Mr.StrictlyIntimate
the Life, the Love and the Sex of Vienna.Archive for May, 2012
Croatia in Pictures and Sounds [Bonus Features Season 2 of 'The Diary of the Traveling Burberry'] (Part I)
Sometimes it doesn’t take a lot of words to transport certain emotions. Sometimes Pictures and Sounds are absolutely enough. Sometimes pictures can express every single emotion and mood of a certain beautiful, unique and special moment.
This is going to be one of these ‘Sometimes’ – times/moments where all that is needed are pictures and some tunes:
A Force As Strong As Nature
Paul Kalkbrenner – Azure
[Album: Berlin Calling]
The Capitol Never Sleeps
Rodriquez Jr. – Almeira (Original Mix)
[Album: Almeira - Single]
Relaxing in a Bright Pool of Sun
Black – Wonderful Life
[Album: Wonderful Life]
This is the end of part one but there is a lot more to come. Stay tuned because this Bonus Feature Edition of Season 2 of ‘The Diary of the Traveling Burberry’ is going to be continued…
Until then here is a last and final song from our Croatia Summer Playlist:
Florence + the Machine – Shake it Out
[Album: Ceremonials (Deluxe Version)]
‘And it’s hard to dance with the devil on your back so shake him off…’
XOXO
P.S.: All pictures taken by Speedfreak.
The Parting of the Ways [S02E05 - Season Finale]
10.30am
We are in the car on our way back to where we came from. The navigational system calculates about 45 minutes until we reach our first stop – Carinthia. Some of us decided to take a dip in the Woerthersee to end this trip which should have been all about swimming, bathing and getting shockingly tanned, with a couple of hours of Austrian water and sun.
I for one part have decided to not jump into the Woerthersee but occupying myself with my MacBook and the season finale of ‘The Diary of the Traveling Burberry.’ It’s the last episode everybody. The fifth and final one. The Parting of the Ways. Quite dramatic, isn’t it? Well – it is a bit. I sit here in the car leaving behind the fun and laughter I had in the last couple of days taking with me the memories of adventures and days in the sun as well as days with people I now would even more call friends than I have been able before. You know, in life certain things bring people closer together as well as certain things are often reason for drifting apart. We did not drift, we became closer for sharing thoughts, a lot of time and, of course, adventurous trips to haunted houses with histories deeper than our own and stories to tell that make us think about certain things we take for granted in our lives as well as our lives themselves. We live. And we take this life and think it is ours to waste though in fact it is ours to take care of, nurture, treat well.
In order of this thought – of the house with the seemingly sad history i have decided to take it a bit slow on writing about what I was wearing today and giving you the chance of imagining a calmer Mr.StrictlyIntimate. Someone who takes himself damn seriously but on the other hand is very open for a lot of adventures, laughter and honest discussions. The Traveling Burberry season two slowly comes to an end as we come closer to the rain station of Carinthia mile for mile. This is going to be the place where the parting of the ways will start. Soon the first good-bye’s will be told…
15.30pm
After a relatively long ride to Carinthia we’ve decided to have a little lunch. Well, a big one is actually more like it since the four of us found ourselves occupied with four big and heavy pizzas but we decided, since it was our last day of our trip and of the Diary of the Traveling Burberry, we do not care about the calories we are about to enjoy. And damn, we did enjoy. While the others where occupied with their food I found myself writing on this blog and thinking about the changes I went when being on vacation and when finding myself being back where I once was a couple of years ago on an emotional basis. There is something or someone in my life I can’t seem to get out of my head and on this trip I found myself even more engaged with this very person. It was then I realized I was storing the number of an apartment renting advertisement in Klagenfurt where this very person lives. And here I sit and wonder – will it ever take me there and will life have me there for good?
17.45pm
Anja arrives with the second car – the other four already took off by train and she decided to stay a few more days in the country where she once lived for a couple of years. I sit there and wait. Wait for someone to arrive. Two and a half hours. He doesn’t and the pressure of leaving is heavy on my heart for we have a train to catch from Leoben. So I try to squeeze a few more minutes out of the other’s patiences and then ten minutes after six and exactly two hours and forty minutes after desperate waiting we say good-bye to Anja and take off.
