Soledad's Journal

Not much, actually. My Sundays are always the same: we got up an hour earlier, so that Mum could attend to Mass via TV, she gets her weekly shower, I try to find the easiest way possible to produce something to eat for lunch, I take down the dried washing... nothing terribly exciting.

On the other hand, boring, routine days are safe. So, for that price I can deal with the lack of excitement. Safety is something rare and precious in these times.

The only thing I keep missing is people. In smaller doses than at the time when I was still working, but I'd really like to have them around me more often. So, since I had to give up on people calling me, I called our recently widowed choir leader instead. Poor soul is in a really bad shape. As if the loss in itself weren't bad enough, she also has to deal with bureaucracy, financial problems and greedy heirs. Life can be really cruel sometimes.

In the creative corner I've finished the second felt kitty. Not a significant progress but progress nonetheless. Especially considering how unmotivated I've been lately. Which also means that the Easter baking will be cut back considerably, with only three or four sorts of biscuits and likely the same number of recipients.

We had beautiful weather today: sunshine and 16°C in the early afternoon. So after I had done my shopping trip, Mum and I finally got out of the house. The two things took me the whole morning and early afternoon, so I was accordingly exhausted after that. More so as I had to visit several shops, all relatively close to each other; close enough that taking the tram wouldn't help, so I walked all the way to the nearby small shopping centre at Savoy Park. The distance isn't great, one kilometre tops, but I'm clearly no longer used to good walks. Gone are the times when I had to jog down a fairly long street to work and back...

Fortunately, we still had leftovers, so no cooking was required. I was terribly lazy for the rest of the day, taking a nice, long nap and reading on the iPad. No writing, no crafting - I simply didn't have the energy. Getting old is no fun.

I decided to make some little felt cats, based on the TEDI Kitty's pattern, just smaller ones. Cut out the parts for three and worked on them a bit. One is ready to be sewn together, the other two are still in pieces but at least they have their eyes (tiny little buttons) and bows and lace collars. Except #3, that is, since that one is a boy. So he has a bow-tie and bangs. I think they'll be really cute.

Not much else happened. We decided to be lazy - well, except the cooking. Mum volunteered to make the layered sauerkraut casserole and I made apple compote. Other than that, we didn't really anything. I loved it. *g*

All this laziness allowed me to force my brains into gear and do a bit of writing. Which was the best part of the day.

I crossed the Danube today because I had a hairdresser's appointment; my hair looked so wild horses would have bolted in fear from the sight. A good thing we don't really have many horses in a big city, isn't it?

In any case, after my haystack had been tamed I made my usual round at the craft shops, etc. And what did I find? My favourite craft shop, a really big one, had closed at the end of January. It shows how often I got to go there; but it's big blow. They had so much wonderful stuff, even though they weren't exactly cheap. I'm moderately devastated.

To add insult to injury, AO3 had been down since last night, two. At least it was up and running in the early afternoon when I got home, which was a relief. I need my daily dosis of fanfic, since that's the only thing I read nowadays.

To end this entry on a positive note: I've finished the TEDI teddy clone. There will be pictures later, when I've made a few more plushies.

Due to the chiropodist visit yesterday I was forced to do the shopping today - again! Grrrr! I hate shopping on Saturdays, especially as I never manage to start before 10:30, due to Mum's daily schedule, and at time Lidl is a battlefield. *sigh* When I finally got home, it was nearly midday and I was so tired as if I had actually worked all the time.

Anyway, we decided to have a soup and sandwiches for lunch, since there was also the laundry that needed to be done and we were still recovering from yesterday, too. In the afternoon I did about two paragraphs of writing but was otherwise completely floored. We watched some telly and took respective naps, and that was it, basically.

In the early evening I called my young cousin (H's son) and we agreed that in a week and a half he's going to drop by and help us with some telly and computer issues. I hope this will work out; I'm so horribly helpless with such things.

For all those interested: picowrimo starts tomorrow. Writers, readers and shy lurkers are equally welcome - the more the merrier, and comments are highly appreciated.

... aka the first part of my Easter collection. Whether there'll be a second part is still to be seen, but I thought I'd post a pic of these cuties. Or rather a link, since Pinterest no longer allows pics posted there to be embedded into LJ entries, for reasons of their own.

Lookie, lookie:
https://hu.pinterest.com/pin/341640321754807406

Otherwise it was a quiet day. We tried to recover from the big cleaning frenzy, ate leftovers, made a heroic attempt to walk till the other entrance of our building (successfully; this was the first time Mum actually left the house in this year) and I made a lot of phone calls. To my goddaughter who had her name day today. To my friend Evie. To my friend Elise who's still down with a nasty cold she got from her youngest grandson. Toddler germs are dangerous. To my friend Erna (our art teacher). We also got a call from my oldest cousin. So it was a socially active day but much less so where physical activities are concerned. I'd take it every time.

