The best laid plans...

Song of the day: “Zombie” by the Cranberries. An oldie, right? I know, but it used to be one of my favs way back when, so when it came by on the radio the other day, it got stuck in my head occasionally. Blasted earworms!

Anyways…I’m a wee bit late with my blog again. I know, Bad Sammie! Bad Sammie! But in my defence I have been very, very busy, regardless of the fact that I had that two weeks of house sitting. I would have thought I’d have more time for the stuff I’d planned to do, but regretfully some necessary things took longer than expected. The best plans have a way of doing that, don't they?

There was all the legal mumbo jumbo regarding the sauna going broke. There was so much paperwork to do, so many calls to make, forms to file, calculations to make, facts to check, that took us five to six days alone while we got settled in the office.

Then we had a couple of friends coming over, which meant another couple of afternoons gone. Hah. No matter though. I did get quite a bit of editing done in the last week, and I got in five and a half workouts (the half was because we got interrupted by repair folks knocking at the door, grrr), yay.

Best yet was that I got some serious sleep during the two weeks. I decided that I was going to catch up on the last year shortage of sleep for once and for all, and just went to bed whenever I was remotely tired: I was tired a lot!

The plus is that I don’t have the big bags under my eyes anymore, and that I’m no longer cross-eyed with tiredness around eight in the evening. Hah. So the housesitting was definitely a good thing. It was basically a forced vacation, that tided us over for part of the days that big brother didn’t have a place to live.

Which reminds me; we did manage to get big brother’s apartment empty on time. This means that my apartment is now basically a storage facility, since I had to move a lot of stuff out of the way to accommodate boxes and furniture, and therefore decided to start packing early as well. This means that except for the living room corner that I use for seating, the whole place is a bloody mess that is driving me insane. Everything that needed to be packed is packed in boxes, bags, suitcases or plastic. Furniture that could be taken apart is taken apart, rugs have been aired out and rolled up, and plants take up every remaining horizontal surface. Poor babies.

Also did some of the cleaning already, since we have to leave the apartment in the same state we got it, with everything nice and clean, as our contract states…not that I would dare to leave it any other way (the horror!). If there is one thing that the cleaning job caused is that I horror at dirt now. Hah. Added to that, holes in the walls, like for light fixtures and paintings and whatnots, have also been neatly closed, giving a clear view of the place’s large stretches of wall. What a difference things on the walls make, right? All the homey-ness is gone now, darn it.

Had a birthday…well, two actually, of former colleagues, which was a good excuse to come together. Made a rather nice (albeit a tad too sweet) apple pie with small pieces of sweet potato through it, cranberries, raisins and pecans. Really enjoyed that over a cup of coffee and talk about books, movies and everything else we could think of.

The weather has been downright summery the past three weeks. Today was the first night that we had rain again in a long time. We had temps mid to high nineties, and on the radio they called it tropical weather…which was factual, considering the humidity was incredibly high. Been sweating more than I did even while working at the sauna.

Since being back from the house sitting thing, we had been going to the gym again, which has been wonderful. Had some serious workouts and that included some serious kickboxing for me…that ended with me being barely able to move the next few days, if for no other reason than the fact that I hadn’t done any actual boxing in more than four months. Yikes! Seriously, you did not want to see me shuffling around afterward, like some old crone. Luckily now that has passed and I am almost back to where I left off before work got too demanding for me to go to the gym.

Been applying for work lately, as I am obligated to do (and want to do. Discovered that I am not the kind of person who would willingly take welfare. I just don’t like not working for a living, so let’s hope I find something fast) and have been trying different types of things to see where I can slip in, so to speak. I applied for a cleaning job, duh, night reception at a hotel, which included making breakfast for the early guests in the morning, independently working cook at an Italian place where they wanted someone creative and willing to teach youngsters at the same time, with some experience in vegetarian dishes. Keep yer fingers crossed.

I’m still thinking about starting something myself, but that will depend on whether I can find a market for my type of cooking in the new area we’re moving to. It’s a college town, so I’m thinking yes, but you just never know. I’ll keep you posted.

Like I said, I’ve been editing. So I couldn’t find the inspiration to do new writing, but the editing needs to be done too, so I don’t beat myself up about it. Am over two thirds of the book now, meaning that I’ve almost finished the first edit. That means that after I’ve added some additional scenes, big brother and I can start going through it together without the risk of him getting completely frustrated with stream-of-consciousness writing.

