Done it

Finished. Wrote over 50 thousand words in a month. Validated it. It is official now: I did a challenge and very unlike me, I finished. Now I have a short, very very patchy and in a state of dire need of editing, but totally existing and developable novel. Whoa!!!
And, totally coincidentally, right now the song is playing I've chosen for title: December Flower, from the band In Flames. (Because I needed a title at registration... but the album was one of my main inspirations.)
So, as the little badge on the right hand corner says, 50136 words, as the NaNo validator counts. I deleted some date and time stamps and of course every text editor is different, but my official word count was 50466. I'll take the lower number though, still good enough :) Actually, got a bit cloudy eyed at the end, but what the heck, I finally did something quite impressive! Even if it's full with grammar mistakes, typos, word repetitions, and probably will be painful to read again all the blabbering I wrote when the only thing I was concentrating on was getting to the daily word count.
 That display might look quite checkered, but I was actually quite surprised how many times I could make myself sit down at around 8pm and write for two hours (after the full 8 hours work day).
Will be good to be back to regular schedule tho :)

Election Day

The USA is voting for president today (and for a bunch of congressmen, senators and other officials as well). One of the few positive parts of Sandy The Storm was that it took off the focus from the campaigns. I had enough of listening to all that beeeeep. Now I can only hope and cross my fingers that the outcome will be something similar than it was four years ago and not like twelve years ago. Would hate a recounting again.
And where is this concern me, a Hungarian-living-in-the-UK? Well it's the same planet. That country is one of the most influential, in multiple aspects. What they choose, the way they First Guy talks, has it's influence everywhere. And I hope we won't end up wishing Bush back.


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On the writing front: after not being able to write a word during the weekend - aside of a few texts... - I've written over 2300 words both today and yesterday. Took the decision and jumped from the start of the plot to a middle where i had scene almost ready in my head. It was the right choice; the beginning is a very delicate time as I know since I read Dune, both the books beginning and the beginning few things in this challenge, I think. While i was plodding away with the start, trying to figure out how to set up things so I'll end up at the story I wanted to tell, I was just working. Thinking, redoing, planning, going slowly. Now I'm just writing, pulling out the story I already thought through from my brain as I write. I think i will have to keep doing this: writing down the bits I have already planned out and not following the time line. After all, the 50k is the minimum amount, not the amount the story has to fit in.

Bonfire weekend, afterparty

"Remember, remember the 5th of November" - I read today at many places. another very british thing: remembering someone who wanted to blow up their leaders. I think most other places would remember those whose stopped him/them, but not the british, who seem to love everything contradictory.
As for the fireworks, they were going off all weekend, especially at friday and saturday evenings, so i guess those were the big shows - today was much quieter compared to them.

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On a totally unrelated note, one of my colleagues made some baked pasta for the boys and was left with one more portion, so she gave it to me. I always eat her cakes when she brings them sometimes to the pub - I sooo miss homecooked food! Own made doesn't count - so i guess she thought i'd like it. I did aside of the sausage. Can't find proper sausage here.

31

Yesterday, i turned 31 years old. I had the day off and spent it with doing absolutely nothing of worth :D Or almost nothing, as i did my food shopping and tested a telly and did opened a book...
I did go out later with my cousins and a friend who's visiting them and had a quite good night in my favourite (read: the only one which i can tolerate) club, then crashed at my cousin's place.
Best part of the night was when the other club opposite the one we were in had a firedancer performing on the street :) Thanks for the show :)

Get-together

 August 20th is a national holiday in Hungary and on that occasion we had a "little" get-together yesterday in the local park. Didn't knew there's so many of us living in the town! It was nice to meet with so many of them and speak hungarian. Everyone was supposed to take care of their own food only but as is good hungarian custom everybody bought more then enough and shared it with others (yummy meatloaf and cakes...) Of cousre we had some palinka too :) Most people stayed until the park closed but i left quite early so missed the fireworks. Also, this was the hottest day of the year so far (and probably will stay so) we actually hit 30°C!!!

It's 11/11/11

... and not 11/11/11, bloody americans. ;)

Had a very very long day. Bad sleep, horrible morning, bad thoughts all day long. :(

30

I've never ever thought i will live to this age.
Of course while in one-digit (and even teen) age, anyone over the third x seemed to be in almost-pensioner age, just a couple years away from retirement. Aside of mum who will always stay young, of course.
Then sometime after hitting two digits came the realization that twenty-something is a reasonable age so thirtysomething might not be that old, after all. It must be a comfortable middle-age; but we'll never get there anyways as teens and twenties will last, like, about forever.
Getting beyond the second x comes the first tentative sign of a strange thing called wisdom: one looks back and admits being young and silly, which now, being a serious adult with two decades of experience, they can see. That lasts until the middle of the decade when everything goes downhill with a frantic search for some imaginary "break" to stop the passing of the time and get protected against the impending doom of the number 3.

