Soledad's Journal

Sorry, I don't know a matchingly proper English expression for the subject line. Sometimes I just have to turn to my trusted German for the right phrase. *g*

( Shopping adventures )

So after I came home and we had brunch and watched The Repair Shop, I felt the need for a short nap. Which lasted two hours! I had to be more exhausted than I had thought. In any case, that about took care for lunch: we had instant Fritatensuppe with leftover Rösti and Babka from yesterday, and that was basically it.

( Crafting )

Writing-wise I was successful, too. I've almost finished Chapter 3 - perhaps one paragraphs and/or a few lines of dialogue are left. I hope to finish this particular story in just 4 chapters instead of creating another never-ending WIP. *fingers crossed* At the same time, I'm trying to type up what I've already written. Chapter 1 is nearly done, I hope to finish it tonight and post it to otherworlds_lib for test reading.

Speaking of writing: picowrimo will start in 5 days, assuming there will be any takers. I'll have to make an entry to the comm.

I wanted to give the Solitaire Crime Stories game a try. Since none of those games that use yolla ads work on my desktop PC anymore, I tried it on my shiny new iPad. It worked like a charm - with the only sour point that shiny new iPad doesn't save any games that I've played. So I have to start everything from the beginning, instead of continuing where I have left. Very annoying.

As I said, I gave this game a try, and I enjoyed it very much. Until Level 54, where I utterly failed. After two and a half frigging hours and a massive cramp in my left hand. As much as I'd love to see how the game ends (assuming I'd manage to get to the end) I don't think I'd try it ever again. Not on the iPad anyway, and the chances of any IT-wise person dropping in and doing... something to force the main PC (that usually saved the games) to comply, are zero.

The good part of the day was that we got down to our café again. I also bought a walnut and chocolate Babka for the weekend, which is quite outrageously expensive but so very tasty and soft, and we can slice it so thin that it will last us for three days. Mum absolutely loves it, not just because of the taste but also because she can eat it without problems, despite the low number of her teeth.

I also nearly finished my version of these little angels. Only the face and the hair decoration is left, and I simply used a sparkly foam sticker for the heart. Photo's coming up once I'm finished.

Due to the time wasted on the addictive game, only very little writing was done (perhaps half a page), but a little is better than none at all, right?

So, this was basically our day. We watched the finals of the Great South-African Bake-Off and are preparing to continue with the Canadian version of the show and Dr. Pimple Popper; unfortunately, they run roughly the same time, so we'll do quite a lot of channel hopping. That's all the sport I'm doing these times. *g*

... made the first pencil holder of the year look this colourless:



I mean, yes, it was made with pastel colours, but in life they actually do have some contrast. I might take another photo later, with natural light... this one is very depressing. *grrrr* I worked so much on this stupid thing; the burlap is so loosely woven that I had to put a linen lining under it, and consequently had to actually sew the whole thing, which cost me the entire afternoon. The glued versions are usually done in 20 minutes, tops. So, it ought to look good on the photo at the very least, dammit!

In other news I did the big shopping today as Lidl has American days and offered pulled pork. And American-style chicken breast slices. And sweet chili sauce that I got much cheaper as I have the Lidl+ app on my phone. I also bought raspberries, which are still insanely expensive but Mum loves them (me, too) and can eat them without difficulties, so who cares. My shopping record was high enough to reach the mark where I'll get a free gift next time. They always offer three items, of which one can choose one; I think it will be the apple juice.

Writing-wise I made some modest progress, but considering how hectic this day was I see that as a small victory. It is a funny process right now; I might be doing something entirely different, when a promising sentence forms itself in my head. In order not to forget it, I stop whatever I'm doing and run into my room to scribble said sentence down in my notebook. A good thing I always write my stories long-had; I've acquired an entire new paragraph this way today.

