Excitement

sorry for the constant changing of my template in the last few weeks. I just can't settle on one at the moment. But for now I like this dark one, it brings out the photos a bit better than some of the other ones.
But yes why am I excited you might wonder... well I just found out on Friday that I got accepted to speak at a conference held in Rome later in the summer. It will be nice to get away for a bit and see such an exciting place, but also I think it will be good for my professional development. Getting closer to the end of my PhD, I really need to start thinking about what comes next. At the moment I am favouring the option of becoming an academic more than anything else. The whole lifestyle that comes with it and the possibilities to be more flexible in my job just sound really good. But we shall see. I am going to apply for some post-doc positions and research jobs though, don't want to just bank on one thing and then not get it... So I wonder what this conference will be like. The last one was a bit strange because I didn't really know that many people there, and I felt a bit awkward for most of the time. Hopefully this one will be better. But it should, from what I can tell at the moment, there will be a number of people from Exeter there as well. Now I just have to see if the department will give me enough money so I can actually afford to go. But they really have to. I have not claimed for an international conference before and more other people get to go to multiple conferences in a year.
So Rome... if anyone has been before and can tell me where to go and what to see or has any other tips that would be good... Better get some breakfast now

and it is the end of another week

time seems to be flying at the moment. I can't believe it is already the middle the June, wasn't it just my birthday? Oh well, must have been longer ago than I keep thinking. Anyway, I have been trying to work on this one paper for so long, and now I am finally making some progress. Earlier in the week i got about a page and a half done in one day, with all the adding and taking away things so that was quite good. Today was a good day as well, I think I have got about 2-3 pages more done, and I think I may have found my flow. All of a sudden I was getting ideas and things seemed to sound OK whereas before it was always that I would write something and then have to delete it as it was pretty much just rubbish.
I've also been thinking about what should come next. A post-doc position would be nice, so I can write up a bit more of my thesis for publication once I am finished with the examination. I came across the ESRC Post-doc thing, which is exactly what I want. Get a year employment at a university and write up the PhD thesis with publications and also attend more conferences and learn a bit more before even attempting to get a job somewhere. At the moment my publication record is nowhere near good enough to get a job at a university... so that needs work in any case. The major problem is that I really don't want to move away from Exeter at the moment. I feel quite settled where I am and I haven't really felt settled in a long time, so this is very nice. So at the moment the only plan I have for when the PhD is done is hope for the post-doc in the business school in the marketing department. Yesterday afternoon I downloaded the notes to help you fill in the application form for this job, and it is evil. Well I guess you have to put in some work if you want them to fund you for a whole year for any research trips and other expenses plus a job... but still it is a really nasty application form, and you need so many supporting documents. Nightmare, but I will have to do it...
But the main worry at the moment is who we can ask to be my external examiner once the time comes. I am already terrified about the whole experience, but nothing I can do about it. We all have to go through it sooner or later.

walk by the Quay

It was such a nice evening on Saturday that we decided to go for a stroll by the river after dinner. It was a nice walk and we even got to see a swan with its signets. they were so cute! so here are a few pics from that walk

noch mehr Blumen

I've put up a few more plants on our window sill. Well, we'll have to see what happens with them anyway. the white pot in the middle should grow some herbs in a couple of weeks, and the brown one should hopefully grow an orange tree.

Neue Blumen auf der Fensterbank

here the new plants on the windowsill.

First a Venus Flytrap. I've been wanting one of those for a long time, I think they look a bit spooky and very cool at the same time.


Then this pink one, we have no idea what it is so if anyone does let us know. Neil just saw it and said "aww pink!" and that decided we were buying it...


And then also a spider plant which doesn't live on the window sill...

Ich hab beim letzen Mal ganz vergessen zu schreiben, dass ich den neuen Sex and the City Kinofilm gesehen habe. Der war echt gut, auch wenn nicht jeder mit dem Ende zufrieden sein wird, aber egal. Mir hat er gefallen und ich glaub Dee und Ilka fanden den auch ganz gut.

