Soledad's Journal

It started, as usual, with getting up an hour earlier than on workdays because Mum wanted to attend to Mass via TV. I did a bit of writing during that, just jotting down some world-builing ideas, lest I'd forget them.

Then I spent half the afternoon with writing labels for my Christmas wares-to-be: various jams, sugar paste candy in different flavours, honeycomb toffee, brittle bonbons, ginger syrup and the likes. Still have to make labels for marzipan potatoes, spicy salad oils and salad vinegar. The next step will be making cellophan bags for all that candy... and then more little baskets. *sigh*

It is tedious and time-consuming, but I'll be thanking myself profousely when the time for making the actual edibles comes and I won't have to bother with the packaging.

Afterwards, we ate the leftovers, then we both rested a bit before I had to go to our concert. It was 30 degrees; my only nice white blouse has long sleeves and is of synthetic material. 'Nuff said. I also visited the grave of my grandparents before the concert, since they are buried in the columbarium of the church where the concert took place. So, that was practical.

The concert itself went well enough, save for one unfortunate mistake that, luckily, wasn't realized by the spectators. My feet suffered from all the heat and from having to stand a lot, though, so I'm pretty drained right now.

Now I'm up to 5 and have nearly run out of the 1 cm wide paper strips. I'll give the slightly wider - and delightfully patterned - ones a try next. Hopefully the design will work with them, too. *fingers crossed*

I skipped choir practice today (again). Had it been a regular one I'd have gone, considering that we have our term-closing concert on Sunday. But there was planned the good-bye "party" of our little diva, the soprano solist who presumably won't join us next term anymore and I just didn't have the time to waste for that. We'll have an extra practice on Friday, so I'll take part on that one. Yeah, I know I'm petty, so what's new?

Not much else happened. We ate leftovers, I fetched my alarm clock from the horologist and made a quick trip to Lidl for milk, yogurt and ice cream. As usual, they didn't have our favourite, the salted caramel one. From the brand we favour they only had walnut ice - huge staples of it. Their freezer is always full with walnut ice, I don't know why they keep ordering it as nobody seems to buy it. I bought strawberry flavoured Vienetta instead, but caramel ice would have been so much better. Or the coffee one. Ah, well.

The weather is warming up again. It was 27 degrees today but it felt more as the wind has stopped. I mean, I'm glad we can open the windows again without having to nail down everything first, but the heat is so not mine.

Choir practice got cancelled today because our conductor had fallen ill. Poor thing must have picked up the virus that's running its circles among the kids. So I didn't get to deliver the cookie boxes as intended, but Eenie and Elise are coming to pick up theirs tomorrow and the day after, respectively.

I put the unexpected free time to good use and made another six egg baskets. Only 12 more to go - unless I decide to make a few spares, just in case I ruin a few during painting, which is a distinct possibility. Still, it's a relief that half the required numbers are done. I hope I can finish the whole project by the weekend and can distribute them among my fellow choir members next Tuesday.

Not much else happened. Mum had a visit from the physiotherapist lady, we ate leftovers and rested a bit. My friend Evie called in the middle of the GBBO and talked to me till the middle of "Salvage Hunters", so I didn't see much from either. It wasn't a problem with "Salvage Hunters", I already saw that episode, but this season of the GBBO is shown for the first time, so I was a bit miffed about it. Only secretly, of course. One should appreciate when one's friends call. :)

PS: Oh, and the ads have arrived in the meantime. *sigh*

Four of the six elephants left the house today. Emma and Lilly, the baby elephants, went to financial advisor guy's granddaughters. Ellie and Lola, the adult floral elephants went to my friend Elise's grandsons. Now only Fanny and Flora are left. Fanny will stay, as Mum has claimed her; Flora will go to a new home eventually. It's stupid, I know, but I was a bit sad to see them go, even though they had been made to be given away. They were so cute together. I hope their new owners will love them the way I did. *secretly wipes a single tear away*

Other than that, we had choir practice today. I'm not particularly fond of the pieces we are practicing right now, but, well, different people have different tastes.

Writing-wise I was more successful. I decided to leave the unfinished Chapter 3 rest a bit, in the hope that I'll get an idea how to tie up some loose threads and started Chapter 4, writing almost an entire page. That's progress, too.

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.

All right, one problem off my list: the new client gateway is established, the screen lock installed (I already hate it), we'll se if I'll be able to use the shiny new thing at all when the time comes. *fingers crossed*

Today I worked on the rag doll's T-shirt, which I'm making from an actual T-shirt of mine: a very nice, lilac fabric, but also very soft and hard to work with. But I won't be discouraged. That T-shirt will be finished tomorrow, even if it kills me (which is a distinct possibility).

