Today, on my way to work. It's half past six - way too early for me, actually... After three years of commuting and having to get up at what feels like shortly after midnight, I still haven't turned into a morning person. But this amazing view today just struck me as something rare and precious. I've tried to capture it on my mobile to share it with you :-)

There's just a handful of people and cars on the street, everything still has to awake. Only the sun rises to illuminate the city like a giant spotlight sets focus on a stage that is soon to be crowded with actors and dramas... But at this moment everything's still calm and peaceful.

I'd have never thought rising with the sun (in this case, even in a literal sense!) can be so inspiring and energising.

My boyfriend's grandma definitely has something of a whirlwind. Most of her energy she derives from her seemingly insatiable enthusiasm for things. So recently she came swirling in, flung herself into an armchair that immediately rolled back and knocked over a shelf that dared to be in its way! Fortunately, nothing was broken or damaged in any way. Every force of nature, however, does not only have a destructive side, but also a creative and renewing influence on its surroundings - when we collected the things that have fallen out of the shelf and were scattered over the floor, I've found this lovely little book again! I read it in the course of an afternoon (it's really thin) and it highly amused me (and still does!).

T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats is a compilation of fifteen poems concerning the society and manners of cats, largely based on the description of certain groups or outstanding characters. They were published 1939 and later on served as an inspiration for the popular musical Cats. 

The book starts with the issue of "The Naming of Cats", claiming every cat has at least three names - one is given to it by the family he lives with, one is its fancy name ("But I tell you, a cat needs a name that's particular, / A name that's peculiar, and more dignified, / Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular, / Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?") and the last one is known only to the cat itself... We realise cats are truly complex beings - very much like ourselves!

"Growltiger's Last Stand" narrates the story of Growltiger, a fierce and feared bully of a cat, also called "The Terror of the Thames". Like many other great fellows before him, his affection for a lady was fatal - while wooing for Griddlebone, he was surprised by his enemies: 

Growltiger had no eye or ear for aught but Griddlebone.

And the Lady seemed enraptured by his manly baritone,

Disposed to relaxation, and awaiting no surprise -

But the moonlight shone reflected from a thousand bright blue eyes.

And closer still and closer the sampans circled round,

And yet from all the enemy there was not heard a sound.

The lovers sang their last duet, in danger of their lives -

For the foe was armed with toasting forks and cruel carving knives.

Now that is true suspense! What we witness here is a great criminal caught in a moment of weakness...

Two other figures from the cat's low-life society are Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer, definitely one of my favourite characters from the whole book. They're burglars and love to make a mess in human households, vexing upper-class families by snatching jewelleries and even whole meals... But they also do not fail to entertain and have a great reputation as "knockabout clowns, quick-change comedians, tight-rope walkers and acrobats" who love to chat and spread rumours.

The story "Of the Awfull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles, together with some Account of the Participation of the Pugs and the Poms, and the Intervention of the Great Rumpuscat" tells about a fierce street fight between cats and dogs without further notice of the police. I just love that title!

Probably the most famous cat of the whole book is "Mr Mistofelees", you might have the same childhood memories of his song in the musical :-)

All the other cats I've not mentioned are the "Old Gumbie Cat", who is responsible to keep a household in order, the "Rum Tum Tugger", a mischievous cat with a strong will, the Jellicles (the party folk among the cats) "Old Deuteronomy", something like a Methusalem, Macavity, a master criminal, Gus, an old actor on the theater, Bustopher Jones, the self-important and well-fed upper class cat, Skimbleshanks, the train conductor cat and Cat Morgan, a retired pirate.

Priceless is also "The Ad-Dressing of Cats", a social codex for human beings on how to interact with a cat, and, once again, a clear distinction to dogs that are supposedly more inferior than cats.

It soon becomes clear that these poems are, in fact, a satire on human society:
You now have learned enough to see  
That Cats [notice the capital letter!] are much like you and me
And other people whom we find 
Possessed of various types of mind.
For some are sane and some are mad
And some are good and some are bad
And some are better, some are worse - 
But all may be described in verse.
And true, all these character types seem rather familar from literature, don't they?

Apart from all enthusiasm about this little whimsical book, you should bear in mind one thing - it was written in the 1930ies and contains in some passages contemporary ethical stereotypes and imperialistic viewpoints. I've mentioned before the "Awfull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles" - it clearly alludes to the various immigrants of mixed ethnicity, battling (and massacring) each other openly without notice of the police. Only the appearance of the "Great Rumpuscat", some dubious underground lord ruling these parts of the city, immediately stops the fighting. Another example of ethnical clichés can be found in "Growltiger's Last Stand", in which "a fierce Mongolian horde" and "Chinks" lie in ambush to capture Growltiger.

However, The Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats is a highly entertaining read and far more than a simple collection of nursery rhymes. Its characteristic features are a keen eye of human behaviour and sharp irony in the use of language. It's definitely a must for lovers of English children's literature! 

