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Merry Christmas, Everyone! The last few weeks I was looking through some old Christmas pictures as well as some of the most recent ones of my niece. Here are three pictures, taken 30 years apart.
I remember that Christmas pretty well. I was 4 years old, and I got that awesome Duplo farm, which was a HUGE thing in Socialist Hungary, because they were very very expensive. A set like that cost the equvalent of a week’s pay. I also got a Makk Marcsi and some other things, but the Duplo was a big hit! I made very good use of it, playing with it way beyond the recommended 2-5 years age range, incorporating it with my LEGO’s later on, and my sister, born a few months after this Christmas also played with it for years. And now my 2-year-old niece is playing with it.
So it’s almost Christmas. I was on leave this past week, yet I am super tired. And overdosed on Dora the Explorer. I’m also behind on making Christmas gifts, particularly because my order from Etsy hasn’t been delivered yet. So still waiting for that to finish Bazsy and Gabi’s gifts. As my sister’s and my mom’s laptops died within 24 hours of each other, I gave my laptop to my mom and got a new one. It’s another lovely Acer, which looks more or less like this:
I totally love it! Methos (my previous laptop) had only an 80 GB HDD, and yet unnamed new laptop has 500 GB! Also a much better graphic card, and dolby advance audio… what’s not to love. I also bought the 3 year extended warranty, because it came very handy with Methos, too. While it’s almost Christmas, it has been unusually warm. Like +9-10°C daytimes and no freezing at night. It finally snowed for the first time on Wednesday, but it all melted. No hope for a white Christmas this year. I can’t believe what happened at the Parliament today. Not what’s happening inside–alas, I was pretty sure before the elections that this is what was going to happen, but no one believed me. Thank you, Democracy, these 21 years were nice, see you in 2014 maybe? About to start baking a traditional Hungarian Christmas dessert, called bejgli. I only make them with walnuts this year. Wish me luck. My other order from Etsy just came today. For it being 7 Quick Takes, this browser window has been open for 9 hours at this point, and I never got around to press “publish”. For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary! Yesterday was the final for the Hungarian X Faktor, that meant X Faktor related programming from like noon. Being weird, I watched it all. Or rather, used it for background noise, while I was working on some Christmas gifts. The first thing I finished is this earring hanger. I used Fräulein Pfau‘s tutorial, however, I added some 3D glue to the back around the edges, so there is enough space even if the back is on the frame. I used two different green shades of embroidery floss. I personally love it. My sister does, too, so I am making one for her, using green and purple.
The photo is not the best, but at least you can see some of my stickers on my laptop. The earrings displayed are from Penny’s from Ireland (the first one), the rest are from Cestovatelka’s Etsy. Currently these are all my dangling earrings, I have two more pairs of studs, and I might just make my own LEGO block ones. I just started to wear earrings again not too long ago, so my next creation will be a way smaller frame for myself. I used at HUF 499 pine frame from Tesco and an A4 goblein plastic sheet (HUF 1090) from Röltex. I’m done with 30 bases for bottle cap images. These will have text and edges (or not) eventually. These are for some friends both in IRL and on Xanga/FB.