We also had choir practice today, which was considerably less satisfactory than usual. Our choir leader only arrived around the end (her hubby is hospitalized), and her deputy was leading the practice instead. Said deputy is a skilled conductor, too, and devoted to her work, but we're used to M, who's led us for the last twenty years and it isn't easy for us to work with someone else. Still, she did her best and so did we.

The physiotherapist lady asked to postpone the appointment for tomorrow. That's okay with me, I prefer it when her session with Mum isn't on the same day as choir practice (it usually is). At least this way we could have or customary late lunch before I would leave for the practice.

Today, I've delivered the Christmas cookies to six out of eight recipients. The others will have to wait until next week, since they no longer work at the school and therefore I couldn't just put the boxes down on their desk in the teachers' room. *g*

Choir practice went well enough in the absence of our choir leader (her husband has fallen ill); her usual replacement took over, which was necessary, considering that our Christmas concert takes place on Saturday.

Our programme is:
- 3 Hungarian Christmas songs, reworked for two voices, which we sing together with the children's choir;
- Bach: Ich steh' an deiner Krippe;
- Karai: A szép Szűz Mária (a Christmas-themed lullaby);
- Fischer: Ave Maria;
- What Child is This (I hardly had to introduce that one, have I?)
- Bach: Gloria sei dir gesungen
- Bárdos: Christmas lullaby
- Csendes a puszta (a piece for three voices, based on a traditional German Christmas song).

This time I get to be in the solo group (meaning two persons each from sopranos, mezzo and contralto), which makes the concert all the more special for me. I only regret that Mum can't be there. I'll show you the recording, of course, but that isn't the same.

In other news, I've almost finished Christmas card #39. It was a very easy-looking pattern yet turned out to be anything but. I'm sure I've made a lot of mistakes, but the really hard parts are done, all I'll have to add tomorrow are a few little details and the card body, which is a relief. I'll try to make a 40th one, just because I've got this thing for round numbers, but if I don't manage, then I don't manage.

My choirmates have brought me some more empty toilet rolls, so more surprise boxes will be made tomorrow. For today I'm completely done in.

Our jubilee concert went well, and the party afterwards was nice, too. I'm very tired now; perhaps can link or post some photos tomorrow.

Good night, everyone.

... but it was to be expected. The last couple of days were rather... intense.

In any case, I started the day with boxing the last two batches of cookies. Then I worked a bit on my 4th little angel; finding the necessary stuff took some time as my "method" is to stuff things in every tiny free space I can find at any given moment - and then forget where it was. But in the end I did find both the felt and the tulle I needed (they were waiting for their turn patiently on a bookshelf behind my back), and now the little angel has at least her undershift finished. Next up: the tulle robe, and then the head and the other parts. Eventually.

After this, we watched "The Repair Shop", and then I felt the need for a "short" nap that lasted an hour and a half. Consequently, lunch was a hurried affair (leftover soup and sandwiches), and barely had we finished when the physiotherapist lady arrived. After which I left for choir practice.

On my way to choir practice I dropped by at Aldi to buy some more marzipan stars. I'd realized during cookie decorating that these aren't actually made of marzipan but of marzipan-flavoured sugar. Which is much better because you can keep sugar much longer than actual marzipan, so they were worth the price (even though anything but cheap).

Choir practice went very well, which is a good thing, considering that our big 20-year-anniversary concert is on Saturday. If no-one loses their voice due to some stupid cold or other infection, we'll do well. *fingers crossed*

Another baking frenzy is planned for tomorrow; not for Christmas only but also for the party after the concert. Since I'm making cookies, I can make them in advance, which is very practical. Only the savoury scones will have to wait until Friday evening. So, I won't be bored in the next couple of days. *g*

... can be viewed here. I've made them this morning, to finally fill the remaining little gift boxes after I had made the first 22 teddys somewhen during summer. Originally I intended to do some paper embroidery but decided that finishing the two dozen would be more urgent. Paper embroidery tomorrow.

My "clients" have started bringing their cookie boxes, so I'll start the big Christmas baking this weekend. Eenie also supplied some baking ingredients - she's a very generous and helpful person - like pistachio spread, peanut butter, peanuts and orange blossom water. This year I'm going to make some really interesting stuff. *rubs hands in glee*

Our jubilee concert takes place in 11 days' time, so we're going to have extra choir practice on Friday; presumably a fairly long one. But that's okay, it will take place in the early afternoon, which is much better than in the evening. I hate coming home in dark, unless someone (usually Eenie) gives me a lift.

We had a very active day altogether. Mum had her weekly visit from the physiotherapist lady and the exterminator also had his quarter-year-run. That's more company than we usually have in a week, and tomorrow we expect my friend Elise to show up with her cookie boxes, so yeah, social life at its highest. *g*