Soledad's Journal

So, H. came today to wish Mum a happy birthday. Her older sister sent a message from Germany - so nice! My eldest cousin also called and promised to come next week to talk with Mum about old times. Mum was really happy with this all.

I baked Käsepogatschen (=cheesy scones) fresh in the morning. Mum loves them and can never say no to them. So we didn't have lunch, just coffee and scones. Then with H. we had champagne and scones. The whole tin of scones is gone now - not the healthiest diet, but Mum only has one birthday per year. I'll cook something sensible tomorrow.

Crafting-wise I've sewn together the ears of the elephant plushie because I could do them with a much thinner thread, which I had in the right colour. I still need to go back to the haberdashery and buy thicker grey thread, but at least I could make some modest progress.

What else? My neck and right shoulder are still acting up, but that's nothing new. I get that 80% of all times. The few days without it were a blessing but I knew the peace won't last long. *sigh*

The day started rater unspectacularly. I went to Röltex, which is a shop chain for sewing supplies, and found my much-needed red stitching thread. I promptly bought all 5 of them, plus a white one, which ruined my crafting budget, but at least I'm not in danger of running out of thread when a bunny is only half-done.

After that, I went to Lidl and did the grocery shopping. Then I made lunch - of all things ready-made, like the pork knuckles and the potato dumplings - and we rested after our late lunch and watched some telly.

In the middle of this, the intercom sounded. It turned out to be Danny, Heidi's son, who came to congratulate Mum to her birthday. He lives at Lake Balaton but came up to the capital for work-related stuff and made a detour to visit the matriarch of the family. *g*

Mum was over the Moon, of course. I was happy to see him, too; he's a nice kid, although calling him a "kid" while he's over 40 and married with two kids of his own is a bit silly. He stayed for about an hour, helped me to set the stupid mediabox so that I'll be able to watch YouTube videos on the big telly screen in the future, and made promises to get me the "Strange New Words" Star Trek series... somehow. (If he can't I'll try to order the DVDs via the Bestsellers English bookstore, assuming they still do that for their customers). I never knew he was a sci-fi nerd and a Trekkie, too. It turned out, we both prefer the original series...

All in all, it was a very nice afternoon. I hope it won't take another year to repeat it.

A day in the smial. Mum had her hairdresser's appointment - at home, the lady has been doing her hair for nearly two decades and is willing to make home calls for the elderly - so we started the day with washing her hair. I lazed around a bit after breakfast, since we had leftovers for lunch. The hairdresser could come more than an hour earlier, as one of her clients cancelled, which was great. Mum got her perm and looks 20 years younger now.

After the hairdresser left, I prepared food for tomorrow, since our on-site rehearsal takes place at 3pm and I need roughly an hour to get there. I also intend to go earlier, as my grandparents are buried in that very churchyard, and I couldn't get there for All Hallow's. So I'll go tomorrow. Some grocery shopping and a visit at the pharmacy will also be needed tomorrow, so it promises to be a busy day. Again.

And so will be Friday with the extra choir practice, and Saturday with the concert, and Sunday with the family visit... Honestly, I can't wait for this week to be over. Next week I want to bake the last cookies and will try not to leave the house at all, unless it's absolutely necessary.

... ein Lichtlein brennt. Since I braved the ladder and fetched the Advent wreath from the highest shelf of the built-in wardrobe. And the Nativity scene with its internal music box. So yeah, we were festive today.

Nonetheless, life went on as usual. I took down the dried washing, helped Mum with her weekly shower, boiled the potatoes and the eggs of which she wanted to make a casserole, boxed my finished cookies, filled the spicy vinegar into the small 200ml flasks... small things that ate a lot of time nonetheless.

At least I had the time for a short nap and some writing.

As today is November 30 - the feast of St. Andrew - we also called my cousin to congratulate him on his name day. Then I called my friend Eenie and asked her for a lift on Tuesday, before choir practice. I could haul my remaining wares to school using the bus bus Mum was panicking that it would be too heavy and I might injure myself or whatnot. Which is unlikely, but for the peace of her mind I arranged this solution. Now I'll only have to find someplace cold enough at school, so that my Christmas candies won't melt during the night.

