You Never Know ...

Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’ – James 4,13-15 NIVUK; quote from BibleGateway.com

Doll's Shops

This afternoon Hermann and I went to a doll's house exhibition in one of the neighbouring villages. The houses (mainly shops actually) are from the 19th and 20th centuries. They are all very beautiful and it's not surprising that the exhibition is such a great success that it is being extended until March, even though the organisers had intended to close it by the end of this month.

Here you can see some of the shops - enjoy :)

After 28 Years

Do you still recognize some of them?

Going Where You Want (Almost) Whenever You Want

What I like about London among very many other things is the excellently functioning public transport, particularly the Tube and the buses. In the first video you see how two tube trains are following one another within about two minutes.



Where do you want to go from here? Lots of buses at Piccadilly Circus!

Bollards in South Tyrol

This blog post was inspired by Bollards of London, just like my post Bollards of Stetten am kalten Markt on my Dull Village Life blog.

South Tyrol is, as the name says, the southern part of Tyrol. It belongs to Italy since 1919, while the northern part of Tyrol belongs to Austria (as the entire region had before). The people in South Tyrol suffered a lot since their region became an official part of Italy after World War I and it got worse when the Italian “Duce” Mussolini and the German “Führer” Hitler agreed to “share” South Tyrol – Mussolini wanted the country to italianize it and Hitler wanted the (ethnic German) people to settle them in his own occupied territories mainly in Poland and of course send the young men to war. The Italianization continued after World War II even under the democratic governments in Italy. It was only in the early seventies after some violence and endless political negotiations that South Tyrol finally became an “autonomous province” and the population got extensive minority rights. However, there are still attempts of the government in Rome to undermine the autonomy.

So much for the region’s history. The bollards don’t have anything to do with it, though – I suppose ;) These are just some of them which I came across when visiting places during our holiday.

Brixen (a very beautiful town):

Neustift Monastery:

Trens (the village we stayed in):

Wiesen (another village):

A Day Dress is a Day Dress...

As much as I love my new cotton gown which I bought via the online gift shop of Jane Austen Centre in Bath – until last Tuesday I had concerns about wearing it outside the house on the “dirty” streets. I thought I would have to take care of it all the time and couldn’t concentrate on something else for a minute. And what about handling this precious jewel of mine – as which I still regard it, now even more :) – when walking stairs, sitting on benches or using a public toilet? It could get dirty and crumply.

Nonetheless it was too tempting – when my brother and sister-in-law invited me to spend a day on the Flower Island Mainau together with their children I decided this was the day to put my dream dress to the reality test. So for more than an hour I sat in the backseat of a car with two of the three children beside of me, my feet in a small space beside two large bags. Then I had to get out of the car and walk over a lawn and gravel (the little stones went straight into my shoes). All the time while we were walking I carried my large bag over my shoulder.

We spent about eight hours on the island, walked on all kinds of paths among the plants and flowers, sat on benches eating, climbed stairs, and of course had to use the toilets. Then back to the car and home. During all this time I sometimes almost “forgot” the dress, because even with all those “exercises” it was so comfortable to wear and I didn’t have to “handle” it at all. And when I checked it from top to bottom after coming home, it still looked as if I had just put it on – no crumpling at all and no dirt at the seam on the back, even though I had not held it up very often. It still looked perfect. I could just as well wear it for my daily errands or walking the dogs – just as the women did 200 years ago. A true day dress made for everyday life!

40 Years Later

I was astonished when I watched the Olympics opening ceremony in London on Friday – a great performance by all those who took part, by the way – and there was a minute of silence. At first I thought that the IOC had finally given in to the pleas of so many people who had been asking for a minute to commemorate the Israeli athletes who got killed in the Munich Massacre 40 years ago. But no – this minute of silence was dedicated exclusively to other people – the Israelis were not even included which would have been easy, as there was this minute of silence anyway. Whatever the reason was – ignorance, cowardice or something else – shame on you, IOC!

I remember very well this horrible event. My family were all very keen on sports (I was a little bit of a “black sheep” with regard to that), so we watched much of the event and cheered mainly the German athletes, of course. It was also the year in which my four year old brother and I (six at the time) learned to swim. My brother was a huge fan of US American swimmer Mark Spitz and because he did very well in the water (much better than his older sister) he was soon named “Mark Spitz” by our swimming instructor :) My parents bought him stars and stripes swimming trunks and he was so proud. And whenever Mark Spitz (the real one) won yet another medal my brother and I were happy.