Managed to finish quite a bit of storage foods during the past three weeks, including what we had in the freezer. What the with the move coming up this was essential. Got two of three meals left there, and considering we’ll be starting moving things four days from now, that should work out just fine.

My father and stepmother finally got their vacation to France this week. For a moment there it didn’t look like they were going to manage, first day they basically missed the plane and had to reschedule for the next day. And then dad bruised something in his foot, making nice long walks a no-no. Bad luck, I tell ya…but I think they’re enjoying sucking up the culture regardless, so that’s okay.

Yesterday we finally met up with Cousin Ed and Tenant, to go to the place where grandpa was born and spread his ashes. It took a long time before we could arrange for a date. First our work, cousin Ed’s work, tenant’s health, there was always something getting in the way. But now we got to it, and the weather was hot, but still splendid for the occasion.

Went to pick up Cousin Ed and Tenant at Tenant’s senior home (she’s really enjoying her time there. It’s in the town where she claims to have been very happy for many years, so that’s definitely a relief. It’s a cosy home for staunch vegetarians, right in the middle of the woods, and her room looks out on a courtyard with a pond, so it is really up her alley). The latter had just returned from an arranged excursion to a local museum, so she’d already had fun. We packed her, her wheelchair and Cousin Ed’s dogs in the car, piled ourselves in as well and started on our way.

Luckily I’d thought of preparing a potato-veggie salad with garlic bread for lunch, because with all the excitement Tenant hadn’t had time to have lunch.

We arrived at grandpa’s childhood homestead around four in the afternoon, parked the car across from the castle, and took tenant out for a stroll over the premises. Luckily the present owners didn’t mind us wandering about the place once we explained that we wanted to look around the place that had once been to the home of grandpa. I think the fella even recognized grandpa’s name, considering grandpa’s parents used to maintain the castle for the man’s father after the war.

It was very cool to see the place grandpa was always talking about. The pictures just didn’t do it any justice.

We finally agreed to spread his ashes under a line of poplar trees that grandpa claimed to have planted some sixty or seventy years ago. Big brother did the honors, with us standing at a slight distance, only to have us all start laughing when a fierce gush of wind swept a big bash of ashes along straight for the old homestead off to the west. For a moment the entire place was surrounded by this ghostly white mist and then another gush of wind made the ashes disappear entirely. We all found it rather poetic that he went back to the place where he literally was born. He would have gotten a kick out of that, I think.

What was left of the afternoon we spent in a nice patch of shade, in the grass, eating our lunch and talking some about grandpa, and all our plans for the next few weeks.

We didn’t get tenant back home until seven in the evening, at which time she was pretty tired and wanted to go straight to bed. It had been a long and exciting day for her for sure.

We, on the other hand, went home with cousin Ed where we had beer and a snack before we headed back home. It was already late by the time we arrived, so there really wasn’t much left to do except unwind from the day, a glass of wine, and getting ready for bed.

Which about sums this update up, I think. More to do, stuff to prep and…well, you get my drift.

Subtle hints

Song of the day: “Superheroes” by the Script. Not a bad song, but annoying to have as an earworm when it is only the chorus repeating itself. *sigh*

So I’m going to pop in a short one, as one of the attempts to revive the blog a little. The way I figure, I’ll be able to do this thing more often if I don’t need to put loads and loads of info into it. So if I do it frequently, there will be less to say all at once…does that make sense? Not to me. Hah.

Well, what to say. Working still…no we haven’t been fired yet. Imagine that. In fact, right this moment big brother is doing over time…again. I have noticed, that when big brother gets tired, he becomes distracted. He hears even less than usual, is in fact far, far away in his head at most times, which makes our communication somewhat one-sided at times. Rather frustrating, if you must know, but you can hardly blame the guy. I mean, seriously, I’m no fun when I’m tired either: I get emotional, cry at the drop of a hat, and get so insecure that I start making mistakes. No fun. But such are the facts. Not much to do about it. Everybody needs to work with what they have.

