- If you want to get pitiful looks, take a big envelope, put a christmasy sticker on it and wait in line at the post office on the 23rd. (Nope, I wasn't waiting in line to mail someone's Christmas present in the vaine hope it might still arrive in time ... the envelope contained something someone ordered from me on a swapping site and I just put the sticker on because I had some left over from my Christmas mail)

- This year, my selfmade presents are mostly made from old, obsolete money (jewellery, keychains and stuff ...). I had no idea how much of it there is until I started to look through my stash of coins and discretely asked friends and family if they could provide some. And it's not just money that has been replaced by the Euro either. I have coins from England and Switzerland too that are no longer in use. Also, Ireland did have the prettiest money.

- And here's some homemade ginger bread, before everyone descended on it.

Happy boxing day or second Christmas day (never heard anyone actually using that term in English, but in Germany that's what the 26th is called ... because Christmas is so much fun there are two Christmas days there)!

Now, let's talk a minute about Doctor Who ... great, yes?! Last year's Christmas special was quite forgettable, IMO, so I didn't expect much this year, but I ended up loving it. The Doctor as a really rubbish Sherlock Holmes alone justifies a re-watch.


Btw, since when is LJ sending out mails every time you log in with an IP that comes with a different location than your previous one? I get the idea behind it, but really, it's 2012 ... people are using mobile devices to connect to the internet, not that many people are limited to just having the one computer sitting on their desk at home. In other words, that feature would have made a lot more sense like 10 years ago.

There is hope for the good old Christmas tradition after all! I'm getting ready to travel home and storm "Andrea" is expected to cause trouble, which might lead to delayed or even cancelled flights.

Also, Noel Clarke and Benedict Cumberbatch cast in Star Trek?! Do you hear that loud noise? That's the sound of a whole bunch of fandoms colliding in this movie.

Dear Dad. Last time I checked, we did not have house elves and the self untangling strings of Christmas lights hadn't been invented yet. If you put them in the box in something resembling the Gordian knot after Christmas, they will come out of that box in something resembling the Gordian knot when you need them for next Christmas. Also, I don't think using a sword would be a good way to deal with the problem either ... although I'm very tempted right now. I've been trying to untangle the lights since breakfast with not much success :-/

PS: No problems with travelling at all. And I was picked up by my dad, which was a nice surprise. This Christmas is strange indeed.


*I managed to almost avoid this song this Christmas season. I heard it for the first time yesterday in a shop.

I'm on my way to visit my family for Christmas and the calm irritates me to no end. It's not snowing. It's not cold enough to make possible rain freeze when it hits the ground or other objects, like planes. There's no fog. Nothing out of the ordinary seems to happen on the streets. The airport website shows no delay for my flight. My mum checked my luggage in without problems ... Something is very wrong here. What happened to good old Christmas traditions?!

Of course, my bag might still end up in Russia or something or my flight might get redirected to some middle of nowhere airport with no public transport available ... in case this should happen - Happy Holidays! In case this shouldn't happen - see you later!

I'm back from some highly scientific research. I was researching silly headgear in relation to the blood alcohol level and the best place to go for that is of course a German Christmas market. The results are this:

If you are a kid, there seems to be no connection at all. However, if you are a very small kid or a dog the blood alcohol level of the parent or owner is important. Apparently it leads them to notice, that their baby or pet is suffering from a serious lack of antlers and the desire to fix the problem.

If you are an adult it's relatively easy - the higher the alcohol level, the higher the probability of being caught wearing silly headgear while visiting a Christmas market. However, you have to consider the headgear losing factor, which also increases with the blood alcohol level.


PS: Me: Eggnog, Apple Punch and Hot Chocolate with peppermint snaps, no silly headgear.

I know, technically, there is no such thing as a healthy cookie, but these contain brown sugar, oat flakes and almonds ... that sounds healthy, right? Plus, I didn't put chocolate at the bottom because by the time I noticed the missing chocolate half of the cookies were gone already. I'm actually proud I managed to take a picture.

The temperature is like +15°C here, so, not really the best conditions for baking Christmas cookies but they would go well with iced coffee or gingerbread milk shakes too ... if they were still around, which they are not. The last ones fell victim to the Warehouse 13 season 2 watching session.

The best way to make good use of a Sunday off (other than having a proper breakfast and watching Shaun the Sheep, of course) is by piercing holes in my fingers. Ok, let's hope this won't happen ... but, I'm learning how to bind books today and this apparently involves using a sewing machine and hallo there, irrational fear of sewing machine needles, that are getting too close to my fingers.

If everything goes well (no trip to the ER), I hope to end up with the skills to make some Christmas presents, for the "I don't need anything ... if I want something I go out and get it" type of people in my family. They are always a pain to find a present for and I thought that handmade notebooks are personal and kind of unique and also useful ... yes?

Also, nothing new on the ugly Christmas sweater front. I couldn't find one in the second hand shops I checked, but it wasn't a total waste of time, since I found a very big and very cheap leather skirt, that will make great covers for my notebooks. I did get a very funny look for that ... guy buying a skirt that he could fit around himself at least twice ... but it would have totally ruined people's imaginations to tell, that it's for book covers and much cheaper than buying a new piece of leather. The truth is always so much more boring than the imagination and I'm very much against encouraging boredom.


So, bit more time to kill and then I'm off.
Happy sunday!

Christmas ... nothing exciting happened really. Just a good old family Christmas. Which isn't a bad thing of course. It's shocking though, how fast the little relatives seem to grow up. The toys under the tree have been mostly replaced by cell phones, cameras, clothes and stuff like that ... at least I still get toys :p

Flying ... well, good thing I'm used to sitting around and waiting and good thing I had books and a full Ipod, because there was a lot of time to kill. Thanks to the crazy weather and the nutter who tried to blow that plane up.

Doctor Who ... mmmh ... I did have fun watching it. On HD no less. I might or might not have a little thing for bondage!Master. I have always enjoyed the crack that is inevidable in Science Fiction, BUT the scenes that worked best for me had no eplosions, running around and over the top plot - it was the quiet, intense dialog scenes - Doctor/Wilf and Doctor/Master. Beautifully written, very well acted, why couldn't there be more of this and less of the other ... stuff?



*why didn't anyone draw that conclusion earlier? I mean, the face changes and all are a dead giveaway, no?