![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The weekend so far
Oct. 18th, 2009 06:59 amThe best news first: yesterday Irene and I finally went to get a subscription for the gym. It is, as some of you might remember, ladies-only, and they have a very cunning system there: You can subscribe to as many days of fitness-only (i.e. all sorts of machines) per week as you like, and there are also subscriptions for 3 Pilates or Aerobics or Kick Fit lessons per week. You're free to combine these subscriptions and thus make your very own programme.
We'd decided to start with fitness 3 times a week -- I've still got my tennis twice a week, so more than 3 times gym won't be possible anyway. Prices are very reasonable; 3 times torture machines costs € 35, and they have very good, attentive coaches.
I did 45 min on the treadmill, alternating between walking and running, and then a round on the machines. It's funny how much stronger my right arm is after 2 months of tennis -- this was, among others, the reason to start with the gym, because I don't want to have one muscular and one flabby arm.
It really was Sports Saturday, because we'd already done our customary 2 hrs walking in the morning. But there was pizza in between, and a bit of (mostly window-)shopping. I got myself 4 pairs of earrings,nothing overly expensive but pretty.
Today looks quite grey and rainy, so let's see about the walk. I have a pair of trousers to shorten anyway, and I also ought to shorten the sleeves of a black jacket. And to get as many Macedonian words as possile into my head. We finally did both progressive past and aorist, which means that I'm now almost perfectly equipped to talk. Knowing the words would help, though.
Another piece of good news: I had my first driving lesson on Friday. I must confess that I almost chickened out, but then I persuaded myself to go through with it, and if it was really horrible, I was still free to decide to give up.
But it wasn't horrible. On the contrary, I quite liked it, and I think I might actually learn how to drive. Instructor snorted with laughter when, after a few rounds on a deserted parking space, we went out onto a quiet street and I squeed, "Look, look, I'm actually driving a car!!!"
Next lesson tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to it.
The thought of actually moving in real traffic is still quite scary, but not overly so. I'm sure the instructor won't let me go out there unless he thinks it's moderately safe. So there ;-)
A propos driving: ambassador asked me how I'd liked my lesson and told me he'd never yet had an accident. Friday evening he came to pick me up, because we were both going to the opening night of a Spanish film festival, and we almost had an accident: we were in the middle lane, and suddenly a car switched from left to middle lane (no signalling, and evidently amb.'s car had been in his dead angle, which is of course no excuse). Boss had to brake hard and managed not to hit it, but only by a scarce metre. Nothing would have happened to either of us, because the car is a big SUV, but things wouldn't have gone so well for the other driver, whom we would've hit midship, and the passenger seat was occupied.
The movie they showed at the opening night was strange. "Muerte de un ciclista", black-and-white and from the 50's. If it had a political subtext -- whether pro- or anti-Franco-- I must admit I didn't quite get it. Otherwise it was just rather moralistic, and of course the bad woman, i.e. the one who smoked, drove a car and had a lover, died in the end. At least she had the presence of mind to run over her lover before she accidentally drove the car over the side of a bridge. Still, it was interesting, and even though I wouldn't have got it all without the English subtitles, I was surprised at how much Spanish I actually still understand.
We had a team meeting on Friday (the second already), and I was careful to ply people with self-made veggie lasagna and wine before giving the bad news to the local staff: they've been enjoying the privilege of free time on both Austrian and Macedonian holidays for years, and naturally didn't react well to having it taken away, even though they knew very well that it was against the rules. I didn't just take away, though: They're now all going to have 25 days of paid leave per year, and in exchange they'll have to take a day off on every Austrian holiday, or else they can come in to work on a Macedonian holiday and get an Austrian one in exchange. Given that the expat staff works all Macedonian holidays, I think that's quite fair. Other embassies cancel all local holidays exept for one or two religious ones. (Quite rightly, too, because there are almost 20 holidays in Macedonia)
As I said, some of them -- the more senior ones, who already have 22 or 23 days of paid leave per year and won't be gaining as much as the junior ones -- didn't take it too well, but they don't have a choice anyway. They're extremely well paid, and giving them an extra 10 free days a year just doesn't seem necessary or fair.
