Friday letters

Hello! It’s my lunch break and I’m currently waiting for my lunch to cook (baked potato plus leftover mince and veg from last night), so I thought I’d write today’s blog post. I’m so glad it’s Friday and therefore nearly the weekend! Yesterday was just not my day at all – first I walked all the way to the discount supermarket in my lunch break only to find it’s closed for renovation, then a customer kept sending new versions of a file I was translating so I had to interrupt my work several times, then, just as I was preparing to finish for the day, we got a complaint from a customer about one of my translations saying I had failed to use their terminology. Sadly, they were right – I thought I got the terminology from their website but it turns out there are two companies with similar names that work together! The other company was mentioned in the text I was translating and their website is where I got the terminology from. Grr! Plus I’ve had a cold all week and kept waking up every few hours last night because my throat hurt. Oh well, things can only get better… right?

Dear Amt für Migration. Hurry up and get in touch. I need to know what’s happening with my residence permit!

Dear cold. I’m fed up of you now. Please go away!

Dear June. You are almost upon us. How?!

Dear work laptop. So apparently if I leave you long enough for the screen to switch off (say because I want to check the mail and make my lunch), you stay connected to our wireless network but disconnect from the Internet. The only way I’ve found to fix this is restarting you. Why?!

Dear lunch. I’m coming to get you now so you’d better be ready!

That’s it – I’m off to eat. Have a great weekend, everyone!

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The Liebster Award and some random ramblings

Charlotte from Sherbet and Sparkles recently gave me the Liebster Award (thank you Charlotte!) and I thought I would pass it on before I completely forget about it.A while ago, I was given a different Liebster Award, which involved a lot more work. This one is pretty simple – display the award on your blog and choose five people to pass it on to. I can do that!

The word Liebster is German, by the way, and means something like “dearest”. How nice!
Here are my nominations:

Pinklea – One of the first blogs I started reading when I signed up for WordPress oh-so-many years ago. She’s a French immersion teacher from Canada and often has funny stories to tell about the kids, as well as life in general.

Expat Eye on Latvia – I’m sure you can guess what her blog is about from the name. However, what the name doesn’t tell you is that she’s very, very funny!

From Casinos to Castles – Deanna is an American expat in Germany. She writes about the ups and downs of life (and parenthood) in a foreign land.

Is That You Darling? – Jane describes herself as a “UK lifestyle blogger” On is That You Darling, you you will find a bit of everything: Film reviews, recipes and photos from day trips to London, to name just a few.

The Pink Rachael – We share so many of the same opinions, it almost scares me! Rachael recently moved from being an expat in Spain to living back in England, and took a break from blogging during the big move, but she’s back now with more tales to tell.

Sara in Le Petit Village – An American in France. Her posts range from amusing to insightful and her photos of France are gorgeous!

Now some random ramblings on life in general.

1. I never thought I’d say this, but I’m looking forward to being able to exercise again! When I went back to work after the dreaded wisdom teeth operation, even walking fast caused a jolt of pain to go through the holes with every step I took. Things have improved since then, thank goodness, but I still don’t feel up to say star jumps.
2. Speaking of wisdom teeth, I can now chew normally again on one side of my mouth. The left-hand side is still a bit sensitive, but the operation was also more complicated on that side so I’m not too surprised.
3. Because dealing with the after effects of having my wisdom teeth out clearly isn’t enough, I woke up with a sore throat this morning. Thanks a lot, universe!
4. It’s raining again. I sincerely hope it’s just a one off and not the start of another three weeks of sogginess! There’s been more than enough rain in Germany this year if you ask me.

5. 

   YUM!! (Photo credit: 10b travelling)

   My godson took is first step the other day, at just over one year and one week old. Clever boy! (Obviously I was not there to see this – I read it on Facebook).

6. Last night, somebody found my blog by searching for craving poppadoms. Now I want poppadoms! And a decent curry to go with them. I’m so easily influenced… (I also still want Wotsits after yesterday’s search terms post. Always the things I can’t get here. *Sigh*)
   

And that’s all I have to say for now. Stay tuned for this week’s Look Up, Look Down entry…

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!

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!

