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Song of the day: “Blame it on me” by George Ezra. Cute little song, even though I like “Budapest” better.

Approaching onto my birthday, yep, less than a day and I’ll be (brace yourselves) thirty six. Oh. My. Gawd!!! My, my. Does time fly. To celebrate the occasion a friend and I are going for a hike up on the mountain, and I have a tentative plan to take Knight II along, but it remains to be see whether I can take him or not. He has not been well lately, his feet troubling him to the point that I’ve had to start him on antibiotics once again. I hate putting him on antibiotics, in particular since I know that they are only a temporary solution, but then I remind myself that he is old already, and that any week, or month that the nasty things can give him is a good thing. For a while there, I feared he’d die, these past couple of weeks. Now he’s doing well enough under the circumstances.

If he can’t go along on the walk tomorrow, I’m thinking of Tadaika instead. Our fat girl needs the exercise for sure.

So what’s been going over here. Plenty, yet completely insignificant things with which’s highlights I’ll bore you.

First off, I made a rather wonderful strawberry/physalis/kiwi yogurt cake yesterday, but something was wrong with the gelatin I used, meaning that it didn’t set during the night in the fridge, much to my regret, in particular since the taste worked out so well. So rather than eating that cake, we were forced to make due with semi-smoothies. A bothersome task that, but we suffer through it. Hah.

So to make up for that little error, I made a couple of delicious apple pies today. Yay. They worked out awesome. Because I was short on apples, I added dried apricot pieces, raisins, coconut shavings and some almonds, which made for a sumptuous combination. Spent about four hours in the kitchen today. Not only for the pies, but also for patties (want to take some on the hike tomorrow) and a rather wonderful mix of red beets with sweet potatoes. I’m thinking of adding the latter to the food blog.

Which reminds me, the food blog isn’t doing bad, all things considered. Am rapidly approaching the triple digits for readers over there. Makes me curious if any of the recipes have been tried, and what they thought of it. Ah well, until someone posts there, we can only guess, right?

Spent a nice afternoon writing down some recipes, by the way, including a rather nice stir fry I experimented with during yesterday’s lunch. An explosion of taste, I tell you. Ah well. It was fun to try something different for a change, and since big brother had gorged himself on the left over macaroni from yesterday, I didn’t have much of a choice.

Oh, oh, we had this rather splendid idea of a pasta restaurant the other day. Can you imagine. I had this buffet image of a whole array of pastas with in front of it a massive selection of veggie sauces. My mouth watered at the idea, I tell ya. The marvelous thing about it is that you can probably have folks come in for 5 bucks per person and still make a nice little profit. Ah well. Thoughts like that are fleeting. Hah.

Spent a couple of afternoons working on both cars. First the Trooper, since it’s got carpet inside and therefore needed to be vacuumed. Then the Land Rover out of which we’ve started taking out the first excess bits and pieces in preparation of the pimping we’re planning. Quite a bit will have to be done, but it should be nice challenge.

Set up a new bed for grandpa. Like for me, his corner of the porch is small too, so he decided for a single rather than a queen. Luckily we had the supplies we needed to set one up with four drawers underneath, which should be handy for him. He’s a bit wary of there being too little space with his dogs, but like mine, they’ll get used to it.

Had some good moments working on cutting dog food. Figured that I might as well give Grandpa some free time, so there was bread to cut, veggies…everything the dogs need, except for the meat, because I really dislike the smell and feel of meat early in the morning.

Had some splendid workouts these past couple of weeks. Have been sore maybe seventy percent of the time, which tells me that I’ve been doing something right. Did the kicks, the punches, the stretches and even some jogging, so I’ve been a good Sammie. Even had meat a couple times. Yay.

Had a short term job last week, where we painted and furnished a shop in town. A friend recommended us, and I think we did a good job. Took a full day, mind you. First emptying it, filling up holes in the walls, then spending about three hours painting everything while big brother worked in the old store putting together shelving units with mirrors. The rest of the day was spent setting up the units, counter and cleanup, all of it in a single stretch (skipped lunch) because we had to be at the garage before 6 PM.

Added to that we helped a friend move house. Went from all over in Calahonda to a spot right at the bottom of our mountain, so going over every now and then will be way easier…first she needs to get settled, though, and will need a hand every now and then getting everything in the new apartment in order.

Had a bad cold once I got back from the UK, meaning I was a bit under the weather, but in the days that passed I had some naps…heck I even had a couple of three hour naps, which were wonderful…my dogs fully agreed with them too, crawling under the blankets with me because the temps outside have a tad nippy. Did have a lot of sunshine, too, though, which is grand.