We've also realized that the Cassata Siciliana was too big for the two of us (even though I only made a 2/3 version of the original size). So I took a quarter of it over to our neighbours (namely IT guy and his family). The lady of the house was duly impressed. ;))

I tried my hand on the Cassata Siciliana cake today. It is basically the Sicilian version of a cheesecake, only with a sponge base and with ricotta instead of cream cheese. It contains lots and lots of candied fruits and pistachios - all things I like, so I thought I'd give it a try.

I started with the fairly standard almond sponge, which turned out well enough, even though a bit heavy. Then I attacked the filling. Which was positively liquid at the beginning, despite the gelatin I put into it. I was about to accept that we'll eat it with a spoon, but - miraculously enough - it thickened up just nicely and now can be cut with a knife. Tomorrow I'll make the marzipan band around the cake, the icing and the decoration, and then I'll take a photo.

Still, I'm quite sure next time I try I'll just buy some cremequark (=cream cheese), mix in the fruits and the whipped cream and be done within the hour, instead of slaving over it all morning. I'm too old to waste my time like this.

In other news I've finished the first chapter of the next EMV story and started the second one. I must go with the momentum as long as I'm on the roll. I can type up stuff later, when writer's block hits again, which most certainly will.

I also worked a bit on Christmas card #33. It has 3 identical Christmas ornaments hanging from a green branch... sort of. It is a very abstract branch, but I managed not to mess up the end swirl too much. One ornament is finished, two more to go. That will be the last piece of the horrid orange cards I had in my stock. I'm glad to have them out of my hair, they're so hard to combine with any sensible colour thread I have.

We had leftovers from yesterday, so I didn't have to cook, thank God. Instead, I took a nice, long nap in the afternoon because I hadn't had one yesterday and only got 6 hours of sleep last night, which is definitely not enough at my age.

I also tried to phone to two of my (ex-)colleagues but neither of them answered the phone, nor did they call me back. Sometimes I wonder why on Earth do people have mobile phones when they don't answer them. They could easily do the same with landlines, right?

Little Christmas gift boxes, made of repurposed (empty) hand creme pots:



I think I can find some more empty pots in my craft cupboard, so I might make some more gift boxes for the small purse.

I got two nice birthday cards: an e-card from lindahoyland and a physical one from the_wild_iris. Thanks, ladies, that was very thoughtful of you! *hugs*

Other than that, I finally took Mum to the café for a belated birthday breakfast, We even added a piece of yogurt/fruit jelly cake to the usual menu; yummy, but small and way too overpriced. But I won't turn 68 ever again, so I thought this one time... I'll bake the actual birthday cake during the weekend. A Sicilian Cassata cake is a complicated one, so I need time for it.

I also did a food run afterwards, did some writing (most of which I'm probably going to tear up as I'm not satisfied with it), took a nice, long nap in the afternoon, and now it's evening again. The promised rain hasn't arrived yet, but I'm sure it will come eventually.

Can you believe it? I've actually finished Enterprise - The Maiden Voyage, Part I! Granted, I still have to type up the rest of Chapter 23 before I can post it, but considering that I started posting the story back in 2016 I'm very proud to have actually brought it to a satisfying end.

Of course, now that I've rearranged my stuff, breaking down one insanely long story into a series of shorter ones, I still have a lot of writing to do. I've started working on units of Part II. simultaneously, as well as on the first unit of Part V. With Part IV. already finished and beta read, continuity will be a complicated balancing act, I'm afraid. But at least writing goes fairly well again, and I couldn't be happier.

I've also finished stitching my little angel card; will do the card part of it tomorrow or the day after. We'll see. And I cooked lunch for two days, which means no cooking tomorrow, yay!

... on the crafting front, at least. I've actually mastered the over-complicated Card #29! Here it is:



The two little bells are actually made with silver thread, no idea why it looks simply white in the picture, but that's smartphone cameras for you.

