Day to day musings...

To boldly Zumba... or maybe not?!

2012-01-19T11:56:00.002Z

Location: Weybourne Gymnastics Club
Time: Zumba class time

The instructor asks the class "so what do you guys want to do, shall we just do Zumba or shall we do abs?"
I say "ZUMBA!"
Everyone else says "ABS!"
She asks for a show of hands "who wants to do just Zumba?" Ally and I wave our hands.
She asks for a show of hands "who wants to do Abs?" Everyone else in the class waves their hands.
She apologizes to Ally and me "sorry girls, most wants Abs".

Makes me wonder... if you want Abs exercises - WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING AT A ZUMBA CLASS??????????????????????????

Oh wait, I know! The deluded women on their 'New Year's resolution' kick think this will melt away their tummy fat magically. Dream on, deluded ones! It only happens if you put actual work in and not just by pretending.

Am considering giving the class a boot and finding another one. Though I would miss the cool, springy floor from the gymnastics club!!!

The trouble with Christmas...

2011-12-26T10:45:00.000Z

...is that no matter where you go and what you do, you can't escape it. Set aside my Grinch-like attitude when it comes to this 'holiday'. Think about those people who have no reason whatsoever to celebrate and would like nothing more than the world to continue revolving and not stop in its tracks for a fat, bearded man dressed in red. People who have lost loved-ones, who have lost all they had, people who for whatever reason don't want to be forced into the ridiculously high-strung expectation of jollyness and joy that Christmas brings upon us all.
It's no secret that I don't enjoy Christmas and I don't feel sorry for myself because of it. The only thing that's good about it is giving and receiving presents, though that in itself is quite telling. I don't see peace and quiet in this period of time. All I see are crazed people running around like headless chickens, buying more presents, more food, more drink. Nothing peaceful about that.
But the worst thing about it all is that no matter how much you try to escape it, you can't. I have no beef with people who enjoy this crazy time but i DO have a problem with the simple fact that everyone is being force fed this mix of happyhappyhappy and hohoho, regardless of how hard this is on some people. Short of booking yourself onto a trip to a country where Christmas doesn't exist (and where, praytell might that be these days???), you are stuck. And even that trip would be a constant reminder of what you are trying to avoid.
Wouldn't it all be much nicer if Christmas could simply be celebrated with those you want to celebrate it with, indoors, privately, without the constant reminder in the shops and everywhere else about it 6 months in advance???
I, for one, would very much appreciate that. A pipe dream it may be but I will hang on to that thought until the very end. Because not everyone was made to enjoy Christmas and because we should respect that.

London 2012 is a GO!

2011-12-21T21:09:00.003Z

After having applied to be part of the volunteer work force at the London 2012 Olympics over a year ago, I was invited for an interview in August. I left it feeling confident and optimistic about my chances. I REALLY, REALLY wanted to do this, be part of something so special again. Echoes of Expo 2000 were reverberating all around me and the chance of having that kind of an experience again was something I have been chasing for the past 11 years.

250,000 people applied to volunteer. They narrowed them down to 125,000, all of whom were invited for interviews (including ickle me!). Out of those 125,000 they only needed 70,000.
I knew it would take a while to get the results of the interviews and today I received two separate emails - both congratulating me for being offered a role as a Games Maker (their name for the volunteers) at the Olympics AND Paralympics next year!!!

Can you say BEST.CHRISTMAS.PRESENT.EVER????? :)

I will be part of the Events Team and will be located at Eton Dorney. So I won't be in the midst of it in the Olympic village in London or anything but I will be helping out at Eton, where rowing and canoeing takes place! From what I understand so far, my role could include directing people to their seats, giving out information, handing out accreditation passes, scanning tickets and many more things.

There will be training provided at some point in the next year so I will learn more when the time comes.

For now, I will bask in the glory of knowing that I will be part of the Olympic Games - and how many people can actually say that???????

I am now truly looking forward to an awesome 2012 - I've got this feeling it will be MY YEAR.

A heartfelt gift

2011-12-12T22:42:00.000Z

There's nothing like giving someone a gift that you know truly touches their heart.
It's not hard, you just have to look closely, pay attention and most importantly, want to really GIVE. And it's never ever about money or value. It's about the thought you've put into the gift and the fact that you know exactly what it is that can put a smile on their face.

And nothing comes close to the feeling you get when you give from the heart. I have never been big on Christmas but every now and then, on a rare occasion, being able to gift something to someone that they really love, just reminds me of what I wish Christmas could be for me all the time.

Today was one of those days and it just made my entire Christmas. It's that simple :)

Flying high

2011-12-03T23:00:00.001Z

I have literally just returned from singing Mendelssohn's Elijah with my choir tonight.
I made a shitload of mistakes (BAD Maky) but even so, it was absofuckinglutely BRILLIANT!!!
Magnificent, even! I can't believe how well we pulled it off and how it all flowed.
The soloist singing the part of Elijah was unfrigginbelievable! When he opened his mouth during rehearsals everyone went 'whoooaaaaa'. Brilliant. The other soloists were good too, the orchestra did well and Ben seemed totally hyper at the end. If only I could've taken a picture of his face in the last few seconds of the piece - he looked high as a kite! LOLOL
Overall, a fantastic performance, if I may toot my own horn. After all that hard work it totally paid off. We were on FIRE! :)

'Nuff said. Tomorrow will be a different kind of concert which I'm sure will be so bad that I will completely forget to mention it. And it's probably best to leave things on a high note! Ha, see what I did there? High note? I'm so funny, I crack myself up! ;)

The joy of singing

2011-11-28T21:59:00.001Z

Every singer will tell you, there is something about letting your voice fly, making it produce sounds unlike others (good and bad!) that just embodies what singing is all about. I can think of multiple ways of describing that 'something'. Freedom, joy, elation, excitement, sorrow, sadness... well, I could go on and on but I won't bore you with my oh-so-fabulous use of English vocabulary ;)
I grew up with classical music around me, I grew to love it as I got older and eventually, after a long time, I simply gave in to what I knew was always the one thing that will always, always, ALWAYS make me happiest in this life. Singing classical music.
Don't get me wrong... I love writing and singing country music, it saved me many times over when I was a teenager, that's the music I CHOSE. But classical... well... it chose me.

Singing with the choir is a revelation - every time. I may not be up for it at each rehearsal, but overall, the joy of singing simply trumps all the other stuff.
And just for the record, since Ben took over conducting us, all that 'other stuff' doesn't much exist anymore. Gone is the boredom, the need to chat relentlessly. I look forward to rehearsals, love being in them and regret when leaving them. It helps that I think we 'click' with Ben. I get what he's trying to say, what he's trying to do. I enjoy working my butt off, going over the same stuff again over and over because that is the only way I can grow, the only way I can get better. I suppose it depends on whether you take singing seriously or not, and I do. Having someone in charge who pushes us and pushes us and pushes us some more is just what I needed. Kinda like my own personal little blessing! :)

It was the last rehearsal of Mendelssohn's Elijah tonight. The one before the concert on Saturday. As much as I grew up with classical music, choral works were not part of it. So every single piece we sing is new to me. That's like... discovering a gazillion fantastically awesome pieces of music each time we start a new term. I distinctly remember listening to Elijah before we started working on it and thinking 'It sounds nice' but nothing more. And boy, nice is the understatement of the millenium. It very much is a sublime work of art and quite frankly can rarely be appreciated fully unless you sit down with a score and a choir and go through it bit by bit.
And how I've loved discovering all the best bits of this piece... how frustrating to get so many things so wrong to start with but finally see it all slot into place, as it should be.
To say I'm excited to perform this doesn't even begin to describe it! Ben's precision, our hard work and Mendelssohn's stunning music will deliver a killer concert on Saturday.
And if I still have the energy to do so, I will be here to tell all about it after the concert. But just so you know, Saturday night I will be one happy soprano! :D

The suicidal fly

2011-11-14T22:19:00.001Z

And here I was, thinking I'd seen it all at choir rehearsals.
Guess I didn't.

In the midst of an exceptionally energetic/angry part of Mendelssohn's Elijah, a big, fat fly deigned to have a rest on my score. My hand movements to swat it away did nothing. It seemed to like that page. I then took to actually physically remove it (by smacking it off my score). Only to see it fly around somewhat drunkenly and land on that same page again.
The second smack finally did it - the fly went flying (haha) and I never saw it again. Only by that time, I had lost my place in the score, was in fits of laughter and useless for the rest of the next 2 minutes.

Note to all flies: If any such thing should happen during the concert in a few weeks, I shall simply smash my score shut. You WILL be dead. Tell your friends...

NaNoWriMo 2011

2011-10-31T22:53:00.002Z

Yes, it's here again.

November = NaNoWriMo = new novel.

Have I got the slightest clue as to what I will write this year? Not one bit.
Well, actually, that's not quite true. I wrote this 'introduction' chapter to a story four years ago, simply because it just came to me one day. But there never was anything linked to it, no particular plot or plot points or anything!!! I'd been sitting on it since, always wondering what to do with it, where to take it.

I've decided to attempt a full novel based on that introduction this year - for lack of any other ideas!

Doesn't exactly sound like a path to success, does it? Then again, I've had other ideas over the past 6 years (can you believe it, I wrote my first NaNo novel in 2005??????) which, with all the plot lines and ideas still came to nothing.

I suppose that's part of what's so cool about NaNoWriMo. You just don't know WHERE this month will take you. And I'm totally ready to embrace the craziness, write late into the night, fret about the 'daily' 1667 words necessary to finish and attend write-ins at the pub around the corner.

If nothing else, I will meet new characters - no matter what I write, they always show up and surprise the hell outta me. Because much as I think I control the story, the truth is, these characters control ME.

Writing ROCKS! :) Wish me luck!

Liberation

2011-10-16T15:30:00.002+01:00

Ever since I started the redecoration of my flat last year (yes, it's been over a year now, can you believe it???), I've slowly started letting go of things. When I mean letting go, I mean throw away/give away. And when I say things, I mean TONS of stuff I had amassed over the years that I never used!

The list is neverending... last year I went through my clothes ruthlessly. I now have very few clothes that I actually DO wear. Sure, there are some that simply have emotional value but those are just t-shirts which I have decided to turn into carrier bags. This way, I don't throw the t-shirt away and it gives me pleasure when I use it on my weekly shops!

I went through my books and have also ruthlessly donated all those that I knew I'd never read again. I still have a pile of books I haven't yet read and unless I actually LOVE them, once I've read them, they will go also.

I went through paperwork that had amassed over the years as well and simply shredded everything that's older than 3 years. Bills from my last place of residence seem rather ridiculous to keep!

I even went as far as sorting through my audio cassette tapes... yes, believe it or not, I had a box full of cassette tapes, probably around 100 of them. Going through them was (and still is) a LOT of work and involved listening to most of them to decide whether it's worth keeping them or not. And if they ARE worth keeping, I bought a little gizmo that plugs into my PC's USB port and into my walkman's headphones (yes, I STILL had my walkman and it works just as well as it did when I bought it in 1998! LOL) and I've started transforming them all into mp3 format. Each time I finish moving something from tape to mp3 I throw the tape away. All annoyance for having to go through this aside, it's a great walk down memory lane... when else do you really make time to go through old music you used to listen to???

The bathroom had to be sorted through as well and I kicked so many samples and old creams and gels and products and heaven knows what else!

The kitchen is what has been occupying me for the last few weeks. On a whim I decided to go through some of the cupboards where I kept my pots and pans and eliminated a good part of what I knew was stuff I'd never used/never will use.

Today, I'm back in the kitchen and attacking the gadgets. I love kitchen gadgets. I have a steamer, a slow cooker (never used, bought about two years ago), a wok, a bread maker, an ice cream machine, a food sealer (google if you don't know what that is), a George Foreman grill... well, the list goes on and on.
Today the wok goes, as does the George Foreman grill - I haven't used these in ages. And the slow cooker goes as well. It's still packed in its box, never having been used... how pathetic is that??? But the truth is, I know I will never use it so what's the point? Thankfully I remember buying it and it wasn't very expensive so that makes me feel a bit better!

Overall, this purging of things is extremely liberating... there is nothing like the feeling of going into an area of your home that isn't stuffed full of crap that is weighing you down. More and more I feel like I can breathe freely in this space. I try to follow the new rule: If you buy one thing, throw another one out.

Whether this is achievable long term is another question, of course ;) But I shall keep you updated!

My way or the Segway!

2011-10-15T20:56:00.002+01:00

Today was a balancing act... literally!!!
For my birthday, Ally and Julian got me a ''Go Ape Forest Segway' experience for an hour! I'd heard of the Segways from friends and colleagues who'd ridden them in California (along the beach... *sigh*) but never realized they could be driven on uneven terrain!

Just so you can see what this looks like, check out this video:

Let me tell you... it looks a LOT easier than it is! To start with, you have to find your balance on that thing which has NOTHING that grounds you. So the only way to make the Segway stop still is to be balanced and relaxed. Of course when you start, you're anything but!!!

Still, over the course of the next hour, I learned to relax and totally enjoy it. Little hills and tight curves just became a cool challenge! :) And when the hour was over, I was utterly disappointed and was left wanting more!!!

A nice pub lunch finished off a lovely day - thanks Ally and Julian for such a cool present! :)

P.S. I took my video camera to film along the way but you can't ride the Segway with one hand so no footage is available :(

OK, let's see...

2011-10-11T16:12:00.000+01:00

Well, I have been absent from this blog for quite a while, I know!
I always, constantly, pledge to be better at updating this but never manage to - well, let's see if this time it may actually happen!You'll ask: why should this be different than any of the other times she's promised to update this more often?

Well, as of Saturday, I have completely deleted my Facebook account. I could go into details and explain exactly why but the simple truth is, their new 'features' freaked the hell out of my privacy-protecting mind plus I realized that maybe being ever-connected isn't exactly the best part about life.
So, with plenty more time on my hands now, I suppose instead of writing status updates on Facebook, I shall try to keep this blog going more frequently. And with that, also, less wordy! You know how I love me some good ole, loooooong posts, but sometimes they're just not necessary.

So here goes... to a new bloglife! If all goes well, we'll be talking again soon! :)

Not a happy camper!

