Another update

So yeah, it has been a while, but life has been quite busy ever since that first week of the coronacrisis. You're not going to believe this, but I moved house. Yes, sir, I did. An opportunity arose (yes, partially due to the crisis. Just few less vultures like ourselves, out there, looking for a place to live.) We swooped and scooped at the just the right moment, apparently.
It is a lovely place, a stonethrow away from the woods (yay) and technically due to a split level design, with seven floor. Awesome! More than enough space for big brother and me, which was a thing we worried about. Anti-squattig spoiled us in regards to space, but this one hit us both as just right.
In fact, despite there being quite a few things that would need work, I had "yes, this one!" from the moment I walked in. It, the house, and the area just felt like home for the first time in a long, looooong time.

It wasn't a sure thing. A lot of stuff got harder now with the crisis. We had to meet certain requirements (that we wouldn't have been able to meet just a week later) but in the end it all worked out. The house is ours, permanently. Woohoo. Such a relief, especially since the anti-squatting house was starting to look like it was drawing closer to the end. Not that we had to leave yet. We probably could have stayed another year, or so, but time was running out with the roads coming closer and the state of the house becoming less "solid" so to speak. Apparently we were right on time, too, considering the new people that moved in, had a B&E just a week after we moved out. How's that for weird?

Anyway, school has been a pain. I would like to say that I have been enjoying myself, and that I was in a positive state of mind about the whole thing, especially because I passed all my tests so far with decent grades, but I'm not. I don't know what's causing it, really, but right now I just want to get it over with. I need to do my last exam, a test of adequacy, or some such, and right now it just feels like this massive thing, while all it is, is cooking, really. It's not all that complicated, and yet somehow it has turned into some sort of mountain. Grrr

Anyway, this Tuesday is my last exam, so keep yer fingers crossed that I manage to make it, and get it all over with. I sure can't wait for that to happen. I can't say that I liked the experience a lot, but I did well on my dutch and english, so I got something out of it, at least.

Work has been very slow. After having been shut down for more than 2 months, we were allowed to partially open, meaning there is a little bit more than just maintenance going on, but still it is sad to see so little happen there. It has given me ample time to move house, of course, and that is good, but I miss the work, the purpose of it, so I hope that that picks up some, at least, next month where we will be allowed to open with all the facilities, for at least half our usual guests. Big brother was a lot luckier than me in the work department. He's been working more than ever. Son of a gun. So jealous. I only got to help out in the garden from time to time.*sigh *

Books...well, it has been incredibly slow in that regard, too. First househunting, then actually getting it and moving there. Gawd, the move was so much work. Makes me happy that we won't have to do that anytime soon. It put writing on a back burner even though we did manage to send a manuscript proposal out to our publisher in-between everything.

Sad news...yeah. Mom, after struggling with cancer for many years now, passed away in March, just days after her birthday. Even though we saw it coming for a long time, it hit us all rather hard. She was having trouble breathing for some time, and she was starting to have small seizures, meaning that, despite the corona crisis, the sibs were forced to call an ambulance and have her committed to hospital. A bad time for that, but necessary. She was there almost a week, and got worse, considering one lung had filled with more than a liter of liquid, which they drained and cause a bad pain in her chest. Apparently she had a small heartattack the night after that, and passed away the following morning.
Tests showed that she didn't have corona, not that that would have changed anything, of course, but it made her death more sour, since Spain was in in complete lockdown and little sister wasn't even allowed to visit her in her final days. Nor were the sibs allowed to be at her funeral, which made them decide for a cremation.

Despite having prepped myself for the event a long time, it hit me hard, I'll admit. I cried more than I expected, and not being able to work throughout that time, didn't help in the least. It would have been nice not to have had so much time to think about it all, and though I have worked my way through it, I still get hit by it sometimes, when I realize that she won't be able to read this blog anymore, for instance, or that she is not checking out my facebook page, or that we won't ever see each other again. That makes me sad.

Stress wise things haven'g been much better. It impeded on my sleep, so I have been getting too little of that lately, explaining a consistent tiredness. Will need to work on that, but okay, whatever. The only solution to that is just getting more sleep, so I will.

Positive news. A new family member. Since I now have a permanent home again, I adopted a dog. A gorgeous 3 year old Golden retriever from an animal shelter in dire need of a home. Mr. Whitney. He's so lovely, reminding me of how much I missed having a dog afoot. Sure, he has some baggage that he needs to overcome, and he needs to gain some weight and a healthy fur shine to compensate the bad nutrition he used to get, but...well, the pictures speak for themselves. He's awesome! And so quickly gaining the much needed confidence.

*Sigh *
Right now, I am working on letting things go again. On focusing on recovering my equilibrium and basically getting my life in order while I plan on all the wonderful things I'm going to do on my new house. There are walls to take out, a new bathroom and halfbath to install, a garden to set up, and of course a kitchen to plan. So many of those. I can hardly wait...

Quick, quick.

Hi all. Just a quick flyby today, I fear. Am really short on time at the moment. The move has happened, yay! and all went well. Will give a full report the next time, I assure you. Regretfully on the night of the actual move (had wanted to write a blog about the whole thing right after, but alas) the book came back from the editor, so just as soon as I caught my breath from the move, I buckled down on that.

Doing both mostly on my own at the moment, considering big brother is doing full time work and is pretty bushed when he comes home from that. So basically I am doing edits/revisions and decorating in-between, just so I won't go bonkers. Hah. Deadline is the 20th, and I am not sure if I'm going to make that yet with everything that needs doing.

Luckily the job hasn't started yet, but I'll talk about that next time, too. Too much to do and too little time to do it in, I fear.

Next time I'll post photos, I promise.

Gotta go.

R&R, fitness and writing...

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

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

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

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

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

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

What else?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Upper landing bedroom

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

One side of living room

The other side

The house...

Big bedroom

Not too bad, right?

 Seeya...