I've been nudged...

... by ladyjanevaand ihkeleleand rightly so, because this last silence was a very prolonged one. So, first of all, no, I'm neither unhappy nor ill nor in any negative state of body or mind. The last 1,5 months have been quite busy -- ambassador was on holiday -- and Irene stayed at my place till 11 September, so there wasn't much online time.
And, also first of all -- seems we have ourselves a tie here --a very belated Happy Birthday!!!! to everybody who started another year of life during those last weeks. I hope you had a wonderful time with loved ones, and your wishes have already come true or will do so shortly.

So, what's new? Nothing much, I'm afraid. I'm still deliriously happy to be here in Skopje. Due to regular exercise and small amounts of food -- no diet, just not very hungry -- I've lost two sizes already and am currently hovering in some sort of limbo between sizes. This makes shopping a bit awkward, because the various acquisitions don't fit for a very long time. Shoes do, though, and it seems I've rediscovered my inner shoe fetishist. They have a Geox shop here, and the new collection contains some lovely, high-heeled specimens. Two pairs were bought yesterday, one patent leather with a wedge, and one pair of naughty-governess shoes. Plus (very discreet) fishnets, because that's what naughty governesses wear ;-)

About 3 weeks ago, or maybe 4, I started taking tennis lessons and love it. Needless to say that physical coordination comes more slowly than if I were 20, but there's steady progress. That's what the coach says, anyway.

Driving lessons will be tackled after my birthday, on the grounds that I want to have one more birthday with all my limbs attached. But I'm looking forward to it immensely, and even more to the day when I'll have my own car and be able to drive to the tennis court instead of calling a taxi. Not to mention driving round Macedonia.

Language lessons are progressing very well, although last week I didn't have even one -- delegation from Vienna kept me busy till Wednesday, and the teacher had to cancel the Thursday lesson. But we'll be resuming our habitual rhythm this week, and I've been promised past tenses. That's a good thing, because if you don't know the past tenses, speaking is a bit difficult. Once I've mastered them, I'm going to instruct the local staff to address me only in Macedonian. I'm sure there will be laughter, but learning to speak fluently is more important than pride. (Although I'm mortally afraid of ruining my reputation by mixing up the words pie and spie, pronounced pee-eand spee-e , the first of which means drink and the second sleep, so I might want to say "I drank with him/her" and it might come out as "I slept with him/her")

Preparations for the National Holiday reception on 26 October are in full swing; I've finished the obligatory one-on-one talks with the whole staff, so that now all I have to do is to have my talk with the boss and report to him about the results of the others. I just finished preparing my notes for the Quarterly Report, wich I'll be typing tomorrow -- the muse has put on her hiking boots, obviously, and become more pedestrian. But the Ambassador hates writing those reports, and I like to do it, so it seemed logical for me to take over that task.

Except for Milan, I've never been happier with my job. The additional dimension it has here -- all the political reports and, frankly, quite interesting meetings (well, 80% are interesting, but one can't have it all) -- has thoroughly spoiled me for any other posting where I wouldn't be Deputy Head of Mission. Fortunately there is a lot of small embassies with mixed deputy head/consul/administrator functions, so I won't have a problem finding something after Skopje (unless I choose to return to Vienna, of course).

Well, that's it, basically. Tomorrow is a Macedonian holiday (Bayram, i.e. Muslim holiday), so it's going to be a nice, quiet day.

I hope you're all having relaxing, pleasant weekends, dear friends. *waves*