the car problems that never end

when they replaced the started in my car, they had to take out the battery. do that and the stereo asks you for a pin code to start again. code that i don't have, as it seems it got lost somewhere in the move 2 years ago. so i called up the garage, as they were the ones who sold my parents the car originally, to get the code. ah... yes... lucky me it's now and not in January, when all records that are 10 years old are destroyed. in the meantime, however, they still have to actually find the relevant archive. so i have no music in my car, which is bad enough for the usual short rides, and driving to Lausanne the other day was quite entertaining - it gave me a chance to hear every sound my car made and wonder, again and again, if the newly changed wheels were going to fall off...

dinner with old friends

for the first time ever, i actually set foot in Lausanne yesterday. i didn't actually get to really see any of it, apart from driving around i mean, cos i was there to have dinner with old friends. still, on the plus side i now know how to get around the town (getting lost helps!).

amazingly precisely on time, i walked into the flat and saw two sisters i hadn't seen in a long, long time. especially one, whom i don't think i'd seen since i left home about 13 years ago. and boy had she grown up!

it was really great to see them both again. and it was great to see how well they'd both turned out, despite all the hardship they'd been through at a really young age. one a happy psycho-therapist, the other working for the government. both balanced young ladies. i was really proud of them.

wheels

the plan was to change my wheels this weekend. but on Saturday, i couldn't find the jack, so i had to call my father to ask him where he'd last put it. then, once i found it, i couldn't get it out. i had no more time to deal with it, because of Mr. J's DIY project. but when i told the guys, they looked at me and asked why i hadn't just brought the wheels with me. they eventually told them to bring them today and they'd change them for me. and that was it. it took them less than 30 mns. and one less thing for me to worry about!

DIY

Mr. J's now the proud owner of his very own flat, and he got us to help out with it. i couldn't make it yesterday, when they pulled down the wall, but i was there this afternoon to get rid of the wallpaper. what an afternoon! it was quite a lot of fun - being several people, there was lots of bantering going around. and it made the work go that much faster!

car service

had to get my car serviced. had a budget for that, but it kind of went out the window when my car had yet again abruptly refused to start last week. it was the third time since June, and although hitting the starter with a metallic rod still did the trick, i had been warned it wouldn't last, so i thought what the hell, get it over with now. so i told the garage they'd better change it too.

as i wasn't going to be reachable, i had promised to call them at a specific time of the day to check nothing else was drastically wrong. the first time i called, the guy was out. the second time, the receptionist informed me that there were going to be extra expenses but she really couldn't remember what for. i asked her to get the guy to call me back to explain, cos if it was anything big, i basically couldn't afford it, what with the starter already costing 300 euros. he never did.

i eventually called back and was told the whole thing was going to cost 600 euros, as there were some belts that had needed changing. i basically told him to forget about the belts cos there was no way i could afford it. after arguing a little over it, he eventually said he could forego the charge for changing the belts and bring it down to around 515 euros. what do you know? i don't really think it was down to my skills in persuasion, though. it was probably more to the fact that they had already, without authorisation, changed the belts.

doctors!

finally went to see an ENT the other day, to find out why i kept getting these sinusites again and again. after a quick exam, he told me there was nothing an ENT could do but that it was probably related to my stomach. he gave me anti-acids to take for 6 weeks, saying that if i wasn't better then, i'd need to do some further tests and see an internal medicine doctor. uh... if what is not better in 6 weeks? my cold will be gone by then and as i can't feel much wrong in my stomach, i really have no clue what he's talking about. and just in case it made any sense, the anti-acids are even more expensive than antibiotics.

cool commercial

there's a new dairy products commercial on French tv. i absolutely LOVE it! check it out here:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x32xho_pub-produits-laitiers-la-
chose_ads

enjoy!

not again?!

and here i thought increasing the level of iron in my blood was going to do the trick and i would be sick no more... dream on.

this time, however, i was prepared. the minute i noticed it was not just lack of sleep, i called to get an appointment with the ENT, and although i couldn't get a time before Monday morning, it's better than seeing him when i'm not sick. hopefully, he'll be able to tell me why my sinuses keep doing this to me and how to stop it from happening.

in the meantime, my physiotherapist - who is a bit more than a physiotherapist in that he is primarily trained to deal with breathing problems, the lymphatic system, you name it - was kind enough to suggest an extra appointment today to deal with my illness. i don't feel a lot better, but breathing is definitely easier. i might even be able to sleep! i'll go try...

weather in the Americas

after hurricane Noel and the huge floods in Mexico, 1.5 metres of hail fell on Bogota in a freak storm yesterday. can you imagine? 1.5 metres of hail! in a tropical city. the weather is insane...

how to celebrate a birthday in style

first, take 7 ladies who are more or less in need of some quality relaxation. put them in two cars and drive to a spa. there, enjoy various baths (with or without bubbles, somewhat hot to a little hotter), sauna or hammam (my new favourite). take tropical showers or stand under a bucket of cold water and pull the rope to get splashed with it.

once changed back to human form, go to a nice bar/restaurant. make sure more people are invited for this part. enjoy a nice dinner and some well-chosen wine (or so i was told, it's not like i know anything about it!). make sure even more people are invited for the after-dinner part of the evening and push the tables to the side so as to make space for an impromptu dance-floor in order to enjoy the amazing music the DJ is playing. make sure she knows her stuff and plays songs you haven't heard since you were about 10. now the party is in full swing and everyone's having fun, fun, fun.

when you get tired, make sure you leave with the person whose birthday it is so you can conveniently stay over at her place and not worry about getting home. this way, you can also tell everyone later that she really liked all her presents (and there were many!) and that she really enjoyed her day/night.

job search

it just got confirmed that i didn't get the job. i thought as much, having not heard from her on Monday as promised. no big deal, but things are getting increasingly tense at work. apparently, our big boss has decided to micro-manage everything, which makes no sense whatsoever. and this is apparently the reason for which we've lost a big contract, which means i'm losing 3 groups of great students. i'm more sad about losing the students than worrying about the classes, but solely because i have a specific contract that (supposedly) guarantees me a certain number of lessons. the logic would then be that those classes will be replaced by others, which probably means, taken away from other teachers, as we don't seem to be getting more customers... i don't like that at all.

so i'm gonna have to be a little more active in my job search. oh joy. last week i felt i was, perhaps, blowing things a little out of proportion. now i'm thinking i might have underestimated the problem.

green facts

did you know that cigarette butts take more than 7 years to decompose AND that just one such butt pollutes about 500 litres of water or 1 cubic metre of snow with toxic substances such as tar, quicksilver and something we in French call 'chlorure de vinyle' (which, no matter how translated, is definitely bad)?

other decomposition times (as written in the newspaper i read yesterday - i haven't actually checked, so if there's a mistake somewhere, please let me know!):
- a glass bottle: around 4000 years
- a ski-pass: 1000 years
- chewing-gum: 500 years
- a plastic bag: 450 years
- an aluminium can: 200 years
- a lighter: 100 years
- candy wrapper: 5 years
- a but ticket (in Switzerland): 1 year
- a pack of cigarettes: 6 months
- a matchstick: 6 months
- a paper tissue: 3 months
- a banana peel: 1 month

time to take stock and stop throwing things on the streets, in fields or forests, or anywhere that's not a bin, really!