had my hair cut this morning, and now I feel like I am 16 again or something close to that age. I always look much younger when I have shorter hair... but I guess almost everyone does in a way. Anyway I thought the spring is coming so I should get rid of my long hair again... saves loads of shampoo too :)

sunshine and ice cream

just got back from a little outing with my mom. We drove around in the converitble and had some ice cream at the lovely italian ice cream parlour in town. I am really enjoying the sunny weather here... but the meterologists on tv are saying the weather won't stay and it is getting colder... hope it will stay at least a little bit longer.

in Germany now!

I have arrived in Germany and I am already having a great time... we are being very lazy already. Monday was a long afternoon of travelling after a very lazy morning and lunch at Imperial with Neil. Then I got on the train to Reading and then on the bus to Heathrow from there. It all worked out fine and I got to Heathrow with about an hour to spare before I had to go to my gate. The plane left on time and we almost arrived in Hamburg on time as well. And by the time my mom and I had driven home it was half past 11 at night... long time of travelling really... I left Exeter at 3 in the afternoon and got to Germany when it was half past 10 in England... so 7 hours... I guess it isn't that bad...

Yesterday we went to see my grandma and my aunt in the afternoon. We met in town where my grandma lives and had some tea/coffee and cake at a really nice café and then wandered around town enjoying the sunshine for a while. It is really nice out, still a tiny bit chilly in the shade, but in the sun you can almost be out without a jacket on...

Today started just as lazily with getting up after 9 and then having breakfast and now I am sitting here on the computer updating my blog and manning the phones while my mom is out running a few errands. When she comes back I will have a look at her computer to see if I can get some things to work again... she said she deinstalled some programmes by accident... but I think it is more likely that my dad got on the computer and randomly got rid of some things and didn't check that the files weren't needed for anything else... ah well... Not much else planned at the moment. We might go see Starlight Express at some point while I am here but we also might do that in the summer... then we have a bit more time to plan things.

I guess that's all that's going on at the moment here... more to come later

The Jeremy Kyle Show

I just switched through the tv channels after Frasier was over I found that the Jeremy Kyle Show is on... guess what the title of today's shows is? My Mistress won't let me go back to my wife... that poor man looks like he will be bursting out in tears any minute telling the nation that he has such a problem now being 45 that he got all the cheating out of his system and wants to go back to his wife... do people really do anything to be on tv?

thanks to all of you who made yesterday a very lovely day! I had such a good time and was truly surprised about the very yummy birthday cake... THANKS SARAH! And the best part is that tomorrow there is more birthday stuff going on for me as I am meeting my friends from uni for dinner and maybe drinks afterwards :) That will be nice.

mystery solved

such a nice day out there today... puts me in a good mood, which is never that difficult on my birthday :) Already had a few texts (neil and my cousin) and phone calls (my mom and my grandma) and I have opened the box and found the "big" present.



there was a card too which my mom made



It turned out to be a bathrobe...



very nice and blue and very fluffy! Pictures should appear on flickr soon!
I am looking forward to the rest of the day now... will meet a friend for a quick lunch and then later meeting Neil for dinner at ASK and then we are going for drinks with some friends which should be fun.

mysterious box

This box arrived in the mail today from my mom... I am very intrigued, but I will have to be good and wait until tomorrow to open it when it is actually my birthday. I had to pick it up from the collections office this morning and then took it to uni with me, but the size of it made it a bit awkward as it didn't fit in my backpack so I ran my mom to ask if I can open the box and carry things home that way, but she said that would give things away plus the actual gift isn't much smaller anyway... anyway... I guess I better stop thinking about it so I will stop here... will reveal the secret present tomorrow :)

Lord of the Rings Musical???

I was just browsing the internet a bit and saw that a Lord of the Rings musical is coming to London's West End... Maybe this should be a surprise, but it still is to me. I thought things usually went from the Stage to the Screen, but this one is the other way around... curious how it will do

finally....

I am starting to feel better. My voice sounds a bit funny, and I have got a runny nose now, but besides that I am feeling much better compared to Thursday and yesterday. Even went out today and enjoyed it quite a bit to be out in the fresh air. Yesterday morning I went into town to get some more paracetamol and I just didn't like being out. Anyway... been watching lots of DVDs and even some TV. Last night I enjoyed some of the Red Nose Day stuff while some of it was a little uncomfortable, but then again that's what Ricky Gervais is know and loved for isn't he?!
At the moment I am just waiting for the laundry to be done so I can finally get to bed after hanging it all up to dry. Was in desperate need for that just as cleaning the kitchen which I did a little earlier. That's usually a good sign that I am getting better when I can't stand looking at the piles of dirty dishes...
But even though I am feeling better I am still glad that tomorrow is another day off. Monday should be fairly quiet at uni which will be nice. No undergrads will be around... they are now off for their 5 week Easter holiday break... lucky them. Well, if I wanted I could take more, but I am only taking 2 weeks off this Easter. But more about that later... now it is time to get my washing and then I will get my well earned rest.

having a cold

is a pain... I was feeling a bit funny Wednesday in the day, and yesterday when I woke up I felt really bad. I had a few meetings at uni, but lucky one of them I could reschedule and the other one was fairly quick so I could come home right after noon and then crawled into bed and watched DVDs all day while napping as well... today i am feeling a little better... but loosing my voice so I am trying not to talk too much and am drinking lots of tea and having soup...

