new year beginnings with family and friends

Tags

2016, Berlin, Germany, Hamburg, New Year, photography, photos, snow, travel, writing

The new year started with a bang for me – actually several and very loud ones at that. My friends took me to the Grosser Bunkerberg (Large Air Raid Shelter Hill), one of the highest points in Berlin, to look at the fireworks. Sadly it was too foggy to see much but the sound was incredible, loud banging and explosions going off for a good hour or so, the occasional rocket that made it high enough to break through the fog and smoke to illuminate the sky in an array of colours. We stood and listened and sipped bubbly. As the cold crept up our legs we decided it was time to make our way home and clambered down the hill in the fog to be welcomed to the streets of Berlin with loud bangs all around us.

Now, after a few wonderful days in Berlin filled with flea markets, a fantastic play in the Deutsches Theater and lots of time spent with good friends over cups of tea and glasses of wine, I am in Hamburg. I am watching the snow fall outside and enjoying a few hours of quite before my cute niece and nephew demand playtime again. And while I watch the snow paint the world white I think I may indulge in a hot bath, the perfect contrast to the cold day outdoors.

However first I will finish my cup of tea and write  a few lines – after all this lovely break away from normality will be over soon and I need to get quite a lot done before my course starts up again. But for now I am truly enjoying my start into 2016 and only hope that the year will keep all that it seems to be promising.

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Tags

2016, happy new year, New Year, quote, Rainer Maria Rilke

I would just like to wish you all a very happy New Year and hope that 2016 brings all that you wish for. And since I have several wishes of my own – some are actually more like demands – I hope that 2016 will grant me mine too.

And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been.

Poet Rainer Maria Rilke

taking down Christmas

Tags

2016, Berlin, christmas, christmas tree, New Year, travel

Today I spent some time taking down Christmas. It all started with the tree that  I needed to un-decorate, as it was losing all its needles. And since I am leaving for Germany first thing tomorrow morning, there was no other time than today.

However, It did take longer than I thought, those branches were putting up a good fight, but I won in the end and I even disposed of the sorry looking heap. As I then began putting away all of my shoe Christmas tree decorations I decided to put away most of the other decorations as well … now all that is left to greet me when I return are my stars in the window. But since stars are not just for Christmas I thought I could give them some more time to shine.

So, between running all of those last minute messages (for all you Americans out there that is what the Irish call errands) and frantically packing I am still up and won’t be in bed for another while – even though I do have to get up at 4am to catch my flight.

And while taking down Christmas is always a little bit sad getting ready for a New Year’s adventure is the best reason to do it for! I just hope I get a chance to nap because I don’t want to greet 2016 with rings under my eyes.

Back to normality

Tags

New Year, photography, photos, quotes, Rainer Maria Rilke, thoughts, Zingst

And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been.

Poet Rainer Maria Rilke

After nearly three weeks (unpaid) of being away from my desk today things go back (somewhat) to normality. My hectic schedule is taking hold again and my thoughts wander back a few days – weeks.

Christmas was lovely, relaxing and filled with fun and friends. An adorable little tree graced my living room and spending time with people I like and love was a daily occurrence, interspersed with time spend reading in front of the fire or watching way too much TV.

New Years was wonderful. I flew over to Germany on the 28th of December and spent time with my family up north. Daring to hire a car and embark in driving on the ‘other’ side of the road I sped down the motor way and negotiated curvy roads to Zingst (former east Germany), a  beautiful seaside town on the Baltic Sea, about an hour up and across from Rostock. Spending the last evening of 2014 with friends was a perfect ending to the year and watching fireworks paint colourful stars into the midnight sky across the sea a stunning way ti greet 2015.

And while I have been back in Dublin for a week today I can’t help but feel I haven’t quite stepped into the new year just yet. Maybe my reluctance to flip the page on my calendar is the result of unfinished projects and goals still a little out of reach.

So with that in mind I will start this week with the resolve to not only organise my desk and classes, but to  take the time to try and organise my thoughts too.

Here are some photos of my new years walk:

 

new year, new cheer

Tags

2013, life, Mahatma Gandi, mental-health, miscellaneous, New Year, quotes, Sopie Schoo;, Tennyson

After bitterly neglecting my blog for so long I have decide to end the year the way I want to start the next: write more!

December has been a stressful, busy month, not only was it filled with parcel packing, card writing, baking and tree decorating but teaching took it’s toll and piles of correcting, extra work hours and difficult chats filled my time, hands and my mind.

But with the new year just one wakeful night away I am putting it all behind me and coming up with a plan for 2013.

My biggest challenge will be “the follow through”:I am really good with coming up with ideas but I am very bad at actually making them happen. It’s not all procrastination sometimes its a lack of priorities, not knowing where or how to start and sometimes it is really bad time planning on my part. So for 2013 I will attempt to be more organised, structured and realistic about my time and simply follow through with my big thoughts.

The second challenge is “more steam”: My next big issue is my lack of steam, I more often than not start something, get all excited about it work really hard and then I get distracted, lose interest, run out of time or life just gets in the way. So to counteract this I need to be more consistent, try and be more like a long distant runner and not like a sprinter. And oddly enough it also means “get off my butt”. Have you ever heard the expression: “If you want something done, ask a busy person. The more things you do, the more you can do” The wonderful Lucille Ball may have been known for her flaming red hair and wonderful comedic timing but this quote shows how smart she was too (after all she was the first woman to be head of a TV production company). So my attempt to get more steam will be paired with doing more stuff and snapping my lazy bone in two.

My third and final challenge is to “think Positive”: Now I do not believe in Karma nor do I think by being a good person, good will automatically happen to you (just look at Sophie Scholl, Mahatma Gandi, Dian Fossy). However maybe by thinking more positively about possible outcomes of endeavours I would be more motivated and less likely to give up when it all seems to go wrong. I am not a negative person, but my logic and realistic view on things may at times stand in my way and keep me from seeing the positive possibilities especially when they are only small. So my challenge to myself is to try, even when I think I’ll fail, and let the hope in my heart win.

So goodbye 2013 and welcome 2013, I am excited to see what you’ll bring and I hope you won’t disappoint me.  So with the words of the wonderful Tennyson

Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering ‘it will be happier’…