That was it

I'm never going back to the Crappy Call Center.
And the weekend is mine. All mine.
Christmas party tomorrow.
There is only one thing I'll miss about the Crappy Call Center and about working Sundays:
Every Sunday a beautiful elderly lady would be waiting at the busstop outside work, and I will for some odd reason miss saying goodmorning to her, and I will miss her smile and her goodmorning in return.
It was as if that very brief but repeated exchange of a smile and a single word was a secret we shared.
And I wonder if she will wonder where I am.

Worth waiting for

I went to the library after work.
And they finally had four books I've been waiting for for ever.
Or at least since April in the case of Victorian Lace Today.
The others have been a mere few months to arrive from other libraries.
And once again I had to explain that no, it is no mistake, yes, it is possible for one person to have a keen interest in both cognitive neuroscience AND lace knitting.
The new young man at the library is terribly adorable, though.
I'm deeply grateful to whomever chose to give him the job.
He's sweet.
And I had to go back to him no less than three times to have the books checked as the alarm kept going off when I tried to leave.

I have to get Victorian Lace Today for myself to keep. I don't think I've ever seen knitting book photography that gorgeous. Nor a layout so beautiful and "functional".
The layout of A Gathering of Lace annoys me.
It's too scattered and ... just annoying.
And I have Trimble's The Soul in the Brain. Oh, have I been waiting to get my hands on that one!
Opening line of the Introduction: "If you fear that opening your mind will cause your brain to fall out, then this book is not for you."
Big day!
And I have the monster book of monsters.... or just a bloody big book: The Cognitive Neurosciences (III). There was much happy giggling at the sight of it!
"Uh, this is better than Christmas"
It's one of the biggest books I've ever brought home from the library, and the weight of it made me skip the thought of buying milk and cat litter.
That will have to wait until the weekend.
Oh, what a wonderful weekend it will be.
Cats, books, and no work at the Crappy Call Center! Well, some cleaning is absolutely needed around here, and hopefully laundry can be done, but still.... Cats and books. And knitting.
And right now I have lovely fresh spinach and ricotta tortellini waiting to be tossed into boiling water.
And water on the verge of boiling.
And of course happy cats keeping their bellies warm on top of the radiator.
Life is good.

Count down

In one hour I can leave the Crappy Call Center.
And then I will only have to return once - and then only for another four hours.
And I have the weekend off.
I have not had a full weekend off for as long as I can remember with any precision.
And I have a real company christmas party to go to Friday night.
Not the Crappy Call Center's travesty costing each DKK 100 (USD 20) to cover the bad food and the Bacardi Breezers at a discount, but a real Big Investment Bank Christmas party.
I've missed those.
Even if, as we all know, your main goals when it comes to company parties are to behave yourself, not to get too drunk, and absolutely not to get off with anyone.
And still have fun.
While to some extent succeeding at the three first.
I have nothing to wear of course, and little time to go shopping.
But there's always a little black dress hidden in a corner of the wardrobe.
And I have my shimmery golden, handsewn Venetian 3½" dance shoes.

And more important I have cuddly cats waiting at home.
I don't know if they cuddle more now that it's cold. But they do spend a lot more of the cuddling time under cover, if not choosing the radiator over me.
Skinny little beasts.

Bad lightning, bagged milk, and big blue eyes

This is really mostly for Linnea.

Sadly there will (most likely) not be any disco light in the laundry room.
It was just an excited, hurried not-very-good cell-phone-photo in bad lightning.
But I will get to use it.
And I still cannot wait.
They're still working on it, but I hope that come this weekend laundry can be done - not in the shower, not at the laundromat, but in the basement laundry room.

The bagged milk is ecological, and not non-fat. (I hate non-fat milk.)
And the bag works wonderfully. Surprisingly so.
I bought it because it was the only eco-milk in the store, and of course the bag itself made me laugh with wonder. And squish it. Gleefully.
It seems to close itself almost as if by magic, and the bottom is shaped so that even the last bit of milk is enough to keep it nicely upright.
(Milk never lasts long enough to go sour here.)
And the bag is made from nice environment friendly .... something chalky and some polymer-thingy. I'm sure it is explained here.
Very clever.
And since I'm easily entertained I giggle just looking at it.
And the yogurt was delicious!

