Archives for August 2018

So yesterday was rather uneventful. I woke up, had some stale white bread with almond cream and that was it for food for the day.

We had a long and involved conversation about an esoteric book and astrology and all kinds of things over my husband’s and the boy’s breakfast, and then it was time to see the dermatologist for the boy and me.

He is now the proud owner of yet more cortisol cream, this one needs to be prescribed by the doctor. He also has a treatment plan and a course of action for different things that might happen. That was rather painless and almost nice.

We then went to the pharmacy for the creme and then to a drug store for handcreme and gloves.

The rest of the day for me was mostly spent reading Kate Davies’ new book (it is great, I highly recommend it), doing colonoscopy prep, and ripping back my husband’s cowl and starting „Wolkig“ by Martina Behm instead.

I also spent quite a bit of time trying to find out how to get to my appointment tomorrow. Seems like I have a choice of a forty-minute bus ride with changing buses and walking a lot or taking the train and a bus afterwards. Usually I would just walk to my destination from the train station before but I’m not quite sure that I’ll be up for a twenty-minute walk tomorrow morning without breakfast and such. Usually it is a seven-minute walk to the train station, a six-minute train ride and a less-than-five minutes walk to get to that particular doctor…

My husband promised me to be in reach of the phone in case I need him today but I’m guessing that asking the people at the doctor’s office to call me a cab might be the better course of action in case things go slightly sideways. Hmpf.

And I will have to do all of this on an empty stomach while not being able to drink any water until after the whole thing. I also was advised to take all my pills after the whole thing which means taking my thyroid medication right after and then I’ll have to wait for half an hour before eating something else.

So. No definite plans for today – apart from hopefully getting to the colonoscopy in time and probably having pizza for lunch afterwards.

The house hasn’t been cleaned in two weeks but that can’t be helped.

Of course that train inconvenience had to happen on the day of my appointment…

Woke up from the alarm and had the urge to stay in bed for an hour longer. Seemed I needed a slower day.

Had yoghurt with banana for breakfast because in preparation for the colonoscopy I’m not allowed any seeds and such. Which also canceled my husband’s plan for lunch – no rice allowed.

I ran, rather slowly, for about 5k. And remembered to take a picture:

I didn’t actually help making lunch this time, I only grated the parmesan:

Spinach-filled pancakes. The boy ate his with jam, of course.

I spent most of the afternoon reading blogs and forum posts and putting everything from the past week or so into my budget software. The first student canceled. I had as much as expected that. Sometimes you have a better sense if a lesson fits into someone’s day than the persons themselves.

Then the boy and I called my parents. My mother had nagged me about calling during the weekend already. She didn’t remember that I wasn’t at home, and my parents gave the boy a bit of money because of his report card and he needed to say thank you.

Then I taught my one student of the day, had my husband show talk to me about Van Gogh and show me some Dürer watercolors and then the boy and I watched Star Trek.

Went to bed a little late.

Today there will be the dermatologist appointment with the boy, and then I start colonoscopy prep in earnest. That is always the fun part. Everybody I talked to dreaded it. I don’t know, the last time I did it I didn’t find it as bad as expected.

Also, I’d rather do colonoscopy prep and the procedure itself than have colon cancer, thank you very much. And most people only have to go through this every five years.

This is always the part where I point out that my husband might have been dead by now if he hadn’t had his colon looked at. Years ago a polyp was found that would have become cancer over time. And both his father and grandfather died from that. His father only a few years older than he is now.

So no, I don’t think unpleasant prep is reason enough.

I am a little anxious, mostly about getting there and back again because the trains don’t go all the way tomorrow (construction again) and I will have to take a bus. I might have to choose between being half an hour early or slightly too late. I’ll decide that later today.

So it turned out there was some breakfast for me after all, my husband had some more bread and such squirreled away so when I complained about my lack of breakfast he pulled out something I could eat. So for once we had breakfast together. And the boy did join us almost on time.

Then I went for a short run which was pretty pleasant. I’m not back into my routines yet so I didn’t take any pictures.

Then I rode my bike to the big grocery store, helped make lasagna for a bit, walked to the health food store, had lunch:

Took a quick shower, taught my two students, spent some time on the internet, got my pictures off the SD card and onto the computer, tried calling my parents on the phone (busy signal, that’s one of the things I really dislike about the phone), did some very easy strength training, watched a documentary about the history of drugs with my husband and the boy, and then some DS9, had a long, long conversation with my husband and went to bed without having written a single word.

Today there will be more running, and another shower, and something to eat I’m sure and the teaching of two more students (probably). I really hope to get back into the writing groove and I also remembered that I still haven’t written the August newsletter. It is about time methinks.

It seems that the rest of summer break is about to whoosh by in the blink of an eye.

Traveling back home yesterday took a while. I left an hour earlier than planned because there was no reason to hang around the deserted hotel any longer and so I had three hours to walk around Leipzig instead of two.

By then I was rather exhausted and not in the mood for proper sightseeing. When I wanted to choose a restaurant for lunch my decision fatigue was so high that I ended up with a bag of potato chips and one of gummy bears on a park bench. One of the problems was my fructose-intolerance, the other one that I am at the early stage of colonoscopy prep which means eating no seeds and such. That could have been easily solved by eating hot dogs or brats, only I had spent the three days before living on those.

I did have chili on the train, so at least I had one proper meal.

Proper meals seem to continue being a problem because right now I there is nothing in the house I can eat for breakfast. Yesterday my husband and the boy had to buy something for their breakfast, and nobody checked if there was any yoghurt left for me.

On the other hand I ate so much the past days that I have gained about two kilos so skipping breakfast won’t make me starve.

So. Today there will be a short run and grocery shopping, it seems, and teaching two students and trying to make re-entry into my regular life as smooth as possible. After coming back home I talked at my poor husband for two hours or so but managed to go to bed at a somewhat reasonable hour. (My husband’s prediction earlier that day had been that I would drink three beers and turn out the lights at 2.30. It was only two beers and lights out at 10.30. Ha!)

I’m also hoping to sort through the photos I took and write a little more about where I was and what I saw but not right now.

Yesterday I was rather tired all day. Had breakfast with most of the family (this is my father's cousins and their offspring), then went along driving two people to the train station, and then I spent the rest of the day with one of my father's cousin's sons and his lovely wife.

We had a full day of sightseeing and the cousin – who lives near Hamburg – was a little freaked by the roads being rather narrow and windy in places and going up and down a lot.

The day was wonderful, I rode a steam train and learned all kinds of things about trains (cousin is rather interested in them) and looked at beautful vistas and climbed stairs and looked at medieval castles and towns. I'll have to do some research to see what I looked at all day.

We came home at a reasonable time already fed and watered, sat down to have a beer or two and talk some more, and then I went to bed at an almost sane time.

Today there will be the packing and the catching trains and the reading a lot and knitting while sitting on trains.

I will also spent an hour or two walking around Leipzig, where one of my grandfathers was born. I have never been and I'm really looking forward to it.

The other thing I'm looking forward to is getting home. If everything goes according to plan that will be right after dinnertime tonight.

And then regular blogging should resume.

Spent yesterday in the company of delightful people who talk about as much as I do and sing all the time as well.

We saw one or two things around here about which I'll tell more later (still no wifi).

There will be quite a bit more of sightseeing today and tomorrow I'll go all the way back home with some more sightseeing on the way.

I am really, really tired and exhausted,,,