Which is of course futile and with that realisation comes the thought that now we are in the same age our parent were at the time of our first memories.

Actually they were a bit younger as they get married and started families at a younger age then we do.

I've really, never, ever thought i will live to see this age. It seemed way too old, way too serious, way too late to do anything unless done before.

Also i've never thought that i'll manage to survive to this age. That we won't get destroyed by a third world war or a global downturn into tyranny or some uncurable illness be it an epidemic or aids or an alien virus from space. Or by simply being hit by a car. Or just being told by someone that i didn't made the cut and society doesn't need me anymore.
I even thought that unless i can prove that i've achieved something - career, or a house with dogs and kids and husband, or a finished novel - then i will just simple evaporate as "someone not worthy".

Of course the last couple years made me realise none of these will happen and indeed almost certainly i'll get to the age of thirty. And over.
And i won't drop dead or be ostracized or written down. Actually, barely anyone will notice. Barely anyone will think " ah she's thirty and achived nothing" because, well, no one cares.

And on brighter side, the majority is still older then me, despite the feeling that the streets are full of teens and kids and younger people who think exactly the same thing i thought about age. And they will come to the same conclusion, or more likely, they won't even ponder about it like i did.

I'm not sure i will ever like my age though.
Maybe it is just a number - while in school, everyone told me i'm more mature then my age and only realized recently that that was only partially true as i was really immature in some aspects. (Which explains why i've puzzled some of my teachers so much.) I'm still immature in things. I also look younger then my age - being short is an advantage sometimes :) I also behave younger then my age, being a member of the Peter Pan generation and something of a geek.

Only thing i know is i can't turn time back. I can't even slow it down. I can't change things that happened in my past and can't put my life on a different track so to end up somewhere else. I have tons of regrets and while i'll have to bear with that weight i sincerely hope that my next decade will be better then the last one.

After all, i'm a serious thirty-years-old now.

Six years

I moved to England exactly six years ago. I didn't knew what to expect, and had no plans for the future aside of learning to speak english properly so i can't say that things didn't turned out as i planned - but nothing happened in a way i ever could've imagined.
Here's hope that the next six will be better :)

Last week

Wow what a week - lots of time off and only three days work :)

On easter monday, P buggered off to his island to see some family and friends, which meant i had the telly all for myself for the most of the day! Also i had no one to protest against turning the lounge into a crafts workshop.
I pulled out my beading tools and materials and in 5 hours, i had made a few things i was really happy with - as opposed with the last time when i tried this sort of crafting, and ended up with three earrings (pieces, not pairs). I made a bookmark and a keyring for P's mum, a keyring for my mum, and also a bracelet and two pairs of earrings for myself, and started another bracelet. At that point i started to run out of blue beads, so i was left with the charms only. Will continue when i have money to get some more supplies.

Tuesday, wednesday and thursday were workdays, so i could only work at the evenings on a small cross-stitch pattern for my cousin who just got her own flat (rented, not own).

Friday was spent in front of the telly again, of course, watching the wedding - i booked the time weeks ago and P still tried to protest until he gave up and went off to play pool. I was prepared for the day, too,here's how i started - toast, cup of tea and a commemorative sampler to stitch on. Around two at the afternoon i had my cousins over, tho K was so busy with her new phone (Samsung galaxy - very jealous) that she might as well not been there at all.

Saturday P was working, and he was sufficently grumpy about it. I had a much better day, i could actually spend some money to buy a few much needed clothes. I can't even remember when was the last time i bought new clothes. P got out of work at half past 4, and as i was still in the town, he asked me to start to walk towards his workplace so we'll meet up halfway. Wasn't a bad idea except half a street away from the football stadium the crowd started to come towards me - the game just finished... bad timing :)
In the evening we went down to Old Leigh which turned out to be more then "just 4 pubs" - there was a Tea Garden too, which i immediatly associated with Madame Puddyfoot's in the HP books, little antique shops and a couple galleries too. Aide of the best restaurant in Essex. We started at the Petersboat, but it was a bit too chilly plus no one was there, so we went to the Smack after one drink and luckily we did found some friends there, inside - in the family area, but no kids were around so it was ok. We left somewhat early as we (i) didn't wanted to spend much money. It was a good night but the money situation is still makes it hard to have a real night out, as it turned out on sunday morning when i assessed the damages and realized we had a bill to pay i didn't took into account, leaving us 40 pounds shorter then i expected. I was quite angry at myself - can't wait to have things sorted out finally and not having to worry that one bill will leave us in **** for a whole week or longer.
Had a lazy sunday afterwards, with pizza and some crafting. I tried out quilling - don't know why not "coiling", to sound more sophisticated or to make people confuse it with quilting. That happened at the craftshop were all i could find were two small books on quiling at the quilt and patchwork section, no papers or tools at all. So i ordered some on the internet, looked up instructions and pictures on the internet and in my craft magazines and started to coil. I quite like it, my problem could be that it is so small, but i like it that it needs some dexterity in each piece as opposed with the knitting or cross stitch were all stitch is the same.
I will make a card and/or box for the keyring and send them for my mum for her birthday.