This morning brought snow! It didn't last long but it was there.
But sometimes you just don't want to leave your nice and warm bed in the morning.
Not because of the weather, but because of this:

What a difference a week makes

After months, and months, and months with laundry done in a bucket in the shower and no improvement to the hole in the ground ... this has happened during the past week:

Tiles and a drain. And hopefully a washing machine soon.
And my beautiful landlord mentioned the addition of a dryer!
I cannot wait!

Will November ever end?

November has been good.
I have discovered bagged milk! And bagged yogurt. And it both puzzles me and makes me laugh. And if all the entertainment provided by the packaging wasn't enough, it is very good ecological yogurt!


And I love being back with the Big Investment Bank.
I almost hate how much I love being back.
More so because it's only temporary, a small detail I seemed to miss with the first excitement.
The woman, who took over from me when I left, is ill, maybe long term - bad damage from using a computer mouse it seems.
And I'm only filling in for her.
With a contract ending mid-December.
But oh, how I want them to want to keep me anyway when she returns.
Even if that doesn't seem very likely or really necessary.
But they have noticed how their presentations are just that bit sharper and more elegant once they've been through my hands.
And I've had a chance to say clever things about communicating and using visual means and telling stories.
And so I'm a bit hopeful, but not too much, and I try to just enjoy it, while it lasts. Hoping that it will. Last.
I really enjoy my morning walk past Marmorkirken and through the yard at the Museum of Arts and Crafts.
And the late afternoon ride on the bus home through Kongens Nytorv with its glitter of Christmas fairy lights.
But twice a week I have to go straight to work at the Crappy Call Center.
Which is why I cannot wait for November to end.
Leaving home at 7:30 in the morning not to return until 22:30 at night at the earliest is not my idea of a good day.
I miss the cats. And I think they miss me too.
And I will have had a total of two days off this month, counting next Saturday.
And so I'm tired.
And I have not had time to do as much knitting or as much cat-belly-stroking as I would like.
But then the cats do have their radiator to keep them warm and cosy.

And tonight they have me too. Only too happy to scratch ears and throw toy mice.
And I have a very nice bottle of wine and a lot of double moss stitch to knit, as I really, really want Norah Gaughan's Hex Coat to keep me warm and cosy, since there's not room for me too on top of the radiator.
It doesn't look very interesting, but I'm a bit surprised how much I like knitting it. It's not very exciting but not too boring either.
Quite perfect for my tired self.

It looks like snow

But it cannot possibly be snow?

Can it?

Oh

I'm tired.
I had my first day at the Big Investment Bank from 8:30 to 16:30.
And since it's either four or five years since I left them I was surprised by the many people happy to see me back and the happy hugs.
That's a very nice thing when you tend to feel not so very unforgettable.
From there I went on to the library, which was just manageable in spite of mad rush hour traffic as I had to be at work at the Crappy Call Center at 18:00.
(Where I still am, by the way, until 22:00)

I want my cats. And a shower. And my silk pajamas. And my bed.

And while at work this evening some devious devil possessed me into buying nearly a 1000 kr. worth of yarn.
Yarn I've coveted and which is on sale.
But still a lot of money.
And a lot of lovely yarn.
A lot of lovely, lovely yarn!
But after today I think I deserve it.
And considering the rest of November.... I bloody well deserve it.
Currently I have three jobs:
Job Co, a nice two-days-a-week administrative/creative thing, which I enjoy.
Job Ab, my three-days-a-week return to Big Investment Bank, but this may be for just a month or so, I don't know yet, and don't really know if I care. It's good to be back, but I may be reminded why I left. You never know.
And finally there is Job Ad, the Crappy Call Center, which will be history come the end of November.
And so I'll be working Mondays and Wednesdays 8:30-16:30 at job Co.
Tuesdays and Thursdays at Job Ab from 8:30-16:30 followed by job Ad from 18-22.
And then Fridays at job Ab 8:30 to 16:30.
And Sundays 10 to 18 at job Ad.
So if that doesn't make the yarn much deserved, I don't know what would.
Luckily the only course I managed to follow this semester ended last week, and luckily I'm feeling much, much better.
I even think I'll dare opening a bottle of wine tomorrow evening.
That's how good I'm feeling!

But not until after voting.
Big election will take place Tuesday 13th.
But on account of my mad working hours I have decided to place my vote tomorrow after work, as it is in fact possible.
Besides I do not care much what they say, or do, or promise during the election frenzy.
It's what happens inbetween elections that matters.

