Posted in Cities, Me | Tagged Barbican, london, London Eye, St.Pauls | 3 Comments »
Sooo, last Thursday I took the afternoon off to go to the Docklands Dental Surgery Clinic to have my wisdom teeth looked at. Had another all-around-the-head x-ray and dental surgeon had a nice look and poke around my mouth and now I’m being referred to a hospital - all 4 to come out soon. Can’t wait for this to be over. But, on my way back to Canary Wharf Station I walked the one stop instead of taking the DLR and then had a little walk around the Wharf (the weather was lovely as you can tell so I didn’t mind getting a little fresh air and a little sun). Now, Canary Wharf is NOT London. This is a cold and heartless place of absolute anonymity or as I also captioned a pic of it: Welcome to the anonymous world of banking - its all about cold concrete, glass and steel…throw in a few men in grey suits and ‘empty nester’ women and bake for 15 minutes at 200°C…
…so yeah, London being a banking capital I guess it is a part of it, but then the city is actually London’s banking centre and that still maintains the London touch…(yes, I’m fully aware of the fact that I’m exxagerating)
Posted in London Streets, Me | Tagged Banks, Canary Wharf, london | No Comments »
Aaah, the darling BF took me to this really really lovely super real-deal Korean restaurant today and moi was introduced to KIMCHI!! Me luuurrrvvveesss this stuff now…it is this super spicy cabbage side dish and just soooo yummy! I want to eat this for breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day for the rest of my life now AND Kimchi has made me spontaneously and randomly consider moving to South Korea (for the first time in my life and considering I also want to live in Cape Town, Havana, NYC, Tel Aviv, Bombay and Tokyo it just comes in handy as another location en route I suppose?).
Wikipedia helps us:
Kimchi, also spelled gimchi or kimchee, is a traditional Korean fermented dish made of vegetables with varied seasonings, most commonly referring to the spicy baechu variety. Kimchi is the most common Korean banchan, or side dish, eaten with rice along with other banchan dishes. Kimchi is also a common ingredient and cooked with other ingredients to make dishes such as kimchi stew (kimchi jjigae) and kimchi fried rice (kimchi bokkeumbap).
Posted in Me, Random | Tagged kimchi, kimchee, gimchi, kim-chi, korean food, cabbage, food, asian food | No Comments »
“I know that when you buy a ticket for my movie you might be foregoing a meal…you sit three hours not only for the movie, you sit for the air conditioning, for the dream and promise you make to your family.”
“In our country movies are a part of life…not a part of entertainment”.
If you ask any European person abt Bollywood they will without a doubt say something along the lines of “oh yeah there’s that one dude who’s like in every single movie…whats the deal? Is he really that big? Who’s the weirdo? Don’t they have anyone else - I thought India was overpopulated anyway? He does these funny dances…?! He’s ugly, why is he everywhere?”.
Who is this one man who is without a doubt the international face of Bollywood? The one single face of a cultural phenomenon that rules from Marocco to Malaysia. The man who is the heartthrob, idol and icon of billions (no not merely millions) of people worldwide and has been for almost two decades now - his fame and adoration only getting stronger by the day. The Muslim man who is probably the single most adored person in Hindu India. The face of Pepsi, Motorola, luxury fashion and lifestyle brands and Sony for a multi-billion market over various countries. A man of unbelievable modesty with a life story of pain, loss, love, hard work and dedication. A man who fully deserves every little bit of the adoration he receives – the one and only King Khan, billionaire superstar, the most beautiful and extremely modest Shahrukh Khan.
