Friday letters again

Finally, the last day of the working week is here! It could not have come soon enough for me. I’ve spent most days being convinced the week had to be further advanced than it actually was (in fact, on Wednesday afternoon I was utterly convinced that it already was Friday, which led to some confusion when I came to record my times for the day. Opening the software and seeing that there were still three whole columns to fill in was a bit of a shock to the system I can tell you!). Here are this week’s Friday letters.

Dear cough. I honestly thought I had almost recovered, so I don’t appreciate you coming back with a vengeance this morning. Is it because I offended you with my bog off post yesterday? If so, I’m sorry to say I don’t care. I meant every word of it!

Dear weekend. You are full to the brim with exciting plans. I can’t wait! (Although I may end up wishing you were three days long so I could have a chance to recover before going back to work!)

Dear Amazon. Please stop sending me e-mails wth book recommendations. I need to stay off you til pay day and you are really not helping!

Dear bed. I promise to spend some extra time in you tonight. We’ve spent way too little time together this week and I am so tired!

Dear readers. Thank you for still being my readers, despite the fact that all I’ve done recently is go on and on about my cough!

Dear weekend weather forecast. Please stay exactly as you are. Thank you.

Dear colleague (who will never actually read this). Thank you for complimenting on my translation today. It makes the many, many suggested changes easier to bear.

Dear boyfriend. I have actually lost count of how many evening meals we’ve actually eaten together recently. It’s amazing seeing you in the evenings, even if you do continue working after I’ve gone to bed. Thank you!!

That’s all from me today. What can I say – it’s been a boring week!

Advertisement

Oh, just go away (no, not you dear readers!)

My cough has almost gone.
The key word in the above sentence is almost. I am now able to go hours at a time without coughing. I can fall asleep at night and actually stay asleep. My throat no longer feels like someone’s been at it with a cheese grater thanks to being constantly attacked.  These are all good things, of course. But I am out of cough medicine and I am still not entirely free of the dreaded tickle in my throat.

I wish MY cough was as cute as this one! – Cough and the Common Cold (Photo credit: RobertFrancis)

The other day, I had a coughing fit on the train. I’m talking the full works here – tickle in the throat that would not go away, check. Red face, check. Tears streaming from my eyes, check. Runny nose (caused by said tears), check. Oh yes, I was a sight to behold. And I didn’t even have any water on me to attempt to soothe my poor throat (I now have a large bottle of water in my work bag – lesson learned!). When I told this story to the boyfriend, I finished it with the words “it was so embarrassing”. “Why would that be embarrassing?” he asked. Well, it could just have had something to do with me having wrenched a dozen commuters away from their books/dreams of tonight’s meal/whatever with my racket and I could feel all their eyes on me. Not to mention the fact that I looked like some kind of red-faced, watery eyed freak. Not exactly how I want to appear to a bunch of complete strangers. But what could possibly be embarrassing about that? Hmm, I wonder… I then arrived home and had another coughing fit, which almost made me throw up on my living room floor. Hmm, nice.

 

Dear cough, I am definitely over you now, so please do us both a favour and GET LOST!

 

Thank god for this beautiful view

As I mentioned in my last post, I decided to work from home yesterday to give my colleagues a break from my coughing and myself a chance to recover.

At work, I regularly share a room with one colleague (there is also a spare computer in our room, which is occasionally used by interns and the like, but usually there are two of us). My colleague has the window seat, while I sit by the door. Occasionally I will look away from whatever translation I’m working on to try to give my eyes a break from the computer screen. Naturally, my gaze tends to be drawn towards the window on these occasions but, being so far away, I can’t really see much – just the top of the building next door. Not that I would anything more interesting if my desk was closer to the window. Our office looks out on a concrete courtyard which is usually full of cars. And because our room is almost the last one in our corridor, we tend not to get much sun in either. In fact, at this time of year we need the light on pretty much all day. So, while working from home, it was quite nice to have something else to look at than the various postcards I’ve stuck above my desk at work. Here is what I currently see outside the window when I look over to it from the computer desk in our spare room:

At that point in time, the sky was completely white with clouds, although there had been some blue sky early in the day. But despite the clouds, there is some sun coming from a place I can’t see, causing the trees to light up in all their autumn glory. The desk in our spare room is also at the opposite side of the room from the window, but the trees are tall enough to be seen from over there. And actually, if I was to go over to the window, the view would consist of a road and tram tracks (plus some grass a little further away), so it may, in fact, be a good thing that the desk is so far away from the window. This way, I only get the nice view (plus, if I am working from home, I’m less likely to be distracted by people watching opportunities. Unless someone starts walking along the roof of the building opposite there aren’t really any people to watch!). Despite the fact that my cough was annoying me a lot, I actually managed to gain some pleasure from gazing out at the pretty coloured trees (during my lunch break, obviously. I did get some work done as well 😉 ).

