One week off is not enough

Today is the last day of my ‘week off’ from work, and it hasn’t been enough (at all! at fucking all!) to do everything that I had planned to do:

1. lying on the bed reading
2. writing the short story
3. decorating my writer’s room

The above three items were only the ‘core activities’ I wanted to do, alongside other more holiday-type enjoyable ones such as:

1. going to see Tilda Swinton featured in the ‘Famous Scots’ exhibition currently on at ScotlandsPeople Centre in Edinburgh
2. walking into town checking out charity shops (especially in ‘posher areas’ e.g. Morningside)
3. COOKING a few warm meals (during the working week, I tend to eat only sandwiches as I have no time or energy to cook)
4. just being idle with no need to do anything at all

From the ‘core activities’, I’ve managed to do a smidgeon of (1) – not more than usual to be honest; only one morning spent on (2); and painting 2x chairs and 1x door of (3) – the rest of decorating will be done once I finish this.

From the ‘added activities’, I’ve only managed to do (3) ONCE (last night), and as for (2), on the first day (Monday) I went to all the charity shops in Leith, but that’s it.

I’m clearly one of the people who would not run out of things to do if they were without a regular 9-5 job. It would take at least 6 months to tackle the backlog of projects that have accumulated over the years (I’m still to create a couple of music videos from rehearsal room footage of my old band from about 8 years or so ago!). In fact, yesterday I had another idea for a project which I should write down into my scrap book, lest I forget.

And for those who know Deutschpunk, here are some lyrics of a song that I’ve been enjoying while decorating. It’s good to know that listening to this kind of stuff when I was younger has had a greater influence on me than I probably realised at the time 😛

Wenn ich nach Hause komme, sitzt da ein alter Typ
Er sagt, er wär’ mein Vater, und ich glaub’ auch, daß er’s ist
Wir sehen uns nur manchmal, und dann reden wir nicht viel
Doch wenn wir reden, sagt er: “Junge, aus dir wird mal nicht viel
Alles, was du anfängst, hörst du gleich wieder auf
Du kannst doch nie ‘ne Familie ernähren, und du kriegst auch keine Frau
Du mußt arbeiten, du mußt schuften so wie ich”
Aber ich will nicht werden, was mein Alter ist, nee
Ich will nicht werden, was mein Alter ist
Ich möchte aufhör’n und pfeifen auf das Geld
Ich weiß, wenn das so weitergeht, bin ich fertig mit der Welt
Arbeit macht das Leben süß, so süß wie Maschinenöl
Ich mach den ganzen Tag nur Sachen, die ich gar nicht machen will
Ich möchte gern mal meinem Chef die Möbel geradezieh’n
Doch ich krieg die Faust nicht aus der Tasche, ich weiß nicht mehr, was ich will
Ich möchte am liebsten abhau’n, wenn’s zuhause wieder kracht
Ich warte jeden Montagmorgen schon auf Freitagnacht
Aber ich will nicht werden, was mein Alter ist, nee
Ich will nicht werden, was mein Alter ist
Ich möchte aufhör’n und pfeifen auf das Geld
Ich weiß, wenn das so weitergeht, bin ich fertig mit der Welt

Ryanair now flies from Edinburgh to Rome

Great news which was announced yesterday: Ryanair are now flying to Rome from Edinburgh (starting in March I think).

This means that, whenever I have to go to Italy to see to the house, I can go straight there in one flight rather than having to fly to Stansted first and then take a second flight.

It’s just in time too – I had planned some complicated holiday this year whereby I’d drive to Germany, then get a flight to Italy from there to sort out the house etc. and then take the car back. Now I’ll be able to keep those two holidays separate – i.e. drive to Germany by car with B. in the third week or so of May, and go to Italy by direct flight whenever (probably beginning of May. It might even be June, but by that time it’ll be too hot!)

Holiday Plans 2009

Image by Junnn via Flickr

January is the time for holiday planning apparently. I’m planning to go across to Germany in the car (haven’t been there in a few years) and on the way stop over in Amsterdam (1 night) and Cologne (1 night). Amsterdam just because it  makes sense (the ferry goes from Newcastle to there, and it’s a pretty city 😉 ), and in Cologne I’ll be meeting up with a few friends hopefully while staying overnight at one of my oldest mates.

I’ll also be taking B. with me, so he’s going to ‘meet the parents’ for the first time. He’s never been to Germany either, so it’s going to be an interesting one for him. I’m quite looking forward to it. I don’t even mind the driving. With the ferry etc. involved it’s going to be a wee adventure 🙂

Once the Italy house has been sold (this year hopefully), I’m also aiming to visit Vienna and Berlin for a holiday, as well as, New Zealand (where B. has a really good friend, and where an ex BF of mine is doing a PhD). Also maybe Budapest/Hungary, as that’s where my very good friend A. is from.

A True Day of Doing Sweet Fuck All

I still haven’t had a day where I truly didn’t do anything this Xmas holiday. The problem with working full-time is that you never get time to do housekeeping, tidying, planning, throwing stuff out, etc. etc. during the great majority of the year.

So when you ARE off, all these tasks have piled up. Thus, instead of being able to relax and, say, spend a day doing only things for yourself and your own pleasure (e.g. playing games, reading, staying in bed all day) you end up opening up letters that haven’t been opened in weeks, filing, re-potting plants, alongside general cleaning activities that you don’t usually have time for.

It’s a hard life! I wonder if I will be able to squeeze in a proper day of me-time before I’m back at work 😐

Italy Holiday Day 12: Wrapping Up

Image by AIBakker via Flickr

I’m going to have to wrap up various bits and bobs tomorrow. One thing I’ll be doing for the first time is sending myself an email listing all the food stuff that is here in the house. The reason being that whenever I come here, I drive from the airport past Lidl (…) and pick up shopping for the first evening/first few days. Only that I never know what is actually in the house, so I end up buying stuff that I don’t need and that eventually goes off.

E.g. this time round, I had to eat rice for a week or so and had to use 2-3 tins of tomatoes in my cooking, as the expiry date is 31/12/08! Having grown up with relatively little money i.e. nothing to waste, I don’t throw food and might even have a psychological problem with wasting stuff 😛

Actually it’s not a ‘psychological problem’ at all – the people I’m friends with here (my neighbour I. and her family) are just like me, and so is my family. Might even be a cultural thing. Plus, I get a kick out of being frugal (and look where it got me hehe so I must be doing something right!). It’s a great skill to have 🙂

Either way, tomorrow I shall record whatever is left over in an email to myself. It’s not that much (I wouldn’t spend hours cataloguing every single item if I had cupboards full of stuff). But things like olive oil I’m very low on, so that will have to be bought on the way from the airport to the house via Lidl next time (i.e. next May). It’s just going to be a useful little list and will simply make things easier next time round.

Tomorrow night I’m meeting with my friend P. – I think I’ve mentioned it before. On Tue I’m already leaving – for some reason I thought I had plenty of days ahead, and I wish I did 😐