Song of the day: Someone you loved, by Lewis Capaldi. Such a gorgeous song.

Life. It has a way of getting away from you...or at least it does in my case. So strange the way the world has changed, even since the last past here on the blog. As of today we are once again in lockdown, nuts, I tell ya. Totally nuts! But, it is what it is, right? The powers that be make a decision and we must all abide by it. I just can't help but feel bad for all those people who really can't afford this shaite. For the people who suffer because of these lockdowns and are losing everything.

But, the old mantra still counts. I won't care about things I cannot change. It has no use.So, let's see if I can bring y'all up to date to life as it is at the moment. What all has happened since the last time I wrote?

First there was school. I thankfully passed my exams with a respectable average of 9 (out of 10), so that was over and done with. Actually got my diploma last October so I've got that sucker in my pocket at long last. Was nice to see about half of my fellow students again, and to have a bit of a social distanced party with a shot of booze followed by a beer.

Work. Well, we have a forced close now again, but before that I had two lovely months working in the Buffet restaurant again. The formula was different, no more free for all buffet, but a 3 course dining experience instead. Though different from usual (and what I love most doing) it was still a nice challenge...until the corona measures got tightened again, of course,  meaning that our restaurants had to close and we were only allowed to offer take-away to our guests. But that, of course meant that we had too many chefs in the kitchen. So what does that leave for Sammie, you might wonder. Well, luckily I can be bumped to TD, meaning I get to help big brother out with the hated morning shifts.

The 4:20 wake up call is pretty much killing me, but work is work...or at least it was, considering things will change again now with the new lockdown. I might get lucky and won't need to start at 6 am until January, which should be awesome. I don't mind work, in any shape or form, but I do hate the early morning. Ha. We'll see how that goes.

Had friends over for dinner the other day. I miss cooking special stuff, so it was the perfect occasion to have some fun in the kitchen. Decided on three courses that started with a lovely fresh pumpkin soup decorated with fresh herbs and a blot of cream cheese in the center. The main course was a lovely experiment of red beet risotto topped by a bit of Parmesan. This dish had strips of veggies on the side and a yellow creamy sauce with saffron and rose. Last but not least was a strawberry tartlet made from scratch with a bit of whipped cream on top. Was a wonderful evening with friends and good food, so that was a successful evening in my book.

Been experimenting with bread, partly because I am playing with the idea of starting to do some kind of catering, or food take away on the side. I already have several people interested in my vegetable bread, which would be great if I can get regular orders for that in the future. They would be more interested in seasonal veggies, though, so that meant I had to do some experimenting. Ended up with 3 new recipes from that. One with cauliflower and carrot. One of three types of cabbage, and one with pumpkin and parsnips. Definitely fun to try, and there might even be a restaurant interested in it, so I will keep you posted on that.

As for Mr. Whitney, the absolute gorgeous fella (aka golden retriever) I adopted this spring is still with us. He's amazing. Such good company and hardly ever a bother. He's adjusted well to his new life with us, absolutely loving our 3x daily walks, and enjoying his very own home-made food. He's no longer skinny. He's got muscles now and his confidence is still improving daily. He's such a marvelous addition to our lives, I can barely remember a time when he wasn't here. He's been making sure that we go on plenty of walks, which is of course very good for us since going to the gym isn't actually in the realm of possibilities at the moment.

As for the house. My...our lovely house. We got quite a bit done in the months that have passed since my last blog. First of, we have upgraded our electrical system, meaning that now we can have a proper kitchen when the time is right. Added to that all the walls in the living areas that had to go out are out, so we could put in new floors in the kitchen, the office and the living room. Which makes sooooooo much of a difference. No more cold tiles under my feet, not to mention that the first 3 floors are so much more spacious now. It is absolutely awesome. Basically we now have the house's base exactly the way we want it. Sure, we'll have to remodel the kitchen, still, and the bathroom, a shed, and the garage, but there's no rush. It's all very livable until we've got some savings to do them proper. Right now I have added a kitchen island that gives me at least enough work space, and painted everything that needed painting, too, so let's see how things go.

Dealing with mom's passing is a sometimes it's okay, sometimes it still hits me by surprise, kind of thing. Sometimes I can still not believe it, and now that we are dealing with the aftermath of the house in Spain and such, it is very much back in my mind, I fear. I wish it wasn't, and yes I am working at letting it go and accepting it, but still, it isn't easy. Alas.

It has been slow on the writing front, but I have started on a new book because I needed something new, something different, so guess what. I am writing a paranormal/horror/thriller. I kid you not. We've got zombie killers and all that jazz. So much fun to do. Got over 11k words now, so I'm pretty pleased about that. Will be getting a couple of the older manuscripts out of the dust piles so we can start sending them out in the near future, but until then I'm having fun doing the creative thing again.

Well, that's about it for today, I guess. Hope everyone is doing alright and is keeping safe. I'll be back...

Another update

So yeah, it has been a while, but life has been quite busy ever since that first week of the coronacrisis. You're not going to believe this, but I moved house. Yes, sir, I did. An opportunity arose (yes, partially due to the crisis. Just few less vultures like ourselves, out there, looking for a place to live.) We swooped and scooped at the just the right moment, apparently.
It is a lovely place, a stonethrow away from the woods (yay) and technically due to a split level design, with seven floor. Awesome! More than enough space for big brother and me, which was a thing we worried about. Anti-squattig spoiled us in regards to space, but this one hit us both as just right.
In fact, despite there being quite a few things that would need work, I had "yes, this one!" from the moment I walked in. It, the house, and the area just felt like home for the first time in a long, looooong time.

It wasn't a sure thing. A lot of stuff got harder now with the crisis. We had to meet certain requirements (that we wouldn't have been able to meet just a week later) but in the end it all worked out. The house is ours, permanently. Woohoo. Such a relief, especially since the anti-squatting house was starting to look like it was drawing closer to the end. Not that we had to leave yet. We probably could have stayed another year, or so, but time was running out with the roads coming closer and the state of the house becoming less "solid" so to speak. Apparently we were right on time, too, considering the new people that moved in, had a B&E just a week after we moved out. How's that for weird?

Anyway, school has been a pain. I would like to say that I have been enjoying myself, and that I was in a positive state of mind about the whole thing, especially because I passed all my tests so far with decent grades, but I'm not. I don't know what's causing it, really, but right now I just want to get it over with. I need to do my last exam, a test of adequacy, or some such, and right now it just feels like this massive thing, while all it is, is cooking, really. It's not all that complicated, and yet somehow it has turned into some sort of mountain. Grrr

Anyway, this Tuesday is my last exam, so keep yer fingers crossed that I manage to make it, and get it all over with. I sure can't wait for that to happen. I can't say that I liked the experience a lot, but I did well on my dutch and english, so I got something out of it, at least.

Work has been very slow. After having been shut down for more than 2 months, we were allowed to partially open, meaning there is a little bit more than just maintenance going on, but still it is sad to see so little happen there. It has given me ample time to move house, of course, and that is good, but I miss the work, the purpose of it, so I hope that that picks up some, at least, next month where we will be allowed to open with all the facilities, for at least half our usual guests. Big brother was a lot luckier than me in the work department. He's been working more than ever. Son of a gun. So jealous. I only got to help out in the garden from time to time.*sigh *

Books...well, it has been incredibly slow in that regard, too. First househunting, then actually getting it and moving there. Gawd, the move was so much work. Makes me happy that we won't have to do that anytime soon. It put writing on a back burner even though we did manage to send a manuscript proposal out to our publisher in-between everything.

Sad news...yeah. Mom, after struggling with cancer for many years now, passed away in March, just days after her birthday. Even though we saw it coming for a long time, it hit us all rather hard. She was having trouble breathing for some time, and she was starting to have small seizures, meaning that, despite the corona crisis, the sibs were forced to call an ambulance and have her committed to hospital. A bad time for that, but necessary. She was there almost a week, and got worse, considering one lung had filled with more than a liter of liquid, which they drained and cause a bad pain in her chest. Apparently she had a small heartattack the night after that, and passed away the following morning.
Tests showed that she didn't have corona, not that that would have changed anything, of course, but it made her death more sour, since Spain was in in complete lockdown and little sister wasn't even allowed to visit her in her final days. Nor were the sibs allowed to be at her funeral, which made them decide for a cremation.

Despite having prepped myself for the event a long time, it hit me hard, I'll admit. I cried more than I expected, and not being able to work throughout that time, didn't help in the least. It would have been nice not to have had so much time to think about it all, and though I have worked my way through it, I still get hit by it sometimes, when I realize that she won't be able to read this blog anymore, for instance, or that she is not checking out my facebook page, or that we won't ever see each other again. That makes me sad.

Stress wise things haven'g been much better. It impeded on my sleep, so I have been getting too little of that lately, explaining a consistent tiredness. Will need to work on that, but okay, whatever. The only solution to that is just getting more sleep, so I will.

Positive news. A new family member. Since I now have a permanent home again, I adopted a dog. A gorgeous 3 year old Golden retriever from an animal shelter in dire need of a home. Mr. Whitney. He's so lovely, reminding me of how much I missed having a dog afoot. Sure, he has some baggage that he needs to overcome, and he needs to gain some weight and a healthy fur shine to compensate the bad nutrition he used to get, but...well, the pictures speak for themselves. He's awesome! And so quickly gaining the much needed confidence.

