so I can thank you in person! You're probably equally bored as me. Cheers. 

P.s.: thank you so much for your nice comments on my last post. Your wishes really worked - we had beautiful weather on our holiday. Just one rainy day and thee solid days of lying on the beach and reading. Which reminds me that there will be a book recoomondation pretty soon! Stay tuned!