New Feature and Developping Narcissism

I just returned from the restrooom in the office to find my scarf behaving in a sort of flight attendent-way, which I like.

Of course the scarf would never stay in that position during any flight.

My hair on the contrary looks as if it survived some turbulences. Should not be so careless, even on a casual friday. While meditating on the scarf I see the unexpected: a beautiful ear. Ear-narcissism? I can live with that.

Lisa Eldridge, You Made my Day

"You want to sort of put back your socket line you used to have. So if you just raise your eyebrows to start off and just pat where you think it should be."

I just discovered her channel and I love everything about her: what she has to say, her tutorials, her thoughts on make up and her soothing voice. Compared to all the shrill voices on YouTube ...

She has such a knowledge and she is happily sharing her knowledge and even taking her time to answer all the questions. How nice is that!

She is taking this stuff quite seriously, but she should, she is a professional make up artist.

Lisa Eldridge
And here is one of her Video Tutorials on Anti Ageing Make-Up Tips: Eyes, Brows, Lips.
08:30 min - here she talks on Lipstick and her mimic is sooo cute !

Shooting Your Own Legs and Other Impossibilities

Taking photos of your own legs without a mirror turns out to be a challenging act:

... bias out of control.

Darling I shrunk the legs!
Immediate gainweight and shrinkage of height, due to the angle of the camera.

Oh and the boots: they are made in Austria. The leg is felt and the front is embroidered and crystallized (registered trademark). The inside is a red cotton with white flower-print. I call these boots my "Russian Boots", because that's exactly how I imagine Russian Boots, a bit Anna Karenina, a bit Dr.Schiwago and by any means outré.

In case you wonder: the tights are Fogal, so to say the swiss Wolford.

Hmmm. The best outcome? Due to open aperture lots of blur

What I am trying to show you is the nice matching of the tights and the knitted cardi. The texture, the colours - it works!
Those tights have been in my drawer for a few years and wear them once in a while, usually I combine them with a white shirt and a mocca-brown skirt. Not today!

Must not forget: I switched to walking instead of cycling due to dense muscles in the back. 1hr in each direction. Walking enables me to wear SKIRTS!

Another almost impossible act besides shooting your legs is turning by 180° while standing in skis on a steep hill.

That's why people attend courses. You need help and advice.

If you google "Youtube" and "Spitzkehre", you will find funny videos. I promised the group I would not put any footage from our course online.

The course takes place in small groups, we are 6 + 1 or 2 guides. 6 already includes me and Mr Paula, the other 4 participants are all trés trés chouettes et aimables (I have been visiting Une femme d'un certain age lately, as you can tell!). We 6 immediately developed a profond group-spirit and the more time we spent together, the more fun we had. So lucky! We could tell from what we saw at the other tables at breakfast and dinner - you can't take it for granted that you end up in a cosy group.

Yay, Mr Paula got it:

si elegante ...

The trees on this hill and most of the surrounding mountains are gone because Paula got wild a few years ago and hit Styria really badly: Paula 2008.Styria is one of the 9 Austrian provinces, Mr. Schwarzenegger was born in Styria. His nickname is the "Steirische Eiche", Styrian Oak. Maybe the foresters should have planted more oaks instead of spruces, Oaks could have resisted Paula in 2008 better than those flat rooting spruces.

This is the place, where we will continue to improve our skills:

No, no, no, this is not our hotel!
Our building is not visible, it is in my back.

The bell tower resembles a Norvegian bell tower and the clock-face is oval. It was only after we returned back home when I found out, this region is called "Styrian Siberia", not because of the tons of snow but because of crazy low temps!

Oh, did you notice: cardi, temps ... the tights/cardi-combination triggers a casual style in wording, too. Walking is a good alternative to many things. Especially when it comes with skirts. But take care: 1 hours walking does NOT equal 100gr milk chocoloate.

PS: I finally found the correct translation for "Skitouren gehen", it's not "ski touring" but "skimountaineering"!

As Seen From the Nightstand

Having a cold is a sweaty business. The nights give me an idea what going through menopause might feel like. So today - since I am doing and getting better (yay, the doctor confirmed so) - time for new linens. Do you like the state of chaos as much as I do? Throwing everyhing onto a big pile in the middle of the bed and working your way through.

Next to the bed stands the nightstand, two tubes accompany me before falling asleep. One smells yummy, the other not so.

The yummy tube, for hands and nails. I like to place my hands close to my nose at night since this smells so yummy!

