Archive | June, 2011

You

25 Jun

I woke up this morning and you smiled at me. Your arm held me tight and pulled me closer to you. You softly brushed my lips with yours, gently caressing my face. But you are gone now and all I am left with is that bitter taste of solitude. I see you standing in front of me, ignoring me.  Ignoring my gaze, lost in your own world. Do you miss me? Do I miss you?

I know I loved you, but did I love the man you were? I miss talking to you, your laugh, your smile, your  eyes. I miss touching you, your skin, your smell, your touch. I miss loving you, feeling you, having you while you had me.

But you wouldn’t stand by me, you turned your back and left, without turning around. I used to blame myself but in the end I was always left with one question: had I asked for too much?

Maybe. But you had asked for everything… but me.

Lyon

25 Jun

I am sorry you haven’t heard from me in a while, but I’ve been quite around. So today I want to tell you a little about Lyon. I spend a few days here at my sister’s house and I must say… I love this city.

It is quite bohème and a great mix between a capital city, Mediterranean and some small town flair. Its location is also quite interesting because it is in the middle of everywhere. You are only two hours away from the sea, the mountains and of course Paris.

Lyon is quite a romantic place, you can enjoy a lovely dinner in one of the small gourmet restaurants or take a stroll down one of the two rivers. It is very cultural and what I love most about it is its history.

When you are in the old town there are little hidden ways called “crabouille”. These “crabouilles” work this way: imagine you were followed by the police back in the old ways, you would just enter some building and follow the little court until you get out in some other street and your followers (not knowing the existence of these “crabouilles”) would never find you. Brilliant.

A part from the romance in this story there is something else I love about them: the architecture.  And not only in these hidden courts but also in most buildings from the old town. There is this flair of old and forgotten time that makes you feel retro and a bit like Bonny and Clyde…

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Paris, je t’aime

17 Jun

This morning I woke up at 6:15am. You heard me right. By the time I arrived at the office I had done a long journey. Kind of feel like Frodo right now. Being in Paris, walking in Paris and taking the metro in Paris, is a whole experience I had totally forgotten about. First of all: you dress up!!!  I was quite happy with my business outfit when my friend looked at me in semi-horror and explained to me it was a bit too casual. Then she went to her closet and pulled out a black blazer kind of looking like a smoking jacket… After I was dressed up and did my make-up, I felt very  girly putting my Elisabeth Arden Eight hour cream lipstick and a mirror in my bag.  Shock number two: I watched my friend doing her nails at 7am in the morning, while she explained to me she was doing that every day before going to work. When the nail polish had dried she took out a small make up bag (make-up, perfume, comb…) and threw it in her handbag. I felt so Austrian at this point. I forgot how much fun it was to dress up and pamper yourself. So much fun that it wouldn’t even bother me to get up at half past 6…  Well, let’s see about that.

Second point about Paris: walking in the street. My friend obviously wears high heels while I wear my nude ballerinas. I remember going to work every day in 10cm heels. What happened? Well, Austria is so not high heels friendly… at least the streets aren’t. Whereas Paris turns out to be your own personal catwalk. Suddenly I have music in my head and feel pretty.

Third point: the metro. First metro was ok. Second… well, it was crowded and didn’t work well because something was burning.  Thanks god I was two hours early. Being in a crowded metro is an experience on its own. You have three types of people here: the ones that stay calm, the ones that get aggressive and the ones that rub themselves against you!  There’s also a sub-culture called “the smelly ones”. Suddenly I remember why they love perfume in Paris. Because when you get out of the metro, feeling smelly and perspiring, the only thing you want to do is to dive into a perfume cloud…

Bottom line: I got one lovely smile, one “I have to tell you, you are so charming” and one “I love you” from total strangers… I missed being in Paris.

♫ ♪  J’ai deux amours by Josephine Baker

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Pentecost crown

12 Jun

Yep, it is Pentecost again (or Whitsun). As I told you yesterday, I have lots of things to do, but as always… I rather do something else… ;-)

Today I decided to bake a cake. This idea occurred to me this morning when I realized that my yoghurt was about to expire.

I like this yoghurt cake because it tastes really nice and light and it has this fluffy texture…. Who doesn’t like a fluffy cake?

You need:

  • 3 eggs
  • 150g of sugar (You can put in more but I don’t like it too sweet)
  • 1 nature yoghurt
  • 4 table spoons of oil
  • 240g of flour
  • Baking soda
  • A bit of salt (oups I forgot to put it in!!!)
  • Vanilla extract (If you don’t have any use vanilla sugar)

 

Here it goes:

Mix the eggs with the sugar and the yoghurt until it has this creamy texture. Add the oil, the flour and the baking soda. Then put in the salt and the vanilla and make sure your batter has no crumbles in it. Then put it into a pre-greased baking form and put it into the preheated oven (180°C) for about 25-30 minutes.