Ansonsten war die Woche bis jetzt ganz gut. Hab mich mit ein paar Freunden getroffen und war an der Uni. Arbeit geht ganz gut im Moment, die 4te Studie ist jetzt endlich am Ende. Ich muss jetzt nur noch alles analysieren und dann aufschreiben was es alles zu bedeuten hat.

Gestern abend waren wir mit ein paar Freunden in Bickleigh im Fisherman's Cot, das war echt nett. Erst haben wir gedacht dass es wohl doch nichts mehr wird weil es hier in Exeter so doll geregnet hat, aber dann auf dem Weg hat es gar nicht mehr geregnet und in Bickleigh sah es so aus als hätte es gar nicht geregnet, und so haben wir noch eine ganze Weile draussen gesessen und dann auch noch eine ganze Weile drinnen. Ich glaub am Ende waren wir dann erst so gegen halb 12 wieder zu Hause. Aber es war echt ein schöner Abend.

Heute wollen wir mal zum Gärtner fahren und uns ein paar Blumen für die Fensterbank kaufen. Ich hoffe wir finden was schönes dass zu meinen Sonnenblumen passt. Denen geht's ganz gut bis jetzt und ich hoffe es wird was aus ihnen werden. Diese Pocket Garden sets sind total super.

I thought it was time for a new template once again

und dann hab ich mir gedacht, dass ich doch mal wieder was auf Deutsch schreiben sollte. Da hab ich so gut mit angefangen und dann gar nichts mehr. Na ja, aber ich bin es ja auch gar nicht wirklich gewohnt so viel Deutsch zu sprechen. Obwohl jetzt mit den ganzen Deutschen bei uns an der Uni da hab ich schon ein bisschen mehr Übung, und dann will ja Dimitrios auch immer dass ich ihm Deutsch beibringe. Bis jetzt hat es ja nicht so gut geklappt, aber immer mal ein bisschen und irgendwann geht es schon. Aber mal sehen.

Oh ja, meine Sonnenblumen machen auch ganz guten Fortschritt!


und so weit gucken sie schon über den Rand vom Blumentopf.

North Devon has beautiful beaches!

yes it does! I had been telling Neil that i would like to go to a proper beach, meaning a beach without pebbles and with miles of sand. So since Neil had Saturday off work and the weather was supposed to be nice enough we decided to drive up to north Devon for the day yesterday. We went to Woolacombe and had a lovely day. Here are some photos of the day:


this is just an overview of the beach with the town in the background. I couldn't believe the length of the beach... It was so nice to be able to walk barefoot in the sand and stick my feet in the water.

here another view of the beach to the other side, it went on for miles... We enjoyed a very nice walk into this direction, not really taking notice of the very strong wind and how much it would blow in our faces on the way back.
As usual at any beach we have been to so far, Neil had to built something. Here is his sand castle. As I was taking photos of it a man in a surfing outfit came by and asked why I was taking photos of the sand castle - he must have thought it wasn't very good. I thought he was being quite rude... Very unusual of an English person to just come up to someone else and tell them what they are doing is silly. Usually English people would just talk about this behind your back... or maybe I am misunderstanding the English there... anyway, we didn't really care about what he said and took a few more photos of the sand castle.



After all the fun of building the sand castle we walked up into the town to find some food. At first we were going to have something to eat at one of the vans parked on the beach selling food, but decided they were too pricey so town it was. We ate some fish and chips, which are always being served in the same box saying something like "the great British take away" on the top. After that we went and played a round of Krazy Golf, yes spelled like that! Neil beat me but that was clear from the start... it was still fun though.


After crazy golf we went back to the beach and went for a walk watching the many surfers trying their luck at finding the perfect waves. It was amazing though the amount of spray being produced by the wind.




And a seagull struggling against the wind


here is Neil about to stick his feet in the water...

and then getting wetter than he wanted

And here a very windswept Neil:


We also saw this guy whizzing past with a kite. it looked really cool, but who knows how difficult it might be...



