snow weekend

we were invited to spend the weekend in a chalet in the mountains. we were about 13, with a couple of people coming and going. it was lots of fun! the only problem was that there wasn't much snow, and what there was wasn't of great quality, so i refused to ski. instead, i went to a hotspring (nothing like the Japanese ones, but you can't get everything...) the first day, and on a walk the second day. altogether, we had a great time!

oscars

it was the local oscar-party last night, and believe it or not, not only was i nominated for one, but i was also actually awarded one! came as a surprise to me, as i thought there'd only be 3 winners, but apparently not. so i had no real time to prepare a speech, which means i said something totally lame but there you go. i'm a small celebrity now...

9 years, 6 months and 3 weeks

yep, that took its time! and funnily enough, all multiples of 3...

...and finding out about your lessons

i was given 2 new lessons in a company. started yesterday. i'd never been there before, so i spent quite some time at the reception, finding out where everything was, including the room i was going to teach in. room D266. for both lessons? which two lessons? they only knew about one of them. ah... so they called the training manager, which i was grateful for. she came down, we introduced ourselves and found out that one of my lessons had in fact been cancelled, but the lesson for the following day hadn't. ah. the exact opposite of what my boss had said. we double checked, and i even stayed an extra 10 mns after the lesson in case someone lost did turn up. but noone did. so off to home i went.

as soon as i walked in the door, i sent my boss an email to tell him what had happened, also so he could let the other teacher know her lesson wasn't cancelled after all. then this morning i got an email back saying that no, i had it all wrong, and that things were as he'd said. could i please come and see him ASAP.

so, during the lesson break, i went to talk to him and he repeated his previous assertions. i did point out the training manager herself had told me what the facts were and shown me a list. but no, he insisted that she had no clue what she was talking about and had it all wrong. that i found hilarious. surely, if anyone was wrong, it was him? but what the hell...

a couple of hours later, the boss had gone but i was informed that my class had, indeed, been cancelled, and that the other class had, indeed, not stopped at all. yes, well, there was a surprise...

how to determine what ails you...

finally went to the doctor's again, all ready to tell him about my possible new allergy/intolerance. but he says the symptoms don't match. so instead, he ordered a huge list of blood tests (although technically, half the tests are the same as the ones in September, so i couldn't see how that was going to solve the mystery). he also gave me a prescription for the stomach medicine the ENT had given me in November but said i'd probably have to see a lung specialist. now that logic i totally fail to understand... but then, what else is new?

anyway, the tests came back and apparently, i'm mostly very healthy. yeah. could have fooled me...

green facts 3

eat local and seasonal fruits and vegetables because:

- 10 to 20 times more petrol is used to transport a fruit imported by plane than to transport a local one
- it takes 5 litre of petrol to import a bunch of asparagus from Mexico to Switzerland in February but only 0.3 litre for a Swiss bunch in May
- it takes 1.1 litre of petrol to grow a cucumber in a heated greenhouse, but only 0.1 litre to grow it in a field

and so, if you think about it, buying organic but imported foods make no sense when you think about how much petrol was used for the transportation...

allergic?

this is all a bit silly, i realise, but after the ENT telling me whatever problem i had was probably stomach-related, a friend of mine describing how she only found out recently that she was gluten-intolerant, and knowing allergies can develop late in life, i'm thinking i might be allergic to a certain type of bread that i eat.

it all started with me not bothering to cook a real meal the other night and ending up eating sandwiches. i never eat bread in the evening but it seemed strange that it felt like i wasn't digesting it so well. didn't think much about until i woke up at 2am with something akin to nausea. i hadn't eaten anything out of the ordinary that day, and the only thing that was different was the bread in the evening. but again, as i felt much better in the morning, i didn't dwell on it. until a few hours later, that is, when i started feeling decidedly horrible. i was coughing again and my head was swimming. i was also probably running a fever. all the usual symptoms of my illnesses for the past year.

got home and went straight to bed at 4pm. made myself get up at 7, so i would be sure to sleep the night through. i needn't have worried about that. i slept another 12 hours and could have stayed in bed. still, i felt much better. and this made me think that i was probably allergic to something in that bread, which, after all, i've only been eating for the last 3 years. have already stopped eating it to see if it changes anything.

splitting hairs?

when i started this blog (3 years ago!), i decided not to worry about capital letters, be it for the pronoun 'i' or the beginning of sentences. but sometimes i've been uncertain: if i put capital letters for names, then surely those words that also always take a capital letter (days of the weeks, months) should also keep theirs. but then the inconsistency annoys me. having read and enjoyed the book 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves', this question has come to haunt me. should i forego capitals entirely? i used to get pissed off at people who wrote SMSs in code: CUL8R - what does that mean? when i used my mobile in Japan, i always wrote with capitals and full punctuation. once in a while i would abbreviate a word or two, but capitals and punctuation stayed. now, i realise that not using capitals at the beginning of sentences has become a habit, as well as the lower case 'i', and that that's how i now write most of my emails. sometimes, i wonder if people (my friends) will think ill of me for that. i used to pester about all the shortcuts that people made and that would undoubtedly result in poor spelling through lack of practice. am i splitting hairs? i know i am. is this important? probably not. still, i have to make a choice, and it's a hard one to make for someone who can use semi-colons...

the adventures of the archaeologist - self-promotion

an archaeologist is a great person to have around. their knowledge of the past makes for incredibly interesting conversation: you can find out about everything from prehistoric death rituals to Viking shipping and medieval diets. anything in the past, really. which offers scope for a broadened discussion on any topic, using the past as a guideline for everything. it's amazing.

depending on the kind of archaeologist you choose to hang around, you will also get opportunities to either visit museums for free or have a look at (and even participate in) excavations. the latter will reconcile you with geology, among other things. despite appearances, soil layers are truly beautiful.

as archaeologists usually spend a lot of time in the pub, you'll automatically get a new social life if you hang around one. they normally know the bartenders by name, and whilst you won't get a free pint, you'll get to know all the regulars, which will bring even more interesting facts to the conversations.

for your own personal archaeologist, pop into the Humanities building of any self-respecting university. they come in all shapes and sizes so you'll be sure to find one that's perfect for you! so, come and get your archaeologist now! no one should be without one.

mochi

here's what i could eat right now: mochi-cream.

mochi is a type of 'cake' made from rice 'dough'. inside it, there's usually red-bean paste, but these new ones have ice cream in them. i was a bit dubious at first, but they are very yummy! and they come in lots of different colours that go with the different tastes. the dark purple ones here are sweet potato, the light pink ones are sakura-flavoured, the yellow ones are probably lemon.

and i could do with a whole bagful! they're so good...

happy new year!

a new sunrise for the new year. let's hope 2008 is a good year for everyone!