the · lives · and · loves

long time no write...

facebook has become my livejournal for a little while esp when I was traveling and didn't want to logon on public computers.

Edinburgh was awesome, I took some photos, too, which will most likely end up on my facebook, he. I saw 31 films within the 8 days or so and found some really good ones. My favourite three were Fish Tank, Fragments and Elle veut le chaos (they translate it as All that she wants). I met old colleagues and friends, said hello to the Apple Shop in Glasgow and to good old Borders (couldn't see anybody in Juiceling that I knew). I got very drunk on my birthday as there was loads of free alcohol...I also brought back some Scottish beers for my boyfriend and me to sample at some point soon. One is called Skullsplitter. I am sure, I've tried that before, must have, but cannot remember...

Speaking of boyfriend...he's lovely and..very much in love and is really keen on moving together asap. This for several reasons, obviously he wants me close and he would save quite a bit of money. The obvious choice is that I move into his room because we probably won't find anything better, it's quite big, with a big wardrobe, a desk and an ensuite bathroom. However, it is close to the city centre which means far away from work, that is one needs to take the bus.

I need to decide quite soon but also told him that I will stay in my room to the end of this month as I love one of my flatmates (one has just moved out, we are three at the moment) and want to spend some more time with her. She will probably leave to Germany in August some time though. Generally, I wouldn't mind moving together but

1. living in one room can be quite challenging.
2. although for Nico it makes a big financial difference, for me it wouldn't as the difference between rents is made up by the need for bus tickets. My rent right now is quite cheap.
3. I like my room with it's garden view and our little compost in the corner.
4. I live close to work. in 20 minutes max I am there, and I don't have to wait for the bus.
5. no traffic noise except the stupid icecream van's bell twice a day (at least)

Arguments for moving are mostly for Nicolas. He's very sweet and I love him but I don't need to be with him all the time. I love my Juliane quality time, just hanging out by myself. I don't really miss anyone like that, but I never have. I was glad when Elias was there but I wasn't unhappy when he was gone either..

It would be good to move because

1. my flatmate who lives above me makes a lot of noise, also at night. As if he was moving furniture the whole time and would be walking up and down. When we were together I laughed at Elias for sleeping with earplugs, now I do it, too. I don't have to use earplugs at Nicolas' place, or hardly ever.
2. In generally some of the things in this house need repair or a good thorough clean although we three are in general good about keeping it clean. The tap is dripping and hasn't been repaired for half a year, my shower is a bit broken (but works), there is some big rubbish in the garden.
3. the neighbourhood here isn't the best. drugs, cars have been broken into, weird neighbours, only an expensive Supersaver 8 minutes up the hill, otherwise 20 minutes into town to do one's shopping.

french:
http://www.leconjugueur.com/

jobs/check daily:
Culture.info http://jobs.culture.info/ireland
Goethe Institut http://www.goethe.de/uun/bew/deindex.htm
Arte http://www.arte.tv/de/alles-ueber/ARTE-Gruppe/stellenangebote/2178236.html
Suhrkamp http://www.suhrkamp.de/service/jobs.cfm
BFI http://www.bfi.org.uk/about/jobs/
Edinburgh Film Festival http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/jobs/view-positions/
UK Film Council http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/jobs
British Library http://www.bl.uk/erecruitment/vacancies.html
Borders http://www.bordersstores.co.uk/aboutus/vacancies/
Oxford University Press http://www.oup.co.uk/recruit/currvac/
Cambridge University Press http://www.cambridge.org/uk/jobs/vacancies_internet.asp
http://www.cambridge.org/uk/jobs/vacancies_internet.asp

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things I am looking forward to

possibly finishing my book tonight and finally starting to read my last two Adbusters

the Guardian tomorrow

Paris in two week for 5 days with my flatmate Sandra

signing up for a long distance course in Education in June</i>

volunteering for the Edinburgh film festival for two (!) weeks in June; today I worked through the program to choose the films I want to see

my birthday in Edinburgh - hopefully I'll get some people together for my favourite restaurant?

my cousin's wedding in August close to the Alps

what I want

someone to play Scrabble with

good shoes

to fall in love with the person who has completely fallen in love with me

www.myspace.com/flashhawkparlorensemble

this is cool. just listened to The Decemberists, nice as well.

oh, and the boy is getting even more reckless on fb (me too, though). I tell you!

I just watched Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives with my flatmate and we had to go back a chapter at least twice because we started talking about all kinds of relationship things in between, it was cool! I bought a lot of food today (including nice jasmine tea, halloumi cheese and a lovely piece of fresh carrot cake) and will go back tomorrow to buy some more, as I couldn't carry everything today and I need to buy some alcohol for the party tomorrow..and the Guardian, of course! I also think that I will get myself a badminton game which comes with a volleyball from Argos, which is cool. I need to move a bit more and don't like gyms, so I could convince at least one of my flatmates to play in the garden. Will probably go to the sauna (at work) tomorrow.

