Fridaaaay! (letters)

It’s Friday again (hurray!!), and we all know what that means…

Dear rain. Apart from last Saturday, I can’t remember the last time you stayed away for more than a few hours. Enough is enough, ok? Go to the Sahara or something… they could probably use you there!

Dear sore throat. And you can go away as well! I have better things to do than be ill.

Dear Ireland. See you in two weeks!

Dear work. This weeks translations have been challenging to say the least! Some slightly nicer texts next week would be a good way to finish off the month!

Dear tea. I am British, therefore I always love you, but this week you have truly been my saviour. Keep on being awesome!

Dear readers. I’m nearly finished with the cross stitch that’s been keeping me from you, so hopefully I’ll be able to return to more regular blogging next week. In the meantime, have a fabulous weekend!

Home alone!

 

Jan had to leave for his dissertation conference thingy at 5:30 this morning (yawn!), so I am now boyfriend-free for a whole week. Of course,most of that time will be spent at work, but for today it’s just me and the flat. Her are my plans for the day:

A whole pot of tea and some biscuits all to myself. No need to share!

Two new cross stitch magazines for me to read – and pick out projects that I’ll probably never get round to stitching!

A selection of my favourite music playing on my BlackBerry!

Currently playing: Poets of the Fall – All the Way/4U

(By the way, it’s incredibly difficult to take a photo that actually shows which song is playing rather than just the reflection of my face/the camera/the ceiling…)

Staying in my pyjamas, fluffy socks and slippers all day!

And just because it’s so cute, have a bonus picture of my teapot dressed in an owl tea cosy:

Later, I shall be starting my spring clean, but for now it’s time to relax and enjoy having the place to myself.
Have a great Sunday everyone!

 

More Friday letters

Yep, it’s that time again! I haven’t really had much to post about this week (as you may have noticed…). January is such a blah month, don’t you think? Nothing really seems to happen – at least not in my life. Nevertheless, here are my Friday letters for the week…

19th century letterbox in Wormgate (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dear snow. You are very pretty, but must you also be so slippy? I’m sure I’m going to break my neck before long!

Dear self. I know Amazon is really tempting with its e-mails full of recommendations and ridiculously cheap second-hand books, but  you really need to stop spending money… at least until pay day!

Spending Money (Photo: 401(K) 2013)

Dear weekend. I’m so glad you’re here! I know we’re going to have lots of fun together.

Dear exercise DVD. I have done a circuit from you three times this week (I skipped Wednesday for no other reason than laziness, and tonight I seriously don’t have time! Been home long enough to type this and as soon as I’m done I’m off to put some washing on and start cooking tea). When do I get to start seeing results?

Dear self (again). The answer to the above question is when you stop allowing yourself a treat every. single. day.

Dear new gloves. You are soft and fluffy and, most importantly, warm. I think I’m in love!

Dear brain. One day you are going to produce a translation in which my colleague doesn’t have to suggest stylistic changes in every other sentence. Please work with me on this because seeing so many corrections every single day is starting to make my wonder whether I’m actually in the right profession.

Dear lips. I know it’s cold outside and central heating sucks the moisture out of everything, but please could you stop being dry and chapped and sore? I can only put lip balm on so many times a day, you know!

Dear tea. You (and chocolate) have kept me sane this week. Thank you!

For more Friday letters, see: http://www.thesweetseasonblog.com/2013/01/fridays-letters_18.html

Happy weekend, everybody!

Sometimes staying home alone is the best policy

In September, Jan’s choir took part in an event called “The Westside Festival”, a musical and culinary event that took place in and around a square in the western part of Karlsruhe. One member of the choir was involved in organising the festival, which is how the choir came to be involved in the first place. The “headliner” (so to speak) of the festival was a group calling themselves “The Westend Girls” and because those who were organising it weren’t actually able to watch the performance – being too busy dealing with organisational matters – the group are performing again, just for those who were involved in arranging the festival. T – the choir member who was one of the organisers – managed to get the rest of the choir invited as well, so that’s where Jan is as well. Apparantly there was some space for extra people (although it would quickly run out if everyone brought a plus one), so he invited me to come along. After much deliberation, I decided this morning that I didn’t feel like it. I was tired and didn’t think I’d be in the mood for staying out late.

