Heiweh!!! (Jawohl, uf schwyzerduetsch ohne uepuenktli)

Firstly let me appologize to all the anglophoners, but this is for Switzerland....

Jupie, scho glii isch wienachte u hie louft natuerlech gad chli viu wie aua bi euch o... U obwohl aui hennae beschaeftigt sy hani gliich 2 mega liebi E-mails becho, eis vom Stridli mitmene gritibaenz woni zersch no sauber ha muesse mache :-D U eis vom David mitmene Samichlous wo yodlet...u ebae dr David het gfunge er het mi Blog uf Schwiizerduetsch lieber, auso hani daenkt i mache mau ae uusnahm :-D

Zersch afe mau di wichtige news...Dr Luki het ned so uevberzuegt toent, aber ehrlech, i ha 15 kg abgno u bi vore groessi 18/20 ufene groesse 12/14...ned schlaecht fuere afang, aber iz hani afe mau wienachte u drum dafi aus aesse wiu a wienachte hets nume haub sovil kalorie und usserdem isches chaut, da verbroennt mes ja schnau wieder...( hihi, das si so entschuldigunge wo d Stacey (ufem naegschte Foto, si geit zu weight watchers) u ig hei)

I bi are London Night bi ues im Kor xi...
Me het sech muesse verchleide u ig ha mega froid gha am plane aber dr abe sauber isch chli id Hose...das isch sochli dr afang xi vo mmire sozialisierig hie in aengland....

Naer bini ar wienachtsfiir vor Bude xi...ufem Foto mit mire Chefin...Mir gfaut buetz eigentlech no guet u i chume bis uf 1 person mit aune hennae guet z schlag...I schaffe ned fuerd Heilsarmee, wie anschiinend es paar verstande hei, I schaffe fuerd British Heart Foundation...I schaffe imne Lade wo 90% Secondhand gueter u 10% Ikoufti Gueter verchouft... I mache sochli aues, vom Stoubsuge ueberds ussortiere vo de Sache wod Luet inebringe, chiste schleppe, prise feschtlege, telefon, kasse, Chundedienst (Meistens muesme oeppis neume ga abhole oder oepper het ae bsunderige wunsch oder so), freiwilligi mitarbeiter alere, buroarbeite etc...leider isch mis ghaut chli megamies u drum suechi ae noie job....I chamer im momaent ke mieti hie leischte (wobi das ned viu heisst, hie choi sech di meiste d mieti ned wuekech leiste, isch chli gstoert wasi hie fuer priise hei)...aber das het o sis guete wiu....

...ig jz ebae no bir Nina wohne. Die womi mau si cho

bsueche heise kenneglert, si isch mega lieb u lat mi hie la wone (D bilder vom pinkige Zimmer si igendwo imne fruechere Iitrag)

Am letschtae Friti bini amne wienachtsball xi mit dr Stacey (blond) u 2 Modis vo Hadleigh (aes Corps hie ir nechi), dr Katie (Schwarzes Chleid) u dr Heather (bruun-wisses chleid). I bi die im schwarze jaegli :-D. Dr Ball isch vomne Jugendchor us xi, woni 1mau im Monet gange....es isch reacht sehr ned aehnlech wie Shelomith, eigentlech so ds genaue gaegeteil, aber glich o interessant. Me geit eifach weme luscht het u d leiterin kennt nedmau d leut bi name aber es si geng soviu da machts ke unterschied...mir si meh lut aus guet aber drfuer mit viu froid am singe :-D

Ja, das si hie gad mau di noischte news uf schwizerduetsch, merci a aui wo a mi daenke, i plane fescht im maerz mau z cho...Hanech lieb u es taet mi froie mau chli oepis vo euch z ghoere...aus liebe, anne pfanne

just to empty my brain...

Over the last few weeks there was loads going on for everybody..still I feel as if nothing exciting happened...thats why I didnt blog and I do feel bad about it...so I decided to write all the small and unimportant things down, just to get them off my chest.

1. We had our "why Christmas"dinner, which should be a kind of starting point for the Alpha Course in our Corps. Stacey and me were talking about all the important things like Nicky Gumbels smile and fashion and weightloss (More Stacey, as I cant say much to that topic).

2. I tried to follow some of Staceys fashion tips (The ones she gave me during the alpha dinner). Unfortunately I dont look like Stacey and me in leggins, even with skirt, is not something that should be let loose on humanity.

