We have a moving date...sorta.

Song of the day: “Issues” by Julia Michaels, is often tumbling through my mind these days. Very accurate for most folks, I’m guessing, so I don’t feel too weird having this as an earworm.

Well, lots has happened since the last blog, so I might as well get to it right away, right?

So it’s a done deal, big brother and I are moving house again. Yes, I know, we’ve been at the cute little farm for only nine months or so, but that doesn’t change the fact that when an opportunity arises, we shouldn’t jump on it like ticks on a hound…okay, gross analogy, I know, but you know what I mean.

As to the opportunity…well, there was one at our old place of employment. If we were to live in the same area as before once more, big brother could get a full time position at the technical department of the Spa & Wellness, and I could get back to the cleaning, if I want to (not a hundred percent sure yet about that, but we’ll see) on a part time basis at the very least. Since I can’t do more than part time anyway, this is certainly an option.  Gotta have time left to write and edit, so sacrifices have to be made in the job department, naturally. Can’t have two careers, and since writing is definitely the dream, I’ll scrub friggin’ floors if I have to.

Anyways, big brother is rather happy with the opportunity. He always liked working there (duh, doing technical shaite is way more fun than mere cleaning) so it is a great chance for him to also have a “normal career” while I try to get this whole writing thing up and running.

Writing. Well, we’re still in the editing stages. Some details that need to be ironed out, and since the book is so long, it is taking the editor longer than planned to get the bit on her side done. Well, duh. That was my problem, too when I had to do the last changes. Seriously, the 8-10 hours slaving behind  the computer to try to get it all done in time, weren’t easy by any means. Let’s hope that the editor at least has to admit that that was pretty amazing in the few weeks that I had to do the, what turned out to be massive changes. Grrrr. I cried, for crying out loud, especially when the darn thing finally went out and I could breathe a little easier once more.

But anyway, I was pretty happy with how the changes brought it back to the former quality once more, but apparently it wasn’t enough yet. What lies in the future is changing more chapters in regards to their POV, because for some reason the book has to be more from the female perspective.  A pity, that, considering that I wrote the book primarily from the hero’s point of view. Grrr. But what has to be done, has to be done. We’ll get it sorted out…somehow.

What else? Well, spent a long weekend at my father’s place last week. Not just a pleasure trip, I assure you. Big brother and I promised to move the shed from the back yard to the front, which turned out to be a bit more difficult than anticipated. Partly because there were parts of the wood infested with woodworm, *sigh*, and because the poor structure was old and had endured a large amount of patchwork jobs over the years to prevent leakage and what not. Anyways, there was quite a bit of improvising involved in terms of getting the right wood to replace the old…especially since our tools are not as extensive as they used to be…replacing the roof, moving the foundation from the old spot to the new before actually getting the shed there, etc.

The way we went about it was removing the damaged wood and the roof entirely, and then literally lifted the shed from its concrete foundation so we could remove it and place it in the new spot that we still had to dig out on the spot. The darn thing was friggin heavy, I tell you. Big brother and I could barely lift it with the both of us, prior to the removal of the damaged wood, but once that was done, and attachment points were put in place for easy lifting, we carried the thing together with stepmother and littlest brother, who came over during his lunch break for this very purpose.

What we had planned to be two days, turned out to be four in the end, partly because putting the whole thing back together was a tad more complicated by past-time patch jobs, and because hauling everything to the other side of the yard was a friggin heavy job what with near tropical temperatures for the duration of our stay (seriously, it was like being back in Spain! High 90s temps, for crying out loud!)  meaning that I sweated like a race horse as I hauled wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow with roof tiles, shells (they were for underneath the floor because they keep mice from tunneling under there) and of course all the wood and whatnot.

It didn’t help at all that at the beginning of the third day I stepped onto a patch of cut-off bamboo shoots and ended up with a serious hole in the bottom of my foot. Yep. That’s me. Why do things easy and without pain when you can do it with it? Grrrr. Anyway, when I inspected the damage, I first didn’t realize the extent of it and thought that something sticky got stuck under my foot. Grabbed it, and yanked it off. Turned out to be a couple of inches of skin. Aaaaargh. Rather than risk complete immobility if I stopped to really treat it, I decided to go the natural way, and used the soil as a bandage. Yep. The dusty ground worked really well as a bandage. Got a nice patch of mud on the damaged area, and it made for easier walking than on shoes, so that’s what I did for the remainder of the work days—walk around barefoot, because at least it would allow me to balance on my foot in such a way that I wasn’t constantly standing on the hole.

