My dear people I wish you all a Happy Halloween! I am not doing anything this year because I lack friends and energy, but probably next year. I, however, prepared a lovely video for you with some baking recipes which should have been uploaded this morning, but as apparently NO ONE has good internet, it couldn't upload, so let me tell you in words (they are so much more reliable) about this experience. 
My man and I spent the whole day filming and baking and I found three really nice recipes to try: Mr and Mrs Pumpkin-Brownie, The Pumpkin Cake and The Graveyard Terror. 
The first was simply pumpkin puree with brownie chunks alternating in a glass with Marshmallows on top as eyes. The pumpkin puree...nah, you have to like it, I don't particularly but I am not such a huge pumpkin fan anyway...
The Pumpkin Cake was my favourite and, surprisingly, it has no pumpkin in it. It is simply two Bundts, one upside down, forming a pumpkin shaped cake. First you need to bake two Bundts (according to the recipe below) and then colour some icing orange, sprinkle on top and form stem, eyes and mouth of fondant, really easy and it looks so SPOOOOOKY...
The Graveyard is pretty simple, too. Just bake brownies, mess everything a bit up, form Halloween inspired things out of fondant or Marzipan and put them on top and voila, you have a spooky cake! So enjoy the recipes and maybe I will still upload the video so you can witness how I make a complete dork out of myself and have a great HALLOWEEN! 

Mr and Mrs Pumpkin-Brownie
For the puree you will need 500g of pumpkin and 2 to six spoons of sugar.
Cut the pumpkin, core it and put the chunks into a saucepan. Add water to cover the pumpkin chunks and add the sugar. Let it simmer until the chunks are soft.
Take a blender and blend until smooth.
 
Make a batch of brownies:
250g butter
250g chocolate
350g sugar
200g sugar
Six eggs
 
Butter a square form then put the butter and chocolate in a saucepan and let it melt on medium temperature. In the meantime, blend the eggs with the sugar until fluffy and creamy. When the butter and chocolate have melted, add to the sugar/egg mixture and blend once more.
Finally add the flour and blend in until smooth. Fill the mixture in the form and bake 30 minutes at 180 degrees in the oven.
 
Cut out some chunks from the brownies and fill in a glass. Cover the brownie chunks with the pumpkin puree and alternate until you end with puree. Pop two marshmallows on top and draw pupils, either with chocolate sauce or black food colour. Et voila! You have your Mr and Mrs Pumpkin-Brownie.

Pumpkin Cake
For the Bundt:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
250g butter
250g sugar
1 sachet of vanilla sugar
4 eggs
Lemon zest
350g flour
1 sachet of baking powder
7-8 spoons of milk
50g grated almonds
 
Separate the eggs.
Put the egg yolks, sugar and butter together with vanilla sugar and lemon zest in a bowl and blend everything together. Add flour and baking powder and the milk until it is a good consistency. Lastly, add the almonds and mix under well.
Pour half of the batter in a buttered and floured Bundt form and bake in the oven for 60 minutes. (Either use two forms for the two Bundts or bake them one after the other).
When they’re finished, put one upside down and put the other one on top to get your pumpkin shape. Put marshmallows (or other sweets) into holes.
Make icing from 380g icing sugar with water and colour with orange food colouring. Spread onto the Bundts. Form eyes, stem and mouth out of fondant and stick on.

The Graveyard Terror
Bake brownies according to the recipe above. “Destroy” the surface a little and cut chunks out. Make Halloweeny things out of fondant or marzipan and decorate your brownies with them. Add cocoa powder on top for that extra but of graveyard earth.
 

Today I observed a most curious thing. 
I was chosen to be a proband for a new trend called "Reconnective Healing" and invited to be used as a guinea pig for aspiring healers, but later more on that. 
Anyway, the curious thing I observed...
There were many volunteers bustling around the place and one of them was a chubby lady with short hair - like really short, shorter than some men wear it (which doesn't account for much anymore with hipsterdom spreading like a disease). So, it was really short, razor-short. Still, when she was busying herself with paperwork, her hand slipped up and tucked an imaginary strand of hair behind her ear. I thought it was utterly befuddling. I mean, she had no hair whatsoever to tuck away, but still the gesture had stuck with her, which makes me wonder if these are classic women's moves you won't get out of habit, even though they are not applicable anymore. Like lip-biting, or shaking your hair when you meet someone new or feel insecure (which is, like, the same thing as you're mostly insecure when you meet someone you fancy). They say, old habits die hard and when I observed this woman, I couldn't help but agree. 
Now, to the session. We were ushered into a room with some chairs where two confused Austrian ladies and a pretty determined American woman were trying to sort the people out and get some kind of system into the whole thing. It was so funny to observe how completely differently Americans and Austrians handle situations like these. The Austrian woman spoke with about three decibel and was far too pleasant to everybody (as Austrians are, we hate conflict), which ended up in nobody doing anything she asked. Then American lady swept in, "Who can speak both English and German? You, you and you, alright, front row, everybody behind them. Anybody not doing a session, out, out." It was settled within minutes AND because she was American she got away with it. She wasn't unpleasant, far from it, simply efficient and direct, which is as un-Austrian as it can get. She was great! She was one of the Healing People and belonged to the type of women who know exactly who they are, aren't sorry for anything about themselves and are entirely convinced  of what they do. She was sort of self-important, not in the negative way, probably self-important is the wrong word. Self-reliant, probably better. Not necessarily self-confident, I would say, as the word has a slightly provocative and imposing character to it, she simply was completely one with her inner self and emanated this sense of authority stemming from her self-reliance to everybody in the room, which, for some people I guess, can be seen as intimidating. I think of it as great. She could translate her strength to her demeanor and swept everyone away. 
After more than an hour of sorting ceremony and name tags (I was Guest #3), we were ushered into the big room where a smug guy in suit was standing on a stage (clearly the founder of this whole thing), his students admiring him from below. Under praising applause, we were led through to a set of tables (a 100 or so) and allotted to an healer each. My healer was a giant, I am sure of it. Do you know this one giant who plays ALL giants in any production ever made in the past ten days (Charmed, Big Fish, Malcolm in the Middle, to name a few)? Well, this guy looked like his brother. His face was out of proportion, too, he was gigantic and so incredibly soft and calm. I loved his aura, it was so much better than the poor girl who had been allotted to the "Eso-lady" with amulets embroidering her neck, shakra rings and a non-stop talk of auras and bullshit. No, I was happy with my friendly, quiet giant who gently told me to lie down, close my eyes and relax.
Then nothing happened. I hadn't known this was without being touched at all, but I was wondering if my giant had stormed off when I felt a hot tingle in my right leg. Like a pleasant fire, warmth started to spread from my toes up to my hips, wandering on until all my body was engulfed by fire - but it was a pleasant feeling. Additionally, my body felt as if filled with lead, so much had it relaxed ever since the healing giant had done his magic. Suddenly, I could feel every area that wasn't well-balanced in my body (which was, like, everything), but without feeling pain. I could only feel that there was something not quite right and the pleasant fire purged it softly to a degree where it was less obstructive. 
And then it was suddenly over. It had only lasted 15 minutes, but it had been really pleasant and surprisingly cool. Gently, the giant asked me some questions as to what I had explored during the 15 minutes (why can't they just ask how it was? Why does it always have to be this specific vocabulary? "Which journey did you embark on? What could you embrace on your journey? What did you explore in your body?" Well, no journey, I didn't leave the table. I didn't feel anything but fire crawling up my body, it was nice but I didn't embrace it (it's fire. And in my body). I felt my body, there was nothing to explore, it's not that big). 
When I asked my mum who had tagged along what she had felt, she confirmed my experience and, slightly bewildered, we left the session, unsure what to make of it. 
However, I felt something, definitely and should you ever be asked on the streets if you want to have a free session for Reconnective Healing, go for it, what's the worst to happen?  

