Wave Gotik Treffen part the third

The next day (Saturday), we got up lateish, had brekkies at Starbucks (nom nom nom) and went off to meet another friend at the train station. She, having studied fine arts at school/varsity/both, was keen to see an art museum, so we went to the Museum der bildenden Kunste nearby. Now personally I find the fine arts just a LEEETLE bit pretentious, particularly modern art, but it turned out to have more of the good stuff than I was anticipating, and we had a nice time pretending to be cultured and refined, all the while clomping through in our dusty Doc Martens.

A really not very good photo to illustrate my outfit. A hint of pixie influence there...

After that we parted ways, and went back to our hotel to collect picnic stuff (read: vodka, lemonade and red bull), having organised to meet everyone later at the Agra hall and catwalk area. We got there, only to find that we didn't have the right kind of wristbands to get our drinks into the area, so we waited for our other friends to come to the rescue and sneak our booze in for us, which they kindly did. After milling about a little and eating some sort of meal, which was possibly lunch but was actually brunch for me at 6pm, we went back into the market. Whilst there, we met another person that we know from our cult, who proceeded to win me over by promising to make me (for a price of course), a custom made chain maille bikini. The general consensus was that they would allow me to have material lining in the underwear, but not the top because it'd just not be "metal". I should mention that the garment is made up of steel AND rubber links, so it won't give me armour bite. Much.

Ah, the things we saw the second time round! I was mostly cognitively present this time, and so could do actual looking and buying of things, which I did quite restrainedly; it's amazing what being jobless and watching your bank account get slowly anorexic does for your self control.  There was the shop that sold corsets made to look like skin, complete with nipples and occasional stab wounds (vaguely disturbing). There was the spike shop, with I-shit-you-not 6 inch and longer spikes on cuffs, vambraces and chokers. Straight spikes, nasty curved spikes that'd hook your face off with one misplaced arm-flail, regular rounded studs, full steel plates, you name it. Then there was this coat...

Who says men can't wear minis?

...which was so awesomely awful we had to take a picture of it. There were zebra striped ones too but I didn't want my camera to actually die on me, so we refrained from taking any more photos of these abominations.

After this, we went into the hall to see some bands: Grendel, Funker Vogt, Combichrist and my favourite for the entire weekend: Aesthetic Perfection. These guys were amazing on stage, and not at all what I was expecting. The main dude (I don't know the bands' names and I'm too lazy to check) had real energy and pizazz, and his performance was kind of Mask-ish, probably helped by the actual mask he wore and his vague similarity to Jim Carrey.

Gorram tall people!

After that, waaay pumped on music and red bull, we went to a club called the Moritzbastei, which is located in the only remaining part of the city's ancient fortifications, therefore it was dungeon-like and just a perfect venue for a goth club, naturally. They played a lot of EBM and industrial, which are genres that I'm slowly getting into at the moment so it was a nice way to discover new bands and also, the joy of dancing to them. I don't think I've ever danced as much at a club, mostly because I've never gone in with that amount of caffeine in my bloodstream, and it was so much fun. Once we'd bounced all energy out of our systems (and killed off our ear drums; damn the music was loud!), it was about 3am and a good time to go back to the hotel, take a much-needed shower, and pass out.

Sunday was sadly our last day there. We went to our friends' hotel to have our hair plaited and prettified; we're still not sure why, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. The Nameless Wonder ended up looking vaguely Hasidic jew-ish:

By the time we'd finished with that (plus some random and occasionally disturbing youtube videos), we were hungry and it was nearly time to go to the train station anyway, so we went there for lunch and more chitter-chatter until it was time for us to leave :(

The train journey was somewhat eventful; the driver pulled away while a door was still open, causing me to have near heart-failure when I heard an ominous thump that COULD have been someone being run over or something equally horrible, but thankfully was not. Then there was the ear-splitting screech every time it pulled into a station (really great for concert-ears, thanks!), and the delay on the tracks due to some other train having problems. But we got home safely in the end. I wish we'd been able to stay longer, but there is always next time...