To me Shahrukh Khan personifies in real life everything about India that I love and am proud of. Shahrukh Khan – the son of a Muslim freedom fighter who fought for the birth of Hindu India, the boy who went to Catholic school and later to first a Hindu and then a Muslim College graduating in Economics and Mass Communications, who married his beloved Gauri in a Hindu ceremony and with whom he raises their two children as both Hindu and Muslim. Losing his parents and especially his mother at a very young age Shahrukh turned to becoming a workaholic to cope with the pain and immense loss. The educated, modest, hard working, down to earth, funny, highly intelligent and most charismatic Shahrukh Khan. There is none other like him. Shahrukh Khan personifies the best of the Muslim world, the best of tolerant Hinduism, the best of secularity, the best of India and the best of man. It might be hard to understand this for anyone who did not grow up in India or is not familiar with modern Indian society. I adore Shahrukh Khan and am grateful that he exists the way he does, he has done nothing but enrich everyone’s life in every way he possibly could. Yes, Aamir is extremely talented, highly intelligent and very goodlooking, yes, Saif is extremely charming and probably a lot funnier, yes, Arjun is ridiculously goodlooking and probably even a lot better looking and Hrithik is also down to earth and a much better dancer. But none of them combine everything and characterise my India the way Shahrukh does. I will always watch anything and everything he makes, does, supports and endorses.
“The frenzy about him is incredible. No western superstar, no matter who it is, is worshipped. Shahrukh Khan is worshipped”.
Wikipedia helps us:
Khan was born to Muslim parents of Pathan ethnicity in New Delhi, India. His father, Taj Mohammed Khan was a freedom activist from Peshawar, British India. His mother Lateef Fatima was the adopted daughter of Major General Shah Nawaz Khan of the Janjua Rajput clan, who served as a General in the Indian National Army of Subash Chandra Bose.
Khan’s father came to New Delhi from Qissa Khawani Bazaar in Peshawar before the Partition of India, while his mother’s family came from Rawalpindi, also in present-day Pakistan. Khan has an elder sister named Shehnaz. Khan attended St. Columba’s School where he was accomplished in sports, drama and academics. He won the Sword of Honour, an annual award bequeathed to the student who embodies most the spirit of the school. He later attended the Hansraj College (1985-1988 ) to earn an Honors degree in Economics. After this, he studied for a Masters Degree in Mass Communications at Jamia Millia Islamia.
After the death of his parents, Khan moved from New Delhi to Mumbai in 1991. In that same year, before any of his film releases, he married Gauri Khan in a Hindu wedding ceremony on October 25, 1991. They have two children, son Aryan Khan (b. 1997) and daughter Suhana (b. 2000).
In 2005, Nasreen Munni Kabir produced a two-part documentary on Khan, titled The Inner and Outer World of Shah Rukh Khan. Featuring his 2004 Temptations concert tour, the film contrasted Khan’s inner world of family and daily life with the outer world of his work. The book Still Reading Khan, which details his family life, was released in 2006. Another book by Anupama Chopra, “King of Bollywood: Shahrukh Khan and the seductive world of Indian cinema”, was released in 2007. This book described the world of Bollywood through Khan’s life.
Khan’s life-size wax statue is available in Madame Tussauds wax museum, London, installed in April 2007. Khan has been chosen for the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of the Arts and Literature) award of the French government for his “exceptional career”.
Check out the CNN interview:
Posted in Define | Tagged shahrukh khan, bollywood, king khan | 2 Comments »
Sooo, this Saturday was a sort of spontaneous mini-reunion! I was meeting with Silvi to go this party in Bethnal Green…then suddenly Danny called saying he’d just gotten back into town so I made him come along…then we called Jimmy who’d just arrived at the airport and we hassled him into making the schlepp across London from Notting Hill to Bethnal Green and for the first time in 4 years the 4 us of were reunited…in a warehouse in East London 
as the pictures can tell we had a great time!
