Merry Christmas!!!!

Song of the day: “All comes down” by Alan Walker and Noah Cyrus. Cute song for sure.

Well, another blog has arrived.Not as long since the last one, but still, I should have been by sooner. Had planned to, but then on several occasions when I had planned to post one, something happened. The editor got back to me with the book. I was sick. Had to work. Always something isn’t there. Anyway, am here now, so let’s see what’s been going on.

First off…if all goes according to plan, we finished the final EDIT of the book yesterday. This was copy edits, so cross your fingers, toes, legs, and anything else that you can think of that this is it, finally. The Copy edits weren’t nearly as traumatic as before. Really basics, like missing words, grammar rules and formatting stuff, so it was done in just a few days. Yay. Got everything ready to send it before the last deadline and happy about it. Time to actually get to the end product, right? Actually had fun during this last one, considering we got to linger (if only a moment) on particular scenes we enjoyed writing.

Here a teaser of the cover...

Had my dinner party the other day. Had planned on a buffet party, but since so many folks turned out to be unavailable on the date, I decided to shift that to a later date (maybe a book party, some time next year, right?) and make it a dinner party for those that had already agreed to come. 

We were with a total of eight + a 1 year old, so it was a nice full evening involving plenty of food (spent about 5 hours on cooking spread over 2 days, so it wasn’t too much work) talk and laughter. Had a nice time, and everyone enjoyed themselves, I think. Had invited littlest brother as well, but he had an unplanned overtime session at work, so the only way he could have made it was to go straight to the station and travel our direction, and still be after eight…an hour after I had planned for dinner to start. The snacks would have tided us over for sure, but still, what with the baby there, stretching it out that long seemed unproductive, so we agreed he’d come the next day for a dinner of left overs. Hah.

Had prepared an elaborate dinner (was afraid I had cooked too much, of course) with hors d’euvres of toasted vegetable bread with herbal butter, small zucchini pastries and a rather sturdy butternut  pumpkin soup. We followed that up with a colorful salad, involving grilled mushroom and  pumpkin seeds and a dressing of choice. Next was the main course of a leek quiche with sweet potato mash garnished with grilled peppers and onions on a bed of raw arugula. Only to end it all with a freshly baked apple pie with whipped cream. Needless to say, everyone was thoroughly stuffed, and I wasn’t left with an excessive amount of left overs. In fact, I had exactly enough left to feed three people the next day for when littlest brother came to visit. Yay!

So all in all, it was a lovely evening, that lasted way longer than planned with everyone not leaving until eleven in the evening, and one guest even spending the night. Considering I had managed to spread the actual cooking out over a couple of days, I didn’t even have a massive clean-up afterward. In fact, two dishwasher loads, carrying chairs and tables back to their original sports and voila, things were all back to normal. I would call that a success!

My new job is official. Finally got and signed my contract the day before yesterday. Will be working for a big catering company, on several locations in company cafeterias, so that will be a nice change from the Wellness branch. I get to mess with food, maybe even express myself creatively in the future, since the manager promised that they try to stimulate creativity in their employees. We shall see how that goes. The company policy does look promising, since they aim for vegetarian since that is on the overall better for the environment, they do not make excessive amounts so there won’t be a lot of waste, and they try to focus on the veggies of the season, which all sounds good to me. They will be serving mostly lunches, which will include sandwiches, soups, salads and other finger food, so that should be fun at the very least. I will be starting in the first week of January, so who knows, the next time I write, we’ll know more. Haha

Spent a couple of days at my dad’s to help out painting his new place. There was a bit of a rush going on there, considering the new floor was going to go in the following Monday and they would have preferred to have the paint on by then. They didn’t make that, but at least the primer had been put on in 90 percent of the house. I had counted on being cold for a couple of days, but it wasn’t. The house needed to dry asap, so the heating was on high, meaning that within an hour everyone was sweating like a racehorse. Hah. Such a long drive, to and from, but it was basically the last time I could actually help, so I didn’t want to cancel.

