1000

so this is my 1,000th post! little did i know, when i started this, that i'd still be going 6 years later. 6 years of blogging. that's an average of about a post every other day. i don't know what the average life-span of a blog is, but i've seen many die out after even just a few days.

now i'm wondering whether to stop. i feel things are becoming too much in terms of privacy - or lack thereof. a few months ago, i could still post whole sets of pictures online (not that i ever really did) without any information. now i'm asked for my entire background, and although i could of course make the whole thing up, it just feels like a hell of a lot of work. of course, i know that if someone really wanted to know who i was, they'd be able to find out quite easily, so i don't know. i guess we'll find out in the next episode...

crazy month

i don't know what's going on this month, but work has been really crazy. February is generally quite slow, but i've never had so many client requests as these past few weeks. i think i've set up 3 private lessons for one client, when it's normally more like 3 a year altogether. my other clients have also been asking for extra stuff. i've been pulling quite long days these past 2 weeks. i was the last one to leave the office last Friday: while i normally leave at 4.30pm, i was there till 6.30pm - everyone had left an hour earlier. this part of my job is only supposed to take up 10 hours of my weekly time, so i hope things quiet down soon cos i can't do everything in that time at the moment.

heron in the swamp

two sides of the coin

at brunch the other day, i had a chat with A. and W., the two parts of a married couple with a kid, and another on the way. i talked to them separately, and it was just funny how the same situation was described so differently by each of them. while W. explained how much of his time off work he'd spent with his daughter and had really enjoyed it, A. said that while he had of course spent time being a father, he'd also spent a lot of time being a 30-something man, enjoying skiing with his friends, among other things. she wasn't saying there was anything wrong with that, she was just saying that she'd had to explain to her daughter why her father wasn't spending more time with her.

don't get me wrong, W. is a great father! that said, i can see how it's easy for him to think that he's spending a lot of time with his kid while at the end of the day, she probably spends more time with her mom.

in the swamp

MIA-JFK sunset

the Archaeologist's adventures - part 7

the Archaeologist was having a busy week. having been promoted part-time site supervisor a while back, she was enjoying her new position and things were going well but she was having trouble realising nearly 2 months of the new year had already gone by. since the beginning of the year, the work just kept piling up.

the previous week, she had communicated with the funding service about a possible issue with the excavation, but had heard nothing back until she got back to the office Friday morning after a few days on site and then she hadn't been able to get in touch with them until the late afternoon. it had taken the funders 3 days to decide what they wanted to do but now they wanted it fixed by Monday. which was all nice and well, but she needed extra information from another digger, and she didn't know whether that digger would even be around over the weekend to write a quick report on the situation, so it was a bit tricky. in the end, though, a solution was found, so it all worked out, but she could see the following week being more of the same, as 2 other funding agencies had requested more information... oh, the joys of being promoted!

old song

twice in 2 weeks, Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun played on my local radio. it's funny cos i don't remember it being played at the time it came out, what with Soundgarden not crossing over into French/Swiss radio, but my sister was well-up on the whole grunge scene so it got played a lot at home. and it was just nice, reminded me of my teenage years. and it's a good song.

the vulture

i'm really not a big fan of birds, but i saw so many cool ones in Florida that i just kept snapping them. here's a black vulture that was just 'sitting' there, in the Everglades.

cheating

i was sitting next to this teenager in the bus, who was apparently studying hard. he was working on an essay and was going through all the motions. i was impressed, cos we'd been in the bus all of 10 minutes and the topic (education) was apparently inspiring - he was writing away. or so it seemed. after a while, i noticed he kept looking at a photocopy of the same thing, and i realised that he was reading and paraphrasing it. and i just wondered, what's the point? i mean, yes, i see that he's 'saving time', but it's just so meaningless. it's not about getting good grades, but about learning how to do things. that said, i know my parents were disappointed if i didn't bring home good grades, and i guess it can be a burden on some.

a really nice weekend

the only plan i'd made for the weekend was to have dinner with A. on Saturday night. and that was really nice, despite us both having unfortunate information to share. so it was a good evening and i went to bed content, wishing the weather forecast looked sunny the next day - they'd predicted rain - as i hadn't been able to enjoy the weather on that day. but lo and behold, the sun shone on Sunday morning, so i went for a walk after lunch. there, i bumped into one of my neighbours, and we finished it together. as she was in the middle of a story when we reached my floor, i invited her in for a drink. it was really nice and we got to know each other better. once she'd left, i'd barely turned on my computer to do a little work when another friend called and asked if i fancied watching Black Swan. while i do want to see it, i've heard it's very dark so i wanted to be in the right mood, so i suggested The King's Speech instead. and off we went. and it was great.

and that was my weekend. mostly unplanned, totally great.

the snow tubing 'field'

i do wonder how they keep the snow/ice cold and how they give it staying power despite the warm temperatures (as seen on the grass on the left...)

the lack of snow

this is how much snow there was in the mountains last weekend. the bottom part of the picture is 1300m (where there is normally snow at this time of year...). that grass at the bottom is where we had our picnic lunch, thinking it was quite a bit warmer than our last summer outing...

sleep

i was tired all week. not the regular tired, though. it was more like being sleepy during the day. it was really weird. i had trouble keeping my eyes open, but i couldn't see myself going to bed when i got home from work, and by the time it was around 8.30pm, i was awake again. very strange.

when i got home from the day in the mountains, though, i was so tired i decided to take a nap before dinner. that was at 6pm. i woke up again at 4am. went back to sleep and finally felt rested at 8am. it felt weird not sleeping in on a Sunday, but 14 hours were more than enough. as far as i was concerned, that put me back on track. or so i thought. at 7pm last night, i was tired all over again. hadn't been up for 12 hours and hadn't really done much of my day either. hum... maybe something to look into if it continues...

winter sports

we went on our 'work' winter outing yesterday. it included snow tubing and ice karting. the snow tubing we'd tried last year, but it was just as fun. once that was over, we had lunch. in the grass, enjoying glorious sunshine, for those who brought a packed lunch, inside the cafeteria for those who didn't. outside was definitely better: it felt like spring, it was amazing.

it was very nearly not worth getting up again for the ice karting. but we did, and we had fun. A. was a total menace on that thing, not really trying to avoid driving into people, while H. was forever unable to deal with the curves. while it was fun, it was also quite repetitive, as we were just going around the ice-rink. i'd had my fill after 20 mns (A. was on the kart all the way through the 1h30 we were there!).

after that, we made our way up to a nearby cafe and sat on its terrace enjoying a well-earned drink (raspberry milkshake for me) in the sunshine. and then it was time to head back, unfortunately. what a day!

wtf?

i really don't get this. my ex got in touch last week, with a question that was apparently important to him. which led to several emails back and forth, the last one seemingly saying 'goodbye'. like that was it, we'd never talk again. by the time i replied, wondering if i'd missed something, he'd already closed his email account. what the hell? he got in touch with me 7 years ago, out of the blue, with a one-liner. on/off sporadic emailing followed on through the years. he even called me once, all the way from Australia. and now suddenly, while we were having a nice exchange (he sent me 4 emails in 5 days), it all just ended. and i'm just wondering, what the hell happened? what was that all about? why answer my emails and make me think about our relationship with all his questions, if all he wanted to do was close his email account? if he'd just closed it, i wouldn't have thought about it. part of life kind of thing. but now i actually feel like shit. like he's made me miss him and it's like we've broken up all over again, except i have no idea why.