Author Archives: evamaria

Hot days…

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This summer has broken one record after the other – it’s been unbelievably hot for the last two months. Slowly I’m beginning to seriously look forward to lower temperatures in New Zealand… 🙂

I finished my paper on Sunday – it’s now in Chicago, with my friend Cindy, who’s proofreading the thing for me during her vacation.
Since then I’ve been domestic – my parents are gone, on a two weeks vacation in Cornwall, so my brother and I are on our own and doing household stuff in between complaining about the heat.

I won’t see my parents again until I get back from down under on October 8, which feels kind of weird. Not because of the time, but because they’re not here to see me off and to get on my nerves while I’m preparing.
I think I’ll start packing tomorrow, making a list of things and getting a feel if they can possibly fit into my backpack and handluggage-suitcase. Looking at the enormous mountain of gifts on my floor, chances are slim… *g*

Two nifty tools

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Probably nothing new, but surfing the web (and dmoz in particular) I found a couple of nifty tools, that I might implement one of these days:

For one, there’s blogLinker. It doesn’t have a bookmarklet as far as I can tell, but it’s still better than blogrolling in that it’s not only for blogs. I might start some more link lists with it, for all sorts of stuff.

And myMediaList looks like fun, too. You can create lists of books, music, games and what not and easily implement them in your website.

Time to play the association game again

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This week’s Unconscious Mutterings:

  1. Hook:: line and sinker
  2. Greg:: Kinnear – and don’t ask my why I thought of him…
  3. Sixty:: my parents are older than that!
  4. Breakfast:: in bed
  5. Dollar:: cent
  6. Unpredictable:: confusing
  7. O:: 2
  8. Bathing suit:: beach
  9. Inconsiderate:: can’t stand it!
  10. Marx:: and Engels

And here’s the Saturday Senses:
[sight]:: opening your eyes right after your first kiss
The lights of the disco flashing around us, my girlfriends in the background staring unbelievingly and then cheering.

[taste]:: aphrodisiac food (whatever it was or whatever works(ed) for you ;-))
Eating raspberries always sends shivers of pleasure down my spine. They might not be your classic aphrodisiac, but they sure spark a lot of sensual feelings in me.

[smell]:: that specific perfume that drives you crazy on the opposite sex (or that person with that dazzling perfume that drove you crazy – you get the picture…).
A whiff of what is to me “man smell”. I have yet to find out what it is, or if it’s natural in some men – but just last week I passed a guy and smelled it. It always makes me close my eyes and think of strong arms hugging me.

[touch]:: (feeling) chills
Those few moments before a kiss, when you’re eyes lock and the distance between you becomes smaller and smaller…

[hearing]:: whisper(s)
Me and a friend having a sleep over and talking in hushed voices about everything and nothing. You can never exchange confidences as well as in whispers in a dark room…

August 1st

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For those without ties to Switzerland – today is our national holiday, which means that we all started celebrating (loudly, with lots of crackers and fireworks) yesterday.

I was invited to that party, and since I had an appointment at my hairdresser’s anyway, I asked her to make me a cool ‘do. This, paired with a top I bought last year in Notting Hill and hadn’t had the chance to wear yet, made me feel absolutely wonderfully dressed up, without being overdresssed.

And yes, I had my mom take pics – who knows when I’ll look this good again… 🙂

But the best thing was definitely the back view! LOL

The party was pretty fun, several friends I hadn’t seen in a while and some new nice people, plus a good view of the fireworks over the Rhine. But I didn’t bring my camera, so no proof, I’m afraid. Also, the situation I’ve mentioned, and which had me dreading this thing a bit, was ugly, but not as bad as it could have been. And have I mentioned that I love Sibylle? She really is family to me.

I left soon after the fireworks, because this morning at 8am my presence was required at the reception of my old people’s home. I don’t know, but although I did get almost six hours of sleep, I felt like crap this morning. My eyes are still tired in fact, and I’m only grateful that, thanks to a genrous collegue, I don’t have to show up there tomorrow until noon. NOT looking forward to Sunday, when it’ll be 8am again, and that after a farewell going out with Sibylle and Regina… But I’ll live. Hopefully. 🙂

Sweet like summer…

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My mom came home from a conference – and brought raspberries!

Now, everyone who knows me, knows that I love raspberries, LOVE them. They’re my absolutely favorite fruit in the world. And this summer they’ve been rare, probably due to the draught.

So now, I’m happy. Very happy indeed. I think the main reason is the memories, the fact that to me raspberries equal summer, and carefree playing in the sun as as a child. It means our holiday home on a small lake in Switzerland, next to a big meadow with grass high enough that a small child could get lost (or hide) in it. It means picking raspberries from the bush in the evening and eating the first ones while they’re still sun warm and the rest later with cream together with the family.

Whenever I eat a raspberry, or smell one, it brings me back, and I can’t help but smile and feel the summer warmth of my childhood wash over me.

A friend made me a LiveJournal icon last summer, that still means a lot to me:

Spinning out of control

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Last night, on the high of a Very Good Day, I played with my camera, my new flash card, my brother’s new Ska-p CD, and Imovie, which resulted in a very funny and absolutely embarrassing little film:
To be seen or downloaded as QuickTime file here.

