.SOMETIMES RAW.

Hello and Happy Wednesday! 

Sleep is important. We all know how good it feels to wake up after a good night rest. Enough and mostly enough deep sleep is the beauty-101! While our body rests he also is pretty active. He restores cells and organs and organizes all the impressions we dealt with throughout the day. Many of my friends suffer from insomnia and they say it is not easy to unwind and fall asleep. I found this recipe and mixture online that I just spritz on my pillow here and there to fall asleep better and faster. For some reason it works, so I share it with you. I used essential oils that are good to make me fall asleep easier. Lavender, Ylang Ylang and orange calm spirit and emotions and give me a sweet, calm and restorative sleep. 

Ingredients:

15 ml water

35 ml alcohol (I used 96% alcohol that I purchased in the pharmacy!) 

Essential Oils:

25 drops red Orange oil

20 drops Lavender

8 drops Ylang Ylang

How to:

Fill water, alcohol and essential oils in a spray bottle. Shake well.

Shake well before every use. Oil and water need to mix well. Spray the pillow mix in approximately 30 cm distance on the pillow

Even if you think the smell is not that intense, do not use more right away. They will get more intensive over time

Store the pillow mist at a dark and cool place and use it for up to 12 months.

Did you know that….

We learn while we sleep? When we are awake our brain works constantly. Well, with some people it is questionable – just saying.  There is just so much stimuli and the brain has to store it somewhere. When you sleep, there is time to save all this information in the long-term memory. Not only that; there is so much more happening. The memories will be put in new order and balanced or harmonized with new memories. They will be all connected to make sense again. So I guess, sometimes it is great to sleep over a difficult matter one night before making the final decision and don’t overthink it and stay up all night. The solution will come the next morning. 

SideNote: 

Not really How-To-Wednesday-related but I want to share some pictures of today’s highlights. Today was perfect, even though there was rain here and there, but this most certainly does not stop me having fun. My son was so good all day. Even at The British Corner where I had cream tea, scones, clotted cream and marmalade with my dear friend Lisa. Best time! It made me realize again that we have been friends in forever without seeing each other that much, but as soon as we spend time together, the awesomeness and good feeling is all back. Instantly. I Love you, my dear. Thank you for this awesome day. To be repeated. Enjoy some pictures and have a good day/night. 

Hello and Happy Sunday! 

There is a lot of hype about this book. It seems everybody on this planet talks about it, read it, wants to read it and whatnot. “The most shocking thriller you will read this year“? Most inaccurate and unrealistic claim ever. I dragged myself through this book waiting for a change in the plot or something else interesting but unfortunately it did not happen. L.S. Hilton’s femme fatale Judith, who is the main character in Maestra seems like a weird psycho lady after just a couple of pages.

The initial set up of the story was good, entertaining and even grabbed my attention. The author introduced Judith as a young beautiful woman who tried to make her way in the art world. She seemed smart and works at a well-known auction house as a receptionist. All she wants is money however because of her debt and to buy great expensive clothing. Judith also wants to gain respect and entry in the real art society and world. Then she meets an old friend who told her about this amazing job as a hostess at a champagne bar. Judith works there occasionally, then every night, making a lot of money in tips, manipulates the customers to purchase the most expensive champagne which is the main purpose of the etablissement. Judith then saves all the money, starts a savings account and buys tons of expensive clothing and the labels and brands are mentioned constantly in the book. All she wants is to look hot; she also detests fat people. She is also a sex addict. The scenes described reminded me a bit of 50 Shades of Grey but more graphic, brutal and disgusting. Judith is most certainly not a virgin. 

So she works as a hostess and at the art house. At the auction house,  things start to go down. Judith finds out about a conspiracy and art fraud and ends up being fired because she wants to make it all public. At this point I waited for justice. I mean, who wouldn’t? Revenge? Nothing. All that happens from now on are brutal sex and killings. The author describes a sex party that Judith, a friend, and James, a “fat annoying customer at the hostess club” attend. Then an “accident” happened and James died. It is not even Judith’s fault but she escapes. I just wanted her to be caught at this point and the book to end. When she was with the next guy, Steve, I thought the story might get a bit better but is just downhill from there until the end. 

