Only Words

The familiy is off to Stuttgart to dance in a competition. Yay! I grabbed the opportunity to get my nails done, eat out at the steakhouse and spend a free movie ticket on Life of Pi.
Have to say the steak was expensive but not very good. When I order a large rumpsteak I don't expect about a third of the steak to consist of fat. I know, rumpsteaks come with fat on one side, but this one had fat on three. :( And I had been looking forward to my steak for weeks!
Luckily, Life of Pi was worth watching. I never knew what would happen next - which is a rare treat. Beautiful cinematography, very clever story with a neat twist that I honestly didn't see coming, but which made total sense with hindsight. Also, Depardieu's brief cameo was brilliant. Gee, he was revolting! I have a few issues with some of the dialogue which sometimes sounded pompous, but that may have been the synchronization.
We had a really mild day today, even some sunshine. The city was packed with people. Everybody seemed so happy that finally the snow is gone...

As for the rest of the weekend... well, some Fringe, some tidying up, and, hopefully some writing tomorrow. :)

No new drabble today. I'm on sick leave. I'm hiding under my duvet and waiting for this blasted cold to go away.
Brain is all fuzzy.

Do you sometimes have a chunk in a story that you know doesn't work there, but that you're reluctant to throw out? *sigh* I find throwing things away extremely hard. Must be because my gran brought me up. She couldn't throw stuff away, either. Probably because of WW2 and because she lost her daugher at such a young age. Remarkable, how we are shaped by the past....

*blows nose*
*crawls back under the covers*

So, yesterday the rest of the family drove to Holland to dance in a feis (an Irish dance competition). And the plan was for me to write write write all weekend....

What did I end up doing? I shopped till I dropped and spent hours wrapping gifts, tidying up, getting the Xmas decorations up, and making advent calendars for the girls (various favoured chocolates for most days, but there are also a few smallish gifts on the advent Sundays and a very expansive (but pretty) creativity set so they can create stylish and pretty pictures as gifts for auntie and others. *sigh*

I got a lot of shopping done, but the speed with which my November wages disappeared was both staggering and disheartening. Most of you guys know already, that December is always a financial catastrophe, since it's also hubby's b-day on the 25th and Tina's on the 28th. *sigh*

Luckily, I will work more hours as of December. Too bad, most of my raise will be eaten up by taxes. But still, even a little extra money will help.

I keep clicking on Mininova, to see if there's a torrent for Merlin. I could do with a bit of Merlin/Arthurs subtexty goodness. :-)
Actually, I wouldn't mind reading a bit of fanfic, but I have no idea if anyone on my flist is even interested in the show... If you are and if you could point me towards a nice slashy or subtexty fic, I would be very happy. I mean, come on, surely I'm not the only one who thinks that Arthur is really pretty.... ;-)

I know, I know, it's been a while since I last updated this journal. People are defriending me, and I can't blame them, after all, I'm not really around. I often think of my lj with longing, the kind of longing that you feel for a place where you had a wonderful vacation. And you tell yourself, that one day you'll go back there. Can't say if this post means that I am back. I want to find the time to read your posts and find out what you guys have been up to, but what I want and what really happens are usually two different things.

A lot of things have happened since I last posted. Just before Christmas, Mr. E and the girls had another big dance performance. Take a peek. Katharina is the long-haired girl on the right. Unfortunately I can't link you to a clip with Mr. E or Viktoria in it. Our dance teacher never allows us to upload clips to Youtube, because she always spots flaws in the performance.

Some of you know that our Decembers are always frightfully busy and stressful because Mr. E and daughter #1 both celebrate their birthdays just after Christmas. Mr. E helps with the preparations, he'll hoover or do the shopping if I write the list, but he doesn't help me with the planning or the who-gets-what-for-Christmas question. Also, Decembers are always a frightful strain on the budget. And, last not least, my slightly high maintanance great-auntie stayed with us for a few days. But, she's my last surviving relative, and in spite of everything I really love the old girl.

