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!

 

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Friday letters

Finally it’s Friday! Music to my ears this week… work has been busy, particularly the last couple of days (somehow I have about 6 translations that are all due today?!). Actually, my working week still won’t be over after today – we’re having an open day thing tomorrow, so I’ll be on a train heading into the office at 7:15 a.m. But that’s a different kind of work at least… less brain power required. And then next week I’m off! Not that I’m doing anything, I just had to use up some holiday from last year.
Buuut anyway… letters time!

Dear IKEA. I am looking forward to you bringing my new furniture on Monday. Finally my tights will have a proper place to live!

Dear spare room. I am so sorry about the state you are in (world’s worst housewife strikes again…). Don’t worry, you will be sorted out on Sunday!

Dear EasyJet. Considering you are supposed to be a cheap airline the prices you’re giving me are ridiculous! I know we want to fly over Easter, but that’s still no excuse to charge over €100 for a one way flight!

Dear parcel delivery people. Is it really necessary to hold down the doorbell button for ages? No wonder I have a heart attack every time it rings!

Dear books. I don’t know what I would do without you! You are my escape from all the problems and horror in this world (although the book in the book I’m currently escaping into isn’t one I would particularly like to be in either…).

Right, that it for today. Happy weekend, dear readers. I hope the weather where you are is better than here!

All those hours spent putting things in boxes only to remove them again

This weekend I’ve mainly been in Basel, unpacking and sorting out the new flat. Then, today – as those of you who follow my blog on Facebook may have already seen – I came back to Karlsruhe and, instead of sitting outside in the gorgeous sunshine, spent the afternoon cleaning windows. I hadn’t actually done them since we moved in here (5 years ago for the nosey curious – I’m such a terrible housewife!), so I’m sure you can imagine the state they were in…

Anyway, while I was in Switzerland, I managed to grab a few shots of the unpacking process, so I thought I’d share them here. I’m sure you’re all thrilled 😉 All photos were taken using a tablet with a terrible camera, so apologies for quality…

It seems the Swiss like to take their lights with them too, so Jan’s set up a few temporary lighting solutions:

A lonely lantern on the balcony – we don’t have any other furniture to go out there yet.

Almost all the books are unpacked, and we’re probably going to need another book case (three are pictured here and there’s a fourth just around the corner).

The desk is in position, just waiting for the computer to be set up.

Empty boxes (YAY!)

Full boxes (BOO!)

That’s all I took. Maybe I’ll share some proper pictures of the new flat once I’m moved in. Right now it’s time for food and a well-deserved glass of wine!

Mid-week confessions

This is actually kind of a filler post because I just do not have time for the one I actually want to write. It involves uploading photos, and we all know how long that takes. I’ve seen similar posts to this on various blogs (here’s one by Unlocking Kiki), and now it’s my turn. So, without further ado, I confess…

• I don’t always wash my hair when I should. Washing (and blow drying) my hair takes time, and sometimes staying in bed for just that little bit longer wins. I only do this when my hair is at the stage where it feels horrible but still looks okay, and so far nobody’s said anything so it seems to be working out okay 😉
• I am terrible at housework. Okay, this is nothing new to long-term readers of my blog. I even have a “world’s worst housewife” tag. My shower has needed cleaning for weeks, but I keep putting it off, I almost never wash the dishes the same evening I cook with them (in fact, if I don’t need last night’s dishes the next day I will sometimes even leave them for another night) and the windows of our flat haven’t been washed once since we moved in. I do hoover regularly and keep on top of the laundry though, it’s just anything that involves my hands touching cleaning substances that I don’t like…
• I almost never manage to eat five portions of fruit and veg a day. In fact, yesterday I think I managed half a portion (I ate a clementine at lunch time , but you need two for a “serving”). Now the papers are reporting that we may actually need to eat seven servings a day. I am doomed. Dooooooomed I tell you!
• Last week, I bought mini chocolate eggs with the intention of sending them to a friend for Easter, but I forgot how late Easter was and having them sitting around was just too tempting, so I ate them.
• I haven’t really exercised since before I went to England over a month ago. I did some sit ups once when I was feeling particularly guilty about all the crap I’d eaten that day, but that’s all. Really need to get back into it… what the scales (and measuring tape) are showing me are not pretty.
• I LOVE Cheddar cheese, the the extent that I will actually break chunks off and eat it by itself. I could never become vegan purely because of Cheddar cheese!