Temperatures dropped below zero for the first time in the year. Thank God we have it warm and cozy inside. *g*

It was a slow day. I boxed my ginger meringues, since the icing got hard in the cold. Then I was lazy, save for the usual Mum duties, until 1pm, when I did some cooking: potato cream soup that Mum loves, fried fish fingers from the freezer, parsley potatoes and a mixed salad. Now we have soup for the next two days and leftover salad for tomorrow. I'll have to come up with something to go with the salad tomorrow.

I also ground the walnuts for the next baking session. And did a tiny bit of writing. Solved exactly one crossword puzzle and watched some YouTube videos and a bit of crap telly.

In the evening I called my friend and former colleague, Ilonka and my friend Evie. We chatted a bit over the phone. It was nice. Meanwhile Mum took over the kitchen to do the washing up. So, we were both suitably housewife-y for a day.

Tomorrow I'll take my spiced oils to school. With that, most of my wares are delivered to storage. Only the vinegars and syrups and the Christmas candies are left, but they need to be kept cool, so they'll live on the balcony until the day of the fair.

I've finally brought up the energy to make the spiced oil for the fair. It isn't a complicated process in itself: put the spices into the bottles, fill them with oil, screw on the lid and it's done. It was the sterilizing of the bottles that took time: first in boiling water and then drying them completely in the oven, otherwise the oil could get mouldy. Also, these were tiny little 50ml bottles, so that made things a bit complicated, considering the sausage fingers I'm "blessed" with. One lid broke a bit, which I fixed with super glue... getting half the stuff all over aforementioned sausage fingers. "Fortunately" I had a bigger bottle of which I had to scrub the label - with a metal mesh sponge, as these things are probably also glued on with super glue - and when I finished the job 40 or so minutes later, I had managed to scrub the glue from my fingers as a side effect. Life is fun. [insert sarcasm]

While working on the spiced oil bottles, I found three 100ml flat bottles I had forgotten about. These are the ones for ginger syrup. So I decided to make more ginger syrup, since I had some grated ginger in the freezer. Well... let me tell you, grated ginger isn't the right source material for this thing. It soaked up all the liquid, and I had a hard time to press as much of it as possible through a sieve. I also had to fill it up with lemon balm syrup, but even so, I only got enough to fill two bottles. Ah, well, perhaps later I'll make a tiny amount for our own use.

That pretty much ate my whole day. Luckily, we had leftovers from yesterday (honey chicken, parsley tomatoes and a mixed salad), so I didn't have to cook. Even so, the dirty dishes piled up in the kitchen. Mum, who insists to do the washing-up, was mildly shocked (even though I wash up everything I can during the process) but attacked the pile like a trooper. The funny thing is, she was more energetic than usual afterwards, even though she felt very tired.

Weather-wise we are having rainy days; only outside the flat so far; let's hope it stays that way. *fingers crossed* I'm still not happy about having to do the grocery shopping in rain tomorrow, and our excursion to H's place on Saturday would be also nicer in dry weather. But as long as the water stays outside I'm not complaining (too much).

... is in full swing in our house. I've made more Christmas candy today: chocolate-orange-cardamom fondants (72 little pieces) and Marzipankartoffeln (48 pieces). The latter ones are bagged already - they made 6 tiny little bags - the former ones have been wrapped in tinfoil and are sitting in the fridge, waiting for their outer layer (Lindor ball cellophane wraps) to be added. Then they'll be bagged as well.

I also called Erna (our art teacher) about storage space, and we agreed that I'll take all the non-edible things to her room at school, where they can wait till December 3. We are talking about little sewing kits, cherry pit pillows, mini lavender sacks, embroidered cards, tinfoil garlands and the likes. The edible stuff will be transferred at a much later time, with the help of my friend Evie, who does have a car. 50+ jars of jam weigh a ton, even though those are really small jars. Plus the ginger syrup, the spiced oil and vinegar, which I still have to make, the candy... this will be a grand fair indeed!

