Fiaker in Vienna

As promised, I've added another picture of Vienna. On it you see the fiacre stand on Stephansplatz, which is a very popular tourist attraction. You can rent such an ancient coach and take a guided city tour. In 1900 there were over 1000 fiacres cruising through Vienna, now there are about 144. Sometimes I feel a little sorry for the horses. I'm sure, they'd more appreciate to gallop over green meadows. Another thing that is not too pleasant when passing by, is the smell of their stinky "apples". Then you better not breathe. So, just enjoy the picture - it's odorless!

St. Stephen's Cathedral - Vienna

For all those who are not so fortunate to live in Vienna, I've added this picture of St. Stephan's Cathedral, Vienna's number one sightseeing spot. Unfortunately the picture doesn't show, that it's been a quiet windy day and around St. Stephan's Cathedral (Stephansdom) it is always windy.
Just wanted to say, that I've got to substitute my colleague (only this week) and that's why I have to pass by this huge monument every day. By the way, I work as a part-time secretary in the Vienna branch office of the styrian/carinthian newspaper "Kleine Zeitung". I really enjoy working their. Nevertheless I won't report on internal matters, so I'm afraid there won't be too much to write upon this week. At least I can always add some pictures of my beloved hometown Vienna.

More information on Vienna's number one attraction:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Stephen

My pet Spocki

May I introduce you to my cute pet "Spocki". It is a boy and was born in 1993 so I really hope that he will make it to his 17th birthday in august. On this picture you can see him eating his favourite dish, which is raw chicken. I'm really glad that he never overeats and I guess that's one of the reasons for his relatively old age. The only thing I've done and am still doing over the years is, to add some water to his food, as cats normally die because they're not drinking enough. Result: kidney failure! To prevent Spocki from dying this way, I always mingle cat food such as Sheba, Whiskas a.s.o. with plenty of water. I think this is a good way to make sure, that he is drinking sufficiently.

Translating my website to English

That's me, performing in my own musical, called "Country Hasi Show". It's already been in 2006, but right now I'm about to translate my whole website to English, which is pretty time-consuming as I have to translate all those tiny little bylines. I wish I hadn't added so many pictures back then, but I'm always telling myself that it is once and for ever, so I guess I'll have to keep working on it. Next challenge will be to do the whole thing in French and Spanish. Well, though I absolutely wanna bring it to an end, I'm not really looking forward to it. I console myself with the modified song-title "Creating your own website is a dirty job, but somebody's got to it."

Relaxing with 4.4 pounds less

This is me, enjoying the sun with "coffee cool". Guess where? - But what I'd like to let you know is that I've already lost 4.4 lbs (finally found a converter, so 50 kg is 110 pounds) within only 10 days.This may not sound too much, but I think I'm on the right track. Just wanna make it to 101 lbs. That would be great!
What I found out concerning weight-loss is as simple as that: You can eat whatever you want, but not as much as you want. So forget about diet pills, slim drinks and all the other expensive stuff. It's more a psychological thing. It all starts in your head. If you don't believe in yourself, you simply won't make it. And talking about losing weight: Your body needs far less food than you're probably thinking. Success is always a matter of patience and endurance! So, good luck and never give up on your dreams!

Language Exchange with Oksana

I just met with Oksana, a friend of mine from the Ukraine. I'm very glad she came back to Vienna to study German. By the way, she speaks German a lot better than I speak Russian. It's a very complicated language. Anyway, I understood a little bit more than the last time (that was in December 2009) and we were talking for about two hours, while we strolled through the inner city of Vienna. After some time of walking we sat down on a park-bench on Heldenplatz, where we enjoyed the sun. To me it is always amazing with how little knowledge of a foreign language you are able to communicate with others. And we were talking about almost everything. Of course, we have an "emergency language", which is English, though we're constantly trying to avoid using it. So, I wish you blog-readers health, good luck and success, which means translated to Russian: Желаю вам здоровья, счастья и успехов!

