Happy Birthday hamsterwoman ! Picture stolen from sgamadison but I thought it fit you ;) Have a nice birthday!

Happy Canada Day!

Here are some things I bought in Canada on my trips to Vancouver in 2008 and 2010:

Wooden moose coasters, a totem pole, a bottle of maple sirup, two moose, one in mountie uniform, the other in yellow rain gear and a bag for the passport. I also got a suitcase tag with the skyline of Vancouver but it broke and I am not sure where I put it at the moment. Wish I could get a new one.

To the Vancouver basecap belongs also a hoodie. And finally the beaver on skis ;) I had seen that the first time and my brother wanted it, so I hunted for it the second time.

In 2008 I also got a rain jacket at the Capilano Bridge Park, but it has a German label so it doesn't really count ;) I still wear it to this day.

I really should put up some Vancouver pictures!

WATCH THIS! A wonderful film about breakdancers dancing in the most beautiful places in Saxony. They had never climbed a rock before but went up and danced up there. Then they went down a mine and danced there.
There's some famous places in Dresden of course and many, many others. Watch! It's nice to be reminded once in a while in what a beautiful place I live.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we7dsMHIx4Q

A hard day's work (especially at 30+ °C / 86+ F)
I'm quite proud of doing it all by myself, especially since the instructions showed two guys. Heh!

2,5 hours plus I had to unscrew and rescrew a couple of times as it was the wrong way around. Plus they didn't always give any holes or signs of where the screw was supposed to go, it was rather "make up your own".

This is standing in the kitchen, behind the door, as the kitchen table is where I do all my action figure pictures and also crafty work, so I figured it would be nice to have all the assessories nearby and not have to walk through the whole flat all the time just to get something. It should also help keeping the kitchen table clear for the purpose it's meant to be, as often I was too lazy to tidy it all away.

As I learnt today, the castle in the new Disney movie "Cinderella" was inspired by our Zwinger here in Dresden! They did not really film there, but photographed all details and then created the castle in the computer, also added another floor to make it look more impressive. Still, you can see what inspired them. Here is a comparison picture:



Another picture in the daylight:



In recent years, a lot of Hollywood movies have been filmed in Saxony. We are rich on beautiful landscapes and historical cities. A few recent movies were "The Grand Budapest Hotel", "The Reader" and also "Cloud Atlas".

Also, back in 2002 when we had that bad flood, someone filmed it and it was used to generate the flood in "The Day after tomorrow".

And now we even have the Cinderella castle and I can walk through it every day if I like. Come and visit me and I am showing it to you!

Even the Doctor has been there:

2013 ended with me being in London for the theatre "Richard II" with David Tennant and 2014 began with me being in Glasgow in January for Dick McWhittington
Nice side effect: Being able to watch the third season of "Sherlock" live in British TV.

February had me sleeping in Birmingham for the Elementary convention with Benedict Cumberbatch (and others)

March had me sleeping in London for the John Barrowman Recording studio visit

April saw me in Birmingham again (I really love this city!) for Miracle Day convention (Torchwood)

In May I was in Düsseldorf for Fedcon with Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping and Michael Shanks (and LOTS others)

In July I was at vacation in Bad Windsheim.

The rest of the year was rather uneventful with me just sleeping at home. But the new year again will start with a trip to Glasgow - the last one for now, it seems.

Where have you slept this year?

Places I slept in 2013

Places I slept in 2012

Places I slept in 2011
.

20 years ago I took a trip through California which only lasted 7 days. Not much time to see the country but (it was a guided tour) we saw Los Angeles, Las Vegas, the Yosemite Nationalpark, San Francisco and then down through Monterey, Carmel, Santa Barbara back to L.A.

All of this time I had this photoalbum and the photos lying around but only now I finally sat down and put it all together. Since the pictures are original real pictures from that time (and kinda bad) I also added in many nice magazine pictures I have collected over the years. So you can compare my photos and professional ones.

Please click the link to see it and listen to my comments in very bad English! I know it is "of" and not "from" but I keep forgetting, because in German those two words are the same. And I am sure some pronouncations are way off, that's what you get when you learn English only by reading fanfictions and make up own pronouncations in your mind.