I really had a good time at the beach... and I think so did Neil...
I love walking barefoot in the sand!


In the evening we went to see some friends to watch Eurovision which this year was a big disappointment. I still can't believe that the German entry was so bad. The No Angels are usually quite good, their performance was really not up to their normal standards. There were only a few very strange entries. I would have voted for Bosnia & Herzegovina, but in the end didn't really feel inspired enough to vote for anyone. Hope next year Eurovision will be back on proper form, otherwise I might not want to watch it again... if even Terry Wogan doesn't quite know if he wants to be involved again something is seriously wrong!

more sunflowers and things

my sunflowers are making more progress



and here another one



also this week Neil was reading a clever magazine



which reminds me we still have to come up with our version of the future. The New Scientist is having a competition which ends soon. Any thoughts? You can win a year's worth of dry cleaning vouchers and other bizarre things like that. I want to win the Sony Vaio Laptop or the cool mobile - yes I know I still am a self-proclaimed geek!

in other excitement, we had a bomb attack in Exeter yesterday, well we still aren't quite sure whether it really was a bomb or not. But anyway some guy walked into a restaurant then there was some explosion of some kind and then the whole city centre area was closed for the rest of the day. Very strange to have this happen in Exeter though...

now I have just come home from a lovely dinner at Strada with some uni friends. One of them has just come back from Australia, so it was nice to get together. Plus the food there is just so good!

trying to grow sunflowers

last weekend we went to the otter and butterfly sanctuary not too far from where we are and I bought a little pouch to plant sunflowers in. It is really cool so see them start growing so quickly. The pouch said they will germinate in about 2-3 weeks, but I'd only just planted them and now they are already this far!

still battling with my motivation to come back to me, but so far not too much luck. At the moment I guess it is ok because I am data collecting so at least I am doing something. Data entry - very mundane but still is something I can do and then feel like I have accomplished something at the end of the day. I am very determined to get this paper I am currently writing done by the end of May. It really needs to go and be submitted to a journal and then the reviewers can deal with it. It was quite interesting, I went to a workshop for PhD students last week about writing and publishing work and the guy talked about reviewers of paper as co-authors. Not sure if I agree with that, but I can see his point. In some way these people are co-authors. They contribute to other people's work in the sense that they have a distanced view of the work and maybe can be more critical about it. Still I am not so sure if I can really take everything from the workshop on board very easily. He also said that you shouldn't take it personally when reviewers say you have to revise your paper... well in a sense it does seem like a slap in the face, as if they are saying: why did you even try to submit to this journal, we are way better than you are! Hmmm, maybe I am over analysing reviewers there, and I should really be careful about what I say, I have been reviewing papers for a journal as well. Oh yes that's something else I can add to my annual progress report... invited article reviews. Sounds quite good actually... ok well all this talking about work, maybe I should actually try and do something. Need to add the data I collected yesterday into the excel spread sheet and see how many people have now participated in my study. And I need to figure out a way to maybe make a digital version of the study so I can get more participants.

not much is happening at the moment. I've just finished a teaching session for pre-university students and I think they had no clue about what I was talking about, and there I was thinking that my research is not that complex. But I guess if you know nothing about what research really is then even the work I do is quite difficult to grasp. But still we had good fun talking about shopping and what they liked shopping for and what they thought men like shopping for. At least that part they understood...

A few days ago I watched "Failure to Launch". Good film with Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew McConaughey. Very amusing film about a woman who gets hired by parents to get their 30+ year old sons to move out, and as these films go she falls for him and then there are all sorts of complications before the end. Enjoyed the funny moments and the sense of humour. Last night we watched "Elizabethtown", and it was very good. All I knew about the film beforehand was that it involved some sort of death, and a roadtrip. And that's what it pretty much was, but it was also so much more and it was still really good, apart from Orlando Bloom's inability to act... sorry but it had to be said. Kirsten Dunst was in it too, and she was much better, and the music was really good. Must get that soundtrack!

