Life

I haven't been around lately and I do apologise for my prolonged absence.
The first quarter of the year didn't exactly treat me kindly. I lost one of my best friends to the big C in January and my mentor of many years and PhD. supervisor to a car crash on Valentine's Day. It took me the better part of this year to come to terms with the deaths of two people who had figured in my life so prominently. I still feel the loss and I don't think my mourning period has quite come to an end yet.

On the upside, my friends at university made it possible for me to pursue my dream PhD. topic and I am now officially a PhD. student with a registered topic and a different supervisor who heroically jumped in and declared he'd take me on before I even had a proposal to present. And thus, for the next few years I will be exploring the Representation and Role of technology in Steampunk Literature and Culture. At the moment this means I am reading a lot of primary literature - no where near as much as I should be reading but for a few months now I have been working almost full time  (yes, same old boring, underpaid job) - without being paid properly, obviously. Progress is slow but happening. I will soon start trying to analyse and formulate a few things. My supervisor gave me some assignments of which I will need to hand in at least one or two for the beginning of October.

I am still debating about following Mike Perschon's wonderful example over on Steampunk Scholar to create a blog which not only chronicles my finding but which might also help and possibly inspire like-minded people to explore and discuss the wonders of Steampunk. However, as I am still very much at the beginning of this journey, I am not quite sure what form the whole blog idea might take but it is on my list.
I have just become a member of The Steampunk Writers and Artists Guild and am thrilled to be part of the wonderful enterprise to promote "interdisciplinary creativity in Steampunk". In the long run I hope to be able to contribute something valuable to the many discussions around Steampunk and intend to be an active member of the Steampunk community.

The ferrets are still the boisterous little gremlins they were before Christmas and continue trying to dominate each other and us despite having been castrated early January. I love them and they love me to bits - literally.

And on that note, I will leave you for a little play time before bed.

I have been pretty busy with work, socialising and preparing for December over the past few weeks. Hence the silence.

First a confession: NaNoWriMo didn't happen for me. First I was in Germany staying with friends and my mom and I was frankly too tired to do anything at all. When I came back I went back to work straight away. In my spare time I relaxed with the boyfriend, decorated the flat, learned how to bake a cake and enjoyed the pre-Christmas mood I have been in since I got back. November seemed strangely long and it deceptively felt like I could have written 50k after all had I tried. But I haven't, so boo! However, I am planning on making one of the following months my own personal NaNoWriMo.Maybe January.

Secondly, due to my colleague Roz leaving the company to work at the London Tate(s) I have been promoted to assistant manager. My duties are extended ever so slightly and I will be working four days a week instead of three. But that's about it. The job is not too taxing so I should still be able to pursue my writing or research in my free time and I can do with the extra money. On top of that I reckon that the promotion will look good on my CV as well. 

Concerning my writing and paper research, I haven't gotten very far yet. However I have determined to come up with a working schedule for next year containing a list of books and a manageable schedule. Soon my immigration will date one full year. I have settled in properly, I have a job which finances a few of my little hobbies and I am running out of excuses. There is a time for stalling and there's a time for getting active. Next year I will be turning thirty. And hopefully I will get my act together and pursue some of my larger goals. I will have to get organised.

Also the ferrets seem to be developing quite well. Dream is a lamb. He doesn't play with us as enthusiastically as Horus but he is nicer than his older brother. Horus also needs more attention. Lots of playtime lots of challenges. I think he has been a little more imbalanced of late because we didn't quite devote as much time to him as he would have it. Since I have been playing with him more actively over the past few days he has calmed down lots and is easier around me. He also loves his new toy. Since I needed something to distract him from the Christmas tree I set up the other day, I made him a bauble-toy which he is obsessed with. It's fun interacting with him now. I love how he just doesn't give up and kept chasing the bauble for the better part of half an hour without even stopping once. Dream just isn't impressed. It's a matter of finding the right toy, I reckon. Dream likes his jingly bell rod. But he is never even half as obsessed with the thing as Horus is with his toy.

And because I am getting rather tired now and have related the most important bits of randomness, that's it for today. Just one more thing: Embrace the snow instead of fighting it ;) It's really nice and pretty and nice. And you can't do anything about it anyway.
Merry Pre-Christmas time! Don't let things stress you out.

