Week 47: Take Off | Itch: Scratched

I am writing and scheduling this post before taking off to London for a long weekend. I am not taking my computer with me this time and will be back very late on Sunday night. As I have mentioned before, I have really missed being on the road, even though I did really enjoy having more time to enjoy my (seasonally decorated) flat and see more of my friends. It's a weird thing, really, as I still dislike packing and unpacking and do enjoy a certain degree of domestic life immensely, but I love travelling itself and being "stationary" for weeks was simply not my routine in the past 4 years and took a while of getting used to. Unlike many people who claim to hate most aspects of travelling, even going on holidays, I still love the buzz at airports, enjoy flying itself and never get tired of people-watching when travelling. I guess it's just one of my favourite things to do and I miss it when I haven't taken off for a while. I am also going to be in Zurich later this week for a day only. Itch: scratched!

Week 46: Great Expecations | I Still Value Manners

If I had a Euro for every time somebody else's behaviour left me speechless and puzzled, I would not need to work any longer and could comfortably enjoy my retired life travelling to exotic places and going to Starbucks five times a day instead of one.
Last week I had a rather emotional conversation with a good friend of mine (one included in the "Who is Who" dropdown). I was about an acquaintance of hers who she had tried to set me up with this summer. He is the "good catch" type of person that all mothers wish for as a son in law. Good looking and well-spoken, impressive academic credentials and a high-profile job. Said superstar-in-theory and I had several dates that were partly weird, partly entertaining, but at least had a lot of merit for sharing with friends. After the last encounter, he did what men are so good for: a disappearance act. Abducted by aliens? Reunited with his ex girlfriend? Became a member of a reclusive cult? I might never know. I am rather proud of myself for not going to the trouble to do the desperate number and beg for an explanation and chase after him. Said disappearance act happened a month ago and I had almost *forgotten* him, when my friend mentioned seeing him at an event and wanted to know what the news was. I then filled her in on the latest developments and she basically gave me a lecture on how strange she found it that I even wasted one minute interpreting this behaviour as a sign of not valuing my person/our budding friendship, etc and why I was not just angry and hated him now. I tried to convince her that I had not spent sleepless nights grieving for this non-relationship and was not the type of person to immediately hate someone, but that it I could not NOT interpret not being in touch with me following a a rather ...ahem... personal encounter as disrespect or a lack of esteem as I would at least have had the balls to call or write to explain why "hot" was being followed by "cold". She did not understand why this would make a difference to me and we almost had an argument, with me accusing her of lacking solidarity. In the end, and for the sake of our friendship, we just agreed to disagree. We have met after that heated phone call and all is good. However, it made me wonder if I am really alone in evaluating somebody else's behaviour against my own standards, i.e. how I would have reacted in the same situation? 

Week 45: Nanowrimo | Sorry Not Sorry

Remember when I said that I would finish my Book (capital B intentional) by the end of the year. Truth be told, I did not even look into my draft for months after that, briefly thinking about scrapping the whole project and starting from scratch. Now that "NaNoWriMo" is apparently upon us (which would completely have escaped my attention if it had not been for my colleague the Scholar, who reminded me several times, asking how far my "Opus Magnum" had proceeded...) and I have more time on my hands I have been doing a Carrie Bradshaw and retreated to my favourite Starbucks branches (which all have very patchy WiFi, by the way) to revise and amend what I have written so far. I have decided to stick to the original concept and not beat myself up if I won't be able to adhere to my self-imposed deadline. The 22,400 words I have written so far may not be much at all, but I can truthfully say I would enjoy reading them if I had spent money for it.

Week 44: Clipped Wings | Where Are You off to Next?

Now that I have so much time on my hands, my calendar is suspiciously empty. It's not that I don't have friends to entertain me or that said friends are all busy with jobs and children, but also that many people have got quite used to ME being the busy one, or rather the "not physically present" one because of my frequent travelling. Most of that travelling in the last 3 years was of course business-related and since I don't have that same external-facing role any more, but a more "administrative" one that does not require much travelling at all, I miss it and have not quite adapted to being so "stationary" and with so much free time on my hands. Truth be told, I have really been enjoying being in domestic mode, i.e. getting some things done in my flat and enjoying my own place for a longer period of time. After a few weeks of this new reality I have seriously itchy feet and can't help thinking that all those luxuriously long weekends of mine are a bit "wasted" if spent in Vienna. Stupid, I know, but my inner travel agent is going wild with potential mini-break destinations. It's also what people first comment when I tell them about my new schedule. "Great, then you can leave on Thursday evenings and if there are early flights, go straight to the office from the airport on Mondays". Yep, so much for the theory. I do have a flight booked for the last weekend of November so my diary is not completely empty. With ski season almost here, I am also planning to visit my parents more frequently and hit nearby slopes.