What can I say? I'm easily amused.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Rhabarberbarbara
Found this great little video on youtube. Apologies to those of you who don't speak German, just posting it so I can come back and find it later. :)
What can I say? I'm easily amused.
What can I say? I'm easily amused.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
How to make Worcestershire sauce
Mark and Bruce posted a recipe for Worcestershire sauce recently and I, true to form, am taking a few weeks to get around to trying it out at home. I have choir rehearsal all day next Saturday so it's likely that I won't be able to get to the spice shop until the week after. I have a few days off towards the end of June so I am putting it in my diary for then. Anyone care to join in on a cook-along?
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Let's get started again so
I miss blogging. I miss writing stuff out of myself. Need to get started with it again, not least in an effort to regain a bit of sanity in my life. Still struggling a bit with a lot of emotion and trying not to let it pull me under.
I had something of an epiphany with regard to my impulses over the last few months to buy, buy, buy more and more stuff - most of which I have resisted, but it was puzzling me a bit where it was all coming from. I know part of it was the prospect of being potentially debt-free soon and therefore having more disposable income available. But that's not the whole story.
I've come to realise that most of the stuff I want to buy is househould related which eventually led me to the realisation that actually, I just don't feel at home where I live. This has nothing to do with not liking the place I'm living in and everything to do with the fact that I haven't made it into a home. I feel like I don't know how to and that is what I am going to have to work on now.
Part of the issue stems from having lived in rented places for so long. In Ireland, unlike Germany, the vast majority of places are rented furnished, with rarely even enough space to fit in a bookshelf of your own. So you just live with what someone else has chosen. In Germany, of course, you quite literally have to bring the kitchen sink with you. When you move in somewhere you get bathroom fittings (sink, toilet and bath/shower) and that is it. You bring your own lights with you, your own furniture, your own kitchen. Partly because I didn't have a lot of money and partly because I like the idea of re-using when possible, I bought mostly second-hand furniture as and when I had the money and whenever I saw something that looked vaguely suitable and so I am again living in the kind of place that is just like any rented place in Ireland - a mish-mash of different stuff, practical but not necessarily aesthetically pleasing or well thought out. And yet I don't think I have one piece of furniture that I would like to get rid of.
Essentially the problem is that I do want to live in a place that expresses my personality. And something more than the chaos that has been much of my personality the last few years. The real core of myself, I suppose (although putting it like that seems a bit of a tall order for furniture to fulfil). Of course, figuring out what that is and what it looks like when translated into furnishings and decorations isn't all that easy to do. Hence the temptation to just buy more and more stuff - completely buying into the "look how great your life would be if only your home looked like this" mindset.
It's going to take me a while to get there but understanding where it is I sort of want to get to and why is a good start. So after all that I did make a purchase - 20 frameless photo frames. I started to do this when I lived in a house in Ireland where, unusually, we were allowed to hang some of our own paintings and photos. I put up about ten of my favourite photos. After moving here I added a few to that number and hung them on the wall above where I put my desk. And there I stopped. But the idea was to cover a large part of the wall with photos. So while I was laid up sick with a cold a couple of weeks ago, I spent some time looking through the big box of photographs I have that have never made it into albums and took out some more that I would actually like to be looking at on a regular basis. It's a small start but that's how every journey begins I suppose.
I had something of an epiphany with regard to my impulses over the last few months to buy, buy, buy more and more stuff - most of which I have resisted, but it was puzzling me a bit where it was all coming from. I know part of it was the prospect of being potentially debt-free soon and therefore having more disposable income available. But that's not the whole story.
I've come to realise that most of the stuff I want to buy is househould related which eventually led me to the realisation that actually, I just don't feel at home where I live. This has nothing to do with not liking the place I'm living in and everything to do with the fact that I haven't made it into a home. I feel like I don't know how to and that is what I am going to have to work on now.
Part of the issue stems from having lived in rented places for so long. In Ireland, unlike Germany, the vast majority of places are rented furnished, with rarely even enough space to fit in a bookshelf of your own. So you just live with what someone else has chosen. In Germany, of course, you quite literally have to bring the kitchen sink with you. When you move in somewhere you get bathroom fittings (sink, toilet and bath/shower) and that is it. You bring your own lights with you, your own furniture, your own kitchen. Partly because I didn't have a lot of money and partly because I like the idea of re-using when possible, I bought mostly second-hand furniture as and when I had the money and whenever I saw something that looked vaguely suitable and so I am again living in the kind of place that is just like any rented place in Ireland - a mish-mash of different stuff, practical but not necessarily aesthetically pleasing or well thought out. And yet I don't think I have one piece of furniture that I would like to get rid of.
