Kitty Thinks

It’s this time of the year where I’m madly in love with a thousand ideas for Christmas outfits, kitch and stocking stuffers. And because that’s my spill-all blog, you can share my obsession:

An Australian Summer Christmas
(I’m not celebrating Christmas in Australia this year but if I would…)

a) A dark blue velveteen bathing suit!

Velvet (apart from being my favourite fabric ever) is extremely christmassy and in hot Australian sun, the combination: Xmas & Ocean = win.

b) An inflatable wreath! Perfect for your beach house or to stumble drunken into the pacific

A Traveller’s Christmas
(For those who celebrate Christmas on the run)

c) The post stamp dress is cute, comfortable and if this doesn’t get you attention, nothing will.

d) Faux leather travel bag with a compartment for language study cards

A Geeky Christmas
(Theoretically, I could make a post JUST about this category)

e) This math-ively awesome necklace would look great with a simple black dress!

f) Planets are pretty, that’s why.

A Musician’s Christmas
(Rockin’ around the Christmas tree…)

g) Metallic-hued jeans. Ah-mazing!

h) Anarchy on the Northpole.

A Classic Christmas
(How to dress appropriately when invited to a Victorian Christmas party)

i) For the carriage ride through the snowy forest estate, a cape with a velvet collar is a must-have item.

j) Lace equals Elegance.

Dude Shirt Gifts
(This category is less about “what to wear” and more about “what to get him”)

k) This shirt shows you how to recognize animal tracks! For the “great outdoors” kind of guy.

l) Not astronomically expensive and exclusively for stellar guys who like to launch around their starlets

m) On how to say “Owl love you forever” with a t-shirt.

n) For Luna-tics!

An Animal-owner’s Christmas
(When obsession is adorable)

o) P is for Puppies!

Angels I have heard on high,
tell me to go out and buy!

Now, let’s go Christmas-outfit shopping everyone!

(all pictures are clickable and lead to the source)

After I posted about the gifts I’d give if I could, I thought about dreams that I’m having.
Some are realistic although remarkably expensive or very hard to come by and some are probably beautiful illusions. Regardless, dreams exist to delight us:

Cello. I play a tiny bit guitar and an equally tiny amount of keyboard – but hardly enough to consider it anything more than light entertainment at a fireplace (with the listeners being easily pleased).

An instrument I would love to learn, properly learn, is the cello. I don’t know what it is with cellos, but their sound leaves me in awe.

Calming classical cello music to be found here and the reason why cellos are hardcore there.

I have a secret wish: I want to study extremophiles – organisms that can survive and thrive in extreme conditions, and find out if there is life and/or habitable planets for us to live on.

The discipline that does that is called astrobiology.

I have a plan too, I want to study evolutionary biology (or microbiology) and the philosophy of science for undergraduate studies and precede to find a university that lets me do a Master in astrobiology and the philosophy of biology; and when I’m at it, I wouldn’t mind a PhD in both Astrobiology/Biology and Philosophy either.

The chances I will do any of this before I turn 50 are slim though. I’m 26 now and the earliest possible start as a mere freshman is in about 3 years. I would need to start with a Foundation Degree which takes 1 year (if my English is sufficient), unless I successfully sit the STAT exam. If I do my undergraduate degree in Australia (like I plan to do) and manage to get into the Honours Program, I’d be 33 (or 34 if I would go the way of the Foundation Degree) when I’d finish, leaving me with a technical 4 more years of research until I could possibly obtain a PhD (for one subject). So all in all it could take me up to 12 years, or until I am 38 to finish – and that’s if all goes well.

But I’m not worried. Yes I’d love to actually work officially in the field thereafter (in research) but if my age should prevent this, I will not regret the effort. All this will only help me understand what is going to happen in the future, I’m content – and I do hope I will be around when something is found!

