Soledad's Journal

... or rather for Mum in this case. She heroically decided to repair her nightgown on which the side stiches had gotten undone all the way down and asked me to thread the needle for her as her eyesight is too weak for such things. I then offered to do the sewing for her as stitching along a metre and a half would have taken her a week or so, and she admitted she wouldn't mind if I did it. So I did. It took me over an hour, too, so this was definitely the more sensible solution.

I also finished - and filled - one more cherry pit pillow; only seven more to do. Then I cooked lunch, which was far from being fun with the 34°C that we had today and was basically useless for the rest of the day. We watched some telly, I slept an hour and a half, and now we can't open the windows because it's raining, combined with moderately strong winds. But weather forecast promises a drop in temperatures starting Monday, so there is hope.

Oh, and the fig jam pictures, as promised. Choco-chili on the left, triple orange on the right.

Update: Even though it was a mild rain, the balcony capitulated due to the wind. But the rain was welcome nonetheless.

Mum's appointment went well. It took about five minutes, the doctor declared that the pacemaker was working as it's supposed to work, cranked up the pulse from 65/minute to 70/minute (yes, they can do that with a mouseclick, I never thought it possible) because that's supposedly better for the circulation or whatnot at her age, and then we could go.

Of course, the fact that Mum was anxious about being too late and had me call the cab way too early meant that we had to wait for about an hour and froze our assets off due to the aircon that was working at full power made the whole thing a bit less pleasurable. But I managed to steer the wheelchair without accidents, and we drank a bit of vodka when we got home, so hopefully we didn't catch a nasty cold.

In the afternoon my cousin and his current wife came over and brought the figs he had promised. So, on Thursday I'll make fig jam, perhaps even two different sorts of it, depending on how much they weigh. Later on, my friend Evie called to ask how the appointment went, so we had social life like whoa!

And now we're rearranging the flat for tomorrow's cleaning frenzy again. God, how much I hate housework!

... of all that eye-related anxiety was that I slept an hour longer in the morning than in the days of murderous heat. The fact that temperatures peaked at balmy 27 degrees today helped, of course. We're trying to enjoy the relief before the next heat wave hits.

Unfortunately, these abrupt changes in temperature aren't very good for Mum's joints; she's now in constant pain, the poor thing, and adamantly refuses to take any painkillers. On the one hand it is good that she doesn't want to become addicted to them. On the other hand, a bit of pain relief from time to time would do her good. Alas, neither I nor the PT lady can persuade her to do so.

I put the mild weather to good use. First, I wrote a page and a half for Chapter 14 of Sleeping Dragons 5. The finishing of the chapter seems within reach. *knocks on wood* Then I finished sewing together the little pillow cases for the cherry pit pillows. They are now ready for the decorative stitching, all twelve of them. But I'm going to sew together the seven remaining lavender sachets first. Those won't get any decorative stitching, so sewing them together means that they will be ready to filling, whenever I manage to get my hands on some lavender.

I also did some cooking today as it wasn't too hot for making Topfenknödel. After our fashionably late lunch we took out the garbage - that is about the length Mum can currently go: from our door down the corridor to the garbage chute and back. But at least it is some walking. We must try to keep up her condition at least to a very low level.

After that, I slept an hour and a half; then I typed up what I had written today, and now I'll play some Solitaire before we'd watch "The Repair Shop" together.

I've cowardly decided to postpone facing mini-Louise and prepared the bases for the lavender sachets instead. Eight pieces are now cut out, felt appliqués sewn on and I've even added the lace trimming to one of them. So, that means I've got 20 pieces for Louise altogether: twelve cherry pit pillows and eight lavender sachets. Of course, it can happen that I'll have to sew them together by hand, but even in that case they're already pinned together, so I call that progress. *g*

Other than that, we're still cooking in our own juices, and it's supposed to become progressively worse till the weekend. That I had to cook today didn't help, even though it was only French fries and breaded fish from the freezer. The fish, not the fries, mind you. Those I made by hand. Having new potatoes is always a delight, as we absolutely love them. Survival chances have been enhanced by iced cherry compote instead of a soup and ice cream.

Mum is suffering a lot, the poor thing. This heat seems to have a bad effect on her joints. She had the weekly visit from the PT lady today, who was very understanding and didn't drive her too much, but it still took its toll on her. *sigh* At least the days are getting shorter, which means we can open the windows a bit earlier, soon.

I got the tooth pulled today. It was relatively easy and painless. The worst part was that I had to wait for quite some time because the treatment of the patient before me took longer than expected. Not good for my poor, battered nerves!

