I think I’ve finally reached a time of stability in my life after a year of constant uneasiness. This sounds very much like the beginning of a classic. These words are probably too big for what I mean, but I feel that after what felt like a long time spent in a limbo, I’ve now found stability. I mean, my life was pretty stable if you didn’t count work, but we spend the whole day at work 5 days out of 7, so it’s quite an important part of life, and it becomes even more important if you are unhappy at work. After almost two months in the new office, I feel that I’m finally quite satisfied with what I do. It’s probably because I’m busy and I love being busy, organising, make lists of what I have to do and score out the tasks I have completed. Of course, most of you will think I’m a massive geek, but that’s because you haven’t seen the amazing colourful spreadsheet which contains my daily tasks for the rest of the academic year. The job in itself is not demanding, but the more organised you are, the better the outcome. I also like the fact that I can understand much more of how university works in the background. I still have lots to learn because nobody ever explains you anything where I work, they just like to push you into deep water and demand that you swim, usually pretty fast too, but I can see that I’m learning a lot of things which will be useful in my future.

In the meantime, quite a lot has happened in other spheres of my life as well. We’re still waiting to purchase our flat, but hopefully we’ll receive positive news soon. It’s been a long process, so we’re really looking forward to be able to call this flat our own home. It’s another kind of stability we could add to our life. Of course, the flat is not the big news anymore, because in the last month we’ve finally decided to make our intention to get married public. Since we’ve made the big announcement, we’ve had lots of congratulations from friends and family. I was pretty amazed by all the support. It was very nice to see that people like us so much . However, this has set off some kind of nervous feeling in me, which meant that I started to plan like a crazy bride that I’d never thought I would become. And since we’re thinking about late 2013, I’m planning the whole thing almost two years in advance. Guy is way more relaxed about it all – but he’s going to be the groom, he doesn’t really need to think about much, apart from making sure to turn up, does he? I started to contact all the possible venues in Edinburgh and neighbouring areas for ideas, quotes and whatever else. It’s such a complicated business! We might have found something we like, but then there are other things to think about. What about entertainment? Because I hate dancing, so we’re definitely not having a dance thing. Then you have to think about bilingualism, the guests and the food. A few days ago I thought about a table plan for the dinner, I managed to put all the guests where I wanted to, only to realise that I forgot Guy and myself! But little by little, everything is taking shape. I wanted something small and easy and look at that, I’ve been sucked into the classic bride syndrome. I’m going to be so stressed and jumpy that we’re going to divorce even before we get married. Or maybe Guy is just going to think it’s enough one day and he will kill me in my sleep. Jokes asides, chances are that I might have a massive migraine on the day and I will follow my own wedding in videoconference from the honeymoon suite. I hope not, because it’s going to be a very special day and although I’m scared to death because it sounds so big, I’m really looking forward to enjoy the company of our friends and family and the rest of my life with my future husband

I’m just back from a short, but very much appreciated break in Norway. I had not visited Oslo since June 2010, which – I have realised – is way too long. I had almost forgotten how much I love being in Oslo, both because I feel that it’s a city made for me, but mostly because of very good memories. It’s an inspiring city. So here I am, I’ve been inspired to write again.

It was good to meet some good friends I never get to see, and with whom I have spent very nice days. It was a great feeling to see that they’re all doing well and that we can still have a good time after not having seen each other for so long, and see that we still have something we share. Maimu understands my love for donkeys and I understand her love for elephants very well. Well – I did see Petra, Jules and Ola back in December, but it’s still three months and it was not in Norway. Petra, who, I should remind everybody, can make the best reindeer biscuits ever, and Jules with whom I had hours of fun listening to Ola and Guy discussing their geeky experiments. I was also very happy to see that all those hours talking about politics in the middle of the night influenced both my and Maria’s thinking in a very positive way. I think they helped me to become more tolerant – which is not easy if you are stubborn like me, and when it comes to my friend Maria, I’m afraid, I think I might have contributed to the creation of a left-wing, feminist monster with the face of an innocent Russian girl!  Very good!

