Archives for August 2025

Good day that went slightly sideways in the afternoon

August 31, 2025 by Susanne Leave a Comment

But what do you expect from a Saturday.

The morning went very well, I did everything I wanted to, even opened the manuscript and added a few new words and went for a walk/run:

The woods were full of people and dogs and I had a hard time getting myself to push through the discomfort, so I walked a lot more than planned. But well, I went out and moved, that’s the important part.

When I came home in time for lunch husband was busy cooking and the salad was just a bunch of veggies and herbs on the kitchen table but he sent me off to take a shower. I didn’t even set the table, that was all him:

I was very determined to not extent my lunch break beyond 3 o’clock. Well, until I remembered that I had started playing „Chants of Sennaar“ a few days before.

Ahem.

I have now bought the full version and the game is a lot of fun.

When I came back to reality I only had forty minutes left until my weekly Zoom call, so I did the dishes and that was that.

Zoom was nice and unexpectedly short, so I actually played the piano for once. I tricked myself to the piano by starting with easy scales before transitioning to the Chopin piece I wanted to practice.

I became so immersed that I was a little late for the weekly family watching of ‚Columbo‘ but that was not a problem.

When the boy didn’t show up for our TV date we weren’t surprised. I looked on my phone and there was a text from him saying that he’d be down shortly.

But he wasn’t.

At that point my husband got nervous because he wanted to watch ‚Nabuco‘ from the arena di Verona on TV. I sent a text or two to the boy but he didn’t answer. So I went upstairs only to find his room empty. And his shoes gone.

Oops. We waited some more because he had said he would be there. But he wasn’t.

Well, it turned out that the text had been from the day before, the boy had forgotten that it was Saturday and was vey surprised when I called him on the phone. Because I thought he was lost in the woods while he was sitting in front of his computer. The time when I had checked his room had been when he briefly went out to the supermarket.

In between my husband and I had found out that we could watch Nabuco right away online, we started doing so while waiting for the boy, and twenty minutes in we decided to quit because this particular staging was ludicrous and we both didn’t really care for the music.

I need to get back to Verdi at some point but so far I haven’t found him accessible. I mean, opera is often a bit weird with people standing around on stage singing full tilt about their feelings but, again, why astronauts and a rocket that gets assembled on stage and then carried off? Why a choreography that makes it look like the dancers are fencing? And that doesn’t really tell you which faction is which?

Maybe it would have become clear eventually but I doubt it. The big sign saying „vanitas“ in the middle of the stage should have warned us.

In between my husband talked about the problem he has in working on one of his guitars, it’s the one that has f-holes which mean changing parts inside is a pain. I tried helping him but was too tired and fuzzy-headed to do so, so we agreed we’ll do that this afternoon.

In the end my husband went and watched YouTube videos about guitar repairs while the boy and I watched an episode of ‚Columbo‘, then I had to rearrange the rest of my evening because it was too late for what I wanted to do, I failed and went to bed way too late with a messy kitchen, no list for today and no drafted blog post.

At least I managed to notice we were out of bread and thaw some for breakfast, so that was good.

And now I have to squeeze everything into an already full Sunday morning which is always lots of fun.

Home is the best

August 30, 2025 by Susanne Leave a Comment

The plan was to start the day all proper with the complete morning routine but in the end the only thing I did was read and then yoga. I decided this was the day to ease back into routine, not hold myself to it rigidly.

My husband and I talked over breakfast and then some more while I wove in ends on the striped cardigan. One more sleeve to go, then I can finally knit the neck- and buttonbands.

Husband thought I shouldn’t clean the house so I went grocery shopping instead. While he had gone to the supermarket the day before there were quit a few things he hadn’t found. That supermarket is a maze and it has taken me years to figure out where to find things so I don’t blame him.

So I went to another supermarket for yogurt and cottage cheese and then to the health food store for some other stuff. It was interesting when my husband talked about how overwhelming that supermarket is and how long it takes to put all the groceries away. Huh. I mean, yeah, after schlepping everything home putting it away is a bit of a bother, especially when I come home to a cooking situation where I am needed right away but, well, it’s just one of those things.

When I returned home I found that the key to the letterbox was not in its place. Husband had missed it the day before already, so I went upstairs to my mother-in-law. I told her the whole trains and reservations story, and then asked her about the key.

Well, as I thought she had put it away together with her house keys, so no harm done. Also, I had already emptied the letterbox with the spare key we have in the miscellaneous drawer. Where spare keys, buttons, pieces of string, rubber bands, razor blades and the chocolate live.

Anyways, lunch was excellent, rice and beans:

After lunch I ate some chocolate and trail mixed sat around, scrolling through social media, playing silly games and reading for a long time.

Until I finally managed to do the dishes while listening to several days worth of classical music. I am actually up to date again which is nice with the month ending so soon.

The boy and I did bodyweight training and it seems I did just the right amount of it because I am pretty sore today.

Then there was dinner and a few pieces of salt licorice chocolate (tastes much better than it sounds, well, if you like licorice) while reading a little more. I’m reading Allie Therin’s „Magic in Manhattan“-series and it is really good. I finished book one in a little over a day. Mind you, I spent that day stuck on a train but still.

