K-I-S-S-I-N-G

i was talking to a male friend about this. i was just explaining that the last guy id' kissed was really not good at all, and whilst i know perfectly well that everyone can learn (see below), i also think that sometimes, it's really a lot of effort. sorry if i sound callous here, but that's it. and whilst a good kisser is absolutely not essential, it's nice to have. my friend thought i was being picky. so i thought i'd make myself a list of the guys i've kissed, to think about. it goes like this.

1st guy: in high-school, at a birthday party, part of a 'truth or dare' game. it was nice and made me hopeful that this would, after all, be something i could live with.
2nd guy: it was awful. but then, this was probably due to the fact that he'd downed a bottle a gin and it was finally taking effect. this opinion was reinforced when i had to spend an hours 'helping' him throw it all up and drive him back from the club. he had no memory of the event the next day... as i really liked him that really hurt.
3rd guy: 7th heaven! that guy was a year younger than me, but he obviously knew his stuff! reinforced by the great setting, to be sure, but still very good.
4th guy: not that great at first, much better once i'd spent some time working on him! ;)
5th & 7th guy (same guy but counts as two cos there was a whole year betwen the two occurrences): not great. time obviously didn't helped much.
6th guy: can't remember. probably good. didn't care. i was just trying to show my ex that i couldn't care less about him and not being with him anymore. big mistake.
8th guy: the best so far.
9th guy: good (he was 5 years younger than me, but youngsters these days, they know a lot!).
10th guy: good. wish it had been longer.
11th guy: ok. wouldn't have thought much about it if he hadn't spent 10 mns telling me how all the lesbian students in York thought he was a wonderful kisser (that's a very long story), which meant that i was quite disappointed when we kissed, cos i couldn't see where the wonder lay.
12th guy: a disaster! all teeth. trying to maim me? obviously, noone had told him or helped him with this. circumstances helped me in that i never had to see him again.
13th guy: not good. better late at night (a vampire perhaps?). a wet kisser. could have improved with very serious work, but was spared the task by fate (which i don't believe in, but there you go).

i guess 7 out of 13 at good or above's a pretty decent average. can't complain. but in the end, i didn't necessarily go into a relationship with a good kisser and vice versa. besides, when i really like someone, i make the effort, regardless of his kissing skills or whatever criteria i might have had before meeting him. if i don't make the effort, it's cos i'm not really that interested.

dangerous times 4

4) Tahiti
ok, this was not actually a life-threatening situation, but i'm putting it in as one of the scariest moments of my life. we were staying in one of those bungalows on stilts, over the coral. our hotel was only about 4 kms from the airport. which meant we were actually in the airplanes' path when they landed. there weren't many though (2 a day or something). but that very first night, we were suddenly woken up by a huge noise. at first i thought it was an earthquake, then a tsunami, then a volcanic eruption and then, a plane. and with that amount of noise, it was obviously crashing. it was too close for us to do anything (like flee). but then the noise passed above us. it just landed. it was a B-52. the French army was obviously doing some stuff. great. in the meantime, more than at any other time, i actually thought it was the end. you have no idea how much noise a B-52 makes.

and there you have it. i know i'm incredibly lucky in that noone has ever threatened me with a weapon of any kind and that i've never been in a situation where i was likely to be shot, bombed, killed by an eruption, etc. nonetheless, it certainly does make you realise that life is not endless: yes, i very well could get run over by a bus today.

dangerous times 3

3) Vietnam
trekking through the jungle with group of about 20 people, we'd been walking for a few hours and i still hadn't taken a single picture. i love taking pictures, and it was doing my head in that i hadn't been able to shoot the landscape. finally, we got to a point that was really beautiful and i decided (stupidly, i have to admit) that i couldn't pass this one up. the problem was, i was standing on some very sharp rocks that were more akin to thick needles coming out of the ground. and obviously, the people behind me couldn't care less about me stopping, so they barged on, despite the obvious problem this caused, not least to my balance. luckily, i tend to scream before hitting the ground (which my best friend had noticed at the beginning of our trip and said was totally ridiculous). so when i did lose my balance, and started moving backward towards all the other needle-sharp rocks, the guy who was coming up right behind me grabbed me. i don't think 'thank you' covered half of what i was feeling, but he knew it, so i guess we were ok. if i'd had time to think about it, i probably would have refused to move and cried my eyes out, but as it was, with more people pressing on, we just kept moving, the guy holding my arm until we were on safer ground.