Also, my phone died on me during the process - for reasons known only to them, Hungarian Telekom decided to take older phone modell off the network. They supposedly texted customers to inform them… I can honestly say that I never got such a text. Fortunately, customer sevice managed to switch my phone back on, but by then Mum had tried to call me six times and was beside herself with worry. I’ll have to go back to customer sevice soon-is; apparently, they exchange old phones for new models for free - I believe it when I see it happen!

Anyway, dental torture pauses until I heal. My next appointment is in September, when prosthetics will be considered. I can live with that.

I gave Mum her weekly shower.

I labelled my little jam jars. I forgot to take a photo, though, but will do so when I regroup them.

I made carrot soup and a salad for lunch to go with the postponed chicken paprikas. Mum approved.

We watched an old episode of the GBBO. Now I am craving cookies. Or cake. I might bake sonething tomorrow.

My friend Evie called. We gossiped a bit.

I’ve typed up some recently written stuff on Methuselah, the geriatric laptop. Since it can’t be connected to the Net, I saved the stuff to a data stick and will upload to my main PC as soon as it is safe again.

And that was basically it today.

We put everything back onto the sideboard and the shelves. Needless to say, neither us remembered how all that trash had been arranged, and I forgot to take a photo, so I couldn't quite squeeze everything back into the same place. Of course, I might have piled up my reserve sugar packs differently, so that the available place wasn't quite the same, either, but that can't be helped. I won't unpack 60+ pounds of sugar if I don't have to.

( Boring kitchen activities )

After a late lunch, we used the last warm day promised to us and went for a walk. It was really pleasant, even though I was fairly tired by then. So I took a nap; then I got up again and finished knitting mini scarf #5 and seaming pot holder #3. Alas, not time or brainpower was left for some writing, but even so, I'm fairly content with my progress.

- I washed my hair.
- I gave Mum her weekly shower.
- I unboxed all the remaining cookies to make room in the fridge for the homemade Schoko-Bons - alas, I didn't get to make them because Mum wanted to cook today, and that means a blocked kitchen for most of the day and an unholy mess afterwards, since she was making Schnitzel, which is a very messy undertaking.
- I worked a bit on my little Santa hats. By my current speed, they'll take forever to be finished, which is actually my own fault: I keep adding more tiny details because I thing they would look cute. They do, but stitching berries on tiny straps of felt is fiddly work. Those berries are small like the head of a steel sewing pin...
- I helped Mum a bit with the cooking, which mostly meant moving heavy objects she can't move herself. The kitchen seems to shrink somehow when we are in it at the same time...
- I watched quite a few idiotic YouTube videos. Blocked a few dozen more channels to prevent temptation. Still not enough, it seems.
- I gave Elise a phone call; she's going to come over tomorrow to fetch her cookies. I hope she can stay a bit this time, even if it means postponing the making of the Schoko-Bons again.

We survived another visit from our talkative chiropodist lady. Like in the recent two times in a row, she asked to watch her favourite series here. I escaped via doing the grocery shopping. Mum endured. Afterwards she talked to her friend (the one that had visited on Monday), who, it turned out is also watching the same series. So she updated Mum about the basic settings. A good thing that the series runs out next Monday. I wonder what the lady will watch next time...

As always after her series, we were both brain dead for the rest of the day. So brain dead that I fell asleep during "The Repair Shop" repeatedly. So I gave up and slept for roughly two hours. Now I feel that I might be able to function again.

That was what we had today. Mum's oldest friend - also beyond 90 - took a cab to us in the morning. They phone each other daily but haven't met in person for years. The old lady lives in a building without an elevator and Mum is no longer in the shape to climb up two storeys to her. So, they had fun.

While they were discussing "God and the world", as the Germans say, I made the iceberg salad for today's lunch. We had fish and chips, which I bought frozen at Lidl and only had to shove in the oven. Not a real delicacy - I had much better fish and chips in a nearby eatery - but it spared me the necessity of cooking, so I was happy to compromise.

When Mum's friend left, I did a short grocery shopping. Then we had lunch and watched some telly. Well, YouTube, actually. Then I called my friend Elise to discuss ways to get her Easter cookies to her. Currently, she spends most of her day in an outlying village because her father needs to be cared for, and her hubby is mostly useless in such things. Alas, we still haven't found a solution; which is bad for me - I want all those cookie tins out of my fridge to make space for real food!

Drained by so much social life, I slept an hour and a half afterwards. Which means that no crafting or writing got done. But my tired old bones - not to mention my tired old brain - needed the rest.


Note: Since DW hasn't allowed me to import I'm beginning to hand-copy my LJ entries I can always delete the duplicates, should the importer recover.