Soledad's Journal

Today I cooked for two days in advance and prepared the main ingredient for the third day. I call that progress. My cauliflower cream soup turned out great: thick enough for a spoon to stand straight in it. My Geschnezeltes was excellent as well. So, no cooking tomorrow and very little cooking on the day after. *happy dance*

I repurposed an old towel; one that was made of such a hard fabric that we used it as bathroom rug. It was frayed on the edges, so I cut it in four pieces and am in the process of turning them into pot holders.

I also went to vote. We'll see how the elections end. A great many people went, too; almost 80 percent, which isn't usual. Apparently, getting the results can take as long as a week. My hopes are low to nonexistent. :(

In the early evening I talked to H. on the phone. The poor thing caught some bug from the grandkiddies over Easter and is now down with a really bad cold. I hope she'll recover, soon, now that the holidays are over and the kids safely back to school and kindergarten, respectively.

I went to the optician today to have new glasses made. They have a tech who can examine your eyes with the help of various machines and I was relieved to hear that my eyes didn't get any worse in recent years. They are a bit dry, which isn't new - that's what eye drops are for - and I got a slightly weaker lens for my left eye... and that's it. I only ever use my glasses for the telly and on the street, so no big difference. I did, however, order a slight shading (colouring?) for the new glasses because my eyes can no longer bear the very harsh sunlight we've been having in recent times. Because the hole in the ozone layer stopped growing, presumably... yeah, right.

Anyway, I also bought light shades to protect my eyes from the computer screen. Working at my desktop PC is more comfortable for the eyes now. Of course, the whole undertaking cost me half my monthly pension or so, but I only have these two eyes. I will go to the eye doctor eventually (as soon as someone can suggest me a reliable one) to have my eyes checked for cataracts and so on, but for the time being I'm relieved.

Next up: a visit to the dentist to have my fangs checked. At least I do have a trustworthy dentist. That will be probably another costly visit, but again, I'm not a crocodile, I can't grow new teeth when the old ones rot away.

I also did the grocery shopping today and the two things basically ate more than half my day. I was suitably dead afterwards and slept two whole hours in the afternoon. But it was a successful day nonetheless. I even bought some light summer clothing and undies at Kik, which was great.

... is in full gear. All twelve of my mini-teddies - nine brown ones, two white ones and one red one(*) - have their face bases, their eyes and their inner ears. Two of them have their features stitched and thus only need to be sewn together and stuffed. Nine of their little Santa hats are in various stages of being finished; four of them are finished altogether. My cunning plan is to finish all the little details (including the knitted scarves) and then sew the teddies together, one at a time, as the fancy takes me.

(*) Yes, I did make one red teddy as well. The red rabbits can't be the only Bolshies in the household, after all. *g*

Other that then, not much else happened. We ate leftovers, Mum had a visit from the physiotherapist lady and I took a really long nap in the afternoon. All that stress of the recent weeks has clearly taken its toll on me, but I'm starting to feel like something similar to a human being again.

No, really! It has been a very long time since we had any, but today two of my choir mates/ex-colleagues/friends came over and we had a lovely time.

Otherwise it was a lazy day. I took an extra long nap after a late breakfast, we ate leftover soup and some cookies for lunch and I worked a bit on my mini teddy bears and the little Santa hats afterwards.

Health-wise I think I'll have to start looking out for a reliable eye doctor and a dermatologist, soon. My eyes have become very sensitive to the harsh sunlight we are having nowadays. I'll have glasses made that darken gradually with the intensity of light, I think; and some tinted ones for the computer. That I can do without a doctor, too. Unfortunately, both my eye doctor and my dermatologist have retired years ago, and finding ones that are actually good won't be easy. At least I have a very good dentist, whom I'll have to visit soon as well, to check out my teeth. I haven't been there for two years or so; it's high time that I do.

This definitely wasn't my day. I had to cook for two days because we're supposed to have visitors tomorrow - I believe it when I see them - and I don't want to be exhausted when they arrive. I also finished that Easter cake for them, which I wouldn't have made at all otherwise; my filling hasn't exactly turned out the way I wanted it to but it looks reasonably pretty. I'll take a photo tomorrow before it gets cut because afterwards it would be an unholy mess: too hard sponge, too soft filling - a bit not good. At least everything tastes yummy.

Dreamwidth has also developed a glitch. I've tried to import my journal two times within a week - no luck. I hope they'll iron out the glitch, soon. I've started hand-copying my LJ entries, but it's boring, time consuming and annoying.

I was so exhausted from all that cooking and baking that I was practically useless for the rest of the day. The only positive thing was that H. gave us a call. The grandkids were making lots of noise in the background; I think she's dead on her feet by now, too.

At least I think so. After my biscuit ended up flat like a disc, I believe the reason why my Easter wreath turned out completely inedible was the flour. This has happened to me before, even though I've been buying the same (cheap) brand for at least a decade, and usually it works like a charm. Either they stored it the wrong way or the wheat had some problems; I have no idea. But this is beyond coincidence, I think.