3. Today I got on the bus home and this guy started yelling: And what if I dont wanna be a f-ing christian...I thought: Oh no, do I look so out of date that people can see on my clothes that im a christian? But apparently it was the woman next to him who tried to convince him that he wont have a happy Christmas unless he has Christ in his heart...I found his reaction quite sad (This guy has never done anything for me, why should I believe in him???) and tried to pray (silently) for him and felt very looser-ish for not supporting the woman.

4. Today it was so cold that I put on a hat and i must have looked very very bad because Paul got on the same bus and he acted as if he didnt know me (or maybe he was just being paul who doesnt care about anything that early in the morning)

5. How on earth do they expect me to play carols on saturday im gonna be frozen!!!

6. a week now till Christmas

7. I went to a Birthday party and they had a real stripper... I still cant understant why someone would pay 80 Pound to have a tiny little man shoving his bare backside in theyr face...Im trying to come to terms with living in a lost world.

8. End of my brain :-D

100% Swiss

I found this on facebook

You know you're Swiss IF...

1. you complain if your bus/train/tram is more than 5 minutes late. Make that 1 minute

2. you've ever been confused with a Swede

3. you laugh when Americans believe that Swiss Miss is a Swiss product, but then have no clue that Nestlé and Rolex ARE

4. you get frustrated if you go grocery shopping abroad and there aren't at least 10 different kinds of chocolate and 15 kinds of cheese available

5. you have learned three to four languages and think this is completely normal

6. you have ever been asked - upon stating your nationality - whether you live in the mountains and whether you can yodel (mhm...I think I can answer that one with YES)

7. you can pronounce "Chuchichäschtli" and you know what it means

8. you have ever been asked who the president of Switzerland is and then failed miserably trying to explain why you've lost track (Aha..here we go, im am completely NOT a stupid swiss person, you lots juat didnt believe my explanation)

9. you know what "Röschti" are and you have crossed the "Röschtigrabe" at some point

10. you went to a state-funded ski camp every year with your classmates in high school (The coolest ever, english kids are soooo deprived)

11. to you, skis are like the extensions of your feet, because you've skied since you could walk

12. you are amused when people ask you what language is spoken in your home country and/or you have to explain that "Swiss" is not a language, that there are four national languages and none of them is called "Swiss"!

13. you owned a Swatch growing up... or still do

14. you've ever seen "Sandmännchen" dubbed into Romansch (Romansch is a language that doesnt really exist anymore...how cool is it to have a language that doesnt exist anymore???)

15. as a female, you give all your friends three kisses on the cheeks as a greeting (yes, we are a kiss loving nation...and we give real hugs, not polite ones)

16. you love Migros and you swear that some of their products are better than anything you've ever seen elsewhere

17. you've ever been asked by your non-Swiss friends to intervene in a fight and used "hey, I'm Swiss" as an excuse not to

18. your country has six different public television channels in three different languages - and you don't think this is unusual

19. you get amused when you see Swiss German people being subtitled on German television

20. you firmly believe it is more important to do things accurately than to do them quickly

21. you were legally allowed to drink beer and wine at the age of sixteen

22. you walked to kindergarten without supervision, wearing a large orange triangle around your neck

23. you think it's normal that everyone has a bunker underneath their house, or is registered for one of the public bunkers under the school building, for emergency situations... by the way, here's a fun thing to do: invite over some of your foreign friends (Americans make very good candidates) and take a picture of the look on their face when they SEE the bunker. Priceless!

24. when being asked to explain how certain things work in your country, you have to use the phrase "it differs for each canton, so..."

25. you are asked to vote on a "Referendum" or "Initiative" at least 3 or 4 times a year

26. you are used to drinking from any public fountain in the street unless there is a warning sign that says "no drinking water" (I tried that once in Brazil...urg!)

27. you grew up believing all cows must wear bells

28. you think that driving somewhere for four hours is a hell of a long time

29. you get slightly irritated or at least confused if your foreign visitors ask to see a chocolate factory

30. you know what Betty Bossi books and products are and have bought one

31. you know someone that collects the tin foil lids from coffee cream tubs

32. you don't see where the problem is when every male citizen who has been to the army has an assault rifle under his bed

33. you have to pay twice the price for museum entries because you're not a citizen of the EU, although you live in Europe!