You can serve it with fresh yoghurt or with rhubarb compote (I made some last night so maybe I will show you how it goes later…)

Hope you enjoy it. If you have some left tomorrow, you can cut it into thin slices, toast it and have it as bread for breakfast! ;-)

Bon appétit!

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Getting bored on a saturday night…

11 Jun

You might probably ask: How does someone get bored on a saturday night?

Well, that’s an easy one for me to answer. I’m not much of a party person… well… that’s not really true.  I love to party but only when I’m not in my home town. There’s not much to go out to around here and generally I prefer to stay at home anyway…  I have this motto saying: “I rather enjoy myself alone than be bored with other people”. I know it sounds a bit anti-social but I assure you, I have a great time with myself…

An exception to the rule is: today!  Nothing to do (wrong! I have a lot to do but I can’t be bothered…), nothing on television and no friends available for a night in with wine and antipasti. So what can one do?

In my case one does what one loves to do (besides jigsaw puzzles): renovating my flat. In this very particular case: repainting my furniture. I love to repaint things. Three years ago I got upset because of something my ex-boyfriend said. I went home, I took out the first bucket with paint I could find (unfortunately it was pink) and started painting the wall in my kitchen. By the time I was half-way through the second layer, I was calmed down… ;-)

Today my victim was my chest of drawers in the living room. Before tonight it used to be green with red edges. The main theme in my flat beeing “vintage pastels” this poor chest of drawers was a definite outsider. So while I was beeing an outsider tonight by staying in, I decided to integrate this piece of furniture to the rest of my flat.

What did I do exactly?

First I took out the drawers, then I carried everything on my balcony where I placed every drawer and the chest on some card board. Then I went through my store room and there I found cream colored paint/varnish and a middle-sized brush.

I started with the drawers. Because of the wood texture I had to paint first diagonally and then up and down and then from left to right to be sure that every bit had paint on it. The handles were a bit tricky but where is the fun if it’s too easy…

After I had painted the rest of the chest (same way as the drawers) I added a second layer on the drawers. After letting it dry for an hour in the fresh air, I carryed everything back into the living room to its normal place. Now it is standing where it always was, but now it has a nice creamy look. Something between new and vintage and much much prettier….

I’m really happy with my new chest of drawers. Can’t wait to see what I’ll do next time I’m bored. ;-)

PS: I apologize for the horrible pics but the light was just too bad and well… there just ain’t no sunlight around 11pm…

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Summer pizza à la Nat

7 Jun

Hello gorgeous ladies!

It is very hot outside and I guess I’m not the only one with only little appetite and longing for a light and healthy dinner… hello bikini season!!! Well, I just had a friend over for dinner and I had to improvise something with the few leftovers I had in my fridge… she did love it so I decided to share it with you ;-)

The ingredients for the summer pizza à la Nat are:

  •  flaky pastry
  • 3-4 tomatoes
  • 1 medium-sized courgette
  • feta cheese
  • salt, pepper, herbes de provence and fresh basil
  • a tiny bit of olive oil

Here it goes:

Preheat your oven to 200°C. In the mean time roll out the flaky  pastry on a backing tray. Cut the tomatoes into slices and dispoce them onto the flaky pastry. Then cut the courgette into slices – personally I use a mandolin slicer (I love it!!!!) because I love to have perfectly equal slices. Place the courgette slices on the tomatoes (I have to admit I am a bit of a perfectioniste when it comes to placing vegetables…. it has to be symmetrical or at least in rank or file…. but do feel free to create a total mess if you feel like it).  Salt the courgettes (brings out the water and makes them nice and crunchy when they bake). Then put some pepper and herbes de provence on them and drip a few drops of olive oil on the whole pizza. Now sprinkle the crumbled feta cheese all across the pizza and put it into the oven for about 30 min (or till the pastry/cheese are golden brown).

Serve it on a nice plate decorated with some fresh basil (I love deco that adds some flavour) and enjoy.

Ps: Maybe a nice glass of Shiraz-Cabernet or a white-wine spritzer…?

♫ ♪   L’appuntamento by Ornella Vanoni

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The beauty of nature

5 Jun

♫ ♪   Morning has broken – Cat Stevens

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The beauty of nature

5 Jun The beauty of nature

Sometimes it feels nice to escape the city and spend a day on the country side… of course besides beeing relaxing, it brings with it some pretty incentives ;-)

Continue reading →

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Orient Express

1 Jun

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Orient Express

1 Jun Orient Express

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