2011-01-11T00:14:00.003Z

What can I say... having a week off after New Year's made me feel spoiled.
Clearly someone in charge thought I needed to be brought back to earth pronto. Fear not, this happened within the first 20 minutes of my being back on the job today!

Aside from the fact that this whole 'transformation' business at work means changing everything (including moving managers around, splitting up teams and generally confusing the f*** out of everybody because nothing was thought through properly), I received an email from a colleague, who must've been CLEARLY bored out of his friggin mind.

He proceeded to present his new 'plans' of changing the seating in the office, to "change things up for 2011". This saw EVERYONE being moved about into different cubicles in the massive open plan area.
I, for one, like where I'm sitting. I'm facing a big wall of windows with a constant view of the sky and other outside goings on. I'm in closest vicinity to my four colleagues in my product team and I'm far enough away from the kitchen area to not be disturbed by the constant noise of the big screen TV having BBC News running non-stop. I have also spent a considerable amount of time cleaning my entire desk properly and keeping it clean, unlike all other male colleagues inhabiting all other desks. The thought of sitting at someone else's 'never been cleaned since the dark ages' desk, gives me the heebee-jeebies!!!!! You have NO idea what kind of disgustingtons I have for colleagues. Honest.

Thankfully, it seems nobody wants this change and whilst I have been the most vocal about it, others have also spoken out and I will keep my fingers crossed that nothing changes.

And just in case it does, I have already decided for myself that I won't bother going into the office anymore. If you're going to take away my manager, my team, my desk and my blue (or grey) sky - you can stick it where the sun don't shine. This is one game I'm not willing to play.

New Year, new.... nothing

2011-01-02T20:38:00.003Z

Well, another year's come and gone and I, for one, am rather glad to see the back of 2010.
On that note, though, I do want to highlight the good stuff that's happened in 2010, so as to make up for all the shit I've had to deal with.

I got involved with the "site events" team at work, which means I spend a few hours a month thinking up things people in our organization might like to do for an evening. Then I get to organizing it. Most of the time it's good fun and I get a kick out of seeing the joy on people's faces when the event rolls around.

I decided it was time to make this flat I've lived in for three years more of a home. Inspired by the amazing Young House Love blog, I set out to paint the living room, bedroom and hallway, as well as completely redecorate them. That meant throwing out lots of the crappy furniture that belonged to the owner, and buying new stuff, which I singlehandedly picked out. All courtesy of IKEA, of course :) And whilst the place is FAR from being finished, it already feels like much more of a home than it ever did before and I continue to work towards my vision of what it can be.

I continuously contributed a set amount of $100 each month to my new favorite charity, KIVA. On every 1st of each month, I lend 4 different people in need of a loan $25 each. They repay me whenever they can and I then reinvest the repayed money into yet another person looking to improve their lives. It is by far not a perfect situation as some of these people pay ridiculous amounts of interest for these loans. But then again, if it helps just one person, that will be worth it. And I will continue to support Kiva and give monthly and see the money I give being put to good use and make a difference in someone's life.

I have also spent many weekends continuing to volunteer at the Lightbox, getting joy out of seeing tons of exhibitions and meeting new cool people to work with. It's such a blessing to have such a cool place in my little town! :)

Then I was lucky enough to have my auntie visit from America, not just once, but twice in the past year. Having her around was a breath of fresh air and my admiration for this woman knows no bounds! We had a great time visiting Hampton Court Palace and just spending time together hanging out. It was short but sweet and I enjoyed it immensely.

Ally & Julian moved to a teeeeeeny tiiiiny little house, which neither of them enjoys but for me, this was good news. Because the house is about 15 minutes drive from me and it's just so much nicer to know my sister so close and not having to drive miles to get to and from her! So, yey for me! (not so yey for them).

And last but not least, possibly the best part of this year - my choir. After the dreadful experience we had with the last "new" conductor, I was ready to throw it all in. But then came Ben - young, enthusiastic, funny and extremely knowledgable. A guy that is supereasy to deal with, has a good sense of humour and has managed, within three short months, to capture the hearts of pretty much the entire choir. Our first concert with him was simply fabulous. Whether we sounded great or not, I can't say (though apparently, we did) - but the enjoyment factor was there from the very first rehearsal, to the very last note in the concert. Just goes to show once again how one person can make one hell of a difference!
If you're curious - catch a quick video of the rehearsal before the concert HERE . Handel bores me to tears most of the time, but Ben expects concentration and precision at every single note, which doesn't leave much time to fall asleep ;) My joy for singing is back and I singlehandedly owe it to Ben. Let's hope he sticks around for a looooong time!

And now, as 2011 rolls around, I have decided that it makes absolutely NO sense to make any new year's resolutions because, let's face it, I won't stick to them anyway.
Instead, I shall make a list of the things I would like to accomplish this year and see whether at one point or another, I can actually do this.

At the top of the list being - UPDATE BLOG MORE OFTEN. (I know, I know, you've heard it all before ;)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Snowy Woking

2010-12-21T19:01:00.005Z

It snowed like crazy here in Woking... on Saturday, that is. It has stopped since but the temperatures have stayed well below zero so frost is still around as is most of the snow.
I wandered off on Saturday afternoon after the snow had stopped falling. Much as I would've liked to go out and take pictures of the snow falling, I felt way too protective of my camera!

I decided to take my tripod with me, which I knew would give me the opportunity to take some really nice pictures but would also end up hindering me most of the time! In the end, it was a mixed bag and it helped and annoyed me all at once ;)
The best comment I received from a passing cyclist whilst I was trying to cross a snowy road with a fully extended tripod? 'Wow, I thought you were carrying skis!!!'
Nope, not this time, mate!

Anyway... I used three separate lenses though my favorite by far is the macro lens. For the uninitiated, it's the lens that takes gorgeous close-ups. And I love it, love it, love it! It's fiddly and you have to know exactly what you're doing but boy, does it take some nice pictures if you get it right!!!

Anyway... enjoy - these are the best from that two hour trip on Saturday! :)

Redecorating - part 1

2010-08-30T15:29:00.002+01:00

Well, the redecorating bug has bitten me. Badly! After hanging out on Young House Love's website for WEEKS (I am NOT kidding... and soooooo worth it!!!), I was itching to redo this space that I call my home.
Sadly, everything I did want to change here needed approval from my landlady so diplomatic maneuvers were required to make sure I was allowed to do some of the following things:

1. Get rid of old, disgustingly ugly bed and mattress (since I'm renting a furnished flat)
2. Get rid of old, even more disgustingly ugly sofa
3. Get rid of old, unusable shelving unit which was missing so many damn screws that putting a feather on it would've made it collapse
4. Get rid of massive and ugly wardrobe which was truly falling apart even without trying to move it out of the way
5. Paint the walls in the bedroom a lovely Dulux Light & Space 'Nordic Spa' green to freshen up the room and let more light in
6. Paint the hallway and living room a lovely Dulux Light & Space 'Desert Wind' cream color to lighten up the room
7. Paint the ceilings a bright white to make rooms look bigger (cause they desperately need it!!!!)
8. Put laminate floor and /or carpet down to replace the disgusting carpet that has been in here for at least 8 years, if not more - *shudder*

Overall, I got the OK for all of the above, with the landlady fronting the cost of the materials (for the painting) and the labor (for the laminating and carpeting and I'm so glad she wanted professionals to do it!).

So I roped in Ally and Julian to slave away with me at painting this place and we got pretty much most of it done on Saturday. You wouldn't think it's a big deal considering it's such a small space, but since the flat is full of my stuff/crap/furniture, it meant that everything had to be packed up and moved, then the painting could start and then you'd do the same thing all over again with the other rooms.

Two days later I was aching, blistered and pretty much unable to move without yelping in pain (that's old age, right there!!!). Still, the flat it painted, the horrid furniture pieces are gone and I am now waiting for the laminate floor men to come on Wednesday and start putting laminate down in the hallway and the living room. Carpet will be put down in the bedroom the week after so in approximately two weeks, I shall have an almost newly painted/decorated flat.

With all this change of course, comes the responsibility of buying a new bed, a new wardrobe, a new sofa, more storage space in the form of shelves or chests of drawers and many, many other things!!!

Needless to say, my imagination has run wild thanks to the YHL blog mentioned above, which is overflowing with ideas for literally anything you might want to know about decorating, as well as the new catalogues from IKEA (thank you, gods, for creating the most awesome furniture place in this galaxy!), Argos, M&S Home and Tesco Direct. I've been leafing through all of them, turning corners on the things that I either want to have or those that give me ideas of what I could make myself.

So far, I've actually managed to write everything in a little notebook, so as not to forget all my 'brilliant' ideas. The hard part comes next, whereby I really need to sort through these ideas, see which ones are feasible (I doubt my landlady will let me put too many picture hooks through her walls) and which ones are affordable. Because of course, I need to take things slow and not go out there and spend every dime I have!!!

So anyway... this is the first of many updates. I've made the conscious decision to take things slows when it comes to decorating, so a final result will be slow in coming as I will literally have to do things bit by bit. But at least that means I can keep getting excited about new products/ideas for a bit longer!

I have no before pictures (apart from the bed) because quite frankly, it was all so ugly, it doesn't bear thinking about. But I shall attempt to take as many pictures as possible of the new stuff. It's not easy since this is SUCH a dark place, but whatcha gonna do, eh???

So... stay tuned - I shall update this as soon as new stuff is happening! :-)

In case you ever wondered...

2010-06-19T12:15:00.002+01:00

... what boiling water looks like in a frying pan, please see below.

A phone conversation

2010-06-18T18:58:00.002+01:00

This is the 'play-by-play' of a phone conversation I just had with my sister (about the horrendously bad football game Germany delivered today):

Me: 'Yeah, that referee was such an asshole!!!'
Sister: 'I'm so glad I didn't see it... OH MY GOD, the BBC presenter is wearing my shirt!!!!'
Me: 'What???'
Sister: 'She's wearing my shirt!!!'
Me: 'What??????'
Sister: 'The shirt I bought at GAP! She's wearing the same shirt!'
Me: 'Ahm... ok.'

And here was me thinking this was something worth interrupting a football match post-mortem for!

A birthday...

2010-06-13T19:03:00.003+01:00

... happened yesterday and I took some pics of the lovely birthday girl (who also happens to be the best sister in the world!!!)

Don't you wish...

2010-06-10T22:18:00.005+01:00

... you had this amazing fruit salad I just made in front of you right now?
Well, you CAN'T HAVE IT! :P

Foxy!

2010-06-03T08:42:00.005+01:00

At 7.30 this morning I looked out my window onto the car park behind my building... and let's face it, on such a beautifully sunny day, how can you blame the fox sunning itself on the patch of grass in the car park??? (P.S. That's my car there on the left :-)

Please welcome...

2010-05-30T18:47:00.002+01:00

... the newest addition to my household, my new bag! Just bought this supercool looking shopper bag at the Lightbox and am LOVING it! Pay particular attention to the little monkey keychain - it's the cutest little thing! And it NEEDS A NAME! Can you help please?
(just FYI - Stitch is NOT an option!)

Poked and prodded

2010-05-25T20:58:00.002+01:00

I went to the doctor's today. Or should I say nurse.
It was because they were after my blood. They didn't yet know how rare a commodity it is!
I sat down and told the nurse in no uncertain terms that drawing blood from me is like... well... drawing blood from a stone.
I saw the sceptical look on her face, the one that seemed to say 'Honey, I've been doing this for the past 40 years and I KNOW what I'm doing.'
Far be it for me to argue.
I sat in the chair (yes, it was a chair, not a bed-type-thingy) and kept thinking if I pass out, I'll slither to the floor.
I told the nurse I tend to pass out when giving blood but that illicted no real response from her.
And then she tried to find a vein on my right arm. 2 minutes later she was still trying. No needle yet (just slapping my arm to make the vein pop).
Eventually she seemed to have found one and stuck the needle in. I can't ever look at that stuff so I closed my eyes. A minute passed and she said 'It's not very cooperative... there's not a lot of blood coming out.'
Shocker.
She seemed to think that after another minute she'd had enough in one tube to warrant three of the four tests they wanna do on my blood (liver, thyroid and something else I can't remember).
So the needle comes out and she moves over to my left arm (which I had told her from the beginning is the one most willing to cooperate.)
I show her the vein all doctors have always eventually gotten blood from but she chose to ignore it. 'It's too deep under your skin', she says.
So she sticks a needle onto my left arm at about the same spot she tried on my right. No blood at all. Oh joy.
She goes back to the right arm and desperately tries to find another vein. Eventually she gets to the hand and says 'I hate taking blood from the hand' but she does it anyway.
It is at this point that I start to feel crazy woozy. I ask her to make the chair recline and she does it. The wooziness gets worse and worse and I tell her I'm gonna pass out. She tells me to take deep breaths. I do. For about 5 minutes.
I'm ok after that.
She says maybe we should leave it for the day and I can come back to give some more blood for the last of the test they wanna do (Full Blood Count). Unless, she says, I think I can handle another try.
At this point I have recovered and the thought of having to come back to give blood again helps me make up my mind quickly.
I tell her to try it again.
And she finally goes for the vein on my left arm, the one I had told her about at the beginning. And it gushes and she's happy. So happy she tells me she'll take some extra blood just in case. What that case would be, I don't know!

Eventually after another 5 minutes of lying there, drinking water and slowly getting up again (and chatting with her about her golder retriever puppy!) it was over.

The whole ordeal lasted about half an hour. And I know I can't possibly complain that I'm now running around with four bruises on both my arms and my hand when there's people actually being seriously ill out there.
But it still stinks!

Delving deeper

2010-05-21T23:03:00.003+01:00

So the reminiscing hasn't really stopped this week. Set off on the trail of remembering my old self in my Garth days, I went even further back to those days when I was barely a teenager, re-reading old diaries and discovering things I always kinda knew but never remembered with such great detail.
How I hated school - almost every page in my first diary is filled with it. How I loved Patrick Swayze (so much so, that I called my diary Patrick), North & South, Dirty Dancing, Michael Landon, Santa Barbara. How I crushed hard on a boy at school for three years, how infatuated I was with my new friends in Bremen, how I spent HOURS on the phone with them in the middle of the night, how ridiculously naive I was, even at 18.
How music slowly crystalized itself out of everything else to become the vision of my future, how I saw no limit to my abilities, to my talents.

