How a true lady spends her weekend

Banana working outfit

As you might know, I have found this nice little apartment in Prenzlauer Berg in Berlin. It was all freshly renovated, except for the floor, which was wooden and painted with a deep red color, very typical for Berlin. It was quite old and you could see that the last owner had taped carpet on the floor, so there was no way around renewing the whole thing.

I had three options:
1. I could put another carpet on top (which would be a bit expensive, but not too much of hard work),
2. I could build in this clickedy clack laminate (which would be expensive and quite some work), or
3. I could grind the entire floor (which would be the cheapest option, but super hard work).

THE machine

So guess, what I did: Off course I went for the cheapest option, so I recruited my mom and rented some machines and off we were to the dirtiest and hardest work on the Banana-planet. There for sure is even harder and dirtier work, but in my sphere this is quite hardcore.

I planned the last Saturday to be our grinding day. It was dirty, it was back aching, but at some point you could see some results. Off course I had planned completely naïve and at the end I had to take two days off work to complete what I had started. Yesterday, we gave back the machines and impressed the craftsmen with our work.

My mom preparing the floor for the next round

It is not everyday that you see a girl with an angle grinder, so I somehow feel stronger and independent. My mom always says: a good woman can substitute the best man. And sometimes her feministic talks go on my nerves, but when I have done something like this with my own two hands, I cannot help but feel freaking fantastic. She also said that every time I enter my apartment I am going to be proud of my floor. To that I can just say: Hell yea!

So, to all the ladies, maybe you should try and give it a try yourself the next time you have to fix something on your bike or at home. It feels awesome once you’re done and afterwards you can take a nice long bath as a reward. It feels better than any other expensive beauty program, I promise!

What it's really about

This morning I saw this incredible video on YouTube, so have 21.330.938 other people, which I think is awesome.

In the video you see a food court in a mall. I hate food courts, because you have to eat in the middle of all these consumerist temples, next to the makeup and jeans stores. To me, food belongs in a safe, quite place, where you get the chance to enjoy what’s on your plate, and to enjoy your company.

Anywho, there is a key board player, who plays Christmas tunes in the background, he is ignored, but suddenly a woman jumps up singing Haleluya. And a flash-mob starts with a choir singing beautifully in the middle of the shopping mall.

This moved me a lot, because suddenly the choir brought such a beautiful mood to that ugly place. The mall, where consumerism and the biggest and best gift rule the holidays, was reminded of what Christmas actually is about: To be with the people you love and spend a good and peaceful time together.

I was haunted the past days, because this year I am not able to afford all these nice gifts I like to spoil my mum and my sister with. Instead I have to turn every penny and be quite creative with my gifts. And it made me feel bad. After seeing the video, I have changed my mood. So I am giving time this year, and love and improvement, instead of books, makeup and cloths.

Ok, just finished polishing my halo, now back to work.

Where is the love?

This time of the year, a lot of people are talking about love and compassion. I will take this as a reason to quickly evaluate my love life. Super quick: basically non-existent.

A little bit more in detail: I have had boyfriends, some of them I deserved, some of them not. Today I am trying to keep in mind that I make my own choices and also that there is responsibility connected to it, so if I am dating a douchebag, it is my own fault. It practically reflects back on me, which enlarges my own douchebagness.

The chain goes like this: In high school I dated a couple of guys who were nice and sometimes a bit stupid, but still mostly nice.

The ultimate first big love came around when I was 21. I wanted to marry, have plenty of kinds, move to Africa with him and imagined that together we would save the world. After clinging too hard on him, he left me, which made me lose a lot of my love-self-confidence.

As a result, I wanted someone who would stick around and who would care about me one hundred percent. What I got was the most jealous and emotionally blackmailing dude on the planet. We moved in together after four months, I left three months later and there was no love-self-confidence back.

Then came the wonderful period of freedom. I dated a couple of guys, broke some hearts and had FUN! I underlined to everyone that I was emotionally stabbed and was unfit for a relationship.

In the end I still got into a relationship with a guy who was too awesome to not to be with. Unfortunately the knife was still stuck in my chest and I screwed it up.

Now I fled the country, live in a city with no meaningful male acquaintances and continue building up the courage to find Mr. Right.