Becoming Jane

Just come home from the cinema after watching 'Becoming Jane'. The trailers made it look really good, and it didn't quite live up to that... but I still enjoyed the film. Very much a chick flick though...

rain again

I am sure you know there is this stereotype about british people that all they talk about is the weather... and when you read what I am writing here you might think I am becoming more and more British, but you can't believe the weather we have been having here. Almost every evening (and most days for that matter really) in the last few weeks it has been raining and just now I looked outside and sure thing it is raining again... I am starting to have enough of this.... but hey at least I don't have to be outside at the moment... (Neil I hope you made it home dry!)...

let's see what has been going on these last few days?
Monday started with a pretty boring committee meeting I had to go to in the morning and then I saw a few students during the day to get some paper work sorted and then saw a friend who is off to the US for a couple of months now to start writing up her thesis. I am so jealous that she can escape this weather, but then again I would miss my friends here and Neil even more...

Tuesday my supervisor cancelled our weekly meeting 10 minutes before the meeting when I had come in earlier especially for the meeting... then I did some work instead and then met a friend for lunch and then went to a workshop on how to manage stress during the PhD. That was really interesting. She went through a few tips on how to notice the first warning signs of stress and how to reduce it that way, and also what adrenaline actually does in the body... all quite scary that it all happens automatically at a time when you don't even consciously realise that you are stressed out!

Yesterday was Neil's birthday, so I left uni early and we went to the cinema to see "The Science of Sleep" the new (?) film by the guy who directed Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. Neil had really been looking forward to the film, but I think we were both a little disappointed. I was fairly confused about what was supposed to be real and what wasn't... and especially with the end of it. Still it was enjoyable to watch and a few of the characters were quite funny... and the animations were really awesome. After the cinema we went for food at Old Timers and then about an hour later a bunch of people joined us for birthday drinks for Neil. It was nice to see people again and we made plans to see some of them this weekend... and I get to go to WAGAMAMA again :) I am so looking forward to that already!

Today was fairly boring... I saw my friend who is off to the US again, she wasn't supposed to be in again today, or wasn't sure anyway if she would have time to get together, but we had a quick lunch and for the rest of the day I tried to re-teach myself how to use SPSS for data analysis. Then I went to by the bookshop to say Hi to Neil before he went to college this evening and then got some food for dinner. After dinner I watched "American Dreamz" on DVD which was enjoyable... Hugh Grant playing himself... very funny in bits and just the usual in other bits...

weekend

had a really nice weekend. Friday I decided to stop working earlyish... I had a quick meeting with my supervisor in the morning and then had to take a friend to the health centre a bit later as I thought he may have a concussion after having fallen off a horse (twice!!!!) that morning, and he just looked quite bad. But the doctor said he was fine, he just should watch out for a few things and make sure not to get on a horse in a few days. then we decided to have some lunch while we were there and then went back to the department to try and get some work done. I couldn't quite focus on work, so I just decided to go into town to try and find a birthday present for Neil... the weather was not the best as it has been here for the past few weeks really, so I didn't stay there long either, just got the present, and some food for dinner and then went home.

Saturday I met a friend in town for a coffe in the afternoon, and then cooked dinner for Neil and I. In the evening we went to a housewarming party that was quite interesting (I won't say much more here)... and today we went over to Neil's parents for lunch. It was lovely to finally meet them properly. I had met his mom briefly for a cup of tea before christmas, and since then we had been trying to arrange a day to go over for lunch or dinner.

and I have just finished watching Top Gear and am now watching The Conspiracy Files programme on BBC 2. Time for bed soon... Monday morning will be here sooner than I want

PS: This is my 100th post :)

Bobby

just come home from the cinema... went to see Bobby, about Robert Kennedy's assassination. The film was quite interesting as it focused on the ordinary people who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. If you like to see film with an all star cast and don't mind leaving the cinema feeling slightly depressed then go see this! It is a very good film, well told story with some very funny and some very serious bits!

not that much has been going on here since my last post. The week started early with meeting students to discuss exam results and things like that at uni. Wednesday night we went to see Hot Fuzz with a few friends and it was really funny. I didn't get all the references to old cop movies, but still thought the film was really funny. Friday evening I met with some of the girls from uni for Indian food at Taj Mahal which was delicious (and so cheap!). yesterday I met a friend in town for coffee, which is always nice. We tend to meet up at uni for lunch in the week, but sometimes we just feel we need to get away from there and so meet up on weekend for a nice cup of coffee (well tea for me) and have a proper chat. In the evening Neil and I went to a birthday party which was fun ( we ordered pizza from dominos!!!)... that's the update for me...