Animals. Another rather unrealistic but pleasant dream is an animal sanctuary. I would love to take in old farm animals that are not interesting to the owner anymore because they stopped producing milk/eggs/wool or are too old to be entertaining to people.

Alternatively, I’d take in animals that are orphaned or unable to be released into the wild or disabled.

I’m not an absolute activist, I don’t support PETA’s idea of “total animal liberation” and I eat meat and dairy and I have pets. My motivation isn’t a grand change of the world and a stand against mainstream culture; it’s just that I simply like animals.

One of my biggest dreams and the one I least talk about with people, is my wish to live more isolated. I really mean “a bit more isolated”, not in a hermit-kind of way that is cut off from all civilisation or in a hippie-kind of way that is life without electricity – but just living further out, preferably close to or in a forest, with the ability to plant food and groom or not groom my garden however I please without regulations for proper front lawn height and restrictions on how many trees can block the view.

The idea of actually properly hearing the rain when it falls, with no cars and airports distorting the sound, being able to go for a walk and meet very little people, watching the ISS in a properly pitch-black night… all this I’m longing for.

I was never really good with people. I don’t hate people, on the contrary, I can be very dedicated when I like someone but it is very hard for me to find people similarly inclined.
I’m not alone though, Matt is not just my boyfriend but my best friend as well, we have a lot in common and our differences work generally to each other’s advantage.

But could we live together in a more isolated environment? I’m not certain.
I love forests, rain and old-fashioned/simplified houses while he likes sun, modern design and a fast internet connection. We compromise; but due to those differences, I doubt I will ever achieve my semi-hermit dream, but one can always dream.

And that are the big Four. Of course I have many more dreams – of travelling, self-employment, book writings, owning a carriage etcetera, but this post is long enough.

So tell me, what do you dream of?

It is the seventh of November and Marie Curie’s birthday. You may have realized through the current Google doodle or the many blog entries or the pretty Nobel prize biography.

As much as I admire Madame Curie, this entry shall be about a woman barely known by many and ignored by the entitled.

Lise Meitner.

If I were to tell you shortly who she was, I’d say she co-discovered nuclear fission and discovered the Auger effect. But there is much more!

Lise Meitner was born into a jewish family but had Austrian citizienship, which should later protect her from the Nazis. She obtained a doctor title, even though higher education wasn’t offered to women. She worked with Niels Bohr and Otto Hahn and made Max Planck allow her in his lectures, a courtesy he hadn’t give to any woman beforehand.

Yet, even after overcoming social struggles and establishing work relationships with some of the greatest minds of her time, she was ignored by the Nobel prize commitee (her team mate Otto Hahn got the prize for their joint discovery of nuclear fission – in which he was puzzled about experimental results and she understood it was in fact nuclear fission – she was also the first to realize that Einstein’s relativity theory explained the tremendous release of energy in nuclear fission), by the naming of the Auger effect (she discovered the effect in 1922 but it was named after Pierre Victor Auger, who independently discovered the effect in 1923) and by current culture.

Let’s bring back the memory of a woman who received the Enrico Fermi Award, a Max Planck Medal and was praised by Albert Einstein as the German Marie Curie.

And who was falsely refused the Nobel Prize for Physics.

I tend to write about science,  what I would like to have if I were richer, weird brand names and the occasional geek fashion idea, and although all of these things are totally me, there is one thing I usually don’t admit… that I have a very girly side in me.

This hidden personality trade lusts after limited edition make up, scented candles and shoes. It can’t hide forever, right?

Dior 2012 Collection “Garden Party”. I like green eyeshadows and the green in the upper left corner is the incarnation of my wildest make up dreams!

Just a necklace with a beautiful stone.

Bath & Body Works don’t deliver outside of the US… which makes me sad, because this candle is described as: “A delicious blend of rich semi-sweet chocolate, dark cocoa and sweet peppermint enhanced with a touch of vanilla cream and white chocolate.” Christmas perfect!