I don't ever want to go back to those days, I know that much. But there's a part of me that can't help wondering how the girl I used to be is nothing like the woman I am today. And not in a good way.
I do wish I could go back in time and instruct my younger self to try and do a bit better... but then again, I'm not sure I would've known to appreciate such good advice at that age. So maybe it's all turned out just the way it should be...

Indeed

2010-05-16T21:47:00.003+01:00

Gosh, it has been ages since I last updated this blog. Not for lack of things to say but for lack of energy to write.
Still, I shall endeavour to update this more often from now on.

Have spent the day reading a book about Garth ('The Garth factor') and reminiscing about those golden olden days where I was so happy just simply knowing he was making music. Seriously, it was all I needed. Well, him and Stillwater.
But time moves on, as does life and everything changes. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. But no matter what happens, those memories will always be fresh in my mind - nevermind that it all happened 15 years ago... We shall be free!

Some of my treasures

2010-01-24T21:41:00.006Z

This weekend I decided to do a bit of cleaning through my library of books. Some had to go (will be on their way to the charity shop soon), others, newly bought, found a new home on my bookshelf amidst their peers.

And some... well, some got some extra attention from me :-) Because they're some of my mostest, favouritest, bestes books ever!!!

Cecilia Ahern - A place called here - best storyline I have read in a LONG time! Brilliantly written and what imagination!!! Am not big on Cecilia Ahern's books but this one is simply amazing!

Sophie Kinsella - Shopaholic series - How can you NOT have read these fabulous books??? From the first book of the series I have loved, loved, loved to read all about Becky Bloomwood. Written in such a witty voice, I will read and reread these books until the day I can read no more!

Helen Dunmore - Ingo - Again, this is actually a series of books, written for young adults but oh, what a lovely world she paints when she writes about Ingo, the world of water! I would have never picked this book up if it hadn't been for the mermaid on the cover (huuuchuuu Vanessa!! :-) but boy, am I glad I did.

Deborah Wright - Love Eternally - This one came as a huge surprise. I thought it would be another easy going chick lit book (which it is) but the story behind it is so unbelievably sweet and real! I borrowed this from the library but as soon as I was done reading it, I knew I had to buy it. A total keeper!

And now on to the non-ficition books I adore...

Ludwig Van Beethoven - Bicentennial Edition 1770-1970 - There's a funny story that goes with this book. I was in Nashua going through the books the library there had for sale one day and I suddenly saw this guy with this book in his hands, carrying it around. I wanted to punch myself for not having seen it first but I followed the dude around for as long as it took to at least get the name of the book. I then went home and paid quite a good sum of money to get this online (would've been like $5 in the book sale!! ARGGH!!!). Still, worth every penny - one of my favourite Beethoven books!

Julia Cameron - The Artist's Way - I can't ever put into words how much this book has helped me. A 12 week program on how to 'unblock' your artist, this book simply makes you look at what you can do to allow yourself to be a creative soul again. After years of starving myself of any kind of creativity, this book (along with the class I took on SongU) literally saved me. I keep going back to it over and over again and find that there's always something new to learn from in there.

Rudyard Kipling's Verse - Definitive Edition - I came across this book at another book sale at the library in Nashua a few years ago. I am NOT a poetry fan but Rudyard Kipling's name has stayed with me since the first time I heard Lane Davies recite 'If' on Santa Barbara (see it HERE if you want to get massive goosebumps - Lane is simply incredible!!!) so when I saw this book, I picked it up. 'If' is, of course, in there too but so are hundreds of others of his works. Really enjoyable pieces!

Jacques Steinberg - The Gatekeepers - Another one from a booksale in Nashua. I ADORE this book even though you'll find it strange when I tell you why. It's about the student selection process of universities in the US. You'd think that's the most boring thing EVER, but the author (one of the people who was part of the selection process at one particular university) writes with such an intriguing voice and the stories of those pupils he mentions are so interesting and exciting. It's like a good thriller, where at the end you find out how it all fits together and who the killer is. I was literally on the edge of my seat, waiting to hear what happened to each of the students mentioned. Brilliantly written!

Charles Nicholl - Leonardo Da Vinci - there's not much to say about that. My mild 'obsession' with Leonardo started when the Lightbox had the Leonardo exhibition last year and I first learned how incredible of a genius he was in every single aspect of life, particularly as an inventor. This book is a good biography on the man and his life, his inventions and his art.

The Joy of Cooking - Rombauer, Becker, Becker - I picked this book up in the US when I was looking for the ultimative book on cooking. Needless to say, at 1132 pages, this book really DOES tell you all there is to know about cooking. There's recipes, of course, but more importantly for me, there's everything about everything in there. How to choose meat, how to cut fish, how to... well, you get the idea. EVERYTHING is in there and I adore this book... I just wish I'd have the patience to cook more often so I could use it regularly!

And last but not least - here's a look at my current 'library of books'. This is just the books...

... and this is after I add all the 'stuff' that sadly, doesn't have its own space (pictures, mementos, etc...)

A package for me???

2010-01-15T20:08:00.004Z

Hmmm... a quiz for my readers.

What might you find in this package delivered to me a few days ago??? (and yes, this is exactly how it was delivered apart from a cable that was tied around the bag's neck)

Please post your guesses below (Ally you're forbidden since you know exactly what it is!)

Winter wonderland

2010-01-06T10:06:00.004Z

Yes, it's snowing again, here in lovely England (that's just a joke, btw... the lovely bit, not the snow bit).
Wrapped up warm inside my apartment, I took these pics from my living room window - enjoy! The snow is STILL falling and if I can be bothered to get out of my apartment later I shall take more pics.

My car is the one on the left...

Human footprints intersect with animal footprints :-)

Quite possibly the pidgeon responsible for crapping all over my car when I park underneath that tree. I do wish my camera was a shotgun!

Awwww.... so pretty!

More prettiness!

There's always SOME idiots who feel the need to drive in these conditions!

Final prettiness (for now)

NaNoWriMo 2009 WINNER!!!!

2009-11-29T22:22:00.003Z

Yes, yes, yes, I did it again! WOOOHOOOO, well done, SUPERMAKY! :-)

What can I say - after almost 30 days of pure torture (and some fun), I have finally reached the 50,000 words needed to call myself winner of the 2009 NaNoWriMo writing extravaganza!!! And in fact, now that I'm at 50,000 words, my story is actually going somewhere and I'm quite looking forward to finishing it! (don't think just cause I hit 50k it means the novel's finished!)
Anyway - thought I'd share this with you and add this little web badge to my blog, to remind myself that everything's possible if you just sit your fat ass down and DO IT! :P

Make a silver ring in a day

2009-11-21T13:22:00.006Z

So a week late but better late than never!

Last Saturday, I took another course titled 'Make a silver ring in day'. And so I did! It was great fun and I enjoyed it a lot though it can be very loud and quite frankly exhausting because you just don't sit down much during this time.

The instructor was fantastic and instead of forcing us to do a simple ring, she encouraged us to make our own designs and showed us ways of how to accomplish different patterns. Now, you know me... my only creative input to ANYTHING when it comes to design is : MUSICAL NOTES. So I figured I'll make a ring with musical notes on it. Halfway through doing it, I have to admit that I wish I hadn't gone through all the trouble but once it was finished, I was glad I did!

See the pics below for the process (though I have to apologize again for the bad quality of the first few pics - my camera phone just doesn't do macro!!!)

Enjoy! :-)
-------------------------------------------

Ok so this is what it looked like to start with - a simple, long-ish piece of silver, cut to size to fit my finger.

Next thing I had to do was heat it up, then etch the design on it - getting these stave lines perfectly straight was a pain in the a**!!!

Then I had to hammer in the notes, which bent the silver piece...

...so I had to hammer it straight, then add the vertical lines for the notes themselves.

This is what the piece then looked like on the back!

This is what the actual ring looks like after bending/hammering it into shape and soldering the ends to eachother (multiple times!!!)

And then it got pickled (which means throwing it into some acid solution which turns the whole thing completely white) and after the pickle and a good wash the final bit was to polish it to near perfection on this very dangerous polishing machine. VERY freaky that thing, so for the first part I let my instructor polish it for me, then I took over.

The final result :-) Isn't it gorgeous??????????

Bookbinding taster day!

2009-11-07T22:14:00.004Z

I had forgotten how much I love bookbinding! I remember doing this bookbinding class about 12 or 13 years ago in Germany and loving it! I learned to create little notebooks, folders, portfolios, even boxes - all from scratch! My 'crafty' mind was in heaven! I kept with it for a few years making presents for people but then over time I forgot all about it.

When I saw this one-day class being advertised in the local Adult Learning booklet, I jumped at the chance.
Being there today has reminded me how cool this really is, how simple (at times) it can be and also nerve-wrecking!!!
I think I will definitely go back to doing this more often now - I just gotta remember what I did with all my paraphrenalia for bookbinding!!! :-)

So enjoy - apologies for the blurry pictures, I only had my phone with me and it's not very good at taking close up pictures!

(I even made the paper myself! Well, painted it, that is! :-)

(This is the actual color of the notebook - vibrant orange and blue!)

In winter...

2009-10-23T13:07:00.003+01:00

... when one feels TERRIBLY cold and a little bit unwell and thus has to work from home, then surely this setup does the trick, no? :-)

Bubble wrap!!!

2009-10-13T17:55:00.002+01:00

This is so coooooool! I don't need the actual bubble wrap anymore, I can use the online one! :-) Have fun (particularly with the Manic Mode)!

Online bubble wrap

Pyrography

2009-10-04T14:58:00.004+01:00

So I saw a woodburning iron on sale at Lidl two weeks ago and thought it sounded fun so I bought it. Today I went and got myself a simple pine shelf and started playing around with it - as you can see below it's not exactly artistic but it's great fun and I love the smell of burnt wood!!!
I shall continue to play with it until I get a better hang of things! :-)

One of these days...

2009-08-30T23:49:00.009+01:00

... I will have a house just like these! Mark my words! LOL

Here's the background story. Last week, on my way back from work, I took a diversion to escape a traffic jam. I turned into this tiny street that looked like it would go through the forest and for a minute or two, it did. Then suddenly, both to the left and right I started seeing gates. And fences. And big, massive houses. Thankfully there was nobody behind me so I managed to stop in front of a few and gawp at them. I couldn't believe that I actually pass this street on my way to work every single day and yet didn't know about these magnificent houses?
Once I got home I Google Mapped them and looky there... satellite pictures from above told me everything I needed to know. They were mansions, secluded and hidden behind trees, with huge gardens, swimming pools and tennis courts. Couldn't see most of this from the street of course.
I decided if I ever want to own something like that maybe it would help to visualize them on a daily basis so I resolved to go back, park my car on a parallel street and take some pictures. Which is exactly what I did today.

Now, please bear in mind that I made the stupid mistake to think I would need a big zoom lens for my camera when I didn't. So unfortunately, most pics you see are 'close-ups' because I couldn't zoom out far enough without ending up in the bushes! LOL

Still, enjoy the pictures - I know I enjoyed my little photography trip! :)

So let's start with the fences/gates/walls that were surrounding these massive houses.

Now moving on to other random things, like a house facade, a sign, a footpath and some other houses.

The gates of this one looked so very cool and the house behind it, too even though I really couldn't see too much!

And whilst I was walking around, due to all those trees and fences and gates, I came across a lot of mirrors like these! :-)

And last but by no means least... my personal favorite. This house was not hidden too far behind trees and greenery and simply looked divine. Loved the white picket fence around it, the drive with the fountain in the middle and the overall 'whiteness' of it. Somehow, houses in this country always have to be a depressing brown and this wasn't! When I get to build my house, it will be rather similar to this one, me thinks! :-)

Oh, the scent...!!!!

2009-08-24T18:34:00.003+01:00

I'm not a big perfume person but about three years ago, shortly before I left for the US, I was on the ferry from Dover to Calais and was going through the duty free shop, smelling around all kinds of God-awful fragrances when I stumbled upon this most magnificent scent. Ralph Lauren - Blue. I didn't buy it then, it still seemed very extravagant but a few weeks later, in the States, I went to some mall and bought it there.

Now sadly the internet has yet to come up with a way to enable you to smell something online but maybe if you read through the description of this perfume you get an idea (though I doubt it). Unfortunately, it also looks like it's been discontinued so chances are you can't even go to a shop to smell it so you'll just have to trust my opinion when I tell you that this is what heaven must smell like.

I have finally received my new (bigger) bottle today and am looking forward to using it again (I had to make do with another scent I also liked but not quite as much - Body Shop White Musk) !!! :-)

RALPH LAUREN BLUE perfume by Ralph Lauren was launched in 2004. This soft floral fragrance melts into the skin with soft notes of lotus flower, gardenia and pink peony, exotic blossoms such as tuberose, rose de mai, and orange flower enriched with musk, ambrette, and sandalwood.

Me...

2009-08-22T21:44:00.003+01:00

... and my friend Anne at the Lightbox inside the 'Mirror room' which is part of our Da Vinci exhibition.
Anne was the volunteer who took me under her wing on my first day at the Lightbox and we clicked instantly. She is such a wonderful, sweet woman full of life and laughter and smiles and she reminds me of my grandmother Ami so much :-)

Can you say...

2009-08-22T10:22:00.001+01:00

... best omelette EVER??? :-) Bon apetit, this is my breakfast today!

TRIKKE!!!!!

2009-08-20T21:32:00.008+01:00

(Ok this is realy freaky - I just searched my blog to see if I ever mentioned buying my Trikke back when I was in the States and stumbled upon my entry from August 19th 2007, EXACTLY two years to the day that I first tried the Trikke and now, two years to the day later, I decided to uncover it and try it out again - FREEEEEAKY!!!)

So anyway - sorry for being away for so long, AGAIN.
Still, some rather fun (and not very flattering) pictures to follow so I'll promise you it will be worth the wait.

As mentioned above, I talked with some colleagues at work about my Trikke and turned out one of them had bought one (a smaller one) for his daughter many years ago so we decided to bring them in and give them a good run in the car park at work. Which is what we did on Wednesday.
On my part, I was hoping these dudes would be able to uncover the mystery of trikking since I never really got the hang of it when I first bought it in the States!

SO without much further ado - enjoy the pics! Sorry for the rubbish quality but these are actually taken from a film I took, rather than from the photo camera.

