Another blog bites the dust. ;-)

Song of the day: “Clearly” by Grace Vanderwaal. Gorgeous song. Absolutely lovely, so I don’t mind at all.

It’s been both quiet and busy at the same time since the last blog. Had some days off, but filled them up with at the computer, naturally. It was very deliberate, and successful, considering I managed to add the necessary 6500 words throughout the story, and even managed to overshoot by 3500 words, meaning I’ll have to ruthlessly edit, too. I hate it when that happens, but it can’t be helped, some of this stuff had to be added to have the right effect, so I’ll have to see what I can remove later on. Hope it doesn’t take too long. Really want to start sending this one out, putting the eggs in different baskets, you know.

The negotiations for book two to Girl in the Mist are going well. Might have some good news in regard to that, soon. Am looking forward to digging in there. It’s been a long time, and while negotiating, we got to mess around with the first 4 chapters already, which was awesome. Can’t wait to get started on all the planned changes and will in fact start working on the outline today.

The local temps have been uncomfortably high recently. There were times that it felt like I was back in friggin’ Spain. Even the grass in the paddock around the house has turned yellow because of it. On the variety of work locations, I had temps going up to the high nineties, which was not something folks around these parts enjoyed. Thankfully they dropped again since yesterday, staying mid-eighties, which is just lovely. Especially with the fierce winds and even some rain that was vastly appreciated by nature.

Latest problem at the house is a clogged kitchen sink. Darn it. We battled the problem with a variety of techniques. Tried a de-clogging spring, garden hose down the tubes, de-clogging liquid but all to no avail. We’ll have to try again because this is just ticking me off.

Visited with friends, of course. Not often, but a few times, which was nice, especially since I might do a joint effort for a fashion photo shoot in the near future. Will be fun. Especially since the clothes will be worn by kids. Will keep you posted on that.

Also helped friends out moving this massive new couch into their apartment. Not an easy thing, although I didn’t get to do all that much, except re-attaching the paws and carrying up a small box, because the fellas insisted on doing the heavy lifting. Hah

Had a couple of sleepovers from a close friend with her three dogs, which was nice. She likes the peace and quiet here, especially since her apartment is in the middle of town with noisy neighbors. Considering she doesn’t require entertainment it didn’t really impede any computer work for me, while still having cosy dinners together. And the dogs were lovely to have around…even if they do make me miss min. * sigh *

Been doing some experimenting in the kitchen. Tried out quite a few omelets, and quiches, which are working really well.  Had one with onion cheese, a broccoli quiche, a cauliflower quiche, one with a variety of Italian veggies and herbs and so on. What can I say, I am liking the quiches and omelets. Also experimented with a green bean vermicelli, which is apparently from China. It went really well with wok veggies and satay. Made a lovely homemade pizza the other day, and that was yummy. Then there was the lentil soup with fresh cottage cheese to top it off, definitely worth a remake in the near future. And lastly there was the red beet and basmati rice dish on a bed of raw arugula that I absolutely loved.

Did run into a spot of car trouble recently. Was on my way to work when my car started sputtering and complaining on a deserted back road. Had to have triple a come pick me up. The guy checked everything over, added oil, just to be sure (wasn’t necessary, mind you, but that was something he could do) and then followed me to the garage, which was only six miles back the way I’d come. Left the car there, while the Tripple A guy was nice enough to drop me off at work. Was only an hour and 10 mins late for work, thankfully.

There finally was a good deal at the fitness club for a member ship, meaning that I can drop in at any time before closing, every day, without restriction, for under 20 bucks a month. Definitely a bargain I couldn’t say no to. Already went four time in the 10 days since signing up, which were wonderful. Loving it.

Did catch some bug the other day, which resulted in a nasty little cough again. And that with this heat. I hate that. When I have to work in particular. Seriously, can you imagine anything worse than coughing like a lunatic while you’re trying to serve folks food? Yeah, me neither. So I dove into the dishes instead. Grrr.

And that sums up this rather short update. Like mentioned before, the plans for the big vacation are in full swing. Slowly gathering more supplies and settling firmer goals as to what we’re planning on seeing and what we are willing to skip in case anything doesn’t work out and we need to gain time. Getting very excited about that prospect.

