Ouch!

So I haven’t told you what I’ve been up to for months?

Actually, I have, but I went to Instagram for that. Sorry.

It’s just that I am busier than the police allows 🙂 and need my words to earn some money and pass exams.

For the record: I am now officially old. In December, I invited my husband to a trip to Paris – to see a few museums. Jep.  And it’s not just that: I cannot help but recommend the City of Science and Industry, Gallery of Evolution, Gallery of Mineralogy and Geology and Gallery of Paleontology (MNHN) wholeheartedly. In fact, I sincerely hope to see them again soon. Fans Of All the Light We Cannot See will understand 🙂

Here is why we were so happy there, in a nutshell:

 

 

 

 

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Sleepless In Denmark

“Remember having asked me about possible reasons for not doing this anymore?” he says suddenly, unexpectedly. “This would be one. But we can avoid that in the future.”

He is right, of course: while we have started our paddling tour in Denmark before the school holidays begin, we should still have expected larger campsites to attract youngsters of a certain kind at any time. Certain kind means being able to tow unbelievable quantities of beer crates to the campsite and at the same time unable to get very far by paddling on the river, which is where the cars come in, at some later point.

And did I mention the Soccer World Cup was to start soon?

Anyway, we did not get much sleep in our tent that night, but I chose not to grow the huge bags under my eyes without a fight. I shared my personal opinion about the partying youngsters with my restless husband and didn’t spare him any details: I was quite sure the Danes understood enough German to know what my problem was. They did. And were soon making fun of my “Scheiße!”. Which was when the i-word was used. But before things got any worse, the idiots stopped singing, yelling and talking and went to sleep, leaving us to try to do the same.

At that point, we had done quite some paddling and really needed some rest, and I would have preferred to end the day by going through the lovely pictures of the magnificent Gudenå in my head, but river fans cannot be choosers, so.

Our tour had started in Skanderborg, a day later than planned because the wind was trying so hard to blow away the gravity of the water, as it often does. What else to do but to go shopping instead: Aarhus offered its facilities and we said thank you, though we almost ended up buying nothing. That is: I bought 2 outdoor jackets for next to nothing and left them in the car for the rest of the paddling tour, because I wasn’t concentrating properly.

The next day we could finally cross the peaceful lake Mossø – it had apparently lost all the will to try to kill us that was on such a magnificent display the day before. I felt victorious, for no reason at all, and we entered the Gudenå system.

In this system of lakes, connected by the river Gudenå we spent another five days, which were even better than we had expected them to be, though our last long ride was full of rain, cold clouds, damp cows on moisty pastures and – singing, yelling and talking Danish youngsters at our destination. They had moved to our last campsite by cars and joined another group or two. That evening, Denmark won the soccer match against Peru. And we slept like two logs.

—

“We shall return,” he says a few days after the tour. “We will pack some ear plugs and avoid the high season and campsites in bigger places, but we will return. The river is magnificent.”

It is.

What have I done?

For a reason I cannot put my finger on, I said Yes. Yes, I can.

Attend a Christmas party of a client’s. Next month.

Now I can’t believe I actually said yes.

The thing is, I am very happy in my moosing cave and don’t really want to leave it for other people. On the other hand, I really want to get to know the people I am in daily e-mail contact with. It cannot hurt.

So before an endless inner war broke out, I said yes.

Now I have nothing to wear.

And what am I going to talk about – work?

And what about my hair?

And how do I get there?

How do I get home?

Why did I say yes?!?

😆

😥

Še ena smetnjakarska

 – Tudi jaz imam zate koristno povezavo, po skupinskem Whatsappu sporočim sosedu, ki mi je priporočil spletno trgovino za vrtne rastline, tale aplikacija ti sporoči datum odvoza smeti, da smetnjakov ne postaviš ven dva dni prezgodaj 🙂.

– Vem, kdaj je odvoz smeti, mi odvrne, najini sosedi so kot čredne živali, eden postavi smetnjake ob rob ceste, pa to takoj storijo še vsi ostali ;-).

