It’s Thursday. I leave on Saturday*. Between now and then, I have 2 days of work and a session of afterschool maths to fit in, each with travel time. Then there’s a balconyful of plants to water (it’s 30+ degrees here), an aquarium to replant, a flat to tidy up and lots of washing to […]
Friday A friend from a place I used to work is coming over for the weekend. She had some kind of conference during the week and added a few days holiday since she was here. We’d planned to meet in the city and do touristy things and were working out the details. And then she […]
9th May “There aren’t any perfect partners. If you spend the evening looking and waiting for one you will go home without having danced at all. Also, don’t try to force your dance partner to dance exactly the way you want to dance. They won’t enjoy themselves and you’ll be frustrated when it doesn’t work. […]
My latest health tests resulted in me being handed two mostly conflicting sheets of what to eat and what to avoid. I think once I strip my diet of everything on both avoid sheets I’m left with brown rice and possibly carrots*. When I got home, hungry after a breakfast-free morning, I opened a packet […]
I had a train to catch this afternoon and I caught it.
The end.
April 17th, somehow delayed publication.. Yesterday, my colleague announced that due to unforseen private circumstances he was extending his Easter holiday and having today off as well. No problem. He asked me to water the plants. No problem. He told me which bits of glass to give various customers. Again, no problem. And then this: […]
Last night I went dancing. I’ve only been once since I moved north to Berlin. Way back when I lived in the south, I used to go regularly, sometimes twice a week. I had visions of still being as good as I once was.. In reality I was hopeless. At least until I stopped thinking […]
Once upon a time, when my kitchen was still a kitchen and I still had a kitchen floor, I went half-price seed shopping with my mother. Mid February I had an unexpected free evening and an unopened bag of compost. I sowed liberally. Despite being clearance stock, every seed germinated.. And since I’m not as […]
I recently bought a second hand copy of Nigella Lawson’s book, “How to be a domestic goddess”. I haven’t read it yet. Obviously. ‘Obviously’ because I am so far away from becoming a domestic goddess it’s not even funny. If I was going to be eligible for any kind of goddess title, ‘domestic’ would come […]
Recently A month ago (!!) I wrote about how well things were going. Pretty much directly after pressing publish, my mood and my house nosedived into a swamp of grey, exhausted ugh. Like before, I blame the vitamin D. Except in this case more the lack of. *** Some history: When my deficiency was first […]
The other day I heated a tin of beans, laid the table, toasted some slightly stale bread, took a lump of cheese out of the fridge, the grater out of the drawer and sat down to beans on toast. As I poured the beans onto my toast I was suddenly reminded of the post I […]
Occasionally I think I’m getting the hang of this adulting lark. This week, for instance, I consistently got to work an hour (or more) earlier than the week before (and most of last year if I’m honest). It meant making a huge effort to go to bed early and actually getting up when the alarm […]
I have a rowing machine. I bought it on a whim when I bought my aquarium. Not necessarily an obvious connection but they were both second hand and being sold by the same family. And I’d already borrowed the van. It’s not especially good quality. It’s not, according to my brother who actually rows, a […]
Question: What do the following items have in common? A hand powered mixer A box of gravy thickening powder A mop head A trangia (camping cooker with stacking saucepans) A laptop A hand powered ‘vacuum’ /carpet sweeper A tape measure *** No prizes, but perhaps I’ll give the guessers an honourable mention in the next […]
Until today I kind of assumed that I knew how to wash my hands. This poster on the mirror of the outpatient department* let me know how little I knew. I’m uploading a photo of the 8 illustrated steps in case anyone else needs directions.. ;p I have no idea what the products are and […]