Have I mentioned recently that I love my flat? 🙂

By the way, the title of this blog is a line from possibly my favourite Tina Dico song, A Room With A View. Here’s the YouTube link for you:

At least it’s the weekend…

All week I’ve been wanting to write a nice, positive post to counteract the whines of the two previous ones, but then I came down with this horrible cold thing, which meant I left work early on Wednesday (to be fair I had nothing musch to do anyway) and actually ended up calling in sick yesterday and spending the day in bed. Unheard of for me! The last time I was off work sick was at my previous job, and then I was sent home because I was annoying everyone with my coughing! I stayed home again today as well. I was feeling somewhat better, but not enough to face the journey to work. Luckily we have the option to log on to the server remotely from home, so I sent an email saying I could work, but wasn’t feeling up to coming in. The offer was gratefully accepted… my colleague took yesterday off as well and called in sick again today. Since there are only two of us translating into English you can imagine the chaos that can cause both of us being ill can cause! Luckliy yesterday remained quiet, but the colleague who deals with order management was understandably relieved to have one of us at least able to do a little work from home today!

Jan has been wonderful through this! I was already feeling crappy on Tuesday (but still well enough to go to work) so he got out of bed while I was in the shower and made me an Erkältungstee! That’s tea that’s supposed to help with colds. (Cold tea would be the literal translation but that just sounds weird in English). Usually I have to wake him up to say goodbye when I leave, so him getting up at 6:30 a.m. just to make me a tea was quite frankly amazing! Even more so when he then did the same thing on Wednesday morning! Yes, I do realise how lucky I am (although reading back through my posts you’d probably be hard pushed to believe me). I seem to be on the road to recovery now. I feel less weak and my head’s stopped feeling like it’s been stuffed with cotton wool. Now if only my nose would stop alternating between running and being blocked and I could stop coughing for longer than 5 minutes at a time everything would be perfect! At least it’s the weekend. Two whole days to recover…
And now I’m off to make chilli con carne for tea. Hot food sounds like such a wonderful idea right now!

On a desert island in December

Well, I’m still ill, although my voice had come back slightly this morning. I still can’t stop coughing though. *sigh*
But this post isn’t meant to be another moany pity-me one. Instead I’m finally going to get round to doing that meme I’ve been going on about for days.

So, I was tagged by Katyboo and the meme is based on Desert island Discs.
For those that don’t know Desert Island Discs is a BBC radio programme in which guests have to imagine they are castaways on a desert island and choose 8 pieces of music to take with them. Then they can choose one book, anything but the Bible or Shakespeare, both of which are already on the island (strange island this). And finally, they can choose one luxury item, nothing to help them escape from the island though.

So, here goes. First my eight pieces of music.
This is quite difficult actually. I have favourite pieces of music for every mood, and what I feel like listening to sometimes changes within hours never mind days, but I shall do my best.

1. Wind Beneath My Wings by Bette Midler – This is my all time favourite song, although it also makes me a little sad. You see, it was also one of my step mam’s favourite songs. I like to listen to it on days when I find myself wishing she was still around (she died when I was 12 those who are wondering). So clearly it would have to come to the desert island with me for her sake. Also it’s on the soundtrack to the film Beaches, which makes it pretty appropriate for a desert island don’t ya think?

2. Bad Day by Daniel Powter – For those days when I’m feeling all hormonal and miserable. Who doesn’t like screaming “cos you’ve had a bad day” at the top of their lungs on days like that?

3. Carnival of Rust by Poets of the Fall – It took me aaages to decide on this one. I knew I had to have something b y Poets, them being my new favourite band and everything, but it was so unbelievable difficult to decide which one. I’ve gone for this one because it’s kind of loud and rocky, perfect for jumping around a desert island too, and plus my boyfriend can play it on guitar so it would be something to remind me of him.

