Guten Abend. Ich bin zurück von München.

Actually I got back yesterday evening. Here’s a day by day brief of what my friend and I did, from the start of our journey. Don’t really know how to write my adventure without it sounding tedious, heh.

Thursday

Went to uni. to do some bits and bobs…eh…hand in dissertation. My friend went home to finalise her packing, then we met at the train station to head to London Euston. Upon arrival we tried to figure out which train to take to our overnight hotel. Turns out the trains in London aren’t that simple so we’d have to walk a station to get to where we wanted. Opted to take a taxi instead, which was quite expensive but the taxi driver was nice enough to not charge us the full amount and only the guesstimate. The hotel was really nice. Since the menu consisted mainly of spicy dishes I asked my friend what she recommended. It was my first time having an Indian meal because I dared not try it but it was actually quite nice. :9

Friday

The day I dreaded because I get travel sick and was feeling sorry for my friend who had to hack the flight with me. After popping a pill – travel sickness tablets, nothing dodgy – it was okay and I slept my way through anyway. Mind, it was only a 2 hour journey… Arrived at Munich Airport. Took the train from the “flughafen” to Pasing, then dragged our luggage bags to the hotel. Noisy walk, is all I can say. The hotel was, well it looked like it had seen better days but for the days we were staying it was adequate and quite cute. The first thing I noticed about Munich was the vast amounts of bakeries they have. Everywhere you walk a bakery is not far away.

Saturday

My friend and I headed to Inhorgenta 2010. It was interesting, seeing all the jewellery, gemstones and beads.

Jewellery from Inhorgenta 2010.

I managed to haggle without trying. The pearl bracelet which I bought for myself would have cost quite a lot but was sold for a nice price. The Buddhas were bought for my brother and sister as I though they were cute and didn’t really know what else I could get them, without having a big hole in my pocket. The elephant (centre of pearl bracelet) is for my best friend. The rings I just bought as they were cheap and fit my finger, usually my fingers are too scrawny for average rings. Don’t ask me what that purple-y black gem is because I have no idea. I got it for my mum, and though it’s not evident in the photo it sparkles. I’m thinking of turning it into a pendant, that or a keyring. As for the beads…they were just off the cuff purchases. My friend managed to get a good deal and she insisted I choose a few for myself. ^^

Sunday

We knew we were going to be stuck for things to do because we had been warned that a lot, if not all, shops were closed on Sundays. Only eatery places would be open. So, instead of staying cooped up in the hotel room we decided to peruse and plans train journeys to places we want to visit. We first went to visit the Chinese Tea house, which we didn’t find but did find the English beer garden. Walking through thick snow is fun.

After that we went to the a museum. I got the steer a ship. Well, I say steer but it was basically a steering wheel bolted to the floor.

The last visit of the day was the zoo. Once you’ve seen one zoo you’ve pretty much seen them all. Except you don’t get to see the elephants so up close, nor the giraffes for that matter. Fortunately, but unfortunately for my friend, there was no theme park. Maybe next time…

Bear magnet.

This is a bear magnet I got, it is presently stuck on my radiator. ^^

Monday

This was the day we had both been looking forward to. Visiting the castle which Disney’s Sleep Beauty was based on. A colleague at my summer work place told me about this castle and so made it a priority for this trip. There turned out to be two castles to visit and the snow was still in Germany so with the mountains it looked like a winter wonderland.

Hohenschwangau Castle.

Neuschwanstein Castle.

Use Google if you want to see better pictures of the castles, without the obstruction of trees. I highly recommend you go to Füssen to see these castles and take a tour, if you decide to go to Germany. The tickets aren’t dear and well worth the travel. I loved it so much so I bought a mouse mat…and to keep the geeky side of me happy.

Gifts.

The keyring is for a friend who adores all-things Disney, the top left is a fridge magnet. Magnets just seem to be one of those things you buy as a memorabilia. Right? You can see my mouse mat of the Neuschwanstein Castle.

Tuesday

Auf Wiedersehen Mnchen.

I only have to write 4000 words for my dissertation, unlike other more academically challenging courses.

Still though, there is only so much you can write about: “How jewellers exploit the movement of the body?” before you start writing fluff, hah.

I’ve been reading my RSS feed and have realised just how irrelevant my post is compared to a majority of others.  Instead of talking about the new year, I “advertise” a new technique for plucking eyebrows. What?

So here’s my list of things I’m looking forward to:

• Going to Munich.  I’ve been to Germany before but it was a tour of Europe so I didn’t get to see a lot of Germany.  This will be my first jewellery show I’m going to, and also will be the first time I’m travelling without the family.  I’m going with people at uni.
• Chinese New Year.  A day that’s always good when you’re short of money.   Just kidding.  I always look forward to Chinese New Year¹ as it’s one of the rare times the family are together.
• This will be my last year at uni.² and, to be honest, I’ve not really fully committed  myself unlike the first course I did.  Who knows what’s next for me?  I could get a job or do the Design For Industry course³.  If I do go on to the top up year I’ll have to make a decision this month. Oh… O.o

It might seem a short list but I’m pretty sure there are things I’ve forgot to mention.

On a slightly different note, did anyone see the New Year’s fireworks?  Might have only been me but was anyone unimpressed?  Mind, I am comparing it to that of the Beijing Olympics.

Anyway…I hope this year brings happiness, health and auspiciousness⁴ to you all.  *Cheers*  *Clink glass⁵*

1. 14th February, this year. [↩]
2. Until June, that is. [↩]
3. Though I’m not willing to drive back and forth constantly so will have to sort that out [↩]
4. Is that a word?  Haha. [↩]
5. Despite being teetotal. [↩]

When using a computer and you start becoming frustrated, take a break from it otherwise you may do something stupid. 

I.e. reformating the laptop, without having saved the bookmarks, which were intended as part of your dissertation. *palmface*

My current project is a live one.  Meaning my designs are judged and if deemed good I could possibly even win something. *fingers crossed*  The jewellery collection has include a ring, which in turn will be the main focus of the collection.  However, this time I do not need to actually need to make the ring but make (is that the right word?) it with Matrix¹.  Then we have to make an advertisement for the piece, using Photoshop and Illustrator.

The concept I’m going with is symbolism so besides the engagement ring and wedding band, I’m going to design 5 anniversary rings.  Something I’m really going to have to work on is how to make it obvious that:

• 1st anniversary ring is symbolic of paper;
• as 2nd is to cotton;
• 3rd is leather;
• 4th is linen;
• 5th is wood

Before hand we had to chose the aimed consumer – a chose of male or unisex.  I chose unisex, age gap of mid 20s – early 30s.  My plan is to have rings which stack on top of one another, so buyers needn’t wear the complete collection but can accumulate the rings and stack.  Like so:

Stack of 2 rings.

The wedding ring (18ct white gold), by itself, will look something like this:

Asymetric wedding band.

Random question:  How many guys actually wear engagement rings?

What do you think of these, baring in mind they are meant to be unisex?²

I have my ideas of what I want the advert to look like, however opinions are always the best way to get the best of out of what you need.  So…

• Do you have a favourite advert?  What drew you to it?
• What, in terms of appearance, mainly captures your attention?
• If any of you have had to make an advert before, how did you go about it?

1. Jewellery specific CAD program [↩]
2. Eh…the repeating images aren’t meant to be shown on the gallery . [↩]