Got a new watch. Mine died about two weeks ago, and I saw a reasonable one on sale, so I am no longer time-impaired, asking everyone who passes what time it is. I have time! Sorta anyway. Hah. I can hear you think, why not just check your phone. I did! But imagine what happens when you’re scrubbing out toilets with bleach and you reach with your gloves into your back pocket of your black sweats…yeah, not funny.

Big brother had a free day yesterday, and he used it hanging our kitchen cupboard. Yay! So when I got home, we could actually load up supplies from the floor, put them away and create enough space in the chaos called our room that I could vacuum the floor, I kid you not. Hallellujah! Now all we need is some extra closet space and we’re all set. Yay.

What else. Well, I made some soups these past few days. The weather here is rapidly turning into autumn, so sturdy soups are definitely the thing. Tomato and pumpkin so far, which both worked out well, and went down beautifully. I love sturdy soups. They warm you right up. The weather has been appalling, lately. Lots and lots of rain, with fierce winds picking up regularly. Already made our first spinach potato mash, which is genuine winter food for as far as I’m concerned. See loads of that coming in the winter…well varieties of it, anyway. Beet potato mash, carrot, kale, broccoli, leek, sauerkraut…the varieties are endless, which is a good thing, considering we wouldn’t want things to get boring.

Worked at the shop again, which is starting to get to be a regular thing. Not getting paid much, but I am able to get stuff either for free or very cheaply, so that counts. Got rugs, a bed couch, kitchen ware, bed linens, clothes, a fridge and so on. Might not fill the wallet, but it keeps it from draining too fast, doesn’t it?

There have been some issues with our old insurance back in Spain, the power bill, phones bills and so on. Strangely enough all the hassle we went through to arrange all that, didn’t work out, or a lot of them anyway, meaning that there were some hiccups in the payments after all. Don’t get it. They were changed at all locations (drove all over the place to get that done in fact) and yet it still went wrong. Stupid bureaucracy!

Another little hiccup was our driving license. Had to change it to a Dutch one, but no one warned us ahead of time that it would be taken away and that we would have to not only fill in a form at town hall, but also at the big traffic agency in a town some odd fifty miles from here, and that if they found anything wrong, we would actually lose our license. Grrr. So there we went, in a borrowed car, driving the distance and paying ANOTHER 30 bucks for a friggin paper that basically states under oath that you consider yourself fit to drive. Insane, I tell ya. They’re all friggin’ nuts. Anyway, a few days ago we got a letter stating that everything checked out and that we are now allowed to apply for our new licenses. Very reassuring, that, I was worried there for a moment. Already I could see all that money of our lessons and exams go down the drain.

What else…well, I found a very simple red quilt for my bed. It used to be a curtain, but the size is just right for the bed, and it matches those rugs I mentioned. Still not sure about the borrowed zebra print, though. It just isn’t me, I guess. I’m looking for something dark green to add to the mix up here in the attic. That should keep things interesting, or otherwise a bright yellow. Hah.

Visited with grandpa, of course. He’s looking very fragile lately. And not surprisingly the doctor has postponed his operation because he is too skinny and too week. He needs to do exercises and eat more, according to the experts so let’s hope that he’ll start listening to THEM at least. When it came from us, it was easy to dismiss, but maybe some person with a piece of paper declaring them expert will make a difference. I dropped some very subtle hints, in part to make him laugh (but also to get him thinking) that he take up ballroom dancing again, for seniors, or else sign up with some sort of fitness program. At first he was very negative about it, but he did understand that having to go somewhere to do such things might just help him to actually DO it, rather than sit down and dismiss yet another workout, the way he does now. He might not like it, but he needs it. Also, it will allow him to go out every now and then, meet different people. I am much afraid that he is isolating himself way too much.

Went to the woods today with land lady’s pups. Finding these little ones a homes is starting to look like an impossibility, and that while they already cost her a fortune. Don’t get it either. They’re adorable, and they’re vastly trainable. Am struggling not to like them too much, keeping my distance and such. Can’t handle more attachments at the moment. Missing my own dogs is hard enough; having another to miss at some point is not something I’m looking forward to.

Five in the afternoon. Yikes. I gotta start on dinner, maybe go out a little later still. Gotta work tomorrow, so I shouldn’t make it too late. And we do need to get to town hall once again. *sigh* The days are rushing past, that’s for sure.

