A photo an hour: Saturday, 21 March 2015

I managed to quickly upload these photos last night before Jan took the computer apart so that I could spend my lunch break writing up Saturday’s photo an hour. The chosen date happened to be the day of our leaving party, so for once the photos aren’t just drinking tea, cross stitching and doing housework! However, I also forgot to take any more photos after the party started so the day ends at 9 p.m. 😉

8:30 a.m. Faaar too early to be up on a Saturday, but I have loads to do. But first a cup of tea is needed! (Will there ever be a photo and hour day that doesn’t start with tea? I doubt it!)

9 a.m. (switching back to on the hour because I prefer it). Trying to find a recipe for the evening’s vegetarian option. It shall be curry, but which one?

10 a.m. Showered and dressed. How amazing are these tights?! I fully expected them to be ripped by the end of the evening, but they lived to see another wearing. Woo hoo!

11 a.m. Crushing biscuits, a.k.a wishing I owned a food processor!

12 noon. Melt chocolate, melt!

1 p.m. Taking a break from the kitchen to put together another box to be filled with things from the spare room.

2 p.m. Back to baking. Mixing flour and cocoa powder together.

3 p.m. The dairy-free chocolate and coconut cupcakes are out of the oven. Now they just need to cool so they can be frosted. Also, look at my fabulous new cupcake holders!

4 p.m. Switching to savoury food. Time to make cheese scones. (And immediately after taking that photo came the thought “Aaargh, it’s 4 p.m. and I haven’t even started peeling the potatoes for the curry yet!)

5 p.m. The potatoes are peeled and chopped, so I’ve decided to make a start on the chilli while I wait for Jan to return from the shops with the remaining curry ingredients.

6 p.m. Curry and chilli coming along nicely. (Please ignore the stack of dirty bowls in the background that I hadn’t got round to washing yet.)

7 p.m. First batch of sausage rolls done!

8 p.m. Moving things over to the table.

9 p.m. Finally everything’s ready (ages after our guests arrived)… let’s eat!

Aaaand that was it as far as photos are concerned. I didn’t get to bed until 3 a.m., but a photo an hour ended there. A very busy day, but the food was yummy! (I’m just glad the chosen date wasn’t the next day, otherwise this post would have consisted of 12 photos of half-packed boxes with different contents!)

You can see who else joined in this time on Jane’s and Louisa’s posts. Thanks for hosting, you two!

Advertisement

Preparing to move: a photo post

I don’t really have time for blogging at the moment, but I felt the need to give a small sign of life, so here’s a quick dump of the photos I’ve taken recently. Some were taken on my tablet, so the quality is correspondingly not great.

Lunch on the train a few weeks ago on my way to yet more flat viewings. Totally healthy, right? 😉

I’m trying to use up as much stuff as possible because the removals company said it can be difficult getting food into Switzerland. Here’s a cake I made for my colleagues in an attempt to get rid of some instant coffee.

All our boxes need to be given a number and we need to provide detailed packing lists for customs (the joys of moving to a non-EU country!). Here’s a note I wrote to Jan the other morning. I wasn’t sure what number he’d got up to the night before and the file with the packing list is on his computer.

Boxes, boxes everywhere! The current state of my living room (also apparently the white balance is off on the tablet? My living room isn’t actually blue!).

The removal men are coming on Tuesday morning, then I’ll be spending roughly a month living with next to no furniture and one of each kitchen item! The computer is leaving too, so other than at work I’ll only be able to access the Internet via our mini tablet, meaning my posting will probably continue to be erratic for a while! Then, as of May, you can expect plenty of pretty pictures of Switzerland 🙂

Nothing to say, but I’m saying it anyway

Hmm, another new week. I seem to have entirely missed most of last one. All I remember is that it involved working like a mad woman all day then returning home to work like a mad woman some more, but this time on something that I’m not getting paid for. And all this while trying to recover from my monster cold. I’m all better now though, I’m sure you’ll be pleased to know. And the dissertation is moving forward. I even managed to have some fun at the weekend, which is something that hasn’t happened in a while. On Friday night Jan and I went out for a meal then some cocktails with a friend. It was 2:30 by the time we got in and I was up again by 9:30, but the reminder of what it’s like to have a real life made up for the tiredness.