dangerous times 2

2) New Zealand
driving back down from the northernmost tip of the country, we were on a gravel road, the kind that's dry, dangerous, and sees at least an accident a day. we were barely doing 40kph. i noticed that my boyfriend was driving on the right hand side of the road, which in NZ is the wrong side. i didn't say anything until a car came the other way. i pointed out where we were, and he said he knew, he'd lost control of the car, i should hold on to something. damn. on the left side of the road, there was a cliff going up, on the right a cliff going down. this was not good. my boyfriend moved towards the left. the car coming the other way didn't see a thing. just after they passed us, we went up the cliffside, turned halfway over, somehow got back down again and stopped 1.5m from the edge. everything happened in slow motion. and funnily enough, all i could think of was my glasses, cos if i survived this, i needed them to see. at some point during the manoeuvre, we'd both closed our eyes, and it took a while before we even thought about opening them. after some silence, he asked me if i was ok. i said i thought i was. him? he thought so, too. that's when we opened our eyes. amazingly, between the two of us, there was just a scratch. the car, however, was totalled. we got out very slowly, trying not to look at how close we were to the edge. i never asked him how he managed to stop. a car stopped. they'd seen the whole thing. she was a doctor. she took a quick look at us while her husband called a tow truck. apart from whiplash and shock, we were ok. since that day, i've been scared shitless of any kind of slipping motion from cars' wheels.

dangerous times 1

i have, in my short life, and despite not living anywhere remotely dangerous (bar living close to an active volcano), been in a few seriously dangerous situations. it started the day i was born (see my very first post). then, in chronological order:

1) Wales
on a field trip in the Wye valley (which btw, is really gorgeous), we were walking around places where archaeological remains had been found. this included a few caves. near the end of the trip, we found one last cave, which was not on our list. on the wall outside, it said 'danger' followed by something unreadable, covered in plants and half rained out. as stupid young people would have done, we went inside anyway. the first room was just a normal cave. there was enough light to see. the second one was really dark. by then, there were just 3 of us. i was just about to take a step into it when one of my friends told me to wait. he took out a lighter and put it in front of my foot. nothing. nothing as in no ground. a hole. he took a stone that was laying behind him and threw it in. no sound. he pulled me back gently. i was too shocked to move. once we got out again, we looked at the danger 'sign' again and barely made out the words '140-foot drop'. i couldn't believe the entrance to the cave wasn't closed up!

rant, rant, rant

it's annoying as hell, but being as i am, some people seem to have trouble relating to me as a normal human being. i don't smoke, i don't do drugs and i rarely drink (i don't like most alcohols, although give me an Alabama Slammer and i'm your girl!). people seem to think this makes me nearly a saint or something, which in turn seems to annoy them quite a bit. for example, i have a policy: i don't drink and drive. i know that one glass at the beginning of the evening wouldn't kill me, or affect my driving skills but i just don't do it. i absolutely don't require other people to do the same. i have been driven back by people who had had more than a drink or two, no problem. but this apparently makes some people feel bad. i guess i understand: if i can have fun without alcohol when others need alcohol to have fun, it must be annoying. what really annoys me, though, is when people, despite what i've said, keep trying to convince me to have a drink. someone once bought me a whisky, on the basis of the fact that if someone bought him one, he'd drink it, even if he'd said he'd stop, especially as it was more expensive than beer. and then he got pissed off at me for refusing to drink it! hello, did i not just say i didn't want one?

and apparently, i'm unflexible, and this based solely on the fact that once i've made up my mind, i rarely change it. and i have principles. like, no, i'm not going to sleep with anything that resembles a man simply because i haven't slept with one for a while. and i most certainly am not going to bring someone i've only just met to my flat. in the same way that i don't give out my phone number after a first meeting. there's nothing wrong with email, it doesn't ring every five minutes and it can be blissfully ignored. i've had enough bad experiences to be careful. so i sound paranoid? i'm just not up for repeating painful experiences.