As to the rest…there is of course the normal stuff. Laundry, as always. Cleaning up, cooking dinner, changing Knight II’s bandages every day, going to town and getting groceries, picking up some donations…for some reason the days are extremely full.

Which brings us to the end of today…well, it’s tomorrow already, so technically that makes it my B-Day, doesn’t it? Gotta go. Got an early morning planned tomorrow.

Merry Christmas

Song of the day: “Chandelier” not by Sia, but rather by Jasmine Tompson, who did a wonderful cover of the song. Hah.

Right, another blog from the UK. No worries, I’m not driving y’all bonkers by being back here permanently, it’s just for the holidays, so the friends that we made over here, could have a break while the dogs were taken care of.

Wasn’t looking forward to it, I’ll admit, but that was emotional rather than realistic problems. Annoying, really, how in your head things get blown out of proportions and a part of you starts to forget that it is only for a few days, and not indefinitely. Strange how that works, in particular that panicky feeling that gnaws at your chest, while everyone was happy to see us, and welcomed us heartily. Messed up, for sure.

As to what has been happening since the last blog…well, there was the usual stuff at the house in Spain, added to the fact that the day before we left we spent several hours cleaning up the yard. Mom had a visitor coming, and the place was a mess, of course. Had been focusing more on the inside of the house, rather than the outside. *sigh*

Mom went to the doctor and got the OK to walk again, which is hard, of course. Having been pretty much immobile for the past six weeks, being bed-bound and everything, muscles are incredibly sore after one trip to town, meaning that she’ll have to start with little bits here and there.

Did manage to post several recipes on my other blog, you know, the one about cooking. At the moment I’m using basic pictures, and a prefab background, but as soon as I get a little more time, I’m going to take pictures of my own for it. Way more fun…but time. Time. TIME!!!

Had several weird dreams, but they didn’t stick, so no harm no foul. I do remember bits and pieces about it involving family members I haven’t seen in more than twenty years, at the very least. Odd that.

Heard from tenant, who isn’t doing all that well. She has a catheter in her kidney (again) due to a kidney stone that got stuck in the tube. She was once again forced to go to hospital with the infection, making her too week for the operation, which should be done on the 29^th…but regretfully, about two weeks after returning home, she got ill again, this time severe diarrhea bringing her near to dehydration, and therefore hospitalized, in hopes of keeping her strength up for the operation. Poor tenant. If only she didn’t find drinking so bothersome…otherwise she would have so much less trouble.

Managed to get some stuff done here in the UK, though, so that’s good. For me it’s hard, since the animals take a lot of time, so while big brother gets to put some backbone into whatever we need to do during the day, I have to interrupt all the activities for their daily care. Ah well, one does what one needs to, right?

Been putting up a fence, which is not bad work to do with weather that turned chilly, but sunny, at least. Fixed a gate. Did some serious cleaning, naturally. Sorting is part of it too, seeing as I left rather abruptly at the beginning of the month.

Also been doing bits and pieces all over the place, so luckily we’ve been outside a lot. I’m managing the cold reasonably well, at least. It helps that there is no wind at the moment, just cold and sunshine, the latter which was rather wonderful on the early morning walk…getting lots of walks in again, meaning that my feet are bugging me considerably. Seriously, by the end of the day I wanna remove them, violently, but what else is new in that regard, eh?

I heard from my pilot buddy, pen pall, yay. Alive and well, different location, but still saving people. Was such a pleasure to hear from him, in particular since it had been so long, and I had been thinking of him for about a week, and whether I should write to him, or just let the friendship fade naturally…in other words, or NOT bug him with senseless letters about my messy life. Hah. And suddenly there he was, out of the blue. Very nice.

Dax is doing really well. The reason, I think, is none of the meds we have been giving him. Nope. It was a week or two ago, late at night, me picking him up and something snapping in his spine (seriously, I freaked me out, it was such a loud pang) making me fear he’d broken his back, or something. No such thing, thankfully. Almost the next day we could see a change in him, his strength coming back. Yay.

On the down side, Knight II isn’t doing well at all. He is rapidly losing muscle tissue in his back legs, making grandpa afraid to have him going up and down stairs, because he has a tendency to topple over, poor darling. Added to that, grandpa is a little worried that Knight is depressed, because he doesn’t want to go up, and is just sleeping a lot. Poor baby. Just a couple more days.

