southern germany is under a heatwave at the moment: it's been well into the mid thirties every day for the last two weeks. - when i arrived back here tuesday afternoon, getting out of the air-continioned train, the heat was as intense as standing in front of an open oven. - it's mind-numbing, this heat, and it turns getting things done into quite an ordeal. - and there is lots needing to be done in my life right now.

i've been extraordinarily busy since returning: i spend several hours yesterday driving around with tina, who needed to buy a fan (which i should really think about getting, too), and had offered to take me to a garden center to buy plants for my balcony, while she was at it.
we were successful, after a good 4 hours, and 5 stores, and i was totally drained, thirsty, and hurting afterwards, because i managed to get myself three blisters from my birkenstocks. good grace.

however, my balcony is a much friendlier, much more colourful place now.

on the windowstill, there is a large lavender, next to a container with a pink geranium, flanked by alysum. there are two small containers with daisies and orange osteospermums, next to a sunflower i got from dirk today, and another container with a red geranium flanked by lobelia.
in the sunniest corner of the balcony is a container with a really lovely oleander, which is just getting ready to bloom, next to my mamillaria nivosa cactus. i saw a lovely gardenia at the store, too, but at 12€, i can't really afford it's sweet smelling floweriness. or can i?

apart from that, there was laundry that needed to be done and i finally managed to drag my bike to the repair shop. 72€ later, i had a functional bike again (even though the bike has a date for a much needed complete overhaul next week). it's a life changing thing, having a functional bike again, i never repaired it, because of the lame "i'll be going away to australia" excuse. but then: right now, it ain't functional anymore, anyway: i managed to run into a piece of glass right here in front of my house on the way back from the store, and the back tire is flat again. yeah. i didn't swear though or whine: it was quite simply way too funny. dirk will repair it tomorrow, too, blessed be his manual talents, considering the 18 gears my bike has, it would take me ages to get it done, and get it done correctly.

i'm quite happy how calm and happy and well i am, and that i've been doing good stuff for myself, too, despite all that busy-ness since returning. i feel much more like myself than i have in ages, it seems i am re-discovering parts of myself that got lost under the caro i was when with evan. i spend much less time online these past days than in months, and as a not so good side effect, i've been quite unreliable when calling people when i've said i'd do so, because i'm so busy living, filling my days with life™.
the highlight of the afternoon was sitting in grünwälderstrasse with dieter and reza after picking up my laundry, our feet in the bächle (the little streams of water running through the city), sipping afri cola. people passing by smiled about us. - legend says that if you step into a bächle, you'll have to marry a local. - i wonder whether that pertains to voluntary stepping in, too. no matter what, i am lost anyway: i stepped in twice already anyway.
dirk came over last night, too, when all was done for the day, and we sat on the balcony after the nightly thunderstorm, enjoying the cool breeze. the sky was breathtakingly beautiful and tinted pink before the almost full moon came up. we listened to a mix tape i made years ago, talked, and for the first time in years, i was a bad lawyer-to-be, but a relaxed chick and inhaled, which was nice. i guess there are some things one never un-learns, like cycling. or inhaling, deeply. he.

today was a much more relaxed day than yesterday, it was too warm to move anyway. it's been a hanging around kinda day, but that was much needed. i realised i can't get the thought of bod mod out of my head. somehow, i want to mark myself, mark how well i am again, how happy. my cartilage piercing marked my being in new zealand, my belly button marked fighting against depression (and in a way was the opening bell to the end with evan, even though that was almost 2 years ago).
the thought of a nipple piercing is still there, but i still think it would not look particularly good on my type of breasts and nipples, and just today, i looked at some pics of infected nipple piercings on bme, which were quite the turn-off.
if not a piercing, maybe ink then? it's tempting, very tempting, even more so since it seems as if everyone i meet these days is inked, too, and i've gotten up close and personal with the tats, admiring what they feel like.
i'll take my time though, or at least try to: i got the cartilage one on a whim, and while i longed for 7 years for the belly button piercing, i went and got an appointment an hour before getting it. who knows what i'll do now - there are various people here in town who are good tattoo artists.

i'm a changed me, and i love it.