and it drives me nuts. just because other people can't stick to their decisions (which i never said was a bad thing), i'm nearly evil. i know what i want, and i know what i don't want, and i'm sorry if most people don't but i'd like people to stop treating me like a freak. although to be fair, as i have nothing in common with the people who think i'm so unflexible, i'm happy to stay away from them and don't really care what they think. it's just that when i do have to see them, it pisses me off no end.

i know this is nonsensical, as most people really like me and accept me the way i am. they generally think i'm great and miss me when i'm not around. so why this rant? sometimes you just get pissed off, and as i've been bed-ridden for the past two days, i'm now bored out of my mind. something had to give, and here is my post.

Susan Sto Helit

if you don't read Terry Pratchett books, this is not going to mean much to you, but Susan is Death's grand-daughter. she's also a school teacher, a strict one who never fails to be obeyed, but who's also capable of taking her class to different corners of the Discworld without physically ever leaving the classroom (a skill i would so like to possess) and who can stop time and walk through walls.

i was just re-reading Thief of Time when it occurred to me that, apart from her supernatural abilities and her general lack of social life, i'm quite like her. there was this part of the text where it explained about her being sensible and how she often hated that aspect of her personality, because often, being sensible didn't even mean you were doing the right thing. and somehow, it just rang so true. which of course doesn't stop us sensible people from being sensible (because someone has to).

due to her special skills and family history, Susan has had trouble finding love. in this book, however, she meets Lobsang, the son of Time and just as mixed up, and at the very end, there is a hint that something might come out of that. so i'm waiting for the next instalment of Susan's life, to see where that takes her.

sick as a dog

now, being 30, i've been ill quite a few times. the usual round is blown-out flue, and then i had this wave of bronchitis for a few years. the worst i remember being was the bronchitis where i couldn't breathe, which was when we called a doctor on a Sunday.

then there was yesterday. it felt like my belly was being cut in half. it came out of nowhere and i had no idea what it was. thought i'd sleep it off, and when i woke up over 3 hrs later, i felt better. then i ate. BIG mistake. started vomiting halfway through the evening news. and when i thought there was nothing left in my body, turns out it couldn't care less and kept going with the pain. it was about 11.30pm when i called the doctor. and, due to a new change in France, i actually called the emergency medical number, where they passed me onto a hospital, who called a doctor, who called me. halfway through my directions, had to throw up again and by the time i picked up the receiver, he'd hung up.

he showed up a little later, checked me out and declared i had a bad case of gastoenteritis. all i could tell him was that i'd eaten carrots that hadn't looked great. he gave me two IV injections, which were supposed to make me feel better straight off but didn't. he ended up staying a good 45mns, refusing to leave until he saw me do ok. but i was so tired from throwing up for 3 hours that i was half asleep. he was concerned about there being noone to take care of me, and said that if i started throwing up again, he'd send me to the hospital. great. he then explained he had to charge me nearly 100 euros for the night call & IVs, but that he wanted me to wait till my insurance had paid me before paying him. sweet.

so i'm off work today and tomorrow. walking around, i feel like i've spent a whole day working on my abs. the doctor called this morning to check on me. i've picked up the prescription. i'm all set. i can't eat any of the food i normally eat (if i can eat at all), cannot down a pint of water despite my thirst but must drink only a few sips at the time. this is going to be a very long day...

signs

'everything in life happens for a reason', some say, or 'there are no coincidences', say others. i'm not that kind of person. at least, i don't believe it. i believe that we make our own lives, and that everything is a direct result of what we did (or didn't) do, not the next step in some kind of wider plan. and i don't believe in signs. but i must admit that, sometimes, there seem to be way too many coincidences.

without going into specifics, i'd recently got myself into a situation, one of those you think you want to be in but actually don't. i was already feeling slightly weary as to how it would develop, when a piece of news reached me that confirmed that i didn't want to be where i was. but getting out was, i thought, going to prove difficult (mind you, i could also see how i could use the situation to my advantage, although it was pretty wicked, for me). so it was amazingly great timing when another piece of news came to me, which pretty much got me out of there without any fuss. well, mostly got me out of there. to be confirmed. but what a relief, really!

and i know noone's going to understand this but rest assured that you are in good company and just be happy that i am (happy, that is).

blackberry picking

i'm not really into poetry, but my favourite Seamus Heaney poem is 'blackberry-picking'. it goes like this:

"Late August, given heavy rain and sun
For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.
At first, just one, a glossy purple clot
Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.
You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet
Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it
Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for
Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger
Sent us out with milk-cans, pea-tins, jam-pots
Where briars scratched and wet glass bleached our boots.
Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills
We trekked and picked until the cans were full,
Until the tinkling bottom had been covered
With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned
Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered
With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's.