Well, it is late now, so I gotta go. I’ll try to write another update soon.

Until then, I hope that all you readers have had a marvelous Christmas and are heading straight for a wonderful New Year.

Change...

Song of the day: “Let her go” by Passenger. Gorgeous song, if somewhat sad.

So, let’s start with a bit of news. Due to a friend wanting some place to send people interested in vegetarian cooking (in particular folks who were at the Christmas lunch I cooked for) I’ve decided to just add to the daily tasks, and opened another blog dedicated solely to cooking. Yep. I folded. Since at the moment I don’t have time to work on my cook book…at least not in a way that would have anyway, I figured I might as well put some of the recipes on the new blog and see if folks like it. I’m starting out with simple dishes, really, side dishes, soups, sandwiches, etc, just to see if there’s interest for it.

I’d love for y’all to drop by there, try them out, and give some nice tips if you have any about delicious chances you’ve thought of, or a particular dish that you just want to share. If enough of you do so, I’m definitely thinking of doing a once a week guest post with a recipe of my readers 0that I want to try myself.

So anyway, drop on by, tell me what you think of the place…right now the background is a standard one, but as soon as I can, I’m going to try to take out my camera and shoot some pics that I want to use for that. The text, as always, is a work in progress.

http://samayascooking.blogspot.com.es/

Right, that dealt with…what’s been going on since I’m back?!

Well, not a whole bloody lot. Hah…well, that’s not entirely true. Biggest news is that big brother and I decided to take the offer of friends to buy a new 2^nd hand car (the Izusu Trooper of all things- *sigh*)that we got for a very good deal. Here it is:

It’s an oldie (24 years old, I believe) which is part of the attraction, naturally. It’s basic, seeing as it doesn’t have an A/C, or anything, but that’s OK. It’s big. It’s more frugal than our beloved (Gawd, I get choked up about giving up our baby) Land Rover, and the insurance will be less costly. *sigh*

Now, the plan is for us to spend the next months fixing it up, so that we can get a better price for it.

It is a difficult choice to make, really, considering the Land Rover basically is the last thing we have from when things were still okay. It kinda feels like giving up on everything, you know. Going back yet another step in the quality of life, for no other reason than being without a steady income. Makes you wonder how deep you have to fall before finally going back up, eh? Depressing and sad, that’s what I think of it, but one does what one needs to do, right? *sigh*

Which led to this afternoon, out on the mountain, despite the miserly rain, washing the Land Rover which is set for tomorrow at the MOT. Need to have it looking a little presentable, rather than shock the mechanics, eh? Hah. Anyways, since we need to go to Malaga anyway, we also have an appointment at Traffico to finish the transfer of the new car.

Cleaning-wise there is still a lot to do. It’s as if basically only the daily used stuff has been kept clean throughout the house, while every other spot, corner, area became dirtier and dirtier. Daunting, for sure, but I’m getting to it, inch by bloody inch.

Another thing that I’m getting used to is the new bed that big brother and grandpa set up in my corner of the porch. It is about a foot narrower than my old bed (which was necessary because I could barely turn around in my “room”) and considering I’m sharing it with The Knight, Sitabah and Dax, space is…limited. Seriously, I’ve been downright wrecked in the mornings. It doesn’t help that Knight hogs the bed and insists on being under the blankets now that it’s so cold during the nights. Poor babies…all three of them. Sure, they are wonderfully warm for me, since I’m sandwiched between them, but it also means that turning is a no-go most nights. Wrecked, I tell you. Absolutely wrecked!

I did get around to unpacking part of my suitcases (not all, mind you, but at least half…I hope) so I am able to find stuff again. Got a serious storage problem going, and am unsure how to solve it. I’ve got lots of comfortable clothes that have holes and spots in and on them, which are not good for anything other than manual labor. They’re my favorites, they fit well, and the fabrics are nice and worn. Regretfully they take up space from my “better” clothes, which don’t really fit in the closet as long as I keep the comfortable ones, and that really gets my knickers in a twist, darn it.

Did some nice cooking, lately.

Made a good batch of buckwheat burgers last week, which went down well three days in a row. Same goes for chickpea patties yesterday, which served as an excellent Mcchicken (you know, the McDonalds type)…minus the chicken, hah…this afternoon.

The plan was that I would go for a hike today with a friend, but regretfully she was ill-disposed, and is spending the days with her two adorable pugs, in bed, hoping to be well enough to go to work tomorrow, poor girl.

