A Photo an Hour: 16 January 2021

Hello lovely readers! Yesterday was February’s photo an hour date, which of course reminded me that I hadn’t actually written my post for last month’s photos yet. And so here I am attempting to catch up. The chosen date for January was the 16th. As usual it wasn’t the most exciting of days, but here it is anyway.

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10 a.m. The day always starts with tea.

11 a.m. Time for a shower.

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12 noon. Went down to collect the mail and was very excited to find this book had been delivered.

1 p.m. Putting on a load of laundry (having taken an identical photo yesterday I suddenly realise just how boring my life is!).

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2 p.m. Quiet time is over so the hoover can come out.

3 p.m. Sat down to read for 15 minutes while I waited for the washing machine to finish.

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4 p.m. On the way back from taking away the organic waste and recycling. As you can see, we had snow.

5 p.m. An appropriate candle for the whiteness outside!

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6 p.m. Time to make some food.

7 p.m. Tuna pasta bake is ready!

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8 p.m. Watching Green Book.

9 p.m. The film finished!

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10 p.m. A spot of reading before bed.

11 p.m. Bedtime with Eeyore.

And there you have it. Another boring lockdown Saturday* Hopefully I will get this month’s post up faster!

(*Disclaimer: we are not actually in “lockdown”. Although shops (other than supermarkets/DIY stores/flower shops), museums, zoos, galleries, restaurants, bars are closed we can go out and meet people if we want to, hairdressers are open, public transport is running. We can’t do much but we are not in lockdown. And personally I don’t want to go to crowded places anyway.)

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Please can it be the weekend now?

Today has been a looong day, or at least it seemed that way. Actually, I only worked for half an hour longer than I should have, but I’ve wanted it today to be over pretty much since I got up so time just seemed to go on forever.

We went to the cinema last night to see The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassius (the film Heath Ledger was making when he died). It was a little bizarre – which I guess is to be expected seeing as Terry Gilliam wrote and directed it – but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The showing we saw didn’t start til 9pm though, so it was late to bed and early to rise for me. After having a terrible night’s sleep the night before I was already ready for my bed before we even went to the cinema so you can imagine how I felt when it was time to get up this morning! I would have loved to have closed my eyes for a bit on the train to work but instead of my ICE they sent an IC (smaller and slower!), meaning not everybody was able to get a seat. Of course I was not one of the lucky few. Then I arrived at work to find that one of our customers had sent a complaint about part of a huge job that my colleague and I are working on, so I’ve spent most of today trying to sort that out in between finishing my other translation and squeezing in a rush job that had to be translated, proofread and sent out within the space of 6 hours. You can see why I want this week to be over (although the weekend is not looking much better from where I’m standing – Jan’s away and I really, really need to get something done for my dissertation. It’s hardly an opportunity to rest and recover…)

My red letter is…

Ages and ages ago Hails over at Coffee Helps was giving away letters for a memey type thing. It’s quite simple really – you take your assigned letter and write a blog post based around it. The idea is to think of ten things beginning with that letter that are meaningful to you.

My letter is T. Here are my ten things…

TRAVELING.
I ♥ traveling. Getting to see new places, learn new customs, hear new languages. How could anybody not love it? I’m not sure if it’s because I was brought up in an army family or what, but staying on one place all the time just sounds incredibly boring to me. As does going on holiday to the same place every year. I want to go everywhere. See everything. Experience as much as I can. And I love the fact that I’m actually living in an era where this is possible. No more 3 days donkey ride to get to the next village. No, I simple hop on a plane (or even a train) and within hours I’m wherever I want to go. It’s fabulous!