The elephant in the shower

Most of the time I'm a fairly reasonable grown-up who can say clever things about semiotics and cognitive psychology and such, knows her Köchel numbers, and has a fair understanding of the workings of the financial markets.

But sometimes I'm 5 years old.

The cat cave

Of all the places they have to chose from the cats very much prefer their cardboard box.

In my odd little home there are a few surprising little details and "fun" little solutions.
One being the way the bathroom was extended into the living room to make space for a shower. Creating a perfect platform for cats to watch and sleep under the ceiling slope.
With easy access to running and roaring on the beams.

And I wonder why I ever bothered to knit a kitty pi when all I had to do was buy a printer and hand over the box it came in.

On a roll

This has been an extraordinarily good week.
First good thing:
Tuesday I quit my job at the call center.
Out of anger and frustration and fed-up-ness.
I've never been overly fond of it, but it has offered me the flexibility needed to follow courses at the university while working a full week (as needed in order to feed cats and pay rent and buy a bit of yarn now and then). And I've liked a lot of my colleagues. A lot.
And most of the time I've really enjoyed helping the people calling.
Although not the incredibly rude and aggressive ones.
But the pay has been bad, the environment less than charming, and it has been rather draining and tiring. And to make matters worse we got a new so-called team leader a few months ago.
A very ambitious 23-years old girl. And she wants the best team, she says. But only with regards to quantity not quality.
She shows absolutely no knowledge of how to lead or motivate - nor any respect or consideration for neither her colleagues nor her team members.
And Thursday I finally got fed up. Probably as I found no reason in being asked to explain my lack of efficiency in the two weeks following the endoscopy-gone-bad.
I've been told never to quit a job on impulse or in anger. But it felt rather good.
At least until I started worrying. The next day.

But then all tests showed great improvement in the pancreatic and spleenish areas. That is good thing number two, by the way.

Good thing number three: The library finally got me Lace Style.

And number four: Today I dragged my monster of a king-size duvet to the laundromat for its pre-winter washing.
And listened to Bach and knit a bit while watching it whirl around, trying not to think about my being nearly unemployed in less than a month.
And so tonight I have a perfectly clean and fragrant duvet.
And I gave a nice, elderly woman a good laugh as I tried in vain to make the duvet fit into the centrifuge. Not possible. But a good clown-act - and thus good thing number four and a half.

And I do indeed have a new job. That is good thing number five.
Years ago I worked with an investment bank. It was my very first real real job.
Working full-time, 9-5 (or rather 7-21, as it became most days).
And I loved it. During the first two years I took only one day off, and I missed my colleagues. That's how much I loved it.
Until ... I fell in love with a young man I met at a yoga retreat, my step-father was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and suddenly working so much wasn't as fun as it could be. And had been. Of course I had also been burning the candle at both ends for far too long.
And when everything seems to close in on you, well,... I decided the one thing I could change was my job and so I did. There were other reasons. Of course.
But it's a place I've been proud of having been employed with.
And it was, and still is, my favourite job ever. And sometimes I miss it.
And this afternoon I got a call from them asking if I would like to come back, part time, my terms. They understand I have courses and exams.
Of course they would like me to start Monday, but with a bit of work Tuesday should be possible.

I really wish I could have a glass of wine to celebrate. But in a few weeks that should once again be possible.

Oh, yes. Good thing number ...six. My hyacinths, which I have for too long left for dead yet not quite remembered to throw out, have decided to give me a repeat performance.

I just wonder if I should make them little paper hats as you see in photos.
But you never see hyacinths with paper hats in nature, so they should be able to do what they do - without accessories.

Oh yes, I've started knitting the jacket from Norsk Strikkedesign. I'm nearly done with the sleeve. And I'm besotted.

My choice of colours is quite different from the original, and I want to make it into a tunic rather than a jacket. I don't do jackets much. Coats yes, but jackets and cardigans not so much. And I like something I can just slip over my head without fiddling with buttons.
It's very addictive knitting.
So far there's only a tiny bit of puckering and unevenness, but I don't care too much. I still look at it and pet it a bit and feel very proud for being able to manage more than one colour yarn at a time, and for mustering the courage to start it.
And I think I read somewhere that in the good old days they didn't give a f*ck about a bit of puckering here and there as it would all even itself out once given a good wash. I hope it's right. And not just something I dreamt.
And, as I said, there really isn't too much of that anyway.
That has to be good thing number seven.