We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.
But when the bath was filled we found a fur,
A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache.
The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush
The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.
I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair
That all lovely canfuls smelt of rot.
Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not."

and yesterday, while on a walk with my father and sister, we found some blackberry bushes. i hadn't been blackberry-picking since i was about 14. lots of memories rushed back. the taste, the texture, the hands spotted with purple juice. we didn't have any containers to put the berries in, but then, there weren't that many yet. and we couldn't bring them back for my mother to make jam with. but it was fun. i'll have to go back in a week or so and see what i can get out of it. :)

meeting Othello

on the way back from the restaurant last night, driving down a little winding road coming down the mountain, we 'stumbled upon' a blind horse, walking on the road. not really blind. he was blindfolded. and obviously not where he should be. i got out of the car to stay with him, despite my very basic knowledge of horses, while my father and sister drove to the nearest place to ask them whether they'd lost a horse. my sister said she'd felt a bit foolish asking the question, but she couldn't really say anything else...

in the meantime, i was trying to make friends with the 300kg beast. not an easy task when the beast in question can't see a thing. i decided that it was safer for him if i took off the blindfold. after all, if another car came by, it'd be easier for him to survive with all five senses. i must admit it was easier to get close to him with it on, but then again... once off, i tried to convince him to follow me into a field, but he liked the road. suddenly, a guy came out of the darkness, calling him. unfortunately, that seemed to rattle the horse, which suddenly decided to run the other way. except that was where i was. it was a scary 10 seconds, but i managed to get out of the way.

the guy came and explained it wasn't his horse, but that he'd go call the owner if i could stay another 5 mns. uh...sure. but as the guy left, the horse followed. and walked straight into a stable. very weird. in the meantime, the guy had called the owner, who was on his way. we talked for a while and found out the horse's name was Othello. i guess i must have been Desdemona for a few minutes there...

fairy-tale wedding

it was, from one end to the other, the most amazing wedding i'd ever been to. C. was absolutely gorgeous in her dress. radiant. N. had tears in his eyes when he saw her in it. the ceremony was simple and consisted in them telling each other how they felt, which was very moving. others spoke too (including my sister, who read a poem) and i used several tissues all the way through. all this was in the courtyard of an old monastery at the foot of the Saleve, with a beautiful view of the Jura.

we had drinks in the 'park', then we moved down to the cellars, the walls of which were entirely made of stone. the dinner was really delicious (with a special mention for the amazing starter!). my sister and her friends had organised more games, which took place throughout. it was all very funny. i was sat next to my friend Tinkie, so we certainly had fun at our table! we definitely made more noise than everyone else... finally, after a 4-hour dinner, was dancing.

everything was gorgeous, everyone had fun. when i eventually drove the newlyweds to their hotel (their taxi had failed to show up), they were so sorry it was over, and said they'd do it all over again if they could. it truly was a day to remember... oh, and we got to take as many flowers as we wanted when we left, so my flat is now full of them.

family

last night, we were finally reunited. my father arrived in the late afternoon, and chaos became even more chaotic in my small flat. all of us have really strong personalities, and clashes started from the word 'go'. nothing serious, but i do wonder if we'll ever be able to meet up peacefully. the fact that time is short and already pretty full doesn't help. trying to figure out who was going to use the single car when, for this morning's activities, was not very easy, and my father walked into my room this morning saying we'd be late as we'd agreed to leave at 9.15, when we all know the ETD was 9.45. however, all this got totally messed up when we got my sister's blood results and she had to rush her day even more by going in to see her doctor. she's already stressed by the wedding and this is just not helping. a quick change of plans means i drove my father into town instead, so she can have free rein over the car when she gets back from the doctor's. fingers crossed, it'll all turn out well.