I also started putting some things in boxes on Thursday evening. It wasn’t much, and my place is still as chaotic and crowded as ever, but it’s a start. Somehow actually starting to pack things away makes the move seem so much more real. I’m hoping we’ll be able to get the keys soon, then we can go in and do some measuring so we can figure out where to put what. We already have a list of things we need to do – and buy. I think another trip to IKEA will be on the cards fairly soon. Not until after payday though. My university are now demanding money from me again. *sigh*. Thankfully this is the last installment, so hopefully they’ll leave me alone after that. Unless of course I have to pay for the privilige of having my certificate sent out to me. That is a bridge that shall have to be crossed when I come to it though… I have to pass the dissertation first!

Back after the break

We go to Rome tomorrow. Tonight I shall have to stay at the boyfriend’s place so we can pack our stuff (somehow both of our bags have ended up there!) As always when it comes to going away anywhere I have a tonne of stuff that needs doing first… and me being me I haven’t even managed half of it yet, despite the fact that it’s now 3:45 pm. I did manage to put away most of the clean laundry. Only Jan’s socks left to do now. I hate those. For one thing they all look almost the same, so I spend ages staring at a heap of almost identical socks trying to figure out which ones make a pair. And then he complains that I roll them up wrong(?!) so I have to unroll and reroll them about 3 times to accomplish something that vaguely resembles they way they look when he does them. Takes ages. Grrr! Usually I make him do them but he won’t be coming here again now so it’s up to me.

Other than that I have spent most of the day procrastnating. I read some blogs, played around on Facebook and finished my book. Then I decided to relearn how to make friendship bracelets. This was partly to prove to myself that I can do something vaguely creative, even if it is something a 10 year old could do (and waaay better than me!) and partly as an excuse to avoid a) the dishes (from last night!) and b) going next door to give them my spare key. This is necessary because the man is coming to read the heating metres on Saturday and obviously I won’t be here so I need the neighbours to let him in. Trouble is, the idea of actually going over there and asking them makes me want to cry. From what I’ve seen of them they’re very nice and I’m sure they’ll be perfectly happy to take the key for me, but they’re people and asking favours of people I don’t know (well) scares me. Don’t worry, it doesn’t make sense to me either. So rather than go and face the scary people I learned how to do the basic knot for friendship bracelets. Here’s what I created:
Yes, I know, it’s stupidly small. And can you tell I used the leftover thread from a new baby cross stitch I made for a friend? Thought so…
Anyway, now that I’ve made my pathetic excuse for a friendship bracelet I have no idea what I’m going to do with it. It’s certainly not long enough to fit round anyone’s wrist and also I’m slightly too old to be giving out friendship bracelets so I’m at a bit of a loss. Ideas anyone?

Well, I probably won’t have the time or the opportunity to blog from Rome so this will be my last post until I get back. Umm, how about some music to entertain you while I’m away? This is by the wonderful Poets of the Fall, a Finnish band who I think I may be in actual love with. Here is a song called King of Fools for you. Just listen to the lyrics ok. That first verse… it’s me. Seriously.

And now to face the scary people from next door…

…And I’m off

Very quick blog post today.
Jan has gone to fetch the car and I’m supposed to be finishing the packing/cleaning. I thought I’d take a break for a few minutes though and say bye bye to my bloggy friends.
I shall miss you all! Try not to have too much fun in my absence ok, I’m going to be having withdrawel symptoms as it is 😉

It’s a little weird to be leaving the student residence. I’ve had some good times here. The first time I left (in July 2004) I actually cried. It was the end of my year abroad and I was going back to England. At the time I had no idea whether I’d ever come back here. Jan and I had agreed to try the long-distance thing, but as he was going all the way to America I wasn’t all that hopeful. We survived the year though, and the folowing year when I was in Austria and he was back in Germany. And now here I am, leaving the residence again. But this time I’m only going round the corner – to my very own. I’ve never had my very own flat before! So I’m excited and nervous and happy but also just a little sad. Talk about emotional rollercoaster!

Anyway, must go. It’s time to get back to dealing with the dust… and dragging heavy boxes outside…

As Tigger would say:

TTFN!

Getting there

Work was ok today. We had more offers training but this time I managed to do everything right. It’s actually pretty routine stuff once you know how (except the stuff I did yesterday I have never had to do before so there was no way I could have known what to do). But when the boss is sitting watching it’s actually quite difficult to remember everything. I get so nervous. Silly really, but there you go.  This evening I had to stay 15 minutes longer because I have Spanish tomorrow and need to leave early. Usually I just come in early on Wednesday mornings but because the boss isn’t always there on Wednesdays it is apparantly a bad day for me to come in early (because that means his wife has to be there to let me in). Today my colleague was staying later because she had to leave for 20 minutes this morning to go to the doctors, and she has a key so I could stay late as well.

