Hello everyone!

Finally, six months after they were taken, my father has uploaded the photos he took of Luxembourg. So you finally get to see some of the things I saw every day. :D

Front of my flat - the two windows on the upper left were my living room/dining room windows. The window below them belongs to my laundry room, which also had a ping-pong table (sadly, I never got to use it). The window in the centre of the wing looks onto the stairwell. The tiny port hole above it was for Martje's room (she also had a skylight at the back, so she wasn't totally in the dark! The one to the right (before you get to the tower) was opposite my office. ^_^

View from my left front window - isn't it gorgeous?

View from my right front window - onto the side grounds where the refugee house was.

Christmas Market 1, Christmas Market 2, Christmas Market 3 - photos that Dad took of the market that was on in the Place d'Armes (Weapons Square!) in the capital city.

William II Statue 1, William II Statue 2 - pictures of the statue in Place Guillaume II (William II Square), the town square of Luxembourg City, where they have the hôtel de ville (town hall.

Grand -Ducal Palace from Rue de la Reine (Queen Street) - In Luxembourg, they don't have a Prince or King, they have a Grand Duke (or Grand Duchess), which is why its official title is the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

Balcony of the Grand-Ducal Palace (coat of arms), Balcony of the Grand-Ducal Palace 2 (buttresses) - some details of the façade of the palace.

The Guard - because it's the royal residence, the palace always has two soldiers on guard outside it, like Buckingham Palace in London. Sadly, they do not have those furry hats that I know you Americans love so much. ;)

The right side of the Palace

Parliament - the door to the Luxembourg Parliament building, which is right next to the Grand-Ducal Palace (so much more organised, isn't it?).

Parliament façade - looking up Rue du Marché aux Herbes (Herb Market Street) past the Parliament and Grand-Ducal Palace buildings

Octagonal church spire - Luxmebourg is a Catholic country, so they're allowed to be decorative.

Ministry of Finance - The front door of the Ministry of Finance, which faces onto the Place Clairefontaine (Poor Clares Square).

Place Clairefontaine - that's Nôtre Dame Cathedral in the background (the less famous one) and the statue is that of the Grand Duchess Charlotte, whose tact and grace allowed Luxembourg to continue as a constitutional monarchy. During her exile in London during WWII, she became a great focus of national unity, and holds a cherished place in the nation's hearts. For more info, please see this page! The square is named after a convent of the Poor Clare order that originally stood on the site.

Pensive Trainee - yours truly looking thoughtful and rather fat in the face! I'd just washed my hair, it's usually much brighter and lighter

Government Buildings - this tiny square houses most of the government buildings of Luxembourg, hence the coat of arms and the flags (the red, white & blue is the national flag, the dark blue one that of the EU).

In Motion - me again, on Rue de la Reine, walking towards Place Guillaume II. I like this photo much better, I look European and you can even sort of see my cheekbones in the face. My cheeks are red because it was very cold!

Just to let everyone know that Martje did arrive on Monday night, with her cat, Plushie. (That's 'Ploo-shee'.) She is very nice and we get on well and have lots of interesting conversations. Plushie is GINGER and FLUFFY and he miaows all the time and I am completely in love with him. He reminds me of my old cat Autumn (she was female, so tortoiseshell, but the comparison still stands). It occurred to me last night that Plushie is my very own Crookshanks (for the two weeks I'm sharing the flat with him). He's not ugly enough, but I can definitely understand why Hermione turned into goo over Crookshanks now. CUDDLY! XD

Perhaps having a real ginger cat around will help inspire me when I'm writing the bits with Crookshanks in WfW.

Crazy bulletin over now.

Hello everyone,

I can't believe that I've been here a whole month (or nearly). The time has flown so quickly, which must mean that I'm having fun, although I'm too busy most of the time to notice.

( Cinema, work, life )

I hope you're all doing well and that the weather is fine where you are. It's been very misty here during the early mornings but has usually brightened up. The skies are usually clear, but we don't get much heat, it remains cold. And yesterday was miserable. I didn't go anywhere (I wanted to open an account at the post office) because the house of refugees next door had been having a party and I eventually had to move myself into the living room and sleep on the sofa in order to escape the bass. So I woke up mid afternoon and the post office closes at four on a Saturday. Never mind.

I went to visit Lorraine, my mentor, and took the bike that's been leant to me. The saddle is a bit high, but I think it's at the lowest point it can go, so no joy there. I can't really push down on the pedals, though, so I end up feeling like I'm on a child's bike which is just too big for me. Lorraine and Cams (her husband) live all the way at the top of a building, so everything is very pretty, but cramped. Also met their cat, Rinky (official name: Katia), who is a Tonkinese/Tonks cat and reminds me a lot of a Siamese one in that she is very talkative and wants attention all the time. And borrowed three DVDs - The Pianist; Truly, Madly, Deeply; and Poinette. All films I have been wanting to see. I alread watched The Pianist, which was probably not a good idea to do late at night, but there you go. Hard to watch but amazing story. Think I will pick TMD for tonight, which is slightly funnier, even if it still involves death.

Work is going well. Sophia, my workmate, went to Italy for her mother's birthday on Saturday and didn't come back until Thursday, so I had the office to myself, which was nice, even if it meant that I didn't know what anyone else was doing, because I usually know through Sophia. The funny thing was that when Sophia actually did come back to work on Thursday, she couldn't get any work done, because people kept visiting our office or phoning her to welcome her back and ask her how it had been. It got to the point where I ended up laughing every time the phone rang. She eventually went home early, poor girl. I've started doing bits of translation now, which is more interesting than revising, but requires a lot more research. I tend to alternate between the translating, which is interesting but hard work, and the revising, not so interesting but easier.

Briefly visited Luxembourg City (the capital) earlier in the week to get my monthly ticket, which covers me for the whole country, buses and trains. It's very pretty, almost a dream of what a European city should be. Lots of interesting passages and a pedestrianised centre, of course. According to Cams, they're always doing roadworks on it, so just when you've learned one way to get into the city, it changes and you have to find another way. Oh, and just a thought if any of you are going to be driving through Luxembourg: Lux drivers are extremely aggressive. As bad as the French. You have been warned.

I also got myself a Lux SIM card, so I can finally call people. It only cost 20 EUR, which was nice.

That's about all I have to say for now. :)