Which wraps things up for now, I suppose. I’m outta here.

To exist, or not to exist...that is the question. *snort*

Song of the day: “Coconut” by Harry Nilsson. It is more because of the fact that I have been playing it a lot lately, rather than anything else. Hah.

So…lots has happened since the last time I wrote, isn’t there? Yes, as mentioned during the last blog, the big move did happen, and as of last week (gawd, this week went fast!) we are in the Netherlands.

It was a long, long trip, following a similarly long day that involved going through the last bits that were still necessary to do before we got on the plane. There was that final check of the suitcases, sorting through old paint up by the gate (dogs had been going through the remainder of our stock for a while, searching for reptiles and rodents, no doubt) eating a proper meal, standing in my corner of the porch wondering what the heck I was forgetting and then heading out to deal with the final details of selling our Land Rover. It was a funny affair, really, in particular since none of us had a clue how to go about filling out the form and getting everything sorted while getting the payment over and done with. Were very much relieved when everything was signed and we had the money in our pockets. I don’t know why, but I kept worrying that something would go wrong and it just wouldn’t work out at the last possible moment. It did, though, and within an hour we were back at the house, meeting with the younger sibs to go over the final details of stuff they needed to know once we were gone. Left it a little late, but what the heck.

After all that, saying goodbye started, which was hard. Said goodbye to the family, not the dogs, mind you. For them I wanted it to seem as if we were just going out for the evening, nothing unusual, just a normal day for as far as they were concerned…I don’t think we pulled it off completely, but at least they weren’t too upset (like me) when T came to pick us up, and we loaded all our suitcases in her friend’s SUV. Then, while big brother went back to the house because he’d forgotten his phone (big brother has a tendency to do that), T and I stood crying our eyes out as we stood at the gate, looking in at the dogs, staring up at us with rather puzzled expressions on their faces. Bet they thought we were acting weird.

Anyway, I was a mess during the trip to the airport, but I managed to get things under control before we got there. Then saying goodbye to T made that worse again (she’s going to come visit in a few months, though, so it wasn’t for too long), before we had to hurry inside to load up our gazillion suitcases. (Not really a gazillion of them, but it seemed that way, hah.) Had a couple of pounds too many with us, but they didn’t make a fuss, so…yay! Customs didn’t make a fuss either, so that’s a double yay.

Then the waiting started of course; we had arrived on time, meaning that it took at least 45 minutes before the flight information appeared on the board. Tried to lose myself a little in reading on my tablet, but regretfully my thoughts kept straying, making the wait a little harder than it had needed to be.

Anyway, the flight was uneventful, and even shorter than usual, due to a brisk wind that swept us along. Then…there was more waiting. *sigh* Yep. The car rental agency wouldn’t open until seven, meaning we had to kill time at the airport for a whopping five hours, or so. Ate some…me with my leg up, because the dratted thing was pounding like mad…at a burger king…well big brother got it, while I watched our luggage, and tried to read some. Got more tired by the half hour, so we ended up searching for a horizontal surface where we’d be able to catch some Zzzzzs. Finally found a marble pyramid of sorts where other folks had already conked out, and both stretched out on one level, one hand on our luggage and then trying to sleep…did get a few winks, but not much. And by then it was five thirty, meaning that airport security came past, waking everyone up, and warning them that you were no longer allowed to lie down anywhere because the first stores around the airport were opening. So, we headed back the to rental desks, where we continued to wait until opening time…luckily the very nice girl working there gave us a nice hot, strong coffee, because she felt so sorry for having to make us wait until opening hours. But in the end, we did get our rental, and were on our way to the parking garage (the walk took forever, especially with the frigging pounding leg and by then shoulder, too) where we loaded everything up (it fit just barely) it a Citroën C3 and left the airport.

The weather here was…well, nicely fresh when we set out, and then rapidly gaining in heat as time passed. By the time we got to our new digs, the air was already getting muggy…as luck would have it we arrived in the middle of a heat wave, which was splendid with me wearing a supportive sock (mandatory still) for my leg. The house we’re staying until we find a rental, or some such, is an oldie…1930s at least…and not in a particularly good state, but it’s cute in its own way.

We disturbed our land lady just before she was about to hop in the shower…that shows us for thinking that the trip from the airport would take longer than it did…but she took, it well, and asked us to wait in the living room while she finished up.

