disappearance
Accounting for my virtual disappearance from this journal:
1. Our ceiling began leaking AGAIN, a mere few hours after the workmen started work on Tuesday morning. Previously they claimed that the plumbing in the pump room above us had been fixed, but apparently they didn't do a thorough job because then how could it possibly happen again? I called our concierge and he kindly came to our rescue again, setting up the same water collection contraption in the living room and muttering 'c'est bizarre' and 'pas possible' under his breath. They managed to get it to stop leaking by Thursday, then rolled in these huge industrial fans and dehumidifiers so that the ceiling (or whatever it's made of) can dry out before they attempt to patch it on Tuesday. So now we've basically shut off the living and dining rooms and live in the bedrooms and kitchen, where, it must be said, we spend 80% of our time anyway.
2. J and I are watching a lot of shows off bittorrent. It's legal here in Switzerland (finally, one advantage to living here) so we've been catching up on loads of TV series and movies. My return to popular culture, as it were. Some days when the kids are driving me crazy, it helps me to know that I have something to look forward to after they've gone to bed. We've done Sherlock marathons and now I'm watching Orange is the New Black. Yes, I'm so late in the game but at least I'm catching up!
3. After getting caught up with Sherlock I took a dip into the world of fanfiction and didn't surface for a good long time - more than a week, to be exact. (I'm still swimming around in there.) I never used to bother with fanfiction because I thought it was all weird obsessive fans writing crappy stories about their favourite characters, but I was so wrong. There are some bad pieces, of course, but a lot of it is actually quite good and a small percentage is really excellent. I find myself loving all the funny Sherlock-John mashups that are alternately sweet and angsty. Very distracting and very entertaining.
Add in the usual school-kids-housework chaos and the fact that with winter's approach I tend to take on a hibernating frame of mind, and you get radio silence over here.
Counting down: London in two weeks!
1. Our ceiling began leaking AGAIN, a mere few hours after the workmen started work on Tuesday morning. Previously they claimed that the plumbing in the pump room above us had been fixed, but apparently they didn't do a thorough job because then how could it possibly happen again? I called our concierge and he kindly came to our rescue again, setting up the same water collection contraption in the living room and muttering 'c'est bizarre' and 'pas possible' under his breath. They managed to get it to stop leaking by Thursday, then rolled in these huge industrial fans and dehumidifiers so that the ceiling (or whatever it's made of) can dry out before they attempt to patch it on Tuesday. So now we've basically shut off the living and dining rooms and live in the bedrooms and kitchen, where, it must be said, we spend 80% of our time anyway.
2. J and I are watching a lot of shows off bittorrent. It's legal here in Switzerland (finally, one advantage to living here) so we've been catching up on loads of TV series and movies. My return to popular culture, as it were. Some days when the kids are driving me crazy, it helps me to know that I have something to look forward to after they've gone to bed. We've done Sherlock marathons and now I'm watching Orange is the New Black. Yes, I'm so late in the game but at least I'm catching up!
3. After getting caught up with Sherlock I took a dip into the world of fanfiction and didn't surface for a good long time - more than a week, to be exact. (I'm still swimming around in there.) I never used to bother with fanfiction because I thought it was all weird obsessive fans writing crappy stories about their favourite characters, but I was so wrong. There are some bad pieces, of course, but a lot of it is actually quite good and a small percentage is really excellent. I find myself loving all the funny Sherlock-John mashups that are alternately sweet and angsty. Very distracting and very entertaining.
Add in the usual school-kids-housework chaos and the fact that with winter's approach I tend to take on a hibernating frame of mind, and you get radio silence over here.
Counting down: London in two weeks!