TOFFIFEE
Does anybody not know these sweets? They’re little cups of toffee with a hazelnut buried in nougat in the middle and a then a thick disk of chocolate over the top. I could eat them all day! It’s actually a good job there are only about 12 in a pack otherwise I could seriously make myself sick eating them. They were invented in Germany by the way. I knew there was a reason I liked this country…

THUNDERSTORMS
I adore thunderstorms. They’re exciting and awesome and slightly scary all at once. I especially love it when there’s forked lighting. Forked lightning is probably the coolest weather phenomenon. I also find thunderstorms strangely erotic. I always want sex when it’s thundering outside.
Wow, I can’t believe I just said that. On the internet!

TIGER’S EYE
Tiger’s eye is the birthstone for Leo, which is my star sign. It’s much, much nicer than the birthstone for August (my birth month), which is peridot. Peridot is green. A really strange pale green that reminds me of snot. Awful. Tiger’s Eye on the other hand is a kind of orangey brown. It has light bits and darker streaks, so it looks stripy like a tiger. You can also get red tiger’s eye, whch -as the name suggests – is a reddish version of tiger’s eye. Below you can see a photo of my red tiger’s eye necklace. It was a Christmas present from Jan and is my second favourite piece of jewellery. (My absolute favourite is a necklace of golden leaves that I inherited from my step-mum).

TREGARRICK
Tregarrick is a book by Keith Chatfield. It’s not my favourite book nor has it ever been my favourite, but my copy is special to me because it’s signed. My Auntie, who knew my ambition was to be a writer, had it signed for me and gave me it for my tenth birthday. The dedication that the write wrote in the book is wishing me luck with my dream. I haven’t achieved my ambition of becoming a writer yet (a couple of poems published by Forward Press doesn’t really count)but maybe I shall one day. And it’s nice to know my Auntie believed in me back then.

THIRTEEN
I’ve always loved the number thirteen. Not only because I was born on the 13th, although that is part of the reason. I’ve just always been fascinated with the fact that people believe it to be unlucky. As a child I remember wondering how a number could be unlucky. I mean, it’s just a number, right? Any anyway, obviously it must have been lucky for me. After all, I did come into existence on that day. The 13th is still my favourite number even now, and Friday 13th my favourite day. If it was up to me every Friday 13th would be a holiday. (And employers around the world breathe huge sighs of relief at the fact that I am not in charge…)

TERRY PRATCHETT
What can I say, the man’s a flipping genius! How could you not like the guy that invented Death of Rats? And Granny Weatherwax. And the luggage. At least three of my favourite books were written by him. He’s just so funny, and all of his observations are absolutely spot on. Plus, how could you not love somebody who describes being diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s as “an embuggerance”?

TEN THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU
There are so many things I like about this film. The soundtrack (Letters to Cleo! Semisonic! Sister Hazel!) The fact that Heath Ledger looks pretty darn fine in it. (I still can’t believe he’s dead. The guy was only a few years older than me. People my age aren’t supposed to die!). The poem. The bit where Bianca punches Joey. Yes it is probably a chick flick and yes it is cheesy in places but I really don’t care. I love it.

TOMI UNGERER
He is a French artist. He illustrated the Flat Stanley books, among other things. He also wrote and illustrated some children’s books of his very own. He also does political and erotic art. The erotic art makes me laugh – a lot. Here‘s a picture by Tomi Ungerer. And here‘s another one. They are good, no?

TEA
I always have lots of teabags in the house. Both ordinary black tea and the fruity kinds (which are technically infusions because they don’t actually contain any tea). There’s nothing quite like curling up on the sofa with a good book and a nice hot drink when it’s cold, rainy and windy outside. Coffee is good too, but it takes so long to make (unless you use instant which sort of defeats the point of a nice hot drink) and in my world hot chocolate is only for bed time – or for drinking in cafes where you can get them to put a mountain of cream on the top. So a nice hot cup of tea it is, or even a pot if I feel that way inclined.

OK, I think that’s 10. Phew. That was hard.
Now it’s over to you lot. If you want a letter just leave me a comment and I shall assign one to you. Let the memeing begin…

Back to reality

Just a quick blog post today cos I have to go out in a minute. I’m meeting Jan and some friends to go the cinema.