Another day in the garden

This is Alexandra, my sister-in-law, and me. We've bought some wooden stakes to put them behind our thujas, just to make sure that the soil doesn't fall on our neighbors property. Well, we really worked like hell. Thank God it's been a windy day and so we didn't sweat too much. I wonder what it's gonna be like once the construction works for their house have started. They're planning to have it finished by the end of this summer. Though I do hope that it will turn out this way, I have a few doubts. However, after our busy garden work we all (including my parents) drank a good glass of wine. I'll keep you up to date concerning the construction-progresses. Now I've got to finish, as I'd like to watch "Germany's next Top Model".

Studying Spanish on Donaukanal

The best place to study are the green slopes of Donaukanal. The birds are singing, the water of the river gently babbles by and one can't help but fully relax. You can see me reading a spanish book (okay, it's for children), but I don't wanna be demoralized by some sophisticated lecture, that makes you look up every second word in the dictionary. To say something in Spanish: A mi me gusta mucho leer cuentos infantiles, porque casi siempre están llenos de humor y de actividades. Aúnque a veces no entiendo todas las palabras, creo que vale la pena. Me alegraría mucho recibir comentarios de Espana o Latino America o tener amigos por correspondencia.
Well, back to English. For those, who don't speak Spanish, I only can say: Mala suerte, which means bad luck. (big smile, just kidding)

Exercising on Donaukanal

Though I wasn't quiet in the mood for jogging, I have overcome myself and went outside to do a little workout. I'd like to lose at least 3 or 4 kilos, which means that my ideal weight would be around 45 kg. Now I weigh shocking 50!!! - I know what you're thinking right now, but you have to keep in mind, that I'm only 1,55 m tall, so I've got to do something before it's to late. Furthermore, I've seen the other day something real spooky: A frightful documentary about the Brookhaven Obesity Clinic, where people suffer from 200 and more kilos (or pounds?) overweight. I hardly could believe my eyes. To me it's simply incredible what a human body can look like, I mean, the overstreched skin, all this fat around the inner organs. I never knew that something like this really exists.
You can watch it on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPXITCU3HZM

Seeing this, should encourage everyone to lose weight.

Anyway, back to my own workout. It's been a lovely day with warm temperatures and it smelled like spring. After some minutes of slow running, I started to enjoy it and even played a bit around on a public training ground. On the picture you can see me hanging up side down a bar. I just wasn't fast enough to push the 10 sec "delayed-action-shutter-release" (there should be a better word for this) on my camera and so it looks a bit dangerous.

Dog-sitting

Today I've had the honor to take care of our familiy-dog, as my brother had to work and his wife couldn't get away from her rehearsals. By the way, her name is Alexandra Reinprecht and she's an opera singer. I'll tell you more about her in one of my future blogs. But what I wanted to say right now is, that Mimi (the name of the dog) is really cute. It is a girl and sometimes I have the impression, that she understands every word you're saying and knows exactly what you're thinking. I walked her around in the nearby park and then the both of us relaxed a bit on the small balcony of the appartement. When she felt, that I was about to leave, she went to the entrance and layed herself down, right in front of the door. Then she gave me an accusing look as if to say: "You're not going to leave without me!" Of course, I had to, though it almost broke my heart. "Poor, little Mimi", I thought, "it's really hard leading a dog's life."

St. Patrick's Day 2010 - Vienna

Just came back from a celebration of the irish St. Patrick's day, which took place in a big tent near the Rathausplatz, but I think there were a lot more parties going on in and around Vienna. Though the weather outside wasn't very nice, it didn't affect the friendly atmosphere in the interior of the pavilion. The catering came from Charlie P's (http://www.charlieps-irishpub.at/) and for the first time in my life, I tried an original irish stew, which was quiet okay. Anyway, I guess, if I had to live in Ireland, I'd soon become as fat as a beached whale. Calories in abundance!

