Song of the day: “1,000 ships” by Rachel Platten. An incredibly cute
song, though what it does in my head these past couple of days, I don’t know.
So it has been a turbulent couple of weeks again, but then, what did you
expect, right? This is Samaya Young’s world and it is becoming clear to me that
I (we) can’t do anything the normal way, or the easy way. Sure, we get lots of
accusations about how easy things are for us, but just because we make it look
that way, I can’t really say that this path we’re on is even remotely easy. For
me, the past few years have been (or at least appear to be) a chain-link of
disasters, but I have to say that by now I am slowly, reluctantly getting used
to it. And I’m getting stronger from it (once I get past the feeling sorry for
myself bit) in a way. I know now that I should travel light, be ready to go at
any minute and not care that much about the nest. Neat and comfortable is good
enough for now. The rest will have to come later.
I can hear you think, dear Gawd, what happened now? Well, we moved,
again, and again. Nothing new there, right? You’ve read me doing that plenty of
times (in Spain, to England, back to Spain, and then the Netherlands) and this
is just another one of those things.
Turns out that Land Lady had a thing for big Brother, which on itself is
not a major crime. I mean, I’m his sister, but I can admit that he’s not bad
looking, and that if you can get past his annoying habits, he would be
attractive for the opposite sex. Still, I am his sister, so on the most part I
don’t actually think about shaite like that. Hah. But as I was saying, having a
thing for him is not a crime, it is just that it made the situation somewhat
uncomfortable for all parties involved, in particular since some seemed to
think that I was the obstacle in this “budding romance”. Some folks clearly don’t
know big Brother all that well, but then, he is the silent type with others, so
maybe that is something he should work on.
Then there was some serious nastiness that got turned back (all
reasonable-like) later on, after a night at a hotel and after which we had enough
of the mud-throwing, the discomforts and the uncertainty of not knowing if we
could go home from one day to the next, so we decided to break free and agree
once and for all to leave our temporary resident and find something else.
The latter, it turns out, is not all that easy. There is a serious
shortage of habitats in the Netherlands, and unless you can afford to lose an
arm and a leg (which we can’t) it really is a matter of patience. Lots of patience
and in most cases a lot of luck. Right now (a day after our decision) we are
staying at a recreational park with everything for easy living included (yes,
it costs an arm and a leg, but at the moment it is the most affordable one)
about 15 minutes away from work. The latter, we have decided, being the most
important thing at this time. With all the overtime we’re doing, we might
actually survive this latest fiasco without ending up on the streets. Hah. Always plenty to do at the sauna, thankfully.
Anyways. We did find a place in the park, they had one empty that was
semi-affordable once they gave us a discount (I think they felt sorry for us)
for the price of a smaller apartment that didn’t become available until the 11th.
It meant having to move again, but at this point I don’t think we can afford to
be picky. We got the basics to the cabin, worked out asses off at work whenever
possible, and spent two afternoons hauling stuff from our temporary residence,
which saddened and shocked me at the same time. Clearly we’ve gathered way too
much stuff for our present life-style in only seven months, so basically it
means that we have to get rid of at least 50 percent, which depresses me, and
reminds me of that awful time in Spain. We had a long talk, though, which is
good. We’re going to aim for one trailer with stuff, the rest will just have to
go. Right now we have a storage in the city that puts a drain on our funds,
sure, but will give us a month to sort through it and downsize until it is all
manageable. Not looking forward to that, but it can’t be helped.
Be that as it may, we did well loading everything up. Everything small
got tossed and hauled away the first day, all the big stuff the next, after
which we said our goodbyes and said thank you for the first 6 months (we all
agreed that those were nice enough to forget about the last one) and left.
Thankfully a colleague is letting us store some of our bigger furniture,
plus fridge and washing machine at his place, giving us some leeway in deciding
what to do. Since then we have signed up with all sort of departments, real
estate and whatnot, so now it is a question of waiting and seeing what will
come from that.
Okay, so that was the latest on our living arrangements. On to other
stuff.
Visited with our dad again, which was a nice afternoon of food, talk and
basically catching up. There were even moments where I could forget the stupid
stuff going on. Hah. Turns out our youngest brother (father's second marriage) is curious about us, so I gave my blog info in case he wants to check out what his big brother and sister have been doing over the years (I know, I lie awake about that every now and then, wondering if it is a good idea to let him read all this shaite, but then I realize he'll find out one way or other anyway, so we might as well get that bit over with. Hah) so if you're reading this, littlest brother (6' 5" tall, I heard, hehe) HIYA! Looking forward to meeting you some day.
Not a lot of workouts lately, but a a couple since the last blog...a blessing, that. Nothing like sweating your behind off, and punching a bag for half an hour to get rid of your frustrations.
Added to that, due to big Brother’s B-Day at the end of the year, our
colleagues took us out to a pool bar in the city, were we spent a couple of
hours drinking beer and playing pool. Been years since we did that, but on the overall we were all (six in total) well matched. Was a fun evening with lots of laughter,
which was a great way to unwind, despite the fact that I couldn’t drink because
I was doing the driving.
Then there was the company party just a few days ago, which was
semi-obligatory. Was weird being there, seeing everyone you work with (not our
team. Strangely enough cleaners usually manage to get out from under this sort
of thing, hah) out of uniform, trying to make casual conversation rather than
talk shop. Still, it was good we went there. I had some wine (big brother was
driving this time round), everyone had champagne to toast the new year and the
goodbye to one of our colleagues (was also a goodbye party) and for the rest we
sat or stood around chatting. A weird experience, this, I would have thought an
office party to be more glamorous, but it wasn’t. It was basically happy hour.
Hah.
Other than that, well, I haven’t done any writing (hoping to do a bit of
that today). Life too busy with all the running around. But I just spent the
morning organizing our stuff in the new place (you can walk around now without
tripping over a suitcase or a bag). Got big Brother’s stuff neatly by the bed
in the living room, while mine are in the bed room, so everything is set. Now,
if only I can get some peace and quiet in my head…that will be the day.
Well, I’m going to leave it at this, if y’all don’t mind. I’ll try to
keep you posted. Gotta go.