It seems that the author tried something here, and something different there and then combine both stories but it just does not work. Out of nowhere, Judith completely changes and is a cold-blooded killer and sort of sociopathic. The story could be okay but somehow there need to be flashbacks why she became like that, childhood troubles and whatnot for example. For me, there should be a lot more to a journey or story than just a confusing mix of weird circumstances. In an interview L.S. Hilton said that she did a lot of research before  and during writing the book. Well, I did not find any investigations, police reports or forensics. Doesn’t anybody try to catch her while she is randomly killing people, after having insane crazy sex and getting high all the time? The book just does not add up and fell apart pretty quickly. A good decent psychological crime thriller is something different. The plot hast too many holes. Trilogy? No thank you. 

Would I love to read this book? 

There is nothing mysterious about the plot. Don’t read it if you are looking for something glamorous, class, erotic, thrilling or a good plot. If you are into x-rated porn, obnoxiously expensive clothing and constant designer fashion names, expensive hotels and yachts, poor taste and slightly disgusting overall-feel, then you will enjoy this book. 

Hello and Happy Thursday! 

I cleaned my bookshelves the other day to get an idea what is piling up in there, what I haven’t read yet or which books I can send traveling through BookCrossing.  Just this morning I received a notification that someone found the book Maestra by L.S. Hilton that I left at the entrance of a store. I hope you like it more than I did. So while I cleaned, I found a book that I have read several times already. Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig. What a great, inspirational book that is moving, breathtaking and works also as a great meditation to figure out how to live a better life. You will learn about a father and his son who plan a motorcycle trip across America. It is interesting to read how both grow, discover new things and more importantly themselves, how they learn acceptance and to ask life’s most fundamental questions. I am working on a book review as well so stay tuned for that. 

Sidetone: This morning, my father and a friend left on a motorcycle trip to Austria together on a Trike. How awesome is that? Is your dad as cool as mine? 🙂 

Nice little taste of adventure and freedom, right? While I took the picture, Born to Be Wild played in the background. There was a time in my life when nothing was better than hopping on my motorcycle and sort of leaving the world behind. My parents died one thousand deaths when I came home for the first time on a rented bike, took my helmet off and left them speechless. They knew that I took driving lessons to get my motorcycle license but they secretly hoped that I changed my mind and would not buy a motorcycle, come to my senses, because dangerous and whatnot. A friend of mine [Hey, Putzl, I know you read my blog, hah!] sold me his bike way back when and I loved it. Did I see a tiny tear in the corner of his eye when he gave me the keys? No, it must have been the light. 

I loved riding alone. Usually, after night shift at work was over, I came home, slept a bit to be a bit refreshed when I headed for pizza to Italy. Just like that. Because I can. I remember the time when I stopped at a gas station to refill, get a coffee and smoke two Marlboro lights how people looked at me when I took the helmet off. Long hair, woman, leather combo and their jaws dropped. Sounds like a fantasy? As a matter of fact, I know many women [Hi Nadine Glitzer] who loved to ride a bike. It is just not a men-thing full of testosterone and machismo anymore. 

I was crazy about my bike – so crazy that I did not even have a seasonal license plate. I rode all year round. Winter and snow? Pfff! There is no wrong weather, just wrong clothing. A friend of mine works all winter long on his bike, turns it on, fixes things and waits for the sun and dry roads. Well, to each his own. 

We are a family of bikers. Le husband rode his bikes for a long time; he was even a motorcycle shadowing officer for French customs. Say whaaaaat? Pretty awesome, no? Both of us sold our bikes and haven’t really taken a motorcycle ride together. But every time we see a cool bike, we get goosebumps and want to ride again. Will this ever stop? I doubt it. Riding has in a way helped me to define me, brought me closer to nature [all those amazing rides and side roads I took!] and I felt free of anything and everything that was holding me down. Sometimes one needs to escape the daily bull**** I think. 

I also realized that it is a constant learning experience and the more I rode my motorcycle, the better I became. Practice is definitely key. Speeding was never a goal of mine and I think it is so much cooler and fun to drive curves. As many as possible, hah! Once in a while it is fantastic however to go faster than the speed of light. It was not fear, but I never lost respect of riding this bike. We were a good team for a long time. With only one minor accident. I wish my little cousin Patrick good luck with his new bike. Respect each other. Be safe! 

All this made me think about the amazing movie The Motorcycle Diaries that I watched a long time ago, but is so worth watching. Highly recommended. It is about a motorcycle road trip that Che Guevara did together with his friend. And how Che became the legendary person  he is. 

Do you have a motorcycle? Do you love to ride? I would love to hear from you.