give me bananas » 2011

Henry And His Wives

Posted by Karin | Posted on 31-05-2011

When you live in London there’s plenty to see. But even more if you venture out a bit and do lovely little day trips. As it was a Bank Holiday yesterday we decided to go to Hampton Court, roughly half an hour by train from Waterloo station.

The modest (ha!) house of Henry and his many many wives is a true gem. I would definitely recommend everyone to go there.

I fell in love.

Considering that a few hundred normal houses would fit into that palace, there was plenty to see. We got lost a couple of times. I wonder if Henry had a map.

Ha! Don’t let that treacherous sun fool you – it started to drizzle right when we wanted to have a walk around in the park. So instead we opted for free wine.

It literally came out of a fountain.

Could I have one of these for my 25st birthday please? Thank you.

Few other lovely sights:

That grass looks mowed! Ha!

One of the things I loved the most was (surprise surprise): the kitchen! You could watch how the staff made “authentic” Tudor-ish dishes.

I’m telling you.. That kitchen was MASSIVE! But considering that they had to prepare food for 600 people at once I can imagine that they needed that much space.

By the way, if you want to try some Tudor dishes.. check out this link:

Chances are you’ll get as fat as Henry XIII soon enough.

It was such a lovely day despite the rain. But in the end we fell asleep on the train back to London. All that walking is so tiring for us grandmas!

Oh wait, I almost forgot my favourite thing of the castle:

A place for a royal shit.
Lovely!

The Hunt. (No, Not Owen.)

Posted by Karin | Posted on 26-05-2011

Category : London

Heya!

(Oh my god, did anyone notice my brilliant pun in the title? hehehe)

Sorry for not being around very often. I’m currently looking for a job and flat AND studying (or at least pretending to) for my exam. It’s all good though… I actually got a job offer out of the blue today. We’ll see how that goes. I had to go and buy some posh trousers and shoes this afternoon. Talk about emergency-buy. (Though I can hardly turn up in my brown boots and blue jeans). My interview with the agency is tomorrow so fingers crossed!

More importantly though: Has anyone seen Grey’s Anatomy’s music episode? I LOVED it! Those guys can sing! (And “How To Save A Life” always makes me want to cry)

And since I’m becoming a boring bag lady (school, job-hunting and TV series!) I can add one more video. I can’t wait for True Blood Season 4.

Yes, I’m perfectly allowed to be excited about TV shows. I’m 24. And a girl.

The Secret Mission

Posted by Karin | Posted on 19-05-2011

Category : Family

I just deleted a bunch of old posts.
“old” meaning pre-London. Are you shocked? I hope so!
But I felt like this blog needed some freshening up since it’s not really a food blog anymore.

ANYWAY..

Remember the secret mission I told you about? Well it was a complete success. Here’s how it went:

You know, when my sister and I BOTH manage to keep a secret then it’s almost as spectacular as the fall of the Berlin Wall. It wouldn’t surprise me if this would go down in the history books as well. (Not that I can’t keep secrets but it’s a complete different story with Selina ).

See, I bought a ticket for a flight back home weeks ago without telling my family (except my sister of course). We wanted to keep it a secret and surprise them – which was actually the most difficult part but we played our roles quite well.

Sel invited the folks over for dinner on Friday and suddenly (“tadaaaaaaa!”) there I was! You should have seen their faces. HILARIOUS! My dad actually pinched me.

On Saturday we went over to my grandma’s as it was her birthday the day before. It was so lovely to see my grandparents again, I really miss them.

Isn’t she gorgeous (my grandmother I mean, obviously!!)? She’s the kindest person on the planet and one of my biggest heroes.

In the afternoon we cheered on my dad. He ran the GP of Bern – my absolute favourite race. I felt a bit sad that I wasn’t participating but as it was pouring down I felt quite ok with “only” supporting the runners.

Btw, he’s not balding. That’s only the rain. And the angle. Of course.

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out with my friends. Words cannot describe how much I love them.

Haha Selina and I don’t really look like sisters anymore what with me still being Central America-tanned. But so be it, I’ll turn pasty white again soon enough I suppose.

Love, K.

29.04.2011

Posted by Karin | Posted on 12-05-2011

Category : London

Date: 29 April 2011

Place of Action: Trafalgar Square

Occasion: Some Wedding, duh!

Dude, lower that balloon!! Somebody kick that person of the Daily Mirror who came up with the idea to distribute balloons in the first place!!

Thank you.

(The Hair! The Hair! The Hair! –or lack thereof-)

Our teacher’s getting some ice cream. After all, a Royal Wedding has to be celebrated in a royal way.

Gosh I love spying on people. hehe.

The mock exam was quite ok. Nothing that would make my top 10 list of favourite things to do though.

However, tomorrow I’ll be on a fantastic mission. I’ve rarely been this exited in my life. And that says a lot. Stay tuned!

Love and peace!

To Be Or Not To Be

Posted by Karin | Posted on 11-05-2011

Category : London

People always assume that enjoying culture is expensive. Go to the museum and drop an insane amount of money. Theatre? Damn you won’t see anything unless you get tickets for the most expensive seats.

So. Not. True.