I was going to start the post with something along the lines of 'So much has happened in the last month that I hardly know where to start'. Thinking about it, it wasn't actually that much. Anyway, here goes:

The greatest news is probably that Anthony and I got engaged. Yesterday it must have been three weeks. And I am tempted to add an 'only' here because for some reason it feels longer - but in a good way. Some days I wake up and cannot believe that we have actually made this step but the lovely sparkly on my ring finger confirms it. And I am well excited about it.
Engaged.You know how people say that girls start picturing their wedding day almost from the moment they can wobble about in their mother's pumps? When you watch these wedding preparation shows they always make such a huge fuss. It has to be the perfect wedding. The perfect dress, the perfect location, the perfect everything. And if it is any less than that the otherwise so bloody-perfect bride-to-be usually throws a perfect fit from which she usually recovers just in time to later announce that this, truly, was her perfect wedding. It seems awfully stressful. I wonder whether they really enjoy any part of the day other than in retrospect, with a healthy frosting of self-deception. Memory can do that, make things appear great because the outcome was roughly along the lines one pictured it. The rocky road can be turned from nightmare into an adventure.  I never thought of myself as engaged. Engaged to be married. I never pictured it. Not really. When I told one of my friends she got all excited and promised she'd bring her wedding box along. She also kindly informed me that it took her one and a half years of preparation. ONEANDAHALFYEARS? Oh Lord. I don't want to spend that much time AND money on preparing one single day. It's certainly not that I am not looking forward to getting married. It just seems such an awful waste of time, nerve and money. I hope, nearing the time, I can avoid the wedding-preparation madness and enjoy the weeks leading up to it. The only problem I can already see on the horizon is that my family and friends are on the continent and will have to be flown in and accommodated. So, I am happily engaged. And considering our budget at the moment I reckon we will stay engaged for a little while before we will tackle the next step. Anthony said something about trying to get married in about two years' time. Let's see what happens. Maybe I should award my sister the task of planning my wedding. She seems eager enough ;)

Other than that nothing much has really happened. I worked nine days in a row because one of my colleagues took a week's holiday. Luckily we finally have a new manager lady who seems very eager to get the shop going at a more efficient pace. Lead on MacDuff.

The ferrets are well. At least I hope that they are. Knowing that the little critters are good at masking when they feel unwell, I keep watching them closely. They are very lively, playing with each other, sometimes with me ;). They are little explorers. Horus is definitely the more active of the two though. He goes aclimbing our TV unit and has found new interesting ways to escape me. We still need to take them to the vet's for a checkup. Dream has a little cough every now and then, particularly when he is madly hopping about while playing with his brother. I need to monitor that until we get him to the vet's. Maybe next week. They will need to have a checkup and maybe even their jabs. Despite the niptraining they are still quite nippy at times. On other days they are perfectly docile creatures, not bothering me much other than the occasional hint to play with them more or to please let them down. I wonder whether they'll ever lose their nippiness. But I am not complaining. We've had them for the better part of two months now and they have improved considerably. Horus is most annoying when he is playful and I don't think he means to bitebite. He means to communicate and gets a little over-excited every now and then. They haven't drawn blood in ages now and mostly let me clean them or carry them around as I please - provided it doesn't take too long, of course.
They newest trick is opening doors. I wish our doors weren't so crappy. Horus can actually push or pull them open now. I will need to find a way to secure the doors somehow. If only they had a keyhole or something so I could lock them but they are more like wardrobe doors than anything I have ever seen.

Also I have another hospital appointment coming up this week. Flexible sigmoidoscopy. Yay. Not looking forward to that too much. Keep your fingers crossed for me that everything is okay, will you?

If everything goes well, I'll be going to Germany on the 30th of October to see friends and family and am rather looking forward to this trip despite being a little worried about whether Tony will be able to handle the two pink-nosed gremlins alright. On some days they bother me. Tony's fuse concerning their little pranks is shorter than mine and he is not exactly used to cleaning up after them or their little tricks. We'll see how this little experiment goes. After all it's only 11 days. I am NOT going to say: And what can happen in 11 days because I know that the answer would be 'a lot' ;)

My creative plans for the moment mainly revolve around NaNoWriMo coming up in November. For the first nine days of it I will actually be at my mother's and I really hope to find the time to do my writing. So far I have an idea and am trying to find out a few of the particulars like: How does my airship work. Where does it come from, who are my main characters and what do they want. I am also looking more into Steampunk at the moment. I've just finished 'Boneshaker' by Cherie Priest which I really loved and am currently reading Jay Lake's 'Mainspring' which I yet have to get into. Also, I am reading up on a number of fascinating things on Brass Goggles, a blog I found recommended on one of the NaNoWriMo forums. I love the aesthetics, I've always had a certain passion for airships and all the wonderfully weird contraptions just do it for me. I really want to keep an eye out for Steampunk Events in the area.