On with life...

Song of the day: “Subeme la radio” by Enrique, of course.  Don’t know why I have this one in my head lately, but there you have it. Who can understand earworms anyway. Same goes for Imagine Dragon’s “Thunder” which was going through my head on and on and on for a couple of days this week. Hah.

But, let’s get down to business. Life has been busy again with a variety of causes…the lack of a blog proves as much, I guess. Grrr.

No matter. First thing up is that a couple of weeks ago our zit car gave the spirit. Poor thing never really recovered from the accident last spring, and finally just gave up while I was on my way home. *sob* Had to call triple A for that, and the mechanic declared the little thing dead due to a busted cylinder, which made oil burn directly in the engine. *double sob* The fella towed me home…special experience, that. So strange to drive a car where you basically don’t have any control over. Added to the fun was that his navigating device would have send him in the wrong direction, so half the ride I was hanging out the window gesturing which way to go.

Anyway, that little issue mean that we had to look for a new car, which was what we had to sacrifice a free day for soon thereafter. Spent about 10 hours on the road, going to people who had “affordable” cars for sale. Tried out a total of seven before settling on one that has a wealth of cosmetic issues, but which’s engine still sounded and felt good during the test drive. It was a tough job for sure. Exhausting, too. But seriously, you don’t want to see some of the carpy cars we got to look at. But regardless. We’re two weeks, or so, into the new car now, and it is still running and not guzzling an excess amount of fuel and oil, so…yay!

I mean, I hear you thinking, why on earth do them kids need two cars? But with my other job, and the possibility of another one in the near future, mobility is vital. Grrrr.

Visited my dad and the missus a couple of weeks ago. Got to admire the new place, of which the walls were fully up at that time. Nice big airy place that should be done sometime in November. Fun to see the materials they work with around these parts. Different building blocks. Different concrete for second floor landings. And so on. Made my hands itch to get back into that sort of thing once more. I miss building.

Regretfully that was a work day, without me having had the time for a siesta, meaning that I fading pretty fast when we arrived. Seriously, I was so tired that my skin was itching and my eyes hurting. Still, I could hardly say no to a walk from their rental to the building site…a good 20 minute walk. I should have. Seriously, after that I was just about ready to pass out. Of course I sucked it up and played out the remainder of the evening, until it was time to go home again (1.45 h drive) with big brother even more tired than me, because he had worked longer, even. *sigh* Can’t complain, though. Was a nice evening. Don’t get to spend all that much time with family, so it was worth it.

Did quite a bit of experimenting in the kitchen. Made a rather splendid chocolate cake for a colleague’s birthday, and an egg cake with crème fresh and blueberries for another.

Due to my changed diet with an increase in protein. I forgot for a while and immediately  noticed it in my dropping energy levels. Now that I’ve brought it back up, I’m doing much better again. Yay.

But anyway…I’ve been working with a lot of oven dishes. Lots of egg, garlic and green herbs, which are still by far my favourite. Gawd, tonight I had a most wonderful dish. Lightly boiled rice (in broth) with a variety of finely chopped veggies, some cheese, egg and loads of garlic. Seriously good stuff. Loved it.

The past couple of weeks were busy. Very busy. While the plan was for me to work three days a week, four at most, I ended up working 11 days of the past thirteen with one day spent of the car search, and another two on other obligations that made writing/editing practically impossible for those two friggin’ weeks! That I needed to do groceries (on my own, ‘cause big brother is doing a lot of extra time at work) for the next two weeks, didn’t help any either. No matter. It’s done now. Good for another two…oh wait, ten days now! Grrrrr.

Have been working on “A Taste of Life”, since we chose that one to try next for sending out to publishers. It is hard, though, considering we have to cut out a lot of good stuff to get the word count down, dumb down the writing a bit, considering the style I used was elaborate and mostly in dialect. *sigh* Very disappointing. I’m having a hard time with it, to say the least. Ah well, can’t be helped. The writing style this day and age is just different. Will miss the main protagonist’s wonderfully Irish voice, though.