So, I disappeared for a few days there. Here’s why:
On Thursday I went to the bar here in my student residence for the first time in.. oh, I don’t even know how many months. I got incredibly drunk on way less alcohol than it used to take me to get incredibly drunk. Clearly I am becoming a light weight in my old age. *Sigh*. I finally made it to bed at 5:30am, waking up poor Jan in the process. Actually it’s entirely his own fault – nobody made him stay here that night! I then slept until about 1:30 yesterday afternoon, ate a huge bowl of potato croquettes and spent the rest of the afternoon lying around with a book. In the evening I headed over to Jan’s where we ate spaghetti bolognese and watched a film with his flatmate. I have no idea what the film was called. This random group of people who wanted to be profilers have been sent to an island to complete a test. Something to do with simulations of murders and they’re supposed to try and make a profile of the killer. Except there turns out to be a real murderer on the island, and members of the group gradually start dying. It was… interesting. Weird and confusing but definitely interesting.
And today I went to look at a flat. One room for sleeping/living, a separate but very small kitchen and a tiny bathroom (no bath, just a shower. Does it still count as a bathroom then I wonder). The landlady is supposed to make a decision tonight because the girl who’s moving out wants to hand over the key tomorrow, so we’ll see. If all goes well I may have a flat by this time tomorrow. Fingers crossed please…
And now my time off is pretty much over. Tomorrow is Sunday and the day after that I’m back at work. The four days have gone by so fast.
But it’s February tomorrow so no more January blues. Hurray for that!

Bevchen to the rescue

It was dark when I left work today. Dark and cold. I hate that. And things are only going to get worse – it’s another two whole months before we even reach the shortest day!

Anyway, enough whinging. Welsh Girl has tagged me for this meme. Apparantly if I don’t do it the world will end. I suppose I’d better do it then…
So, I’m supposed to tell you seven random things about me. Sounds pretty simple. I’m not sure it is though. Seven whole things? I just don’t think I’m that interesting. I shall give it a go though…

1. When I was younger my favourite colour was purple. I even decorated my room in it – or rather the decorator did. Actually, the wallpaper’s still there – purple with silver swirls. My entire family then decided it would be a wonderful idea to buy me purple stuff for every single occasion they could think of… birthdays, Easter, Christmas… I have an entire room full of purple candles, purple lamps, purple photo frames… and now I can’t stand the sight of the colour any more. I refuse to tell my relatives what colour I like now in case they put me off that one too.

2. I can only eat eggs if they’re mixed with milk. That means scrambled eggs and omlettes are fine, as are eggs in cake. Boiled and fried eggs make me throw up. It’s really annoying cos I actually like soft boiled eggs with toast soldiers but it’s just not worth the vomiting that I know will follow.

3. I once ate a beetle. Well, half of one anyway. I was sitting out in the garden when my mum noticed I had something in my mouth, so she came over to take a lot and discovered half a beetle in there. We can only assume I swallowed the other half. Clearly I was a sick child… but in my defence I was only about three years old at the time.

4. On my mum’s side, I’m the oldest of 18 grandchildren. My youngest cousin is a bit more than year old. There was one cousin who was older than me. She was born six months before I was and died at three weeks. Her name was Deborah.
I’m also the oldest grandchild on my dad’s side of the family, but as the other grandchildren are my sister and half brother it doesn’t really count.

5. My blog is the only place I ever refer to my mother as “mum”. In real life she’s mam.

6. I went to five different schools, three primary and two secondary. We moved around a lot.

7. My absolute all time favourite film is A League of Their Own. I still cry every time I watch it.

OK, now I’m supposed to pass it on to some of you lot. Most of the people I would have passed it to have already done it though. Hmm, I choose sleepyjane, Lauren from Half Deserted Streets and anyone else that wants to do it.