Fish and Chips

Fish and Chips, originally uploaded by ivo_loves_london.

I took this picture on Sunday in Kingsbridge I think. I just thought this was funny, a fish and chip shop with that name!

had a nice week...

Last Sunday we went to see Music and Lyrics, which was such a nice film after all the heavy things we have seen lately. It was just a romantic comedy with not too much behind it besides being a cheesy film with Hugh Grant being himself pretty much the whole way through. I loved it though.

Friday night we went out for one of Neil's old co-worker's birthday... unfortunatley she wanted to meet at Hog's Head in town... bit of a towny pub with horrible music and just as horrible atmosphere. Thankfully we got saved by another friend who was at the Old Firehouse, so we joined them instead of going to on to Arena.

Yesterday we decided to take the car for a drive and in the hopes that it would be nice weather drove all the way to Kingsbridge and Dartmouth. Both seem to be very nice quaint little villages, but unfortunately we didn't really get to enjoy them much as it was raining. Then in the evening we went to Hotel Barcelona for birthday drinks for a friend of mine. It was nice there, but the atmosphere was a bit odd as well. Maybe a little posh for me or something like that.

Today has been lazy mainly. Been watching a little DVD and read some more in "Tintenherz". It is really getting good now, I am almost half way through, and I really hope it has a good ending.

Notes on a Scandal...

we ended up seeing Notes on a Scandal, and I am glad. It was so good. Very intense film with very intense characters, especially Judy Dench's character. She played so well that you really absolutely hated her character and wanted bad things to happen to her as well. Also Bill Nighy was good as Cate Blanchett's much older husband. I would recommend this film to anyone!

After all these heavy films I said we need to go see something cheery, so might go see Music and Lyrics sometime and try out the new Vue Cinema in Exeter, as that film might not come to the Picturehouse. Hopefully the Vue is better than the Odeon!

Black Book

went to see Black Book at the cinema last night and it was a very good film, although I can't quite say I enjoyed it. Well, the subject matter didn't really let one enjoy it properly as every 5 minutes or so someone was getting shot either by the Germans or the Dutch Resistance... But the characters were portrayed in very interesting ways, and I wonder if this jewish singer really existed that had an affair with a German officer...

Today we are thinking about going to see Notes on a Scandal. The trailer we saw yesterday looked thoroughly creepy and very much like a psychological thriller... so I hope it won't give me a night of nightmares as BlacK Book did... I must just be a very sensitive soul when it comes to this sort of thing...

upgrade done!!!

What a relief that was when I was finally able (after working on it for almost 3 months) to be able to hand in my upgrade report. Did that on Friday, and then went to a talk by one of the famous guys in Psychology called Bas Verplanken. His talk was very intersting and it gave me a few ideas to take my research further, but my supervisor went as well, so I will see tomorrow in my meeting what he thinks about my ideas now. Saturday I met a friend in town for a cuppa and a little bit of shopping and then just had a quiet evening in. A game of poker rounded up the weekend last night.

Also I discovered a new way to listen to my music in iTunes. Just randomly typed in some words into the search window and let it generate a playlist that way... a good way to listen to songs that I haven't heard in some time.

by the Baltic Sea Coast

CIMG0928.JPG, originally uploaded by ivo_loves_london.

I took this earlier this week when we were by the coast in Germany on a walk by the sea. It was freezing cold, but a really beautiful day after all the wind and rain.

Photos

here is the link to my flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivonnehoeger/

there are pictures from my trip home!

Germany... again

I am having a nice time here at home. My gran's birthday was fun with the whole family, and the food was fantastic. Now it is just one more day until my mom's 50th and then I am already on my way back to Exeter. one week is just not long enough for a proper visit. Oh well... The Easter holidays are not that long away ;)

I will upload some photos to flickr... so have a look :)

off to Germany again...

and I am almost not looking forward to it. Well no that's not true, I think it it just the fact that I can't be bothered to be travelling to Reading then get on the bus to Heathrow and everything, plus I made myself get up at 6 am this morning to make sure everything would go smoothly. I am actually looking forward to seeing my family again and also to my gran's 80th birthday party. So I guess I better get back to getting ready now...

countries I have visited

create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide

This is interesting, but the Maldives don't show up very well...

European countries I have visited:



create your personalized map of europe

Actually not very many, when you think i have lived in the US for a while.