Due to my internet access not going as planned, combined with a little forgetfulness, you are now getting a very, very late blog post for today.

I am back from the IRM where I spent the weekend together with Sabine, and though I can't say exactly why, it was really, utterly exhausting. Some of that might be due to the lack of oxygen in the rooms (as is often the case, you get the choice between freezing but fresh air and being warm and cozy, but having bad air). Some of it might also be due to a few weird encounters that left me standing there and wondering what that was about (or why).

In any case, I'm really glad to be back home and enjoy a quiet day tomorrow before we start the preparations for the next event - Freienfels.

I will be away from home this week, looking at a nice old bit o' textile as well as visiting a friend, and then there's Easter to be celebrated - always a lovely excuse to meet with family and have a few lazy days.

So regular blogging will resume on Tuesday next week.

I am amazed that I can sniffle and sneeze (due to hay fever) when the day before there was snowy sleet coming down.

I am amazed that simple (or seemingly simple) tasks can take up so much time, and energy, and nerves.

I am amazed that time is rushing by so quickly. (It's not getting better either! Why can't time slow down for a change?)

I am amazed that so much stuff is accumulating, for example on my workdesk, and here I am trying hard to get it sorted out to make some more space.

I am amazed by the number of (work-related) books that I have, and that I still have not sorted them all (which is partly due to the lack of some shelf space, but mostly to my strategy of working on it just a very little at a time).

I am amazed on how much time one can sink into personalising and installing and adjusting stuff onto a smartphone which is not even going to be used as a phone - just as a media centre and small, lightweight, serves-in-a-pinch internet access thingie.

Maybe I should work on being less amaze-able? And on writing more amazing blog posts, not those about me being amazed?

(Clearly, the word of the week: amazed. And I promise that tomorrow I will get some coffee before posting here.)

... to slide into the festive season!

And then, the year's end will be fast approaching, and with it the new year, and with that the January conference in Cardiff, so the first days of next year, I will be quite busy getting my paper into its final shape, and packing my bags.

Which means that I will now go on blog pause for the last days of the year, as usual - but this time, the blog pause will be a bit longer due to the conference and include a healthy chunk of January. Regular blogging will resume on January 16.

I wish you all a good festive season with lots of nice food, lovely people and a pleasant warm feeling in your heart, a wonderful New Year's Eve and a happy and healthy start into the year 2013. I'm looking forward to see what next year will bring us!

See you on the flip side!

A few days ago, while having dinner together with a friend, we started wondering about how many different recipes for meals there are in the world.

And after a while of pondering about it, we did come to the conclusion that it should be possible to eat one new meal every day, a full lifetime long, and not having to eat anything twice.

That is impressive. But then... who would want to eat anything just one single time?

It feels weird to be at the desk again after the weekend - we were visiting my family to celebrate a birthday, which was nice and full of pleasant hustle and bustle and laughter, and then it was already time to drive back home and get back on track.

And now I even have to get back on track really quickly, since I will be spending the coming weekend away at the costume seminary in Zlin, CZ. I'm looking forward to that a lot already, but it also means that there is a stack of things I have to prepare before I leave (and that includes giving the presentation one last little polishing).

At least I know what my work on the bus will be - there's a(nother) paper to finish and a book to read that the library wants to have back really soon. One decision taken care of.

It's NaNoWriMo (national novel writing month, for those of you who don't know the abbreviation). And while I'm not going to write a novel, it sort of fits - I have a paper to write and a presentation to finish and finetune.

So... I will be writing today - and hopefully lots. Because it's NaNoWriMo!