It did mean that I needed to clean it properly that evening prior to going out for dinner, as was the folks’ solution to feeding everyone in the evening. Hah. Nice food, mind you, but after hauling shaite for 9 or 10 hours I would have been just as happy with takeout pizza before passing out for the night. Gawd, it had been too long since I did this kind of work. Seriously, the first night I could barely sleep from all the twinges and aches all over, and the second night I woke every two hours for the same reason, before I finally just passed out on the third night. Hah.

But, as I was saying, the cleaning of the hole in my foot involved soaking my feet in baking soda water, and then spraying it with teatree oil, antiseptic spray. Stung like mad, but it did do the job.

This was the procedure for the next day, too, since barefoot was less painful than shoes, and we did in the end get the whole thing done.

Of course, the moment we left…sometime around 9 PM…the weather turned, and we came home to a nice low eighties summer evening. Yay. A little late, but I am not going to complain about cooler temps after four days of sweltering. It was a good four days, though. I missed the kind of satisfying work, building something is. Nothing quite beats the sensation of standing in front of a structure that you put there with your own blood, sweat and tears. Hah

We were late getting home, meaning I had to rush the cleaning of my foot a little so I’d get to bed on time. Work the next day, after all, despite being friggin’ bone tired. Work went well enough for a couple of hours, but then the foot started hurting like heck (the heat of friction, you know. Can’t stop that when you’re walking around in shoes, despite cloudy weather) so I finished the day by clenching my jaw and just putting one foot in front of the other until it was done.

Did manage to do my qi gong the next day, albeit later in the afternoon. Was really necessary too, considering the four days away where I simply didn’t have the energy for it. Was so nice to go through the familiar motions that I barely even noticed the discomfort in my foot through most of it. Do need to keep that up, even if I do start working more regularly. Especially the shoulder exercises that keep the muscles there supple, because a lot of tension gathers there really fast.

Moving. Yes, it is definitely happening now. Last week we got a tip, and since then we have seen the outside, got a tour of the inside the day after getting home from our father’s place, and everyone is in agreement that we will move in there the moment it is free sometime in the middle of the month.  Same deal as our present residence, and only twenty minutes away from work.

It’s a big place, which was my first requirement. These days I have a lot of problems with small spaces, in particular if I have to spend a lot of time there (like during edits and such) so I don’t much care for primitive stuff, as long as it is big. Thankfully this place is not at all primitive, in fact it looks a little like the place I grew up in prior to Spain. Same sort of design, same sturdy materials, albeit a little less elegant. The nicest part is the big kitchen. It’s huge, with a nice kitchen island which will make cooking there a pleasure.

Also the living room is massive, with nice big windows, so basically I have already decorated the whole place in my mind. Hah. Going to have a little fun with that when I get  to it. I will be allowed to paint walls white, which is probably something that needs doing, because everything is very beige, and thus dark now, something I have a little bit of difficulty with. I don’t like dark at all. There are a total of five bedrooms upstairs in the place, and two extra rooms downstairs, so I’ll also have to think about what to do with those.

But no matter, the nicest part of the place is the double garage, meaning that the cars will be protected and won’t need as much cleaning. Yay!  And there is a massive shed, which has some potential for a fitness area, for as far as I’m concerned.

Now the nicest part would be that we’re allowed to have a dog there, which is sorely tempting for as far as I’m concerned. There were thoughts of maybe getting my Sitabah here when I move, but I don’t want to be selfish in that regard. Poor baby is in the only place she knows as home, with all the dogs she’s known her entire life, and me she hasn’t seen in two years, and has probably forgotten completely, so for her it would be horrible if I did that.

But it is tempting. I mean imagine, having her here, and maybe Tadaika, or Fortune. *sigh* A girl can dream, right?

What else?

Well, packing is in progress, naturally. All the knick knacks are packed already, the books, dvds and basically anything that makes the place look cosy is gone already. It’s getting more spacious by the minute. Hah. Do have to be careful during the whole thing. I notice that familiar sadness. The kind I had in Spain while getting rid of everything, which is ridiculous, considering that this move is entirely voluntary and I won’t have to throw anything, since we’re just planning on renting another van and getting it all there, too…except maybe the couch. Am finding myself thinking of exchanging it for another one at some point, so I am not sure whether I’m going to do it before the move or after. We’ll see.

