Friday letters

Hello friends! (I hope none of you mind being called friends?). It’s finally Friday and I haven’t done Friday letters for a while, so I thought I would today. Here goes.

Dear Switzerland. A recent blog post by Kezzie and a slightly less recent one by Hazel have reminded my once again of how badly you need to up your recycling game. After being able to place basically all packaging in the recyclables bin in Germany I find it so frustrating to have to throw so much into the ordinary household waste here (and yes, I take my plastic bottles back to the supermarket but they won’t accept yoghurt pots or toothpaste tubes, for instance). Even Britain has recycling bins. Sort it out, Switzerland!

Dear unread books. I recently rearranged my shelves so that most of you are together and I hadn’t realised quite how many of you I own! I really need to start reading books I own before buying more…

I actually have more unread books than this, but I couldn’t fit any more on these shelves. Also, I excluded classics & non-fiction entirely since they have specific sections on my bookcases.

Dear water. Why is it so difficult to remember to drink enough of you? Must try harder!

Dear Basel cinemas. Why aren’t you showing the new Jumanji film in English? Just because it’s aimed at children doesn’t mean nobody wants to see it in the original language – do you know how many English-speaking children there are in the region?

Dear weekend. I’m glad you’re almost here. I’ve been very tired this week and I’m looking forward to a lie in!

Dear boyfriend. Thank you for sorting out the dishwasher and not complaining (often) when I fail to put away my lunch dishes.

That’s all for today folks. Happy Friday, wherever you are.

Friday letters

I took part in Friday letters last Saturday and I’ve been meaning to write up my blog post on it all week, but I’ve just been far too busy. So for now you’ll have to make do with Friday letters. Maybe I’ll get round to photo and hour over the weekend… although we have a visitor coming next weekend and I’m in Germany from Thursday afternoon to Friday evening, so this weekend will be my only opportunity to get the flat into a shape that I’m not ashamed of letting people see. Hmm. Anyway, here are some letters for you.

Dear customers. While I am glad not to be sitting around doing nothing, I would appreciate it if you could distribute your languages a little more evenly so everything doesn’t end up on my desk…

Dear books. Despite last week’s message to myself, you appear to have multiplied again. I wonder how that happened…?

Dear flat. How do you actually even get into such a state anyway? I mean, I get that I’m lazy but the speed at which you get messed up seems excessive!

Dear Christmas markets. Soo, you’re here again. Yay! Unfortunately I don’t going to get a chance to visit any of you this weekend with all the cleaning I have to do… Oh well, it’s supposed to rain tomorrow anyway.

Dear weekend. Even though I am probably going to be spend half of you cleaning, I am so glad you’re here! Now if only you were longer than a measly two days…

Right, that’s all from me. I’m waiting for a phone call then I have to go to the post box, buy some bread and start making tea. All in an evening’s work…

Have a great weekend, everyone!

 

Friday letters

I meant to post more this week – and also actually respond to my comments – but then work got busy and I was tired. Blah, excuses. Anyway, I thought I would at least pop in briefly to write some Friday letters.

Dear weather. So I see you decided to give up on summer right before the weekend. How kind of you! (Me, sarcastic? Nevah!)

Dear whatever bit my little toe in the night. My toe? Seriously? Now wearing shoes makes it itchy and swell up. And I can’t exactly walk around in sandals right now (see previous letter). I guess leaving the hose is not in my immediate future…

Dear godson. I hope you had a wonderful 4th(!!) birthday. Sorry your gift was late!

Dear sister. Congratulations on your engagement! We will celebrate when I see you next.

Dear weekend. You’re almost here! I can’t wait to catch up on some sleep after getting next to none last weekend!

That’s all for now. The church bells just told me it’s 1 p.m. and therefore time to get back to work… 4 hours to go!

Friday letters

Good morning! I hope you’re all well and that those of you who haven’t guessed already are busily wracking your brains for guess the Christmas cross stitch round 3! I’ve been suffering from a horrible cold all week. It started on Sunday with a bit of a sore throat, on Monday I didn’t feel any worse, which gave me hope that a sore throat was the worst I was going to get. Then on Tuesday I had to actually go into work for various meetings, which involved two hours on a freezing train. Why must Deutsche Bahn turn the air conditioning up so much?! I’m sure that didn’t help matters at all, because by the time it came to the journey home swallowing really hurt and I could not get warm at all! I went to bed with a cup of Lemsip and woke up feeling so terrible that if I was still actually going into the office regularly I would have called in sick. But since my “office” is only a few metres from the bedroom and my colleague was already off sick (for the second week), I wrapped up warm and powered through with the help of ALL the hot drinks and several packets of tissues (I could not stop sneezing!). It seemed to work as yesterday I wasn’t sneezing as much and my throat was back to being more scratchy than sore. How today will go remains to be seen, but I’m consoling myself with the fact that it’s almost the weekend and then I only have to work Monday and after that I’m on holiday – finally! Apart from one day for my cousin’s wedding, I haven’t had any time off since April, when I took a week to move! This cold just better have gone by the time I have to get on a plane… Anyway… sorry to ramble on so much. I know you’re only here for the letters 😉

Dear cold. I was serious with what I said up there. I fly on Thursday and you had better be gone by then! My ears hurt enough on planes without a half blocked-half runny nose getting involved in matters!

