Soledad's Journal

Quite literally. It started with strong winds, lightning and thunder and continued with heavy, heavy rain. As expected, the balcony yielded to the power of nature - there were at least two litres of rain water in the bucket that is the last station of my catastrophe prevention system. In fact, the rain even came in under the windows, which never happened before!

Still, there was no real damage - except for the total lack of sleep, which left us both completely flattened for today. I did a bit of work on the baby book (deadlines don't care about sleepless nights), we decided to leave the rest of the stuffed kohlrabi for tomorrow and just ate soup for lunch and basically slept in front of the telly.

My friend Evie called in the middle of this vegetating, and we discussed the stormy night. She lives in a small house on top of a hill and was fairly scared at some points. Fortunately, her garden didn't get damaged, although the entrance to the ground level of the house stood under water. Not enough to get into the house, though, so that's good.

H. (the grandmother of Little Emma) called, too. She's down with a fairly bad cold (again), which Emma caught from some play-mates and generously shared with the rest of the family. The kids are over it already; H. on the other hand, is not. It's strange how toddler germs can knock grown people out.

The dams have broken on several places again. More people lost their homes. I feel almost guilty for sitting here in safety, planning my holidays. The Danube is more than a metre higher than usually, all quays are under water now and closed for traffic. It's just a week ago that Mum and I were on a sightseeing cruise with one of the school classes... things can change really fast. They say the peek of the flood will reach Budapest somewhen in the middle of the next week.

Speaking of holidays; Mum and I were to the Great Market Hall of Budapest, to buy a few souvenirs for our trip to Romania. She wants to bring little prezzies for her old schoolmates; they're having a school reunion. the_wild_iris, if you indeed manage to come over in the summer, I'll just have to take you there. I think you'll enjoy it greatly. Granted, there's a lot of kitch, like at all tourist joints, but also a great many of beautiful, beautiful things, like wood-carvings, embroidery, china and all other stuff, very specifically Hungarian.

Also, I might be able to meet lissas_elves in Vienna, in early August. Mum didn't need much persuasion to make a three-day-trip or so, assuming she'll be strong and healthy enough for it. Until then, we'll have had time to recover from our actual holidays in Switzerland (8 days by bus!), and perhaps she can meet her old buddies in Vienna, while Lissa and I hang out.

New "Toreador Chronicles" update on FF.Net and hiddenrealms. I'm quite pleased about it, though it's one of those narrow-audience-stories again... even more so than my other stuff. Perhaps better so. I'm not very nice to that annoying little snot Justin, and QAF is another rather vicious and petty fandom.

The flood is here again. It's not as bad as last time but bad enough. If people could understand that flood areas are called that for a reason and stopped building houses there, things will be easier, but when did mankind listen to reason? Why start now, right? Ah, well, I still feel sorry for them.

In three days' time we'll be off to Stockholm. I'm very excited to finally meet disthrainsdotte in person. She's such a good friend, and I don't get to meet my online friends so often. If only there weren't flying involved! I'm already scared witless. But it can't be avoided, I'm afraid.

After that, flat redecoration is on the programme. *shudders* But it's beyond time. Still, not something I'd look forward to. Will swallow a lot of precious school-free time, too. Well, it must be.

Oh, and happy birthday, edge_of_ruin! I know I'm late, and I'm sorry. Somehow, I always manage to be late with birthday wishes. *is ashamed*

So, that's it. Off to go to the hairdresser's. Must look respectable when in Stockholm, so that Dís won't be ashamed about me. ;))

I already told you about the Archaeology Park, so I can spare that topic. *g*

Elections
They were fun, with lots of childish pouting and name-calling among politicians, especially on the side I consider "the others".
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Our Easter concert
We sand three Hungarian Easter chorals, two- and three-voiced ones, a two-voiced piece by Händel, an absolutely fabulous four-voiced one by Pitoni, an Alleluia canon and a Bach choral.
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Flood report
We still aren't completely safe. Apparently, it'll take another fortnight till they can stand down from flood alert.
( Read more... )

So, that was my weekend, basically. Aside from making asparagus for lunch on Sunday. With parsley potatoes, ham and cheese sauce. Yum!

... none of which is terribly interesting.

Well, one more day left from Easter holidays, at least for me. Mum has to go to work tomorrow already. To be perfectly honest, I'll be enjoying to have that last day for me alone. *looks ashamed*

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The flood has moved to Bulgaria and Romania, poor people. The Danube entered the fields kilometers deep in Romania, despite the controlled floodings they had done in advance. The water levels haven't been this high in decades, and the dams are breaking all over the country.

This week will be hard. In exchange for having an additional day to the holidays, we'll have to work on Saturday, which sucks. Especially as the annual class trips are scheduled for that day, meaning that we'll be with the kids the whole day, instead of four or five or six hours. Oh, joy!

I didn't go to yoga again, after all. The first session almost dislocated my right shoulder, and it hurt for weeks afterwards. Too bad, I actually liked most of the exercises, plus it was free. I might have to return to the fitness studio, after all, like it or not.

The second round of the elections will be on Sunday. Nothing is certain yet, so we're a bit anxious. Will be a turbulent Sunday anyway, as it's the day when we have our Easter concert as well. I got to sing the contralto solo in two pieces, but not alone. I'm a bit disappointed, but not overly so. Some pieces have beautifully deep parts, even I have to make effort to get certain tones out, but it'll go, hopefully. Will have to take good care of my throat in the next couple of days.