My colleagues trying the Trikkes out:

Me giving it a go and slowly getting the hang of it (and looking like a big, fat elephant on it, of course)

Devil's Punchbowl

2009-05-22T23:36:00.000+01:00

I went to see Caroline today... had a great time sitting outside in her garden and playing with Joseph - he's the cutest little boy EVER (see pictures below)!

I then stopped at the Devil's Punchbowl on my way home - it's a gorgeous route to drive only most of it is very serpentine-y so you can't look out the window AND drive without causing an accident!
So this time around, I actually pulled over at their cafe, paid the 2 pounds to park there and took off with my camera for a brief half hour. The below pictures are the result - not the greatest but still, shows well enough how gorgeous it's out there!

Haircut!!! (and a day out in London)

2009-05-20T22:23:00.006+01:00

I am currently on a well deserved, two week holiday! YEY, me! So I'm turning days into nights and vice versa, sleeping in late and generally doing whatever I happen to please all the time. A life of leisure...

Yesterday I decided to get my hair cut (it's been overdue for 4 months now) and since my absolutely fabulous hairdresser/stylist Michael is in London (Unruly Studio in Notting Hill, check it out!!!!), I thought I'd combine it with a day trip into London and dinner with a friend.

So here are the pictures, first of my AWESOME new haircut (sorry, trying to take pictures of yourself with a very heavy camera in your hand isn't as easy as you'd think so the pics aren't the greatest but you'll get the idea), then some pics of my lovely, perfect, fabulous Houses of Parliament with Big Ben and the London Eye and then, kind of like an afterthought, I realized I had taken these pics of myself two weekends ago when I decided to have a 'pamper weekend' and smeared some pore shrinking mask on my face (nothing has shrunk, of course) - be warned, it's SCARY! :P

Oh yeah, and this weird installation of Channel 4's trademark - a four made of umbrellas!

Bitten!

2009-04-16T08:04:00.003+01:00

Yes, believe it or not, I woke up this morning at 4AM because my leg was itching and stinging. Still half asleep I scratched and scratched only to realize too late that it only made things worse.
I tried to fall asleep again but no such luck. The stinging was really rather bad so I got up to find a red mark on my right leg right under my knee and a lot of swelling. Oh joy.
My biggest fear was that a spider had bitten me and since I'm really not big on spiders I shook out my bedding and looked everywhere. Nothing.
I cooled the bite and then finally went back to sleep one and a half hours later!
This morning I woke up to find this guilty critter on my floor! At least it died while stinging me! That's what happens when you mess with Maky!

Interesting...

2009-04-14T00:16:00.002+01:00

... what you find when you're not looking for a photo opportunity! I was just using my illuminated mirror when I noticed how the circle of light around it reflected in my eyes. After about 5 minutes of trying I finally got a halfway decent picture :-)

An idea

2009-04-12T16:34:00.007+01:00

I was desperately trying to find a website which would provide me with a reason to start working on my photography again - I was looking for challenges, projects and preferably something that wasn't massively big. Unfortunately I didn't find anything that suits me.
Still, from all this browsing I haven't walked away with nothing. I remembered that whilst I don't want to set up my own challenges, I could find a way to get others to set challenges for me. In particular - YOU!
So this is the plan... I have this book called 'Word Menu'(Dictionary/Thesaurus/Almanac all in one book) and it has a TON of words in it, as you can imagine.
I shall open the book at a random page, point my finger to four random words, post them here and let YOU decide what my next photo challenge should be. How long it will actually take me to take/collect the pictures I want is a different story but at least I will have something to work towards.
So here goes - challenge number 1! Choose wisely! :-)

Stumbling Upon

2009-03-29T20:47:00.003+01:00

Ever since I installed the StumbleUpon plugin/addon for Firefox, I have neglected using it. I remember at the very beginning, I spent HOURS going from site to site, forever marvelling at how many sites there are out there about photography, music, games, crafts and all other interests I had marked in my StumbleUpon profile.

I happened to be bored of my usual internet routine today and remembered StumbleUpon - so I clicked on the button and off I went. Many hours later, I must confess that I'm envious of some people, particularly those that are not just creative but actually DO something with it. And in particular bloggers who actually UPDATE their blogs and not just with entries but also with photos of their creative endeavours. Quite cool ones, even!
I had promised myself that once I have a digital camera I would start taking more pictures but the truth of it is - how many pictures can you take in your own 4 walls? Since I'm not a person who enjoys going out and seeing new things, photography is very limited to my everyday surroundings and those get really boring after a while. It doesn't help that I'm always driving somewhere, never actually walking anymore which makes it even harder to take the camera out if I see something cool!

I don't much see a solution for the time being. Maybe with the summer coming I'll feel more inspired to get out and about and be more proactive in my photography. I'd love to get back to taking pictures like I used to when I took that course many years ago - so maybe that will be an option. We shall see.

In the meantime, I shall continue to be green with envy at others and StumbleUpon many more to get my 'creative fix'.

Earth Hour 2009

2009-03-28T20:42:00.003Z

It's 15 minutes into Earth Hour 2009 and thanks to my sister, I've got all my lights off and some candles lit in my living room (the screen glare off the computer just isn't enough!)
Enjoy my little picture of flammable fun and help save this planet :-)

What a difference...

2009-03-02T22:00:00.002Z

I have just gotten back from choir rehearsal and BOY, was that fun! Just this evening alone I learned so much more than I have in the past year!
The reason? We're auditioning new conductors for the choir and we had two applicants doing half a rehearsal each tonight.
Alone the insights they brought along was worth doing it for! And I realized we had a really good Bass section! And that we CAN sing without being surgically attached to our scores! And... well, so many more things that would bore you to tears here.
Suffice it to say a new age has dawned on our choir and I cannot wait for it to happen. As things are, I just don't have fun singing anymore so these two today have reminded me of how much I used to love it and how I can't wait to sing again with all my heart!
Bring it on, 2010! Bring it on!!!!! :-)

If this...

2009-02-27T12:37:00.004Z

... doesn't bring tears to your eyes, I don't know what will!

Listen to Jose Antonio Abreu talk about El Sistema here

Then listen to the fruit of his work... simply stunning.

And if you want more info about El Sistema, this is a pretty good article about it.

http://www.gustavodudamel.com (then click on El Sistema)

I know it takes a little time but believe me, it is well worth it!

Miracles DO happen...

2009-02-25T23:33:00.002Z

I know it's hard to believe but I have experienced this in person today!

Time I left the car park at work: 17:29
Time I pulled into the car park at home: 17:59

In case you can't count... it took me 30 MINUTES to get home this afternoon! I have NEVER made it home this early, it's a total, miraculous first!

I can't even explain why. The roads were just completely empty. I even missed the odd idiot who usually crosses my path and elicits a long-winded tirade about terrible British drivers!

But, I shall not hold out much hope for tomorrow - horrid traffic will be back by then, that much I know.

Vote!!!

2009-02-21T21:01:00.001Z

Snoooooooooow!!!!

2009-02-02T11:35:00.005Z

Well, it's snowing good and proper today - knee deep snow, England's come to a complete standstill, radio advising everyone to stay at home unless they really have to go somewhere urgently.
I'm lucky enough to be able to work from home and as such, I decided earlier this morning to go out and take some pictures of this awesome snow.
These are just a few pics I took with my new camera until the batteries ran out. Just my road, completely covered in snow! YEY!

Absolutely divine!!!

2009-01-23T20:46:00.003Z

I am obsessed with this piece and this video... don't just listen - WATCH. Look at his hands, his fingers, how they move so flawlessly and seemingly barely touching the keys! I can't even believe it's humanly possible to play this piece and with such perfection and passion!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T14:35:00.003Z

Well, another year has passed and it is time to take a look back at this year and take stock of what 2008 has brought.

It didn't start under the best of circumstances, with my sweet uncle having just been diagnosed with a brain tumor which eventually took his life in February, a day before his 70th birthday. To say that this has been one of the hardest times in my life would be an understatement but, as with everything, it brought out many positives as well. Having doubted my decision to move back from the US to the UK previously, I was now so very thankful to be closer to my family, to be able to fly and see my uncle again a few times before he passed away and more importantly, to be able to help my auntie and spend tons of quality time with her which brought us so much closer than I ever thought possible. It showed me just how strong some people can be in the face of adversity and it never ceases to amaze me how hope and faith and love can heal every heart and soul.

On the job front, 2008 was also a revelation in many ways. Having taken a time-out from working after my return from the US, I eventually ran out of money and started applying for jobs.
The good news was that I had plenty of interviews, probably around 2 a day for about 3 to 4 weeks. In the end, I had two offers on the table - one from a local company in Woking called Fidessa and another from HP in Bracknell. The convenience of having found another job where I live plus the circumstances at the time made me choose Fidessa and turn down a much better offer from HP. Without going into any details, Fidessa turned out to be hell on earth from day one. I somehow seem to attract the psycho team leaders and managed to find one again at Fidessa. After 5 months I handed in my notice, reclaimed my sanity and brains and never looked back.
Through what I would like to think of as fate, I got in touch with one of the guys I had interviewed with at HP and because I had had such a great rapport with everyone there at the time, I applied for another job there, got it and have been part of a fabulous, multi-national, open-minded, fun, relaxed and enjoyable team for the past 4 months. Looking back at my time at Fidessa it still boggles my mind how I stuck it out for so long but if nothing else, I now know I can NEVER EVER work in a pure British work environment again. It drove me bloody crazy!

In other terms, 2008 was the year of spending and wasting money for me. Due to the fact that I was used to save my money so I could get to the US, suddenly that goal wasn't there anymore and I started spending everything I earned. Mainly on food (which usually got thrown away!!!!) but also on a ton of things I would normally never spend this much money on.

Still, 2009 is a year full of promise. It will be my year of budgeting, saving money and generally trying to get back to being a bit more money conscious again.
On my list of 'resolutions' for the new year are things like getting used to making meal plans, buying less food out (aka cantine at work), cooking more, eat more healthy, exercise some but more importantly for you, the 2 or so readers of this blog... I will update this blog on a regular basis from now on.
And also, *drum roll*, my 'A photo a day' blog is officially reopened. After a break of two years, I have decided that my brandnew Nikon D80 camera deserves to showcase its brilliance so I shall post a picture a day again :-)

Enough for now, I hope everyone's 2009 is going to be everything you wish for and my wish for this year is to hear from you in the form of comments on my blog entries!!!

Laters!

Twinkly lights...

2008-11-29T23:38:00.005Z

I volunteered at the Lightbox again today and after I was finished, I watched the annual cavalcade of illuminated boats floating on the Basingstoke Canal. They stopped in front of the Lightbox (which is right on the canal) and were watched by many, many people and some judges. I wish I could say which of the approximately 20 boats won but it was so damn cold, I legged it after about 5 minutes!
Here some pictures (Sorry the quality's not better but I only had my phone with me and it's not the best for taking pics!)

The announcement for the event on the Footbridge

The first boats floating in

The boats alligned and ready to be judged

The Lightbox

More views of the boats

Seen from the footbridge

The boats and the Lightbox in the background

People braving the cold and rain to watch

And after leaving the boats and the Lightbox behind, I took some more pictures of a festively decorated Woking town centre :-)

The Woking Borough Council Offices...

...the Ambassadors theatre and cinema...

...and last but not least - the Woking Christmas Tree...

... with the Peacocks Shopping Centre in the background.

Sushi!

2008-10-12T18:17:00.003+01:00

Following my sister's example, I decided to buy me some sushi ingredients and make some myself. Turns out it's dead cheap to buy all the stuff and fairly easy to make!
View the progress of my new adventure - from the very beginning to the end result (and rest assured, all the food is now safely ensconced in my belly because it was YUM!)

A request

2008-09-24T10:44:00.003+01:00

Please use the widget on the left hand side of my page (or this link EVERYCLICK) to help me raise some money for my choir. If you do searches online, you'll be able to use this search engine and help us out at the same time.

Thanks! :-)

The list goes on and on...

2008-07-18T18:32:00.004+01:00

Well, here I am again, as promised.
My team leader has come up with a few more swear words throughout this week. Yet I have to say that even though this week was supposed to be one of the more stressful ones, it wasn't too bad and thus his swearing wasn't as often as I'm used to. Nor did I have as much time on my hands to make sure I catch every single one of his frequent outbursts!
So for your enjoyment, I present: Swearing week 2! (oh and can I just point out that whilst this may seem incredibly funny, it is absolutely unbearable to sit next to EVERY DAY OF EVERY WEEK - I just do not understand how this type of person is tolerated in an entire team)

Swearing

2008-07-11T21:00:00.003+01:00

I suppose I ought to start with an apology for the fact that I've stayed away from this blog for such a long time and even when I do drop by, it's not as often as I'd like.
I do have a good reason though - I very much care about all of you who read my blog and don't want to drag you down with me. Because quite frankly, the only thing I can think of to write about right now is how much my life sucks and how much I hate my job.
Sounds familiar, doesn't it? What I did to deserve finding another job/company that evokes the same kind of misery that IBM did a year ago, I don't know.
Still, I'm trying to stay positive, hard as it may be.
However one thing I do want to share with you. It seems I am cursed. Cursed with the 'team leader from hell' curse.
Having left MRO support in the UK in 2006 I thought I'd never come across another idiot team leader ever again. So take a wild guess. I have.
Granted, this one isn't as terrible a human being as my old one was (incredible freak that he was) but he is equally detrimental to my health and daily well being.

I will not go into the exact depths of how incapable he is as a team leader - to me that's a given. I have yet to see a good one!!! But the fact that I have to sit next to him every single day at work is enough to make me want to jump off any cliff or high building that comes my way.
Sadly the open plan office in which I work is so open plan that there are NO partition walls. Meaning you can see and hear everything the people around you do and/or say. Which doesn't have to be such a bad thing with one exception. My team leader is the most negative person I've ever met. And without a doubt the most foul-mouthed one too!!! I barely come in and sit down at my desk and he starts swearing. But dear God, what KIND of swearing! It's so varied!!! He's using combinations I would've never thought of in my wildest nightmares!
So to make the nightmare of someone like that seem at least a bit more fun, I've decided to compile a spreadsheet and keep track of his swearwords throughout the day.
Unfortunately what with work and actually doing something all day, I might miss out on some of his outbursts. But I will present you with the results from time to time. Just to give you an idea of what I have to put up with.

