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I would've had the whole week off, and three more days the week after this, had it not been for a very, very stupid mistake: Doris' daughter Tamara was born in Canada and spent the first 8 years of her life in Canada and the US, and she attends the US Embassy's school, so of course they celebrate Thanksgiving. Doris and I talked about her Thanksgiving holidays already in October - never a problem of course but I was somehow under the impression that Thanksgiving is celebrated on the third, instead of the fourth, Thursday in November. So I thought she was talking about taking off 19th through 21st November, while she was talking about 26th through 28th. Being so sure about the dates I signed her form without looking at the dates and consequently applied for a holiday between 24 November and 3 December, intending to go to Vienna between 26.11. and 1.12.
Founately somehow we realized our (or rather my) mistake in time so I could postpone my flight by two days. And I've still got today and tomorrow off work, which isn't as good as the original plan but still better than nothing.
My brother Christian came to visit last weekend, and we had a wonderful time. On Friday (he arrived at 2 p.m.) we first went home to have coffee and a long, nice chat, then went to see Quantum of Solace and afterwards to have dinner. On Saturday we slept late, had a long, lazy breakfast (well he did, I can't eat before noon), then did what sightseeing can be done in Ankara, which isn't much. Then we returned home to look at the photos he'd taken during his recent holiday in Dubai, and in the evening we had dinner with the usual suspects. The very humane time of departure yesterday (14.40) left enough time for sleeping late and having a non-hasty breakfast.
This was the first time in years that we spent more than 2 or 3 hours together. We both appreciated it a lot.
Re. Quantum of Solace: I have to admit that I'd already seen it the weekend before last, together with the usual suspects, and that watching it a second time wasn't much of a sacrifice. The only thing I didn't like was the title song, but the movie itself was good. Very fast, very action-heavy (and much suspension of disbelief required), but IMO that formed a nice contrast to the last movie, where Bond is still vulnerable, able to fall in love and take his time. Now he has repressed all his emotions (except his liking of M, which is a wonderful sub-thread) and doesn't allow himself to linger anymore. And there wa a brief moment of "ha, Austria!" in spite of knowing that people don't dress like that at the Bregenz festival. But then you can't do with a Hercules what Bond did with it, so why be accurate with dress codes, if you disregard the laws of physics? It's a Bond movie, not a scientific documentary. And they did a great job of overlapping action scenes with the Palio and with Tosca.
Since the last couple of posts was super-locked, here's the good news for everybody to read: 6 July 2009 will be my first day of work in Skopje!!
Founately somehow we realized our (or rather my) mistake in time so I could postpone my flight by two days. And I've still got today and tomorrow off work, which isn't as good as the original plan but still better than nothing.
My brother Christian came to visit last weekend, and we had a wonderful time. On Friday (he arrived at 2 p.m.) we first went home to have coffee and a long, nice chat, then went to see Quantum of Solace and afterwards to have dinner. On Saturday we slept late, had a long, lazy breakfast (well he did, I can't eat before noon), then did what sightseeing can be done in Ankara, which isn't much. Then we returned home to look at the photos he'd taken during his recent holiday in Dubai, and in the evening we had dinner with the usual suspects. The very humane time of departure yesterday (14.40) left enough time for sleeping late and having a non-hasty breakfast.
This was the first time in years that we spent more than 2 or 3 hours together. We both appreciated it a lot.
Re. Quantum of Solace: I have to admit that I'd already seen it the weekend before last, together with the usual suspects, and that watching it a second time wasn't much of a sacrifice. The only thing I didn't like was the title song, but the movie itself was good. Very fast, very action-heavy (and much suspension of disbelief required), but IMO that formed a nice contrast to the last movie, where Bond is still vulnerable, able to fall in love and take his time. Now he has repressed all his emotions (except his liking of M, which is a wonderful sub-thread) and doesn't allow himself to linger anymore. And there wa a brief moment of "ha, Austria!" in spite of knowing that people don't dress like that at the Bregenz festival. But then you can't do with a Hercules what Bond did with it, so why be accurate with dress codes, if you disregard the laws of physics? It's a Bond movie, not a scientific documentary. And they did a great job of overlapping action scenes with the Palio and with Tosca.
Since the last couple of posts was super-locked, here's the good news for everybody to read: 6 July 2009 will be my first day of work in Skopje!!
