In which we crossed half the town despite the heat

[wiseheart]

We had to, actually, as Mum needed to go to the dentist's to have another two of her loose teeth pulled, the poor thing. Now she's sitting in the darkened room, with slight pain and terrible hunger but doesn't dare to eat anything solid until tomorrow.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. We went to the dentist's (who happens to live and work in a distant part of the city - Budapest is fairly large, you know) relatively early in the morning. At least on our way there the temperature was bearable. When she was done, we visited her oldest friend who lives halfway between us and the dentist's. She's a nice old lady but very lonely and always happy when we drop by. She only regretted that she couldn't keep us for lunch since Mum couldn't eat yet. We were there until mid-day and then returned home, opting against going to the supermarket because it was simply too hot.

Coming home, we fell into our respective armchairs (well, sleep-sofa in my case) in various degrees of deshabillé, as Mycroft Holmes would say... and fell promptly asleep in front of the telly, she supposedly watching some German doctor's series and I the European Championship of Athletics from Berlin. Neither of us can remember much of those two hours, although I was awake long enough to celebrate some Hungarian success.

Around half past three Mum awoke and decided that having some coffee was the needful thing. So we had coffee. Then I called one of my beloved colleagues and we commiserated about the heat for a while. Afterwards I didn't have the patience for the telly anymore, so I finished the pocket letter that - accidentally - is meant to be a birthday present for aforementioned colleague. I'm fairly content with the way it turned out - pictures tomorrow, I swear!

It is still very hot here. I tried to open the windows, since it's technically evening, but I closed them in a great hurry again, because the heat came in in waves. Ah, well, I'll open them when the sun sets.

Yes, I know none of this is very interesting for those who lead more active lives, but I decided to try and post regularly, if for no other reason than to see what I've done (or not done) with my time. Perhaps I'll keep posting snippets - assuming I manage to write something in the not too distant future - to bridge over till the nest picowrimo session.

I've also nudged a few people on my mutual friends' list, but only one person resurfaced briefly. It is sad that friendships that lasted for years across the ocean have just died off without a whimper. I miss my friends; why is it always me that wants to keep in touch and the others don't?

Comments

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

I didn't know you were in Budapest! I love the place, I even applied for a job at a university there 2 years ago, but ah... the political situation killed my dreams of moving there, and might have killed the uni too. :/

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

The less we speak about the political situation over here the better. I don't want to finish the day with severe depression.

But should you ever visit my city again, I'll be happy to spend lots of times with you and go to places I haven't seen since ithilwen, espresso_addict and the_wild_iris visited.

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

I've been twice, and want to go back! I even started learning Hungarian (I drew an advent calendar to help me learn the words for various animals post here. (https://motodraconis.livejournal.com/723676.html) ) At the moment my Hungarian learning is on hold as I have to put all my energy into Norwegian, (and then my French and German ought to be boosted more.) But! I hope to go back to Hungarian perhaps when I retire and can have time for formal lessons, cos it was so very difficult for me. :)
If I ever do visit, then of course you will have to come to Norway so I can return the favour. :)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I'd love to visit Norway, but I'm deadly afraid of flying, and other means would just take too long.

[artemis10002000]

I think it's nice to keep track of all these small things. I recently went through my old LJ posts back from the early 2010s when I was better at proper journalling and it was really nice to be able to reread these entries, even if they were about trivial things.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

My thoughts exactly! :)

[mirasaui.livejournal.com]

"Your mutual friend wiseheart has noticed that you last updated your journal on LiveJournal 7 years ago!"

I knew it had been awhile ...

Not sure why I stayed away so long, time seems to fly the older I get. This summer I've spent puttering in the garden, reading (as long as I can before I fall asleep) and playing games on the computer, or occasionally watching the blah shows on TV. Nothing earth-shattering by any means. I did not even take a vacation. DH has taken 3 mini vacations and my son just got back from spending time with a friend in Pennsylvania before university starts up again. So yeah, like summer just flew by, as did those past 7 years.

On another note, I see you have written an update to The Book of Marzarbul :o) Super excited about that, I can't wait to read it!

Glad to see you and your Mom are doing well. I'll try to keep in touch more often and not let the days turn into months and years. Thanks for the nudge!

Mira

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

You are welcome. I've missed you terribly.

Yes, i've made considerable headway with Mazarbul, although they are still years away from even launching the campaign. This is a long and slowly progressing story, I am afraid. Also, I am slowly migrating from FFNet to AO3, without taking down the old stuff. You'll find the newest versions over there nowadays.

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

It's interesting how some people come and go, and there are others who are a bit more persistent.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

True. I find it sad to lose contact with people I like. But again, perhaps I have too high expectations.

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

In some of my school and all of my training we did rotations, so you'd get to know people for 4-6 weeks, then never see them again. It happens now, too, as I do some teaching, so we have a student here often for 6 weeks, then 'poof' gone. So I've gotten used to a lot of that.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Good for you. I meant people I socialized with for years online, even visited each other in real life, and then they just drifted off. That makes me angry and sad.

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

Ah. yes, it absolutely does.

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

Hope your Mum is able to eat tomorrow.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

We are sticking to soft foods at the moment, but at least she can eat again.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. It always feels like we are the ones who call people to chat, or we are the ones who makes plans for the group. It always seems that we are the motivators in our group. I look back at some of my LJ friends and wonder if they were even still alive or if they just left LJ for some reason. It's so hard to know since we don't usually know real names.

I hope your mum's mouth is doing better now. At least she got to see her friend for a bit.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Mum is a tough cookie. Two days after the visit to the dentist's she insisted on participating in our previous dentist's service, in blistering heat. *g*

Yes, I very much agree with the bit about LJ friends. What saddens me most is the fact that those who vanished from sight are the ones I've met personally (some of them more than once), exchanged snail mail and gifts with and thought to be friends outside of LJ, too.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

I have a friend like that. We were very close, then she moved and everything just got weird. No cell phone service, no reliable Wi-Fi, it just went to pot.

Your mum does strike me as a woman who, when she makes up her mind, is hard to stop. Good for her!