Soledad's Journal

So, I paid the Vodafone One customer service a visit. The friendly young man listened to me compassionately, but there was nothing he could do. Apparently, even if I had kept my outdated package, RTL would have been taken out eventually from there, too. Ah, well. Annoying, but at least we can watch old episodes on YouTube. I still wish we had the channel, but clearly, this is another small thing that has been taken from us permanently.

On the win side, I visited the craft shop, too, which is next door to the customer service. I bought two packages of tiny little golden bells, so the garish, politically incorrect elephant plushie might get its even more garish decoration, after all. The nervous breakdown of any parents isn't my problem, now is it? *insert evil grin*

In the back of the craft shop there is another, smaller shop (independent from them, just sharing space), where I got me some very pretty grey embroidery thread, in three different shades of grey (fifty would have been the overkill, right?), plus a spool of beautiful silver one. Which I absolutely didn't need but simply couldn't resist. Even though sewing with metallic thread is a real pain. Clearly, I'm a glutton for punishment.

After that, I took the tram to the Savoy Park (mini) shopping centre, where I went to the post office to send the support money for the charities we are affiliated with (well, seven of them, the eighth hasn't sent their cheque yet) and to do the grocery shopping. Needless to say that I couldn't resist visiting the local TEDI, either, and got away with another candle to decorate and another sewing kit, this time a cat. So, the TEDI Teddy is about to get a little kitty sister. Why do I keep buying these things when I have enough unfinished projects to last the rest of my life is beyond me.

To three different supermarkets. Got lots of stuff for a reduced price - most importantly coffee, the price of which has skyrocketed in recent months. Still spent a lot of money; that's the trap behind reduced prices. But in the end I didn't really buy anything unnecessary, so that's okay.

Our café meeting for next Thursday is taking shape. All four invited friends have promised to come - unless some family emergency happens. Unfortunately, that's always a possibility; all four of them have multiple grandchildren, and Elise has to care for her ailing father, too. But we are trying.

Not much else happened. Two of our daytime television programmes were cancelled due to the national holiday in Germany. Why even commercial channels need to replace them with totally idiotic movies every time there's a holiday is beyond me, but it can't be helped.

May you be a more peaceful one than your predecessor was!

For starters, the first day of the new year started peacefully indeed. We got up late, watched the New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, I did a bit of crafting, and then we both took an extended nap.

In the afternoon Mum attended to Mass via telly - unfortunately, it was broadcast from Rome (I think) and was accordingly long and pompous, not to mention that a lady with a horribly shrill voice was translating the whole thing. For an hour and 45 minutes. I don't know how Mum could bear it - I got a headache two rooms farther!

Which means that no intellectual activity was possible in those nearly two hours. Therefore I've started with the decluttering programme. Following elwenlj's wise advice, I began with one small corner: the lower shelf of my bedside table. Hard to believe, but I've sorted out enough paper to fill a large shopping bag; old Star Trek and other sci-fi magazines mostly, that I had once bought in Vienna or got gifted by online friends from the States or the UK. They were pretty, and I had once enjoyed them very much, but I had to admit that I hadn't even took them in hand for... well, for a decade and a half. So I was rigorous and only kept a few selected ones with the episode guides and thematic articles I might be able to use for my writing. I've also thrown out some old fanfic stories I'll likely never read again - one of them was a Sherlock story, printed out in 2012, and not even a particularly good one!

In any case, it was a cathartic experience, not to mention the practical thing to do. Now my background research notes are ordered by fandom and laced in file maps (physical ones), so that I might be able to find them more easily next time I want to pick up one of my never-ending WIPs. *g*

... because today was really stifling. We had rain in the late morning - roughly five and a half drops of it only enough for making the air not just hot but humid like hell, too. We were accordingly dead in the afternoon. I tried to watch some ST-Enterprise DVDs but had to realize that I got terribly spoiled by Mum's (fairly simple and cheap) digital TV. Compared with that, my 30-year-old, analog Samsung produces rather blurred images - it never bothered me before, but after having watched razor sharp digital pictures for the last three years, it was a bit disappointing.

