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...

Walk on the beach and some thoughts.

Song of the day: “Our life is gonna change” by Simona Barbeiri. Beautiful! Now, if only I knew the complete lyrics, it would have actually sounded good. Hah.

So, let’s skip the morning rituals (as appears to be par for the course, I’m way behind again, aaargh) breakfast, laundry etc. etc. and jump right into the edit: I completed the new scene for “Saving Nina” which is turning out very well, if I do say so myself.

The one page I was aiming for did turn into four, however, so now the total word count of the manuscript has reached an approximate of 100.000 words (260 pages). This means that it has turned from the standard novel length to a full length, with still twelve pages to edit and thus earning itself another page or two in the process…if I restrain myself, that is.

No matter though: The book won’t be too long until I reach 120K, so I’m safe. Hah. It’s a good scene. It will need an edit…or three, but then it’ll fit into the story just fine. Some technical terms get treated in it, explaining some more about the MPD (or technically correct term DID) patient, and the main protagonist to boot. Good stuff.

We didn’t do any building today, what with our friend coming for a visit. Instead, both sisters and I drove her back home to Puerto Banus and spent an hour walking the beach while we waited for our tenant to finish her rehab.

It was a wonderful day for a stroll on the beach. The water was a bright blue today, the sky clear, the sun warm and the breeze cool. Can’t get any better than that. We walked a mile or two (lots of tourists catching a sunbath) had ice cream and skipped stones on the waves. Considering that it’s been at least ten years since we last walked the beach, it was a rather novel experience.

Our tenant was delighted for the pick-up, in particular because it meant that she wouldn’t have to sit in her uncomfortable wheelchair for hours until the ambulance finally delivered her home.

Since the drive to and from Marbella is rather long, we had a road trip to boot, and we enjoyed the sights of a places we used to visit back in the days when we still vacationed in that particular area. We even passed our old camping, where we spent plenty of winters, living our lives in a trailer. Little sister was actually amazed at how well she remembered everything.

Once back home, little brother is making dinner while big brother and grandpa are putting up the fence on the wall that was built in the past couple of weeks…not the big wall, but the one the younger sibs worked on instead.
It’s a small miracle, but the fence that is taken off the old one, is the exact size they need. Talk about serendipity.

I hang some more laundry, still thrilled at the ease of the washing machine being right there beside the lines, help big brother and grandpa a bit and then head out with them to get a quick load of rocks for today’s gathering session.

We find a particularly nice spot again; lot’s of rocks dismissed in a messy pile that fills up the truck bed really fast. They get added to the large selection at home, at which time we head inside to have dinner: A simple dish of macaroni with sauce and veggies on the side that goes down remarkably well.

Dinner over and done with, big brother and I do a short edit on the new scene…a page and a half at most…and then decide to do a Spanish test, just to see what our level is. Not bad, considering we hardly ever speak the language but still, a little practice won’t go amiss.

I head on up to my cabin where we spent a couple of hours checking books for semi-colons and colons. The “Eats, shoots and leaves” book confused us both, so we go over a massive amount of books to see what they’re really used for.
Like we already figured out from several author sites, they are hardly ever used anymore…which is strange, since colons and the semis add flavor to a story, more than anything.

Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but now that I think about it, I do miss them and it makes me wonder about something…Could the lack of using these two very distinct symbols explain why stories are becoming rather bland these days? Food for thought.

Scavenging and scouring.

Though I didn’t get to bed in time last night, I’m early getting up this morning, because when the summer comes we intend to have a routine of one two hours earlier than usual. It will be necessary what with the electricity being so expensive, and the air-conditioner needing way too much of it.

I am a tad tired after such a short night, but I’m also determined to get in a workout today, so I hurry on down to the house to get to it.
After almost a month without the familiar routines, it takes some getting used to but in the end, I get into swing and go through today’s workout without too much effort.

It’s actually quite invigorating, and the punches, kicks, steps and jumps get me properly sweaty in the hour that passes.

Once done, I have a quick shower, eat breakfast and then get to work on the day’s edit. We get quite a bit done today. A total of seventeen pages get treated during the hours that pass until it is time to head out. Admittedly we take an hour longer on the edit, but since we’re not intending to build today anyway, it doesn’t really matter.

It is the plan that we’ll head out to the same location as yesterday, instead, taking mom with us, and perhaps even have a little picnic while we’re looking for rocks and more plants that we can use for the garden.

We spend more than two hours roaming through the woods, climbing up the mountains and down into gullies and valleys that appeared to have been rivers at some point. Scampering across the rocky trails, we find little treasures everywhere we go and crisscross our way back and forth to the car.

We’ve got at least twenty plants and several handfuls of rocks by the time we decide that it’s time to end our little outing. There’s wild thyme, rosemary, and a tiny Carob. Some stone oaks, virgin palms…which is what grandpa calls them anyway…they don’t look like palms at all, but that’s what he calls them. They look more like vines with lovely delicate little blue flowers. They are definitely the prizes of today’s outing.

We also manage to unearth this tiny little palm, a sprout that will actually look like one once it grows, and two finger sized spruces along with a slightly bigger one. I managed to pry it from between a crack in a huge rock, and if it makes the transition, it’ll be beautiful, I’m sure.

We get quite a bit of exercise today, basically running up and down rocky slopes, fully invigorated by the fresh and sunny spring air that is filled with the scents of wild herbs, pines and rich clay dirt that is still wet from the recent rain.

With most of our collection in the car, little sister and I decide to walk ahead already. She’s enjoying the trip in the “wild” and while we cross at a mile or so, just strolling over the path, enjoying the quiet and heavily scented air, I tell her of when we traveled through India, which was before her time.

Gawd, sometimes it is hard to believe that more than twenty years have passed since we went there. The memories are often so very clear. I’m going to have to post the story over here some day. I did write it down and it would be a shame not to share it. Maybe sometime this week. We’ll see.

By the time we get home and lay out our eclectic collection in the back of the truck, all the small bushes look a little like bonsai trees to me, which is cute to say the least.
It’s already dark by the time we finish potting our finds and store them in an old bathtub so the dogs won’t barge over them.

While we were gone, little brother decided to make my vegetable bread for dinner, and when I enter the house, the scent of it makes my mouth water. The dogs are insane, of course. They always are even if we’ve been gone for only five minutes, and an orchestra of howls greets me when I arrive in the kitchen, more than ready for a meal. Before I can sit down and enjoy dinner, however, I need to tackle the laundry. The dry needs to be taken down and the new needs to be hung.

Rather than do dinner first, I stuff a slice of the bread in my mouth, adding some cheese for the sheer pleasure of it, and then head out into the courtyard to get the chore over and done with. While I’m folding the dry clothes and sheets, I’ve got two sandwiches of the bread covered with cheese and they are baking on the stove. Once I’m done I dig in and then set up my computer.

On TV an episode of “CSI” plays, but I hardly pay it any attention while I do some more proofreading. The evening comes to a ridiculously fast end, sending me up to my cabin yawning like mad and more than eager to get some sleep.

I’m officially bushed. Hah.