Soledad's Journal

No, seriously. It's the weirdest thing that has happened to me in a very long time.

Today, I finally went to choir practice - mostly because I wanted to visit the Chinese store near to school, where I always buy washing powder, cosmetics and the likes. They also sell ground coffee, considerably cheaper than grocery stores (have you also noticed how the price of coffee has skyrocketed lately?). In any case, I bought all the stuff I needed, then I visited the sewing supplies shop nearby, and finally another shop for household and kitchen utensils, where I found - after literal years of looking - a 20cm by 20cm square cake tin. It wasn't exactly cheap, but I bought it nonetheless. It was one of those must-have things.

Then I went over to school for choir practice and noticed that my always so comfortable shoes felt weird; as if I'd been walking on uneven stones. You'd never guess what was happening: the stupid plastic foam soles of my shoes were crumbling off. I kid you not! By the time I reached school (which was a really short walk) big parts of it were breaking away, and I was practically walking on the inner soles! I was lucky that my friend Eenie gave me a lift home, otherwise it would have been a really uncomfortable trip.

My choir mates pointed out a shoemaker's near school. I'll try to go and get a new sole for my shoes. This is very annoying. It's so bloody hard to find shoes for my puffy feet, they are supposed to last a bit longer, dammit!

Other than that, Mum had a visit from her physiotherapist who's still recovering from knee surgery but can do such short private sessions already, and my friend Elise came over to deliver the ingredients for the baking commission.

I wanted to give the Solitaire Crime Stories game a try. Since none of those games that use yolla ads work on my desktop PC anymore, I tried it on my shiny new iPad. It worked like a charm - with the only sour point that shiny new iPad doesn't save any games that I've played. So I have to start everything from the beginning, instead of continuing where I have left. Very annoying.

As I said, I gave this game a try, and I enjoyed it very much. Until Level 54, where I utterly failed. After two and a half frigging hours and a massive cramp in my left hand. As much as I'd love to see how the game ends (assuming I'd manage to get to the end) I don't think I'd try it ever again. Not on the iPad anyway, and the chances of any IT-wise person dropping in and doing... something to force the main PC (that usually saved the games) to comply, are zero.

The good part of the day was that we got down to our café again. I also bought a walnut and chocolate Babka for the weekend, which is quite outrageously expensive but so very tasty and soft, and we can slice it so thin that it will last us for three days. Mum absolutely loves it, not just because of the taste but also because she can eat it without problems, despite the low number of her teeth.

I also nearly finished my version of these little angels. Only the face and the hair decoration is left, and I simply used a sparkly foam sticker for the heart. Photo's coming up once I'm finished.

Due to the time wasted on the addictive game, only very little writing was done (perhaps half a page), but a little is better than none at all, right?

So, this was basically our day. We watched the finals of the Great South-African Bake-Off and are preparing to continue with the Canadian version of the show and Dr. Pimple Popper; unfortunately, they run roughly the same time, so we'll do quite a lot of channel hopping. That's all the sport I'm doing these times. *g*

So, I've cleaned the dratted flat. With short interruptions (like breakfast) it "only" took me, oh, six hours or so. But I've done it.

Afterwards, I decided that I've deserved a serious treat. Not just for the cleaning, but also for the last four years of no day off, no holidays, no nothing. Therefore I went to the Lindt chocolate shop to buy myself a chocolate bunny; the really big one that weighs a kilo or so. I've been dreaming of one of those for years, but always managed to talk myself out of wasting money that way. Today, however, I was determined to splurge myself.

You can guess the outcome: they didn't have any giant bunnies this year. They had had them last year, but this year the biggest one was 200 gr. I bought that one anyway, but I was really, terribly disappointed. In hindsight it is probably a good thing, because I'll never get this insane again (hopefully), but I was close to tears in that stupid shop. Silly, I know.

Due to the cleaning marathon I was practically useless for the rest of the day. Thank God I didn't have to cook - the outcome might have been mildly horrible. But we had leftovers, so that problem was solved. Actually, we still have some of them for tomorrow, which is a good thing, as tomorrow promises to be quite busy.