But several things cheered me up: xanpet2000 and shatten sent me  Christmas cards - THANK YOU! You really brightened my day. Also, Mr. E's sister invited us all to Dortmund for a long overdue family get-together on the 26th. Nice, albeit a little boring.

All in all, we had a great Christmas: great food, well-behaved kids, nice prezzies. My kids bought me a Build-a-Bear voucher, so I could have my own teddy bear, and hubby bought a voucher so I could buy clothes for him. Plus Mr. E suggested the bear's name: Spike. :-) Other fabulous prezzies included: the complete Sharpe Box, the Blade Runner Box, and a few other DVDs and a few games. A good haul. The kids were happy too, even though we spent less on presents this year. Their excitement mostly revolved around the presents they had made or bought for us. The Christmas highlight: Tina and Viktoria surprised us with a lovely Xmas program of self-taught piano playing, flute playing, poem recital, singing (Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, in English, of course) etc, and then Tina dressed up as Santa. You should have seen her. She had tied a white pair of tights round her face to act as a beard. Hilarious!

On the 28th my poetry book finally arrived in the mail. I had spent weeks editing all my German and English poems and finding the right order for them. Then I uploaded it to lulu.com, designed the sleeve and ordered 6 copies. They didn't arrive before Christmas, but even so I am pleased with the outcome. I gave one to a former lecturer of mine, the one who first gave me a chance to teach at University, and he was quite overcome. Of course, I spotted a few mistakes in the "first edition", but once those are corrected I will upload it again to lulu, and then I'll put it into the lulu marketplace. Too bad, lulu won't print fanfic, otherwise I'd get Things Present - Things Past printed (at least a few copies for Marcee and myself). Still, lulu is a great site!

New Years Eve saw us celebrating with friends from our dancing club. A lovely little party where the kids were practically invisible, except when hungry, and where the adults played Singstar. :-)

A few days ago I received an Email from the local university, asking whether I'd like to teach another Creative Writing course. The course starts in April. Naturally, I accepted. It's not exactly well-paid, but I enjoy teaching, and it might just pay for a little summer vacation.

It's January now. Yesterday, Katharina finally celebrated her birthday with friends from school. She requested scones and salmon sandwiches, so I made a proper English afternoon tea for the lot, and then herded them to the nearby circus school, where they spent two hours practicing a show of tightrope walking, juggling and whatnot.

And now I'm sitting here, sipping coffee from my lovely Serenity travel cup, contemplating life, the universe and everything. I am playing my favorite CD, a compilation of songs that are supposed to help me write.  The stress is finally wearing off. Mr. E and the kids are off to dance practice, I just reread my Giles/Ethan fic and will now happily tinker with it until the family reappears, later I'll cook dinner with the kids and once they are in bed I'll try to talk Mr. E into watching a movie. Yup. Sounds like a good Sunday.

ETA: Wanna see a new pic of my daughters? Go here.

Good Stuff

I got a small raise last month. So I finally bought myself a new laptop computer. Nothing fancy, mind you, but one with working batteries that won't overheat and shut down when the word files grow too large. I didn't pay cash but financed it - and the good thing is: the monthly installments amount to exactly the same amount as my raise. Heee.

Bad Stuff

In December 2004 I had two root canal treatments which both ended up inflamed. Last summer,I had surgery on both roots. And now both teeth are inflamed again. Meaning I am going to lose them both. Baah. What annoyes me most is the fact that I spent a lot of money on these procedures and on getting the teeth capped. If I buy a telly and it breaks down shortly afterwards, I can get it replaced at no cost - why can't I get my money back from the dentist who screwed up the initial root canal treatment?

Oh well, maybe it's good if the tooth comes out. Can't be healthy to have such an infection linger for years.

