I haven't updated in a while. I blame it on work being really stressful and my roommate moving out, which meant that there were people coming by to see the room all the time. And really, the last thing I wanna do after a stressful day at work is talk to strangers, trying to get an idea whether or not I can imagine us being roommates.

Things that happened in the meantime:

-My grandmother moved from her second floor apartment to a ground floor apartment in the same building. Although moving took the whole day, I had fun. My family is quite amusing and together we made fun of the gazillion things my grandmother owns whenever she wasn't in the room. I think I will never forget the look of horror on my aunt's face after unpacking something particularly ugly.

-My roommate moved out about 4 weeks ago. I still haven't found a new one. To be honest, I haven't been looking for the past two weeks, because I went on vacation. I should put a new ad up. Well, maybe tomorrow. Living alone has been a nice change. I forgot how much I turn into a slob without a roommate. I'm in no hurry to find a roommate, but I want to eventually get one again. I don't need the extra space and I like to be able to talk with someone when I get home.

-My vacation was nice. The weather was great, real summery, almost to hot to sightsee and we had a good group, with one notable exception. Why is it always guys that can't read social clues? The guy was generally immature and incapable of retaining any information, a xenophobe and homophobe and spoke only German. I wondered why he even left Germany when he doesn't like new things and back home, everything is better? Part of me felt sorry for him, but part of me was annoyed. He provided countless hours of entertainment for the group though and unified it. All in all, it was relaxing.

-Work is trying to kill me. The Swiss army in their infinite wisdom thought they needed my coworker not just 3 weeks but 4, which means I will do two jobs for the next 4 weeks. Thanks so much, morons!

I'm so tired. I just wanna lie down and never get up ever again.

There's just so much stuff going on. I'm doing my job and my coworker's job at the moment, because he's on holiday. And it's really getting to me. It's been 2 1/2 weeks and I'm constantly trying to do several things at once. Today I caught myself giving my computer the command to scan something, while changing an entry in our system and answering the phone. I feel like a huge whiner, 'cause every time someone asks how it's going, I'm complaining. It's just like I'm juggling five things at once and I'm scared that one day I'll just forget something important. I also really lack the patience for hand holding. Today I was copying and twice in like 10 minutes, people came by and disrupted me. Once for the super important task of finding envelopes. I was this close to exploding.

And I've been getting stuff done and getting rid of things in my private life, which is good. There is still stuff that I need to be doing this week. And it's not like they're huge, but it's a long list of things who take five minutes and I keep forgetting things and aaaahhh! On Sunday, there's the party for my grandmother's 80th birthday (not the cop helping one, the other one). I have no idea what to get her. I feel like I should get her something. I got my other grandma a voucher for dinner and a movie with me. Thing is, I actually like spending time with the other grandma. This one, not so much. I'm still recovering from spending time with her over Christmas break.

And then there's this decision I have to make about taking a business English class. A while back I filled out an test at work. The lady from the school called today and I could either take a BEC Higher Class on Thursdays from 1-2.30 pm or on Friday from 8.30-10.00 am. Both of those times suck. Thurdays we have our team lunches and 8.30 is a really sucky starting time for me, cause I usually start work at 8 and that way I would lose 2 hours of my working time. Now I don't know what to do, because a) I didn't really want to take a course in business English, but my employer would pay for it. b) Under my personal development goals, the need to improve my English is mentioned.
What I wanted to do was the Cambridge Proficiency. But the class probably would be expensive and not payed for my employer. Plus I would have to research my options and take an entry test in like the next one or two weeks. What to do, what to do.

God, last week sucked. It's not like there was something I couldn't handle, but I have tons of things on my desk that I couldn't get to, because everything just takes forever. I know practical stuff about the subject, but I have to take the actual cases to a lawyer and talk it over with them. They on the other hand have only theoretical knowledge of the stuff, so basically it's like the one-eyed leading the blind. And their brains are wired differently, I think. For me there's A leading to B, but they're all "what about about C? Have you considered how D could play into it all?". Here's hoping this week will be better. Only 4 more work days til she's back. And Thursday we have off because of labor day.

