I ought to update

I really don’t do this much anymore do I? I’ve tried a few times since the previous update tho, but I mostly got stuck / bored / distracted / tired before finishing. I’m not very…. productive these days.

I realise I never posted photos of NYC either but frankly I don’t see the point, they’re gonna be largely the same ones as previously, it seems more effort than it’s worth. If you like New York there’s plenty of places you can go to satisfy your needs (etc etc).

The other day I was gonna talk about anniversaries, but then got bored / distracted / tired. The draft is still around somewhere but it seems like an overlong ramble now so here’s the short version:

1. I was born 30yrs ago. This is depressing and not worth mentioning. Also 30 years ago was the Deutscher Herbst (German Autumn) of the Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF), and I’ve always been terribly interested in it one way or another. There was a time – in my late teens – when I sympathised with the RAF, or felt I understood their radicalism. They chose the wrong way to express them but I could relate to their frustrations. I never wanted to be one of them (God beware), but I envied their uncompromising ‘idealism’.
   Now I just find it fascinating to read about them, the way you read about the behaviour of an ant colony or sth. Or a sect rather, or a bunch of intense lunatics. It’s almost like a social experiment – except they managed to terrorise a whole country for over a decade! It’s incredibly amazing insane.
2. I realised last weekend that I first moved to the UK almost exactly 10yrs ago. I can’t remember the exact date – the academic year at Sussex Uni started in early October and I arrived shortly before that. I don’t know if this warrants some kind of celebration… if I had an idea I’d do something ‘symbolic’, but I don’t so I won’t. But I wanted to mention it anyway.
   I feel quite privileged and lucky to be living in this country. I still love it, after all these years, I can’t really imagine moving away, and tho mostly this is now my daily life and nothing ‘extraordinary’, I still have those moments where I realise that really I feel at home here, this is where I belong and (thanks to the EU!) I am able to live here, just like that, which is very cool.
3. I tried to find a 20yrs ago to include here but I’m afraid I can’t find anything of relevance. Uwe Barschel was found dead in a bathtub in 1987, and that was also the year my parents had their massive fight and separated for a short time, but I don’t know if that is really fit to mention in this list.

So there we go. In my “real life” (aka the present), I had a squiZZ visiting last weekend, it was really rather fun tho we didn’t do anything of any significance (but that’s what characterises a good weekend, oh yes it is). It was nice to have him, and good to see he’s still sort of old squiZZ, even tho he so very much isn’t anymore. Of course we ate eggs. We also played Scrabble. We also found my keyboard (or a very close variation) on Amazon, so I ordered it, and it was in fact delivered today and I can pick it up from the post office tomorrow. I will have a new keyboard! 😀 With a working Ctrl key! I actually bought two so I’ll have a back up. 😛

In other news I went to see another flat on Saturday. I liked it. I went again on Tuesday, taking 3 of “my girls” from work to give me their opinion. They approved. I hummed and hawwed or the rest of the week, annoying loads of people with my whingeing, indecision and imcompetence… I also whinged to John (you know, cute gay property manager) when he came to pick up the rent, and he was veeeery cute (naturally), gave me lots of advice and offered to help, so now I love him even more.

To cut a (very, very, very) long story short, I made an offer today which was refused (but predictably so, as it was my “let’s start low” offer – tho John said I should’ve started even lower than that lol). I will give the seller a while then go up to my final offer. The flat’s only been on the market a week now, so he wants to see if he can get more. I on the other hand want to give him a chance to realise he won’t get much more in the current climate. Tho he might. But I’m in no rush. And I’m no fighter. 😐

The whole property market experience is… ugh!!! I find it incredibly stressful, this has been dominating my life all this week – all that potential to make the wrong decision, even just the fact you have to come to some sort of conclusion about whether you want that particular flat or not… it’s incredibly draining, I am having sleepless nights and nightmares about it (obviously not at the same time). However I must say even if I don’t get this flat I will have learned a lot from the experience – and there are other places going. Ideally with the recent developments in the US and with Northern Rock I’d have a very strong advantage as a cash buyer. But maybe not. We shall see.

Mhm, moving on from flats to jobs… so this was my first week at my permanent position at Amex… it started off well with me realising on Monday morning (my first day as a perm!!) that I was supposed to have returned my signed contract “ASAP” (I got the induction pack in early Sept) but hadn’t… and my bank details by the 16th (Monday was the 17th lol). :)) So I panicked for a little while, faxed everything through (our manager Sylvie was on hols so I couldn’t ask her for advice), but it turned out alright, I’m even getting paid. 😛

Also one of the first perks of being a perm was that I was allowed to take part in the Myers-Briggs workshop they’d organised (I jokily said when I applied that this was the main reason I did). I came out as an INTP, but I knew this cuz I’d done this stuff online before. It was however very interesting to see some of the rest of the team’s results and their own “OMG!” reactions. *lol* I also found out Sarah’s result today (faithful readers may remember her as the one I was originally meant to work for) and it is oh so eerily accurate. :))

And now I think I’m out of things to say. I have to do some more work on Jeff’s brewery site, hooray. I’m also viewing another flat tomorrow, but more out of curiosity than true interest, and… and… and I’ve not properly listened to music since I got back from NYC (except for when squiZZ was here) and I wonder if there’s something wrong with me. More than usual I mean.

PS I strongly recommend watching The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive by and with Stephen Fry (it’s over 2hrs long tho). If you’re into that sort of stuff. Isn’t the Internet amazing? Isn’t it also amazing that one is willing to watch a whole 2hr documentary on a 470×360 resolution, when on the other hand people are buying 60″ TVs? (not that I’m one of them). It’s a wild, wild world.