Then i got up this morning, with the intent of finally writing something onto this blog, and as i usually do, checked the news.
Another day spent on BBC. It took them 9 years to train up those SEALs but finally they done it - bet w bush is gutted that it wasn't him who got Osama. Well we'll see the effects in the coming weeks, i hope it doesn't turn even worse.

Happy New Year! - BÚÉK!

(Now back to the sponge factory...)

(Ideje visszamenni szivacsot pakolni...)

New flat, new snow - Új lakás, új hó

Early this morning we signed the contract for the new flat. This will be the second place i live since i moved to england 5 years ago, and this is the second time we had snow this year 8the first time lasted for a week :P) The nerves with the paperwork and workplace problems in the last two weeks pretty much took away the exitement but it was still a very good feeling to have it all settled. I had to fire up the boiler - 'coz i'm good with boilers - ha ha... Took a couple of hours to warm up, though a breakfast did help to feel less numb of the cold. We tried to ring up the landlord too as according to the contract we have to ask his permission for any redecorations but he didn't answered - P thought that's good as it means he doesn't really care what we do. So we did some measurements - until i broke the tape measure, then sampled a few paints in the bedroom where the wallpaper looks actually quite bad, so can't think that the landlord would have problem with that being taken care of.
Around one o'clock it started snowing, which was looked quite pretty and really cold considering how close we are to the seashore - and not some protected estuary but the actual North Sea. Wind was blowing from the direction of the shore blowing the snow paralell with the ground. We started to think about getting to move in spite of all this as we knew it can get really bad at least considering public transport. Well we've been a bit too slow (or too quick?) because we just missed a bus, then for about an hour, there were no buses nor trains going, and the snow just kept falling. When finally a train came and did depart too the snow was almost over but i was so numb that even the hot shower weren't enough to warm me up.
Then in the evening the girls tried to convince me to go out to dance - well i'm really not in the mood for clubbing and definately don't want to stick my nose out of the door until i don't have to at tomorrow morning.Hopefully i wont be numb then.

First snow - Első hó

There was a bit of snowfall this morning, the first this winter - what else could possibly have a more cheering up effect in a monday morning? :)

It started to really fall when i reached High street - i made this picture in front of the station, looking towards the university. Then, Shoeburyness being closer to the see, there was even more there. Yey :)

Of course all was gone at lunchtime - only a few very small patches remained in the shadows.

Only the cold remained for the evening, had a nice meal at Wimpey's - i thought it's a fast food place like macd's or bking, but it was almost a restaurant - including they prices. But it was nice, nice food, well made, the orange juice yummy, even the ketchup was tasty. Good thing i didn't know its not a cheap place beforehand otherwise i never would've gone in, especially not in a monday evening when i'm planning a nice homecooked meal for tomorrow :D

HP 7 /1

Watched it yesterday! Boyfriend wanted to take me to Lakeside because they have sofas there (and beer ;) but bus replacements were runnning instead of the trains so we postponed that. The local cinema was nearly full, so had a look around the area and ended up going to Romford. The whole day was bit tight on the schedule but also we had luck each and every time - all trains and buses were on time, with minimal waiting. The shopping centre we went to was a nice building design-wise, all floating roofs and creativity, but i bet the architect never heard about fear of heights. There was a pavement escalator (not stairs but smooth surface) wich went up with a u-bend, very slowly, in the middle of the building, far away from any wall, with two floor high drops on both sides. Freaked both of us out. Had to look up the stairs later which were no more then fire-exit stairs, stickered up with "Stairs to all levels" for people like us.
Other then this, it was really nice. We had dinner at a fully packed Nando's and silly me realized after finishing that they do indeed make plain chicken :P Usually i have medium hot ones, but yesterday i wasn't in a spicy food - mood. For the movie we got ourselves a twister bottle of blue and orange fruit juice (wich leaked after the crashed ice in it melted), sweet popcorn, and a selection of sweets. Felt like being on Hogwarts Express trying out all the sweets from the trolley :)
We catched the last train home, and our luck lasted, both the toilets and the waiting room were open so i was saved from having to stand in the freezing night at 1 am for 40 minutes while in desperate need of a loo.
And the film itself? Mmmm :) This was the first HP movie which i didn't felt rushed, they finally had time to do all the things nicely, staying true to the book's plot as much as possible without the feeling that they left half the important things out. The first scene, as soon they showed Hermione in her room... i knew what will happen, and it made me cry right away. And a couple more scenes too, not to mention i always well up when the main title comes up. Also we agreed that Ron was the best in the whole movie, i just cant get over Hermione's talk, the actress' timing is always a bit off for me, and the guy who plays Harry is just going along somehow. All in all i really liked this as finally it didnt feel like its just an illustration of the book version, but a real interpretation.

