North Finchley - There is a high street!?

Funny how sometimes you don't see what is right in front of your eyes. All these months I thought that near the place where I lived there was nothing nice (weird shops and take away restaurants only).
BUT, today I had to pick up a parcel from the North Finchley post office, which is a15-20 min walk away. I had never been there.
To my delight and surprise, I discovered that there is actually such a thing as a highstreet!
With all the things you need: A waterstone's (bookshop that I have a bonus card for :D), boots and superdrug (beauty and stuff), banks, a River Island (clothes), an Aldi (home sweet home), a Waitrose (quality supermarket) and most importantly a STARBUCKS! So I bought a latte (The interior is very nice, I will come back many times ;) and browsed through books before getting my parcel (birthday present *harharr*).
It is actually a nice alternative to Brent cross. If you fancy a walk and don't feel like an overcrowded noisy mall, it's perfect! (There is a bus for lazy people like me, too)

All I want for Christmas...

Today I started doing some christmas shopping at Brent Cross shopping centre. The whole mall looks as if Christmas was next week: decorations and christmas articles everywhere! In an attempt of organisation I had made a list of people that I wanted to send christmas cards to and a list of presents. So I searched for ages at John Lewis for the perfect card for everyone (which cost me a fortune, but since it's my first year of sending my OWN cards :D). I bought some other presents (can't write what;)), a cinnamon latte at Costa (I got the whipped cream on top for free!) and ordered photos at boots.
I then started looking for an Oxford interview outfit (not that I have been invited yet...), saw some perfect black shoes and tried on every smart trousers at Zara. I will come back and buy stuff if they invite me.

I had fun, actually. Can't wait to write the cards an giftwrap the presents.

Romeo and Juliet at the Royal Ballet!

A magnificent evening!
I bought the ticket months ago, considering how fast the performances sell out. It was completely full.
I sat at the very left side on level with the stage, basically overlooking the orchestra. I was really really close to the stage (sometimes I could hear the dancers take a breath), but I couldn't see the very left side of the stage.

Firstly, the Royal Opera House has a fantastic atmosphere of grandeur (mostly red and gold in the auditorium) and the buzzing excitement of the people makes it even better - watching as the theatre slowly fills up as people takes their seats, etc)

The performance itself was really good. I have seen the ballet before at the Bavarian State Opera with my favourite dancer Lucia Lacarra in the titel role, so it wasn't so easy to please me ;). I instantly liked the romeo, he just looked perfect for the role. I had to warm to Juliet (Roberta Marquez), but I did! Of course, the costumes and the stage were magnificent.
The choreographie was also different from the John Cranko one in Munich. I love Cranko's version (the bedroom pas de deux!), but I also liked this one. Very emotional, very strong, not at all stiff.
It was also nice to be able to see the orchestra and the sound was superb (Prokofiev's score is simple breathtaking).
The audiance was alright, they cheered and screamed bravo, but just like in Shadowlands, they seem a bit reserved. Considering the high quality of the performance, any German audience would have applauded longer. They didn't even show the corps the ballet, only the leading dancers got curtains! And as soon as the light in the auditorium was switched on, people seemed to takes this as a sign to stop applauding and leave.

Still, it was a fantastic evening, I am definately going to see more ballets. What a priviledge to live in London, really.

(pics: this is not the cast I saw)

A glorious day out with Puppy!

I had a lovely sunday again! First of all, we had SAUSAGES (I had 4!!!)! The best way to start the day!
Later, Puppy and I took to bus to Brent Cross as we had planned. She wanted gloves and I had to go to Apple to have my computer fixed. We had so much fun! Firstly, We looked at different shops to find the nicest pair of gloves for Marie. Then we stopped at Millie's cookies where I bought some cookies and an icecream for her. Finally, we sat down at Starbucks for an eggnog latte, orange juice and lemon cake for Puppy. It is so much fun spending time with her jumping next to me at my hand, being excited about such small things as an ice cream with colourful topping,

As for Alex, I am starting to connect with her more, I think! We did get along well, baked together and so on, but for the first time we had a longer conversation for about an hour or so. She is really mature! We talked about class, labelling people, and the situation at her school (sounded horrible, all these gangs and fights... I am so glad I went to a grammar school). She also is an awesome writer, I read some of her short stories, they are amazing! All three are really bright kids.

My puppy

This post will be all about my wonderful Aupair child Marie, who I call puppy, duckie or schnacki most of the time :D.
I realized that the two walks to and from school with her are actually the best part of my day. It's just 20 min time for us (she is always in a rush, on the way to gym or ballet, at home) to talk, joke, play game and so on. We have a lot of games!
1) The mini, yellow car and beetle game - Whenever you see one of them, you have to tag the other person. We take this quite seriously!
2) Ein Hut, ein Stock, ein Regenschirm - I taught her this German game. She loves it and is very good at "hoch das Bein!" (being a gymnast)
3) The "throwing" game - very silly, I used to play it with my brother. She walks straight forward in front of me and I throw her from one side to the other. Hilarious, we always laugh and look very stupid to the people around us.

I am so amazed by her! She is very clever and always in a good mood! She is smiley, performs cute little dances when she is happy about something and very energetic. I have seen her moody only twice, that's only when she is really exhausted and tired or when she is ill.

Today, on our way home, we saw a glorious sunset while walking through the park. I said to her "Oh look how lovely this looks!"
She said "Oh yes. To me it looks like behind these clouds, that's where heaven is." Left me speechless.

