Seize every advantage

I'm a bit obsessed with women's soccer at the moment - well, actually since last year when the women's soccer world championship took place in Germany. The games were shown on german TV like men's soccer usually does and the men I know that usually watch men's soccer watched them too. I got hooked as well and in the end I had to watch every game. I especially fell in love with the american team as the members of the american team performed much better and some also looked much better than the members of the german team. ;-) (Isn't Hope Solo a really good looking woman? See her e.g. here, here, here, here and here (there she is the third person from the left))

New in: Catrice Nail Polishes

Recently there was a Catrice Sale as the new collection came out. Here are my bargains (I got each nail polish for half of the regular price):

The four nail polishes I bought are:

• 330 Absolutely Chinchilly (a muddy brownish taupe)
• 630 Sing: Hey, Dirty-Lilah! (a bright lilac)
• 610 ASHley (a grey)
• 210 Just Married (a nude french pink with blue shimmer)

Nonique Haul (Ihr Platz closes)

I've just been at the train main station to buy the tickets for my vacation and took the chance to go into an "Ihr Platz". This is a german drug store that you can find in nearly each main station in Germany. It is related with the "Schlecker" drug store which recently went bankrupt. While the staff at the "Ihr Platz" told me a couple of weeks ago that the "Ihr Platz" will survive, it obviously will be closed as well. Today everything was available for the half price and the shelves were nearly empty.

At "Ihr Platz" the brand Nonique is available. Nonique is a southern-german brand offering organic skin care products. As the half prices were very tempting and I like Nonique a lot, I just had to buy a couple of Nonique products. Up to now I haven't been able to find Nonique anywhere else in Germany than at "Schlecker" and at "Ihr Platz". According to their webpage they indeed seem to not have any other trading partners in Germany. Hence, it really is a pitty that both drug store companies have disappeared or will disappear soon. Fortunately, Nonique has opened an online shop for their products, recently, and therefore, ordering their products online is now an option. I really hope that this company will survive although they soon won't have any trading partners in Germany anymore. However, they apparently still have a trading partner in Austria and I really hope that they will soon find other retailers in Germany as well. It would be a pitty if the Nonique products would disappear from the market. 

Book Review (30 Minuten für effizientes Lesen)

Dear readers, the book review below is written in German again. Many apologies if this causes any inconvenience. (It just does not make any sense to provide an English review for a book that has been written and published only in German up to now.) 

Im August habe ich ein weiteres Buch zu Produktivitätssteigerung gelesen. Da euch meine letzte Rezension gefallen hat, möchte ich euch meine Meinung zu diesem Buch nicht vorenthalten. Obwohl "Golden Rules" sowas wie ein umfassendes Produktivitätssteigerungs-Manual ist (siehe auch meine Rezension zu "Golden Rules" von Martin Krengel), steht darin kaum etwas zum Thema "Effizienter Lesen". Zum Glück hat der Autor dazu aber ein eigenes Buch geschrieben. ;-)

Das Thema "Schneller Lesen" interessiert mich schon seit längerem und daher habe ich mir schon vor ein oder zwei Jahren einen anderen Ratgeber dazu gekauft, den ich allerdings noch nicht gelesen habe. Da mich "Golden Rules" so überzeugt hat, habe ich mich spontan dazu entschlossen, lieber das Buch "30 Minuten für effizientes Lesen" von Martin Krengel zu bestellen. Hier zunächst das Bild des Buch-Covers und ein Link zu Amazon:

Bild des Covers zu "30 Minuten für effizientes Lesen" und Link zu Amazon.de

Das Buch ist sehr dünn (nur 79 Seiten im A6-Format) und - wie bereits "Golden Rules" - kurzweilig geschrieben. Daher lässt es sich sehr schnell lesen und der Inhalt ist so überschaubar, dass man die Ratschläge des Autors dann auch recht schnell ausprobieren und in die alltägliche Leseroutine aufnehmen kann. Ich glaube, ich habe das Buch in 2 oder 3 Tagen durchgelesen (und ich bin nicht der schnellste Leser, da ich meine Freizeit-Lektüre, zu der ich dieses Buch auch zähle, zur Zeit grundsätzlich nur in meinen Wartezeiten zwischendurch in öffentlichen Verkehrsmitteln/Wartezimmern/etc. lese)

On using up makeup

I try to focus on using up makeup products because in my whole life I have managed to empty only one single (and tiny) cream blush. It was my first blush and it was by Maxfactor and very, very tiny and still, I needed many years to empty it. I've read on different beauty blogs that others sometimes only need up to 6 months for a powder blush or an eye shadow. This is very cool and I am a bit jealous. I keep buying this stuff and it never gets empty ...

A couple of days ago, however, I managed to empty 2 makeup products at once. See them here: