life lessons learned this week

It's been a hectic week, so many premiers still ahead and it feels as if I only get home for some sleep!
What I've learned so far...
... there's a million people involved in this festival and for some reason, like ants in their nest, from the outside you'd never know!
... don't ever touch the inside of faux leather boots after they've been worn for more than 15 min... gross gross gross
... looking after 50 choir guys is a lot of fun - combined with just as much ladies, there are 30 nations represented in that choir :) Love multi culture things.
... don't tell people that opera is not your kind of music, might turn out it's their profession haha - they still love me though
... I have yet to meet someone who doesn't like my oat sugar cookies(this time with cranberries & walnuts)!!! winners all around
... surprisingly easy to go a whole day without food when you're busy (almost like Sydney times :) )
... riding your bike home after a 12 hour day does not tire you out completely but rather revives you?!
... there's always time for a smile - it does go the longest way. Yes it does.
... while waiting for the elevator in the basement you just might get treated to your own personal xylophone concert. Phenomenal, felt so spoilt.
... rain and make up just don't mix well. Especially when cycling - hello streaky face hehe
... also while cycling keep your mouth shut - flies and mosquitos will otherwise end up in there. yuk

Can't tell you how much I'm enjoying my time at the opera! Our team is killer. Nothing short of spectacular!
Most random moment so far:
One of our boys has to wear a ridiculous wooly hat and I just burst out laughing when he put it on. Poor guy was a bit confused and barked at me "what's so funny? why are you laughing?". Told him that his hat is funny and apologised. Out of nowhere he starts playing with my hair and says "you've got beautiful hair" what??? where did that come from?? haha love it!

the stretch

Last week has been crazy in a lot of ways.
I was sitting on the train back to Salzburg when I read the first headline about the blast in Oslo and later on the shooting. You go from celebration(Ruth & Ian had part one of their wedding) to shock and immediately into prayer mode, cause really what else can you do when you hear about such tragic events and the next day you're back at work.
I must have read every little bit of news there was that day and was upset when I read about Amy Winehouse's death. So much talent gone way too young.
Then came the flood of twitter and facebook posts. Comments of all sorts: grief, anger, confusion, etc. People who got really mad how others could be upset over Amy's death when 90 people just died by the hands of some maniac.
It's this stretch we live in - on one hand you have 90 nameless people who die in the most cruel way and on the other hand someone who's lived the last couple of years in a rather self-destructive way, but we all know her.
It is understandable how people can't handle this and lash out at others but I guess we need to understand that life is always like that. There is a food crisis in Somalia and it's only just now that the world listens up and to us in a ridiculously, comfortable first world nation it is so far away and so beyond our comprehension that we don't know what to do with that information.
I know I keep repeating myself, but there are 27 million of slaves in this day and age, more than ever before in history, yet most people will never know about them because it isn't tangible for them.
What about the millions of people that live below the line and have to survive on a dollar or less a day?
Every single life is precious and in that we are all the same. I don't think there is anyone worth more than someone else. In Proverbs it says

Rich and poor have this is common:

the Lord is the Maker of them all.

We define people by how they look, what they do, their status, etc when we should really understand that we are worth more than we could ever imagine to the One who created all.
Every person is priceless and valuable. Be it one of the Norwegian students, a passerby when the bomb exploded or Amy. I pray that we will mourn with them all, the nameless and the famous x

absence...

dear life.
I feel like I've been sucked into a black hole named Salzburg Festival - in a good way - and have lost touch with you :)
I'm loving every second of it but until rehearsals are over I have the most random schedules ever! Sorry body clock for trying to adjust anew every single day.
Don't worry, my first proper day off is tomorrow woohoo
Astrid xx

bff's night with the girls

aka Ruth's hen night
The plan was to meet at a pop up fish & chip shop by the water and have a very relaxed evening with all the girls, but the weather had different plans and we moved to Charlie P's. A pub favourite :)
Traditionally hen nights in Austria are some of the most embarrassing things to go through. Others dress you up in ridiculous clothes, fill you up on alcohol and you have to go out in the streets and sell chocolates, kisses, a load of chunk, etc so you can go home and have some extra cash for the wedding. Such a stupid idea and I always feel more embarrassed for the poor bride than anyone else haha
Ruth had asked Lena, Kat and myself to organise a night out just for us, so people could get to know each other before the wedding, spend time with her and raise their glasses to the happy couple. That's what we did:

Lena made the cute flower pins we're all wearing

It was such a fun and relaxed night, good to see her mum, auntie and good friends from the "before us generation" come along as well. We've got lots to learn from them!
We made her a box of presents that she can take to Linz now that she's leaving Vienna and she can open presents when ever she misses the girlfriends in her life. Please check out the below photo... the box became a bit too small and the pile of presents might just be bigger than her haha

As I knew that she's not the princess type of girl but we wanted her to wear a crown, I decided to sew one. I think it turned out alright and she loved it. Hooray :)

anarchy in the UK

(comic by Dagsson via A Cup Of Jo)

This comic had me laughing for hours :) Absolutely love it!

