Stop the world, I wanna get off!

Last sunday my good friend Tracy gave me this really good advice: Anna, dont be hasty. I have to admit that I havent got a clue what hasty means. But according to her I didnt take her advice... She might be right, I dont usually listen to her :-)

Knowing that I was going to start a new job next week, I started looking for flats (because people with proper jobs dont live at home). We were invited to view a flat in Westcliff, between the *train station* and the seafront. When we got into the communal area (thats what posh people call the stairs I was told) we were slightly shocked... it was rather unnice there and I thought I dont even want to go all the way up to the flat. But I decided turning around and running away wouldnt cause a very good impression, so I climbed up the stairs to the 3rd floor and viewed the flat - which was rather nice.

What happened after that I dont quite remember, I just know that my bankaccount has gone from bad to dead and i'll be moving in next friday. As in the day after tomorrow. Which is not to bad because I dont have much to move. I wont even have a bed to move. Good, it will save me from having to carry it up the stairs. And who needs a bed anyway. On the other hand I was able to get hoover, telephone, iron,crockery, cuttlerie, microwave (green, stacey) TV, towles, glasses, tv chair and purple plastic flowers (nothing makes a home like flowers) within the last 3 days for next to nothing. Which is good.

But at the moment I cant really focus on the moving bit because I just had my goodbye party in the shop. Which was quite nice, mainly the part where people who have not liked me for the last year or so gave me cards thanking me for being an amazing friend (which I am). I know I have moaned and groaned about my job but i think i will miss it a bit. Mainly my best friend Truder (as in the male form of Trudy)... The good thing about Truder was that he never complained and nover objected to anything I said.

Seriously, i have to say that some of the Volies grew really close to me and im sure Im going to miss them loads. Mainly my John.

But as I say, I dont really have time to contemplain my love for humanity, as I should be packing now!

*train station*: If the Bangla Town thingy gets accepted in London than I will insist that Westcliff station gets renamed to swiss main rail!

...you'll succeed at last...

This is just a quicky update about all the very dramatic changes in my professional life over the last few weeks. It all begann with, well, sending out CV's. Surprisingly enough, nobody was inetersted in a Swiss Person, how ever much I pushed the fact that I DO speak fluent swiss.

Well, there was this one company that was really interested. They found me trough an agency and the fact that my swiss is rather good seemd to be quite important. The pay seemd allright and they said that moving to Reading sounded much worse than it acctually would be and that they were sure that Id find new friends easily... I tried to explain that Ive only just moved here (although to some of you it seems that ive been tormenting you for ages, its no more than 1.5 years). I had to give them a definate NO when they mentioned that they were looking for a salesperson to sell wine to Switzerland. The womam on the phone explained that I didnt have to drink it to sell it...she wasnt all that convincing.

Anyway, I kept sending CV's to agencies and I had the odd inetrview, even one with an agency where the girl who was supposed to test my german didnt speak german... she just ticked the box where it said "fluent". I suprised the girl who was supposed to test my french by saying real stupid things like: Toujours quand je vois le gehrkin mon coeur commence a battre tres tres fort! (everytime I see the gehrkin my heart starts beating really hard, that being the answer to the question: How much do you like London and how likely is it for you to become homesick and go back home...she didnt have any further questions).

After all that hassle I was ordered into my bosses office to be informed that I had the choice between being promoted to acting manager for the next couple of months, this promotion inclueding a payrise and a workinghours rise, or to remain assistant manager and do loads of overtime over the next few weeks without the payrise...it was a tough one and therefor I wasnt given any time to think about it.

I kept applying to everything I saw, including a position at SAGIC (Salvation Army General Insurance Coorporation Ltd) in Love Lane, London, near Fenchurch Street. I was invited for an Interview that took 2 hours and after that I was so exhausted that even had to say no to shopping. Bad bad.

I didnt hear from SAGIC, and decided to look elsewhere. Abbott estate Agent were looking for someone, and a copy of my CV found its way into their office (and apparently their hearts...LOL). The very next day I had a call t fix a date for an interview, a few days later the job was offered to me during the interview, which was rather surprising. I said I hadnt expected such a quick answer, if I could please have some thinking time. The position was in Thorpe Bay, 10 Minutes walking from Ninas house.