I had less luck in my battle against Telekom that has just doubled my monthly fee. When I called them to ask what the f*ck was going on, they told me I used to have a 50% lowering in the price that has just run out. Needless to say they did not warn me that the price will go up after a certain amount of time, but there's nothing I can do about it.

It's not so that I can't afford the price. It's just the fact that the sneaky bastards never told me the truth about it! *insert swear words of your choice*

Another unpleasant fact is that I had to throw out the remaining mini pizzas from Saturday's party. They might have been still OK, but they were with tuna and mushroom toppings, respectively, so we didn't dare to eat them another day. I couldn't eat anything but toast and boiled potatoes for days, a lot of them was left over, but the last thing we wanted was Mum getting an upset stomach from them, too. (Mine might have come from praline filling that was over its best before date, but that's another question entirely.)

Other than that it was a quiet day. I did some writing - yay, inspiration! - Mum volunteered to cook, and we watched some telly. That about sums it up.

After several days of no crafting (for various reasons), I've finally finished my little lavender sachets for the Christmas fair. I've managed to overlook one bag of them and realized with surprise that I actually have 15 of them, instead of 10. Shows how organized my craft room/study is right?

Anyway, here they are:



They're all quite different in size, shape and pattern, but I hope that won't discourage the potential buyers. Of course, I couldn't get my hands on enough lavender to fill them with the flowers alone, so there's a lot of cotton wool in them as well, but they all smell very nicely, so let's hope they'll sell. I put them into a sealed plastic box to keep the smell inside.

Not much else was done; I was still tired from last week and from the upset stomach of yesterday. I did a tiny bit of writing and watched some Enterprise episodes - alas, on my old, analog telly as I have forgotten how to watch DVDs with Windows Media Player; something I knew how to do once. Encroaching dementia, I guess. *sigh* And I hoped Methuselah-the-laptop would be good for something at least, as it has a nice, large and sharp screen. Ah, well.

Oh, and my lovely beta wrote back that she had received the finished Enterprise story. I wonder what she'll thing about it. *fingers crossed*

I was lazy today. Very, very lazy. At least compared with the week behind me, that is.

Sleeping in wasn't on the programme because Mum got her pension delivered today, and the lady from the post comes relatively early. So we actually got up earlier than usual, so that we could be ready for her arrival.

In the morning I watched a bit of telly, worked a bit on my unfinished lavender sachets and added another scene to the theoretically finished Enterprise story because I had the feeling that the ending was too abrupt. Now I'm content with how it is rounded. Yay! I also wrote down the layout for the next part and one single paragraph, just to remind me not to sit on my laurels.

We had Topfenknödel for launch because the Quark in the fridge was right at its best before date. I made spicy plum sauce to it because the plums I bought last week showed no intention to get any softer, so Mum couldn't have eaten them raw. So I took a quick and easy chutney recipe - please, noadvertising, look the other way because what comes would deeply disturb you, I'm afraid -, took out the onions of it and simply made a sweet-ish sauce, with lots of fresh ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and lemon zest in it. It turned out fantastic.

In the afternoon I watched some telly again, talked to my friend Evie on the phone, worked some more on my lavender sachets and took a nap. And that was it: my lazy day. You might think it wasn't really lazy, with all those activities, but those were things I like doing, with lots of me-time, so it was very relaxing. Even though I'm still sleepy like a groundhog. *g*

Both of us. No, really. We had a visit from the extremely talkative chiropodist lady, and she was in rare form. Can you imagine someone talking in one go for two and a half hours (about topics who are either way outside our interest or positively revolting) without even needing to breathe? We were both totally useless for the rest of the day.

That said, I still managed to finish one lavender sachet and sew on the appliques to the rest of them. Fortunately, such work doesn't require any higher brain activity. I also wrote quite a chunk before Mrs Chatterbox arrived, so that's done for today, too. We had the last rests of the Shepherd's Pie for a late lunch and then we both needed to lie down for an hour or so.

God, my brain feels like a dried-out sponge!