Monthly Archives: December 2013

This entry was posted in Interiors and tagged on by .

Rockin’ around the Christmas tree

Do you know that feeling, where you have to do something in particular to make it feel like something is real? A personal ritual? For me, my ritual that makes Christmas Christmas is putting up the tree and wrapping presents. Now, not just any old throwing up of a tree and slapping some selotape to paper. I like to create the perfect Christmas ambience. Christmas songs on or an old Christmas film in the background, candles filling the room with twinkling light and Christmas smells, a glass of Baileys….you get the picture. It just makes Christmas feel very real to me.

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German Christmas Market (in Birmingham) vs German Christmas Market (in Germany)

Since I moved to Birmingham, everyone has raved about the German market that takes over the city centre for December. I was skeptical.

“It’s not a real German market, is it?”, I said. “Yes, they said. Real German people come over from Germany. Frankfurt in fact. And that’s in Germany. And that makes it German.”

So, I thought i’d put it to the test - put the German market in Birmingham up against the German market, in erm, Germany.

First up, Die Weihnachtsmarkt in Hamburg.

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What a month

The last few weeks in my day job have been a bit hectic, and a bit bizarre. All through work, I have found myself having tea with the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Birmingham; in an audience listening to the inspirational Taliban survivor Malala Yousefzai; i’ve been to the top of ‘The Cheesegrater’ known officially as the Leadenhall Building which yes, is still under construction, and yes, the only way up is in the construction lift; I’ve been to a Q&A with Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg; shown an MP round the centre where I work; welcomed the Princess Royal to an exhibition stand, as well as Skills Minister Matthew Hancock; seen Joe Suggs change a tyre (off of YouTube fame - if you are 15 and female, you’ll know who he is); reviewed smart watches with fashion students for the Gadget Show; shaken hands with 90’s reggae star Apache Indian (think Book Shak-a-lak); and seen the sun set over London from the Shard.

All a bit random, I know.

Except for this. I also had the incredibly nerve-wrecking opportunity to meet The Duke of Cambridge.

Well, maybe meeting him is a bit of a stretch. But I was in the same room as him, working alongside his press officer when he visited my work place. And it was fabulous!

I even managed to photo bomb him.

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