Shame on me! I am in Britain, telling you all about my life in Britain, it's the fifth November and I forget to tell you about Guy Fawkes night...honestly,
So, Guy Fawkes was a guy from the gunpowder plot or gunpowder treason plot, which explains it a bit clearer. So, he belonged to a bunch of people who wanted to kill the people, but failed and the king's survival is commemorated on this night with bonfires and fireworks (I can hear them through my window, but unfortunately not see them, as it is rainy...). The king to be killed was James I and James VI of Scotland (the first Scottish king who united England and Scotland on the throne, and who brought the witch trials from Scotland to England, which cost hundreds of women their lives...still, he referred to himself as a "man of science"...science, my ass). He was protestant and the assault was undertaken by a group of Catholics. Guy Fawkes watched the explosives that lay beneath the House of Lords and was arrested on the fifth of November, which prevented the assassination of the king. He was charged with treason and to be hanged, drawn and quartered (you'd assume that one of those were enough, but hey...). He, however, escaped this fate as he jumped from the scaffold breaking his neck and therefore escaped the quartering (as a Catholic, you would probably think he'd enjoy the pain..., but I get him, I'd done the same). So, this is how Guy Fawkes's life ended and the life of King James I continued, and we commemorate it with bonfires and fireworks! Happy Guy Fawkes Day!
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That is a tricky one, I think. Today's task is a question:
What would you do if you won a million pounds? Who hasn't thought about that question, right? I have a million times and every time it is something different I would do. To be honest, I think I wouldn't be able to process that I've won a million pounds for about a month and would only wake up and check my account to see whether it is still there. Alright, but let's imagine. I always used to say I would buy my parents a house because I think they deserve it, and I still that is true, but they have just moved into a nice house, so I think I would buy a house myself. A house in England (with a shower!). I would move there with my man and write, write, write. Then I would probably start my own publishing house to get my books published (I hope this wouldn't be necessary, but, hey, it would be cool to have my own publishing house because I could save all this negotiating, etc, etc). After having bought a house, I would probably take up a master's degree in England and as they are pretty expensive, the money would come in handy. I think I would study something with media and communication and probably start my own party agency because I love planning and executing parties and think I would be quite good at it (our last Halloween party was really cool and this year's Christmas party is just going to blow your mind off, promise!) And when I start thinking about things like that, I also realise that a million pounds are not really that much, of you get what I mean. Studying, buying a house, starting two own businesses (oh, and I would record my own CD), I think the money would be gone before I could even fulfil all these dreams, so I would be really happy not to win them, but to earn them in a way that money keeps coming in. I don't think you have to be rich to be happy, not at all; however, I think life is easier if you don't have to worry about money all the time, so if anyone has a million to give away, I wouldn't say no ;-) Today I wanted to write, but I wanted some time out because I felt I getting slowly crazy in the house, so I went down to Surbiton, my laptop in my bag.
I have to say I prefer Costa Coffee to Starbucks, I don't know why. Probably because everyone is so obsessed with the latter and I normally refuse to do what everyone does (which is also why I don't like Yoga). However, today I went to Starbucks because I was there yesterday as well as the Costa was closed for renovation. After all, man is a creature of habit, and I don't know if you feel the same way, but I hate it when I enter a coffee shop and first have to check it out while everyone is watching me. To avoid this, I went back to Starbucks, ordered hot chocolate and an iced chocolate swirl (yummy) and sat down. I pulled out my notebook and started writing, feeling totally cliché. If ever I get published and an interviewer asks me where I used to write, I will have to say "Starbucks", which really isn't cool because everyone goes there to write, right? Anyway, I wrote on my new horror book with which I have fallen in love and which is my most important baby at the moment and, yet again, I am procrastinating on my trilogy, which really would need my attention, but I have to plan so much writing it, so returning to my horror story is a welcome break (yes, I also write in my breaks. I have project books and break books). I spent the morning at Starbucks and then I got some hair treatment for my hair (Aussie, love it) because this not-having-a-shower-business does not work out well with them. I might have to cut them after all. Today's task is pretty boring. Draw your dream treehouse (page 8/9)...