But my little Norway, most of all, I was happy to see you. I was happy to see that they haven’t changed you. It was good to see that you’re still your social democratic self, and that all those people who were expecting you to become a country ruled by fear (just so they would be able to say: ‘See, we warned you. Social democracy is not a vaccine against evil. You’ve just been lucky all these decades, then something happened to you as well, and now you see why we want more security in our countries and you want to be like us.’) – all those people have been proven wrong. Social democracy has been proven to be a very good plaster. And not one of those plasters which come away with water. Social democracy is one of those plasters with animals and colours your mum used to put on your bruised knee when you were little. They instantly made you stop crying, not because they actually stopped the pain, but because you knew your mother cared for you and gave you her complete attention: ‘There, there, my little one, I know it hurts, but I’m going to be here for you for as long as it takes.’

On Friday I ate in the Deli De Luca you see below. It’s all repaired now. I said I would be back to eat my noodles, just as I did before. And from there, you can see a giant building site around the government’s central offices, which are still not open, and there are some holes in the screening walls to allow people to see the repairs being carried out. But apart from that, it’s all back to normal.

The comment of a Norwegian woman says it all: ‘Oh, they could have put the walls a little bit further back. There’s a lot of space inside!’ – see, they are still complaining about everything, just like they did before. On Friday night we went to the cinema. We were given numbered tickets, but because there was hardly anybody, we decided to sit somewhere else. Of course, the fact that the cinema was almost empty didn’t stop a Norwegian guy from pointing his finger towards us and saying: ’1, 2, 3, 4, 5… Hm… Jeg sitter her!’. Yes, an Italian would have thought: ‘Ah, who cares. I’ll get myself a better seat.’, a Brit: ‘Well, technically, I’m breaking the rules… But it would be embarassing and rude to ask them to move, so I’ll just find another place.’, but a Norwegian: ‘Oh no, rules are rules. It doesn’t matter if there are better places for me to sit, the welfare state entitles me to this place and that’s where I’m going to be, move!’ See, nothing in Norwegian society has changed.

However, perhaps I should say that there is an attempt to be humorous, which is a change. They now have a programme on TV, called Nårje, which is supposed to be a funny guide for Swedes about how to behave in Norway. I’m not sure if it really is funny, but the title is quite nice and let’s appreciate the effort. They do need encouragement.

Ah, I missed you Norway!

My day was much more my day than on Tuesday, when I went to take the bus and two of them went past me without stopping because they were full, and I ended up getting on the wrong service and being stuck in traffic, which meant that I had to run all the way to work and I was all sweaty even before starting. But not today, today I went out the door and bus came just in time to get me.

The highlight of the morning was Frubob, a new fruit juice with added pieces of real fruit inside, and they have peach! Look: http://www.frubobusa.com about-frubob.aspx. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. However, I did manage to finally record a message on my answering machine. I hate speaking to nobody, but I think I did a pretty good job. I sound enthusiastic, to say the least. Although, for some reason, I added an English, and very weird sing-songy tone to my message. Involuntarily.

Then as I was on my way home, I saw an opportunity for a great picture: at least twenty British subjects standing each one metre from one other on the platform, waiting for the train. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera, otherwise I would have won a prize in some competition for sure. I also went to the post office, where I had to beg a postman to take my parcels instead of queueing. I am a well trained Italian. And last, but not least, I bought sweets for my boyfriend to make him happy, a rabbit made of Maltesers chocolate – because I’ve been thinking about that egg that someone left in the staff room at work the whole day, and a mushroom growing kit, so that I can have mushrooms for my sauces and my pasta the whole year round!

And now, I’m here. I’ve already had dinner, and now, if you don’t mind, I’ll just a very relaxing bath surrounded by candles and relaxing music drinking some guava juice. I love guava juice. Juice in general is very good.