The not so yummy but all the more efficient tube: Fexitol

Friend B. admires neat heels on strange men's feet (at least during our vacation in Brittany she did ;-)). I did not consider soft skin around the heel as an asset until then. After all the hiking and skimountaineering, the feet like this foot balm a lot and this balm makes a difference.

Surprise, surprise, this product is made in down under! #1 in Australia and England.

Speaking of which: Having seen Oprah in Australia part 1 - not having seen Oprah before - I can't help it but call this show disturbing. I caught up with older episodes, from the studio and what really disturbes me is the audience. The audience behaves like seals or monkeys in the zoo during feeding hour only they don't get bananas and fish but coupons. Now I understand why Tom Cruise - the picture went around the globe - jumped on that sofa like a monkey. It was probably appropriate.

Red Ears and a Lot of Juice

Having returned from work with a touch of fever, a sore throat and clicking ears since Monday, I went to the doctor and he found something I had no clue about: red ears, in the inside. This might have been the first appointment at the doctor when a doctor lookes into my ears when I come to see him because of my sore throat. Interesting, huh? Long story short, I stayed at home today, dripping drops into my nose which reach my ears from the deep inside. Resting keeps the fever down and I don't feel guilty anymore when coughing.

How about a short tour through the Paula Mansion? Here you can see the top shelf in the kitchen.

To the left you can see the alcohol. I use alcohol for cooking only. The bottle to the right has a special status because it is still new. Two items will leave the house by tonight. No, NOT the radio!

In case you wonder, no, these two fellows may stay, at least for a while

Tealight nr. 1 was a gift, handmade but not my style.

Tealight nr.2 was a souvenir from London, 1999. Very 1999.

The tealights will have to leave because I did not use the tealights a single time during the darkest period, called winter.

Cooking is all about tasting. Just in case you wonder how I taste, here is the menu:
From left to right: Delices, essence, ZEN, el Cuero

These are all the perfume bottles I own. Right now they are of no use since I cannot smell anything.

Ooops, I left the kitchen too fast. There is still something I wanted to share with you. It is the reason for today's posting.

This bucket is extremly handy.

I use it as a bin, as a bucket(washing the floors) and for soaking clothes etc.. Every winter I look out for it in the supermarket. You get it for free, but it comes with approx.6,5kg of oranges! It is one of those buckets that are filled up with fruits.

And when I return with this bucket (like every 1 or 2 years),I feel like returning with a trophy. Probably because I start looking for it in october (as soon as oranges arrive on the shelves) but the buckets wont arrive until january.

The remains of the 6,5kg.

The oranges in the bucket can only be squeezed. They are bloody red inside. After all the orange juice I risc a slight hyperacidity. Good there is still some vegetable-soup in the fridge. Actually the first Jamie Oliver recipe I ever tried that did not look like the photo in the magazine/cookbook, when it was ready. It turned out brownish instead of greenish.
Wonder why...

Kleenex-consuption while writing this posting: 2
Coughs: 4

PS:
No, I did not wipe the shelf before taking the pictures.
Yes, I am surprised, too, who clean the top shelf above the height of the head actually is. :-))

7 Things about Paula

The new year comes around with Awards all over the Blogsphere! Blighty and Stylish Shoe Girl rewarded me with the Stylish Blogger Award. Thank you, both of you. I enjoy getting in touch with other Bloggers so much.

The Award "asks me" to tell you 7 things. I was also invited to nominate 15 other bloggers for the award. Unfortunately I don't know any bloggers who have not received the award yet. Actually I know only a few bloggers.

However, I am really happy to tell you these 7 things about me:

1. I dream and remember my dreams almost every morning. This can be exhausting.

2. Whenever I see a stunningly beautiful woman, I can't help but stare at her. I love beautiful women! They never fail to amaze me.

3. Black does not suit me.

4. I have been living in the same place for 15 years, You can imagine the challenge, not ending up with a whole lot of clutter after so many years.

5. I prefer glasses over contact lenses. Although I miss the opportunity of showing off a glam eye-make up since the glasses swallow any attempt to create a piece of art on the upper eyelid.

6. I love "product lines":

full story here

and another line:
full story here

And yet another, quite new line to me:
Gosh am I glad that I met this line in my late 30's. No way I could have afforded it before.

Those lines really work for me. My laundry never looked healthier, my hair never enjoyed its length more than it does these days and my skin never looked less pubertal.

