Freeeedom!

Well, this has been the weirdest (attempt at a) working day ever. I went to log on early this morning only to get an error message. At 8 o’clock, when I thought somebody might be in the office, I called to find out it was a general problem. All our work is done remotely now – even those who are actually in the office log on to a server – and there was a problem with said server. So I spent most of the day waiting around to see whether the problem would be fixed, punctuated by having my project management colleagues send the things that needed doing to my private email address so I could download them, do the work, and then email them back for delivery to the customers (or in one case to be uploaded to our own website – sometimes I do internal translations as well). Luckily I didn’t have too much left to do today, but it means I only did around 3 hours of actual work between 7:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. The rest of the time I was just sitting around. I couldn’t go anywhere or do anything just in case things started working again and I could actually log on and work properly. Fun times. However, I took tomorrow off because I have several appointments and working in between them would just be silly, and from Monday we’re closed so I am now freeeeeee until the New Year. I mean, I still have all the cleaning to do before Monday because I like the flat to be properly cleaned and tidied for a change before Christmas Eve so that I can spend Christmas itself doing absolutely nothing (well, almost nothing… obviously we still have to eat so I will be cooking and dealing with the dishes from that, but I don’t want to be hoovering or cleaning ovens during that time). But from work, I am free! That makes it sound like I hate work… to clarify, I do not. I’m just exhausted. I have honestly never been more in need of the Christmas break than I am this year.

And I have no idea what the point in this post was so I’m going to stop here and go actually do some of that cleaning I keep going on about!

Cross stitch update

We already have a winner for the guess the cross stitch competition (I will get your prize sent out to you this week Elaine!!), but I’m still not finished stitching and I needed a filler post. Not that I wouldn’t havy anything to write about, but I’m so tired right now I can barely string together a coherent sentence, never mind wax lyrical about my birthday party, for example (and yes, I seriously just used “wax lyrical” in a blog post. See what sleep deprivation does to me…)

Anyway, I thought it might be fun to put together a gallery of all my cross stitch pictures so you can see my progress right from the start:

And here’s where I’ve got to since the final photo above was taken:

When I find it, I’ll post a photo of the picture from the front of the kit for you so you can see what I’m actually supposed to be stitching. Stay tuned!

And by the way, the rabbit character you see sitting in the moon is called Somebunny to Love. I couldn’t make it up…

The return of Friday letters

I have to briefly interrupt the Ireland so that I can bring back Friday letters. What? No, I can’t wait alll the way til next week 😉

Pretty pink postbox (Photo credit: MyAngelG)

Dear self. Well done on managing to do some exercise every day this week. Now you just have to keep it up for another three! Oh, and give up the junk food…

Dear weekend. I am sooo glad to see you! It’s been a long and tiring week. I hope I get a chance to catch up on some sleep in between all our plans!

Dear Ireland. I miss you already! Definitely hope to be back some day…

Dear Germany. So, we got sun today (after it having rained since Monday) and on Sunday more good weather is forecast, but tomorrow when I have a daytrip planned you’re sending yet more rain? Thanks for that…

Dear Deutsche Bahn. I have to admit, I love your bonus program! Some new scales (for weighing me, not kitchen scales) are winging their way towards me even as I type thanks to the points I collected by purchasing your BahnCard!

Dear England. We booked our flights last night, so I shall see you in three weeks for T’s christening!

That’s all from me. Have a great weekend everyone! More Friday letters next week (and tomorrow, even more from Ireland. I hope you’re not sick of hearing about our holiday yet…)

Friday letters (the illness edition)

I am so glad that it’s Friday! This has definitely not been my favourite week ever, and all I currently want is to have my boyfriend home again. And to sleep. I’m ridiculously tired right now! Also, for the first time in a very long time, I’m wishing my weekend away. I never thought I would say this, but I just want it to be Monday already! Anyway, here are my Friday letters. The subject matter may be a little monotonous this week…

You’ve got.. (Photo credit: macca)

Dear boyfriend. I’m so happy that you’re on the mend. Now hurry home so I can feed you delicious, nourishing soup (aka covering from illness food) and keep an eye on you! P.S. Happy Birthday! I hope you manage to have a somewhat nice time, despite everything… I seriously hope the doctors give the OK for you to come home on Monday!

Dear boyfriend’s colleague. I’m not even sure which of you I should be thanking, but Jan’s mum told me you were planning to stay on in Turkey until Monday to carry his luggage for him. I hope he is appropriately grateful to you (at least as grateful as I am)! I had been seriously concerned about how he was going to manage that.