In regards to the book. The editor finally gave the okay for the latest changes!!! Yayayayay! And Saving Nina is now on the desk of the editorial director so that she can put in her two cents, prior to the book continuing on to the copy editors. One step further, at long last!

Have a new couch…it is lovely, and perfect for napping after a long day of work. It cost only 55 bucks at the thrift store, and, miraculously, we managed to squeeze it in, and on top of the Volvo, rather than spend a whopping 25 bucks for delivery! Yipee! It’s light colored, not too heavy (which is ideal if we have to move again) and comfy, all three perfectly good things for a new couch, right?

Yesterday I visited my aunt, which had been more than 30 years ago (weird, I know, but there you have it). Big brother couldn’t go along, regretfully. Lots of stuff going on at the sauna, including the WM Aufguss, which takes a lot out of him. So I went on my own and spent a very nice evening with my aunt, talking about the past and present, talking about what I did and didn’t remember of her house and  the afternoons I used to spent at her place when I was a little girl, waiting for dad to come pick her up for the weekend. Hah. It was very nice. We laughed quite a bit, and got reacquainted, promising to see each other again, soon.

Had the house inspected from the company that provides me with this place. Was a bit worried, because I didn’t have a lot of time to do a lot of cleaning, but it went okay, except for a mention to battle the weeds outside. Yeah. Like that isn’t on my list already.  Have been keeping an eye out for a strimmer for several weeks now, but still haven’t found one, darn it. We’ll have to get to that.

Spent Saturday helping a friend move to a new place, which meant carrying a washing machine down on set of stair and up two, which certainly was an interesting experience. Added to that was this massive closet that we had to get down in two parts (carefully too, due to glass doors) and a massive couch that didn’t even fit through the door without also sticking out into the neighbor’s apartment. Managed to get it all done with the least amount of damage. But it did take several hours, and made me sore as heck when I had to get to work the next day…only to discover that I had mixed up my days and was supposed to have had a free one that particular morning. Aaaaargh!

Did manage to do most of my exercises. Both Qigong and weightlifting. But regretfully not as frequently as I would like on the most part. If I get more free time, definitely looking forward to doing more of that.

And that sums it up for today, I’m guessing. As usual, I am sure I am forgetting a detail of two, but who gives a bloody heck, in the end. It’s not as if I’m living life in the fast lane these days.  Hah.

Gotta go.

A proper, picture update at last!!!

Song of the day? “Castle on the Hill” by Ed Sheeran, of course. Though not constantly, it has been an earworm from time to time this past week, along with “Symphony” by Clean Bandit. Both awesome songs and no punishment at all. Hah!

Soooooo. Yeah. I promised a proper update this time round, didn’t I? Yes I did, so thankfully I have been maintaining a list of stuff that happened, rather than rely on my somewhat spotty memory this time around. (Good Sammi!). There has been quite a lot going on since my last proper blog, so sit down, if you’re not doing so already.

First off, I promised to tell about the move, didn’t I. Well, we moved. It was a helluva job, I’ll tell, in particular since we preferred not to rent the van for two days in a row, but rather a solid 24 hours (as in 23 hours and 57 minutes) and save ourselves fifty bucks or so.

It all started on Key Day, on which I dropped big brother off at work before six in the morning, so I could continue on to the new place where I was supposed to get the hidden key and then spent a few hours cleaning before my district manager arrived to go over the contracts with me. Well, first issue was that I couldn’t find the key where I thought it was supposed to be….grrr. Didn’t discover until at the end of the day that the “electricity shack” was another than the one I’d understood from the description. Hah. Anyway. My appointment with the district manager wasn’t until  11 o’clock, and it was 6:30 AM. I was no pleased, I assure you. Tried the garage door: nothing. The  pantry door: No cigar! And then, after deciding to do a walk-around, finally found a back door that hadn’t been locked properly. Success! I was in!

Got the car into the wonderfully empty garage and started unloading the first batch of boxes that filled up the entirety of the car. Took about an hour, after which I took my trusty vacuum cleaner and went through the house with a fine toothed comb. Floors, walls, horizontal and vertical surfaces were sucked clean down stairs in the following hour.