OK, that’s it. I need to get back to work now (after the shortest lunch break ever!) I have so much to do. Seriously, the only thing that’s getting me through this week is the thought of the overtime that I can take off some time when it’s a litle less crazy! How long til the next public holiday?!

Friday letters

How is it possible that it’s time for Friday letters again already? This week has literally flown by! At this rate, it will be Christmas before I know it. …

I came across this cute letter box in Ireland.

Dear checkout lady in Rossmann. Was it really necessary to literally snatch my money right out of my hand? Apparantly it was my week for encountering rude Germans…

Dear boots. I still think you’re one of the best purchases I ever made, no matter what crazy drunk Germans might have to say on the matter 😉

Dear friend’s unborn baby. I can’t believe your due date is only a month and a half away! I really, really need to get on with that cross stitch I’m doing for you…

Time flies (Photo credit: Robert Couse-Baker)

Dear July. PLEASE slow down! There is so much I need to get done this month (like buying a dress for a christening and a gift for my mother’s 50th birthday!) and I already feel like I’m running out of time…

Dear self. You’re doing really well with this exercising lark… keep up the good work!

Dear spare room. Sorry you look like a bomb’s gone off in you. I will do something about that… some day.

Dear shower. I will also clean you soon… honest I will. And yes, I know I’ve been saying that for weeks…

Dear readers. Happy Friday! Have a great weekend!

Let the choir sing

The boyriend’s choir is practising here tonight because theperson whose place they usually practice at can’t make it, so I’ve been banished to the spare bedroom. Actually, that’s not strictly true. I could have stayed in the living room and watched them, but honestly where’s the point in that? In reality I took myself off to the spare room, becuse at least the computer is in here. And my cross stitch. And other things to do, like moving all the stuff off the spare bed so that someone can actually sleep in it on Saturday. But saying I had been banished sounded so much more dramatic – although I’ve kind of spoiled that now with this explanation.
Anyhow…

People coming round meant I had to rush home from work this evening (as much as one can rush when relying on Deutsche Bahn – for once my train was not delayed!) and attempt to sort out the chaos that was our flat. The living room was most important, because that’s where the practising takes place, but the kitchen was in a state that can only be described as absolute chaos. Definitely not suitable for the eyes of visitors! Which is why, after yet another long day at work, I found myself folding clothes, washing dishes and taking down rubbish. I would love to say that this was only necessary due to my having being ill, but regular readers would know that was a lie. Really, I’m just a terrible housewife… and Jan is no better! Having got the flat into a semi-decent state (it would not pass my grandma’s inspection, but luckily she’s in England) I had to quickly cook the two of us something for tea before the choir turned up. We had baked beans on toast. Not strictly cooking, I know but at least it was hot! And I grated Cheddar cheese on top – that’s practically a gourmet meal, that is. The alternative would have been muesli (which I hate so actually that wouldn’t have been an alternative at all).

And where was Jan in all this, you may ask. After all, it’s his choir! Well, he didn’t make it home til around 20 past 7 (choir practice is supposed to start at 8, although it’s now 10 past and only 2 people have arrived!), but when he did get here he cleaned the bathroom a little and finished cleaning the living room. He’s not all bad 😉

And why am I blogging about housework? Well, it may have something to do with the fact that I have nothing else to say and I’m trying to avoid the pile of work that I brought home with me to do this evening (deadline tomorrow at 10! Won’t get it all finished if I don’t do some tonight!). Pracrastination is responsible for a lot you know! Check out this YouTube video. Says it all, really…