*Sigh *
Right now, I am working on letting things go again. On focusing on recovering my equilibrium and basically getting my life in order while I plan on all the wonderful things I'm going to do on my new house. There are walls to take out, a new bathroom and halfbath to install, a garden to set up, and of course a kitchen to plan. So many of those. I can hardly wait...

Back in January

Song of the day: “Someone you loved” by Lewis Capaldi, such a gorgeous song, although it is incredibly sad. Sometimes I find it really relatable, for some reason…but then, admittedly those are my bad days.

Well, life has been busy as usual. The time gets away from me more often than not, and the fact that I work, usually, a minimum of four days a week doesn’t help much in that regard. It seems at the moment that I am only working and going to school, which is ridiculous, of course. There are still two days, off (even though I usually spend some time of those on homework) and infrequent attempts at working on the books. It doesn’t always work, and we are not going fast, but steady and slow at least.

The book, Lost Soul has been finished. At least the writing has. Did that a while ago, despite everything going on. It felt good to finish the story, especially because it is so dark and sad. That certainly didn’t improve my overall mood, despite loving the story. The character is just such a tortured soul, which makes the title rather fitting, in my opinion. It was high intensity, dark and painful, which makes for an excellent combo, when we’re talking psychological thrillers, right?

Work. Well, I seem to be doing it right. Takes effort and time, and there are times that my friggin’ feet kill me at the end of the day, but I get satisfaction from doing it right. The challenge is to get all the parts done proper without forgetting the important stuff, keeping track and basically make things run smoothly. But that’s okay. I know the importance of a good atmosphere, and work hard at that, which pays off most times. I have been doing a lot of sushi (a rather new skill, still) which means I get to practise new tastes, styles and basically anything that I hadn’t thought of before, simply because personally I am not a sushi person. Still, it’s a good challenge.

Christmas came and went, and though I worked from the second day of Christmas, almost straight through to the new year, it was a quiet time, without much, if any obligations. Instead we visited family on the 28^th, so we could celebrate big brother’s birthday too.

Also joined in the catering of a big event at a dolphinarium for a day. This meant prepping food for more than 1100 people. Very interesting, if tiring, and a good experience to have. There was a nice bunch of kids working there, needing some calming experienced guidance, which we managed to supply. It was long day, and I didn’t get to see any dolphins, which I would have liked. Alas, only work.

My birthday came and went. The actual day was spent at work, meaning that folks sang happy birthday, of course, which felt a tad awkward, yet sweet at the same time. Instead of celebrating on the day, I did a dinner party a week later, which was a big success. Had about a dozen people come over, and we had this big Italian style, big table dinner, with everyone talking and laughing. I enjoyed that tremendously.

There was family, there were friends…what more can you ask for, right? Had a lovely four course menu that involved a nice zucchini cream soup, an Asian style spinach, grilled vegetable, satay salad, followed by stuffed peppers, pastry zucchini roses, linguini with a parmesan, cream and lemon sauce, with a dessert of real hung yogurt with saffron and mango. It was absolutely awesome, and I had just  enough for everyone, meaning we weren’t left with a massive amount of leftovers, which I had feared…of course that meant that I hardly had any food for the following workdays,  but in such cases grilled cheese sandwiches with veggies did the trick.

Heard that a very good friend of mine has been diagnosed with acute, malignant leukaemia, for which he has been hospitalized. He is now going through his second round of aggressive chem therapy, but the prognosis is very bleak. This saddens me. This friend always reminds me of grandpa, so that is doubly sad. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that something awesome happens for him, right.

I have not been liking winter. Despite a lack of snow, I’ve been finding it cold, and yes, I have bagged my first sickness with a bad nose cold, that followed up a just as bad throat ache that went straight up my nose two days later. The only thing I am grateful for is that it didn’t sink into my lungs this time.

Studies are…elaborate. I’m not sure if they’re supposed to be, just that I seem to take a lot of time with them. The assignments, the reading. I hadn’t realized the extent of them until this who experience. Did quite a few already, and I did my first tests, several of which I passed already, thankfully. The dutch seems to be less of a problem, but I’m pretty sure I flunked math…but we’ll see. Maybe I did better than I expected…I doubt it, but hope springs eternal, I guess.

The big wall in the living room is finally painted. So much better now. So much more light, and so much prettier to boot. I might alter more there in the near future, but for now it is rather comfy…and looking good, because we passed two house inspection, maybe even three, since the last blog. A relief that, even though the inspections are more frequent these days. I think the company has changed its policies.

Went to the cinema recently. The Joker. Considering we had gotten a cinema gift certificate it seemed like the right thing to do. A fascinating movie. A little slow maybe, and dark, but the acting was incredibly powerful. Also, it was a fun night out. We don’t get many of those.

Although there have been some cooking sprees of late, for the most part cooking is something I do at work and in bulk for the days that I work. This means that I don’t have a lot of pretty images to post. Instead they have been sustenance, which is important too.

There are some changes coming, but they are not as such that I can share them yet, regretfully. Still, they ought to be interesting, or at least I hope so.

And this makes for today’s blog. It is late, and I have an appointment in the morning. Added to that I had school today and that took longer than usual since I was chef de partie for desserts today. It went well enough from my perspective. All the guests were content, and that’s what counts.

But now it is time for bed. I’ll be back.

Time for an update

Song of the day: "The sound of Music" by Julie Andrews, duh. I'm having this one in my head more often, lately.

I know, I know. It has been a terribly long time since I last posted, but life has been incredibly busy with work, with writing and finishing another book, and added to that, going to school now, due to an offer I couldn't refuse from the company I work for.

Yep, Sammy is going to school. Chef school, no less. Considering it is the basic education, meaning young kids go there too, it ain't very challenging, to say the least, but it'll be good for the future, and on the off chance that I wanna go work elsewhere in the same branch. We'll see how it goes. At least I've got some nice fellow students.

The same goes for work, by the way. I've made some nice friends among my colleagues. There are a few difficult ones too, of course, but still. Friends at work are important. Especially because you have to spend so much time with them during the course of the hours and hours that pass in a workplace. Learning new stuff, too. Some of them interesting, some of them less so. I'm quite skilled at grilling stuff on the Big Green Egg now. Haha. How weird is that, right, a vegetarian turned flexatarian, becoming skilled at grilling meats of all kinds. Hilarious. Also, I have learned how to make sushi, which is interesting, if tedious at times, especially on busy days. At least I'm now well familiar with the score at work. I can do a variety of shifts, which vary from morning, afternoon to evenings. Am primarily put in the buffet live-cooking sections, which is the funnest part, I suppose, but I do admit to being curious about the other kitchens...while dreading it a little, too. Familiarity breeds content, and all that.

The new book is done, too. Basically took a year to write it, what with work and life in general getting in the way, but whatever. A book is a book, whether it takes a month, a year or 10 years. It still needs editing, of course, and a lot of work, naturally, but it's there. I like what it became, even though the genre is by far more serious than what I/we did before, and has virtually no romance, but still the characters have become well-rounded and interesting...to me at least.

Still at the same house, thankfully. So far so good in that regard. A pleasant place, and I do hope that it stays that way, especially because I would have to move more than 70 plants now, in case of a move.

Regretfully I've been having too little time to go to the gym, lately, but I am frequently attacking my kickboxing bag that I now have hanging in the garage for this very purpose. It's good to do some kickboxing again. It definitely improves my mood on most days, which reminds me, I really should try to do some before work tomorrow, because the past four days have been dragging me down.

Had several days with my dad over the past 6 months or so, including a day at his place, cutting down diseased trees, which was lovely. Nothing feels quite as awesome as using an ax and/or chainsaw and then hauling wood with pure muscle strength. I miss outside work like that, regardless of the fact that I enjoy my job. I miss the outside, the fresh air, the green and whatnot. Working in a kitchen all day just ain't the same.

Life at the moment is far from easy, and in a way that is okay. I don't expect it to be, but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't rather see it be different. I wouldn't mind life being a little more fun, despite the fact that I manage to have fun in both work and private life. Just...a little easier wouldn't got amiss. I get rather tired at times, you see. Tired from...well, everything. haha

Well, that's what it'll have to be for today. It is rather late, and I do have to work tomorrow...oh carp, it's already past midnight! Gotta go.

Post exams...and gardening.

Well, where was I this afternoon? Oh yes, now I remember. We got home and for hours yet I feel this tremor of relief go through me. Time and time again I remember that we passed the exams and this very thought releases the tension culminating these past few weeks, one strenuous nerve at the time.
We don’t have to return to the lessons, ever again. Gawd, that deserves applause all by itself. Hah.

It wasn’t all bad, mind you, just time consuming, and I hate that, especially when it is kind of superfluous. I’m so glad it’s over, now maybe I’ll feel a little less like I’m stretched to thin, keeping track of everything.

Though I would have liked to possess the stamina to get to the edits immediately, I really can’t put myself to it by the time the sibs have arrived and we pulled a mean April’s fool prank on them that that we hadn’t made the exams. Luckily for them I’m horrid at such things, so they are forced to endure the disappointment for little more than a couple of seconds.

It is rather a funny tale to tell the sibs. The way the exams went and how our instructor drove to and from Málaga before and after “the event” like a madman. It’s what I like to call irony: Here he’s breaking pretty much every rule in the book, while explaining to us the few things we have to practice once we’ve got that piece of paper we need to be free to do what we want. Watching him drive I can finally understand why cab drivers are considered a hazard. He is definitely a cab driver by heart. Hah.

