A bit of good news for a change...with pics.

Song of the day: “A song for Ireland” by Mary Black. Such a gorgeous song. I’ve had it in my head off and on for the past week or so. Do love it somewhat fierce.

Yeah…a lot has changed once again. Quite suddenly, just last week, we got a call from one of the anti-squatting companies we signed up for, and it was a beaut. In particular since our month was almost up.

I’ll give you a rundown of how that conversation went. The caller we’ll be calling D for recognition purposes:

The phone went, and I snatched it from my pocket to squint at the unfamiliar number displayed. It came Utrecht so it was nearby, but other than that, I was oblivious of who it was. It could be anyone of the fifty or so real-estate agents, private rental owners and whatnot, so there really was no choice but to pick it up.

Me: “Hello? This is Samaya speaking.”

D: “Good afternoon, my name is D whatshisname.”

I racked my brain but nothing popped up. Me: “Sorry, that name doesn’t ring a bell. What can I help you with?”

D laughed, said: “I’m from thisandthat anti-squatting company. You applied for that, right?”

Me: “Yes. Yes I did.” Something started bubbling inside me, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up for fear that they were just doing some sort of formal check thing.

D: “I was wondering if you are still looking for a place to stay?”

Me: “Yessss!” without even a second’s hesitation.

D: “Would you be interested to live in Ztown? We’ve got a place—“

Me: “Yessss!! Even better. That would actually be splendid. Yes.” Was trying to curb my enthusiasm there, but I think it didn’t work, because he was laughing a lot. He mentioned something about an address, talked about prices and how he would send me the required this and that’s, at which point I cut in: “That’s fine. Would it be possible for my brother to move in with me?”

D: “Well…I guess. The apartments are rather small, though, and we’ve got three of them free at the moment, so he could get his own.”

Me: “Oh my. That’s even better.” My head was already running with that, considering that with anti-squatting you pay per person, rather than per apartment. So taking a place together was going to make very little difference since we’re not home all that much, and when we are, we often work at the computer together, and since it is in the same building, and I cook most of the time anyway, we wouldn’t need to get an extra washing machine, or refrigerator, or anything.

Me: “Yes, we would be interested in that, too.” Imagine me, doing a happy dance at the thought of having a place to myself that I can decorate whichever way I please, without a big brother looking at me in exasperation about color schemes, styles and whatever because he’d be more interested in where to put his butt ugly computer. Hah. Anyway, I’m thinking color. Lots of it. I’m at a point in my life where I want cheerful colors around me. *wink*

D: “Great. I’ll send you the particulars tonight, but for now the appointment is set for Monday at 14:30. Will that be alright?”

Me: “Yesssss!” while in my head I’m formulating the request in my head to our boss, for an early day so we can make our appointment.

D: “Very good. Would you know where I can reach your brother so that I can speak with him as well.”

Me: “Of course. He’s standing across the room from me.”

We both laughed at that. Me: “He’ll be there.”

D: “Excellent. That saves me another call. You will be meeting with my colleague R, who will discuss the paperwork, contracts and whatnot with you and then hand you the keys.”

“GREAT! And can I just say that you’ve made our day, D. We were really starting to get worried about not being able to find anything to suit us.”

From the sound of it, he didn’t mind playing knight errant for the day, and we said our goodbyes while I turned to big brother and high-fived him. Me: “Dude. We’re not homeless!”

Big brother: “We weren’t, silly. We have this place, remember?” He, too, was grinning.

Me: “Yeah. But you know what I mean, right? Our own place, one for you, one for me without it costing all that much extra. How awesome is that”

Big brother: “Pretty friggin’ awesome.”

And it is, because, let’s face it, we’d been counting on having to share some teeny little space that was way above our budget (were actually at the verge of renting something a few miles farther away when this popped up) simply because we couldn’t find anything that we could afford. This is a way better solution. Hah.

Anyways, the weekend seemed to take really long, but regardless of that (and the fact that I had these horrible thoughts of: what if something goes wrong, what if it doesn’t work out? Kept going through my mind) we started packing some of our things already. Then, on Monday we got there on the dot, were shown three apartments, together with another future resident, and I picked the last one because it was on the top floor, overlooking a small park, and a nice clean white floor. Not so much the white, but I liked it better because it didn’t have carpet, and no neighbors overhead. That was a big plus. All it missed was a cooking stove, but then that was the case with all of them.

So we settled who was going to go where (big brother and me on the third floor, the other fella on the second) read through and signed the contracts and agreed to at least put some of our things in the apartment that same evening, because the whole purpose of this project is that it looks lived in…didn’t get to bed until after eleven that evening, and the three nights that followed while we arranged for our move and carted everything to the two separate places.

