Category: Personal

Anything and everything about me and my life. You’ll have to hunt a lot for gossip-worthy tidbits, though.

Mainstream [en]

I’m afraid I might be going mainstream. All my hopes of being somewhat original are in the process of being utterly and totally shattered.

I promised a friend I’d get a TV if she ended up presenting a small show on the local television, and it seems that’s what is going to happen. I’ve been talked into acquiring a webcam.

So yesterday, as I was drooling before a huge collection of underpriced CDs, I figured it wouldn’t do much difference to my case if I put a link to my Amazon wishlist somewhere on my weblog. If I’m going mainstream, might as well go all the way!

Yeah, I got an ebay account, too. And let’s not forget the hair, either.

Note: boys, stop dreaming. You’re not going to see this here anytime soon!

Pink! [en]

As I haven’t posted photos here in ages, and I know you lazy things don’t regularly visit the dump, I’ll jump on the occasion. I finally took the plunge to get some colour in this hair of mine. I’ve been thinking about doing this for the last year or so!

Stephanie with pink streaks in her hair.

I will provide an RSS feed for the dump someday.

To Do, To Live [en]

Beside write up my Christmas list (and I have desires for Christmas this year, for a change), I need to:

  • go to the chalet more often
  • go to places like this more often (and buy a new bathing suit)
  • have more pink put in my hair (no photos yet, sorry)
  • buy tons of stuff from Lush (that should happen Saturday).

The Very Thirsty Camel [en]

Once upon a time there was a camel, who lived in the dry, scorching desert. Long ago, he had drunk poisonous water out of an oasis, and it had made him very, very sick. What a bitter experience! He had very nearly died.

So this camel had become a very cautious camel: he avoided water so that he wouldn’t be sick again. He was thirsty, of course, but he preferred that to risking death again. He would wander around and go past the oases without so much as touching their water. He was a very thirsty camel.

Once in a while, however, he would reach an oasis where other camels were drinking. When that happened, he would start drinking there too, as the water was obviously safe. But this camel was so thirsty that once he started, he would drink up the whole oasis, leaving nothing behind him but a dry patch of mud.

But, will you ask, how did we get to know about this camel and his strange behaviour? Actually, the answer is pretty simple (aside from the dried-up oases, of course). You see, as this camel drank only so very rarely, and so much at a time, he had developed no less than twenty-seven humps on his back, attracting the attention of all the camel-watchers in the desert.

Parable told by J.-F. H.

Movie Evening [en]

Back from seeing Elephant with a knot in my stomach and a sick feeling inside.

The cat is asleep in my clean laundry. I pick him up and hold him close. He presses his head against my neck and purrs right through my chest.

More Photographs [en]

Just a note to let you know that if you haven’t looked through my dumped photographs in a while, you should go and have a peek. I often add photos over there but don’t necessarily announce it here.

Start at the top of the list and work your way downwards. You’ll find photos of this week-end in Spiez, of my holidays touring the UK and Ireland, and Barcelona. Of course, expect the occasional cat picture and underexposed shot.

Lush Bathroom [en]

This afternoon, I cleared out my bathroom completely and filled it up again, discarding over half its contents in the process. I actually have free storage space now in my bathroom cupboards. I rewarded myself with a candle-lit bubble-bath from Lush.

I briefly encountered Lush in Birmingham, and explored it more seriously in Dublin. If you like baths and/or nice smells, don’t miss this shop. The smells might make you a bit dizzy after some time, though. Prepare a credit card and treat yourself.

I recently discovered that Lush was present in Switzerland! And of course, you can buy online… The product catalog is really very well done (try the Lush site nearest to you).

Next Holidays: India [en]

Not to despair, let’s think about the future. Today I booked my flight for India: going out to Mumbai on January 17th, and coming back on February 18th. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?

Back Home [en]

End of holidays. They just sped by. East Midlands Aiport, waiting for boarding time. No wireless connection here, or so it seems.

I haven’t posted much, have I? Actually, I’ve just been too busy being on holiday. I spent time with people I love, went shopping, got dressed up, ate great Indian food, went on a date, watched lots of movies, tried various Internet connections, and flew around the British Isles. I even attended an archeology lecture at Birmingham University this morning.

My holidays were really nice, thank you, and I’ll make no mystery of the fact that I am not looking forward to going back to work. (Apart for seeing my dear collegues, of course, if any of you chance to be reading this…)

Carrying the laptop around was a nice idea, despite the weight. It allowed me to hijack my grandparents’ internet connection more than I decently should have. It also gave me the chance to have a (very) brief chat with Joi in Geneva Airport before taking off, and a “suprise-meet-up” with Antoin in Dublin. I tinkered some more with Movable Type, made progress with the website I’m preparing for my judo school, and kept in touch to some extent with my online world.

It’s a bit strange how I just can’t seem to totally relax in my life right now. I keep feeling this underlying guilt I’ve got used to living with all these last years: guilt about setting aside what I should be doing (my studies), instead of having fun.

So now that my studies are over, it’s interesting to note that the feeling has not yet completely gone away. I regularly realise (a pleasant surprise, actually) that I am on vacation the coming week-end. That there is nothing I should be doing apart from taking time off. That I am free to go over and meet people for the week-end, or just hang around at home doing nothing, or go and watch five movies in two days at the cinema.

I can feel this is a time of change. I’m looking forward to what is to come.

Holidays [en]

I’m on holidays! On the train, riding home, on my way to buy a digital camera (if my

photographer shop manages to sell me one in less than half an hour), un-pack my Barcelona suitcase,

iron a bunch of clothes (or not, Aleika has an iron in Birmingham), drive up to the cattery (40

minutes) and drop off the animal there for

his first fortnight at the “hotel”, clean up the flat a bit and pack my suitcase.

Two weeks of real holidays, Birmingham-Leeds-Dublin-Birmigham, the first real holidays I will

have had in ages. No dissertation to write, no courseworks left aside to steal a few days of guilty freedom, no

“other-things-I-should-be-doing-instead-of-this”. Real holidays.

I may or may not be online these next two weeks. Everything is possible. Time to read, spend time with Aleika,

Akirno, my Grandparents and Kitof, take photographs, and maybe play about with Movable Type. We’ll see as it goes.

I’ve taken a step to organising my next holidays, too. I’ll be going back to India for a month in February, and I’ve

already had my holiday sheet signed. I’ll be booking tickets soon.

As I tend to loose track of where people I know online live, don’t hesitate to let me know if

I’ll be coming around your place. I like going out for a coffee and a chat, and as I said recently,

the bit I prefer about the Internet is meeting people.