Luckily by that time I was no longer sick. A week earlier would have been a lot less handy. Was sick as a dog, I tell ya. It all started as the sniffles, with a terrible runny nose, that didn’t seem to get worse than that, only to suddenly sink a day or two after I thought, “Hey, it is getting less bad,”. So there it went, a nasty little cough that stayed high up in my lungs rather than deep down below where I feared it would go, due to experience. Kept up my qigong during the whole thing, which includes several exercises for the lymphatic system and the immune system, which think helped keeping the cold’s damage to a minimum. I do know that normally, in the past, even as short ago as last winter, a could that sunk in my lungs would have been a disaster for a full two weeks, instead it took me 3 days to get over the worst of it. Yay.

There were quite a few cleaning sessions due to the dinner party, of course. Can’t have the house a mess if you get visitors, duh. So walls got emptied of spiderwebs again, floors vacuumed (had done the windows just a couple of weeks ago, thankfully) kitchen and bathrooms scrubbed, and everything tidied. And it looked good. Made relaxing on the night in question a lot easier.

Had to have the car fitted with new brakes…which costs a friggin’ fortune! Added to that, we had to have the yearly check, so the day before the appointment I spent cleaning the inside of the car. Got a cute mechanic so having a pigsty for a car really isn’t an option. Didn’t get to the outside, but considering it is winter and all cars are dirty anyway, I didn’t mind all that much. Instead I washed the thing today and it looks splendid for Christmas dinner with the family down south. Yay. 

Regardless, the car got through the yearly inspection without much trouble, so we’re all set for a year, thankfully.

Helped out at the store again a couple of weeks back, which was fun. Sorted out the majority of the top floor, which had been such a mess lately that they weren’t able to let customers up there to roam about. Not good for business that. Anyway, got most of that done, so I hope that this is now less of a problem…I should probably ask. Totally forgot. Hah

Did find a rather good 2^nd hand office chair. My old one was starting to give in to the demands of time and use, so it was a lovely find at the gift shore. Really a rather fancy one, and considering a lot of my work involves sitting at my desk, a good chair is rather vital.

Am all set for this year’s Christmas presents. Found one for everyone that I needed one for, except littlest brother, who I find difficult to find something for, so in the end I decided to make a quilt. Much like I used to back in the day. Used mostly recycled materials, Jeans in this case, so the quilt is in only blue hues. Worked out rather well, despite it being a pain in the behind to make because most fabrics were stretchy, but to different degrees, it made making it all straight rather difficult. Did finally manage so I hope he likes it.

If he doesn’t I’m going to take it back and give it to someone else, or maybe even try to sell it. I’ll let you know how that works out.

Also made myself a quilt. Nothing near as fancy as the quilt, but at least one big stretch of fabric (makes the bedroom look way more dressed I always think) that I’d had lying around for more than two years already, exactly for this purpose. Love my sewing machine for sure. Was nice doing some other activity than working behind the computer. It had been so long.

Lastly I went visiting friends the day before yesterday (a couple that weren’t able to come to the dinner party) and spend the evening there playing with the dog and two babies. Was different, and fun in its own way, even though by then the edit wasn’t done yet, so I didn’t make it too late, and went home in time to finish another 40 percent of the manuscript. Hah

And that makes for today’s blog. There are sure to be things I forgot to mention, but that’s no surprise anymore, is it? Anyways… Wishing y’all HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!! And that the past year gave you everything you’d hoped for the last time ‘round!

A bit of good news for a change...with pics.

Song of the day: “A song for Ireland” by Mary Black. Such a gorgeous song. I’ve had it in my head off and on for the past week or so. Do love it somewhat fierce.

Yeah…a lot has changed once again. Quite suddenly, just last week, we got a call from one of the anti-squatting companies we signed up for, and it was a beaut. In particular since our month was almost up.

I’ll give you a rundown of how that conversation went. The caller we’ll be calling D for recognition purposes:

The phone went, and I snatched it from my pocket to squint at the unfamiliar number displayed. It came Utrecht so it was nearby, but other than that, I was oblivious of who it was. It could be anyone of the fifty or so real-estate agents, private rental owners and whatnot, so there really was no choice but to pick it up.

