a sign of life at the end of another year

yes i am still alive. yes i am doing really well. and yes i know i have not blogged in ages.

i never blogged about yet another brilliant kaizers orchestra concert in mid-november.

i never blogged about saying goodbye to my wonderful and very talkative english group in november - they said farewell with a small live fir tree after i had mentioned that i had never had a live christmas tree here in vienna. i named him norbert fichte (fichte=fir), and he is now in carinthia at my parents', awaiting spring, and a nice warm spot in the garden.


me and part of my english group: susanne, gabriele, bettina, lisa, sabine, sabrina

i never blogged about my 37th birthday on 21 november which i celebrated with some of my lovely friends - eating, drinking, dancing, laughing.


heinz loves curves. that, apparently, makes daniela happy.


tango! gudrun and heinz


old friends: gudrun & michi

i never blogged about translating a syllabus (german - english) in december, which was quite a bit of work.



i never blogged about how things are going health-wise: apart from a cold and a couple of days of feeling nauseous i've been fine. i am still on medication for panic attacks and such, but i have not had any attacks in a long time. i will have to go and see the doctor in january and then we can reduce the dosage.



i never blogged about how things are going with the new man in my life: great. really, really great. we are both happy, we have a lot of fun, we talk a lot, and we enjoy getting to know each other better every day. we practically live together by now, it's just that we have two homes - his apartment and mine.


carinthia *hearts* styria


styria *hearts* carinthia

we spent the christmas holidays together, first a few days with my family in spittal, and then with heinz's folks in southern styria. everything went very well. my parents seem to really like him, and i guess they can see that we are happy together. heinz's niece nina (8) apparently likes me quite a bit, and i loved how uncomplicated everything was at his sister christa's place.


spittal city choir: martin gabriel, wilfried gabriel, heinz sorgner


my granny and susanne, who helps to care for her


mom & ärik the älg (my christmas present from heinz)


meeee

i've been out taking photos now and then, but the poetry muse seems to have deserted me. i miss writing, i dream about writing poems, but i just can't sit down and write. sigh. let's hope 2009 will be more inspiring as far as poetry is concerned.

so - 2008. 2008 was ...

tough at first ~ sadness ~ leonard cohen ~ meeting valerio ~ literature festival fun ~ heartache ~ going out ~ saying goodbye ~ working hard ~ no poetry ~ scrabulously active ~ new friends ~ special guest at open mic ~ setting my hopes on the wrong guy for a while ~ erotic poetry reading ~ laughter ~ continuing to work on myself ~ a much, much happier me than in a long time ~ meeting heinz ~ parties ~ translating a book ~ fun with gudrun's boys ~ learning to look back without anger ~ kaizers orchestra ~ cosy evenings ~ music ~ sex ~ vogerlsalat mit speck und kernöl ~ lovely english students ~ cuddling ~ growing my hair ~ hiking in the carinthian mountains ~ challenging students in the q4u project ~ first tattoo ~ small successes ~ photograpy ~ kissing ~ champagne in the city ~ sudoku ~ hot ~ sunsets ~ central cemetery ~ fun ~ lonely at times ~ new chapters ~ cocktails ~ men ~ sweet ~ flirtatious ~ exciting ~ sleepless ~ ice-cream ~ getting on better with my mom ~ great feedback ~ skirts ~ high heeled sandals ~ facebook ~ losing touch a little with some old friends ~ giggling ~ getting tipsy with gudrun ~ new colleagues ~ chewing gum ~ dark chocolate with chili ~ strappy tops ~ crying ~ silliness ~ DIS (sorry, guys, secret!) ~ not enough blogging ~ reading with john siddique ~ reunion with lotta and janne ~ mauthausen ~ pigtails ~ smiles ~ love ~ tea ~ reading ~ espanol ~ carinthia ~ future ~ styria ~ wonderful friends ~ and of course a lot more.

i wish you all a very happy 2009 - may it be full of joy, fun, challenges, success, friendly faces and lots and lots of laughter.


song of the day: this is the life by amy macdonald.

december's different colours

purple angel



purple people



mosaic candle



blue moon



green door, what's that secret you're keepin'



snow crystals



rust


more pics on flickr


song of the day: white flag by dido.

my christmas

granny opening a present



dad tickled all shades of pink *g*



mom thinking



martin, listening & smiling



henrieta, who's looking after my granny



me, a tad sceptical



mom's delicious cookies



christmas tree



mom, martin & me at weissensee


song of the day: green fields by the good the bad and the queen.

prep work queen

*phew* sometimes i wonder how i am going to handle the workload in january - i will seriously have to cut down on being-creative-&-wanting-to-do-everything-myself, prep-work-wise. i've just finished everything that needed to be done for my christmas lessons tomorrow and on friday - thank goodness i had some old material, but i added lots of new stuff as well, mainly songs plus worksheets: from silent night (gorgeous version by mahalia jackson!) to fairy tale of new york (check this out - thanks to chris for sending the link) via grandma got run over by a reindeer (the irish rovers) and christmas card from a hooker in minneapolis (tom waits). *g* diversity rules!

i am not, however, feeling any more christmas-y after going through tons of songs and lyrics and other christmas- related stuff. but then, why would things be different this year?

i have time off over the holidays - friday is the last day for this year, classes begin again on the 2nd. wow. 2008. those 2000-something dates still seem rather odd to me, somehow unreal. i'll be off to my hometown on saturday to be with my folks for a few days.

everyone was really tired today, including me; i have so gotten used to the after-work chat with nathan that i really missed it today - i guess he only pretended not to be there, when really he doesn't want to talk to me anymore after my acceptance note from qarrtsiluni; i had a rejection note from mimesis (*sob*) but with some very nice notes and an invitation to send more work; the company i worked for in amstetten are finally paying me (about bloody time too!); saw the doctor yesterday - still on the same medication (me, not him), though i have a feeling he has considered / is considering increased dosage yet again.

off to bed now, leaving you my favourite christmas tune:



song of the day: fairy tale of new york by the pogues feat kirsty maccoll.