Categorie: Vanallesennogwat

Word of the Day for Sunday March 20, 2005

spoonerism \SPOO-nuh-riz-uhm\, noun:
The transposition of usually initial sounds in a pair of
words.

Some examples:
* We all know what it is to have a half-warmed fish
[“half-formed wish”] inside us.
* The Lord is a shoving leopard [“loving shepherd”].
* It is kisstomary to cuss [“customary to kiss”] the bride.
* Is the bean dizzy [“dean busy”]?
* When the boys come back from France, we’ll have the hags
flung out [“flags hung out”]!
* Let me sew you to your sheet [“show you to your seat”].
_____________________________________________________

Spoonerism comes from the name of the Rev. William
Archibald Spooner (1844-1930), a kindly but nervous
Anglican clergyman and educationalist. All the above
examples were committed by (or attributed to) him.

Yay. Not.

What was supposed to be a real holiday weekend, turned out to be a little different. Saturday was quite allright though: the weather was nice, and I played quite a bit with Wolf. At night we took him along to my parents, where we had this wine and cheese dinner with my bro and his gf, her parents, and Bart’s parents. A lovely night was had.
On Sunday, ie. Easter, we drove to my in-laws for this big Easter dinner. Of course we took Wolf along, but also almost all his stuff, cos he was staying there till Tuesday afternoon 🙂 This meant a few days off for Bart and me, in which we had planned a long lie, a sauna trip, restaurant and movies. And another long lie 🙂
The dinner was really nice, yet the two consequent heavy meals got to me, I think, my stomach isn’t used to all this food anymore. Anyway, after dessert I started to feel queasy, and I declined cake and coffee (which is quite exceptional for me). Indeed, a bit later I started to throw up. We left Wolf in the caring hands of his grandparents and drove home. At home, more throwing up, and I went to bed early. So much for our romantic night alone.
Next day we slept till 11, played some PC game together, and confided ourselves to the couch, since Bart didn’t feel too great either. We watched some movies on telly, and cancelled on the whole sauna experience. Later on, we also did cancel the restaurant and had some toast and the likes, easy stuff on the stomach. We couldn’t even get lured off the couch by the movies… 🙁 We then went right to sleep. It was only this morning that we both felt a little more romantic… And now, in about half an hour, we need to leave again to pick up Wolf.

So much for our romantic weekend: we were both sick 🙁

One good thing about it though (although I’m probably dehydrated and need to drink more water): I did lose quite a bit of weight again, instead of gaining over luscious Easter dinners. This morning, I was down to 95.5 kg (210.1 lbs), which means I lost 5 kg (11 lbs) by now. Not bad, huh ?

This morning, the school secretary entered my classroom and asked me to attend a very short meeting at 1 PM. When I entered the teachers’ lounge and saw all the faces, I knew it had to be bad. Turned out one of our colleagues had died… I wasn’t that close to her anymore lately, but I used to be. I knew her house, her family, all the little problems, accompanied her with two of her children on a trip to France…
She had been absent for a while, depression. Last week I heard she was in hospital, intensive care: a brain tumor. She herself didn’t know this: she had slipped into a coma before the diagnosis. And now…

I will miss her, although I didn’t see much of her lately. I can’t stop thinking about how it used to be, about her children (the youngest being 15, ADD, a very troubled kid) and about all she stood for. She was one of those rare persons who are too good for this world: although she didn’t have much money, she cared for some abandoned children as well.

Sigh.

Both Wolf and I are sick…

He started vomiting on Monday morning, and seems to be able to hold his liquids by now.
Monday night I slept 2 hours (in bits and pieces) and did laundry at 2 and 4 AM, since I only have so many bedsheets for him.
Last night he did vomit only twice: once at 7.30, half an hour before Bart and I had to leave for a formal dinner, so I had to shower and dress up again. Bart’s parents, who were babysitting, hadn’t heard him all evening. He woke up though as soon as we got home, and kept waking and crying every hour. He also puked all over his bedroom floor, so at 2 AM I was mopping his floor, changing his sheets, and all that. I got like 1 hour of sleep.