This is just one day's worth of swearing. And it's during a week that he wasn't all too stressed. Next week will be MUCH better. I'll keep you updated!

Oh and I did forget to mention how disgusting he is, too. Because multiple times a day, he picks his nose, then looks at whatever he's found and tries to discreetly get rid of it. Then he does the same with his ears. I shudder just thinking about it. And then he tends to want to touch my keyboard and mouse when I need help. UUUUUUGHHHH. Disgusting. Utterly and totally and unacceptably disgusting.
More spreadsheet joy to follow next week. And maybe some pictures too ;-) Just to keep postivie here!

Forever etched in my memory

2008-05-08T22:05:00.002+01:00

There is this record label called 'Varese Sarabande'. I found out about it on the internet via a group I had joined on Facebook. A group of fans of the mini-series North and South. It was there that I realized that one of my 'wildest' fantasies had finally come true.
Everyone who knew me in my teenage years knew of my obsession with North and South. I guess in a way it was the beginning of my intense love relationship with TV.
And when I say obsession, I MEAN obsession.
- I used to wake up 90 minutes earlier than usual every morning so I could watch an episode (a 90 minute episode) of N&S before I went to school.
- I begged my parents to give me my weekly allowance in advance so I could buy VCR tapes so I could tape it when it was rerun on German TV.
- I WROTE DOWN entire scenes and memorized them, and in an ultimate attempt to protect myself from bullies at school, I wrote down the entire spoken introduction to the series on a piece of paper which I had carefully folded and held on to so many times when I simply felt the need to feel strong and brave. In my head, feeling this strongly about N&S actually made me feel incredibly powerful and all jokes and evil remarks simply vanished so long as I could recite those words and hold on to that piece of paper. When the paper eventually wore out, I'd carefully write a new one again, exactly the same as the previous one.
- I even went as far as to collect every teeny tiny scrap of paper from magazines that had a picture or even just the name of the series on it, carrying it with me at school and looking through them when I was bored or sad or just needed to smile. A complete hysterical breakdown happened when one of my teachers (can't remember her name but Lord, did I HATE her) demanded all those clippings from me and instead of telling her where to shove it, I stupidly gave them to her and broke down crying, knowing I'd never see any of them again. And I didn't.
So, well... I guess that's quite a bit of an insight into my soul now but you have to understand that in order to understand what follows.

Because Varese Sarabande have actually released a limited edition COMPLETE soundtrack of Bill Conti's North and South soundtrack.
Let me explain.
There already was a CD out with about 10 songs in total from two different series, N&S being one of them. The scores for both series is written by the incredible genius Bill Conti who I completely and utterly worship. On this CD though, there was only space for 5 or 6 of the 'theme songs' from N&S.
This new compilation is EVERYTHING!!!!!
Try to imagine... N&S is a mini-series which consists of 12 episodes at 90 minutes each (and don't get technical with me if you know N&S, the 3rd book just simply doesn't count, that's how rubbish it is!!!!). Now try to imagine the sheer amount of music that had to be composed for that entire length. And yes, of course there were scenes that didn't have background music but they really weren't all that many.
I suppose to be able to understand my excitement you would also have had to have watched this piece of amazing television. Because not only is the story great and the settings beautiful and the actors absolutely faultless, it is the music that carries the whole thing to a completely different level.

And I am now sitting here listening to literally every tiny little melody that was used in this series and I can actually SEE it develop in front of my eyes. Without having to look at a single scene. I can hear the voices, I can see the expressions on people's faces, I see entire scenes as they play out - just by listening to a piece of music. This entire series is etched into my memory so deeply that I could probably never watch it again and still 'see' it by just listening to these 4 CDs of uninterrupted magic.
I could honestly go into such detail here and tell you about each individual little song and how it works on the scenes and what it does but that would take it way too far LOL
But there are many "Oh I wish I could" moments in my life - this is the one that's finally worked out for me. And my happiness truly knows no bounds! :-D

Miles and miles

2008-04-21T23:07:00.002+01:00

I am so proud of myself - I've bought a new bike (Billy IV) and have been riding it to and from work every day (including this morning in the bloody rain!!!!)
But on top of that, I left the stupid car at home tonight too and cycled to choir rehearsal and back! YEY! That's basically a total of 7 cycled miles for me today!!!!!! (5 miles to and from choir, 2 to and from work).
Proud or not though... my butt HURTS!!!

Here's the trip to choir so you can get an idea (I took the long way because I cycled with a friend and she knew the way and it was less dangerous roads!!!)

Rather funny

2008-04-08T22:21:00.000+01:00

So here I am in a new job (where pretty much everything about it feels wrong) and the two sources of comfort I have are:

A view out of the window, looking onto my old company's building *sigh*
Posters of David Hasselhoff all over the office. Whereas everyone sees it (and him) as a complete joke, he actually makes me smile. I'll daresay, if I ever reveal my Hasselhoff past to these 22-year olds, I will be burnt at the stake or something similar! LOL

Ahm... HELLO????

2008-04-06T12:07:00.003+01:00

I'm a bit confused... two days ago we had 17C, sign of summer approaching, surely???

Guess I was wrong... I woke up to this view out of my window (note the ICE on the road!)

Comply Or Die

2008-04-05T17:15:00.003+01:00

Far be it for me to bet on anything... ever. But boy, am I glad I did this time!
Tipped off by a colleague at work, I went ahead and (after a few hours of familiarising myself with the site) signed up for a betting site in order to bet on one of the horses that would win this year's Grand National.
The incentive of signing up with that particular site was that you got more money back than you invested, whether you won or not. Winning, of course, being the icing on the cake.
So I am very glad to report that after betting 30 pounds on three different horses, I won a total of 200 pounds because one of them (Comply Or Die) was the actual winner!!!!!!!! (another one of them came in third, too!!!)
Not bad for a few hours' work, wouldn't you say??? ;-)

Now... what shall I do with all that lovely money??? LOLOLOL

Done

2008-03-28T18:47:00.002Z

This is really just a quick one, to explain myself a bit, I guess.
Things aren't exactly rosy for me right now and I'm really fed up with everything. Most of all with my inability to learn from past mistakes and make the same ones over and over again. I keep forgetting that the only person I can rely on is myself.
So to keep this short, as promised - I'm switching my mobile phone off for the time being. Same goes for my home phone. Nor do I intend to write or reply to emails much.
I just really, really need a break. To try to focus on who really matters (I DO) and maybe get the hang of how to deal with being completely and utterly overwhelmed by a lot of things.
I shall try to update this blog once in while so you know I'm not dead but really, it's time for me to take a break.
Peace.

A spectacular book

2008-03-13T21:28:00.002Z

Whilst I am an avid reader and can, at times, read up to five books a week (yes, that was my record a few years back), I VERY rarely find books that leave me spent, deliriously happy, teary-eyed, exhilarated, shaking and smiling all at the same time.
In fact, I'm not sure I remember any book doing all the above mentioned things to me. Before this one. "A place called here" by Cecelia Ahern.

I spend a LOT of time in libraries. Always have. And I have an affinity for chick-lit and (auto) biographies. When it comes to the chick-lit genre I choose books by their cover. As ridiculous as this may sound, a bright, colorful, shiny cover indicates to me that this a book that won't be serious, won't be about something that happened in real life, won't include stuff that will make me even more morose when I'm actually trying to relax. So the colored covers always win. They jump out at me and usually, after reading the summary of the story on their back, I pick them up, take them home and read them.
Most of the time, I read them very, very quickly since they're really easy to "digest" and that's how I sometimes end up reading a book deep into the night just for the sake of finishing it. Because most of the time, I don't find the book all that good or the writing all that compelling. At that point I would just get deep enough into the story to want to know how it ends. So I finish it. Mostly I'm disappointed by the ending, sometimes I think it was a nice book and very rarely, I actually skim the pages to the end just so I can pick up vital bits of information that help me understand the ending chapters.
So, to summarize - finding a book that is DIFFERENT and actually makes me WANT to inhale every word written in it is ridiculously rare.
I picked up "A place called here" because it had a pink cover and because it had Cecelia Ahern's name on it. I had read a few of her previous books but I couldn't actually tell you what they were about so they can't have impressed me that much. Still, I took it and started it yesterday evening.
The concept started out to be completely different from all other books I had read. The main character (and don't worry, I won't give too much away so as to not spoil it for you), is this woman who is obsessed with finding things and finding people that disappear. The way the book is written is so very clever. Partly written in first person, you go through the story alongside her, seeing it all happen through her eyes and remembering the past through her memories. And then it's also written in the third person, following another character who, through his brief contact with her character, follows his own storyline but also leads hers into center stage.

I was a bit confused at first, not quite understanding what was going on (which is why I didn't read it to the end last night) but as I turned the pages, the mystery of what was happening to her just gripped me. I woke up earlier than my alarm clock was supposed to this morning and decided to spend the extra awake hour reading before going to work (yes, I have a new job - more about that at some other point, in another post). And that's where it got really good. Really interesting. But I only had that one hour.
I set off for work, packed the book, planning to take it with me to Subways in my lunchbreak, so I could have a sub and some peace and quiet to continue reading.
It is so very rare when you come across something that gives you such pleasure just to think about it. You know the kind of pleasure that makes you think you feel like a kid on Christmas Eve, giddy with excitement. This book did just that. The morning flew by (faster than usual at work, which is dreadfully boring) and at 1pm on the dot, I got up, took my bag and off to Subways. I spent my lunch hour continuing to read, revelling at the twists and turns in the story, at the way my heartrate increased at certain passages. I reluctantly returned to work but was wearing a smile on my face that I hadn't worn in a long time. To know that I still had something like half a book of that fantastic material to read, I couldn't wait to get home and finish it! And in fact, not just finish it, but read every single word in it!
For the past few hours I have sat in my favorite, supercomfy chair and I've read through the book, word for word, page by page. Particularly towards the end I couldn't stop waves of goosebumps making their way all over my body, it was so absolutely incredible.
I guess part of this reaction comes from the fact that I didn't expect it to be this good and that it's really so out of the ordinary from anything anyone has ever written about.
I'm amazed at the thought proccess behind this, at the way this story unfolds, at the way it is told, the way the characters are written so beautifully different from all others I have ever encountered in books.
As for chick-lit... not so much. No usual male/female relationship stuff going on in there, the basis of all chick-lit novels, I find. Quite the opposite, this is a very egocentric tale about one person's obsessions and how they accompany her life and where they lead her. So in a way, maybe it could be a science fiction novel but even that wouldn't be right.
I guess it is what it is, in the end. A spectacular book that will most certainly take pride of place in my collection of books, a book that I will continue to recommend to everyone I know, including YOU because it is a must read!!!!!

Superfunny!

2008-02-29T00:21:00.003Z

You have got to watch these videos - and read the stories that go with them. Don't you love creative people????

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PupR5V9aE2s

http://improveverywhere.com/2006/04/23/best-buy/

http://improveverywhere.com/2008/01/31/frozen-grand-central/

Random thoughts

2008-02-20T20:34:00.002Z

... if you care for me to elaborate on any of those, please feel free to comment and ask. I shall reply in more detail.

1. Saba sucks.
2. Harley Jane Kozak is hilarious (as a person, not just author)!
3. How lucky am I to live in a world where applying for a job is not an issue for women anymore!
4. Not having money is a bummer.
5. Working in Woking would be cooooooooool.
6. LOVE Rutter's Magnificat!
7. Miss my Nashua choir and specifically my conductor there, Diane :-(
8. To bother cleaning and unpack properly or wait until I move out?
9. iWoz is really funny!
10. Krispy Kreme never gets old! YUMMY!!!

Jobhunting...

2008-01-29T17:13:00.001Z

Well, it has been a while since I posted in here. Sorry but I honestly did not feel much up to it and in fact, still don't.
However, since my head is about to burst of I don't turn it off, I thought I'd do something easy going and this blog came to mind.

Why is my head bursting? I suppose for good reasons really - I have finally attacked the job market, uploading my CV to about 10 or 11 websites on Sunday. I have been on the phone pretty much all the time since Monday morning. Talking to recruiting agencies and recruiters, having phone interviews and setting up in-person interviews.
And whilst I'm glad so many see the potential in placing me for all kinds of jobs, I'm completely overwhelmed at the moment. I can barely tell one agency from the other and am flying by the seat of my pants when it comes to interviews.
It is a bit annoying really. Here I am, with all this experience of 7 years in IT under my belt but having to prove myself all over again for each and every interview. It gets so damn tiring and exhausting! Still, I shouldn't complain I guess... so long as some kind of job comes out of this, I shall keep on going.
I've had two phone interviews so far and I'll have an in-person interview each day until Friday. You know, the whole dressing up and playing pretend thing. Hate it! Still, let's keep the fingers crossed that something will come up that not only pays well, but is also fun and interesting. Not holding my breath though (yeah, so I've been burned before and it's turned me negative - sue me!)

I'll try to update this more often from now on but won't make any promises. Am all "worded out" at the moment.

Happy (?) New Year

2007-12-31T13:06:00.000Z

Well, I guess considering that today's the last day of 2007 I should do a little summary of this year here but I honestly don't feel like it right now. It's been an interesting one obviously, what with my move back to the UK and being able to not work for a few months and live off my savings.
But it doesn't end on the best note, nor does the new year start on a good one either.

I'll make it brief because the more I think about it, the more it hurts and I can't control myself all too well and end up crying all the time - but the basic gist of my misery is the fact that one of my uncles has been diagnosed with a brain tumor about three weeks ago and he's going to die very soon. Even at the best of times, I'm an incredibly emotional person. For crying out loud, I can't mention Beethoven's 9th without welling up or my throat seizing up - dealing with death (and this particular horrendous kind of slow death) pretty much brings me to the very limit.

I went to visit him in the hospital yesterday and whilst he's currently stable and not in any pain, my heart just ached for him. He was still my sweet uncle lying there - it didn't seem fair to think of him being gone. He sleeps most of the day and is too exhausted to keep his eyes open or talk more than a few words. He still has his good old sense of humor though - every now and then he'll make a joke that almost makes you feel like nothing's wrong.
I don't want him to die but at the same time I know he wants to and I would wish for him to die peacefully in his sleep. I'll be back in Germany in about 10 days or so but I just don't know if he can hang in there this long (provided he even wants to). I don't wish this on anybody - it's heartbreaking.