I went and saw Hamlet at the Globe Theatre the other day and only paid 5 quid! Granted, we had to stand but you just can’t beat that price. I really loved the play and the Globe Theatre is breathtakingly beautiful. Expect me to be back there soon.

I’m so happy that a few friends joined me on this fun night out!

The play isn’t the only good thing of this week though. Of course tomorrow’s mock exam is a bit of a downer but at least I can head straight to the pub afterwards . On Friday we’ll watch a film at school (it was surprising how little persuasion we needed) and then we have something super fantastic planned. But more on that some other time.

Not much else is happening over here.. I just hang out here in the kitchen or go to Frame or do yoga (or go to school of course). But we have a ghost in our flat! Seriously! Well there’s this new guy who arrived on Sunday and only a few people have seen him so far. Me? Nope. And it’s already Wednesday! Maybe we scare him shitless. My Swedish pal shares his room with him and said that he’s apparently always sitting on his bed (plus he, a French, barely understands English and only smiles and says “Yes”). I get it when some people aren’t very social but can’t you just come downstairs for a sec and introduce yourself? As far as I know it has never hurt anybody. Also, the “I-don’t-speak-English” card doesn’t count. The guy from Japan (elementary level) who lives here is always in the kitchen. I’m trying not to speak in Japanese to him.

Well I’m off for a walk now.

Hasta luego my lovelies!

Ballet And Me

Posted by Karin | Posted on 08-05-2011

Category : Working Out

As a kid I wasn’t really sporty. Sure I liked being active but I also really liked reading books and being lazy. Actually, this still is the case although my love for activity has definitely grown.

Anyway, I still remember the day when my mum asked me what I wanted to do. After all, everybody has a hobby. So I said “dancing and swimming”. Well with swimming I probably meant “jumping into the water” since it’s never really been my favourite thing to do. And I also don’t know where the dancing comes from but alas, that’s what I said. I think we quickly rejected synchronized swimming and decided that we could check out ballet.

And that’s when our love story started. (The one of me and ballet, not me and my mum obv.)

I was six years old when I started taking classes and loved the graceful moves. Granted, my own moves weren’t Swan Lake material but in the (roughly) 10 years I did ballet I had quite a good time (although my teacher – a chain smoking woman from Slovakia – was rather terrifying sometimes and my entire family saw me hopping around on stage in a chicken costume –not the most spectacular moment of my life-).

In my teens I gave it up because I got bored with it. I was a teenager and wanted something different. So I did Jazz dance. And then Taekwon-Do (drastic change, I know). And of course the occasional (when the weather was good) run with my dad.

But still I sometimes missed my ballet days. I secretly wanted to take a class again though without committing to a fixed course where you have to show up every week at the same time.

Long story short: I took a ballet class yesterday! Actually it was after a kettle bell class that left me aching like crazy due to the fact that all light kettle bells were gone and I had to struggle with the 6kg one (those who can handle them easily: I bow to you).
But holy moly did I love ballet (and the kettle bell class, even though my face resembled beets). Granted, the arabesque made me realize that my bum really is bigger than when I was 16 (I kind of hoped that I was just imagining it) but I felt like I was on familiar grounds.

Well the class was called Ballet-Barre and has a bigger focus on the workout effect (with Beyoncé blaring in the background) but in the second part of the hour we did some “classical stuff”. I really want to go to ballet regularly from now on! I’m really glad I discovered Frame. It’s not your usual dance/fitness/yoga/pilates centre but definitely more alternative (what else do you expect in Shoreditch?) and extremely lovely. It has a very relaxed feeling about it.

I’m off to an other class now! This time it’s boxing! (Don’t knock it before you’ve tried it… today’s my first time!). And afterwards we’ll pop by Brick Lane again and eat some amazing food – hooray!

Q: What did you like doing as a kid? Can be classes or not.. just tell me of your hobbies that you had (and maybe still have?)!

PS: Happy Mother’s Day!! I miss my mum!!!

Here it is!

Posted by Karin | Posted on 02-05-2011

Category : London

So.. I was talking to my parents yesterday and my mum complained that I haven’t written a proper blog post since 13 April. Sorry! I was way too busy enjoying the sun in Hyde Park.

Ok, I know.. that’s no excuse. And there is actually plenty of stuff worth writing about (such as the visit of Sel and Dom.. or the fact that I saw Ewan f**king McGregor). But alas: I was too lazy.

So I apologize. Even if it’s only to my mum (who I assume is my most devoted reader – must be those mummy genes!).

Let’s start off with something super recent: The Wedding! I was in Trafalgar Square and spent my time jumping up and down because I couldn’t see the screen properly. But the excitement was fantastic and gooood (“god”, not “good” ), Kate must have been the most beautiful bride on earth. I loved the dress! The kiss(es) were a bit pathetic though. My Italian friend Camilla was disappointed that there was no tongue action.

What was more exciting than the wedding though was the visit of my sister and her boyfriend – two of my favourite people on earth!

Paparazzi alert!

Tourist alert!

They will be so delighted to see that I’ve posted these pictures on here.

On Easter I went with Camilla and a friend of hers to Cambridge which was amazing. I’ve been there once, though that was roughly 10 years ago I think, so I didn’t remember that much. I had no idea there were so many colleges (besides the super famous Cambridge University).