monthiversary

heinz and i first met 18 months ago yesterday - 13 august 2008, so we spent a lovely, relaxing saturday together. :)








song of the day: life is sweet by natalie merchant.

since i last blogged ...

... i saw my canadian friend colleen again - 11 years after we'd first met in new zealand ...




... and heinz & i paid a visit to ms horowitz who's growing fast and is no longer toothless.




... winter still has not quite gone ...




... although spring made an appearance in styria in mid-march.




... i said goodbye to my lovely english II class ...




... and i've been translating like crazy.




... i've had a poem published in ether magazine ...




... and fish have come and gone at naschmarkt.




... i've kissed heinz once or twice ...




... and have started to pack, because i am moving in with heinz, hoping to be all done by the end of april!




song of the day: la celestina by lhasa.

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.

words, colours, feelings & other stuff

apart from that fantastic leonard cohen concert, life has not been tooooo bad either. *g*

i was rather spontaneously invited to read as special guest at the first café kafka open mic after the summer break - and of course i didn't decline. the atmosphere was great, i was quite relaxed, apart from the little bit of nerves that are part of it all. i read for about 25 minutes, poems from my chapbooks and others, and i was happy with my performance. i feel so at home there that it's almost like being in my own flat. and reading without the mic is so liberating and great that i am wondering why i never tried it before that technical breakdown a few months ago.


me at café kafka after my reading


october has been beautiful lately, blue skies and ahhhh the light! so, so amazing, and it's no wonder that this is my favourite time of the year. i was out taking pictures several times over the last couple of weeks, but i have had no time to edit anything.


busy bright bluish beetle



fragile: blossoms, leaf, snail @ donaupark


work is going well. my english class is great, they are so talkative, which makes speaking activities real fun. i can't believe that this is already week 4! i've had a few job offers, but i have to decline just about everything these days.

one other thing that is still fairly new is that i am now an ex-single, and have been for some weeks. the man in question is not a poet, he is not a native speaker of english, and he is not the dangerous heartbreaking kind that this girl has fallen for time and again. meet heinz:


h&m



mirror, mirror



three guys and barbapapa (on tv, not in the picture! *g*): jakob, simon, heinz


tomorrow, my poet friend john siddique arrives around lunchtime, and i am sooooo looking forward to seeing him, and to wour reading on thursday. now if only my temperature went down, and i could breathe through my nose, and my voice were back ... *s*

if you happen to be in vienna on thursday, 16 october, drop in at shakespeare & company bookshop, sterngasse 2, 1010 vienna, from 7.30 pm.


song of the day: los peces by lhasa .