Only a few hours before the guy from Abbotts was supposed to call to hear my decision (which would have been "Yes" as there was nothing else around) I checked my emails to find that SAGIC was offering me the position! AAAAAAAAAAAAarrrrrrrrrrgggghhhh, why do they do that to me, the officially most indecisive person in the world???

Anyway, after talking to a lot of people who all were very helpfull (I dont wanna give an opinion on this one because I dont wanna influence you was part of all the conversations I had about the topic)I decided to go for the SAGIC job. I the called my boss and the area manager, who instantly offered me my own shop (who wants to be manager? You are working even when your off, everytime your phone rings you jump and think: what now??). I said that unfortunatley I wasnt interested and was then offered to be transfered to the BHF Headoffice if the only reason I wanted to leave was the money. Thanks, but no thanks.

So this is just to let you know: YYYYYYYEEEEYYYYY, I got a job. The excitment heleped me trough the tough time of Max's death (my cornet, even Paul and Darren couldnt safe him). My new Cornet is scotish and is called McGregor. He just looks the part.

the rest of the week

The rest of the week was quite predictable - I tried to spend
a lot of time with my little baby siblings (both of them quite a lot taller then me BUT obviously much less mature!). My sister had this very very cool thing in her flat, of which im not quite sure what it should be good for, but anyway, its a standing skateboard...it sound harmless, but guess who was still able to fall down and hurt herself, dispite there not even being any wheels involved.

My little brother has been promomted in the Army, which made me rather unhappy but I must admited that Ive grown so much on an intellectual level, I didnt mention it to him. But coz I know he doesnt read this blog I can say how I really feel about that: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Back to the fun things: We did some cooking in my sisters flat (Shes the headless in yellow). The guy in the background is Tobias, her male flatmate.

He took this next amazing picture: My sister kept quite a bit of my old stuff at her place, holding on to it until im coming back. As this doesnt seem to be the case in the very close future we went trough some of the boxes to see what we could dispose of. We found some clothes that were actually quite expensive - but just so much to big! We decided to take a picture looking like our grandparents (cant quite understand what the black hat on my sisters head had to do with it but she insisted...cant understand the youth!). Anyway, we asked lovely Tobias to take a very serious picture. There we were, standing while he was trying to find a good angle when he decided to bow down for a better picture - and farted really really loudly! We didnt manage to keep the seriouseness up.

One of the coolest people ever whom I obviously had to see was Clicko (hes name is Chrigu - I now tend to forget that - I am adapting to the english incapabillity to pronounce his name properly. He decided that we look like Pamela Anderson and David Hasslehoff in Baywatch - I think hes got a problem with his sight. Then we tried to be "Titanic", which didnt quite work either, but I like the picture anyway, so there.

Before I met Clicko, I had a friend called Mariette. Now Mariette was single and not very happy about that. We lost touch until one day, when I was in school with Clicko, I got a text from her, saying that she moved to a nearby town and if I would go for lunch with her. I went and we had a great time - except the fact that she still seemed quite unhappy about her singleness. The next day in school I told Clicko about that and he went: How old is she? I told him (But you dont expect me to write that in public, do you?) and he mentioned that he had a friend with the same "problem", a couple of years older than her. And there a plan was born:

I asked her out for coffe while he went shopping with Alex (his friend). Half way trough theyr shopping Clicko

all of sudden really wanted a cup of coffee...in the same place as Mariette and me were having our drink... They met and are getting married in June. Clicko and me then decided that we should open an agency for lonely hearts. Our second project was our mathsteacher with a friend from our choir - which failed because he was in a rather serious relationship. We decided to abandon the agency idea, but I think we werent too bad with a successrate of 50%. (The picture is Mariette with Alex in the Coffee shop where they first met).

There are so many other things I would like to tell you about, but I came to the conclusion that they are just not interesting to anyone but me - for example Astrid being rather pregnant, which is amazing and makes me really happy (and feeling a bit prgenant too).

Or Lilian, who gave birt to her second daughte, Anna Julia, just days before I went to see her. (Anna is the loud one - well done girl, you gonna make it in life! Learn from auntie Anna!)