We were way short on stuff, too, so I got myself a couch (a bright red! I will post pictures below) to fill in the blank. Regretfully the couch looked way smaller at the thrift store, so we couldn’t get it in the elevator, meaning we had to carry it up a whole set of stairs. *sigh* But it all worked out in the end, despite being pretty darn tired after work, cleaning up the temporary rental, and moving for so many hours so many days in a row. In fact, the other day (supposedly my free day where I only found time for breakfast) I actually got a strange buzzing in my ears while we were in a thrift store looking for a closet…one of the prerequisites of anti-squatting is that you keep things neat, so a closet is definitely necessary. Anyways, I really had to stop for a moment lest I ended up hugging the floor. Anyway, luckily I had a couple of oranges with me, so I ate those and felt way better. Did decide to eat a proper dinner that evening, rather than doing something on the fly, because that was scary.

So now, after this “free” day, my new apartment is neatly  arranged into a rather new style for me, quite a bit of red there. I told you I was doing color this time! I got some blues to keep things interesting, and some turquoise because I like the color so much. The end result is cosy and welcoming, which is the tone I’m trying to set, of course.

Lucky for us, on the night we moved in, there was a big thing going on. The next morning a big skip was going to be loaded up, so basically all the residents were throwing everything they wanted to get rid of away. So I’ve got chairs that I didn’t have before. Had two already, but decided they looked better at big brother’s. Also a nice small white table which I’m now using as my desk. Yay. Added to that a neat rounded, white rattan chair for my bedroom. A selection of things for big brother, including a couple of small brown leather couches (he doesn’t like the brown, but it will do for now) which color up nicely with some throw pillows on them.

Also had to get some lights at thrift stores, but other than that we’re all set, I guess. I even have a cooking stove. Regretfully no oven yet, but that will just have to wait until later. Either I find a cheap combi at some point, otherwise I’ll get a small grill oven at some point that I can at least bake my own bread again. Now all I have to get is my box with books and a few more things (like our tools) at the storage and then we’re done for the next six months or so (cross our fingers and hope that it takes at least that long before we need to get out of here again; everyone seems to think so, so I try not to worry).

So that’s it for the living arrangements. What else? Well, we went out with our father and stepmother, who invited us to go and eat at a friend’s place up in Amsterdam. It was rather lovely, that day, despite the atrociously rainy and cold weather. The female friend, let’s call her Ie for the moment, had a lovely old place (completely restored, I tell ya) beside a canal. It used to be one of those high merchant places with the wide hatches and the hook overhead. Really cute. Was still the original old stairs, almost worn down with wear. It was gorgeous.

After lunch, which took several hours, we spent the evening walking through the streets of Amsterdam (seriously, you have to see it to believe how much those houses have sagged over the past few hundreds of years!). It was fun to see, I’ll admit, despite the fact that my foot was bugging me to the point of me wanting to chop it off. The wet cold didn’t help with that, even though it should have, but then, nothing new with the stupid foot feeling as though I’m walking on broken glass. Thought I’d moved past it, but apparently the past few weeks of extra work (being on my feet more then 10 hours a day) didn’t help that…and the fact that I skipped several days of the much needed bloodwine. *sigh* That is not a mistake I’ll make again, I’ll tell ya.

What else? Well, no writing these past few weeks…well, maybe a page or two before the move started, but that’s ok. I’m set up now in the apartment, so I should be able to do some on my free days, and I will be taking my computer along to work, for those few hours that I can while away there waiting for big brother. I’ll get this banshee story written yet. They are in my head, you see, Brendan and Neeya, the leads of the story. They don’t like each other much yet, but what did you expect; it’s a romance after all. Hah.

Oh, and before I forget, the daughter of one of the residents here, has a Basset hound that looks just like my Chaos did. He was beautiful, this James Basset. He was walking through the corridors with his mistress, and I was standing there watching him mosey along, before saying: "Oh you beautiful, you." His head swiveled back, tail going up as if he understood more than just my tone. "Yes, you. You beautiful boy." He turned, came moseying over for a proper petting while I chatted with his misstress about the amazing-ness of Basset hounds. *sigh* 

So that is it for today, folks. I’ll be back with more news soon, hopefully, and will leave you with the promised pics.

Have a good one.

 The living area from my bedroom...the latter isn't done yet, so you can't see it yet. I need a bed and a closet, so it is still a mess of suitcases.

 Then a view of the whole, with the kitchen in the back...sorry 'bout the dishes. They are clean but I didn't feel like putting them away before the pic. Hah.

 And then a shot of the view in that special house in Amsterdam. One of those houses in front was from 1637. Can you believe it?

Not homeless yet.

Song of the day: “Coconut” by Harry Nelson. Don’t ask me why. It’s been on my mind lately. Can’t explain it.

