Archives for March 2025

I went to bed too late but got up 15 minutes earlier than usual so that I could do the complete morning routine on time. I almost managed to finish in time for breakfast with my husband. I’d say that being only 3 minutes late is impressive, unfortunately my husband was not impressed.

I had to leave before I even finished my morning tea to meet my Apple Genius Bar appointment. With the error message regarding the battery I decided to have it changed sooner rather than later.

The trip to Munich was uneventful, the train was even on time.

Everything went smoothly and I was told the repair would take an hour.

Being without a smartphone felt weird. Also, no camera, no music, no looking up train schedules, no map. I did have something to read because I had packed my eReader. I also had borrowed my husband’s phone in case I needed to leave the phone overnight or something. My train ticket was on my phone as well and the idea was to download it to my husband’s phone.

I went to one of the cafés right across from the Munich town hall and ordered hot chocolate:

I didn’t stay long and went to the nearest department store. After a brief look at bags I went in search of food, of course. I looked for crackers, mango chutney and a few other things but only got the crackers. Oh, and at the café I bought some pastries for the rest of the family.

Then I got my phone back after paying the fee and went back home. On my way from the train station to our house I went and bought some mango chutney (failed to find some in three different stores!) and chocolate.

I was very happy to be back home.

My husband was not as happy, he had one of those days where everything feels wrong and he had his own string of errands and chores. Lunch was rather simple:

Then I had twenty minutes to read and eat my chocolate.

There was some teaching, one student after the other, but not for as long as usual, my last student had canceled. Instead I wrote the grocery list and went out again into the rain to walk to the nearest supermarket.

That went okay but they were basically out of bread. The bakery right next to it at least had some bread left, so no one will have to go hungry for now.

That supermarket run I also did something I had never one before, I paid with my smartwatch. It was rather funny. I had used the self-service stations often before but this time I tried paying several times too early. I wasn’t at that stage yet. And then I did every possible thing wrong.

But I prevailed! Milestone reached.

It’s funny, every time I help someone who isn’t as tech-savvy they tell me how easy these things are for me. Yeah, right. Because I get it all right away, no problem. Says the woman who had to fumble around on her watch while squinting under the watchful eye of a supermarket employee for ten minutes. Sure. Easy. And not humbling at all.

Anyways, after that I went home, packed the groceries away, then waited for the boy because we wanted to do bodyweight training.

We did our training even though my stomach had been rather unhappy for hours, then I forced myself to take a much needed shower (I knew, if I waited until after dinner I’d never do it) and then I ate all the junk food. Note to self: you only think coated peanuts and candy will make you feel good but they never do.

Anyways. I briefly talked with my husband, forced the boy to do the dishes, started writing this post, did a brief session of Duolingo, made a list for today and went to bed.

Today will be the last day taking trains and rushing around for now. Or at least I hope so.

Lots of excitement for not much result.

I went to bed an hour late, bad move. I had helped the boy study thermodynamics (no, I have no idea either, he just gave me some notes and asked me to check if he remembered things right) and that seems to have thrown me off.

As we have already established, it doesn’t take a lot to throw me off.

The other thing was that my phone displayed a message that there was an issue with the battery and to make a service appointment for a new one. Sure.

I woke up first myself and then half an hour later the boy who was supposed to show up at uni for a lab safety briefing. I went back to bed and wrote morning pages. And then I got stuck. And felt unable to open the manuscript. I was already late (as usual) and decided to eat breakfast alone in peace instead of the rest of my morning routine.

And so I did.

My husband and I then had a lovely and very long conversation about our respective morning routines. He wakes up between 6 and 7 and wants to eat breakfast at 8. I wake up around 6.30 and then want to write morning pages, spend some quality time with the manuscript, do yoga and meditate before I eat breakfast.

If there was no transition time I would need about 90 minutes. Perfect!

But wait. What I really need is 90 minutes plus the time it takes to actually become awake, use the bathroom three times or so, open the windows, close the windows, set the table, get everything out that we need for breakfast including thawing some blueberries, carry my stuff from the kitchen to the bedroom and back, weigh myself, dress myself, open the computer and wait until it’s all booted up, change to reading glasses and back, turn the TV on and unroll the yoga mat, search for the yoga video and start it, roll the yoga mat up again afterwards, plus – and this seems to be essential – check email briefly twice or so, and accidentally start reading something online.

So. We’ll both be aiming for 8.30 from now on. Wish me luck.

After that it was already a bit late so getting ready for an epic round of errands got a little hectic.

I packed my backpack, changed into actual jeans, told my husband I was ready to leave, fought with my phone and earbuds so they played what I wanted to hear and was off.

After all that hectic I was 10 minutes too early at the train station and then the train was late. No worries, I would still have 20 minutes to renew my prescription before the doctors office would close for lunch. Enough time for that doctor, another prescription renewal, then the health food store there, taking a train back, go to the supermarket where I buy yogurt, to the pharmacy and the the health food store in town.

Great.

I left the train, walked to the doctor’s office, decided to take my insurance card out before getting into the building and sensed that something was off.

I didn’t have my backpack.

Shock!

I remembered stamping my ticket before getting on the train and that ticket lives in my wallet so it was clear, I must have left my backpack on the train!

What to do?

The backpack itself was not much of a loss but my wallet. With all the cards, my ID, my driver’s license and quite a bit of cash.

I walked back to the train station. I couldn’t do anything about prescriptions without my insurance card. I mean, I could have because there is a way to show the card from the app on my phone but, well, I didn’t want to deal with that as well.

I tried calling the lost and found but didn’t succeed. I had to top up my phone card as well. Which I did.

I tried figuring out if I could catch the exact train I had used again for my way back. Maybe the backpack would still be there?

