Soledad's Journal

My cold is developing nicely. I've moved on from the stuffed head phase to the running nose phase. Whether that's a positive thing or not, it remains to be seen. At least no sore throat, no chest soreness, no coughing and no fever. So it's just a simple cold which I had achieved by running to and fro from the overheated kitchen to the unheated balcony during my baking frenzy.

Other than blowing my nose every thirty seconds it was a peaceful day. I've postponed the grocery shopping for tomorrow, deciding that one more day in steady warmth was in order, finished decorating the Christmas tree and even started working on the upmost piece of my depressingly high pile of things-that-need-mending. We had leftovers, so there was no need to cooking, and aside from the physiotherapist lady's visit nothing really happened. I took two short naps, read some fanfic and concentrated on recovering. *g*

The tree:


I also started to post my decades-old (started in 2003 and never finished)Alternate Voyager stuff to otherworlds_lib, inspired by ApostropheN's series over at AO3. Mine will get there, too, eventually - I just hope no-one will accuse me of plagiarism, seeing that mine is twenty years older. But you never know.

To use a common internet expression, I'm totally peopled out - even though in a good way. *g*

The afternoon with my oldest cousin was really pleasant. The three of us were playing the remembering game (he's 13 years older than me, so he remembers even more about family history) and his son, also in his 50s, was listening with great interest. My alcohol free punch was a great success again, together with my cookies, and we caught up with family gossip.

After they left, my friend Eenie dropped by to fetch her last box of cookies. Then we watched the GBBO re-run and are now ready to allow the rest of the day to drift away from us.

Many heartfelt thanks for the lovely Christmas cards received from:

red_day_dawning,
meathiel,
curiouswombat,
noadvertising,
the_wild_iris

I'll keep adding names when more cards arrive. You are the best, folks!

I've made the flourless almond cookies today, for my friend Evie's sake, who has recently developed gluten intolerance. They turned out well enough, but if I ever make them again I'll use ground almonds instead of chopped ones and will skip the cooked chocolate filling for simple ganache. Or chocolate butter cream.

I also cooked lunch: Kleingehacktes with mashed potatoes, which Mum appreciated very much. This is a dish from our childhood that I improvise from time to time because I don't know how Grandma used to make it. But it's yummy, so I don't really worry about it.

For the rest of the day I was mostly lazy. I read fanfic while the physiotherapist lady was working with Mum, then I took a nice, long nap, and then we watcher the Great Christmas Bake-Off. After that I prepared some things for tomorrow's baking round - the beginnings of the ma'amoul dough need a night in the fridge because they contain semolina. I never made this particular recipe before, so I'm a bit anxious, but I hope it will work. Apparently, this is how they make ma'amoul for Christmas in Nazareth, so it would be very fitting. Last year I made the idiot-proof Iranian version. I'm going to make two different fillings, one with date paste and one with walnuts and cardamom; I'm looking forward to what they'll be like.

In theory, I've got two more sorts of biscuits on my baking plan. But if I feel too tired by Friday, I'll simply skip them. Too bad, as those are some of my absolute favourites, but I'm only willing to keep baking as long as I actually enjoy it.

Otherwise known as St. Lucia's day. The day when you're supposed to plant the germinated wheat seeds, so that they'd sprout on Christmas Day.

First of all, I want to thank everyone who wished us luck with the concert and crossed various appendages. I'm happy to report that it worked! We got every piece right, I managed not to mess up my tiny little solo part in the Coventry Carol, and people were enthusiastic about the performance. Phew! That was another great chip off my shoulder.

Eldest cousin, who was supposed to visit us with his son tomorrow cancelled the visit. He caught some sort of virus and doesn't want to share it with Mum, which is very considerate of him. On the one hand I don't mind having a quiet day after this week - even if we're planning to do the laundry and I'm planning to use the unexpected time off for some baking. On the other hand I'd have preferred to bring all my obligations behind me and have some peace and quiet next week.

Ah, well, at least I'll be able to write my Christmas cards tomorrow and post them on Monday. I've already selected them and prepared/decorated the envelopes, so it ought to be possible.