Wow! I remembered the password for my blog. The last time I wrote something was well before Christmas and it’s now almost March. I love writing and I have no time to do it. Yesterday I was cooking dinner, placing an order for food online – because I don’t even get a chance to go to the supermarket and we were without any food whatsoever -, waxing my armpits and my legs and speaking to my mother on Skype.

Today I came home from work after having spent the afternoon trying to set up virtual boxes for students to submit assignments in a system which reminded me of when computers were still waiting for Bill Gates to invent Windows. My boyfriend read me some of his translation and although it contained several disgusting scenes, I managed to fall asleep for a couple of seconds between them. Guy – I did fall asleep, sorry for not telling the truth, but it was only for a few seconds, I swear. I then made dinner – which reminds me that some of my aubergines are still in the oven I turned off more than two hours ago – and then I had a nice shower, which felt very nice. And now, now I feel like I should be in bed, but I need to write, because I love writing and it’s unfair that I don’t get enough time to do the things I love. However, my right eyelid has just closed, so I’m afraid, but I will have to leave this to another day.

The good news is that I’m going to take some days off next week, and of course, we’re going to Barbados. I look forward to telling you all about it.

Good advice of the week: if you have time on your hands, don’t wait, do what you like. Now.

Oh what a joy! I’m looking forward to go back to the motherland more and more now. We have a tight schedule, but it will be fun to be in Italy again. At least for a while. I think we are invited for dinner most evenings. My granny has already cooked one of her signature dishes, which is rabbit and she will probably mush some potatoes to go with it. I’m sure she has also got a dessert in mind, which might be muffins, or mooffini, as she calls them. My uncle has caught a big trout and my auntie is going to cook it for us. Then we have Christmas day, which I believe will also include a dinner. Then my mum invited the Ballardin clan for dinner as well. My dad is probably going to cook his famous risotto. We’ll be so stuffed, we won’t be able to come back because we won’t fit in our seats on the plane!

I’m not totally sure where we will be sleeping yet, but I think we might stay a few days with my sister and her boyfriend, and then we will move to my parents’ place. We might also take some trips with my dad, and some with my sister and her boyfriend. One option, which I think we should embrace, is walking on snow with snowshoes. Original, eh?! Oh, and the big news this year is that my dad needs to learn English. He recently became head of health and safety in the factory where he works, and he needs to meet visitors from around the world. The problem is that he doesn’t speak a word of English, apart from the odd things like ‘oil’, ‘svimmink-pull’, ‘Bahatols’ and ‘Margaret Taccher’. A few days ago he went to a meeting were there were all these big shots, but he couldn’t get what it was all about. But I know he can learn very quickly. He taught himself so many things in his life. History, geography, computing, photography and leadership. He just needs some confidence, which I will help him get, but just after I have filmed him reading a piece from a book for fun. What? He always laughs at me whenever I ask him a question about politics.

I hope we will have time to do some simple things too. I really miss Italian products and after two years of absence, I really want to raid the supermarket. And most of all, I really want to go to a restaurant like we used to do. I never miss Italy, until I think how near I am to going back. I don’t see myself going back for good, ever, but I do miss the little things I took for granted and I never experiene here. Like that time I helped one of my friends hang up the washing outside with pegs. I hadn’t seen a peg for ages. Or when I see that the Christmas market has a stall selling chestnuts. Or when I hear a group of Italians on the bus, discussing and swearing as if nobody could understand them and it makes me laugh, because they look so goofy and they have no idea where they are going, or what they have just eaten.

I’m also looking forward to coming back though, because I know I will have a few days of peace. Most of my friends complain that I keep saying I’m tired and that I behave like a granny, but I don’t care, I just want to rest. I just need to unplug and forget the world. And perhaps I can use some of time to build my new website. I’ve been doing this course and I’m keen to put my skills to the test. I’m not sure about the topic the website should concentrate on, but perhaps I could do something about cooking, in particular about my granny’s cooking. I’ve always wanted to collect her recipes so that they don’t get lost. Well, I’m not sure I will have time to write anything else before Christmas, so Merry Christmas to you all!