7. I have 1 New Year's resolution: No more email-complaints directed to markting divisions in 2011! Whenever I buy somethings that does not meet my expectations, I already sit down and write a letter of complaint. I am the world's biggest complainer and most of the times I receive a reward for taking my time. Vouchers and products as compensation. How cool is that?

However, no more email-complaints in 2011. The heads of marketing who had to sit down and reply to my complaint-letters will appreciate this.
:-)

Award to Jen

Yesterday I received an Award from Beate, Sunday in Bed. Her blog is pure eyecandy! If writing can be in the flow, her's truly is!

Why did I receive the Award? The Award is trying to bring attention to blogs which are not so well known, yet, with only a few followers:

"Das Ziel, dieser Aktion ist, dass wir unbekannte, gute Blogs an's Licht bringen, deswegen würde ich euch bitten keine Blogs zu posten, die ohnehin schon 3000 Leser haben, sondern talentierte Anfänger und Leute, die zwar schon ne Weile bloggen, aber immer noch nicht so bekannt sind."

There is this blog I discovered recently, a girl, young woman living in Vancouver, married, cats and a passion: her kitchen

the baked life

Jen loves baking and posts recipies and beautiful photos. Also, she challenges herself. This year for example she is going to make Croissants all by herself! Also when someone hit her car without leaving a note, she was angry but in a way that was adorable. Sometimes you meet people online who have your wavelength and a refreshing point of view. I know my small presence will not bring her a lot of traffic but still ...

have a nice weekend!

Cursing - Out of the Blue

You might be surprised - as much as I was - when you get to read the truth about me.

*Sorry for any spelling mistakes, I am writing this posting without my glasses on because there is this ridiculous seamud-mask drying on my face rright now which acutally got stone-hard int he meantime and I can't see really sharp. I will proofread it tomorrow!*

Yesterday I had my 1st appointment at the physiotherapist. My target: keeping my lower back painfree. During the last 2,5 yrs I suffered from severe backpain, 3 times and ended up in the hospital, eating way too many drugs. The last time it took me full two weeks until I could move without problems. Ok, so now I am starting with a prophylactic apporach. The calculation is very simple: if you have no muscles in front, you will get a pain in the back, sooner or later.
And I can tell you: I loathe this challenge, I end up cursing from the deepest heart, on the floor, repeating the exercises I learnt yesterday.

Have you ever seen those docu-soaps where fat people stand in front of a mirror in their underwear, before starting with the diet? Yesterday I saw myself in the mirror and could only think of losers ... like me. I lost any sign of anything like a solarplexus, power or muscle force around my belly button. When doing the first crunches I could hardly move my torso. Me, who walks up mountains (mountains! not hills!) with heavy skis and boots on my feet, for hours! Me, who cycles all year round! Me who is not supposed to be a loser. OMG. I probably needed this slap in the face. I know, the only way to cure the back for good are abs.

3 exercises for the abdomen and 2 stretching exercises, whereof this one is pure pain and torture. Please take a look and try at home. You will find yourself cursing like you never did before! Make sure, kids are out of the house.

Ouch!

still from the training video

The good thing about the stretching: it hurts SO badly, I forget about the pain in the abdomen from the abs-exercises. The look into the mirror at the physiotherapist was enough to get me down on the floor. This is a high price to pay, not thinking about the 1-to-1-lessons I am paying for in cash. The abs-exercises hurt, but the stretching is torture. In case you want to tell me it should not hurt: I know this pain, since the exercise is an ancient yoga-exercise and believe me, unfortunately it is a fact: this exercise does hurt. It's kind of the exercise's nature: pain.

When I joined Mr Paula for dinner I almost fainted at the table, harldy able to hold the fork in my hand. The inner image of myself had not differed more from the actual image more than this time. And it uses to differ a lot, in a sugarcoating way! In case you are now surprised that I am a wreck, can you imagine my surprise?

Honey Bears

Very good company: Marie Curie (the eager one, with a burnt forehead due to radiation-experiments) and Bruno (the laid-back, relaxed one)

We are back in Vienna. Like many times before I felt a little nauseous today, it is hard to adapt to the city, the concrete, the density, the dirt ...

Packing my purse in the morning (this takes some time since I am a "What if-lady"), I noticed the purse works as a compensation for me. A compensation for not being surrounded by nature, a compensation for having to stay inside a building during the whole day. A compensation for living a tad against my true nature.

The moment I looked at my black, glossy Tod's G-bag, my mood lifted. And when I put the little Azur Pochette into the G-bag my mood lifted even more. And putting the Dior lipstick on my lips recovered the rest. They are literal charms! If you know what cheers you up, go for it as long as your account remains balanced.