So, with that said, considering the circumstances, I still hope for a good 2008, wish you all the best for the new year and hope that it brings you health, happiness and everything you wish for.

Trip to Lisbon - Day 2

2007-11-22T00:06:00.000Z

I slept quite badly last night - comes from being in the crappiest room in this entire hotel, I'm sure. My room is at the very end and right next to... well, I wish I knew what the hell it is that makes all that incredible noise but it sure as hell is loud! I woke up intermittently during the night, partly because of that stupid machine noise, and partly because of the sound my bed sheets make (they have a second layer of plastic so it makes rustling/swishy sounds everytime you move). Good grief! (For tonight I've simply removed the damn sheet since there's another one on top of it anyway).
I got up, had a shower and went downstairs for the included breakfast. Not too impressive but ok enough.
I set off to the old Expo 98 site again - after last night's trip I really wanted to see it in broad daylight. What can I say, maybe it's just me but that entire place has the feeling of an Expo. And don't ask me to explain that cause I can't. It just is that way. Just like it was in Montreal too. Very cool.

Anyway - only brief explanations as I upload the pics because I'm dead tired and have got another 8 hour walking around day tomorrow! And Friday! And half of Saturday! Enjoy! :-)

The Vasco Da Gama shopping centre - not much to shop for in there though!

View of the entrance to the Oriente train/metro station

Fish in the Tagus river (well actually in the water lake between the Portuguese Pavilion and the Ocenarium)

Boardwalk along the river Tagus

I couldn't not take these pictures - the mom wanted to take pics of her girls and they were so cute together I decided to take some too :-)

The entire Expo site is full with these seats... not too comfortable but so very, very cute!

Views of the Vasco Da Gama tower (which was sadly closed for construction or I would've gotten some stunning pics!!!), the Vasco Da Gama bridge and the cable car. The clouds really were that dark, it kinda rained for a few minutes in between rays of sunshine but only for a few minutes.

Same as above only with the lighting from a lovely sunset (see the river moving out? It started smelling really bad at that point LOL)

The Ocenarium in Lisbon - I thought of going in but was too knackered in the end. Plus I'm really not that keen on most animals so it would've possibly been a waste of time. Maybe I'll change my mind in the next few days.

Interesting looking building around the Expo site - can you say COLOR??? They look much cooler in real life than on these pics, by the way.

This is the Expo 98 mascot, Gil, at the north entrance. He's so cute, isn't he??? :-)

One of the funky fountains along the site...

The Atlantico Pavilion - a big indoor multi-purpose arena.

View on the Atlantico Pavilion and the walk of flags from the cable car.

Another view from the cable car, this time the boardwalk and on the right, a bit of the Ocenarium.

I've no idea which of the gardens this was in, but I found that giraffe hilarious!

I went into the Knowledge Pavilion, too (waste of money unless you're a loud, noisy, annoying kid!) and took this pic of some exhibit there.

Just some of the flags on the walk of flags ( I call it that cause I've no idea if there's a name for it LOL)

A lovely sunset over the Parques des Nacoes (aka old Expo 98 site) - what a day!

Ok, it's 1am now - time for bed! Night night!

Trip to Lisbon - Day 1

2007-11-20T21:21:00.000Z

Well, I did not come back to Europe in vain, that much is clear. One of the main reasons for coming back was the simple fact that I realized how little I had seen of Europe in my 30 years of living here.
So here I am, about 7 weeks after getting back from the US - and I'm sticking to my word. I have booked myself on a short 5 day trip to Lisbon, Portugal.

I'm way too tired to write anything, besides, I really don't have that much to say yet. From what I've seen so far (in the dark and from the air) Lisbon is a total knockout city. I can't wait to run my feet ragged for the next few days.

I only spent a few hours on the old Expo 98 site here in Lisbon but it was fab! The weather, though it looked like it would be nasty, seemed to have gone (for the day at least) so I didn't have to put up with rain! YEY! Granted, all pics I took and all filming did happen while it was dark outside but I shall return for more later! Until then, enjoy the first day pics!

Flying over northern Spain/Portugal with beautiful mountains peeking through the clouds!

I had to get a shot of these windmills (and film them too, as a matter of fact) - they looked too cool!

Looks nasty, doesn't it? The looming dark clouds over Lisbon - thankfully there was no rain when I got ready to go sightseeing a few hours later!

The ex-Expo 98 site and the Vasco Da Gama shopping centre at its entrance. Looks MUCH more imposing than in this picture!!!

Still at the Expo site - part of the Oriente train station

And this is some tower close to the Vasco Da Gama bridge but I can't by the life of me remember what it was called - I will get more info tomorrow. And a better picture! LOL

That's all folks! Goodnight! :-)

SO cool

2007-11-13T10:15:00.000Z

Click on this and play away! :-)

Sick as a dog

2007-10-15T15:45:00.000+01:00

Tons of things to tell and write about but zero energy. Have come down with the flu/cold/whatever you want to call it. Fever, headaches, runny nose and plenty of sore throat and coughing fits. Oh, the fun of it all.
I shall be back to my normal (bigmouthed) self in a few days when I will update everything here.

Sorry if I haven't replied to emails and stuff, I'm just literally not very with it at the moment. Soon as the fog lifts, I'll reply. Promise! :-)

Baaaaaaaack!

2007-10-04T15:03:00.000+01:00

A quick update for everyone...

I got back to the UK ok. The flights weren't all that great (meaning the food on Aer Lingus was disgusting and the entertainment pathetic) but I made it in one piece. I stayed up for a total of about 38 hours and slept through last night for 14 hours (on Caroline's AWESOME mattress which is foam something and shapes to your body!!!) I was dead tired. Still am a little but I'm feeling quite good overall.

I'll be moving in with my sis for the next few weeks, help her get her new apartment and all other stuff settled and just generally laze around and do nothing. Well, that's the plan anyway.
Turns out I can't get an apartment until I have a job or until I pay 6 months rent in advance. I guess I could do that financially but to be honest I'd rather not. So we'll see, I'll decide when I've got a clearer head and my brain's not fogged by jetlag.

So much for now - I'll update more in a fe days :-)

One more night

2007-09-30T02:58:00.000+01:00

Wow... hard to believe this is my last night in my apartment in Nashua.
At this point I honestly thought I'd start to get all misty-eyed and melancholic (as I tend to do when a particular part of my life is over). Turns out it's not happening!
I spent the day getting rid of my bed and my dining table + chairs and had a wonderful friend over who pretty much cleared everything out that I had left over and didn't need anymore, as well as pretty much cleaning everything in the apartment for me!!!
All that's left for me to do is clean the bathroom, do a bit vacuuming, pack all that's left into the car and hand over the keys tomorrow!
I can't even begin to say how thankful I am to her for all her help, she really has taken such great care of me since I got here.
I'm heading to Portsmouth, NH tomorrow for the last concert of the mini-tour with the choir and then I'll go and stay with her and her family for my last two days in the US.
I know choir tomorrow will be very emotional but I am very much prepared for it and it won't come as a surprise. However, not getting the least bit upset about leaving here is still sort of weird to me. I guess it just means it hasn't made that much of an impression on me? I don't get it. Maybe IBM really took over my life for the entire time that I was here and just screwed everything up alongside of it. It very much seems that way.
I did get a bit choked up when I went to the library for the last time this morning. They had a library book sale and I just couldn't resist. Nevermind the fact that my luggage as it is weighs a total of about 130 pounds, if not more (I am NOT kidding). Much as I wanted to just pick "one book for reading on the plane", I ended up buying seven. Go figure. As I dropped off the last books I had borrowed I did get a little sad to leave that wonderful library behind. Without a doubt, Nashua Public Library is the best library I've ever been a member of. So many amazing books, always up to date with everything, tons of new releases and the most incredible media library I've ever seen. And ALL of it for FREE!!! Such a wonderful, wonderful institution! I will really miss it very much.
I shall try to update this blog in the next two days but it is unlikely. I'm off to the UK on Tuesday night, flying with Aer Lingus via Dublin to London. I hope they have decent food and good entertainment on board. If all else fails, I've got my trusty iPod which will keep me good company :-)
Off to sleep on my airbed now - just like when I got here! LOL
Byyyeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I LOVE the internet!!!

2007-09-28T01:23:00.000+01:00

I can't even begin to count the amount of times I thought "Thank heavens for the internet". It seems to be there at every corner, available to help with whatever questions I might have. I truly can't imagine having to go back to living without it!

Best example - I've been cleaning my oven today. And just so you understand, I didn't actually do it. The oven did. Because it's one of those self-cleaning ovens apparently. Before I got to the US I'd never heard of them but they're standard here.
So what happens is you take the racks out of the oven, set it to CLEAN, set the timer and then pull a lever into the "clean" position. Normally it's on the "cooking" position but when you clean you just move it to the right. So I did.
The oven then starts to heat up and apparently gets REALLY hot, so hot that it burns all the dirt inside. Once the process is done, you're supposed to turn the CLEAN setting off and then turn that lever left, back to the "cooking" position.

Well, guess what - mine wouldn't do it. Pull to the left, that is. If pulled halfway through and then stopped. I pulled harder, tried to open the oven door - nothing.
My only solution (since I had no instruction manual for the damn thing) - google it!
And lo and behold - there it was, the solution to my problem. Of course someone else had encountered it and the solution was very simple. Turns out the oven remains locked until the temperature inside has cooled down to an acceptable temperature so you won't have a wall of hot air gush out when you open the oven. Another 30 minutes later I heard a loud clang and went to inspect my oven - the lever was in the "cooking" position and I was able to open the oven door! SUCCESS!!!!

I seriously would've had to call the maintenance guys tomorrow if I hadn't googled it - I LOVE THE INTERNET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One week to go

2007-09-26T04:04:00.000+01:00

Well, more goodbyes have been said - time is ticking, it's only 7 more days until I hop on a plane back to the UK.

Last night's choir rehearsal was was very cute in the beginning when Diane started the warm up and was wearing this t-shirt that said "Life is goog!" (which is hilarious to me because one of the voice exercises we do is sing C-E-G-C up and down and then as scales on the word GOOG and the t-shirt stand for exactly that! LOL). I managed to tape everyone doing this exercise but stupidly taped over it today. I headed over to Burlington Mall in the afternoon and had a t-shirt made just like hers. It rocks!
Anyway, throughout the evening people came over and told me how they'd miss me and how nice it was to have me in the choir. After rehearsal some of us went to the 99 restaurant and just had some food and drinks and chatted away at my farewell "party". It was really sweet - I mean, I only joined the choir a year ago. I felt so special that all these people made the effort to come out and wish me good luck. I got a signed menu card at the end, where everyone that was present at the restaurant wrote a few words - I will treasure it forever! (and yes, I chose to not read it while everyone was around because, yes, of course, I started blubbering like an idiot and couldn't stop until I got home).
The good thing is I have two more concerts left with them so the real heartbreaking part will come Sunday when I REALLY say goodbye to everyone. Heaven help me.

Today I said goodbye to another set of people - a bunch of girls I worked with and used to go out with for lunch sometimes (and one guy but he really is one of the girls cause he's way too nice to be a guy!!!). We did lunch for the last time today and it was somewhat bittersweet. I can't say I feel the same pain over people at work as I do with the choir (beats me why! I spent way more time with the work guys after all!). In a way I think it doesn't hurt so much cause I know I will see them all again very soon. When I left the UK, I was certain I wouldn't ever be back.

And then tonight I met up with my cake decorating teacher (she's in her late twenties so don't got picturing an old biddy) and some other girls I met in class and we went to the Outback and had food and talked and laughed and I had my very last "Chocolate thunder from down under" desert. Heaven on earth, honestly! It was hard to say goodbye to them too even though again, I've not exactly spent hours on end with them but we've managed to establish such an easy rapport in the short time we've known eachother. Again, I fully expect to be back soon so it will probably be like we've never been apart.

I've got lunches/dinners planned for the rest of my stay here so it should keep me busy. In the meantime I made the mistake of walking into a Borders bookstore today and walking out with two new books. As if my suitcases weren't already bursting! To be fair though, I wanted to buy four books so ending up with two is still something to be proud of.
I am dreading Saturday though - Nashua library has another one of their AWESOME book sales and I am SO going to be there! I don't care HOW heavy that makes my suitcase! LOL If I see something I want, I will buy it!

Alrighty... time to go to bed. More in the days to come :-)

One worry off my mind

2007-09-24T22:02:00.000+01:00

It's Monday and the worst part of the day (and the entire move) is over.
Two Gentle Giant guys came over this morning around 9am and started packing up all the stuff I'd set aside for shipping. They were a cool duo, joking around and having fun, I spent most of the hour talking to them while they were packing. One of them was even Romanian - that was so spooky! After about one and a half hours they were done, packed it all up nicely and moved it into the van. They were maybe 20 boxes in total, not bad for a year's worth of living LOL
Now my apartment is almost completely empty - I've only got the bed (which will be picked up Saturday) and the dining table with 4 chairs (will be picked up or delivered sometime during the week) and then that's pretty much it. Bits and pieces here and there but nothing major anymore. Just clean up, close up and fly out! YEY!

I've choir rehearsal in an hour or so and then they are throwing me a little goodbye party afterwards. Oh boy... I can feel the waterworks coming on already!!!
More later!

