Holidays, ahoy!

[wiseheart]

Actually, I've just realized that two days of Chrismas break are already gone. Drat. The good times always go so quickly! But I got a lot done.

Our concert on Saturday was a great success, and I managed to deliver my contralto solo without embarrassing mistakes. My entire fanclub was there, all three of them: Mum, her colleague, and the colleague's hubby. They're a small fanclub, but devoted. They come to all our concerts.


Christmas baking was finished last week, so no more pain with that. But we bought the Christmas tree yesterday, with the time-honoured method of walking to the vendor with the halter and saying: "I need a tree that would fit into this halter, about as tall as I am, and would you, please, carve the trunk for me so that it would actually fit?"

The vendor took it very seriously, apparently. The tree looks exactly like me: short and broad and taking up all available space. Okay, it looks a lot better than I do, but again, it's a great deal younger, too. ;)

I baked a Hefezopf yesterday: a plaited cake of yeast dough, with an... erm... experimental recipe. The original one said marzipan should go into it. We both hate marzipan, so I took Kandierte Früchte instead. I didn't have fresh yeast at home, so I took the dried version. And I added an egg to the dough, because really, you just don't make that dough withoug an egg. No way. As a result, my Hefezopf is tasty, but rather hard. But Mum likes to chew on it, so it's okay.

Today, we went to the chiropodist's and to the hairdresser's. Now I look almost civilized. We also bought the meat for Christmas, and the red cabbage and other foodstuffs. Now all we have to do is to decorate the Christmas tree. Yay!

Got nice prezzie for Mum: I had all the pictures taken in her hometown during our summer visit developed and made actual photos of them. On paper, so that she won't need me to switch on the laptop for her when she wants to go nostalgic on me. She also gets a bag of chocolate-covered raisins. And I paid the trip to Vienna for us both, so I hope it's all right.

It's a stupid thing to have name-day on Christmas Eve. We celebrate name-days as well as birthdays over here, and since Mum and I share the same given name (something that I couldn't forgive her as a child), it's always a strain around this time to find the right present. *sighs*

Anyway, tomorrow I'm due to that audiology test I should have done years ago, beacuse of my tinnitus, but never got the time to do so. I don't think they can do anything to help - Granny had it, Mum has it, and I've had it for the last four or five years. The smart books say, it could be caused by stress and/or by a noisy environment. Well, bless them - what else do I have at school?

I'm also due to an ultrasound examination in January, just in case the blood vessels in my neck are calficied and that causes the whole thing. And if it does? What am I gonna do against arteriosclerosis? Rub my blood vessels with vinegar?



The annoying part is, that at the time I've got all the crap done that I didn't have the time for during term, the holidays will be over, too. :(

Comments

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Those sound like lovely presents for your Mum. I am sure she will be very happy. My Mum said she didn't really want anything this year, except for me to bake her a Christmas cake using her Dad's recipe. (I made one for my New Year's holiday last year, so she knew I had taken up the cake baking mantle. Grandpa used to make them for all the family, starting the job in September.) I think I ended up spending more on her than I usually do, because I couldn't just give her a Christmas cake so I kept buying little somethings, which do add up. Sadly I won't get to deliver them in person, because the English are complete and utter wimps when it comes to the slightest bit of snow and/or freezing temperatures so my flight to Sweden (booked for Friday evening) was cancelled as were the subsequent re-booked flights for Saturday, Sunday and this morning. Now there are just no seats left on any flights before Christmas so I have told the airline to give me my money back and posted off my presents. No way they will make it to Sweden in time for Christmas, but a) my family knew I meant to bring them myself and will actually miss me more than the presents and b) I hope having them arrive a little later might actually extend the Christmas celebration. As for me, I am going to spend the holiday with my friend K and his family who have kindly welcomed me in. At the moment I am making Swedish Christmas sweets to give them as presents.

Hope you have a very happy Christmas and all the best for the new year!

