This week’s word is die Übernachtungsparty – a sleepover.

So many German words have been on the tip of my tongue when students ask for them, and have to dragged back to the front of my mind kicking and screaming from the recesses of my language learning synapses. But this one was completely new to me. I guess we didn’t have all that many sleepovers when I was at school, but it is now definitely firmly ensconced in the vernacular and social calender of the teenage girls we teach.

Other words I struggled to remember this week, some of which came back in time, others only floated to the surface, esprit d’éscalier like, just too late to be useful:

der Strand – beach
gemütlich – cosy
bequem – comfy

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,300 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 38 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

So, it’s well known that people who work or study in schools or other educational institutions get a lot of coughs and colds. In universities it’s known as Freshers’ Flu, and everyone gets it shortly after Freshers’ Fair.  Essentially a large group of people from diverse areas all meet and exchange bugs, and everyone gets ill.  In schools its the same. All the children have the whole summer to travel the country, go on holiday, and visit family, picking up all the cough and cold bugs they can, which then get pooled back in the school.

And PGCE students? We’re an interface between the two communities. We spend all week picking up the bugs from the children, then on Monday mornings, 250 of us meet back in one air-conditioned lecture hall to share learning about learning, to share best practice, and to co-mingle the bugs from all the secondary-age children in three counties into one big pool of infection.

Seriously, stay away from us. We’re diseased.

Cough. Cough. Sniff.

A new opportunity has opened up for me – it’s proving an interesting month!

When I started work with Librivox all those years ago, my ulterior motive was ultimately finding paid voice work. It’s something I haven’t tried terribly hard at, to be honest, but every now and again I pop back to LV and tape another chapter. I certainly never managed to find the enthusiasm to rack up the hours and hours of service that some people have managed over there.

But still I keep getting weird and flatting plaudits for my voice and the work I have done. I still get one or two emails a month out of the blue thanking me for the few things I have made available.

And then another interesting project began last year. Out of the cream of Librivox arose Iambik Audiobooks – with many of the same people and processes of Librivox, but with contemporary texts, a more professional approach, a higher quality of recording… and… actual money! With time on my hands, I signed up this summer, and submitted an audition for an interesting text.

I heard back last week that I was successful in that audition, with an incredibly flattering quote from the book’s publisher: “His voice is like butter! so perfect!”

And whilst googling, I found the book’s author has a very engaging Livejournal page and talked about the project publicly. So. I thought. If he can, I can!

So, I am currently making an audiobook of Nicholas Kaufmann’s Chasing the Dragon. It’s a fantastic book, and when I got the proof copy to prepare for recording it, I motored through it in just an afternoon. The lead character is engaging, with a couple of interesting twists that really get you on her side. By the middle of the third chapter, it’s completely unputdownable, you really have a drive to get on and find out who wins. With this kinda novel, you have more than a sneaking suspicion you can guess who’s going to win, but the plot keeps you right to the wire, and you definitely find yourself unable to guess how the “right” outcome could possibly result from where you get to.

What with everything else that’s going on, I really have to get on with making this recording before the rest of life intervenes, so hopefully it will be out soon!

Earlier today I posted a pic of some flowers in my garden that are doing especially well this year. (At least, the ones in the back garden are. The ones in the front garden are not looking so healthy)

In a sign of how fragmented my socmed life is, they have been separately identified for me by my Dad (via my Mum) on Twitter, and by friends far and wide on Facebook, on Flickr and here on my blog.

All confirm they are montbretia, which is also somehow called Crocosmia.

And by a huge coincidence, Flickr had a blog post about the 6,000,000,000th photo posted to their website today.

Also of montbretia. Somewhat a better photo than mine.

I have half a chance of remembering what this plant is called now!

So it seems this gadget will serve as a handy little blogpost to say I have been perusing the Oatmeal again.

Created by Oatmeal

Goes to Lord Bonkers, who describes Eeyore as an anhedonic donkey, which is an extremely pleasing phrase.

Wikipedia defines anhedonia as “the inability to experience pleasure from activities formerly found enjoyable” and it is a symptom of depression. Then Wikipedia gets sidetracked by a description of ejaculatory anhedonia, which nearly led me to not linking at all, but then the Standards Board holds no fear for me now.

Props also for Jonathan’s Week of the Week this week.

The Google Science Fair is now open.

Taking a few minutes out of my day to read Twitter, I notice on Lovefilm a story that Disney have signed Jennifer Garner to play a young Miss Marple in a prequel film.

Absurd.

I mean, does this woman look like Miss Marple to you?

New programme on Channel 4.