Me: “Hello? This is Samaya speaking.”

D: “Good afternoon, my name is D whatshisname.”

I racked my brain but nothing popped up. Me: “Sorry, that name doesn’t ring a bell. What can I help you with?”

D laughed, said: “I’m from thisandthat anti-squatting company. You applied for that, right?”

Me: “Yes. Yes I did.” Something started bubbling inside me, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up for fear that they were just doing some sort of formal check thing.

D: “I was wondering if you are still looking for a place to stay?”

Me: “Yessss!” without even a second’s hesitation.

D: “Would you be interested to live in Ztown? We’ve got a place—“

Me: “Yessss!! Even better. That would actually be splendid. Yes.” Was trying to curb my enthusiasm there, but I think it didn’t work, because he was laughing a lot. He mentioned something about an address, talked about prices and how he would send me the required this and that’s, at which point I cut in: “That’s fine. Would it be possible for my brother to move in with me?”

D: “Well…I guess. The apartments are rather small, though, and we’ve got three of them free at the moment, so he could get his own.”

Me: “Oh my. That’s even better.” My head was already running with that, considering that with anti-squatting you pay per person, rather than per apartment. So taking a place together was going to make very little difference since we’re not home all that much, and when we are, we often work at the computer together, and since it is in the same building, and I cook most of the time anyway, we wouldn’t need to get an extra washing machine, or refrigerator, or anything.

Me: “Yes, we would be interested in that, too.” Imagine me, doing a happy dance at the thought of having a place to myself that I can decorate whichever way I please, without a big brother looking at me in exasperation about color schemes, styles and whatever because he’d be more interested in where to put his butt ugly computer. Hah. Anyway, I’m thinking color. Lots of it. I’m at a point in my life where I want cheerful colors around me. *wink*

D: “Great. I’ll send you the particulars tonight, but for now the appointment is set for Monday at 14:30. Will that be alright?”

Me: “Yesssss!” while in my head I’m formulating the request in my head to our boss, for an early day so we can make our appointment.

D: “Very good. Would you know where I can reach your brother so that I can speak with him as well.”

Me: “Of course. He’s standing across the room from me.”

We both laughed at that. Me: “He’ll be there.”

D: “Excellent. That saves me another call. You will be meeting with my colleague R, who will discuss the paperwork, contracts and whatnot with you and then hand you the keys.”

“GREAT! And can I just say that you’ve made our day, D. We were really starting to get worried about not being able to find anything to suit us.”

From the sound of it, he didn’t mind playing knight errant for the day, and we said our goodbyes while I turned to big brother and high-fived him. Me: “Dude. We’re not homeless!”

Big brother: “We weren’t, silly. We have this place, remember?” He, too, was grinning.

Me: “Yeah. But you know what I mean, right? Our own place, one for you, one for me without it costing all that much extra. How awesome is that”

Big brother: “Pretty friggin’ awesome.”

And it is, because, let’s face it, we’d been counting on having to share some teeny little space that was way above our budget (were actually at the verge of renting something a few miles farther away when this popped up) simply because we couldn’t find anything that we could afford. This is a way better solution. Hah.

Anyways, the weekend seemed to take really long, but regardless of that (and the fact that I had these horrible thoughts of: what if something goes wrong, what if it doesn’t work out? Kept going through my mind) we started packing some of our things already. Then, on Monday we got there on the dot, were shown three apartments, together with another future resident, and I picked the last one because it was on the top floor, overlooking a small park, and a nice clean white floor. Not so much the white, but I liked it better because it didn’t have carpet, and no neighbors overhead. That was a big plus. All it missed was a cooking stove, but then that was the case with all of them.

So we settled who was going to go where (big brother and me on the third floor, the other fella on the second) read through and signed the contracts and agreed to at least put some of our things in the apartment that same evening, because the whole purpose of this project is that it looks lived in…didn’t get to bed until after eleven that evening, and the three nights that followed while we arranged for our move and carted everything to the two separate places.

