what counts (and corner view, too)

last sunday i turned forty and no, i'm not feeling older, or different, or melancholic - to be quite honest i still feel as much like a girl and perhaps even less like a grown-up than before. funny that. i kind of expected something to happen. maybe i was simply expecting it to happen in the wrong places?

i'm usually not much of a party girl, but this occasion seemed to justify something special. so i had lots of friends over, first at my place for drinks and a bit of catching up, and then at 'claerchen's ballhaus', an old-fashioned ballroom in berlin's mitte district for a bit of dancing. the pictures were not taken this last sunday (i was so all-over-the-place i didn't even load my camera with film...), but last year with my little digital point-and-shoot. they perfectly illustrate the evening though. lots of talking, laughing, eating, drinking, dancing. friends were there from school times, from university, from various stages of my working life, from london, from all over germany and from berlin.

i am so, so grateful to have people in my life who care about me, who are there when i need them, who are happy with me when the sun is out as much as when it's pouring down, who celebrate with me, who are my extended family. who take me as who i am. 

that's what counts. 

p.s.: for those of you stopping by to look for my weekly corner view - this week's theme, picked by epe, is 'your city's souvenir' - well, this post is a double-act... berlin has lots of typical souvenirs to offer. think television tower miniatures, cards and mugs with the brandenburg gate, (fake) rubble from the berlin wall, beer steins with city scenes (which is so odd, thinking that beer steins are a very bavarian thing and not berlin at all), berlin teddy bears (the city's crest has a bear in it) and even television tower or brandenburg gate cookie cutters. still, for me the ultimate berlin souvenir is a visit to claerchen's ballhaus. treat yourself to it when you're here! more info about it over on my other blog, mostly berlin.