Dear Facebook friends (who I allowed to see my status). Thank you for all your messages of support, well wishes, etc. It’s good to see how many people out there care about me (or Jan, as the case may be…)

Photo credit: Avard Woolaver

Dear sister. You saw my Facebook status and immediately contacted our dad, who then called me. I hadn’t had a chance to contact him yet and I was so glad to hear from him! We may fight occasionally whenever we’re forced to spend more than two days together, but when it counts you’re an amazing sister.

Dear readers. While I’m on a thanking spree, I want you to know that I appreciate every single one of your comments/reassurances/well wishes. I have the best readers in the blogosphere!

Dear teenagers on the train. 1. Wearing your caps backward and your jeans so far down your backsides that you could only walk with wide-open legs to stop them falling down does not make you cool. 2. Nobody wants to hear your awful “hip hop” music at 7:30 a.m. 3. Please take a shower – you stink!!

Dear sleep. We’ve spent far too little time together this week. And waking up at 3 in the morning from a dream in which I’d it was 8 a.m. and I’d completely slept through my alarm was no fun whatsoever. Please come back soon – I miss you!

Dear readers (again). Specifically, those of you who mentioned knowing someone who’s had an appendectomy. I have a question. How long was it before they were able to do normal things again? I ask because my grandparents are going to be in Germany at Easter. They’ll be staying about 2 and a half hours away, and we were supposed to drive up and meet them. If Jan can’t drive, we can’t go. So I’m wondering whether to cancel on them or not? At this point, they may still be able to cancel if seeing us was the most important part for them…

That’s all from me this week. I’m too tired to think of any more letters. Have a great weekend, everyone.

Search terms

I have neither the time nor the energy for a proper blog (although I still have to tell you about my trip to Freiburg Christmas market on Saturday). I was up til midnight wrapping gifts on Monday evening so two of my packages could go in the mail, then last night Jan’s choir had practice at our place and one of them didn’t leave til after midnight. Bear in mind that I have to be up at 6 every morning, and you may have some idea of how I’m feeling. My eyes actually hurt and I could quite easily have fallen asleep at my desk this afternoon (the incedibly boring text I was proofreading didn’t help either!). And now, instead of going to sleep, I have to run into town to buy a box for the sending of yet more Christmas gifts before heading to Durlach to watch my boyfriend’s choir sing at the Christmas market. So instead of a report on what I’ve been doing, here are some random search terms that have amused me recently. Somehow, people have managed to end up on my blog by searching for the following:

Housework without pretence

Clean House (Photo credit: libertygrace0)

Well you certainly won’t find any of that around here! It’s bad enough having to do housework, if you make me give up the pretence as well I shall go on strike!

The last Friday
What, ever? And I thought we had until the 21st before the world ends? – Although that is a Friday, so maybe you meant that all along?

Fluffy foot
I’d suggest you get that checked out. You may be turning into Big Foot… or possibly a hobbit, although they tend to be more hairy than fluffy.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas cards
You mean made of cardboard and covered in glitter? Maybe the apocalypse really is almost upon us… we’re all going to become characters in a scene from a Christmas card…

White porcelain heroes
I have no comment to make on this one, other than 😀 😀 😀

Mostly not all that funny, I know, but those are the best of a bad bunch.

Possibly THE best search term ever

I wasn’t going to blog today. My team came third in the pub quiz last night (YAY), and after claiming our prize, Jan and I ended up staying on to chat to the quiz master, which was nice, but resulted in me getting a grand total of three hours sleep last night. I can barely string together a coherent sentence right now, never mind think of a topic for a blog post. But then, checking my stats, I came across a search term that I just had to share with the rest of the Internets. And so, out of nothing, a (sort of) blog post was born. And the search term that got me so excited?
Here it is:

I must continue my quest to slay the red light 

Red light heart (Photo: that one doood)

 

OK, maybe not the best search term ever (did I ever mention I’m prone to exaggeration?), but certainly the best I’ve had in a while. My only question is what did the poor red light ever do to deserve such treatment?

 

 

I’m sure tiredness is a valid defence in court!

Having only got three hours sleep on Sunday night then being woken up roughly once an hour starting from 2 a.m. (when the boyfriend finally came to bed) by the sound of grinding teeth, It’s safe to say I was fairly tired today. In fact, one might say I was zombified.