I've been getting ready to collect some more data, and now I need to find loads of people who can sort some cards into groups for me. I really hope this study will work and it will add to my work so far. I have been going through a low phase yet again, these really seem to come and go on an alomst regular basis now. I have days where I think I really want to just quit and get a job folding jeans in Gap, but at the same time I know that I don't really want to quit and that I want to finish this PhD, even if it is the end of me! Grrrr, stupid motivation, COME BACK!!!

Been fiddling with my camera a bit more, but still have no idea what the different manual modes do. I understand the basics, shutter speed is how long the lens stays open, aperture has to do with how wide the lens is open, but ISO still is a bit of a mystery. And friend told me something about depth of field which has something to do with how blurry the background of a photo is. And now I need to figure out how to use all these things in combination to take cool and arty photos... We'll see. Still it is nice to have the amount of pixels, it really does make a difference. so much more detail there in the pictures.

Guess since I am not really done anything productive here at the office any more, I could just as well go home... so that's what I'll do!

Back home

I had a great little holiday in Germany, as always. This time we've mostly seen family, but that was mostly the purpose for the trip was my cousin's confirmation, and as one of the god-mothers I had to be there. I arrived there in the evening on the 26th and then the next few days were quickly absorbed by family meetings and confirmation celebrations. It was just like usual family celebrations with loads of food and chatting. I really enjoy those times at home lately, not that I didn't enjoy them before. The rest of the time my mom and I spent mostly just visiting family members and going shopping and going out to eat. I think my mom really enjoys that as well, my dad is always away so he never really wants to go out to eat. We also went to the cinema and watched Keinohrhasen which was really good. I sometimes wish more German movies got exported over here, but usually it is only the critically acclaimed ones and the very very strange or ones about the war that get over here. Oh well, there is still time. And this way I always have a reason to go back.

The time at home really went by much too quickly, and on the 8th of April I was back in Exeter. Flight, bus and train journey were fine and I arrived almost on time at the Station in Exeter where Neil came and collected me.

The next day we went to Budleigh Salterton and Ladram Bay to enjoy some sunshine and over the next few days I tried to get back into working mode, which hasn't been very sucessful. I am still working on it now, but I am sure it is because students aren't back yet either so I am thinking why should I work if none of them are...





Monday I finally got to get my birthday present from my parents. A really really nice new camera. I am completely overwhelmed with it, but it takes really nice photos. It is a Nikon D60 SLR camera. I really have a lot to learn now. I have been buying slightly geeky camera magazines to learn more about how to use these cameras, but so far I am not so sure. Maybe I just have to experiment a bit...



Tuesday we went to see Shine a Light at the cinema which was really good, just not quite what we expected it to be. From the advertising I thought it was much more of a documentary than a concert film. But it was still really good.

Yesterday we went to Darts Farm to buy some nice food and to have fish and chips for lunch and then went for a walk in Topsham after that. It was fun, we went into this Bird Hide thing which was full of Bird Geeks as Neil called them to have a look at some birds, and then walked along the estuary back to the Quay and had a drink at the pub there. We took some photos along the way, but I'll have to add them later I am writing this from my office computer... I know still not back into work mode!








Tonight we are meeting some friends at Wagamama - there are 2 for 1 vouchers again. So that's something nice to look forward to!

A lovely easter weekend!

and it all started with my 30th birthday on Good Friday. I had known that my 30th birthday would be on a Friday for years, but only sometime last year I found out that it would be on Good Friday. At first I was quite annoyed about it, but after all it was a lovely day. Friday Morning I woke up not too early and even had a present to unwrap there and quite a few cards had arrived early as well. The package from my mom still hasn't arrived now as I am typing this on Tuesday. Anyway, I spoke to my mom on the phone and then my grandma rang as well. As I was speaking on the phone to various people Neil put balloons all over the living room, which made it look very nice and birthday like (and not just because the balloons had happy birthday and happy 30th written on them!) In the afternoon a few people came over for cake which I baked myself. It was nice to have people there and even better that they liked all the cake. In the evening we met up with even more friends for a lovely dinner at Harry's Grillbar. It is an excellent choice if you are in the mood for steak and grilled things. We had a great time, and didn't even find it too expensive for what it was. And the restaurant is a lovely building too.

