the poet

i think i've mentioned the poet, but if not, i've been corresponding with one these last 2 weeks. i call him the poet because he started off by writing long sentences full of poetry and i had to read between the lines to get facts out of it all, but he's now onto something slightly more resembling normal writing, although still tending towards imagery and introspection. anyway, we're been writing to each other and seemingly, we get along well. so we're now taking it to the next step and meeting up. that will be Thursday. i'm trying not to get my hopes up, but he has a certain way with words that does make me want to meet him and hope for a positive outcome. so, 4 days to go and not at all counting...

my kind of guy

i was out with some friends last night and i got talking to a friend's girlfriend. she was explaining how, when she had decided to get a scooter to get around town, my friend had said that wasn't going to happen: if she wanted to get around town, they'd get a car. no way was she a) risking her life or b) getting cold on a scooter. that's my kind of guy!

environmental rant

i saw the latest ecological movie the other day. it wasn't all that great, but one fact did come through loud and clear: in the coming years, there will be more than 1 billion environmental refugees in the world. that's like trying to rehouse China. and while a lot of the problems are, of course, pollution-related, some of it is clearly just wastage. do we need the latest car, the latest computer, the latest phone? the amount of 'old' stuff that is just being thrown away, and usually ends up in poor countries, polluting elsewhere than at home. on the bus tonight, there was a girl saying she was going to buy herself a third ipod. cos she really needed one... and i realise that the world economy would suffer a setback if we didn't buy all this stuff all the time. then again, we could try to live with a little less. or, we could stop having shareholders.

on TV the other night, i saw that NASA was considering a multi-billion plan to send 'umbrellas' or 'mirrors' or whatever they called it, into space to divert sunlight by a few degrees to help cool down the planet a little. if it's gonna cost tax payers around the world that much money, wouldn't it be simpler to spend it on a better economic and environmental plan? but unfortunately, it already seems that nothing can possibly come out of the Copenhaguen summit, what with China being a) the biggest polluter in the world and b) the biggest owner of US dollars and thus America's saviour. this is going to be another useless waste of money...

hilarious

i was just watching a talk show and this happened: the 3 guests walked in, all 3 TV-show presenters invited to discuss the latest show. but as they sat down, one said he just wanted to say a few words, unfolded a piece of paper and basically spelled out everything that's going wrong in France at the moment. no kidding. among others, he talked about sending refugees home to get killed, silly French politics, free doctors' appointments for girls who think they might be at risk of being pregnant and the questionable French victory in the football match against Ireland last night. it was completely unexpected for everyone, especially the host, whose face was hilarious to watch as he obviously wondered how long the litany would last. but well worth seeing and he certainly got my vote!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YciYef-4A5E

girls night out

with M. and S., we'd decided to meet up one night, dressed to impress and made-up. we finally found a night that worked for us all, although as the day was approaching, it seemed it wasn't such great timing after all, but as postponing meant maybe next year, we kept it. and they completely forgot to let me know that they wouldn't have time to do the whole shebang with clothes and make-up, so that i was the only one dressed to kill. it didn't really matter, as we were in the kind of place where i looked totally normal, but as it's not really my style to dress up that much, i did feel a bit conspicuous. nevertheless, it was great to finally get together, just the 3 of us, and really catch up on what had been going on in our lives.

online dating 2

ok, so after the other night's result and the general profiles of the site i was using, i decided to try something else. i found a site where i was asked 90 questions to determine my psychological profile. it had questions but also pictures (mostly squares and circles or related, and i had to choose the ones i liked best) and at the end, a 'report' showing what the norm was, where i was on that scale (surprinsingly mostly in the norm) and what kind of guy i should date. hmmm... not sure i trust the numbers, but what the hell. it's worth a try.

the site then only shows me profiles of men whom i'm compatible with. on the plus side, i don't have to go through pages and pages of profiles. on the minus side, that list currently only consists of about 4 men in my area. one of whom is apparently a 76% match, and whom i've been strongly encouraged to make contact with. the others average between 60 and 70%. so i wrote to 2 of the guys to see what would happen. one has replied (not the 76% guy) so we're now in touch.

i also got an email from another guy, who for some reason didn't show up on the list but who's still 'compatible'. it was a very long and poetic email. i'm pretty sure it was a standard thing he'd sent out to others, with only the first and last few lines pertaining to me, but he was basically describing himself so it doesn't really matter. a bit too poetic, maybe. although i'm a romantic, i'm not a huge fan of poetry... still, there were some nice points in there, about what he liked and didn't, etc, so i wrote back. nothing near as long, but to the point, seen as he'd been candid with me. he replied straight away and seems nice. he's quite good-looking too, which doesn't hurt. let's see what happens next.

