Journal Entries
Feeling old...
Posted Dec 30, 2013
I am mother to the world famous Gruesome Twosome.
And the first of them turns 17 tomorrow
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Latest reply: Dec 30, 2013
Ow Ow Ow
Posted Dec 28, 2013
I was just horsing around with #2. We were pretending to do the flicky-leg thing from an Argentine tango.
We overbalanced and I fell - planked - right on the floor. Bashed my cheekbone, elbow, boob (yes, ow ow ow) and knee.
It really hurt, and for a short while I thought I was going to faint.
So far so normal for me.
But then 
came running over - and as I was still feeling disoriented and dizzy, and I really wasn't sure if I'd hurt myself badly I pretty much shouted "get off".
Which to me is fairly normal behaviour when someone is in that position (I'm a first aider, I see it about 50% of the time when called upon to do first aid)
And he got in a giant huff and stomped off and is now sulking and acting like an idiot.
Is that also normal?
Discuss this Journal entry [16]
Latest reply: Dec 28, 2013
not a whiny journal for a change :)
Posted Dec 19, 2013
I've had a good 10 days 
On 6th December I was at a friend's birthday party - she turned 32 so everyone was younger than we are but it was fun anyway, they're all music fans and we always have a good chat about "old school" rock and all the bands we've seen that they were too young for.
On 8th it was my birthday, so that was fun opening 50 presents (individually wrapped) from my mum, and getting nice things from and the Gruesome Twosome. Followed by The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten at the Düsseldorf Opera (part of my anniversary present of 4 pairs of Opera tickets)
On 9th I took the day off to get my cool, new, every-ten-years tattoo. (although all these nice things were interspersed with horribly hysterical tears about an essay which was due to be handed in on 10th)
On 11th I was grabbed, dragged into our big meeting room where the whole company had gathered to make fun of my great age (but the Koreans have respect for age, so as they congratulated me all the Koreans bowed which is odd, but cute). They gave me a walking stick, a puzzle book with extra-large print, a trashy romance novel, a gift basket full of yummy goodies and an Amazon voucher. so now I can buy a LOT of books
Plus the MD summoned me to his office and gave me a personal 
from him - and since I do the expense claims sometimes I know he hasn't claimed that on expenses 
On 12th I got my essay back with a 2, which was an even better feeling than when I got 98% for a previous essay, because i was so sure I'd failed miserably.
13th was our company Christmas party. I won an LG G-pad (which is sort of like an iPad) which is turning out to be the thing that may fix the problems I'm having with my economics course (i can download everything I need and read / watch / listen on the G-pad during my train commute, which is a huge advance in terms of logistics for me). And then I found out that they are horribly expensive which made me even happier.
Yesterday in our weekly team meeting it was announced that I've been given a company incentive award. Which will amount to a bit of cash which is always nice, but also recognition of my work and experience which goes some way to ameliorating my feelings about always being passed over for promotion etc.
And on Friday my mum is coming over for 10 days to spend Christmas with us. I'll be working on 27th but otherwise off over Christmas - I'm glad to work as by then we'll all be at each other's throats. Possibly.
My clothes seem to fit better, so even though I haven't made it to the gym much lately something seems to be going well in that department.
Plus I didn't wake up the day of my 50th looking like a wizzened hag.
Sorry, had to get it off my chest, and since usually when I say that it's a huge moan I thought I'd buck my trend.
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Latest reply: Dec 19, 2013
I'm a winner...
Posted Dec 15, 2013
it was our company christmas party on Friday. In the past they have given us all a gift certificate for a department store, but a few (a fair few, if I think about it) years ago they switched to buying raffle prizes and putting each of our names into a hat. That way about 15 of us got a prize, everyone else got a bottle of wine or something.
The last few years I haven't been to the party because they have had a singing competition and I'm really not into that kind of thing.
Anyway, they stopped it for this year, and as one of my colleagues' daughters decided that she definitely wanted to meet up with my daughter again, so and I took Gruesome Number 1 to the party.
This year there were 3 categories of prizes: the first were 5 Nespresso machines (I wouldn't have minded one of those. The second were 5 LG G-pags. I won one of those, an 8.3" tablet. The other prizes were a 42", a 47" and a 55" TV. The guy who got the big one is very popular and the applause was brilliant.
So - now I have a tablet which is hopefully going to make catching up on my studies on the train a lot easier (it's been difficult reading my course books on my old-school b/w Kindle in pdf format).
So what I was wondering is this: Is there some way to harness the mobile internet capabilities of my smartphone and use my new pad as a proper internet-enabled mobile device?
