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.

powderfinger & other things

and there i was thinking that august would be relatively quiet. well. turns out i was wrong. georg, our project co-ordinator, has been on holidas these three weeks, and i had to take on some of his responsibilities, which kept me particularly busy the last three days. lots of administration stuff. not really very exciting.

ka and i still haven't got the electronic version of the book we are translating, which is NOT good, because we want to use a CAT tool (computer aided translation). september will be crazy busy.

i also taught two english classes this week, one called "laughter is the best medicine", the other about new zealand. the students seemed to enjoy it, and that's good. :)


last thursday i was at a nice little gig by steve gander & the dangers of ...at shakti here in vienna. it was a fun night with good music and a lot of laughter. i took photos but have not edited them yet. too much other stuff to do.


on sunday i went to the lovely days festival in wiesen (burgenland) for the first time, thanks to a friend of mine. it was the perfect day for it - sunny and warm, but not unbearably hot, no rain. we missed most of hans theessink's performance, which was a shame, but we didn't think they would actually start that early. i was rather disappointed by adam green's performance. i'd seen him three times before, and the other concerts were most definitely better, the first one i saw the best of all. or maybe it just didn't work as well in that setting. wishbone ash and the waterboys were okay, but if i'd had any say in it, i would have put hans theessink on just before the main act, neil young.

and neil young was fantastic. it was the first time for me, and i was - and am - impressed. the man can play! and it is always a joy to watch musicians who are obviously having fun. he sang older and newer stuff, even heart of gold, my my hey hey, helpless and a favourite of mine, powderfinger. if you have a chance to see him, do.














song of the day: powderfinger by neil young.

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.

this girl has been ...

poorly, sickly, ill, and therefore at home and mostly in bed since monday afternoon. and no, it hasn't been fun. and the heat outside did not actually help. blah.

so nothing much is new, except that i finished a poem the other day - the first since late september. i am not sure i am happy with it yet, but it is a first tiny little step in the right direction. at the moment, i feel too weak and tired to celebrate this, but i will make up for that. :)

i have completed most of the boooooring translation (if you ever want to know anything about supplier management software, this is who you should turn to!) with the mid-july deadline, hooray!

a few days ago, i tidied up my flickr site - the sets are now neatly arranged in collections. the most recent one is the euro2008 collection, and the vienna collection has been updated.

and it appears i have been hispanified. which means that i am picking up spanish here and there, and that i seem to have gotten over my dislike for the language, and that - who would've thought? - i want to know more. according to one of my "teachers", i don't quite deserve una estrella dorada yet, but at least i am worthy of a tiny little little purple star. (gracias, valerio. not!)

pic of the day:


taken from my living-room window last week


song of the day: quedate luna by devendra banhart.