Next came the kitchen, of which I had taken about 75 percent in this first trip, so there would be cutlery, china, cookery stuff and even some food on this first day. Was done just before eleven with the ground floor but the district manager was late, and didn’t arrive until friggin 2:37 PM! Seriously. The only plus was that I had time to vacuum and clean the second floor too. The “minus” was that I was late meeting a friend who was going to view the new house with me, after I had arranged for a van at 5:25 PM.

The plan was that we’d pick up the van at the latest possible moment, so that we could also return it at the last possible moment. The advantage to this was that we’d be home five hours before nightfall, meaning that we had that amount of time  load up the first batch of furniture, do a quick trip to drop them off at the new place (in the garage)  early in the morning, and then have the remainder of the day to load up the rest and bring that over in a second trip.

The trick to this was to only load big, cumbersome stuff, not pay much attention to stacking properly because that would take time with loading and unloading (big brother didn’t much like this part, because he was still under the illusion that maybe if we packed it well, we’d be able to do it in one trip. We couldn’t. I know my dimensions from years of calculating and planning with construction, moving stuff, loading stuff and whatnot, and I could tell up ahead that there was no way in heck that our stuff was going to fit in one truck!) and time wasn’t something we had. 24 hours, remember.  So until 10:30 PM we loaded our behinds off, after which I was so friggin’ tired and achy I just sat down on the floor with a glass of wine and cried a little. Hah. Jeeeeeezzzz. That was a friggin’ long day. Started at 6:30, unloaded, cleaned, drove about for hours, ran about to make arrangements (missed lunch and dinner) and then loaded up for another five hours. I’d just about had it, I tell ya.

Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself. I’d arranged for the van and met with my friend, who loved nosing around a new place, just like me. So we spent a couple of hours together, after which we had to go pick up big brother and then quickly leave to get the van and bring her back home.

So then was the whole loading bit, after which we both crawled to our respective beds around midnight and passed out until six in the morning. There was just enough time to have breakfast and then we were on our way to the new place. Both in the van, this time, figuring we might as well use the Volvo in the second trip to get more stuff hauled.

Had an “OMG” moment while we were driving. There was this massive smoke plume in the sky, from somewhere near the new place, and stayed there as we gradually approached in the busy morning traffic. I mean seriously, wouldn’t that be just our luck. We’re moving to a new place, only to find out that it burned down during the night for some inexplicable reason. But it wasn’t that. We were about 2 miles from the house when it became clear that the smoke was coming from some place on the other side of the road. Yes the plume was massive, but the fire wasn’t visible, despite several fire trucks screaming past as we made for our new home.

While loading took some five hours, unloading was done in one. Yay! Of course this was because could basically throw everything out the back, right into the garage, rather than bother hauling it into the house and its proper spot.

Before you know it, we were on our way back, only making a quick pit stop at a supermarket before we arrived at the old place and started loading again. Luckily, around noon, our nice neighbour came to help out, which was a good thing, otherwise we might not have made it. She also supplied lunch (also good because we were rapidly on our way of skipping lunch again) so we were actually done loading after two (as planned) and big brother on his way while I said our goodbyes and got into the car, now loaded to full capacity with my small jungle of plants. So cute. A car full of plants.

Be that as it may, unloading took an hour and a half this time,  for the simple reason that this was all the loose stuff, bits and pieces, bikes, boxes and whatnot. Again, just stuffed everything in the garage (gawd I love that place) and still had about half an hour to unwind, eat a bit, have a bathroom break and then had to be on our way to return the van with rush our well underway. Made the deadline with only three minutes to spare. *phew*

The first night we spend on mattresses on the floor. (Got a mail from the editor with the edited manuscript, which almost had me awake throughout the night, had I not been so exhausted.) But the next day I had the bedrooms set up before big brother returned from work. This was partly because cousin Ed came to help out with the unpacking bit, which did help, because I was pretty much running on fumes still.

So, what followed were a couple of weeks with me sorting out the house. It’s a nice and comfortable place. Reminds me a lot of the house we grew up in before moving to Spain. Same type of architecture and materials. Not my favourite style, but comfort goes a long way.

