Soledad's Journal

... because tomorrow there will be cleaning, and that's bad enough for one day. I made Topfenknödel for today and two days' worth of Mary Berry's Chicken Panang stir-fry with rice and zucchinis and tomatoes. It's a bit different from the original recipe that uses paprika and celery to the zucchinis, but I have to use veggies that we like and that Mum can eat. I love these kind of dishes where everything goes into a large frying pan (well, rice has to be cooked and the meat has to be pre-fried a bit, but still) and is ready in 20 minutes. I also made carrot soup - not the one I learned from curiouswombat because the stir-fry already had ginger in it, but this version is good, too.

All that cooking ate the whole morning, but I still finished two more lavender sachets in the early afternoon and glued on a felt appliqué to a third one; the only one that's already filled, or else I'd have sewn on the appliqué. But I refused to undo the whole sachet just because I got an idea concerning decoration.

The rest of the afternoon was a bit chaotic, with doing a short walk within the building with Mum (since it's still raining), multiple phone calls (none for me, but I had to answer them) and some telly watching. I also called H. (so much for family connections) and had a nap. And now I'm trying to type up the rewritten pages for Chapter 2. That counts as writing, right?

No, not that TARDIS. I mean the highly specific flow of time. People think that just because I'm retired, I'd have all the time on Earth. Well... not quite.

Today I had to go to Lidl in a great haste, as we've all but run out of bread, milk and fruits and I needed to get home before the postwoman would bring Mum's pension. One needs bread and milk for breakfast, after all (well, we need fruit, too), and we wanted to have breakfast before Mum would have to deal with the financial part of like. In this case it meant to count the money several times (just to be on the safe side), changing big notes (that she got) to small ones of equal value (which I had), then count everything again several times, as the notes tend to stick together, and that complicates things. That process about take care of the whole morning.

We still had leftovers, so I didn't have to actually cook. I just made a salad to the remains of pulled pork and mashed potatoes, and lunch was really good. But barely had we finished, I had to leave again, this time to return the empty bottles to that automated... thing, so that we'd get the money back. (Pfand in German, no idea what it's called in English and too tired to look up, sorry).

I left at 3pm and went to school to pick up the eggs I'd ordered (one young colleague managed to reorganize the egg business and I'm one of the few regular clients) and pay for them. Choir practice started at 4.30pm and lasted till 6.30. By that time I was fairly dead on my feet. Fortunately, my friend Eenie gave me the usual lift, so at least I didn't have to drag my shopping bags home by bus. The best part of choir practice was that Erica (another retired colleague) was on Grandma duty and decided to bring her 1.5 year old granddaughter with her. The kid is extremely cute, and she was very patient. She only started protesting against all those old women singing her ears off after an hour and a half. *g*

So, this was another day when time flew by extremely fast. No me-time was included, unless a twenty-minute nap counts. But at least if was full of accomplishments.

It was a quiet Sunday, just the way I like it. Mum had her weekly shower, then she attended to Mass via TV. I did a bit of writing - actually added another page and a half to the last finished chapter of EMV III. because I felt the end too hastily cobbled-together - a bit of sewing and a bit of cooking. Oh, and I took down the dried washing, too!

Today's menu was the nightmare of every self-respecting housewife: mashed potatoes from the bag and pre-cooked pulled pork from the box. Since I'm not a self-respecting housewife, I was very happy that I didn't have to work a lot with them, and since Mum liked it I am well content with the outcome. We also had some peach-and-pudding slices from yesterday for afters, which made lunch fairly respectable IMO.

This was all done with very short (20-25 min.) power naps in-between, some telly-watching (Salvage Hunters had a double episode in the afternoon) and a somewhat longer nap later on. You'd think I tend to sleep away half a day, but after a five-hour night it was really necessary.

Tomorrow will be the storm. The chiropodist lady comes in the late morning and the insurance lady (hopefully; she'd already cancelled twice) in the afternoon. Both are people who breathe through their ears to be able to talk more, so I expect Mum and I will spend the rest of the day with a raging headache. *sigh*

LJ sent me another message to warn me that my (prolonged by them) paid account is running out in 10 days. I sent them a reply, telling them that the methods they have suggested didn't work out, but I would be happy to pay in retrospect should they get things sorted at their end. Or have the money transferred by the bank if they give me an account number. We'll see what happens.