Have planned a small, casual dinner party sometime next week. A goodbye sort of thing for the neighbors, who have been wonderful for the past nine months. They were very pleasant people to live between, that’s a fact. Am going to do an Italian meal that we can all share around a big table. Two, maybe three courses, involving stuff that I then won’t have to haul along in the move. Yay.

And that about sums up the past few weeks, I guess. Actually some change for a change, pardon the repetition. Hah.  Am writing this while waiting for my job interview at the spa & wellness. Drove in together with big brother, meaning I had to get up at four, since at the moment we still live a good fifty minutes away from work. Would be wasteful for me to drive separately, so now I’m killing time doing some catching up like this one, and maybe some edit planning later on.

Since I will have to fill the remainder of the day as well, I will also do some shopping later, visit with some friends and then hopefully pick up big brother on time…not very likely, since yesterday was his first day here and he didn’t get home until six or so in the evening. Grrr. Lucky for him I had already cooked dinner (even had my meat for a change, good Sammie!) and he could dig right in.

Which is it for now…well, at least it was a decent size blog today, amounting to a whopping three pages, compared to the average 1 I manage these days. I know, bad Sammie, bad Sammie.  I am trying to do better and be here more frequently, but you know how it goes. So much to do and so little time to do it in. 

Busy, but some pic updates again. ;-)

Song of the day: “You don’t own me” by Grace. Cool song. Heard it at the Suicide Squat trailer, knew it from a long time ago, and now have it in my head together with, “I spent the summer on you” by, well, a whole bunch of fellas. Hah.

So yeah. I’ve been busy. Most of it involves editing, so in that regard, YAY! Been prepping quite a bit of material these past couple of weeks, because we have about two months to spent on prepping stuff for publishers and we want to use every second of it. Are about four chapters into an edit. Sent out two manuscripts, a query letter have another one ready to send out, hopefully, today, so keep yer fingers crossed, please, we only have a few months to invest in this round, then the basic job search has to start becoming serious job search. Until the time comes of the hopefully good news, we are having a nice time editing “Accidentally in Love” which contains a lot of good stuff that I forgot to remember over the course of the past few years since writing it. That is good news, right?

Well, what’s been happening? The house is basically in order now.  Bedrooms sorted out…well mine anyway, big brother still has his open suitcases in there, clothes in messy piles on top of them, nightstand basically in front of the door, hah. But that’s his problem. Thankfully I can just close his door and not see it. I know it is there, but I can keep myself from doing anything about it, don’t you worry.

Had some time to work on my house plants. Poor babies had all outgrown their pots, so basically I spent an afternoon putting them in new ones, which made them looked better almost instantly. Was so nice to get my hands dirty that way, especially because the weather was cool and sunny and I could do it outside for the most part. Actually found some really nice affordable pots of some of the transplanted plants yesterday at an attic clearance sale in town. You can find the nicest stuff at places like that, can’t you? They were even cheaper than our usual thrift stores.

Met the father of our neighbors, who was born in our house. He had some wonderful stories to tell over coffee in the kitchen, including that the farm had been his great grandfathers in the late eighteen hundreds and that some years the entire top of the farm burned away due to a mistake from the power company. And he said that the small house beside us was the summer house where they used to live during the summer months until they were a family of 11 children and there simply wasn’t enough room in the small place. Hah. I’m not surprised that it was too small. 11 kids! Yikes!

Anyway, he comes here a lot. I think he’s missing the place somewhat fierce now that he lives in a senior home in town, and therefore comes over to work in his son’s yard, and work on their future shed, which is a project they’re busy with during whatever free time they have.

As for news…Big brother and I have finally decided on a study, so we’ve been pretty busy with that for the past few weeks. It is one that you can do at home during the studying part, but at some point we will have to do theoretical and practical exams elsewhere. So far I’m finding it rather interesting, in particular there is lot of law involved in the study. I’m getting to know the constitution, privacy laws, the roles of government officials, what they ARE allowed to do and what not. In how far are you obligated to cooperate with the law, and when are you allowed to say no, etc etc. All very fascinating, and if nothing else, it will be an excellent source of information for the writing. Already there are loads of ideas playing in my head.