Relief is present most of the day, and once I’ve done a relaxing round online it is time to head on out into the yard and resume the project. For the next few hours we haul mud, reed and vines in the last patch under the house that hasn’t been seen to in the past few weeks.

It is strange, but considering we took out time with the lessons, it will be a peculiar sensation to be without further “obligation” to go to town for our instructions. It has been a part of our lives for almost six months and in a twisted sort of way there will be a certain sense of missing it…if that makes any sense at all?

But anyways, for several hours we work in the yard, clearing several paths through the twelve feet high reed, and removing several trees that didn’t survive the last summer. At the end of today’s task, we’re all exhausted, both physically and mentally. Together we all head back to the house to eat yesterday’s pizza leftovers, finding the meal as mouth watering as before…though the portions are a little on the small side, all things considered.

After dinner the energy levels rapidly drop all round, and even though I manage a patch job on another set of PJs that suffered through a long winter, by the end of it I’m barely able to settle in front of the TV and focus on the show playing.

I don’t get it. It almost seems as if my brain is still set in the mode of failure…like the preparation for it makes it almost impossible for me to shift it in the one of relief of success. My head continues to want to go over the few errors I made, like I have to make another attempt to do it right the next time. That’s an over achiever for ya, I guess. Hah.

But anyways, well before midnight I give up the battle against fatigue and head on up to my cabin, where promptly my stomach decides that the tension of the past few days was too much and rids itself of the remainder of food that’s still in there. Stupid stomach. Like my brain, it doesn’t appear to realize that it’s all over now.

So, that was today’s official Blog. The “And…that’s a cut!” ritual over and done with, leaving me to move on to the hopefully long night of relaxing sleep ahead.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed, and see what tomorrow brings.

Zombie dreams, soooo trite.

So, if the saying of: “Don’t lose sight of reality,” is true, doesn’t that mean that reality is not to be trusted? It does seem that way to me, which is why I prefer fiction every day.

Just figured I’d insert a random thought here, hah. Wouldn’t want to be predictable, or anything.

Right, on to more interesting things. Oh yes, my dream. Gotta tell about my dream.

I was at my old house…well, dreaming of it anyway…okay, gotta cut off here for a moment and wonder “out loud”. Does anyone notice how a place that you’ve called home will frequently still be home in dreams, years after actually moving away? I think it took me at least nine years before (in dreams) our present home became more prominent in a variety of dreams. Hmmm, strange how that works.

But, like I was saying: I was in my old house, the woods green in the beginning of summer when something–I don’t recall exactly what–happened that made the sky turn inky black in less than a second. It startled me and for some peculiar reason I got in the Truck (we didn’t get the truck until after 2000, so what it was doing in the dream, I’ve no idea, aaargh. Consistency, Sam. Gotta be consistent) and tore away from the gate to head towards a mountainous area, which would fit our present home more than the old, by the way.
I was tearing over narrow roads, taking hairpin corners at top speed and even skipping several in my haste to get up to a rather sprawling mansion, somewhere near a top.
It was still dark as night, raging winds whirling around me like mad when I get out of the car and turn to get the younger sibs out.
For some reason they were small kids again, which made no sense whatsoever since they’re all fully-grown these days. But anyways, I propped the little sister version on my hip, grabbed middle sister’s wrist and snapped at little brother to keep up while we started running towards the front door.
It was opened the moment we mounted the single step of the large porch, and were ushered inside by a complete stranger that I seemed to know (in the dream) as I handed little sister to mom…she was there too, don’t ask me why, hah…and run to the back of the house where big brother and another version of little brother–this one’s an adult again–were helping a huge amount of, what appear to be, refugees of some sort.
There was a hubbub going on all around, men and woman carrying heavy guns, pitchforks and whatnot, children being cornered by older kids so they weren’t in the way, and flashlights being used rather than actual lights.
I appeared to know what’s going on; ‘cause I nodded at the instructions the man beside me was giving (how, I don’t know, because thinking back of it, he spoke in some unfamiliar language).
There was this tremendous patio where everyone was scattered around, climbing up the huge walls and taking up battle stations…I know what you’re thinking, “What the heck is going on?” the thought kept playing through my mind, too…while I grabbed some sort of sawed-off buckshot that was tossed in my direction by another “familiar” stranger and took up position near a lower section of the wall and peer out into the darkness.
I was positioned at a vantage point of sorts, my eyes rapidly adjusting to the darkness below when the flashlights were behind me at last.
I saw a jagged road, crisscrossing up the mountain on which the villa was location, and with a glance backwards I could see more mountain tower overhead.
The road was deserted, and hours appeared to pass before suddenly a warning whistle from big brother (he was perched nearby) alerted me of the movement going on where the road first appeared behind a rocky outcropping.
Thunder suddenly crashed overhead…strangely enough without lightning…making the ground shake ominously as the people around me jumped right along with me.
By the time the rumble died down the movement appeared to be a lot closer, showing outlines of human shapes, rapidly making their way up.
I squinted at them, making out that they swayed oddly even with the peculiar speed.
“Hold!” someone called urgently then, right on time too since I felt this sense of impending doom at the approaching figure, and really wanted to let loose with the buckshot. “Wait for it. Wait!”
The figures, hundreds of them, amazingly, crossed at least two thirds of the distance in that short time, allowing my to grimace at the sight of disfigured faces, gaping holes and even missing limbs.
Friggin’ zombies are attacking? How trite! I remember thinking, even as I loaded the shotgun to readiness and managed not to flinch with the second thunderous boom that made the ground tremble again.
The zombies reached a messy hedge by that time, which appeared to be the universal sign for everyone to start shooting at the howling creatures as they increased their speed.
There were lots of full hits from a variety of weapons, mine included, and yet the zombies (Gawd, I still can’t believe I dreamt about zombies. How lame is that?) barely paused their stride as they headed straight for us. Pitchforks, bats–and anything else that was likely to serve as a weapon–appeared all around me, and more people gathered by the walls as the earth shook. By that time the first zombies hit the wall and started to climb up as if they had a ladder against it.
My ammo went out, just when some butt-ugly face appeared over the edge of the wall, and I slam the bud right there, where the nose was supposed to be. There was a satisfying crack while the creature was sent sprawling. (Very Resident Evil-like, hah) Another jumps right up on the wall, and I’m about to give him the same treatment when suddenly…the alarm screeches and declares the dream officially over.

Jeez. Just when things start to get remotely interesting, too.
I groan when I open my eyes and peer straight into Chaos’ nose, lying less than two inches from my own. Aaargh. He, of course wags his tail affectionately with the realization that I’m awake.
I gotta work on the timing of my dreams, the bloody alarm always messes with the ending and that is getting to be a little more than annoying.

But anyways, while I’m stretching and yawning, working the kinks from my shoulders and back, Knight II decides that I’m not fast enough and bounces right onto the center of the bed, just barely missing my gut…this of course because I saw him coming and managed to role aside in the nick of time, but still. Hah.

While going over the dream and wondering if I might be able to use the theme in one of the books, I roll out of bed to let the pack outside to start on the morning rituals.
Luckily I’m not so sore today, and actually manage to move around with a little more dignity than usual. Sure, my hair stands up every which way, my eyes are puffy with too little sleep and my pjs are twisted around me, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that I’m not moving like an old crone this morning.

Once done with the morning rituals, and helping Bommel out of the cabin–he seems to be feeling a bit better today–I take the pack down to the house an hour earlier than usual. They’re bit confused with the time change, but act their average chaotic selves when I throw the gate open and let them stream into the courtyard.

Lhabana and Sitabah are still having a disagreement so I snarl at them to stop…well, snarling, and then follow them into the house.
Big brother is already up, and has coffee percolating, thank God.
My eyes refuse to open more than halfway, and stay that way for a full hour while I try to boost my system with two full mugs of coffee.

By the time the caffeine finally kicks in, we’re already well into the edit, managing to go over at least ten pages (this is a section that was already done, but needed a reread due to the massive changes) before the hour of our departure arrives.

We’re running a little behind for our lessons–however frustrating at times, edits are all-consuming–and need to hurry to town in order to make it in time.
Since I function better as the first doing the practical, I take my place for the hour and a half lesson that lies ahead, while big brother sits behind me. Because he functions better later on, it works out really well. Me, on the other hand, an hour into the lessons and my brain starts to turn to mush.

Ah well, during the first section of the lesson I actually manage to strike up a bit of conversation with the instructor–I figure that if he’s busy talking about normal stuff, at least he’ll stop giving instructions…it works hah–and actually manage the first forty-five minutes of the lesson without too much errors. It’s the next sections when my reactions start to dwindle. Nothing disastrous, mind you, just those lousy little errors that make the instructor frown.

Let’s just say it didn’t go as well as it could have and keep it at that, rather than spending another two pages rattling on about all the things that I did wrong.
I do have to share one particular thing the instructor said…compliments from instructors are so rare, you understand…he said that we were both really good, it was just that in order to make the exams we don’t need to be good, but we need to be CORRECT. Goes to show what the bureaucrats consider important, I guess. It’s just nutty.

But anyways, when it’s big brother’s turn, we exchange places and I settle back to do something constructive with the hour and a half that’s still ahead. While listening partly to the conversation going on before me, I actually manage to jot down a draft for a query letter that I still needed to write. I need to send out lots of letters in the near future for “Saving Nina”, and am most pleased that I’ve got a good start during this otherwise wasted time.

