Kyria's journal

I cancelled my plans for the weekend so I can be with him. He has trouble breathing, probably fluid n his throat. They are making a cat scan to find out

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Written while I'm waiting at the airport. I read the posts from my flisties last night, but was too tired to reply. I've been in Friesland for the past week, learning how to sail a small keelboat. And small is a boat under 20 meters long. It was a very intensive, very fun weekend. The hardest part for me was dealing with so many new people and constantly having people around. I tried to be wise and decided to rest when possible, but succumbed to my enthousiasm a couple of times, resulting in me not getting enough rest. I had a blast and received my level 1 certification, meaning that I have shown to know and be able to perform the basic maneuvres with a boat, as well as know the correct terms. There are a ton of terms on the ship and a lot of terms for actions, that you have to shout to your crew or that are shouted to you by the one at the rutter. I hope I can go out and sail some more this year, being on the water is absolutely lovely. Our boat disn't have wi-fi, it was an internet free week for me. Vey soothing, I should dothat more often.

Also, sailing is essentially different from being on a boat with a motor. There's something about taming the wind that gives me a huge powerkick, and being able to use Science (tm) all the time appeals to my geeky side.

Here I am today, sitting at Amsterdam Airport and waiting for my flight to Istanbul for a meet up with Ozma. I got my travel guide and the address of the appartment, will figure out during the flight how I'll get from Istanbul Airport to the appartment. I look forward to finally visiting Turkey for the first time, taking dance classes and watching performances. If the appartment has wi-fi, I'll post updates. If not I'll resurface next Sunday with tons of stories.

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And hot it is, about 36 degrees celcius with a bright blue sky. I dind't realize how much I miss the sub untill I arrived here. I arrived around 20.00 on wednesday night, and the other 25 people coming from our plain queued up in line for the two travel agencies. I was told to go to the tiny bank office in the corner of the empty marble hall to get my visa from a reluctant Egyptian guy with no sense of humor. When I passed the other six guys who wanted to see my passport fr unknown reasons (why would a guy who oens the door chek my assprt?) I was greeted by Sara's husband, a youngish tiny Egyptian guy who is very polite. He used to be a dj but as moved over to acting recently. He deove me to the hotel, which is Sofitel, located a litte outside Luxor. The streets were less dusty then I remembered and dd speedbumos have appeared all over the place. What hasn't changed is that whole familie ride one motorcyce without helmets or shoes. Inbetween the cars, donkey carts, carriages with horses and people on foot make their way.

I'll post more about the danceclasses later. For now I want to address the shock on how empty Egypt is. We went to the souk on Friday night, and we were the only tourists there. It wad kind of spooky actually, the vendors tried to be polite in that pushy way vendors all over the world share. The peope here are desperate, as tourism is their only income. Next week our hotel will have 18 guests, while they have about 200 rooms. Everything is excellent and the men o out of their way to be polite and not ask for tips. So I decided to not be a tightfisted Dutchy during this holday, and I'm doing my best to stimulate the local economy. Extracurricular activities included a tourist dance sow at the Heisenberger hotel (nearly empty), a visit to the light and sound show in Karnak temple, we're going on a Felluka trip this night and I'm getting up at an ungodly hour toorrow for an early morning balloonride with sunrise ver the Nile. I am getting a massage on Wednesday before I leave and I got me a ghalabaya. I make it a habbit to tip as often as possible.

All that and dancing too! More on the dancing later, I have a great time and I'm going to enjoy every minute of it. The group is very nice, mostly Brittish ladies, and a remarkable amount of foreign Bittish people so we get by with a mix of whatever language we feel like. see you soon! I'll get back on Thursday and need a day to sleep and unpack, and I'll post a write up after that.

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Second meeting for my personal effectivity course, here I am sitting in a hotel lobby in Amsterdam as I'm too cheap to pay for internet in my room. Dutch football is on on the telly, a couple of grey uits in the corner are hving a drink and all the twenty-something hotel staff people are patiently and professionally helping people behindvthe main desk.

So this is what it feels like to be a young urban professional. I like it, though the course is hard on me on account of me being emotional unstable and tearing up all the time. We worked on giving feedback (hard), paraphrasing in conversations (okay), types of personality related to the Rose of Leary (fun) and reviewing our homework assignments. Go us!

I feel slightly abd for not being able to work on the management info policy, but there is aleays this weekend. I have no meetings or other duties so it is sleeping in and hanging out for me! Well, and do some work, finish and practice a choreo, and do the mandatory cleaning and decluttering. One of the assignments for next month is finding ways to celebrate our accomplishments. I decided that I'll ask my manager to dance with me once our ERP system is up and running in April to celebrate. He was talking about how he did tons of folkdancing when he was young, I'd like to see what that looks like! What are your favorite habits to celebrate?

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1.I'm soooo tired, glad we can hang out in the cabin. Pregnant cousin and old people are tired too
2. Took snowboarding private class with little brother. Brother is a natural, I am too chicken to relax and slide down at ease. Did manage to snowboard down the blue piste seven times today :-)
3. Soooo much food! I will return home four pounds heavier. Omnomnom, must eat ALL the food!