My day started with a visit to Baguette Express to get a coke because I was feeling very queasy, which was not good. However, the boy who works in Baguette Express, whom I despise profoundly both because of his physical appearance and his manners, was in the mood for a chat which totally transformed my day. He asked me how I was and I said I was sleepy. He said that he felt the same because he works six days a week from eight in the morning to seven in the evening, but he insisted in pointing out that he was free on a Saturday. He said Saturday would be coming soon and then asked me if I work on a Saturday. I am really pretty sure he wanted to ask me out, but I just cut him off and went to work. Now, I don’t want to go out with him for a lot of reasons, but I don’t get these offers very often, so let me boast of this thing!

As I arrived at the office, another piece of good news: my authorisation to buy stationery had come through! Ever since I was little, I have been dreaming about this moment. Buying stationery at no cost for myself! I don’t mind if other people are going to use most of the stuff I order, I just care about the fact that I will be able to get them all and look at them for at least a couple of minutes. You know how when you are little you love when you get sweets or toys? My best Christmas presents was always stationery. There is nothing like the smell of a new notebook! Sometimes, as a treat, my dad used to take me to this shop where you could buy stationery for lower prices. You could only buy if you had a company, so we used my uncle’s account because he owns a bike shop. I spent all my savings on special paper and pens and my dad was always really annoyed because it took me ages to decide what I wanted.

Anyway, another e-mail came in, giving me even more positive news: they’re going to let me do some work! I have to place all these students, most of whom are Chinese, into schools so that they can have a taste of the Scottish system. I’ll have lots of fun because there are loads with the same surnames and nearly the same first names, so I need to come up with a plan to divide them up so that those with the same surname don’t end up in the same school. When I have work to do, I become overjoyed and I come home with so much more energy than when I spend my days playing with paperclips. I’m not tired at all!

At lunch time, more positivity: the canteen had spaghetti alla bolognese on offer! They were not overcooked and they had put salt in water when they had paraboiled them. God, I thought I would never have been able to use the term paraboiled while referring to pasta in Scotland! I was back in Italy for a good thirty minutes! £2.80 well spent.

As I came home, more good news awaited me: I’m booked for my Dreamweaver advanced course! This is very exciting! And tonight, to end the day on a high note, I shall buy loads of art & crafts supplies to make my Christmas presents while watching some more episodes of Desperate Housewives. I wonder who gets killed next… And tomorrow: I’m off work and we’re going to celebrate because my guy is finally going to graduate next month! Hopefully life will be a bit more normal and we’ll get to spend more time together :). I know I keep saying this, I’m just convinced that if I repeat it often enough, it will become true…

It’s bloody cold. Your bills are high. It’s dark. They days are short. And you’re a panda, so you don’t get to hibernate like other bears either. But even pandas like you, very deep down, can find a good side to winter. I actually feel like hibernating at the moment because we have been away for the whole day around shops in Glasgow and I am completly dead. I cannot feel my legs anymore. This might have something to do with the fact that I have been swimming two times this past week and I was sick in the middle of the week, but Glasgow is very big – even if we were just in the city centre. So I’ll be going straight to bed after I have given you the newsround.

First piece of news: I stack to my diet plan! I have had no pasta, rice or potatoes for dinner for the whole week, just fish, meat and vegetables. This is a massive achievement because I really find it difficult to avoid pasta. It’s my comfort, so I feel like something is missing. I hope this will get me somewhere!

Second piece of news: we have a joint bank account! Bruce, the incapable man who works in RBS, was finally caught on the phone and confirmed that we are not fraudolent people and assured us that we will receive our cards sometime soon.

