Easing (ok, Crashing) into the New Year with Uggs, DIY Haircuts, Work, Detox, Bruises, Cherries, Germany and Those Darned Resolutions!

Happy 2008!

I am happy in Hamburg, sitting in my favorite hotel, enjoying a crisp winter night with the door open to the terrace (hey - there's an invitation for all the stalkers!). My colleague Pia informed me before I left London that "it is warm here" - which means you still need the winter coat, but won't freeze while outside, cursing life. And she was right - I didn't need my coat from baggage claim to the taxi, so as the people (somewhere) say, "woo hoo!"

Lots of exciting things happening in life right now. Let me see, where to start....

I am back at work. "Exciting" is definitely a word for that. But luckily I am feeling re-energised and ready to rock after 2 glorious weeks in the States for the holiday.

A word (or 100) about the holiday: Got lots of QT with family and friends between MD, DC and NY. God bless America. And all the people I love there. It was restorative - at least after the first week, once I recovered from the exotic cold I brought with me from the U.K. (much love to my sweet MaMa who brought me tea, snacks, magazines and drugs in bed). But after I felt better, I did lots of dinners, visits, parties, shopping, movies, cooking, laying on the couch reading books and magazines, driving aimlessly, catching up with lots of people, thinking about nothing....also spent lots of time with my hysterical neices, a highlight being learning the dances from "High School Musical" thanks to the "High School Musical Remix" DVD someone gave my neice Elise. Think I was the last one standing from that exercise. Boy, I sure can't keep up with the way the kids are dancing these days - think my MTV dreams are now officially shattered.

Speaking of shattered, I'm in a state of recovery after some not-so-mysterious bruises appeared all over my body one morning while in NYC. After ice skating the night before. After some cocktails. But that's all I'll say about that. Except you should never mix cocktails and skating. And it's really something to see Rockerfeller Center from your back looking straight up, the tree is really dazzling from that angle with all those dancing lights! By the way, that is not a picture of me to the left...I was wearing a fuschia leotard with sequins and feathers on my skate-night outing. :)

But moving onto nicer topics...My best discovery of late has been the pair of Uggs (boots) I bought myself over Christmas. I have long thought that these boots were the ugliest things known to mankind and swore I wouldn't be caught dead in a pair. But never say never. After deciding my feet could no longer handle the pressure of high heels on the cobblestone streets of London, I caved and bought a pair of these bizarre Australian sheepskin surfer boots that everyone swears by. And they have not dissapointed. As a matter of fact, I really don't ever want to take them off and am already plotting to buy my next ugly pair. I know, I am about 7 years behind the trend, but my feet have never been warmer or more cosy. It's like having your tootsies in a warm fluffy cloud. And they are soooo great on airplanes. This marks a major new era in my life - Before, in NYC, I would withstand any amount of pain, cold and hardship for the sake of being fashionable and think nothing of it. My sister constantly protested my stilettos, saying that "NY women have no sense when it comes to footwear" (she is an L.L. Bean treehugger). But, I have clearly entered a new age of maturity, sacrificing all fashion sense for comfort. I guess people really can change. I still wear my fancy shoes when I have to, but I don't commute in them anymore (i.e. walk to work) and I certainly don't like it. Ok, enough free word of mouth for Uggs...they're not even a client!

Next topic: DIY haircuts. While bored last Sunday evening, I decided to cut some bangs (or a "fringe" as they call it in England) for myself. That did not turn out so good. So I ended up at the John Freida salon on New Cavendish Street two short days later, where a nice man named Mark fixed the damage after my tearful confession and pledge to never cut my own hair again (just kidding, there were no tears, just some stifled giggles on his part...as if English people didn't already make me feel stupid enough). So I now have a fashionable new fringe, done right. I guess I just can't kick that 6-year old impulse to sneak the scissors from the drawer and go to town!

So, in Hamburg, I am enjoying all things kirche (cherry) - got some delicious cherry mint chewing gum by Orbit, and some very nice cherry yogurt. Delicioso. I would say that in German, but I left my German dictionary at home (they just laugh at me anyway when I try to speak the language here).

I have been detoxing this week trying to recover from all the Christmas cheer. I bought the Boots brand 5-day detox kit (it's a "breakthrough" formula -- and now available at Target in the U.S. as well!) which includes 5 vials of mystery fluid that you pour into a litre bottle of water each day, and a pill you take with the mystery liquid. It tastes really terrible (I didn't realise when I purchased that they had flavours, so I ended up with the plain "yuck" flavour). But I have been adding some elderflower cordial (non-alcoholic) to it which makes it potable. Of course, the sugar in the cordial probably cancels out any benefit of the detox, but whatever. I have also not been drinking any alcohol or caffeine (minus a cup of tea here and there), so I am feeling a little giddy. But I don't plan to remain righteous for long, I will resume my morning cups of coffee and afternoon cappuccinos as soon as these "new year new you" shennanigans lose their appeal. I actually feel MORE hyper without the caffeine. Some say that's "high on life," I say it is "crazy withdrawl symptoms from a chemical dependency."

And last but not least, I made three New Years resolutions, to 1) get to work by 9:30, 2) not eat so much chocolate and 3) go to the gym. I broke all three of them on the very first day back at work. Resolutions are stupid...I should just stick with my favourite stand-by resolution each year, which is to just drink more water.

Ok, I fear I may be further damaging my reputation with this enlightening post, so I am going to go now. But stay tuned for my next post on my Croatian holiday....the one I took 5 months ago. Hey, better late than never...and now's a good time to be reminissing about hot weather!