My Blue Heaven

Waiting at Cologne Airport

So I’m here at Cologne airport in Germany waiting for my delayed flight back to London. It was supposed to depart at 9:30pm and is delayed to midnight which is only half hour away but no sign of the plane yet. Methinks we will be here past midnight. *sigh* I decided to buy some wifi time on t-mobile to surf the net using my iPod Touch and am now blogging using my Touch. Ahhh technology..

The holiday was really nice.. Very very relaxing. Just what we needed. We spent HEAPS of time at the Taunus Therme saunas and thermal pools, soaking up the healthy minerals and salts and sweating it out nekkid with the germans in tge saunas. A very healthy week in all. Also enjoyed brunch with friends at the fine Steigenberger hotel in frankfurt and again at the Hyatt Regency in Cologne today. Damn I love german brunch buffets.. they sure know how to put on a fine feast. I also got my hair cut and coloured (semi permanent red violet) at my regular hairdressers Obscura in frankfurt.

Ok the plane has just landed w00t! Gotta go.. Will have lotsa pics and vids to upload when I get back.

Holiday Season

Tuesday and Wednesday will again be all about relaxation – with massages booked in on both days. Firstly a two person synchronised massage (yes two people massaging you at the same time – I’ve had this before there and it is AWESOME), and secondly a honey oil massage (really nice and great for the skin too!) We’ll spend heaps of time in the thermal pools and saunas too (yep getting nekkid with the germans). I love it there.. it is so relaxing, de-stressing, peaceful and really re-energising. I always feel so much healthier afterwards.

On Thursday I’m gonna get my hair cut at my usual hairdresser in Frankfurt called Obscura – they’re great and sooooo much cheaper than London. And finally to finish off our holiday, the last two nights will be spent in Cologne, visiting the christmas markets, the huge dom (cathedral – image above) and beautiful Rhine river.. and of course Frühstück at the luxurious Hyatt Regency (image below) where we’ll be staying. :). Hopefully we’ll be able to meet up with AericWinter too as he’ll be at his home town which is nearby that weekend. Should be really nice.

*sigh* I can’t wait! I totally don’t feel like working now… just counting the days.. hours.. minutes..

Whenever I start feeling too fed up, depressed, frustrated, stressed and downright annoyed with living in shitty London… it is these moments that I get to spend on the european continent that remind me why I’m here.

Weekend

Geez my post titles are getting boring. I can’t seem to think of anything witty or interesting for them these days. Anyway as Ella meows at me in the background, I just wanted to make a quick update about the weekend.

I had a rather nice weekend, spending quality time with Kwai. Also, most importantly, I slept in. 🙂 On Saturday, I had a follow up massage (following my acupuncture treatment last Thursday that I had because I was suffering big time from a recurring neck/back injury pain). Then afterwards we went out to see a movie – The Golden Compass. I was interested in seeing it not only because it was based on a fantasy book (and you know how I love my fantasy books), but also wanted to see what the controversy was about. I enjoyed the movie, even though the direction was pretty crap.. typically as happens when they make a movie out of a book.. it just jumped from section to section missing out probably great chunks of important background and depth that would have been explained in the book.. but as I have not read the books, I didn’t have that assumed knowledge. So it all felt a bit disjointed.) Anyway, I still liked the story, though I can also understand why it caused controversy, if you want to look at it in a certain way. But I don’t think it was that bad.. maybe just coz I’m used to fantasy storylines so I know how to read them – as fantasy!

Anyway that was a bit of a tangent. Back to my weekend. It was just a leisurely nice weekend.. as if we getting into holiday mode.. but I still managed to get some important stuff done – sorted out some finances, cleaned up at home, made some final holiday arrangements and bookings, went to the gym today, watched Heroes, and spent quality time at home with Kwai.

Thought of the day

How many times have I learnt in my life that I should never try to be somebody I’m not. Yet how many times have I put myself into situations where I compromise who I am in order to fit into what people pressure me to be, in order to please them or fit in (and why am I always about pleasing others anyway)? It is probably one of my biggest weaknesses, yet knowing what my weaknesses are doesn’t really seem to make a difference or change anything. And people take advantage of it. It always starts bit by bit.. tiny incremental compromises.. and before I know it, I just find myself miserable because I feel chained inside this fake persona that I’m not really carrying off very well to begin with.

Meh. My life has a tendancy to go to crap whenever I start pretending. So I think I should stop. I am who I am and I am happy with that.

Updates

So last Friday my probation period at work officially ended. W00t!!! 😀 It’s good to know the hard work and effort was worth it. After all the early starts.. getting up at 6:30am every morning to get in for 8:30am.. being willing to stay late until the job gets done. I’ve completed this hurdle and I think my boss seems happy with things. I’ve also been put on a new project!! I was gonna approach someone to try push for it, but looks like I didn’t have to.. it just sorta landed in my lap. It will be cool to do something different.

I’m feeling more settled here – getting along well with people I think. I went out twice the other week to the pub with work colleagues – and both were quite late ones. It was great. I’ve never really done the going out to the pub after work with the colleagues before.. but I guess it does help the bonding. Even if I don’t really drink much (as I never have), it’s still good fun.

Anyway life otherwise has been pretty busy. Went to dance class last Saturday for the first time in over a month. Wish I could keep it up more regularly, but still it was nice to get moving again. And my back actually felt better the next day.. sore muscles and all. It was a good pain rather than the bad pain I’d been struggling with for the past week and half. Guess I should keep it up. Still need to go see an osteopath though… once the damn health claim gets sorted. Music college has been good – already coming to the end of first term now – its been exhausting! Next week will be the final performance week for my Tues night class. Its gonna be recorded and assessed. Ack! And I gotta get the full score done to hand in for that week too, also for assessment. Then over the christmas break I’ll have my first assignment for musicianship class – a full transcription of an original piece given to us by our tutor. They keep telling us it will be hard. :/

But there is light at the end of the dark tunnel. I’m going away to Germany for a pre-christmas holiday. We’re going to Frankfurt (6 nights) and Cologne (2 nights) to visit the christmas markets (I LOVE the German christmas markets.. totally beats the crappy over-commercialised over-crowded christmas here in London). Also will be catching up with our friends in Frankfurt, eating lots at Frühstücks and just CHILLING out and relaxing at the saunas (oh the bliss). Can’t wait! I so totally need a holiday.. just been way too stressed lately. Plus we’re staying in a pretty swanky hotel on the last two nights in Cologne too – the Hyatt right on the Rhine river opposite the Cathedral. Nice.