Essentially the problem is that I do want to live in a place that expresses my personality. And something more than the chaos that has been much of my personality the last few years. The real core of myself, I suppose (although putting it like that seems a bit of a tall order for furniture to fulfil). Of course, figuring out what that is and what it looks like when translated into furnishings and decorations isn't all that easy to do. Hence the temptation to just buy more and more stuff - completely buying into the "look how great your life would be if only your home looked like this" mindset.
It's going to take me a while to get there but understanding where it is I sort of want to get to and why is a good start. So after all that I did make a purchase - 20 frameless photo frames. I started to do this when I lived in a house in Ireland where, unusually, we were allowed to hang some of our own paintings and photos. I put up about ten of my favourite photos. After moving here I added a few to that number and hung them on the wall above where I put my desk. And there I stopped. But the idea was to cover a large part of the wall with photos. So while I was laid up sick with a cold a couple of weeks ago, I spent some time looking through the big box of photographs I have that have never made it into albums and took out some more that I would actually like to be looking at on a regular basis. It's a small start but that's how every journey begins I suppose.
Monday, April 09, 2012
Just a quick one
There are six minutes and ten seconds left on the clock of this outrageously expensive web kiosk yoke in the hotel so this will just be a quick one, summing up some of the events since my last post. Which will partly explain why I haven't posted much since then. On Paddy's day I went out with some friends to celebrate. First up was watching the rugby, then dinner, then back to the Irish pub for music. Just before midnight I realised that someone had stolen my purse out of my handbag so the next two hours were spent sitting in the police station and phoning banks, etc. to cancel cards. The fact that it happened in an Irish pub seems to have added insult to injury somehow.
Then I heard my uncle (also my godfather) was sick and the prognosis was for weeks rather than months left. Three days later, still trying to decide whether to try and get home to see him (which would have meant putting flight on credit card) came the news that he had died. So no more questions and I flew home for the funeral that weekend. Back to Germany on Monday, straight into work from the airport and a hectic couple of days of quarter-end work to get through. All done by Wednesday afternoon and feeling pretty good about how things had gone overall. And then on Thursday morning got a text to tell me that my brother-in-law had died suddenly. He was being treated for cancer but it was actually stroke as a side effect of one of the medications he was on that done him in (as Eliza Doolittle would say). So I was back in Ireland on Saturday and the funeral was today. I feel completely drained and have a morass of emotions inside me that I'm not entirely able to deal with at the moment. Have just checked into the airport hotel as I have another seven o'clock flight in the morning before heading into work. Since it's not quarter-end anymore though, I may just ring my boss and ask for the day off. I had no funeral details when I saw her last so couldn't arrange anything. It was a long time to wait for a funeral too but apparently you're not allowed have funerals on holy Thursday, good Friday, easter Saturday or easter Sunday. Who knew.
So that's my life at the moment. All of the flights and other expenses have obviously, given my lack of an emergency fund, gone straight onto the credit card, which add a whole other level of something or other to the whole thing. But I wouldn't, couldn't have done it any other way and am glad that I live close enough that I can get back if I need to. So am reconciled to probably not being debt free until the end of the year and will just have to work on dealing with all the rest of the emotion now.
If anyone has been meaning to phone or visit someone and keeps putting it off, go and do it today! You just don't know if there'll be a tomorrow.
Then I heard my uncle (also my godfather) was sick and the prognosis was for weeks rather than months left. Three days later, still trying to decide whether to try and get home to see him (which would have meant putting flight on credit card) came the news that he had died. So no more questions and I flew home for the funeral that weekend. Back to Germany on Monday, straight into work from the airport and a hectic couple of days of quarter-end work to get through. All done by Wednesday afternoon and feeling pretty good about how things had gone overall. And then on Thursday morning got a text to tell me that my brother-in-law had died suddenly. He was being treated for cancer but it was actually stroke as a side effect of one of the medications he was on that done him in (as Eliza Doolittle would say). So I was back in Ireland on Saturday and the funeral was today. I feel completely drained and have a morass of emotions inside me that I'm not entirely able to deal with at the moment. Have just checked into the airport hotel as I have another seven o'clock flight in the morning before heading into work. Since it's not quarter-end anymore though, I may just ring my boss and ask for the day off. I had no funeral details when I saw her last so couldn't arrange anything. It was a long time to wait for a funeral too but apparently you're not allowed have funerals on holy Thursday, good Friday, easter Saturday or easter Sunday. Who knew.
