An Inspector Called

... and lo and behold, we survived.

There has been quite a lot to survive, but so far I've made it.

First, I caught a virus (or vice versa, one can't be sure) 3 days before the Foreign Minister's visit. Since you have to be dead or in intensive care in order to take sick leave during a state visit, I decided to get out the really heavy weapons and took Wick Day Med (friends from Austria and Germany will nod knowingly). Those pills really wake up the dead, which was exactly how I looked, but I got through the day and also through the following days. The virus took its revenge though, and returned a week later, so I had to stay home for 2 1/2 days, in order not to jeopardize the inspection, which would have been even worse than staying home during the minister's visit.
Inspection went quite well - I'd been quite sure to score points for the consular part of things, not quite so sure about the administrative part, but they gave full marks on that too. The Ambassador finally got a bit of a dressing down, which I hope will have a lasting effect.

Apart from the EURO2008, that's 3 down, one to go. We've successfuy braved a delegation (Crisis Support Team - although in my opinion they create the crisis rather than help tackling it),  minister's visit and an inspection. On  19 May the Federal President arrives with a delegation of 170 (gasp!) persons, and once that is over, we've got about 2 bad weeks left - if the Turks fulfill our expectations and don't reach the 2nd round of the championship, that is. To achieve this, fervent prayers are being muttered all day long, and voodoo dolls are being prepared, just to be on the safe side. If prayers and obscure rituals fail, we'll have to expect a second rush of applicants between 7 and 14 June, and then the nightmare will finally be over. A couple of weeks to pick up the debris and get everything back to normal, and we'll have got over one of the worst periods any of us has ever lived through, work-wise.

I've already planned and booked my summer holiday (10 days in August) - everybody has already done so, because after a full six months without even one day off (sick leave doesn't count, since it isn't exactly restful) we're all eager - to put it mildly - to get away for a while.

Due to these past weeks having been dominated mostly by work, life hasn't been very exciting. I read a few books, I bought a few books on how to draw and paint watercolours (because my technique is abysmal), I watched some TV (god, how I love Next of Kin) and DVDs (yes, I totally love Judge Deed).

Ze boyz, I am pleased to relate, are in excellent health and spirits, although slightly miffed, because the weather is unseasonably cool, which means they can't be out on the balcony as often as they'd like to.

My mother had to be operated again in April, this time because she had intestinal occlusion. Due to work, I was unable to go to Vienna before she got out of hospital, but she has recovered quite well. She really is a tough old lady, and I'm very, very glad she is.

For

rhitroadkill, because you asked: God's garden in Turkish would be Allah'in bahce - the i is an i without a dot, pronounced like the second i in Wiltshire, the second h pronounced like the ch in Loch Ness and the c like the ch in choice. I'm afraid I can't help with the Arab translation though.

It's Jasmin's birthday party tomorrow, so I'm now going to prepare Chilli con Carne.

Bye, everybody, take care and write awesome SS/HG/LM threesomes for me to read in summer ;-)))