And I so know that I’ll regret putting this online – some things should remain private… 🙂

Picknick in the sun

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My mom had made cake yesterday, which I hadn’t eaten because I was at work. Therefore this afternoon found me sitting in my room, on the floor in the one spot reached by the sun, window wide open, eating delicious blackberry/peach cake while listening to my new CD and reading Alice Sebold’s “The Lovely Bones” (one of my favorite books ever). Bliss. One of those days that stick in your memory with warmth and love and peace…

Speaking about memories – here’s this week’s Unconscious Mutterings:

  1. Partner:: would be nice, but isn’t necessary at the moment.
  2. Goddess:: why not?
  3. Village:: small, narrow, but peaceful
  4. Relationships:: spice up life
  5. Irrational:: I try not to be
  6. Volcano:: Hawaii
  7. Fabulous:: glitter and glamour
  8. Unencumbered:: a lovely feeling…
  9. Coyotes:: funny looking creatures
  10. Fulfilled:: right this moment

Btw, if you want your own chocolatedream.net email addy – there’s a link for that in the new fun section to the right.

Impressions and preparations

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Slowly I start counting the days – in exactly two weeks I’ll be sitting in the plane to Dubai… Got my Aussie and Kiwi money in the mail today, as well as my travel insurance, and wen to buy a 256MB flash card for my beloved new Canon Ixus v.3. Yep, it’s getting close!

Today is the only ‘free’ day I have – I work every day until Sunday, except for Thursday, when I’m invited to a August 1st party (which is our National holiday and strangely enough always celebrated with fireworks the night before). Not particularly looking forward to it, due to some stuff going on with my friends, but it’ll be nice anyway, I think – specially because the friends giving the party (my ex-boyfriend and his -male- life partner) live in an excellent location to watch the fireworks over the Rhine…

Talking about views – I took a couple of pics: One of the sky last night, which was absolutely gorgeous, and one of the larger-than-life Spiderman that used to walk up a theatre and has now found a new home quite near our house.


When I came home from work yesterday night, this just took my breath away… Always makes me feel so very grateful for all the beauty surrounding me.


Every time on my way to and from the city I pass this bright yellow house, and it never fails to make me smile. The people living there must be comic freaks, because not only do they own Spidey, there’s also a huge Marsupilami looking out one window.

Today I got a CD from a friend from Canada in the mail – it was still in one piece and I’m now happily listening to all kinds of lovely music. Thanks to Poisoned I’ve also managed to d/l quite a bit of stuff, for example some of Anouk’s (one of the singers from the Gurten festival) songs. Very glad that this works so well, because I simply didn’t manage to make xmule work for me, although a friend tried to talk me through the process on installing it. I think I’ll delete all the crap I’ve d/led in the process one of these days – space is getting sparse on my laptop with all the pics, programs, and music…

I’ve also tried to make comment notification work here, but without success – now I hope that someone in the support forum can help me. But since I update from the website anyway (because Kunglog suddenly refused to recognize me) I see comments anyway, so it’s not so bad.

And I swear, I didn’t plan to go on like this! Stopping now – well, for the moment, at least… 🙂

Saturday Senses

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Let’s see what we got here… Memory lane the second.

[sight]:: watching cartoons
Sunday mornings, when I was maybe 4. We had a black and white TV, made color by a transparent hanging over it. The first TV show I ever watched – “Die Sendung mit der Maus”, a German children’s program with a mouse and a blue elephant.

[taste]:: wedding cake
I actually can’t remember ever eating one, although I must have. But the marrying thing has only just started with my friends – I’m sure I’ll get my chance to consciously taste one… 🙂

[smell]:: laundry soap
My mom pouring a basket full of freshly laundered bedsheets over me. The clean, fresh smell surrounds me, the sheets still warm, and I hide my head in them.

[touch]:: unwraping a present
My 20th birthday, when my best friend gave me a big box, filled with 20 gifts while we were at the pub celebrating. All my friends were there and watched me, laughing and commenting as I unwrapped one gift after the other.

[hearing]:: school bell
Sitting in class, glancing at my watch constantly. Slowly starting to pack up my things, hoping the teacher won’t notice. Finally, the bell, and everyone jumps up and runs out, me one of the first. Freedom! 🙂

Busy bee

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Yesterday I suddenly realized that it’s only a bit more than two weeks until I’m leaving. Gave me quite a fright, that, because I don’t feel anything close to ready — there’s the paper, and the fact that I’ll work almost every evening/afternoon and that there’s still quite a bit left to be done.

So yesterday, instead of writing, I read some of my texts about the Maori, went to the bank to order my foreign currency, emailed Denise, called my insurance company about travel insurance, and started to seriously think about what will happen once I’ve landed in Auckland. And today I’ve made an appointment at my hair dresser’s, booked a hostel in Auckland, inquired about bus connections and fares, and looked up some of the websites recommended in my Lonely Planet (links here, on the right). I’ve decided to stay in Auckland for two nights, because it’s a six-hour bus ride to New Plymouth, so I’d have to stay one night anyway. That way I can at least spend one day there and have a quick look around.

I’m trying very hard not to think of the 15 pages I still have to write and the fact that the teacher in question won’t just accept anything, because she knows exactly what she wants. All this stuff in my schedule is stressing me quite a bit — I’m one of those persons who need empty spaces in their planners, even if the things filling them are exciting and interesting. I need time for myself, else I get all tense and stressed out…

Will take my Salome stuff to work this afternoon and hopefully be able to write a bit there, so I don’t feel so bad about it anymore.