After falling in love with some things on Etsy, and figuring I’d never have the money for pay for all the ridiculous shipping expenses (asking $8 to ship something and the envelope clearly states shipping was $1.50 and mailing it 2 weeks after I pay for them doesn’t make me happy) I decided to go for the supplies and create my own cute stuff (TM). When I ordered @Cestovatelka‘s peacock magnets I saw some super cute geeky magnets… They were around $2… and $6 shipping. No way. So I ordered some plain bottle caps, as we hardly ever buy drinks that come with bottle caps, and some Scrabble tiles. I already have plenty of magnets and glues. All I need is some crystal laque sealant and… a 1 inch round hole punch, so I don’t have to worry about cutting perfect circles. I also learned a technique of transferring photos onto wood, which I’d like to try with the tiles. If I fail, I can still just use the traditional techniques! Now here is the thing. I could buy 25mm hole punches, but 1 inch is actually 25.4 mm. So that would leave a .2 mm edge on the caps… should I worry about it and order a 1 inch round puncher from overseas for a gazillion dollars plus shipping and handling, or should I go with the 25 mm ones? This is my 4th Christmas season working at this job. I’m not saying working at this company, because… now that’s complicated in this world of outsourcing and outsourcing the outsourced… The first three years, for variuous reasons, there was no company-wide Christmas parties. Yesterday, however, our newest employers threw a great party for us! It was a lot of fun. Now as my luck would have it, I was also invited to a Christmas dinner by our client, which happened to be at the same time as the company Christmas party. One of my colleagues and I went there first, and then headed over to our company party around ten p.m. and then stayed till nearly 3 a.m. As I said it was fun! Here are some items neccessary for the night:
The earrings are from Marica’s Etsy. While I was preparing for the party, I realized I have an item that Cestovatelka would probably like:
It’s a mirror I bought in Balatonboglár on my holiday in August. OK, since I decided not to wear my costume today (it was way too hot in the office), I can’t enter@Cestovatelka‘s costume contest, but here are some pics about everyone’s favorite Customer Service Desk on this lovely Monday:
The blood was created by the megnificent Andi (in black and red). This year it tasted and smelled like raspberries, thanks to her having to sub raspberry syrup for red food dye. The pumpkin is courtesy of Mesi. Brigi was a cat, not a pig. TP’s zombie makeup was done by Andi and Orsi. Click picture to view larger. Also, go and enter that Halloween contest. Sunday evening, as part of the 14th Jewish Summer Festival, there was an Idan Raichel Projectconcert in the Dohány Synagogue. I could go on and on about how much I love the building the show was in, or just how great it is to have festivals practically every week, but really, now I just want to say how very awesome this evening was.
I had been vaguely aware of Idan Raichel for a few years now, but it was Ramona who truly introduced me to their music. With sending me the first Idan Raichel Project CD she got me hooked. Of course it helps that as a child I was raised with the Kodály method, and any music incorporating folk/traditional music is close to my heart. So when I heard that this year’s big guest would be the IRP, I had to reserve my ticket right away. I convinced one of my former colleagues to come with me. She agreed… and then two days before the show it turned out she couldn’t make it. The worst thing about the concert was that my brand new and rather comfortable looking shoes turned the backs of my ankles into tartar beefsteak by the time we met up, so instead of the scenic walk to the synagogue we opted for the nearest bus stop. After getting through security, we were let to find a seat upstairs. We tried several locations till we found a spot from where we could not only hear the music, but see some of the action downstairs. Later on we had the chance to stand through some of the performance (when people behind us moved to a different row), giving us excellent view of the projector screen and quite a good view of the musicians. The concert started kind of slow, with three slower numbers. Ági and I agreed that those were great for some meditation, while also enjoying the atmosphere of the building. It was Ági’s first time in the Dohány synagogue, by the way. Then one by one the musicians cam to stage and while Idan Raichel explained that they didn’t have much time to rehease and that thes didn’t have a set list of songs, so they were just playing… well, for that, this was a highly fine tuned performance. One of the great things about it was the attention the musicians paid to each other. They were really in tune. They started to play some of Ági only had a few YouTube videos to familiarize herself with what to expect, so she was kind of prepared for the relaxed, meditative mood of the opening songs. She was pleasantly surprised by the later upbeat tunes that made our feet move by themselves. One of our favourite songs was Bein Kirot Beiti (Within My Walls). To summarize the evening, I’d say it was a wonderful concert, in a wonderful place, and if he ever comes back to Budapest, I’ll go again!
So here are a few:
So these are some of the goals for 2011. I plan to follow up on these on a monthly basis. So what are some of your resolutions? |
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Oh how I love it! The man just keeps shaking his head about my excitement about Who. He doesn’t know he will have to watch the special on the 25th.
Fortunately, our incident manager, who happens to have the exact same name (both first and last and neither of us have middle names) could make herself available and join me. She is lovingly referred to as Ági or My Clone on this blog.