If anyone wants to correct me on something, also on some facts that might be wrong (I didn't write down any notes before I did this video) feel free so in the comments! That goes especially for analineblue and anyone else living in the area. And now enjoy! In case the embedded link is not working, here is the URL: http://youtu.be/7G42TEhfbHo

I'm never sure what the right official term for "Schrankwand" is. Wall unit? Wall of cupboards? Do people outside of Eastern Germany even have those? LOL I mean, from visiting furniture shops/stores once in a while I know that nowadays you only have a couple of shelves and I always wonder where people store their stuff. Then again, not everyone HAS as much stuff as I do ;)

Anyway, the pictures show my old "Schrankwand" ("Schrank" means cupboard and "Wand" means wall, we always put two words together to create a new one). It was bought in 1982 when my family moved to a bigger flat/apartment and I finally got a room for myself at the age of 9. When I moved out of home 14 years ago I took it with me and it stood in the sleeping room since then. But in two weeks some people will come and take it away, and it will go into the G.D.R. museum! We have a museum where you can look at all the old things from the former Eastern German life, I love that they are collected there instead of just thrown away, I mean, it is my childhood after all and lots of memories. And I can visit my Schrankwand there if I want to see it again ;)

And a week after that a new one will be delivered which is even higher (to use that empty air till the ceiling) and so I will have much more well needed space for all my action figures and all the miniature things I buy for them.

At the left side was a wardrobe/clothes cupboard and underneat some drawers for socks and underwear etc.:



And at the right side was an inbuilt desk with a lamp and this is where I did my school homeworks:



And the whole thing together:

I just posted this entry in the community linguaphiles but I thought I put it into here as well, as I know you all love a good discussion once in a while and maybe we all learn something new by it! If you want to check the replies in the comm, the entry is here: http://linguaphiles.livejournal.com/5988669.html

Hi, I'm from Germany and I am wondering about something that I repeatedly encounter recently in the British TV series "Call the midwife" (which is set in London in the 1950s if that is important).

I am pharaphrasing here, but there are often sentences spoken by the nurses and sisters which go like "I'll call doctor and he'll check whether baby is okay."

For me this sounds odd, as I would say "I call THE doctor so he can make sure YOUR baby is okay." Why are there no noun markers with those two specific words? Are there other words like that? You would not do this with "girl" or "boy" would you?

And on a side note, I also find it a bit odd that in the English language men for example apparently refer to their wife as just "the wife" and not proudly "my wife" as it is in Germany. It seems a bit impersonal. Do they also say "the boy" instead of "my boy"?

I am always trying to improve my English so I am musing about these things and why there is this difference. Many thanks for your help!

... were found in Dresden. On Thursday I was intending to go to the cinema, to see the National Theatre production "Frankenstein" with Benedict "Sherlock" Cumberbatch as creature. I just had boarded the TRAM when my friends called me, telling me that there has been found a bomb and that the TRAM would not go the route I expected it to. I was a little lost as I was in a part of the city I don't know my way around, but in the end managed to be in time and even the first to our meeting.

When we went home later in the evening, the bomb already had been defused. But on Friday, only 24 hours later, the same digger operator (is that the right word? The guy that moves the ground around and makes a hole before they can start building a building) found another one just a few meters away. Again several hundreds of people had to be evacuated and that all with that bad hurricane we had here the past days. It was the third bomb this year, and by now they all know the drill.

These bombs are still leftovers from the American and British bombing back on 13th February in 1945. I don't blame you my American and British friends, we all were born years later and have nothing to do with the hate that was going on back then. But on days like this, things that are decades in the past, suddenly seem very recent.

On a sidenote, just a few weeks ago in a wood nearby Dresden they hit the "jackpot" - eleven bombs had to be defused at once. They came from two planes which crashed together before they could send them off. They still are searching for the bombs of that other plane.

That poor guy who has to defuse them all the time. He is a hero. One of those eleven was his 300th. One day he might do a wrong move and pay with his life. Just imagine them lying around underground all the time while we walked and drove over it regularly. That is the most terrifying thought for me, that they still could do damage after all those years.