Posted in Me | Tagged east london, Nightlife, party | No Comments »
Ok, I am in a rage about the Finanzamt München. If there ever was bloody fucking incompetent bunch of brainless bereaucratic dimwit morons it has to be them. They have now sent me a questionnaire with highly intellectual questions such as:
1. Sind Sie Deutsche Staatsbürger? Ja/ Nein. - in 2002 they stopped the Aufenthaltsgenehmigungs-ID-Card thing because they now apparently had a Datenbank for EU-Bürger. So what the fuck is your database for if you apparently are completely incapable of inter-division communication and using it for fuckall?! Aren’t you supposed to know if I am or not?! What if I’m some sort of criminal political runaway from some random country and answer ‘yes’?!
2. Haben Sie jemals in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland gewohnt? - if I bloody hadn’t been living and working there you wouldn’t have me on your fucking I-have-nothing-to-do-so-lets-harass-these-people-list-of-addresses now would you?!?!
3. Halten Sie sich weiterhin (auch gelegentlich) in Deutschland auf? - Well if you keep harassing me then I might chose not to you dumbwits
4. Welche Einkünfte erzielen Sie im Ausland? Geben Sie Art und Höhe an. - I’m not German, no tax for me in Germany anymore, no address in Germany anymore, no property, nothing, nix, null, nada - sooo, none of your fucking business what I do now
Ok, as Ams sated correctly this is a standard form that they send out to everyone but what is so bloody annoying is that every single letter I receive is from a different person - Arbeitsbeschaffungsmaßnahmen hoch zehn…all of them, when I call claim to make notes and stop sending me shit but then I get more of the same shit with some sort of a threat in it again anyway from the next Finanzamt München employee.
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Sooo, on my way from the BF’s to my place (down one street about 3 blocks) I walk down in my gray t-shirt dress (which Kamber doesn’t have much appreciation for), black solid tights, hair tied up in a knot all messy, big hoop earrings, black biker boots (which Kamber doesn’t have much appreciation for) and big white back lugging the xxl red trolley behind me. I cross the street in front of the flat and next to me is a 40-ish couple and their 4-ish year old daughter. The wife is a slim, stylish, dyed-blonde and husband looks jovial English with a friendly laugh. As I overtake them the husand calls out to me:
husband: excuse me…(waves at me)
me: yes please?
husband: you look lovely!
me: (*look confused and wonder what the deal is with him saying this to me with his wife next to him*)
husband: yes, my wife’s been looking at you and saying it all the time but she doesn’t dare herself to say it to you…
wife: yes, you look fantastic, I love your style - the dress, the boots, and you’re so beautiful as well…
me: uhmmm…oh…thank you…thats so lovely of you…
(wife & me have detailed conversation about boots - especially dark brown heeled Belstaff boots while husband stands next to her shrugging his shoulder and grinning and child turns pirouette circles)
wife: oh absolutely, and you’re so gorgeous as well (imagine heavy northern accent rolling the ‘gorrr-geuuus’)…no really, when my little girl grows up I want her to be just like you…(how bloody shocking is that?!?!)
me: oh dear, you’re flattering me…thats so lovely…uhmmm..thank you…your daugher is lovely…uhmmm…you’ve just absolutely made my day…I don’t know what to say really…
wife: oh I mean it really, I do…
Anyway - Isn’t that unbelievable…finally my style is beginning to receive due recognition! Ok yes it was a mum with child and not a Vogue scout that spotted me but I can feel it coming *grin* hihihi!
Moral of the story: careful what you wish for mothers!
And trust me, I’m finding this harder to believe than anyone else, I am seriously NOT making this shit up (so much for the loving boyfriend who laughed and said I’m making this up…)!
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So I spent the weekend in good ol’ Munich! It was all very rushed and hectic with me arriving late on Friday night, packing boxes on Saturday morning, schlepping these to the post office at 12:00 (post office shuts at 12:30), meeting friends at Nido at 12:30 (I was there at 12:35), meeting Becksi & family at 15:30 (became 15:30 because I was waiting at the wrong café and wondering where they were), making it back to King K’s place at 17:15 (he said we had to leave at 17:30), got dressed in time (including 2 different trial outfits - black/white - went for black one), rush to Ostbahnhof - meet lovely Betti, meet others, get to Tram, drink on Tram for next 4 hours, harassed Obux at his place (more like tried to harass - we only succeeded in harassing his poor GF as he himself was in the shower), got cab to Ed Mo’s, met Sammy & others, sat on terrace but wasn’t down with the vibe and left after an hour and a half, got back to King K’s at 00:45…packed a little, went to sleep on my dear couch and woke up Sunday at 08:30 to fly back to L-town.