Sleepy (Photo credit: Jenn & Tony Bot)

It’s a good job I spent most of the day translating for a customer that I’m very familiar with so I could pull something semi-decent out of the hat for them despite spending most of my day sitting at my desk in a kind of daze wishing my head would stop aching (naturally I didn’t havy any painkillers with me!). I think an early night is in order for me tonight – and if my boyfriend doesn’t get himself to the dentists for a new tooth guard soon (he ground his way through the last one!) I won’t be responsible for my actions.

I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a zombie apocalypse coming, you know. But it won’t involve any brain-eating monsters. Instead, you will find a bunch of people like me wandering around causing havoc because we’re not actually quite awake. If you ever read an article about a woman in Karlsruhe chopping up her boyfriend with an axe while in a sleep-deprived haze, that’ll be me! I just hope the judge accepts “He kept me awake all night, and not in a good way!” as a defence!*

*Disclaimer: I do not actually own an axe and have no plans to buy one any time soon.

Yawn

I am still alive, just currently too tired to even string together a coherent sentence let alone a blog post.
This week has mainly consisted of overtime, overtime and more overtime – and today is only Wednesday!Combine that with very little sleep and you have Zombie Bevchen on your hands.

Last week I had a visit from two people who were my house mates at uni. One of them actually lived with my twice – the second time voluntarily! I hadn’t seen them for 7 years, so it was about time we met up! It was nice to show them around where I live.

Too tired to write more, so here  are some photos of Ettlingen – which is about 10 minutes tram ride from Karlsruhe – where I took my guests last Monday.

Ettlingen Town Hall

River Alb

Ettlingen Market Place with St George’s Fountain

(It has seriously just taken me half an hour to write this tiny little post, and I had to go back and rewite half of it because almost every word had a typo in it. I really must get some sleep! But not til after the Germany match…)

Back to reality with a bump

After 3 and a half days spent with my boyfriend, during which we drank a bottle of wine while reading out random facts to each other from books of useless information, purchased a new plant (and soil to repot one of the old ones), attended a mini music festival in celebration of a local music shop’s 30th anniversary and watched Chelsea beat Bayern on penalties in the Champions League (allowing me to laugh at Bayern), my four-day weekend is now over, Jan has gone away to a trade fair and the washing machine decided to leak all over the kitchen floor. I think it’s fairly safe to say reality has kicked back in. All I want to do now is sleeep – ready to be up for work at 6 a.m. tomorrow. Which is why I’m keeping this blog post short. Good night world! I’m off to try and sleep in my big empty double bed all by myself. I suppose it’s good practice for January, when it’s looking more and more likely that I will be alone…

No rest for the wicked…

I swear I’ve used that as a blog title before, but I can’t be bothered to go back and check now, so if I have you’ll just have to put up with my lack of imagination.
Anyway… I am sooo glad it’s Friday! I’ve been tired, tired, tired all week – despite the fact that I had Monday off and only had to go to work for 4 days. What I would really like to do now is curl up and go to sleep for about 15 hours, but there is too much to do. Plus we haven’t even eaten yet, and I hate going to bed hungry. The boyfriend – who is supposed to be ill – is presumably still at work. Or at least he’s not here and I don’t know where else he should be. Yesterday (which also happened to be his birthday) he actually stayed home. Not in bed though, despite me telling him that was where he belonged! Instead he worked from home. Today he insisted that he had to go in at least in the afternoon because a student was coming in, but wouldn’t stay too long. I’m not sure what time he went in, but it’s now 8:30 pm so if he actually did go in the afternoon then he’s been there at least 5 hours, even if he didn’t go til late afternoon! As far as I’m concerned that’s almost a full working day. So much for not long! I meanwhile have been at work for the required 8 hours, done some shopping, tidied the living room and washed most of the dishes. As soon as I’ve finished writing this I’ll have to go back and do the rest, otherwise it will be impossible for me to cook tea. Both frying pans are currently dirty (world’s worst housewife strikes again!) and I need one for what I’m planning to cook. And so it goes on. Tomorrow, the first day of my so-called “weekend” will be spent doing washing, hoovering, scrubbing the shower and attempting to sort out the spare bedroom, which I promised to do weeks ago. The deal was Jan would put shelves up and I would sort out all my crafting and cross stitch stuff and make the room fit to be seen. The shelves have been up since before Christmas, so at least he kept his part of the bargain! If I actually manage to get all that done tomorrow I might actually get a chance to relax on Sunday before getting back to the old 6 am wake up calls on Monday. It’s true what they say… a woman’s work really is never done!