Seeing is believing

I  no longer care what laser eye treatment did to Tiger Woods' golf game, I am going to have my eyes done. Reading glasses are such a drag and trying to get along without them can lead to mix-ups and messes.

At the moment I am in beautiful Leipzig on my way to Berlin tomorrow for a reading in conjunction with the publishing of Todesschiff - translated directly: the Death ship.

For four years prior to university I studied German as my fourth language and although I can somehow line up perfect German sentences and speeches in my head, the vent connecting my brain to my tounge is kaput. I sound like a four year old, which is probably all one can expect after learning to talk it for four years.

My hotel room is a jumbled mess since I have been shopping and have yet to get the proceeds of this venture into my suitcases. For this reason I put a "do not disturb" sign outside the door last night and intended to keep it there all day.  Despite this the cleaning woman seemed intent on entering this morning and before leaving the room I had to be quite abrupt to her so that she would stop her attempts to get in. It was a bit odd.

When I left the room I put on my reading glasses and these coupled with my cracked and splintered German allowed me to see what had happened. It does not take a detective to see what is coming as I had of course turned the sign the wrong way, unable to see well enough bare-eyed that the sign read "please clean". No wonder the woman looked at me funny when I kept closing the door in her face.

So I turned the sign around and left. Upon my return just now I enter the room and the poor woman has somehow managed to tidy everything up despite the state of the room. Understandably the turning of the sign must have caused this - if I did not want her when I put up the sign asking for her services then I must want her to enter when I put up a sign saying I want her to stay away.

Speaking of eyesight. In other news (as if the above can be considered news) my beloved little dog was in an altercation the evening before I left and one of his eyes popped out. Something no one wants to experience. He had an operation and they put the eye back in and sewed it shut  but this being a weekend the vet had no assistant to help and we had to step in. My husband did it - although I can write horrible stuff I am unable to hold an eye in place while someone uses a needle and thread on an eyelid. Next week we will know if he will keep the eye or if the sewed up lid is a permanent fixture. Fingers crossed. Worst comes to worst he will look like a cute pirate.

Yrsa - Wednesday