The tour that followed after drinks and talk, was a short one, but I was seriously fading by then, so we headed on up to the attic (our intended living arrangement) where we conked out on a couple of mattresses. Sure, we had gotten the option of two rooms, one in the house and one in what used to be the warehouse office, (the latter big brother might take later on, once we’ve settled) but I like the attic with its niches and angles and pointy roof…despite it being the veritable oven on the afternoon of our first day there.

The siesta was not much of a success on my part. Of the three hours we spent on the attic, I caught an hour of sleep at most. I was just too wired, I guess, not to mention that the place was so dusty that I kept having tickles in my throat and nose. I don’t think that our land lady figured we would stick with the attic once we saw it, but it’s cute, you’ll see once I take some decent photos.

It was just dusty bare space when we got here, but now we have a couple of beds, a work corner, a small kitchen, with only a sink failing, and otherwise perfectly comfortable….or at least, it is now that it’s clean and furnished. Hah.

Bee rather busy since our arrival. There were groceries to do, of course, and going to second hand stores to get at least the most basic of furniture. Added to that, our land lady’s warehouse is filled with both treasures and junk and we’re more than welcome to help ourselves to the junk. Which we did. We’ve got a table for our kitchen, a couple of arm chairs, a nightstand, a couple of side tables, a really old, wobbly wardrobe and some lights. Added to that, she had a small cooking stove we could use and some chairs for the kitchen table. The rest; a nice wooden table to work at with our computers, a painting for the wall, a coat rack a couple of cupboards and basically we have all the comforts of home. Hah.

Since we are also free to borrow a couple of old bicycles, we have been mobile ever since returning the rental, and are slowly becoming familiar with the town.

Visited grandpa, cousin Ed and Tenant on Saturday, which wasn’t really a good visit, because, let’s face it, I was exhausted and not really good company. I was achy and so tired, that it took a lot not start crying at the drop of a hat. Strange how that works, eh?

The visit was mainly to bring more stuff to grandpa, and to pick up the suitcases big brother left there with his last visit. Again we had the car stocked, but since it was just the two of us on the way back, late at night, that wasn’t a bad thing. Sunday I spent cleaning. Hah.

Monday here was spent with official stuff, by the way. We had to go to town hall, signing ourselves into the municipality. We went there to gather information and instructions, but ended up with some papers for our land lady to sign and an appointment later that day. Got that all sorted, and were back with ample time for our appointment. So we explored the town for a bit, getting to know the lay of the land, so to speak. There was some confusion at town hall when we got there to register…partly because we had made our appointment on site, so the lady who was supposed to help us hadn’t refreshed her schedule and thus wasn’t where she was supposed to be. Secondly, we’d been away for so long that we were not present in the digital database…I know, how bad is that, eh? But, it was alright, the lady said she would just have to request a old fashioned verification, which could take up to two weeks. We were a bit disheartened afterward, since we had planned to get a bank account right after registering, which now wasn’t possible…yes, we’d checked, hah.

We were in luck, however, about thirty minutes later, we were still in the car on our way back to the place we’re staying at (this was on the day before we had to return the rental) when I got a phone call from the lady at town hall: she had found our information in an antiquated (I kid you not) database, and we were now fully registered. Phew. Big relief there. Went straight back to the center of town and the bank.

Were helped by a rather nice young man, he used to work in the hospitality industry, and we got to chatting while we were going through the tedious motions of getting a fully functional bank account. Ended up inviting him for dinner some day, together with his girlfriend, which should be fun if he even remembers.

Throughout the past week we have gradually been adding and improving the attic. Got some furniture now. There’re a couple 2^nd hand stores in the area and a free give-away charity shop, which has been tremendously helpful. Strange folk working there, mostly from rehab and such, but friendly none the less.

Had some rainy days, already. Have been experiencing trouble with the internet and phones, partly because there is something wrong with our new contracts. Very annoying, in particular because it was the weekend and there wasn’t anything we could do about it until Monday. Got that sorted, though, so this blog is posted with the new mobile connection, yay! It was all very complicated, so basically big brother who had been talked through it by customer service, had to talk me through it.

