I am really happy I don't have to drive to work today because the whole country is crazy because of the first heavy snow this year...
so beautiful looking out my window... :)
Last Saturday I was walking downtown and I noticed this:
Maybe a trip to London? Hmmmm, did not think about this lately. I was thinking to going to Brussels on 10th but since R. will travel to Japan to work I will stay here and maybe meet some friends. X-Mas markets started everywhere. Christmas is coming so fast... I do not feel like liking having Christmas yet.... there is still something missing... Brussels might be great..
Ohh yeah my prof got old and got gray hair. I was a bit surprised to see so many people last evening there and then not to see so many other people there... we went to a pub we used to spend our evenings after hard days at the university.. and the pub is still the same and the stuff remembered us... got scared they are still studying... well, nice meeting the people who work now at the China Institute..
the pub still looks great and nothing changed.. 222 different beers offered and other nice beverages...
I have lost all my music after accidentally connecting my ipod to another computer. I was naive thinking you could ADD some music to my ipod instead it just deleted all my music and added all the OTHER music and stuff, I did not want and since I have changed my computed in between. So now I am importing all my CDs... Miles Davis... Lemongrass and other great Jazz ...again and again... so I can listen to MY music tomorrow in the car... unfortunately it takes really a long time to import it all and I will be sure not to do this mistake ever again....
Tomorrow there is another meeting for the alumni of my university... another official meeting and some outing at the evening. I am working, so I think I will join them in the evening. I am always wondering why they organize it on Friday in the afternoon... most people are working and it is really difficult to be there a three o`clock... In the last years it was the main reason, why there we so little people I will see who will be there tomorrow... and I will meet my old professor... :)
Three days with best friends in Berlin means good conversation, good food and remembering our dreams and talking about our lives nowadays and yes life is good and yes we miss the days which passed and our time when China was still a dream. We all were there and we all don't want to miss the time. Life is different now but friendship is still the best.
This was our preparing for the famous Chinese hot pot.... yummy!
Proof for being there :)
Friday I went to work again. Starting to work quite late, around 10 o'clock and after my absence from my office I worked longer than usual and since it was Friday suddenly I was the last one in the building. Well, nothing special but then! After I came out of the building I have realized that all the gates of the compound were closed and my keys did not fit !!! Well, something happened during my absence I still can enter the building with my electronic keys but I could not open a single gate outside! Grrr. So had to call my colleague and wait for her to let me out. Monday I will ask our facility manager if someone has forgotten to tell me something...
Yesterday we had our Dim Sum dinner with some friends and it was really nice. I love this stuff. :)
After a lazy Sunday, well I was still not feeling much better, the sun was shining today and I made a walk around some Asian, especially Japanese shops. Tonight I tried to make a green tea cake with matcha powder. Superb!!! Planing to serve the cake for the next Dim Sum dinner. Yes we plan another one, after the last one did not take place due to my illness. But soon.
wow, wow, wow, I am so impressed by the video and media installations I saw today. Well, the weather was so bad. It was raining cats and dogs and it was cold. But since I was better today I took the tram and I was there.
Quadriennale and especially NAM JUNE PAIK exhibition.
It is really hard to describe his works. I was really impressed especially by the video installations. Interesting how he complied the eastern Asian view, he was Korean, grew up in Japan and studied in Germany, with the progress and development of media specially tv. In his works there is always the influence of Zen. Buddha sitting in front of a tv, watching himself inside the tv. The symbolism of a candle. Different TV-robots, TV-cello and Fluxus. You have to see it, coz I am too impressed now to explain it. Interesting, working with TV installations in the sixties and early seventies he was far ahead other artists and this all in Cologne and Düsseldorf.
No recommendation of today, no dinner/ lunch of today, no art today. I was sleeping for hours. So... okay 25 minutes of cake making: tarte au citron... see u tomorrow. I have to sleep.
Stunnig the symbolism. Stunning idea. Amazing installation, once again by an extraordinary artist. Stunning how much it reminds me of the time in China.
No, no shopping at the Designer Outlet Roermond ;). A walk around the nice historic town, coffee and a sandwich with goat cheese and smoked salmon :)
And yes, there is more to see.
Inside the St. Christopher Cathedral
Every time I am in the Netherlands or Belgium driving through the beautiful landscape it reminds me of the Dutch painters, Dutch Golden Age. I think the coulors of the sky are different there, specially in autumn and winter. So can you imagine now the photo above with old vessels, like there liked to be in the 17th century? Grey coulours. Simple. Simply Dutch.
Today everything was about architecture and art. We went to visit the Langen Foundation.
This museum of modern art, witch contains a large collection of Japanese art works and contemporary art is located within a missile station, one of NATO's former base. The complex is a masterpiece built by Tadao Ando, who won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1995. The buildings were quite impressive and huge going into the earth, in some rooms with only four or five works on the walls I was thinking about the missiles all the time and James Bond movies. This was real modern art.
Unfortunately this time there were more contemporary works on display than Japanese art. There no pictures allowed inside, quelle dommage. I really liked the antic kakejiku (Japanese wall scrolls) they were more than beautiful.
And then we found this:
And I have fallen in love with this rhinoceros :) But this was not the Langen Foundation.
Gosh, it got cold... the temperature dropped about ten degree within one day... the colours are changing and changing..... so I am getting better and on Sunday we went for a walk in the park of the Castle Dyck. The baroque Dyck castle complex is surrounded by a large park in the English style with beautiful alleys. The landscape garden has a remarkable collection of rare tree type up to 45 meters high. There we also saw 24 contemporary, experimental gardens among a "sea" of Chinese silver grass.
and today there will be another trip to Japan... :) I want to go to the Langen Foundation.
Jason "Jay! Kay is back! Afrer five years of waiting Jamiroquai's new altum will be out on October, 29th.. the best asid jazz band ever... and guess who will buy his new album??? :)
I am really looking forward to listen to his new songs and if you liked Travelling Without Moving you will sure like Rock Dust Light Star...I think at least
Being sick means spending time at my couch... ohhhh... okay no Tokyo ... no fun at all? No, I will flee the couch tonight .. I am reading The Bride's Kimono by Sujata Massey. It is my first book of her series about Rei Shimura. So let's see how it will be. Different to the Japanese and Chinese literature I am reading, but I heard it is good. I have just finished reading a book by Zhang Jie, a Chinese female writer.
And I have found a book I have not managed to set free yet. It is registered on bookcrossing and I will set it free and watch how it's journey continues.... The BCID is 352-4685483. :)
Today's catch. New books from our town library for me:
Starting reading
2009 China was guest of honor at Frankfurt Book Fair. It was really a bust for Chinese literature and suddenly you could find more books being published in Germany, even our library bought some. So, I can read some books I do not have in my collection.,yet :)
We were planning a Dim Sum party last weekend, but because I am sick we had to postpone it. So now we have all these Dim Sum for ourselves :) :) !!! Some of them we had for lunch today... yummy :)
