The Busiest Week In Recent Years
I can't remember having had such a stressful week in the recent years as the last one has been. Some of the stress has been my own fault though, so I shouldn't really complain. Or I'm not entitled to complain :-) I spend all of last weekend discussion the local budget with my local Greens. Two complete days (9am - 5pm) working through all these numbers and discussing all of it, wears anyone out, I think. It wore me out at least and I wasn't even in the mood for some TV or DVD afterwards, because I knew I wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything. I honestly don't even remember now how I spend my weekend evenings last week.
I usually have a 4-days-work-week , but I had to be at the office all 5 days this week and they were busy days! I admit I just started working at 2 pm yesterday, but because of a meeting I had to stay until 8 pm, which is always fun on a Friday. Not! Monday late afternoon and evening were packed with political meetings I had to attend. On Tuesday I had to stay longer at work than planned, so it was a bit hectic afterwards, because I was meeting friends at the movie theatre. On Wednesday evening I went to see David Garrett in concert. Yesterday evening and most of today's afternoon I spend with writing a summary of all the things we Greens discussed last weekend, because we still have to work out which additional proposals we want to come up with and to map out our position to this budget. My brain is so tired once again now so I'll have to work on that for a bt tomorrow as well. Sometimes being the chairwoman of the Green on the town council sucks because of all this work, but it was my own choice to fill this position. And I get an allowance for it, so I shouldn't complain too much. But it sometimes really is a lot of work.
I also should work much more for grad school at the moment. I have to attend a seminar in December and are way behind on reading all the required literature. Maybe I should spend some time tomorrow to come up with a schedule to fit all this different kind of works (politic, school) into in a way that's managable. Sometimes I really feel like I'm in over my head. And most annoying: I feel out of the loop, because I can't spend so much time online ;-) Seriously, this week I've missed out on some news, because I hardly had time to be online at work, I didn't turn on my computer at home on Monday or Tuesday and even as I use my phone to tweet every once in a while or check the train schedule, reading websites on the phone is not as comfortable as it's with a real computer or laptop.
The only thing that is keeping me relaxed to some degree is the „at least 7 hours of sleep” rule of the Game On, because at least I'll get these, even if I miss out on some internet time. Sleep is more important and it's kind of pathetic that I need rules of a game to actually try to get a decent amount of rest. I'm playing the game quite successful at least. I might not be able to beat my opponent Nat, but I've lost almost 3,5 kg (= 7.5 lb) in almost 3 weeks. I already notice it when I put on some of my jeans ;-) Yesterday ws my day off from the „5 healthy meals” rule and I was reasonable enough to not overdo it with too much junk or too much food at all, because it might destroy the success I had so far. But I treated myself to my first xmas season gingerbread Starbucks Latte after the long meeting last night. Non fat milk of course and just a tall one and so very yummy.
What else is there to write about? I'll probably write my Grey's review tonight as well, but it might not take that much time, because a lot of this episode left me a bit underwhelmed. I loved Derek of course and the Mer/Alex stuff, but most of the other things going on... meh!
Like I mentioned above I saw David Garrett in concert on Wednesday and I enjoyed the actual concert part, in the meaning of "music being performed" but I don't think I will ever go to see him in concert again. Because he is such a lousy entertainer. It would have been fine, if he had kept his talking to the announcement of what song will be played next. But he spend most of the time in between the various musical pieces telling tales from his life. It was supposed to look spontaneous, but it so wasn't. He sounded like he clearly rehearsed all of it. The stories were supposed to be funny, but 95% of them weren't and I could only chuckle slightly at the remaining 5%. He himself obviously thought he was very funny, because he sometimes was laughing before he even got to the end of the story, but that only was another proof to me how rehearsed all of it was. And what really really annoyed me to no end, was that these stories weren't even related to the piece of music that followed. He told a not funny story and then announced the next song without any kind of connection. I guess most of the people in the audience didn't mind this crappy entertainment part of the concert, but I was really bothered by it. Call me a snob, but I've been to enough (rock / pop) concert, where the artists did a much better job.
But I really did enjoyed the music that night. I don't have much experience listening to classical music and especially not to a full scale orchestra. It can sound pretty awesome at a concert and to actually be there and hear it is very different experience compared to just listening to it on CD or your iPod. I knew a few of Garetts versions of rock / pop classics and I like them a lot. His version of „November Rain” was new to me and it was amazingly awesome. I liked the song back then (I'm getting old!) and this orchestra version was done very very well.