Picture: Flickr

Jingle Bells Indian Style

Thanks to my friend Leila, I got to know this super awesome song, which truely enhances my holiday mood:



With a wobble of my head, I say: Enjoy your day, Sir/ Madam!

Banana Traditions

Today is the 6^th of December: Saint Nicholas Day!! As I learnt to love Christmas time, I also learned to love “Nikolaus”, as we call it in Germany. In my years abroad and amidst Internationals, I always tried to include as many people as possible in these celebrations. Today is the first time in nine years that I was at home at “Nikolaus”.

So here it, what happens at this day: Generally it is the celebration of Saint Nicholas, who kind of is the pre Coca Cola Santa. He actually helped the poor and is celebrated widely in countries like Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, and many others. In Germany, we have to clean our winter boots at the night of the 5^th of December. If we do so, St. Nicholas will put candy and gifts in them during the night, if not (or if we put out bigger boots that are not our own), he will put coal into the boots. Actually my aunt Moni was punished with coal once, as she put out my grandpa’s rubber boots for St. Nicholas. It is a story widely known in our family, as you can imagine.

Normally, I put candy into the boots of my room mates, colleagues and friends, this year it was my mom. She got a rasp, but the reason for that she has to tell you yourself.

So, to all of you, who are not around this year, I am putting an imaginary piece of chocolate into your boots. Take care and eat it, before your hot feet melt it!

Picture: http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s242/Knuddelfussel/adventskalender/nikolaus_stiefel.gif

Goodwill or Stupidity?

It is minus 10 °C in Berlin.

I am a pretty normal Western girl. I got a lot of education, I like to do read, party, jump, and be random with friends… I think you get the picture. My parents have the tendency to be a bit weird and hippy like. This way I had to renovate rooms, chop wood, wear weird cloths and hang out at punk concerts with my mom. So I have seen things.

It is minus 10 °C in Berlin.

This heritage, maybe also my provincial hometown, might explain why I fall for beggars of most kind. Every time I am in a bigger city, I give my change to strangers and in Berlin many of them are smelly and alcoholic.

It is minus 10 °C in Berlin.

Asia taught me a lesson about this. Especially in India I learnt that begging is a business. People make a living of it and they use your “pity” for their own advantage. In Asia my skin color showed people that I am supposedly rich. I learnt very fast that I did not want to give much to this business. I had this revelation of how you yourself are responsible for your own happiness and that this money does not do any good.

It is minus 10 °C in Berlin.

I rather would share my education and enable people to grow and get out of poverty. The beggars in Berlin live on the streets. They often do alcohol or drugs. Every year some of them die in the cold. So I am what is the best thing I could do? Give them my small change, which they could use on more alcohol? Buy their newspapers? Spend a day in a so-called soup kitchen?

It is minus 10 °C in Berlin. What’s your opinion or advice?

Picture Getty Images #81226846

You are the SECOND best! Woohoo!?

Today is the second of December. I will use this opportunity to make a stand for the number two.

I do not know if you are, but I am the classical number two. I am mostly quite ok at what I do, I genereally get what I want if I work hard for it, but there will always be a number one somewhere around me. If it really comes to it, I am number two, a good number two, but not the first.

The good thing about it is the stress relief: Everybody will expect much more from number one than from me. I am there to help, when number one cannot handle all the pressure alone, but it is number one who will get the honor. But yea, the pressure is more on number one than on me.

On the other side: the saying goes, the second is also the first loser. True story. At the same time people will respect me for my effort and my enthusiasm and being number two is definitely better than being number 15 all of your life.

It is the same with the second of December. For those who celebrate Christmas and have Christmas calendars, the time before December is always full of excitement. The night before the first, kids and many grown ups get super excited, because they get to open the first door of their Christmas calendar. In the morning of the first of December, the quite cheap chocolate from the Christmas calendar melts on your tongue like a Belgium truffle. On the second December the excitement is still quite high, but on the 15th, it’s just the cheap chocolate. You eat it and that’s it.

So this is to all the number two’s: You are awesome! Be good at what you do and use your elbows if necessary – you deserve to be noticed!

I wish you many positive snow flakes and hot chocolate and a good book on this beautiful second of December!

Picture: Getty Images #103912286