I did go to work though this morning. My kids were darlings, keeping quiet, being all nice, doing what they had to and being all sympathetic (one said I looked like shit though, no offence :-p ). Right now I’m feeling awful, even though Bart was so sweet to take over in the afternoon and let me sleep for over two hours 🙂 I had some yoghurt, and that was about it, except for some cookies, stupid me. Feel like I need to vomit right now.
Wolf isn’t eating properly either, he didn’t even finish his milk bottle, but he seems to be getting a little better: no vomiting in the last 12 hours, and he even played a little.

Bart’s at a meeting, and I think I want a cautious hug.

Ugh.

And Randall: if I didn’t comment, it was because I felt like everything I could say was either redundant or would have sounded cynical to you.

Oh my god ! This was a fucking hilarious session ! One of the best we played so far, I think. Last time we were sucked up by a ghost train, and now we needed to get off, whilst being attacked by 10 zombies. Our dice rolls were awful, as usual, so one of the zombies managed to play tonsil tennis with Richter, the character of Xavier who, alas, couldn’t be there. As a result, he turned into a zombie as well, and is lost to our party. Sorry Nihil, seems like you have to create a new character. Maybe one of my lady friends ? *grin*
Anyway, we did an awful lot of fighting, a lot of friendly fire (what’s in a name ?) which almost killed our bodyguard, and finally managed to get off that damned train, just before it crashed into another one.
At one point, we laughed soooo hard that my jaw got into a cramp, which made us all laugh even more. Apparently I did flutter with my right hand while holding my jaw with the other, and that made the others simply roar with laughter. I had to flee to the loo, because I nearly wet myself laughing. I don’t remember what exactly caused this outburst of laughter, but it might have been the zombie tongues stuck in Richter’s mouth, or the idiotic pun over the ‘botten’ we found in a train compartment, which could both be ‘bones’ and ‘boots’, and turned out to be both. My belly is hurting, my jaw is still partially locked and my cheeks are flushed, but man, this was relaxing !

Nothing like a good horror roleplay session to laugh your head off :-p

I seriously wish my life would slow down a bit. I feel like I don’t even have the time to breathe properly. I’m always in a hurry, always rushing.

Last sunday was a blast: Wolf’s birthday party, with close family, good friends and 7 children in total between 5 and 1 (Wolf being 1) years old. Lots of cake left, but that was to be expected. I liked it a lot though, even though I was really tired in the end.
He got a lot of gorgeous gifts:
– a very beautiful plush horse from our cleaning lady Shura
– his first pair of shoes, Kickers, from Bart’s parents
– a brightly coloured toy-on-a-stick, a turtle with revolving shield, to walk with (Nathalie and Koen)
– a kind of “television” toy: moving Nijntje images with a little music (Sepp and Sofie)
– a poster with a wolf from my parents
– soft leather slippers from my youngest bro and his gf
– a big plush Winnie the Pooh seat from Bart’s bro and his gf
– a set of stone dishes with blue dragons on it, and a shirt and pair of trousers (Gwen and Erik)
– a bed pillow and a Tigger sponge (Dirk and Ilse)

He was very excited by all the people, all the cakes, all the children and all the attention he got.

Today didn’t start as the best of days, to be honest. Plan was that Bart would feed and dress Wolf, and take him to the daycare, so I could have a long lie. Seemed that the cat accidentally had been locked inside the house with no access to his litter box, so he used the cardboard box for old paper in my office instead. The whole house reeked of cat piss, ugh ! So he woke me to ask me to clean that up, because otherwise the smell would only get more pungent by the minute. Ugh. Great reason to get up, you know. Finally the office was clean, the air had been refreshed, and I had taken a shower. No use for me to crawl back under the covers – though the thought itself seemed inviting – so I took breakfast, read the paper and started painting.