It's been a while. Not a month but almost. I apologise. That done now here's the news:

My little job is going well. I'm getting used to the standing and smiling and measuring. I actually like it there. A big part of why I like it there is due to the people - two of which have actually left now. Originally there were Claire, the manager, Julie, the assistant manager, Roz and well, me. Claire and Julie both have left now,  we're still hoping for a new manager, Roz has taken over for the moment, I am going to be working three days during the week once everything has calmed down  a bit and we hired Aimee to fill my 'old' position. Everything is a little weird and I am half expecting the next call telling me I need to work more or less.  I like Roz and Aimee, took an instant liking to them so to speak, despite an initial shyness on my part. Roz is an artist. I'll ask her tomorrow whether she's alright with me putting up a link over to her site. I like her stuff. Some of it is wonderfully weird. And as we all know, wonderfully weird is what I like. We joked about maybe doing a graphic novel together. She could do the artwork and I could do the words. I'm intrigued.

---- And now, just for the record, I almost broke my foot in the pursuit of a bacon sandwich. Brilliant. As above-mentioned Julie broke her foot only the night before yesterday we could have learned how to use crutches together. Speak of bonding... ---

So the job is fine, not exactly fulfilling but fine. It's only supposed to give us a better chance when facing 'food vs coffee/books/cigarettes/ferret stuff' -decisions at the end of Tony's pay checks.

The monsters are slowly but surely getting a little more friendly and don't panic nip us anymore. Dream doesn't attack any of us just for the sake of it anymore and I can pretty much clean their cage only having to suffer the occasional playful nip telling me to hurry up and engage in playfun. As Anthony is away working so much I am their main human at the moment. Not that this position comes with many benefits other than knowing how to behave around them and having some sort of a routine cleaning up after them without stressing much at all anymore. It's not worth getting annoyed at them crapping right where the carpet-protecting tiles expose the tiniest bit of carpet. That's just how it is. They are a little more expensive than I remember ferrets to be though and quite a handful when they outsprint me on our way to the open study door. Dream is obsessed with getting on the desk and both of them have taken to chewing and eating their bedding. I reckon it's teething pains but will ask a vet about it soon. Until then I'll have an eye on it. They are also incredibly cute when they're not rolling across the floor looking like they're trying to murder each other. I can't wait to have their little balls snipped. Only I wish I could let them out more that I could have them roam free most of the time like I did with my old ferret. I bet they'd enjoy that. At the moment it's way too dangerous though. I introduced Dream to the living room earlier today but they need constant supervision outside the study as I don't consider the living room ferret-proofed yet. I'm working on it though. One step at a time.

Other than that I am busy with stuff for the LARPzeit. I need to edit and translate my interview with Cris Ortega and am waiting for a band interview to come back in. The Final Fantasy XIV-Review didn't work out due to technical restrictions of my old Elpheba. Another interview was postponed. There may be more work on the horizon though.

Which reminds me that I need to write to my bank in Germany to find out whether I will ever be able to access my account with them again. One big drawback of being in a different country than your bank.

Meanwhile my body is trying to recover from a nasty incident of food poisoning which gave me the sh*** and the belly cramps of my life for a whole week. I'm still suffering some possibly related aftereffects.
On Wednesday I have a hospital appointment to check the lower part of my bowels for any signs of possible disease. Keep your fingers crossed everything turns out alright for me in this respect. I've seen way too much of British hospitals this year already.

Concerning the creative side of my life, I am toying with a possible idea for this year's NaNoWriMo novel while at the same time immersing myself in the worlds of Steampunk, reading Ann and Jeff Vandermeer's anthology by the same name. My doctor father was surprisingly encouraging on this matter. I'm not yet sure what will come of it. For now it's pure fun reading/watching.
I am planning a trip to the British Library though to get myself registered (Memo to me: Check requirements) there and to have a first good look around.
Also, Creative Writing class starts again on the 14th and I reckon I'll go along and try out the other lady if they let me. 

I can hear the monsters next door demanding my attention. Maybe little Horus is ready to take a stroll in the living room now.

