Confuzzledom

Back to reality?

bevchen — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:41:55 +0000

We are more than halfway through the fourth week of the new year and I still seem to be struggling to switch my brain back to reality mode. I have, of course, been going to work and have got every one of the translations that’s been planned in for me done (I have no choice -there are deadlines. And customers are generally not that understanding when it comes to extending them) but my heart is only half in it. My jobs are technically fine – spell checked, proofread and correctly translated. But I know I could put more effort into them, concentrate harder and get more done in less time, if only I could get myself motivated. Instead, half of my mind constantly seems to be somewhere else. I spend the mornings thinking about the book I was reading on the train, and would have liked to read more of before arriving at work (the train ride home seems sooo far away when I’m wondering what’s going to happen next!) or wondering whether a good friend has head her baby yet (she’s not actually due for another week and a half, but it could happen any time now). And by the time afternoon rolls around, I’m starting to get sleepy and find myself picturing my bed after every project I complete. 23 days after returning from my last holiday it seems I could use another one!

The obligatory resolutions post…

bevchen — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:08:56 +0000

Wow, fourteen days into the new year already and I haven’t even mentioned resolutions yet! That must be some kind of record! But, of course, I do have some. I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t make some kind of resolution for the new year! And obviously they can’t possibly be official until the whole world knows about them. Or at least that part of the world that reads my blog…
After years and years of setting myself vague and probably not even achieveable goals (“be a better girlfriend”, “learn social competence”), this time I decided to go with things that I might actually be able to stick with. So here goes:

Eat more healthily! This doesn’t mean giving up chocolate and cheese (mmmm, cheese!) and all the other yummy yet fattening stuff that I love. But I do want to make an effort to cook us healthier meals… ones that contain actual *gasp* vegetables. (To be fair, I’m not actually that bad to start with, but I do want to start making more meals in which vegetables are the main component rather than an afterthought). I’ve already got off to a good start on this one, as our meal of “vegetable ratatouille” from the other day will testify. Mmm, doesn’t it look delicious! And it was, believe me. I’ve got a whole load of other healthy recipes to try out as well. Last nights effort was roasted aubergine – basically aubergine stuffed using the bits of itself that I chopped out of the middle and yellow peppers with chunks of (low fat) goat’s cheese sprinkled over it. Sorry, no pictures of that one!
Vegetable ratatouille
Think before I speak! A large proportion of my problems come from me opening my mouth without engaging my brain first. Whether it’s an argument with my boyfriend, a sarcastic comment that came out sounding really, really bad (entirely unintentional!) or another instance of me interrupting someone without even realising… if I could just control my impulse to just say whatever pops into my head immediately many things would be so much simpler.
Improve my translation style. I am a pretty good translator (even if I say it myself). My texts are generally correctly translated and read pretty well. But I quite often receive corrected texts back from my proofreaders in which most of what’s been corrected isn’t actual mistakes, but matters of style (using a different, nice sounding word, phrasing a sentence slightly differently…), and I have to admit most of the time their version really does sound a thousand times better. My goal for this year is to get at least one person to comment on how well one of my texts read, rather than just saying it was “fine”.
Visit my friend in the Netherlands! I’ve been meaning to go and see her since she moved there 3 years ago, and now she’s planning on relocating to the USA I really need to get my act together and go see her! (I’ve actually started arranging this one as well. We’ll probably be going there in February, so I can use up my remaining holiday from last year before it gets taken off me).
Keep up with my blog. I went through several periods of not blogging last year, mostly because I was busy actually having a life. Unfortunately this means I have no record whatsoever of some of the things I did last year. Obviously I still remember doing them (for now!), but I do like to have a written record that I can look back over occasionally. This year I really must try harder with that!

And that shall do. Five resolutions is enough for one year, don’t you think?