While I was home we had snow! I mean real 20 cm snow! Amazing - we never have snow in March! It must have known how uch i missed my snowcapped mountains! Thank you! (Although my feet froze a bit...who cares)

I catched up with some of my dearest friends, like Jasmin (we took that in a restaurant, we got some weird looks from people...but we are used to famousness)

Or Martina, with whom I didnt get on for ages! I hated her coming to my aunties house, where we were living at the time, but it was unavoidable since she was my cousins girlfriend. But one day we decided to make our peaces for some reason (I think we both hated the same girl or something important like that). I cant imagine on how much fun and crazyness I would have missed out if I had held on to not liking her!

Luckily I had the chance to catch up with Steffu. When we left Brazil to live in Switzerland, most people avoided us...some people actually asked us if, after 4 years abroad, we still spoke the language, some probably just didnt know what to say, some were horrified about some stories they hear about us (yes, we are BAAAAADDDD!!!) and some just didnt care, which is fine. But Steffu cared. He walked up to me and said: Hi, Im Steffu, you must be Anna. If you had a house, what kind of furniture would you put into it? Bright or dark colours? He was so normal it was scary. And he remained scary, which is my main reason to love him so much.

Some of you might remember that the last time I went home, I went to attend a friends wedding. Now this friend was David. We used to lead our youthfellowship together and I think nobody will ever manage to have weirder meetings than we had. So now hes married, which is certainly a good thing excpet that now he says things like: I gotta go home now, my wife is waiting and she doesnt like me to be late...coming from the guy who used to proclaim: My wife has got to look good and cook good and mainly be quite and not interfere with my life... well well, David, seems that loves got to you...... shalala, shalala!

Being the sado I am, I didnt manage to stay away from the Army for such a long time. I went to see my friend Corinne in training college.

What made me a bit sad is to see how few people there are in our college: on the left you can see what is ment to be 3(!!!) sessions! 3 people who started in 06, 1 for 07 and 1 for 2008....

And then it was time to wave goodbye at the trainstation... you might not believe it, but I did manage not to cry until my siblings were out of sight - I deserve medal!

And now im completely back - whom of you english may I torment first???!!!

sunday, 2.3.

After a very very short night I went to the meeting in my homecorps in Thun. It was amazing, some of the reactions where just great...Like the Welcome Lady who didnt recognise me at firts, but as soon as she realised whose hand she was shaking she almost jumped. I must admit that I felt like the celebrity of the year, everbody wanting to talk to me and hug me and tell me how much they love me (even those who obviously dont love me, it was the kind of thing that didnt really matter) It didnt help that mrs. Major announced me as a "special guest". I liked it. Could I please have that kind of reception every sunday in Southend citadel? With clapping and the full program of aaawwwwing and oooohhhhing about how good I look? Thank you, much appreciated :-)

Some people just completely stood out for me, not because I like them more than others, but because they have changed so much since I last saw them. For example Chris. Chris used to belong to the Corps of Bern (Our capital, about half an hour from where my corps is). We she used to sing in the same choir as me (Shelomith) and we always got on really well, dispit not spending much time with each other. Now since I left Switzerland she felt that her way would be to become an officer. Now I have to say Ive never ever in my whole live seen a woman who makes the Army uniform look so absolutely sexy like she does. It helps that in Switzerland we dont have as strict rules as in england, so she gets away with her black boots.

(The lady on the right side with the white stripy blouse is my aunt, nice to know :-))

In my corps, there is probably more "older youth" than in Southend...I mean the people my age. The other thing is that people leave home much earlier, most of them move in with friends. Therefor sunday dinners dont have the same family-air about them than here. What we do is we hang around the coffee machine in one of the halls until somebody says something along the line of: Do you wanna come to our place for dinner? How many? Who brings what? or: I have such and such at home, what do you think? Now on that sunday it happened to be my sisters place we all went to. Its really realxed, you come and go whenever and however you like, maybe your asked for a little financial contribution or they ask someone to go and buy dessert.

The lovely colorful pic on the wall was a community thing they had in my sisters flat...everyone who went there had to draw something...my sisteris the one sitting right underneath the picture. She shares the flat with 2 girls and a guy - (un)lucky Tobias!