Talk to you soon-ish.

Horus and Dream seem to be settling in fine. When out of their cage they're hopping and playing, dooking and squealing (mostly when Horus tries dominating Dream again).  They are eating and producing more poop I ever thought possible considering how little they are - well, that's probably more true for Dream more than for Horus.

As I am working a lot at the moment I make sure they get out in the morning while I am cleaning up their cage and feeding them. With the boyfriend being back from work to distract the little pink noses it makes the whole procedure helluva lot easier. If I'm lucky I only have Horus using me as a ladder or Dream trying to explore the insides of the poopy bag instead of the two of them teaming up on me.

They get another longer play time outside the cage once I am back from work, have changed and relaxed a little. We play as long as I can take being scratched and their attempts at biting me - or rather involving me into their rough play. Then I let them chase each other around the room and maybe interact a little. Rewarding playing with their dangly toy etc. .

In the few days that we have them they have taught me  that

- the cage flooring is not a long-term solution. I am going to get vinyl flooring for the cage sometime next week, I hope. I hope it'll make it easier to clean that way.

- when people say ferret kits are nippy what they really mean is that they leave deep scratches and bite marks. Nip training them costs a lot of blood and sweat and severely tests your patience. We're working on it, trying to punish with strict time outs instead of the scruffing now. 

- no matter how sure you are you have ferret-proved a room, they find a gap, they squeeze through and you WILL find them behind the bookshelf, or on top of it. My boys are very reckless. Sometimes I am not sure whether Horus doesn't have a personality disorder and thinks he's a squirrel. He climbs absolutely everything and he kamikaze-jumps from cage to leg/belly/shoulders, claws in and starts climbing.

- even if you think you have them litter trained, they will take the occasional opportunity and poop on the carpet if you're not watching. In general it is not too great an idea to have ferrets in carpeted rooms but what can you do? Like I said, I'm hoping to get vinyl flooring to cover the cage area and the floor in front of the door. Ferrets love pooping in doorways. Alex certainly did.

- it's safer to touch them after they have jumped off their kit energy for a little while. Don't try and touch them when they are playing amongst themselves, chasing and pulling each other across the floor. They WILL nip you because you are entering their play. And if they aren't nip-trained you will come away with bites and scratches. It's how they play. Don't take it personal.

- having a hutch with a run underneath is great for them because it provides lots of space for when you're not around. But it's also a lot of work to keep it clean. And you will need to be able to climb inside because they will chose the corner/s furthest away from where you can reach easily for their toilet space. It's going to be interesting to see how the boyfriend will handle this little piece of having ferrets.

- they produce a lot of poop. It smells. Someone will need to clean it up. It's likely  going to be you. You simply cannot afford being squeamish. They deserve a nice clean place.

- you need to be able and willing to give them a few hours of your time. Every day. They love being outside their cage. They need the stimulation and play. The more the better, of course. Let them out. Even if it's just an hour and a half during days when you are working. As long as their cage is big enough for them to run around in that's fine.

Most of these things I actually knew from when I got my very first ferret in 2003. I just seem to have conveniently suppressed the memory once Alex was out of the worst.
And here's a very bad picture of the two of them (Dream is the one on the left). Best I could do with my phone cam yesterday ;) Better ones to come.

 

For some reason they insist on sleeping underneath their ladder next to the litter tray. I tried moving their bedding and I tried moving the tray. Moving their bedding resulted in them sleeping on the paper which is only a temporary solution until we get the vinyl flooring. Moving the litter tray resulted in heaps in the corner and on the steps. I love how they go to bed all snuggled up on the blanket underneath the steps and how Horus always ends up sprawled out half-way through the cage.

Today the boyfriend came home and said he thinks about the little guys when he's stressed out at work. It seems to relax him to visualise how they play and hop and chase each other. Yes, the ferrets are a lot of work and quite costly at the moment. And they take up a lot of our time and attention at the moment. But it's all worth it. It's brilliant to have pets again, to have ferrets again. And maybe, in a few months time, we have some sort of odor control and the babies will have started trusting us.

