Category: Personal

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

Pensées d'automne [en]

L’automne nous fait la grâce d’une magnifique journée ensoleillée. Il fait doux, et un vent léger mais présent agite les arbres multicolores.

J’ai un petit mal de gorge depuis quelques jours. Trop de dictée, certes, mais j’ai de façon facilement mal à  la gorge. L’ORL dit que ce n’est pas normal et veut me mettre de la cortisone dans le nez pour régler ça. Je ne suis pas trop enthousiaste pour la cortisone.

Je me suis réveillée ce matin avec un puissant mal de crâne. J’ai très rarement mal à  la tête. Comme toujours lorsque cela m’arrive, je pense à  la méningite. Ça me fait flipper, la méningite, comme tous ces trucs qui vous envoient manger les pissenlits par la racine en moins de vingt-quatre heures sans crier gare. Mais bon. Il y a quand même toutes les chances que je sois encore vivante demain.

Depuis que je dicte, je me surprends à  vouloir parler de choses différentes. Ce weblog n’a jamais été un journal. Ceux qui me connaissent savent que je parle facilement de moi — un peu trop facilement, peut-être. C’est comme si maintenant que je dicte mes billets, au lieu de les écrire, j’avais plus impression de parler à  mes lecteurs. J’ai plus envie de me raconter, et de raconter le monde autour de moi.

A Day at Work [en]

Orange Switzerland launched MMS yesterday. As MMS gets popular, we’ll start seeing more phones like the Nokia 7650. Here is what happens when your colleagues have this kind of toy:

Stephanie waving pens at her colleagues while facilitating a decision analysis exercise.

Here I am, in the middle of a team meeting, facilitating a decision analysis exercise. My colleague Stefan whips out his phone, pulls it open, and clicks. I barely have time to protest.

Thanks for the photograph, by the way!

Home sweet home [en]

Elle est rentrée, saine (d’esprit surtout) et sauve. Elle a récupéré le chat et quelques heures de sommeil en retard.

Avant de mettre à  jour la liste des traductions en cours pour pompage.net (merci tout le monde, d’ailleurs!), il faut prendre un peu d’avance dans la traduction d’une nouvelle de Premcand, et lire quelques bouquins sur 1 Corinthiens.

C’est la planche à  savon vers les examens.

Envolée! [en]

Bientôt, elle aura pris l’avion, laissé le chat chez l’amie d’ici, et débarqué chez l’amie de là -bas.

Elle reviendra, c’est promis. Dans une dizaine de jours. Il se peut qu’elle parvienne à  attraper un ordinateur d’ici-là . Rêvons.

UI Design Makes You Happy! [en]

A collegue at work gave me User Interface Design For Programmers to read. It’s written by the guy who does CityDesk, if ever you cared. It’s really worth reading – but this is not the point of this post.

Read the first chapter, even if you’re not into software or programming or anything technical. Joel tells us about his first job, about learned helplessness and how Controlling Your Environment Makes You Happy.

I decided to control at least some little part of my environment right then and do the washing up. It made me feel much better.

Early Riser [en]

A wasp’s recipe for getting people out of bed on time.

  1. In through the open window, down to the room where the sleeping person lies…
  2. A couple of stings on the shoulder just before she awakes…
  3. Buzz noisily in her ears just after the alarm clock has rung…
  4. Soar out of the window to escape from the deadly cat!

If wasps continue zooming in and out of my neighbour’s shuttered window, I’m going to have to take legal action.

End of Holiday [en]

Aleika and Akirno left this morning. It was great having them.

One of the high points of my week with them involved drawing Teletubbies on restaurant table mats.

Heat [en]

Today is beyond doubt the closest swiss equivalent to indian “waiting-for-the-monsoon” heat. It has been unbearably hot for over a week now, and I can’t remember when it last rained.

“Unbearably hot” means something like 30°C+ at night. It means you don’t sleep well at all (if you sleep). Remember, no A/C or fans in swiss houses, and no high ceilings to allow for air circulation.

I spent the last days dumping water on my balcony and living with the blinds down most of the time (apart from strategic moments like the morning where I open everything up to let the cool air in). Bagha spends his days stretched out somewhere on the floor, snoozing.

There is now a lid of misty clouds high above our heads – could it please rain soon?

Life News [en]

My appointment at the hairdresser’s was last week, not this week. I learnt that when I called to say I would be a little late because my car battery was dead.

By some sort of miracle (somebody had just canceled their appointment, somebody else managed to make my car start, and I set a record for the distance Lausanne-Vevey) my hair is now somewhat shorter than it was this morning.

This is an important point, because I have my judo black belt exam tomorrow afternoon, and my hair was really getting in my face.

Other than that, I almost completely ripped out the phone cable – I guess another miracle left those two tiny wires connected. I’m astonished the ADSL works.

Aleika and Akirno are coming to spend a few days with me next week. Plans: a trip to France, watch Girl Fight, see some judo (for her) and maybe roll on the mats a bit (I can imagine Akirno tearing round the dojo while we do that), learn how to give punches to a punching-bag. Oh, and talk talk talk talk talk. Of course.