beauty treatment

for Christmas, my sister and i got a voucher for a beauty treatment. as she's down for the wedding, we were finally able to go together. after some time spent in the gym (i don't know, but i think i got her hooked on some of the stuff there), we finally got to the treatment part.

while my sister was being covered in seaweed, my face got plastered in various creams. one to take off make-up (which i never wear - or very rarely), one to get rid of impurities, one to get rid of dead skin cells, then a facial mask and finally, some day-cream. frankly, i hated the feeling of all those heavy creams on my face, but i must admit the feeling at the end was great. i also got a manucure and pedicure. the first one was a bit annoying in that the woman taking care of me reduced my long nails to a much smaller size (to save on the polish?), but the pedicure was great, especially the foot massage part. we finished early, and it appears that was due to the general good condition of my skin and my feet (apparently, pedicures normally last a lot longer, so i have to thank E for giving me that pumice 2 years ago).

while i really wouldn't do this on a regular basis, it was nice to spend 2 hours lying down, doing nothing, while someone else was taking care of me.

hen night 2

the bride really had no idea there was more planned, after Saturday's adventures. she'd been told that she was going to have dinner with her parents-in-law to 'discuss their marriage', which she felt slightly anxious about, cos she couldn't quite figure out what that meant. and the groom was perfect in his instructions to her and the look on her face when she saw all of us in the small room in the basement of the north-African restaurant was worth all the effort. it was like 'camera surprise'. it was a real shame the restaurant manager came to see me to tell me the belly dancers had arrived, cos she didn't know they'd be any and the surprise was spoiled. but we all enjoyed them, and my sister had asked the groom to bring the bride's belly dancing gear (she took a year's classes), so she joined in the fun, and the dancers we'd hired were very impressed while we kind of wondered why we'd hired them in the first place (not that they weren't good, but with such a good bride...).

the bride was very happy and touched, which was the point, and we were all happy to be celebrating with her. the wedding's on Friday, and although we've also been invited to the civil wedding this evening, i can't see myself going as i am really, totally, knackered, and if it wasn't cos i have things to do, i'd still be in bed right now...

sushi time!

i know, i know, i should be (and am!) ashamed of myself for never having made sushi while i was in Japan... so i decided to do something about it, and i signed up for a sushi-making workshop. and it was great! i made beautiful sushi rolls (even if i say so). i even met an old schoolmate that i hadn't seen in years and years (he didn't remember me). it was funny. there we were, sitting next to each other, making sushi, and suddenly we were talking about people we'd lost sight of in years.

to get back to sushi, having now actually made some and thus understood it isn't that hard, i think i'll start making some from time to time. i remember buying all the ingredients when i was in the UK and in Japan, but never getting further. this time, it won't be a waste!

hen day number 1

number 1, cos there are two, which i originally thought was silly, but now works out really well as my sister, who's maid of honour at her best friend's wedding, was stuck in London after the airports closed down. she's arriving tonight instead.

so, anyway, after an emergency meeting Friday night to work out the final details, we woke up to a very wet Saturday morning. the weather forecast did, however, say it'd clear up and that we'd see sun, as well as localised storms. so off we drove toward the mountain. after a one-hour delay (due to the third car having left only 5 mns before the meeting time, which was over 30 mns away - but then, even the first car was 15 mns late and the second one, with the bride, a good 40 mns), we all headed toward the chosen mountain. after a few false starts (it turned out noone had actually even been there, so noone knew exactly where we were going), we found a good place to walk. not the one originally chosen, but that was probably all for the best anyway, as i personally had trouble getting to the top (no, i'm not a climbing person).

we were lucky to find a chalet that accepted us, as it had started raining outside and we wanted to have our little picnic (it was, by then 4pm - a good three hours past the original schedule). the weather cleared in time for us to have some outdoor games and we headed back down at 6. just as we hit the cars, it started raining again, and 5 mns later, you couldn't see a thing. we were incredibly lucky with the weather!

