a propos paper cups...

eggnog latte
Originally uploaded by f2point4

... the funniest thing happened to me day before yesterday. Well, not really funny, maybe more a little sad.

A few weeks ago I bought a red stainless steel coffee cup with a nice spill-proof lid from a particular coffee chain to use when buying coffees from them. I have it with me pretty much all the time as I am rather partial to the eggnog latte offered by that very coffee chain (that I honestly don't frequent at any other time of the year).

Now, two days ago I had the cup with me, and after some serious Christmas shopping (4 hours on foot from Covent Garden to Selfridges), I walked into the James Street branch of said coffee chain, ordered the latte of my desire and handed over the cup.

To my utter disbelief, the young barista then made up my deliciously flavoured coffee in a paper cup, poured it from there into the steel cup I had given him, and threw the paper cup away.

I couldn't help remarking as he handed me back my environmentally friendly steel cup that the whole point of buying it had been to avoid wasting single-use paper cups. I don't know if he was completely unaware of waste and recycling as concepts of if he was a little tired and hence slow in the up-take but he then offered me to pour the coffee back into a paper cup!

I tried another couple of times to make myself understood but equally unsuccessfully, despite the support of the customer behind me in the queue who shared my exasperation, so in the end I just paid and left...

P.S: For those who are not big on avoiding waste but count their pennies in these hard times, please note that Starbucks give you 25p off your chosen coffee if you bring your own cup. However, I don't know if they just accept their own merchandise cups for this purpose or generic ones you can buy in kitchen shops, too.

anti-terrorism powers...

...
Originally uploaded by f2point4

...were used in this particular situation which has been cited to justify police powers to stop photographers going innocently about their own business or hobby.

It has been said in the article and mentioned elsewhere that the person in question is serving time on fraud charges, nothing to do with terrorism, so the stop and search even in his case constitutes a misuse of powers given to the police under the piece of legislation they cite as their justification.

However, what really got me hot under the collar was this quote:

"Superintendent Chris Greany of the City of London Police says in a statement: 'The cops on the street are aged 21 and 22, it’s a big ask for them to identify who is behaving suspiciously and who isn’t.'"

Any politician having voted for this piece of legislation should at least now see that they gave the police powers that they are incapable of using correctly BY THEIR OWN ADMISSION! I hope they soon pass a law to protect the public at large from the police or make sure in future the police only get powers they can actually handle, that powers that are largely abused are taken away, and that the police officers doing the abusing have to account for it through disciplinary procedures.

philosopher... (edited)

rail tracks
Originally uploaded by f2point4

... or sometimes also called 'business philosopher' Jim Rohn passed away on 5 December 2009. I was acutely aware of it as on the day I worked as an interpreter at an event for a company that had him signed up as a motivational speaker for many years, so for many years I have had the task of interpreting his musings into German. Here is one of them:

"When you know what you want, and want it bad enough, you will find a way to get it."

I know he has his fans and I am probably not making many friends among them by saying this but the term 'business philosopher' will in the larger context and in time most likely not become an established category in the long and illustrious history of philosophy but remain marketing blurb. I just don't see Jim Rohn up there with the likes of Aristotle, Plato, Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Marx and Nietzsche, to name but a few.

While what Jim Rohn said always made perfect sense to me, it also always reminded me of something or other my mum used to tell me when I was little. In other words, his musings were not so much philosophy than much more simple and straight-forward common sense.

This is not to devalue his work, I acknowledge that common sense is not very fashionable these days, so to be reminded of a few simple basics in basic, easy-to-understand language is a fantastic thing and sorely needed. But philosophy it is not.

I think the massive advantage Jim Rohn had over my mum was his kindly grandfatherly way of presenting his truisms that made me actually listen to him, as opposed to my mum. And with that I would like to come to the other thing I wanted to say about the late Jim Rohn:

He most probably touched more lives in a meaningful way than all the great philosophers taken together. Partly this would be due to new means of getting a message to people, other than just reading a book, but mostly it would be due to the message that was spread ringing true with everyone, without the need for a university degree, and to the message being relevant to pretty much everyone who heard it and a lot of other people who didn't. And that message in a nutshell was this: "Don't wish it were easier, wish you were better." And there's nothing wrong with that. Jim Rohn, yes, you will be missed...

the freedom...

tired
Originally uploaded by f2point4

...to walk barefoot was granted to me quite unexptectedly in this very month of December!