A lot of lasts

2007-09-23T02:07:00.000+01:00

Well, it is inevitable that at this point in my decision to go back to the UK I'd have to face goodbyes and a lot of lasts.
Like this morning, the last time I've had breakfast at the IHOP and the last time I had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, on Tuesday the last time I've had an ice skating lesson with my awesome teacher Christina and the last time I've gone to a cake decorating class and fought with the icing to try and make royal icing flowers. It's starting to build up now and it's not exactly surprising but whilst I've been very conscious of not feeling all that sad so far, last night suddenly brought everything into perspective.
The Nashua choir has managed to secure a grant which allowed us to do a little mini-tour through New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Out of 4 performances, we did the first one last night, at Keene College and we did quite well.
The killer came though when we were all together in a room before the performance and Diane gave us our usual pep talk and told us how wonderful we sound and to go out there and have fun (I LOVE HER!!!!!!!) and then she looked at me and started saying how wonderful it was to have me with them and that this will be the last few concerts we'll get to sing together. At that moment I could feel the lump in my throat and tears welled up and I knew if she didn't stop I'd start crying so I (somewhat rudely) held up my hand and told her to stop and please not do that because I really couldn't have coped with it so shortly before the performance. I think she got the picture and she did stop but suddenly it made everything seem so real.
I managed to concentrate on the upcoming performance but now that I've gone through a whirlwind day of breakfasting with my closest friends from work and lunching with another friend (also from work) I'm sitting here in my fairly empty apartment, thinking that I am going to have a MAJOR crying session come September 30th, at the end of my very last concert with the Nashua choir.
Oh God, just remembering saying goodbye to my Woking choir not quite 15 months ago makes me wanna scream. I don't think I remember ever hurting so badly in my life. Then, just like now, it had taken less than a year to fall in love with those people and the music we made together.
And now I'm going back to Woking, to my old choir but I'm leaving this one behind and I wish there was some way I could still be part of them too because it just breaks my heart to be without them.
Obviously, goodbyes are part of life but I'll be damned if I don't leave a piece of my soul behind everytime I leave some place. I guess it would be a good idea to stop moving around like some gypsy on speed. I just might have an intact soul at the end of my life...

Surprising read

2007-09-20T04:57:00.001+01:00

So I've been spending most of my free time in the past few weeks reading books. A LOT of them. Since I packed all of them up in boxes to be shipped and I realized they're taking one heck of a lot of space, I thought to myself I ought to at least read some to see if they're even worth having them shipped over.

As I finished one book a few minutes ago and picked out another one I had bought at some library sale or other, I opened it and almost skipped the front page and the handwriting on it. Had it not been for my name jumping out at me. I looked at the cover of the book again - did I remember being given this by someone? Did I forget? I looked at the handwriting... it says "To Maky". Hmmm.... confused. I search my mind again but nothing happens. I look closer - AHA!!!! Maky suddenly turns into Mary.
See for yourself, it could've easily been my name.
On a sidenote - the book is called "Rex and the city" and is written by Lee Harrington ;)

Huh!

2007-09-19T04:54:00.000+01:00

So here is me thinking the uphieval of moving YET AGAIN to another continent is a pain in the ass and I wish I were finally settled SOMEWHERE, when a friend simply tells me "You're lucky to have the freedom to do all this 'searching'".
Point taken! Attitude adjustment in progress! :-)

Useless

2007-09-16T03:02:00.000+01:00

Well as things go, instead of working on my uni project, my thoughts drifted to things that showed just how deseprate I am to avoid finishing this stupid degree.

Still, shockingly enough I realized that I was pretty much useless as a person.
Let me correct that - useless as a person who doesn't live in a time where computers and technology are as important and omnipresent as today.

So try to follow my train of thought here... pretend with me that something like a nuclear war or something else altogether eradicates most of humanity (personally, I don't see this as a bad thing at all!). Of course I survive. And maybe some other poor souls who are stuck with me. And then continue to imagine that there is no internet, no computers that could in any way be useful, no phones, no technology. Basically, there's nothing left at which I am good or where I can prove useful.

A list of things I can't do (but would desperately need to in above situation):
- build shelter (involves using mathematical brain and other knowledge to make a good, long-lasting shelter - I don't have either)
- make a fire (when was the last time I tried to rub two stones together... ahm... oh yeah, NEVER!)
- somehow get food (from probably picking the poisonous mushrooms, to not having a clue how to fish or hunt, to being totally grossed out if I ever had to cut an animal open - I would have to depend on picking fruit/veggies where I'd be sure of what they were. Very unlikely in an extreme situation)
- defend myself or others (even if there were guns/weapons around, I do not ever see myself being able to use either in order to protect myself or others. I'm just chicken like that. I suppose I could always scream at the top of my lungs which might deafen the enemy...)

And there's more. I don't know how to paint a house, I don't know how to do anything electrical, I don't know anything about mechanical things like cars and other means of travel, I'm not good with animals (aka horses, cows and the likes), the list truly does go on and on.

So you see, make sure when the end of the world is approaching, don't be anywhere near me. All I'd end up being good for is eating me and even then, I'm sure I wouldn't taste that good - I'm mainly made of pure fat. You've been warned.

Not much to say

2007-09-15T05:28:00.000+01:00

I just thought I'd come here to let you know that for a change, there's not much to tell! LOL So there...
I have a headache, I slept 4 hours this afternoon (explaining why I'm still up at almost 1am) and I ate lots of spaghetti with tomato sauce and gouda cheese. And ice cream with hot fudge. Doesn't get anymore boring than that!

17 days till I return to the UK - yiiipiiee!!!

You've gotta be kidding me!!!!!

2007-09-13T14:18:00.000+01:00

Is this some kind of stupid joke??? WTF???

New directive may limit musical 'noise'

Blast from the past

2007-09-09T03:43:00.000+01:00

Ha... most of you know I am a HUGE Santa Barbara fan. Just LOVE that show to pieces! Well, I joined a SB chat tonight just for the sake of chatting with others who have such fond memories of that awesome soap.
And guess who turns up as a surprise guest? A Martinez aka Cruz Castillo in SB! What a nice guy, we chatted with about 10 others for almost two hours :-) This just put the biggest smile on my face! :-D Life is good!

Luxury

2007-09-08T04:36:00.000+01:00

Oh boy... I've just realized that I've grown to be very spoiled over here. At least in the car department (I'm guessing going back to teeny tiny apartments won't be easy either).
Just on a whim I decided to do a search for cars in Germany, see what I could get over there for the few savings I'll have once I get back to Europe. Turns out, not a lot! Makes me ache for my Cory which is such a good car... why, a 2003 Toyota Corolla over there is, first of all SMALL (aka only two doors, instead of four) and costs almost twice as much! Granted, a lot less mileage on it than my Cory but still!!!! And then of course, there's the fact that I refuse to ever drive a stick again. Automatic or nothing. I'm dreading going back to the UK and having to use that crappy non-automatic Ford again until I can get something better. UGH. I actually think that's my biggest problem - find a decent automatic car that's not too expensive. Not an easy feat in Germany... *sigh*

Back

2007-09-07T13:40:00.000+01:00

Well, I'm back from Canada. Without writing too much about it, turns out I needn't have bothered going over the border. They never removed my I-94 white slip of paper and replaced it with a green one for visitors. Apparently (after conferring with eachother for about 5 minutes), they decided it wasn't necessary and I'd have some kind of grace period. Wish I'd gotten that in writing though. Someone's word won't do me any good once I try to get back to the US in the future and they pull me over at Immigration. Oh well, I'll deal with that when the time comes.

The trip was fairly uneventful, I made it up to Montreal in about four and a half hours which was cool. Beautiful drive too, up I-89 through NH and VT. Even though I'm missing out on the real foliage changes, some trees already had hues of reds and yellows - I can only imagine what that will be like in a month.

Once in Montreal I seeked out the old Expo 67 site - not much left there apart from the US pavilion which is now a museum, but MAN, is it cool!!!! The entire structure is totally awe-inspiring. I just sat there looking at it for something like 15 minutes. I couldn't get enough.
Here are some pictures of it - it's now called the "Biosphere". Back in 67, there were some plexiglas panels in the structure but apparently it burned down some years ago. The structure however remains.

Also there, this little birdie came very close to me and I had to take a few pics of it (thankfully it didn't come too close or I'd've been a goner)

And then there was this little guy who didn't seem too disturbed by people either. Guess they're used to them by now.

Oh and then there was this building complex, also part of what was built back in 67 called Habitat67. It looks so weird, honestly. But have a look yourself - people actually live there and apparently it's fantastic!

I was going to go into downtown Montreal but I got lost and couldn't be bothered to drive around any longer so I just turned around and got back onto the highway going south. It took me a lot longer this time but I did have to stop for gas, Taco Bell and Ben & Jerry's factory visit. Yum, yum ice cream!!!! :-)

Oh and did I mention - I'm FREEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. for today

2007-09-06T02:12:00.000+01:00

OMG, does anyone remember this???? (apart from Ally, obviously!)
I love this dance soooooooooo much! God, I wish I was fit enough to dance it again. Sis, we'll have to get in shape and dance again sometime soon. It gets awfully boring just on my own LOL

FREEDOM!!!!!!!

2007-09-06T00:07:00.000+01:00

Well, it is FINALLY here... the LAST DAY AT IBM!!!! Oh the many daydreams I've had about this day. This was way better!

Apart from still having to do a ton of stuff all at the very last minute (how else could it be) the day was quite frankly wonderful. The first half of the day I spent working (shocking!!!), then I went to lunch with my old manager which was great fun and then I tried (but failed) to completely format my Stinkpad (for the uninitiated - IBM Thinkpad, my work laptop). After realizing one cannot format the C drive without a Windows CD, I started uninstalling pretty much everything on there, just to make it unusable. Then I started it in safe mode and started deleting all I could get away with on the C Drive. There is nothing left on there now that would be easy to recover. Did you know that you can't just go and delete the entire registry??? That's so weird.. I was hoping I could delete the registry too but I guess that didn't happen either. Sorry, got sidetracked into techie mode here...

Once done with that, I brought my Stinkpad to the replacement for my manager (she wasn't in the office today but it needed to be given to someone to lock up - beware the terrible IBM thieves!!!) and that was that, as they say.
It was 3pm when I started doing my "rounds". Three floors of people I needed/wanted to say goodbye to. I planned to be out by 4. At 5.30 I finally left!!! But oh, how much fun that was. To be able to walk to everyone with a big, fat grin on my face knowing I'm finally happy. As opposed to running around, feeling aggravated about everything under the sun and exchanging complaints left, right and center. Bliss!!!
I feel terribly sorry for some of those left behind though. Everyone with one or two exceptions, said how unhappy they are and how they envy me for leaving. For some, who have family and kids, leaving isn't an option. For others, insecurities about finding another job and other issues keeps them rooted to the spot.
Either way, I AM OUT and for the time being that's all that matters. It was great to see how many people appreciated the help I gave them, and how many seemed to genuinely like me! So with a lot of "Keep in touch"es and "You've got my email"s I finally made it out of there!!!

The best part of the day? When going out for lunch there were workmen working on the side of the building - taking down the big "MRO Software" sign off the top of the building and replacing it with an IBM one. And I realized... I will never have to come into work in the morning to see IBM on the building. I will have worked all days in that building while it was still in MRO's name. Isn't that cool???
It's a sign, don't you think??? ;-) HAHA, get it? It's a SIGN! LOL

I'm celebrating right now by eating a pint of Ben & Jerry's - probably not a good idea since I'll be visiting the Ben & Jerry's factory in Vermont tomorrow. Yes, big trip.
Off to Canada (Montreal) for one reason only - to get out of the US (because I'm losing my legal status here as soon as my job ends) and come back in as a visitor so I can pack things up and finally take a hike on October 2nd. And the road will lead me past Woodstock, VT where they make Ben & Jerry's (yummy!!!). 10 hours driving in one day - should be very interesting. More interesting will be to see if they let me back into the US!!!! LOL I'm sure everything will be fine though... I'll post again when I'm back and have more to tell!

Free at last, free at last, Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last!!! (apart from the God bit though!)

Moving status update

2007-09-02T00:46:00.000+01:00

Well... it is now one month until I'm leaving the US to go back to the UK.
My head's all over the place and I've got so many little things to take care of, at times I feel completely and totally overwhelmed and just want to sleep until October 2nd, then wake up and realize everything's been dealt with and I just gotta jump on the plane and take off. Wishful thinking.

Still... progress is being made. I've had a friend from work over today, she's just moved to the US from Australia and looked through a good amount of the stuff I've been trying to sell. Lucky for me (and as she said, for her too) what I wanted to get rid of, she wanted to buy. My apartment is now even emptier than before and it still doesn't make me sad. Weird. But main thing is, a lot of stuff is off my mind now, I feel a wee bit lighter in my head for knowing I at least don't have to worry about certain things.
I think furniturewise all that's left to get rid of is my dining table with 4 chairs. I'll put that up on Craigslist I'm thinking... see what comes of it. I still have a lot of appliances which nobody seems to want (how can you not want a FOODSAVER??????????) but I'm sure something will come up.
All my Weight Watchers stuff is up on Ebay - I'm sure it'll all get a good price since you can't just buy it anywhere unless you attend the costly meetings.

The movers' rep was here on Thursday and gave me an estimate of about $1700 for shipping the stuff I'm keeping over, which is within my budget.

Other than that... on my "to-do" list is survive the last two days at work (Tuesday and Wednesday), then go to Canada and re-enter the US as a visitor, then get started on my uni project (heaven help me), and that's pretty much it. Sounds simple enough - let's see if it will be! :-)

The Gatekeepers

2007-09-01T01:55:00.001+01:00

I don't usually write reviews of books in my blog but this one really did spark something in me. It's called "The Gatekeepers - inside the admissions process of a premier college".

Now, those of you who don't live in the US might not know what a HUGE deal going to college is here. Almost ridiculous, to be honest. Parents whose child has not even been conceived are establishing savings accounts for their future brood's college career. They take huge loans, mortgage their homes... it's unbelievable. Colleges/universities here cost something like $35.000/year. Sure, there are cheaper ones around but obviously not the "top" ones.

I've never been an academic, in fact, the mere thought of going to college/university always made me gag. Part of it was the fact that I felt that I didn't need a piece of paper to prove that I can make it in life, that I am smart and intelligent and can carry on a conversation about pretty much any issues you throw my way. And the other part was pure frustration at the way I experienced high school - so I assumed college would be the same. Full of bullshit teachers who have no idea what the hell they're talking about, full of bullshit subjects that are needed in order to pass certain things and full of bullshit exams/tests that, if you're smart enough you can cheat your way through.