we all got back to my place, showered and changed. ordered pizzas and had more games. the bride was then dressed up in a dressing-gown and outragesouly made up (not my idea, and had someone attempted to do that to me, i'd have killed them - not kidding), and we went to the only club that was easily reachable due to the Geneva Festival going on. this was not the plan at all: we were supposed to drive back to another mountain and go to the Heaven party that was organised there, but it rained too hard and it was by then too late to start trekking through the countryside again. at 3.30, i was knackered and went home. all i know after that is that the club closed at 5am, but i haven't heard from anyone else yet, so god knows what they came up with after that...

the end result is, despite the obvious glitches, the bride had loads of fun (she said we couldn't have done it any better), and she doesn't know about the second party on Tuesday. i can't wait to see the look on her face! :)

to D. or not to D.?

that is the question... i guess i'm already on the road to D. very weird, after all this time. needs a bit of work, but i guess it's doable.

swing & float

i'm not gonna go into why i was so very pissed off yesterday. i'll tell you about how i calmed down instead.

i was very early for a meet-up with friends, so i walked around and discovered a new park. there wasn't a soul around. there was, however, a swing. i hadn't been on one for years and years, but i thought, why not? i think it's the most relaxing time i had for quite a while. i spent 15 mns just swinging up and down, and my mind just went blank. there was no noise but that of the swing, just a brise and a bright blue sky. i felt more refreshed than i can explain.

when my friend showed up, we were supposed to go to a bar, but we ended up in a much better place: a boat. the people she'd been sailing with were having drinks, so i joined them. i love being on water, and it was so nice to be away from the bustle of the big fair that's currently up in town. there was also a full moon, which was very beautiful, together with the lit-up 'jet d'eau' (known in English as the water fountain, but that's certainly not what i'd call a 33m high 'stream' of water).

i got home rather later, much later than i'd wanted, but i didn't even feel tired. i really think the swing did it. swings rule.

the saddle mystery

my friend Tinkie's currently moving from her old flat to a new one, 3 streets down. it's been a bit stressful, what with work not being rosy these days, and so, contrary to her habit, she forgot to take in her bike over the weekend. she normally does this to ensure she still has one on Monday mornings.

so yesterday, when i went to see her new place, she told me someone had stolen her bike saddle. and she didn't get it: why hers, which was old? apparently, others had disappeared too, but others were still on their respective bikes, in full view and much better condition.

on the way back from the concert we'd been to, we saw that someone had left a spare saddle in one of the bikes' front basket, in front of her building. not hers, though. i looked around and couldn't help notice there were another 3 saddles in various other baskets, and wondered if maybe someone had brought them all back after a drunken stunt. and guess what? her saddle was one of them! what some people get up to at night...!

the Archaeologist's adventures - part 4: not really related to digging...

the Archeologist was off to visit a new site with a fellow digger. to save on the exhorbitant petrol costs, they shared a car. the first half of the journey went really well. they talked a lot and generally enjoyed themselves whilst speeding down the motorway. and every time the other digger turned to talk to her, she couldn't help but stare in wonder into his intense clear blue eyes. wow, was all she could think.

on the way back from the site (which had been beautiful and very carefully laid-out, which was always sexy - to her anyway), they were alone again and if the other digger hadn't been driving, well, she would gladly have told him to shut up about the site and kissed him. very gladly. totally ridiculous and totally off the topic, but there you go. she thought she might do it when he dropped her off, but then she chickened out. he'd always seemed uncomfortable with close physical contact (their goodbye was close to formal, despite having known each other for some time), and she didn't really see how she could swing it... it could have been a nice little side-attraction, she thought as she kicked herself, a little while later, when he'd gone. sometimes, stupidity knows no boundaries...

weather woes

when i swam in the lake last Thursday, the water was 25C. two days ago, it was 15C. need i say more? well ok... after two months of exceptional weather and a couple of very hot weeks, the whole thing just collapsed on us. it's cold and rainy and it's snowing in the Alps. has the weather not noticed we're only just at the beginning of August? not October yet!!! come back with the sun...

work issues

life was going so well... the weekend in Denmark couldn't have been more perfect and was followed by 36 hrs of not working, and Cakes coming over. i was looking forward to a 2-day week, where i'd be giving my students a test anyway, so everything was supposed to be nice and smooth. can you guess?