[lissas-elves.livejournal.com]

>>my flight to Sweden (booked for Friday evening) was cancelled <<

I'm so sorry to hear this! But hopefully you'll have a pleasant time with your friend and his family.

Someone who works at our local airport told me that in Heathrow, they have anti-freeze that works down to -5C. Apparently it never occurred to them that temperatures might drop below that. It sounds incredibly to us Scandinavians, but the guy swore it's the truth. *eyeroll*

Glædelig jul. :-)

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Someone who works at our local airport told me that in Heathrow, they have anti-freeze that works down to -5C.
You know that makes a weird sort of sense. I remember reading that the Fahrenheit scale has its zero point at -18 degrees Celsius because that was the coldest temperature that Fahrenheit could produce, so the fact that Heathrow didn't plan for below -5degrees Celsius just seems to fit.

I think I will have a very quite but pleasant time with K and his family. Plus I have found that the town they live in actually has snow. So at least I am likely to get a white Christmas.

God Jul!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Someone wrote a long, interesting story in the Babylon 5 fandom. It took place on Minbar, a planet with obviously pre-glacial climate. She mentioned in her author's notes that the - obviously Californian - assistant writing background info to the series mentioned that Minbar would be uninhabitable for humans. She, who lives in the coldest corner of Canada, with only inuit and a few caribou as neighbours, laughed her head off about that, given that her hometown actually has much lower temperatures than Minbar is supposed to have. *g*

[lissas-elves.livejournal.com]

>>I managed to deliver my contralto solo without embarrassing mistakes.<<
Wonderful! I think many of us envy people who can really sing.

Tinnitus is so unpleasant. I hope they'll be able to help you, if by nothing else, then by giving advice on how to handle it. *hugs*

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Well, they found that my ears are basically all right, save from the fact that my midde ear apparently doesn't get enough air, whatever it might be. The lady doctor said to come back to audiology examination once a year, just to be on the safe side - other than that, I have to go back to the ear doctor with the results, and we'll see.

Singing was wonderful. It always liberates my soul, especially when we do it in a church.

[jilba.livejournal.com]

The presents sound lovely, and it's hard to buy for older people, related or not. You've done very well.

On the name front, my given name is my mother's middle name. It is also the name shared by the local lady undertaker...my sis in law thinks undertaker lady and me are the same person! But all three of us, me, mum, and undertaker lady are all named after the same person, my aunt, who was acidentally shot aged 3.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Actually, my only given name is my mother's third name (yes, three given names - my grandparents must have been slightly insane to burden both their children like that), but the only one she ever used. She hated having three names so much that she gave me only one, the shortest at all.

Now, given the fact that both my name and my surname contain 3 letters only, you can imagine the awkward silence when I introduce myself and people are waiting patiently for me to say something else. And I'm like "no, sorry, that's all the name that I can offer". *g*

Of course, when I have to sign all those certificates and stuff, a really short name comes in handy.

[jilba.livejournal.com]

You are the second person I know of to have only one given name and for the same reason, Mum having 3 given names.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Actually, it isn't so unusual in Hungary to have only one given name. About half the people I know have only one; which, IMO, is more than enough. I mean, no matter whether you like your name or not, by the time you can legally change it, everyone has gotten used to it, including yourself, so what's the sense in having more than one?

Of course, I know people who hate their given names so much that they use a different one - not in official documents but everywhere else. It would drive me mad, always having to keep in mind which one to use at which occasion. *g*

[jilba.livejournal.com]

I often used to think about changing my name, but, as you say, I'm used to it now. I could have used my middle name, but that would have created confusion with another person, so I didn't bother.

[artemis10002000]

Try to have fun despite the doctor's marathon and I hope it helps!

Also, I'm happy that your concert went well, it sounds like you had a great time.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I had indeed. I hope there will be a DVD of last year's and this year's Christmas concerts, and then I can send you a copy of it.

[artemis10002000]

I hope so, too! I would love to see your concerts on DVD.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I'll see what I can do. :)