Writing goes forward in small steps, but at least it does go forward. The only problem is that I'm working on a chapter that won't come into play before three entire units get done. But I have to progress as the muses steer me. *sigh*

Crafting-wise I've finished another embroidered card, a rather simple Nativity scene. I didn't even mess up the pattern (too much). When the third prepared design is done, I'll take a group photo.

I've talked on the phone with Heidi and my friends Ilonka and Evie. That was nice. So, there were some good things even on a suffocating day like this.

I wasn't made for this weather. Not even when I was still young, and now, having reached official hag age even less. I hate being this exhausted all the time, just because it's hot!

That said, I made the grocery shopping in the morning, then finished another embroidered card and started the 10th one - and then dropped dead and slept for an hour and a half.

Thank God I didn't have to cook today, we had leftovers and a Radler for lunch, after which we dropped dead again; not sleeping this time, just reading and playing Solitary on Methuselah-the-laptop who's still soldiering on faithfully. *fingers crossed*

Later, I had a phone chat with my friend Evie, and now it's evening again. We've watched two episodes of Richterin Barbara Salesh today, The Repair Shop and This Day in History, and are waiting for the GBBO's Masterclass to come later. Tried to watch the Olympics, but aside from the gymnasts there was nothing that we'd like. A shame, they've promised athletics for today. I haven't been so disappointed with the Olympic Games ever before.

Edit: I want to moderate that last sentence. We've just won our first gold medal: Hubert Kós in men's 200m backstroke. Yay!

I didn't sleep well tonight - I was most likely too dratted tired from all that cleaning. So I got up like a zombie... and went to do the grocery shopping. After that, we had a very late brunch, watched Richterin Barbara Salesh on German RTL, and then I dropped like a log and slept for two and a half hours. So I feel marginally better now... almost human.

Fortunately, we still had leftover pizza and Tütensuppe, so I didn't have to cook. We had an equally late lunch during the second session of Barbara Salesh, and then I lay down with Methuselah-the-laptop, played Solitaire and read some Enterprise fanfic... until the time come from the Masterclass of the GBBO's 6th season. I love watching Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood baking together and bantering all the time.

Neither the baby book nor the felt songbook are bound yet, and I still have to make the last pot holder from Mum's favourite gown that got cut up by the paramedics in February, but I'm eyeing with a new project already. I'm planning to make some lavender satchels like these for the Christmas fair. I got a bouquet of lavender at school on Tuesday, stripped off the flowers, and they are now drying on the balcony peacefully.

Alas, Louise the Younger (my baby sewing machine) has been acting up lately - or I am too stupid to use her properly. So she and I will go to school on Monday, in the hope that Erna, our art teacher can help getting her to cooperate. That is the plan anyway; we'll see if it works. If nothing else helps, I might try my luck with the sewing machine at school.

Reminder: this is Louise

Me, that is. My energy level seems to sink deeper and deeper. The unusually warm weather doesn't help, and this is the first year ever that I actually feel the effects of the stupid daylight saving time. My 8/16 diet is all messed up. I must put my foot down and keep to my time limits, but having supper an hour earlier than before is... problematic. I'm not hungry at that time yet. Ah, well, we'll see.

Not much got done today. I've made two page bases for the new baby book, wrote a bit, typed up some of what I had written earlier, took Mum out for a short walk - and that was basically it. Absolutely nothing worth watching on the telly, and choosing a DVD and watching that would require more energy than I currently have.

Oh, right, we had laundry day, too! But no cooking, save for warming up some Wiener Würstchen for lunch, which we had after some leftover soup. I'll have to think of something to cook tomorrow, and I feel it increasingly hard to come up with an idea. It reminds me of Granny, who kept saying in her last years: "I'll cook anything you want, just give me an idea what to cook!" (In my case I'd add: anything that's quickly and easily made - Granny loved to cook, I do NOT!)