Dear British food. I am coming to eat you, oh yes I am!! Proper chips, pies, decent bacon, pasties and yummy crisps… get in my belly!

Dear godson (and your mum). It’s been far too long! I can’t wait to see you.

Dear October. I’m actually not going to complain that you’ve arrived far too quickly (even though you have) because with you comes holiday!

Dear rugby matches we’re attending. Please be as exciting as the South Africa vs Japan match. We want some action! (For reference, that’s the three that are taking place in Newcastle. Now get on it, rugby Gods).

Right, that’s all from me for today. Keep placing your guesses on this week’s cross stitch post and I’ll get the next picture up for you soon. In the meantime, have a fantastic weekend!

Friday (the 13th!) letters

Hi everyone! I’m very glad today is Friday… this week has been exhausting! So much going on at work, and I haven’t been getting a tonne of sleep either (thanks, boyfriend who grinds his teeth in his sleep!). I won’t have much of a chance to relax over the weekend either… tomorrow we have three flat viewings in Basel, the first of which is at 11 a.m., meaning we’ll be setting off at 8 a.m.. *Yawn*. Anyway… I’ll try and think of some letters for you, even though I haven’t been doing much of interest this week. Most of my free time has been spent scrolling through flat websites trying to figure out whether we’ve already replied to that particular ad (and getting accused of being a robot for my pains!).

Dear tomorrow’s flats. I hope either one of you or last week’s works out because I really don’t feel like spending another Saturday running round Basel (or another week desperately trying to find new adverts to respond to that aren’t only available from 1st May, i.e too late).

Dear boyfriend. Please go to the dentist and get a new bite guard or I may have to murder you in your sleep!

Dear tea. You have been my saviour again this week. Without you, I would either have frozen to death or fallen asleep at my desk ❤

Dear weather. I know February is statistically the coldest month, but could we at least have some sun? I’m so sick of clouds!

Dear self. Here’s a reminder: buy stamps! Also, find your customer number and write a termination letter to your Internet provider.

Dear friends/family with birthdays coming up. All of your cards and gifts will be late. I apologise.

Dear fellow bloggers. Once again, I apologise if I haven’t been by to say hello recently, but if you read the introductory paragraph you have your explanation.

That’s your lot for today. It’s supposed to be my lunch break, but I need to cut it short so I can get a translation finished by the end of the day. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Friday letters

Guys… this is my final Friday letters post for January. How did that happen?! I’m kind of freaking out right now because it’s February on Sunday and we still don’t even know what country we’ll be moving to. And Jan may or may not be spending Monday-Thursday in Munich for most of Feburary. The good news is the tax advisors got back to us. The bad news is they didn’t have all the answers, so now we have to contact the Ausländeramt (foreigners registration office) in Basel and some people who know about insurance. Ugh, so much to sort out, so little time! Anyway… letters!

Dear train conductor. If we haven’t even entered the tunnel yet, we will not be reaching our destination in a few minutes. Shut up and let me sleep!

Dear weather. I can cope with cold, I can cope with rain, but does it really have to be a mixture of both plus wind to blow it all in my face?!

Dear spare room. You currently look like you’ve been hit by a hurricane. I promise to do something about that this weekend!

Dear shredder. I hope you’re prepared for some action – I shall have lots of papers for you when I’m done with the spare room!

Dear readers. I hope your weekends are more relaxing than mine is shaping up to be!

Happy Friday, everyone. Have a great weekend!

A photo an hour: 11 October 2014

I feel like I only just did a photo an hour post, but the September one was, in fact, nearly a month ago and yesterday it was time for the October version.
I actually got up at 10:30, but again I wanted to take my photos at full hours, so my first one is from 11.

11 a.m. Making breakfast

12 noon. Out of the shower and on my way to get dressed.

1 p.m. Off to the supermarket for a few bits.

2 p.m. I woke up with the urge to bake, so now I’m back from shopping that’s what I’m going to do.

3 p.m. The cookie dough is chilling in the fridge, so time for a bit of cross stitch (I should really have been doing the dishes at this point, but whatever).

4 p.m. Just finished hoovering

5 p.m. Making a couple of baked potatoes for Jan and I to eat.

6 p.m. Preparing some snacks for movie night – this will be sausage rolls.

7 p.m. Snacks and a film… now all we need is for our friends to show up. (The sausage rolls were still in the oven at this point).

Aaaand after 7 p.m. I forgot to take any more photos. For the record, our friends showed up and we watched Zombieland followed by Dogma. All the food was devoured (apart from a few cookies that I had for breakfast this morning), everyone left at midnight and then I went to bed.

