Befanee’s Neighborhood

Juliamontage

As a favor to a co-worker I took some "picture-perfect" family Christmas photos for her Christmas cards. But after we took care of that, I got to snap some shots of Julia being herself -- loving her toes and hugging on her owl toy.

I have to write my list of all I need to do before Christmas. It will be long, it will include all manner of chores and social activities, but it will all get done. I hope.  And if not, I highly doubt that the world will stop.  Now, if this were December, 2012, I might think differently, but I'm pretty sure nothing will end if I don't get my chores finished. 
Curlers are fun. It's a nice passive way of doing my hair because goodness knows fussing with the brush and blowdryer or the straightening iron sure wasn't getting it done.  I don't know how other women do it, but I just don't have the dexterity and I wasn't willing to put in the practice time. Rolling curlers, though? Sure, why not?

I have a headache. I am waiting for the potatoes to finish microwaving, so I can put the broccoli in and then pour grated cheese over both and call it dinner.
First term is over.  It ended today.  It was a bit of a slog towards the end, but I feel good about the work I've done and some of the habits I've been developing.  The number of days on which one can see the surface of my desk is increasing.  Hopefully, by Easter, it will be more often than not, but at least it is visible some of the time. 
I've been going to bed early and getting up early and if I weren't getting so completely screwed by the TPG at the moment, I would be getting to work early as well.  Instead I am just getting to work earlier than I was, but not as early in the two weeks before the schedule change.
A friend found canned black beans in the city and I know where I can buy them dried as well which I will still probably do just because they add salt to the can and why on earth did I buy a pressure cooker otherwise? But still, knowing that they are available here endears the city to me a little more which is good because the TPG has really pissed me off this year. 
Another friend is leaving.  I lost a good one last Christmas to the far reaches of the Ottawa Valley, and now I am losing another one to the concrete canyons of New York. Total suckitude.
Timer just went.

I have one more final in my under graduate career and right now I am just thinking about all the books I can finally read.

Well that and what to get my masters in...

Once again, we have a white man savior.  The noble savage can't do it himself, he needs the broken (in this case literally) white man to come along and rescue them all. 
Yes, I saw Avatar today.  Sigourney Weaver is awesome!! And I would go see it again, but let's be honest about the movie. It is as I said above.  Women do a little better in it than some other White Man Cometh films, though of course, the human women die because there's no place for them in the indigenous society, but at least in this one, women are not stuck only in the domestic sphere.
Visually, it's beautiful. The ending seemed rushed. We only get the 2D version in English here, for the 3D, I will wait for home. Also, nicely done, we actually got the subtitles in English in this one.  Normally, they just block those right out, so if you don't get French or German, you stay unenlightened.
And hey, at a running time of over two and a half hours, you definitely get your money's worth.

So a couple of weeks ago, my digital nikon was damaged by one of the crazy animals in the house. Well it was mostly the lens damaged. For a while I used some spare lens I had, but nothing was very inspiring. So to help bring the inspiration, I decided to take it back to my days of the Nikon FM2. Good ol film. You can't go wrong. And so far, it has proven to still be true.

VilleB&W

Hey boys and girls, it's time for misskate's annual bitch, moan and whine about the public transport in Geneva. 
I would like to do this in a more constructive way than usual, you know, do the "two positives and one thing to improve", but having visited their website, that just ain't gonna happen.  Instead we will do the inverse, one positive and two "you have got be fucking kidding me"s.

First, though, the positive:
The TPG has kept the price of its annual pass the same for something like the 4th year in a row.  While they may be socking it to the casual user with a price of 3chf per 60 minute ticket, my annual pass (allowing me access to all boats, buses, trams and trains in the canton) has remained an affordable chf650. 