So that's my life at the moment. All of the flights and other expenses have obviously, given my lack of an emergency fund, gone straight onto the credit card, which add a whole other level of something or other to the whole thing. But I wouldn't, couldn't have done it any other way and am glad that I live close enough that I can get back if I need to. So am reconciled to probably not being debt free until the end of the year and will just have to work on dealing with all the rest of the emotion now.
If anyone has been meaning to phone or visit someone and keeps putting it off, go and do it today! You just don't know if there'll be a tomorrow.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Them were the days...
I don't remember this but wow, Top of the Pops was so great. :-) What I most like is the fact that Terry Wogan keeps laughing. This is pure comedy gold.
Sunday, March 04, 2012
Time is passing by so quickly
Ever heard the expression "wishing your life away"? I feel a bit like that is what I'm doing at the moment. Every day is just a get through the day kind of day, spending far too much time focusing on the next pay day, willing them to come more quickly so that I can pay off the rest of my debt before something else happens. A bit of a waste really.
On the other hand, it is also giving me something of a lifeline, a thread to hold on to to keep going. I spent most of February trying really hard not to fall into a deep trough of depression after the relative high of January. I could feel in January and at the beginning of February that I was getting too caught up in making plans and thinking everything was possible. I've come to recognise the slightly manic aspect to it all which shows me that it's not just a new year kind of thing (at least, it is but sometimes becomes more than that, as it did this year). So I tried to rein it in and not get too carried away, trying to take the good from it without letting it take over I suppose. And that has helped I think as I've been able to also stop myself from falling too far down a hole the past few weeks. Not without a lot of effort and I've done too much to a certain extent but so far I'm managing. It hasn't helped that I have a big choir concert next weekend so there have been extra rehearsals, including all day rehearsals last weekend to go to as well. So as well as all the activity I have been trying to purposely spent as much time as possible just doing nothing but hanging around reading, listening to music and that kind of thing. Trying to get back to the idea that what I choose to do is okay so long as I am doing it consciously and purposefully. Not just letting things happen. It's a work in progress.
On the budgeting front, I have to admit that my attempt at a variation on the envelope system was a resounding failure. I will try again but not for a few months. It is true what people say. The dark and depressing beginning of the year is a particularly difficult time to make changes. Of course now it's March already and I can nearly feel the rest of the year rushing up to me already. The weather changed a week or so ago and it's getting too warm for wearing my winter coat anymore. It seemed to go from minus five to plus ten very, very quickly and it has thrown me off balance a bit. I felt like I had some time to prepare for the coming spring and summer and now it seems to just all of a sudden be here. Need to figure out how to cope with that, I think.
I want to make a list of things I want to buy. I'm nervous that as soon as I have cleared my debt I'll just start frittering away my money on all sorts of things I just don't want or need, just for the sake of being able to. But I do need to purchase some expensive things, as well as start a proper emergency fund and plan for the myriad of long-term stuff I have swimming in my head as well. Fantasies about having my own place and becoming self-sufficient are great and while I was so much in debt I could indulge them to the full as there was just no chance of anything happening anyway. But in a few months I won't be in debt anymore and will need to start thinking seriously about the steps I need to take to get to living the simple life I want, which will have to involve some serious thinking about the reality of what I really want, how much I'm prepared to do to get it and where in the middle of those two things my future lies.
For now, here's the shopping list for this year:
On the other hand, it is also giving me something of a lifeline, a thread to hold on to to keep going. I spent most of February trying really hard not to fall into a deep trough of depression after the relative high of January. I could feel in January and at the beginning of February that I was getting too caught up in making plans and thinking everything was possible. I've come to recognise the slightly manic aspect to it all which shows me that it's not just a new year kind of thing (at least, it is but sometimes becomes more than that, as it did this year). So I tried to rein it in and not get too carried away, trying to take the good from it without letting it take over I suppose. And that has helped I think as I've been able to also stop myself from falling too far down a hole the past few weeks. Not without a lot of effort and I've done too much to a certain extent but so far I'm managing. It hasn't helped that I have a big choir concert next weekend so there have been extra rehearsals, including all day rehearsals last weekend to go to as well. So as well as all the activity I have been trying to purposely spent as much time as possible just doing nothing but hanging around reading, listening to music and that kind of thing. Trying to get back to the idea that what I choose to do is okay so long as I am doing it consciously and purposefully. Not just letting things happen. It's a work in progress.