Next thing on the list was to request social security. I know, embarrassing, right? But what can you do. We’re broke, unemployment is high, even here, and until we find work, we need to live, naturally. So we went to the local office (in the rain on our new 2^nd hand bikes) only to hear that we have to apply for an appointment by phone or Internet. The latter we still didn’t have, and the first wasn’t picking up. So we went back to the land lady’s place and tried again. Got to the right place, explained my situation, and gave my important stats before I handed her over to big brother, who went through the same procedure. An hour later I got a call from the same lady, saying that my number wrong. The date of birth was correct, but the name popping up was completely wrong. She sounded out of sorts. So I explained, again, that due to the fact of us leaving the country before the digital era, we didn’t actually have that particular number, but that I would go to town hall to try to figure it all out.

Back on the bike, in the rain, and straight to town hall where we were, thankfully, sent through to the right desk where they dove into the computers in an attempt to locate me. Turns out that my last known address in the Netherlands was some hick town in east Spain. I don’t know how that happened, but we did finally ascertain that I exist. Phew. They were all very nice about it, it was just that everything that I’ve been doing this past week with that particular number, had to be redone today, including my spanking new bank account, which isn’t all that easy to do. Apparently, this number never changes, so the program doesn’t allow for changes in that particular section, or some such nonsense. *deep sigh* So, back to town hall, checking to see when I get confirmation about my residency next week, if it has that number and all my details on the paper, and I will have that, so, it should be possible to verify everything soon. Phew. What else can go wrong, I can’t help but wonder.

Once back at the house, another phone call for me (they do everything here by phone, which is taking some getting used to for me. I’m used to do everything in Spain in person), this time with the insurance company where I was trying to get myself insured because…you’re seeing this coming, aren’t you?...I used that wrong number there too. This one wasn’t as bad. They just say, apply for a new one, because the one with the wrong number will be dismissed anyway. Big relief, that.

What else…had visitors this Sunday. Remember when big brother and I went out to eat in Ronda last year, the friends up in the mountains, well, they’ve moved here last month as well, (wonderful to have familiar faces nearby) and they came over for tea, and cut veggie sticks to serve with a yogurt/garden herbs dip. Was a very nice afternoon, after a gorgeous bike trip through the local woods, right before.

Also spent some time in the yard, cutting back dead plants and trees, creating some order in a garden that has been suffering from some neglect lately. Love it. In particular since the weather wasn’t too cold…or hot, for that matter, meaning that I could shut down my brain (it wants to keep worrying about stuff I can’t change anyway) for a while, and just, BE.

Been exploring the local stores, looking for the best bargains where we can get food of affordable prices. Got a few spots where the prices are similar to those in Spain. At least food expenses here won’t been worse then over there…although here we won’t have those weekly donations of the drug rehab place.

As for our dogs…I try to think of them as little as possible, to be honest. Pim, grandpa’s cocker mix, left for Finland this morning (T was nice enough to let me know that it all went according to plan). Middle sister was kind enough to adopt my Dax, which is a relief. Part of the reason why I worried about leaving them with the sibs and mom in Spain was because that offer hadn’t been made prior to my departure, and considering Sitabah will be going to Finland in August to get her own new boss, I’m very happy that little Dax is with middle sister now. From what I’ve heard is that, they were a bit out of sorts those first few days, waiting at the gate for us, but slowly things are quieting down, and that’s for the best. Soon they will forget us…at least, that is what I keep telling myself. I do admit to finding that one of the hardest things.

Weather I am not sure who is better off. Here we have temps in mid-seventies, and in Spain they’re battling the triple digits since yesterday. What do you think…I had chattering teeth this morning. *sigh* Pros and cons everywhere, aren’t there?

Well, you’re all back up to date. I gotta go.

A quick place of our new attic.

 Needs work, but it is starting to be cosy at least.

Hellos and goodbyes

Song of the day: “Beneath your beautiful” by Labrynth and Emeli Sandé. Still a gorgeous song…way better than the song that was stuck in my head yesterday. “Don’t talk, just kiss” by Right Said Fred. Aaaargh. I felt so silly having it bursting out every now and then. Hah.

