Remember Me?

I'm back! Well, kinda. I haven't blogged in a fairly long time due to my MA dissertation which I'm currently working on. But more about that later!

There are just four things I wanted to blog about, and so I thought I'd get it done quickly, because I haven't posted yet in September - and I've never missed a month. And I don't intend to start now!

So here they are:

Point One:
Another name has been added to the 'Friends who blog' list at the side of the page. Lucia now has a blog and is doing rather well at it - six posts since the start of September! Three of my German friends with blogs are doing pretty exciting things at the moment: Philipp (who's actually Swiss) is spending a semester in Holland with the Erasmus programme, Patrick is spending a year here in good ol' London working with the London City Mission (the only one who blogs in English) and Lucia is working for the Salvation Army in Freiburg for a year. Hopefully they'll all keep their blogs updated (Pressure Patrick, pressure).

Point Two:
I would just like to ask you all to be thinking about me, because I've been going through a hard time recently. I wasn't going to tell you all, but... it looks like they've stopped making Yoghurty Special K. First Asda stopped doing it, and now even the Co-op has stopped. And I've seen this happen before (RIP Diet Coke Vanilla). Just to let you know, I've emailed Special K and I'm awaiting a response, but there's little hope now. Coca-Cola promised me they weren't going to stop making Diet Coke Vanilla and look where we are now. (I really should have twigged when they suggested I bought a crate of the stuff on my next visit to the supermarket). I'll keep you posted.

(I couldn't even find a picture of the yoghurt one. Did it ever exist?)

Point Three:
Now, as I was saying, I'm currently writing my MA dissertation and - I'm really enjoying it! As mine is a practical MA rather than a research-based MA, my dissertation is in fact a giant translation, plus commentary. I decided to translate a Swedish book which contains a lot of information about the early days of The Salvation Army. And it's great stuff - that must have been a great time to be around. It's really interesting, certainly not easy translating stuff from that long ago, but it's really interesting. And it's kinda got me all interested in the early Salvation Army and when the whole thing started.

Anyway, apparently there's like a walking tour you can do through the East-End of London where you start at the Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel, which is where William Booth (the founder of The Salvation Army - I'm a big fan!) was just walking along, was invited by a small group of Christians to give a talk and the rest, as they say is history. The walk carries on, past the statues of William Booth (which presumably weren't there at the time) and to a whole lot of other places - the first headquarters, the site of the tent where the first meetings were held, etc. I'd personally find that really interesting I reckon. I don't know Whitechapel at all (other than when a man chased me round there trying to give me a coat) and it would be great to get some feel of what it was like back then (although I should think things have changed a little...).

So, if any of you feel like coming with me (I already have one friend!) then let me know. I want to do it one Saturday fairly soon. I'll still go anyway, if if no-one else wants to come, but like I said I already have one friend, so that's ok! :)

And the Monopoly thing is still on!! Now that one I can't do on my own, because I need photo proof...

Point Four:
Isn't YouTube amazing, in a strange and wonderful way? Whatever you're looking for, SOMEone will have put it on (and then I always think what saddos they must be for doing that, while at the same time being really grateful that they did).

ANYWAY, I was having a little look at the site the other day and I found something I haven't seen in years. Thirteen years to be exact. I remember one day, when I was ten (back in ol' 1994), walking up the stairs to my room and putting the TV on and seeing this. It was the Eurovision Song Contest, which I obviously didn't care too much about, and as I turned it on, this song from Germany started. Now I had never really given Germany much thought at that time, but after seeing this, I thought Germany must be the coolest place in the world. This song had everything (check out the musicians in the band!) including a rap. Of course, I didn't realise at the time that they were ten years behind the rest of the world in terms of clothes, but all the same.

Unfortunately, they still have the same clothes today... ;)

So here it is, my first taste of Germany - I will just add that the translation is not brilliant and the lyrics seem a little more suggestive than they originally were. And 'we're giving a party' - what's that supposed to mean? Enjoy (by the way, there's no applause at the end because this version has been 'remastered' apparently. They actually did very well and came in third place, as it turns out... I was in bed and never got to see the scores).