Third piece of news: I have subscribed to a webdesign course that will give help me become a little more geeky. I’m pretty excited about the part where we learn how to set up an online shop. I have this idea at the back of my furry head that maybe one day I could sell something.

Fourth piece of news: I need to find Christmas presents. October is already late because it’s extremely difficult to find gifts that you can take to Italy and I have no idea what I could get for any members of my family. I had a look around today and I ended up buying another pair of pants for me. I am addicted to underwear and socks shopping. The new pants have reindeer on .

Fifth piece of news. Sit down. Breathe. Have a cup of tea. Inhale something relaxing. I am on a quest to buy a girl-ish pair of boots. I have already tried a pair on today, but they sizes were either too big or too small. I have not had girly shoes since when I was six and I dragged my auntie around shops to find these lucid shiny black shoes, similar to these.

Now, if you have survived this. Brace yourselves. Lie down. I also think the time has come to find a skirt I like.
I am not sure I will be able to do this, but that is the plan, ladies and gentlemen. Oh God… What am I doing?!

Is there a good side to winter? I suppose this is it for me. Change, lots of change.

And on this bombshell, I shall leave you. Please give some help to those who have collapsed on the floor…

This post is a huge complaint. Complaining makes me feel better. It’s as if I felt that I have one last right over my life and that right is complaining about it. Everything else is pretty much on auto-pilot at the moment. I have no control over anything.

I feel like my life is all about work, not because I’m paranoid, because it basically is. I’m so tired and week-ends are always so short. I rarely have the time or strength to do anything fun. I reckon that I’m exhausted because my job is very unbalanced at the moment and I have long periods with nothing to do, or boring jobs to do. I want more work, my own work! I want to plan what I need to do in advance like other workers. I mean, how many employers dream about employees like me, who want to work more? When I have work to do, the day goes so quickly and I love it!

Marx was right, people need to feel useful and then they need time to fish  to be happy. I don’t know why Marx liked to fish so much, but you can substitute this with whatever you find relaxing. Contrarily to what people might think, Monday is not the worst day. It feels very bad in the morning, but then by the end of the day, you just realise that you made it home and it hasn’t even been nearly as bad as you were thinking in the morning. Tuesday is harder, but what I usually think is that it’s already the second day of the week and we’re one step closer to Friday. Wednesday is the worst day. Too close to Monday, yet too far from Friday. It’s the most tiring day because you’re not feeling rested from the previous week-end anymore and you’re exhausted because of three long days of work – or begging colleagues to give me work in my case. Thursday is better, because it’s just one step away from Friday. Friday is the best day. Even if you work, you work with the feeling that it’s the last day and if something really goes bad, you won’t have to deal with it the next day.

So what I propose, really, is that we should make Wednesday free. I think it would be a popular decision. Divorce rates would certainly go down because people would have more time to talk and they wouldn’t be so stressed as to say something they’d regret. The population would grow considerably because people would have more time to make babies. Accidents would decrease because people would be more alert. Production would increase because everybody would be happier and would work faster. Why don’t we do this?

Sunday evening is the most terrible day of the week. Even if you were in the position to do something nice, you’d still do it with that thought at the back of your head that you have to go to work tomorrow. In my case anyway, I’m not even in the position to start anything exciting. I’m the unfortunate girlfriend of an unfortunate boyfriend who is very busy with finishing those infinite translations. We can hardly remember each other these days . I really can’t wait to get away and have four full days of relaxing naps, activities that stimulate my brain, hours of nice talking and laughing so hard you really have to make an effort not to pee your pants. In one word, that British people use all the time, we want ‘quality time’ together! No translations, no work, no computers, no TV, no phones, no interruptions, no thinking about stressful situations .

Until then… Oh, I wanted to say: ‘I’ll suffer in silence’ just to be a little melodramatic, but it’s not really credible, is it? So… I’ll keep complaining in a very loud way .