Our dishwashing machine has had it, more or less. We need a new kitchen because the old one that came with this appartment sucks. Alas, we don't have the money for our dream kitchen. We're comparing prices and looking at kitchens, but I don't think we'll actually buy one. *sigh*

Good Stuff

The girls were in the local newspaper. There was a picture of Viktoria and Katharina was mentioned. The article was about their success at the Irish Dance feis (competition) in Wassenaar (Holland). Ok, so the competition was held half a year ago, but still. People took notice. And publicity for our dance club is always appreciated.

Best Stuff (saved for last)

I am working on my play again. Ages ago I started to write a play, a dance adaptation of Cinderella. And then I ran into writer's block. But these past two weeks I started working on it again, and I think I made a breakthrough. I had several good ideas. So, I'm creative again. Yay.
Oh, and I wrote a new poem. Double yay!

So. I watched a lot of TV lately: Veronica Mars episodes 19 and 20. CSI 7x24, Supernatural 2x22... ( I'll put my thoughts behind the cut because they are utterly spoilery: )

Soon The Dead Zone will return. And I can look forward to several Doctor Who epis (I only watched up to Epi 5. Did anyone else think that "The Shakespeare Code" rocked? I've shown that epi to half a dozen people and they were all hooked. Strike!

Oh, and there's one not TV-related thing I'd like to mention. After a trial period of 6 months my company has hired me. I now have lay-off protection. I still enjoy my job and I like the collegues. But it's not an easy job, it requires great concentration. And it requires me to find English words for items that I couldn't even name in German. Thanks to my job I learnt expressions like "press stud storm flap". Yay me. At my age it's not easy to learn new stuff, and the software we use often drives me crazy, but the bottom line is: work is good. Having a bit of money of my own is good. *smiles*
*waves*

... when you go to work.
I have been working for two and a half months now. I had a talk with my boss two weeks ago where he told me that they are satisfied with the way I'm blending in. He called me "flexible". Yay!

I haven't written a thing these past 6 weeks - well, not true, I wrote a poem, but that doesn't really count.
I started teaching creative writing again - in German, this time. My pupils are some of the kids at Katharina's school. It's just one hour per week, but it's an interesting experience. The kids usually get a choice of extracurricular activities, like dancing, theatre class or a cooking course. A few weeks ago, one of the teachers had an accident, so I stepped in. Our primary school is suffering from lack of funding and excess bureaucracy - and with several teachers sick/injured they barely manage to cover the curricular hours. Mr. E is therefore offering an Irish Dance course and I am offering creative writing. Katharina is in my class, which is odd. But she's very talented. She wrote a few lovely poems last week.

Right, what else is new?
I haven't read LJ in weeks. I don't even know if Marcee has had her baby yet. I'm a bad friend. *hangs head in shame*
The days are just too short - and I'm always tired and anti-social in the evenings.
I watch my shows like Rome (holy moly, Verenus is scary!), Supernatural (it lost its lustre a little, but still pretty), Veronica Mars (fun) and House (both fascinating and icky) - but most of the time I don't feel like talking to anyone, not even online. Weird. Maybe hormones? Dunno why I'm so anti-social.

I read more. I just finished Diana Galbadon's first Outlander book - and found it dreadful. In fact, it felt very Mary Sueish. It's a page turner in an annoying kind of way. Bodice ripper crap - except that it's the male hero who's abused, tortured, and raped. And boy, the woman really loves her adjectives. Won't read the sequels. If I want another historic page turner I'll go with Rebbecca Gablé.

I also read Erasing Sherlock Holmes by lordshiva - a lot more satisfying and clever than the aforementioned book. Both books are time-traveling stories, but one is conventional, formulaic and strangely repetitive, while the other is original, smart, and often funny. I should write a longer review, but my cold is killing me and I have to get up early tomorrow to dress the kids in fancy dress and to make food for the big school carneval party. *sigh*