Sooooooo, I noticed a new reader in the list and just have to say “Hi, Muriel!” personally. If you are who I think you are, I gotta ask: “How’re you eyebrows?”
I know, I don’t mean to confuse the rest of you readers, but I know “that” Muriel from waaaaaay back when (think pre-Internet times…right after the dinosaurs perished) when we were just wee ones. Both of us wearing mostly Olily dresses, pigtails and missing front teeth. There was this incident. Just imagine two five, or six year olds hiding under a table and wondering what to do with a razor. Legs were out, nothing there to shave, at least not like our mommies. Then it hit us…*wiggles eyebrows*
I know! Sigh, right? I still remember Muriel’s mommy and my own looking for us and then lifting up the table cloth to gasp at the damage.
Anyway, I ended up with a single brow during my pre-teens, but other than that it left me relatively undamaged…can’t blame my overall weirdness on it, regretfully.
But, be that as it may, lovely to see you here, hope you’re enjoying my mostly chaotic and sometimes boring blogs. Hah.

Moving on. I know y’all are wondering, what’s been happening in Samaya’s world…well, I can honestly say that except for a lot of work (about which I can’t say a lot, darn it!) not all that much…at least nothing fun.

Much to my regret Labhana passed on the other day. For her, I am sure that it is a relief. Walking was a disaster and I could see it pain her every single day while she tried to keep up with the other dogs (and failed over and over) and her overall health was rapidly dropping into the abyss of non-existent. Although with the tests that were done we couldn’t locate any cancer, it most likely was lurking somewhere, considering her massive weight loss and inability to gain weight despite her stuffing her face most any day. It hit me harder than expected (you don’t know how used you are to keeping track of the slowpoke in the back until she’s gone, after all) despite the knowledge that she was on borrowed time for more than a year now, but what can you do. You never know how emotions respond to anything. Saying goodbye is always difficult.

This loss does mean that I can do big brother a favor and see if I can fit Tadaika into my pack again. She is one of the few who goes well with my dogs, and since she already was starting to integrate with my lot before the whole mess started and I lost my cabin, it shouldn’t be too difficult.

Today there was our foray into the wonders of bureaucracy once more. I can honestly say I was wishing for my UZI once more. First we had to go to town to gather “los impuestos” (taxes) at town hall, then go to my bank to pay, only to have to go back to town hall because one of the dozen receipts wasn’t accepted by the bank, and therefore needed a different one. So that was three hours of my morning for ya. Grrrr
Added to the fun were two years of taxes from the Deawoo Matiz, which I no longer own, and haven’t owned for more than three years, so I had to go to my garage to see if they could somehow contact the mechanic who took care of it for me way back when. Our mechanic promised to look into the matter, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed on that matter.

As to the fun news: If all goes as planned big brother and I will be traveling to the UK come June. Nothing as glamorous as a vacation, mind you, but we’ll be helping with the transport of some animals. Big brother will be traveling back the next day…just not smart for him to stay there when our own dogs need care as well…but I’ll be staying on for a few days to help the animals get settled. Kind of exciting, but also a tad daunting. Will be the second time in my life that I go to England, with hopefully a little more time to at least look around. We’ll see. I just hope that the Knight will be okay…but then I remind myself that he did fine those five days I was in the Netherlands last year. Doesn’t change that I’ll worry.

Got myself a couple of leisure pants last week. You know those wide-legged yoga pants? With the drawstrings at the end so they won’t drag over the floor. Sooooo comfortable. Got a slate blue one, and a cream white one for summer.

I don’t know what she did, but Sitabah somehow ended up with a big hole in her side. It was a tiny little thing when I first noticed it and cleaned it, but within two days of, what I can only think was a shaite-load of licking, it is now half an inch in diameter. There was some infection, so for the past few days we’ve been cleaning it several times a day and today, for the first time, now white goo is coming out. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Talking about holes…the other day Knight and Mati (little brother’s Labrador) were snarling at each other in the door opening, and I got in the middle of it. Ended up with a couple of holes and a fist sized bruise on the side of my knee for the effort. Jeez! That hurt! Was limping a full day, I tell ya. By now the body part has been every color of the rainbow, and the bruise is slowly disappearing, thankfully.

Weather-wise the past week has been downright wonky. One day it’s sunny and hot, the next sunny and cold. No wind, windstorm, and then completely cloudy. May doesn’t know what it wants, or so it would seem.