In the afternoon the sun came out and we had lovely weather, so we decided against the movie idea we had earlier on and went to a school playground (our schools dont have fences and the playgrounds are accesible to the public) to get rid of some energy. The young people go trough phases opf which sports they like. It used to be volley ball, then football...at the moment it seems they are all more into basketball - im well good at that!

Luki, the guy above, is coming to see me in April... finally someone I dont have to look up to, as we are the same height :-) And yes, my team lost! yes, it was my fault, coz im a sportish desaster - but - I did buy a hacky, and im gonna convert southend into the capital of the young people hacky players! (I dont know the english word for hacky, but its something i can play even wearing heels :-))

Some things made me really happy - like seeing Daenu. Before I left Switzerland over a year ago I had a minor argument with him. It didnt seem to be minor at the time, but looking back, it was really silly (mainly of him, he could just have accepted that i was absolutely right as usual :-)). He then sent me a message saying: I hope this stupid argument doesnt affect our relationship. Ever since we are having a very profound relationship that even survived the one he had with his girlfriend and which is mainly based on going out for bowling and kebab. The only thing that chanegd between us is that he grew a tiny little bit obver the last year and he is now officially taller then me. How sad.

Someone else who has changed a lot over the last few month is Matt. When I left he was a little teenager, someone I always thought of never growing older than 15. The day I left and said goodbye to everybody he just gave me a bored look and kind of half lifted his hand to wave bye. When I saw him there that sunday i just had 2 thoughts: Hes tall and Should I botter going there to say Hi? He took that difficult decision off me coz he came running as soon as he spotted me. That was really really nice! Hes now a proper grown up!

Now someone who hasnt changed at all (well, not in an obvious way anyway) Is Rafi. Hes number 3 of the majors 5 sons and one of the most peacful and easyest to please people you could imagine! I once told him that he was one of my favourite people and he blushed! How cute! As opposed to Paul who said: Am I really and then walked away to talk to Josh. Anyway, what I wanted to illustrate with this little story is that Rafi is rather shy. As you can see on Facebook (Those who can) in most of the picters its me huging someone. Its like the normal thing to do. Camera=Hugs. Not with Rafi. When I said: Would you mind if my sister took a picture of me and you he said: ja, but didnt move an inch closer! How funny! Well, maybe its not as funny for you as it is for me ;-)

In the evening we decided to go and watch the movie we had planned for the afternoon. So we went to our youthfellowship room and watched drummline.

One of the main things you need to surcice in the Corps of Thun is the abillity to stay on top in pillowfights...this is mainly because pillows is what we most have in our room. As you can see, I havent lost my skills :-) And now for all of you who think just because im a pictionaryal desater (which I am) i cant be called artistic, please look at the pictures above and tell me you wouldnt pay loads for them! I think they are amazing! And i hate doing it but I think I have to take the biggest part of the credits! Those of you who have seen princess diary may remember the scene where her mum throws arrows on a white wall on which she pinned colorfilled baloons. Now, when I was a youthleader we were given a budget to do something with our room. One of the things we did was painting the room pink (its not really pink, but I am trying to shok you, its just a very tiny bit of a pinkish shade. We thought that would be the best thing coz we couldnt agree on a colour so we took the one nobody wanted...that way at least nobody was happy with our decision). Then we told people to bring poster, but obviously they would never have agreed on anything we put up, there would always be someone who would want something different. So there I went, bought a bag of baloons, bins, dart arrows and colours...we had so much fun, it really worked...well...till the rain came...

Saturday, 1.3.

As I made you all aware by unceasingly talking about it, I have been to Switzerland for a week. You may ask why I love Switzerland that much... here's the answer:

It is just the absolutely most beautiful country in the whole world...And im really ashamed of never appreciateing it much while living there. I think my swiss friends thought I was kind of nuts because i couldnt stop aaawwwing and oooohhhhhing at the view of the mountains, the river, the lake...even the streets amazed me (and they arent that different to the british ones, except the people all driving on the right and proper side of the road)

I had a great time, I catched up with tons of people... For example with Simu and Martina (whom I had to mention as they now discovered this blog, hallo simu, nachtraeglech no aus guete zum geburi!!!!). They had been away from Thun for a while, so sunday in our corps consisted mainly in welcoming and being welcomed (does this word exist? If I made it up I wanna have all the copyrights, coz its great!)