I did half the big cleaning today. And now I'm dead. The depressing thing is, next week I'll have to do the other half. :(

... but I've forgotten what it was. Getting old is no fun. *sigh*

Anyway, today was quite busy again. It started with washing my hair, which is only a 15-minute affair and yet I need serious persuasion (from myself) to do it. No idea why.

I cooked Mary Berry's chicken pasta bake for two or three days, using the second package of fresh Spätzle bought at Lidl last week. It is something we both love, it doesn't require much work, and as I didn't know whether the insurance lady planned to come on tomorrow or the day after, I wanted to have two cooking-free days, just in case.

It turned out she'll only come on Monday (allegedly; I hope she does turn up), so I'll use tomorrow morning to deal with some issues outside the house (like fetching Mum's medicine and a visit to Telekom - again) and Friday to do half the cleaning, namely kitchen, bath, loo and perhaps the balcony, too. As there's still no new cleaning lady looming on the horizon, I have to pace the cleaning carefully.

Ellie and Lola, two of the adult elephants, are about to leave the herd as well. They're going to the grandsons of my friend Elise (both approx. two years old), so they'll have a very good home. That leaves Flora (formerly Fleur) with us for the time being; and Fanny, of course, but Fanny belongs to Mum and will stay premanently.

On the crafting front I've cut out the parts, selected the appliqués and even did a bit of sewing on twelve future lavender sachets. This is going to be a long, ongoing project on which I'll be working on and off in small steps. They are no in the shape where I can set them aside if something bigger or more urgent comes up and then pick them up again.

Mum decided that today was the day when a bunch of crocheted doilies (made by Grandma, back before she'd lose most of her eyesight, that is in the late 1960s and early to mid-1970s) needed to be washed and starched. So we did that today. With that and the crafty preparations, the afternoon was basically over; I didn't even get to take a nap today. :(

Okay, it wasn't really that bad - just very busy.

It started with Mum having her weekly shower. We got up an hour earlier than usual, as she attends to Mass via telly on Sundays, but at least she was all prettied up for it. *g*

While she was at it, I baked these little sweeties, otherwise known as walnut cookies. They turned out very well, it just took quite some time to press the dough for the 52 half-walnuts into the individual moulds.

( Crafting and elephant news )
There was more housework on the to-do list. I made Erbsengemüse (a dish of green peas; no idea if it even exists in English-speaking countries) with scrambled eggs. Not exactly a festive Sunday menu, but that way I got rid of some canned green peas, the last of the cooking cream and two egg whites that were left over from the baking, so I'm not complaining. Plus, Mum likes green peas, and the canned ones are really soft, so she can eat them.

There was also the dried washing to be taken down, the piano (with all the dratted, heavy crystal things on top) to be dusted, the rubbish to be taken out... no wonder I slept an hour and a half in the afternoon!

We also watched some telly, and now the day is over again. I hope the financial consultant guy remains reliable and shows up tomorrow; that way I'd have at least one problem out of my hair.

The insurance lady cancelled our appointment. Again. Just half an hour or so before she should have arrived. Again. Telling me that she's fallen ill (which I don't doubt, she's not the lying sort) took about 20 minutes on the phone. Again. If there's anyone who talks even more than our chiropodist, it's this lady. Now I feel as if my brain has been replaced with sticky cotton wool. Again.

In other things it was a successful day. Both Mum and I washed our hair - she looks very fluffy now, like a doll, someone even remarked on it while we were doing our daily walk on the corridor - I made a cheesecake in the morning, finished Lilly the baby elephant (pic's coming up when the other one is completed, too) and even did some transcribing while I waited for the lady that didn't come.

I really hope I can get this appointment with her behind me, soon. Then I'll have a year's worth of peace. Hopefully. *fingers crossed*

Not quite voluntarily, though, so I refuse to accept the blame!