This is a rose scented parfume.
I don’t like rose scents.

But this flacon is so pretty (the top is a pin cushion, the pins are included) that I would buy it anyway.

Cat-shaped lipstick everyone. CAT-shaped lipstick.

Those little tea candles are from IKEA, they also sell them in big glasses, medium glasses and stock candles. They smell like red currant berries. I adore them.

Astronomy heels!

I conclude:

A) I really am a girl.

B) I subconciously ordered my post in a colour scheme.

C) According to my product choices, I’m most likely between 40 and 60 years of age, have 3 cats and knit a lot. I must also be a fan of Wizards.

Embrace your inner girl, lady!

I wouldn’t generally call myself a very material person. I have lived in a coal heated flat, on the ground floor for two years and I haven’t ever been shopping in a “haul”-way.

But I do regret not doing it for others. In theory I love gift giving! It is so nice to see people’s eye light up when they unwrapped what you thoughtfully picked – but in reality, all my gifts are rather random and born out of desperation for I cannot pay for what I would really like to buy.

So I raise my glass (aka water bottle) to the wonders of window-blogging! Shall my recipients appreciate their imaginary presents!

Mama

That’s a no-brainer for me. If I could afford it, I’d send my Mum, for the entire recording week, to the  The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo .
She was always fond of bagpipes and generally Scottish folklore and we have watched the Tattoo in TV before and I saw her eyes and I knew she really wanted to go.

Just because I could, I would buy her the Stewart Package too, which is a premier seating arrangement deal, directly in front of the VIP boxes with fast track seating (no queue), a two course meal in Edinburgh castle and a welcome presentation by selected members of the Tattoo cast.

And just because my dear Mama can’t possibly go there in mundane fashion, I’d let a coat be made for her, from Norman Hartnell or Angela Kelly, the designers of the Queen.
I’m quite fond of

this ensemble for my Mum, sans the hat.

Papa

He was always the hardest one to buy for, no matter the money. Theoretically, he would probably wish for better health, because that’s really the only thing he’s lacking… but if I could, I’d probably get him a heated pool with a roof.

Every time he visits his brother, he comes back telling about how he went swimming in their pool and how it works so well for his lungs and how much he is enjoying himself. I think he would like this.

As a second smaller gift my dear Papa would get a Räuchermann. Swiftly translated a “smoker man”, more accurately a figurine that burns incense. It is a traditional Christmas item in Germany and used to be made by hand. The current ones sold for ridiculously cheap prices though, are all made in China.

My dad always liked traditional woodcraft and so I would get him an original from 1850 by the turner Ferdinand Frohs.

Sister

You would think gifts for a 30-something woman that is related to you would be easy to pick, right? Wrong. I’m very horrible when it comes to gifts for my sister, because we are like water and oil, we rarely mix. My usual approach (and I’m sorry to admit this) is to look at a thing and take whatever I myself wouldn’t buy. Interestingly, that usually works. My sister is very much the girly girl, in an eighties fashion kind of way. She likes most things I have little thought for and dislikes a lot of things precious to me. So what to get her?

The one thing we can agree on: stress-free-ness. I would get my sister a holiday alone, most likely in a spa in Indonesia. My vote is for this luxury spa . Private pool and exclusive view (and use) of the ocean, spa treatments galore and if she feels like it, she can enjoy some fine dining or play a round of golf in the hotel-owned country club.

Of course for such a place, a dinner dress is needed. I think I would pick this Versace dress for her.

Brother

My brother is closer in character to me, so it was somewhat easier. What he is and I’m not is quality-driven. He rather buys a 300€ coffee maker that has the best reviews than a cheap one (while I simply don’t buy anything at all).

A super fun but very pricey idea is a Zero Gravity Flight . Due to parabolic arcs flown by the pilot, the persons inside will experience weightlessness, just like in space. My brother has started to be interested in anything that makes him feel free of engaged views, a sentiment I can share. He did a divers’ licence, another one for driving a motorcycle and has recently started studying; I think a space-like adventure would fit well into the list.