So, I was fairly busy all day; thankfully, we had leftovers for lunch. I talked briefly to H. who doesn't sound very happy about life in general. Mum, emboldened by our trip last week, has begun speculating about taking a cab and visiting H. Granted, it would cost a fortune, as H. lives in one of the outlying villages, but as Mum rightly pointed out, we can afford it once in a lifetime. Of course, if I went alone it wouldn't cost me a cent, as I've reached official hag age and can use all means of transportation for free, but Mum can't do it. We'll see. I'm not adverse to the idea.

We had laundry day. It is Saturday, after all.

Then I had to make lunch. I made potato cream soup - it turned out very yummy, which is a relief. Mum loves soup, all kinds of soup, and I try to keep her happy. There are too many foods she can't eat anymore since she no longer have the required amount of teeth. I made toasted sandwiches for afters, as we had leftover bread that needed to be used up. That I cut a fingertip with the potato peeler in the cooking process was but a small inconvenience.

In the "keeping Mum happy with the help of food" department I'm going to make Topfenknödel and cheesy scones tomorrow. Healthy food is overrated.

I did a tiny bit of crafting - no actual progress, as I simply got another idea about another detail that I added to the dressing room page, so basically I'm still where I was days ago. *sigh*

I missed my afternoon nap; too many stupid YouTube videos, then I couldn't fall asleep because my eyes were tired from staring at the iPad for an hour or so. I tried to rest them a bit, lying down, and when I suddenly jumped up because the landline rang, I got dizzy. Not much, just a bit, but it scared me; and reminded me not to take my comparatively good health for granted.

The best part of the day: I managed to talk Erica (another former colleague) into joining us at the café outing. I'll have to ask the café whether we need to reserve a table in advance, seeing that we'll be seven people... or so I hope.

Again. I woke up with the firm decision not to go. I don't feel up to spending two hours practicing pieces I don't like and seething about favouritism. So I stayed home, did a tiny bit of crafting on my felt book project and took a nice, long nap.

That was the afternoon. In the morning I went grocery shopping, spending a sh*tload of money that always lifts my spirits. Not that I'd have bought anything unnecessary; well, except the four cans of iced coffee in three different tastes. Everything else was just normal, everyday food stuff. But hunting them down for a reduced price always gives me the proud feeling of accomplishment. *g*

Mum had her weekly physiotherapy session. The weather remains unusually cool; fortunately, the heating has started. Just enough to keep the temperature pleasant in the flat when turned up fully, but it's enough.

We ate the last remains of the cake today. Tomorrow, I'm going to make cauliflower Strudel (noadvertising, cover your eyes), with ham, creme freche and grated cheese. That will serve us for another two days; fortunately, I bought a big heap of Tütensuppe at Aldi today, which always makes cooking much easier. I'm not a soup fan, but Mum loves soup, all kinds of soup, so I like to keep sources in the house. Although I might make potato soup from scratch tomorrow if I can bring up the enthusiasm. We'll see.

I overslept again. Only by 20 minutes, but that was enough to make my morning schedule fairly hectic. Especially as this is our laundry day, and I had to fill Louise (the washing machine) before Mum would get up. Well, I almost managed to be done on time. Almost. The fact that I also had to empty the balcony in preparation for tomorrow's cleaning didn't help.

Morning routine being over, we took a short walk in front of our ten-storey concrete monstrosity. Only a short one because Mum's bad knee was acting up. Small wonder; in the last couple of days we had at least three abrupt weather changes, with drastic rises and drops of temperatures. 90+-year-old joints are not made for such things.

We came back, started the washing machine and I made lunch. Only a simple one: plum soup and Käsespätzle. Still, it took enough time for Louise to run her cycle, so I could hang up the washing afterwards. Joy, joy, joy.

At least after lunch we both had a period of peace and quiet. I watched some inane YouTube videos, made some more surprise packages for the fair (having rediscovered small items to put into the boxes), and then worked a bit on my dollhouse themed quiet book. Among the rediscovered items were a bag of glow-in-the-dark shapes, little stars mostly, two of which I decided to use as the dressing room lamps. This is my first quiet book with built-in illumination. *g*

So, that was my busy Saturday. Tomorrow will be the second part of my scheduled cleaning: the balcony, mostly. Which won't be that bad, seeing that it's now almost completely empty. Just a table and two stools need to be brought in in the morning, and then I can buzz through like a crazed lawnmower.