meeting my aunt

apart from hanging out with the cousins, i got to spend quite a lot of time with my aunt. as a kid, that wasn't my first priority, and every time we've seen each other since, it was of course more fun to spend time with D&L. but through our time together, i got to know her a little better. and she's great. she reminds me of L., my grandmother's sister, whom i got on with so well. she's funny and doesn't take things too seriously. we went on a long walk, where i admittedly hijacked most of the conversation, but it was still great. i think i'll talk to her a lot more from now on.

the kid

while my father's girlfriend's 7-year-old daughter has, since the summer, made huge progress in terms of her attitude, she is very seriously getting on my nerves.

first, she is around practically all the time (over the summer, while her mother worked, she was at the activities centre). in practice, that means that we continuously have to entertain her. this takes a huge amount of time away from just hanging out with the cousins (when they were here) or their parents.

i know she's 7, but i really resent her for always needing to be the centre of attention. every time she is asked to do something she doesn't like, she sulks. every time we aren't paying attention, she sulks. or make noises, or decides to read out of her book, or stalks us and continously asks us what we are doing or what we are going to do. it is incredibly tiring. frankly, since D&L left, i can't wait to leave myself, which is not a feeling i've had for a long time.

the cousins

it was so nice to see D&L again! and nice to see them more than a few hours on some family occasion trip, where we only ever get to exchange the latest news but that's it. despite their jetlag and D being sick, we still saw each other at every meal and went for walks and talked and took crazy pictures. it was a short visit (they left after 4 days), but it was so much fun. and it was funny, us all being between 31 and 36, all acting like little kids. and when they left, there was a definite emptiness to the house.

Xmas eve

and then it was Xmas eve. D. had spent most of the previous day in bed, and most of that day too, to be able to (hopefully) spend more time with us on Xmas eve. he did well, considering...

we started with a long and delicious dinner, followed by some carol singing and one dance around the tree. for the first time in my life, we actually managed to completely surround it! and then it was time to open the presents. despite the rule of how many presents to buy (i stuck to one per person), people basically did whatever they wanted so that with 9 people, there were probably around 90-odd presents under the tree! way too many. anyway, we started opening presents sometime after 9.30pm, but at 1am, we were still not done and D., as well as his father, who was also getting sick, had done a great job and staying up but were now looking like they needed a bed. we were all tired, so we agreed to resume opening the presents today, which we eventually did sometime after the big Danish lunch.

set up

while driving to my father's from the airport, he explained that he's talked to a friend of his whose son was looking to meet someone and asked if i wanted to meet him. why not, said i, as i am, after all, on the lookout for a new man. it seemed a bit silly, though, what with me living 800 km away, but what the hell.

the very next day, we had to go and meet him. he's the son of the local wine producer, so we went up to the chateau to get wine. the son was there, waiting for us. it was quite surreal, but he as nice and yeah, i could go for that kind of guy. but again, he lives nowhere near me, and while it turns out he does come to Geneva once in a while, it still seems like an extremely long shot...

the nightmare before Xmas

it really is a nightmare. my sister was supposed to fly down to Toulouse this afternoon, where she'd be meeting my cousins who were flying in from the States. except her plane got cancelled. so instead, she booked herself to Geneva and on my plane down to Bordeaux tomorrow. the plane was supposed to land at 5pm. but it was delayed. and then they went and closed down Gatwick airport because of snow. right now, Geneva arrivals tell me she'll arrive at 8pm, which kind of works with what she's been told and, granted, all the other flights have been cancelled except for hers, so presumably, she will arrive tonight. but if not, there's only one flight tomorrow and then nothing until the 28th - unless she takes BA at £680! that flight had just better get going...

work Xmas dinner

we had our Christmas dinner last night. it was great. same place as last year, with virtually the same humongous buffet, but this time i ate far less, knowing what was coming. and this time, we managed to get a really good table. we had so much fun!

