phone call

so, just called J. to find out what we were doing tomorrow, for our date. we spent a good 20mns talking. it was pretty hilarious all the way through. which is good. we could have talked for hours, i think, it's just that if i've got to have my whole day free tomorrow, i have tons of things to do today. in the next 5 hrs, in fact, as i have a dinner tonight and i'm certainly not planning on doing any work at all when i get back... so had to cut it short. but i can't stop smiling... :) cross your fingers for me, everyone!

training

so, delivered my second training session this afternoon. the first one, last week, had gone really well, in the end, and i think i got a little too confident cos when i planned today's, it all seemed so easy, and it really wasn't. in fact, i'd blindly followed the plan someone had mentioned, and not realised that it wasn't perhaps the best way to go about it. but they got the point, which is what's important. these were 'new' teachers who'd only been working for a couple of months, but up next will apparently be my friends and colleagues, who've been working at the school for 2 years or more. i'd better be incredibly well prepared...

insomnia

didn't sleep last night. at all. i'd only ever suffered from insomnia twice before, and hadn't liked it any better then.

i got home at 11pm, very happy and excited. i'd had a wonderful evening and had even set up a date. or at least, i hope it's a date. the way we were flirting (well, the way i was, at least), this has got to be a date. so yeah, when i got to bed, i knew it'd take a little while before i'd fall asleep. but even after resorting to aromatherapy, i was no nearer the goal. i finally got back up at 3.30am and worked a bit. went back to bed 45 mns later, but no better luck. i somehow survived the whole day without feeling too tired, it's only starting to hit me now. thank god i can sleep later tomorrow!

tsarina Dagmar

so, apparently, the last Russian tasr's mother was a Danish princess, Dagmar. and because the communists had taken over, she was buried in Denmark when she died in 1928 (i'm assuming that's where she ended when she fled St Petersburg). but apparently, Putin's going all mother-country Russian and old Russian things are coming back. and they wanted Dagmar to be buried in St Petersburg, where she belonged. and so yesterday there was a ceremony at Roskilde cathedral, where she was buried. i'm assuming they gave her a new coffin, cos the one she was in was pristine and showed to wear & tear from the passing 78 years. after a new 'burial' ceremony, there was then a cortege that took her to Copenhagen, where she would board a ship that would bring her back to the mother country on the exact day, 140 years later, she had first set foot in Russia. and as we were nearby anyway, we headed for the Russian church, where there was to be another little ceremony. after seeing the coffin and all the royals (and the Romanovs), we moved on, but we seemed to end right back into it an hour later. it was quite funny. and a piece of history.

wonderful Copenhagen

i love Copenhagen. it really is an amazing city (except if you walk around it say, off the top of my head, at 7am on a Sunday, which i really don't recommend).

as i was walking around it the other day, in the sunshine, all the smells that make the place hit me. grilled sausages from the stands, Belgian waffles being made, newly-baked bread, and then also the salty water, flowers, fruits etc. i was reminded of my childhood days, spending summers there. there was definitely a holiday feel to it this weekend.

3 years...

and i still miss you...

friends in need

so, a full two weeks after his fall, i finally got to see my friend at the hospital. actually, i went on Monday, but first he was asleep, and then the doctor talked to him forever, and i had tons of things to do so had to leave. we'd talked on the phone a couple of times, but i was really looking forward to actually seeing him.

considering he's probably never going to walk again, he seemed to be doing well. generally in good spirits. it was good to see him, to joke with him. today was his first occupational therapy session, where he learns to use a wheelchair. i hope it went well. unfortunately, i won't be able to see him again until Monday, as i'll be out of the country. but i'm keeping my fingers crossed.

i fucked up

yesterday was an awful day. it really was. my students (all adults) were misbehaving, as usual. well, maybe misbehaving is a strong word, but i kept having to repeat instructions, explanations and they kept not listening, being late back from break, etc. this had been going on for a week. and then i just lost it. i told one of them, who was talking with another student, to leave the room 5 mns. she looked at me and asked me if i was joking. by then, even though i'd realised it was not a good idea, i had to stand my ground. she started screaming at me. i screamed back at her. she left. went straight to reception and screamed some more, was then caught by the boss and screamed a little more.

can't be bothered to go into details here, but i felt really bad after that. all day. couldn't eat lunch. barely ate dinner. talked with the boss just after it happened, then talked to my supervisor. it was good. then, this morning, i apologised to everyone again, apologised to her especially, admitted that i perhaps had expectations that were a little too high. we seem to be back to normal. i feel loads better now. but boy do i hope this never happens again...