Since, by time I finish, we still have a good half hour to go, I continue writing on the notepad and get down a scene that needs to be inserted into the manuscript before it’s fully done. Pretty darn pleased with myself, I finish just about the time our lessons are over and our ride home arrives.
Two more lessons to go and then the exams, and I didn’t worry about it for even five minutes. That’s gotta be a record. Hah.

When we arrive home, little sister has dinner waiting, and basically we wolf it down before setting up the computers and getting to work.
No edits tonight. Big brother is researching the paperwprl we need to go to Createspace, and if we’re lucky, maybe even Kindle, while I work at Lulu.com to get a W.I. Volume ready to send out to a reviewer.

I’m sending it straight from the publisher, which is new for me, so I hope that it all goes well. It’s a pity that he prefers hardcopy over PDF files, but I have to know if this works anyway. Might as well be now.
I do wish the publisher figured out a satisfactory solution for getting my copies to me, because having none in stock is turning out to be a serious pain in the butt.

Now, added to a review of the story I’m even doing an interview, can you imagine?
It’s kind of exciting, an interview. Only did one in the past, which was mostly about me personally, but now I get to answer questions about the W.I.s, instead. The how, when and why I created them, what I’m trying to do with them etc. etc. It’s something new, and that is always a wonderful challenge.

Since I’m over at my storefront anyway, I decide to change the main page too. The old one was still good, but I thought a change wouldn’t hurt. It actually looks kind of cheerful right now, which could be a good thing, I guess.

When I finish everything up, midnight has arrived and after some mindless banter with the sibs, I head on up to my cabin for the last part of the evening.

Sure, the lesson thing hacks into a day, but I got stuff done today, and that makes this a good one.

Ehm...No title?

Let’s see if we can keep this short today, ‘cause not all that much happened…and I’m really not in the mood for this. Hah.

I wake up my usual time this morning, my body pretty darn sore all over, and needing a solid ten minutes of stretches to start to function properly. My back complains, my muscles ache and on the overall, until I finish the stretches, it is mighty uncomfortable.

Though the weather is still cool, the sun is shining again, allowing me to head down in full sunlight and a fresh spring breeze coming from the west, I believe. The dogs, as always eager to start on the day, rush into the courtyard ahead of me, and then into the house where the usual ruckus ensues, due to big brother’s canine companions waiting for us.

There isn’t much time for anything, and after a quick shower, breakfast and a large mug of coffee I settle behind my computer to do some more filing. I do a few more copies and pasts, shift stuff around and then it is time to get going.

We have an appointment for a three-hour lesson in town, and in order to get there in time we have to arrive there less than three hours after awakening. We get there right on time, heading on out with the instructor for the exhausting task of fine-tuning our technique.

It doesn’t go bad, or anything. As a matter of fact the instructor is confident enough to say that next Wednesday we should be ready for our exams. He does state that he wishes us to have six more hours of instructions before that, however, so Friday, Monday and Tuesday will be quite busy for us.

I hate it how these “instructions” intrude on our daily routines, especially since it takes us away from far more important tasks for almost five hours. It’s such a waste, but also necessary, I know. But anyway, once we return, set our appointments and talk with our teacher and instructor alike, we’re heading over to the supermarket for a few quick groceries and then home.

I find myself a tad subdued once we’ve greeted the exuberant dogs, had dinner and finally settle down to relax a bit. I really shouldn’t just sit down, but the lesson was like those that came before: Draining.
Heck, I can barely think, let alone act.

Clue, our pointer that got operated on last week, got the drain removed from his side today, and is desperately trying to get past the cone collar that is protecting the stitches from removal. When he fails to get to it, he moves over to me for a proper petting, sticking the cone in my chest so I can scratch his poor itchy ears. There’s a lot of moaning coming from him during the petting, proving that the restrictive collar is keeping him from the much needed scratching.

Later in the evening after watching an episode of “CSI” and “Bones” big brother and I both make a foray into editing again. We manage little more than a page, however, and finally decide on searching a variety of databases for agents and publishers once more, for when we start sending out the latest manuscripts.
The entire procedure mixes with the constant search of ticks on plenty of dog bodies. The dogs really enjoy it too, since they all come heading towards us one at a time for their turn. Already the tick problem is growing, the average dog counting at least twenty every day, demanding a lot of time so we can remove them. We really have to start thinking about that bath for them, soon.

Around midnight we sign off and resign for the night.
Once up in my room, after feeding the dogs and going through the evening rituals, I do a few exercises. I would have liked to do a full workout today, if for no other reason than to get rid of the lethargy swirling inside me, but since that this isn’t smart just a couple of hours before sleep, I make due.

Once the dogs are done eating, and I’ve changed into my pjs, it’s time for today’s blog (it’s rather boring, I know) and a quick circulation of the Net. Let’s hope tomorrow will be more interesting.

Tired, but reasonably well.

I was in a miserable state last night when I finally got to bed. I was dizzy, my head hurt and there was this loud buzz inside my skull that sent a vibration through me until I was afraid I was going to pass out. This in the end forced me to head to bed and hope for an uninterrupted night’s rest.

I got it too. I literally passed out for five full hours and spent the last two snoozing pleasantly until it was time to wake up to a bright and sunny Spanish day.
Deliberately I refuse to let my thoughts stray to Yadzia and the way he would usually give me a quick greeting before heading outside, and start on the morning rituals without pause as soon as I release the pack.

One of the dogs vomited during the night. A big pile of grass, twigs and even branches that lay in a neat pile in the corner. I’m thinking it was Gadah, since she didn’t feel at all well last night and I did see her eat grass while we were working in the garden. Besides, she is her cheerful self again this morning, and storms out the cabin, nipping at Amri’s heels enthusiastically.

When I arrive at the house, depositing my computer bag and a small bag of laundry, big brother is already there. With a certain amount of determination we have a mutual agreement not to discuss our upcoming lesson, knowing that if we start worrying about it now we won’t be able to focus on the planned editing session. Instead, we just chat about projects in progress and anything else that catches our attention.

So, after breakfast, our habitual morning talk with grandpa, and with our coffee in hand we set up the computers. While big brother is distracted from the task a bit longer, I spent a little while writing about half a page for a scene that we want to insert into the story, and then we start.

For several hours we pour over sentence structure, grammar and the occasional typo until the time of our departure arrives and we’ve gone through a wonderful total of six pages and feel happy about it.

Still on a high about the successful session, we go through the preparation of going to school and the unexpected trip to the vet (again) with Clue. The poor pointer has another abscess on his side, and considering his last disastrous ailment–the tunnel system through his entire torso made by a torpedoing seed–we figure we better play it safe.

We arrive at five on the dot, spending a useless twenty-five minutes for the doc to finally see us, and then have to hurry through the interview because the waiting has already made us late for our lessons.

Remembering his previous visit, the vet agrees that the seed might still be wreaking havoc and decides to keep Clue overnight, so they can drain the swelling and see if they can finally find the culprit.

As quick as possible we depart for town, getting frustrated as heck about a majority of drivers who appear to be cruising at the lowest speed allowed. It makes us a good seven minutes late to arrive at our school. We actually see our instructor arrive and hurry to get ready.

For the next two hours we go through the routines he’s set out for us, and though it was rigorous once again, it wasn’t as bad as the last time. He corrected us on technicalities more than anything and that I can deal with.

We arrive a few minutes before our pick up, but it doesn’t matter. Soon we get in to start on the most arduous task of the day. Groceries! Ugh.
Since little brother has already done the on-the-side shopping while we were at our lesson, we head for the supermarket without pause and rush through the aisles at top speed.

Thirty minutes later, after bagging all the groceries and piling it in the back of the truck, we’re on our way home and happy for it.
Unloading and putting everything away is still ahead, but at least we get everything done that needs to be done.

At nine thirty we’re starting on dinner at last. Little sister has anticipated our late return and has it waiting for us: A vegetable curry with large chapattis on the side. Though I would have liked Italian, (I always want carbs at the end of a stressful day) the meal is tasty and filling, which is really all we require after the day we’ve had.

We watch “CSI” and “Bones” after which the evening has come to an end and it’s time for me to retire to my quarters. There is a slight hiccup in my equilibrium when I catch myself turning back in the gate to the courtyard, checking to see if all my dog (including Yadzia) are through, but I ruthlessly push it aside.
With the dogs rushing up ahead of me, I marvel at their energy level…but then, they have been snoozing most of the day, of course.

Another day has come to an end, and at this point, I won’t mind at all not having to leave the house for at least a week.
It’s doubtful that I’ll get it, but some wishful thinking does a body a world of good.

Nerves...or something.

All right, this is going to be a quickie post, considering I’m at least and hour behind and really should already be getting ready to go to bed by now. Ah well, I can hardly not do my post today. That would just be…well, inconsistent.

For some inexplicable reason I forgot to set my alarm last night, which means I wake up an hour late and “run after time” for the rest of the day. I remember vague dreams this night, something about driving in a car and then being unable to take a curve due to this massive bump in the road that scrapes the underside of the truck. Very frustrating.

It is often an indication that reminds me I’m dreaming. The depth of sight isn’t the way it’s supposed to, just like when I dream of reading something and realize that I can’t make out the words that seem alien to me. When I realize as much in the dream and recognize it as such, the anxiety that this causes often disappears and I am able to alter the events to my liking. That is a good thing most of the time, since when I don’t I end up feeling frustrated when I wake up.

But let’s get to the day before I get completely distracted and start “yapping” about dreams for pages on end. I really don’t have the time…even though I might be a more fun read that just another recount of the day.