Going down to the beach and taking my shoes off is one of the most liberating things I can imagine. Being able to do so when I had already put that kind of shoes away for the winter is absolutely amazing.

This picture is from a 4 1/2 day conference in Marbella that was fraught with its own problems, what with the interpreters not staying at the conference venue and the working day being extended by at least half an hour each end for transfer. The agenda was changed all the time at short notice, too.

Still, there was time for moments like this, and they are going to stay with me when the difficulties are forgotten and the money I earned is spent...

remembering...

Ostalgia from Chryssa on Vimeo.

I probably would just have thought of it in passing. After all, years have passed, and at some point it would have to be a round number of years. Big deal.

But because of a friend's documentary video workshop assignment I found myself delving much deeper than I would have wanted and with surprising results.

I found that my attitude of turning my back on 'my' country (meaning the usurping power of West Germany) had mellowed over the years without me really noticing. I found that the way things happened after the fall of the wall leading up to reunification was in hindsight the most realistic, although it wasn't handled in the most sensitive manner to East German citizens as well as West German citizens. Neither of us were asked if we wanted to rush into this most unequal of unions. But it happened, and 'what belongs together, came together'.

So if you want to see me in my first starring role, watch Ostalgia by Chryssa Panoussiadou and Bence Kertész.

and once more...

1. Advent
Originally uploaded by f2point4

...it is the first of the four Sundays before Christmas, the time when in Germany you are officially allowed to get in the mood for the festive season by lighting first one, then two and so on candles in the countdown to the holidays.

I have seriously neglected my preparations for this day this year (hence the use of the same picture for the occasion as last year) as first I was too happy to care and then suddenly everything fell to pieces a bit. But I should be up and running by next week, hopefully, although I have a tight work schedule ahead.

For today I'll improvise a little and think of all my friends and family in Germany who are probably getting ready for the first cut of Christmas Stollen for 4 o'clock coffee as I am writing this. I'll be here, still a bit out of sorts but in a stable condition, eating a lovely Chinese crispy bun with my coffee when the time comes to light my first candle...

another good way...

on my knees
Originally uploaded by f2point4

... to convince yourself you don't care whether someone kinda important is going to call or not, apart from having a bath and leaving the phone in the front room, is doing some cleaning around the house. Works for me as there is always something that needs scrubbing. It's never ALL clean.

However, although this would clearly be the most productive way of distracting yourself, a much more chilled method, especially on a Saturday, is to put your favourite album on repeat on your iPod. It helps to have a few glasses of wine, too, just to make sure that at some point you'll just fall asleep without bothering to check if there are any missed calls.

You'll obviously check first thing in the morning, but at this stage of relationship anxiety the most important thing is to get through the evening and the night. You'll always be that little bit stronger in the morning, especially if you have a hangover that needs more immediate attention than the question why there are still no missed calls...

sleepless...

empty space
Originally uploaded by f2point4

... that's how I've been left after switching on the heating at 5am this morning. I can't stop thinking about how quickly life can change. The fireworks are over, and boring, normal, real, dragging-along life is back, made to look even more ordinary, boring, and normal because of the preceding moments of unexpected and unadulterated happiness.

Never mind. Things work out for the best, one has to believe that in such times. My life may seem as empty and desolate to me as this place right now, but if that were my life, just imagine the possibilities. I'd love the challenge to make it look nice and welcoming...

life right now...

fireworks 6
Originally uploaded by f2point4

... feels a bit like this for me.

I am still surrounded by a personal kind of darkness that even with the best (and painful) effort will take some time to dissipate.

However, after losing love's companionship for a while, it soon exploded right back into my life, stopped me in my tracks and has since had me staring in wonderment and disbelief at my good fortune and drinking in its glow and sparkle with the thirsty eyes of a woman who'd lost her sight and miraculously got it back...

my favourite season...

Originally uploaded by f2point4

... after summer is autumn. ;-)

I love them all, really, and each of them has its charms and its place, but there is nothing quite like the rich colours leaves turn in the autumn, set against a bright blue sky. It's just one of those things that put a smile on my face, no matter how miserable my day may have been until then...