We needed to gather our strength, as tomorrow we're going to have a visit from our talkative chiropodist lady, so...

Part one - the smaller part - of the scheduled cleaning frenzy is done. I've cleaned the balcony (which included first emptying it, then putting everything back in as soon as the floor was dry) and wiped the floor in the bathroom and the loo. I also emptied the kitchen for tomorrow. Mum spent almost two hours dusting her gazillion of knick-knacks that are displayed on every available surface of the living room and piling them high on the sideboard, so that the rest of the furniture could be moved around for vacuum cleaning purposes tomorrow. So, we are more or less ready for the big action. I just hope the new cleaning lady turns up. *fingers crossed*

For lunch, Mum ate the third portion of the horrible soup. I refused to touch it. We had these little frozen spinach and feta parcels in puff pastry that I only had to push into the oven, so cooking was easy. Tomorrow we'll have the other half of the package. No way I'll be in any shape to cook!

In the afternoon I recovered enough to finish one of my little Bolshies (= red bunnies), which is more than I had hope for in the morning. So who knows, perhaps I'll be stubborn enough to at least start the other one tomorrow. *g*

... and I'm not speaking about the usual routine, like giving Mum her weekly shower, washing my hair, taking down the dried washing and the likes.

Today I had kitchen duty. The cauliflower I had bought yesterday needed to be pre-cooked, cooled down, put into freezer bags and frozen for future use. For lunch, I made a mushroom-and-ham omelet with grated cheese and history's worst soup. For some reason trying to make gebundene Gemüsesuppe always ends in failure. I don't know why. It isn't such a complicated thing; and yet I fail every single time with it. Of course, I made a large pot. Enough for at least three days. Mum, being the soup junkie that she is, will eat it willingly enough. I might kip my portion into the loo...

Aside from the cooking disaster, I did some writing and crafting. The red felt bunnies are almost done. All that's left is the stitching of their faces, plus sewing the front and back panels together and stuffing them. I hope to finish them tomorrow or the day after. *fingers crossed*

Writing was considerably less abundant, but I did write a little bit, after I've googled for info on infected leg wounds. This is an alternate version of the TOS episode "Plato's Stepchildren", after all.

Well... not really, no. Being a full-time caregiver doesn't really come with days out. But it was an easier day than most, and all the things I did were done voluntarily.

One of those things was an Apfelstrudel. It wasn't necessary to make one as we had leftovers from yesterday, but I subscribe to the opinion that every decent house simply has to have baked goods available, preferably on all days. Well, we don't have them every day, but after three days without I start getting restless and won't calm down until I've baked something. And ready-made puff pastry makes things soooo easy, which is why I try to have a package of it in the fridge at all times.

Of course, self-respecting Hungarian housewives would tell you that any kind of Strudel absolutely has to be made with filo pastry. Preferably the home-made kind. My self-respect doesn't go down the suicidal route, though. Why trying to make such things from the scratch when the ones bought in the supermarket are much better and always go up beautifully? Besides, I hate things made with filo paste. They always swim in fat. For me, puff pastry is the way to go.

The other voluntary thing was of crafty nature: I cut out the main panels for two more felt bunnies. I might or might not make more in the six weeks remaining to Easter, but two should be doable. Teddy bears and elephants will be postponed, but I'll try to fill the rabbit hole with, well, rabbits. Bright red ones at that because the fabric I need to use up is of that colour. Believe me or not, red bunnies actually look very cute!

... was a tad hectic. At 8:15 in the morning the locksmiths called and made their offer. Mum was still sleeping, of course, so I told them I'll call them back. Mum decided to accept the offer, despite the hefty price. So, the guys will come tomorrow around 9 in the morning and - hopefully - repair the balcony door. *fingers crossed*

I made the Apfelküchle for lunch. They turned out excellent; we ate most of them for lunch and saved a few for supper.

The PT lady had asked for a switch because she wasn't in town yesterday. So she came today, two hours later than usual, but that was okay. At least we could have lunch comfortably before.

What else? I had a nice, long phone chat with my friend Evie. It turns out she loved the TEDI Kitty very much, which pleases me to no end. We watched some telly, and that was basically it.

Tonight I'll have to rearrange the living room, move some furniture out of the way and lay down large pieces of old bedlinens, so that the guys won't ruin the wall-to-wall carpet (which has, unfortunately, a light beige colour) beyond repair tomorrow.