Autumn closet

Dear readers, 
Sometimes you must uncage your urge to live. Your urge to scream. To hate. To love. To feel. To jump. To cry. To laugh. Or in my case: The urge to buy.
During the last weeks I never was in the mood to buy anything. Naw, I don't like it. No, it doesn't fit perfectly. No, I want real leather and so on and so on. Therefore yesterday the outburst occured. To do so there is no better place than Primark as you can go crazy as you wish. And I did - see a glimpse of my haul.

Couldn't resist: Primark coat

Some shoes: Gabor, Primark and No Name (only for next week's Oktoberfest)

Simple cardigan & statement necklace

In the park

Sunday break with cake

The rest of the week is not worth to mention. Rainy days, some illness, a lot of sleep. Wait! There is one thing to tell: The canard with soya spinach and sesame potatoes that I ate yesterday night. OMG.

What are your plans for today? I will come up with a lazy Sunday, starting with some fresh breakfast from the bakery now. Enjoy the day and the autumn weather!

Where there is love there is life (Ghandi)

Autumn

Seeing falling leaves during the last couple of days, reminded me that summer officially ended by Friday. Not that I am particularly sad about it, moreover I appreciate the changing seasons a lot. But it also reminded me of my summer resolutions that I compiled in May. In order to close this chapter, I quickly want to check what I achieved and which plans have to wait until next summer.

• I celebrated my birthday in a park, not near the lake, but in Bern with a good friend. We had a cupcake and champagne. Not as entirely planned, but however a lovely birthday.
• I didn't rent a boat. But I did some river rafting and a harbour tour, so we can count it.
• Unfortunately, I (or my brother?) didn't find the time to learn how to drive a motor scooter.
• Well, I didn't ride through the Grand Canyon but in Yosemite National Park. I only hiked the Canyon.
• Two weeks ago I went to a flea market and bought a nice bracelet with turquoise stones.
• Twice I managed to play tennis this summer. And I'd like to continue but don't find the right partner to do so. 
• And eventually, I bought a new camera. I love my Canon 550D. 

You probably are interested how my Pilates went on Monday night, aren't you? The relaxing music and slow movement helped me to concentrate on my body for the first time. The aching muscles the next day confirmed that I did some sports and I therefore will go back tomorrow night.

Yet Pilates relieved some stress, I felt the day after that I can only badly handle no stress at all. Tuesday was the first day in my internship when I had 4 hours nothing to do. In the evening I had munchies for sweets and went to bed really early. In future I want to observe my behaviour to analyse what was wrong.

On Monday the freshmen started at my university while my year is in their internships. This brings memories back that I started writing this blog then and that I only met my good friends one year ago which actually feels like forever. One of them is currently here and we have a blast of a time. On Friday night we went to a nice bistro in the area, whereas we yesterday partied in a Salsa Bar. We are soon heading to have breakfast in one of my favourite cafes.

Some random pictures taken during the last week.

Waiting for the pizza

Movie museum

After month of no-cooking I experimented a little: Curry Pineapple Chicken

Northern lights

Feeling as if I betrayed you, my dear readers, I apologise for my unforeseen delay. At least I can come up with a plausible excuse: I spent the weekend in Hamburg at a friend's and had no Internet access this  morning. Only arrived a few minutes ago, I feed you with my post immediately:

Hamburg was as lovely as ever. As it wasn't my first time, I can only confirm former positive impressions. The water (Alster & Elbe), boats, picturesque Speicherstadt, modern Harbour city, Reeperbahn, fresh fish - yes, the city in Northern Germany has a lot to offer. Therefore I let pictures speak and it is your turn to make up your own mind.

Alster

Elbe

Speicherstadt

Marco Polo Terrace

Harbour

Hamburg

Since I only arrived Friday night, my friend and I, we had so much to catch up that we ended up talking in her room for hours. Yesterday we went to the city centre to do some shopping (unsuccessful...) and had dinner with college friends before we went to a house party in Harbour city. Today we did a harbour trip and met another colleague from school. To sum up, the weekend was less stressful than thought because we primarily hung out and enjoyed the short period together.

