The ketchup effect and doing the right thing..

This weekend my aim was to figure out what to do and make some rather important decisions. I am glad it is a long weekend!! For all of a sudden I have a few concrete offers to consider, you know the ketchup effect; first there is nothing, then comes nothing and then more of nothing and then finally there is more than you can handle. So, now I have three job offers (and maybe a fourth that I haven’t had the final decision about yet), that I need to give an answer to as soon as possible, as none of them is really optimal it is not so easy. First of all, none of them is a permanent position, so regardless of which I would choose I would still have the feeling of temporality and I would still have to continue to look for another job. Ok, two of them might get extended, but you can never take things like that for granted. Two of them are until the end of the year and the third only till the end of August. One is in Stockholm where I used to work, not the same position that I quit, but with the same employer in a better position. That means; I know what to expect and there are no unpleasant surprises and I can live in a place where I already have a lot of nice friends. On the other hand, I will not learn anything new, I will not get new experiences and it will not take me further. The second is the nice job in the ugly little small town I have been writing about before. I thought I had gotten used to the thought of moving there, but when they only could offer me a temporary position a lot changed. With a temporary position I know I will not be able to adapt myself as well and the move felt a lot less tempting. The third choice is for a summer position at the embassy in Abuja, the place I would never go to, but that now really is tempting me.

I know that the most sensible thing would be to move to the small town and take the nice job, for even if it is just temporary it might lead to other things and I will get new experiences and a new network. And of course I will not have to live all my life in that small town, if I really don’t like it the fact that it is only a temporary job can make it easy for me to leave. This choice is for sure the most sensible and “adult” choice. Why can I then not feel sensible and adult!?!

On the other hand people often say you should follow your gut-feeling when making decisions, your gut never lies. My gut wants to go to Nigeria! This is probably my only chance to go to Nigeria; it is not really a tourist destination. It would be exciting and interesting, but it would leave me in the same position in September again. But who knows maybe September is better than January…

So, how is it? Should one really listen to your head or your stomach???

Bad thing about being an adult!

I suppose it is normal that taste changes (gets more mature?) as you get older and I think it is mostly for the better, I mean I really appreciate that I like olives now, which I did not when I was a kid. But there is one thing that I really feel sad about and that has changed for the worse. I am not as fond of ice cream as I used to be!!
I still like and eat ice cream, but I don’t get that happy, completely satisfied feeling from eating ice cream anymore. I used to easily devour litres of ice cream, now I often get enough after a couple of small spoons. Sometimes I even feel disappointed as I still think I like it as much as I used to. I can look forward to have some of my favourite ice, but when I get it and take the fist bite, I feel it does not taste as I want it to and I feel disappointed. Sometimes I even throw away my ice before I finish even half of it!!! That is sad. Bad thing about being an adult!

Have you ever been drunk?

To day I got a (another) proof of how out of this world my father is. Or at least of how little he knows me. Or maybe what he wants to know about his daughters. I was having lunch with my parents and the discussion somehow led in on alcohol and all of a sudden he asks me; “Gudrun, have you ever been drunk? “
I almost choked and did not know how to react. Especially as I realise that there is no humour or irony in his question. My mother burst out laughing, but I really did not know what to say. Especially as he somehow seemed to misunderstand our reactions and started explaining; “I mean have you ever drunk that much that you felt dizzy? Not, that I think you have, but…..”
Come on!!!
The only thing I could say was that if he hadn’t figured that out by now, he needn’t know now either and that the question might have been motivated when I was 15, but now…..

Have a nice weekend!
I will go and get drunk! :-)

Difficult travelling

This weekend I realised that travelling is not always so easy! Especially not if you travel by Swedish rail. I will not comment on the one hour delay we had on the way from Gothenburg to Helsingborg as that was due to some accident between Varberg and Falkenberg and I kind of assumed that it could have been someone who committed suicide and that is really nothing you can blame SJ (Swedish Rail) for. But my friends who were travelling from Germany to Helsingborg got stuck in Malmö simply because the rail company did not have any staff!!
The worst thing was however when we tried to get the tickets for one of my German friend who wanted to go back to Osnabrück on Sunday. First we went to the travel centre/ train station in Helsingborg. There we found out that there was no ticket counter. You could buy tickets for domestic travel in the automats or at a kiosk, but not for international travel. When we asked how to get tickets to Germany they referred us to the internet or the phone booking. I thought that was absolutely amazing. However, I tried to make the call only to find out that the international ticket office was open Monday to Friday 8 o’clock to 18 o’clock. Period, full stop! At the homepage I got the same information. No possibility to make the reservation there, but only a reference to the same phone number! Amazing! It is really not possible to get an international train ticket on a weekend!!! Unless you happen to be in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, Lund or Uppsala!!
On the way back to Gothenburg the train was running on time, but there was no staff on the train the whole trip! What a pity I had bought the ticket as no one checked it; I could have saved the fare! I wonder where hell all the money that I have spent on train tickets this last year has gone!

Helsingborg weekend of a different kind

This weekend I am off to another weird thing. For the second time I will work at a coin fair! I did it last year and this year as well it is in Helsingborg. It was a very interesting experiense, not that I know much (or rather anything) about coins though, but it was still interesting. One thing at least that hopefully will be different this year is that we all agreed on not having a big night out the first evening, leaving all of us terribly hung over the first day of the fair. That was not good. For anyone who might be interested in collecting coins, this is the company I will be representing: http://www.kuenker.de

Have a nice weekend everyone!