I have always loved pets. As a kid I'd read everything on the animals I loved. I had a huge book on animals, an illustrated encyclopedia my grandmother gave me. I would read this book for most of my child-life, sometimes just looking up the animals or families I was interested in - fish, horses, guineapigs, dogs, cats etc., sometimes trying to read all the way through it from the start (particularly tedious as teeny tiny sea creatures made up about the first two hundred pages). I would also write petitions to my parents on a regular basis to allow me a pet - any pet really. Ok, a horse, preferably. But I would have been as happy with a guinea pig. My mom wouldn't have it. At one point we got fish. I was thrilled - at first. Bored at last. As a teenager I finally gave up hoping my grandad would finally get me the pony he'd always promised me and I also gave up pestering my mom.

When I moved out into my first own place, though, the first thing I did was make enquiries about whether I was allowed pets. My landlord said I couldn't have a cat. So, after about one and a half years of searching around for the ideal pet, I found Alexander, my first ferret boy. I loved him and I think he was quite happy, too, roaming my flats freely for most of the six years we kept each other company.

When he died in April 2009 I was crushed. I had seen it coming as he'd been afflicted with Alzheimer's disease pretty much the last year of his life. I didn't have him put down mostly because he seemed quite happy between occasional fits which were then quickly relieved through medicine. When he finally crossed what pet-lovers refer to as 'the rainbow bridge', I was pretty much in the middle of my final exams. By the time I was done with them it was time to move to my mother's house for a few months and then yours dearly immigrated. No time for pets.

Once I'd settled in the new flat with the boyfriend, we decided we'd like to have ferrets again. And, to cut a long story short, we got ourselves a lovely couple of little hobs on Monday evening from a place in Swanley. 
At first I was really sceptical about the place. The area the owner is living in is not exactly a prime location and both the boyfriend and his dad seemed a little concerned. Also, the guy gave them away from practically nothing. We went to see them nevertheless. I don't think the boy knew much about what he was doing. I reckon he got a few ferrets and suddenly ended up with two litters in three small-ish hutches. Twelve of them were left for us to choose from.
Anthony picked the only little polecat and named him Horus - not after the god but after a Warhammer 40K guy. Not exactly a flattering name but we decided each of us would get to pick and name one. It was pretty much clear that we'd take little Horus from the moment we heard he only had one polecat. Horus is strong and big for his 11 weeks. He is also extremely playful and a fast learner. His perseverence skills are admirable. And he insists on using me as a climbing unit. He also likes toes.

My pick was more difficult as the others all looked pretty much alike. Little sandy hobs, no mask, no striking features to differentiate them by. All from the same litter. Eventually I decided for what Anthony thinks was the 'runt of the littler'. I called him Dream. He is tiny compared to his brother, fragile and so thin that I am a little worried about him. He eats and poops alright, he plays with his brother hop hop hopping about the study when they're out. His fur is still that of a baby. And he hates hands. Obviously the babies had not been handled very much at all. They also haven't been vaccinated or wormed. I've decided to take them to the vet's as soon as I can be sure they have settled in all fine. Sooner, if I think something's wrong. At the moment they seem to be alright and happy in their new home, though. Dream is a little less interactive with us - not counting the times he enthusiastically chomps down on our fingers and won't let go - but he eats, poops, sleeps and plays alright with his brother. His eyes are clear and alert. His fur is clean and fluffy. He is also strong enough to pull himself up all over the cage - inside and out. And I am hoping he only never really got enough to eat and will be fine. I'll have a watchful eye on him.

After both of them seem to have understood the concept of the litter tray after just one day (I am so proud!), we are now working on nip training. Horus is very good. His nips are merely playful short ones and he lets go at the sound of a strict 'NO' or even my occasional 'NEIN'. I shouldn't confuse them, I know, but for some reason I think 'NEIN' works better on Horus than 'NO'. Maybe it's the sound. Maybe I am just imagining things. Dream, though, is really nasty at times. He goes for the hands and bites hard, no letting go easily. He neither reacts to 'NO' nor to 'NEIN'. Scruffing him is a rather complicated thing to dobecause there is not much skin to scruff and he gets all squirmy and attacky. I wonder whatever happened that he has such a hate for hands. It doesn't matter of you are playing with him or whether your hands are merely there. He will sniff and he will bite. And he will draw blood if you let him. He reminds me on Alex when I first got him. He, too, hadn't been handled much at all and he was so scared of my hands that he considered them as a threat. It took me a few weeks and a lot of hand-feeding to convince him that my hands meant no harm. I wonder how long it will take us to convince Dream. And how much more pain. His little teeth are needle-sharp. His biting makes it a little harder to interact with him but handling him is the only way to make him understand, I reckon. It's already better than on the first day we got them. Yesterday he was very good and let us pick him up several times for a few seconds to lift him up or down the cage. At some point I rubbed my hands with Tea Tree Oil to see whether that would discourage the biting and it worked all fine until the effect wore off and the teeth sank into my flesh again. We're waiting for some ferret vitamin paste to come in next week to try clip their nails for the first time and also to train Dream to associate good things with our hands.