34. you are in a non-European country and can hear people talking Swiss German and just go up and strike up a conversation with a complete stranger

35. no matter how much of a "bad-ass" you think you are, you will still pick up your candy wrapper off the floor if an old lady asks you too

36. you think everything is cheap abroad compared to Swiss prices!

Christmas Craze

Just like Stacey, i love Christmas, mainly the gift buying part ( Im still not sure about how to write verbs that end on y if i put them into -ing form... any english teachers or students or similar to help me out?). Because 1) im alowed to shop without anyone telling me I cant afford it because its Christmas and 2) I can go in all the shops and take ages staring at everything and then leave without buying (buyng, buing) anything. GOOD, INNIT!

Usually I have everything ready by the end of november the latest. But as it happens there was so much going on this year that I had to go back to the shops today. I was honestly looking foreward to it and now I honestly regret it! There were just sooooooooo many people! Way to many! No wonder all you english guys have this endless discussions about all the immigrants (mainly those from Switzerland)..there just isnt enough Highstreet to satisfy all the Christmas-shoppers. And its not only the fact that the shoppers are shopping mad that makes them look slightly crazy, its the fact that, knowing Highstreets is going to be packed, they still drag everyone along...dogs, kids and grandparents. Now the dragged-alongs you can usualy identify by theyr faces (grandparents) or by the cryng (cring? crying????) (kids). For exaple: If you are in the underwear department in M+S and you see a very very annoyed old man standing next to the red lace bras, then you may safely conclue that he is a dragged-along. If you see to little girls in B+Q holding hands while obviously standing in everybodys way in front of a shelve with candles you may be assured that they are dragged-alongs as well. Now this kind of dragged alongs arent too bad, the real bad ones are the ones that stand a) on top of the stairs or b) halfway in (or out) the shop, exactly in the doorway. And trust me, there were many bad dragg-alongs in town today.

After I found everyones presents except one, I came to the conclusion that I was real well stupid! Now there was this person whom I didnt know what to give to and i spend ages thinking about it. I knew there was somebody else not knowing what to give to this person. When I finally had an idea for a perfect present, what was the first thing I did? Run to the shop and get it as quick as I could, so noone could be getting it before me? No! Me idiot called this other idea-less person and told her: I know you dont have time, why dont you get this as a present. Now we all know that, considering its Christmas shopping time, this is just a stupid thing to do! Never consider your friends around christmas...it took me ages and ages (2 hours! for 1 little gift!) just to find something else for this person...BAD, INNIT! ( This is obviously to be read as a joke, i was glad i could help, anytime)

Now the serious part. When I finaly completely exhausted and overloaded reached the bus stop, this old grumpy asian lady came up to me (not just me, all the people at the bus stop) and started handing out little booklets about "Find your real happyness". She would ask everyone (with a very grave voice and quite a grumpy face considering she found real happyness): 'ave u find 'appinessssss? Is Giiisuus gives u 'appiness!! Real 'appiness...not just shoping 'appiness! Obviously she wasnt too convincing and noone took her booklets...it just made me think about what people might think when we as salvation army go caroling and how careful we have to be with how we act and what we say (and mainly our facial expressions).

me boss?

Today I had my worst workinglife experience ever. I had to give someone tha sack. That was scary. Thats basically it - except that I did quite well, I let her scream and swear at me and was still very polite and understanding and supportive (supporting her out of the shopdoors that is). The good thing was that my John (one of the volunteers who for a reason or other loves me dearly) said: if she touches you I shall beat her up, nobody touches my boss. That was cute. But i remained in my state of cool professionalism and said that no-one should beat anyone up in my shop, that wouldnt be in the interest of the charity (it doesnt say that in my assistants guidelines, but I made it sound as if, kind of: we as a registered charity do not agree with any kind of violence, not even in defence of an assistant manager in training.) All in all Ive decided that being boss is not my forte. Maybe I should become a famous painter. Do famous painters have a book thats called: famouse painters guidelines?

Happy 1 year in england

Its after midnight and therefore I've been in this country for exactly a year today. If everything had gone according to my plans I would now probably be saying goodbye to the lovely kids I used to look after (well, probably not exactly right in this moment because its 1 am, not the best time to say goodbye) (the word lovely is to be taken according to the situation, a wishful, emotionloaded looking back kind of thing)

But, heyho, it didnt go according to my plans.

In this last year I've learned loads and loads (and I came here thinking I knew it all!). Somethings I'd rather not have experienced, like the out of sight, out of mind behaviour certain "very close friends" have been showing...or knowing how it feels when you wanna say something and just nobody understands it and it comes out all wrong...and so on.