So, after letting the dogs out and quickly going through the morning rituals, I head on down to the house, keeping Trin Trin the Monster Boxer on the tight leash.
She has that CRAZY look in her eyes today, and I am just in time too, when the door opens and a couple of big brother’s cocker spaniels are right on the threshold. If I hadn’t kept her close to my heel things might have turned out as a disaster.

There is very little time today, what with the looming appointment at school, less than three hours after waking time. I can honestly say that I am both dreading and looking forward to it. Dreading it because I’ve heard horror tales about these particular lessons, and looking forward to it because I really do enjoy this part of our “education”.

But anyways…rather than plunge back into an editing session–which we really should have done, but simply couldn’t get ourselves to do in the little time we had available–I spend a frivolous hour or so online to go over the messages and chat sites before we shut down our computers and take the opportunity to do some studying instead.

The hours pass really fast, and soon I’m heading up to my cabin to change clothes and then head for the car.
First thing we do, once underway, is head for the deserted windy road leading through Valtocado. It has been more than seven months since we’ve last been behind the wheel of a car, and rather than face our lessons blindly, we decide to do a quick practice drive.

It goes well, but it almost makes us late to arrive at the school where teach is talking to one of her colleagues. As we wait for our instructor, I hand her the questions I remember from the exams and she takes them gratefully while making some joke about having send me back home if I’d forgotten them again. Hah.

Our instructor arrives then and I get in behind the wheel of the car. For the next hour I try to divert my attention between the lesson and the actual rules of the road, and find it all to be a bit confusing, even though I do relatively well.

Basically the man is showing me the things I need to do in order to make the exams. Other than that he says I did well enough.
Once big brother has had his lesson and we have returned to the school, we are both exhausted for no good reason whatsoever and are more than happy to head back home to unwind.

At the school one of the boys who did the exams with me is waiting for his very first lesson and he is mighty nervous, looking terribly pale and about ready to bolt. Big brother and I share a few reassuring words with him and wave him off when he and the instructor get in the car and are on their way.

Time to leave for home ourselves and we sigh in relief when we get into the car.
It was stressful. Not so much the driving on itself, but the not knowing what to expect, I’m thinking. And that’s fine. This means that next week will be a tad easier because we know what he wants now and can set our minds to that prior to starting.

Once at home I get online for a bit, trying to let go of the stress and then decide to just take it easy for the rest of the evening since my head feels numb. There is a long session of hanging laundry somewhere during the evening–five batches have been tossed in the machine during the day–but other than that the evening was really quite uneventful…activity wise.

We did see a couple of movies today. “Get Smart” which was surprisingly funny…or my head was so numb that I thought it was…and “The life and death of Bobby Z” which wasn’t bad either, though not stellar by any means.

Big brother and I do talk quite a bit during the evening, but to write it all down would really take too much time, so I guess I’ll just leave at this and finish today’s blog by saying that the evening ended much like most of my evenings do with a trip up the mountain, feeding the dogs and then doing some reading.

If all goes well, we’ll be heading into the “jungle” tomorrow and get some actual work done. Yay!

Quick flyby.

I really have very little to write about again today, which is a good thing since I’m running way behind and won’t have a chance to dig into this recount even if I wanted to.
It’s not as if nothing happened today, ‘cause it did, it’s just that it really isn’t very interesting to write. It all boils down to the very basics in the end.

I got up reasonably in time, did laundry and the usual chores, was involved in a fierce discussion for what seems to be hours, and then just about when I wanted to start editing, my time was up and I needed to head to town.

Big brother and I waited at our school for half an hour to talk with our teacher and set an appointment for next week to start on the practical part of our “education”. Of course I forgot to take the exam questions with me, so I’ll have to think of those when we do those.

A multitude of shops were visited as we searched for the variety of office supplies we need, and only found half…in the last store, of course.
Then, when we got home after nine in the evening, I made pizza for dinner, after which the evening was pretty much done ‘cause we had to check all the papers for mom, little brother and middle sister, which they’ll need to take with them tomorrow, during their trip to the embassy.
Bureaucracy, it drives me insane!

Since I’ll have to get up two hours before my usual waking time–at least two people need to be up with the dogs when three people are gone–I really have to get to bed in time tonight. All things considered it really is a blessing that I don’t have much to say today.

Better luck tomorrow.

Busy days continue.

Gawd, I’m running so late I don’t know how I’m going to manage today’s recording, so I’m just going to let the fingers fly and see where it leads.

Started off already running late. I really need to find a different alarm clock; it’s so hard to find just the right spot for it to go off when I want it to. Though it was late going off, I still could have turned over and snoozed the day away if there weren’t more pressing matters to take care off.

I really ought to do my workout today, but every fiber in my body protests at the mere thought, making me decide to skip it and stop worrying about it. The schedule this week is atrocious to say the least, so the way I figure, slackening the reigns just a bit won’t do much harm.

A big stash of laundry is waiting for me in the laundry room, and the lines, which are overfull, need to be sorted through in hopes of getting at least a moderate amount of semi-dry stuff. The air has been moist and chilly for days now, so denims have to stay up while sheets and Tees can be taken down, at least creating enough line-space for the three new batches.

While I’m lugging the piles inside and start folding, I have tricked myself long enough and quickly change into workout clothes so I can start on today’s exercises before the brain starts objecting again. It is really the only way that works, convincing myself to skip the day and then doing them anyway, that way I don’t have to go through the hassle of convincing myself to actually do them.

It goes well, even though jumping still hurts. By the time I reached eighty I had to stop for a minute to massage the throbbing knee and then shake it off to move on to the next routines. Luckily punching, jabbing and anything with the upper body is no longer a problem, so I rigorously go through that particular part of workout, before doing the stomach exercises along with some mild leg movements that don’t put too much strain on the sore knee.

Seventy minutes after commencing, I’m done and head for the shower hot and sweaty even though the air is pretty chilly. The best exercises make me forget that it’s a cold day, so this one definitely went well.

Yadzia gets his food and the painkiller, after which I eat a few slices of bread, pour my coffee and head for the table to set up the computer while grandpa and big brother continue to discuss today’s topic.

Now, it would be a marvelous subject to write about in today’s Blog, but since it’s a big one, I’m going to have to save it for later lest I’m still writing an hour from now, just to get it all down.

I’m even more behind, since the exercise session took longer than an hour, and since I won’t be able to get any writing done in the hour that is left to me before I need to get ready to depart, I decide to get online for a quick round of the messages and chat forums.

Before I know it, I need to hurry on up to the cabin for a change of clothes and fifteen minutes later settle in the car with big brother and little sister as we head for town. While I will be dropped off at school the two of them will pay a visit to several stores…grocery day! Yay…Not!

Since I only have an hour, at most, I head for the computers immediately, going over the errors I made in previous tests and then adding three thirty question tests more before my time’s up. I just barely manage to ask the teach one question–as it turns out the computer had it wrong–when through the open doors I can see the truck already waiting for me on the curb.

We head for Iceland next. Frozen veggies are so much cheaper there that it pays to buy large supplies in one visit, that will see is through the next couple of weeks, if not longer. That done we drive half a block down the road, to a department store. I need some new underwear, and though it takes some searching, I do finally find what I need in the right designs hidden under atrocious patterns and colors.

I end up with black and white polka dots (yuck) and bright red. Definitely not my taste, but at least they’re the right kind, hah. Since this is the second bargain month, lots of prices are down, so big brother manages to pick up four sets of linen trousers that will get him through the summer, and little sister finds shorts for herself and middle sister, along with two T-shirts for little brother. After we’re all set and pay for our purchases, we head back out to the car in the misty rain that’s started up.

Our regular supermarket is running low on supplies, but except for fresh produce and bread we manage to stock up on pretty much everything we need, and some extras since this month’s “tryout” section is offering a large selection of Asian goodies that are so damn cheap that we decide to buy enough to get us through at least a month of wonderful experimental cooking.

Sweet and sour sauces, curries, coconut milk, mango chutneys all for decent prices for a change. Delicious! I see some wonderful meals coming up in the near future, and little brother will be just as thrilled.

Though closing time is rapidly approaching we still need to get our fresh produce, and head back the way we came to a different supermarket, farther into town that shares prices similar to the one we frequent. Strangely enough that one is low on supplies to, but we manage to get most of what we need anyway. It won’t hold for two to three weeks, but one should be doable.

By the end of this fourth store, my feet (and knee) are killing me–I was stupid enough to pick my high-heeled boots for today–so by the time we’re heading back home my feet are tingling from the strain and more than ready to kick up in some decent relaxation.

The first thing I do when arriving at the house is change into more comfortable shoes and clothes, and then the fun part starts: Unloading. It takes a joint effort to get the multitude of bags down to the kitchen, and up to an hour to get everything stored in the right place (oh man, I love the new kitchen, even all the extras we bought today don’t overflow the supply closet shelves) before we all release a relieved sigh and declare ourselves done.

Leftover pizza from yesterday fills our empty stomachs effectively, and while we put on a rented DVD, I get out the sewing kit to repair some holes in my sweater while I watch. No sense in just sitting there doing nothing when I might as well keep my hands busy.

“The Forbidden Kingdom”. It was much better than I’d expected. Sort of like an older movie with characteristics that, for some reason remind me of “The Never Ending Story”. I actually enjoyed it, even though it made me half an hour later heading on up to my cabin.