20.45pm
We are having drinks. Our last drinks on this trip. We have already bought our tickets so there is nothing to stress about. We sit there and enjoy the skyline of Leoben, which seems to be impressively soothing to the other’s nerves. The pain of leaving Klagenfurt still beats heavy in my brain and even heavier in my heart. I am constantly checking my iPhone and I feel like being back where I once was. A long time ago. Is this really me? Is this really where I belong? Do I have to go back to that place? Vienna. I can’t even bare to say it out loud not mentioning forming the word with my thoughts. Back to the old place where I come from and where I will always belong somehow. But I can’t. I do not want to stay there. I want to remove myself from that country like people remove stains from their most beloved pieces of clothing. I want to find myself somewhere else. I feel like I can’t move on with finding myself if I do not finally leave the environment I know so well but connect to so little. I do not have a home. I never had one. I never had something that felt like a home to me. The only person I was closest to calling home is the only person who is not in my life anymore. Is it always that hard to find a home? To find a place to call home? Where do we belong? Where do I belong? Time passes by and we go. Leave the bar.
9.53pm
I find myself in the train writing these lines watching my sister arguing with the guy who controls our tickets. What is there to fucking argue about? Damn OEBB.
Are we there yet? Vienna?
The trip ends here. Or there. It was a good one. One full of laughter – one full of people who connected over jokes and drinks and stories of life. It was a time I will never forget and it definitely was a trip we should do another time. Thank you for that time and stay true to yourself – everyone, you are great, just the way you are.
XOXO
Trails of War [S02E04]
Outfit of the Day: blue Burberry swim pants; trench colored Burberry polo shirt with classic house check collar; black Guess Jeans; black vintage Gucci sunglasses and classic house checked hight-top Burberry sneakers again accompanied by the beige colored bag I bought at the market in Zagreb.
Change of an Outfit for the Evening: black big checked Burberry shirt; trench colored Burberry Trousers; classic bow tie from my childhood (yes, this bow tie really is about 17 years old!) and black shiny Burberry shoes accompanied by my Petar Petrov silk evening jacket and vintage Longchamp bag.
10.00am
Breakfast not at Tiffany’s but on our very own terrace. Since my sister decided to stay awake with three others until 6.30am we were the only one having breakfast together. Thank Burberry she doesn’t need that much of sleep because of sleeping through the days before. After half an hour of eating and enjoying the sun we diced that again the motto of the day has to be: ‘Summer, sun, beach read and Burberry.’ And me in the middle lying there with a perfect tan which seems to be a mixture of shiny red and most beautiful brown.
13.30am
Thoughts by the sea: ‘I sit here with my book on a stone in the middle of the sea. It is so cold that it is quite hard to keep my feet in it longer that a few seconds. Usually I am quite tough but it is relatively hard today. Maybe because I was lying in the sun for about two hours heating up my body. That makes it ten times worse. So I just sit here with my summer read ‘Summer and the City: A Carrie Diaries Novel’ by Candace Bushnell and think about how life could be in New York City and if my dreams of being a famous writer will ever come to life. You never know. I never know. I can’t know. Right now I doubt a lot. I am doubting myself 24 hours a day. I can’t stop it. I can’t stop myself from doubting myself and now I sit here wondering why the hell I am not where I should be at the age of 25. Well, should I be here at the age of 25? Or, who decides where I should be? Are my goals set too high or am I becoming a failure? I am afraid of becoming a failure. Really, really afraid. How can I stop it?’
19.00am
The day was quite calming and relaxing with a bit of lying in the sun, a bit of eating ice, a bit of cooking and a bit of walking through the city of Klenovica discovering a view secrets in a ruined hotel. To be honest, we had to climb over a fence which was quite hard wearing my trench colored Burberry Jeans and my black shiny shoes but I did it anyway because my thirst for adventure was too big to hold back. I was so impressed by the charm and image of the hotel that I have decided to dedicate a bigger entry to this wonderful picture after a bit of research.
While being in this ruined house I was wondering about its history and at the same time about my own history and how it could be compared to some rooms of this historic building. Walking through the rooms, along the narrow spaces that once where from what I imagine it sparkling hall ways I felt as if I somehow belonged there; as if something was touching me. Maybe that is the reason why I feel the necessity of researching more about the history of the building and about what happened to the people inside it. Did they come out alive? Did they die? It is weird but I could almost feel them screaming while running for their lives in the war. And that is what it looks like. Destroyed by war. Clearly. Undeniably. Irrevocably. But I guess I should wait with suspicions and impressions like these until I know way more about the history. It was obvious that the country still had to recover from all the terror going on between the years of 1991 and 1995 and one could feel that there still was a lot going on in dealing with what happened to the country and to the families living in it. Life marked them in a way they can never forget.
8.15pm
R, Speedfreak, Markus and I decided to hide a secret message that I wrote to the four of us. I hid it in a very special and secret place not to be found by anyone else except for ourselves in one year. This message will be a very inspirational thing for me because even if we do not return in one year I know one thing – we were there in Klenovica. Together. And we shared a few days of summer and of our youth where we were free, happy and full of energy. I will relish this special day and this special message that only I know for I wrote it and let no one read it. So it marks me, and accompanies me on my ways to wherever I go knowing that friendship can be found wherever the heart is and wherever people are honest with one another.
