Sunday, September 30, 2007

The posts

I know, the post these days look abit schizophrenic.
Its as if, as there are several many of which conflicting personalities that try to come out of the body of a schizo.. my blog is trying to perform several functions at once. None of which it is performing well I must say.
Whichever the case, I do sincerely apologize for this behavior.

I will try to go back to my semi social reflective sides of my blog and keep it more towards this angle.

You might ask, well is it that you have nothing more to say to the world? or is it that there hasn't been anything that made you think or analyze about? (also sorry for the "american" english, but well my spelling check is apparently turned on to this.)
have you no interesting thoughts on the world? you may ask.. and i would say, no actually I have. Its just that well.. couple of things.
One I have been moving around abit recently and havent really had the time to jot all these things down... other more urgent things that needed to be taken care of.
Secondly, well I am at the phase in life- which is called the Thirties... when you believe you really do not have nothing more to add to the world- well I can't speak for the whole population, but it does come with the age description- as George Orwell also wrote that- not in direct quotes = but that people in their thirties turn to more banal things in life, since they realize that their lives are as normal as your normal John Does.. and well, I agree completely. I mean you may be a world traveler who has had several love affairs with millitent dictators and artists all over the world, written best selling novels and had climbed mount everest, but at the end of the day, well you realize that there are quite a number of you out there, and well you ain't all that special.

Whichever the case, since I have thought of this, I had the feeling that whatever I write on the blog is merely some complaints I have that I couldn't take out in the real world, or just as some facet of my frustrations, which i couldn't take out on my therapist, since I can't find nor afford a decent one and or there aren't other facets I can resort to resolve my urge for expressions. I actually believe this is the case for many blogs we see scattered around the cyber world these days.

To be continued...

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Get korean food delivered to your own doorsteps.

It really sucks to live in a city where the Korean population is practically 1 - well actually its more like 10 but who is counting and if I don't know them, they don't count. The biggest problem is not that I can't speak in my "mother tongue" but that I just cannot get Kimchi anywhere! I mean I have to drag my ass to the nearest big city- where there are atleast more than 10 Koreans, to get any decent Korean food. Yes indeed one can get used to not having what one wants, and make do with other things. However, what I chose to do is well, make do and then ask my mummy to send me huge packages, which doesn't work sometime cuz like during summer you just cannot send sth like Kimchi, or anything that may go bad through a post that will take a week!
Anyhow, so I made do.. kept my urge for the red-pickled-present-from-the-gods to a minimum and substituted pickles or zuurkool.

But now, my suffering, and of those who were in the same situation is about to end.
How you ask?
Through internet shopping malls. Why I didn't think of this before, I have no idea.
But anyhow. There is an internet shopping mall based in Germany which delivers Korean food to your doorsteps. Ok, not made but the ingredients.

It is called. K Mall (http://www.kmall.de)
and it practically has everything, including like 7 different types of Kimchi. (thank you god)
Okay it is abit pricy, but not more pricy than what you would have to pay at a normal asian supermarket- actually its abit cheaper.
Also, they deliver it for you, so no need to carry massive loads of stuff back home.

The delivery price is about 5 euros for Germany - and if you buy 49 euros or more it's free. And for the rest of Europe, it depends largely on the weight- for Spain and Southern European countries, its so expensive that I think it isn't worth it really. But for the Be.Ne.Lux its 7 euros up to 5 kgs.

Unfortunately it is only in Korean... so for those of you who like to order some Korean stuff and cannot speak Korean.. well get a Korean to do it for you. However those of you in the States you can just easily check out Komart an English online-korean supermarket in english. In german there is http://www.gourmondo.de/ however i don't think they have Korean food.

Anyhow happy shopping folks!

Monday, September 17, 2007

Cool parent culture of Prenzlauer

Although the whole of Germany might be struggling with low fertility rates, Berlin, especially Prenzlauerberg an old east Berlin neighborhood known for its alternative lifestyle isn't having any problems in that area.
It has been noted that this area is having a "baby boom", and if you just keep an eye out you do not have to be a statistician or a sociologist to figure that this is indeed true. Even if Berlin is known to have no manufacturing in the city, there is atleast one thing they know how to produce- babies.

Just take a seat in one of the nice trendy cafes and look at the people passing by. Most of them will either be pregnant, with a child or two, or indeed shagging to have one- which my upstairs neighbor apparently is doing every morning.
One of the many maternity clothes shops in Prenzlauerberg- named "Sexy Mama"


Due to that this place is an alternative scene area with hipsters, the parents are not "parent-like". They are hop and groovy like your average single 30ish late 20ish people. It seems as is there has been some fashion fad to have babies as accessories. Ofcourse the children are all dressed in proper alternative fashion- and the baby stores make sure this trend persist. The other thing is there is a specific age group here. The parents are around the ages of late 20s to mid-late 30s. The children are from 0 to 6~7ish. It's hard to find kids above this age and mostly they are 1~2 years old. It seems as if this place was filled with alternative youngsters around the age of mid twenties in the 1990s which grew up, hooked up with each other and now producing second generation cool hipsters. I must say there are several daddies with babies sitting in ice cream parlours which look more like cool cafes for adults rather than having the colurful silly look that are for children that I personally would not have mind hooking up with- with or without baggage.

I've noticed several parents with their buggies proudly strutting with their off springs. I feel like seeing ducks in spring where they strut with their ducklings lined up behind them. They have a way in which in seems "look at what I have achieved. my beautiful-stylish baby"..

A photo shop in Prenzelberg- as you can see there are mostly family photos and also some photos of women pregnant, with tattoos, etc..


So in this respect I myself not having a child and/or pregnant actually feel like the outsider here, where in the rest of the world it is that the parents- now with the little creature they created - usually get excluded from the culture life. Here I feel like I have to press my belly out a bit just to not stand out and look like there is a bun in the oven.. and well let me tell you I really don't even have to try hard for this- it comes more or less natural.

Whichever the case, Prenzlauer Berg makes it seem parenting is just another stage in life which doesn't mean you loose your individuality your previous life style. Its just that it includes a little being with it. This is exactly how it is here. People still go to bars, cafes sub cultural meetings etc just with their children now.

Ofcourse having said this, I still do believe there are sacrifices to be made into parenthood, I mean it essentially mean that you would not have the time and or the energy to do other things that you could've would've done earlier. Such as joining a dance company. If you are one of those people who do not have much aspirations in other things that consume a large amount of your time and energy this may be the option for you.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

I must say

I am afraid that...
My appreciation of beautiful men will take me down with a big crash one day...
ah, but how lovely and heart throbbing they are.
especially taken with large quantities of caffeine

Sunday, September 02, 2007

You love me...

You will think I'm amazing when you don't really know me well enough.
You will think I'm awful when you don't really know me well enough.

Those who you don't really know in depth are always great or horrible.