This evening, waiting on the platform to come home. I was pleased I had decided against going out. It was cold, my train was delayed and every now and then a gust of wind would drive a flurry of snow into my face. Not pleasant! So instead of listening to a group of singers on the opposite side of town, tonight shall consist of pyjamas, nice hot tea and my latest cross stitch project. Sometimes, staying home alone is the best policy!

Tea anyone?

The month of tea and soup

I read recently that January is apparantly National Hot Tea Month. I’m assuming the “National” here must refer to America – I’ve certainly never heard of it! Mind you, being British I have no need for a tea month. A nice cup of tea, according to we Brits, is the answer to everything, therefore every month is tea month!

January is also supposedly National Soup Month. Again, I can only assume the nation in question is America. I think this is one I could get on board with though. What could be better to counteract the awfulness of January than some nice hot soup? (I know it’s an utter cliché, but I think January is my least favourite month of the year, closely followed by November.)

World soup month is the way forward, I feel. Admittedly it’s not exactly soup weather in Australia and New Zealand, but there’s always Gazpacho and… other cold soups. I’m sure there must be some.

Homemade soup!

Since tonight, for me, is quiz night (the first one of the year!) here are some random facts about January for you:

Question marks (Photo credit: makeitgreat)

1. The birthstone for January is garnet.
2. 8 January is the birth date of Elvis Presley, Dame Shirley Bassey (a Welsh singer) and David Bowie.
3. The United Kingdom claimed sovereignty over the Falkland Islands on 1 January 1833.
4. January is named after the Roman God Janus, God of beginnings and transitions
5. Traditionally, the Roman calendar consisted of 10 months totalling 304 days, with winter as a “monthless” period. January and February were only added in around 713 BC, which explains the seeming weirdness of October, November and December – which mean eight, nine and ten respectively, despite, in fact, being the tenth, eleventh and twelfth months!
6. The London Underground, the world’s oldest underground railway, opened in 10 January 1863. That means the oldest section, which went from Paddington Station to Farringdon Street via King’s Cross and is now incorporated into the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines, will be celebrating 150 years this year!

No time for sniffles!

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!

And a good time was had by all

I must apologise to those of you who have been awaiting my tea party report with bated breath (that would be all two of you then!). I meant to do this last Monday, but work and life and things got in the way and I just couldn’t find the time. But better late than never as they say!

So, a quick recap for those of you who’ve forgotten (or just don’t know) what I’m going on about.
My wonderful blogging friend Katy (whose blog you can find here) is raising money for The Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths, in memory of her friend Michelle’s baby boy Keelan. Katy is raising money by hosting tea parties… and having other people host tea parties for her. Could there be a better way to raise money than by eating cake?! Clearly there could not! Which is why I had to get in on the action and host my very own tea party.

I went for an afternoon tea type event. The entire German-speaking world seems convinced that we Brits drop everything at 5pm every day and sit down for a cup of tea and a scone. I have no idea where they get this from! I’m sure most of us would love this to be the case, but do any of you know anybody who actually does this? No? Thought not. Netherless, I decided to keep the cliche going and have people round for tea (and scones and cake and little traingualr sandwiches) at 5pm on 9th July.

I got up nice and early and started cutting teapot shapes out of colourful paper.

You can’t actually see from the picture, but the non-patterned shapes have tea quotes on them.
Having decorated the living room to my satisfaction I headed to the kitchen, where the carrot cake I had made the night before was waiting to be iced.

The Yorkshire Parkin I had baked the week before was still waiting in its tin. Amazingly we had both managed to avoid eating any of it – despite the fact the Parkin is my absolute all-time favourite cake. I love it even more than the richest and most deliciously gooey of brownies – and that’s saying something!

