Currently June (and May)

Me and my friend Elly who came to Hamburg for my birthday last month.

Hating: This is a new tag that I have added to this post because it has been a big reason of why I have not been blogging at all.
1st is that after 2 weeks of reasonably warm weather (25-28C) it has started to just rain every day and gone grey so that you have to take a coat/scarf/umbrella/socks with shoes just to go out to get a coffee. I have been staying inside and getting a little cabin fever from it.
2nd is that our hot water system has completely craped its self so now if I want any heat for a shower I have to go to the swimming pool and pay 6Euros to have a communal shower and bath, we are meant to have a new one installed but with going away in 2 weeks I am not holding my breath.
3rd is that my skin has gone crazy with dry patches with pimples as well and dandruff. I started seeing the dandruff about 2 months ago and taught that it could be from bleaching my hair so I dyed it a red but that made it stand out even more and the red washed out in a week so I bleached it back to a light copper colour and made a colour depositing conditioner with a copper semi-permanent colour and started with a anti dandruff shampoo. My skin is crazy, I have had to stop using all face products and just ride it out until it starts to behave its self again, so I am trying not to irritate it at all. The funny thing is that a friend of mine from Australia who also lives in Hamburg has found that the same thing has happened to her skin and hair so it may be the water that is too harsh on the skin.
4th is that after being a little laxed with my diet my food allergies have come back. I have had to stop eating wheat with yeast products at home and limit them when I am out. I am stopping eating pastries and any fat rich products including cheese and processed meat. I was going fine until we went to Munich for 4 days and by the 3rd morning I felt so bloated and had surges of nausea from eating Bayern food that I only ate fish and salad for a whole week until I felt back to normal.  

Anticipating: My holiday that has now become going to Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Sweden and Denmark. I am well aware of  how much money it will cost but am in a serious need of some alone time to do things that I want to do and see friends from Australia so that I can be silly without caring what people think of me. I have also started to get more into my craft stuff so I am looking forward to see where that takes me.

Listening to/Watching/Reading: I have been obsessed with the tv show Criminal Minds and have been going threw all the 7 series in the past few weeks. It is a very dark tv show compared to the other cop dramas that I normally watch but I love the cast and just get so sucked into the story line. My favorite character is Dr Spencer Reed (played by Matthew Gray Gulber) because he is geeky smart but still an FBI agent with a gun. He has a cool geek chic thing going on with the converse sneakers, ray ban glasses, long messy hair and  vintage tweed slacks with cardigans or vests but with the shorter cut in season 6 and 7 he has a serious hottie thing going on. I have been listening to In our time podcasts from the BBC that is a panel of experts that discuss historical events with each having a different opinion and interpretation of the event. I find them very good to lisen too when on the train or to help me fall a sleep at night. I have also just finished the book A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes that was written as a pulp fiction novel in the 50's. It was a very good read but I relay didn't like the main character so it made getting to the end hard but because I like pulp fiction crime novels I will probably read some of his other books.

Missing: The sun and being warm but hopefully that will correct its self when I am away and I will come back to some real summer weather. I am also starting to miss working and am hoping that when I get back in August I can start some serious job searching and get back into a lab.

Travel Problem

I am going on an epic month trip next month but have cropped up with a very interesting problem. I am going to a Pohoda music festival in Slovakia during my 1st week away and then traveling around and then going to Herrang lindy exchange in my 3rd week.

The problem is this, I am having to take a tent, sleeping bag and mat to the festival for camping but for Herrang I am going to be dancing so I need more shoes and clothes due to the sweat factor, how much stuff is too much. I hate having to carry around a big suitcase just for camping stuff but looking at having to take 5-6 pairs of shoes is also not a fun thing.

I am not going to be camping at Herrang (I hope) but I will still have to lug everything around with me because I will still want to use it in the future. My suitcase is so big and bulky it is very hard to drag around (plus most of the airlines only allow me 15kg checked luggage) but I might have to buy a very cheap duffle bag with wheels to carry all my camping gear and extra lindy clothing.

 Images from tonbogirl

 Images from teen vogue

Images from cali vintage and free people 

On the plus side I have been looking at some very cool style inspiration for the festival that can be easily transformed for lindy. Thinking a 40's sporty outdoors chic style mixed with 70's boho hippy prep style. Lots of cute sunglasses, scarfs, playsuit/shorts, brights and neutrals mixed together. Both Herrang and Pohoda is a real excuse to dress as crazy as you like without people looking at you like a complete crazy.

hairspiration

Not only do I love the movie Practical Magic but I also love Nicole Kidman's amazing ginger hair. I have dyed my hair back to a ginger (more of a cherry than a ginger) because the bleaching was wrecking my hair but I may need to pre-lighten my hair and then dye over it. The only problem is that that shade of copper/ginger washes out super fast that it needs to be dyed every 2 weeks to keep the colour at its best.

to mum

A little late (in Perth anyway) Happy Mothers Day Mum. 

Currently April - only a little late

(1st outfit post in new flat, need to find a new place that gets light to do posts)

cardigan , ballet flats and jeggings - h&m, tshirt - pohoda festival promo item from there shop, headband - diy from old tshirt

(close up of print)

Loving: Being able to have weekends away that don't cost a small fortune. My weekend in Prague only cost 200Euros for travel, accommodation and spending money. If I was still in Perth it would easily cost over $500 just for travel if going over east or the same if going to Margaret river.