So then, a new school year has started and one of the crucial equipment for me as a teacher is definitely TEA. So instead of bothering that Neustadt pastry shop ladies any further about a cup of Earl Grey to go ("woswoinsbitte?") with a shot of milk and a napkin for transportation purposes, I've decided to make my own tea in the staff room (we even have an electric water boiler! Yay!). So yesterday I went out to buy a nice mug and a box of Lady Grey teabags to enhance the quality and output of my teaching and correction skills :-)

I always have to have something to drink or nibble around my desk when I engange in some sort of mental activity - right now, for instance, there's this fine cuppa cappuccino, a huge bottle of mineral water and some strips of chewing gum next to my laptop (don't worry, if I spill something I have at least a good reason to buy a new one ;-)). I guess this accumulation of food is what's left of my kinaesthetic learning preference - I always need to hold on to a cup/glass of whatever and sip or chew something. I know this can end disastrous, so I make sure that most of the things that go down my stomach are healthy and low fat. Plus, I'd never even touch a cigarette, because I'm deadly certain it would immediately become a habit.

So for the next time, my pupils will see me walking around school with a dark blue mug of tea with a shot of milk, so that it becomes even more obvious which subject I'm teaching... (Until now, though, I've successfully refrained from wearing tweed jackets and any type of Burberry-like patterns.)

Well then, I guess I have to start with my lesson preparations now, or else all of that lovely cappuccino will be gone before I can even open that course book...

(taken from https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgztIf0oFulNe-0j48OZiGoNeF0jd_5L5mCgmt5ybIdcW2nexAkqR_H3Yy1q2IzOJ9WufqeTYZUCzD8o-HMlxiHcMVnZIBZc7f-W1bTiCWVTmNBJISdtAQ_bLckWoQb8EIsEXYl-qfNjed0/s400/Beatrix+Potter+unknown+bunny+cropped.bmp )

This week has been a bit busy, with school starting again and all that - that's the reason why I didn't write earlier, suddenly disappeared from Facebook for two days (OMG!!!! ;-)) and was hard to reach on my mobile, too. Being not exactly a telephone conversation-lover, I still have to work off my list of unanswered phone calls...

In my lunch break on Monday I discovered this little park in Wiener Neustadt. I sat down on a bench beneath a huge willow and enjoyed the sun, that beautiful piece of nature and my sandwich... Later on I even found a pet zoo, a large cage with parakeets and a bear pen. I'll surely take some pictures of them when I walk by again and the bears are out (they did a great job hiding somewhere beneath all that plants - I couldn't spot them although I looked very hard). It's nice to know that place as a little refuge from the crowded and noisy staff room. Sometimes all you need is half an hour spent alone in the shades of a big tree...

I'm not a very housewifish person, at least not in my current stage of my life. On the one hand, I've always admired people with the ability to turn their homes into a sanctuary of cosiness, tranquility and safety - on the other hand, I seriously dread an existence that is limited by the walls of one's house, both spatially and mentally. I greatly respect people devoted to their homes, gardens and kitchens - people who renovate old farm houses and transform them to modern artist workshops or family houses without destroying the original charms of the old building or who can grow roses or kitchen herbs on poor soil. I've tried, but I seem to lack some sense of interior design and gardening and, if I'm lucky, the results from my kitchen experiments are somewhere around mediocre. Surely I could learn if I really wanted to - problem is, I'm simply not that interested and don't have the patience for these things.

So what is home for me? Basically, it's a space where you can put all your things, where you shower, where you sleep (at least most of the time...) and where you make yourself fit for civilised society (in our family, we use the old-fashioned word "kultivieren" that pretty much captures that sense). Based on this notion you can pretty much picture the way my home looks like...

The rest of my days I spend outside - at school, in the street, on a train, at university... If I don't leave my house during a day, I'm seriously ill. Most of the time, I just enjoy being among other people without actually having to bear their company. Everything's better outside - everything looks nicer, sounds better, even tastes better. At a restaurant you could serve me a meal I wouldn't even touch at home and I'll love it. Maybe because I haven't watched the process of its preparation (which I often find a bit disappointing compared to the result), maybe they can sell it in a more attractive way, maybe because it has got this sense of being something special. Eating at home (alone) is simply very, very dull and I often lose my appetite the moment I see the familiar tapestry of the dining room.

So, where do I go when I need a break? Coffee houses are certainly something like an alternative living room. I often, sometimes daily go there to read books, magazines or academic papers, to study for exams, to correct homework, to plan my lessons, to meet friends or family members or just to relax, contemplate or daydream. The best coffee houses feature dreadful coffee, raddled furniture, curtains that are dirty from dust and ages of heavy smoking and toilets that appear to be artifacts from the turn of the last century - however, they also have waiters that won't bother you every half hour, an interesting clientèle and from time to time even lovely piano evenings.

For everyone of you who hasn't got the opportunity to sit in a coffee house right now (such as me, for example, as I'm just somewhere between my showering and sleeping time;-)), I'd like to recommend this amazing blog to you (you can also find it here on Facebook) - it features audio files with sounds recorded at various Viennese coffeehouses and nicely captures a part of the genuine coffee house feeling... As its Facebook description already suggests, it's for people who prefer to study in coffee houses but lack the time, money or motivation to do so, for exiled Viennese people who want to experience a taste of home and for people with social phobia who battle against the boredom of their solitary living rooms. However, naturally it's just a small part of the whole experience... Nevertheless, maybe I can wet your mouth a bit and make you consider the advantages of a few hours spent at a nice coffeehouse. Just give it a try, leave your house, go out and find out what happens... It really surprises me day by day.

(Café Ritter, taken from http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/c1/5b/29/caption.jpg )