Had a couple of workouts…day before yesterday an extremely good one. Have been sore from it for two days. Hah. Not surprising that I did the first real session, (more than an hour) in months. Maintaining isn’t at all effective in that regard, I’ll admit. But I missed training, needed it, I fear. It explains why my time in the UK was so difficult. A good kickboxing session would have gone a long way in relaxing me.

Seriously, yesterday any movement was downright excruciating, so I definitely did well.

Are well into the edits. A hundred pages, more or less, so we just might be in time to get it all done before the ABNA competition…if they’re holding it this year. Are enjoying it, especially after all this time, but the going is slow. It is difficult to get back into shwung after all this time, I guess.

Mom’s doing reasonably well. The cuts are healing, pain is getting less, and she went out a couple of times, so keeping our fingers crossed that all is well.

Went out into the yard the other day. Grandpa has been planting some winter veggies, which are doing well, all things considered…they, opposite of us, are enjoying the rainy days. Hah. Got a load of oranges hanging on the trees, not to mention tangerines, which are just weeks short of being ripe. Yay.

Knight II is not really improving, in fact I am worried when I see him move. He is rapidly losing muscle in his back legs, going through them and losing coordination. Poor boy. He’s walking into everything, loses his balance on slippery slopes, or simple inclines. I don’t like it. His age is showing, I guess.

Dax, on the other hand, is doing a lot better. Gaining strength, in fact. A relief, that.

Hauled one of the big water reservoir tanks up to the old horse paddock, where we’re going to see if we can use it to catch rainwater that’ll allow for some free veggies, come summer.

Wasn’t easy, either, considering we were experiencing some gale-force winds that day…week, actually.

Another one we need to set up for use on the main, in case we get cut off during the hottest month. I mean, seriously, can you imagine getting rationed on water while you’ve got forty something dogs around, making a mess. You need water then for more than just drinking.

Have caught up on sleep, thankfully. Slept in a couple of times, had some naps…it’s important. Haven’t gotten over the whole uncomfortable thing in the UK yet, but I guess that that will take time. Got that, at least.

Will be going to the UK for Christmas, by the way. It would be hard to get anyone to stay there who can handle the dogs, and since I feel bad about how it all went, I offered big brother and myself as replacement for five days. That way everyone is happy…well, almost everyone.

OK. It’s late. I gotta go.

Back where I started

Song of the day: “Love me again” by John Newman. Oddly enough, I would never have liked this song if I hadn’t heard it for Tom Cruise’s “Edge of Tomorrow”, for which it was absolutely brilliant.

Soooooo. Many, many things have happened over the past few weeks. Some of them awesome, some of them not so, and others pretty darn horrid. Let’s start with the good stuff and see if we can ignore the last bits, eh? Hah.

First of all, on the 22nd of November I went to my first Bryan Adams concert. Yep. Been waiting for that since the whole Hipodromo scandal in 2007, and now I just had to go for it, or forever stop whining about it. So I went. Yes!!! It was at the O2 in London, and I got off at work early enough to head on out, find a parking spot and have a nice pizza with mango ice cream for dessert, before it was time to go stand in line. I had my tablet with me, so the waiting was no bother whatsoever.
When acquiring the tickets, there was some fear that the seat would be too far away from the stage, but as it turned out I got extremely lucky. Not only was my seat some odd eighty feet from the stage and high enough for me to be on the exact level of the stage, nope, it also turned out that my ticket got me into the pre-show American Express Lounge, which was an experience, to say the least, not to mention comfortable.
It was an extremely exhilarating experience, I’ll say that much for it. I knew all the songs, so I sang my heart out all evening, cheering and clapping like the best of ‘m, and I had a blast. If nothing else, the concert on itself made my stay in the UK worth it.

Which brings us to one of the less nice points. I am back in Spain, without work, once again, but I have to admit that I mind it less than I should have. Those last few weeks had been rather heavy, stressful and emotionally draining for me. I think it had partly to do with being torn between two worlds, but also because I discovered that being a live-in is far from easy. There is too much collision of characters, I suppose, and considering my hostess was fond of her privacy as well, it was bound to go wrong at some point, wasn’t it? Regrets and dissatisfaction make people say nasty things, and some were definitely hurled my way, meaning that I feeling slightly dented, if you know what I mean. I will need some time to heal, regain my balance and some of my confidence.