Saturday Neil had to go to work in the morning, and then drove a friend out to an antique shop to pick up something so I just lazed about in the morning and then met a friend for coffee in the afternoon. It was a nice day as well. If you can't tell by now I like being lazy...

Easter Sunday again we didn't do very much got up late and lazed about for a while and then met a friend in the pub just across the road from us. Very nice thing to do in the afternoon.

Yesterday Neil went for a run in the morning while I watched Numb3rs and then I met another friend for coffee in town. And in the afternoon and evening we watched the last 4 episodes of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Very good show, I can't believe it was canceled after just one season. But who knows, maybe there will be more episodes coming...

Today I need to pack my things for the trip to Germany. I leave tomorrow for just under 2 weeks. It's my god daughter's confirmation, and since we are on break at uni I said I would be able to make it. And just in general it will be nice to see my family for a little bit. My parents had been planning to come over for my birthday, but with my dad's crazy work schedule it just didn't work out.

PS: And being 30 doesn't feel at all different...

getting up early to go to the gym...

... just isn't always easy. This morning it almost felt like torture to make myself get up. Still am up and nearly ready to leave the house now, but thought a tiny bit of procrastination is ok so I can put something on the blog. We had a very nice weekend. Friday night just stayed home, even though I had an invitation to birthday drinks. Didn't really feel like going, mostly because it was too late (9:15 pm start - that's nearly my bed time!!!) so we just watched a few episodes of Studio 60 and then went to bed early. Saturday I met some friends for coffee and lunch and then spent the afternoon lazing around the house not doing a lot but waiting to go out for dinner that evening. Dinner was really nice, we went to a place near Exeter for a lovely meal with Neil's mum and dad for both our birthdays (early for me, but late for Neil). and yesterday morning was spent again lazing around the house - that's what Sundays are for! - and then met a friend in town for coffee, then went for a drink at Mill on Exe and then had friends over in the evening to play bowling on the Wii. And now I can't believe that it is Monday morning already and time for the gym...

finally we are getting to the end of the open day period, these days are quite draining and I never get anything else done. There are always little things to sort of throughout the day, but today it looks like I am getting a bit more time. Students and parents seem to be enjoying their visit to Exeter, and for the most part the students do show a lot of interest. I never quite know how to deal with students who clearly are being dragged here by their parents, and I just want to say that it's not worth it sending your child to uni if they clearlt have no interest. Give them a gap year to have a think, makes life for us who have to teach and tutor them easier. But it's not up to me to say this at these days. Anyway, let's see what this afternoon brings, aparently it is going to be very manic with loads of people coming to find out about our various degree programmes.

sometimes I still wonder what I've got myself into when I am up at this hour of the day to get ready to go to the gym. Didn't sleep particularly well last night with all the wind out there, but now I still feel awake enough to go swimming.

We had a nice and quite weekend, apart from Friday night when we had a birthday party for Neil's 30th birthday. It was fun to have people over, and most of them had a go on the brand new Wii we got as a combined birthday present to ourselves. Saturday was spent being lazy and going for food in the evening at City Gate, very nice food for pub food and good prices. Yesterday Neil watched three films, all for free. One at the Picturehouse in the morning, one at home in the afternoon, and then another one in the evening. I just wanted a bit of dreadful telly and some DVD in the morning, had coffee in the afternoon, and then played on the Wii in the evening.

and now it is already time again to get going... Hope the gym isn't too busy today...

another update

while Neil is having a go on the Wii (and making sure I can never beat him at the bowling), I am quickly going to update my blog. Been quite busy over the past few weeks. We've been having Post offer open days in the university, and on top of the central programme run by the Admissions office each department/school has also been playing host to lots of students and their parents. It has been quite fun so far, but these days are quite challenging. Organising over 100 people is not the easiest thing to do, but at least we seem to have a lot of interest in the new programmes being offered here. It is also interesting to see pupils of varying backgrounds and with varying reasons to come to Exeter in the first place. Besides that I have been seeing my students to talk about their exam results (which they never like that much) and been trying to write a paper for publication (which I am not liking very much at the moment). The problem with the paper is the flow, the information is all there, but somehow it just isn't quite what it should be.

