Month: February 2023

I’ll be back – the gruesome story published in my school yearbook way back when

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horror story

When I was in year 9, at the tender age of 14/15, I was big into writing, and at the time, I was deep in my horror writing phase. An old friend from high school recently found a story of mine that had been printed in the yearbook, and I found it so disturbing/funny that I thought I’d share.

It was titled ‘I’ll be back’, which is relevant considering where I live now. And it revolved around a 14/15 year old girl babysitting her two year old sister for the first time. This girl was doing all the standard teenage things you do when you’re babysitting – like calling her friends and watching TV… absolutely not checking on the baby and of course… meditating… for an hour. Which perhaps was the problem… because in that hour someone came into the house and surprise surprise… murdered her baby sister.

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On writing

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kids book

I have loved writing for as long as I can remember. One of my earliest memories, perhaps also of jealousy, was when a girl in my prep class brought in a ‘book’ she’d written. It was about her dog, flimsy paper stapled together complete with 5 year old drawings. It was impressive for a 5 year old, or at least I thought so. I remember the teacher raving about it. I remember being jealous. And I remember wanting to have my own book. I remember thinking I could do that.

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You know you’re in Austria and not Australia when… you panic about the cheddar

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cheddar cheese

Austria has many different types of special cheese. Glündner Käse, Topfen, the different varieties of Bergkäse, and most of the standard ones you already know. The cheese in Austria is perfectly fine. But when I came here what I missed was cheddar. Didn’t have to be anything special but it had to be cheddar. I grudgingly accepted the Bergkäse and Gouda that wound up in the shopping trolley and passed it off as just another thing I would have to get used to.

Now, Austria is not at the end of the earth. You can absolutely buy cheddar in Austria, and quite easily, just not at the supermarket I was frequenting. So I assumed it wasn’t available.

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German-speaking Debbie & English-speaking Debbie

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austrian strudel

Now that I have been living in Austria for almost ten years and I get around pretty good, it’s come to my attention that there could actually be two of me – German-speaking Debbie and English-speaking Debbie. Because I’ve had people tell me that they notice a difference in my personality when I speak one language or the other. And well… it does make sense.

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