10.50pm
Right now I am just covered in a black Guess Jeans and a cashmere Tommy Hilfiger sleeve drinking a glass of white wine while chatting with the guys I came here. Eight other people. 4 Women. 5 Men. Everyone for himself / herself great in a very special way. And of course the three people I shared a house with. There is my sister who is my number one; maybe even my closest friend besides K. Maybe even the only friend whom I will keep for the rest of my life. Maybe even the only one I feel the necessity of, come what may, live and breathe and fight for. Then there is Speedfreak, someone I think of as being truly intelligent and made for something incredibly special but whom still has to find his place in this world. With Speedfreak comes Markus – his boyfriend. One of the kindest, most decent and most modest people I have ever met and for whom I have the greatest respect for being simply honest and down to earth. Three people I had a lot of fun with BUT still I want to say thank you to all eight of them for having the nerve to have me around all the time. I really enjoyed the time with each and every one of you and believe me – you all are great, special and intelligent and I appreciated the time we spent together.
For now, I have to say goodbye because I have to pay my attention to the crowd sitting in this room with me. We have some things to talk about, to discuss and to remember. So farewell, my dear reader and we’ll see each other for the season 2 finale of ‘The Diary of the Traveling Burberry.’
XOXO
P.S.: All pictures taken by Speedfreak.
Here Comes the Sun [S02E03]
Outfit of the Day: blue Burberry swim pants; trench colored Burberry polo shirt with classic house check collar; trench colored Burberry pants; foldable black Burberry Sunglasses and brown-trench colored Tommy Hilfiger boat shoes accompanied by a beige colored bag that I bought on a market in Zagreb for 100 Kuna which equal approximately 13 Euros.
The temperature is finally the way we wanted it to be – okay, to be honest, the sea could be a little bit warmer but still the weather is perfectly fine to lie around on the beach getting an amazing tan and taking some little dips in the clear green blue sea.
2.30 pm
Right at the moment of writing these lines I am lying on the beach soaking up the sun and feeling as inspired as never before. Though I had some troubles with my body through the night (I felt a bit feverish and really sick) I have to say that I feel better now lying here reading books and piles of Vogue and every now and then taking a little dip in the most natural and most beautiful of pools – the Croatian Sea.
5.23pm
Freshly showered I enjoy the rest of a little bit of sun while everyone else takes his turn showering in order to get ready for a grocery shopping trip. Tonight there’s going to be a little barbecue to celebrate A’s birthday which was exactly one week ago but since I had my own little big bash I wasn’t able to congratulate him the way I should have. With a bit of my attention and a feast.
6.00pm
Grocery shopping this time went unpredictably co-ordinated, which was quite a relaxing fact for my tormented soul. I find it rather hard to relax when being on vacation considering the fact that I always have work in my mind in backup on my MacBook. So you see – work is always on my mind. Not love, necessarily but I will come back to holiday thoughts on love a little bit later.
8.00pm
Everyone is in preparation. Salads, sauces, meat and vegetables. 4 Women, 5 Men and 100 tasks to do. But as you might know – everything I do I do with style and so do the others. Shortly after starting cutting the vegetables, preparing sauces and meat and the grill we were able to start the barbecue party. A lot of talking, a lot of drinking, a lot of laughing and definitely a lot of eating later we found ourselves in a new round of Trivial Pursuit, which seems to automatically always end in discussing and arguing about the funniest of questions. So, there we are on one side trying to answer ridiculously hard questions and then on the other hand wondering how the hell the weirdly easiest of other questions happened to find their way into a game that makes us all feel plain stupid all at once. Anyhow, we are great. And, the team I was in won – not because of me, necessarily but at least I was a part of the winning team. That is what counts, isn’t it?
XOXO
P.S.: Quoting Sarah I have to point out that the Trivial Pursuit game was really a head to head thing and we just won with an inch ahead. Okay, a question ahead is more like it. Still, we won but we have to say – you played well and you could have won too. If we hadn’t had that one more piece of stone for our Trivial Pursuit circle.
P.S.: All pictures taken by Speedfreak.
Zagreb Needs Ties! [S02E02]
The Burberry Check Tie I Already Have
Wednesday
Outfit of the Day: Black, waxed Guess Jeans; black and white cashmere Burberry sleeve; olive green and black H&M Military Jacket; black Burberry Scarf; silver Fossil watch; black vintage Longchamp bag and my shiny black Burberry shoes.
