Signing Off

I am going home tomorrow to see my parents for the holidays. The alarm clock is put to 3.30am. Yawn. Totally not excited about that part. Will probably have to take a nap in the afternoon. But oh the bliss of being home. Not having to do anything. Meeting some friends. Seeing the family.

I am off now. Quick shower and early bedtime.

See you!

Weekend Post

Oh I have been bad. Haven't posted for over a week! I am very sorry about that. Don't really have an excuse. I was off work for most of the time. Took all but Friday half-day off work. My holiday period ends at the end of this months so I had to take the last days I had otherwise they would expire. Of course I couldn't let that happen. So I enjoyed almost a whole week off.

The week was great. For once the weather changed to the better, it is mild now. Almost spring-like. A little bit of rain, but I didn't mind at all since I chose to spend most of my time in the house anyway. I played a good part of Final Fantasy XIII. Really enjoying that. I can't believe that I didn't manage to finish it this week, but I am not complaining. This way it will keep me occupied for longer and I will enjoy it for a bit longer. 

Also got some reading done though I am thinking that it will mostly happen when I go home next week. Being at my parents place usually gives me some downtime. Though I will try to visit some people. Family of course since it is a holiday but also some old friends from high school. There should be some around. Really excited to meet one of the girls I graduated with. She got a job at a city council really close to where we went to school. I think it's a really good job and she's very excited. Can't wait to hear all about that. There may be some of my old crew in town so I might be able to meet up with them. But most of them are scattered all over Germany so I might not get a chance to see them all. I hope I can rectify that over this Christmas period. Because my special project is moving along nicely I think I will be able to take Christmas off this year and go home! That would be the first time in three years. This makes me über-excited about this year. I will probably get to explain about my secret project in the next month or so. I am just waiting on a final confirmation message. But the guy I am supposed to get that from is on holiday at the moment so I just have to be patient a little bit longer. *sigh* I can be a very patient person, but for things like that I want security and I want to know what's happening ASAP. So this is a bit trying on me and my bf. But he bears it with grace. And the waiting should be over soon *fingers crossed*.

Not much else to report. I have been trying to be good and stay in touch with far away friends. But I do have to admit that I find it very hard. It's not that I don't care. I do, it's just that I feel that I don't really have anything to say and then I don't want to call and only write texts bla bla bla. But that said, I actually managed to go on skype and talk to a girl I went to uni with. Was great fun, we had a lot of catching up to do. It's very exciting to see where everyone ends up after graduation. We don't all graduate together. The way my degree was built people could graduate at any time, speeding it up or dragging the process along. So I basically graduated by myself. Which was ok but everyone is at different stages now and it's harder to keep up. Have to keep tabs on people.

Otherwise nothing exciting happened. We are trying to get train tickets to go to the Yorkshire wedding. We figure if we book early we get them cheaper. Which is key. One of the reasons I stayed home during my week off was not to spend any money. There is just absolutely no money left in my account. After I paid the ticket to Canada and the one to Germany my account is basically empty. Pay day cannot come soon enough.

Tomorrow and Monday I have to work and then on Tuesday I will catch my too early flight home. Very excited. Tickets are printed out and on the table next to my laptop. Just have to throw some things into my backpack on Monday and I am ready to go. Yup, no suitcase for me. That would be too expensive on Ryanair, plus my flight leaves so early that if I had to check in I might miss it. Almost happened to me once. Not taking a risk now.

Gonna bugger off and keep playing my game. Would prefer to go out and drinking but that has to wait until there is more dough to spend...

Things I love Thursday...

My second attempt. Let's see what I have been loving this week.

• Secret project. Still very excited about this. And the ball just keeps on rolling. I will probably just have to be patient for another week and then I will know if it will go as planned. Even though then the real work will begin...
• bf coming home tomorrow evening after being gone for the whole week. He has been out on seminars. Getting drunk with his work crew every evening which means...
• Chinese food and quiet evening tomorrow! Love it, hopefully I will squeeze in a movie too!
• Finding bf's old phone. Even though it is 'old' it is still much better than the one I have. So I did a little swap over this evening. Gonna test is this week to see if the battery and yadda yadda is as good but so far, love it! It has a real colour display and a camera! The camera isn't that good but still, it is a camera!
• Audiobooks. They make me feel not quiet as alone as I feel all by myself at night. 
• Final Fantasy XIII. Just started to play it and it is phenomenal. The graphics, wow. Need to play it much more. But so far, so good.
• Vocab cards. One of the people in my class took it upon herself to print out nice verb cards with a picture on one side and the different forms on the other. Really help me to study my Japanese. Probably already learnt more in this week than in the entire last term!

That's enough for now. I feel really sleepy, so I will go enjoy my audiobooks. Have a good night everyone!

Going to Canada

Finally booked our flight to Canada in May. We are attending a friend's wedding. I cannot wait for that. Should be great fun. We fly in the week before so should catch all the pre-wedding action. This year is the year of marriages. That will be the second one and there is a third on the horizon in June.