On the knitting front, i messed up the seconf glove. Started the fingers in the same row i did the thumb in :P

Milagros

20 and counting :)

4UP

It's so good to have some good news and hopeful things going on. I hope everithing goes well at that mine in Chile :) I was following the news since they were found and is so heartwarming to see a country and even people from other contries join together, things being handled right by authorites, experts asked, even survivors of the Peru plane crash lending a hand, in all, its just so good to see humans doing well :)

Wardobe finished - Szekrény befejezve

Wardrobe in making - Ruhásszekrény, készülőfélben

Birthday presents - Szülinapi ajándékok

I dont know what's the costum in England but in Hungary we say birthdays are valid plus and minus 8 days from the real date - meaning birthday wishes and presents can be 8 days early or late and are considered being right on time. Well, seven days, but royalmail needed the last three :D
A "bigbottle" of Soak to wash all my handknits with it, and a pair of fancy rosewood needles, only 6 inches long, but hopefully i will use them to make scarfs this autumn as much as i use my symphony woods for shawls :)

Concerning football - Ami a focit illeti

"Football is a game played by 22 people and always won by the germans. " I heard this a couple years ago when England was beaten by Germany, again. I was never that impressed by them but wow what a play today. Poor poor Argentina.

"A foci egy olyan játék, amit 22-en játszanak, és mindig a németek nyernek." 4-0 Argentína ellen, szuper meccs.

That guy is Maradona??!! Wow. And i saw him playing when he was called the best player in the world! Ok it might have been like twenty years ago... no wait, i can't be that old...

Hát Maradonát nem ismertem volna föl ha nem mondják be a nevét. És én még láttam játszani anno, amikor ő volt a legjobb játékos a világon. Persze lehet, hogy ez már 20 éve volt... na neeem, annyira nem lehetek öreg...

This is the third big tournament since i live here in England and the support was they highest ever now - more flags, hats and shirts then at the last two occasions put together. At least here in Southend.
This is how our canteen looked like; thats three tv-sets on top of big boxes. Normally we dont have any. (I hope they leave one here after the cup...)

Az angolok beleadtak mindent a dekorálásba - annyi zászló, mez meg miegyéb van (volt) mindenfelé, mint az előző vb + eb alatt összesen. A gyári kantin is teljesen ki volt dekorálva, a három tévéről nem is beszélve. Eddig soha nem volt tévénk (remélem egyet legalább itthagynak a vb után...)

Some of my collegues before the match against Slovenia. We were allowed to watch the match in the canteen but no payment for that time (no holiday either) and no beer.

Pár kollégám élt a lehetőséggel hogy nézhettük a meccset - munkaidőben, fizu/szabi és sör nélkül.

The last teabreak was just before halftime, so we arrived to find virtually no free chairs. We had to sit on the tables at back, then after 5 minutes, at halftime, everyone rushed out and we could have a look at the highlights. Some girls from the office were mingling with the working class too :)

Az utolsó szünetünk félidő előtt öt perccel kezdődött, úgyhogy csak a terem hátuljában tudtunk leülni az asztalokra. Aztán öt perc múlva mindenki kirohant a félidei cigire, és megnézhettük az összefoglalót. Volt ott egy pár csaj az irodából is, keverve a munkásnéppel :)

Still dumb... - Még mindig...

Started a simple cardigan pattern. Instruction: Cast on 115 stitches. Using markers, that's 30 + 30 + 30 +15. Right? It was for me, for 5 cm of ribbing and another 8 rows of stocking st, at least. After that, I felt really really dumb. Have to take up crosswords or some logic-boosting thing before i sink into the level of a holstein-friesian.

Mooo.

Probably because of this (another...) failure, i led myself persuaded by my cousin K and cousin-in-law C to go with them to a club after the pub instead of going home. I dressed deliberately casually, jeans and training shoes, as the clubs here all have dress-code. Unfortunately for me the other two wasn't too dressed up either plus the place wasn't full so they let me in too. Before i knew what's happening i was paying the 6 pounds entry and got to the edge of the dancefloor... Luckily the bar was nearby too. It turned out quite nicely though, somehow i found the don'give a damn rocker in me and even the music couldn't bother. We had a funny evening, girls night out while my other cousin was babysitting his daughter at home :D
And thank god - or whoever invented it - for the green tea. ;)