Type Delete Retype

Wednesday unplanned sleepover

Classes, meeting, talking to mates in school which led to impromptu drinks (rosehip tea for me), dinner (soup), and more drinks (peppermint tea). I was going to jump on the tram to the car, but it was late and the thought of the 10 minutes walk from the tram to the car, at half past ten, in the cold wasn't very appealing. Neither the fact that I would be arriving home just to sleep before waking up early in the morning to come back again. Thankfully, kind Z offered to put me again. So I'm here, sleeping over in Z's room yet again this time with very cute borrowed socks and pajamas.

Help?

Dear Fifity-6,

I would be grateful for your help regarding a pair of boots (MANAS DESIGN) I bought from your shop in Saarbruken, Germany (Bahnhofstrase 1-3, St-Johanner-Markt) on 8 November 2011.

I brought it home to Basel in Switzerland and upon wearing it - realise that 1 side was defective - i.e. had fur instead of wool on the outside.  I inspected it and realised that the fur which should be sewn in the inside was put outside and vice-versa (please take a look at the attached pictures). My friends laughed at me and my boots  - they turned out not to be so good for my karma -unlike what your pink heart shape paper (found in the shoe box) suggested.

A friend, who lives in Saarbruken, tried to resolve this issue with the manager of your shop on my behalf, even showing the pictures I sent of the boots. He told her he could not help and that the wrong fur would change into wool with time! As you would probably understand --- I found this extremely disappointing --bearing in mind that I have paid EUR169 for what I thought was fashionable and high quality boots! I would be grateful for your help  in this issue - either for an exchange for a good boot or a refund ---something you think would be fair as the boots I have now are not wearable and the problem arose because of a manufacturing/production issue. I am attaching here a few  pictures for your easy reference.

 

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

 

 

PS I've also sent an email to MANAS in Italy. I would be very disappointed and aggrieved if I don't hear anything back. 

Get a haircut - done

I've not had a hair cut for at least 6 months. Maybe even longer. Pretty long time don't you think? I observed last week that perhaps it was my out- of- shape- hair that was contributing to my feeling blah about getting dressed to go out or even life in general. This, and realising I need to get myself together for next week, prompted a hair-melt-down/crisis discussion with E last Saturday night, which in turn led me to the Swiss hair salon this afternoon.  

Alor, why did I not do this sooner?  Well, aside from not noticing it was making me grumpy, it was because I was reluctant. A few reasons: (1)  I wasn't up to entering a shop to ask for an appointment, only to have the person carelessly shrug NO to me like I'm a dumb ass: because I can't speak German (as has been the case with the many nail shop I've skipped into and walk dejectedly out off); (2) I've been told so many times - "nooo...it's terribly, terribly, terribly expensive here in Swizzer ... you must go to France/Germany instead" and I listen to this because I don't want to spend more, especially as I'm not earning at the moment; (3) I don't trust strangers to cut my hair (colouring is ok), having learnt my awful lesson in HK when I was disloyal to beloved Kenji and went to see another hairdresser who butchered my hair (which led me to eat a lot of cake; I still haven't recovered). 

How it went this afternoon: Well, much better than I expected. Firstly, I could communicate with the hair stylist (yes, I was struggling to ask for an appointment in German until one of the ladies asked me whether I spoke Spanish)(no, no one spoke English). Secondly, the Spanish speaking hair stylish had nice layered long hair, so she knew exactly what I wanted. Thirdly, I  seized the opportunity and added highlights to my recently darkened hair to make me look less fierce (which is what I've been hearing lately). 

Voila. Now all I need to do is to solve my manicuring-pedicuring nails issue. 

Getting out of my comfort zone

It's one after another - being here.

First there was the bicycling in town - with the cars, roundabouts and trams. I was so nervous at the beginning, I hop off and wheeled my bicycle at busy junctions and roundabouts. I also preferred to clamp on the brakes when going down hill. Of course, I do nothing of that sort now, staying on my bike and pedalling at the roundabouts and taking advantage of any downhill speed to gain momentum and more time.

So what is it this time?  Driving here! Yeyse...yesterday I drove E's car (left steering wheel) on the right hand side of the road, in the morning traffic i.e. amidst running school kids, bumper-to- bumper traffic to reach to the tram station (plus minus a wrong turn here and there). Later, in the evening, I drove back from the tram station to home. 

I was extremely nervous on Sunday night. And indeed yesterday morning when I woke up at 5am mulling whether I should just stay in bed and not bother with school, or to go in but with my bicycle and leave at lunch time. The only thing is I wanted to sit in lectures.

So - today - I'm going to repeat the same routine.  I'm feeling nervous  this morning but nothing like yesterday.   I don't have an afternoon class but an appointment with the hairdresser to trim my hair. It's out of shape and I need to look nice for next week now, especially now that I've confirmed for pictures to be taken!  

A picture from one of my walks in summer

Uncovering the seeds 

A new week beckons

Last week at school for this semester: I have several essays pending and a mountain of paper to read for tomorrow's class.  But I procrastinate. Lots happening this week:  preparation for the closing ceremony, 1-1 meetings, finalisation of marks etc. It will certainly be sad to say goodbye to some of my class mates who are finishing and going back to their respective countries. Thankfully, we have emails and face-book to ease the transition and separation.  

Saturday night out: So, E and I went out last night for a birthday party of an acquantaince. It was meant to start at 10 pm. We arrived to the venue on time... but apparently not anyone else as we found ourselves alone.  We ditched the bar for another one after half an hour where we had a good time chatting about all sorts of things (what is it about quality chats happening outside the home environment - is it the lack of the usual distractions?).

It also felt good to be out and about in town: the saturday night feel-good ambiance lifted our spirits and made us reflect on so many happy stuff (we realised we were so maudlin about life after saying goodbye to LE).

We woke up in good spirits this morning and had a wonderful "just-the-two-of-us" (vs. parenthood) Sunday. 

Making a list

I love "A Beautiful Mess" - I find the contents beautiful and inspiring. I've been thinking of creating a list for the upcoming year and especially for my 40th birthday and seeing the post below has confirmed my need for such a list. 

From abeautifulmess.typepad.com Soooo, this weekend I am turning 29. Last year I made a goal list, as I do every year. The birthday list concept was originally inspired by Hula Seventy. I think my very first one was "24 before 25". Every year I make a list. I never finish every single thing on the list, but it always inspires me to do things that I would normally put off. It's so much fun! So here's a recap of this past year's list and all the goals that were accomplished (or at least that I got photos of) .. ...

Cie la vie

LE went back to his mum's after his birthday party. We won't be seeing him until mid- December. Picking up his spider man socks from our bedroom while knowing this left me sad. Retuning his jacket to his bedroom and coming across a soft toy he had been teasing me with earlier this morning also made my heart fall.

Sigh.

Cie la vie.

Train

Preparation complete?

Another El Weekend!

This afternoon, we will be celebrating LE's 4th birthday at a community hall with some of LE's friends and their parents. LE's mum is organizing it; we will bring LE to the fiesta. Last night, we presented LE with a wooden train set which extended his current set. LE was very excited to play with it - nearly as much as E and I.

- - -

Meanwhile, at school yesterday, our class on conflict transformation relating to religion wrapped up at noon. After classes, a few of us spontaneously decided to hop on the train to a town in France to shop, watch films, eat, etc. I concentrated on visiting shoe stores having realized that my black and white dress needed new black boots. I don't speak French so I showed the picture of my dress to the one of the keepers of the store with a decent selection instead: She brought out three pairs for me to try and I settled on the last one. So it looks like I've got everything I need for the registration. Now what shall I do with my hair and nails?