Last week. I told Ben that I thought it was going to be an early spring. I had good proof for it, too. Maya is starting to change her coat- lots of tiny cat hair everywhere- and the bulbs I planted in November, start to grow. Well, the next day it was snowing. So what I am supposed to make of that? I am not so sure about an early spring anymore (maybe it was only wishful thinking in the first place). On the other hand I am immensely enjoying the sunny weather today.
But let’s not talk about the weather. There is one thing I am very sure about: I’ve got to speed up writing and researching for my thesis. I am so sure for three reasons:
1. I can feel that I am working too slowly.
2. My supervisors told me so.
3. Ben wants to be back home by the end of 2010, and I do not intend to leave things unfinished.
So I am in a bit of a dilemma: I know myself that I have to work more and faster. But how to you do that if you constantly feel that you are running out of time? I think my time management skills have really improved during this last year. And yet there are still only 24 hours in my day. I am always tired and either work-working or thesis-working. Then Ben (and Maya) want(s) a bit of attention too, once in a while. Hardly any time for myself as it is. So if you have any good advise, please send it my way, I appreciate it.
Nothing much has happened in the last two weeks. I have been accepted to present papers at two more conferences, which I am now trying to organize: transport, accommodation, time off work, writing the papers… It is really hard – if you have to work and only get 21 days paid holidays- to get all this worked out, because in the end there are not too many days left to take a real holiday, which you really really need by then. In addition to conferencing, this year my favourite cousin is getting married back in Germany and Ben’s brother and girlfriend are having a baby in summer, so there will be a lot of travelling back and forth. I have no idea how this is all going to work out. But, of course, it will because it has to.
On this note, I wish you all a very merry and productive early spring, even if it should arrive a little later 
January 25, 2009
With the first half of January almost over (can you believe it) I finally wish everybody a very happy new year! Again I have to apologise for a very long silence. But this is the first year in which I ever thought of some good intentions for the next year and -surprise surprise- blogging on a more regular basis is one of them. Well, I guess by March we’ll see how it goes.
So, what happened in the meantime? I have realized that sometimes reading too much is not good for you. And I do not mean that in a counteracademic way. Of course reading is very important, especially for a degree in literature, but if you read too much and take notes and notes and notes and finally you just lose it. Now guess who lost it???
Right, so I read a lot, took a lot of notes and when I finally sat down to write the chapter, I just sat and stared and sat and stared but of course the srceen did’t tell me what to write. And it was not that I was blocked either. My mind was no blank. Instead it was full of so many ideas that I just didn’t know where to start. Luckily then I had to write a conference paper which greatly distracted me from the actual work on the chapter. The conference took place in early January. Another huge international conference at which all the ‘grown up’s’ as I like to call them and their wide knowledge of basically everything greatly impressed and at the same time really scared me. But my paper was received well (probably due to only one person in the audience knowing only one of the three texts I was talking about). And I am convinced that my talking skills are improving and that I am stuttering less while presenting the paper. And if I say that about myself it must be true.
A funny thing that happened there was somebody asking me for the way or something and my reply started with ‘Aye,…’ Imagine how they stared at me. Amazingly I never thought I would adapt to the Scottish lingo so quickly, understanding it yes, but actively using it…well, there you go. After the presentation I was even told, that my English now even sounds a bit Scottish. Do you think congratulations are in order??? I just keep wondering how people who come to Scotland to learn English get on in the world…any thoughts?
So, the conference went well and now I will have to have another go at the chapter. So wish me luck. I need it as another of my good intentions is to have 3 more chapters ready until the next annual review. I don’t know How I got that idea, but as I intend to be done by the end of 2010, I probably should get going.
Before the conferenc two important days were celebrated. The birth of Christ which I mainly spent in bed…no not because I am exceptionally lazy these days…but because I was struck down with a sever case of the flu. So severe indeed, that on the 24th the manager at work sent me away from the tills so as not to have too much customer contact (she wanted to protect the customers from my running nose, not me from the customers…) and my assistant manager repeatedly asked me if I wanted to go home. Funnily enough, I still felt quite good then. But as soon as I got home and had three days off my body decided that now was a good time to knock me out. So I spent Christmas drinking tea (I even had to make a pass on the mulled wine my mum had sent me) and contemplating the lights of our beautiful Christmas tree from the sofa where I lay wrapped in a blanket… But safe your compassion, after only 3 weeks I finally got rid of my running nose and now everything is back on track. After all that fortune cookie I ate said ’soon you’ll be sitting on top of the world.’ which I thought sounded really good at least until Ben said, ‘but it’s really cold on Mount Everest’. Which of course is worth some consideration.
And then we celebrated the arrival of the new year. And what a year it is going to be with Obama Barack becoming the first Afro-American president of the United States, the Credit Crunch being actively fought by several nations, Russia being a madhouse and the Israelis and Palestinians fighting on and on and on….and this only to name but a few…
Let’s hope that despite all this it is going to be a good year for all of us. Productive, successful, peaceful and harmonious and that some leaders of the world finally decide just that for their own countries.
So again, I wish every single one of you a very happy new year!!!!
January 13, 2009