love woes

i saw Mr. J. yesterday. he finally admitted that he is hopelessly in love with S. it's a crazy story. last year, at just about the same time, they'd been together for a year and he was so in love that he'd decided that he'd let go of his fears and just be happy. and it worked. for all of two months. then his fears came back and he eventually broke up with her. and for months, he's been telling me that it's definitely over, despite the fact that he knows she's probably his ideal woman. and i actually thought he was trying to move on, but it turns out he isn't really. i don't get it. i don't get how, when you know who've found the one, you can let go.

the consequences

so it turns out N. hadn't heard the interesting conversation i'd had with one of the teachers the other day. and apart from him actually needing to know at some point, as he was querying the wording of the report i'd produced i had to say something. in the end, he decided action needed to be taken, so he sent her an email copy to me, the head of language and the boss. on the one hand, i know this was the right course of action, especially as her behaviour hasn't been up to scratch for a while, apparently, but on the other, it seemed a tad too much. but i guess that was nothing compared to the head of language's response, which was basically tto say hat she should be disciplined. as far as he's concerned, i shouldn't even have to get such 'rude' emails from her (to be fair, i have nothing against her emails being short and not saying 'hi' and 'bye', but i would like her to ANSWER my questions). well, we'll see how this develops.

face to face meeting

i met up with this guy i'd been talking to on the net. he was nice, but i knew instantly that it wasn't going to work. still, i gave him an hour and a half to convince me otherwise, at the end of which i knew we were running out of things to say. the only thing we really had in common was how much we'd travelled. but that was it. other than that, he'd made no effort on attire for a first date (he looked like he'd been on a building site all day, whereas i'd made up on top of looking nice), he let me pay for the drinks (not a huge sum and, to be fair, he was going to get the next set - we just never got that far) and didn't open the door for me when we left but happily went out first. so i guess that was that...

work with me on this one...

i'm starting to have doubts about one of my colleagues. i'm not sure what she's like in the classroom, but a couple of weeks ago, i'd asked her for an assessment of her students' level. she seemingly didn't have a clue, and when i called to confirm, she basically said that whatever original placement testing we'd done was probably correct and that she really didn't have time to check their levels as well as teach them. uh... shouldn't that go together??

today, she pulled another classic. i'd asked for a report on the exact same classes, one paragraph per class. nothing huge or complicated, simply whether the classes were homogenous, whether the students were motivated, on time, did their homework, and were there any problems, etc. i got about 2 lines back saying everything was fine. to which i replied i was going to need a little more than that. so when i walked in this afternoon, she explained she really didn't have the time ('i have time for this coffee and that's it') and could i just make it up? ... no, i certainly couldn't! i re-explained that this report was part of a long-term thing and that we had to get it right from the start. but she really didn't have time, she said. however, she seemed to have time to hang around the office, so i asked her a few questions about all the topics she was supposed to cover and put them into something usable.

i don't know if it's me she doesn't want to do it for, or if there's something else, but in any case, we were in the middle of the reception, so i really didn't know what to say to her. however, when she left, N. went straight after her and they had a quick chat just outside. i don't actually know what what it was about but i'm pretty sure he'd heard the whole exchange and wanted to make it clear to her that her attitude towards her job left to be desired. at least i hope so.

20 years

i remember watching the Berlin wall fall on TV, 20 years ago. i remember crying: it's the kind of thing that makes me cry, seeing people succeed against all odds. i saw the symbolic domino 'wall' they'd put up and saw it fall. i thought it was a nice commemoration.

online dating

i know i said i wouldn't be caught dead doing it again, but what the hell. i signed up a couple of months ago and have this week been emailing back and forth with a guy. we're supposed to meet up next week, which will be good cos he's not the king of long emails. his very first was 'hi from [city name]', which was a bit on the short side, as i remarked upon in my reply. but he seems like an ok guy, so we'll meet up and then it'll quickly be obvious whether this is something that could go on or not, i'm sure.

dead tree

i'm not sure but i think this tree might be dead. it'd be a bit early for it to have lost all its leaves when most of the other trees still have most of theirs...

lopsided tree

i've walked past this tree hundreds of times, but never noticed until the other day how lopsided its branches were. because of the tree on the other side of the path, they all developed on the right side. it looked funny.

non-smoking again

on the 1st of June 2008, all pubs, bars, cafes and restaurants in Geneva became non-smoking, as the population had, 2 months earlier, voted that they wanted this. but then, after about 6 months, if turned out it was completely illegal to impose this due to some missing legislation. so the places happily put their ashtrays back on the tables, much to all us non-smokers' bewilderment.

then, after a year of wranglings and whatnot, it's finally come back into being. as of the 1st of November, we're back to being non-smoking. not only that, but the federal government has also been working on country-wide ban, which will take effect on the 1st of May. yeah!!!

the walk - mountains

this was the first view on my walk. it's the Jura mountain in the background.

you looking at me?

i went for a walk this afternoon. while i was driving to my usual place, i saw this cow near this tree. it was so cute that i had to stop and take a picture.