I've been there with some friends of mine and we spent a fantastic afternoon chatting, laughing and listening to the fabulous "irish" folk-band, who call themselves "Shannon". Okay, they came from the Czech republic, but those five guys really played amazingly well and showed great virtuosity on their instruments. So, who cares where they come from. Unfortunately I've forgotten my video-camera at home and so I can only share this picture on the right with you. Next year I'll add a video-file or at least something green.

7 League Boot Bouncing / Stiefelspringen

Yesterday I've been on the "Schmelz", which is Viennas biggest training-center for a variety of sports and I've signed up for a class which is called "Stiefelspringen" or boot-jumping or boot-bouncing, whatever you wanna call it. However, it is really fun, though first of all you've got to find out how to walk with these alienlike things underneath your feet. It took me about two lessons until I finally found my balance. Now, after the fifth time, I'm already able to run and jump a little. I can tell you, it's really exhausting. But the good thing about is, that it's the perfect method to loose some weight and shape your body. What professionals can do with these "7-Mile-Boots" you'll see on youtube and the website of "Range of Motion":

http://www.range-of-motion.net/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8FXiMhz_-Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoWhoRHepa0

Updating my website

Right now I'm about to update my website, (www.sonni.tv) which is pretty time-consuming, as I'd like to create my homepage multilingual: german, english, french, spanish, russian. So it may take some time to finish it. Yet it is fun playing around with old photographs, video-files and music. Yesterday I've written my CV in french. Well, to say the truth, not only yesterday but also the day before yesterday and the day before the day before yesterday and so on. Unfortunately my french is not as good as it supposed to be and so I had to look a lot of vocabulary up in the internet.

I believe that nowadays it has become very important to speak at least two foreign languages and have a multilingual website. English is a must and to have a knowledge of french or spanish can't be bad. I'm still working on a progress in russian and maybe one day, I'll start with arabic and chinese, provided that I'll make it to the year 2100 (ha, ha). Well, as soon as I've revised all of my sites, I'll let the world know.

Garden Work

Today I've been working in my brother's future garden, where he's going to build his future house. Thank god, it's been a lovely day with mild temperatures. I've piled tons of woodblocks! Well, at least it felt like tons.

Anyway, I love gardening. Working underneath the open sky, smelling the scent of the green grass and enjoying the first sunbeams is like beeing on vacation. I guess within the next few months there'll be some more work waiting for all of us. Building a house - okay, let's say, having it built by the construction company won't be easy, as there are so many things that can and according to "Murphy's law" will go wrong. I'm yet quiet optimistic, but I'll let myself surprise and keep the world informed about the progresses that are being made.

Vienna Main Library

I've just been in the main library in Vienna, where you can get millions of books, cds and dvds. It's really amazing how long you can stay there without noticing that time goes by so quickly. I got me a russian grammar book and some easy readers in french and spanish. But I'm really looking forward to watch "Anchors aweigh" with Sinatra and Gene Kelly. I simply love the old films, so full of romance and music.

You know what, I'd love to see more unsychronized films on TV. It would be so easy to get in touch with a new language. Overall you'll hear the original voice of the actor. Here in Austria, and in Germany as well, everything is synchronized. I mean, it's a bit strange, because on one hand, when looking for a job, it is required that you speak at least two foreign languages and on the other hand the ORF (our national broadcast company) does not offer the most logical solution - broadcast the original film with subtitles!