And because I like giving two gifts, he needs appropriate attire for the occasion! I have never seen my brother dressed up so I would love to see him wearing this entire ensemble from Burberry.

PS: Yes, that in the photo is Stephen Hawking having the time of his life!

The Love

Lastly, the most precious. I pains me since I’ve met my boyfriend that I couldn’t ever give him a proper gift, if I had the cash, he’d get every gadget under the planet but this blog is meant to be for one time only gifts with extraordinary significance, so I had to think long and hard.

We saw Hawking just before and it dawned on me – what I would give firstly to the boyfriend if I could, would be a signed copy of The Briefer History Of Time, Hawking’s evergreen classic. I found a copy, it is signed with an ink thumb print of Hawking’s (and is validated);  The boyfriend read said book twice, the original version and the student-friendly one.

But because you can never have too many extremely rare books, I would get him a second one and this one ladies and gentlemen, will wipe you off your seats: off seat wiping book . The price is almost exorbitant but it seems utterly impossible to me NOT to want a very first signed edition of Einstein’s Relativity. The Special And The General Theory. I’m positive he would react similar to Sheldon when he got the napkin with Leonard Nimoy’s DNA.

The second (technically third) gift was easier, although the choice more widespread.
He is fond of monocles. It is amusing to me, for he is generally hardly interested in anything fashion or historic but somehow monocles are chic! Obviously, I decided for a fancy one . Wait, you looked at the picture and thought it rather grainy and plain? Well that’s because you don’t know that it was only recently unearthed in a box from 1877 and belonged to William Henry Fox Talbot, the man who invented modern photography and the first camera. Yeah that’s right.

And with this I shall conclude this completely unrealistic list of awesomeness. Who knows, maybe one day I can afford cheap copies of all the above. Let’s wish!

Remember my post about private libraries and how I really want one?
Something I really want too is a greenhouse.

Did you know that 0.25% of the entirety of the Netherlands is occupied by greenhouses? My intentions are a little less gigantic, I’m more thinking of one that fits in the back yard.

I’m not interested in a pretty sitting area (a solarium) but an actual greenhouse to grow herbs, spices, vegetables and fruit year-round. I’d be especially interested in growing old types of vegetables that have been forgotten in the last 50 years and a few unusal or rare plants and flowers too.

A few plants I’d like to grow are those:

Portulak or Common Purslane.

It is a very old wild vegetable, rich in vitamin-c and it grows virtually everywhere.

I had it once as a salad addition and thought it was nice. It’s kind of nutty and a bit sour and Australian Aboriginies use its seeds to make a kind of cake.

Knollenkerbel or Parsnip Chervil.

A rare vegetable. It is said to taste like chestnut or hazelnut. It is a good winter vegetable that is tricky to cultivate – which is why I want to try

Goldene Königin or Golden Queen.

Three good reasons to want this tomato:

1. It is resistant to mould.
2. It looks awesome!
3. It’s tasty.

I quite like tomatoes, so why not a fancy kind like this one?

Moso Bamboo.

In theory, this would be a way to produce bamboo shoots;
but I don’t like bamboo as a food but I do like it for its decorative purposes.
And that’s why I would like to cultivate it.

Now I just need a house, a lot of money and a green thumb.

{picture sources by clicking the images}

The Nobel Prize for Medicine was for the first time awarded posthumously (to Ralph M. Steinman), because he died 3 days ago, when the Nobel Prize Committee thought him alive.

He discovered the role of dendritic cells in immunity. Those are cells that defend our immune system against malicious organisms like cancer cells.

Ralph Steinman died without knowing he was a Nobel laureate. Of cancer.

Perhaps you have read my first post about Australia last June, where I critiqued the bad things that Oz presented to me when I stayed there for a year.