For more Photo an Hour posts, see Jane’s blog Is That You Darling. Next month’s Photo an Hour will be taking place on 8th November. If you would like to join in, make a note of it now 🙂

Friday letters and links

Can you believe it’s Friday again? It seems like only yesterday that I was writing my last Friday letters post. I’m very pleased it’s the weekend though. This week has consisted of a tonne of train delays and more work than I would have ever expected to be able to handle. It was actually a struggle not to groan out loud every time I saw something new in my tray! Only two more weeks to go though, then I’m on HOLIDAY for a week!

Dear work. Please stop with the craziness. I need to breathe occasionally!

Dear birthday. You’ve crept up on my this year so I’ve planned absolutely nothing for you. Also, I’m working. never mind… I’m probably a little old to be making a big deal out of my birthday anyway.

Dear sleep. Sorry I’ve been neglecting you lately. Let’s catch up soon!

Dear weather. I’m invited to a graden party tomorrow, so please stop your nonsense and settle on one thing for a change (preferably sun).

Dear weekend. Please don’t go too fast. I really need a break!

Okay, a bit pathetic on the letters front this week. I can’t think of anything! Never mind, here are some links:

• Apparantly more penis enlargements are conducted in Germany than the rest of the world combined. Oh the sausage jokes that could be made…
• I took Buzzfeed’s Rude British place names quiz and got 12 out of 15 right! (Admittedly I knew a few already)
• The Great British Bake Off has started again and it’s all over my Facebook feed. In honour of that and the fact that I need to find a cake to bake for the office for my birthday, here’s a list of summer cake recipes from BBC Good Food. Don’t blame me if it makes you hungry!
• Somebody has been collecting pictures of vaginas drawn by gay men, as you do. It seems they also want to release a book…
• These amazing works of art were made using the tape from cassettes! And you all thought there would never be another use for them…
• Scientists at a hospital in France have concluded that Darth Vader probably had borderline personality disorder – and I have concluded that scientists have way too much time on their hands!

 

Reinstating Friday letters

I haven’t done this in a while for various reasons – spontaneous trip to England, nothing to say, being too busy to post… but now I think it’s time to reinstate Friday letters!

Dear Deutsche Bahn. I really don’t appreciate you suddenly reversing the order of my train after I’ve been taking it for nearly 5 years! Now, instead of going straight into  carriage and taking a seat, I have to walk through half the train to find one that’s free. And when I arrive at my destination, I’m so far down the train that I have to walk half the length of the platform to reach the stairs – previously, the door I got out of was right next to them so I could go straight down and out of the train station. It may seem trivial to you, but it’s greatly annoying to me. Not cool, DB, not cool.

Dear weather. So, you’ve been beautiful all week while I was working, and now the forecast for tomorrow is cloudy with a chance of rain. I was planning on taking my March trip for the 12 trips challenge, but I’m not sure I’ll bother now. Thanks so much, weather gods!

Dear Sunday morning. I’m very much looking forward to you. Full Irish breakfast at the pub? Yes please!

Dear work. I would much rather be busy than have nothing to do, but I would appreciate it if next week could be just a little less full! The last few days have been crazy.

Dear tea. Once again, you have been my saviour this week. I ♥ tea!

Dear readers. Have a fabulous weekend… and I hope the weather where you are is better than ours is forecast to be!

Friday letters

It’s been another loooong week, It started off slow… so slow, in fact, that I was pleased my colleague was off ill (well, not actually pleased she was ill… but you know what I mean) because it meant all the work that came in was automatically mine.  Beats trying desperately to find some other work to do!  Monday and Tuesday still dragged though. Then on Wednesday things went crazy and I spent the rest of the week trying to get everything done and find people to proofread things as said colleague remained ill for the entire week…

Flamingos mailbox (Photo: Atelier Teee)

Dear boyfriend. I’m happy that we’ve booked our flights to England for Christmas. No getting ill this time please!

Dear Irish Pub. Celebrating your 5th birthday on Wednesday was fun, but I swear next year I’m taking the following day off! Tired isn’t even the word for my state yesterday…

Dear Austria. Can’t wait to see you in two weeks!

Dear Amazon. I almost cried when I saw the total price for my order the other day. And none of it was even for me! Yes…. Christmas present shopping has commenced. *Sigh*.

Dear dresses. Stop being so pretty! I’m not supposed to be buying any more clothes this year…

Dear Christmas. I’m convinced you get more expensive every year! Why are none of my family easy and inexpensive to buy for?!

Dear readers. Thank you for all the compliments on my sun-kissed hair. You inspired me to make that photo my header!

Dear weekend. The weather forecast seems to indicate that we should be seeing some *gasp*… dare I say it?… SUN! I feel like I should do something to celebrate this. Day trip perhaps?

Have a great weekend everyone, however you’re spending it.