4. World by Five for Fighting – It was a toss up between this one and Devil in the Wishing Well. This one won out, but only just. I would put it on full blast, close my eyes and imagine myself a new world, just like the song says. The perfect way to forget about being stuck on a desert island.

5. Miserable by Lit – Another one for horrible days when everything seems to be going wrong. I’ll never forget the first time I heard this song. I was 18 and I’d just had a fight with my boyfriend of the time. A guitarist friend of mine offered to play a song for me, so I told him to “play something miserable”, which he did. This was that miserable song. I’ve loved it ever since.

6. Ha Ha You’re Dead by Green Day – Not Green day’s best song and not even my favourite, but perfect for a desert island. Another great one for turning up to full volume and screaming out while jumping around like a loony.

7. Tribute by Tenacious D – This song is hilarious! It never fails to cheer me up. Also, it reminds me of my group of friends from uni. The DJ would play it for us every week and at some point it became our anthem. It’s nice to have something to remind of those times now we’re all spread across the world.

8. Keep on Loving You by REO Speedwagon – My first ever favourite song! Obviously I had no idea what it was about back then. I would just sing along to the chorus and imagine how it would be to have someone telling me he was going to love me forever. There are other REO Speedwagon songs that I like, but for my desert island it would obviously have to be this one that came along for the sake of my six year old self.

Phew. That was hard! I just hope I’ve got all the links right. Now for the book…
Well, obviously it would have to be something long otherwise I’d be finished with it way too soon and end up having to read and re-read the bible until rescue came. The obvious one would probably be War and Peace. I’m a quick reader and every time I finish yet another book my boyfriend threatens to buy me that one for Christmas! I think that one would be too obvious a choice though so I’ve decided to go with Gone With the Wind. I’ve heard so much about it but never actually got round to reading it (or watching the film) and I feel like I should. A desert island would be the perfect opportunity. And it 960 pages for this edition it should take me a few weeks to get through it…

And finally, my luxury item.
Now I know people are probably going to laugh at this but I think I would want my cuddly Eeyore.
This Eeyore was a birthday present from my mum this year. (Yes I got a stuffed toy for my 25th birthday. And your point would be?). He’s some kind of bedtime Eeyore, which means he’s dressed in a blue dressing gown and night cap thing and, depending on which way you look at him, either looks unbelievably exhausted or as if he’s just woken up. One day, not long after Eeyore arrived in Germany, Jan decided he felt sorry for him sitting on the table looking like he hadn’t slept in days, so before we left for work he tucked Eeyore up under my quilt. By the time I arrived home I’d forgotten he was there. I’d had a bad day and all I wanted was to get into my room and relax. Upon opening the door I saw Eeyore snuggled up waiting for me and my heart just melted. He looked so cute lying there, and of course knowing my boyfriend had put him there made it even cuter. So if I was going to be trapped on a desert island I would definitely have to tajk Eeyore with me so I could leave him tucked up in my bed waiting to greet me when I returned from a hard day of gathering cocunts and stuff. I’m sure he’d be a great comfort when I got sunstroke as well, which I most definitely would. If I can get sunstroke in Karlsruhe I’ve got no chance on a desert island!

OK, that’s it. Now I think I’m supposed to tag people. Unfortunately just about everyone I would have tagged has already done it though, so I pick sleepyjane and anyone else who wants to have a go…

Struck dumb

The Christmas dinner went really well. My crackers were a resounding success, the turkey was cooked exactly on time and I actually managed to get my roast potatoes to go brown! (I have bad luck with roast potatoes). It was 6am by the time I got to bed, after the last few stragglers had left and we’d managed to wash and dry our way through the huge pile of dishes. Even after we’d filled the dishwasher with the smaller stuff every kitchen surface was still covered with things to be washed. *sigh*. We got through it eventually though, and Ess was kind enough to stay and help. All in all I’d say it was a good night.

Still haven’t managed to get rid of the evil cough/sore throat thing though. In fact, today I’m coughing more than ever and my voice is almost completely gone. Most annoying! I need to get it back in time for work tomorrow.
Anyone got any ideas on how to get your voice back fast, other than sucking strepsils and drinking warm water that is…