Wave Gotik Treffen part the second

One thing that bothered me about the WGT, particularly on the catwalk (which I suppose is unsurprising), was the blatant once-overs-with-added-sneer that people gave us whilst we were innocently walking along, minding our own business. I mostly tend to be oblivious to such things, and even I noticed it, and it really saddened me. I thought that the people at such an event would *mostly* be decent and unjudgemental sort of folk, what with that being the whole fucking idea behind the subculture, but apparently not. I guess what I was disappointed with was that they were  just normal people on the inside, no matter how much black they wore to disguise their ultimately shallow characters. I'm sure there were awesome people there too, but unfortunately it was the not-so-awesome ones that attracted my attention in this case. However, I didn't let my mild disillusionment spoil my weekend, and so by some rather nifty Zen navigation that involved stalking people on the tram who looked like they could listen to Lacuna Coil, we got to the massive Kohlrabizirkus.

Lacuna Coil is one of my favourite bands, so I enjoyed them despite 3 minor issues I had with their show. Number one was that their sound wasn't particularly good; the music drowned out their singing quite often which was a pity because Cristina Scabbia has a beautiful voice. Number two was my own fault, but I was kind of disappointed that they played so little from Karmacode and Shallow Life; mostly their new stuff which I haven't listened to yet. It was probably a good set if I'd just known more of the songs, but at least they played Our Truth, one of my favourites. The third minor inconvenience was standard concert issues, which was I had two fooking tall gentlemen in front of me obscuring my view (a lot). But seeing as they weren't doing anything particularly spectacular visually, I was happy to just listen to the music.

After that, we decided to go back to our hotel, but when we got there we were still waaay too hyped up from general excitement and red bull to go to sleep, so I cleverly thought of going upstairs to the bar on the 27th floor to drink whisky, which is what we did. It was quite a spectacular view, and we had some very nice whisky which made me very sleepy, as it always does. The bar staff were particularly sweet and helpful; one of them even walked us to the elevator, called it for us and stood chatting while we waited for it! It's possible that she thought we needed some help at that point, but it was very nice of her and made me feel all important and grown-up.

So that was Friday. Next up, adventures in fine arts and chain maille bikinis.

Wave Gotik Treffen part the first

Zo... This weekend was the WGT in Leipzig, for all you people who've just come out of your caves. Sadly, I didn't take THAT many pictures, but I will now supply you with a few of the awesomer ones, in order of the happenings.

Firstly, we nearly couldn't buy tickets for our train because we (read: the Nameless Wonder) decided that we should go to the station at the other end of town, which is even smaller than our one, and so rural we couldn't quite figure out how to even get onto the platform. When we got there, we found that the ticket machine was not taking notes, and we didn't have enough coins to buy the tickets. Luckily some kind old man gave us change, because ticket inspectors checked us TWICE on the way to the hauptbahnhof (after several months of being in some kind of ticket-inspection hibernation).

Skeptical Goth

Thankfully, we got to Leipzig without much further drama. Our hotel was conveniently quite close to Leipzig hauptbahnhof, but we were first whisked away by our lovely friends for some snackage shopping (which ended up being mostly red bull). It was awesome being in the train station and watching all the "freaks" out and about in their finest gothery, punkery and lolitary. The shopping was fun, because we mostly messed around and nobody really knew what was going on anyway; we were pretty sure the shopkeepers were trying to keep all the scary people out because they were very spitefully blaring the Spice Girls into our poor virgin ears.

After shopping we went to the hotel to check in and goth up (which for me meant mostly putting on more makeup, as I'd decided to travel in my outfit to save time).

View from our hotel room

We then met up with our friends and went off to go get registered and branded (just kidding, mostly), and people-watched from the sidelines as they strutted their stuff trying to get photographed.

Party in a trolley!

The catwalk, or model central

Fucking about.
My outfit combined my new comfy-yet-awesome shorts, the Hat and my Boots. It made me almost as happy as the people did.

We then went shopping at the market in the mahoosive Agra hall. Seriously overstimulated, I didn't manage to buy anything but just jumped about from stall to stall like an ADD squirrel while the grown-ups did actual looking at stuff. I wish I had taken some pictures of the merchandise, as there were some seriously awesomely amazing things, amongst others a hat stall that I'm sure Tim Burton would have been quite happy to prop shop at; they deserved to be in movies.

It was then time to part ways as I wanted to see Lacuna Coil. Stay tuned for part two of picspam and lollygagging.

