Life, Love & Lemons - July 2019

[amruniel]

As many, if not all of you know by now, I'm super bad at keeping up with this journal. The last time I posted on here before today? Nearly a year ago? Goddamnit!

But since I want to be better (and I really like the idea of keeping a somewhat regular account of what I'm up to -apart from my Instagram - come, check out what's going on @amruniel ;) ), I have come up with the idea of starting to write monthly reviews/recounts of what I was up to, what I did, dreamed of, loved, hated, you name it. Let's see if I can at least commit to one effing entry per month.

This can't be too hard to do, can it? CAN IT??!!

Anyway, let's see what July of 2019 had in store for me!

Let's start with my biggest regret, yes?
Getting it out of the way, and all...

Camp NaNo:
I would have loved to do another round of Camp this summer. As you may remember (and if you don't it's just an entry or two below this...) last July has been a resounding success for me, seeing me finish a ficlet and making some real good progress on my epic fic. So, why didn't I do it? Well... a lot of reasons, but there are two main ones:

• My laptop broke. In January. And I haven't had the means to get me a new one since. Thankfully, Himself did a full backup of EVERYTHING on my computer just a week or so earlier (sometimes you really should listen to those hunches that come out of nowhere!) so nothing was lost, but seeing as I currently only have my work computer and I'm reluctant to write what basically amounts to gay porn on there, my fanfic writing has taken a real backseat these past 7 months. (But I haven't completely stopped, that's the good news! There's a fic I have written for a university course of me waiting to be published. The incredibly lovely silvan_lady has already worked her beta magic on it, and it's only waiting for me to tidy it up and publish it......... soon, I hope!)
• I scored a job that had me pretty much covered with writing stuff over the course of the month:

Book Translation:
A girl from uni asked me if I would want to help her out in a job she took on but wouldn't be able to finish before embarking on a three-month journey to Japan at the end of the summer term. Turns out, she agreed to translate a book about living with a technology-dependent child (i.e. a child on a ventilator) from English to German, but wouldn't be able to do more than half of it. The author was happy to have me jump in and so I translated about 20.000 words over the course of the month.

What can I say? I really, really, really enjoyed this job! I love the challenge of making the narrative work in a different language; I love the challenge of finding the right words and expressions; and I love the odd time where I know I could make the language/phrase even better in the translation than it is in the original. Yes, it was a bunch of work, but it never once felt like a chore.

(If you ever find yourself in need of a German translator, or know somebody who does - I'm your girl! ;) )


Summer, Sunshine, Heat:
Among all the other stuff, one of the reasons I enjoyed working on the translation so much was the simple fact that I could do it whenever wherever. Which meant, that a lot of the work happened inbetween bouts of swimming, while I was sitting in the shade, enjoying the heat, snacking some fruit and just generally enjoying the hell out of whichever heatwave graced my little corner of the world. I'm a summer's girl! I always will be! (Despite being a ginger with all that entails...

 

 

 

 

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So... apparently THIS happens when you put a ginger out into the sun... 🤣🤣🤣🤣😅🤷💪

A post shared by @ amruniel on Jun 14, 2019 at 10:53am PDT

...oopsie?! Though that actually happened in June)

Podcasts:
I have to admit I have never understood the appeal of podcasts. I always thought that listening to other people talking about whatever was just about as much a waste of time as listening to audiobooks was - in other words, it was time I would rather use for actually reading something. (I'm a little book-snob, I know. Nothing beats ink on paper. And I still stand by that, even though my stance on podcasts has changed dramatically.)

Life has its funny, mysterious turns, and so it happened that the habit of listening to BBC radio online that I formed last fall and winter (first in order to help improve my British accent for the pronunciation class I had to do, later also because I really really enjoyed some programs) got me looking up the first podcast I ever listened to - a cricket podcast of all things! That story also happened in June:

 

 

 

 

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I am from Austria. My knowledge of cricket is roughly this: it's played with bats and a ball, and said ball sometimes gets up close and personal with a piece of sandpaper if the Australians are involved (yeah, this made international news). Oh, and thanks to Harry Potter fanfiction I'm also aware that there's a thing called the Ashes (don't ask 🤷🤣) So, why have I been bingeing on a cricket podcast of all things lately? Because two weeks ago I heard @felixwhite and @greg_james on 5live Drive while climbing and their excitement about some catch made me laugh so much that I fell off the boulder. I checked out their first live show, laughed even more, found their podcast and have become addicted in a matter of minutes. As of today I'm all caught up, and while I still have next to no clue about how cricket is actually played (but can throw around words like mankading and two-paced pitch like a pro) and even the hugely entertaining @matthoran1010 knows more about the game than me, I can by now say with real authority that @jimmya9 is not only super entertaining, extremely likeable, and has a great sense of humour (and knows his shredders and printers!) but also proves that I just love listening to Northern Bastards™️ (apparently it's not just @sean_bean_official -interesting 🤔). Apart from that, the podcast has taught me that people look at you strangely when you walk around with a face-splitting grin; scoot away from you on public transport when you start snorting with laughter about something they can't hear; and just cannot deal with it when you literally become the embodiment of 🤣 when Mattchin gets on a roll with Spankers and Dirty Balls. In the last couple of weeks I have gained a new catch phrase (which nobody around me understands or reacts to correctly), have been cursed (or blessed) with a whole army of theme tunes stuck in my head (We like to... CRUSIC!), have learned A LOT about the sad trials of Jos Buttler, and know one thing for sure: I'll tune in the next time, even if it's a bit spicy, that is! 🌶️ If you haven't listened to this podcast (and I know you haven't!) give it a try - until then, GO WELL!

A post shared by @ amruniel on Jun 15, 2019 at 1:43pm PDT

Ever since then I have listened to a few other podcasts, some of which I completely and madly fell in love with:

• My Dad Wrote A Porno: If you, like me, have ever giggled about cringe-worthy sex-scenes in fanfics where you just KNEW the author had never actually seen another human being naked, let alone had sex, then this podcast is for you. I swear, I laughed until I cried. I snorted drinks all over the place. I literally (and loudly) groaned "uuuuuh nooooooo!" at some particularly dubious wording/descriptions - while out in public. And I had a BLAST! I can't wait until season 5 starts in September!
• Cut Through Nutrition: A superb look at all things nutrition and the fallacies of non-nutritionists trying to explain their views by using nutritional studies and data. It's a super interesting topic, and while it is mainly targeted at medical professionals, the two super likeable presenters talk about everything in a way that makes it easy to follow for us laypeople, and in a way that educates while being super interesting.
• The Adam Buxton Podcast: If long, rambly conversations that cover everything from common man-flu to death are your thing, Adam's podcast is just the right listen for you! I love, love, love it (and couldn't be happier that I still have over 60 episodes to go until I'm caught up!)

Climbing: As I have mentioned in my "Tailenders" Instagram post, the first time I hear Greg James and Felix White enthuse about cricket I fell of the boulder wall because they made me laugh so much. Clever people (like you, dear reader ;D) might extrapolate from that, that I started to go climbing again. And they would be right! I do it a lot less frequent than I used to, about once a week roughly, but I'm really enjoying it again. And what's more, I kind of start to really like bouldering.... Which is... a story for next month, I think :D 


So, this is it... my first monthly review. Let's see if I can make this a habit........... (if not, you can always reach me over on Instagram... or via PM/DM here or there... or via mail for those of you who have my email... or.... pretty much everywhere except here it seems... oopsieeeeeee!)