After I’ve fed the dogs, giving Yadzia his kibble and tuna mix before supplying him with his painkiller (the medicine can’t be given on an empty stomach) I go through a rushed evening ritual of reading and then changing into the pjs before I finally settle behind the computer to finish the evening off.

One more lesson tomorrow, and then the dreaded exam day has arrived once more. Ah well…we’ll see how it goes.

Post exam exhaustion?

I wake on my usual time this day, after a particularly troublesome struggle with Knight II earlier in the morning has left my knee pretty sore once more.
The idiot giant dog had his teeth in the bottom of my quilt and was gleefully dragging it off me and into the sitting area of the cabin.

I, of course, was stupid enough to try to keep the dratted thing in place, and ended up bracing myself with…you guessed it, the bad knee. Pop! Such a wonderful sound, and also so very much appreciated. Though it throbbed considerably, it didn’t stop me from falling back to sleep however, so all was not lost. Hah.

I’m up for about ten minutes when the phone rings, displaying the school number, suddenly reminding me that the results of yesterday’s debacle should be in. I pick up the phone and listen. I FAILED the test with four mistakes, rather than the three that are allowed. Drat! If only I had gotten that motorcycle question right, I would have made it, like big brother who had only two mistakes.

I am happy I didn’t mess up with the four-digit code I had to put in, though, cause that would have been so very embarrassing. Gawd! Can you imagine my mortification if that had happened? Here I’d gone through extra trouble to know exactly what to fill in on the form, and then a stupid mistake like that? Aaargh. Luckily this wasn’t the case. Of seven students, only two passed–big brother being one of them. Yay.

Teach is very sorry, and when I tell her that while going over the questions last night, we’d already figured that out, she assures me that I did well anyway, since some of those I related to her were indeed very strange. Compared to the older test big brother got, mine were pretty much disastrous. Ah well…

We agree that I’ll retake the test next week, and we’ll discuss any more preparations when I come in the next time to do some more studying. After hanging up I mutter a few “stupid, stupids” to myself and then sigh with resignation. No sense in worrying about it now.

With only a mild discomfort that makes me favor the knee a little more I make the bed, get dressed and then head down to the house with the still somewhat fuzzy dogs in tow.

No laundry today, so I feed Yadzia and myself after turning on the coffee machine.
I am rather concerned about Yadzia, he’s been having quite a bit of trouble with his back, and while talking with big brother we decide to go to the vet later today and see what can be done.

With that plan set, I get my coffee and OJ and settle at the table.
Though I had almost eight hours of sleep, the stress of the past week is definitely taking its toll for my eyes are at half mast again as I spend a couple of hours going over the messages and chat forums.

Two hours pass before it’s time to head out to take Yadzia to the vet. He’s wagging his tail, his back tense but his movements easy enough as I help him into the car with an enthusiastic Mosha leading the way, and depart.

Upon arrival the young vet asks how Yadzia has been doing and nods when I tell her that the last steroid injection appears to have done little good, and takes a moment to check out his back. He alternates between looking at me and then back at her, and so on, before we finally decide to try out Rymadyl which is a anti-inflammatory painkiller for animals that should at least take care of some of his discomfort. It’s not looking good, however, since there is little else that can be done for him.

Relieved that I haven’t been forced to make the dreaded decision yet, we head on back, drop Yadzia and Mosha off at the house and then continue on our way to town so I can have another lesson at school.

Big brother, having surmised that some extra tests won’t harm him either (though relieved that he had easy questions, he rather knows all of the answers for when the next stage starts) is with me, and heads for the computers while I spend some time with teach to go over the questions I typed out. A total of twenty-seven questions and answers stuck in the end and teach is pretty happy about them, since they’ll allow her to bring the other students up to date as well as to what they can expect.

We spend approximately two hours there, before heading back home where an exuberant pack and dinner awaits.
I’m exhausted, for some reason, and soon find myself dropping off in my chair while “The Mentalist” is on TV. I snooze for a couple of hours, the warmth from the heaters making me toasty warm in the seat, until I’m startled awake by Dax, who jumps on top of me.

I have a quick snack and do some chores and then head on up to my room for the remainder of the evening.

While feeding the dogs, I prepare Yadzia’s snack, and as soon as he’s emptied his bowl, I stuff one of the painkillers down his throat, turning just in time to catch Knight II by the collar, when the idiot comes bounding into the cabin at top speed. If I hadn’t he’d have bowled right over me, I’m sure. Hah.

And with today’s Blog over and done with, I can call it a night. Yay!

Exams...Ewww. Might have messed up.

After a rather aborted night of four hours at most, dreaming about having to do exams, the alarm goes off and I blink into the darkness of what is usually my bedtime.

Around me the dogs look at me with mystified expressions, their eyes huge and owlish as I lay there, staring at the dark ceiling while I’m trying to think why the heck the alarm is going off now. Due to the dreams I would have sworn that I was already working on the exam, but now I slowly begin to realize that the actual chore won’t be until another two and a half hours.

Groaning, I get out of bed, the dogs scrambling to get ahead of me, I hurry towards the door and throw it open before they are able to press close. I’ve got exactly forty-five minutes to get ready, and though this is really ample time, I feel a little tense as I get dressed, gather my things and then head down the mountain in the dark to let the dogs into the courtyard.

Big mistake…at least the dressing part…since the dogs jump up against me the moment I pass through the door and end up with several paw prints on the jeans and sweater that tops it. Drat, I’ll have to change clothes before departure.

The younger sibs are there, having already prepared the coffee, which I pour liberally down my throat as I chew on a peanut butter and honey sandwich and keep myself distracted with the siblings’ talk and jokes.

Forty-four minutes after waking, I’m redressed in clean clothes, have taken my painkillers and am sitting in the truck as we head towards the city. Talk between big brother and our driver of the morning is about a variety of subjects, including the upcoming exam, and seeing as traffic is light we arrive at our destination half an hour early.

We go over our books one last time and then climb from the car to join the gathering crowd in the back of the large building that is still locked against anyone who isn’t an employee. Around us about eighty people are clustered in small groups and as almost an hour passes, the knee is definitely demonstrating some disagreement.

At last someone appears in the doorway of the building and the gate is opened to let us and the crowds enter onto a fenced in courtyard. A woman starts calling out names from a stack of papers she’s holding. Name after name is called, after the fifteenth or so bringing brother forth so he can head inside to follow the steady stream of today’s exam takers.

I’m somewhere around number fifty, and when the woman finally calls my name, I wince at the deformed pronunciation. I take my form, give her a friendly smile and then head to two flights of concrete stairs up to the aula on the second floor. A line has formed there, human traffic slowing down due to the check of identity before we are led inside where we’re to take one of approximately a hundred and twenty table and chair combos.

I see big brother way ahead of me in front, and settle in my seat in the middle while arranging my vest on the chair and placing my bag at my feet.
The rest of the exam takers file in around me, slowly filling each and every seat until we’re piled inside the large space like sardines in a can.

Finally the last one arrives and settles, bringing the two supervisors to the front to mess with the microphones for a bit. Neither appears to work, so with a suffering sigh one of the women clears her throat and starts to address us in rapid Spanish, explaining the rules, or so I manage to decipher by picking up the few words I recognize.

Next they start to disperse our tests, placing them on the table before us with the instruction of covering the three cellophane covered lists under our answer form while they move down the isles, repeating it over and over again.

There are quite a few English folks today, and time after time the women pass me without handing me my question lists. It isn’t until one of the supervisors stands in the front of the tables once more and calls out if everyone has what they need when she finally notices my raised hand and comes hurrying over to hand it to me. I’d swear I was invisible. Hah.

So, another long list of instructions follow, most of it repeats of what our teacher already explained until at last we are instructed to sign our test and check the personal information on it. Then we need to fill in the codes of our individual tests and then wait for the “start” sign that is given on ten thirty, exactly.

I take a deep breath, relax all the tense muscles in my body and start reading. First one’s easy, followed by several doubtful cases, which I skip in favor of answering those I’m certain of so I can take my time with the others.

I’m horrified at finding more than a few questions that A. have nothing to do with the lesson material. B. have never before been mentioned. C. that are put down in such a confusing fashion that I have to read them three times to unravel the meaning behind them. And D. (which is the cincher) six questions about motorcycles. Huh?

As luck will have it, I also get exactly those questions which we’d discussed at school, and which the teacher wasn’t at all sure about. Drat.
I do the best I can going over everything twice more to see if I’ve marked every box and three minutes before my half hour is up I shrug and get up to hand in my test. I can’t think of what to do differently, so lingering is useless.

Heading on out to wait for big brother, I light a cigarette and shake my head as the questions + answers keep whirling through my mind, already starting to doubt pretty much all the answers I gave. What are the chances of getting nervous after a test, huh? Aaargh.

Big brother appears, his usual poker face in place as we head to the car where our driver is patiently reading a book, and we start writing down the questions and answers that we remember so we can discuss them with our teacher later on.

It takes well up to an hour, leaving with a complete blank of five of thirty questions that I can’t think of for the life of me. While going over the questions we have already found out at least one error and three maybes, which is a rather depressing thought. By this time our driver turns the key in the ignition and…nothing. Gawd. While we were busy working out all the material, none of us considered that the CD playing was rapidly draining the battery, leaving us stranded on the outskirts of the city.

We end up calling for road services, which doesn’t arrive until after noon and has us on our way in three minutes. Very frustrating! There is some confusion on our way out of the mazes of the city, but in the end we manage to find our way back to the motorway and the town where our school is located.