But from the beginning: I left the UK on Saturday the first after helping in the xstream in the morning and driving several of the other helpers slightly mad with my inner unstillness.... I just managed to calm down when Andy threatened not to take me to the airport if I didnt shut up immediately...Im not sure about the psyco-social effect this comment might have on my future!

But he did drive me to the airport, with Tracy, who took a big box of shortbread all the way there to give it to me, just to find out that I just didnt have any space at all...she then took it back home... hope she didnt eat it, I dont mind getting it a week late (Trac, this is a hint!)Anyway, they were great and we ate pizza after checking in (theres loads of food involved in going on holiday, as my scales are telling me...:-( ) and then I left...yippiiee!

Arriving in Switzerland, I had my very own welcoming team....

Dont judge them by theyr appearance, theyre luvely people :-) I thought it was great of Jasmin and Marco to come and pick me up, I would have hated to take the train alone at this time of night... Thank you guys...

On my way home I saw this board advertising cheese and I couldnt resist... I had to kiss the guy... i know its quite sad, we shared this special moment and he didnt even ask my name... MEN!

Arriving in Thun I went straight to my sisters house... We missed a train in Basel and therefore only arrived at 0.30.

My Sister and my Brother were half asleep on the couch, but it was nice of them to wait for me. Im not convinced my brother was happy at all to see me:

Seriously senior

Ever since I was little I felt I had this big void in my life. How ever hard I tried, it seemed to me that I just couldnt see a light at the end of the tunnel. Nothing seemed to make sense (Can you see where this is going?)

The terribely sad thing about it was that I knew that I wasnt the only one to feel like that. Somewhere in this world was someone just as empty and forloren as me.

(Can you see

the sorrow of the chair in the middle?)

And this sunday, the 10th of february, we found each other. Yes, I was made senior Bandsperson.

I must admit, I do feel much more mature and a much better player. I also must admit that, out of the 4 songs we played that sunday, in 2 I didnt play a single note, 1 I kind of managed with Darrens help and 1 I played really confidentely and loud because it was quite easy, just to find that everybody finished playing and I still had about 3 bars to go. But what I found worse than all this humiliation was that, sitting on the platfrom with the adults you have to behave slightly better than sitting with the Kids. I do miss James! Fortunately the YP Band leader hasnt kicked me out yet, so I can still be a little bit of a child.

On the same day I got my first Valentinescard for this year. I was ever so excited because it had been left unsigned in the kitchen. The fact that the handwriting was a bit chlidlike and that the first name written had been erased and my name kind of filled in over that didnt matter. I was sure someone loved me a lot (I kind of had someone in mind, and although the feelings are not mutual, I now know that Ill get a card from that person too. EXCITING!). That was until a scoutsleader from our corps saw the card I was holding and said: Oh, you got a card from one of the scouts? We made them friday evening. That broke my heart. I could almost hear the conversation that must have taken place in scouts the previous friday:

Scoutsleader: Tonight we are going to make valentine cards

Scout: Yay (Slightly sarcasticaly, because they're kids, obviously)

SL: You are all going to make cards for your parents

Scout: I dont love my parents

SL: Then make one for your friends

Scout: I have no friends

SL: Make one for your dog

Scout: I have no dog

SL: Then....make one for poor old Anna

Scout: yuk!

SL: OI! Thats not a very nice behavior. Ill look you in the cupboard if you dont do it. NOW!

I do feel very much loved though, so little scout, if you are reading this, its much appreciated :-D

I did get another card as well, the coolest card ever. It was handmade, so I kind of suspect someone used to be a very good scout years ago!

All this excitment on sunday gave me loads of enegry for a packed monday. I got up at five to go to my weekly hospital appointment. I have a very special relationship with mondays, because I obviously dont particularely like to get up at 5, but I can spend about 2.5 hours waiting in a que with friends. My friends are all aged between my fathers age and my grandfathers age (Some probably are even as old as my greatgrandfather) But they are good fun!
They take good care of me too.

A little glimpse into our conversations:
(A: Anna, P:Peter (the wise one), B:Bob (Laid back one)

P: So, why doesnt your boyfriend pick you up at home on mondays, you shouldnt need to take the bus, its too dark for a girl this time in the morning

A: I have no boyfriend and I wouldnt expect anyone to get up at 5 just to give me a lift?!