My brother came by on Wednesday. We cooked (he mostly) together and just talked and hung out. It was fun. I've missed doing that. I hadn't seen him since Mid February. And yesterday I had dinner at my grandma's. My uncle and his girlfriend were there as well, so I managed to kill two birds with one stone and see two family members at the same time.

Recently, I spend a lot more time using Skype. It's mostly to talk or chat with my sister, but also to talk with my mother and a friend of my family that I haven't seen in ages. On Sunday, my sister made a telephone conference with me and my mom. That was fun. My mom is still a bit inept with technology. I invited myself for dinner at my parents and helped her upload a picture into her profile.

I'm shocked about Heath Ledger's Death. His poor kid! It was the first thing I heard this morning. No celebrity death since Aaliyah has touched me as much. He seemed like an actor that just wanted to act and not be a celebrity. And I was really excited about "The Dark Knight", which seems a bit wrong now.

I just skyped with my sister in Manchester. Technology is a wonderful thing. We discussed our plans for the weekend. She's gonna pick me up at the airport. Our plans seem to consist of mostly shopping. Now I just have to pack. Man, I hate packing.

Here are some pictures of my vacation in France this June.
( Not dial-up friendly )

The grandma I was writing about in the last entry, was on the local news tonight because she helped police arrest con artist who tried to screw her out of money. My 80 year old granny got a suspicous call, called the police and when the con artists arrived to do their spiel, the police arrested them. I'm really proud and impressed. I think people underestimate her (myself included) because she is old and looks so nice, but her mind is still sharp. You go, grandma!

I bought a discount card for my local cinema, the one that opened about 3 months ago. So tonight I went to see Fracture, starring Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling. It's quite awesome. It's a cat and mouse game between Anthony Hopkins's character and Ryan Gosling's. Anthony Hopkins is great in it and so is Ryan Gosling. But then I guess you better bring your A-Game when your playing against Anthony Hopkins.

I have an interview early on Monday morning at the job placement agency I was emailing with this week. I have to prepare myself mentally for the process. The last interview I had was 4 years ago for my current job. *Sigh* I just remembered, I need to think of a convincing lie about where I see myself in 5 years and what my goals are. I never know what to answer when that comes up. Frankly, I wish I had some kind of idea or a plan, but even though I'm 27 years old now, I still don't have a clue what I want to do with my future professionelly speaking. I'm nervous. I mean, I know I can pull this off and I'm more confident then I was 4 years ago, but the butterflies are still there.

And now I have to write a birthday card for my grandma. She has her birthday party tomorrow. She actually turned 80 about two weeks ago, two days after my birthday. There's gonna be lots of family there. My aunt organized quite the party as far as I understand.

Thanks for all the happy birthday wishes, you guys. I had a nice birthday. I didn't do anything spectacular, but it was a nice day. Everybody I care about sent me texts and e-mails. It gave me the warm fuzzies. Me on the other hand, I'm terrible with remembering people's birthdays.

I slept long, went shopping, didn't buy anything though, I went to see "Shut up and Sing" and then went to my parents. My mom's birthday is the day before mine, so we celebrated with a nice family dinner. My mom and my sister both gave me a voucher for a dinner and a movie with them. I'm especially looking forward to hanging out with my sister. She has her English Degree now and in the Fall, she'll go to Manchester to spend a couple of months teaching German to Kids. That's a requirement for her teaching degree. I think it will do her good. Spending some time abroad, away from everybody I knew, was a great experience for me. And Manchester isn't that far away, we can always visit her. My brother still hasn't shown me his Australia pictures. Guess we just have to schedule a seperate meeting.

I ordered some make up online, because I didn't buy anything yesterday. I don't know how that's gonna turn out. It's very hard to judge colours when you only see them on a computer screen. We'll see.

++I have a new precious and it's awesome. I bought a 5. Generation 80 GB iPod on Friday. I've spent the weekend adding things, playlists, converting videos into iPod format etc.

++Today was my first needle session with my acupuncturist. It didn't hurt at all, it was just weird seeing needles stick out of my skin.

