Berlin  - Laptops are now available in bright red, yellow and mixed colour, artists editions.

They can be spotted daily in WLAN cafes from Hamburg to Berlin, making time spent on the computer feel a bit more invigorating.

"To each his own," is the rule of thumb, fashion expert Bernhard Roetzel of Berlin said. The twill-suit-sporting banker is best paired with a black, silver or white laptop, while young professionals go for colourful computers.

However, Roetzel says the trend is not exceptional.

Berlin - A blank card and a pen often are enough to make a person break out into sweats. The perfect phrase just won't come to mind when writing a birthday, holiday or anniversary greeting as people struggle to find the right words.

The best tips to follow in this situation are as follows. Keep the greeting short and crisp and mention a hobby or character trait of the recipient.

Frankfurt - Bauhaus turns 90 this year, and for many designers, that's an occasion to bring remakes of Bauhaus classics to the market.

At the interior design trade show Ambiente in mid February in Frankfurt, a number of porcelain and glassmakers showed variations of designs that originated in the avant-garde laboratory. Bauhaus was founded in 1919 in Weimar, in eastern Germany.

Buttenheim, Germany  - Blue jeans have maintained their popularity, gracing bodies around the world for more than 100 years.

They initially served as work pants for Californian gold miners, but now they dominate fashion in schools, discos and even offices.

Tokyo  - Shoes don't always have to be made of leather. Vinyl in fact is the latest rage in spring shoe style in Japan.

It doesn't matter whether the shoes are high heels, ballerinas or wedge sandals, the main thing is they have to be colourful and lively. The shrill vinyl for fashion-conscious Japanese are not only hip, they also are cheaper than leather shoes. In the current economic hard climate, their easy-on-the-budget price is welcome, wrote the Nikkei Weekly business magazine.

Gelsenkirchen, Germany  - For 10 years, a secret German film club has been showing offbeat movies every month in Gelsenkirchen - cowboy films with dinosaurs, action films set in women's prisons in