Hmmm, besides that I don't have that much to say, Neil pretty much said it all already in his blog, so just have a look there

still not feeling that much better, but at least I didn't have the same nasty stomach cramps all night, so I did actually sleep quite well for a change. Normally when I am ill because I sleep all day I can't really sleep in the night, but last night was OK. So what can I write... since yesterday not much has happened, I spent most of the day in bed, not eating, and then by evening my stomach was complaining because it was upset and because I was hungry at the same time. Very strange feeling, but eating didn't help that much, and having breakfast just now, wasn't the best idea either I am starting to think with the way I am feeling now. Still hot one minute and then cold, but maybe I need a shower and then a walk. See if Boots have some medicine that will help get rid of this sooner.
I am very annoyed about being ill now anyway. I was supposed to take a friend to dinner last night as a late birthday present, and today Neil's sister is visiting so we are invited to dinner at his parents'. I was really looking forward to that, but the way I am feeling at the moment, I am not sure I will be going. But we'll see how I feel after a shower and a little walk... since the weather is so nice (but a little freezing) out at the moment.

I'm rubbish

I've been rubbish at updating this blog for the past month or so, but today I am feeling rubbish so I thought I should at least be less rubbish about the blog and update this. Neil has been doing a really good job and keeping his blog up to date, so whatever we've been up to should be there. I really should be in uni today helping out with an open day thing, but I just can't get myself out of bed. I hate feeling like this, even the headache keeps persisting, and then I feel hot and then cold again...
I just took this quiz about what time of day I am, and i think it got it completely wrong.



I can never be 6:49 in the morning, I am way too grumpy that early in the morning...

anyway, Neil has been ill the last few days, and I am not sure if I caught it off him, or just somewhere at uni... who knows. these things seem to be flying around at the moment.

long overdue

I know this post is long long overdue, but I just didn't feel like I had much to say that was interesting enough to put on the blog... well I guess I could have put down that I have joined the gym, and have been very good at going every other day in the week. So far only swimming but it feels good to be doing something, and I really enjoy swimming anyway. I always think I should go swimming more, but then don't get around to it. So this time when my office mate said she had been thinking about joining the gym, we looked around for one that has a pool and then I said we can join together. The joint membership was a good deal too.

this past weekend we went to Wales for a party. One of Neil's friend's had booked a singer - what a great idea. I hadn't heard of Brian Houston before this weekend, but it was really good. He was really funny and the music was great as well. And he signed the CD we bought as well, which makes it even better. It was also great to meet some more of Neil's friends from Greenbelt whom he talks about a lot.

Besides that we had Brotzeit one evening with friends, have been to the pub lots to eat or just to meet friends, and have watched lots of the Eddie Izzard DVDs Neil gave me for Christmas. It is really great, he is so funny!

I completely forgot to put up the pictures of my mom's christmas decorations at home...

update...

I got back last night after a pretty stressful day of traveling. At least it was all delayed by enough time that I still managed to catch the train from Reading I was booked on so I didn't have to buy a top up to my ticket so I could travel during peak time. It was nice to get back though, Neil collected me from the station and then cooked dinner pretty much instantly after we got home. Then we watched some things on video that he had taped while I was away, Have I got news for you was funny as always, and Omid Djalilli still makes us laugh.

this morning Neil got up early for work, and once i got up and unpacked I did a few loads of washing to get it done and then I met Neil in town during his lunch break. Lousy day out there, but I still wandered around town for a while. I can't believe how busy it is now, almost worse than it has been before Christmas!

