It seems there has been a distinct lack of blogging yet again My Wordpress is actually full of draft posts which I have started, then lacked the time or motivation to continue with. I don’t understand why, but for some reason work is ridiculously busy at the moment and that means blogging time is restricted I did, however, have a rather exciting weekend at the London Language Show. I was about to say ‘enjoyable’, but I wasn’t sure that was the best word; firstly because it was so utterly exhausting I haven’t recovered from it yet, and secondly because I spent the entire time being scared stiff. Nah, it was enjoyable over all - just not quite as relaxing as the previous weekend in Barlaston.

It all started at 5.30am on Saturday morning, which was the time at which my alarm went off. For me this was an interesting experiment, because I had previously been unaware that 5.30am on a Saturday actually existed, it not being a time I have ever seen Here’s hoping that I don’t have to see it again in a hurry! 5.30am on a Saturday is cold, dark, and more depressing than 5.30am on a Monday, because you *know* you should be having a lie in Sadly it was absolutely necessary to get up at this ungodly hour, because I was aiming to get to the London Olympia for 10. (more…)

Babel and I just had a delightful weekend at Esperanto House in Barlaston I’d been looking forward to the break away for ages, but by the time Friday afternoon came I was so incredibly stressed because of work that I just felt sort of sick and shaky and could hardly enjoy the delicious burger king Babel treated me to. Once we were in the Moosemobile and had managed to negotiate ourselves into the correct lane for going north on the M6, I managed to relax a bit, however, and a good dose of minstrel music always helps to make the world seem like a brighter place (more…)

Mi pardonpetas pri la nuntempa manko de blogado; mi tro laboras. Mi havas semajnon por kontroli la kontojn de tuta granda kliento, rilate al kiu pasintjare oni havis du semajnojn por la sama kontrolado Ĉi-jare oni ŝajne fuŝis la organizadon.

Dum la tago mi havas nek la reton, nek la tempon por blogi, kaj vespere mi tro lacas. Kutime kiam mi laboras ĉe mia oficejo en Birmingham, mi fakte ne laboras dum la tuta tago. Tio estas, mi laboras dum horo, kaj poste kontrolas miajn retmesaĝojn, kaj se estas interesa mesaĝo en la forumoj, mi respondas al tio, kaj tiam rekomencas labori. Post horo eble la tasko estas finita, kaj antaŭ ol mi komencas la sekvan, mi decidas blogi, kaj baldaŭ venas la tagmanĝhoro kaj mi forlasas la laborejon dum tuta horo kaj iras trinki kafon. Tia laborado plaĉas al mi, ĉar mi estas pigra (more…)

La edzo de mia onklino nuntempe havas gravajn sanproblemojn, kiuj verŝajne signifas ke post kelkaj jaroj li ne plu kapablas stari, piediri, eĉ paroli. Estas tute tragika afero. Hieraŭ vespere mia panjo iris viziti mian onklinon, kiu havas fileton, kaj post kiam ŝi revenis hejmen ŝi diris la jenan…

“Mi devas konfesi ke mi estis iomete desapontita kiam mia fratino naskis filon, ĉar ŝajnas al mi multe pli facile aĉeti vestaĵojn kaj ludilojn por knabinoj. Nun mi tamen ege ĝojas ke ŝi havas filon. Ŝia edzo baldaŭ ne plu povos zorgi pri si mem, do tute ne pri ŝi, sed ŝi ja havas filon kiu povos helpi al ŝi kun la aferoj kiujn povas fari nur viroj. Jen pruvo ke Dio ekzistas, ĉu ne?!”