There were other quite practical things Ive learned, like playing the cornet or the tiny bit of basic drums Wayne was kind enough to teach me or how to tag clothes or what to look for in food if you dont wanna get any heavier and how to blog and download music and how to phone home without spending all my money and which english shampoo is the best for my hair and how to use the tube and how to order at subways and how to pronounce ironing (and how to iron schooluniforms). And all the bad words including instructions which ones are OK to use always, sometimes and never...still some learning to do there!

Troughout all this id say ive changed quite a lot. Ive become a soldier, joined the songsters and the yp band, lost 2.5 st, changed my haircolour from boringbrown to purple-ish to red-ish to darkbrown, changed job and home...quite a lot for one little Anna in one little year :-)

Anyway, the "essence" of this whole post was to say "Thank you" to some great people who didnt drop me in this year. Some people from Switzerland who kept praying and writing and texting from "europe", and mainly those who even came here to see me. You mean quite a lot to me and, although I do miss the mountains and lakes and the cheese and chocolate and being understood by everybody, what i really miss is you guys.

And thank you to some great english people who I would really love if it wasnt for the fact that they drive one the wrong side of the street (as opposed to the RIGHT side). Thank you for supporting me and having me here and trying to include me and driving me around (still, its the wrong side) and explaining, translating and listening.


This was the first picture taken of me in england...

So here we go, starting a second year in southend....

Nightlife in England

Katies telling off has been quite intimidating, thats why Im writing twice in one day! (Or maybe its just that I had too many pictures for 1 single blog???)

Now when my brother was here, I wanted to give him a really great time and I wanted to show him the famous english nightlife...thats how it turned out:

To this last picture I have to say, I didnt actually win, but I wasnt as bad as you would probably believe...OK, I did loose all the games we played...but...I did manage to throw some pins over. Ha, bet you looke quite surprised!

After all that fun we had in the Kursaal we did something even more fun the next day: we went to Tescos after 10 pm...what a feeling! We lived so on the edge that night...because before Tescos we went to the Halfwayhouse for a dietcoke (after finding out they didnt have hot chocolate).

Just in case you didnt know, the Halfwayhouse is pretty much our main Nightlife place in town...heres the proove:

Thats 2 weeks ago, in the Halfwayhouse, after deciding that we were going to give Jazzy an exciting evening out...

Well, thats enough hard blogging work for one day...I shall go to bed now! Sleep thight!

Holiday

OK, so I got this major telling off from Katie because I am a quite bad blogger...but I decided to make some effort today, just specially for Katie :-)

The last few weeks have been great for me, because it was half term in Switzerland and therefore quite a few people had time to come and see me...that was nice. And most of them brought gifts, so that was even better.

The first person to come and spend a weekend here was Jasmin

(Jasmin is the one with the nice tan, the one with red cheeks that looks like Heidi is me...). Anyway, Jazzy is a great person! She's just up to anything anytime...like going out for a drink and ending up having a pierced ear...or going for a walk along a lake and ending up singing tacky love songs on the end of a pier...or coming to England and go to the main event...or going to Spain and buying a gift for me, although i really don't deserve it :-) Its the way coolest apron ever!

I suppose I'm really quite limitedly talented with computers, I'm not even able to turn this pic round, but I'm sure u can see that it is indeed a blue apron with huge red dots on.

The next ones to come were Astrid and Evelyn

They are both part of the army in Thun and just part of the group of worlds greatest people...it was way good to have them because they helped me defending Switzerland (that evening it was "pick on Swiss people day" in our youth fellowship, and just to let u know, the actual president of Switzerland is Micheline Calmy-Rey.

And them too brought great gifts. One of them was chocolate which is good in a bad way, the other was a mug that yodels...they are ever so cool, u cant imagine! But the coolest were the Swiss mint candy, just because of the special box they come in (some people were so amazed about the box that they couldn't stop playing with it!)

We had a short but great time together, and to end up they're stay in England we went to see Mary Poppins...unfortunately you are not allowed to take pictures after the lights are turned down in the theater, so we took one before...which is not as interesting, but still quite cute:

As you can see, by the time we went to London, my brother had already arrived in England. He has lost 3 stone since I last saw him and I have to say: My brother is hot! But just before I write more about him, Ill have to mention that, while in London, we met up with my friend Nathalie, who used to studie with me...when we went to college she used to have short purple hair with purple glasses and purple puma trainers, so I had to look twice when this girl started talking to me:

She is working as an Au Pair in Denmark, but seems to have been a bit luckier in her choice of family to work with, she loves the job...I bet shes great with the kids!