Now just have to gather up all the money to pay bf back. Actually had problems paying online. The issuer held the payment for some reason. So we had to call and tell them to be so kind to release the money so we can book the flight. Weird.

Fun thing is I think we are booked in on the exact same flight times that we took in December. I liked them. Noon departure and afternoon arrival and on the way back evening departure and early, early morning arrival. Probably will spend most of that day catching up on sleep since I have to go to work the next day. Sigh.

But so excited!!! Can't wait to go. Only two more months to go!

We love Friday!

Today didn't start too well as I didn't sleep well because somebody got home late and kept waking up having to go to the bathroom (that somebody wasn't me, I just woke up because of that about every two hours. Fun times).

But the day got much better once I got out of the shower. It was light outside, the sun was shining. Crispy cold when I left the building, very few commuters since I leave early. Nice day. The best thing of course being that I took half the day off and left at 1 sharp. Uh felt so good not to leave for lunch but to leave for the weekend so early in full daylight.

I made my way to Piccadilly Circus and hit the nearest HMV. Just browsed through games and books and ended up buying two DVDs. 'The ramen girl' and 'My neighbour Totoro'. The later one I have been meaning to see for awhile. Can't wait to pop it into my DVD-player ehm Playstation.

Then I headed over to Japan Centre. Since I already spent some money now I decided to skip the one that has all the books, pottery and stuff and head straight to the food store. Big mistake. By this time I was starving since I did not eat any lunch. Filled my basket up to the top with goodies. After I loaded up I headed home to enjoy the afternoon. Sitting right next to the window enjoying the sun.

Figured I'll watch one of the movies but then I ended up just watching 'Grey's Anatomy'. And of course eating my awesome food. Was a little bit proud because I managed to only eat half the sushi and have not yet touched any of the sweets. Will keep those for dinner. I just made some nice green tea. Worked out perfect. No cravings, no starving.

Now just chilling out. Reading some news, blogs and browsing on Amazon. Always dangerous but always good.

 

Managed to 'only' eat this for lunch. It was very filling and delicous.

  

Still haven't touched this. But I really like the banana flavored soy drinks. I wish I could find them in a multi-pack. Or at least a multi-pack of vanilla ones, though usually all I can find is chocolate. Sigh.

 

These babies are still waiting in the kitchen. On the right side are some dorayaki filled with green tea custard and with green tea mascarpone and red bean paste. There is another bun on the left with red bean paste, one strawberry cheesecake and one green tea and melon pastry. All so good!! No worries, I will share these not eat them all by myself. Although I am really tempted to do so.

Things I love Thursday...

This is an idea that I have seen on several blogs now and I really like the sentiment. I first saw it here don't think it's the original source though. But too lazy to look up that one, and since I have never been there I think it's ok to only show this one.

I have been feeling a little bit anxious lately, and also a bit dark and gloomy. Probably just the cold weather getting to me. The last few days have been nice and sunshiny but cold, cold, cold. Making a list of things I love and cheer me up at the moment seemed like a good idea.

So let's see what needs to go on my first 'loving' list:

• Healthy food. Nice stew sitting in the kitchen right this moment. I have been falling off the wagon a bit lately and it feels really good to eat healthy again and stop overindulging. All this good yummy food makes me feel better from the inside. Trying to eat more soy and veggies and it really lifts my spirits (and hopefully lifts off some weight, though that is not the primary goal, just collateral 'damage').
• Podcasts. Love listening to them on my way to work. They wake me up and make me smile. 'nough said about those.
• Green tea. Used to drink it all the time. Tons of it. For some reason I drank less and less of it the last few months. Now that I started drinking lots of it again I feel much better, less thirsty ;-) and less hungry. Makes me feel full for some reason. And I really enjoy the taste. I picked up a mixed package from Twinings that has all these different flavors in it. My favorite so far: apple and pears. Don't really taste the apple, but the pear is yummy.
• Secret project. At the moment it stresses me out a bit, just to organise it all and keep track of it and keeping it a secret (though hopefully not for much longer), but on the other hand I think it is moving along nicely which makes me feel really excited. And a little bit nauseous. 
• Holiday planning. Took half a day off tomorrow which I am planning to spend relaxing and possibly shopping (need new work pants [trousers, for you British speaking folks out there] since another pair of mine ripped, hurray. Hate, hate, hate shopping for pants). Then I have almost a whole week off at the end of the month. Have to come in for half day on the Friday, work on Sunday and Monday and then off home for Easter. Love Easter! Then a month of work and then off to Canada for a wedding. Then a month of work and off to Yorkshire for a wedding. This year is wedding year, that will be three weddings in five months!
• Sunshine. Has been really nice weather the last couple of days. It is actually light outside now when I leave the house AND when I get back home. That is such a big pick-me-up. That almost officially means that spring is just around the corner. 

This should be enough for now. Rather enjoyed doing it. Might have more to say next week. So watch out!

Secret Project

My little project is moving along nicely. The first response came back yesterday. Hurray!!! Now just have to find out what to do about it...