Soledad's Journal

Our janitor showed up today and repaired the light switch in the living room that had a contact problem (the light switch, not the living room) and the sparkling wall socket in my bedroom. He also brought the locksmiths with him, so the balcony door will hopefully be fixed in the not too distant future. We forgot to ask the locksmiths to take a look at the toilet door, which we haven't been able to close properly for years - but perhaps we can do so when they return to repair the lock on the balcony door. That would leave us with only the disfunctional door of the kitchen cupboard, but that would need a carpenter, not a locksmith. Perhaps our versatile janitor will be able to do something about it eventually.

All these repairs cost money, of course, and while we can afford them, thankfully, the prices are a bit staggering. We'll have to start saving for Spring, when the repairs of the water damage in the kitchen, loo, bathroom and floor are due - that means having all these rooms repainted. Joy, joy, joy. And that is without mentioning all the emptying the rooms, and moving furniture and cleaning up afterwards. *headdesk*

In the rest of the day I did a bit of writing, made a horrible soup for lunch (it turns out you can't make a decent potato cream soup out of three rather small potatoes and a teaspoon of creme freche, after all), had a nice, long phone chat with my friend Elise, who's down with a bad cold she'd caught from her three-year-old grandson and watched some telly. Time flies when you're having fun, eh?

I mean the fact that I'm so tired all the time. I know it mostly comes from the fact that I haven't had a day off for over six years but still. The last time I was this drained was almost forty years ago when I left my convent and vegetated at the house of a German friend for several months. But that time it was a quiet nervous breakdown. This time I'm just mentally exhausted, I think.

That said, I made peanut butter cookies today, first thing in the morning. Partly because I had half a jar of peanut butter lingering in the fridge since Christmas and partly because the currently re-run season of the GBBO had cookie day yesterday and that always causes the words cravings in me. Cookies are the thing I find very hard to resist.

So I made the cookies, which turned out excellent... and then nothing for the rest of the day. Absolutely nothing. I took a nearly two-hour-long nap before a very late lunch, then we watched some crap telly, then I had another (much shorter) nap, and now the day is over. I intended to call my friend Evie to see if she came down that steep hill of hers in one piece (yesterday we had lots of snow again) but I overslept, and now it's too late. She's my polar opposite: she goes to bed with the chickens, as we say in Hungarian and gets up with the first light of the day... or before. So yeah. I feel a bit guilty, but calling will have to wait until tomorrow.

... how deep cleaning half the flat (which I absolutely hate to do) seems to have cured my neck and shoulder pain - again. My theory is that the repetitive movements with the vacuum cleaner and the floor mop must have loosened the nerve that keeps getting pinched time and again. Which doesn't mean that I'm planning to scrub the dratted flat more frequently in the future, which I told Mum in no uncertain terms. She laughed her head off.

Aside from the cleaning frenzy I gave Mum her weekly shower, washed my hair, cooked lunch and fed Louise (= the washing machine), so I was properly housewife-y all day. And that on less than four hours of uninterrupted sleep - for some reason I hadn't slept well last night.

Accordingly, I sneaked in a nap after having emptied Louise; then I gave two of my friends/colleagues/choirmates phone calls, and that was basically it. At least I had some semblance of social life.

Neck and shoulders are all but healed - now it's my back that's acting up again. But that's nothing new. Ever since a bad move 30 years ago, when I had to reposition my bedridden grandmother quite frequently, this little problem pops up at irregular intervals. Slept in the wrong position again, apparently. Ah, well, it needs time to right itself, but it usually does.

Other than that, it was an eventful day. I did a tiny bit of sewing in the morning, then made lunch. Then Mum had a visit from the physiotherapist lady, in the middle of which our neighbour - a different one, but every bit as talkative as the one from last week - came over to discuss with me the guy who's made our secure front door 13 years ago. (It turns out, he's still in business.) This mutated into her long-winded report (which she delivered without actually breathing!) about her most recent visit to ER that apparently led to no-where. I lost track after 20 minutes.

A colleague of me used to call such people energy vampires.

Fortunately, the PT lady read my body language (she's known me for 6 years, after all) and came to my rescue, asking for a drink of water from the living room (the verbal steamrolling took place in our front door). Neighbour realized we weren't alone and left. I thanked the PT lady most profoundly, but my brain needed at least another hour to recover.

After lunch I called H. who's still quite ill; only that Little Emma has also caught her bug, so they are suffering together at home. I also talked to my friend Elise, who was very glad to postpone snow-shoveling duty for those five minutes because yes, a ton of snow has fallen during the night again.

As for the rest of the day, I did some more research and even wrote half a scene for a further story that might or might not take shape in the foreseeable future. But it was writing, which always makes me happy.

That's what I've been for quite some time by now. Of course, the water damage only made things worse. And the fact that I'm wasting so much time due to the total lack of motivation isn't encouraging, either. *sigh*

Today I had to cook. Just a simple potato casserole and a salad, but still. I really, really don't like to cook, unless I want to try out something new. Still, it was good; only that it was a one-day ration, which means I'll have to cook tomorrow again.

I thought I'd do a great deal of crafting today. Well... I didn't. I managed to do a tiny bit, about ten percent of what I should have, and then I gave up. As mentioned before: zero motivation. Which is unfortunate, as these poor quiet books have been in the making for a year by now, and I originally hoped they'd be done by Easter, but things don't look very promising in that area.