We spent about half an hour with our teacher, telling her of the questions, answers and the way they were formulated, which has her roll her eyes every so often before she informs us that the results should be available around noon tomorrow. With that, and the afternoon siesta, which is a usual practice around here that closes all stores and offices between one and five in the afternoon, we start on our way home.

It is during that drive that I get the disturbing thought that I might have done something wrong on my answer sheet after all. I can’t, for the life of me, remember if I wrote down individual four digit codes for every ten questions, which was something that big brother had to do. So I start to worry, did I read every individual number or did I presume them to match the way they do at school? I can’t remember, and this thought continues to swirl through my head for the remainder of the day.

Once at home, after greeting the dogs and quickly taking care of the laundry chore, I settle down with my computer to write out all the notes I made in the car so I can check them for details once more. In the end there are two definite mistakes and two maybes, so if one of the maybes turns out to be correct I will have passed…presuming that I didn’t make that dreaded four digit code mistake, which would make at least fifteen questions faulty. Stupid, stupid, stupid. The way I figure I might as well get the mental berating over and done with, just in case, hah.

Afterwards, with everyone sleeping the day I away, I spend a few hours online, just surfing to relax, and around dusk, when the younger sibs have reappeared, I shut down the computer–before I nod off to sleep right in my chair. Some exercise is called for, I decide, and change clothes to carefully start on the familiar routines in the company of mom.

I manage more than the other day, though kicking is still out of the question–or so I realize after a couple of tryouts. As a matter of fact the three kicks I did were downright excruciating, leaving me feeling sore and tense by the time I’m done (still, I feel much better than before, now that thoughts of the exams have been pushed to the back of my mind) and wash up before hobbling to the kitchen to start on dinner.

What with the sibs only having had four hours of sleep too, no one feels up to cooking, and since I have a serious hankering for actual nourishment, rather than some sort of snack, I decide to do it myself.

Fried rice and veggies with satay will do for the day, especially since the rice and veggie mix is already done in a sack that’s stored in the freezer, needing only the satay to be made in which the dish can be prepared.

By the time I’m done, my knee is throbbing like mad, and with my regular bag of frozen peas in one hand and my meal in the other, I settle at the table to let the cold do its thing on the painful joint.

Middle sister thankfully offers to get my a couple of painkillers from my room, along with the supportive bandage which I wrap around the swollen mess after the cold treatment has done its work, leaving me at least remotely comfortable.

Yadzia is distinctly uncomfortable, however, his back obviously paining him, setting off an entirely different kind of depression since I know that I can’t be selfish in letting him suffer when the quality of his life is so obviously going down. Though he still wags his tail when I sit down beside him for a proper petting, his entire body is tense, and occasional crying makes him squirm. I don’t think I can postpone the inevitable much longer for the poor Labrador, and that thought almost makes me cry.

The rest of the evening is spent watching a couple of movies that seem to pass in slow motion for me, now that energy levels are waning. Bedtime is starting to look more tempting by the hour, and around midnight I’ve passed the eighteen-hour mark of waking time.

With much relief I take the dogs up the mountain and feed them–giving Yadzia his tuna and kibble mix, which he eats enthusiastically-before I drag my way through the evening rituals and set up the computer to write down today’s events.

Tomorrow will show if today’s hassles were worth it, I guess. But in all honesty, I’m not looking forward to it.

Quicky post.

So this post is going to be a hasty one, and at an unusual time at that. Exam day is here, so within the next nine friggin’ hours I need to be on the way to the city so I can go stand in line waiting for the proverbial ax to fall. Yuck. I’m just going to keep my fingers crossed.

Last night wasn’t too pleasant, and I don’t even want to contemplate what tonight’s going to be like?

I get called from a solid sleep six time by some asinine twat (or two) from an unfamiliar phone number that–after surfing the Net–turns out to be a known number of a telemarketing or scam company in Madrid. Aaargh. I wish I’d used every foul word I ever knew by the time they phoned me for the 3rd time disturbing a rather particularly interesting dream.

They stop calling, around the time I get up and let the pack out of the cabin and start on the morning rituals. After reading for about fifteen minutes I get dressed and head on down to the house, Yadzia and Bommel, once again bringing up the rear. I shake my head when Trin Trin and Knight II dash into the courtyard ahead of me, practically tripping over their own feet along the way.

The knee is doing well enough, and with that in mind I do a partial workout. I have to skip the left side hits, I can only do about sixty jumps and knee kicks don’t go too well either but at least I got through most of them without too much discomfort…or at least so I thought. Afterwards I am sore like heck, but feeling decidedly cheered.

Of course I am stupid enough to postpone taking a painkiller…I plan to do it later, just before leaving…and spend several hours going over our lesson material before it is time to head towards town. I am in fact running late, so by the time we arrive at school, I’ve forgotten the painkillers and seriously uncomfortable. Slowly I hack my way through the tests, wondering how much time I’m going to have to waste on hobbling towards the Pharmacy around the corner, but I decide to wait it out instead.

I end up doing four tests without error, two with one, and one with three. I would have passed, but at the end of those two hours I am starting to seriously fade out and am very happy that the night has come to an end. Heading home, without any detours for a change, we discuss tomorrow’s plans, realizing, as we’re driving up the mountain that twelve hours from then we’ll be hacking away at the exams…if no disasters strike.

Little sister cooked, gratefully, so both big brother and I stuff ourselves with spaghetti and sauce, stocking up on carbs, and basically trying to shut our brains off for the remainder of the night. Luckily Tuesday is a good day for TV entertainment. First up is a new episode of “NCIS”, which was brilliant a usual, of course. So intense, poor Ziva. Caught me by surprise, but good.

Next is “Flashpoint” which I find to be boring, but this is followed by “Burn Notice”, a show that I’m loving more every time, which bleeds into “Las Vegas”. This is our last entertainment of the night, since right after this I’m going to have to rush to get ready for bed and zonk out.

Not that I mind. I am rather tired, but usually when I try to get to bed early, I will start worrying about practically anything…and I doubt that tomorrow’s schedule will be an exception.
If all goes well, this time tomorrow I’ll know if I’ve passed the exams.

One day and counting.

A rather fantasy like dream played through my head this night. Prairies that swayed and twirled as the wind swept over the grass that stretched out as far as the eye could see. A flock of swallows silhouetted against the bright blue sky and small white clouds, flying intricate patterns as two men ran through the knee-high grass, full speed.
Loosely sewn clothes encased their wiry bodies, animal skin-like designs fluttering around them with every movement when deep browns and tans made them fabrics rather than leather in the bright setting sun that cast a vibrant red over the planes.
They looked peculiar, a bit elfish I would say, with pointy ears, long flowing hair and narrow faces emphasized by patrician noses. Their eyes were intense blue, as they ran, and ran, a narrating voice pounding impressively as the view zoomed out, showing a magnificent panorama of prairie stopping in a straight line to announce a boundary of a thick dark forest.
“They were as ancient as the land itself, their souls a part of the woods they protected as much as their bodies were,” the narrator booms, the impressive panning view spinning and showing a massive army coming in the two men’s pursuit.
“Their hearts pounded like a battle drum, deep and heavy as fear urged them on. The enemy was near and all they loved was threatened. Haste was their drive and yet time was running out faster than their feet could carry them.”
The two men reached the tree line then, bursting through the thick under brushes and disappearing with an impressive burst of speed that leaves only the approaching army in view as the sun begins to set.

Though the dogs didn’t awaken me this time, that is the only scene I recall from the dream that decided to visit me this night. Blast! That could have been pretty darn impressive if I’d been able to remember more of it, I’m sure. Very “Elfquest”, and not to mention more than a little beautiful. It would certainly have made for excellent writing material. Ah well, there’s no sense in feeling miserable about it, I guess, nothing I can change about it anyway.

I’m only running a little behind today, so with that cheerful thought in mind I take the time to read a little, and take my time getting the bed made and dressing. When I do get down to the house I’m still ahead of grandpa and big brother, so I immediately start taking down laundry and hanging the new batch. The knee is doing well enough today, I barely limp and I don’t feel like I have to use the cane inside the house.

After the dry clothes and sheets have been folded and poor Yadzia is fed–he cried again during the night–I have a couple of slices of bread myself and set the coffee to percolate. After some quick chores in the kitchen, mostly involving setting stuff back in place, I head on to the table to get the computer ready.

Big brother is already going through our lesson material–exams are rapidly drawing near–so while I open the files we go over a few details before we do a final scan of yesterday’s work. It goes well enough and as the hours pass, of which the last thirty minutes are spent online with some chats, it is time to get ready for the lessons.

We arrive a little early, as was the plan, and spend about an hour in the classroom with other students as our teacher informs us of how the exams are done and what the proper protocols are.

The rules of conduct:
No looking at the tests before you get the “go ahead” mark, or you’re out.
Shut down your phone, ‘cause if it goes off, you’re out.
Fill in all the blanks and be sure to do it right, or you’re out.
Don’t forget to put your signature down, or you’re out.
Don’t take too much time, or you’re out.
Recheck your answers and the questions belonging to it because more than three mistakes and you won’t pass.
The list goes on endlessly, making me feel somewhat brain dead by the time she’s done with the instructions.

Afterwards we spend another hour doing test questions, which go well, much to my relief. Only three mistakes in five tests, yay. Meaning that if I got any of these questions, I would have passed. Phew.

Done for the evening, we head on out to the car and go to a massive department store to get some necessary items, along with baguette and cream cheese, since neither big brother nor I have had anything to eat in eight hours.

