Post-Christmas post

I hope everyone of you had a beautiful Christmas I enjoyed those days, not having to work and sharing some time with friends and family. I received many lovely gifts for Christmas, but there is one that is so lovey I do have to mention it here. You can see it on the photo on the left, it is a chess set made out of chocolate, given to me by my brother. I never saw something like that and was amazed. As some of you might know, I am quite addicted to chess and to chocolate, too. I will not eat any of the figures until a special occasion, which will be on January 19, when playing my first official tournament. I should eat the queen then to boost my playing performance.

Ice skating

Weeks ago I bought myself new skates to be able to do some ice skating this season. Today was the day I actually tried them out and it went better than I expected, although I got kind of injured.

I easily managed to pay the entrance fee, put on the skates and got on the ice. After stumbling around for a while, me, hopeless young figure skating star entered the scene. When trying to skate a curve, I fell down on my back. Quite surprised, but not hurt, I got up again and continued. Later, I cut my finger when trying to get some ice off my skates. I nearly cut all fingers of my right hand and it was bleeding like crazy. Some nice people got me something for my fingers. After one hour I left the ice to go home.

Surprisingly I did better than I expected. After not skating for about five years (actually I started at the age of nine), I quickly regained confidence and it is so much fun. I will go there again tomorrow I hope.

Escaped the flu

I feel it in my forehead, I feel it in my nose

The flu is all around me, and so the sneezing goes

Viruses in the wind, they are everywhere I go

So if you really love me, please don’t come too close…

(Slightly adapted lyrics from “love is all around”)

The office at work is half empty and when in the train, everybody is coughing, sneezing and looking like they were about to faint. I almost got there too, but luckily managed to escape the bacteria around by taking tons of Vitamin C and anti-headache pills.

On Friday I played my first chess tournament. It is a series of tournaments extending over a period of 8 months. There were very good players in the field, but I think I did well and even did win one game. That was surprising, because the other player is so much better than yours truly. This is the second time I find myself achieving higher goals when I am having a cold or fighting against it.

Anyway, I am practising to to well in the next round, too.