Another highlight in this insanely busy week was the movie on Tuesday. We saw "Red" and I only had a slight idea of what this movie would be like. I knew it was an action comedy and I thought the cast sounded like a really unique and interesting combination. I did not expect this movie to be so so entertaining. I found it hilariously funny at some points and all in all just very well done comedy. It definitely helped with the stress relief earlier this week. I still have to watch this week's "Hawaii 5-O" and I plan to do that tonight. After I've written the Grey's review and had some dinner.
I usually have a 4-days-work-week , but I had to be at the office all 5 days this week and they were busy days! I admit I just started working at 2 pm yesterday, but because of a meeting I had to stay until 8 pm, which is always fun on a Friday. Not! Monday late afternoon and evening were packed with political meetings I had to attend. On Tuesday I had to stay longer at work than planned, so it was a bit hectic afterwards, because I was meeting friends at the movie theatre. On Wednesday evening I went to see David Garrett in concert. Yesterday evening and most of today's afternoon I spend with writing a summary of all the things we Greens discussed last weekend, because we still have to work out which additional proposals we want to come up with and to map out our position to this budget. My brain is so tired once again now so I'll have to work on that for a bt tomorrow as well. Sometimes being the chairwoman of the Green on the town council sucks because of all this work, but it was my own choice to fill this position. And I get an allowance for it, so I shouldn't complain too much. But it sometimes really is a lot of work.
I also should work much more for grad school at the moment. I have to attend a seminar in December and are way behind on reading all the required literature. Maybe I should spend some time tomorrow to come up with a schedule to fit all this different kind of works (politic, school) into in a way that's managable. Sometimes I really feel like I'm in over my head. And most annoying: I feel out of the loop, because I can't spend so much time online ;-) Seriously, this week I've missed out on some news, because I hardly had time to be online at work, I didn't turn on my computer at home on Monday or Tuesday and even as I use my phone to tweet every once in a while or check the train schedule, reading websites on the phone is not as comfortable as it's with a real computer or laptop.
The only thing that is keeping me relaxed to some degree is the „at least 7 hours of sleep” rule of the Game On, because at least I'll get these, even if I miss out on some internet time. Sleep is more important and it's kind of pathetic that I need rules of a game to actually try to get a decent amount of rest. I'm playing the game quite successful at least. I might not be able to beat my opponent Nat, but I've lost almost 3,5 kg (= 7.5 lb) in almost 3 weeks. I already notice it when I put on some of my jeans ;-) Yesterday ws my day off from the „5 healthy meals” rule and I was reasonable enough to not overdo it with too much junk or too much food at all, because it might destroy the success I had so far. But I treated myself to my first xmas season gingerbread Starbucks Latte after the long meeting last night. Non fat milk of course and just a tall one and so very yummy.
What else is there to write about? I'll probably write my Grey's review tonight as well, but it might not take that much time, because a lot of this episode left me a bit underwhelmed. I loved Derek of course and the Mer/Alex stuff, but most of the other things going on... meh!
Like I mentioned above I saw David Garrett in concert on Wednesday and I enjoyed the actual concert part, in the meaning of "music being performed" but I don't think I will ever go to see him in concert again. Because he is such a lousy entertainer. It would have been fine, if he had kept his talking to the announcement of what song will be played next. But he spend most of the time in between the various musical pieces telling tales from his life. It was supposed to look spontaneous, but it so wasn't. He sounded like he clearly rehearsed all of it. The stories were supposed to be funny, but 95% of them weren't and I could only chuckle slightly at the remaining 5%. He himself obviously thought he was very funny, because he sometimes was laughing before he even got to the end of the story, but that only was another proof to me how rehearsed all of it was. And what really really annoyed me to no end, was that these stories weren't even related to the piece of music that followed. He told a not funny story and then announced the next song without any kind of connection. I guess most of the people in the audience didn't mind this crappy entertainment part of the concert, but I was really bothered by it. Call me a snob, but I've been to enough (rock / pop) concert, where the artists did a much better job.
But I really did enjoyed the music that night. I don't have much experience listening to classical music and especially not to a full scale orchestra. It can sound pretty awesome at a concert and to actually be there and hear it is very different experience compared to just listening to it on CD or your iPod. I knew a few of Garetts versions of rock / pop classics and I like them a lot. His version of „November Rain” was new to me and it was amazingly awesome. I liked the song back then (I'm getting old!) and this orchestra version was done very very well.
Another highlight in this insanely busy week was the movie on Tuesday. We saw "Red" and I only had a slight idea of what this movie would be like. I knew it was an action comedy and I thought the cast sounded like a really unique and interesting combination. I did not expect this movie to be so so entertaining. I found it hilariously funny at some points and all in all just very well done comedy. It definitely helped with the stress relief earlier this week. I still have to watch this week's "Hawaii 5-O" and I plan to do that tonight. After I've written the Grey's review and had some dinner.