 

And then suddenly all the fun was spoiled by some Arab terrorists who abused this wonderful event for their satanic aims. Until then my parents had taken much effort to spare my brother and me from the knowledge that the world was bad – but now we saw it all, and we couldn’t believe what we saw! We felt with the poor athletes who were held hostage by the terrorists and we watched the futile attempts of the German authorities to free them. And in the end we saw everything go wrong – and even worse: while all eleven hostages and one policeman got killed this applied only to four of the terrorists. Three of them escaped. This was a huge blow to my strong sense of justice.

Including these twelve people – the eleven athletes and the policeman – in the minute of silence which took place anyway would have been a strong sign against terrorism. But maybe the IOC people were afraid of offending those countries who have been and are still supporting Arab and other terrorism against Israel!

Londonitis

I use the word “Londonitis” to describe an urgent longing to travel to London and stay there for the rest of my earthly life – and thus a reluctance to leave again, once I'm there. Of course, others can swap the “London” part by any favourite place in the world. I’m sure there are many people suffering from Parisitis (nothing to do with parasites *g*), Romitis, Tokyoitis, Newyorkitis, etc.

Londonitis means that I’m following London blogs, tweeters, facebookers, etc., listen to London radio stations, and of course that I’m constantly planning our next visit to the town. I have been there in April of this year, but our next flight (in May of next year) is already booked. On the one hand I enjoy reading and hearing about London, but on the other hand I always get melancholy when I read or hear of events I cannot attend or places I cannot visit because I’m not there at the particular time.

This does also mean that anything which might threaten our next visit to London causes panic. One of us might be affected by an illness, an accident or some other calamity – which could be bad enough, but it would be a disaster if it prevented us from travelling to London. As long as we can still travel, anything will be bearable!

My New Favourite Dress

I generally prefer wearing long dresses and skirts in summer instead of trousers (long or short) or short dresses / skirts. And when I say long I mean long – ankle length or even longer is ideal for me, even though these are hard to find nowadays. The style I prefer above all is Regency – and not just because I’m a Jane Austen fan.

So when I received a newsletter from the Jane Austen Centre in Bath promoting new dresses I immediately fell in love with the Cotton Gown! It is a day dress, not necessarily one for a ball. After all, there are not too many balls in the remote little village I’m living in and I don’t have the means just to travel to more “inhabited” places where such things are going on (do I sound like a Jane Austen character now? *s*). As my birthday is coming up I mentioned to my father how much I would like this dress and he replied, that “of course you can have it as a birthday present!” I love my Daddy :)

As colour I chose “Blue Daisy” and also asked Hermann what he thought (without telling him my choice) and he preferred “Blue Daisy” as well, so that was settled :) Yesterday I received the dress – exactly four weeks after I had ordered it which is really fast as it was handmade.

I’m so happy with this dress – it is just perfectly made with very high quality material! Hermann and I did a little photo session and I really didn’t want to take it off afterwards. I put it onto a hanger outside my wardrobe and went into the bedroom about every 15 minutes to look at it and touch it. The last dress which had this effect on me had been my wedding gown – Regency style, of course ;)

Now I’m waiting for the right weather to wear the dress - right now it is too hot and humid which causes a lot of sweating even without much physical exercise. But as Jane Austen already stated so accurately: "What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance."

Our London Visit Day 7 – Sightseeing and Knitting

On this last full day in London at first we visited the CLC Bookshop in Ave Maria Lane (near St. Paul’s).

Then we went to Liverpool Street Station to see the monument for the children’s transports. About 10,000 mainly Jewish children were saved from Nazi occupied territories and brought to Britain by people like Sir Nicholas Winton.

Afterwards we went to Paddington Station again for a different monument ;)

In early evening we set off to the Southbank Centre to meet the Stitch London knitting group in the Royal Festival Hall :) It is a lively and open group (anyone can just come and join them) consisting of mainly but not exclusively women of all ages. While I was with them, Hermann preferred to take photos outside.

On the following day we had to say good-bye to our beloved London :((((