I am the anchor of my own news!!

I am the anchor of my own news, the star of my private reality show. Perhaps not so private, but what is private these days. Lets face it, we have all become addicted to it in many ways.


(Picture: courtesy of Fox News)

Facebook, twitter, blogging, you name it!! Everyone wants to tell the world about their lives...great or not. We all want to spill out the beans about what we like or dislike. We want others to see how wonderful or terrible our lives are.
We want to be superstars just like those on the big screen or in glamor magazines.

Years ago we were silent spectators, looking in on others. Now we have the chance to participate.
Social Networking? More like antisocial prying on others and exposure of our own lives?

Years ago, I wrote a paper on reality TV, back then it was still kind of new, facebook an Orwellian fiction, and blogging not even in the Oxford English Dictionary. (I am not sure if it is in there now, but it certainly was not in the 2003 edition.)

The reality show "Big Brother" is now as much of a cult as Orwell`s "1984" was back then. And what I thought was, at the beginning of the 21st century, a disgusting "fish bowl" like exposure of human life, is now readily excepted by society, and me, as normal or more even...it has become a necessity!!
No frustrated mother of six, or eight has to walk her tedious path of motherhood alone anymore. No fat person has to undergo the agony of loosing those dreaded pounds alone, and no thirteen year old has to go into labor by herself...no, there will be a camera team and she will be tweeting the moment the scalpel touches her abdomen.

And on a smaller scale we can be the stars on our facebook account, reaching at least a 100 or so people, who may or may not be interested in what we have to say, but at least we get a chance to tell someone.

We get a chance to share, a chance to be openly proud of something or someone, a chance for help, often only consisting of a just one word, or a chance to show people how great the world and life can be. For every negative posting there are a thousand positive ones. And judging by that, I believe, for as much as people like to feast on other´s woes, they generally want to feel good about life.

For this, I praise social networking and all the good we get out of it...! And anyway, where would all those poor hackers and identity thieves be without it? ...probably on benefits. :-)

Home sweet home, but its damn hard to entertain two kids by myself!!

How can two month fly by like that. Even the flight from London to Newark felt longer than those two month in Europe. Slowly the kiddies, and I, are recovering from a slight jet leg by catching up on as much sleep as we can get. Luckily they all sleep at the same time. We get up at six, and are back in the sack by 9.30 am. Works really well.
What does not work so well is the new swing set Daddy has purchased for his little ones. Don´t get me wrong, it is cool and everything. Unfortunately it requires my constant attention as Sadie is being a bit of a dare devil on the slide that seems to have been waxed!

Needless to say, it is 8.00 pm now and I am exhausted!!
I think I did more today than in the last two month.
We went to the library and I even got a book for myself. Whether this was just wishful thinking has yet to be determined.
For the first time in absolute ages, I did the weekly grocery shopping trip with two CRAZY children. I bet they could hear me shouting all the way to London. As a compensation I took them to the playground where the slides are less fast and I didn´t have to watch Sadie like a hawk. Instead I practiced riding a proper bike with no training wheels with Finley.

He did great and only forgot to push occasionally which resulted in him falling over and me running like a mad hatter to his rescue. In turn I had to leave Sadie behind at the highest point of the "not waxed", but very steep slide only to find her climbing down the ladder among my return.
Tomorrow I am going to the gym and put the kids into babysitting for as long as I can, otherwise this will end in my own premature death...probably a heart attack!!!
Home sweet home!!!!

Life is awesome: A personal valedictory tour of my second home...or is it my third? I think I am loosing track!

Life is awesome: A personal valedictory tour of my second home...or is it my third? I think I am loosing track!

A personal valedictory tour of my second home...or is it my third? I think I am loosing track!

England was my home for ten years.
Not as long as Austria, but quite a bit longer then America.

People move around a lot today and I sometimes wonder if they sometimes ask themselves the question:"Where is my home?"

The only thing that comes to mind is a line from a Temptation song, "Papa was a rolling stone, where ever he laid his head was his home".

That is a bit how I feel.

The beds my not always be comfortable, and the pillows not always goose down, but what counts is the fun we have on the journeys.

So here I am, in the lovely Thames Valley...! Last night it was raining cats and dogs. Not unusual for the Island of Great Britain. But that, I think, is also a reason why I love this place. It makes everything look so lush and green.
People might disagree with me on that point, but who cares, I don't have to live here anymore:-)

I used some rare moments of solitude to visit some of my favorite places and took a few pictures along the way.













And on top of all, I got to enjoy some good old Brit Pop acts from the 80s at the Rewind Festival with friends and family:-))