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.

Blog update...nothing new

Song of the day: “Bring Sally up” by Moby. It has been in my mind off and on for the past week, don’t know why, considering the only thing I know it from it Gone in 60 Seconds, and I haven’t seen it years, really. Weird how that works.

Well, I don’t have a lot to tell since the last blog, basically life has been evolving around editing the manuscript, duh. That means I wake up after nine the morning, go down for the morning rituals, follow that up with 45 to 80 minutes of working out (I’m doing a mix of qi gong, weights and boxing t the moment), breakfast  while getting up to date on the latest news, and then getting down to business with the edits.

It’s going well, all things considered. We’ve cut out more than 13,000 words now, have added 2,000 plus in romance, as per the publisher’s request. A bit of a pity to lose the in-depth information bits, which now has to be dispersed with paragraphs throughout, but what the hell, we’ll get it to work again, somehow. Right now…well in the weeks to come, it is all about checking the changes, and reading through the entire thing to see if the flow is still right and none of the important information is missing, and then, by the end of the month (sent the publisher an update last night and heard that they won’t be expecting it until then, yay!) we can send it over. So, that gives us some breathing space, at least.

Besides the endless editing, I know, not very interesting for you guys, but for me this is still an infinitely fascinating time, there has been the normal stuff of course. Keeping the house clean, cooking dinner, visiting friends, doing the groceries, all very simple and straight forward.

Have been reading some new (well, new for me, but older stories) of one of my favourite authors lately, and some have been awesome, while others were so darn frustrating I was often at the verge of throwing my phone against the wall. Ha. Strange how styles change over time, isn’t it. Also what was considered attractive back then, and what is attractive now. I’ll say this much, if men were still the way they were described in late eighties romance novels…I’d have probably conked one over the head with a frying pan once or twice during my lifetime. But, thankfully there has been some change in that regard…as in women, I’m happy to note. Both sexes were utterly nutters. Jeez!

Well, I gotta go now. Lots to do still today, including the all-important edits, naturally.

Under the weather for a bit.

Song of the day: “Express yourself” by Madonna.

Got several Madonna’s on my music list at work, so after months of playing the same list over and over, this one does manage to get a little under my skin. Gotta take it off the list, ‘cause it is starting to tick me off. Hah.

Yeah, I know, I’ve been remiss again, but I admit to having an excuse for not writing. I haven’t been my best this past month. After Finland I’ve been pretty sick, needing to visit a doctor, of all things, which got me a prescription--that did help, but what with all the hard work, busy days, short nights, I had a bit of relapse this past week, meaning that now I’m home sick (had to call in this morning at work, which is a total pain) and have until Sunday to get well again. Nothing like a couple of free days to recuperate, right?

So, what’s been happening...I’m not sure. Lots of work, duh (am I boring, or what?) which means that five days a week, for an average of seven hours a day I’m not worth much of anything, once I get the necessary stuff at home done, cleaning, cooking, groceries) the day is pretty much over, isn’t it? Am planning to use the next couple of days, though, and darn the consequence. I can cough at the computer as easily as I can in bed, can’t I? Let’s see if I can get some writing, or at least some editing done, eh?

Well, I have been cooking, which is naturally a vital part of life. Nothing superbly interesting, but good nutritional values regardless. Had an awesome broccoli soup last week, a couple of really good spinach quiches, oats, nuts and cranberry cookies, a really super pasta funghi and a rather nice salad with gomasio (japanese sesame salt) rather than a dressing...was really lovely. You should try it some time. Mix some veggies of choice (a few hard ones, like carrot and cauliflower) add a dash of olive oil, some parsely, chives and then sprinkle a nice full teaspoon of gomasio over it. Delicious.

Have had the semi-official news that the remodel of my apartment building is starting in october, which means that until that time I’m set. It is after that that I’m going to have to start worrying about a place to live again. It could take a few more months before I would actually have to move after that, but still, not a nice thought looming over my head, is it. That’s how the anti-squatting works, however, and it is something I need to get used to. A pity that I’m a nester, isn’t it? Might need to work on that a bit. Won’t do any good to be a nester in this particular time of my life. Ah well...no sense in wallowing in that. It’ll sort itself out.

Finally got myself a sewing machine. Nothing fancy, mind you, but good enough for repairing clothes and the likes. Actually already used it to repair two of my work jeans, so, yay!!!

Which reminds me...you are not going to believe what happened to me at work. Seriously. There I was, doing my long days instead of big brother (he had his off, b*st*rd!!!) working on the sauna’s water testing, when our team leader came in to ask me if I could “give him a hand” with one of the clogged toilets...you’re sensing something, aren´t you, well, wait for it...so, I finished part of the test, and went on up, to find him in one of the bathrooms on a stepladder, and a variety of empty buckets around him. Took me all of five seconds to figure out what he wanted to do, so I suggested I get some cover plastics and the likes to protect the downstairs bathroom.

I sure know that I was in doubt about the plan even before I was asked to stand under one of the buckets and hold it up, and yes, it was a big disaster. You do not want to know what I was covered with, I don’t want to know what I was covered with, but I assure you that it took me three showers to feel clean again, and I had to dig stuff from behind m ears that I refused to look at.

Was so lucky that I had a spare pants at work, and that big brother had left his sweater there at some point, meaning that I could change clothes instead of walking around in a bathrobe like our team leader. Got the bathroom cleaned in about an hour. Washed down the walls and floor with bleech three times...gawd what a mess. I was not happy afterward, I tell ya. Also, everyone who heard about the incident was laughing, and so was big brother who was really happy not to have worked that day. Grrr.

Luckily I was in a much better mood the day after, because by the time I got home I was seriously grumpy.

Had a nice afternoon having beer at our colleague’s place. The weather was nice that day, so we sat on the balcony, talked and played with the neighbor’s kids who often visit at our friend’s place. Was a nice relaxing afternoon. I rarely have the time and energy, let alone the inclination, to spend the remainder of a workday that way.

Discovered that I have some sort of fine in Spain in my name, and not a clue as to what it is. Am trying to find out what it might be, how to resolve it, but it’s going to be a pickle. Spanish government is not known to be the most helpful toward those who do not speak the language adequately. I’ll have to keep you posted, I guess, it is just such a pain in the behind, not to mention expensive. Grrr.

And now something completely insignificant and totally “girly”: I found my favorite workout pants (again) at a sports store and they were on sale. They were so cheap I could get four for the normal price of one. Yay! I got four yoga pants! Which I’m wearing, like, all the time when I get home. Hah.

Okay, enough girly. Haven’t been doing a lot of workout sessions, partly because of my problem last month. Just didn’t have the energy, and just work was already draining me, so the workout kinda fell away...not surprisingly. Am planning on fully getting back to that asap...at the very least some serious stretches and the likes. Need the endorphins for sure.

Weather wise it has been somewhat horrid over here this summer. In fact it has been so very abysmal with rain that big supermarkets have been warning that there will be a shortage of fresh veggies if things don’t dry out fast. Imagine that; that much water! It’s a novel idea.

Well, that’s it for now. Not very glamorous, but at least you’re sorta up to date again. I’ll be back.

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.