Yorkshire Parkin

I was secretly hoping people wouldn’t be too keen on it so there would be lots left for me, but (alas) it went down rather well. In fact, I saw one guy take three pieces. Success!
The donations tin was placed prominently next to a plate of melon (a contribution from a guest) and, to my surprise, instead of taking the opportunity to get rid of a few coins almost every guest put in a note! We ended up with 76 euros in the tin. Add to that a donation each from Jan and myself, plus the fiver someone who couldn’t make it gave me a few days later and I was able to transfer 95 pounds to Katy’s just giving page! Much more than I was expecting! And I received more compliments on my baking skills on that one day than I have in the entire rest of my life. Conclusion: The tea party was a resounding success!

The bringer of tea and toast

We survived our day at Castle Frankenstein. I didn’t catch sight of any Igors and no evil scientists seemed to be hanging around waiting to steal my brain. I did have to act as official interpreter for the civil ceremony with only about 20 minutes to prepare, but I was mostly translating for my family and I managed pretty well (despite the lack of dictionaries). Although I’m still annoyed with myself for forgetting the German word for ‘difficulties’ when translating the groom’s father’s speech into German (such a simple word and I’ve used it a million times…). Luckily the bride was able to help though.

We were both tired last night after getting up so early, so we were in bed by 10:30pm. Jan informs me that he caught a cold yesterday, so he’s still in bed even as I type despite the fact that it’s now 2:30pm. I went in at 1:30 to find out whether he wanted any lunch and he complained of a headache and asked for Erkältungstee (herbal tea for the curing of colds). So I fetched tea, I fetched cheese on toast and earlier I did some washing so that he would have something clean to put on in case he ever does decide to get up. And all that despite the fact that when I was ill he spent the entire week at his flat, leaving me to fend for myself. So much for gender equality…

The best laid plans…

I wanted to get an early night tonight. It was part of my getting ready to fly to England on Friday preparation. The plan went something like this:
Take the 5:35 train back from work, quickly go into town and buy some kind of hair decoration plus some earrings for Saturday, get home, check my e-mail, facebook, read a couple of blogs, make some food, get into bed at a reasonable time ready to wake up ridiculously early tomorrow so I can catch the early train, meaning I get to leave work earlier and thus have lots of time to pack, sort out the flat, take out the rubbish, clean the fridge and all those other little jobs that always need doing before you go away somewhere. (Wow, do you think that sentence was long enough?!)

It was all fine up until the arriving home part. Then the following happened:
- I made a cup of tea, forgot about it and am now drinking it cold.
- My grandma phoned when I was about to start cooking
- I found out the cheese steaks I wanted to make for dinner went out of date yesterday. I discovered I had nothing that would do as a replacement. I decided yesterday wasn’t too long ago and we should still be fine.
- I called Jan at 5 past 8, he told me he would be leaving work in 20 minutes and should be here in 40. I called him again at 9:30 to ask him how to cook the dumplings that I’m making to go with the cheese steaks. He told me he was about to leave work. It’s now 9:40. He’s just walked in the door. I’m starting to think his work has something against us…

I have to go now before the cheese burns. That would just be the icing on this incredibly bad cake, wouldn’t it?

Welcome to the inside of my brain

Do you know, it’s just taken me over an hour to make a cup of tea. I kept switching on the kettle, forgetting I had then remembering again after the water had pretty much gone cold. I think that pretty much sums up my state of mind at the moment.

Anyway, the incredibly funny Jaywalker (whose blog Belgian Waffling you need to go and read RIGHT NOW) is asking people for diagrams of their brains. And since I have nothing better to do needed an excuse to stop job hunting before my head explodes I thought I would join in. And so I present to you my brain:

(if the writing is too small to read let me know and I’ll provide a translation).

So, what do we learn from this exercise?

Clearly I am not panicking anywhere near enough about the unemployment situation… just look at that tiny little job hunting section. I actually think I expend more energy on feeling guilty about not looking for a job than I do trawling the internet hunting for somebody, anybody who is willing to employ me. Obviously I’m just not desperate enough yet.

It seems I am currently addicted to four things: books, the internets, junk food and cups of tea (since I’ve been stuck at home all day my poor kettle has been working overtime!). No wonder the poor boyfriend goes through periods of feeling neglected! At least the self-pity section isn’t too large… between blogging and rereading all my books I just don’t have time to worry about my lack of a social life!

That was actually kind of fun. If anyone else would like to do a brain I would love to see it!