We watched some telly, in the middle of which my friend Evie called and we talked for about an hour. She lives in one of the outer districts and today she couldn't go to work because of all the snow. Outer districts aren't visited by the snow ploughs often enough, and her house is on top of a steep hill. She tried to leave early in the morning, but her ancient car couldn't deal with the ice, so she was sensible enough to turn back after a few metres. Good for her, bad for the colleagues who had to take over her lessons. Even though she sent them plans and exercises via the internet.

I didn't leave the house today and I'm not planning to do so tomorrow or the day after, either. We'll make do what we have in the fridge and the freezer.

... started with Mum going to the loo well after midnight - and stepping into a veritable puddle. Water damage had escalated during the previous hour and the leakage was coming in through the bathroom, the loo and the kitchen ceiling. I called the janitor (poor man has a 0-24 duty shift) but since we couldn't reach the person living above us all I could do was to wipe up the water and place rags everywhere.

The night after that was... eventful. I got up every two hours to wring out the rags and replace them, thus trying to keep the water from getting into the other rooms. It was fun - NOT!

In the morning the janitor finally reached the woman above us and made her cut the water in her flat. Must be bad for her, too, as the plumber won't come before Monday, and she'll have to get around the problem somehow until then. After that, walls dried up (although still look horrible, as if a dog would have pissed all over them) and we haven't had any more leakage so far. I just hope she won't get impatient and turn the water back on, or else the nuisance would start anew.

So, now we're (NOT) looking forward to dealing with the insurance company and eventually having all three rooms re-painted in Spring. This year really went out with a bang. *sigh*

On more positive news, my friend Evie did actually come to visit us in the early afternoon, and my other friend, Elise, gave us a nice, long call, both of which I enjoyed very much. I also made an enormous sausage roll with a salad, none of which we've actually eaten. So I won't have to cook for the next two days, which is always a blessing.

... brought back the usual routine. We had laundry day, this being Saturday, I cooked a cauliflower-heavy meal (noadvertising would have been horrified), we watched the reruns of the GBBO - and that was basically it.

My friend Evie called, and we agreed that she'll come over on December 30, now that I've more or less shaken off my cold. I expect to be all okay on Tuesday. *fingers crossed* As we say here in Hungary: a cold is over in a week when you've seen the doctor; without a doctor it lasts a full 7 days. *g*

Inspired by ApostropheN's interesting Alternate Voyager series over at AO3 I've dug out my own attempt from twenty years ago. I kid you not: I started posting my version to FF.Net back in 2003, got as far as 20 parts... and never finished. I actually might pick it up again. We'll see. The sad truth is, I've got way too many unfinished WIPs. I had high hopes to pick them up and finish them once I'd retired, but as we all know, life had other ideas. *sigh*

Still, my New Year's resolution will be to try and do some more consequent writing. We'll see how far it gets me, considering that the next picowrimo session isn't due before March. But I'll try.

Have some virtual Christmas cake. My somewhat lopsided Russian Cream Torte might not look very professional, but it is very yummy:



Other than finishing the cake, I had a somewhat rotten day. Woke up during the night nearly every hour and was accordingly dead when I finally got up. I've made Christmas dinner, which we didn't eat because neither of us had any appetite. On the plus side that means I won't have to cook in the next two or three days, which is always a blessing.

I tried to take a nap in-between domestic duties but every time I found an hour to lie down, either the phone rung or a neighbour came over. My cold is still in full swing, so all in all I feel like death warmed over. At least we'll sleep in tomorrow, as Mum intends to watch the midnight Mass, which means we won't have to get up earlier tomorrow. Small blessings and all that.

Heading towards the longest night of the year (at least on our hemisphere), we have been accordingly sleepy and lazy all day. Granted, we did the laundry - well, actually Louise the Elder did it, but we had to fill her belly and empty it after she was done, plus to hang the washing up - but that was basically it. Well, save for making Topfenknödel for lunch, but that was quick and easy work.

I've dug out the artificial monstrosity that has been serving as our Christmas tree from the built-in wardrobe, put it together and brought out all the decoration. Then I stopped there. I didn't felt up to the challenge to actually start decorating it, what with my incubating cold that I've been battling with the help of good old reliable Bayer Aspirin and the Neocitran hot drinks. So far all I have is a somewhat stuffed head, a bit of a sore throat from time to time and the occasional mild cough. I hope I'll be able to keep it at bay. *fingers crossed*

So, the artificial tree is still naked. Instead decorating it I had a short nap in the morning and a nice, long one in the afternoon and it was delightful. We then watched the GBBO, I called H. to check on her and had a call from my friend and (also retired) colleague, Ilonka. So, there was more people-ing, but at least I didn't have to dress up for it. *g*

So, I've gave the fancy ma'amoul recipe a try. Mostly because I had some date paste, ground walnuts and semolina flour that needed to be used up. Well... if I ever make ma'amouls again, I'll certainly return to the idiot proof Iranian version. These aren't bad per se, just not worth the effort that went with the making.

Not much else got done today. I called my cookie customers to tell them that I'm done and they can fetch their biscuits any time they want, watched some telly and was basically lazy for the rest of the day. Lazy is good. Especially when one doesn't need to cook. *g*