Well, to start with, I never build treehouses and I was never interested in them, either, so I never gave it a proper thought. Still, here you go with some sort of sketch of what should be something like a treehouse. Ok, let's start. Here just one more thing. I will not necessarily do the tasks chronologically because after having skimmed the book, there are some tasks that you need people for or special items, but I will do the whole book, promise. So, I will accomplish page 6 and 7 today. Page 6 says: draw your favourite food. I did that on Krita and here is the result. I hope you like it. And yes, it is supposed to be spaghetti pomodoro or bolognese! Alright, the second task on page 7 is a list with the following questions to tick:
Have you ever... been on a road trip? No, I don't think so. Not a real road trip. I once drove with my man to Munich and we had a good time, but I wouldn't call that a road trip. weed in the sea? Er, well, who hasn't... pretended to be a mannequin in a shop? how can you pretend that? Well, if you're a gorgeous, slim, model-ly person, perhaps, but I am not, so no. I have done many stupid and crazy things, but that is not among them. I have however pretended to be a runway model in my room whenever I had watched Germany's Next Topmodel. cheated whilst playing a game? In fact, I have even made another game of it. Once, my friends and family and I were hugely into UNO and I and my formerly best friend created a new version called "cheater-UNO" in which you had to cheat as often as possible, but if you were caught you had to slap yourself. I think my friend hit the record once by having to slap herself about twenty times during one game (obviously, she wasn't any good at it). So, yes, I am a cheater and pathological liar, and, in fact, I am pretty good at it, so never play games with me... fallen asleep on public transport? Read my entry for Edinburgh when I fell asleep on the bus and drooled, embarrassing. Actually, I fall asleep quite often on the train and I always drool, which is the worst part. There are people who look cute when they are asleep. I don't. I look as if I am dead and there is drool all over my face, disgusting. gone without showering for over a week? Er, I hope not. Probably as a child, but I cannot recall having done that as an sweating, stinking adult. Frankly, I am obsessed with showering, only that I do not have one in this house... stayed awake all night? Yes, repeatedly, and, honestly, I don't get what people see in it. The first time I did that was when I was about eleven or twelve. My formerly best friend always threw these birthday parties and the ultimate goal was to stay awake all through the night, which we managed only once, but nearly almost every year. I remember the one time that we managed, my family fetched me in the morning to get my mum who had been in a spa resort or something like that for four weeks and was coming home for Christmas. I insisted that I wasn't any tired, but as soon as I sat in the car, I could hardly keep my eyes open. However, my family did not really care about that and we visited a Christmas market and only hours later I could drop in my bed and sleep for twelve hours. The other time I did that was when I went out partying with a former friend of mine. We were heading home about three o'clock, but then we met these two guys who asked us whether we would like to have a drink with them, and of course we wanted. They led us to some illegal-looking bar and we had a drink and it didn't need long until one of the two started to hit on my former friend. In the same breath, he tried to fix me up with his clearly drunk and ugly best friend so that he didn't have to have a bad conscience about making me feel self-conscious about myself. I, however, declined his friend's nice offer to...well, make love without love, and decided to get home, feeling ugly and sad. My former friend left with the guy and I drove home alone. I should have just gone to bed at three, honestly. eaten food that has fallen on the floor? Oh, that is embarrassing, but in fact, I did. I am quite clumsy you must know and therefore it happens that I drop whatever I am holding, but I don't want to waste it and then still eat it. But I feel bad about it, honestly. spied on your neighbours? well to start with, we really have odd neighbours, ask my man. We moved into a flat in a block house and, of course, we had neighbours, but ours