We were way short on stuff, too, so I got myself a couch (a bright red! I will post pictures below) to fill in the blank. Regretfully the couch looked way smaller at the thrift store, so we couldn’t get it in the elevator, meaning we had to carry it up a whole set of stairs. *sigh* But it all worked out in the end, despite being pretty darn tired after work, cleaning up the temporary rental, and moving for so many hours so many days in a row. In fact, the other day (supposedly my free day where I only found time for breakfast) I actually got a strange buzzing in my ears while we were in a thrift store looking for a closet…one of the prerequisites of anti-squatting is that you keep things neat, so a closet is definitely necessary. Anyways, I really had to stop for a moment lest I ended up hugging the floor. Anyway, luckily I had a couple of oranges with me, so I ate those and felt way better. Did decide to eat a proper dinner that evening, rather than doing something on the fly, because that was scary.

So now, after this “free” day, my new apartment is neatly  arranged into a rather new style for me, quite a bit of red there. I told you I was doing color this time! I got some blues to keep things interesting, and some turquoise because I like the color so much. The end result is cosy and welcoming, which is the tone I’m trying to set, of course.

Lucky for us, on the night we moved in, there was a big thing going on. The next morning a big skip was going to be loaded up, so basically all the residents were throwing everything they wanted to get rid of away. So I’ve got chairs that I didn’t have before. Had two already, but decided they looked better at big brother’s. Also a nice small white table which I’m now using as my desk. Yay. Added to that a neat rounded, white rattan chair for my bedroom. A selection of things for big brother, including a couple of small brown leather couches (he doesn’t like the brown, but it will do for now) which color up nicely with some throw pillows on them.

Also had to get some lights at thrift stores, but other than that we’re all set, I guess. I even have a cooking stove. Regretfully no oven yet, but that will just have to wait until later. Either I find a cheap combi at some point, otherwise I’ll get a small grill oven at some point that I can at least bake my own bread again. Now all I have to get is my box with books and a few more things (like our tools) at the storage and then we’re done for the next six months or so (cross our fingers and hope that it takes at least that long before we need to get out of here again; everyone seems to think so, so I try not to worry).

So that’s it for the living arrangements. What else? Well, we went out with our father and stepmother, who invited us to go and eat at a friend’s place up in Amsterdam. It was rather lovely, that day, despite the atrociously rainy and cold weather. The female friend, let’s call her Ie for the moment, had a lovely old place (completely restored, I tell ya) beside a canal. It used to be one of those high merchant places with the wide hatches and the hook overhead. Really cute. Was still the original old stairs, almost worn down with wear. It was gorgeous.

After lunch, which took several hours, we spent the evening walking through the streets of Amsterdam (seriously, you have to see it to believe how much those houses have sagged over the past few hundreds of years!). It was fun to see, I’ll admit, despite the fact that my foot was bugging me to the point of me wanting to chop it off. The wet cold didn’t help with that, even though it should have, but then, nothing new with the stupid foot feeling as though I’m walking on broken glass. Thought I’d moved past it, but apparently the past few weeks of extra work (being on my feet more then 10 hours a day) didn’t help that…and the fact that I skipped several days of the much needed bloodwine. *sigh* That is not a mistake I’ll make again, I’ll tell ya.

What else? Well, no writing these past few weeks…well, maybe a page or two before the move started, but that’s ok. I’m set up now in the apartment, so I should be able to do some on my free days, and I will be taking my computer along to work, for those few hours that I can while away there waiting for big brother. I’ll get this banshee story written yet. They are in my head, you see, Brendan and Neeya, the leads of the story. They don’t like each other much yet, but what did you expect; it’s a romance after all. Hah.

Oh, and before I forget, the daughter of one of the residents here, has a Basset hound that looks just like my Chaos did. He was beautiful, this James Basset. He was walking through the corridors with his mistress, and I was standing there watching him mosey along, before saying: "Oh you beautiful, you." His head swiveled back, tail going up as if he understood more than just my tone. "Yes, you. You beautiful boy." He turned, came moseying over for a proper petting while I chatted with his misstress about the amazing-ness of Basset hounds. *sigh* 

So that is it for today, folks. I’ll be back with more news soon, hopefully, and will leave you with the promised pics.