The end of September brought lots of interesting news for me. The most important news are that I finally got my holidays approved at work, which means that I will be off next Friday . This is an enormous pleasure because I’m extremely fatigued, especially since last week I was working while feeling sick. First it was a sore throat, followed by a cold, then a night awake throwing up for a couple of hours, then I was fine for a little, then throwing up again. But I persisted and I won my battle against the flu. But this is not all, my friends, I got two other Fridays off, which means that October is going to have shorter weeks for the most part. Not only that, but I’ve got a long week-end for my romantic break in that amazingly cosy wooden lodge I saw on the Internet! I was pretty happy because yesterday night I also found out that the University of Edinburgh staff get a 10% discount on bookings: perfect! However, my joy rapidly turned into despair as the lodge was not available anymore .

This is a message for the couple who booked my lodge and is going to enjoy my trip away:

I hope the fire will keep you very cosy while you eat your romantic candlelight dinner, I hope those rose petals on your bed create a nice atmosphere for you, I hope you have a great time drinking your champagne in the hot tub and can admire that magic starry sky in each other’s arms, I hope your experience is going to be unforgettable!

May the sheep rug you’re sitting on while you drink hot chocolate in the evening catch fire. May your dinner be so spicy that you have to fight for the toilet the whole night. May there be a leak just on top of your bed and may that condom split and give you two beautiful baby twins!

I’m not a bad person, but seriously, did you have to book the only date when we could get away?
However, I might have despaired for a couple of minutes, but then I had a better look and I found another lodge. It doesn’t have a fireplace or a sheep rug, which is a real pity, but it does have a hot tub outisde and a jacuzzi bath inside and a steam shower too. It’s not as secluded, but it will do.

Oh, I almost forgot, I’m going back to Italy for Christmas! I’ve been away for two years, so I’m looking forward to it, in a way, because I’m going to see my granny and my family and I’m going to stay with my sister in her nice home. And the food, I’m going to taste real Italian food again after so long. Ceps, or porcini mushrooms, as we call them! Real pizza! Seafood! However, I’m also a little scared because two years are a very long time and everything will have changed. But since I’m working now, I can come back with my bag full of Italian stuff that I’ve missed and my future new camera! My dad has bought a new one, so I get to have his old one because I’m the first in line to the throne.

Next piece of news is that I’m going to apply for the Fast Stream programme to become a social researcher in the civil service. I thought I’d give it a shot and see if anything good comes from it. People need to have a plan in life and that’s mine for now. I wish I could become a writer, just like J. K. Rowling did. She was a student where I work, at Moray House after all, and I’m already a member of staff. That’s an advantage! I’ve never read anything she wrote, but I reckon talent doesn’t exist anyway, it’s all about luck, circumstances and sometimes hard-work. My problem is that I have millions of ideas, I can write pages and pages, but I never finish a story. I think I’m a bit like Marty McFly in ‘Back to the Future’, I never want to finish anything because I’m scared people won’t like it and then I will know for sure I’m not a writer. Whereas now it’s all doubtful. I could be a writer one day, who knows… On the other hand, I recently bumped into a film which was really inspiring. It’s called ‘That’s What I am’. Watch it, you’ll get something out of it, whatever your dreams are.

Last, but not least, it’s that I’m saving quite a lot of money and it feels very good because I can see my mortgage found becoming something, little by little. That’s because I hardly do anything nice during the week. We are both too tired to even lift a finger. However, we’re having a good week-end for now. We went for quite a long walk around Rosslyn Chapel today in the attempt to find mushrooms, but we couldn’t find any. We had ice-cream, though, which is very weird for this time of year in Edinburgh. Thank you heatwave! Then we went to a posh supermarket and I said to myself: ‘Marzia, you’re working, give yourself a treat!’. I got four figs for £1.49, which is an absolute madness, but I couldn’t resist. The best thing was to find the Risotto allo zafferano which I used to eat when I was a teenager and I came back from school and Swiss rösti just like those the Swiss Co-operative makes! So that’s what I’m going to eat for dinner. Tomorrow, we’re making tuna lasagne! I wish you all a great week-end!