Full of busy

This week has been full of busy, as the woman who taught me street dance when I was 15 used to say. I haven’t even been on the computer in the evenings, believe it or not! Instead, I have been cleaning. Yes dear readers – you did read that right. Me, the world’s worst housewife, cleaning. No, I haven’t gone mad. As I’m sure you’ll have guessed, there was an ulterior motive behind it. My sister and her boyfriend are coming to stay on Wednesday – for the first time since I moved here nearly 6 years ago! I happened to casually mention to my sister that Karlsruhe is close to the Hockenheim Ring (goes to show how much attention she had paid to where I was actually living!) and suddenly she really, really wanted to visit me – on the condition that the visit could be combined with a trip to the Formula One. And so Jan and I organised tickets for said event and after months and months of counting down (on my sister’s part) the time is nearly here. Which, of course, meant the bedding for the spare room needed to be washed and the bed made, food and beer purchased, and the flat cleaned from top to bottom. Admittedly it’s only my sister, so it doesn’t really have to be spotless, but the state it was in before was really not necessary either. Jan also went and bought the equipment to attach the shelf that fell down for no reason a while ago very firmly to the wall, so we were finally able to move the CDs that have been cluttering up the bookcase back to their rightful place. Instead of just putting them on the shelf (which I would have done), Jan proceeded to arrange them in alphabetical order. This shouldn’t have surprised me really – he’s asked me several times to do the same with my books “so it’s easier to see where everything is”. So far I have resisted – I have too many books by the same author that are different sizes, and I hate seeing all the different sizes randomly mixed throughout the shelves. My books have to be arranged from tallest to shortest. It looks so much neater that way! And seeing as most of the books on the shelves are mine anyway I’ve decided I have the majority vote on this one 😉

I probably won’t have time to blog while our guests are here, but I shall be back once they leave. Hopefully with interesting tales or, failing that, at least a few pretty pictures. Right now, I shall leave you with a song by the band that we’re going to see at Das Fest on Friday. It will be interesting to see a band from almost my (sort of) home town in my adopted home!

Where’s the magic housework fairy when I need her?

I really am a terrible housekeeper. I can just about manage to keep on top of the worst of it when Jan’s not around, but the minute he goes away somewhere I drop all pretence of being any sort of housekeeper and let the poor flat go to the dogs. Take this week as a case in point. Jan left for America on Friday. Since then I’ve:

– Failed to wash a dish
– Left all our CDs stacked in four messy piles on the living room rug (they usually live on the shelf that fell down)
– Left several tin cans standing around on the kitchen bench because I “didn’t get round to” putting a new ben liner in the bin
-Failed to hoover, despite the fact that the kitchen floor is crunchy and there appears of be dusty/gravelly stuff all over the flat from when I went out to a dusty place on Sunday
– Kept adding more stuff to the pile on the spare bed instead of clearing it ready for people to sleep in it this weekend

Photo credit: Christina Saint Marche

In fact, the only thing I have done is take down the evil, smelly Biomüll – and I had no choice there. It really was that or be smothered in my sleep by some unsavoury creature. I’ve been meaning to do some cleaning all week, but I was out on Monday and Tuesday, and last night I feel asleep instead. So here I am, it’s Thursday night, I’m meeting some friends after work tomorrow and on Saturday both Jan and (hopefully) some guests are arriving. This is my last chance to get the flat looking semi-reasonable. So what am I doing? Writing a blog post. About housework. But I don’t have a problem with procrastination. Oh no, not me…

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!

Where did my week go?

I have been so, so tired all day. Mostly, I suspect, because we went out last night to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and didn’t get home til after midnight, but to be fair I was tired before I even left the flat last night so it wasn’t entirely my own fault…

But what I would really like to know is where on Earth this week has gone! It’s Thursday evening already. Tomorrow is Friday… the last working day of the week. Then it will be Saturday again. How? Why? Time seems to have sped up again and I don’t think I like it! Of course, it doesn’t help that I’m feeling guilty because I haven’t managed to write one word of my dissertation since Sunday.  I have around 1,300 words now but I need something like 15,000 and the deadline is drawing nearer. Eeek!
Also, you know things are bad when you end up eating instant pasta (just add hot water and stir!) with a pastry fork because you’ve run out of all other cutlery. There are only two of us living here (well, officially only one but Jan’s place really is just a storage area now)… how can all the forks and all the spoons be dirty? It’s a good job I actually bought pastry forks otherwise I would have had to resort to a teaspoon… or do some washing up. I think we all know which option I would have gone for…
Time to go to log off I think. My lovely, lovely bed is calling my name…