London calling - yes, I was there too!

 
An' you know what they said? Well some of it was true
London calling at the top of the dial
And after all this, won't you give me a smile?

                  (by my favourite band the Clash)

For five days I finally went to see the City again. It was on rather short notice as my sister and

I both got some time off work and decided to go on a short trip together   

So we met for tea & crepes at a cute little shop made of an old coach called the Tram Café

C`est ca ===>






There we tried to come to an agreement over which city to visit. Of course we had both made lists

 Mine contained three citys with cheap places to stay and a cost estimate - hers at least 7 cities and 

 lots of drawings - typical grafic designer...It was really hard, ugh. She kept telling me to stop looking

 at costs and to decide which city I prefered...Amsterdam? too expensive, she´d rather go see  

 Stockholm anyway. And not too much sight-seeing, thank you very much. Air BnB was a no-go.

 So when we finally decided on Paris, we had talked on two meetings for at least a couple of hours.

  

 

When I was lying in bed I kept pondering what I really wanted. And deep down I found my 

 wish - to go back to my mother´s birthplace and the country that held a special place in my 

  heart - good auld England!

  So I called her and convinced her and booked two return tickets with

  EasyJet and a small hotel room in Kensington. Finally! Aftet ten long years it felt like coming home.

  (And I dicovered I had a hidden passion for flying - it really felt so good going up I whooped   )

awesomeness! (despite tourist invasions)

by the river

 

Although my sister had said she wanted to keep the sight-seeing to a minimum, I just had to go see

the Tate, I mean come on! When there´s so many cool museums in London!

And when they have paintings of the one and only John William Waterhouse, genius of the pre-raffaelites! swoon

Tate circular hallway

my sis <3

really cool hand-smoothed statue

me in front of  221b Baker Street (after that we had a beer at a pub)

Of course I bought some stuff - the coat you can see, a vintage Jaeger from a thrift shop, the stripy cutout dress from Topshop and a pink & gold necklace from Vivienne Westwood. There was a really

gorgeous asian girl working there - probably thai - wearing a midnight blue angled dress. I didnt see

that many clothes that I could imagine looking good on me, but I would have instantly bought all the

shoes, bags and accesoires if I could.

at Vivienne Westwood, trying on the baby asterisk print cotton dress (looking a bit dorky)

next time I`m definately going for the royal orb earrings!

The best thing about the whole trip - meeting our childhood friends Laura & Rachel in The Slug & Lettuce! They´re both sisters too. apparently nobody in London wears glasses.

Mon petit péché mignon

or "my little weakness"

While fearlessly taking the bike to the city in spite of the rain, I came by a really cute shop. 

It was crammed full of little clocks, cups and porcelain, jewellery, umbrellas and pretty boxes.

Take a look

Of course I went and splurged, paying 90 € for little tidbits to take back home to my friends. 

I don't know if you can say it was worth it, but I love my picks:

Lisbeth Dahl umbrella - all covered in frills & stars

A cigarette case and perfumed letters and cubes by Givre Blanc

golden sugar crystals and sugar pearls for my baking girls & cook bf

Atsuyo et Akiko Star Dia necklace 

I found out that Lisbeth Dahl and Atsuyo et Akiko are well known brands and have their own online shops. 

  You can find Lisbeth Dahl online  here  &  here 

   

   Mind you, the shop is only for the UK, so if you live somewhere else,

   just type Lisbeth Dahl and your home country into the search field

    in your browser.

Atsuyo et Akiko you can find      here   

they sell a lot of tutus, shirts and jewellery for children too and have a Atsuyo et Akiko Disney collection.

On friendly Canadians & getting on

listening to  "Get it on" by T-Rex



walking towards some church in Angers - a little tipsy and about to get lost

A new trainee has arrived - Sarah Sophie from Canada! God, I adore her. She is just so straightforward and active and a very honest person. You cannot help but love her to bits. We immediately hit it off, although she is very different from me. Actually, she reminds me a bit of my Mum, because she has the same habit of blurting out exactly what she is thinking or about to do at the moment.

You cannot help but admire that she works as a paysagiste (landscape gardener), a job were there are few women, because it is so physically demanding. You have to be a tough cookie and I think she is just that ♡

We used up the first weekend after meeting just doing a lot of walking and jogging (pant pant) and looking at the city. We got ourselves a Heineken each (which does not taste nearly as good as bavarian beer or Guiness, sad but true) and talked and talked...About differences in culture, the things we like about our home countries and so on. And then we went discovering again. After the second beer we were a bit tipsy, so we were just strollling along, laughing our heads off. Getting hungry, we saw a pizza deliverer on a roller! We called out : PIZZA!!! WAIT, WE WANT SOME!!! But roller-guy just waved coolly and sped off.

Then we actually chased him for a while; giggling and panting. So we got lost, which made us laugh even more. And just when I thought I couldn't go on, we turned a street and found our bycicles, just waiting for us! HURRAY FOR INBUILT GPS!!!

cute tiny Perrier bottle - I am definately keeping those

caught in the act - of descending stairs!

I vaguely remember singing some stupid song along the lines of "I can ride my bike with no handlebars, no handlebars " on repeat. Oh dear, Sarah...☺



Good Times, Conversations

 feat. The Preatures - Take a Card

Ahhh~ I had heaps and heaps of fun today!!! 

I went to town again and discovered some really nice places ❤♥  and of course nice things: at the cool teashop, where the clerk was wearing a darkgreen yukata robe and a japanese store where they had Pocky & other stuff...

I am so happy!

as I am in need of presents for all my girlfriends in Germany, I bought some lotion at the local

☆click☆ >> Yves Rocher : I bought two different lotions to try out - Muguet/Lily of the Valley and Lila/Lilac which are both scents I love.

 Despite looking at many blogs I have yet to find a good Lily of the Valley perfume. The Yves Rocher one made my nose burn, so I hope I dont get any rashes from the lotion...it is a poisonous plant after all...☠ 

dum da dum dum!

Bento leaf dividers



japanese Washi tin with beautiful maple print

Post Scriptum: learned about the word "Weeabo" today.

I am not one of them, luckily, because I enjoy every culture there is, but I am still proud of being british/german. 

I would be terrified to be on the same level as Venus Palermo..brrr