My mom and I spent the 24th and 25th in the kitchen and made turkey with onion-cornbread-walnut stuffing, bacon and beans, yams with marshmallow topping, braised beets, roasted carrots, potato gratin, cheese and tomato biscuits, stuffed mushrooms, winter fruit salad, pineapple buttermilk meringue pie and maple pecan pie.

It was so good.

Other than the food, I guess I had an okay Christmas. My Dad is a bit ill, my sister took off for Greece promptly on the 26th, my mom is still limping and I was just tired, the stress of the past few months caught up to me the moment I had time for a break. But it was nice to be together, and the familiar celebration routine was comforting.

( I haven't mentioned the recent concert rush - first Balkan Beat Box, then my own concert, then Shantel and Regina Spektor. )

I forgot to mention that I dyed my hair. It's dark brown now, with the roots showing because it was already a month ago. I'm not entirely used to it though, sometimes I'm still surprised by my reflection. But everyone says it looks good, better than before so now I'm kind of hesitant to go blonde again.

Current Music: Imogen Heap - Candlelight

Daan goes Cash

Tags: music, video

Things have been even busier than usual lately and though vacation officially started last Friday, the stress is still the same since the end of uni brought on two new jobs. Along with the two I already have, and the papers I should write for uni...

but like always I am a master of procrastination. While I should be translating forms, I just completed a survey concerning students and stress, which led to questions about relationships with family and friends. Rationally, I know that I'm well-liked, loved, respected, supported, etc. But most of the time I feel completely alone. It's odd. And then the questions about faith. I consider myself agnostic but you can't live your life that way, sooner or later you realize what your real beliefs are. I can't have faith in an unfounded idea just because it's comforting and convenient, be it a deity or an afterlife or the concept of a soul. I want to understand how people can believe in such things, I'd like to be proven wrong.

Anyway.

Long overdue meme, thanks to sister_luck. ( Five questions, comment if you'd like questions as well. )

Current Music: The Pixies - Where Is My Mind

D., because he is getting bored with Debbie and Nick, asks me about the children featuring in the English textbook: "Are there any new characters in the book somewhere?" C., who needs to join every conversation, butts in: "Yes, can we unlock them?" Everyone bursts out laughing, but in a way that's how it works: Once you've mastered the simple past, you get Jeremy, Ben's annoying cousin.

While reading out a chapter from a German children's classic, A. tries to pronounce all the names as if the characters were English-speaking. Martha sounds fine, if a little out of place, Constable Jeschke is a right mess. Funny that for an unknown and unfamiliar text the default seems to be Anglophone.

Tags: books, people, school, society

I thought 2009 was done killing off celebs ... I can't believe Brittany Murphy's gone now. This is just a total shocker, and so very sad :(

P. was supposed to spend the Christmas holidays with us. He was supposed to come home yesterday, but because of the snow and the cold the Eurostar trains didn't ride this weekend. P. spent a day in London trying to figure out whether he'd be able to get on a train or not. When they finally decided to start running trains again, it ended up being false hope. So he trotted off to Oxford again to find another means of transportation to get home.
I was angry and crushed. There's snow on the ground. Going out with Little Bit is an adventure in itself. So today we stayed in. We both have got a cold, and it started snowing again. When I got up this morning the world seemed awfully quiet, but it was a white blanket that was responsible for the muffled sounds. There's enough snow on the balcony to make a little snow person. I put up my little Christmas tree and the lights, wrapped those presents I had bought already and just played a bit with LB. We're living on hope that tomorrow will be a better day for P.
To make sure he doesn't have to fight for a seat on the train, he has booked a flight from London to Brussels. Our airport had been closed for five hours today because of the snow. Luckily there's no snow to be expected until tomorrow at noon and P. has an early flight. So as long as it doesn't snow, we're good and P. will be home tomorrow.
For him this is actually all very surreal. This morning I was talking on the phone about the amount of snow on our street. He couldn't imagine it. Oxford was cold, but had clear blue skies.

Tags: personal

The first flakes fell while I was teaching. There weren't many of them and they were struggling to provide the white carpet the eldest pupil asked for. We looked out the window for some time and watched the flakes get thicker and their numbers grow. It's in abundance that they find their strength. By the time I left the building less than an hour later, the park had turned white and snow was falling so rapidly I'd turned into a little snowperson when I arrived at the other building. The rest of the afternoon snow fell steadily, turning Brussels into a fairytale-city – if you weren't too close to the ground.
I was glad I could go home on the underground train, which of course didn't have any trouble with the snow. The walk home from the station was actually a jolly one. Lots of people coming home were shovelling their pavement. I wanted to thank them for easing my walk. Others did not think of shovelling. By yesterday their pavements had turned into a neck-breaking icy substance. Not everyone knows how to behave neighbourly.
My adventures in the snow went on on Friday when the school did their annual walk to the cinema multiplex for a Christmas film viewing. It was cold, but we had clear blue skies while walking. It must have been a sight: a long line of hundreds of children with cold hands and cold feet, ready to warm themselves on A Christmas Carol

Tags: film, on current events, personal

I would like you to know that our last school day for 2009 is Wednesday, 23.

It's been snowing steadily since sometime between eight and ten this morning.

Tomorrow's commute is going to be an adventure.

But, yeah, doesn't the world look fabulous all in white?

Tags: personal, school, weather

omg

so tonight was our staff do. i am being so careful with my typing here but i bet i still badlls it up somewhere.

so

to start with

i tried a cigarette. not just a quick puff like i did years ago, but chris made me actual take it into my lungs and it was migning. lol. i don't want to take up smoking but i was drunk enough to want to master the art. consider said art mastered. it fucking hurt my throat, i'm not doing that again!

joe and trish are secretly seeing each other. for shame, cus joe's a little crush of mine, but i love lee so it don't really matter. still, it's like forbidden so it's nice thart they trusted me with the info,not to tell anyone at work.

chris gave me a rose in the taxi - he found it on the taxi floor lol. i am apparently to treasure it forever hhahahhhaa. bless. he was leaning into me loads in the taxi lol, but think it was all just drunken-ness. hehe. still, i am sooooo gonna rip into him!!!

guess i shoudl sleep now, it's like nearly 3 am lol.

oh and we got pulled over by the police on the way into town loL! joe's brother jack gave us a lift in but we were one too many

Police: how many have you got in the back seat?
Chris: 4. no 3. no 4.

later on:
Police: I hope you all realise how lucky you are escaping a 60 pound fine. You should probably think how best you could spend it, maybe give it to charity
Chris: Nah, we'll spend it on beer!!!

D'oh hahahaha Still, good night!!! hehe

(I'm in the process of writing some things down that have happened over this last fun-filled week before the holidays.)

Our Little Bit has a great love for the walker-thingy her playgroup at daycare recieved from Saint Nick. It's disguised as a ladybug and its four little wheels bring the user quickly where she likes to be. Our LB is quite handy with the thing and races through the room. But M. likes the ladybug too, for all the same reasons. So when he is happily playing with the walker LB stages an attack to obtain the thing for her benefit. According to her caretaker she wouldn't let go. She knows what she wants and takes it when she wants it. This one won't let other people walk all over her.

Tags: kids, personal