Got five bedrooms upstairs, two downstairs one of which is an en-suite. We use this as an exercise room,  which is rather cool, since we cancelled our gym passes.

A half bath downstairs, and another bathroom upstairs, with at the top an empty big attic that we’ve decided not to use.

I’d set my sights on a cute little room on the west side of the house, but since this house supplies so much space, I folded and got myself a 2^nd hand double bed…which didn’t fit in the cute little room. The cute little one is now a very cute little guestroom. Hah. Since big brother had already picked the room with walls that had actually been stripped and painted white, I took the master bedroom of which I still had to strip all the walls and paint them (some pieces several times just to have the paint cover dark spots). But the bed fits in there just fine, giving me plenty of space.

Big brother also folded (due to space available) and got himself a double bed too. Hah! Ah, the luxury. I love having room to move around.

Bedroom

Guest room

Fitness room

Living Room

Kitchen

Didn’t start on the edit/revision until five days after the actual move. Dreaded it, I tell ya. But I did get to it, and worked on it like a lunatic (big brother, too, in what little spare time he had) for the past few weeks. Didn’t have much time for anything, especially not since my job started in the first week of July.

Which reminds me. Had my interview about a month ago now. Had a nice chat with my new team leader, who’s a very nice woman, despite being seriously overworked at the moment. It is funny how the work is still the same as last year. Still not enough people, still people working their butts off to get everything done on time and still all the old frustrations. But, there’s nice folks there, so I guess it is a matter of getting used to them and the way they work. I do miss my old team a bit, but I suppose that will pass. At the moment, also because I need to invest time in writing, and everything around that, I’m working three days a week, with a possibility of four. With an average of six hours on those days. That is plenty, since this is not something as simple as sitting at a desk, but more something that equals a two-hour cross fit workout.

Had a doctor’s visit. Got a referral for the hospital next month for that stupid varicose vein they missed two years ago. Not looking forward to that, but the darn thing is bothering me every now and then, so it is better to do something about it, I guess.

Got a problem with my shoulder for a bit. Don’t ask me why. It’s embarrassing. But I strained it, meaning that a lot of movements, and some sleeping positions in bed are not at all comfortable. Stupid effing loose joints. Always giving me trouble. Like just this week, while helping out at work with moving furniture. Some joker young man suddenly decided to prop one side of the couch we were carrying together on the floor, meaning I had to tilt along or drop it. I did the first, and almost broke my effing thumb in the process. Seriously. It popped right out of the joint in order to turn along with the couch and it hurt like heck, until I popped it back in. So now I have a swollen thumb that is not liking much activities, such as work. Grrrr.  That is the last time I move furniture with some amateur.

There were groceries, naturally. Can’t do without those, much to my regret. But I do try to limit that to once every two weeks, with a weekly outing for fresh produce and dairy products. Doesn’t always work, but trying it counts for something. Hah

Had a friend’s dog stay with me one day, which was fun, even though he was young and peed in the hallway, and the exercise room. Hah. And also had a couple of dogs stay for a couple of weeks because their mistress went on vacation to Finland. It has been lovely to have dogs afoot again, even though on work days it has been a hassle to have walk them when I’m pretty much bushed when I get home. But, the pros by far outweigh the cons. Nothing quite as lovely as cuddling up to a  cuddly dog at night…well, some things are, but…well, you get my meaning.

Tinto

Gaia

We did spend  a few days at our father’s place more than a month ago. We’d promised to move a shed from the back yard to the front, which took a little longer than expected.  The shed had had some “improvements” over the years, meaning that we had to scramble a bit to make things right again after we took it partially apart and moved it to the new spot. Luckily it wasn’t too big, so we only had to take off the roof before we could carry the thing. Big brother and I would have managed, had we been on our own, but littlest brother was there, and stepmother, so we did it four, meaning it was a little less of a hassle. But anyway. It took four days instead of two. Four days of which the last two were all but comfortable for me, since I somehow ended up stepping on a bamboo shoot and had a hole in my foot of about half an inch. Seriously. That hurt. Ended up having to replace part of the roof and several pieces of wall due to water damage and bugs, but it’ll hold for a while now, I am pretty sure. A bigger task than expected, nut we managed, and got to spend some time with our father. Nothing like working on a project together to bond. It was nice.