Anyway, I'm going to fill the flat biscuit with lots of cream filling (consisting quark, whipped cream and pureed strawberries) and cover it in marzipan, so I hope our visitors will be happy enough with it on Monday. *fingers crossed*

I bought today an Easter Hefezopf at our corner café because Easter just can't happen without one in our house. I hope it will be good. Their products usually are. Also, our neighbour, with whom we regularly exchange cookies at Christmas and Easter, brought us two thick slices of her mother-in-law's homemade Hefezopf, and that was probably the best one I've eaten in my entire life. so, Easter was saved. *g*

I also cooked our Easter ham today, the usual with garlic and cumin. I hope it will be good, but we'll only know when we slice it up. That and the grocery shopping (ad biscuit baking) ate the greater part of my day, so I'm suitably dead right now.

I've dismantled the sorry excuse of bread pudding, basically throwing out the pieces of actual bread - they were so hard they refused to actually soak up the custard - and the result was some baked custard and strawberry puree... perhaps two handfuls saved from the whole large dish. Ah, well.

I then made tomato soup a la Mary Berry: just dumped a can of hacked tomatoes and half a litre of tomato puree into a pot, added some vegetable soup (made of a soup cube) and some cooking cream, seasoned with some basil and a pinch of sugar and added ABC noodles. It was fantastic. Mum, who never liked tomato soup, simply loved it.

The day being what it is we avoided anything meaty and had fish with parsley potatoes and a salad for lunch. Mind you, I never understood why fish doesn't count as meet - fish are animals, too, that you have to kill to eat, so what is the difference? But I've given up trying to understand such things a long time ago. (Mind you, the original reason could have been that fish was basically the only thing poor people in certain countries could eat, so it was either that or starving. As a late friend of mine used to say: "At the beginning there was the poverty. The ideology came later.")

On the crafting front, I worked some more on my teddy bears and Santa hats. Small and slow progress is progress, too.

...because it has been too long.

First, though, I sliced up the misbegotten Easter wreath and discovered that not only hadn't it risen but it was half-raw in the inside. So I put the slices onto a baking sheet and baked them on both sides until they became light brown. That still didn't make them edible, though, especially for Mum with her few and battered teeth, so I layered them with vanilla custard and pureed strawberries and put the whole thing back into the oven. That way we could at least eat some of it - I'll see what can I come up with tomorrow. If nothing helps, I can still throw the whole thing into the rubbish bin, but I so hate waste.

On the crafting front, I've finished decorating my little Santa hats and started sewing them together. I've also sewn on the face "plates" (the lighter-coloured felt upon which the actual features will be stitched) to a few of the teddies themselves. I also decided, in a sudden bout of insanity, that I wanted white teddies as well (polar bears are pretty), so I cut out the panels for two of those. Only two because that was how much white felt I had left from other projects and I didn't want to cut up a completely new sheet. So, I'm well armed for several weeks to come with half-finished stuff. *g*

Oh, and last night - or does it count as this night, since it was after 1am already? - I actually managed to write down some dialogue that has been lurking in the back of my mind for a while. So yeah, it was a creative day all around.

That is me, obviously. Instead of slowing down, I spent the morning at school, baking Easter wreaths with the kiddies.

This is mine. Looks better as it actually is; for some reason it hasn't risen properly, so I might have to turn it into biscotti later. But at least it is pretty.

I also promised a picture of my home-made Kinder Schokobons. They are here. As you can see, we had eaten quite a few Lindor truffles to produce wrapping material.

After coming home, we ate leftovers with Mum; then off I hopped again, first to the pharmacy to fetch the rest of her medication, then to Lidl because they had ginger ale for a reduced price and we drink that stuff all the time. When I finally got home I was so exhausted I slept over two hours. Then we watched two episodes of "The Repair Shop", and now the day is over.

9:31 pm - Things just won't slow down!
And I thought I would be done with Easter preparations by now! How... optimistic of me!

Anyway, I made gift bags of old wrapping paper today, in which to deliver the Kinder Schokobons tomorrow. Today, it was delivery day for the little pom-pom bunnies in their baskets. Also, I had to go to the pharmacy for Mum's medication - naturally, they didn't have everything and needed to order them first. Which means I'll have to go back tomorrow. At least it is a fairly quick process with this particular pharmacy, since they are open 24 hours on every day. Plus, I get allowance on quite a few things due to my customer card. Of course, the district nurse managed to prescribe one bottle of eye drops for Mum again; she keeps doing this, unless Mum specifically asks for three. They've been playing this stupid game for years by now; one would think the woman would have understood the requirements after all this time. Obviously, one would be wrong.

Afterwards I went to choir practice, which was fun this time. It appears we're going to have guests on Easter Monday: our choir leader and Eenie are coming over after lunch - which in Eenie's house takes place after 3pm, they being a half-Spanish family. So, I guess we can count on their visit around half past four at the earliest. But that's okay. We usually take a late lunch, too. Having guests means, however, that I'll have to bake that Easter cake I was planning to skip this year. Ah, well.

Tomorrow I'll go to our school's Bunny Cup day, which is basically some Easter fun that takes place on the last day before Easter holidays, during what would otherwise be the last two lessons. I'll help Erna direct the 7th and 8th term students baking yeast wreaths. So I've packed my own ingredients tonight, so that I can also bake our own Easter wreath in-between, which is practical, as the school kitchen has a much better oven than I have. *g*