On the budgeting front, I have to admit that my attempt at a variation on the envelope system was a resounding failure. I will try again but not for a few months. It is true what people say. The dark and depressing beginning of the year is a particularly difficult time to make changes. Of course now it's March already and I can nearly feel the rest of the year rushing up to me already. The weather changed a week or so ago and it's getting too warm for wearing my winter coat anymore. It seemed to go from minus five to plus ten very, very quickly and it has thrown me off balance a bit. I felt like I had some time to prepare for the coming spring and summer and now it seems to just all of a sudden be here. Need to figure out how to cope with that, I think.
I want to make a list of things I want to buy. I'm nervous that as soon as I have cleared my debt I'll just start frittering away my money on all sorts of things I just don't want or need, just for the sake of being able to. But I do need to purchase some expensive things, as well as start a proper emergency fund and plan for the myriad of long-term stuff I have swimming in my head as well. Fantasies about having my own place and becoming self-sufficient are great and while I was so much in debt I could indulge them to the full as there was just no chance of anything happening anyway. But in a few months I won't be in debt anymore and will need to start thinking seriously about the steps I need to take to get to living the simple life I want, which will have to involve some serious thinking about the reality of what I really want, how much I'm prepared to do to get it and where in the middle of those two things my future lies.
For now, here's the shopping list for this year:
- New computer, including an external hard drive (and finally getting some proper kind of back-up system in place)
- Lightweight coat (this has to happen soon - I cannot for the life of me remember what I wore last year when it was too warm for my winter coat so I need to search through the cupboard first to make sure I really need something)
- Ticket to Australia to visit my sister
- A kindle. Maybe.
- Wallpaper, paint, etc. for renovating apartment.
Friday, February 03, 2012
Slowly but surely
I am slowly but surely making my way toward being debt-free. If I really, really tried hard and barring no further emergencies I could do it by May. But that would put me under a lot of pressure that I don't need at the moment and so I am now aiming for debt-free by July, which gives me a little money to actually spend on things other than the basic just feeding myself. I had a dental appointment on Monday and hooray! don't need to get anything done. Implant, crowns and fillings plus the small amount of, you know, tooth that I have left are all doing well. Long may it last - if I have no more dental issues for four years it would be very good. At that stage full cover under my additional dental insurance plan will kick in and at least financially, dental issues should be less of a worry.
This month I am trying out a variation of the envelope system for budgeting. My budget weeks run from Friday to Saturday and for once, I wasn't so desperately waiting to get paid (last day of the month) that I needed to spend my first week's budget during the first few days of the month before I even got to the 'budget' start of the month the following Friday. Previously I have budgeted for all known expenses (fixed amounts), divided what was left by four or five and that was what I had for the week for food, going out, shopping and so on. Usually somewhere between 40 and 100 euro and often with me spending most of it in the first week or two and having almost nothing for the second half of the month. Years ago I did a variation of the envelope method which involved a set amount per day (I think it was around 8 euro a day) and the goal was to save enough every day to have money to go grocery shopping at the weekend. It actually worked really well for a while. This time round I'm going to try something closer to the generally used envelope method and to do so I'm going to use the waiter's purse that I bought a few months ago in anticipation of doing this. Looks something like this one (picture from a random website called winneu.com), in case you've never seen one:
There are eight slots as well as the zipable bit at the front and the space where the coins are. I have divided my money into categories and on a spreadsheet these categories are broken down further to give me the best chance of properly figuring how much I really do need. I've given myself a fairly generous budget in the hopes that early success will convince me to keep this up even after I tweak everything down over time.
What I realised though is that if I take all the money for an entire month out of the bank at the same time, I will just end up spending it. So I wanted to just take out enough for a week. But some categories are for things I don't expect to spend on every week and the amount divided by four just leaves a strange amount. So I've taken each category on its own merits and will take the cash out of the bank for some of them weekly and for some of them monthly.
Weekly
Supermarket and farmers' market will be fairly fluid and is essentially the bulk of my food expense. The aim is to cook at home and not eat breakfast on the run, to bring lunch to work with me and make sure I'm home on time every evening to eat properly. But any money I need to spend on doing the opposite of all that basically has to come out of those categories as well. My first aim in this respect is to be not spending it all at the weekend so that I already have money to use if necessary during the week rather than to be 'borrowing' from next week's supermarket money. If you see what I mean.
Book club is probably my biggest entertainment expense. We go out to eat and I would usually also have a glass of wine or two and spend between 20 and 30 euro. 40 gives me some leeway and hopefully a bit left over to put towards buying the book the following month (since it's an English book club, it's not always possible to get the book from the library). Other going out/entertainment is for things like cinema, books, concerts and so on.
