Cosy 'Candid Café', Candid Arts Trust in Angel, London

On quiet Friday afternoons, I often turn to my favourite study and reading resort in Islington: Tucked away down a shy side street just next to Angel tube station, Candid Café and Courtyard is by far the cosiest café that I have come across during my student years in this area. This rather small café-restaurant is backed by the Candid Arts Trust which promotes the arts and arts education.

I usually have a strong, steaming hot Ginger tea and throw in one or two fat, brown sugar cubes that leave that amazing caramel taste on your tongue. Although I brought a book with me with me last time, I just started day-dreaming. Not sure why, but this place always leaves me in this state - quite lovely state I have to admit, and probably one of the reasons I would describe the café as my magical secret London gem.

It can get quite crowded at times, but if you arrive before the usual 'rush hour' afternoon tea, you can almost always get a place on one of the cosy sofas (next to some excited arts students discussing their latest project maybe ;)) or on one of the romantic candle light tables next to the windows - just for your own pleasure or to share it with a good friend or loved one.... It's the favourite hangout when reuniting with my London-German friend Seyfried Girl (she really looks a lot like Amanda Seyfried, sometimes it is almost scary!) and I once had lunch there, they do simple, but delicious and filling dishes and rather mediterranian cuisine.

"Puppy-photo-love-story": Luke's first time playing in sand

A few weeks ago, we were doing construction works again and therefore had some sand in our yard. Of course Luke couldn't resist and HOOPI DI HOPP he jumped right onto it <3 Judging his face and reactions he absolutely loved it ;)

Design, build and live in your own house - all at the same time

It is probably one of the most common reasons why people are not able to visualize and afford their own homes and enjoy life at the same time:

They believe you can only live somewhere when it's ALL DONE AND READY.

Morning visit on our construction site

The prince of sun and I knew that it would take years to save money to have a ready home. As our whole life is an adventure anyway we knew we would do it differently.

We decided that all we care about is:

-saving money long term: getting out of the vicious circle of wasting money through renting and using the savings for travelling and enjoying life

-independence, safety & freedom: having our own place where we feel safe, are totally free to do what and how we wish to do it, for example having our own dog without worrying about changing rent regulations

-an affordable hence small but cosy home base: to be able to travel now and then and not have high maintenance/utility bills while at home and when travelling/abroad

-cheap living costs in the town of our home base, here in Porto Seguro, Brazil

-no rush: being able to take it slow, design and build the house at our speed and wallet abilities

-have spare time and enjoy life: instead of having the life of workaholics and no-time for 6-10 years, and not taking advantage of our youth, we prefer to build slow but steady and be able to go out, travel, eat well and enjoy ourselves with friends, family or just the two of us.

My house plan

So that's what we did: First we obviously needed a piece of land. We chose a long, narrow one, flat space of 3m wide/streetfront and 20m long/between two other houses. This shows that it won't be an ordinary house, the way people normally believe houses 'should' be built - such as

Can your job pay London´s rent?

London is quite known to be one of the most expensive cities in the world, although it has fallen a few places.

This interesting homepage let´s you calculate whether the salary you are gaining (or maybe a salary from a job offer) would pay a studio flat or even just a room in your chosen London boroughs:

Can your job pay London´s rent?

Try it out! =)

The sea

“Mr. Hoshino?” Nakata said, breaking the silence. 
“What is it?” 
“The sea is a really nice thing, isn’t it?” 
“Yeah, it is. Makes you feel calm.” 
“Why is that?” 
“Probably ’cause it’s so big, with nothing on it,” Hoshino said, pointing. “You wouldn’t feel so calm if there was a 7-Eleven over there, or a Seyiu department store, would you? Or a pachinko place over there, or a Yoshikawa pawnshop? But as far as the eye can see there’s nothing – which is pretty darn nice.”


(Kafka on the Shore)

Sufferings of frequently occurring Offline Existance – or: Internet in a small Brazilian town

Internet in Brazil is like an annoying neighbour: if you don´t need it, it´s always available and stopping you from doing your work but as soon as you urgently need its help it´s either busy due to a lot of people using it or not available.

*********************************************************************************

We like to think of Brazil as one of the leading nations. Economy, wealth, development.

Unfortunately I am forced to say that Luanda (capital of Angola) has more reliable internet providers. During my time there, the internet in two private apartments as well as the internet cafe never failed (only when we had some of the occasional electricity failures but then again, it wasn´t the internet providers fault…)...

Working mainly through the internet and online masterboards, my husband and I have been fighting our way through at least 4 different internet providers. Two mobile stick internet options (claro and vivo, incredibly expensive and incredibly slow), radio  and cable internets (affordable, but totally unreliable). We will hopefully soon be able to try out the last remaining, expensive option called Velox (unfortunately we do know from relatives using it here in Porto Seguro (region Bahia) that even this option has similar failures although it seems to be the fastest and reliable of all). So what do they all have in common?

My Top 5 favourite places in London

Those are my current Top 5 favourite places in London

1. Hampstead Heath 

My favourite London Park (Tube: Hampstead) and the area where I wish to have a small garden flat in the future. It is the place where I´ve dreamed alone, had picknicks with friends and where I can renew myself after a tiring day – whether working or when coming back from the busy centre

2. The British Library 

(Tube: Kings Cross) 
Researching, browsing or just enjoying free time over free classics of British literature and the whole atmosphere of reading people surrounding you, also offer free internet, lovely to meet other fellow literature/book fans. I also love tiny side street book shops, often just stumble over them during a shopping or sight seeing trip. Oh and the (under) Waterloo Bridge Second Hand book market is fantastic as well!

3. Whereever my beloved Zouk-Lambada, Samba and Kizomba classes take place

An ordinary sleeping pattern during a weekend in Porto Seguro, Brazil

An ordinary sleeping pattern during a weekend in Porto Seguro, Brazil:

11pm-4am: Local Street Event (=you get free Party Music at xtreme volume in your house even with closed doors and windows)

4am-6am: drunk ppl walking home, screaming and throwing glass bottles on the street, cars getting damaged due to glass on street, fights...

6am-9am: Catholic Youth Centre (neighbour building) start their drum and capoeira training

o_O

Result of this weekend's sleeping pattern: non-existence ;)

Living in two countries - 1

What's a woman to do when she's loving two...

Or three...

Three cultures, that is. And two cities to live in. The one and only city which is the 'love of her life'. Then the small town to live life to the full and the home*sweet*home to visit family and friends whenever the Sehnsucht (home sickness - which does not really contain the real sentiment...) hits the top nerve.

The home obviously is Germany, my home country. A village close to the French border, a 30-minute drive to beautiful EU-Strasbourg and an oasis of tranquility and peace of mind. Most of the time at least ;) I love visiting my parents and siblings who I ADORE, with all their odds and bits, but as it is after about 2 weeks, my dear self and its freedom genes are urging to leave to where its heart last stayed or where it would like to stay. Let's call this German village "the land of milk and honey".

The small town to live life to the full is a Brazilian well Bahian town called