We're gonna have one on Saturday, yessss, Precioussss!

Not that I'd have any connection to the British Royal Family (and I don't even particularly like Charles), but a coronation is a coronation, and when the late Queen ascended to the throne I wasn't even alive yet, so I decided to throw a party for Mum and me to honour the rare occasion.

The whole thing will be shown on the telly, so I'm going to cook and bake in advance on Friday - only British stuff, of course - and we'll be sitting in front of the telly and snack away all day and enjoy the pomp.

We're gonna have high tea - well, coffee, actually, as we both hate tea. I know, I know, it's blasphemy, but we want to enjoy ourselves, hence: coffee. I'll make scones and some sort of biscuits and tiny sandwiches, as it is proper, and we'll take out our fanciest china coffee service, which is this one:



(It is called Victoria pattern because it was originally created in the honour of guess who? Right, Queen Victoria herself! I think it will be fit for the coronation party, eh?)

I'm still unsure about drinks, as we don't usually drink alcohol, and besides, it's unlikely that I'd find Guinness anyway. We might open the bottle of Almdudler I bought before Easter, which would be another blasphemy, but, as I already mentioned, we wanna enjoy the whole thing.

While we are watching and snacking, I'll think of all my friends in the UK and imagine having them with us at the table. I think it will be nice.

On more current matters, I tried my luck in another craft shop re: little bells. Alas, the only ones they had were 13mm, 15mm and 18mm in diameter - all too large. I need 6mm or 8mm ones, nothing bigger. Well, I have another two shops to check.

We also had choir practice today, which was a bit tedious - too much talking, too little singing. It doesn't happen often, but sometimes it happens. Ah, well. At least I've learned that Erica has another granddaughter coming in late August or early September, so that means another baby book in the planning. There's no rest for the wicked (crafter). *g*

Today I finally was able to make a decent meal for us, both of us being momentarily okay stomach-wise. It wasn't a big deal - just some chicken wings, roesti and an apple-carrot salad, but still a delight. We even shared a beer afterwards.

My friend Evie called in the early afternoon and we talked almost an hour. It was fun.

Still very hot over here. The German Renteversicherung sent me their annual letter, asking me to assure that I'm still alive. This is one time when Corona comes in handy; they accept a simple written declaration, instead of some official document I'd spend days to get from some obscure place.

Considering how little interest I have for soccer, I'm having quite the fun watching the games with half an eye and cheering on teams I know certain circles over here don't want to succeed. *g*

I've only been there for 18 of those 22 years but never regretted joining up. I've met wonderful people, participated in inspiring communities and got the chance to rant at my heart's desire. What else could one expect from a blog?

To celebrate, I made myself a really lazy day, with an absolute minimum of housework and typed up the stuff I wrote yesterday. Lazy days are good!

Oh, and BTW, Chapter 2 of "A Stitch in Time" has been posted to AO3. Enterprise and Torchwood fans - enjoy!

I had a fairly exhausting night - had to get up to assist Mum three times, and the interrupted sleep left me drained. Fortunately, I didn't have to cook today, and the washing-up wasn't much, either. So I took a time-out (with Mum's full support) around 1pm and took the bus to town to pay Müller's a visit. Müller's is mainly a drugstore, but they've got a fairly extensive offer in craft supplies as well; in these days the closest thing to a craft shop one can find open.
( Read more... )

Our Lindt Goldhase:



And the grinning Milka bunny:



And if you want to know what the chocolate bunny craziness is like in Vienna, take a look at my photos from 2017. ;)

And just for the fun of it: Covid bunnies *g*



According to Gulf News, these were sold in Germany last year...

I always thought that such statistics don't really tell you anything, but LJ thought I might be interested, so I'm sharing them with you. I've put it behind a tag because the dratted post is HUGE!
( Read more... )

A friend from Poland sent it me yesterday. I laughed myself silly:



Gallows' humour and all that... but you have to admit, it is funny!

Gakked from sallymn





They offer you three possibilities, but the first was the one most fitting. Not completely, though, but still - languages and books? For the win!