Anyway, I was telling you about my brother. He's the bestestest brother in the whole world!

And way i think hat? Because he bought me this:

You may think that I love him just because he bought me an MP3 player, but your wrong...because the real reason of my affection is that he bought me the pink earphones as well :-D

I wanted to show him a bit of England, so I asked Tracy and Andy to take us to Brighton, which they did, and that's why they need to be mentioned as great people too.

Now as the sun goes down tonight, im quite sad because my brother is going home tomorrow, my Holidays are over and tomorrow Ill have to go back to my job and my diet, practising Cornet and speaking proper english...oh well!

Friendz

This is me with my friend John.


As you may have noticed, he has been mentioned on this blog before...one of the reasons is, of course, that hes a very special person...the other reason is that I simply didnt have any other friends to mention :-)

Because I was fed up with this situation, I decided to go out into the great big world and find some new friends. And what better place is there to meet new people than London? So there I went last Saturday. I decided that the best way to meet people in London would be just standing there and asking people if they would mind to be on a picture with me, so my friends in Switzerland would think I was having tons of fun with loads of great people.


The first person that agreed in being pictured with me was Katie. Katie is one of these lucky people who can eat like a pig (in amount that is, not in tablemanners) and still doesnt put on any weight. And she's the only person I've ever met to buy shoes that dont fit her because she likes them so much and they're not available in her size. It was great to meet her, although Im afraid that she now knows that John wasnt actually joking when he warned her about me :-S



This is Ben. It was his 24 birthday on saturday, so hes now a proper person. Which is great because im not the only OAP in the London North -East Division anymore. He's going to be a science teacher and he gave us a little taster of how he's gonna teach his pupils about all sexual matters (us=everyone that happened to be on the train)

And the last person that I happened to meet was Patrick. Hes from Germany and hes rather honest. Which is good. As long as you the proud owner of a vacuum cleaner :-)

After all, it was a great day, and I hope that you can soon read the real story of what happened on John's blog with loads of pictures etc. Just one last little point: If you ever have to decide between buying a pair of lovely warm boots and a pair of not so lovely but comfi trainers, just remember that beauty hurts. A lot. Specialy after hours of walking around...but I suppose everyones feet were hurting in the end, except maybe Patricks coz he is so tall that it must take quite a while for the pain sending messages from his feet to his brain.

here's for switzerland

I'm not quite sure if there are many english people reading this blog, but if you, reader, happen to be english, please forgive me, but this post has to be written in German....Sorry

Also, heute Nachmittag habe ich das ueberraschendste Telefon der Welt erhalten: Nathalie Mueller, BMS 2, hat sich bei mir aus Daenemark gemeldet. Ich war ewig uebberrascht! Hab sogar vergessen zu fragen welche Haarfarbe Sie den im Moment hat! Und was noch cooler ist: Sie will mich besuchen kommen! Das macht dan insgesamt 6 Besucher aus der Schweiz in einem einzigen Monat! Jupie! Da alle anderen ausser den 6 aber immer noch nicht zu viel Ahnung haben wie das hier so aussieht, habe ich ein paar ganz spezielle Bilder fuer euch gemacht..Nun, liebe Kinder, gebt fein acht, ich hab euch etwas mitgebracht:

Das ist mein Bett. Es ist Rosa. Die Wand hinter meinem Bett ist Rosa und so auch die drei anderen Waende. Die Vorhaenge, iher werdet es nicht erraten, sind rosa und der Teppich ist Rosa. Hammer. Ich vermisse mein Orange-Gelb geblumets Zimmer, aber hoffentlich habe ich ja bald meine eigene Wohnung.... (Hoffentlich habt ihr die sehr praktische Fernseh position bemerkt :-))

Das Poster das ihr fuer mich gemacht habt hat einen Ehrenplatz an der Zimmertuer! Mein Lieblingskommentar: Wenn dir die Sch**** bis zum Halse steht, dann lass den Kopf nicht haengen (von meiner Lieblingsschwester).