Mozart, mountains and modern art

bevchen — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 14:41:28 +0000

So, I promised to tell you all about Salzburg. And here I am, getting ready to tell. Where to begin?
This time, our New Year’s holiday was almsot a week. We travelled to Salzburg on 26 December and came back on 2 January (I had to be back at work again on the 3rd. Boo hiss!).
I was overjoyed to be back in Austria again. I lived there for about 10 months in 2005/2006 and loved it! (I wasn’t actually in Salzburg, but Austria is Austria, right?). Salzburg is mostly famous for 2 things – The Sound of Music (which we attempted to ignore completely) and Mozart, who was born there. We paid tribute to the latter by visiting the house he lived in as a teenager and going to a concert featuringmostly pieces by Mozart (plus one by Schuhbert). We’re so very cutural

It was also great to be back among mountains. I used to have one outside my bedroom window when I lived in Austria and it was always great opening my curtains to see it. Karlsruhe is possible the flattest town on the planet (the highest “hill” here is in the zoo… and it’s man-made!) and England isn’t exactly known for its peaks, so even small mountains are something I don’t see every day. While the weather was behaving, we took the cable car up the Untersberg (just outside Salzburg) – Jan wanted to walk up but all the paths were closed due to snow so we weren’t allowed At the top there was quite a bit of snow, and also a wonderful view.

At midnight on the 31st, we were partway up another mountain – the Kapuzinerberg. That one’s actually in Salzburg and gave us an excellent view of the fireworks while allowing us to avoid the drinken idiots shooting rockets at each other in town.

We also went to the Museum der Moderne – a modern art museum on the Mönchsberg. They currently have an exhibition by Evan Penny, which I thought was eat. Unfortunately you weren’t allowed to take pictures in the museum, but basically he makes sculptures of humans and, in this particular exhibition (Re Figured) they’re all distorted in some way. The results are a little freaky but very, very cool.

Other highlights included the fortress, where there was so much to see that we didn’t even make it all the way round, and the Haus der Natur, a natural history museum with an attached Science Centre where you could literally spend all day! The only reason we left after 3 and a half hours was because Jan wasn’t feeling too good – we hadn’t seen anything like everything! The Science Center part is all hands on and mostly aimed at kids, but adults can have their fun too! If you ever find yourself in Salzburg and the weather isn’t too good definitely check out the Haus der Natur! Naturally we also had to stop at the Cafe in Hotel Sacher for a slice of Sachertorte (a kind of chocolate cake with a layer of jam in the middle), which was lovely, but the best hot chocolate of the trip was definitely the one I had in Demel on Mozartplatz. So thick and creamy it was almost more like a dessert than a drink. Mmmm! And the slice of chesnut cake I had there was delicious too!

And now I shall leave you with a view of the city taken from a window at the Hohensalzburg fortress. Most of what you can see is the old town, and the river in the background is the Salzach. Still a pretty place, even in the middle of winter. Salzburg, I shall return!

Welcome to 2012

bevchen — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 13:24:08 +0000

Slightly delayed, but better late than never as they say.

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone. I hope 2012 is everything you wish for and more.

Here’s a picture of some of the fireworks that were set off over Salzburg for the start of the new year. Enjoy!

So this is Christmas…

bevchen — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 19:18:44 +0000

Well, it was anyway. It’s pretty much over now.
We’ve had a pretty good couple of days. (Well, I think so anyway). We decided to do a double Christmas, opening the gifts from German people yesterday (live on Skype in the case of those from Jan’s mum) and leaving the ones from each other and from my family for this morning. I got some nice things, including a necklace from my grandparents, books (lovely, lovely books!), four Counting Crows CDs – despite only asking for one – and concert tickets from Jan. We’re going to see Kettcar in February!! None of you will ever have heard of them (they’re a German band), but I’ve wanted to see them for ages so I’m very happy.

Today we went out to a nice restaurant for lunch. Jan suggested it – I was planning to cook! The food was delicious, as was the wine (chosen by Jan) and we came home happy and with full stomaches. I spoke to my dad after lunch, and my family liked their presents too, which is always a good thing.

We’re off to Salzburg for a week tomorrow, so that all that remains is for me to wish you all a Merry Christmas (what’s left of it) and all the best for the new year. “See” you in 2012!

Tis the season…

bevchen — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 14:13:47 +0000

I had my final day at work for this year on Friday, so I can finally start getting into the Christmas spirit a bit. It looks like Jan and I are going to be having our first Christmas with just the two of us – usually we go to one of our families, but we decided not to bother with England after all the hassle with snow last year, and his dad had already made plans by the time Jan got round to speaking to him. So Christmas in our flat it is. I’m quite looking forward to it actually! Will be nice not to have to stick to anyone elses agenda.