Have a good one.

 The living area from my bedroom...the latter isn't done yet, so you can't see it yet. I need a bed and a closet, so it is still a mess of suitcases.

 Then a view of the whole, with the kitchen in the back...sorry 'bout the dishes. They are clean but I didn't feel like putting them away before the pic. Hah.

 And then a shot of the view in that special house in Amsterdam. One of those houses in front was from 1637. Can you believe it?

Making progress

Song of the day: “Give me Love” by Ed Sheeran. Song is totally stuck n my head ever since I discovered it yesterday. Rather wonderful…but then, I do like Sheeran’s songs a lot.

Okay…I have no memory of what I did yesterday. Lemme get my diary to check...well, there was laundry of course. When is there ever no laundry, right. Moving along. There was dog feeding, of course, both yesterday and today, of course. Same goes for editing sessions, which were done (today and yesterday again) over breakfast. Better to use the time as effectively as possible. Were running way behind, but got a good session done, on the overall. Managed a total of eleven pages, which isn’t bad at all, since edits have a tendency to go incredibly slow.

Did manage to clear away some of the piles of clean laundry that has been getting higher and higher in my cabin over the past few weeks. I should be doing way more in there, but let’s face it. I walk in there at the end of the day, drop into a semi-dead state the moment I hit my pillow, and get up to stumble out again in the morning. Hah.

But anyway, yesterday afternoon was mostly spent out in the yard, which was wonderful since the temps were a lot higher down there, then up by the carport.
While big brother planted tiny cabbage seedlings, and Cousin Ed tackled the morning glory vines, and Grandpa turned earth, I was set to work to build reed fences to keep the friggin’ dogs from going through it. Fortuyn, Tadaika, Gadah. They all love going through freshly turned earth and lying in it. Grrr.

Planted about fifty seedlings, dragged out a lot of vines, but there’s still plenty to do down there. Around five the temps started to drop drastically, so we headed back up. Part of the reason was because we were going to pick up a load of rocks (grandpa needs it to build a storage for the garbage up at his place) and to go for a jog. For the first time in more than two months, I think. Didn’t go splendid, but also not horribly. My foot didn’t kill me, but it wasn’t playing nice either. Still, the rest of me felt nice and limber afterward, which is all that counts in the end, right?

As for today. I had a late start. I friggin’ forgot to set my alarm, meaning I didn’t get up until nine thirty. The dogs were a nuisance all through the night. For some reason Chaos thought it a good idea to lie down there where I was supposed to sleep, meaning I was bent like a pretzel most of the night. Painful, I tell ya.

So after today’s edit, and those pesky little chores I mentioned earlier, we got to work on…yes, hold your breath…my outside kitchen!!! Yay!
Broke ground, so to speak. Got interrupted by tenant, who I walked down to visit with mom while the younger sibs went out to the movies.
Got a lot of the digging done. Still need to do more, but the beginning is there. We had some debate going as to the size. I don’t want it to small, since sometimes we’ll have to work in it with more people, but big brother doesn’t want it too big. Little does he know, right?

I cut the dog veggies this evening, my turn and everything. Got a nice batch going, a mix that the dogs will appreciate.
Afterward I got to work on our own supper, leaving big brother to light up the dog food. Made the same as yesterday. Asian stir fry which is so wonderfully easy. Not to mention nice.

Well, I’m going to cut this short, it’s late, and I wanna be in bed on time, so I can get started on the edit earlier tomorrow. Don’t like spending too much daylight hours, which is what happened today and yesterday, where I was constantly behind on everything. Ah well, no matter. We’re 76 pages in the edit now, so we’re making proper progress. Yay.

Okay, that’s it. Signing off. Move along. Nothing more to see here. Hah.

Exhausted

Song of the day: “Hold my hand” by Michael Jackson. Yay.

Well, it’s been a busy couple of days, and I can feel every single minute of it. Seriously, I feel about fifty years old right now, reminds me that we’ve been slacking this summer, doing small tasks that don’t require that much muscle power.