Das ist mein bester Freund. Er heisst Max und ist leider schon etwas altersschwach und eine der Klappen laesst sich nicht mehr oeffnen und er hat so einige Schrammen und Dellen, aber das tut meiner Liebe keinen Abbruch! Das schwarze Notenbuch ist eigentlich nur Show um euch zu beeindrucken, im Moment gehe ich erst zu den Proben fuer die "Erwachsene" Band, und ich spiele letztes Cornet in der Kinderband...aber es macht mir unheimlich Spass. Schlagzeugunterricht ist aus verschiedenen Gruenden bis auf weiters auf Eis gelegt.

Das ist meine Freundin Danielle mit ihrem Baby Oscar. In einem Monat werde ich Patentante von Oscar.

Das ist meine Freundin Tracy und ihr Mann, Andy. Die beiden sind echt komisch, die bringen mich immer zum lachen! Tracy und ich haben im Moment ein lieblingshobby: Wir sitzen mitten in der Nacht in der eiseskaelte am Strand; Wir haben aber beschlossen das wir so immer die besten Gespraeche haben! Ist wirklich cool, und ich bin ihr sehr dankbar fuer Ihre Freundschaft.

Und das sind John und Paul. Die sind echt cool, oder wie John es nennen wueder: Oberaffengeil!

Naja, das war der langweilige Teil von meinem neuen Leben, fuer die wirklich pikanetn Details muesst ihr schon selber herkommen :-)

Hab euch lieb!

Now that the summer's gone...

When I found out that literaly everyone I know in Southend would be going away on holiday at some stage this summer, I was a bit scared because I thought that I wouldnt know what to do with myself. But it turned out to be quite a good summer. First of all I was invited for dinner at an older Ladies house...now it happens that nature hasnt been very kind in giving this Lady a lack of facial muscels, which makes her look as if she was always angry or upset...well, maybe she is always angry and upset, who knows. Anyway, I found out that this mentioned Lady is actually very cute, she coocked salmon for me because she read somewhere that it is healthy and because she wanted to support my diet (10.5 kg so far, not too bad...only about 25 more to go :-)). Then I got a postcard (yipppiiee, way cool, my first postcard from english people going abroad...) and then I went out with Tracy for dinner. It took us only about 40 Minutes sitting in the car in front of my house to decide where to go and when we finally arrived there, the restaurant was closed. So we drove for another half hour to eat some carvery. The thing is that, due to my weight loss (sorry, just needed to mention it again), I didnt have any clothes that would fit me, so I had to wear my wedding dress to go out (not the dress I wanna wear on my wedding, but a dress I bought to go to Davids wedding). I felt quite stupid, but acctually, I decided that I looked hot (considering its me, daaa)

(nellyta, aqui tienes lo que creo ser la unica foto de pelo curto...y ja esta muy grande!) Unfortunatley Tracy had to go away on holiday as well, which she obviously didnt want to do coz she had to go to Disneyworld and swim with the dolphins and all this boring stuff, and all of it without me. I was allowed to stay here and work loads. So, OK, that part wasnt so cool, but I got a real Mickey from Disney, so thats OK.

There where many cool things this summer, like going to the pictures, getting a comment from Katie, going to the park, being made a songster, start in YP band (which doesnt sound all that cool when your 24, but sitting next to James does make up for it!) and cleaning the stinking minibus.

But what made me really happy was being asked to be a godmother of Oscar, Danielles son. That is really nice and Ill try to be way responsible and teach him some propa english :-)

The pictures you've been waiting for...(trust me, you were)

As there is absolutely nothing going on here at the moment, I've decided to just post some pictures before I get named and shamed!

This first picture is of my enrollment, according to the face im pulling it must have been taken when Francis (Major, the one with the white hair) has called Ann (not in picture) to give me the envelopes so I could finally get started on giving money to the Army (just in case I didnt do it until now!) The nice Lady with the amazing hat is Mrs. Major (in England women officers get trained the same as men, work the same as men, but in the end they dont get pass the Mrs., its a bit like Posh Spice Victoria who will never be more than Mrs. Beckham, but then, she doesnt do anything except being married to David, so thats ok.) The skinny guy behind me is John, whom Im sure did only lose weight to make me look fat in pitures and the only reason he held the flag was to be in all the pictures :-) Not true, obviously, and just a comment to you, I had to show the DVD to Lenn and Marilyn today and Marilyn cried about my little speach and Lenn had to wipe his eyes on your solo, so, well done! Visit: http://www1.salvationarmy.org.uk/uki/www_uki.nsf/vw-sublinks/0C05AB57318A72EF802572A50057318F?openDocument

This second Pic is the one all Ladies have been waiting for: Clickos Backside...and me working hard, but thats just a little extra :-) Anyway, Chrigu, gratuliere ganz herzlich zu dim Geburi!!!! Jupie, 25, scho glii....!!!! Dini Charte get morn ufd Post! Heb Sorg!

