39 days left

[wiseheart]

I had a busy day. It started in the morning with tearing apart a large heap of Kochen und Küche, old Austrian cooking/baking magazines. I took out the recipes I've already tried and liked and a bunch of those I might want to try later and the rest will go to the paper collecting container tomorrow.

It cost me the entire morning, but it was worth the effort. There are lots of interesting, yummy-looking recipes for the weight conscious that I'd like to try after retirement. Mum always complains that she has no ideas what to cook and indeed, we don't make many different things. I'd like to experiment a little when I'll finally have the time; also, not putting on even more weight when I won't have to go to work every day would be a good thing.


Then we went to the Savoy Park shopping centre (very moderate as such places go), to pay the bills (there's the closest post office to our flat), get Mum's meds, do the shopping for next week and have lunch. There's a self-serving restaurant we eat once a week. We bought some chocolate Santas for us as well as for friends and family - December 6, Saint Nicholas's Day, is a big holiday over here.

In Middle Europe Santa isn't connected to Christmas but to St Nicholas's Day, to the great delight of the kiddies, as they can count on another day on which they get presents. Those presents are still a bit special - not so much as they used to be at earlier (happier) times when money didn't rule every single holiday, but still.

You can get an idea about those gifts here:

https://hu.pinterest.com/ekunster/chocolate-santas-bunnies/chocolate-santas/

I know this is no news for the Germans among us, but others might be curious, so I thought I'll share the delight with the rest of mankind. *g*

I also went to KIK (a shop selling a most various collection of stuff) and bought myself a lovely tunic with sleeves to the elbows and large pockets in front. It's light yet warm and supremely comfortable. I decided that I deserve to buy myself some new things after having worn second-hand clothes all my life... with very few exceptions.

I also made some tentative headway with the rewriting of the latest Dwobbit chapter. Having discovered a lot of exciting stuff in John D. Rateliff's The History of the Hobbit, I'm currently trying to incorporate it in my story without actually copying it - not an easy task, but I think it'll be worth the effort.

After that, I made attempts to watch re-runs of Zuhause im Glück but fell asleep after half an hour and slept through the whole thing like a log. Fortunately, it was an episode I've already seen three times, so it wasn't such a loss, but still... Ah, well, I'm on holiday, after all, right?

Comments

[meathiel]

I just followed your Pinterest ... same name as here ... ;-)

We have a KIK in the village as well - they sometimes have nice stuff.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Oooh, great, I'll follow you back at once!

KIK is about the only shop that sells acceptable clothes for XL-sized people.

[meathiel]

I order mine from catalogues mostly by now ... BonPrix, Happy Size, Otto ...

[artemis10002000]

Absolutely, nothing wrong with that, you gotta use the holidays to relax, too.

You have my sympathies for wrangling that stack of newspapers. It's a good start to making room. I always find myself tempted to buy cooking/baking magazines around Christmas time but I forbade myself this year, no space for even more books and magazines. They pile up so very much.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

They do, unfortunately. But at least it's done now, and by sorting them into different folders it will be easier to find what I'm looking for - hopefully!

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

Good plan with the cooking magazines, you can group the recipes into favourites and try-outs, and cut down on guff.

There are two types of chocolate Santa in the UK. The old, traditional version is hung on Xmas trees and made of the cheapest, most disgusting chocolate known to man.
The second, more modern version comes from the posh chocolate shops and is made of expensive but good quality choc, but they're not really connected to anything beyond the Mammon tradition of getting people to spend money!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

you can group the recipes into favourites and try-outs, and cut down on guff.
That is a master plan, yes.

You tell me that cheap, disgusting chocolate is a universal constant? That's a sad, sad thing. We've seen quite an offer on chocolate Santas today, and some of them are really charming. I'll have to take photos of the few we've bought for you. *makes mental note*

We usually buy them for their looks, even if they're made of horrible chocolate. Those Mum crumbles into her coffee and swears that the taste is suppressed by that of the coffee. I never tried; destroying precious coffee is a sin in my eyes. But using them for baking is a good solution, too - they work well enough as chocolate icing if I give one piece of dark chocolate to the mix.

[ambree40.livejournal.com]

I only got into your LJ today. So, may I ask, is the "39 days left" the period to your retirement? Do you feel excited about it?

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Indeed it is, and I have rarely been so excited in my whole life. ;)

[ambree40.livejournal.com]

I can recommend retired life 100%!!
I had planned lots of things before I retired. I did none of them and just went with things that came along. It was/is wonderful! :-)