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Pasintsemajne mi faris tre stultan eraron. Antaŭ kelkaj monatoj mi aldonis aŭtomatan signaturon al mia retmesaĝa konto, kiu enhavas ligilon al ĉi tiu retpaĝaro. Ŝajnis kiel bona ideo tiutempe, sed fakte mi apenaŭ uzis ĝin. Ĝi ne aperas kiam mi sendas mesaĝojn per mia poŝtelefono, kaj mi faras tion tre ofte. Je la maloftaj okazoj kiam mi retmesaĝas per komputilo, antaŭ al mi klakas “sendu” mi ĉiam pripensas ĉu mi fakte volas ke la ricevonto legi mian blogon.

Aŭ preskaŭ ĉiam (more…)

Yesterday was two years exactly since I met Babel. I hasten to clarify that I am not aware of that fact because I spent my free time counting the days since I have known Babel - I spend quite enough of my work life counting without doing it in my evenings too - but just because it was the day after my father’s birthday, and conveniently my father’s birthday is always the same day each year Of course, when I say that I met Babel, what I mean is that I saw him in reality for the first time, having actually “met” him three months previously in the JEB forums. It is an interesting question as to whether you can “know” someone when you have never met them in real life. My sister asked me about this this morning in fact, because one of her friends has just split up with her boyfriend, and my sister seems to think the failure of the relationship is somehow based on the fact that they bumped into each other on the internet. (more…)

Hmmm, how to describe the internacia vespero?! Some of it was exceptionally good and some of it was exceptionally bad. There were some incredibly talented singers, some stunning belly-dancing, and a few jokes which were genuinely funny. It was quite cool to see the Esperanto song Ska-virino performed in sign language too. But some of the acts were either out of tune, or simply went on for too long. I think as a general rule, people should only be allowed to sing one song, as opposed to three in a row, and there should be a limit placed on the length of sketches and the like. That way, it would be easier to enjoy the stuff which was genuinely excellent, and the stuff which wasn’t so much to your own personal taste would be mercifully shorter. Through no one’s fault, the temperature in the theatre building was incredibly hot and the whole atmosphere was so oppressive that once or twice I felt like I was going to pass out. It was a shame, because I probably didn’t enjoy it as much as I should have done, and I could hardly wait for the group photo to be over at the end so that I could run outside for some fresh air. (more…)

As it happened, I’d actually drunk too much wine to get up and feed the ducks before breakfast. For the first time in my life I didn’t even hear the alarm go off, but luckily Babel woke me at 9am and we still managed to get to breakfast on time. Armed with our stolen bread, we set off towards the lake and the ducks. The lake has a little island in the middle and most of the ducks seemed to be congregating there, so we went across the bridge and started to feed them. I don’t think they get fed as much as English ducks because some of them seemed quite ravenous and were practically fighting one another for pieces of bread. With Hungarian bread seemingly being so hard and stale, we had to be quite careful to make sure we tore it into sufficiently small chunks and didn’t choke them. A further complication was added by the swarms of small fish who suddenly appeared at the surface and tried to grab the bread before the ducks got chance. I have got some photos of the ducks which Babel took on my camera, but unfortunately it’s not a digital camera so it will be ages before I can see them. (more…)

I was glad not to be hungover on Thursday morning, because I wanted to go on another excursion. Only a little one this time, which mercifully didn’t involve getting on a coach I hadn’t realised before I went on holiday that Szombathely (or, at least, the Roman town which used to stand on the same site) was the birthplace of Saint Martin of Tours (he who gave his cloak to the beggar). Generally my family spend a lot of time praying to various Saint Martins, on account of the fact that that was my grandfather’s Christian name, and so I found the prospect of visiting his birthplace rather exciting. (more…)

Wednesday was the day I had been looking forward to the most. I was so incredibly excited about going to Hungary that ideally I wanted to *see* Hungary, rather than sitting talking to a pile of Esperantists, so the chance to go on an excursion was one I relished. Unfortunately, I’m not a person who deals well with being herded around as if I’m part of a group of cattle, nor a person who enjoys being spoken to like a five year old, and for that reason the day failed to meet my expectations until halfway through I succeeded in getting drunk. (more…)