++I spent yesterday evening with my mom. Mother's Day was a low key affair. I gave her my old still functioning iPod and an introduction to it. She was so excited about it and it looks like she might know how to handle it for now.

++This week is, while short, also stressful. I'm pretty sure, I'm just making myself stress. I'm tired as hell. Tomorrow, after my Italian class, I need to iron my stuff. Shit! Wednesday after work, I'm having another facial. And then I need to pack, 'cause on Thursday I'm leaving for a long weekend in Berlin with two of my friends. I hate packing!

I went to dinner & a movie with my mum. "Stranger Than Fiction" was very good, kind of bittersweet, funny and life affirming.

But I'm so tempted. I've lusted for the 5. Generation 80 GB iPod for a while now, but so far, I haven't cracked. But my recent iPod troubles have made me consider it even more. And now my mom is looking for an iPod. Really, all she needs is a shuffle or nano, but she would take my old one. Mmh, I could call it my birthday present for me, it's only a couple of weeks away. The only downside to giving my mom my old iPod is that I'd be her IT Helpline. The woman barely knows how to import a CD into iTunes.

I finally got my Dead Like Me DVD's this week. I preordered them like a month ago. The delivery from Amazon UK was surprisingly quick. They shipped out on Sunday and I received them on Wednesday.

Yesterday after work, I went to the village in the middle of nowhere where my brother lives for his goodbye party. He's gonna travel through Australia with a friend for the next 6 weeks. It was fun. I'm gonna miss my little brother, but I know he'll have a blast. I remember only too well what a great experience my 3 months in San Francisco was. My sister spent practically the whole evening chained to the karoake machine. She's got a great voice. My sister's and my mother's singing voice do sound quite alike I noticed yesterday.

I need to start doing all the stuff I want to get done today, 'cause in two hours I'm leaving to go to my parents. Free food is always good :-) Even though my dear mother woke me at the ungodly hour of 10.40 am on a Sunday, I still haven't gotten much done today. The weather is beautiful.

I had my second facial yesterday and my skin is much better already. There haven't been any new outbreaks since I started the daily skin regimen. I'm glad, 'cause it really sucked always having to cover up all the pimples.

I visited my parents yesterday and got invited by them for dinner. Dinner was lovely, my stomach behaved admirably and I got to spend some time with my sister. My genius sister, I should say, considering that she got an A on her thesis and her final exam. She's still not any better at accepting compliments. I just don't get it, she's supersmart and is a great cook, baker etc. and yet she can't even jokingly accept a compliment.

My parents showed us their pictures from their trip to Kenya. They saw elephants, giraffes, leopards and lots of apes on their safari. Seeing those pictures really makes me want to travel again. My next trip is in May to Berlin for a long weekend, but one day I'll go to Africa and see all these animals in the wild.

I still haven't called my grandma. I did see her though today at the busstop. We didn't talk long, but she's seems up to what I suggested. I'm gonna call her tomorrow so we can talk about the details.

I watched Torchwood, the Doctor Who spinoff, this weekend. I liked it. There are some bits that are in need of finetuning, the writing isn't stellar so far. But I'll totally be checking out Series 2. Oh my god, it's gonna take so long until the show comes to Germany or Switzerland...

The newest episode of Heroes was awesome, as usual. I love the show, it's my favourite new show this TV season. And it's probably gonna take at least 2 years til Heroes is released on DVD in Region 2... That's just a wild guess. It's kinda depressing to think about things in these terms. The globalisation that everybody's talking about is really slow in terms of TV rights/distribution/DVD releases etc. Don't even get me started on the sad fact that as a consumer who doesn't live in the US, you feel like a second class consumer. Not only get DVD's released months, if not years, later than in Region 1, some shows never even get released here. Or if they release them, they release them in two parts, making you pay double (eg. CSI, Gilmore Girls, Desperate Housewifes, Lost). Or you get the complete season, but they don't include the extras that are on the Region 1 DVDs. How hard is it to subtitle an extra? I'm just saying, the powers that be really shouldn't be surprised that people are importing Region 1 DVDs. Isn't the customer supposed to be king? As a consumer, I'm simply not feeling the love here, people.

