Again, again, and again. *sigh*

Song of the day: “1,000 ships” by Rachel Platten. An incredibly cute song, though what it does in my head these past couple of days, I don’t know.

So it has been a turbulent couple of weeks again, but then, what did you expect, right? This is Samaya Young’s world and it is becoming clear to me that I (we) can’t do anything the normal way, or the easy way. Sure, we get lots of accusations about how easy things are for us, but just because we make it look that way, I can’t really say that this path we’re on is even remotely easy. For me, the past few years have been (or at least appear to be) a chain-link of disasters, but I have to say that by now I am slowly, reluctantly getting used to it. And I’m getting stronger from it (once I get past the feeling sorry for myself bit) in a way. I know now that I should travel light, be ready to go at any minute and not care that much about the nest. Neat and comfortable is good enough for now. The rest will have to come later.

I can hear you think, dear Gawd, what happened now? Well, we moved, again, and again. Nothing new there, right? You’ve read me doing that plenty of times (in Spain, to England, back to Spain, and then the Netherlands) and this is just another one of those things.

Turns out that Land Lady had a thing for big Brother, which on itself is not a major crime. I mean, I’m his sister, but I can admit that he’s not bad looking, and that if you can get past his annoying habits, he would be attractive for the opposite sex. Still, I am his sister, so on the most part I don’t actually think about shaite like that. Hah. But as I was saying, having a thing for him is not a crime, it is just that it made the situation somewhat uncomfortable for all parties involved, in particular since some seemed to think that I was the obstacle in this “budding romance”. Some folks clearly don’t know big Brother all that well, but then, he is the silent type with others, so maybe that is something he should work on.

Then there was some serious nastiness that got turned back (all reasonable-like) later on, after a night at a hotel and after which we had enough of the mud-throwing, the discomforts and the uncertainty of not knowing if we could go home from one day to the next, so we decided to break free and agree once and for all to leave our temporary resident and find something else.

The latter, it turns out, is not all that easy. There is a serious shortage of habitats in the Netherlands, and unless you can afford to lose an arm and a leg (which we can’t) it really is a matter of patience. Lots of patience and in most cases a lot of luck. Right now (a day after our decision) we are staying at a recreational park with everything for easy living included (yes, it costs an arm and a leg, but at the moment it is the most affordable one) about 15 minutes away from work. The latter, we have decided, being the most important thing at this time. With all the overtime we’re doing, we might actually survive this latest fiasco without ending up on the streets. Hah. Always plenty to do at the sauna, thankfully.

Anyways. We did find a place in the park, they had one empty that was semi-affordable once they gave us a discount (I think they felt sorry for us) for the price of a smaller apartment that didn’t become available until the 11^th. It meant having to move again, but at this point I don’t think we can afford to be picky. We got the basics to the cabin, worked out asses off at work whenever possible, and spent two afternoons hauling stuff from our temporary residence, which saddened and shocked me at the same time. Clearly we’ve gathered way too much stuff for our present life-style in only seven months, so basically it means that we have to get rid of at least 50 percent, which depresses me, and reminds me of that awful time in Spain. We had a long talk, though, which is good. We’re going to aim for one trailer with stuff, the rest will just have to go. Right now we have a storage in the city that puts a drain on our funds, sure, but will give us a month to sort through it and downsize until it is all manageable. Not looking forward to that, but it can’t be helped.

Be that as it may, we did well loading everything up. Everything small got tossed and hauled away the first day, all the big stuff the next, after which we said our goodbyes and said thank you for the first 6 months (we all agreed that those were nice enough to forget about the last one) and left.

Thankfully a colleague is letting us store some of our bigger furniture, plus fridge and washing machine at his place, giving us some leeway in deciding what to do. Since then we have signed up with all sort of departments, real estate and whatnot, so now it is a question of waiting and seeing what will come from that.

Okay, so that was the latest on our living arrangements. On to other stuff.

Visited with our dad again, which was a nice afternoon of food, talk and basically catching up. There were even moments where I could forget the stupid stuff going on. Hah. Turns out our youngest brother (father's second marriage) is curious about us, so I gave my blog info in case he wants to check out what his big brother and sister have been doing over the years (I know, I lie awake about that every now and then, wondering if it is a good idea to let him read all this shaite, but then I realize he'll find out one way or other anyway, so we might as well get that bit over with. Hah) so if you're reading this, littlest brother (6' 5" tall, I heard, hehe) HIYA! Looking forward to meeting you some day.

Not a lot of workouts lately, but a a couple since the last blog...a blessing, that. Nothing like sweating your behind off, and punching a bag for half an hour to get rid of your frustrations.

 

Added to that, due to big Brother’s B-Day at the end of the year, our colleagues took us out to a pool bar in the city, were we spent a couple of hours drinking beer and playing pool. Been years since we did that, but on the overall we were all (six in total) well matched. Was a fun evening with lots of laughter, which was a great way to unwind, despite the fact that I couldn’t drink because I was doing the driving.

Then there was the company party just a few days ago, which was semi-obligatory. Was weird being there, seeing everyone you work with (not our team. Strangely enough cleaners usually manage to get out from under this sort of thing, hah) out of uniform, trying to make casual conversation rather than talk shop. Still, it was good we went there. I had some wine (big brother was driving this time round), everyone had champagne to toast the new year and the goodbye to one of our colleagues (was also a goodbye party) and for the rest we sat or stood around chatting. A weird experience, this, I would have thought an office party to be more glamorous, but it wasn’t. It was basically happy hour. Hah.