Thinking about: My birthday next weekend. It will be strange not having my family around for it but I am going to have a friend visiting from Perth that weekend so we will be partners in crime. We will be going out and having a grate time.

Anticipating: Going on a nice long holiday in July. I have already got my plane ticket for Vienna and have received my festival tickets for Pohoda Festival in Slovakia. I am thinking of maybe heading to Budapest as well but may be tempted to go to Herrang dance camp for a week (it is in Sweden so it will cost a lot).

Listening to/Watching: More The Minutes podcasts and there advice podcast You're Welcome, it totally cracks me up all the time. I am so obsessed with the TV show Hart of Dixie and so sad to know that next week is the last episode but exited to know what happens. I am also loving watching the German dubbed Disney's Phineas and Ferb because it is so silly cartoon but really easy to follow in German.

Eating: Healthy. All this heavy German food (bratwurst) and sugary pastries (you can't walk for more than 5min before getting to a bakery) have started to make me feel very ill. I also managed to pick up a tummy bug in Prague that is still not making me feel well so I am trying to flush it out of my system. Also the weather has been fluctuating between warm and raining that I am not wanting such stodgy food to keep warm.

Missing: Sausage rolls from the bakery (beef costs a fortune that everything is made of pork, even lamb is very hard to find), seeing the sun for more than 10min a day, my family and not having to go to 3 supermarkets to get all my grocery shopping in one outing.

Wishing: That my money will stretch a little further than I think it will.

If you want to read my last Currently post click through to the link

Pragueprague

(waiting on a platform in the Czech countryside for the train to be fixed and in the old town square in the rain)

 Saturday; singlet top - amy, top - dotti, cardigan - country road, jeans - dotti, trainers - amy, socks - lidl, bag - target, pashmina scarf - myers   


On Saturday my boyfriend and I went on a little weekend trip to Prague. Prague is only 6hrs away from Hamburg but after being delayed in the Czech countryside we didn't get into the city till 5pm. It was my 1st time in Prague but it was my boyfriends 4th time so he made an itinerary of what we should see but even so we still found lots of new things that he hadn't seen before. It was a very strange city of very pretty touristy bits but the rest is full of homeless, druggies and dangerous areas but it has such an energy that it is very hard not to love it. We ended up going out on Sunday night with people we met at the hostel bar that turned into a marathon night of no sleep so it made Monday a very hard day of sightseeing so by the time I got on the train at 3pm I had had not slept in over 30hrs so I instantly stretched out and went to sleep.

(on memorial hill with the TV tower in the background with babies crawling up the side of it)

 Sunday; single - amy, shirt and leggings - h&m, cardigan - country road, bag - target, trainers - amy, watch - big w

 (on the steps of Prague castle steps with a human statue that would not let us pass until we took pictures with him after giving him 50CZK)

(at the train station on the way home with my backpack)

 Monday; tshirt and jacket - h&m, cardigan - country road, jeans - dotti, pashmina scarf - myers, sunglasses  - amy, backpack - tk maxx

My favorite place in Prague, an amazing park in the moat of the Prague castle. The entrance is so hidden that there are hardly any people in it and is so quiet that you forget you are even in the city. It was raining making all the leaves very green. There are also deer in the park that are protected by armed guards ( I am not kidding about it).

 Saturday - getting on the train at 8:30am for the 6hr journey, eating lunch for the 1st time in a dining car, the train delayed in the Czech countryside due to a huge thunder storm, getting to Prague an hour late, seeing the old town square and the astrological clock on the church, played scrabble and pictionary in the hostel bar 

 Sunday - walked all the way up the hill to the war memorial, went inside the war memorial museum, walked from the new town to the old town, went to the Czech senate gardens and saw all the peacocks and owls, went to Prague castle, walked through the moat gardens in the rain, played charades in the hostel bar, went to crossclub, stayed up taking in the hostel bar till the breakfast was set up at 7am     

Monday - did not go to bed, went to see the Frank Gehry house, walked a long the river bank, caught the train home at 2:30pm, went to sleep on the train, got back to Hamburg at 10pm    

Hamburg Girls

(image from Hamburg Facebook page)

A few weeks ago a survey came out saying that the women of Hamburg are the most beautiful in Germany and I agree with that. They are so naturally beautiful I often find myself staring at them in the street. I find that there clothes are in style but so flattering to them, they do not seam to dye there hair at all (or is very natural highlighted, the hair dye section in the shops are tiny), they have amazing skin and healthy hair and there makeup is so minimal you often end up staring to try and see if they have foundation or if that is there skin.
I have never been a girl for lots of makeup and I don't use thick foundation on my skin only tinted moisturizer once in a blue moon because my skin is so sensitive to pigments (even with tinted moisturizer at the end of a night out I can already see white heads appearing) so I feel very at home hear makeup wise instead of Australia where even in hot summer women will go out pasted in makeup. If I could look half as good as some of the women hear I would be so happy.

A few YouTube tutorials that I have been watching to get the look