My flight (Easyjet doesn’t appear to have anything ‘easy’ about it anymore) back was delayed forever (well over 2 hours) for “maintenance reasons” (probably something like a clogged toilet or something). Feeling dead tired and hungover and wishing for nothing more than to sleep again I sat in the boarding gate area with my second latte machiato (first one I elegantly smashed on the floor before having had a single sip - ask me how to waste €3,80 in 5 seconds - I’m a pro now). At the table next to me was a Russian football team that decided to entertain themselves by repeatedly telling me to “come to Moscow”, helping me find out when my flight does actually would leave by harassing every other potential Easyjet-passenger in our remote vicinity on my behalf and at the end blowing me kisses as I left the table to go to my gate. I made it back safe and sound and am beginning to ask myself if Russian men are as horrible as I thought they were or maybe not that bad after all.
It was extremely tiring, I ask myself how I did this every other weekend when I came to see the BF all the time (as he himself said last night “it must have been love”). It was absolutely love to see everyone again and I love them all to bits sooo much! Because of Christiana, Helge, David, Helen, Steffi, Kamber, Betti, Fred, Becksi, Mom & Dad (and so many others) Munich has become a bit of home to me, as long as they are all in Munich and I associate Munich with them, it will remain deep deep deep within my heart.
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Ok, so the other day I managed to step on my old headphones when getting into the lift to the apartment - the moment I stepped forward they fell out ouf where I had tucked them into my collar and my foot landed smack on them 
Sooo, me had no music for 2 days which was extremely tragic but getting on the flight on Friday and waiting at the airport and having the long stretch to go on the Stansted Express I didn’t want to be without music so I got myself these super cute pink in-ear headphones from Skullcandy. They even came with the in-ear plugs in 3 sizes so you pick the best one for you! Well, for a moment I contemplated the Pink Fur Ti Chick (but realised I am too broke to play such jokes on myself, probably better so)…they’re bright pink and have tiny little skulls on them! Me like!
Posted in Me | Tagged headphones, earphones, in ear, skullcandy, TI fur pink chick skullcandy | 2 Comments »
Sooo, what have been getting up to in recent days apart from scooting around East London, trying to build my ow fashion website, trying to be the best I can at work and considering a hair cut? I’ve been on antibiotics all week and still am because my wisdom tooth was/ is killing me. It hurt so much that it radiated into my ear and my whole left jaw and ear were in complete pain spreading to the left half of my head. So I went to see the doc who gave me an anaethetic mouth wash (this stuff numbs out your whole mouth including lips which of course tempted me to stand at a bus stop making funny faces and poking myself in the lips not realising it was this stuff that my lips feel so weird) and some killer antibiotics. He’s also referred me to a dental surgeon at some hospital with whom I have to make an appointment to have all 4 wisdom teeth pulled out. But the good news is that it seems to help and the pain is saying goodbye.
On another note, I’m on support from work this week and weekend, have been watching quite a bit of football thanks to the world cup and will be watching ORANJE play the Russkis tonight as well, stealing my BF’s extensive Rammstein collection and putting it on my iPod, drooling after shoes and bags that I can’t afford, feeling moody thanks to the tooth and headache, eating a lot of food, smoking less, not drinking and thats about it really. Oh yeah, I also stepped on my iPod headphones the other day and broke them so I need to buy some new ones - thinking of getting some pink skullcandy in-ear ones…lets see…
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