Next week is looking moderately busy, with another Macedonian holiday on Friday, and then there's the National Day reception on the 26th, and on the 27th I'm off to Vienna for a few days. My absence will be a kind of acid test: if it turns out that the embassy collapses while I'm away, that means that I haven't given people enough information, and it would also be necessary to work on my delegating skills. Let's see. I'm willing to learn and mend my ways.
We'd decided to start with fitness 3 times a week -- I've still got my tennis twice a week, so more than 3 times gym won't be possible anyway. Prices are very reasonable; 3 times torture machines costs € 35, and they have very good, attentive coaches.
I did 45 min on the treadmill, alternating between walking and running, and then a round on the machines. It's funny how much stronger my right arm is after 2 months of tennis -- this was, among others, the reason to start with the gym, because I don't want to have one muscular and one flabby arm.
It really was Sports Saturday, because we'd already done our customary 2 hrs walking in the morning. But there was pizza in between, and a bit of (mostly window-)shopping. I got myself 4 pairs of earrings,nothing overly expensive but pretty.
Today looks quite grey and rainy, so let's see about the walk. I have a pair of trousers to shorten anyway, and I also ought to shorten the sleeves of a black jacket. And to get as many Macedonian words as possile into my head. We finally did both progressive past and aorist, which means that I'm now almost perfectly equipped to talk. Knowing the words would help, though.
Another piece of good news: I had my first driving lesson on Friday. I must confess that I almost chickened out, but then I persuaded myself to go through with it, and if it was really horrible, I was still free to decide to give up.
But it wasn't horrible. On the contrary, I quite liked it, and I think I might actually learn how to drive. Instructor snorted with laughter when, after a few rounds on a deserted parking space, we went out onto a quiet street and I squeed, "Look, look, I'm actually driving a car!!!"
Next lesson tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to it.
The thought of actually moving in real traffic is still quite scary, but not overly so. I'm sure the instructor won't let me go out there unless he thinks it's moderately safe. So there ;-)
A propos driving: ambassador asked me how I'd liked my lesson and told me he'd never yet had an accident. Friday evening he came to pick me up, because we were both going to the opening night of a Spanish film festival, and we almost had an accident: we were in the middle lane, and suddenly a car switched from left to middle lane (no signalling, and evidently amb.'s car had been in his dead angle, which is of course no excuse). Boss had to brake hard and managed not to hit it, but only by a scarce metre. Nothing would have happened to either of us, because the car is a big SUV, but things wouldn't have gone so well for the other driver, whom we would've hit midship, and the passenger seat was occupied.
The movie they showed at the opening night was strange. "Muerte de un ciclista", black-and-white and from the 50's. If it had a political subtext -- whether pro- or anti-Franco-- I must admit I didn't quite get it. Otherwise it was just rather moralistic, and of course the bad woman, i.e. the one who smoked, drove a car and had a lover, died in the end. At least she had the presence of mind to run over her lover before she accidentally drove the car over the side of a bridge. Still, it was interesting, and even though I wouldn't have got it all without the English subtitles, I was surprised at how much Spanish I actually still understand.
We had a team meeting on Friday (the second already), and I was careful to ply people with self-made veggie lasagna and wine before giving the bad news to the local staff: they've been enjoying the privilege of free time on both Austrian and Macedonian holidays for years, and naturally didn't react well to having it taken away, even though they knew very well that it was against the rules. I didn't just take away, though: They're now all going to have 25 days of paid leave per year, and in exchange they'll have to take a day off on every Austrian holiday, or else they can come in to work on a Macedonian holiday and get an Austrian one in exchange. Given that the expat staff works all Macedonian holidays, I think that's quite fair. Other embassies cancel all local holidays exept for one or two religious ones. (Quite rightly, too, because there are almost 20 holidays in Macedonia)
As I said, some of them -- the more senior ones, who already have 22 or 23 days of paid leave per year and won't be gaining as much as the junior ones -- didn't take it too well, but they don't have a choice anyway. They're extremely well paid, and giving them an extra 10 free days a year just doesn't seem necessary or fair.
Next week is looking moderately busy, with another Macedonian holiday on Friday, and then there's the National Day reception on the 26th, and on the 27th I'm off to Vienna for a few days. My absence will be a kind of acid test: if it turns out that the embassy collapses while I'm away, that means that I haven't given people enough information, and it would also be necessary to work on my delegating skills. Let's see. I'm willing to learn and mend my ways.