the would-be promotion

i just realised i haven't explained about this. so here goes.

after a year and a half living precariously on a contract that didn't, in fact, guarantee a minimum number of hours, and thus never knowing whether i'd be paid the following month or not, i've finally been offered a full-time contract with a minimum salary, which can of course increase if i teach more than the minimum. this is good. there's no raise in it yet, which is why there's still a little way to go before i consider it a full promotion.

together with this, i had approached my supervisor about a month ago to tell him that my previous employer had wanted me to become a trainer and ask him whether this could be on the cards for me or not. by then, i'd been there long enough, i thought it was justified to ask. and so this contract will include training work. in fact, i start training some new teachers tomorrow. not for long (which is good, cos i've got loads of classes that day), but it's a quicker start than i'd anticipated.

so, all in all, things are looking up.

home shopping

so, over the weekend, i managed to buy lots of stuff that was needed, and not needed so much but which i'd had my eye on for a while. yesterday we had the potters' market in town, and i'd seen this stuff last year but had had no money. so now that i've kind of been promoted, i decided i should treat myself to something i really wanted. like this vase.

and at ikea the other day, i finally got myself a new chair, to make up for the one that keeps crashing the minute someone sits on it. it's a rocking chair too! i love it.

the party

it's past 3am and the last guest left about half an hour ago. well done considering it was a working day and we all woke up early. :) 14 people came in the end. it was really nice. a lot of really good friends who had never met, so i was glad they finally did. and a friend i hadn't seen in over a year! i wish they'd stayed, but i myself had trouble keeping my eyes open. the only reason i'm still up was that i couldn't face waking up tomorrow to do the washing up, so i just finished it now. the place looks a lot cleaner now. and i can go to bed knowing we all had a great time.

10 things that have happened this week... so far

* got back to a normal working schedule - yep, summer's over, workwise...
* talked to my boss about having a normal contract - this should be good!
* was asked to start doing some training - about time too! have been waiting for this for 2 years...
* found out my friend is doing well after his operation - his family, though, is another problem...
* painted my fingernails - it may sound silly, but i'm not really a girl's girl when it comes to make-up and related things, so this is a huge step for me! :)
* found out more about the radiators i'm having installed - ETA in about 10 days, i hope
* won another one-to-one pool game against Mr. J. - on the way to becoming pool queen?
* finally bought that insect killer thing that will save my hibiscus
* got to see my best friend for about 2mns - better than the last few days
* confirmed that at least 15 people will be coming over tomorrow evening - should be good

the trip back from hell

after such a wonderful weekend, i couldn't see how anything could go wrong. it did. in a big, big way.

having found a new, quicker route to the airport, we left in ample time, we thought. apart from the first few kilometres behind a slow car on some tiny country road, we had no problem. on the motorway, there was noone, and we did a steady 140kph. so it was with slight apprehension that i noticed that we were not, as we should have been, at the airport by 2pm. we were not even in Toulouse by then. check-in closed at 2.15. we got into Toulouse, and time was steadily growing short. my father was doing way over the limit (90kph for a 50kph area), so i told him to slow down. which he did. to exactly 78kph - or so say the cops who flashed us. great. they stopped us at the roundabout near the airport. it was 2.15. i ran with all my bags, hoping against hope. the check-in had just closed, but the lady was nice and checked me in nonetheless, despite boarding having started.

i was a bit out of it. had never been stopped by police before, at least not like that and not with a serious deadline looming. and i hadn't been able to wait to see how much of a fine my father got, or even to see whether they'd take away his license (which they can do over 20kph over the limit). i was upset. and that's when i realised i'd forgotten my sweater. no big deal, but still. however, just before they closed the doors, the flight attendant came and handed it to me. which meant my father still had a license. thank god!

back in GVA, my luggage failed to materialise. didn't make it onboard, i thought, but i wasn't the only one. we'd been waiting in the lost luggage area for 5 mns when the bags showed up with those of the following plane. they'd obviously stopped the belt before the last luggage had been through...

and then i missed my bus.

