Spending money

...but not my own. All that's left of the budget has to go -- so far we've bought massive amounts of cleaning products for both Embassy and residence, and the office supplies should arrive shortly. Tomorrow a new vacuum cleaner for the residence will be acquired.
Speaking of the residence: as all residence household staff, the two females currently employed by boss are lazy, sluggish and more than a little stupid. Oh, and I forgot uncooperative. Getting them to actually do the shopping before the fiscal year is over was a Herculean task. Sending them out to buy a new vacuum cleaner is apparently impossible. So I said, ok, I'll go and buy it. And now I have to take one of them with me -- boss asked very nicely, arguing that they shouldn't feel excluded o_O but that there should also be an intelligent party present when the purchase is being made. I replied, with the slightest hint of acid, that I'd be careful to choose an intelligent v.c., so as to ensure that some kind of intelligence be involved in the cleaning of the residence.

Boss and I still haven't had my evaluation talk. I've nudged him several times, and today we finally agreed to hold it tomorrow.
Me: OK, what about 11 a.m.?
Boss: Mmmmh...
Me: 10?
Boss: Mmmmmh...
Me: We're having lunch at 1 p.m. with the Good Doctor [the one who treated my tennis elbow and boss's knee], so we can't do it in the afternoon.
Boss: Well...
Me: We're going to be tipsy, both of us.
Boss: But that would make for a much nicer atmosphere, wouldn't it?

So the talk will take place tomorrow afternoon. Piece of cake for me, but he's got to take notes. *giggles*

Alexandra (the human owned by Lola Stola) is back in Skopje for today; her company's Xmas do (Macedonian Xmas is 6/7 January) is in the afternoon, and tonight we'll have a girls' night at her place. Wine, cheese, olives, chatting and Lola.

Quarterly report still not finished, because I had to translate all the receipts (similar to Hermione's homework, i.e. several feet long) into German. The ministry insists on having those translations, even though they're not able to check them. Plus, there was this morning's visit to Lola Stola, and afterwards the Macedonian lesson. Not exactly an unproductive day, but I'd like to have that report finished already.