But like usual, there are two sides to the story and this time, I want to talk about the reasons why I love Australia.

The Positives:

• Friendliness

As a German, friendly people are as known to me as Quantum Mechanics. But Australians are blessed with being generally in good mood, easy-going and friendly. I was able to walk through Rundle Mall in pretty Adelaide and get but two looks – one of curiosity of my “European” clothes and one sympathy one for the sunburn in my face. Riding on the bus or the O-Bahn generates pretty much no staring or snarling and most importantly, I can go into any Australian Woolworth or Coles and the teenaged check-out people are smiling at me and greet with a sunny “How are yer today?” and they than precede – la gasp – to pack my green bags for me!

Occasionally, I want to hug random check-out people just for being so customer friendly.

I have volunteered in a charity for a bit too. My boyfriend worked there and even though the people didn’t know me one bit, it took perhaps three visits until I was greeted enthusiastically with my first name and the occasional free coke. Absolutely impossible scenario in Germany! Nobody would EVER call you with your first name unless you are practically BFF’s for life. And letting a mere volunteer sit in your meetings and interview your staff?! Have I mentioned that Australians are super-crazy-friendly?
(photo @ jimbaker.wordpress.com )

• Wildlife

Yes, Australia does have 135 (named so far!) species of spiders, and yes the redback spider (found all over the place) and funnel web spider (only found in Sydney) are deadly. And sure the scorpions, giant centipedes, snakes, mites, venomous jelly fish, sharks and crocodiles are a minor nuisance… but all of them together kill less people a year than common road accidents. And what Australia has to offer in the amazing-and-not-deadly-per-sé department, is just short of miraculous!

Let’s start with the obvious: marsupials! 70% of all animals with in-build pouches live in Down Under. Koalas and kangaroos you have probably heard about – but have you held them? I did and I can tell you it’s amazing! Koalas are just as cuddly as they seem and ‘roos are huge but cute. My favourite marsupial is the wombat. Wombats look like someone crossed a small bear with a guinea-pig and genetically engineered in some hamster for good measure.

But some of the more curious ones are possums and bilbies.

If you spend Easter in Australia, you will come across chocolate bilbies in the shops. Those look like a bunny-mini roo mix and the chances of you ever seeing one in real life is probably about -5.

Apart from pouchy fellas, Australia also has amazing aquatic life, dog-like dingos and lots of sheep. If you wander into the Outback enough, you will also come across wild camels that are the result of a few Indian camels Burkes and Wills (two important discoverers) abandoned in 1860.
(photo @ http://funnyanimalphoto.blogspot.com)

• Living Standard

Even though I have criticised the housing market before, if you have a place, Australia knows how to make you comfortable.

Seeing that every house seems to have a backyard and a front lawn, you are free to relax on your own property. If you subscribe to the real Aussie life style, you should have a BBQ with friends, which, due to the great weather on practically every day of the year, you can do all.the.time.

Talking about the weather – when you have learned to use sun cream religiously and own an air conditioning system, Australian sun is great. You can throw out all your thick winter coats (unless you live in Tasmania), because you’ll do just fine with a jumper or two. Also, forget about raincoats and wellingtons (unless you are in Queensland), because it just doesn’t rain enough to justify cluttering your wardrobe, when you could fill it instead with shorts and flip-flops.
The sun in the morning will make you less depressed. It worked for me. And the fact that you can go jogging even in the depth of winter, is making life a lot less bleak.

I have been to Adelaide, which is a very european-esque Australian city, quite small (in the number of citizens) but not small enough to be boring. It offers malls, food courts, restaurants, Chinatown, a zoo, museums, a library, three nice universities, a pretty inner city park and is fairly close to various wildlife parks and the outback. It will take only a short car ride to get to the beach or the Adelaide Hills, it has various festivals going on (for my German readers: the German Club of Adelaide holds a Schützenfest each year, all with horrible Blasmusik and stupid beer goggles and lots of actually-not-so-bad Bratwurst) and still has so much space that escaping is easy.
(photo @ nytimes.com )

So, what does Australia has to offer? Nothing, only great weather year round, mind boggling fauna, friendly happy people and diverse living experiences. I like it.