Ladies and gentlemen, to make Brad Pitt jealous, I’ve decided to write a blog post about my six years in Scotland – which are of course, way more impressive than his seven in Tibet, because how difficult do you think it is to get along with peaceful monks? Scots are way grumpier and it is a well-known fact that they can become very violent. Yet, friends, I am still alive and well, after six years in the land of rain.

It was 17th September 2005 when I boarded a plane from Italy to get here. I remember it because I kept a pair of jeans which were a special H&M edition dated 15th September 2005 and that was the last thing I bought before leaving the motherland. I still can’t get myself to throw them away. They’re my last memory of home, together with my mum watching me and my dad boarding the car with binoculars from the window. That’s something she does every now and then, it’s like her signature comedy act.

So when I arrived in Scotland, I got to our flat, which was located in a street called ‘Ocean Drive’. Now, that made me feel as if I was part of Beverly Hills 90210 so much so that I could hear the soundtrack playing when I got in and out of the flat. I still have to meet two twins, one fair-haired and one brown-haired named Brendon and Brenda, but at the time, Scotland really felt like California, except colder. As soon as I came, I started to look for jobs. I got this interview for a call-centre post. My English was not very good at the time and I had trouble understanding people. I must have rehearsed my answers to the potential questions posed by the interviewer a million times. I got the job and it was a nightmare. It would have been a nightmare enough if I had been an English speaker, let alone for an Italian. I was so tired after my shift that I could only cook dinner and fall asleep in front of a film. My English became a lot better with time, but working there was exhausting.

A couple of weeks ago I actually witnessed an episode that reminded me of how hard it was. I went out to get a sanwich for my lunch and there was a new girl in the shop. I think she must have been from Finland or somewhere North. A Scottish woman in front of me ordered a baguette with five ingredients. Her words, pronounced with a strong Scottish accent, came out like a river, with no pauses. I could see the little, blond girl trying to get at least one. Nothing. She asked her to repeat. Nothing. You could see that she felt to hopeless, she didn’t know what to do. A queue was forming and the Scottish woman was having none of it. She just repeated the ingredients at a speedy pace, as if she was doing that on purpose. I almost felt like repeating them myself, but then I remember that Scots can be violent, so I just listened in silence and smiled at the girl. In the end, her colleague had to step in and she was made to look as if she was an idiot, which she wasn’t. She just couldn’t understand. She looked like she was about to cry and I bet that is what she did at the end of the shift. I saw myself in her. But there’s a happy ending to this story. I went back a few days ago and you should have seen how fast the girl was making sandwiches. I felt so good for her and I saw myself again, because now, whenever I don’t understand, which doesn’t happen too often, I can just defend myself and it doesn’t bother me anymore.

The call-centre experience was brief. While everybody else was worried about being made redundant, I was thrilled. New job, new plans for the future. I got a job at the University of Edinburgh, which is in fact the same job I have now. That is where four years of university get you . I work in the famous Moray House School of Education. Look it up on the university website and you can find my name and telephone number in case you want to make a prank phone call to brighten up my day. My very important tasks consist in placing students who are enrolled in teacher training courses in schools so that they can practice their teaching. This job was useful for two reasons. My language became a lot better and I learnt a lot about Scottish geography. In fact, I can easily name you most of the Edinburgh primary schools and tell you how you can get there by public transport. It’s not a challenging job, but it does pay my bills and I like to do it well so that students are happy and send me nice e-mails .

And tomorrow is Monday again… I still haven’t had a holiday and I spent my week-end being pretty sick with the flu. I now have sinusitis and I’ve been inhaling Vicks Vapo Rub for the past days, so I’m really hoping to wake up tomorrow morning without a headache. It’s going to be an early night for me . Goodnight Edinburgh and thank you for having been my home for the past 6 years. I love it here!