It was a rather sudden thing, I know, but what with the mounting tension these past few weeks, I took the out I was offered gratefully. I had my ticket already for a trip home, so all it meant was packing my luggage (couldn’t take it all, because big brother had left some stuff there as well) and cleaning up my room, and then spending the remainder of the evening with my co-workers.
Was a nice evening with wine and talk, and saying goodbye to the dogs there, before we took out my luggage and I returned to my room for the night.

Didn’t get much sleep, lying awake most of it. Only two hours before it was time to get up I drifted off and even then it was fretful rest at best. Got myself ready, gathered my carryon and purse, and was on my way in less than thirty minutes. Had to arrive at the airport early to pay for my luggage, and go through customs, and all that jazz. Afterward I managed to get some reading done while waiting for my plane to arrive. Did the same throughout my flight, besides talking to my fellow passenger; a very nice fellow from Pakistan who was going on a three day vacation to Spain. Did manage a short nap, which was very necessary.

Arrived in Spain on time for my appointment with a local shop owner for whom I agreed to cook a company Christmas lunch on the 29th. I met with her at the store, and she was extremely nice about it all. I got the budget I needed, and went straight to the store to get the ingredients for the next day’s cooking job.

Did what prep work I could in the evening, like my pumpkin compote, real Greek yogurt, and the right selection of veggies and dairy products. Had a total of five pages stored in the car the next morning, and was on my way on the dot, to arrived there at the appointed time.

For the remainder of the morning Tina (she’s that friend I went on a hike with some months ago) spent in the kitchen, cutting, prepping and cooking an elaborate lunch that was, much to my pleasure, completely vegetarian. I made my Hallmark Chickpea patties, which were a big success. Also my buckwheat burgers (based on a recipe I got from Maggie…thank you Maggie!), which were loved, even by the carnivores there. Hah.
Made stuffed red bell peppers with veggies, herbs and cottage cheese. Bout ninety percent of these went, while my stuffed tomatoes with the same cottage cheese base and added mushrooms and black rice…even had some of the filling left, which I mixed with extra black rice and which the guests really liked.
From the leftover tomato filling I made a rather nice brown sauce, and served a yogurt salad dressing that was devoured with huge enthusiasm…in case you’re wondering, I was invited to stay for dinner, so I got to see everyone’s responses; very gratifying…
Added to that, there were the stuffed eggs, and boy were they popular. Ten guests devoured 24 eggs after all, so I would say that they worked out well. Hah.
The main course was an oven dish of potatoes with roughly cut veggies and loads of herbs.
I made too much, of course, considering I forgot to ask what the male/female ratio was. Turns out there were nine women and only on men, which means a lot less consumption. *sigh* Luckily I was well below budget with the buying of the produce, so it didn’t matter all that much. As it stands, the lady in charge won’t be needing to cook for several days. Hah.

Was of course properly exhausted that night, but I got to bed early and went to bed late, and woke up “not tired” for the first time in months. My dogs loved it…so did I, for that matter.

Which reminds me…as a surprise, big brother and grandpa put in a new bed for me while I was gone. A nice hospital style antique, that regretfully, was a lot narrower than my old queen size. I had agreed to narrow, mind you, knowing that I’d need the space, but still, for the past few mornings I’ve been kinda wrecked because Knight II is determined to sleep by my side with his spine in the width of the bed. And Dax either wants to be on the other side, or between my ankles, while Sitabah wants her spot somewhere near my head. *sigh*

What else…well, for what it is worth I did a rather nice restoration on a three legged chair, back in the UK. Also, big brother and I put in a rather nice circular piece of outside tiling. A circle and cross of ceramic rectangular, along with three quarters of gray slate stone. It looked rather fancy.

There were supports that we hammered into the ground for a rather endless row of conifers. There was fencing to be fixed, stuff to be cleaned, and, most importantly, woodwork to be prepared for what was going to be the greenhouse. Got most of the prep-work done, but alas, that will now be up to someone else.

As to my time there…I learned some valuable lessons, made some good friends, had a grand adventure, so on the overall I can’t say that I regretted it. It was an experience that has taught me many things, so in the scheme of life being one big lesson, I don’t think it was bad for me at all.
Still, I wouldn’t have minded it to be a little less traumatic. Hah.

Well, that is all for now, I guess.
Right now I am back with my dogs, doing a proper cleanup of a place that has turned into a proper pigsty. Been doing some serious cleaning for two days now, and am not seeing the end of it yet. Seriously, you’re away for three months and everything is a complete and utter mess. Guess I am not as dispensable as I thought I was.

Gotta go. It’s getting to be a tad late.
I’ll be back.