And I just found out today that the friend I stored all my stuff with in Paris won't be home and couldn't leave his key with anyone, so I won't be able to pick up anything. Well, which just means that I'll import a lot of French food, I guess, more shopping...I went into Lush today with the intention of buying some lip balm, but, damnit, I didn't realise it's so expensive (7.25 Euros or so!). I guess in Pounds it looks much less. Well, I bought one from the health food shop after all.

J: man, I really cannot figure this out [...] 'people who think you're cool' is empty
S: you should have one from me now
J: there's still nothing in the box [...] ah, I am missing some plugins, that's probably why I cannot see it [...] damnit, maybe my computer is too old and thus doesn't allow me to be cool! :p:p
S: uncoolness is not cool
J: I can only be cool at work
S: but maybe if you revert the concept , uncoolness is like hotness ... no ?
J: haha, well, I am definitely hot, does that mean I am uncool? :p [...] I'd rather be cool than hot
S: well i guess we will have to discuss about this philosophical concept more in depth .... using beer [...] this what i call a plot ! let's debate !

Today I had two of my worst (English/British) customers. I was so fed up that I told my manager to take me off the UK skills in chat and instead put me on the French skills. Which means that from tomorrow on I'll be supporting in French...Only billing/account issues at first, to see if I can do it. I think I can. I am a bit excited about this. This'll be good practice and, en plus, will look good on my cv...three-language support, yeah.

Also, I've been thinking a bit what I should do after this job. At the moment I am thinking about four places:

1) Barcelona
2) Denmark
3) France
4) South America (Volunteering)

Not necessarily in that order. I don't know what the most likely place is either. Probably France because I speak the language already. I love how exciting this all is, not knowing where I'll be next year.

Easy carrot cake

Yes, you have to sift some flour, but that shouldn't stress you greatly. This is a great standard recipe to cut out and keep handy, perfect for tweaking with other ingredients. If it's too hot in the house, keep the cake chilled in the refrigerator after icing.

175g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp each ground cloves and nutmeg
200g light soft brown sugar
150ml sunflower oil
2 large eggs
150-200g grated carrot (about three smallish ones)
75g chopped walnuts or pecans

For the icing
200g soft cream cheese, either full or low-fat
100g unsalted butter, softened
125g icing sugar
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon, plus 2 tsp juice

Preheat the oven to 180C (fan-assisted 160C)/350F/gas mark 4, and line two 20cm round sponge tins with nonstick baking paper. Mix the flour, baking powder and spices in a bowl. In a large mixing bowl, mix the soft brown sugar with the oil and beat with the eggs until smooth. Stir in the carrots and walnuts, then fold through the sifted dry ingredients.

Divide the cake mix between the tins and bake for about 25 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tin. Beat the cream cheese, butter, icing sugar, zest and juice until smooth. Sandwich the layers with a third of this and spread the rest over the top and sides.

(from the Guardian)

today I didn't do very much, stayed in my pj's the whole day, researched a few cake recipes (as you can see), watched a film (Irreversible). Read the Saturday Guardian and listened to music. Just cooking dinner now, then I will take a shower, read Proust and go to bed. ;) What a good day! Time to think though which then again is not so good...but I had some great emails/messages from a couple of friends, yay.

Squidgy chocolate brownies (non-gluten, non-dairy)

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Beetroot and chocolate brownies
Malted chocolate and caramel tart

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I have three days off this weekend and these are my plans:

- to watch all the dvds I have from the library and my flatmate (Sophie's Choice, Trier's Europa, Pabst's Diary of a Lost Girl, Fassbinder's Lola and Griffith's Intolerance - now we can play a little game and you can try if you can match the years of production with those films: 1916, 1929, 1977, 1981, 1991)

- to finally edit the poetry that was sent to me two weeks ago

- money matters (open bank account etc)

- go to the Glucksman Gallery

- maybe go to one of the two vegetarian restaurants in town

- buy and read the Guardian tomorrow

- take some photos

- learn more Danish (at least one chapter per day)

- do some yoga every day

- bake something nice on Monday for my colleagues
---------------

ich: Klappt jetzt alles?
Kunde: moment noch! [...] super sache , klappt. Frage: wie alt sind sie wenn ich fragen darf?

ich: jünger als Sie ;)
Kunde: lieb. :-) und wie sehen sie aus?
ich: Ich glaub nicht, dass das noch in meinem Supportrahmen liegt..
Kunde: schade.:-(
ich: Dafür haben SIe mich aber zum Lachen gebracht, auch gut! [...]
Kunde: sie haben ja meine e-Mail adresse, evtl. melden sie sich mal. :-)


Hello Juliane

I remember that name from 2007! What's your preferred choice of volunteer role? You can choose. I would be delighted to have you back. Let me know.

All the best

Karoline

nämlich eine Art Selbstanalyse/critical self-analysis. So ein bisschen wie auf der Couch liegen und von sich selbst befragt werden mit der Hilfe einer Webseite, an die ich mich nicht mehr erinnern kann, die sich aber sicher wieder finden lässt. Auf jeden Fall gab es dort 3 Teile:

1) eine Art ehrliche Selbsteinschätzung:
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