hi!

[lobelia321]

I'm alive, I'm around but not online around. :-( I'm just so tremendously busy. Running around on a treadmill for most of the week until I slump into bed with exhaustion and then wake up early, worrying about everything I still have to do. Mostly preparation for the endless amount of teaching that have been foisted onto me. But also finishing my book (one good moment last Thursday: I sat down to work on the book, opened the document in Word, and suddenly realised I didn't have to type! I had the manuscript in draft complete before me and just needed to take up a pencil and start on revisions! That was a good moment.)

I've rediscovered Bollywood, always the comfort of my heart and the one thing I like watching slumped in front of the TV/DVD player (that's not football). It is vegging supreme. I saw Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna on Sunday and yesterday; t'younger son enjoyed it so much he continued watching on his own; and even t'sceptical h joined in for the last 2 hours. It starts out being cringemakingly silly but the last hours are really heartwarming and very well acted, and the film makes you think, and I like that. It is serious about marriage and about love, and nobody does romance like the Indians do romance! There's that oft-cited linguistic myth (fact?) about the Inuit, that they have 372 words for snow, but I don't know any language with as many words for love as Hindi. Also, whoa, although I have seen many Bollywood films with intense eroticism, wet sari dances galore and so forth, this is the first one I've seen that has actual sex in it. Whoa. It quite spun my head. Apparently, this film is controversial in India as it treats an adulterous relationship. But then, after some googling, I also found out that Hindi films have been treating adulterous relationships since the year dot.

Anyway, back to the grindstone. Finished preparing 2 teaching sessions for tomorrow, did the winding-and-finding of videos for teaching on Friday and Monday, now will do cooking for tonight plus for tomorrow as tomorrow I shall be so shattered after five (!) hours of teaching that I won't be able to see straight, and then I'm off to gamelan.

I am re-reading Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey for the 18th time. This is proof that I am stressed. Jane Austen is my supreme comfort food. Also, how could I forget Austen in my quest for comic novels? She is the queen of comic novel writers. Every single word of Austen is delicious. I love her so much.

It's my birthday on Friday. I will be 44.

Comments

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

Hello! *waves*

I heard that the Inuit only have four words for snow.

I just stumbled across this and thought of you. The official Archers website appears to have some sort of inbuilt fanfiction section...

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Re the Archers: 111

Is this the future??

Ruth is pulling out of the adulterous relationship with Sam due to guilt although they had a romantic night booked in a hotel. All very dramatic.

Do you think I should post Sam/David to this inbuilt fanfic site???

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

Do you think I should post Sam/David to this inbuilt fanfic site???

Yes! Seriously, I would so read this, were you to actually write it. :)

[junalele.livejournal.com]

That sounds nice about the book and I do hope you still enjoy the teaching as such.

And yes, Bollywood. A few months they showed a Bollywood movie like every Sunday and I loved to watch it, stressed out with final exams it was perfect. So emotional and beautiful and dancing and so much crying. Great!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

They show Bollywood every Sunday in Germany??? Hm. I do remember seeing a snippet of Bollywood on a Turkish channel but the synchronisation was so ludicrous we all just howled with laughter. The camera would switch from a man to the woman but the voice would still be the man's... it was terrible! And all the songs in Turkish as well!

Today the students got stroppy with me and suddenly my enjoyment in teaching plunged downwards. Grrr.

[junalele.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm so happy to see you here again. I do miss you. *kicks those asses at university who gave you way too much work - kicks them harder*

They don't show them weekly right now. But quite often. I'm currently hooked on tv documentations about zoos. They show them every afternoon and you get to see behind the scenes. Lovely. And exactly the intellectual level I need right now. You learn a bit about the animals and that's it. So very relaxing. :D

*glares at stroppy students* "You, be careful with lobelia321. We won't her back unharmed! You hear me?!"

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Juna! I've been missing you!! Of all the people on LJ, you are one I rely on to be there every day. Except now I haven't been... :-( How are you??!!!!

[junalele.livejournal.com]

Jesus, but Kajol sure is very beautiful. *startes for a second...a minute*

Oh, I'm pretty good. And pretty stressed. The reader is more work than I thought and was told. Mostly because every day I get an email asking me to please put some list or other together. And then there are the professors who want changes here and there. *grumbles* I guess, I'll work more than the 80 hours we based the salary on. So another 'Werkvertrag' is in order. More money which would be brilliant since I'm totally broke.
Also the bookshop called today and I might just be back there soon. Yay!

Other than that? Nothing new here. Still very much obsessed with the Cristianochen. Still a bit flabergasted that I'm actually watching football and that when boys on the street talk about Michael Ballack being now in England I want to say 'Yes, Chelsea.' I don't think I'll ever get over the shock. *giggles*

And now are you? Students being nice again? How's the family? T'sons still all into Arsenal? It was Arsenal wasn't it? Or Chelsea? Damn, you've been away too long. *glares at your uni*

[sonicbookmark.livejournal.com]

Good for you for finishing your book!
♥

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Oh dear, I hope you do not feel as your icon.

[lhuneldaiel.livejournal.com]

Sorry you're so busy, dear. Good to hear though that you do take the time to do things that relax you...get some rest! How's the wrist BTW?

*hugs*

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

*can't reply because has dissolved after seeing your icon* Grl.adkfjdlk.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

The wrist is okay. It was weird, though. Now the shoulder of that same arm hurts. I put it down to stress. Thank you for asking.

[msilverstar]

Happy birthday!

Yay for Bollywood and Austen!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

*bursts out lauging at sight of icon*

[msilverstar]

We do our best! *curtseys*

(It's my Hanukkah icon from last year)

[childeproof.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday, duckie!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Sheela!!!! You exist! How are you? Are we, um, ever going to meet in the flesh?

[blithesea.livejournal.com]

Happy belated birthday! Also, I saw this on my friends page (http://tinaskywalker.livejournal.com/171575.html) and had to think of you. Real life keeping you busy, maybe watching Jed Brophy dance around on a stage in Fulda will make you smile. :-*

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I am absolutely dead! I've posted this to my LJ; I love it!!!

Also: Fulda??!!!

[blithesea.livejournal.com]

Heh, I was hoping you would!

It's the German Lord of the Rings convention, used to be in Bonn, now is in Fulda, in a beautiful convention hotel, big enough for all the masses of us crazy fans to be crammed in to. They usually get one or two of the "bigger" stars, and lots and lots of orcs and hobbits and elves who were extras. I met John Noble and Bernard Hill there! I now worship the ground John Noble walks on, he was the sweetest man you can imagine (save for John Rhys-Davies! Who I also met there!).

Okay, end of fangirling. A few more pics of Jed and the other Orc, Shane something or other, you can find on Tina's Con report: http://www.tinagemmeker.de/Ringcon2006/ringcon2006.htm

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

I looked at the photos and discovered that Jed did his ballhugging dance on the day of my birthday!!! Oh, he DID IT JUST FOR ME!!! *is entranced*