I've been seriously sleep-deprived lately. Which is my own fault - staying up reading fanfic till 2am when I have to get up six hours later isn't the most intelligent thing to do. But the late night hours are potentially the most undisturbed ones, and I've discovered this interesting Voyager AU series a week or so ago and have been binge-reading it ever since. The overall angle is a bit too gay for my taste (I've left my very slash phase behind years ago), but considering the author it isn't surprising. But the re-imagining of the canon episodes (well, most of them anyway) with a different set of canon characters is brilliant, the world-building is highly imaginative, and all in all, it is a good read. I'll probably add a link to telekis_vendiak, my fic recommendation comm later, if the author keeps up the quality.

Of course, such short nights mean that I need serious naps on the next day, but that's doable. Usually. Unless I have to leave the house, which complicates things. *g*

Today I went to our on-site concert rehearsal (after visiting the grandparents in the churchyard). The rehearsal went surprisingly well; much better than Tuesday's regular practice, in fact. Perhaps because we didn't have piano accompaniment (our pianist lady couldn't come) and we found our tune better that way? We'll see how it goes tomorrow, when we'll have extra practice. *fingers crossed*

On my way home I did a bit of grocery shopping; well, half of it, as it became dark while I was at Aldi, and the maze that is the Lidl parking lot can't be safely navigated in darkness. So I'll go to Lidl tomorrow. I found some lovely baking supplies at Aldi; supplies that I don't actually need right now but that might vanish by the time I'll need them, so I bought them. They'll keep.

My friend Evie called after I go home and we talked for about 40 minutes or so. We had a lot to catch up, as we hadn't talked for a week, which is a rare thing for us. So, now we're both well informed about each other. :))

Still fairly dead. Still having the problem of best laid plans going awry. My brilliant idea was to do the grocery shopping while the physiotherapist lady is with Mum, put the groceries I bought away and then go to choir practice. The PT lady was late today, which lead to only half the shopping being done. Meaning that I'll have to do the other half on Thursday, when we're also having a rehearsal on the actual location of the concert. Joy, joy, joy - NOT!

Choir practice was fairly miserable today. Instead of getting better, we seem to get worse each time. I hope we'll have a halfway acceptable performance on Saturday, but I don't put my hopes too high. If only M. (our choir leader) would learn to adjust her way too ambitious expectations! We're just a bunch of middle aged (or older) women, for God's sake, not some big professional choir where the average age is 25 years! Ah, well, I'm taking a break after this anyway.

So, it was a stressful day, and I might even caught a cold somewhere along the events. Aspirin+C for the night is on the plan. I can't break my six-years-without-and-illness record right now, can I?

I did the big cleaning today. Took me roughly five hours, all things considered. Cleaning the kitchen wasn't originally planned, but with all the baking lately it proved necessary. And now I'm dead.

To wind down, I called Erna (our art teacher and a friend for 30 years) and we chatted for about half an hours. I don't know what I'd do without my friends to talk to, honestly.

I hope the weather behaves tomorrow; I'm planning to gift myself a visit to the big Christmas fair in the city centre as a reward for the cleaning. Too bad Mum can't come with me, but I'll take lots of photos, just for her. Unless it's gonna rain, in which case I won't leave the house.

It was a busy, busy day. For starters, I had to do the grocery shopping. Well, part of it anyway, as I can't do the whole thing in one go, due to the lack of a car - or several extra hands.

Then we had to bring our laundry day forward one day as tomorrow my friend Elise will come over and we didn't want her to be met with the drying washing all over the flat.

In the afternoon I did some more baking. I made a dumbed-down version of Spekulatius, in the form of Stempelkekse, as I don't have the actual moulds for them. I also made these pistachio stars - the biscuits themselves, that is, decoration will be done tomorrow.

Thank God we had leftovers because cooking wouldn't really happen on a day like this.

In the late afternoon H. called to hear my report about the fair. Theirs will take place next week, I'll call her and ask how she has done afterwards.

Just checking in briefly because I'm really dead on my feet.

So, the fair went well, I've raised an impressive amount of money for charity and had lots of fun. I'll upload some photos to Pinterest tomorrow and put up a link in the next post but I really, really need to get horizontal right now.

Cheers!