In order to shorten the post, I compiled the rest of my activities in some quick notes: 3 hours of cleaning are exhausting but the sacrifice was worth the result - our kitchen, bath room and hallway now gleam in new splendour /// As predicted last Sunday, I am now member of a fitness centre. I start tomorrow night with Pilates /// I finished my first own project at work and got very good feedback /// About 30 interns met on Thursday night for after work drinking. Terrific!

As I get up again in only 7 hours, I'd better go to bed now. Eventually I must work tomorrow. 

Thank you so much for reading!

Small recommendation for the end: Penso's music is very inspiring and I am always in mood for holidays. Perfect soundtrack for a beautiful weekend!

Penso - More Than Fine by PensoOfficial

Beauty to go

Dear readers, 

Of course I will promptly start with Friday night: Vogue Fashion’s Night Out. And it has fulfilled its promises to all extend. Fashion addicted people flooded the stores where we got champagne, water and diverse cocktails offered. As matter of fact, we headed to Burberry, DoDo (thank you for the delicious mango juice!), Louis Vuitton (thank you for this great Polaroid!), Longchamps, Prada, Gucci and Eickhoff. There we had the chance to meet Talbot, a German fashion designer duo, who designed individual dresses for paying clients. Instead of taking this opportunity, our make-up was refreshed by an Yves Saint Laurent artist who used a dramatic eye line and cherry red lips for me. Afterwards our nails were polished with limited Yves Saint Laurent nail polish in khaki. To come to an end: This night was pretty awesome and we had a lot of fun. Thank you Vogue!

Raspberry Cocktail at Tiffany's

Well, that's the event

Balloon at Louis Vuitton

Recreation

In the last weeks I have felt slightly imbalanced. In order to figure out what the reason behind this state is, I thought of it most of the weekend. Diagnosis: I am missing my sports. I only feel it now as I had so much physical activity while being in the United States that was reduced to nearly 0 activity here. On Monday I already pinned an ad in the tennis club to find a partner to play with regularly – no response so far.  Moreover tennis seems to become more and more unattractive to most people. Therefore I yesterday started a new plan: looking for a fitness centre. Today I want to continue this search (7 centres I want to glimpse at) and until tomorrow night I will be member of one. 

 

What about you? Is sport an important part of your life? Are you even member of a fitness center?

I am now on my way to a flea market before enjoying the sun at the beach. Probably one of the last summer days that we catch today! All the best and a beautiful week!

Blue jeans vs. pencil skirt

Unbelievable but true: I even have a fourth flat mate. Also Spanish. I had to blurt out this incredible event just at the beginning of my post, I want to apologize for that.

Well, a week with a lot of work lies behind me but that doesn't interest anyone. I discovered more of this beautiful city, went out with friends again and had another good week. For instance, in front of my house, is one of the cosiest cafes I have been to so far. Lovely, good food and drinks. Just across the street.

At 2 PM on Friday my friend from Frankfurt explained to me that she would come to my place spontaneously in a few hours. This made Friday afternoon absolutely perfect and the rest of the weekend as well. After going out on Friday night, we yesterday visited another friend, had burgers and shopped at Haribo Outlet. 

Yummy I

Yummy II

Nostalgic train

What I really look forward to: Vogue Fashion's Night Out. It  takes place in Berlin on Thursday and the day after here in Duesseldorf. So don't miss the date: fashion shows, charity events, opening hours until midnight - dreams come true. I am pretty excited and will try to catch as much as possible with my camera. Maybe I meet some of you even there. (For more information click here)

Speaking of fashion, I will dedicate this post a little more to this topic, even if I am not an expert. But I like reading fashion blogs to get inspiration (see blog list). Now in my job, it is nearly impossible to experiment with fashion: my colleagues wear classic shades (grey, black, white) and cuts. Of course, I possess clothes which fit to this style but however the amount is rather small. So I try to mix and match some of my "normal" clothes with classic blouses to be dressed appropriate. The issue is that I love jeans. When I come home, the first thing I do, is to slip into simple blue jeans.
What do you wear in office? Have you any tricks to be dressed correctly but still with a touch of a fashionista? I would love to hear your ideas!

Thank you so much for reading and enjoy the week.