Our other neighbors are a young drummer and his girlfriend who studied Neuropsychology, and is trying to find work in that. A very nice couple that have a very social life, from the way they come and go during the course of the day. She came over yesterday to introduce herself (had some cookies with her and everything) and we had a nice cup of coffee with the three of us before she returned to her place for dinner. She and her boyfriend were going out later that night, so she didn’t have a lot of time.

I finally found a rug for the corridor and the living room. I had one for the living room, but it was old and worn, and the red (it used to be in big brother’s apartment) clashed with the Spanish tile. So I found a very daring one. It is a bright grass green, which oddly enough works with the coconut rug in our office corner and the anthracite rug of the sitting corner by jumping right out of the red Spanish tile. Brightens the place right up…which I had hoped for, but doubted about due to the fierce green. The red rug is now on the blue kitchen floor, so that gives a nice contrast too. There it doesn’t look all that worn, thankfully. In fact it looks rather cool there with all the blues and yellows.

Next I’ve spend a few bucks on cover foil for the kitchen cupboards. They were of this rather worn and ugly, dark brown oak, and I wasn’t allowed to paint them, so I got the idea to get this fake beach wood pattern vinyl plastic of a light-ish white, gray color and covered the center of the cupboards with it. At the very least, it looks lighter, and that was my aim. Still have to get another role, but they didn’t have the stuff in stock, so I’m going to have to look for it at other branches of the store.

Applied for a few more jobs, on as a research person at a PI firm, which I don’t think I’ll get a response to, but which should be fun, at the very least. Another job I applied for is night reception work at a hotel, which held some appeal at least, since the unusual hours usually pay well round these parts.

Visited our father and stepmother a little while ago. They too were moving house, they’re going down south which is going to make visiting in the future a little difficult, but what can you do. We had offered to help out with the move, so after we arrived we spent some time going through stuff on the attic (where we found some pics from our childhood and such, which was fun) and then we loaded up their mattress, bed, some yoga supplies and some stuff that we could still get in and drove it 180 miles south. Was quite a ride, especially we were there just before rush hour and things started to pile up. Unloaded everything, set up the bed so they could plop in bed without effort once they were done moving (seemed a nice thing to do) and then started on our way back. There was a massive pile-up near Boxmeer. Some odd fifteen miles of congestion resulted, but luckily it was on the opposite side of the road. We just got to marvel at the miles and miles of cars waiting impatiently to travel on. Considering we had to return the key, and pick up a cupboard that I just loved for our office, we spent a whopping seven hours on the road that day, meaning that we were pretty much road-weary when we finally got home around eleven in the evening.

Been to a couple of fitness clubs in the area, more or less trying out which one we like. First one was a tad dank, if you get my meaning. Didn’t like the atmosphere all that much. The second one was rather busy, dirty, and what’s worse, their boxing bag was broken. The hard core of the bag had somehow been dislodged, meaning that everything was fine when I was doing my punches and jabs, but when I did my high kicks, and the sideways arm swing at neck height, I damaged both the top of my foot and my wrist. Seriously, I punch and kick hard, because I have a massive bruise on my wrist (swelled up like mad the first day) and I had to bind my foot and add cream from fear I’d done some serious damage. I didn’t because later the next day I stepped (limped, really) onto the threshold of the living room, putting my foot down wrong when something inside there popped. After that the pain quickly started to subside, leaving now only a slightly pinched feeling that you have when something’s been bruised a bit. Much relief there.

Went to visit one of our colleagues in our old town when we had to go there to give back my keys and get the last bits and pieces that we had left for this occasion at my former apartment. Took us about forty minutes to gather the things, clean up what still had to be cleaned, and say our goodbyes to the former neighbors, and then we were on our way. Later we visited with our friend, had something to drink, talked a while, including the latest rumors about the sauna. Things are apparently going poorly with the cleaners. They’re making a mess of things. Not cleaning things properly, adding to the bill, which pisses off the new boss, of course. Makes me a little smug, I’ll admit. We were keeping up the cleaning despite the shortage in staff…and what’s worse, I warned the cleaning company that he wasn’t going to manage the cleaning in the time he’d allotted for it, with the amount of people he’d assigned for it. So, well, than you get war at the sauna between the cleaning company and the sauna itself, exactly as I’d feared. In that regard I’m very happy not to be working there anymore. In another regard, as to the fun parts of the work we did, I still regret the whole thing, but being in the middle of a war is definitely not something I would have wanted to deal with.