Anyway, at least there's the library. If you're interested in prices, well for only 18 euros p.a. you can lend out whatever you want.

www.buechereien.wien.at

Language Exchange - Spanish

Hello, world! - To those who are interested in improving their spanish, I've got some good news for you. Every now and then we (people from Vienna, Germany, Latin America and Spain) come together to exchange opinions, chat a little, talk about the world and simply have fun. Our next "encuentro" (meeting) will take place this Wednesday (17th march) at around 8 p.m., Café Merkur, Lammgasse 1, 1080 Vienna. Everyone is welcome! Just send a message to Viola (mannervie@gmx.at) so she can make the necessary reservations. Now the whole thing in spanish:

Siempre es divertido conocer a nueva gente de todo el mundo (esp. de Austria y Latinoamerica). Os invito al próximo encuentro qué esta vez tendrá lugar el miércoles, 17 de marzo en Café Merkur, Lammgasse 1/esq. Florianigasse, distrito 8 a las 20.15h. Por favor decidme (mannervie@gmx.at) si venís para que pueda reservar suficiente sitio allí.

Colorful paintings

This is one of my favorite paintings. My pseudonym for my art-works is "Santa Ameerah" which means something like holy princess. Well, maybe this name was not one of my best ideas but anyway. I love this colorful masterpiece. I painted it with acrylic colours on canvas. Whenever I see it, I feel a lot better and it brings some additional joy into my life. Of course it is an original painting and I don't think, that I wanna sell this one, but who knows. Only time will tell.

Poem "Peru"

I've recently published a book with 200 poems, that I wrote. I really enjoy writing poems - of course in german as it is my mother language and I can express my self a bit better than in english. The book is called "200 Erlesene Gedichte" and the following one is about Peru. Though I've never been there, I hope you will enjoy it.

Peru

Du undurchdringlich-wildes Land
zerklüftet und doch eben
so küss mich wach mit goldnem Mund
erwecke mich zum Leben

Du safrangelbes Wüstenmeer
im Herz der Atacama
noch nie zuvor da sah ich solch
erhabnes Panorama

Du Jaguar im Nebelwald
geheimnisvolles Wesen
ich folge Dir mit leisem Schritt
denn Du bist auserlesen

Du stolzerfülltes Quechua-Kind
so farbenfroh behütet
erhebe Deinen dunklen Blick
wenn kalt der Südwind wütet

Du andengrünes Inka-Reich
aus längst vergangnen Zeiten
bewahre Deinen edlen Schatz
durch alle Ewigkeiten

(If you wanna see and hear me, just click on the following link)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6YnI4byXdU

Russian language and songs

One of my hobbies is learning languages -right now I'm struggling with the russian language which is pretty hard to learn, especially concerning the grammar. Six different cases and then the strange thing with the aspects, not to mention the difference between a verb that is used for heading in one direction (e.g. идти) or verbs that are mulitdirectional (e.g. ходить). Both have the meaning of "to go". Anyway, the best method to learn a new language is to start listening to some songs. Words are to be found on: http://www.karaoke.ru/ and here are a few of my favorit songs which I found on youtube:

Верка Сердючка и Виа Гра - Я не поняла

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEqvMNYonXw

Блестящие - Агент 007

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtoJHXYGdYU

Алсу - Иногда

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8qLJ2mFQw8

Hope you enjoy it!

More construction works on Donaukanal

So, well - I hope you don't think that I'm crazy about construction works, but just by the way - today I strolled down the Donaukanal in Vienna and guess what? Exactly - another construction center. This time they are building something like a pier, so that tourists can go by ship around the city hot spots. Right now it looks really awful, but I do hope that they'll be finished soon. Maybe it's not a bad idea to create a little shipping center on the Danube Channel. And talking about travelling by ship - did you know that there is already a jet foil which goes from Vienna to Bratislava and back? Maybe with our new "harbour" we can travel right to the Black Sea? Who knows? Only time will tell.

Vienna under construction in 2009

Well, though I wanted to write something about me, I've now chosen to start with my hometown - Vienna. I really do love this city as it offers everything one could possibly dream of but as you can see on this picture, we've suffered all past year long some never ending construction works in Kärnterstraße in the city-center. They replaced all the historic rhinestones by modern ones. Of course, it is a lot easier to walk on it, especially for those who love high-heels, but yet it is a bit sad to see how ancient things are getting more and more lost. Anyway, welcome to Vienna!