In comparison my budget for drink might leave you thinking a have a bit of a problem but although I will leave that open to potentially being used for drink in the sense of going out/entertainment, for the most part it's intended to cover buying crates of water as well as juice if I'm in the mood. And to pay for getting a few bottles of wine in so that if invited to someone's house for dinner, or if I invite someone to mine, I don't have to stress about where to find the money to buy something to bring with me. It's nice to have four or five bottles on hand.
Miscellaneous is for things like doctor, dentist, chiropodist, hairdresser, choir music and anything else that may come up. This month most of it will go to the chiropodist.
So that's it. Will see how it goes. I also have one of two larger one-off expenses that aren't included in the above, such as paying a deposit for a choir trip at the end of the year and paying for a ticket to Frankfurt next week as well as the usual things like rent, insurances and money towards annual expenses.
Now all I need to do is concentrate on not spending next week's or next month's money. And in the meantime start trying to figure out things like how much of an emergency fund I should be aiming to save once I am out of debt. Any thoughts on that? I kind of like the sound of 10,000, which seems to be what a lot of people aim for. But on the other hand, if I had ten grand, I'd be trying to use it as a deposit to buy a house. Am very conflicted about the whole thing really.
This month I am trying out a variation of the envelope system for budgeting. My budget weeks run from Friday to Saturday and for once, I wasn't so desperately waiting to get paid (last day of the month) that I needed to spend my first week's budget during the first few days of the month before I even got to the 'budget' start of the month the following Friday. Previously I have budgeted for all known expenses (fixed amounts), divided what was left by four or five and that was what I had for the week for food, going out, shopping and so on. Usually somewhere between 40 and 100 euro and often with me spending most of it in the first week or two and having almost nothing for the second half of the month. Years ago I did a variation of the envelope method which involved a set amount per day (I think it was around 8 euro a day) and the goal was to save enough every day to have money to go grocery shopping at the weekend. It actually worked really well for a while. This time round I'm going to try something closer to the generally used envelope method and to do so I'm going to use the waiter's purse that I bought a few months ago in anticipation of doing this. Looks something like this one (picture from a random website called winneu.com), in case you've never seen one:
What I realised though is that if I take all the money for an entire month out of the bank at the same time, I will just end up spending it. So I wanted to just take out enough for a week. But some categories are for things I don't expect to spend on every week and the amount divided by four just leaves a strange amount. So I've taken each category on its own merits and will take the cash out of the bank for some of them weekly and for some of them monthly.
Weekly
- Supermarket - 10
- Farmers' Market - 20
- Fair Trade shop - 15
- Going out/entertainment - 40
- Book club - 40
- Presents (including postage/shipping costs) - 30
- Drink - 30
- Miscellaneous - 45
Supermarket and farmers' market will be fairly fluid and is essentially the bulk of my food expense. The aim is to cook at home and not eat breakfast on the run, to bring lunch to work with me and make sure I'm home on time every evening to eat properly. But any money I need to spend on doing the opposite of all that basically has to come out of those categories as well. My first aim in this respect is to be not spending it all at the weekend so that I already have money to use if necessary during the week rather than to be 'borrowing' from next week's supermarket money. If you see what I mean.
Book club is probably my biggest entertainment expense. We go out to eat and I would usually also have a glass of wine or two and spend between 20 and 30 euro. 40 gives me some leeway and hopefully a bit left over to put towards buying the book the following month (since it's an English book club, it's not always possible to get the book from the library). Other going out/entertainment is for things like cinema, books, concerts and so on.
In comparison my budget for drink might leave you thinking a have a bit of a problem but although I will leave that open to potentially being used for drink in the sense of going out/entertainment, for the most part it's intended to cover buying crates of water as well as juice if I'm in the mood. And to pay for getting a few bottles of wine in so that if invited to someone's house for dinner, or if I invite someone to mine, I don't have to stress about where to find the money to buy something to bring with me. It's nice to have four or five bottles on hand.
Miscellaneous is for things like doctor, dentist, chiropodist, hairdresser, choir music and anything else that may come up. This month most of it will go to the chiropodist.
So that's it. Will see how it goes. I also have one of two larger one-off expenses that aren't included in the above, such as paying a deposit for a choir trip at the end of the year and paying for a ticket to Frankfurt next week as well as the usual things like rent, insurances and money towards annual expenses.
Now all I need to do is concentrate on not spending next week's or next month's money. And in the meantime start trying to figure out things like how much of an emergency fund I should be aiming to save once I am out of debt. Any thoughts on that? I kind of like the sound of 10,000, which seems to be what a lot of people aim for. But on the other hand, if I had ten grand, I'd be trying to use it as a deposit to buy a house. Am very conflicted about the whole thing really.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)