So, this brings me to the last bit of today, a few more pics, right?

This here is the before and after of the kitchen...

 Isn't it possitively hideous. I mean, I have nothing against oak, but I'd want to see the original color, not this dark stuff. Grrrr

Not too bad, right. Better than the dark stuff, anyway.
This is the front of the building, after I took away all the messes and washed the windows and frames.

Part of the view.

 The drive sweep we share with both neighbors.

 The backyard that we've been doing some stuff in. That gate wasn't visible, in case you're wondering.

 Neither were these bricks, before we started taking weeds away. Hah

 The living room in the evening. I find it wonderfully cosy.

 The office, with big brother hard at work.

 And the cupboard we got from our father and stepmother.

 

The bedroom. I know, the lines are totally not my thing, but who cares. I sleep there, read a bit sometimes, other than that, I'm mostly puttering around the house anyway. Hah

 Lastly some old pics that I took pictures off...my mom and me.

 And lastly with big brother and me on the right together with our cousins.

 

That's it, folks. Time for me to get to something else. I'll be back.

R&R, fitness and writing...

Song of the day: “Solo en ti” by Enrique Iglesias, of course. Been a while since I heard it, but it’s in the new music list big brother put on my computer, and it has come past often enough to get stuck in my head. Hah.

So, lots has been happening since my last post, including that it is now official, the job is well and truly over, meaning that I am officially unemployed, which is a rather scary occurrence, if you must know. Not to be helped, however. Are already busily looking for work, this time in a different part of the country, because the good news is that we found a new place to live, but regretfully it is higher up north than we would have liked. Like before, it’s not to be helped. You gotta do what ya gotta do, right? Anyway, the new place is a nice old farm, so in that regard I don’t mind all that much. But it is daunting to have to start over in a new place, all over again…on the other hand, the change of place might be interesting too, seeing as we’ll get to see new areas, get to know new folks, and all that. It’s just a teeny bit scary, is all.

In the mean time, while we already spent quite a bit of the past week to empty out big brother’s apartment and stored it in my spare bedroom. Took two solid days and lots of soreness from walking the distance with lots of heavy objects. Sure there’s a little cart at our apartment building, but there is only so much you can conveniently load on something like that, so you end up hauling the inconvenient lumpy stuff manually anyway. Was sore! Man, you don’t want to know how sore I was after two days of that. Imagine how bad it is going to be after the 20^th when we have to haul both our stuff down two flights of stairs several long corridors and into a van. Grrr. In that regard we’re lucky to be out of work. Imagine having to do all that while still working 36 hours a week…totally wouldn’t have worked. I’d be dead after, I tell ya…talking ‘bout dead…

Now that work is officially over, I am noticing how tired I really am. Not surprisingly, considering the hours that we’ve put in the past year. Did extra hours, extra days, worked before and after the five day vacation, had that little medical problem that persisted and didn’t help, and all those little things that cut back on sleeping time, and increased the stress levels. So I’m seeing myself catching up on sleep quite a bit the next couple of weeks…which reminds me. There’s a slight change in my present living arrangement.

Due to the fact that big brother is officially without a place to stay from the 1^st of September, we both agreed to do a house sitting stint for the next couple of weeks. What with work being over, it was easy enough to do, really, so as of last Friday we’re staying in this massive office building without much furniture (table, chairs, bed, couch and a functioning kitchen) being “present” 24/7 for a company. It doesn’t pay much, but considering we won’t have expenses for the next two weeks except for food, what is paid will see us through another month until we have found work.

Added to the plus of some extra cash, we are now forced to relax for a full two weeks, which we should be able to use for writing, taking care of legalities, writing, fitness, writing, and sleep. Yay!!!

What else?

Well, we had a Young family reunion (2 uncles, aunt, three cousins) this month, organized by our littlest brother, which was a fun experience. Turns out Youngs are a noisy lot, so we fit in nicely that way. Hah.

Had our former team leader and his pregnant wife for dinner a little while ago, which was also fun. Always a pleasure to see folks in a more relaxed situation then when at work.