Note: All my opinions are based on Adelaide, South Australia and a short visit of Alice Springs. Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, Perth, Darwin and Victoria are most likely an entirly different story, you better go and check for yourself!

When I was younger, I used to collect the little stickers on fruits and vegetables and cut out brand labels that I thought were pretty. Now, years later and in a more concious state, I came to realize that some brands use logos that are questionable when looked at more carefully.

Chiquita Bananas are sold world-wide. The little woman depicted is dressed in a fruit hat, a romanticized version of the tropics.

Quite a contrast to the actual banana farmers, who as of 2007, were exposed to highly toxic pesticides on Chiquita’s Coyol plantation in Costa Rica.

Perhaps if they stopped intimidating the farm workers by using militia and give them an enviroment where they don’t suffer from serious damage to their health, the whole tropical fruit hat fun would be a little less hypocritical.

Uncle Ben’s rice is delicious, but its logo… “Uncle”, when used for an older black man, is a derogatory term used by white people in the south of the U.S. at the turn of the century. Black slaves from West Africa had to teach unsuccessful white farmers how to grow rice properly.

Uncle Ben seem to be a domestic servant (due to his bowtie), the company owning the Uncle Ben’s brand (Mars) says he was a successful rice farmer.

Mars has promoted Uncle Ben’s  to be “chairman of the board”, in a (rather lame) attempt to distance themselves from displaying a domestic servant for over sixty years. The 2007 campaign had a virtual office set up for Uncle Ben, witha  big shiny sign saying “Chairman” on the door and desk.

I personally think it rather a “ok…right…” moment to do this, an explanation about the history of Uncle Ben would have been  more believeable and less silly.

Negerküsse or Mohrenköpfe are chocolate domes filled with sweet white foam. They still exist (and are rather yummy), but are commonly called Schaumküsse (foam kisses) or     Schokoladenküsse (chocolate kisses) today.

Why? Because Mohr and Neger means blackamoor and negro.

In the 19th century, the french invented tête de nègre (head of a negro) and the treat sweped to Germany in the 20th century. My grandparents knew them as “Mohrenköpfe” (blackamoor heads), my parents and even I grew up with the term “Negerküsse” (negro kisses). By the 1980′s, most companies changed their name to the neutral Schokoladenküsse.

Did I think twice about the word “negro” when I was a kid? Not really. I thought it perfectly normal. And even though I wouldn’t use it today anymore, it isn’t the word “nigger” and the packaging was never displayed with a black person on it.

Perhaps its the lesser impect of racism towards black people in Germany that makes me feel less bad about this one. It has a lot to do with culture too. In Germany, if you have to describe a black person, saying “black” or “coloured” is perfectly acceptable, while the same is seen as borderline offensive in America.

I live in the “African Quarters” in Berlin by the way.

Dutch cheese, om nom nom. Although awesome in taste, Frau Antje cheese is promoting stereotypes since 1961.

Its campaign is very popular (and positively received) in Germany but rather controversial in Holland. It is seen as outdated and a promotion of a stereotype.

The Sarotti Mohr. Another classic of tradition mixing with political incorrectness. Mohr, as described above, means blackamoor in German.

When the Mohr was introduced in 1918, the company was already 50 years old. It was located in Mohrenstraße (blackamoor street), hence the name. The brand sells chocolate by the way.

In 2004, they change the brand’s mascot to a caucasian mage, one that doesn’t carry a tray but instead jiggles stars.

And that concludes the list. I understand the claims that all those brands hold their names and logos out of tradition, but one must wonder anyway.

if you haven’t already, read about my thoughts on Pluto here: A New Perspective Of Pluto