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Latest reply: Dec 15, 2013
Advent and football
Posted Dec 2, 2013
I'm not a Christian but I love Christmas. Well I love twinkly decorations and fairy lights (white only) and having special things that only come out once a year (which is why I love Halloween and Easter and birthdays).
And while I'm not overly keen on the cost and commercialisation of it, I do like the specialness. And for me, especially as a child, Christmas coming meant my birthday was coming too (December baby) so on one hand I had to wait all year for the 2 big ones but on the other hand: fairy lights!
I really like things like home made biscuits, stollen, cakes and so on so we really do get all German about the first Sunday in advent and start eating the Christmas goodies then. has baked Stollen already, we've made the mincemeat and I'm hoping he doesn't forget that I love 
. We also have some fantastic recipies for biscuits that we make only at this time (Ginger Florentines, cardomom shortbread etc).
Recently I've started to make advent calenders for the Gruesome Twosome and my mum so they get useful stuff (travel toothbrushes, hand warmers etc) and sweets and things that I don't ususally get them. Inexpensive stuff.
I wanted to make one for but I ran out of ideas and time and as I'd already arranged a ticket for yesterdays footie match I decided to doctor his advent calender (a Boroussia Moenchengladback one with chocolates in) and managed to squish a ticket behind door number one. I'd been in the fan-shop the day before and got some lollies in the team colours, some face paint (in a handy 3 coloured stick) and a father christmas hat (black with the team logo on the white band - complete with bell in the pom-pom).
Actually I bought two tickets because I'd previously promised that I'd go with him sometime.
Anyway - he was really excited about it, just like a kid at Christmas so it was worth blowing the entire budget for his calender in one go.
And football matches here are something else. reckons they're way better (as an event) than in the UK. So here is how it was.
We went with 6 others, some people from my office and one of them brought 2 friends (who were totally cute). When we booked the tickets online first of all there was a big message on the screen that we were booking tickets in the Nordkurve which is the Home Fan Area with knobs on. No other football club insignia allowed (and actually, going in without some form of Borussia fan-item would also mark you out as "too neutral" according to my friends. Luckily and I both have scarves and as it's been a bit chilly I also bought myself a bobble-hat.)
We started in the Christmas market (along with loads of other game-goers) and had a couple of Gluehweins. Then we piled onto one of the buses going to the stadium and eventually got there (30 minutes squashed in a bus for what is usually a 5 minute drive) and headed off to our allocated seats (it's not all seater, the home fan area behind the goal is standing room only). We collected a beer each on the way - yes, beer is sold in German stadiums*, in returnable plastic beakers, as well as Bretzel and Sausages.
The place was packed - not to the rafters because there were some empty seats - attendance was 50,084. It's going to be even fuller than that when Borussia play Schalke 04 on Saturday.
The mascot (a black horse) was prancing around the pitch doing his thing. The hardcore fans (no jackets!) were waving their flags and singing, the atmosphere was great. Then the team was announced - I'm not sure how they do it in the UK but here the announcer shouted their first name, and around 50 thousand voices shout the surname. For each team member, the substitutes and the trainer. There were about 200 Freiburg fans* but we didn't hear a peep out of them.
Then there is the club song. 50 thousand people (minus and I as we don't know the words) sing the song which is very rousing, the mascot children go off the pitch, the players do the handshaking thing and off it goes.
The match itself was really nothing special which was disappointing because they're a good team ( told me that Freiburg came hoping only not to lose) but eventually, in the 2nd half, Borussia scored and the whole place went bananas. Brilliant atmosphere.
I have to say that for me the best part were the fans behind the goal. They sang, waved their flags and made a noise for the whole 90 minutes of the game. Amazing. I'm a little bit in love with each and every one of them.
At half-time the Horse Mascot had a bit of a dribbling-goal-scoring thing with some guy from some fan club or other. After the match finished some young fellows (and one or two of the players) kicked about 30 balls (from the sponsor: Postbank) into the crowd which looked like hard work.
It's a long time since I've actually been to a match. It was probably 26 years ago I went to Ayresome (sp?) Park with to watch Boro lose (i think) to Bournemouth. Previously to that I used to go to watch the Mighty Sheffield Wednesday with my grandad (who worked on the turnstiles). I'm not sure what happened at the half-time in either of those places, I've forgotten all details of the Boro match and when I was at Hillsborough with my Grandad we used to get Bovril at half time and talk about the football pools with his mates.
But it was great fun and I'll be going again, I hope.
*i know. But stadia when writing in English just seems wrong
** At the Nordpark stadium the away fans get a tiny corner, no matter who they are. I know Schalke fans though, and I know they will make a lot of noise even if there are only a few of them.
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Latest reply: Dec 2, 2013
Sho - employed again!
Researcher U129860
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