Now I have to go to a meeting with my floor. Hopefully normal blogging service will resume tomorrow… unless someone goes and tags me for another meme.

Something beginning with B…

My friends like to do these random surveys/fill in the sentence/whatever things. They send me them by email or post them as Facebook notes. Mostly I just ignore them but I liked the look of this one so I decided to steal it for blogging purposes.
Here are the rules:
1. Tell us your first name: Beverley
2. Complete the following statements. All answers must begin with the first letter of your name.

1) 4 letter word: Bell
2) Girl’s name: Bettina (I’m assuming using my own name would be cheating…)
3) Boy’s name: Benjamin
4) An Occupation: Banker
5) A colour: Blue
6) Something you wear: Bra (It was the first thing that came to mind ok!)
7) Beverage: Bacardi
8 ) Food: Burger
9) Something found in a bathroom: Bath
10) A city: Barcelona
11) A country: Brazil
12) Song with a girl’s name in the title: Black Betty
13) Something you shout: Boo!
14) Celebrity: uuhh… Bryan Adams
15) Cartoon character: Bugs Bunny
16) Flower: Bluebell
17) Animal: Bear
18) Fruit: Banana
19) A book title: Bloomability (by Sharon Creech)
20) A film title: Breakfast Club (OK, so technically it’s The Breakfast Club, but “the” doesn’t count… right?)

OK, now it’s over to you dear readers. If you’d like to join in just leave me a comment with a link to your blog (so I can come and see your list) then get memeing.

Weekend

What have I done this weekend?

* slept late
* met a friend for coffee and crepes (we discovered a yummy crepes place in Karlsruhe – actually I already knew it was there but didn’t know it was yummy)
* went to see Wall E with the boyfriend. I really enjoyed it. Basically a typical animated pixar film, but still good, and does make you think in a way (what would happen if we really did cover the Earth in so much rubbish it became unable to sustain life?)
* had a random conversation with the boyfriend about commitment or lack thereof and how unfair it is that he makes me happy way more often than I make him happy, and why does he stay with me anyway when I rarely make him happy and clearly am not what he wants, although actually he doesn’t know what he wants, except that he doesn’t want to commit to me, but maybe I could be want he wants if only I wasn’t so sarcastic/childish/pessimistic/obsessive/socially inept/generally a crap girlfriend. (Could that just have been the longest sentence ever?)

So that’s me. Did you all have good weekends?

I’m going to do some uni work now. But not until after I’ve written a letter to a friend. I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t find some way to procrastinate.

SATC and Italy Italy

Last night Jan took me to see Sex and the City. I thought it was good, but not brilliant. It was basically a 2 and a half hour version of one of the episodes. Itt went on far too long for my liking (after 2 hours I was wondering whether it would ever end!), but I suppose there were a few loose ends to be tied up. The ending was incredibly predictable (of course they were going to get married. It just wouldn’t be SATC without the happy ending). There were a few good one liners. I’m glad I saw, but don’t think I’ll be buying the DVD. And is it just me or does Sarah Jessica Parker look old?? I know she’s not in her 20s any more, but seriously, she’s looking haggard these days!

By the time the film finished we were starving, so we went to a restaurant called Italy Italy. Guess what kind of food they sell? I had some gorgeous lasagne with Bärlauch, which leo.org tells me can be translated as bear’s garlic, wood garlic or wild garlic. It’s green anyway, and yes slightly similar to garlic. Jan had a huuuge pizza thing. It was one with the filling in the middle, so I was expecting something like a calzine (normal pizza folding in half) but what turned up was this huuuuge round thing with an inflated bit in the middle where the filling was. It kind of looked like a flying saucer made from pizza dough. Interesting. It must have been huge cos even Jan couldn’t eat it all! I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him leave food on his plate in the whole 4 and a bit years we’ve been together. So to sum up, Italy Italy in Karlsruhe does very nice meals with huge portions at reasonable prices. Aah, I shoud be a restaurant critic (hahaha).