Yesterday, after filling those planters I made the other day with dirt, two dame da noches (night blooming jasmine) and a big oregano plant. Looking good, I’ll admit, I can hardly wait to see how it will look once we’ve got the wall done. *sigh*

Next, upon grandpa’s insistence, I headed down to the third terrace where I would start working on the stairs that is going to be extremely necessary there once start building a container for next year’s fertilizer. Seeing as we’re going to have to haul literally everything down, a proper stairs is essential. So, during the course of the day, I hauled rocks, stones, cement and chopped until I could no longer feel my hands, shoulder, lower back and hips…and not in a good way. Hah. Managed to get five steps done, meaning that today I had to finish the rest. I can assure you that my body, though game, wasn’t thrilled with the plans. Hah.

The proper night’s rest did me well, however, and though I had my doubts around 1:30 about whether I would make it to the end of the day, I forgot about the time after starting on the third step of the day. The stairs came to be a total of a whopping 12…or was it 13? Drat, now I can’t remember. Ah well, who cares. I had to cheat most of the way, seeing as the incline got to be too steep, meaning that I had to make several really short (by comparison, btw. They’re still bigger than a house step) ones to make it work. You cannot imagine my relief when, around five in the afternoon I finished the last one.

Luckily, yesterday I had grandpa to help with hauling rocks and cement, and then today Dani was there to get me the much-needed supplies. Sure I still did a lot of going back and forth, went up and down the mountain at least twenty times, if not more, but having assistance is a definite must with tasks like this. Grandpa kept us supplied with cement, and thus we got the whole thing done today. Yay.

While yesterday tenant was a good sport and cut all our fresh veggies for supper (she’s getting better and better at that), she had a nice day off today, since we still had enough leftovers today to get a proper meal in. Considering we also still had yesterday’s dough for chickpea patties, by the time we settled (both today and yesterday) for food, we wolfed the stuff down like starving people. Hah.

Regretfully, what with the dropping temperatures (though sunny, it was decidedly cooler these past couple of days. October is what it feels like) the pool is starting to cool down to the point where it is no longer nice to go in. Sure, I needed it today, what with dust, dirt and cement all over me, but still, it wasn’t nice anymore.

The dogs love the weather, by the way. Most of them will take the chance to sunbathe again, and will be lying in prone positions all over the place during the course of the day. It’s adorable, really, in particular since just ten days ago they would be searching for the relief of the shade whenever they could. Except of course, Knight II, who is so bloody insane that one minute he is sleeping in the greenhouse, while the next he is lying in the full sunshine. Bonkers! Chaos I don’t see much during the day…though this morning snuck into the veggie garden somehow and wandered about for a full thirty minutes before could finally corner him and get him out. He had the nerve to look insulted too. Hah.

Had a weird dream yesterday, by the way. Though the details in this case have faded too much for a proper recount, it did involve an earthquake, a flooding, which is a little weird in this area. We’re about 1700 feet above sea level. And me just barely managing to salvage my computer from the front of a strange car. Like I said, the details are hazy, but I do remember that I woke up with my heart going pit-a-patter. I hate it when I don’t remember something like that properly. I always want a dream to stay clear so I can write about it here. Ah well…

Okay, this is going to be it for today. I already had a ten minute lay-down earlier, because I still have computer work to do (for the record, I really hate, Hate, HATE writing synopsis! They never do a story justice) and would like to do that without my eyes falling shut. So I didn’t actually sleep, but my back was infinitely grateful. Hah.

Gotta go. Gotta edit! Yay!

Passing on.

Song of the day: “Leaving on a jet plane” by John Denver. I know, I don’t have a clue where it came from, but I think it is because I was thinking of the movie Armageddon earlier. Maybe it is Ben Afleck I’m hearing (which is bad) ‘cause lord knows I don’t think I heard the original in a couple of decades. Hah.