Fitness freak in training (also: phase 7249)

So I may have mentioned (or not, but anyway) how I go through life in phases. Each phase is distinctive and often involves a whole bunch of different areas of my life. For example: the last one started when we got back from London, and its key characteristics were that I basically just wanted to stay in bed and hide from the world. I was shirking all responsibility and I lacked motivation in everything. Music of this era was Apocalyptica (probably because it's intensely familiar and hails from a long-past time of less responsibility, if less happiness). Food was sweet things, mostly vanilla rooibos and dried pineapple. Internet obsession was a ridiculously sickly-sweet fairy kei lolita blog that was totally over the top with pastels freaking EVERYWHERE. No disrespect to the blogger, but this mild obsession with her porcelain-doll clothes was weird and out of character for me. Luckily, I eventually got out of this funk, though I'm not quite sure how, and landed myself a new obsession: health and fitness!

I guess it started with me rediscovering pop pilates youtube workouts due to my inability to get regular classes. This lead to me reading her blog, Blogilates, and it all went downhill (or uphill, haha) from there. I suspect the other motivating factor is that I have somehow contrived to own only crop tops in the way of summer wear, and as I mentioned before, I'd like to look good on the photos from WGT because I intend on blasting the people of the internet with them :)

And so I began on my fitness kick, which morphed into a healthy eating kick too This, after reading Cassey's blog and others on how much nutrition determines your physique. I had never realised how much of an impact WHAT you ate had on you, despite any exercise you may do. I always sort of assumed that as long as you worked it off, it's all water under the bridge. Not so, apparently. Although I think I usually eat fairly healthily, I have been enjoying eating better, especially since I have actually been (wait for it) COOKING ACTUAL FOOD. You know, the type that people can eat; nay, even enjoy! Which has been very satisfying to me as I now feel less of a total failure as a girl. AND it gives me more stuff to plan, like shopping lists and menus. I may be slightly obsessed with planning things...

So myself and the Nameless Wonderboy are doing pilates together every day (he secretly enjoys it, no matter how much he complains), and I really love the fact that I can see a difference already. So far there is no particular music associated with this phase, but the food is boiled eggs and lemon infused water (which sounds very poncy but is really just presqueezed lemon juice in tap water). Hopefully this phase will last a long time, so that I look decent for the next onslaught of auditions :p

Got it figured

Due to my somewhat perilous tightrope-walking on the wire just above the fiery planes of destitution of late, I've been thinking a lot about the stages of life and their respective pros and cons. Like, despite everybody going all misty-eyed and sentimental about childhood, the further away from it I get the happier I am. Childhood is tough, and long, and is also (unless you go senile eventually) the stage of least independence of your life, hence it being not my cup of tea. Then comes early adulthood, from whence I'm blogging, which is waaay better than childhood because, well, you can start doing what you damn well please, at last! What they skim over in the promotion pamphlets, though, is that this is the age of damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't predicaments; where you have to make serious, life-changing decisions with just less than not a clue, because for the first time there doesn't seem to be ANY hint as to which path you'd do better to take. Like, nada. Zero. Zilch. It's all up to you, kiddo. And that is, well, a teensy bit terrifying. On the plus side, though, you still have a metabolism, and a pretty face (well, you know, it's not actively horrific yet), and the world is terribly exciting in the strangest ways. For instance, you suddenly discover that shopping for a washing basket can be awesome, because those boring shops that your parents dragged you to when you were a kid take on a whole new meaning when you're decorating your own hovel/room under the stairs/flat. And so you find yourself coming home with new matching towels and a soap dish AND a really cool toaster that fits 4 SLICES OF BREAD!!!

Then shit goes downhill for a while, as people start hitting their mid-life crises and buying stupidly expensive cars and having affairs and all that nonsense, and THEN we get to the really good bit: middle age. I know it's a little weird, but I honestly envy those who are 45+. They seem like they have it all figured out; they'll tell you otherwise, of course, and maybe those with kids (grown or otherwise) are exempt from this generalisation, but the others, the older couples who managed not to bankrupt themselves or screw up their relationship, really seem to have their shit figured out. They're old enough that they most probably have a stable job with a high-ish salary and a pension; they're respected in the workplace because they are "elders" without being "old fogeys"; they have their own house, and car, both of which are paid off; they have well-established rituals that they've formulated over many years that make their lives easier and nicer; they're over their looks and have embraced their "mature" skin and figures... All in all, it seems like a pretty damn comfy state of affairs.

Sadly, I must admit to myself that this is almost definitely mostly wishful thinking on my part; it's how I want my middle age to be, and so I'm projecting it onto others. I want to be one of those older ladies who still know how to have fun and be wild, on occasion, and yet are serene and wise and comfortable in their own skin. Like a youngish adult with more money and fewer hangups. So my goal is going to be to become that self in 20+ years time. I really hope I manage.