 

Friday letters

It’s Friday again! Always a good day in my world, but even better this week because I took the day off to use up some overtime, and because my colleague and I agreed right at the beginning of the year that we would take two each of this year’s four bridge days (yesterday, was a holiday in my part of Germany – for All Saints Day). Here are this week’s Friday letters:

Dear four-day weekend. You have been fun so far. I’m really glad we still have 2 days to spend together.

Dear weather. Thank you for being terrible on Thursday, when we were staying in anyway,  and brightening up today in time for our trip to Schwäbisch Hall.

Dear Schwäbisch Hall. You are pretty. I’m so glad I chose you as the next place to cross off on my list of 30 German towns before 30.

Dear boyfriend. Thank you for making such a supreme effort to come home at a reasonable time each night, and even calling/texting to let me know you’re leaving. I appreciate this more than you know. Also, thank you for driving to Schwäbisch Hall. To get their by train we would have had to change trains at least once (in Crailshaim, journey time 4 hours) and at most six times. SIX! By car it takes 1 hour 36 minutes (in theory). It’s a good job one of us can drive…

Dear sore throat. Please go away. I am invited to a birthday meal tomorrow night and I intend to go.

That’s all folks. Here’s a photo I took in Schwäbisch Hall. A proper post about our day trip will follow, too.

For more Friday letters check out:

Bleurgh

Dear Throat,

Please do me a favour and stop hurting. And tell your friends the sneezes to stop lurking at the back of my nose waiting to come out as well. I don’t have time to be ill this week. I have deadlines you know. And we’re having a party to celebrate the boyfriend’s birthday on Saturday. There are going to be pancakes! I shall be most upset if you cause me to have to cancel pancakes! The party cannot be postponed as I have a seminar the following week.
I am now going to drink some Lemsip and get an incredibly early night. By the time I wake up in the morning I expect you to be at least almost gone, understood?

Yours, Beverley

Bleurgh

I’m completely confused by the new WordPress. They went and did things to it while I was away and now it takes me ages to figure out where the “New Post” button is. Humph.
In other news, we’ve been back from holiday exactly one week today and I’ve already managed to come down with a cold, or something. My throat is killing and I’m aching all over. I suspect it may have come from my colleague, who was off sick the last few days, meaning I got to do her work as well as my own. I’m now so behind that I’m going to have to do some translating today to catch up. I would have done it last night, but I was so tired that it wasn’t even an option. I was in bed by 10 (on a Friday night!), read my book for a bit then slept for about thirteen hours. Seriously! It was 5 past 12 when I woke up. Now half the day has been wasted and I haven’t done a scrap of work… or hoovered, done the shopping, put any washing. And I’m going out for a meal at six because one of my ex-colleagues (from when I did my interneship… seems so long ago now!) is leaving and wants to see everyone again before she goes. The benefits of the holiday have now officially been cancelled out…

Why universe, why?

The boyfriend and I are flying to England tomorrow. Via Amsterdam. As in the Netherlands. Yes, you did read that right. No, I am not crazy. Well, I might be, but not for that reason. Unfortunately we have no choice. It was the cheapest option we could actually take (Ryanair have changed the times for their flights to Dublin) and thee is no direct flight from here to Newcastle. Apparantly I am the only person in the whole of south Germany who ever feels the need to go there…
And as is almost always the case when I decide to fly anywhere, the universe has decided to give me the wonderful gift of a cold to help me on my way.

On Saturday my throat started to hurt.
On Monday I was cold for most of the day.
On Tuesday my muscles were starting to ache.
Yesterday my left ear was sore.
Today both ears hurt and my head feels like it’s stuffed with wet cotton wool. The other symptoms are all still there too. And I fly tomorrow.
Woe is me. Woe, woe, woe.

The law of sod strikes again…

Take me away?

I promised myself I was going to write an interesting and cheerful blog post today – before I alienate the readers I have left completely.
But all I can think of to say is I need a holiday. Desperately. I’m just glad this coming Monday is a holiday (Whit Monday apparantly… fair enough), which means I get a three day weekend – and a chance to SLEEP (not been doing a lot of that lately. Again.) and hopefully recover from the sore throat that has been bugging me for most of the day. All I have to do is get through tomorrow. How difficult can that be?

(Believe it or not, I’m actually pretty happy with my life at the moment. In general. It’s just the details that are getting me down… that and lack of sleep I suspect).

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…