Right. Coming close to the end of the month, meaning that at least a couple of weeks have passed since my last blog. (Bad Sammie!) I know, I know. I promised more, but I have a good excuse. I’ve been doing a lot of overtime at work, and spare time has been spent looking for rentals, which is turning out to be friggin’ difficult in our price class. Grrrr. Sure, there are some nice places that are affordable, but most of those are up in the North, or down South, meaning an hour or more driving, adding to those costs, thus making it cheaper to get something more expensive around here. It’s a pickle. But anyway, at least we are, as of last week, in a waiting list for an apartment, and according to my contact person, we make a good chance there, so until that time, we’re still looking.

As to our present residence…I kinda like it. Were I on my own, I would totally keep it and make it my own little nest. Seriously. It’s the second floor of this cute little wooden cabin set in the middle of the woods, close to the dunes. I can imagine summer here being downright lovely. There’s a living room kitchen connected, a bathroom with a bath and shower, and a spacious bedroom. Couldn’t ask for more (except for a waaaaay lower price) except that we are with two, and big brother has his bed in the living room at the moment. Hah. And boy, is that boy messy!

Anyways, we might be close to being homeless, but until the end of next month, I’m not going to worry too much about it. We’re doing what we can, and until now that has worked well enough, so I’m going to rely on a little faith and believe that this time it will be no different.

Have been calming down considerably. The solitude here (since big brother’s free days are on different days than mine, I’m having plenty of me time, hah) is soothing, I think, and though the world still intrudes on that at times (will explain below) I can find calm within myself that wasn’t there before.

Some sad news did reach us here in “our cabin in the Woods”. Just days ago I got a message from Spain telling me that Clue, our chocolate colored pointer. died suddenly. He hadn’t been sick, had been very happy, but middle sister saw him lying in her work corner where he had passed away in his sleep. He didn’t suffer, which is a good thing, naturally, but it did drive home the fact that in the near future, there are going to be more of these messages. Our four-legged ones are getting on in age, after all, and there are days that I miss ‘m all very much.

Pretty, pretty Clue

Still, it is never smart to linger on the things that you can’t change, and life goes on.

What with eating badly that last month before we got to the cabin, I have been working hard on cooking good meals again, hitting all the basic nutritional needs. More oats, lentils, chickpeas and beans, with a regularity that would make nutritionists proud again. By no means is it easy, after a full day’s work, added to having to go places to look at rentals and such, and groceries and all those pesky little things that take time and effort. Admittedly, often by the time we get home, I barely have enough energy to haul my butt onto the couch, but since I have been taking my computer to work, and spend an occasional hour or two waiting for big brother to finish, writing, that is not the biggest disaster.

I have actually been getting some writing done again. Yay!!! Yes, I have stuck with my decision to go back to my “roots” and am elbow deep into the cheesy dime novels, which is just so much more fun than complicated thrillers. Sure, if the muses strike and I get a marvelously thrilling idea, I’ll go for it, but until then, I’m going to stick with what I know. Romance! I feel way better writing that than inspirational, mind-bending stuff anyway, so for now, I’m sticking to it. Hah.

Have been to the gym, yay! And kicked the shaite out of a boxing bag, pumped iron. It was marvelous. A different gym of course. This one is closer to where we are at now, and since it is the same chain as the one we signed up for, no extra costs. *phew* Need to go more often, but twice this month is better than nothing, I guess. Like the place, though. Nice staff, and it has more secluded areas than the other one we usually went to.

Will be going out to eat with our father and his wife next weekend, which should be interesting. We’ll be visiting friends of theirs in Amsterdam. Thinking back, I would say that the last time I was in our capital was a solid 22 years ago, so that should be interesting to say the least.

Have been semi-busy at the storage, sorting through stuff that we don’t need…or shouldn’t need, for that matter. Depresses me, so I prefer not to think of the cutesy little stuffsies I managed to gather this past half year. *sigh*

What else? Well, there was work, of course. Plenty of that. Do finally have some extra colleagues, meaning that more stuff is getting done without the original staff of four running their behinds off to try to keep up with the gathering messes of hundreds of guests. Aaaargh. Seriously, some folks are just dirty. Who in their right minds lounges in a quiet “relax room” and removes tampons, only to hide them under the beds? Eeeeewwwww!!!

Been doing a lot of hours, which is not really to my liking, but considering the expenses of our present living arrangement I don’t feel comfortable saying no.

Have been in contact with some old friends, including our mechanic in Spain, who has kindly offered to help out transferring the Opel to my mum. I’m facing some obstructions here with taxes and insurance regarding that car in my name, so we figured it would be best to just see that it is taken out of the equation.

I know, aren’t I incredibly boring. What kind of stuff is this to write about, right? Can’t make it any better than this, though, so I’m going to leave it at this and hope that have something a little more exciting to write about the next time. I’ll be back!

Again, again, and again. *sigh*

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

Mobile!!!!!