A general update on the situation: we share a huge wooden lodge in Austria, with twelve family members from my mother's side. My nephew and his wife live in Austria and they have extemsive experience with wintersport. So we are sort of mingling with the natives :-). Not much people and no res-ski, so we are outdoors 4-5 hours with skiing/ snowboarding, relaxing in the sauna, and playing rummicup in the evenings. The snowboarding is harder on me, because my instinct keeps telling me that standing up on a tiny board and sliding down 80 meters will get me killed.

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This year contained a couple of unfortunate events. It started with me being unemployed for seven months and my long term partner moving out. But when you're faced with an emotional breakdown and a ton of time on your hands, it creates a window of opportunity. For me it was the opportunity to get down to business and finally work on the stuff that irked me in my house.

The reason why I haven't attempted it before, were:
1. I rent this house from a private owner, and nobody did anything at all regarding upkeep in the past ten years. So a lot of effort and money going into someone else's house.
2. My ex did not like diy, nor did he like my dad who loves home improvement and who would set up camp in my livingroom if it gave him the opportunity to diy his heart out. (granted, my dad is an idiot)
3.I didn't have the time, working full-time and commuting every day

Breaking up meant that I would probably be living here for a couple of years anyway so I might as well take a shot and try to make the place my own. The last session was at the end of August, when we finished the laminate floor and painted the worst half of the bathroom ceiling. Today my dad came over and we worked ongetting the rest of the bathroom prepped. If there is one word to describe my house, it is 'insane'. Insane, like how all the rooms look fairly normal, yet there is no straight walls or 90 degree corner ANYWHERE in the house. Or that the livingroom alone needed 29 plinths to finish the floor. The bathroom is insanely huge (3x4 meter) and contains a crazy amount of two by fours nailed on the slanted ceiling, left there by batt shit crazy construction builders twelve years ago.

Today we sanded down every inch and put a basecoat on the woodwork. Next week we'll finish the job and the bathroom will look a hundred times better. We also put the two large IKEA mirrors up in the diningroom, creating a tiny home studio. Yay!

The bad news: we tried replacing the lamps in the livingroom and diningroom, but the ceiling is not strong enough. Dad is working on a solution, and we'll try again next week. If we can put the ne lamps in, it will make the rooms lighter and more suited to dance practice and sewing at night. Can you tell I'm excited!? Next year I'll be able to dance and sew AND have a nice bathroom!

2012 is going to rock!

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The german landlord was at my neighbor's place today to sign the contract with the new renters. Afterwards he came to my door, since I wanted to complain about the 4m/12 feet crack in my livingroom wll, which I blame on my downstairs neighbor slamming his door shut every night. The landlord thought it was because of how they put the sunscreen on the wall, creating tension and thus a big tear. Right. And there is nothing he can (read wants) to do about it.

I'm majorly pissed of on account of not being able to permanently repair the wall since the tension means it will get bigger. In addition, my downstairs neighbor also threw in the 'you should have signed the papers so I could have bought the house five years ago, you inhumane woman!". The landlord replied that he should not put blame on me for a decision that is in the past and he is absolutely right. It still bugs me that he thinks I sabotaged his life by not signing away my rights to renting my house. I love my house, and I don't have the energy to deal with this stuff. This is me hoping my neighbor and I can continue on speaking terms.  

The good news is that I did some extra cleaning, thinking the landlord might come inside, so my kitchen is cleaner then it used to be :-)

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At work today I had one of those moments where you think there must be s hidden camera somewhere. I wrote a plan on how to create telephone policy, describing my plans, goals and results. I was in a meeting explaining what I need: a prelimenary research into the needs and wishes of employees, so I can build policy based on what our university needs. The business consultant I was talking to kept on switching between the operational level ( he really thinks I should ask for prices with companies so I know what the most expensive option is) tactic and strategic level. He mentions that I should add the dates. I point towards the paragraph with the rpschedule but soften it up with:' you were robably looking for a visual presentation of the timeline'. After painstakingly explaining to him that I make policies, and I'm not a projectmanager, he launches into 'More things he thinks I should do'. I point at the document that is right in front of him, that he supposedly read, and say:'like the actions I describe in paragraph 5?'.

I feel pretty darn competent.

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The lj app for ipad is a dream compared to the telephone app.

Also, I can sit on my couch and watch youtube vids while snuggling underneath a plaid. Total win.

I'm playing wordfued (scrabble, in the olde worlde) online with someone. It's a nice way to play an online game without spending hours behind the pc.

But the main reason for getting an ipad was work, and I've been using every single day. Reading documents while commuting, taking and processing notes, having adigital to do list and always knowing where and at what time I have an appointment.

I'm looking into a mindmapping app, because I feel it will help me organize my thoughts and be more efficient. The one I like most is 9 euro, I'm contemplating purchasing it while using a free app that totally sucks for what I want to do. Got myself a free inspirational quote app to get me through the low points during the day.

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