Even though the biting is really hard to put up with as it hurts like hell, particularly when Dream chomps down and just won't let go, we have already fallen in love with the little furries. They are cute when they're playing or sleeping and it's not their fault they've never learned that hands scratch their bellies, provide food and treats and do all sorts of good things. I hope it won't take Dream too long to understand that.

If any of you happen to have any good tips concerning nip training etc let me know.

Pictures will follow once they happen to stand still for more than a millisecond at a time ;)

It's funny how I have been living in England for almost half a year now and started feeling like I have finally succeeded immigrating only yesterday when I got my NI-Number through the mail.

But the NI-Number is only one of two crazy important things without which I kept feeling more like I was on a (long) holiday stay rather than actually living in England; I was offered the job I went to the interview for on my Birthday. And I accepted. So yay, I have a job :)

It's a Sales Assistant position for around 11 hours a week in a small shop called Art@Home. We sell frames, prints, prints in frames, all sorts of frames and mounts, canvas, ... etc. Apparently we also measure a lot - in centimeters (I asked!). I'm really excited because it gives me an opportunity to get out of the house and interact with people more. Not to forget the money thing. Even though most of it will in all probability go towards paying off my student loans, the little that is hopefully going to be left will make us more comfortable.

Secretly I had hoped for a more book-related position. Nevertheless, considering that the new job is literally one minute down the street from the flat I think I'm pretty lucky. Let's see how it goes. 

Twenty-nine. That's how old I am now. It's 28+1 or, even worse, 30-1 - didn't Carry Bradshaw really worry about this one? Or maybe she didn't. Some of my friends are referring to every birthday post-24 as 24+a (b, c, d, e...for that matter). I think I'll stick with 29. It's a nice number as well, a prime number. I've always liked prime numbers.

Sooo, that said, I turned 29 on the 7th of this month and had my very first job interview on the very same day as well. As per usual I was a little early. Having left my flat about 15 minutes before the actual interview I arrived at the little art&frame shop 14 minutes early. Yes, it's that close to where I live and I did mention that on several occasions through the interview. Can't hurt to mention you'd be available at short notice when you're going for an interview, right? The first thing that we did was relocate to Costa's round the corner. Apparently the office was flodded. It threw me a little on top of  being a wee bit uncomfortable for having picked the wrong shoes anyway. Memo to me: Get a mirror.

As expected the coffee shop atmosphere relaxed me a little on the one hand and the whole interview-thing felt less threatening. On the other hand summer time is crushed ice time - it was loud and more than once I simply had to guess what the lady opposite me was asking me. She was nice and very smiley. I was nervous and I think it showed. I was also aware that I wasn't doing too well. Lacking this kind of experience I think I made a few typical rookie mistakes. It was over pretty quickly and I walked back home terribly self-conscious with all these great answers suddenly flooding my thoughts - too late!

After a little cool-down the boyfriend and I took the bus over to Sidcup where more presents, a birthday meal and one of these super-sweet sponge cakes were waiting for me. I had a lovely day and even risking to be repeating myself here: I love the boyfriend's family. They are the sweetest most generous people I have ever met and they made my birthday truly great. 

Back home I was presented with a second, extremely yummy cake by the boyriend. Even with the interview breaking it up my first Birthday in Britain was very nice indeed.


Then, on the 9th, the boyfriend and I went to Stepney for the interview for my NI-number. It went really well and was over quickly without any bigger complications. They only wanted to see my ID-card and proof of my address which I could provide thanks to having a bank account now.The only thing I am a little nervous about is that the nice Indian lady who took my details did not understand the meaning of 'keine Wohnung im Inland' (no flat within the country) and put it down as my last address. I tried to dissuade her, translating it word by word, but she didn't quite seem to get me. So that's what it says on the forms now. Luckily it's what it says on my ID-card as well. So maybe it won't be that much of a problem after all. We'll see.

