The story so far…

This post probably won’t be interesting to anyone but me – and possibly a few members of my family who I know have recently started reading (hi mam!), but writing this stuff down is a way for me to figure out what we have actually done for the move so far… a kind of checking off of the to-do list, if you will. Feel free to skip this one if it bores you 😉

1. I have cancelled my Bahn Card 100. I received confirmation last week that, as of 1st May, I will no longer be a Bahn Card 100 holder. So no more spontaneous travelling in Germany without a ticket for me! This was the first occurrence that made the whole “moving to Switzerland” thing feel real. Scary and exhilarating!
2. We have given notice for our flat. Well, sort of. We wrote an e-mail on Saturday evening to make sure we were within the notice period, but the landlady wants it in writing because she isn’t sure whether it’s valid without a signature. I gave notice on my last flat by e-mail, but whatever she wants. She agrees that by e-mailing we adhered to the notice period, so it’s all good.
3. Jan has been in touch with a tax advisor and the Basel Ausländerbehörde (foreigner’s office). Apparently I can get a residence permit for Switzerland… I just need to fill in a particular form and provide a work contract and bank statement, presumably so they can check whether I have enough money to be allowed to live in the land of banks!
4. We have started the process of looking for flats, and man is it tedious! We’ve already had one response saying “you can contact the current tenant to arrange a viewing, but please note that we’re looking for a quiet, single person”. And why couldn’t you have said that in the advert and saved me the bother of e-mailing you? Plus isn’t that discrimination?! Naughty Swiss!

Aaaand I think that’s all so far. Still to do: actually find a flat, sort out my German bank account, sign a new contract with work, cancel the Internet at our current place, sort out and get rid of things we don’t want to take, arrange for a removals company to come and take most of our stuff away, clean the entire flat like it’s never been cleaned before and, finally, pack! phew. Am I missing anything?

Two more days!

Just two more working days to get through before we go to Ireland… we fly Friday night, so I’ll be heading to the airport straight from work. And let me tell you I cannot wait. I am sooo in need of a holiday!

So, last night was quiz night. We didn’t win anything… the questions were hard this time. At least we thought so. The winning team managed to get 82 points, out of a possible 100! We weren’t the only ones to do badly… none of the usual suspects got a prize, which was quite cool actually. It’s nice to hear some new names being announced. And I now know that Karlsruhe is the 21st largest city in Germany.

Despite not winning a prize, it took us ages to leave! At one point I told my boyfriend “It’s quarter to one”, whereupon he promptly downed his whiskey (not quite was I was asking for…) but still continued chatting! It’s bad enough getting up at 6 a.m. on normal days, but after 4 hours sleep it’s just that bit more difficult. And at work today we had two hours of Excel training… I’m still not sure how I managed to stay awake!

No early night for me tonight either. Jan’s choir is practicing at our place tomorrow, which means I need to get pretty much all the packing done today. I will also be cleaning the kitchen and finishing translating his sister’s CV. Oh, and I also have some birthday cards to write. And we need to eat as well, of course, so add cooking to the agenda. Busy!!

That’s all from me today. Kind of a boring post today, but I did get to use the word “whereupon”, so it’s practically literature!

Stuff what needs doing

I’ve just seen someone give a beggar woman some money outside Aldi. Nothing unusual in that you might think – except this lady gave the beggar 10 euros. She might as well have just led her into Aldi and let her pick whatever alcohol she liked for that! It’s probably have been cheaper. And don’t tell me that’s not what the money’s going to be spent on. I saw this woman remember, and she’s definitely a booze and cigarettes type of beggar.

So the boyfriend is insisting that the pieces of pig I saw in Karstadt yesterday were not penises but in fact tails. Yeah, whatever. I mean, he could be right. Schwanz does officially mean tail after all, but it is a slang word for penis (the German equivalent of cock I suppose) and I know what I saw! It was the shape that made me look at them in the first place and they were certainly not like any tail I’ve ever seen. Anyway, aren’t pigs tails curly? These things were far from curly. Yup, they were definitely penises… or possibly penii. Anyone know what the plural of penis actually is?

Anyway, none of that was what I actually wanted to write about.
What I really wanted to do was write my to do list. You see I have sooo much that needs sorting this weekend and left to my own devices I know I’ll spend half of it in bed (I’m ill remember) and the other half reading blogs. So I thought if I publish it on the internet for the entire world to see I might actually shame myself into getting everything done. Well, maybe not everything. Most things…. or at least some of it. So here for your viewing pleasure, is my to do list. (Oh the endless excitement that is my life).

♦ Laundry – is there ever a time that I don’t need to do laundry? It seems to be the never ending chore. I’ve actually managed to get two washing appointments tonight – the first of which is in half an hour. Woo, soon I’ll be able to cross off the first item on my list.

♦ Take out the rubbish – my bin is so full it’s practically overflowing! Ooh, and that reminds me, I really need to buy binliners as well. I’ve been using Aldi carrier bags as replacements for the last three months!

♦ Sort out my desk – it seriously looks like a bomb’s hit it. God only knows what’s buried under all the random pieces of paper, birthday cards (Yes I am aware my birthday was nearly 2 months ago…) and randomly coloured ball point pens. Maybe I’ll find treasure under there… or at least a couple of euros to go towards next weeks shopping.

♦ Send some emails – I am a terrible, evil awful friend. I spend 99% of my evenings on the internet but fail to send a single email, ever. It’s so much easier to just write comments on people’s Facebook walls then spend the rest of my time reading, writing and just generally being obsessed by the blogosphere. I do have a couple of friends who aren’t on Facebook though and I really, really need to get in touch with thembefore they realise how long it’s been since I last sent an email.

♦ Buy a birthday present – my friend is 25 on Monday. I have no idea what to get her! I mean, I say she’s my friend but really I don’t know her that well. I do just happen to be one of the few people she knows in Germany though. And she bought me a present once. Anyone have any good gift ideas?

♦ Do my assignment for Text Linguistics – it’s actually supposed to be due today, but nobody else has done it. And anyway, he only said around 10th October. And I’m not well. I really should do it though – it doesn’t seem right to fall behind in the very first week!

♦ Check out the prices of flights to England in December – for once we’re going to try and book them before they get stupidly expensive. I’m probably the only peron in the world who’s had to pay 160 euros for a Ryanair flight from Dublin to Newcastle…

OK, that’ll do. If I give myself too many tasks I’ll only get overwhelmed and end up too stressed to get anything done… well, that’s my excuse anyway 😉
Now if anyone out there is actually still awake feel free to go and reward yourself with a piece of cake and some caffeine.