Said our goodbyes to some of our former colleagues, several of whom don’t understand why we are going, because they don’t get how the new owners are going to manage without us pitching in wherever we can. It is particular unfair toward our team leader, who is now basically on his own in a building of more than 50.000 square foot, that sees more than 400 bodies passing through it every day. Sure there will be a cleaning company from now on (personally, I was already seeing what a disaster that was going to be while I was working side by side with them in the last week at work) but those won’t catch the hundred and one little things that big brother and I tried to catch during work hours. Ah well, we assured our former team leader that if he ever got the okay to hire some help, he was free to give us a ring. That seemed to please him, so who knows.

Big brother, thankfully, already has a job interview on the 2^nd of September. It’s in transport, which is something he kinda likes, because he’ll be in a van and won’t have to deal with people all that much…although he has to admit that he did like working at the sauna, and was even starting to get good at dealing with customers…the truth. It is sometimes amazing to see how work is changing him. Finally he is getting some visible confidence, and is not spending days afterward berating himself when he messes up some minor conversation face to face or by phone. A pleasure to see.

Had a repair done on the car. Had been hearing some clonking noises which freaked us out completely, but it was an easy enough repair of a stabilizer for the left front tire and new rubber supports for the engine. None of them were serious problems, or even truly necessary to fix, it just sounded as if the poor car was going to fall apart at any moment.

Had contact with my previous boss at the Safari tours and heard that our Land Rover (called Sam’s Jeep) is running like a train, which was nice to hear. I had this unreasonable fear that our poor darling would fall apart within half a year, but no, she’s still going strong.

Been missing the dogs somewhat fierce and to my brain it apparently makes no difference that most of them have passed on. I want them here, regardless, which is just silly.

Got stabbed by a wasp the other day. Stupid insect stabbed me right on the inside of my big toe, which was a friggin’ pain in the behind…well toe, anyway. Poor thing swelled up like heck, and ended up having to cut my nail to the quick to prevent it from cutting into the swollen skin. Wearing shoes was no fun. Luckily soaking it in vinegar did help, and within two days the problem was almost gone.

As for the near future…I’ll be focussing on finding work, moving house, getting settled in a new town, seeing some more family in the near future, and hopefully T (she might be planning a trip here in the near future. Yay!) when she comes over for a few days at the very least.

Other than that, I’m going to have to learn to relax, don’t I? Somehow, along the way, I forgot how to, and keep thinking of all the things I should be cramming into a single day. Instead I am going to try to focus on just those four most important things for the next two weeks: Relax, fitness, write and sleep!

That’s it for now. Here are some pics of the future place. Hah

Upper landing bedroom

Kitchen...a little primitive, but big at least. Hah

One side of living room

The other side

The house...

Big bedroom

Not too bad, right?

 Seeya...

Overtime

Song of the day: Come on and get it” by John Newman. Don’t like the fella all that much, but the song is very nice indeed. Been hearing a lot of it at work...well, I did at the old location, now we don’t have music yet. *sigh*

Anyway, life has been incredibly busy. We’re still doing overtime at work, which is of course a good thing for our depleted savings, but not so nice for our depleted energy reserves, hah. Seriously, big brother did an 11 hour work day yesterday...but that’s a boring bit of news, ain’t it. Can’t just fill my blog talking about work, despite the fact that I’ve got some seriously nice colleagues that certainly deserves mentioning. We have an artist in our midst, an artist with sound, no less. He loves taping sounds at the sauna and using it for his art. The guy can actually tape the gurgling sound of a pool and then spend an evening listening to it. And he’s nice to boot, so all is well in that regard.

Another colleague is our land lady’s daughter, who actually helped us to get the job. There are some tense dynamics between her and her mother, but she’s a nice girl who makes me feel a tad old, I fear. Hah. Ah well, that’s my problem, I fear.

Then there is our Spanish colleague, who’s been working for the company for a while, but who speak even less Dutch than I do Spanish. Good for me to practice, though, in particular since I appear to remember more Spanish here than I did over there. She’s tiny, wiry and works hard and takes some serious pressure off us, so she too is a keeper.

Had another colleague, but she got a really good job in Amsterdam at a pharmaceutical company, in a corporate position, no less, so we’re definitely shorthanded. She was sweet, and it was a pleasure seeing her at the party the day before yesterday. Yes, I was at a party, don’t laugh. I dressed up and everything, and suffered through an evening of bad music, small talk (though it was nice to see colleagues outside of working hours for a change, all doled up and everything) reasonable, albeit non-vegetarian, food and drink.