Song of the day: “Lush Life” by Zara Larson. Well, something new, at least, and peppy. I like it, and for the moment don’t mind having it stuck in my head from time to time. Hah.

So, here we are, much too late, once again, getting sucked into daily life, leaving very little time to stuff like blogging, and such. Still, I try regardless. I do love to blog, and usually, with every day that passes, I will be in bed late at night, thinking: shaite, I forgot my blog again. Or I will try to write it, and sit at the table and find myself dropping off in the middle of a sentence because I’m just that tired. Ah well…we do what we can, don’t we?

What’s been happening. Quite a bit, in fact. Much of it involving work, naturally. Making long days at the moment, which is good, considering big brother and I had to fold to one of our resolutions over here and get a car. Yep. We are once again mobile. It was inevitable. Arranging for transportation every time, public transportation being on the costly side, in particular if there are two people traveling. One would be doable, two, definitely makes a car viable. Anyway. It’s a second hand one, of course, and we had to do loads of research (everyone thought they needed to get involved, so that was kinda weird) but we did find one that we could afford and that seems to be functioning properly. Luckily cars are a little cheaper here to procure, making it all possible. I gotta say that it is a relief no longer needing to borrow one, or to have to go bonkers wondering how you’re going to arrange this or that.

I applied for another job. This one for cooking. Had to wait until we had a car for it, but it was still there, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. It doesn’t mean I’m quitting this one, just that I want to add something fun to it. It involves cooking at an art gallery once a month. A 3 course meal, fully vegetarian dishes, which should be a nice challenge, if they want me.

Had our second meal with our father and his wife. A very cozy afternoon that turned into evening before we got home, pretty much running on fumes. Had a wonderful lunch, which they had prepared. Talked about the past some, looked at pictures from relatives and our youngest half-brother in various stages of his life. Vacation photos etc. Also, we went for a walk around the neighborhood, which was quiet and cozy. They knew most people, if not by name then by face, and we met with a couple of people from our past that we had just talked about last month or so, because we wondered what had become of them. They used to live in the same place our father did, and on the weekends we were there, we’d spend many afternoons at their place with their kids. Her, I didn’t recognize except for her short stature, but him, I immediately recognized, due to his height and curly hair. She recognized us, I think, but he didn’t, but they seemed happy to see us again after all these years. What has it been? 29 years? Weird, I know.

Anyway, we’ll be seeing them (father and stepmother) again in the new year. I was a lot less edgy this time around, which is reassuring.  The silences weren’t uncomfortable so how it’ll go further…I’ll keep you posted.

Went to visit tenant and Cousin Ed last week. Not a long visit. It was more of a spur of the moment thing because we were testing out the car, and figured we might as well pop over. Tenant was really happy to see us, so I was glad we bothered. She was rather sad about grandpa still, but she’s handling it, and that’s a relief.

Been doing a weekly day at the charity shop. More because my friend there keeps asking, and I find it hard to say no, rather than really an inclination. But, anyways, keeping busy is still a priority for me, so I’ll take it.

Lotsa extra hours at the sauna. No choice really. The building is new and there are so many problems that still need to be ironed out. I build a couple of carrier carts for the whirlpool covers, as requested, because those dratted things are heavy and some folks just can’t carry them. At the moment I’m painting a cabin that was procured for construction, which we’ll probably end up doing as well. Never a shortage of plans going on there, meaning there is always enough to do.

Cooking has been difficult lately. What with work, finding a car, visiting tenant etc. there just wasn’t a lot of time. Same goes for writing, despite the fact that I did manage to write a bit in the Banshee story last week. It’s sporadic at best.

I am liking my room, which is really comfortable now. Got quite a bit of furniture gathered already for when the time comes for us to move to a different place. It is not yet, but it will be soon. We’re ready for that independence, want it in fact. Our land lady is nice and everything, but our own place will give us more freedom for sure. So if the opportunity arrives (we signed up with a local company that works with anti-squatters, and we’re now a member due to one of our colleagues who sponsored us) we’ll see about achieving that particular goal. It should be marvelous having our own place.

Big brother’s B-Day is coming up (as is mine, for that matter) and our colleagues at work are thinking of doing something for it. First off he’s going to get presents, which makes him groan, and secondly, LL (the one he works with most) has talked him into going out on the town on the night in question. Should be interesting, especially since our other colleagues are going to go along. Hah. Nice bunch, still, and finally a newbie to help out. Very necessary, since we’ve been running ragged.

Christmas will be busy. Yeah, I know, weird right. We say we don’t do Christmas and get invited to two occasions that we can’t say no to. First one is at tenant’s of course. Second one is with our colleague, with both of them similar dinner plans. Hah.

Well, it’s late and tomorrow is a working day, so I’m going to leave it at this. I’ll be back.

Here are some pics.

 

One part of the house.

 Another

The woods

The heath nearby