I realized that I didn’t have a train ticket. I thought about buying a new one with my phone.

I searched through my pockets for some reason and found – the ticket I had stamped before.

Huh. So the ticket had not been in my wallet after all, it was in my coat pocket.

So, if the ticket had not been in my wallet in my backpack, then maybe – I had not left the backpack on the train but instead – at home?

I thought about calling my husband on the phone but he doesn’t answer the phone. Not the landline and not his cell.

I took the next train back home. As the train doors were closing I realized that I had forgotten to stamp the ticket for my way back. I decided that if I were checked I would break into tears and tell the whole sorry backpack and wallet-story.

On my way I texted my husband and asked if I had left my backpack at home.

I was almost back home before I got an answer. Yes! The bag was sitting on the kitchen bench.

Phew.

I went straight back out after coming home, to buy yogurt and groceries. Since there was no more time for the things I had gone to the next town over for I’ll have to do those another day.

My husband had made risotto which we ate a little late:

Then I had a long teaching day, ate dinner, did Duolingo, actually watched a bit of C-drama and went to bed.

And today I will take a train in the other direction so that my phone can get a new battery.

I went to bed too late yet again, barely managed to write morning pages and then went down yet another research rabbit hole instead of writing. Yoga? What yoga?

And then not only was my brain mush, I also ended up being super cranky because it was the end of carnival break and the whole week had been going different than expected. Fun!

Husband and I started the day right by making each other more confused and cranky over breakfast. We did sort things out but still. I talked with my mother on the phone for almost an hour, then sat down to start project planning on index cards and planning out the week.

I helped a little with cooking when lunchtime came around and my husband was right in the middle of cooking. There was pointed cabbage stew:

Since the boy is vegetarian we always get our meat on the side these days. Then there was a break and chocolate and more planning and index cards, I read and played iPad games for a bit and went on social media, then spent some time watching course videos about book launches and marketing (brr), realized I was hungry and decided to eat dinner at 5.30, talked with my husband some more, did bodyweight training with the boy (and felt stupid and weak which seems to be an inevitable part of the process), helped my husband with the dishes, spent some time reading, started writing this post, did my foot exercises, watched some C-drama while spinning and crocheting and went to bed.

And now it’s back to teaching every day. I’m looking forward to getting more stuff done now that I have less time, you know how it is.

But that was to be expected.

I’m short on time again (of course, I mean it’s the weekend after all) and so this will be brief. I hope.

I’m not doing well with sleep and morning routine and was late again yesterday. All my determination to not pick up my phone before breakfast somehow led to me watching sewing videos before even getting out of bed. Hm. Not quite what I wanted to do.

Anyways. I did manage to go for a walk/run but didn’t take pictures, my husband was super busy cleaning all the things, making lunch and repairing thing outside where we store firewood, until he collapsed some time after dinner.

There was rice and beans for lunch (sorry, no alt text today, but that’s just what it is, rice and beans and water):

I was all fired up to research how to make Gantt charts and look into project planning systems to feel less overwhelmed. In the end I shuddered at the thought of learning yet another piece of software, decided to get back to planning on index cards but still found myself doing more research this morning.

I am also becoming increasingly frustrated with my bad eyesight which makes everything I do just a little bit harder. Harumph. Can’t wait to see a doctor about that but then they won’t be able to miraculously restore my sight with a snap of their fingers.

So, after research I went to my usual writers meeting on Saturday afternoon, after that my husband, the boy and I watched another episode of ‚Columbo‘, my husband realized he was completely done, so I folded a load of laundry so I could hang up another one, put the dirty dishes into neat piles, ate a whole package of crackers and went to bed.

And now I need to run. Because, Sunday, of course.

I had one of those morning where I didn’t want to do anything, I stopped my morning pages in the middle in favor of reading and then just read on. No writing, no yoga.

It was warm enough that we didn’t need the wood stove which meant my husband was sitting down to breakfast earlier and then wondered where I was. Well, I was still expecting to eat breakfast at the same time(too late) time. So then we needed to get that sorted.

And then we talked some more and all of a sudden the morning had gone poof.

I did the breakfast dishes and listened to three very different pieces of classical music. I sorted some more stuff from the bedroom but not as much as I wanted to. My husband made lunch a little later than usual because we’d been so late before.

Lunch was tasty:

The boy showed up just as my husband was heading off. Then he are lunch and we looked at Bluesky and talked about politics. At around three my husband and I were scheduled to do some more decluttering. We emptied the drawer underneath the bed, shook all the bedding out that’s stored there and vacuumed the drawer. I sorted through a cornucopia of small balls of yarn. I opened the top of one dresser and found even more works-in-progress.

Both of us started dusting and vacuuming the weaving looms. And then it was time for me vide meeting.

I met a writer friend and we talked for two hours. I did get quite a bit of crochet done during that time. We talked writing and book covers and politics and shoes and crafting, you know, the usual.

Then it was time to do bodyweight training with the boy. It feels as if I don’t get stronger at all but on the other hand I’m certain some things are getting better. I had to scale back on my pushup variant but another exercise is starting to feel better and more secure.

Then the boy and I made our dinners, I started eating, then my husband showed up after finishing teaching, we ate and talked, I managed to only spend a bit of time online, I started writing this post, wrote a list for today, did my foot exercises and watched some C-drama.

In between I kept researching one of the projects I had found. At one point I made a Sophie’s Universe blanket. And I found a bag with the leftover yarn, a crochet hook and a couple of finished squares. With a bit of detective work I figured out that I was trying to make squares to add to the blanket to make it bigger. Something must have gone wrong with the project but figuring out what that was will be a task for today.