Other than that, well, I haven’t done any writing (hoping to do a bit of that today). Life too busy with all the running around. But I just spent the morning organizing our stuff in the new place (you can walk around now without tripping over a suitcase or a bag). Got big Brother’s stuff neatly by the bed in the living room, while mine are in the bed room, so everything is set. Now, if only I can get some peace and quiet in my head…that will be the day.

Well, I’m going to leave it at this, if y’all don’t mind. I’ll try to keep you posted. Gotta go.

Excuses

Song of the day: “Burn” by Ellie Goulding. Fun song, except when it starts repeating on the chorus, over and over and over again.

So, let’s get the bad news out of the day. Grandpa had his operation; it was tough for him, and he’s still at the hospital, battling the depression of a failed procedure. The clips that were placed on his valves are not functioning the way they had hoped, and once heart medication has stabilized, he can go home, leaving the doctors with little else to do for him. Grrrr. Poor guy. He’d put his hopes on the operation being successful, and now, according to the doctors, he’s going to have to continue muddling through.

He has finally agreed to start trying nutritional supplements, at least, so we’re going to see what effect that will have.

We have been visiting regularly, naturally, but it has been tough combining it with many hours at work…something we’ve been doing a lot, especially big brother, who has slowly been applying himself to assist our team leader in the more technical aspects of the job. This means that he is home very little, and does even less in chores than usual. I understand, naturally, but with my own hours, groceries and cleaning at our place, I’m pretty much bushed at the end of the day; this is not entirely beneficial to my writing, I’ll tell ya. Managed maybe a handful of pages since the last blog. But no matter. I’m going to keep trying…and added to that, I have an editor interested in reading it in the near future, which should get us some handy pointers, if nothing more.

I have decided to quit work at the thrift store, for the time being. First off, I don’t have the time for it. Secondly, store policy is changing, meaning that cozy is out, businesslike is in. Strange, considering at how well folks were responding to the cozy bit, but alas…not that it matters. In fact it is rather handy that this change has been announced, considering that it made quitting a lot easier. They don’t need me to do businesslike. My forte is definitely cozy. Hah. Anyway, my time there was fun, and I’ve got a nice friend from it, so…we’ll see what’s next.

In accordance to the agreement made with landlady, I accompanied her to a couple of markets. The latest having been a two day stint at a covered complex behind Utrecht. The first day was friggin’ boring, I tell ya, but at least our sales were relatively high. The second day, during which we took Gloria (crossbreed 7 month old dog that she’s looking to place in a new home) along as company and advertising. Made the day a lot more pleasurable, I’ll admit, considering she drew loads of customers and dog lovers who came in for a chat. All together we made the same amount this weekend, as we did the last time in one day, but still, it paid for gas, the stand and some extra, allowing land lady to pay her bills as well.

Spent my last free day, a couple of weeks ago, baking bread, cooking dinner, having a good workout session a the local gym (finally signed up) and snoozing on the couch (kept dropping off, I tell ya) until the day slipped by quick as you please. Annoying how that works, right? What can I say, I’m tired at a lot these days. Probably still getting used to it all.

Fall has really started here. Loads of yellow and red trees all around, but thankfully the trees are still full. It’s going to be a depressing state once the leaves are all gone. I gotta say that one of things I like in this country is that the ground is basically flat everywhere, allowing for easy biking and walking whenever the heck you please and weather allows. Another thing that is nice, at our present location pretty anything necessary is really close. We’ve got supermarkets, pharmacies, and most importantly public transportation basically at the door. That is really handy, in particular since recently we’re using it to get home from work. Takes about twenty minutes, which beats biking in the rain…like this morning. Our ride got stuck in traffic 40 minutes out, so we had to grab the bikes and rush to arrive four minutes before starting time, Yay!

A strange experience, working for a big company this way, but luckily it is accepted that I really don’t like doing cleaning more than four hours a day. Instead I’m put on all sort of projects like hanging mirrors, flat screens and clothes hooks throughout the facility, also soap and towel dispensers, designing and building wooden electrical boxes, installing outside lighting, and so on and on. The diversity keeps it interesting, I’ll admit.

Am slowly starting to get to know more of our colleagues, but I still think that it will take time until we know them all. There are more than seventy of them after all.

What else…well, very little. I am working on putting together some furniture. Found a gorgeous classic chair at the local landfill which I’m going to restore for my future room. It’s from sort of nutty wood, but some idiot painted it black…which is something I’m going to correct asap…might take a while with the schedule these days, but I can hope, right?

Further…the attic is a friggin’ mess. I really need to do something about that. It’s driving me bonkers to trip over shoes and clothes all the time. But like so many things, that will have to come some day soon. At the moment I just don’t have the time nor the energy…maybe that will change once we’ve got the routine settled, and managed to go to the gym more than a measly once a week. Grrr.

Well, that’s all she wrote…for now anyway. I didn’t keep to my promise of writing more often, did I. All I can say as an explanation (I don’t mean it as an excuse mind you, just fact) life, at the moment, is an emotional roller coaster, and so many things that I took for granted are changing, or falling away that I find it difficult to find the peace within myself to write everything down on the blog, the way I’m supposed to. There are things that I miss, and things that I don’t miss at all over there in Spain. Over here there are things that I like and that I don’t like, but that is life, I suppose. However good a place this is for now as we lick our wounds and try to figure out what to do with our future, I know more certain than ever that this here isn’t enough either. Someday I want to end up in the States, and that is just plain fact. How I’m going to manage it…I don’t know yet. It doesn’t matter, it is going to be a question someday somehow, is all.

As before, I will try to do better in the future, but if I don’t I hope you’ll forgive me.