JL had organised a karaoke competition, so each table had to do a song. we argued back and forth about what to sing, and to be honest, i was starting to get a little pissed off at ST, who kept saying we had to sing the shittest song ever, and then, once we'd finally decided, wanted to change it to something else. we finally managed to agree on Grease's 'You're The One That I Want', although after table 3's performance of a 'Hard Day's Night', we weren't too hopeful. still, when it was our turn, we had the guys on one side with their collars up and us girls on the other and we had great fun. table 1 awarded us 105 points (maximum allowed was 10, though, so we still only came 2nd)!

it really was a great night.

my back problems

i think we can now exclude swimming the breaststroke as the reason for my back problems. it's quite clearly work that's doing this to me. well, not work in general, just one client. just one. it's really starting to do my head in. i feel this person on the other side has nothing better to do than kick up a fuss every single time someone is in a bad mood or only marginally enjoyed their lesson on that day. i mean, come on! it can't always be perfect. and if either the student or the teacher is having a bad day... i'm so exhausted. i could barely keep my eyes open all Tuesday. at 8.30am, i was having trouble focusing on my only 2 students. 8.30 am. i had to cancel my evening out and went straight to bed. slept 11 hours. felt better the next day, but by Thursday, i was in the same state, despite 8 hours of sleep. so once again, i went to bed early and slept another 11 hours. still tired now. i so need a holiday...

playing father Xmas

when i came into work on Tuesday, JL asked me how i fancied playing father Xmas. i told him i wasn't keen on costumes. i thought he was talking about the work dinner on Friday. but he was in fact talking about the presents we'd got for our clients. the idea was that each account manager should deliver presents to their own client. which for me meant going way out of town. JL was talking about taking a taxi to the first place and then finishing by bus but with the huge goodie-baskets i was supposed to carry around, i suggested taking my car. N. thought that was a great idea and could he come with me and we could stop off at his clients too, as they weren't that far from mine? yes, but they were in an area of town where traffic was a nightmare, so something that would have taken me less than an hour was now looking a lot longer...

anyway, off we went. we started with his clients, as we thought that might help in terms of traffic. it did, but it was still a nightmare and took us nearly an hour for just the one stop. then we had to get out of there to my clients. once out at the first one, everything else was really easy, as i knew all the back roads to get around. but we still only managed to deliver the last basket at 5pm, time by which i'd said i was supposed to be home at. and i still had to drop N. off back at the school.

the new bus timetables

we've been waiting for this for months! the new timetable. more buses and longer buses. and finally, they delivered. off-peak there are now 3 buses an hour, after 8pm there are now 2 buses until 10pm (yes!) AND we've now got quite a few of those long articulated buses. the drivers still need to learn how to use them (i actually fell for the first time ever this evening - everyone was quite concerned, which was really nice, although i'll probably just have a bruise tomorrow) and how to stick to the new, improved schedule (being 10 minutes late when there's a bus every 10 minutes and it's absolutely freezing outside just doesn't do it).

another good thing, is the arrival of a line that's been extended all the way to us, meaning we now have a direct connection to the airport. yahoo! that's great. not that it was that complicated before, after they'd extended the 5, but this way we don't even have to change anywhere. we'll be there in 10 minutes flat (if that).

the one annoying thing, though, is that we (my every day line, i mean) are the first in a set of quite a lot of lines that were moved to a new location near the station, as they'll be renovating it. we're thus a good 5 minutes walk from it. admittedly, this is nothing, but how they can still call it the station, when it really is the previous stop, is still a mystery. also, they didn't tell anyone about it, so that several of my brunch guests were lost... i can see the next 4 years (that's apparently the time it takes to renovate a station) will be long indeed.

the brunch

i don't recall ever inviting people for brunch before. but what with the ball being on a Saturday night and there not really being any other Sat that suited people, i came up with this compromise. i really wanted to have people around, and the last party here was... i don't actually remember. anyway, after last night, i didn't actually expect people to be on time (12.30), but in fact, most people showed up between then and 1pm, so i was impressed. there was way too much food, as expected, but what the hell. it was all washed down with my homemade mulled wine, which everyone loved. but until the last person left at about 5.30, i spent all my time eating! not a great start to the Xmas period... ;) still, it was great to have everyone around and i had a fab time. shame i had to clean afterwards...