P: Let me tell you something: If you get yorself a man, dont take one that doesnt have anything! There are plenty of those out there! Thats what I told my daughter and she married a banker!

B: Yes, and dont get yourself an a*hole either...there are even more of those out there. Thats what I told my wife years ago but she didnt listen and married me anyway.

In the evening I went to the cinema with Tracy. We went to see Juno and we were officialy the oldest people in the theater. The movie had some real verbal pearls. For example when she gets a pregnancy test in the local store. She takes the test in the toilet of the store and comes back shacking the little plasticstick (For those who dont know, you have to wee on that little stick, so spreading all your urine in a shop isnt exactly a good idea.) The shopassistant asks her about the result and when she shows him the stick he sais: Your ego is prego. (???)

This movie is certainly not gona help with reducing teenage pregnancy. All her parents say when she tells them shes pregnant is: You need some pregnancy vitamins. They happen to be good for your fingernails.

When she tries to go to the abortionclinic she finds a single protestor there who says things like: Babies dont like killing! and: all babies want to be borned!

The message was basically: If you get pregnant, find some people who really want to adopt a baby (And advertises that in a penny paper, next to the adverts for exotic birds). If you get pregnant your father will become more understanding and your stepmother really protective (but you will still have to put up with a sister called Liberty Bell). And your best friend (who happens to be the father of the Baby that only happened becaues you were bored) becomes your boyfriend and you end up sitting on the steps of his house playing guitars and singing a lovesong.

But it was quite funny and a bit happy and a bit sad, just what we needed. After being emotionally drained we went to get something to eat in the car (sorry, Andy, the car smells now. Hope you dont mind, we enjoyed it loads). We lockerd the car but the alarm kept coming on. that was a bit embarassing, because it was like 11 pm on a monday. People on that road must have loved us!

I love my diet. I wonder why I dont loose weight, dont you?

Material Girl

As there is not much happening on my life path at the moment, I thought Id just tell about what new thing I bought. Higly exciting, I agree. I bought a camera... i really wanted to upload a picture of my camera, but...well, it was a bit difficult for the cam to take a pic of itself. It was a rather cheap model. It doesnt have a name yet, so your suggestions are welcome.

The fisrt thing I had to try out was if it had this function where you can take pictures of yourself. It does! Yay!

Then I decided that that alone doesnt make a good camera. A camera has to have the emotional strenght to witness the sad things in the world, to capture the ugly sights of our environment. And I have to admit that my Camera is great. See for yourselfes:

After testing my camera for a little while I got really bored and decided to go shooping (I needed something to blog about next time). Thats why I asked Stacey if she would come out with me. Our aim was initially to find a pair of trainers for me. We didnt succeed. We went to matalan first, where Stacey decided that she needed me to be her dolly to dress up. I couldnt quite understand that, as I thought that was the reason why she has 3 younger siblings. At least with Ryan she does a good job. Fortunately her dressing up actions were limited to scarfs, to 1 scarf to be precise. After Matalan we went to Primark (where else), and we found out that Stacey is much better at shopping than me. Her constant:Anna, take something to try on! Thats what we are here for! was slightly muffled by the mountains of clothes she was carrying for herself. To give some emotional support I decided to try a blouse, which I have to admit I rather liked. I think I looked french, although Nina said I look like a cook. Outch!

Much later I forced Stacey to go to tomassi for Ice cream. She REALLY hated me for that, and I phisically had to drag her into the restaurant (we got some concerned glances from members of the public). We were both amazinlgy good and ordered a glass of water. For some weird reason the waitress completely missunderstood and she brought us these 2 hughe ice creams, which we really didnt want! But we didnt wanna be the difficult customers and decided to just act normaly and eat them, because we dont like to make a fuss about little things.

Poor Stacey! She couldnt believe the only way to have Swiss merengue was with Strawberry sauce... I really wasnt sure if she would ever get over that. Until she saw a pink eye liner. I think she recovered rather quickly.

Oh, by the way, if you think i should rather not blog than blog about so such superficial things, please direct complaints either to Tracy or John. They bullied me into writing something! Im the victim here!