What was I wearing? I hear you NOT wonder. Well, I was all in black, naturally. Thin, wide-legged yoga pants, topped by a long-sleeved, thigh-long black T with some serious cleavage, topped by a colorful turquoise and gold scarf that brought out the massive sparkly earrings. I know, interesting, right. *sigh* Anyway, it was fun to see some folks respond all confused at seeing me doled up. There were several of them who were watching me approach, wondering visibly: “I know her from somewhere, but I’m not sure where”. Can’t say I really blame them. I have a strict policy when it come to work outfits. Very non-gender specific and always with a baseball cap on my head, lest I lose my mind from floating hair. Grrrr. I’ll have you know that folk are already calling me cappy. Hah.

Met the boss’ wife, who was a bit stand-offish the first few hours, but who came lose near the end and seemed to enjoy herself better. They’re a somewhat odd couple, but fit well together.

But the party went well enough. Socialized, ate, drank and left at a decent 10 PM because the working day started again at six the next morning. You’d think I would have had enough sleep, but I didn’t. It was a full moon, and clearly that suddenly affects me. Grrr. Instead of passing out the way I have the past few weeks, I lay awake until about half an hour before it was time to go to work. It didn’t improve on my disposition the next day...well, depending on your point of view, I suppose. Apparently, when I’m tired, I start making silly, or sarcastic jokes to a point of annoyance...and I mean that literally. I got seriously annoyed with myself. Gave myself a serious berating through the hours of work, was determined to

Anyway. On the most part, I don’t dislike the job. It’s not easy, there’s enough movement to rival a fitness club, but I’ll take that as bonus for the time being, considering that we simply don’t have the time to sign up at a fitness club yet. We’re determined to, I tell ya, in particular since I’m noticing the lack of my kick boxing. I get more emotional when I don’t pound on that ball every now and then, and that isn’t good at all.

Did receive our 6 month contracts just this week, so money wise we don’t have to worry all that much for the time being. Until mid-winter, that is coming in at least.

Haven’t heard much from Spain, but for now I’m okay with that. Hearing a lot about the dogs just makes me sad, so I avoid that issue for the time being.

Though it is hard, I am trying to keep up cooking healthy meals, which is hard with our limited time for such frivolous things. On the overall we have a nutritious meal five days a week, so we’ll just have to contend ourselves with that for the time being. I have made veggie lentil bread twice now, which adds to healthy nutrition. Also I have eaten my beef twice now (good Sammie) with a load of peanut sauce, so I should be able to keep my levels up.

My leg has still been bugging me every now and then, in particular when we have long days. Once or twice I’ve had it bad enough that I could barely get up the stairs, and just wanted to sit down there at the bottom and cry my eyes out, but on the overall it is slowly getting better. There is still some swelling, and yes, a couple more varicose veins have appeared from under my skin, but not so that it really bugs me.

My feet...well, I haven’t felt like I’ve walked on glass for a while, so in that regard it has improved a lot. Still, lately, what with all the activity, it has played up again, so I’m going to have to start looking for good shoes soon.

Writing wise, I haven’t been able to do much lately, though I have started reading bits and pieces of “Gun” again. Need to get back into shwung in that regard, but time is just too limited at the moment. When we’re not at work there is sleep to catch up on, meals to prep and eat, groceries to be done and cleaning that is a never ending trial even for us up at our small attic. Hah.

Added to that, we still need to arrange things at town hall, one of them being changing our driving license into a Dutch one. Regretfully that is not as easy as we’d hoped for. Now we need to travel to Arnhem at some point (takes some arranging with work) to fill in some form that we are not yet able to do via the internet due to some errors in the system. *sigh*

Grandpa has had his talk with the doctor, and the reason he hasn’t been operated yet is because at the moment he is too weak and to skinny. So now he is meeting with a nutritionist and geriatrics doctor who’s going to help him overcome that particular obstacle. Now he is told to take regular exercises already, and tomorrow he’s going to hear about his diet.

Which bring us to the end of today’s blog. More has happened, naturally, but I’m not going to bore you with all the details. Just catching you up for now.

Gotta go.