I’ve actually managed to make an appointment with the bank as well! This morning I went on the website to see if they had any online form you could fill in for making appointments. I didn’t find anything like that, but did discover an email address so I wrote them a mail and when I got home today I had a reply. I asked for an appointment on Monday, as late as possible, but it seems the latest appointment would be at 3:30pm, which would really mess things up for work. They’ve offered me one at 5pm on Thursday so I’ve written back accepting. Hopefully it hasn’t been given to someone else in the meantime. It will mean leaving work an hour early (normally we’re there til 5:15pm) to get back on time for it, but hopefully it will be possible to make that hour up somehow. I’ll probably have to come in at 8am on two other days or something. 8am! I feel tired just thinking about it 😦 (it means getting the 7am tram) but it has to be done I guess. At least then everything will be sorted and it will hopefully be a long time before I have to go to the bank again. If only they didn’t close at 4pm on Fridays it would have been no problem – we finish at 4pm then!

I actually seem to be getting somewhere with packing as well. At least my shelves are looking a lot emptier now. Almost all of the books are sorted – a lot of them are even already over there, stacked up on the living room windowsill due to lack of any actual furniture at the new place. Mostly it’s just clothes and things that need packing now, and all the breakable stuff like cups and glasses. Oh, and I need to finish taking down my posters as well. And empty the desk drawers. OK, so there’s still quite a bit to be done. But at least I’m a bit further along than I was…

Anyway, I must go now. It’s 5 to 8 and I haven’t even got round to eating anything yet. So much to do…

I blame it on stress…

I feel ill today. Actually it all started when I woke up with a sore throat yesterday. I managed to forget about it for most of the day though in all the excitement of sorting out flat stuff. The soreness came back in the evening though, after Jan left. This morning it was no worse, but no better either, and I’ve been cold all day despite the fact that it’s a beautifully warm day. I’m also aching all over and my head feels like it wants to float away. And, just to add to my woes, I’ve discovered a patch of eczema on my hand. Usually I only get eczema when I’m stressed or if I use a product that I’m allergic to, and since I haven’t used anything new lately I’m going with the stress option.

So why am I stressed you ask? Well, apart from the whole money thing (pleeease let my pay go in before the rent goes out!) there’s the fact that I’m moving in six days and yet anyone entering my room for the first time could be forgiven for thinking I haven’t even started packing yet. I’ve no idea when I’m supposed to get it all done either considering I have to work this week and I never get home before 6:30pm, ever. And that’s when I come straight home – if I have to go shopping or something it’s usally somewhere between 7 and 7:30. Except on Fridays when I finish early. And, to add to all that, I have stuff to do for uni. First of all there’s a practice translation potfolio due in tomorrow. I have done most of the actually translating part but still need to type it up, write an analysis (this text appeared in blah blah and has a target audience of such and such. The style of writing is such and such) and commentary (what problems I had when translating the text. Why I chose to translate particular things the way I did). That’s not soo bad though, it’s only a practoce. I should at least hand something in though as I completely missed the last one. But if it’s not finished the world will not end. Noo, that’s not a major problem. What is a major problem is the actual assessed piece of coursework, due on 20th March. Yes, that is 20 days away, I know. The problem is for most of those 20 days I am going to be without internet which kind of makes finding a text to translate online a little difficult. And I also have to find other texts to put into the portfolio. And the dictionary I usually use to translate is also an online one. I do have a very good paper dictionary, but it doesn’t have a forum where I can get help with particularly strange phrasing. Neither does it have Google to define words I’ve never heard of and show me pictures to help me figure out what’s going on. So I basically need to try and get everything but the translation difficulties part of that done by Saturday morning as well. And those are just the major things that need doing in. Add in all the normal every day things (like trying to get all my laundry done before I move out as it will be a while before I can afford a washing machine plus actually finding time to eat, shower breathe…) and you have one very busy Bev on your hands.  Soo I think I have good reason to be stressed out. No wonder I’m not feeling brilliant!