In the end we went home content with the efforts made. Were right on time, too, considering construction of our father’s new place started a week or so later…which was why stepmother wanted the shed moved.

Ouch!

 Did my last few days at my previous job before the move. The boss was really sweet about the whole thing and told me that if I ever needed a job again, I could call him up. Which is a very nice compliment, I think.

Had a very short touristy kind of trip and went to visit the pyramid of Austerlitz. Cool place, and totally worthy of conspiracy theory book. Hah

Our temporary cat:

And our daily visitor…one of four that roam about here in the area, together with a badger.

For social activities the time past was interrupted only by a dinner party at the old place with the neighbors, a dinner party with friends last week, and that just about sums it up, I fear.

Did have a lovely cooking experiment with zucchini, which worked out well visually and taste-wise, so, yay!

As for the new place…had to hang a door in the upstairs bathroom. For some reason it had been removed. Found a spare in the shed, which we cut off and fitted into the doorway. At least it works. Nothing quite as annoying as a bathroom without a door when you’re sharing a place. Oh, and we have a toolshed now. Yay!

And this is a pic of the old barn that goes with the property. Hah

The edit…well, I missed the deadline by two days, which isn’t too big of a disaster regarding the massive changes and the length of the manuscript. But still, it annoys me that I didn’t make it in time. Guess life got in the way of things again, the way it usually does. In the end, you can only do your best, can’t you?

Well, that about sums it all up, doesn’t it. At least the highlights. Yep. I am going to leave it at this and take the dogs for one of their last walks. Tomorrow their mistress will come to pick ‘m up.

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. 

The new place!!!

Song of the day: “Things” by Nancy Sinatra and Dean Martin. Such a cute song, right? Never bores me, this particular song.

Sooooooh, I don ‘t have a lot of new news, since the past couple of weeks basically evolved around moving house and dropping half dead from exhaustion. Hah

But I survived the ordeal, and as of last night we are basically comfortable at the new place. Yay. It’s a gorgeous place, really, despite the fact that I was a teeny bit shocked when we first walked in (it was a friggin mess, I tell ya!) there was this old (strangely familiar) scent of old farm houses wafting from every corner, the walls were covered in cobwebs, the windows (which I still need to do, btw) are partially obscured by the same webs, there was black dust everywhere, and did I mention the smell? Hah.

The worst of it was, the first day we didn’t have enough time to do some actual cleaning, except for the kitchen cupboards, which you could simply not touch due to the greasiness. Eeeeewwww! First of there was the tour of the place, right after meeting our new handler for the first time, that is, which took longer than I would have liked. Was pretty tired already, you see, considering we had spent the previous evening loading up the rented trailer with as much big, unmanageable stuff as we could get in it. Then we’d gotten up around six thirty in the morning to stuff as much little bits and pieces in as well, before heading towards the new town in time for our eleven o’clock meeting…were late, too, considering we had to get off the highway because the friggin’ trailer started dancing on the asphalt like some bouncy puppy, almost tipping over due to fierce winds. Simply didn’t want to risk it, so we ended up taking small roads, protected mostly by houses and trees. Grrrr.

But anyway, we arrived only ten mins late, so within no time we were signing contracts just as soon our handler was gone, we started unloading. This was a lot less frustrating than loading up, if you must know. During unloading we had the trailer right beside the front door, meaning we could basically get the thing empty within thirty minutes…good thing too, considering we had our meeting at town hall around 16:00 hours so we could register…that’s one of the requirements of this type of living. FYI.

Be that as it may, once we had everything from the trailer we organized some in the living room, of which we had quite  bit of furniture along, so we had a relax spot in the house. The smell still bugged me, but that would have to wait until I had time to take out the cleaning stuff and attack the dirt. Got everything done that needed doing, had a very late lunch, or more accurately supper after having skipped lunch, hah, and then dragged out tired butts back to the apartment so we could prep for the next day by taking apart the last things that could be taken apart for transport.

