On how I won a cruise to Caribbean

For a long while, my parents had to call me simultaneously on my mobile and my land line so that I would know to answer the latter – the phone just didn’t ring. On top of that, speaking to anyone for more than 5 minutes resulted inevitably in a back pain, as the only way you could position yourself while on the phone was squatting on the stairs, where you would also necessarily be in the way of anyone trying to get from the lounge to the kitchen, and who sometimes inadvertently kicked you as passing by or spilled their drink on your head.
So a couple of weeks ago I have finally decided to go buy a new phone. I opted for wireless, so that I could have my transatlantic counselling sessions comfortably lying on my bed and so that my flatmates were not forced to listen to my occasional highly vocal disagreements with my parents. Unfortunately the phone came with very short cables, so I had to redecorate the entrance by sticking them to the floor with bright blue masking tape, which was the only potentially appropriate thing I could find. But that was not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is that now it won’t stop ringing.
‘Hello?’ – ‘You have just won a cruise to the Caribbean…’.
I don’t want to go to the Caribbean and I don’t want to know what I would have to buy to actually go, I want to sit down and concentrate on my work, if you don’t mind/eat my dinner in peace/whatever else I was doing when you decided to force your recorded emotionless message on me.
‘Hello?’ – ‘Can I speak to [insert my landlord’s name]?’
Not discouraged by the lack of ‘please’ at the end of that sentence I reply politely: ‘I’m sorry, but he doesn’t live here anymore.’
And the guy just hangs up!
‘What the f*#& happened to ‘thank you’, ‘sorry for disturbing you’? Learn your manners, stupid knob!’ I bellow down the dead line.
Happily I am home alone so my flatmates are not forced to listen to my highly vocal expression of disagreement.

Happy Friday!

It was a good week, a seriously good week. I have done loads of translating and the editing work on my PhD is finally progressing properly too, this to a great extent thanks to Naomi, who talked me into buying A.S. Byatt’s ‘Possession’ during our hunt for the perfect dress a couple of months ago. I started reading it only this week and it puts me into a proper academic mode, so exactly where I need to be right now.
The big news of the week is however that it is official now: we’re going to Aix. The tickets are bought and we shall arrive to the land of wine, cheese and sun in the last week of October. I am so excited that I’ve had trouble falling asleep for a couple of days, as my brain is in a full planning mode now. Can’t wait!
And now it’s Friday, I have a proper sense of achievement and Paul will be here in a few hours. The bookcase will get assembled, the light bulb changed, friends will be seen and maybe we’ll even have time to finally fly that kite?

On gum infection and my independent self sufficient persona

I am happy, really, I am. Most of the time, I lightly swing through a day with a smile on my face and a happy song in my head. But for last two days I’ve been unexpectedly and without a reason dipping down into pits of sudden gloominess, and than struggling out to climb back out.
As I find it all seriously annoying, I’ve decided to figure it out but none of the potential reasons I came up with seem to provide a satisfactory explanation:
I have a lot of work, so much that I have to stay glued to my desk all day long unless I want to work over the weekend too, which I don’t – but a lot of work means income which I can use to finance my language classes and my trip to Aix, so I actually should be glad. And it isn’t as if I had been glued to my desk for ever (it’s been only two days since the weekend, when I wasn’t glued to anything at all) and it isn’t as if I was secluded (cause there is Shell and Preet is back from India now).
I don’t have my own classroom (read: I don’t have a job) – but I’ve already come to terms with that and decided to be philosophical about it, so there is no reason why I should un-decide that now. Maybe if there was nothing else I could hang on to, like it was back in May, but there is plenty.
I have an infected gum around my wisdom tooth, which tends to wake me up at night, therefore messing up my sleeping patterns, and I suppose that that could partially account for me being slightly downbeat.
I am missing Paul more than I would like to admit to, which seriously annoys my independent self sufficient persona.
And that’s it.
Hm.
I think I’ll blame it on the gum infection and get to work while listening to Elvis, before my independent self sufficient persona gets alarmed all over again.

Haircut

After a few minutes of a discussion concerned with pros and cons of laminating different stuff, I said I needed a haircut.
‘You should laminate you hair’ said Paul, being silly. ‘I’ll put it up in my classroom with a tag saying ‘les cheveux blonds’'.
I chuckled and we changed subjects, but then I actually did go to get a haircut. And I will never forget the hairdresser’s face when I protested as she wanted to sweep the floor and proceeded to collecting what she’d cut off my head.
‘It’s a private joke’ I said, as if it explained anything ‘I need to laminate that’.
‘You’re weird people’ was her only reply. I suppose there wasn’t much else she could have said.

Putting in place a nice routine

Feeling much better today, maybe because it’s the first morning where I’ve woken up without a headache and managed to do so before 10, maybe because tomorrow’s Friday and I’m going to Milton Keynes. Probably both.
Anyway, this week has been all about organising my weeks for the months to come – going back to the gym (dear God I’m in pain, but it is a nice kind of pain), finding out about language classes, and coming to terms with the fact that I’m in a weekend relationship now, which is okay, just needs some getting used to. So if everything works out fine, it will be Monday night German, Tuesday night Spanish, Wednesday night Body Balance and Thursday night Body Pump. So I will be busy, but it’s all good, it’s all what I always wanted to do and never really could afford doing, so hey, I may as well. Add to that weekends with Paul and meeting up with friends and it looks like this year is going to be the exact opposite of the last one – I am going to have so much life that I’m not sure I’ll be able to cope! But, if you ask me, it’s about time.

And so it's September

When I said I needed life to go on, I meant I needed to go back to work. Unfortunately, for now there’s nothing on the supply front cause the kids are not back to school until tomorrow. But what I really want is my own classroom and being around people who do doesn’t help being philosophical about it.
Fortunately I have translations to keep me busy and also the PhD that I have to edit for print and the deadline’s dreadfully close now. I was supposed to have the whole summer to work on it, needless to say, I haven’t touched it, or almost.
Life going on mainly takes the form of house improvements – I have a functioning land line now, a desk (inherited from Paul) and a chair (that I skilfully assembled myself) and a bookcase – finally, after a year of keeping books in boxes and on piles. The problem with the bookcase however is that I can not assemble it on my own, so for now it is just lying there in its box, like a mean reminder of life actually not going on.
On the other hand, life seems to want to be going on rather quicker than I’m ready for it to. I’m fine with short-term plans and organising my life for the months to come, but I’m not sure I’m quite ready to make Christmas plans, and I am making Christmas plans, and there’s still almost 4 months until Christmas, why the hell would I be thinking about Christmas now? I mean, planning Aix for the half-term was far from being obvious and I’m still not 100% sure I made the right decisions, so Christmas?!

Summer is gone

It is September 1st and the summer is officially over, although technically it will still be summer for a few days. Yet, the school year is starting, Paul is in Milton Keynes and I’m sorting out my paper work, meeting my agent, working and setting back into my single routines while trying to get used to sleeping alone again.
It was the best summer ever and I am a little sad that it is over, but I think I have been ready for it to end for a little while now. I think I need life to go on and life doesn’t really go on when you’re on holiday, regardless of how many exciting things you do.