On a brighter note some of you may remember my Happiness is… blog from a few weeks ago. It was part of a competition by Odette, aka Little Miss Firefly and I actually won! Yep, mine was the first name to be picked out of the hat… metaphorically speaking anyway. Actually she used random.org to pick the winners, I just thought the hat thing sounded good. Anyway, enough waffling. Go check out Odette’s blog to see what I won. And in the meantime I shall get back to my attempts to translate and pack at the same time…

Moving day part one

I’m moving the first lot of stuff over to my flat today. Jan has got a car from 1pm so this afternoon all the smaller things that I can manage to live without for the next week will be off on its travels. Then next Saturday at 11:30 I’ll be doing the official handover of the keys. I’ve just been to see the caretaker about it and been told I can’t leave, I’m already a permanent fixture. Someone likes me then it seems. 😉
It’s all very exciting! Looks like I’ve got a busy morning ahead of me though – it’s 10:30 already and so far I’ve managed to pack one bag and two small boxes. Better get a move on then!

Doing ten things at once

I have a feeling this week is going to be rather stressful… well, the evenings at least. During the day I’ll just be working as usual. But at night, when I should be relaxing, there are a million things that need doing.

 

Photo credit: Courtney Dirks

 

I need to pack. I need to clean every inch of my room ready for handing back the key. I need to see the director of the building to find out if there’s any way to get out of paying the rent for March. I need to see the caretakers to make sure it’s ok to move out on Saturday (they have to check for damage and take back the key). I need to go to the bank and sort out an account into which the deposit for my rent will be paid. I need to get the money for the deposit. I need to do the practice translation for uni that’s due on 2nd March. I need to gather the necessary information for the assessed piece that’s due on 20th March because if I do get to move out on Saturday I will be without internet access for a while.And right now I need to go and collect my washing from the machine and hang it somewhere to dry. Phew. I’m exhausted already and that’s just from thinking about it all…

 

Organising my brain

There is so much going on this week and I have so many things to do and think about, both right now and over the next few months, that my brain feels as if it might explode. The only way to deal with this I feel is to misuse my blog to write a list of all the things that I keep forgetting then remembering again. Hopefully it will all seem much more manageable when I can see it all written down (or rather typed up).

• Cleaning. My floor has to be cleaned this week. (Not floor as in thing you walk on but as in thing you live in, ie. in my case ground floor). I am unavailable on the 2 nights they’ve chosen for us all to do together (Tuesday and Wednesday) so I will be given an individual task. This must be completed before I fly to England on Friday. I would also like to sort out my room before I leave. Yet more cleaning.
• Work Christmas meal. This is on Tuesday evening after work. We’re going to a hotel/restaurant in Ettlingen.
• Spanish homework & Spanish course. My last Spanish lesson before Christmas is on Wednesday evening. Before that I have homework to do. Must not forget.
• Job hunting. I still don’t know whether I’m going to have a job after January, and even if they do decide to keep me I’m not 100% sure yet whether I want to accept. Either way it would probably be a good idea to have another option open to me. Must update CV and send out job applications before going home for Christmas…
• Flat hunting. I have decided I am definitely moving out in March whether I have a job or not. If I don’t have a job I won’t be able to afford the rent here anyway, so I’m either moving into a flat or moving to England. Hopefully I will have a job, which means I’ll be needing somewhere new to live. Only 3 months to go… definitely about time I started trying to find a flat!
• Floor Christmas party. Taking place on Thursday. There will be food, Christmas biscuits and Feuerzangenbowle (sort of likeGlühwein (mulled wine), except after making up the wine they put it in a big pan, stick a cone of sugar over the top pf it on a metal thing, pour run over the sugar and set it on fire. The sugar/rum mixture then melts into the Glühwein. It’s pretty good and very, very strong!)
• Buy last few Christmas presents. Nearly there. I only have 3 more to buy. Phew!
• Finish wrapping Christmas presents… and then hope I can actually get them all in the suitcase without going over the weight limit
• Write and send Christmas cards. Some of them have already been posted but I do still have one or two more to write. If any of you would like one I’ll be needing your address…
• Pack. This will probably be done in a massive rush on Thursday night/Friday morning, after the Christmas party and before catching the train. I will most likely be shoving in last minute items as I’m rushing out of the door…
• Sort out fridge. I’m going to be gone for almost three weeks! Better make sure there are no stray vegetables or out of date cartons of milk lurking around while I’m away…

OK, I think that’s it. The plan didn’t work though. I still think it’s going to be an exhausting week!
Oh well, only 4 more days then I’ll finally have some time to relax.