31.05.2013

The One with the Crazy Cat Lady.

E.


Yesterday Vicky and I made a pact. She could include Ralph Fiennes in her post, only if I could write something about my love for my cat. So I am very happy to tell you that after enduring her Ralph Fiennes related post, you are going to be rewarded with this treat. My darling baby cat »Schneewittchen« (= the german word for snow white). 

Now, I write »baby cat« but actually she is 18 years old! She has been a part of my life since I was only four years old. And it is extremely horrible to be away from her for a long period of time. So naturally I am missing her like crazy now (because I have been staying in Vienna for over two weeks now). 

A lot of my friends, Vicky included, are scared of her. Even my sister doesn't like her that much (she's more of a dog person, really). This is because Schneewittchen used to be a little mean and scratch people sometimes. I am sure Vicky could talk for hours about how horrible Schneewittchen is :) 

I, however, love her. I know I am going to be a crazy cat lady when I am older (ok, who am I kidding? I already am ... I could tell you stories that would make you question my sanity but I have decided against that because Vicky would hit me if I wrote about it). It's going to be great though. Being surrounded by 10 cats (at least!) - with Schneewittchen as their leader, naturally, drinking tea, baking pies/cakes/cookies and watching Golden Girls all day. Yay! :)


And because I don't want my dog to feel left out, here's a picture of Kelly :)


30.05.2013

golden thursday.

V. 


Hey guys! Two things in the mail today: 

1) an amazon-package (I won't share its content on this blog since there are presents for other people in here who are regular visitors on esthoria) - and 
2) a letter from Starbucks!!

I was so excited, I immediately had to rip the letter open with moist eyes and drooling out of my mouth (since I rememberd that it must be my Starbucks Gold Card, that I've been lusting for over a decade now..)


and who would have guessed ...


... it was my Starbucks Gold Card!! :) ♥ ❤
 
When I got it, I immediately turned on Skype and told Esther about it (yes, I have no life) and revealed to her my brilliant plan to post it on esthoria and share this unimportant nothingness (in her eyes) on our blog. Well, when I told her, she went like this: 


But I don't care. I love Starbucks and so does she, actually. She just doesn't get the brilliance of this card! With this in my hand I can get syrup and a whole cup of coffee on my birthday for FREE! Free!! I know, that's not such a big deal .. but .. look how pretty it is! :)
Well, back to business. While I was again working on my presentation for next week, I had to look up something in my university maps and started sorting through my cabinets. And suddenly, THIS wonderful thing fell into my hands as if it was destiny .. 

My old folder of newspaper articles about Jennifer Aniston and other celebrities I adored, and most importantly.. stalked. Over many years. So if you're interested or not, you're gonna have to look at the next 6 pages of this folder in order to finish this blog entry. :)

This actually is one of my favourite pics on this folder,- even after all these years I think it's hilarious! It's a promo picture for the 10th season of friends made by NBC, and it points out how "so not OK" Ross is with the fact that Rachel and Joey have become a couple. "How do you spell denial?" R-O-S-S. Haha! 

So, as you can see, I combined my love for Ralph Fiennes and Friends on the same folder! Since Esther is the leader of the international "I hate Ralph Fiennes"- fanclub, she probably won't be thrilled that I just defiled our pristine blog with his picture.. :)

These are some of my newspaper articles about Jennifer Aniston that I collected. I can still remember taking this map to my hairdresser everytime I went to get a new hairdo and -colour. And of course, it never exactly looked like the hair in the picture, but it was worth the try. :)

As you can see, I was cleary obsessed with Jennifer (and some people say I still am .. like my mother)- but that's not true. Now I just like her. Not her movies though, just her. As a person. Really. Believe me. I'm not obsessed anymore. Really. Trust me. 

Well, here's another nice picture of her in "In Touch Magazine" -- (haha, I feel like I'm starting to sound like that crazy cat lady from the Simpsons who always talks about her cats and nothing else: crazy cat lady aka me) -- 

Something like that actually really makes me crazy, 'cause it's so ridiculous. I mean? Seriously? Does she look pregnant to you in that green top she's wearing? What happened to those already low and gossip seeking magazines that simply can't seem to stop finding and inventing and (probably photoshopping) new things to trash! Are they actually so desperate -(well, let's not even go there, that could go on for a while) - I'm just saying.. If it were up to In Touch I'd be pregnant every day, whoa- look at that, I ate 2 pieces of cake today, I guess I'm having triplets ..!

Congratulations! You've made it! :) This is the end of my boring "discovery-of-old-teenage-obsessions" tour by Vicky,- I'm glad you were able to tolerate my silly blathering for as long as you did. To still comment on this last pic up here,- this is on the back of my folder, and I guess, no further comment necessary. The overly aggressive "X" probably explains itself. :)

So now, after watching the beautiful sunset from the bathroom window, I will return to my studies. And after I'm finished, I'll allow myself -- 

THIS! :)

29.05.2013

body worlds.

E.

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Museum of Natural History of Vienna with Thomas! I really love the exhibition called »Body Worlds and the Cycle of Life« by Gunther von Hagens (who invented the process of plastination for the preparation and preservation of human and animal bodies) - here's the link to the homepage in case you're interested: x


















































However, we didn't just have a look at this one exhibition but strolled around the entire museum for a while as well.


























































Afterwards we went to Starbucks for some coffe! :)


28.05.2013

in a new york minute.