about half an hour before my lesson yesterday morning, my boss calls the school and tells me another teacher is sick so could i please combine the two classes. uh.... she knows i'll do great. yes... and i understand. really i do. it was too late to cancel the class, half the students were already on their way. so fine. but that only left me 25 mns to find something else to teach as, although the levels of the two groups are quite close, it's still not the same and i couldn't possibly just give them the same test.

when my boss got to the school a little before the start of the lesson, she assured me she would cancel the lessons for the next 2 days, so it was just today. i put in that, if i was going to teach 2 groups, i also wanted to be paid for them both, and she said she'd talk to the big boss about it. then, at the break, she came back and told me i'd be teaching the other group on Friday. now, i don't work on Fridays. i've taken them all off, it being summer and everything. i reminded her i didn't work Fridays, and she said there was nothing on my schedule for then. and she'd asked my friend and colleague Tinkie, who'd apparently told her i was available. i reminded her that the lack of lesson on that day was due to the fact that i simply didn't work then. after the lesson, she said she'd just cancel both lessons, if i couldn't teach. i looked at her blankly. both lessons? why? apparently she'd already put me down to teach my own group on Friday. she said she'd told me. uh, no, i retorted. oh, but it'd been on my schedule since Friday, she'd hoped i would have seen if before going away (i wasn't at school after Thursday lunchtime!). she really didn't get it, did she? when a teacher is not avaiblabe on the schedule, it's because they can't work then!! too stunned to say much, and in a hurry to meet Cakes, i said i'd think about it. this also gave me time to think more rationally about the situation.

as i walked in this morning, imagine my surprise when i found out that a) i'd only been paid for one class, and b) i was apparently teaching Fridays. so i went in to talk to her and mentioned the pay thing first. she looked at me, apparently surprised, and said, of course. there were less than 10 people in the class, so it wasn't as if i needed extra pay. i argued that, if the sick teacher had been there, she'd have been paid for the lesson, so 2 teachers would have been paid, so it was only fair i should have her share, if i took care of it. she said she saw no reason for that and was sure the owner would agree (note to self, take this up with him tomorrow, when i can catch him). she also told me this had happened lots of times before, often for more than a week, and it had always worked that way. i reminded her i was teaching an exam class and couldn't just incorporate random people in my class, and if i wasn't going to get paid for the extra work/help, she could happily cancel the other group. then i moved on to the teaching Fridays topic. i explained that, as it was summer and i couldn't afford to go anywhere, i'd decided to take all the Fridays off. she said she understood, she did the same. but then, she'd talked to the owner and they'd 'realised' not everyone worked everyday and so people who didn't wouldn't be offered contracts. i just looked at her. sounded like another of her threats (it's not the first time she threatens not to give us more work if we don't do as she says), seen as i have a contract already. unless they're looking at changing them, making our working conditions more permanent, etc... and hopefully getting more pay! i repeated the summer thing. oh, ok, she said. then she asked if id' be working Fridays in September. i said yes to drown the issue, but looks like that's another topic i'll be discussing with said owner tomorrow...

most of the time, i love my job. about 3 times a year, when she pulls these crazy stunts, i really, really hate it.

picture perfect

so my Japanese friend arrived a little later than expected, but we've been having a great time together. it's so good to see her, nice to have someone around in the flat. today, we walked all the way through the old town of Geneva and she took lots of pictures of everything and me, as usual. she's a photographer, when she can afford to be (she'll be published in January - can't wait!), and she's made the most amazing little album of her trip to Portugal, where she spent 10 days before coming to France. she's also probably the only person who willingly looks at the 1000 pictures of Japan i took when i was over there... :)

more amazement

luckily, today is the Swiss national day, which means i didn't have to get up early and work this morning. considering i slept 2 hrs yesterday afternoon cos i was so tired from the weekend, i didn't expect to then sleep a full 11 hrs at night as well, but i did and i feel loads better today. apart from the mosquito bites that plague me (got about 20 on each limb!).

and to continue the lucky streak, a Japanese friend of mine is coming to visit me for a couple of days. it'll be the third time i see her in the 2 years since i left Japan, which is pretty amazing, considering she still lives there. i'm really excited about seeing her again! this long weekend really is proving to be amazing.