I've cooked for two days in advance because tomorrow the insurance lady will come and talk us to death = a whole afternoon can be written off. So I made all the preparations for lunch; that way I only had to fry the meat when the time came.

Then I collapsed for an hour (yesterday was a very long night because Spektrum Home had brought back "The Repair Shop", which, naturally, started around midnight), until the new episode of aforementioned Repair Shop would start. Some Mum duty happened, though, so I rested for roughly 35 minutes instead.

In the middle of the Repair Shop my friend Evie dropped by for a short visit. Which was very nice, but it means that I'll have to watch the re-run around midnight again = another very short night, since tomorrow I'll have to get up earlier. I got things to do at the post, at the bank, at the pharmacy, etc., before the insurance horror happens.

After Evie left, we watched "Richterin Barbara Salesh" - well the second part of it anyway. Then I finished cooking and washed some of the dishes. We had a quite late lunch - around 16.30 - and then we both collapsed a bit again.

The Canadian Bake-Off ended yesterday and they haven't started a new season. Drat! We'll watch Season 8 of the original GBBO that will start on a different channel, soon, instead.

Again, no crafting done. The morning hour and half in which I can do such things got sacrificed for the slave labour otherwise known as housework. For the second day in a row, and tomorrow won't be any different. I hate it not to have a quiet hour for such things. :(

Pinterest is still acting up, and my main PC starts showing signs of old age, aka slowing down. I'm not happy! A new PC means a new operations system, which is always such a bother!

... because it's still frigging hot over here, and apparently it will be even hotter tomorrow. Joy, joy... NOT!

To make things even funnier, I woke up to the unpleasant surprise that I must have pulled something in my lower back (left side) in my sleep. I do such things from time to time, and it takes forever to heal. It's not that bad right now, just a dull ache and only if I make certain moves - unfortunately, it isn't the same move each time that causes the pain, so that I could avoid it and be done with it. Grrrr!!!

In any case, not being able to fall asleep again I got up and made peach compote before the peaches I bought two days ago would rot, even in the fridge. We're gonna eat it instead of soup in the next couple of days, which means not much cooking, which is a blessing in this heat. No idea what else I'm gonna cook tomorrow; I'd avoid it under normal circumstances, but I'll have to cook for Monday, too, as I'll have to go to places on that day, which will be bad enough. *sigh*

We are still obsessed with watching athletics, but I managed to sew in another page for the songbook and made another little purse. So the day wasn't completely wasted. Go me!

I went for a monster shopping trip at 8am - it was already frigging hot. So I eschewed visiting Aldi, where I had originally intended to buy some more red currants for the planned Ribislschnitten and didn't go any further than the Lidl on the next corner... which, of course, didn't have any red currants. They usually do; in small boxes, for astronomic prices, but they do. Usually. Not when I'd need some and would be even willing to pay their unreasonable prices. So the Ribislschnitten will have one red currant berry per square metre or so. Fortunately, my guest on Tuesday aren't picky. 3-year-old Benny eats anything even remotely looking like cake (well, traybake in this case), so we are cool.

Mum had a visit from her physiotherapist, so social life was happening, too. Then I cooked lunch: parsley potatoes, fried fish (from the freezer) and a salad, for which I used up Evie's last tomatoes and a package of Mozzarella that had been on offer at Lidl. Lots and lots of salad, enough for at least another meal; therefore tomorrow there will be chicken paprikas with boiled pasta.

Crafting-wise the good news is that I've finally finished the front cover of the felt songbook. It was an ungodly task, for reasons I can't explain because my English vocabulary doesn't cover the necessary details. The bad news is that I'll have to master the same task for the back cover. And then I'll still have to bind the book, so... I hope Monica isn't planning to start teaching in the 1st-term classes with this particular song. Because I can't guarantee that I'll be done by the 1st of September.

Other than that, it is hot. So we spend our time in front of the telly, watching athletics. Poor athletes, I can't imagine how they manage to do all that hard work by these temperatures. Save for the African ones, that is.