Short Notice

We have airplane tickets to fly to Tokyo next (!) week...that were only booked last week. Highflyer and I had actually planned to travel to Japan (he has never been, I have not been for almost 10 years) last year, but his leave from work was not approved. Until very recently it looked as if the same would happen this year, but then he got last-minute approval for a week (we were hoping for a little longer). Short, but sweet, but I am thankful all the same and have already booked all the hotels and our Japan Rail Pass. I had almost given up hope that we'd be able to fly this year and was already thinking of a plan B for my already approved June leave (that I now only needed 3 days of). Excitement is real and unlike my husband who is only too happy to leave this to me I LOVE planning travel itineraries and booking hotels and activities. Funnily enough, I am not much of a planner when it comes to other things, but I clearly must have been a travel agent in a previous life...

 

Flashbacks

On Saturday night I watched the Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final and saw the Austrian candidate win. I was pretty invested this year and confident that he could actually take home the trophy and thus make Austria the host country next year. As I was wondering whether it would take place at Stadthalle in Vienna, right in my neighbourhood, again, I was reminded of how I went to see one of the afternoon rehearsal shows with Mademoiselle and my then toxic "love interest" on what happened to be both their birthday. It was a visceral flashback, really. He behaved as erratic as always and I ended up as frustrated as always as I had wanted him to make a good impression to my friend (the opposite was the case of course) and most of all to be nice and thankful for the ticket (my treat) for once. Well, I should have known better and deep down, I definitely did, but...yeah. In a recent conversation with someone close to me who unexpectedly got ghosted by her boyfriend of 2+ years I told her that for what it's worth I hoped that this traumatic experience was good for one thing in the end: making her realise by negative definition what she definitely did NOT want in a future relationship and how to look out for green flags rather than being colour-blind to those bright red ones. Definitely worked for me.

I've Licked Blood

 

A little over a year ago, at the beginning of May 2024, I switched to a 4-day-work-week, signing a side-agreement that I would do so for two years for now. Well, now that I have reached half-time of this "experiment" I already know that I have licked blood and cannot imagine ever going back to working Fridays. I work a minimum of 9 hours now (having elected the 36-hrs-option) Monday to Thursday and officially start an hour earlier than I used to, but having 3-day-weekends EVERY weekend is bliss. You can get so much more done, do spontaneous weekend trips that start on Friday morning and even if you just want to do nothing much and chill at home, there's more time for that. My productivity definitely has not suffered and I can count the occasions on one hand when somebody had wanted to include me in a meeting or event on a Friday, so I definitely picked the right day of the week off. In other workds: wishing colleagues a good weekend on a Thursday afternoon already just "hits different".

It Comes With Age...

I am writing this from my parents' where Highflyer and I have spent the long weekend "sitting" dad while Mum got to spend a little much-needed me-time in Vienna. As usual, there were several garden-chores waiting for us. Apparently, I have inherited the "green thumb"- gene from the paternal side of the family, whereas mum does what she is told, but it is not her hobby, nor passion. When I was younger, I found the "garden talk" of my paternal grandmother, aunt and dad incredibly boring and in particularly could not understand how these women in particular (just as my maternal great-aunts) seemed slaves to their gardens, basically not able to (or claiming that this was the case anyway) leave the house overnight in summer for fear of thunderstorms that might wreak havoc in their well-kept green paradise. While I am definitely team "anarchic gardener" and won't spill tears if some plant does not survive while we are away on summer vacation, I do enjoy gardening and am thrilled when something (edible in particular) grows. Highflyer, like my mother, is happy enough when somebody else takes care of planting stuff that he can then enjoy and sticks to moving the lawn and other traditionally manly chores. Fine with me.