And now, the negative:
Supposedly, they have extended the number 9 bus route to Balexert, restoring it, somewhat, to its former glory.  When I first arrived and for a few years after, the 9 ran from beyond my house, past me, across the bridge and way the hell out the other side all the way to CERN.  Then it stopped.  And for a couple of weeks, I couldn't figure out how take the 9 from the station to my house, so I would walk or take another bus to the next stop and pick it up from there.  THEN, last year, it stopped running through Bel-Air Cite (not to be confused with the end station of Petit Bel-Air where there isn't even a cafe, let alone other signs of civilization) up to Cornavin and instead went across the Mont Blanc bridge.  A decrease in number of stops, but an increase in travel time because there is no good hour at which you can cross the bridge with no traffic.  This also created a great amount of confusion and ire among the passengers.  This year, they seem to have extended its run, but now, once again, I have no idea where to pick the bus up to go home tomorrow.  But, hey, not really a problem because even though the schedule says that it now goes to Balexert, the TPG has not updated the maps on the website to let anyone know.  SO, maybe the 9 hasn't changed at all and will continue to pick up and drop off in its same lane at Cornavin as before.  (Somehow, though, I doubt it and now I'm starting to wonder if the TPG doesn't in fact have a sadistic sense of humor and actually enjoys watching the people who count on, rely on, depend upon the TPG run around on the second Monday in December (sometimes the 3rd) trying to figure out how to get to work.  If ever I wanted a car...

NEXT on my list is the V bus and the Z bus.  Not having a car and not being particularly inclined to walk up massive hills, I appreciate having a bus stop just forty or so meters from my school.  There are two buses (V and Z) that service this stop and the convenience makes me less likely to buy a car.  Until now.  The V and Z start at Gare Cornavin.  When I first moved here, the pick up point was behind the station.  Then as the construction on tram lines picked up momentum, the stops moved to the side, then back to the back and then finally to the front where they have been for a couple of years now.  I think .  It's all a bit of a blur.  And the TPG is really not known for its communication skills.  They stick up a metal stand with a sign taped to it and call that communicated.  Grrr.  BUT anyways, the stop has always been relatively convenient which is good because the V and Z being the letter buses (as opposed to designating the routes with numbers) are infrequent.  They serve the outer parts of the canton as opposed to the city and they just don't run that often.  So, if you miss one in the morning, chances are you are screwed.  And possibly late to work.  Oh, yes, of course there are alternatives, but they involve schlepping. 

SO, what's my beef?  They have moved the stop AGAIN.  And according to the paper they taped to the little metal stand by the ticket machine (which by the way none of my fellow commuting colleagues had even noticed until I pointed it out; way to communicate, TPG, yay you!) the TPG was moving the stop as of, oh, today.  And they weren't just moving it.  According to this sign, they were canceling the next stop on the route, and putting the stop they were calling Cornavin closer to that stop than this one.  This meant increasing my commute time by a lot because now I had to arrive at Cornavin in time to factor in a 10 minute walk to the new V/Z bus stop.   Pissed, livid, irked, frustrated, annoyed; I ran through the range of emotions.  So, today, here I am. One day before I have to get to school somehow tomorrow.  According to the TPG, they have no schedule at all for either the V or Z, the itinerary machine tells me that it's only a 3 minute walk from where the 9 drops off to where the V/Z picks up, and in fact the V bus isn't even listed in the drop-down box. What they are listing as the 9 itinerary doesn't match the map they are displaying beneath it and jiminy christmas, I have no idea where the V/Z is picking up because the map they are showing is not what the sign stuck to the little metal stand said.  

And really, since at the end of the day, it's all about me, I am going to have to change out of my cosy warm clothes and go to the station to figure this out. I suggest that the TPG pulls its finger out and gets their routes, website and communication sorted! Because seriously, Nissan has a really cute four door and if I buy a car, it is ALL the TPGs fault.    

Tea, Earl Grey. Hot., originally uploaded by Theremina.

My friend Meredith haz my mug.

I'm not really looking forward to the next week..at all. In fact I've been putting it out of my mind and hoping that I'll just wake up on Friday, next Friday not tomorrow. I am pretty much a bundle of nerves...anxiety...meh. I get to see The Princess and the Frog tomorrow night with my sissy though..

Christa