By the time we get home the evening has advanced considerably, and upon finding that no one was in the mood to make dinner, I bake some potatoes with veggies, which I pile on a plate so we can both eat from the same one. It will definitely save dishes, hah.

Clue (the pointer) is showing a slight swelling on his side, making us worried that the tunnel system problem is back, giving a rather daunting fear that we might have to visit the vet again to have it checked out.

Both of us are exhausted so for the remaining two hours we watch “Bones” and “CSI” just to unwind. By then midnight arrives, and is followed by some planning about how we’re going to handle tomorrow’s lesson and the information we still feel we need to cram into our heads before we feel suitably prepared.
What with all the warnings going on, I’m starting to get a little worried that it will depend on luck more than anything.

Ah well, we’ll see.

Title of the day: Your guess is as good as mine.

I had the strangest dreams this night, explosions, car chases, shooting the whole shebang...and that while I didn’t even watch a decent action film yesterday. Very peculiar. It all looked a little like “Vantage point” with Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox and Forest Whitacker, and it’s been like, months since I saw that movie, so why I would dream about it, is a mystery to me.

But anyways, by the time I wake up from the moronic pack making a racket I’m still sleep dazed and literally stumble my way to the door to let them out. What with the alarm not having gone off yet, I reset it to have thirty minutes extra and am off to lala land under ten seconds.

I can feel “it” lurking around the corner by the time I do get up and start on the day. That uncomfortable sensation in the pit of my stomach as tension begins to rise for no apparent reason.

Soon, after hurrying through the morning rituals, I’m heading down the mountain. Since the knee is giving me considerable grief for the past couple of days, I’m using the cane again, doing an excellent imitation of Hugh Laurie’s House and enter the courtyard with the dogs rushing around me.

First thing I do, as soon as I’ve deposited my bag on the kitchen counter, is head back out again to take down the laundry and hang a new batch. The knee might be a bitch at the moment but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let it stop me from doing what needs to be done.

Next I do a few exercises, careful to do them just right, without putting undue pressure or stress on the joint, and after fifteen minutes I head to the shower. This “lukewarm” workout is definitely not as satisfying as a real one, but at least I managed this much before feeling completely drained and more than a little sore.

Yadzia needs to be fed, and I get to it asap, pleased to see that he eats the chicken, bread, milk, broth and kibble mix with enthusiasm.
That done, I have a quick breakfast at the kitchen counter, the gnawing feeling heavy in the pit of my stomach and making the meal feel like bricks. I pour myself a coffee and OJ and head for the table to set up shop.

No time for messages today. There’s some writing to be done, (only manage half a page) along with editing…the latter just as soon as big brother is finished fixing the fences–again–and returns to the house, obviously feeling just as frazzled as I do.
We only manage about two pages for corrections, since we decide to rewrite narrative into dialogue to give a more “real” feel to the characters. By the time I get most of it down, our departure has drawn near enough for us to hurry getting ready.

A bit dizzy for some reason, I head up the mountain to get dressed and fifteen minutes later climb into the car so we can head out to town.

Upon arrival at the school we spend a harrowing hour in the brightly lit classroom, listening to “important” instructions of questions that might come up in the exams that don’t appear to make any sense (this from the mouth of our teacher). The light tubes overhead are bad on the eyes, starting a distant headache until we finally move on to the back room where we go through some more lesson material on paper until it’s closing time and we can call it a night.

We go by the video rental store, getting three movies for the weekend and then head for the home improvement store to get a roll of fence that should prevent new holes in ours in the near future.

By this time my knee is throbbing like mad, dizziness has resurfaced and I, for one am more than happy about going home at last.
Regretfully no one felt like cooking, so big brother and I are on our own for nourishment. We end up with French fries and a bowl of squared cherry tomatoes with cottage cheese that fills the empty spots well enough…and leaves me feeling nauseous for the rest of the night. Hah.

The bad feeling rapidly increases as we try to wind down from the day, and neither of us is able to enjoy the two movies we put on, but can’t finish for no other reason than that they both appear to be boring as heck.
A fight between Trin Trin the monster boxer and Prama (another monster, aargh!) certainly doesn’t help the mood.
We end up watching an episode of “Dead Like Me” before I head up to my cabin.

Once there, I just barely have time to deposit my bag on the bed, before I need to run to make it to the bathroom when my stomach decides to get rid of every single thing I ate during the evening. This, of course, leaves me feeling emptied and exhausted when I quickly feed the dogs and set up the computer to do a quick round of the messages and post today’s Blog.

There was one bright spot today, however. The new fan trailer is out. This one for W.I. Investigations/The White Doves, and it’s grand, as usual. Yay.

Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeIjQCCVv64

Rush trip to the vet.

The day felt endless, even though it really wasn’t.

I wake up early this morning for some reason…oh wait, it was the dogs. They were restless and they woke me up from a wonderful dream by bouncing and pulling and drawing me out of bed long enough to check what the heck’s going on.

After a quick peek out the window, seeing nothing that could explain the ruckus I stumble back into, only to almost fall helter-skelter over Yadzia. Something is wrong I see with a single glance. He’s all tense and tiny shivers run all over his body while I try to figure out what’s up.

I can find no real indication as to what’s bothering him, and in the end, I carefully lift him on the bed…even though I barely manage it with the dratted knee making such a movement rather uncomfortable…and settle him in the center of the bed so I can curl around him in hopes that he’ll at least warm up. He whimpers a bit, and this continues during the course of the hours that follow.

We lay there for a long time, him shivering and me worrying until sleep wins and we both snooze for a while.
He seems to be a bit better–even when he still exclaims an occasional whimper–when the alarm goes off. Keeping a wary eye on him, I let the other dogs into the yard. He doesn’t join them, but carefully jumps off the bed to settle on his favorite spot underneath it instead.

Hurrying through the morning rituals, as seems to be the standard these days; I hobble on down to the house less than half an hour later. Yadzia is following at a short distance and then miserably heads into the house. Keeping a worried eye on him, I quickly hang and fold laundry and then head on back inside–Yadzia follows me around consistently even though it obviously hurts him–to make a bed for the sick dog, there where he can see me at the table, without being overrun by the other dogs.

He settles there, barely looking up when big brother and his pack arrive with their usual noise and I explain the problem. We check if he has a fever…he doesn’t. Then his gums…they’re pink, so that’s not the problem either, and yet there is this pallor about him that makes it clear that there is a big problem. I’m thinking that it has something to do with his back, since he keeps tensing up, but it could also be, as big brother suggests, his bowels. Some sort of blockage that’s hurting him.

In the end we decide to wait a few hours to see if things get better, and if they don’t we’ll head for the vet as soon as the sibs arrive. For several hours, with my eyes constantly straying towards Yadzia, I try to write, only managing a page or so of the latest vampire project, until a sudden pained howl from the poor dog settles it. We’re heading for the vet, hoping to be able to get him looked at immediately so we’ll still be able to go to school for at least an hour.

There are two customers/patients before us when we arrive, but after about fifteen minutes we are led into the examination room where the young female vet and our regular vet look Yadzia over. He’s bravely wagging his tale, but is obviously pained when they start to examine his spine. X-rays need to be made, and while I walk along so Yadzia won’t feel so scared, the vet and I talk a bit about how I got the dog from this very hospital several years ago.

Together with Gada, Yadzia had been left at the vet’s for termination, and since he really didn’t want to put the two wonderful Labradors down he’d asked if we would like to take them. The vet hadn’t even recognized him ‘till now, and was amazed at how attached the dog was, especially since he’d already been five years old when he came to me.

With the assurances of the vets that they will take good care of Yadzia we hurry on out to head for town, on the other side of the mountain, hoping that we’ll make it to school in time.

Forty-five minutes before closing time we arrive, and after seriously setting the appointment for our exams on the 25th we head on to the computers for more tests.
It goes well enough, only one mistake for me, which was due to reading the question wrong, so when eight PM arrives, big brother and I are both relieved that yesterday’s disaster was an anomaly.

Middle sister joined us today, so after we depart from school we head to the photo booth again, for the sole purpose of her headshots, which she’ll need to renew her passports a month or two from now too.

That done we have less than half an hour to get to the hospital again and see how Yadzia is doing. By this time I’m starting to feel a little frazzled, I’ll admit, hurrying into the building the moment the car stops and following the serious looking vet into the exam room so she can show me the X-rays.

Due to age and some growths on his spine Yadzia has multiple hernias…too narrow spaces between the discs of his spine…which is causing the discomfort. Now, if it had only been one disc they could operate but since the photos show that there are at least five of these spots it is something he will have to live with from now on, until it gets too bad. Damn!

Still, they are able to make him more comfortable with an anti-inflammatory injection that’ll work for five days, which is when he’ll need another. With that bit of distressing news we pack Yadzia back up in the car and head on home.
He’s looking about as discouraged as I feel, his head settling on my shoulder as we follow the familiar road until arriving at the gate.

After the pack has welcomed us, and Yadzia alike, we have the dinner little sister prepared during our absence and try to wind down from the long day with some entertainment on the TV.

Yadzia sleeps peacefully at my feet during the entire thing, and actually gets up without prodding when it is time to head up to our cabin.
While the other dogs eat their kibble…he doesn’t feel like it…I give him two small cans of tuna, which he seems to enjoy, thank God.

I do hope that the injections will make him feel better soon, ‘cause otherwise I will be forced to make that dreaded decision again in the near future. I rather have it later than sooner, thank you very much.