The insurance lady was supposed to come today, in the early afternoon, to look over my account and do certain things that need to be done. So I was very busy in the morning, making the Apfelstrudel early, so that I'd be free for her, and switching on the big desktop PC at 1pm already, as it needs endless minutes to boot and the websites to load.

Shortly before 2pm, however, the lady phoned that she couldn't go after all. She knew it yesterday already, just forgot to call me. So we postponed our meeting for Friday, which means another daily schedule turned upside down and inside out. Not that I'd be very settled in my ways - wait, I actually am, but that isn't the point here - it's just so that sticking to my schedule enables me to a little (way too little) me-time. So, since I'll have to do some cleaning on Friday morning, that will mean no me-time at all. *sigh*

One good thing came from cancelling the appointment, though: I managed to type up more of EMV III. than originally hoped for. Since the PC was already running and all that. Chapter 1 is now all transcribed... or rather it would be, had I not realized that it really, really needs one more scene to be added. Which I'll have to write yet. But I've started typing up Chapter 2 as well - it works perfectly without the added scene at the end of the previous one - so that was good progress.

Then I turned the PC off and we waited for the exterminator to do his quarter-yearly thing (= profilactic spraying). In that time I worked a bit on my baby elephant - not as much as I'd have liked to, but small progress is progress, too. After the exterminator had come and gone (which counts as the successful half of the daily programme), we watched The Great Australian Bake-Off and Salvage Hunters, had a light supper, I talked to H. on the phone, and now I'm back to the PC to write my shopping list for tomorrow. It's a good thing that both Aldi and Lidl have their online fliers.

... at least where crafting is concerned. Have I said I wouldn't make any new elephants for a while? Well, I won't - not the big ones anyway. But I still had enough fabric left from Grandma's favourite undress for two small ones; that is roughly 40% smaller (and still have enough for two lavender sachets that will eventually be sewn). So, today I cut out the parts for Emma and Lilly, the two very floral, small elephants. A good thing that the dress is now all but used up, or else we'd be overrun by elephants! *g*

Other than that, I did the big grocery shopping today, promptly falling into the trap of reduced prices. Lidl is having their Alpenfest days, meaning that they offer various items from the alpine region's cuisine. I bought a box of pork knuckles (slow-cooked, so they only need 35 minutes in the oven), Weizenbier and two packets of fresh Spätzle, one of which already got turned into cheese noodles for two days. Yum!

I also bought a big box of 10 frozen Pretzels. Two of them served, freshly baked up, as breakfast. Mum and I both love them, but the ones I can get at Aldi or Lidl usually are too hard for her. Now she can have them fresh from the oven, which is great.

All these things basically ate up the whole day (except for a short nap in the afternoon). No writing today so far, but I hope to type up some of the already written parts later on. I do the first correction during this process, so it does count as writing, too - well, kind of.

Social life consisted of a phone call to Erna, our art teacher. Poor (ex-)colleagues are already run ragged, and now the stupid annual Faschingsball is coming up this week, too. Man, am I happy to be retired and able to avoid that mess!

1. I overslept by 45 minutes, having forgotten to set my alarm. So much about getting up half an hour earlier to put my dough together.

2. I did put my dough together for my Spekulaas-flavoured cookies, as they needed at least an hour in the fridge. In the meantime:

3. I made the carrot soup and...

4. ...put together the salad and boiled the potatoes for lunch.

5. I baked the cookies just in time for my friend Elise (who came by to bring me a button-operated phone that I might be able to use) to sample them. She approved.

6. I then finished making lunch (pulled pork from Lidl baked in the oven, with aforementioned salad and Petersilkartoffel, if anyone wants to know), after which...

7. ... we took out the rubbish, so that Mum would get a bit of moving around, too. By then it was over 4pm, Mum then took a nap and I watched two episodes of Salvage Hunter - The Restorers, while working on Lola the elephant in the ad breaks. The programme ended at 6pm, after which I rested a bit with my crossword puzzles, until it was time for supper, and now here I am.

It was a really, really busy day, with - sadly - no writing so far (and unlikely that it would happen later). But tomorrow I don't have anything to do beyond the usual Mum duties, so I might even get a bit of time for myself. *fingers crossed*