– Ah, to je razlog, sem presenečena in zaključim pogovor. Kaj pa naj še prijavim o tej neracionalni, a očitno veljavni tradiciji? Pa ja ne bom Nemcev učila, kako poteka odvoz smeti.

Čez dva dni me soseda zmerja, ker pri pometanju dvorišča kot smetišnico uporabljam našo ogromno lopato za sneg.

– Tako gre hitreje, sem presenečena. Da je potrebno tudi manj pripogibanja, ji ne uspem več razkriti – še enkrat me pozmerja in odhiti v svoj ljubodoma.

Čez nekaj minut se po Whatsappu že prilizuje najinemu prijaznemu sosedu, ki jo je še pred kratkim imenoval čredno žival.

Vzdihnem. Seveda! Pa saj še nisem pozabila, da sem preneumna za ta svet!

Seveda obstajajo ženske, ki za vse krivijo druge ženske.

Gre za strahove, neumnica!

Nekoč, nekje

Sobotna ljubljanska jutra so bila pretežavna za kar koli drugega, zato sem še dopoldne pogosto odpešačila na železniško postajo.

Med potjo se nisem mogla izogniti razmišljanju o preteklem garaškem tednu, analiza, sinteza, projekcija, okej. Bo. Dobra stran garanja za plačevanje najemnine mladi pianistki, ki v Ameriki pazi otroke, da si lahko s fulbrajtom privošči študij, je vsesplošna življenjska amnezija. Čez teden moram drugim poklicno pripovedovati veliko tega in mi ni treba razmišljati še o sebi. Kaj šele o tem, da predavateljstvo tudi ni ta pravi poklic zame. Kaj pa naj bi? Najemnina, diplomiranka, lajf. Pika.

Na srečo mojih cajtngov drugi obiskovalci ljubljanske železniške postaje niso preveč cenili. Izbiro med Süddeutsche, Frankfurter Allgemeine in Zeit sem opravila kar na licu mesta; odvisno od privlačnosti člankov na prvi strani.

Oh, ti časi! Ko sem še verjela, da obstaja Nekje, kjer so se judje sposobni izraziti o čisto vsem, analitično, strastno, osebno, neosebno, v dolgih besedah in z vso potrebno kompleksnostjo. Mene so bili v nasprotju z vsem tem krasnim novim svetom naštrikali povsem preprosto, zato med drugim tudi takšnih fines kot “levi in desni cajtngi” takrat nisem obvladala, sploh. Glavno, da vsebujejo dolge besede in še daljše članke.

A ti to bereš?
Je zanimalo francoskega soseda v moji novi nemški vasi, ki je z okom petelinjim zagledal Spiegel v moji roki. Seveda, se mi hoče biti navdušena, veliko zanimivih člankov vsebuje, na žalost imam zaradi preveč dela časa samo za en sam cajtng, ma paše, pa četudi pred spanjem.

Včasih.
Mu oklevajoče odvrnem. Ne morem si privoščiti iskrenega odgovora, na podeželju je po vseh izkušnjah sodeč bolje biti previden tudi glede branja in ljudi ohranjati neobveščeno prijazne.

OOTD9: Party Time!

I must admit I don’t find the fact that we occasionally organize our own parties, just for the two of us, strange in any way. After all, it is nice to have a relaxed talk or a relaxing silence with someone you know while eating well, drinking merrily and wearing party clothes noone will comment upon because they get worn only for this purpose. Like really high heels:

Impertinance Day

Heute: Darjeeling mit Fettaugen.

Again …

‘Common, move closer, buddy!’

Taking his time to (maybe or maybe not) do my bidding and silently observing with one rolling eye how I go on pouring hot coffee all over my padded bra and shirt for a terribly long time while concentrating on my camera 

my buddy finally comes closer.

He’s a sight well worth the coffee stench for the rest of the afternoon.

La dernière excursion – & OOTD