First of all, the sad news. Rhumba (11 year old Samojeed mix) slipped in the courtyard the day before yesterday and fractured his upper paw. Poor darling cried like mad, and when it became clear that his left front paw was dangling middle sister (his mistress) and I rushed him to the vet hospital. The vet felt him up, injected him with an anesthetic, took a picture and showed us the problem in glorious detail.
It was broken just an inch above the join, the fracture jagged and at a sharp angle. What we were looking at was a four-to-five hundred euro operation that had only a small chance of succeeding and, in a best case scenario a five month recovery afterwards.
Taking in consideration his age, chances, quality of life and of course the costs, Middle sister had to make the horrid decision of putting him out of his misery.
The vet agreed that it really was the best thing, considering that due to his age he was unlikely to create new bone where he needed it.
Suffice it to say, it was a rather bad afternoon on the overall.
After being with us, this stubborn, snarky and waaaay too enthusiastic dog, for a solid eleven years (he was one of our earliest saves) Rhumba departed on a Sunday afternoon, sleeping on a table with middle sister (the love of his life, hah) stroking his head. A sad day to say the least

Okay, before I start to bawl, or something, let’s move on to life, rather than death. Big brother and I have been working on his bed for the most part. Sunday we built these huge wooden boxes, which would be his bed, and today (after Monday workday, of course) we made the first two drawers to go in them. It’s looking rather grand, and I really ought to make pictures of it. It’s going to be a bit difficult what with the room being a tad dark, but I’ve gotta show off my design. It worked out splendidly. One more drawer to go and then the thing is all done.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. There were lots of stuff going on, seeing as the majority of the morning was spent digging ditches and cleaning out floods in both guest room and tenant’s kitchen. Boy, has the rain been coming down bad of late.

There was a bit of gardening, of course, seeing as we headed into the yard to get peppers, and everything else we could get our hands on. Not a bad harvest either, and the stuff in the greenhouse looks absolutely splendid.

So let’s get to yesterday. We had to leave a little early for work because Dewey (the new delivery guy, remember) is a lot faster getting all the way here from the Costa Blanca. Big brother and I loaded up our papers nice and easy and before you knew it we were on our way.

Was a good day, paper distribution wise. Sure there was still a bit of rain, but there were no disasters and even (for me) hilarious moment when I entered a rather big restaurant and delivered my papers as usual. The owner was there, and when I was done putting the bundle on the bar, he said thank you, and then “Happy Christmas” while making this very Godfather-ish waving gesture with his hand. Seriously, the guy just might be a gangster of old. From the way his pictures (taken with all sorts of celebrities at his side) hang all over the place, I wouldn’t be surprised. Maybe he’s in a witness protection program, or something, wiling away the end of his days in Southern Spain. *chortle*
I always feared that some of the characters in my books might be too theatrical, but much to my relief, real people can be far worse. Hah.

Prior to going out on the route, we had to go to the phone shop. Sally has been getting prank calls, and since we all have a joined phone contract, big brother and I had to go there to change her number. It did cost twelve Euros but in the end we managed to leave with the problem solved.

Next we had to go to the Daewoo dealer to finally pick up the papers. I don’t know if I already talked about this, but last week they let us know that to get the papers we still had to pay the Gestor, an expense they hadn’t informed us about. So first I got a bill of € 286 and then after I balked some about not having been told about this expense, they brought it down to € 240. A good thing too, because I was of a mind to have the papers reported stolen and pick them up myself. In the end I was just happy to be rid of the entire hassle.

Back to the route. There was some rain throughout, but in the end it wasn’t the worst of days. I didn’t have any accidents. I call that a good day in any book, hah.

While we were working middle sister’s boxer Lubika had to go back to the vet…she’d had a tumor removed on her ribs (seriously, dogs didn’t used to have this much cancer…heck, humans didn’t either) and had ripped open her stitches. Poor little boxer. Nutter than a hatter (or something along those lines) but still sweet as can be. She just can’t stand any kind of discomfort.

So anyway, today was spent working on the drawers for big brother, and some supply hauling. My dogs once more spent a lot of time in my cabin. They don’t like the rain at all, I assure.
Oh, and I discovered that there is no ordinance against dogs in this area, meaning that I no longer have to be careful about mentioning their numbers. Yay.

Well, I’ve got edits to do, and maybe just a little catnap…yeah, that sounds good. I think I will.