My life without

Two weeks since my last day at PayPal. I miss the team greatly. Luckily I get updated almost on a daily basis by my former coworker and now neighbor-friend. I am glad I'm still in touch with some teammates.
After a few "recreational" days I have now worked for about a week in my new part-time job. And the first thing that stands out are once again the people. I think they are all crazy- and we all know how much I love crazy... I have a feeling I will fit right in. Hardest part for me remains the standing. So far I was only "booked" for 4 to 6 hour shifts and I worry a bit about the day I get an 11h shift. In the meantime I learn all sorts of new things about the retail business: from folding shirts to handling customers (which is in fact quite different to the call handling at PayPal) to the bookkeeping in the stores.
I am also learning as much as I can about the brand and fall in love with new shirts every day. My current favorite is naturally a 399€ piece. And I want this. Really! Now, as you can guess, with my new salary I am not really in a spending mood. On top of that, I understandably want the shirt to look not only stunning on the hanger but on me. So here is the deal: I will have to loose some inches. I was already on a loosing mission before but now I mean it. The goal is to loose about 30pounds. That makes about 13€ per pound I am loosing. I am hoping to find myself some sponsors who will donate 1€ per pound I am loosing. Maybe my parents are a good place to start...
Regardless, because of my mission I have not started on designing dresses for myself at Eurovision. This brings me to the way more important topic than my dietary plans: Was quitting PayPal the right choice- or have i actually started in my fashion label.

At this stage I have mainly looked into the options I have for a start up. And really I came to this conclusion: for the first period where the main focus is the design I will not register a company as my goal is not the revenue generation right away. I noticed during the creation of my business plan that a lot of topics in the plan are not really applicable at the moment. I will however need to look into registering my trademark on the German market. While I had already registered the brand k-eleven in Ireland I need to do so in Germany too.

At the same time I have - as indicated above- not started designing for myself, however I have completed the German ESC heart design dress for my the friend I am going to Kiev with.
My current ideas circle around the Irish dress. This one will be for myself, but I just don't know that I want the dress to look like. Maybe Ireland is giving me some inspiration.

That is right. I am on my way to Dublin right now. Last year I had already booked the tickets for the country2country concert in Dublin. I am really looking forward to see Reba live in action and meet up with crazy Karin. I am also looking forward to having dinner with my "vegan group", to going to the movies with my former photographer and friend Lotte and staying at my favorite models' family home. Having to many great meet ups planned I have high expectations for this weekend back home in Dublin.

This will probably be my last visit to Ireland in a long time.. Unless Ireland wins Eurovision- then I will be back in May 2018 the latest. Talking about Ireland and Eurovision: I'm dying to try is Brendan's song for this year. My first reaction was not too positive. I thought he sounds like a child (reminding me of Heintje, a Dutch child star in the 60s/70s). And while I did not actively like it at first listen, I wanted to hear it again. And again. And again. In fact I have probably listened to it 50times by now and I like it. I really do. I can already hear my ESC fan-friends disagreeing with me but this is a beautiful song, that is simple at first and gains power later. It has what I call the "idol factor": most winners' songs from singing competitions over the last years have this climax in the song where the music breaks and then a full power restart. I cannot really describe it, but when you listen to it, you'll know what I am talking about. Will it win? I would hope so, but I don't think so. Will it have chances to at least qualify to the final? I need to check what songs are in the second semi with Brendan to say for sure. But I can see him getting to the final or only miss it by one or two places. I will give a better prognosis way closer to the day. It is always fun to see how wrong I am.