Les Délices du Roy

i am currently spending the weekend in southern France. it's great. the weather's amazing, as is the countryside. it's gorgeous all round.

yesterday, we went to the above-named restaurant, in a small town called Nérac, in the next 'county'. that was slow food. it took a good half an hour before we were even able to order, and it's not like there were many tables (there are 9 tables total in the restaurant, and considering the whole meal takes a good 2.5 hrs, we really wonder how they ever make any money). once we'd ordered our starter and main course, which was to be everything we wanted to eat, we were first served with what they call 'mises-en-bouche', i.e., something to make us ready to eat and make us want more. that was prawns. then we had our starter. a huge amount of it. it would have done me as a full meal! this was followed by a little something to, i assume, prepare our palates to the different taste of the main course: a scoop of blackcurrant ice cream topped with one perfect, tasty and mostly light orange-coloured raspberry. followed our meal. again, massive quantities. once that was over and we were thoroughly full, we saw what other people were being served for dessert. more gorgeous stuff, but we weren't having any, and that was just as well. which didn't stop the waiter from bringing more food to our table, namely a small glass of panacotta topped with raspberry sauce. delicious!

the whole thing took a really long time, as i said. and it was amazing all the way through. but there should be a warning sign that tells customers that they'll be getting 3 in-between dishes. even though they were tiny, we could have lived with just a main course if we'd known we were getting all those other things...

it takes only a second...

there was this party last night that i didn't go to. i couldn't be bothered. i just got an email from a friend who went. one of our friends fell from the balcony of the second floor of the club the party was taking place at. noone knows how. one second he was up there, the next one he was on the floor, 3m below. he doesn't even drink, so that's not why he fell.

what we do know is that he's about to be operated but the doctors think he'll never walk again. i can't believe it. he's always the life of the party, and right now he's lying in a hospital bed waiting to be opened up, and i can't even go see him cos a) the doctors said there shouldn't be more than 2 people (my friends Tinkie and Hobbes are there right now - they went with him in the ambulance), and b) my plane leaves in 2 hrs. i won't be able to go see him before Sunday evening. i feel so terrible.

The Lake House

sop sop sop

if you're not into romantic movies, don't watch this one. reminds me of the movie, can't remember the name right now, Deborah Kerr and Carry Grant, transatlantic cruise, Empire State building, etc. although of course, it being set in Chicago today and it having a supernatural element to it kills any further resemblance. but a classic love story. guys, if you wanna make your romantic girlfriends happy, take them to see it/rent it on video.

sop sop sop

summer's back!

after last week's freezing weather, it was nice to see the sun come back, as well as the high temperatures. so yesterday afternoon, at about 6 (it was too hot before), my friend and i went for a walk along the lake. we stopped for an ice cream, then a drink while we sat in the newly laid grass. by then, the sky was turning a shade of pink, the water was its most beautiful pearly colour and some clouds decided to go crazy with really nice shapes. it was amazing to walk around, in that weather, surrounded by the beautiful Alps and Jura mountains, with half a moon glowing in the sky. it's at moment like these that you really have to stop and think: i am so very lucky to be living here!

party girl

i know it's gotta stop, really, cos my body can't possibly keep up with the rythm, but some summer has come back for September (let's hope it lasts), and so the regular going-out has not yet become less regular. whilst the first two nights were reasonable (got back at 10.30 from both the pool night and the drinks on Thursday), got home at 3am from the farewell party yesterday, and only just got home from the housewarming tonight. i did manage to nap in the afternoon (i had to wake up early for a hairdressing appointment made before i had plans Friday night), which is good, cos otherwise i wouldn't have been able to get home, i think. i'm going to bed now. good night.

new objectives

last year, before my friend left for Africa (she works for the Red Cross), we had a small party during which one of us convinced the others to write down our objectives for the coming year, to be opened when the new RC recruit came back.

last night, the envelope was finally opened... i guess i covered half of my objectives, which is not bad. and while we were at it we wrote new ones. on my list, i recycled what i hadn't yet dealt with (so i'm once again planning to visit Budapest, Vienna, Bratislava and Prague and once again, i'm seriously looking at my job situation). i added practical things (like painting my doors, getting new radiators), and things that are a lot less important (like becoming a pool queen and spending more time on a friend's boat next summer). we'll see how it all goes :)

envelope opening due around Xmas 2007...

pool night

despite not being particularly good at it (then again, sometimes i can be), i love playing pool. but it's obviously not something you're going to do alone - or at least, it's really boring alone. but i have finally found the solution. my online community has lots of pool players and my old schoolmate turns out to be the one organising regular pool events. so i went to one the other night and had a fabulous time. played 4 games in one hour, won 2 (and must say i played really well in that last one - against none other than a really good player!). it was great!