the ball

the annual Xmas ball took place at the Intercontinental hotel last night. i wasn't incredibly motivated to go, especially as my friends had first all said they were going, then said they weren't and it was going to be all the same routine as last year and, let's face it, i find it very uncomfortable to dance in nice clothes - jeans and t-shirt, that's the way to go! but still, i ended up going. and i had a good time. the 70's-80's band did their thing, great as usual. i don't think i would have gone if i hadn't known they'd be there. after that, there were some good numbers, but then it descended back into mindless club music - nothing with real spark. anyway, as i was just recovering from the week and had 13 people coming for brunch the next day, i left the dancefloor at 2am.

the house that moved 2

i think i mentioned, at the beginning of the year, that when my father, who spent 3 years renovating the house he'd bought, moved all the books from their 2-year storage space in a small room upstairs to the newly-finished library room, this shifted quite some weight in that part of the house. as that part of the house got lighter, the nice newly-laid floor below cracked. and apparently continues to do so, as you can see in the picture. my father's now waiting for it to stop, at which point he'll replace the 5-6 flagstones that have been damaged.

client meeting

we'd organised to have a meeting with our 'new' client yesterday. we were going to report on how things were going since we started, check for possible issues and decide how to proceed in January. N. and i had discussed the points beforehand and, once again, he made it clear he'd just be looking pretty. but this time, i was ready for it: it was my fourth meeting, and i was kind of getting used to it. i barely looked at him during the time we were there, focusing on the clients and basically going simply from one point to the next. at the end, they did ask why he was there. didn't he trust me to do it right? we smiled. he explained he was just there for moral support and in case any financial issue came up. but really, next time he wouldn't bother, as i was managing fine without him. and then, he seemingly couldn't stop himself, cos he just had to mention how we worked together and add how great my work was, which was kind of embarrassing. but nice. and i must say it is a pleasure to work with someone who bothers to tell you how good they think you're doing.

the date with the poet

we met up in a small bar in his part of town, as it was on my way back from my last lesson. we talked about a million things: us, of course, but also politics, religion, education... it was really nice. i really enjoyed the talk and i had a good time. he was quite the gentleman, paying for all the drinks (and apparently i'd have to kill him to be allowed to pay) and checking his iphone to find out when my bus home was (although he'd also offered to drive me all the way). generally, he made sure i was comfortable all the time. all of this was very nice, although we do lead completely different lives. but one thing at the time. i'd like to see him again, to talk some more. we'll see where that gets us.

physiotherapy

as i'd had trouble sleeping well but had decided it couldn't possibly be a bed or pillow issue, i went to see my physiotherapist a few weeks ago. he put my bones back where they belonged and said i was good to go. i knew i wasn't and what do you know? it's been 5 weeks and i've been seeing him regularly since.

when i asked what caused it, he told me it was the breaststroke that did it. he said to stop it completely. which i have thus done, although it annoys me immensely (i spent 8 years doing a set which went 4 x breaststroke, 1 x crawl, 1x backstroke and all over again 4 or 5 times - doing only the last two is taking some getting used to). things seemed to improve for a while, or rather, not get worse, but there are still issues. i've been getting a bit pissed off at this, cos it's not the first time but it doesn't seem to be going away either, despite seeing M. and drinking that weird homeopathic stuff he's given me to 'get rid of the toxins' in my body.

after discussing it yet again, he's come to the conclusion that i'm too stressed, which creates the toxins which go and wreak havoc in my body and, currently, mostly my back. and i don't get it, cos i don't feel stressed. since i, 3 years back, made a conscious decision not to stress anymore, i've only felt really short bouts of it, a couple of times over the summer this year. and that's it. i might worry about stuff, but it's not stress. at least, it's nothing like what i used to go through when i was stressed. nevertheless, my back had apparently seized up again when i saw him last and my stomach, which he always massages to get rid of said toxins, still hurts when he does. arghhhhhhh!