A couple of weeks ago we already reserved a moving van for our actual moving day, and we were once again up around six to get ready to go pick it up in the nearest big town. We were a bit on a schedule so what followed were six harrowing hours of hauling stuff down from the third floor (using an aggravatingly slow elevator that was also, of course, being used by our senior fellow residents) and stuffing it into the van. We had to be at our new place at five fifteen, at the latest, for an appointment and due to that we ended up stuffing some final bits and pieces into the van somewhat haphazardously, and leave what was left of smaller pieces, at the old apartment to make it on time. Grrrr

You know what is the most frustrating thing of the whole thing? That which took six arduous, exhausting hours to get into that friggin’ van, was unloaded within one hour due to the fact that we could just lift it out an carry it into the house! Seriously, a slow elevator, two stories, several electric doors that were on timers rather than movement sensors and a effing load of thresholds aggravated the loading up tremendously. Hah.

No worries, though, the ordeal is over and done with, and now, after spending a day of cleaning, walls, ceilings, floors, doors, stairs, windowsills, a fireplace mantel and everything inside the kitchen, the place is looking pretty darn good! Both our furniture integrated perfectly, meaning that our office area is in light hues with fresh greens, turquoise, beige, birch wood and white. The dining area is rustic white, while the sitting area is in warm reds, browns, highlighted by plants and some light yellows. I like it.

We both have our own bedroom upstairs, with an extra for sleepovers, such a T. Strangely enough my bedroom, at the moment, looks like that of a teenager. Somehow I ended up with all white and birch wood furniture, meaning that everything is very light with dark blue carpet (now contrasted by my bright red knotted rugs), gray and white striped wallpaper and white ceiling. It looks cute, but hardly my age. Hah. Big brother’s is much simpler in that regard. His are mid-dark woods, same carpet, and blue and white striped walls. Both rooms are nicely spacious, however, which is all that matters for as far as I’m concerned.

Did finally get around to cooking a proper dinner again last night. First time round that I did that in the new kitchen, by the by, and boy did it taste good to have fresh veggies with tomato sauce and macaroni. Sometimes you just need a dose of carbs after several days of surviving on snacks mostly. I get that gnawing feeling when I don’t have proper food for a while, making we want healthy stuff, nutritious stuff, makes me wonder how people manage to survive on fast food…personally I can’t stand it for more than three days in a row. Hah.

First night at the new place was a tad fretful. Didn’t help that I was achy and extremely tired, I guess, and a bit worried about the fact that the bathroom is on the bottom floor, and the stairs are one step up from a ladder leading to the second one. A bit scary to go down and up that while you are half asleep. But I managed without mishaps and now, after going up and down there a gazillion times with clothes, any small closet I could find (can’t have my fancy big closet, because we simply can’t get it up the stairs) and all else that needed to go up to the bedrooms. The biggest problem to get up the ladder…ehm, stairs, were the beds. Seriously, that took some maneuvering!

The kitchen is the least nice place of this here, especially since the old, dark oak cupboards are, like, forty years old, and even though the doors are good material, the insides are basically falling apart. In regard to this, I have opted to acquire a very nice, 2^nd hand, classic commode that will serve rather beautifully as a commode. I love it. Makes cooking a rather pleasant experience. I was forced to use my antique glass and lead cupboard in the kitchen as well, but it looks rather lovely there, so I don’t mind no longer having it behind my couch. Hah. I’ll let you have a look at the primary pics of the main living areas.

I’ll spare you the pics of the ancient toilet, the somewhat basic bathroom, and for now the bedrooms, which still have boxes and suitcases in them. Those will be for the next blog.

At that time, I will also post some pics of our outing to grandpa’s family homestead, which is also incredibly cute. Until then, I’ll leave you to it…

The kitchen...duh. Once it was clean, it became nice and airy. Do you see the mantel there over the fridge? Used to have an old cooking stove there, I think, but the fridge fit in perfectly. Love the plants on there, btw.

Over by the far windows is our office. Nice big table, enough space for both of us, and on the right behind the red couch the nice table for when we have people over for dinner, or when I need to do sewing, or something. Seperated the two areas nicely, I think.

Love the high ceilings, and the all the light from the big windows.

Well, I gotta go now, so...seeya!

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.