Cha-Cha-Changes

Since last November my life has been changing quite a lot, in ways that I would never have expected, and in aspects that I felt I could not influence...so I decided to change somethings I could influence, which unfortunately didnt leave me with too many options. Thats why I've decided to change somethings about myself. Now dont get all excited, Ill probably never stop being a talking too much without thinking and without being asked kind of person. But there are some small things that really annoy me about myslef, like my urge to always be on the safe side (except wehn i leave my home to go and live in the most weirdest countries, of course).

Now, some of you may have seen me when I felt it was time to get my hair cut. For those who havent, Im terrible! I ask everybody about all there experiences with hairdressers, I make thousands of appointments to which I never show up, and when I finally manage to really go to a hairdresser, I fell sick when they take the 2 cm of (no, not that much, please, really just the very bottom bit...no, thats too much really...). Unfortunately, my last haircut was in December and I knew I had to do something, and, as usual, I started asking around. But then it hit me: NO, Im not going to be on the safe side this time, Im born to be wild! And boldly I walked into a very stylish hairderssers close to work without any references! And I asked for an appointment! Then I asked about the price - and boldly walked out without the appointment. My first instinct was to give up but there was another hairdressers just next door and I forced myself into it - and made an appointment without asking for the price, because it was not very stylish, acctually, more the opposite, and it couldnt be worse than the first one I tried.

The tiny little Asian man started cutting like wild, and I was really trying not to keep him from doing his job, so I had my eyes closed during the whole operation. (He gently touched my shoulder before he turned on the drier, and said he was sorry to wake me up). In the end I almost felt comfortable, with all the nice old ladies who had their perms done and the two nice very gay guys cutting and chattering. When I got up I decided that Id done really well with being full of courage and that I shall keep being spontaneous with decisions concerning my hair. Thats when I found out how much money he wanted.

I shall go back to Louise and have my 2 cm cut every once in a while. On the other hand, some people just get their heads shaved...sounds like a plan!

Obs: The woman on the Pic is obviously not me, but her hairstyle is almost like mine, except my fringe is a bit longer, my face a tiny bit rounder, my cut is more layery and less steppy, and the whole thing looks quite a bit shorter on me than on her - acctually, its completely different :)

Soldier, Soldier

Finally, after almost 5 years, I've decided to become a soldier. Coming to terms that I've decided to sign a piece of paper that would condemn me to wearing tights sunday after sunday is quite difficult, but at least I now manage to get in and out of a car wearing a skirt without being indecent. I should get a medal of some kind for that!

My big day was yesterday, sunday the 15 of July 2007. It was amazing! I was given many many cards and loads of attention, which obviously made my day. But the best thing really was my speach - without a single tear! Im becoming a really calm and unemotional person! If it wasnt for my lack of patience I'd be perfect now!

I was really happy to see some people from work and some other friends, who usually wouldnt really go to a meeting, sitting in the congregation. That was quite nice. My favourite person of the day was (of course) Chrigu Binggeli (also known as Mr. Heimberg the 1st). Because of the english incapability of pronouncing the word "Chrigu", we had to adapt his name. We now call him Clicko as long as he behaves. As soon as he starts getting difficult we call him "Fluegel". I like Fluegel - it sounds so similar to Chrigu!

Unfortunately, my friend Maerki Muster Meister, who came to visit last week, wasnt able to stay until today, he just came for a weekend.

Because of his very short stay, Marco had to suffer a running sight seeing tour of Southend. Within 4 hours he has seen our army hall, Southend High Street, London Road, the BHF store where I work, the beach, walked along the worlds longest pier and gotten back to the hall! Well done, Marco!

A New Blog is born

On July 11th, a new blog is born (Unfortunately I couldnt take a picture of the blog, as he is rather shy, above you can see model Osacr J., 8 hours old, acting as if he was my newborn blog). I know Osacr is veeerrrryyy cute, but despite all this resemblance Im not the mum.

Thats all for the moment, finding out how this blogspot thing works is taking all of my brain capacity, I shall leave the writing for a more inspired day :-)

be blessed