Taking a stand

So my modus operandi for dealing with disagreements in the last several years, has been to simply not have an opinion. I've tried extremely hard to see things from every point of view you care to mention, and to understand people rather than judge them for their bad decisions or poor social etiquette. I've tried my damndest to not take sides in arguments, ranging from family fights, to work politics, to social circle spats. And lately I've been wondering about this, and whether it's a good idea to try to be Switzerland all the time, because Switzerland usually gets left out of things. What got me thinking along these lines is the fact that whilst I don't have many enemies, I don't have that many people who'd call me a friend, either. Now this isn't a pity party, I have some really good close friends, but I seem to struggle to make casual friends. For instance, at my last job, I tried to keep any opinions I had about people to myself, and to be a neutral/friendly combination in my attitude towards everybody. What this meant was that, like the Ents, I wasn't on anybody's side and thus nobody was on my side. This was made very clear to me when I quit being "the new girl" and some even newer people arrived, only to seemingly make instant and passionate attachments to people they hadn't known a month ago. This puzzled me for a long time, until I realised that I possibly seemed like a bit of a wild card, as I never expressed any definite allegiance to anybody. And people don't trust someone if they can't gauge your stance on an issue.

I'm starting to realise that simply not having opinions on things does not mean that I am any less judgemental than the next person, I just choose not to air those secret opinions, even in the relative safety of my own mind. What I am in fact striving for, is to be able to be a big enough person to listen to others' opinions when they fly in the face of my own. To be wise enough to not take it to heart when someone thinks my ideas are stupid/wrong/pretentious as opposed to theirs. I need to learn to have ideas and opinions of my own, and to stop being cowardly about accepting that I may hold some unpopular stances on certain issues. Meekness is not a virtue in today's world, and it's time I grew out of it, already.

So... that's my bit of pseudophilosophy for the day. Tune in tomorrow for more rants and philosophising on mostly inconsequential subjects ;)

Quark

So I discovered this new thing called quark. It's a kind of cheese, like creme fraiche, and it tastes like really rich and thick yoghurt, even the non-fat kind! Apparently it's a mostly German thing, but if you can find it it's worth getting, because it makes amazing desserts! This super easy one was adapted from one I recently had, so I kind of guessed the ingredients, and it came out really really yum. So all you need is:

1) quark (20% fat will do, I used 40% which was very rich and so will be using fat-free as an experiment next time)
2) teeny bit of whipping cream
3) sugar to taste
4) vanilla essence, I used about a teaspoonful
5) fruit of your choice (raspberries are possibly the nicest, although I'd love to try this with mango)

So all you do is whip the quark up with the little bit of cream to break the slight sourness, adding the sugar and vanilla as you go along, then once that's done add whatever fruit you want, and leave in the fridge to chill a bit. Yes I know I basically just explained the recipe for strawberries and cream, but the quark totally changes the taste and gives it a nicer, fuller texture. We had it on a picnic this weekend, and it was perfect picnic food for a perfect picnic day :)

Food

Day

WGT t-24

So, in a couple of weeks it's the event of awesome! This means it's crunch time (literally) as I try to get into some semblance of shape so that I can wear my pretty short tops without cringing. This involves torture every day (did I say torture? I meant pilates) with the awesome, batshit crazy Cassey of Blogilates. If you're a masochist and you don't have a helpful sadist on hand, go to her youtube channel. You will regret it for exactly 3 days, and then you will regret it some more but with visible abs, so it's worth it in the end :) I even got the Nameless one to do some with me. He hated every minute of it, it was so cute :D

In outfit news... I still don't really know what to wear, though I am gradually getting ideas, dismissing them, getting new ones, dismissing those... But that's at least some progress, right? It's always helpful to know what NOT to wear. My beauties are softening gradually, I'm hoping they'll be ready by then, because walking around for an entire weekend in stiff Docs would not be fun. Although, what with the weather being so warm nowadays, I may have to buy shoes-that-are-not-boots (gasp!).

Otherwise, hair and makeup are still a mystery, although I am planning on wearing my Hat a good deal. This is the Hat:

For when I don't, I may try an up-do that a friend of mine did for me this weekend; sort of  a traditional medieval style which looked good for my face shape:

It's basically just two plaits crossing over the top and pinned down. Even I should be able to manage that! It seems like a good travelling hairstyle, keeps the old locks out of your face which is handy when you're trying to contend with suitcases and trains and grumpy boyfriends :p

I may do a makeup post at some point when I mess around a bit.