random glimpses of home

Deep down underground, I think about 50% of ads at tube stations are holiday related - white sandy beaches, sun etc. That should tell you how clever those advertising people are! On your way to work, during a horrible winter,  on overcrowded trains(they sometimes don't even stop because they can't take more people on!!!) who wouldn't want to go overseas.
Imagine my surprise when I changed at Tottenham Court Road and they advertised Austria :)

excitement is in the air

Even though I've been freezing my butt off out on the street all week, I feel like a spoilt little girl.
First of all my favourite Lisl had her birthday the other day and we had a massive catch up on the phone, which ended in a skype date with the entire EheG and Drew giving me a fashion show of glasses/frames he got to pick out at the optician - good times. Nothing beats talking to your bestie! Fills up all the tanks and leaves you full of joy, encouraged and uplifted.

For the last week we had two German girls staying with us and yesterday we all went to watch Wicked - the musical. The lead actress/green girl was unbelievable and what fascinated me even more was one of the cast being a monkey. Seriously I have never seen a human move the way he did and could not take my eyes off him. At that moment I really couldn't have cared less what the wizard and green girl were up to haha.

With all this said, two more sleeps and my other bestie, Ruth, and three girls will invade London. It will be so exciting to have them here. They will hang out at Worship Central and get heaps of input to take back to their church in Vienna. Absolutely love what Tim Hughes and Al Gorden are doing, check it out here.

I heart revolution @ church

At least a tiny bit of the I heart revolution was shown yesterday at church when our our youth team presented the I care revolution in our service.
They take this presentation into schools all across London. Amazing job guys!!
Here's the clip from I heart, could watch it and weep every single time.

a year ago

I was looking through photos from last year and noticed how many people came to visit a year ago. My best friend and three others are coming next week so I can't complain, but last year was crazy and so good.

My friend Lidia (one of the housemates for life) went to London on a whim, took a week off and was on the next plane to England, kind of haha. As I was not working that week, we had the funnest time ever - afternoon tea at the Atheneum, Blenheim Palace and Oxford, a trip to the Tibble house, Chicago in the West End, Hummingbird bakery cup cakes, visiting the markets, Tate Modern, the first picnic of the year,... 

Go and check out her blog. She is one of those incredibly creative people and I'm sure we all will hear a lot from her!!!

girls night at the pub

For some reason we ended up at the pub on quiz night. We didn't play but tried our best to answer the questions when they were called out anyway. Turns out our knowledge consisted mainly of Academy award nominees  and children's books haha. Was good to hang out with all the lovely girls. Thanks chicas xxx

the real world London

My first week at Zipcar is almost over and I'm loving every bit of it. Fun people to work with, lots of fresh air and getting to know London on a whole other level. It's great.
Being on the street and presenting whatever is like extreme people watching for me. I absolutely love it. You get all the random reactions of people, when you say hello to them. There is everything from "trying so hard to ignore you" over "I'm embarrassed where should I look" to really rude people waving their hand at you. Some actually are lovely and say hello and smile back at you. I think my absolute favourite is still "Okay", what the heck does that even mean?????
Never mind, looking at all these Londoners and masses of tourists of course, there is one thing they could all do with. A huge amount of joy. It makes me sad how angry, troubled and even downcast people look when they're rushing around. Maybe all they need is someone who smiles at them and I'm happy to do that. Even if I look like a loony and people think I'm weird, I've got too much joy in my life that I could look any different.
Sorry world, even when I'm shivering and my lips turn blue, I will still be smiling and you just gotta have to live with that!

bye winter olympics

I've always preferred watching winter olympics to the summer ones. Maybe it's because I'm a winter baby and this will forever be my season, maybe because Austrians are actually good at winter stuff or maybe because nothing beats ski jumping and all sports involving a slope.
I watched parts of the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics and got really emotional. We're talking tears and heavy chest, etc. What the heck is wrong with me???