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.

time-out

no, the carinthian mountain spirits have not whisked me away, nor have i emigrated to some lonely hut high up in the alps, but i did stay with my family longer than i had planned, from monday till sunday last week. the weather was wonderful, and i was actually able to relax and leave work behind me for most of the days, although i did sit down to translate a little every night.


on our balcony


on tuesday we did a rather short hike from weissensee's eastern end. that lake is just soooo beautiful, no matter how many times i have seen it, i am still in love with it. sad news: a 68 year old german fell down a 50m drop and hit a rock with his head. passengers on a passing boat saw the accident and came to the rescue together with a local fisherman. they reanimated the german and took him to the nearest pier where a helicopter picked him up a while later. he died in hospital two days later though. and here is the spooky thing - i am pretty sure i have a picture of the guy. the description fits, and the picture was taken before the steepest part about ten minutes before the accident ...




here grow cows


on wednesday, we drove to kölnbreinsperre (a dam) and from there hiked along the reservoir to osnabrücker hütte, another easy tour. it was gorgeous. the marmots were noisy, and we even saw a few, already fattened up pretty well for winter. it was rather hot, and on the way back my mom and i bathed our tired feet in icy water (and i mean icy, not just cold) - aaaah!






since my mom had to work on thursday, my dad and i went off alone, taking the chairlift to blutige alm (innerkrems). it was incredibly windy on the lift, but it got quite warm on our way to the little lakes called anderleseen, though it looked rather dark in the direction we took. once we were at the lakes, the wind really picked up and it got so cold that my hands were freezing.


baby donkey (1 month old) at blutige alm


not very nice conditions for a cosy picnic, so we did not stop for long and walked down to willihütte where it was calm and actually quite hot. ah, bliss! sitting in the sunshine, quiet all around, only bees buzzing and birds singing ...


lunch break for butterflies


my mom also works fridays, so it was a father & daughter tour again that day: from thomannbaueralm (innernöring) we reached our first peak of the day: rabenkofel.



it was lovely and warm, but the higher we got, the windier it was, and by the time we reached the second peak, stileck, the wind was almost as strong as the previous day and it was way too cold and windy to sit down and eat up there. we found a sheltered spot a little further down on the way to langnock and rested for a while. langnock was the third peak and from there it was all downhill - though only as far as our path was concerned; the sun was out again, and it wasn't as windy anymore. the cows eyed us suspiciously, the butterflies danced and the bees buzzed, the ants kept themselves busy and the birds chirped happily. dad and i took a lot of photos on the way to lamprechthütte, where we had some of their delicious reindling (a traditional carinthian cake)


healthy carinthian meal


and talked to the owners for a while before our last half hour walk back to the car.



hungry pig munching on my dad's apple & frothing at the mouth



rude austrian cow


saturday was my lazy day - chatting with my brother and my granny, enjoying the sunshine, and just a small dose of work.

for more pics, see my flickr album.


back in vienna, i went back to my job-coaching classes in the afternoons, things are very quiet there. i was relieved to hear that it was okay for me to teach the most advanced english class starting on the 22nd instead of the beginners class starting on the 15th, because it gives me more time for the translation. speaking of which - we still have not received the electronic file, but i am nearly done with the translation of the text (only 10 pages to go now, then the footnotes for which the electronic file would be very handy) anyway!

autumn has arrived: it was hot until thursday, a little cooler on friday, and yesterday it was obvious that while it might still be warm until well into october, there will be no more heat. the light is getting more beautiful by the day and i look forward to some picture-hunting whenever time permits.


song of the day: water to sky by thea gilmore.

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.

where, what, who ...

where i've been:

hiking with my dad in the nockberge area of carinthia - blutige alm (bloody pasture) & anderleseen (anderle lakes):





hiking with mom, dad, and my brother martin in the nockberge area - königstuhl, windebensee:









in my hometown, spittal:



in klagenfurt's planetarium & minimundus, with birgit:



who i've met:





what i've seen:









who i've kissed:



what i've said goodbye to -
the backyard, our beautiful garden, the house where my great aunt greti used to live, and surrounding buildings as well as the cobblestone street i think of every time i look at my knees - because i learned to ride my bike there. all that will be gone soon, replaced by a supermarket:









more photos on flickr sooooon (i hope).

song of the day: capri calling by yello.