There is this thing I have with my keys...
Whenever I approach the building I currently live in, I start roaming my bag for my keys, even though I am still far away from the actual door. When we lived in Pradl in Innsbruck I would jingle my keys before I had even left the tram. Now, as I bunk with my sister, it is specifically stupid as she lives in a building without elevator and in the second floor (thank God, imagine she lived in the fourth or something...) and I have to haul my ever-fattening body up the stairs and, adding to this exhaust, I already start looking for my keys way before I reach the door, even if I have to balance bags, phone and my breathing. Why would I do it? First, it is probably because I am a control freak and I need to know it's still there, but why would the little moment before arriving at the door be better than a minute earlier. Additionally, it wouldn't resolve the situation whatsoever knowing earlier if it was missing. 
Secondly, I could save a little time, but that is not the reason, I guess. I mean, sure, it would probably be a nano-second faster if rummaging for my keys a little earlier, but it's not really making any difference, only the one that I could look for them in all peace if only I could put all bags etcetera down on the floor. So this remains a mystery (among many) and I suppose it belongs just to the many ticks I have acquired over time, like immediately wiping my mouth as soon as someone stares at me for a little too long or checking if my phone was stolen five minutes after I checked the last time. 
I am mortified to get robbed, I am. It hasn't happened to me so far but there is this little part of me that knows it will happen one day - because I assume it happens to everybody one day. My man has had his phone stolen various times and he survived but I think I would suffer from a mental breakdown if ever it happened to me. Worse still would be my wallet. Still, I guess many women suffer from this fixed idea someone might have stolen something precious from their bags in the ten minutes they didn't check. And then there is actually this crucifying moment when you cannot find what you're looking for because it decided to hide in the farthest corner of your Mary Poppins bag and you have a frantic panic attack, only for it resurface the minute you decided to faint. It is agonising, really, but so is looking for your keys while shopping bags pierce into your wrists, your headphone is dangling in the way and you drop your phone in the effort, so I might try to drop it - we suffer enough, don't you think...

Read the latest updates of my journey on ​http://floatingmylife.weebly.com/blog/the-lovely-city-of-strasbourg

Read about lovely Amsterdam and why Lüttich didn't cease to displease on floatingmylife.weebly.com 

Read all about my adventures in Amsterdam on ​http://floatingmylife.weebly.com/blog/amsterdamor-when-i-fell-irreversibly-in-love

Stay informed via http://floatingmylife.weebly.com/blog/bremen-or-how-i-lost-it-for-a-moment and read about the latest update on Bremen.

New updates on our roadtrip through Europe on ​floatingmylife.weebly.com
Read about Czech, Berlin, Mölln and Hamburg and stay tuned for more! 

Don't forget to keep up-to-date with my road trip up to the North and read the first installments on Floating My Life! 

With pleasure I can finally reveal what I will be doing in the next few weeks, which is a road trip through Europe with my lovely man. We will be heading up north, as far as our plan suggests, but as we are going by car, we are pretty flexible and all plans can change. 

Now, this blog is already dedicated to many things and I like to polish things up or not confuse my readers too much, respectively. Therefore, I have decided to dedicate an entirely new blog to my travels, as I did with tasteofbritain.weebly.com. As I am repeatedly in England and didn't want to restructure the consisting blog, there is a new world to explore for you, even if the journey is only about to start. To make it easier for all of you, there is a new button on the top bar where you can find the new site easily and follow my travels. Obviously, I am so dedicated to update this blog, but my future posts over the next few weeks are primarily going to deal with travelling Europe. I hope you will enjoy reading floatingmylife.weebly.com.