My time at home was very nice. I went to my 10 year high school reunion which was a very bizarre night. Very surreal to see people again after over 10 years, and to see that some people hadn't changed at all. Still same haircut and fashion sense... And it was fun to see people's faces when I they heard my answer to the obligatory "and what are you doing now?" question. Seemed like hardly anyone thought I would be the one to go on and get my PhD... but who cares really. At first I didn't even want to go to the reunion, but my mom and also a friend of mine kept saying I should go even just for a little bit, because I would regret not having gone later. And it was nice to see some friendly faces, but it becomes more and more difficult to talk to people. Our lives are just so completely different that we just don't have that much to say to each other.

I also met with a few school friends for dinner one evening and with them it is very much the same. The three of them are very much settled where they are and they don't really understand much about what I do, and vice versa. so it is hard to have good flowing conversation, but I have learned that it is always a safe bet to ask one of them about their new babies and they can talk about that forever.

Christmas was nice and quite really, with one very few annoyances caused by my dad, as usual. He doesn't particularly like Christmas, or maybe it is just the fact that we get together with the whole family, but my mom and I really enjoy that part of Christmas. So anyway, Christmas eve we spent at home. I watched The Muppet's Christmas Carol and my mom cooked a delicious duck roast dinner. Then we exchanged presents and watched more christmassy stuff on the telly. Christmas day we went for a meal at lunch time with my mom's side of the family at a really nice restaurant. Very nice food again and then went to my aunt and uncle's house for coffee and cake in the afternoon. Then out of the blue my dad decided that he wanted to go to his parent's house which my mom wasn't quite as happy about as she pretended to be. We had hardly finished cake at my aunt and uncle's and then left. At my grandparent's house it is always busy, nearly all 9 of my dad's brothers and sisters were there with children, and now even some of my cousins have started having babies, so loads of people, and some of the small ones can be very very moody, which is not always fun to watch and listen to. Boxing Day one of my dad's brothers came over in the afternoon, otherwise the day was pretty nice and quiet and I had to get packed for my trip back.

pre christmas cheers

since I got to Germany it has been pretty much just eating different christmassy things. I arrived Thursday night about an hour later than I was supposed to as the plane left late, but all else was ok. Friday my mom and I went to Hamburg for the day to just window shop and also to have steak. We always go to the same restaurant, and they can cook steak like no where else. It is so nice... After the day of shopping we dropped by my grandma's in the evening for an hour and then we came home to be lazy. Saturday we went to my grandma's house again for advent tea, coffee and cake in the afternoon. My mom's oldest sister and her youngest brother with family were there as well, so there was lots of cake... one of which was this one



it is my favourite christmas time cake, mostly because my grandma always makes it at this time of year, which is odd because it is even better with fresh strawberries, these ones are frozen ones... anyway... after we finished coffee and cake we got dressed up warm and went to a christmas market a few towns away. It was so nice to see a proper German Christmas market instead of the tiny one in Exeter... but it is still nice enough in Exeter. But the evening was spent there wandering around drinking Glühwein and Heißen Apfelpunsch.

oh yes one thing I do miss from Germany at Christmas time is what we call "Naschteller" something like munchie plate in English would be the closest... when I was younger my mom would make one for each of us here, now it is usually just one for all three of us. But this was the one at my grandma's house...



Yesterday my mom and I stayed in for most of the day, watched The Holiday on DVD and then later went out to have pizza at our favourite pizza place (I think you can see a theme there...)

Today we want to go to another Christmas Market, the one in Bremen as it is very big and very nice. I will try and take some photos... but can't promise anything. We went last year as well and really enjoyed it. Not sure how long that will take. But speaking of it, I better get in the shower and dressed now so we can head off.

More soon...

Teignmouth Beach

CIMG1346, originally uploaded by ivo_loves_london.

I took this photo earlier this week on Teignmouth beach. Neil had the day off and we thought we should drive to the beach, and so we did. The drive was through very pretty countryside. We wandered through the town for a bit and along the beach and then we hit the archade on the pier and played on the 2p machines for a while. Somehow they are quite addictive. We didn't win much, and what we did win we put straight back into the machines. Very much fun though.