were really odd. Our house seems to be filled with strange people anyway and every time I come home, there seems to be a new person I have never seen before, but allegedly lives there. Anyway, our neighbours. I am pretty sure that they were criminals or something like that, as there went loads of people inside, but hardly anyone ever came out again and they didn't make one noise although according to how many people had gone inside, the place must have been crammed. There were also new people entering all the time, people we had never see before, very odd. Once, I spied through the top window inside their flat, but I could see no one. The flat, however, was hardly furnished and it didn't seem as if anyone lived there, so really spooky. Then, as if that wasn't odd enough, suddenly there was nothing. Nothing. No one came in, no one came out and the window was always opened a little bit and the furniture stayed the same, but no soul could be seen for over three months. Then, all of a sudden, there lived a young woman with a child in the flat whom you could hear fight with her mother nearly every day, but the others had never officially moved out... So, if you have any idea what could have been going on there, just leave a comment. made a prank phone call? Oh, so many. When our friends from Vienna visited in the summer, that was our main occupation. We called people pretending to have surveys on their sexual habits, we told them we had got the results of their girlfriend's pregnancy test (mean), we told people they had won gigantic barrels of met (which we, out of some reason, found very funny), and what kind of underwear they were wearing at the moment. The biggest prank, however, I did with my classmates when we were on some hut for a bonding weekend. We called our math's teacher and one of us spoke in rapid Italian and he shouted "no, no, parlare italiano, no, no", it was hilarious. Now, it seems pretty idiotic, but, hey, we've all been young once. sent someone the wrong text? It happens all the time to me, but, thankfully, there was no embarrassing correspondence so far. Once I texted my best friend that I went to see her and that she should get light bulbs, please and that I loved her, as the text was intended to reach my man. She answered that she loved me, too, but that I should get my light bulbs myself. had a bad haircut? Oh, far too many. I needed until today to find my hairstyle (red hair, perm), but there were some real crimes committed on the way. I had short hair which simply doesn't suit me, bright red because I had chosen the wrong colour, bangs (terrible on me), and hair styles that would have suited a sixty year old lady and not me...terrible, terrible. Alright, that is it for today. I will tell you tomorrow what's on next. Yeah, I am finally up-to-date again. So, the initial reason to come to England was to write on my novel. I do that; however, I there was a lot of traveling, eating and excitement going on in the past weeks and it was great to tell you all about it. Now, however, with my man gone and Christmas coming up, I will use November mainly to write, write, write. I will keep you updated on my writing process as well and what else is going on (tomorrow I might want to visit Hampton Court Palace), but anyhow, I decided to start on a new project to keep me sane and you entertained. Yesterday I was in Kingston to finally enjoy one of the waffles from the Wafflemeister on Clarence Street, and it was delicious. If you go there, order the Go Bananas with white chocolate, it's so delicious. Anyway, I bought one of these books for people with too much time (see photo) and I decided to accomplish one or two tasks everyday and keep you informed about my progress. It is part 2 and I know I should have started with the first one, but I couldn't find it and, well, I have always been an impatient head-starter, so why not keeping up this habit... For Halloween I signed up for a Halloween dress up meetup in Kingston and was all excited about it, as I knew no one there. I dressed up as doll (see picture) and headed out, quite unmotivated, I have to admit, to meet new people. I had some troubles finding the pub, O'Neil's pub on Eden Street, but eventually I found it and was introduced to some meetup people. My first fear that they would all be older than me turned out to be true. There were hardly any people under thirty, but that wouldn't mean they couldn't be nice, right?