My favorite Swiss Hockey team, the Zurich Lions are up 2-0 in the first Playoff Series. Awesome! And really unexpected, 'cause they barely made the Playoffs and were playing badly most of the season.

My downstairs neighbour Alexandra just came by with her cute baby. The baby's 10 months old and adorable. She needed to borrow a can opener. Since we have two of them, borrowing her one wasn't a problem.

We had a family reunion of some sorts yesterday. My aunt Käty, who spends her time either in Bern or the South of France, wanted to cook for us. I went to my parents house directly after work, where my siblings, parents and grandparents were already waiting. I had a really nice time. My grandparents are still grappling with the decision not to send any more money to my other aunt who lives in Brazil. It's pathetic, really. The women is 50 years old and still relying on her parents to help her out with money. My grandparents are totally within their right to say no, it's their money. But obviously, it's hard to say no to your children, distancing yourself emotionally. My normally bitter grandmother was in a good mood. She does seem to realise now that every once in a while you should splurge, not save every penny. But she's done it for decades, so it's hard to change your behaviour when you're almost 80.

I really like my aunt, she's an awesome woman. Käty's kind of a rolemodel for me. She's a smart, independent woman who always did her thing. Käty wants me to come and stay at her place in the south of France. Doesn't sound too terrible, does it? The thing is that everybody there smokes like a chimney and I'm a non-smoker. I want to go, maybe sometime this summer. Preferably when it's warm, so I can spend a lot of time outside ;-)

I spent yesterday afternoon with my mom. That was very spontaneously. My mom had called me on Saturday to ask me something else. Turns out, my dad went rock climbing yesterday and my mom was up for spending some time together. We went to take a walk, because the weather was great. A little sunshine never failed to improve my mood. Mom is stressed because two weeks before her vacation, the travel agency changed the flight plan, which puts my parents in a bind, 'cause they have to be back on Sunday to be able to teach on Monday. They organized a substitute teacher, but the school board has to approve. That really shouldn't be a problem, but my mom is never the less anxious.

Later, we went to see "The Holiday" together. I was pleasantly surprised, it was a good deal more touching and funny than I had expected. I love Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz was well cast and Jude Law actually earned a few Brownie Points back after "Closer".

I still nurse the cold. I started to take medication on Friday, but so far, no major improvement.

Uff. My two dinner invitations I threw were successes. I'm glad they're over, even though I had fun. Friday night, Daniel and Martina were my guests. I didn't realise that they haven't been at my place for more than a year. They admired my new bedroom. I had changed rooms after my last roommate moved out in March. My bedroom now is about 3 square metres bigger than my old one, which means that I have oodles of space. We might go to Berlin together, sometime in May or June, for a long weekend.

Tonight, my parents came by. I was a bit nervous, cooking for them, but they were very helpful and supportive. After dinner, we cleaned up together. My dad really loves my apartment. He thinks living in Zurich is cool. And he's right, it's nice to be in the middle of everything, close to grocery store, work, cinemas, etc. I like the anonymity. The place that I grew up in is nice too, but you know, I like the fact that I can go grocery shopping here and not know anybody.

Only one week left til the merger. There's still so much left up in the air. I hate that.

My mom texted me this weekend to tell me that two friends of theirs (F & W) got civil unionized on Friday. I've known them all my life and they've been together for about 30 years. F was my teacher from first to third grade. W is my sister's godfather and F is my brother's godfather. I'm really happy for them. According to my mom, they have wanted to do this for a while, and now with the new law in effect, they finally were able to. I sent them a nice card with my congratulations today.

I'm trying to clean up my room, because I invited Martina and Daniel over for dinner on Friday. I know what I'll cook then. I did however also invite my parents for dinner on Sunday and I'm still thinking about the menu.

I got my hair done today, which meant that I had to get up at 8 o'clock. That's super early for a saturday morning. Afterwards, I visited my parents and had breakfast with them. It was nice seeing them again. I haven't seen them since Christmas.

Here are some pictures I took at Christmas:

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