in case anybody's been wondering ...

... yes, i *am* still alive. just. ;)

i've been "on holidays" (from the teaching jobs) since saturday, but in fact i have been working my a** off translating the armenian massacres in ottoman turkey. ka and i still have not received it as a word document, so we cannot use the computer aided translation tool, which makes it all a little more difficult. but i have done over 60 pages now, and i am pleased. i work best at night, so there have been a few late ones ...

i manage to still have a little bit of a life in between though: i saw gudrun and the kids, i met my new italian friend luca and his lovely bike aloisia twice, and i had a lovely evening at nathan & ka's with ronnie and erin and nathan's dad. there are of course pictures, but ... no time for editing and all that. and sometimes a girl needs to have fun, too. ;)

today i was at a heurigen just outside vienna for poetry and music, many of the usual suspects were there. i read four poems, two of them accompanied by martin schönlieb (flute, guitar).


green, with a touch of autumn



the secret meanings of wood



nathan, sort of.


while it's been hot again lately, there is more than just a hint of autumn in the air in the mornings and at night. i made myself a little sunny office in my livingroom so that i'd get some sunshine while slaving away:


my sunny workplace


monday morning i'm off to carinthia to see my parents for a few days. i hope the weather is okay, i really need fresh air and space and nature, though i doubt i'll be able to relax, what with work work work at the back of my mind ...


song of the day: sweet darling by she & him.

it's monday ...

and i overslept. and was out the door within 15 minutes, because for once my hair did not stick up in all directions. boring admin stuff most of the morning. yawwwwwn.

met my friend birgit for much-needed girl talk and just-as-much-needed ice cream. :)
yesterday, much-needed and long-awaited girl talk with my friend sabine. exchanging dating stories is actually quite fun.

men are weird. unreliable, too. cowards. and did i mention, weird? yes. well. but someone told me yesterday that he's been stood up by girls a few times lately, so it must be the fashion.

this - the sun, the moon - was something i enjoyed in the company of a reliable and just-the-right-kind-of-weird man last wednesday (click to enlarge):












no poetry. but one acceptance from a zine i had long given up on.

and hey, the sun is shining, and my hair is newly hennaed.




song of the day: wildwood flower by emmylou harris & iris dement.

things have changed ...

once again. i handed in my latest translation on wednesday, thinking that was that for the next few months, looking forward to working only afternoons in august and taking half of september off. but. then nathan told me about this book translation project that his wife had been offered and which she cannot do alone, because it is too much. and they were wondering whether i was interested in taking on half of the 600 pages ... the topic is not particularly fun, nothing light for the summer: the armenian massacres in ottoman turkey by guenter lewy. and the deadline is late september ... i must be mad. :)

* * * * *
yesterday evening i met up with harold, bruno, alina and some of her friends at museumsquartier (outdoors) where we saw a terrific performance: the manganiyar seduction, musicians from rajasthan who perform ballads about kings, sufi poems, and other songs. there were 43 singers and musicians (string instruments, drums, flute, mouth organ ...) seated in cubicles: four rows of nine cubicles, one row stacked upon another, beautiful light effects and fantastic music.










i also enjoyed watching the people, especially children - they were so into it, totally absorbed and fascinated!



* * * * *
no new writing. sigh.

but - some new people, and ... i have a date tomorrow! :)


song of the day: things have changed by bob dylan.

lazy sunday afternoon ...

yeah right. i wish! i have to get loads done today, because i did not get anywhere yesterday, not really. but since prep work for tomorrow involved watching the whale rider (we're doing maori culture), it isn't quite so bad. :)

friday night was fun - sweeney todd was, erm, bloody good. :-p sabine and tom and i giggled our way through the movie and the rest of the evening.

and it's funny that when i venture out into the real world once in many weeks, i bump into three people i know! justin from my CELTA course in 2004 with his wife, then evelyn from labyrinth / open mic, and finally sharron, who was also in my CELTA class! strange too that the last time i saw justin and sharron was when they starred in a play, about 14 months ago.

i've made friends with my new laptop which is running on windows XP (ah! the relief!), flirted a little (not with my laptop), played scrabble and slept too little.

it's lovely outside today, spring weather. might persuade my inner teacher that there IS time to enjoy some sunshine ...

song of the day: never seen the light of day by mando diao.

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.