Yesterday was definitely a day of ups and downs and subsequently a bad mood. It did start with a restless night for Wolf, and thus for me too. When the alarm went off at 7, it seemed wayyyy earlier, ugh. Finally I dragged myself out of bed and into the shower, while Bart, the sweet, was giving Wolf his bath, and clothed him. I had planned on having some breakfast before I had to leave, but I just didn’t seem to be able to wake up properly, so that time passed too. I dropped Wolf off at the daycare, but noticed his car seat seemed wet. It was pouring at that time, so the rain seemed a plausible cause, and I didn’t feel anything at his bum. Yet, when I had undressed him and handed him to the care lady, I noticed his pants were truly wet: he hadn’t pooped in his diaper that night or morning, so decided to do so whilst in the car. The poor diaper couldn’t contain all that much and overflowed. Great. Instead of continuing to the eye doctor, I had to return to fetch him fresh clothes, which made me terribly hasty and a few minutes late at my appointment. Luckily, the ophtalmologist didn’t mind. My eyes were checked, and the glaucoma didn’t get any worse, but my sight has decreased a bit once more. Hmm. No change of glasses yet, maybe next time.
I then went shopping and bought shoes for Wolf – his very first – and for Bart, a nice necklace and matching bracelet for myself, anti-slip socks for Wolf, some candy for his birthday party on Sunday, and some other nicnacs.
Then I stopped by the bank to transfer some money my gran had in store for me as a surprise. She had put 1000 euro for each of her 14 grandchildren on a secret account in our names, but due to a recent law-change, we had to give them a copy of our ID’s, so it couldn’t stay a secret any longer. Too bad, was supposed to be a gift for when she died. In any case, I did transfer 1052 euro into my account 🙂
I then stopped by my parents to chat with my mom, and she checked out my teeth, noticed a hole, and promptly took care of that one. I now have an extra filling, and with no pain at all. Thanks mom 🙂
Returned home, had lunch with my sweet in a restaurant, did some household chores, went to see a house with my mom (my bro is looking to buy sth), did some more painting, collected Wolf, and went to the shops with him. Alas, he was pretty annoying, so my mood dropped again. Was very tired when later on I arrived at the Cthulhu session, but had a very good evening 🙂 Thanks guys 🙂

So far for my boring, uneventful life.

I was between jobs at that moment, and had to fill out some paperwork to get a compensation. I just didn’t know whether I needed to be at the RVA (general job administration) or the VDAB (more decentralised job centre where you can actually look for new jobs). The RVA was closest and most easy to get to, so I headed there at 2.30 PM, only to see a sign that the public could be served between 9 AM and 12 AM at the counter, and in the afternoon by telephone. Since I was there and the doors were open anyway, I ventured to the counter on the first floor. I only wanted to ask if it was the RVA I had to address for that specific matter, or the other office.

There was this big lady sitting at a desk behind the counter. I addressed her politely and asked if she could provide me with some information. Bluntly she pointed at the sign with the opening hours. I apologised, and said that I only wanted to know if it was this office I had to be in. She snapped back: ‘Can’t you read ? We’re open only before noon, in the afternoon you have to call !’
– ‘Err, sure, Ms., but now that I’m here in the flesh, I can ask the question as well, can’t I ?”
– ‘No ! Only by phone !’

So I stepped back a step or two, yanked out my cellphone, and dialed the number on the sign. Promptly, the phone in front of her started to ring. She looked at me as if I were a ghost, looked at her phone, looked back at me, looked back at the phone, and then kept staring at me, like a cow staring at a train. So I said to her: “Excuse me, Ms, could you please pick up your phone and answer my question ?”

She was flabberghasted, but eventually did answer my question. Turned out I had to be in the other office.

Right.

Thank you Ma’am.

Finally a decent update.