As London was postively baking that day and as I had done something weird to me knee the previous day we went home earlier than planned. At home I crashed out on the bed for about an hour, relaxing, cooling down, feeling like I had accomplished something. It may be in baby steps but I feel like I am finally getting there. Now it's waiting for the NI-number to arrive which should take between two and four weeks.

Because I forgot yesterday:

As you might remember, I am stll looking for a job. A part-time job, preferably to do with books. Unfortunately many people with a lot more sales experience than me seem to be thinking the same at the moment and I still find myself looking.

The other day I finally set up a profile on monster.co.uk, not quite sure whether that's how it's done. Back in Germany I never had to go to any trouble if I needed a job. The glory of being well-established in the Department of English Literature and Culture and having friends over in the language section. I basically got on with everyone and loved what I was doing. The tricky thing here in England now: I don't know anybody at all and nobody knows about my skills, devotion, punctuality etc. Nobody really cares. And why should they? Over the past few months I have written various drafts of CVs and figured out the basic idea behind cover letters (even though I still find the cover letters the hardest part). I have actually handed in a few and sent them out, filled out numerous application forms and got about one or two replies. Mostly saying 'sorry but the position has been filled'. Fair enough.

Then I started getting letters from the student loan people back in Germany. One of them seems to be very eager to get their money back - understandably so. Only problem: I don't have any money. No job, no money. And as I never had a job in the UK I am not entitled to any benefits - AT ALL. So we're living solely on the boyfriend's wages. Which means that by the end of every two weeks we have to be a little careful with our money. No way the boyfriend could pay the monthly installments for my loan. And, frankly, I don't want him to. So I wrote back to those nice people explaining that sorry, but I can't pay them as yet and whether they couldn't wait another few month. Of course it's not that easy. A lot of running around (and going back to Germany to get bank statements), two letters (one written by the boyfriend) and a few phone calls later I am now waiting to hear back from them. They have already taken out the first installment and I can see more trouble at the horizon as I plan on making them give back the money. Not sure what my chances are though.

Anyway, now yesterday I suddenly got a phone call. A tired woman's voice asked whether I'd be free for an interview coming Wednesday. Would I  be free? Hell yes. It's my birthday on Wednesday but that certainly won't keep me from going to an interview. The job? Well the job isn't anything great; weekend sales assistant at a local (round the corner) art&frames shop. Nevertheless, I really really want it. Not only because I need the money and boy, do I need that money. No, I NEED something to do. So keep your fingers crossed for me on Wednesday. Worst comes to worst it will still result in some interview experience which will probably come in handy. Best case scenario I'll have a little money that I can put towards paying off that loan and a job which will add to my CV and give me something to do.

So I am pretty excited and a little scared at the same time about Wednesday. I have never had a job interview here and don't really know what to expect. There also isn't much research I can do about the shop itself so I could excel through having done my homework. Will my English be good enough or simply fail me when I can nervous? Will it be a problem that I only have my NI-interview coming Friday? I hope not. 

At any rate I'm hoping for the best. I'm a nice person and I am pretty confident I can handle a sales assistant position. Anyway, I'll keep you posted :) This might be interesting.
 

Yay! And if I had some sparkling wine, that too!

Two years back a friend of mine approached me asking whether I'd like to write a few poems for a project of his centered on the theme of metropolitan life and spaces. I agreed, not really expecting that much would come of it but planning on doing him the favour. Little did I know that my friend had a very elaborate plan to self-publish a collection of pieces of art, poetry and short prose. 

It took him a while to get the funding for this project together and we spent several hours not only writing but also editing the whole thing and now tadadadattadaaaaaaaa *drumrollanyway* the finished outcome has finally appeared on Amazon.de (and co.uk but the entry doesn't seem finished yet) and Libri.de under the title Project Metropolitan by Ilja M. Inesz.

And this is what it says it is about:

A group of Brunswick students and friends assembles different impressions and perceptions of metropolitan life. Taken together and reassembled these snapshots and momentary impressions of different cities have created a wholly new space that seems to be more honest and closer to the true face of any metropolis.The project links poetry and prose, photography and graphic art and should be regarded as a project never finished.

I contributed four poems to this lovely anthology and am both proud and grateful that I was given the opportunity to be part of this. Also the little byline in the foreword made go squee and wave my arms wildly about until I hit the lamp. We're both fine now :)

Btw, if you'd like to purchase the book, go ahead. You'll make a few people very happy - one being me. And let me know if you do and what you think ^_^