My Glorious @ Chelsea, Vienna

Finally another Vienna gig!!!
It was one hot and sticky day and on top of that Raffi's birthday... lots of reasons to celebrate :)

Tyler, who played after them, were great and the crowd was loving all of it! Nice to see friends and friendly faces.
Always good to be back home, there's freedom to try out crazy things like playing a game of jukebox :) MG will be back in November as part of the Konvoi Tour with Jupiter Jones.
Just a quick reminder... if you're not already liking My Glorious on fb, please do, for every new fan they donate 1 Euro to SOS Children's villages.

road trip - Switzerland/Germany

My friend Karin (flatmate from Vienna days) is in Geneva at the moment doing an internship for the UN. All very exciting and another reason for us to stop there.
Funniest thing: my friend rents a little flat which turned out to be assisted living facilities hahaha Even the elevator has a chair for people to sit down in as my brother is demonstrating in the photo below :)

Most phenomenal surprise: you can see Mt Blanc from that area!!! Looks really pretty, don't you think?!

From there we went to Basel but stopped first in Bern...

(they've got live bears in the middle of the city!!!)

... and Interlaken and Thun.

We finally arrived in Basel and hopped across the border to meet the one and only Simon. 

I think his go to place for food is 5 Schilling, a restaurant that has a little shop attached to it where they sell all their organic produce. We dined like royalty that afternoon :) The only thing they can't get right is their wine but maybe that's because we were brought up in a wine region and are therefore spoilt haha

we spent an evening next to the Rhine, drinking wine out of the bottle like punks haha that tiny ferry above took us across to check out the rest of the city

got caught out in the rain and waited it out in an underpass haha

There is never enough time when you're having fun, but come R&I's wedding we'll all be reunited. Hooray!!

On our way back we stopped in Winterthur for a spontaneous lunch session with Daniel & Priska. Best surprise ever and after great conversation and yummy Italian food we climbed back in the car and got to Salzburg just in time for dinner with the gang. 

Love my friends and holidays! Life is good people. Happy Monday everyone xx

coffee to help - a glorious evening

Earlier this week I mentioned how I love the coffee to help project and that I was going to host an evening at my mum and dad's place. And what a night it's been!
I must have spent the entire day in the kitchen baking 3 different cakes and later preparing 5 different salads haha Don't know why exactly I can't just make two or three?! Forgot to take pics of the food when it was all up on our grand piano, buffet style.

It was a fun night. After stuffing our faces we had a bit of a jam session with everyone participating as my parents have all kinds of instruments. Out came kazoo, triangle, recorder, guitars in all shapes and sizes, banjo, mandolins, shakers, tambourine. etc Weirdest of combinations but so much fun.

My Glorious treated us to an hour of music (old and new stuff) and funny stories. Sami broke his record of starting All I Ever Do about four times haha

Bottom line: a very relaxed night with great people and music and best thing about it we raised quite a bit of money that will go a long way! Easy as pie to make a difference. Horray
I'll leave you with one of their new songs for two reasons: number one woah oh oh oh ooooooh and number two best video ever :D

road trip - France

From Milan we went to Nice via Monaco, but as the royal wedding was the day before, the city was packed and pretty much half the streets were closed so we didn't even stop.
The last time I had been to Nice was ten years ago on a school trip!!! Makes me feel old haha.
Nice and the coast is just as stunning as ever. I'm in love with their houses, just look how cute all the little balconies are.
We spent two nights on a camp site where my brother wasn't allowed in the pool as his swimming trunks were too long. Ahahahahaha French rules, honestly wtf... that had me laughing for hours!!
The next leg of our trip was the longest of the entire journey. If you want to go from Nice to Geneva you have two options: go back to Italy and go up there or drive to Marseille and go up the Rhone valley.
Both seemed a bit silly so we opted to go up the back roads. A bit of a climb at first  and it took us all day but you drive up through the alps and it was the most stunning scenery I've seen in a while.

Still amazes me, this planet is one beautiful spot in this vast universe :) What a Creator!!!