Sunday 3 January 2010

Notes To Self

When I am on the phone, I do not doodle; I lost that habit decades ago when I started to work for a publisher where I was constantly on the phone with customers who were placing adverts in our papers and where I had to focus on what exactly they were saying, and take notes of their requests and instructions.

These days, I take notes of things I do not want to forget, like when I am reading my weekly paper ("Die ZEIT" for those of you who are familiar with German papers) and I come across an article that captures my interest enough to make me want to find out more about the subject, or share the information with a friend.
Other notes I take are opening times of offices or restaurants, phone numbers that for some reason or other I can not immediately store in my mobile's memory, or directions to someone's house.
I also take notes for myself of topics that come to my mind which I think would make for a blog entry, so that I can get back to them later when I have time and the brewing machine inside my head has come up with a result worth typing.

Originally, it was
this post on Nan's blog which gave me the idea to write about my more or less random scribbles, and so early on in the New Year seems to be a good starting point; maybe there will be more "Notes To Self" on here as the year picks up pace.

Here is the note I am going to add to the waste paper basket as soon as I have finished writing this entry:




(Yes, my handwriting is terrible - I should have become a doctor!)

The two names at the top of the note are names of scientists mentioned in articles in the ZEIT, which I intend to let a friend know about because I think he will find the results of their studies interesting.

The next bit is the name of an office in town hall along with their opening times, where I had to go last week to sort something out in relation with my husband's death;

followed by a friend's phone number (with the last few digits blackened because it is, after all, a real phone number) and the directions to her house, where I was invited for New Year's Day.

You can see that I have also written something on the back of the note; that's a shopping list, including one or two items my sister had asked me to bring.

Now that you've had this little glimpse into my daily life, let me know if you found it entertaining enough for me to do more such blog posts; you are also welcome to comment if you don't think so - I can handle criticism :-)

8 comments:

  1. Glad to see someone else's handwriting is terrible! My hubby teases me by deliberately turning my handwritten note into another sentence altogether.

    As far as I'm concerned, you can post the 'notes to self' as long as you translate for us. :-)

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  2. OK LadyPI, I will :-)

    When I was still at school, my teachers despaired over my handwriting - and my essays usually were loooooooong... My colleagues much prefer getting an email from me than finding a handwritten note they can't decipher.

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  3. Now a grocery shopping list, that could be very interesting. I could recognize one of the few german words i know on such a list-
    gaduffen. (Thats supposed to be cookies)
    julie

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  4. Julie, next time I have a shopping list on one of my little notes, I will make sure to post it for you :-)
    As for gaduffen - sorry, never heard that word. Are you sure it is German? The German word for cookies is Kekse.

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  5. I loved this! I agree that shopping lists would be fun to read.
    Is that my name on your list???? Or do you know a 'nan' in your 'real' life? Or is nan part of an address and thus a German word?
    And you know what, I like your handwriting.

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  6. OK there shall be a shopping list then :-)
    No, Nan, sorry - that word only looks like "nan", but it actually is "nach", the German word for "after". I was scribbling directions from my friend about how to get to her house, something like "after the bus stop".
    Told you my handwriting is terrible!!

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  7. Meks, you know I really love ya, but wow!! I thought one of my friends had bad handwriting! LOL I will have to show her your blog entry so she can feel better that she's not the only one out there! LOL

    Back to the point of the entry, I find little notes here and there all the time that I've left and try to remember why I wrote them. It can be pretty interesting when I only write one or two words and try to decipher it! :)

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  8. Thank you for your comment, Mel - and I DO know how bad my handwriting is ;-)
    So, if it makes that friend of yours feel better, fair enough!
    Usually my notes are in one place and only when the one piece of paper is full I start the next one. Otherwise I'd get too confused - life in itself can be confusing enough...

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