All about me!

And if you want to see some photos of me, go to my virtual photoalbum!

If you want to know more about what's going on in my life right now, and see more and newer photos, check out my blog, my Yahoo photo albums are there too.

Now, to my personal tastes!

What are my hobbies?
reading, listening to music, jogging, skiing, writing stories (well, I try to... if you want to have a look at how far I've come so far, click here), writing letters & e-mails, meeting my friends, having fun, going to the cinema, going to antique and flea markets, watching TV, travelling, collecting Barbie- and other fashion dolls, old LPs, old powder compacts and vintage clothes (check out some of them on my Vintage Fashion Fun page), visiting museums, or just hang around and relax.......

What I like

Music
The Beatles, John Lennon, Bryan Adams, Bruce Springsteen, The Rasmus, Evanescence, Lara Fabian, ABBA, Espen Lind, Marc Anthony, Bon Jovi, Shakira, Roxette, Belinda Carlisle, U2, Isabelle Boulay, Patrick Bruel, Celine Dion (especially her French albums), Twarres, Garou, Zucchero, Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Hal Ketchum, Dave Mallett, Kevin Johnson, Joan Baez, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Minnie Driver, Simon & Garfunkel, Roxette, the Eurovision Song Contest, Les Enfoirés, 70's & 80's disco music and all the stuff that's in the charts at the moment!

Authors/Books
Victoria Holt, Tamora Pierce (The Lioness-, The Immortals- and the Defender of the Small-series), Agatha Christie, Rosamunde Pilcher, Jane Austen, Diana Gabaldon, Sara Donati, J. K. Rowling, Anne Perry (Thomas Pitt-series) Cynthia Voigt (Jackaroo, On Fortune's Wheel, The Wings of a Falcon), Anton Myrer (The Last Convertible), Louis L'Amour (mostly the stories about Lance Kilkenny - they're the best), Edith Wharton (The Buccaneers), Nancy Mitford (Love in a cold climate), Marian Keyes, Jenny Colgan, Helen Fielding (Bridget Jones... I love her!), Nick Hornby (High Fidelity), Josie Lloyd & Emlyn Rees (Come together and Come again), Rosemary Sutcliff (The King Arthur-books and Robin Hood), Alexandre Dumas (The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After), Ralf König (Der Bewegte Mann), Tom Clancy (The Hunt for the Red October & all of the Jack Ryan-series), Jack Higgins (The Night of the Fox, Flight of Eagles), Mike Dash, Charles Dickens (very recommendable: Barnaby Rudge!), Rudyard Kipling (read "Kim" and forget the film that was made of it), Asterix-, Garfield-(he remains my favourite, I love the really mean, black jokes best), Tundra- and Gaston-Cartoons..... etc....
Plus I really like historical stuff. Mike Dash has written some great books on rather unsual historical events (Batavia's Graveyard, Tulipomania) that are just gripping, then there's Giles Milton's "Nathaniels Nutmeg", which goes in the same category. To put it very simply - the events that led the British to taking Manhattan from the Dutch. Only that these events took place on the other side of the globe and are probably mostly forgotten... I also love historical biographies, some really good ones are Brigitte Hamann's on Empress Elisabeth, then there's one on Catherine the Great by Henri Troyat and Elizabeth Longford's on Queen Victoria. Or books like the one about the Habsburgs by Dorothy Guies McGuigan or Antonia Fraser's about the English kings and queens.
Naturally, I also have loads of books and magazines on the Beatles. I can't get enough of them... Just like art-books, they keep on piling up, plus anything on Barbie (call it the Barbie-library) and on fashion history.

Films
Star Wars (only the old ones - I think the new ones are simply forgettable), Bridget Jones' Diary, Kate & Leopold, Untolerable Cruelty, Gosford Park, East is East, Sliding Doors, Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Mask of Zorro, Clueless, Ice Age, Looney Tunes - Back in Action (I looove Daffy, Wiley Coyote and Marvin the Martian!), Bride & Prejudice (Jane Austen goes Bollywood...), Legally Blonde, Dances with Wolves, When Harry met Sally (no, its not just because of THAT scene - I love the whole film!), Addicted to Love, The Night we never met, Wag the Dog, Six Days Seven Nights, The Scarlet Pimpernel (the one with Anthony Andrews), Entrapment, Thirteen Days (yes, we know that story, but this is still a very fascinating film), In & Out (one of the funniest kissing-scenes ever!), The Wedding Singer, The Matchmaker, Muriel's Wedding, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill (I love Spike!), Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Moulin Rouge, Robin Hood-Prince of Thieves, A Fish called Wanda (don't you just love the scene when… ah, the cement block lands on the last of the three dogs?!), Taxi I & II (great fun), La grande vadrouille, Bimboland (sounds bad, but is an extremely funny French film), Bachelor Party (those who really know this one need no explanation, to all others I can only say - watch it & laugh your head off!) Durham Bull, The Three Musketeers (1973 and 1974), Maverick (the one with Mel Gibson), Pretty Woman, Sabrina (1995), Much Ado about Nothing, Twelfth Night (the one with Helena Bonham-Carter), Indiana Jones (mostly the first and the third film), Der Bewegte Mann, The Hunt for the Red October, James Bond (those with Sean Connery), Back to the Future I-III, Asterix & Obelix chez Cleopatra (the real-life film), The Pirate (with Gene Kelly), Captain Horatio Hornblower, old films with Erroll Flynn, Robert Taylor, Gregory Peck, Stewart Granger, Gene Kelly or Marilyn Monroe and generally old Hollywood movies.....

Actors and actresses
Sean Connery, Hugh Jackman, Kevin Costner, Anthony Andrews, Matthew Broderick, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Meg Ryan, Sarah Jessica Parker, Gwyneth Paltrow, Julia Roberts, Marilyn Monroe, Gene Kelly, Harrison Ford, Emma Thompson, Kenneth Branagh, Alan Rickman, Kevin Kline, Erroll Flynn, Susan Sarandon, Rebecca Gibney, Andrew McFarlane, Patrick Bruel, Gregory Peck....

TV-Series
Silent Witness, The Flying Doctors (Australia, 1984-1992), Sex & the City, A Country Practice/Wandin Valley (Australia), Pride and Prejudice (BBC, 6-part mini-series, 1994/95), Ballykissangel (BBC, only those with Stephen Tompkinson), Les Nouveaux Exploits d'Arsène Lupin (with François Dunoyer, France 1994/95), Halifax f.p. (Australia, with Rebecca Gibney), Ein Mountie in Chicago/Tandem de Choc (I don't know the English title, sorry!), Absolutely Fabulous (who doesn't love Patsy???), The Avengers (the original series), Keeping up Appearances (there never was a bigger snob in this world than Hyacinth Bouquet…), Cold Case.