Last week on Tuesday, I started to feel crappy, and developped a terrible headache. Dragged myself through the classes, came home at 4 and lied on the couch for an hour. Left for parent night, and parents were lining up from 6 till 9.30, yay. Felt horrible when I got home, so went to bed. Stayed in bed next day, and on Thursday I called the doctor. Result: a very bad case of sinusitis, for which I had to take antibiotics and some other stuff too. Had to stay in, but really didn’t feel up like walking 100 feet either. I had to let my mom go to the sales in town on this beautiful sunny day all by herself, and she brought back some lovely clothes for Wolf, just like I had asked her to. Cancelled on roleplay that night (which, of course, turned out to be a great session) and stayed home on Friday too. Faust came by for coffee, so that day ended up not being too bad.

Back started aching though on Thursday, and it all got worse and worse. Nevertheless on Saturday I mounted my motorbike and drove into town to fetch LotR: Third Age for the Playstation (gift for Bart) and finally went to the sales too. Mom had spotted a very nice black overcoat (I needed one) and I ended up buying it, along with a very fluffy woollen vest, and a nice chique top for Bart’s dad’s 70th birthday party. Got Wolf another long sleeve too :-), a geeky one. We’re planning to turn him into a geek: PC, roleplay and books. Of course he needs to be cool as well, but that won’t be a problem :-p Of course I went to show off my new aquirements to my fav gay, and he gave his consent.

The entire trip made me feel very accomplished, but killed my back completely. So I spent the rest of the weekend mainly on the couch, leaving Bart to lift the baby all the time.

On Monday I went to school, but in a very stiff, lopsided and limpy way. Was ever so glad to be back home and on the couch after 7 hours of teaching, and so I cancelled a capella lessons that evening. Too bad, since they’re pretty pricey. More teaching and couch on Tuesday, and yesterday I went with Wolf to my parents for the VAT stuff for Netlash (my father being our accountant). Managed to sneak out for a bit to go and buy two nice pairs of trousers for Wolf on sale, and ended up popping in on my grandmother, who just came home the day before from her trip to her sister on Tenerife. She’s 93, and still doesn’t think much of grabbing a plane to go and visit her sister (91) who has an apartment there. She only stayed a month though, cos she was bored.

Today I’m in an exceptionally good mood. Dunno why, but I like it. Back is still aching, but I try to ignore that fact. Already did tons of household chores that were postponed over and over again, like folding up laundry, archiving invoices for Netlash, cleaning up my desk a bit…

And tonight Nephilim roleplay. Yay !

Bart is sick. Grmpf. We went to his parents today for New Year, got very nice presents and a delicious meal. Yet something must have been spoilt, because over dessert he started to feel queazy, and a bit later he started vomiting. Great. Wolf was tired but didn’t feel like sleeping all day. We were supposed to visit two great-aunts of his as well after coffee, but I said we would do that some other time: one little guy was sleeping in the car, one bigger guy was looking greenish and had to ask me to stop once to barf some more.
When we came home, he immediately went to bed. I took care of the little one, fed him, changed him into his pyamas, fed him once more, and installed him in bed. Then I started playing LotR: the Third Age. Quite nice indeed.

Tomorrow: work again 🙂
In the evening: an a-capella course :-))))
(Deze cursus is voor ieder die graag zingt en op en speelse manier zijn eigen stemcapaciteiten wil ontdekken en uitbuiten. Daarbij doe je een hoop ideeën op om samen te zingen en te improviseren. Ademhaling en lichaamshouding, stemtraining (stemzetting, articulatie, resonantie en expressie) en improvisatie, zijn de bouwstenen van deze lessenreeks. We leren bekende en minder bekende liederen aan. We proberen verschillende stijlen uit: Afrikaans, folk, jazz, pop, blues, gospel, enz…)

Been wanting to do that for quite a long time, and finally did it now. Hope all will go well.