Wednesday music

Today is a rainy day, so here are some rain-related songs ;-)

Sunny afternoon

I really enjoyed this sunny afternoon off. First I went to the mall for the not so enjoyable reason that I had to bring my camera for repair as I smashed it on a walk. Then I went into the bookshop, forget about all my don't-buy-so-many-books plans and bought The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Strange Journey of Mr Daldry. The second just because Brighton was mentioned in the summary. I than had a nice half an hour at Starbucks, starting to read. On my way home I left the bus a bit earlier and walk home over the fields and promptly ended up laying in the grass, munching blueberries and listening to my favorite laying-in-the-grass-eating-something-nice-and-doing-nothing song; Hoppipolla. I'm in love with the song ever since my sister and I listened to it while we hung out on Fulking Hill, eating pistachias and talking about Lord of the Rings - just an hour or so before I fell on the way downhill and smashed my camera by the way.

 

And there is the soundtrack for the whole thing ;-)

Random facts about Sophie

I was sick last weekend and though I would maybe have felt better when up and about I decided to stay in bed almost all day. Problem was that I couldn't shake this lazynes off on Monday and consequently didn't managed to do anything all week...

I'm quite proud about how the weekend is going so far. I cleaned my whole flat yesterday - not even postponed hovering today, which I normally do - and now it is only after nine and I'm already up, dressed and having breaky with freshly washed hair and polished nails.... 
These last weeks I always stayed in bed till almost noon when I had no plans for Saturday morning.

My Dad helped me hang up the new catnet last weekend, so I can finally let my catties out without fearing that "Bamse" might escape. We already used it quite much, I let him stay out while I went for a walk and also had the door open all night. it was a bit annoying these last weeks to always fear that he might find another place to slip out.

In and around Zurich next Monday - or sometimes only the afternoon - is a public holiday due to "Knabenschiessen", a traditional shooting match. Hence the name "Boy's shooting" girls are nowdays also allowed to participate. I'm happy about half a day off work ;-)

My new neigbourhood still astonishes me every now and then! When I put my newspapers out for collection I didn't found a pile of newspapers at first... Till I noticed that they were neatly and nicely piled up between two bins. In "my" old house everybody just piled them up carelessly and when the whole pile fell to pieces it was somebody elses problem...

I do miss England! Very much at the moment! My sister is no help, as she is in the same state and keeps sending me texts like: "I want a Pret-breakfast" or "I wish I could go down to the beach, sit in a deckchair and watch seagulls"

Weather report says that today is the last real summers day of this year, so I will enjoy the afternoon on the balcony. But now I must be going to get all the things done I want to do today.

And as there was no music on Wednesday, here is my this weeks favourite.

Wednesday music

What about a new category on this blog? Music? I love music! Who doesn't? 

So I thought I'll share some random musical facts about Sophie ;-) and a song or two.

My favorite music of all times is Country, mostly Johnny Cash, June Carter and the Carter Family, but also other artists.

I listen to Gold 945 and Juice 107.2. Every now and then it is also BBC Scottland - cause of their lovely accents - or German radio station SWR3.

The last song I bought was "I can't decide" by the Scissor Sisters.

My best friend and I do have "our song" which is "Griechischer Wein" by German singer Udo Jürgens. We heard the piano version of it in a restaurant and it took us ages to figure out which song it was. Ever since we call it "our song"

I associate books with the music I listened to when I read it. "Saving Ceecee Honeycutt" belongs to the Puppini Sisters, "City of New Orleans" belongs to my favorite book of all times and whenever I hear "Call me manãna" by Scooter I have to think of Valencia and Jacqueline Auriol cause I read about these topics when I heard this song.

My first CD was from Kelly family... I'm ashamed... The second was Spice Girls.

I love the soundtrack of "Amelie" and "Mrs Dalloway"

A piece from the "Mrs Dalloway" soundtrack is my all time earworm, together with Manamana.

Can't get them out of my mind at the moment.

Always great! I do love Travis.

Sophies week

*film* Mrs Dalloway

*book* My Policeman (Bethan Roberts)

*song* A lot Johnny Cash stuff.

*craft* Nothing....

*food* Mash. M&Ms. Sandwiches. Chips. Lemon Cake. Pasta with my favourite sauce.

*drink* Beer. My favorite tea.

*done* Been very tired and unmotivated. Worked on our town fair. Been annoyed by some people there. Surfed a lot. Did some shopping.

*met* My parents. Some friends.

*bought* Flowers. Ordered a dress.
*thought* That some people can go on my nerves so hard!

Things I miss from the UK

I guess all of you know that. On holiday or while living abroad you discover nice food and when you're back home you miss it. I have this problem with quite some things from the UK. For example I miss Pret-à-manger. Really miss it, though I guess I found a way to substitute some of their sandwiches. I miss cookies, the chocolate chips one from Sainsburys, the Lemon-Merengue from M&S and many others. I would be so happy to walk into a shop and get some Cornish Pastry or a cheese swirl thingie - don't know how they're called, these pastry-thingies with cheese.
And I miss quite some baking or cooking ingredients like golden syrup or custard powder.
So I tend to stock up on some of these things when in the UK and always travel with a decent stock of tea too. But luckily there is Britshop.ch, which delivers some UK food thingies. Of course I can't get everything I want from there - no Pret... - but it is a good supplier for the small bits and bobs on misses.

So last Sunday I ordered some things and got them on Thursday which I think is quite quick.  I also stocked up on my favourite tea, though in the days between I ordered and got it delivered I found both of them in our local supermarket!

The two teas and the Eclairs are things I really miss here. Then I thought some real British vinegar would be nice as I'm really into chips with vinegar at the moment. Golden syrup for baking and
Ploughman pickles for cheese-and-pickles sandwiches. The poridge will hopefully help me cope with our cold office during fall as I could just stuff them into the microwave and have something war for breakfast.

Random facts about Sophie

I love baking! My current favourite is Lilly Cake, a plain, a bit old fashioned chocolate cake which is a family favourite.

At home, my mum is the cook while dad does the baking. He makes the best Lemon drizzle cake. 

I read a book that is set in Brighton this week. It was so nice to read and know where all the places are.

I love local colour in books anyway. So I try to put as much as possible into my own writing.

In most of my short stories somebody dies. So my mum said I should try to publish them under the name: "Of death cases and other cases of (bad) luck."

My granny once told us that she prays that  people she doesn't like will go to heaven soon. When we told her off her answer was: "I'm praying for them to go to heaven. What's bad about that? I could also pray for them to go to hell!"

Am almost off to our town fair today. It is no big business, but there are so many people i know. Will meet my mum an sister, first deliver some Lilly Cake - what else? - to the stall of Mums knitting group, then walk over the fair, chat and maybe have lunch somewhere. Tonight I'll have to work two shifts at a stall which is always very good fun.