I sat down between people and started chatting with a blonde, feisty woman who roared over all the noise and people's chatter. I thought she was pretty funny (and, god, I can't remember her name, how embarrassing). Next to me sat a woman called Laura who worked in a department store and looked exactly like that. Her skin was smooth, her hair well-tended and her clothing exquisite. Her nails were perfect, too, as was her makeup. Soon, we had become the nerdy table featuring me, Laura, a guy called Matthew, another guy in a shark costume, the feisty woman and an older, very well-tended woman with whom I talked about my book and her prospects for the future (she would quit her well-paid job to go traveling). I enjoyed talking to them (or rather shouting because there were so many people chatting) and had to smile that I had, totally Reitlinger style, managed to exclude myself from the most people by forming my own nerdy anti-social group in the corner of the pub. All the others mingled and mixed happily, only the six of us remained seated. I don't know why I always seem to end up with the outcasts of people (most likely because I am one, too...something to consider). Anyway, we discussed some serious issues (please feel free to comment on them) such as whether I'd rather save my child or pet in a fire, Game of Thrones, who is our favourite James Bond (I decided for Pierce Brosnan, don't know why. I think Daniel Craig is very good, too, however, he is not dark-haired...), who was our favourite Bond girl and where our borders for drug abuse lay...quite intense stuff. Anyway, I left before midnight, as did most of the others and it was nice meeting them, but it was not a mind-blowing meeting, I must say. My boss invited me to her party in her house on the next day. I decided to wear something less time-consuming and simply wore a witch's hat and a black dress (and YES I forgot to take pictures, stupid me). I arrived there and talked to parents (as there only were parents) and played with two adorable girls. it is funny, I am twenty-three and still prefer children's parties to clubbing. Might there be something wrong with me? We went treating in the neighbourhood, which was so fun and I had nearly forgotten how great that could be (although I didn't ring and called "trick or treat" because, well, officially I am an adult, sort of. My boss is such a darling and I am increasingly falling in love with her and her adorable sons. So, my Halloween was not as cool as last year's (where I threw a big party in my garden including a ritual, bonfire and Halloween-themed food), but it was lovely and I met great people, so thank you.
On Thursday the 29th October, my man flew home and the Host and I drove him to Gatwick airport which launched the longest and most frustrating drive I have ever been on.
After I had farewelled my man, I got back into the car and Host wanted to drive home. Before I go on, you have to know that Host has lived in his area for more than fifty years and only fetched me from Gatwick airport about six weeks ago and my man only a week ago. Still, he lost his way on the way home! He went on the wrong motorway although I screamed we had to go left (he went right, obviously). So, he switched back on the SatNav which we had used to get to the airport (again, more than fifty years!) and getting back into the right direction made him lose his way two more times. Only that it wasn’t the right road we were going anyway. He had forgotten to change the route and now guess where we ended up. Right. Gatwick airport, again. At this point, I was already pretty angry and tried to conceal it as good as possible. We drove home anew and this time he got the right motorway. However, now I made the mistake to mention that I needed to go shopping some when this day, and he suggested we could go on the way home. Alright, I thought. We would stop at the Lidl close to the house on the way home. Well, not quite. He opted for a Lidl in the middle of somewhere because, well, it’s a nice Lidl (?!?!?!?!). He only lost his way another four times on the way to this mysteriously cool Lidl and finally (finally!) arrived there eventually. The Lidl had a roofed garage and an outside parking space as well. Host entered and just stopped in the middle of the road. I asked him what we were waiting for and he answered: a free spot. Well, fair enough, but normal people that I know go around to look whether there is a free spot somewhere and don’t wait in front of the first parking space until this one shopper has departed. Well, we did. We waited until this one stupid shopper came down (a quarter of an hour of my life gone forever) and then parked as much as possible away from the entrance. Being now really at the edge of desperation, I went inside, not waiting for him to hobble behind me. Then I went shopping and when I was done, I looked for him everywhere and couldn’t find him anymore. However, he had already paid and waited at the tills, I would have searched forever hadn’t I been in an egotistical, furious mood and just decided to pay whatever he was doing. When I was through, he had vanished again and I went down to the car in the streaming rain, and he was not there. Great. I called him and subtle and gently he told me he was having a shit. Aha, what do you respond to that? Great. Press harder? Still, he came down about five minutes later and finally we went home without further ado and without me killing him. |
AuthorIn September 2015 I started a new chapter of my life by moving (temporarily or permanently, not yet decided) to England where I work and socialise now. Archives
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