V. 

If I'd get a penny for everytime I think about travelling to the USA again, I'd probably be richer than Oprah by now. Seriously. Not one day goes by where I don't think about throwing all my money down the drain for just one flight to North America and spending a week in one of its exciting and extravagant cities. As you all know, Esther and I spent our last summer holiday in San Francisco and we just love, loooove, loooooooved it! It's such an adorable city, except of the overly athletic and health-conscious people there who made us feel bad by working out in front of us at the beach while we were sitting on the steps of the ghirardelli chocolate factory, trying to enjoy our delicious calorie-bombs. I mean, that's just cruel, isn't it.. 
While Esther has already been to SFC twice, I've only been there once. However I've also been to New York City two times, once in 2008 with my friend Lisa and once in 2011. And it was fantastic! :) Both times of course! 
So,... while I was trying to prepare for my art history presentation today that I must hold next week (and yes Esther, we really do whine waaaay too much about university) I couldn't help but distract myself with some awesome memories from my NYC-experiences .. and what would be even better than that? Exactly. To share it with you guys! :) So enjoy and have fun with the pictures!

1) The one thing an art lover like myself must always do when they're in another city is to explore the museums there. Besides the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim, MoMA, definitely is one of my favourite museums in the world, since it houses so many fantastic contemporary art pieces. Even though surrealism is my personal fave art movement, I still enjoy Matisse's painting of the "Bather" from 1909.



2) Of course, Ground Zero is one of the many fascinating yet most sorrowful places here in NYC that you simply must see. I took this photo .. like.. two and a half years ago, so the now called Freedom Towers, that you can see on the pic, will have probably been finished by the end of this year. 


3) And what would NYC be without its hundred thousands of shopping facilities?? Even though I am the common H&M, Forever 21, Topshop and Victoria's Secret girl, I simply cannot miss out on the unique bargains you can get at huge shopping malls such as Macy's and Bloomingdales. However, my personal shopping insider is Century 21, which is an amazing discount store nearby Ground Zero, where you can get designer stuff up to 50-60% off! >> http://www.c21stores.com <<

Don't you worry- of course I cannot afford to buy anything at LV, or even allow myself 
to enter the store with my shabby 10$ H&M shoes on and my fake marc jacobs bag around my shoulder (that I just got around the corner there..)

 4) Times Square of course, is another must-see-attraction that you can't miss out on. Honestly, I didn't like it as much as I thought since I've always believed that everything there would be really huge like in the movies, but in fact it isn't. At least that's what I think. :) But you can still enjoy the restaurants and bars there, and of course the many many shops that you can't help to stumble upon.
One thing I also did when I was at Times Square was to stand in front of the famous Times Square Live Cam right next to TGI Friday's! Before I left, I made an appointment with my parents at what time I'd be standing in front of the cam waving at them - so when it was 11:00 am midmorning here in NYC, my parents watched the Earth Cam on their laptop at 5:00 pm in the evening. That was so much fun! :) Sadly, I think they've turned this specific camera off, which is a shame! Sometimes, when I'm really bored or simply don't want to learn for tests ect., I turn on the Times Square Cam just for fun and watch the people walking by. Kind of creepy, isn't it? :)
>> http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/timessquare <<

5) P.S.: Never forget to take a little break from all the shopping and sightseeing in the city, otherwise you'll be all run down by the end of the day. So go take a little nap in your hotel room in the late afternoon to freshly return to the exciting facilities that New York City has to offer. :)


6) And of course, what would New York City be without its fantastic green oasis .. Central Park ..
To quote the famous and controversial artist Christo: "The most unusual and surrealistic place in New York City is Central Park." I totally aggree with that. It really is kind of surreal to constantly be surrounded by a bunch of traffic, car sirens, people that are yelling at you our in front of you and many other noises that you can simply escape by entering this unique and isolated sphere called Central Park. I know, it seems almost impossible to believe that just meters away from the busy streets of Manhattan it suddenly can be totally peaceful and quiet.. but it can. Trust me. :)



7) Of course, one must also not forget to take a short trip to Liberty Island! I know that that's a very touristy thing to do, but you'll surely enjoy the view of the Manhattan skyline once you're there.

8) I guess, I won't have to mention the many, many foodstores, markets and chocolate shops that you can find almost everywhere around the city. However, one of my personal favourites definitely is MAGNOLIA BAKERY. :) Mmmhmmm!!


9) Last but not least, besides all the other must-see-attractions -that I won't mention in extra chaptures, cause they're so obvious- like Madison Square Garden, Hard Rock Café, the Hop-on Hop-off Nighttime Downtown Bus Tour, Broadway (if you can afford it- I couldn't) :), Boat Tour on the Hudson and so on .. you simply must, I repeat must buy a ticket for the TOP OF THE ROCK Observation Deck which gives you an impressive overview of the city. Especially at night it's really fascinating. I would advise you to always visit the Rockefeller Center if you'd like to enjoy the full view of NYC, since the view from the Empire State Building isn't that pretty, it costs much more and it takes longer to get a ticket.
So .. I really hope you enjoyed my little "insider - or not so much insider - tipps for NYC tourists by vicky" and they may have even inspired you to finally get the grip to buy yourself a flight ticket and visit this exciting and charismatic city called NEW YORK. :)