Oh, and our sundays are also very special!
First of all, we are both very keen on sausages for breakfast. Then, we often make pancakes together. Also, sunday is our "Disney day", that means we watch a Disney movie (and I have to say they are all great! Tarzan was wicked :D!).
Marie also uses every single free minute to play the piano. She can't read notes, so that means I have to teach her the tunes and she learns them all by heart (she is very quick). Her thirst to learn is incredible, she always says "Pleeeease, pleeeease, can you teach me some more!)

On sunday, we plan to go shopping together (glove-shopping actually, as she wants gloves). I hope Jackie will let us. Would be lovely to look around shops and then go to Starbucks or so :D.

The world of Gymnastics

...isn't mine! Yesterday, I came along to watch Marie at her competition. Highly stressful! Girls in tears everywhere when they failed. It was a twin piece competition, so Marie was competing together with a partner. She was doing bars and beam, while Saskia did floor and volt (!?). I was so scared! Sadly, it didn't go well. Marie did perfectly during warm-up, but then fell off the bars twice (from a handstand), and also off the beam at her fliks backwards (a beam is very thin to land on, isn't it!).
Thank God she wasn't too devastated, but I really felt for her. Anyway, I was completely exhausted afterwards :D.

"Shadowlands" at Wyndham's Theatre

Today, I finally got round to seeing Shadowlands, the matinee, after dance. I had seen the movie and liked it (after all, it's set in Oxford and Hopkins and Winger were the cast, so what could possibly go wrong ;)). This production starred Charles Dance and Janie Dee, who I had heard on Woman's Hour. It was FANTASTIC!!! Not only is the play really good, deeply moving as well as clever and very witty, but the actors, also the supporting roles like Warnie, simply blew me away!! And Charles Dance is outstanding! It never gets cheesy, but the truth of the emotions and the tragic really touches you.
The play by William Nicholson is the true love story of C.S: Lewis (Narnia books), who was a lecturer at Magdalen College Oxford.

"The pain, now, is part of the happiness, then. That's the deal."

Bonfire night

I forgot to write about Monday - bonfire night! We had fireworks in our garden - it was pure magic. Marie was dancing around happily singing "We're having fireworks, we're having fireworks!", then sitting on my lap when Jackie lit the rockets whispering "I am happy" to me and we all screamed and cheered when they exploded in the sky. We also had lots of sparklers which we waved through the air like wands. The kids' excitement really got hold of me. I am glad to get a share of their happiness.

I love VIDAL SASSOON!

Fate was generous again, since I was really worried about how I'd possibly manage to get to the academy (see below) on time (9.30), since I had to drop of Marie at school first. But she stayed at home today with a cold! Lucky me and Barry looked after her because he also worked from home today.
So I got to Bond street (right in central london) on time after a horrible tube ride (full is not a sufficient description...).

The school looks really nice and posh and everybody was very nice, they led me to the "classroom", which basically looked like a salon. We were about 12 models. After some time, the students came, all Italien (I had hoped for Japanese because they are perfectionists...) and translaters. The teacher, a very nice guy, asked me what I would like to do and complimented me on my hair. He uttered his ideas and I gave my consent. He was supervising 6 student, always going round explaining the next step to the students, then coming back after a while to check and do some corrections. My student was nice, quite young, but couldn't speak English at all! But she was trying really hard and the teacher also took great care so I felt comfortable.
Most of the others got quite drastic cuts, I mean asymetrical layers and so on and bright colours (pink, purple). But if someone didn't want big changes, he was relocated to the other school which does more classic cuts. So in the end everybody got what they wanted, I think. At least I did :D.

The whole procedure took till 1 o'clock (including a blow-dry). I am really pleased with the result and will come back. Apparently it will be cheaper the next time, so this time I paid 11 pounds. But it was okay since they used high-quality products on my hair and this cut in a Vidal Sassoon salon would cost about 100 pounds.
I can only recommend this.

The perfect saturday evening!

I love my job!
I had such a nice time today! First of all, I lay in front of the telly a bit with Marie, after being to contemporary dance and to Primark (on a saturday - the longest queues ever!). Then, we played our four hand pieces on the piano, which is always great fun. Then we built the do it yourself gingerbread house (I brought a set from Germany), a big mess with icing, but it's lovely to see Marie enjoying herself (squieking "this is so pretty, this is so pretty!). Jackie took lots of pictures...
Meanwhile, Alex was making her own profiteroles with chocolate sauce, which we had with candles lit around the little house.
They were delumptious! I had a least 6...

I love it here. I really treasure these moments.

Landslide (currently on repeat)

I took my love, I took it down
Climbed a mountain and I turned around
I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills
till the landslide brought me down

Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love
Can the child within my heart rise above
Can I sail thru the changing ocean tides
Can I handle the seasons of my life

Well, I've been afraid of changing
cause I've built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Children get older
I'm getting older too

Oh, take my love, take it down
Climb a mountain and turn around
If you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well the landslide will bring it down

If you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well maybe the landslide will bring it down

(I love this song and the lyrics. So truthful.
Listen to Stacey Kent's gorgeous live version here (song starts at 6:08):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/ram/2007_44_mon_01.ram)

Nothing special...

People ask me what I do during the day, and actually - nothing special! Thinking about it, I really have to start making the most of my time here. November has started and time is rushing by, I already feel like Christmas was next week.
Most of the time, I just spend my free time at home, where I should be reading Psychology (which I'm not) and being on the Internet (which I am).
Although, today, I am going on a day trip (haha!) to one of my favourite places in the neighbourhood - Brent cross shopping centre (see pic), mainly to complain about my Ipod which isn't working and to enjoy a Starbucks latte (addiction!). And to go (window) shopping....
I know this was a boring post - sorry! I'll try to be more original next time ;).