Jan went over to a friend’s for a late breakfast (more of a brunch, I suppose) at 12:00 and 3 hours later he’s still not back so I’m taking the opportunity to get the flat into a presentable state, as well as making my last few Christmas cards. Only seven more to go! I just hope they actually arrive before Christmas. My family’s gifts probably won’t seeing as Jan only posted them on Friday! Not my fault though – the last few things that needed to be sent only arrived on Thursday. They will just have to have New Year’s presents instead

Must go and rescue my tea before it goes cold. SO I shall leave you with a photo of my hedgehog doorstopper all ready for Christmas. He’s called Harry – nothing to do with me! That’s what his label said when we bought him…

Harry, the Christmas hedgehog

No time for sniffles!

bevchen — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 19:34:21 +0000

I’m currently drinking cold tea. That is tea that’s supposed to cure colds as opposed to tea which is no longer warm. Sometimes having one word for many things can be confusing!
After 3 very busy days off, ending with a lovely day out in Bad Wimpfen (pretty but seemingly underpopulated village about an hours drive from here) and at the Heilbronn Christmas market with Jan, I woke up at 6 this morning ready for work to find my throat was sore and my nose blocked. The latter was temporarily cured with a hit shower and menthol sweet, but that didn’t stop me from feeling like death warmed up all day. So now I am driking cold-curing tea and willing this illness to disappear as quickly as it came. I do not have time for illnesses! I have a Christmas dinner to cook on Saturday, and I will not cancel! After I paid 13 euros for it the turkey that is currently defrosting in my fridge must be eaten! And next week I have the final pub quiz of the year to go to, followed by a friend’s 30th birthday party at the weekend. And on 14 December its my work Christmas meal. No illnesses allowed! In just over 2 weeks I start my Christmas holidays, then I can get a cold if I really must. But until then Lemsip and strepsils are my friends!

Why don’t humans hibernate?

bevchen — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:24:10 +0000

Some days I wish I was a hedgehog. Or a squirrel – with a nice bushy tail to wrap around myself while I curled up to sleep for the winter. I would sleep and sleep and sleep, only popping out occasionally for a bite to eat. Sounds wonderful!
Hibernation sounds like heaven right now. I am sooo tired. And the tiredness seems to be there, no matter how much sleep I get. Not that I’ve ben getting much sleep (usually six hours a night, seven if I’m lucky), but that’s normal. And usually I’m not this tired. I blame the weather! It’s dark when I get up (and when I leave the house) and dark again by home time. Currentlyit’s at least light when I get off my train in the morning, so I at least get to travel the last few metres to work in the light, but soon it will be dark then too. And it’s cold. So, so cold. Despite the fact that it isn’t officially winter until 22 December(!!) according to my calendar. Remind me why humans don’t hibernate…

Auction in aid of 4Ellie-Phant

bevchen — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 16:58:51 +0000

You’re probably all sick of hearing about my charity efforts by now, and I promise I won’t go on about them (here) for much longer).
However, I must post about it at least once more
My charity auction in aid of 4Ellie-Phant is taking shape! The site is online and most of the items are already up! Bidding will start on 15 November, at which point commenting on the posts will be opened. Until then, though, you’re welcome to go and preview the items. I’m especially fond of these red earrings:

In fact, if they don’t go I might keep them for myself (would it be weird to pay for something I made myself? Even if the money is going to charity?).

If you don’t know what 4Ellie-Phant is check out their website: http://www.4ellie-phant.webs.com/
Or read the about page on the auction site: http://4elliephantauction.wordpress.com/
Then check out all thelovely, lovely handmade items that will be for sale very soon. 9 days to go…

End of my childhood

bevchen — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 19:08:16 +0000

As a child growing up in the 80s, there were a few TV programmes I watched religiously. One of them was Jim’ll Fix It. I never actually sent a letter in (I have a sneaking suspicion I may not have been allowed), but I would spend hours dreaming up things Jim could fix for me. I would have loved a Jim’ll Fix It medal – even more than a Blue Peter badge, and that’s saying something considering the things those badges could get you in to! I always said when Mr. Fixit died my childhood would officially be over. And now it has happened – Sir Jimmy Savile has passed away, 2 days short of his 85th birthday. Despite the fact that I never met the man, I am genuinely sad. A legend of my childhood has gone; an era has come to an end. RIP Sir Jimmy Savile, first and last presenter of Top of the Pops and fixer of children’s wishes. You shall be missed!