Writing has been on a slow burn lately. Did a couple of pages at most, and though I still like where the story is going, I often find myself too tired, or my head to full with daily messes to do much of anything by the time I come home and settle behind the computer.

I’ve done a minor bit of experimental cooking. Made a mix of chickpea and chestnut flour, added a whole bunch of Italian herbs, onion leak, cheese and an egg, and then fried it as small balls that went down remarkably well as snacks. Yay.

Had a day’s job of gardening. A small patch that needed some designing. Though it is not done yet, the improvement is visible. Worked with ceramics and plants, which makes it all look rather nice. Can see the potential at least.

Well, that about sums it up for now. Nothing major, regretfully, but something to read, I guess.
Gotta go.

Einstein hair?

Song of the day: “A new day has come” by none other than Celine Dion, of course. Don’t have her in my head often, do I? Anyway, gorgeous song.

So I survived…sorta anyway. The “sleep! A kingdom for sleep” feeling has eased to bearable levels, the cough is minimal, Einstein hair has been tamed (don't ask, don't imagine it; it's pure horror me with Einstein hair) and the nose is leaking only a little bit now. Yep, that’s got to mean that I’m still alive. Whether I want to be, is the question however. Hah.

Seriously, though. I had a wonderful workout today. Am weak, wobbly, and after punching the bag twelve times, I had to catch my breath for a solid five minutes, but I went through the whole routine (took forever) and was wonderfully sore afterward. The weather is getting more summery, so the temps were excellent for my workout. Yay.

No work for me today…other than stuff at home, of course. Everything is a mess, and the majority of yesterday morning was spent sorting through clean laundry, and cleaning up the corner that I call my room at the moment. It took some doing (it was a gawdawful mess, I tell ya) but it is semi-clean again.

Yesterday…oh my gawd. A complete day ruined on bureaucracy, thank you very much. You see, that whole debacle with grandpa’s drivers license, it just kept dragging on and on, and on. We had to go to Malaga for it, again, to get a temporary one, again (this is like the fourth, or fifth time that the real one has been “lost” in transit, somewhere) only to hear that we had to go to trafico (governmental building that handles anything that has to do with traffic, duh) to check if maybe, just maybe, they had finally managed to get a hold of it. So we went there. Big brother is feeling poorly at the moment (flu, we’re thinking) so grandpa and I went inside and ended up standing in line for more than a friggin hour…and that while it wasn’t even a busy day. Apparently they changed some sort of rule meaning that you can no longer just go there, but that you have to make an appointment either by phone or their webside. Aaaaargh. Almost weren’t helped at all. Luckily they quickly understood the ongoing problem, and finally at after 2 in the afternoon we finally came to the counter where I once again explained the problem
We were asked to “wait a segundito” and then, finally, finally, finally the guy returned with grandpas license in hand, actually cracking a joke. Nice guy at least.
Anyway, the only thing that bothers me now is that nine months from now grandpa will need to go through the entire mess once more to get his next license (above a certain age, you have to renew every two years. Aaaaargh!) The fun just never stops, does it?

But anyway, by the time we got back to the car, it became clear that there might be something wrong with it. Underneath the hood a nice puddle of black-ish liquid was on the ground. I had already felt that the brakes were a little odd during the course of our ride there, so with the proof of something wrong right there to see, I made a beeline for the garage where our mechanic suggested we hitch a ride home rather than risk driving in the car some more. He was going to need some time to figure out the problem, he said. So our baby is over there, waiting for its turn to be fixed, and we’re without proper transportation. *sob*

Ah well, a good excuse to stay home with the doggies, isn’t it? They're doing relatively well, by the way...although Knight licked his foot open again this morning, bloody eejit.

Nothing nice to mention about cooking. Didn’t do all that much of it, only for nutritional purposes and then only on the run, since whenever I had a moment, I’d try to catch some zzzzzs . Still recovering, and all that.

Didn’t do much of anything writing wise, my head just isn’t screwed on right, if you know what I mean. Might get some done tonight, if nothing wonky happens…no reason there should, but don’t it always happen that when I plan on writing on any given day that something will happen to stop me from doing so. Grrr. So we’re going to wait and see. Keep yer fingers crossed for me.

Well, I can’t think of anything remotely interesting to write right now, so this will have to be it. Gotta go.