Oh well, at least I finally updated my journal. *waves at flist*

Good Stuff:
I'm in Berlin, yay!
On Monday Mr. E and I took the kids to the Berlin zoo to see the panda bears and polar bears. It was a great day trip. Afterwards, the family drove back to Braunschweig, while I stayed behind. Hurrah!
Being in Berlin on my own, without the family, is great. No demands, no tidying up after everyone. No one who needs meals cooked. It feels like having Free Will back - with capital letters. I'm staying with our friend L. He invited me out to a very therapeutic sushi last night and to PotC2 and Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. Yay! I'd seen PotC2 before, albeit in German, and was pleased that I enjoyed it just as much the second time round. I know the reviews were mixed, but I like part 2 a lot. ( cut for spoilers ) F&F3 was not the kind of movie I normally see, but it was okay. Too many cars, and let's not talk about the characterisation of the females, but I decided not to look the gift horse in the mouth, and fun was had.
Tomorrow I'm meeting drc1. I'm sure we'll have lots to talk about.
A friend lent me his first season of CSI - and I enjoyed it a lot, mostly because I find Gil Grissom adorable. I look forward to borrowing the other 4 seasons.
Tomorrow or on Friday, L and I are planning on seeing the new Superman movie. The reiviews aren't overly favourable, but I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy myself. Not sure if that's because I've lowered my standards, or if that's because I'm trying to foster a carpe diem attitude these days.
Every now and then I get feedback for my old stories. It's gratifying to know that people are still reading stories like Things Present - Things Past, and Cues and Balls.
On Saturday, Mr. E, Tina and Toyah are performing live on stage - for the first time together, because Toyah decided very recently that she wants to dance on stage too. Yay Our dance club has a big venue in Wolfenbüttel. If you'd like to see what it looks like you can go here and watch Tina dance a Slip Jig and a Light Jig. Oh, and the other clips are cute as well. Of course, the show on Saturday will be bigger and much more elaborate.

Bad Stuff:
A couple of weeks ago I had an infected root canal on my lower jaw. It good operated, and now it feels fine, but on my upper jaw there's another infection. And the surgeon that I want to see is on holiday until the end of the month. I'm not in pain, but I can feel that the infection is slowly spreading. How can a dentist screw up two root canal treatments at once, hey? Well, at least I have the nagging suspicion that the infections may be responsible for my constantly aching feet. Lately it's gotten so bad that I can no longer go dancing. Which screws with my tempter. *sigh* Having to spend a large chunk of your earnings on medical bills sucks!

So, now you know what I've been up to lately. And now I better get back to my writing. I'm currently poking several of my writing projects with a stick to see whether they still have life in them. Right now, I'm working on my dance play. It would be nice to get something finished.

*waves*

Another Michael Donnellan workshop lies behind me. Three hours yesterday, three today - with a sore back from the start, which my doctors somehow couldn't fix. A friend gave me a shoulder massage - otherwise I wouldn't have survived today. Right now, my legs are XXS - extra extra sore. If I were a horse, some kind soul would shoot me and put me out of my misery.
Oh well, I learned two Single Jig steps, and two Light Jig steps - badly, but I somehow persevered until the very end. After the last Reel I actually felt like crying, I was so utterly exhausterd... Time for Rice - Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation...
Sport ist Mord, as the Germans say...

Aaargh, my HD is full full full. I have no room for the VM finale. My external HD is full as well. I must have missed out on about 6 or 7 epis of various shows because hubby had no time to burn everything on DVD. *whine*

Good news: a local newspaper asked my (ex-)lecturer and mentor if he could write a chapter of their current futuristic novel (which is full of thinly veiled allusions to local politics) and he agreed (because he needs them to advertise our Daniil Pashkoff Prize). He asked me to write it with/for him. I finished the chapter yesterday afternoon. I have no idea when it will be printed, but when it appears online, I'll post the link for all German readers. My name will be mentioned as co-author. Yay!
I'm pleased how the chapter came out. Of course it's rabidly biased against the big ECE shopping mall that's currently being built in the center of town... *g*
I will be in the paper, yay!

Gotta teach the kids today and prep tomorrow's lesson. Right now, I feel bouncy and everything - even though the apartment is full of not-yet-unpacked boxes. It's amazing what a difference genuine sunshine does to me.