I picked this book up at a library sale a few months back and never got around to reading it. A few days ago I thought I'd give it a go. It was a boring read to start with... mainly because the subject matter was completely new to me. The things that come into play when applying for a college here are so numerous and unpredictable, I'm astounded that anyone ever gets accepted!
The book is written by a guy who had approval from Wesleyan University in Connecticut to shadow their admission's process for the Class of 2004. He follows one particular admissions officer who at one point in the year, reads hundreds of college applications and has to make a decision based on the applicant's grades, their race, their location, their school, their extracurricular activities, their essays, their talents. With so many things to take into consideration, the book reads really nicely and is very varied.
The author follows a particular number of students who applied to Wesleyan, dug deep to find the background info to go with that application and followed them into their first year of college, whether that was Wesleyan or not. And whilst it got boring every now and then (because the subject matter can sometimes get so un-human and numbers oriented), most of the time I was reading on, hoping to find out whether the students he had picked out would be accepted, rejected, wait-listed... whether they would decide to go to Wesleyan once they were accepted and if not where they would go. Like a novel, where you have to wait until the end to find out if the hero saves the princess!

Still, while it was an eye opener and also a very entertaining read, it also made me think of the comparisons I was constantly drawing to the way students are accepted in Germany. First of all, no charges. Yeah, now there is a minimal fee of something like 500 Euros/semester but that's nothing compared to $20.000. And then there's the fact that colleges in Germany NEVER look at anything else but your high school grades/results. Here, everything counts... extracurricular activities sometimes more than the grades. Being a volunteer, playing some sport as part of a team, being a student body leader, a dancer, a singer, a Big Brother or Big Sister, an editor at the school newspaper... the list goes on and on. What a different way to educate youth, I kept thinking all through the book.

Either way - I highly recommend this book, whether you're looking to get into a US college or not. It is simply too marvelous to overlook :-)

Ohhhh boy...

2007-08-29T04:16:00.000+01:00

Well, I'd always guessed it. Really, I could tell even without seeing it with my own eyes.
Yet nothing prepared me for the shock of actually watching myself sing on a video tape. UGH.
So granted, I do smile a lot of the time but during the actual singing, the higher notes and particularly hard passages, I look completely deranged. There's just no other way to put it.
A friend of mine from choir had obtained a brief few minutes of a videotaping of Beethoven's 9th. You know the concert we did in April? Well, I'm there in plain view of the camera and seriously some of the face contortions look downright demented. My eyebrows shoot up almost to my hairline (fine, so what if it does improve pitch quality), my mouth makes shapes I never knew possible (again, improves pitch quality) and I actually bob my head along with the music sometimes (no excuse for that other than pure enjoyment)!!!

Yikes... better never to look at it again. Might actually put me off singing!!! No way in hell will I ever let anything or anyone take that joy from me, no matter how retarded and freakish I look doing it! Yeah, that's the best thing to do. Don't watch again, Maky. Just listen :-D

Some heartbreak...

2007-08-28T03:28:00.000+01:00

Well, it was obvious I'd eventually get a big lump in my throat at the thought of leaving here. And as it happened in Woking, it was because of leaving my choir.
God, I cried a river the last time I had rehearsal with the Woking choir... I came home and cried and cried and couldn't stop.
Not to say it will happen here but walking into rehearsals today I had this alto come over to me and say "I heard you're leaving us for good! I have to give you a hug!" and she hugged the stuffing out of me and I mean... of course tears welled up. Geez, I'm such a wuss.

For this one single reason I wish I didn't have to leave. I've loved every minute of it, everyone's been so sweet and nice and people have welcomed me into the choir as if I'd been a longstanding member for many years. How odd to feel like my choir was my family for the short time I've been here. And Diane... well, I don't even know how I can ever sing the same without her conducting me. She is just pure joy to watch, to hear, to follow. I sincerely doubt that any other conductor will ever make me so happy to be singing for him/her. But with the bad (IBM) I have to let go off the good too (choir).
I've told everyone that as soon as I get back to the UK I'm gonna do whatever I can to get elected on the board of Woking choir and then see if I can get Nashua choir to come over so we can sing together. Oh, what a wonderful thing that would be! Anyway... enough. Time for bed now. Ice skating tomorrow! YEY! Oh, I'll miss that too! *sniff*

From yesterday's Sunday paper...

2007-08-27T17:19:00.000+01:00

... the comics page... SO CUTE!!!!!

Over the hedge

WHY can't this be me????

2007-08-26T15:16:00.000+01:00

Single winner in $314 million Powerball lottery

Hmm... I guess becaue I don't play the lottery! :-(

But of course!!!

2007-08-24T16:25:00.000+01:00

That is so typical!
I bought my home phone over a year ago, when I moved in here. I have the voicemail function with my provider so day after day after day I come back home from work to find three or four voicemails on my phone. I was never able to figure how to delete the damn things without having to listen to them (it's never anyone I know, always salespeople), so I painfully sat through listening to the crap they talk about until the message was done and I could finally hit 7 to delete.
It was last week that I mistakenly (out of frustration) hit 7 twice in the midst of the message. BINGO - "Your message has been deleted" the woman's voice said.
Now that I'm about to leave, I find it out... DUH!!!!

Going home

2007-08-23T00:05:00.000+01:00

Well, who would've guessed... certainly not me! After barely a year in the US, I'm heading back to Europe again.
Provided you're one of the few people reading my blog, I'm also assuming that you know me very well and never knew any different: Maky=USA, USA=Maky. It has been that way for 15 years now and chances are, you may be confused, shocked, speechless... well, you get the idea. I don't blame you. I've always made it very clear that the US is where I see myself growing old. So why this sudden decision to return? Let me give you a brief overview of the changes in my life over the past year or so - maybe that will help you understand.

When I got here last July, it was for good. I wanted to be here, I wanted to stay, I was convinced it was the beginning of a new life. Two and a half weeks later, I was proven wrong. When IBM came swooshing in acquiring my company, everything changed.
Now, I don't need to go into details about the acquisiton partly because I've already blogged about it and partly because I am waiting to have left my job and found a new one before I let loose on what I really think about them!!! (That will be one heck of a loooooong post!!!). But the truth of the matter is that instead of finally being able to settle down and call Nashua my home for the foreseeable future, I was left hanging. Yet again, waiting.

Had MRO stayed MRO, there is no doubt in my mind that I would've stayed here. I would've worked for them for a few years, I would've gotten my Green Card with their help, and eventually, probably would've moved on to something else. But IBM is a different story. It was clear from the beginning that I would be out of a job very soon.
The decision to find something else here didn't weigh too heavy on my mind. I had/have skills that IBM could use very well. I have 5 year's worth of product knowledge and that qualifies me for a ton of jobs within IBM.
As the end date approached, I started looking around, never finding anything that would've really rocked my boat all that much. I was asked by different managers whether I wanted to join their departments but neither one of those jobs sounded all that great.
As time flew by and I got better acquainted (and frustrated) with IBM, I started a realization proccess that was somewhat stunning to deal with. I realized that I just didn't want to stay in the US bad enough to have to deal with the crap at IBM. I know... right? What am I talking about? USA is USA, I've wanted to be here for so long, so suck it up and just do it. Take whatever job comes your way and make it work for you.
Well, sorry to say, that's just not me. I couldn't deal with the idea of having to spend 9 hours every day in a job that I didn't like and a company I hated. Even if it meant staying here.
On top of that comes the simple fact that I just never really found this place to be "home". When I went to visit a friend in South Carolina in April, everything changed. It was like... I can't explain it. It just felt so much more right than up here north. And then I remembered of course that what I had loved so about the US was what I had known in Nashville, back in 98. That was the southern part of the US too. People were different, more... relaxed, easy going it seemed. And then of course I just never found anyone to really "click" with here. I made a lot of wonderful friends here but it's just not the same when you're not on the same wave-length in at least certain aspects. Not having friends here made me miss the ones I have in Germany and the UK. The ones I had fun with, I went out with, spent hours on the phone talking to. Now even that wasn't all that possible due to the time difference.
In the end, everything was pointing to one thing and one thing only. You have to go back, Maky. It's as simple as that.
As I'm packing up my stuff, I'm astounded at how little I feel about this place. I would've assumed that I would at least miss something about it but it doesn't look like I am. Granted, it's still a few weeks away but still - weird.

Now, don't get me wrong. I fully intend to be back one day. I'm not giving up on what I still believe is my destiny. But this wasn't the right time or the right place. There are times you have to let go off things that you've been hanging on to for so long. This feels good and it feels right. I will be back in Woking in October and will start looking for a new apartment and a new job. I will go back to my wonderful Woking choir and will go to see "Joseph" and "Les Mis" in London, visit "my" Houses of Parliament that I've missed so much and go up on the London Eye. There's still so much I want to see of Europe - places I never considered going to because I was so intent on saving it all for America. Time to live in the "now". I can't wait! :-)

Trikke - Day 1

2007-08-19T18:52:00.000+01:00

Well, my Trikke arrived yesterday. I got the T8.5 Air which has real tires as opposed to the polywhatever wheels which don't have to be inflated.

After taking a good hour to put it together I was so tired that I postponed riding it until today. This morning I packed it up in my car (it just about fits on the back seat of my Corolla 03) and went to Walmart to buy a bike helmet. Found a blue one (yey!) and set off to a gas station to inflate the tires properly (in order for the Trikke to be safe during transport, the tires are not totally inflated). I drove around about 5 gas stations looking for air but only at the 6th did I find a column with air. Paid $.75 for 3 minutes and after hurting myself trying to get to the valves, I managed to inflate the Trikke's tires properly.

And then off I went, to the paved parking lot of an old stadium here in Nashua. It was almost completely empty so I took the Trikke out, hurt my hands again trying to lock the footholds into place (or unlock them for that matter. The mechanism is a pain in the ass!) and finally got up on it and stood for a while, just to get a feeling for it. I moved the handlebar left and right a few times to get a feel for that also and then followed the instruction manual and pushed myself off a little to get some speed.
Well, if I thought it looked so easy and it must be easy to do too, I was wrong. Try as I may, I couldn't get the trikke to move anymore than it wanted to from the pushing off. I read the manual again and starting moving the handlebar from left to right rapidly and sort of got a teeeeeensy bit of a movement out of it.
They say some pick it up instantly, others take longer. I'll definitely take a LOT longer. Not one to give up so fast though, I kept starting again and again and again, pushing myself off to get some speed going and trying to figure out how to use the weight balancing thing and the arm movements right. After about half an hour of trying, I was drenched in sweat and had managed to get an idea of how it should be. Far be it from actually making it work though... this is going to take a long time to perfect to make it look like all those people riding it carelessly at 18mph.

Look out, world! ;-)

Socializing

2007-08-17T02:20:00.000+01:00

Not exactly my favorite word, socializing. Whilst I'm far from being a complete introvert, the thought of going out with people always awakes an uneasy feeling in me. Don't get me wrong, I can chat and small talk with the best of them. I have funny stories, I joke, I flirt, I have opinions on just about everything (and BOY, do I have opinions!!!), I can be serious...
Still, no matter which way I turn it, if given the choice, I'd stay home and enjoy my own company.
The reason for this post? I've just returned from an evening out with most of the old MRO IT department. We went out to celebrate the VP of IT's last day in Bedford. He is staying with IBM but moving to North Carolina to start a new job there. My boss boss (as I like to call him because he's my manager's manager) is one of those people who is exceptionally human, even though he was way high up in the company hierarchy. I remember when I applied for this job over a year ago - at that point all I wanted was ANY job just so long as it was in the US. After interviewing with him over the phone, I was totally sold on the job itself though. For the brief 25 minutes we spoke, he must have mentioned "the people", "the team", "the guys" hundreds of times. It seemed to me at the time like that was all he was about. The people. Coming from a department where the boss boss couldn't give a shit about people (old accountant, all that matters is money and numbers) this was as refreshing as summer rain. He actually made me WANT the job because I knew I'd be working for him. And he didn't let me down. In the past 13 months, he has been the glue that held this thinning department together. Everyone was mad at IBM but everyone wanted to do well by him so we continued to work hard and do our jobs, knowing fully well we'd be terminated a few months down the road. I haven't met many people like that in my life.
I've worked for even fewer. In fact, the total runs to 3 people, including him. Three people I enjoyed working with/for, three people I was proud to represent, three people I truly, honestly respected professionally in every sense of the word.
To see him leave is like the final curtain, in a way. The definitive "It's over" moment, where you realize nothing can bring back what you used to have, nothing will be the same again. I found a "Thank you" card in a store and wrote a few choice words to let him know how I felt about working for him. The cool thing about it is... I know he will appreciate them, just like he always appreciated me and let me know it.

As for the socializing part - we met up at a bar and just spent about 4 hours talking about heaven knows what. I saw a few people who used to be in the team but aren't anymore and lots of stories were told of the good ole days. We discussed which celebrities we fancied (me: Scott Bakula!!!), what the PanMass challenge was like and other things. Again, all stuff I could talk about without effort and yet, leaving the gathering, I got into my car to suddenly realize I had a throbbing headache.
I blame it on the constant need to smile, mostly. I don't seem to be able to relax my face fully when listening to someone talk. I constantly catch myself smiling and try to stop it but by that time, my face muscles hurt, as does my jaw. So at four hours of constant smiling, plus a lot of talking about things I might or might not care about, no wonder I get headaches. Which in turn makes me uncomfortable when thinking about going out in general. Mind you, this is only an issue when I'm not around friends. Obviously, I won't put on a mask for friends when I go out. I don't have the constant need to be "sociable" when I'm with them - it just happens in a very relaxing way.

Anyway... so much for socializing musings from me. I'm off to bed as my headache isn't getting better and the humid heat outside doesn't help much either. Thank heavens for air con units!

MINE!!!

2007-08-15T21:26:00.000+01:00

I am too mentally/emotionally exhausted and frustrated to update you on my current work situation. Suffice it to say - I AM STILL WAITING.

On a more positive note though... this is MINE as of today. I ordered it on Ebay and can't wait to get it - sometime early next week! I will let you know how it goes once I start trikking! :-)

If you...

2007-08-01T22:27:00.001+01:00

... don't want to hear my opinion, then bloody don't ask for it!!!
Twice today was I involved in a situation where I was asked to stand in and present my opinion to people. One disguised as a dilemma but really wanting some major handholding and pitty party throwing, the other just plain wanting to put across who's "more right".
Seriously... I don't have time for this kindergarden crap. If you make it a point to ask me about something but then get pissed off when I tell you what I think, take a hike. I have better things to do than to play your stupid game. Instead of wasting my time and energy on hissy fits or indignant remarks, I could do a million other things that might even bring a smile to my face.

Over and out.