5.00 am
Good Morning my little Monster would be Lady Gaga say when she gets up in the morning; I on the other hand just scream and shout at my sister, ‘Where the hell is my coffee, is there a reason my coffee isn’t here? Have you died or something?’ In fact it took ten minutes to realize that I neither am Miranda Priestley nor the editor in chief of Runway; the fashion magazine from the book and the movie ‘The Devil wears Prada’.’
7.00 am
The rain started the minute we walked out of the house trying to get our huge suitcases and bags packed with clothes (mine of course with a load full of Burberry) into S’s car. Let me tell you one thing – the rain didn’t stop until this very hour with us sitting here playing a round of Trivial Pursuit and UNO. It is heavily pissing outside and we are sitting here with stacks of beer and bottles of wine as well as big bottles of water playing along with the weather as well as with the games my sister brought with her.
Croatia Klenovica: the Rainy Wednesday Arrival
Who could have thought that she would come along with just a half empty suitcase and I would have to carry myself with a huge trunk, a bag and a second bag. You know, some boys just need all their stuff with them and where the hell was I supposed to store all that Burberry, all those new Vogues and my Clinique products? (I think I do not have to make it clear that I confiscated the whole wardrobe in our room to put my stuff in and let’s be honest, she can keep her stuff in the suitcase. It’s not that Burberry. I wish it were.) People with a certain style and image just have to have everything with them in order to keep this image so here I go with a heavy trunk trying to look as elegant as possible when heaving it into the car…
3.00pm Are we there yet? Well, yes we are.
…and later that day into the house we rented. We have three of them. They are called Shell boxes. And they have the size of one of my Burberry Shoeboxes. R and I are there with Speedfreak and Markus. Two rooms. Yes, I have a roomy. My sister. And it is quite OK since she doesn’t snore (THANK BURBERRY) and sharing a room equally makes me control the way she looks. So, I can pick a fight whenever her outfit isn’t picture perfect in my eyes. And I do complain a lot about that. I always did. But, when you see her you might realize that it helped since her style is relatively cool, chic and effortlessly pretty. 10 years of complaining and styling and giving tips (although she never wanted them) had to pay their tribute someday. And that day finally came.
Thursday
Outfit of the Day: After several changes I have decided on wearing my white Massi Milano shirt; a classic house checked Burberry tie; a grey beige Tommy Hilfiger sweater without sleeves; a trench colored Burberry stead man jeans; a black Tommy Hilfiger belt; a dark blue Tommy Hilfiger suit Jacket; classic house checked hight-top Burberry sneakers and my vintage black Longchamp.
8.13 am
It is Thursday by now, I was already out for a run (btw: the sun is shining, shining, shining high above the clear sky); in the shower and had a little self-made breakfast buffet by Speedfreak. You know me: No cooking, no cleaning; no cleaning no dishpan hands; no dishpan hands no hundreds of thousands of Euros for La Mer Hand Balm. You see – my thinking always makes sense and as Christine (my work colleague) puts it; a little less money for La Mer a little more money saved for my very own Birkin Bag. So in the end I am winning.
Croatia Klenovica: the Sunny Second Day
1.30 pm Zagreb – Mission Burberry
After about two and a half hours of driving and laughing and fighting with a 20 feet woman (that’s an insider my dears) we arrived in Zagreb and started the hunt for the newly opened Burberry shop. The hunt unfortunately turned out to be a bit of a disappointment since I was looking for a great tie from the new collection but unfortunately, the only tie they had was the exact one I was already wearing. So there goes my message out to Burberry and Zagreb both at the same time: Zagreb Needs Ties. Desperately. Just like I do for fulfilling my plans of buying a Burberry tie in every country I travel to. So, as it seems I will have to come back to Zagreb/Croatia in order to fulfill this plan one day.
5:45 pm – Tea Time
Running around all the time not buying something because there isn’t anything I haven’t already seen or what I desperately need I finally decided to calm down a bit. So we went to ‘The Regent’ hotel close to the botanic garden and drank a cup of tea and coffee and had a little strawberry cheese cake. My sister, Speedfreak and his boyfriend Markus went to see the botanic garden but since the wind is quite heavy and I am not a big fan of plants I have decided to stay at ‘The Regent’ updating my blog and getting a bit of work done. That is the one thing I hate about a holiday – sometimes work and certain important tasks fall behind so one’s gotta do what one’s gotta do in order to keep himself financially fluent in order to being able to invest in all the Burberry one needs.
Now I sit here by myself relishing the fact that I am along for a little bit not having to talk and later on maybe flipping through the pages of my Vogue España with Lily Donaldson on the cover.
That’s all for now. Do you miss having me around already?
XOXO
P.S.: All pictures by Speedfreak.