The beekeeper takes good care of his bees ...

Before we left Carinthia, the foehn arrived - a warm storm that melts the snow and ice like nothing. On the sunny side of the valley the bees woke up! Every other house owns beehives. A few seasons ago I started buying honey as souvenir. Every time a honey from a different valley makes its way to our home.

... he puts them to sleep with mattresses!

Cute bees! Just thinking of them makes me feel better.

I think I might post some more pictures from the vacation, since there are some nice photos left up my sleeve, like this one:

They sting like bees and taste sweet like honey :-)

Have a good night, whenever and whereever you return to your home today!

Hearts, Jumping for Joy

I don't know about the picture limit for one singular posting but I can tell, your scroll-bar will become very small by the end of this day, I mean, by the end of this posting.

During our vacation we leave the house no earlier than 11am and return home by 6pm, but still each day provides so many pleasant sights and seeings. Last year Mr Paula visited the Weissensee with his family, they were impressed by its beauty and frost. It is ab0ut 900m above sea level. Since it was new to me, we decided Weissensee it is! It was an 1 hour drive, and totally worth the drive!

Before the picture show starts, I like to share what I read on the news online:
A few years ago, Russians started coming to Austria for alpine skiing. They visit Tyrol and Salzburg but they don't come down here. Because the time the former Eastern-European-tourism developed in Austria, the hotels in Carinthia were well booked, no need for new visitors. Today the hotels would not mind a few more guests, lets say from Russia and the Ukraine. But the infrastructure lacks important attractions: the bling-bling, D&G, LV, Gucci etc. The villages here are really laid back and a bit behind regarding recent developments in tourism: luxury.

The world's most successful D&G Boutique isn't in Milano nor Paris but St Moritz! That's why the Russians continue heading west, towards Tyrol and Switzerland while some beds stay empty in Carinthia, mostly the 3-star-category. The visitors here origin from Italy, Austria, the Netherlands and Germany. And a handful from the Ukraine.

So, talking about St Moritz, I don't know how much you have seen and heard about St Moritz. To me, the Weissensee is like the St. Moritz of Carinthia. Traditional winter-sports, coaches, sun ... a place to dream of.



I was really glad, the snow plow/ice-machine formed a snow-path on the ice, since it was very very slippery! Even my Ludwig Reiter booties, model "Tourist" (Warning, link opens a PDF file!) could not helpon the ice.

Note: ALL activities to be seen take place on the ice, including the coach and the giant skating shoe.

Snow-track to the left, ice-track to the right, idyllic village far right

A dog owner and his pet, another pleasant sight. The snow-path is on the ice.

There are little opportunities on a frozen lake, I am sooo glad they installed this booth! ... not on the ice.

Coach on ice
Every Carinthian lake seems to offer one big, ugly building. Can you see it?
This lake is said to be the largest natural ice-surface providin with a primed surface.

Blue skies, and the village in the background ... the cliché of a perfect winter day.

Yay, another traditional sport: ice stock sport, also known as Bavarian curling.

Taking this picture drew me really close to the group, because the camera has no zoom, only a wide-angle. Call me the paparazza of the lake.

The tops of the ice stocks are custom made with ornaments!
More blue skies and hearts, jumping for joy.

Here you can see me, trying on the model of a large scale ancient skating shoe.

At 1400, farmers skated over the ice ...

... and they still do iso 600 years later.

This was Mr Paula's favourite sight. *still laughing*

I just love this confident little fellow!

Afternoon, 4pm

A Sauna! Too bad you can't jump into the lake afterwards.

On our way back home we drove through a valley which suprised us with its stunning beauty:

What we also like about this region: it is vast and you still find industry and long passages without villages. In other parts of Austria one village follows the other when driving through a valley.

I call this chapter of the day "The Ice Storm meets Hokkaido":

Driving home ... l'heuer bleue, -8°C, looking at mountain tops we've visited during the past two weeks!

At the end of a good day time for a decent movie. Hello Lizzy!

I am off to the kitchen, time for an evening snack. Probably Kaiserschmarrn, there are still so many eggs to be eaten before our way home. Monday we go back to work. bohooo. I will miss the fresh air in my lungs and the wooden beams of the house. boo hooooo.

PS: the weather in Vienna today was mist and drizzle. I need to save the blue skies, it will take some time until spring and pleasant sights arrive in the city!