I did a little Duolingo, made a list for today, started writing this post, watched some C-drama („First Frost“ at the recommendation of a writer friend and I really like it) and went to bed.

I’m hoping to be back on track today, we’ll see how that goes. I’m hoping for writing and running and spending time with the family.

We have a paperback!

August 29, 2025 by Susanne Leave a Comment

And I’m safely back home.

Not a lot of time to write today, but look, my paperback came!

The train journey was long and we had bad luck with our reserved seats. On the first train, the car our seats were in was closed because the AC wasn’t working, so we had to sit elsewhere. The train wasn’t too crowded so we managed to find seats but not next to each other.

The first sign of things not going according to plan was that my train app didn’t show the numbers of my reserved seats anymore. So when the same thing happened for our second train and we still had an hour before meeting that train I made the decision to just book two more seats. If everything was fine I had just wasted 11 € and the boy chided me for it.

By the way, his train app showed the reservations just fine.

The first train was a couple of minutes late but I always book everything with at least 20 minutes time for changing trains, so we were fine. Especially since the second train from Hannover to Munich was late as well.

So we bought some chocolate.

On the platform where our connecting train was supposed to leave people were milling about and the mood was slightly alarmed. A look at the train app told me that the train would only be half the cars we expected.

Bummer.

The thing is, that train going from Hannover to Munich is actually two trains put together. One comes from Bremen and the other one from Hamburg. Well, one of them didn’t make it yesterday. Which sucked for all the people – like us – who had reservations on the part of the train that hadn’t arrived.

But. Thanks to me sensing a problem the boy and I also had reservations on the part of the train that had arrived. Actually, while the train was so full that the conductor said the people standing in the aisles had to leave or else the train couldn’t depart, the boy and I were fine. Somehow most people stopped before entering our car which was right next to the dining car and then first class.

We were ten minutes late and then we had to wait again for the train home which was also ten minutes late but all in all I can’t complain. And the train car reserved for families turned out to be quieter than the quiet car we usually travel in.

At home my husband had made some delicious food, we talked and then we went to bed but not before unpacking the proof copy of my book. Seeing it as a physical object actually makes it more real which is nice.

And then we went to the Netherlands

August 28, 2025 by Susanne Leave a Comment

We slept in, the boy longer than me, and I skipped yoga and such. We were rather late when showing up for breakfast at my mother‘s place.

After breakfast we helped her with some more stuff, mostly computer-related, and then it was time to set off for the Netherlands. First stop was a pancake house:

You can‘t really see it in the picture but my cherry pancake was on fire, flambèed with rum. Very good. My mother had the same without the rum because she was the one driving, and the boy had one with jackfruit, pineapple and satay sauce.

And then we went on to Ootmarsum, a very picturesque place. My aunt had suggested going there and that was a great idea. We walked all around the small city center with several really beautiful churches, decided to skip the museums, even the open air one, but my mother can‘t really walk around for long, even when using her walker.

And after that we drove back home and got a clear impression on the differences between Germany and the Netherlands regarding cars and bicycles because very often in the Netherlands it is actually way more fun to use a bike than a car. There are a lot of subtle cues telling you that bikes and pedestrians are more important and I have to say, I‘m loving it.

We returned to my mother‘s place but then decided to walk into the town center and say hello to the castle. After a one-hour walk we were back, spent some time reading and on social media, had dinner together and went to our rented apartment.

The boy and I watched the first episode of season 2 of ‚The Sandman‘ and went to bed soon after.

And today will be another day on trains to get back home. Fun!

Slightly boring

August 27, 2025 by Susanne Leave a Comment

I did start the day with reading, morning pages and yoga and then we went over to my mother‘s place for breakfast.

Spent the morning looking through all the electronics I already decluttered twice and sorted CDs and DVDs that my father had burned. Pro tip: don‘t write ‚family name 1‘ on a backup medium. It won‘t help with anything.

The boy heroically tackled the task to rid my mother‘s laptop from bloatware and updated the OS. Then we had some lunch followed by another round of the happy game of teaching my mother how to write a letter on her laptop and print it out.

In the end we kept resorting to chanting, „Look at the list! Look at the list!“ There is a list of all the steps she needs to take but she still keeps running into problems I didn‘t foresee.

Lunch was – unusual:

This is rice (microwaved) with mushrooms, tomato, creme fraiche and arugula.

We then tried buying flowers for my aunt on the way to her and encountered a sign at the florist that said they were out buying more flowers. We still got something but the selection was very limited.

We sat in my aunt‘s garden and talked while eating cake and gummy bears. After a couple of hours of this the boy and I walked home while my mother took that car back.

It was time for dinner, we walked the long way back to the hotel via the supermarket for snacks, watched the ‚Doctor Who‘-finale I did Duolingo and started writing this post and went to bed.

Today there will be a little excursion, how exciting!

Travel day

August 26, 2025 by Susanne Leave a Comment

The boy and I went on our annual trip to see my mother yesterday.

I was actually pretty excited, so when I woke up stupid early I couldn‘t fall back asleep. Which meant I could do most of my morning routine and eat breakfast early both.

Things went very well, all three trains were pretty much on time, only a minute or two late, which is a huge improvement compared to last year‘s train chaos.

The train ride was mostly boring. I knitted a little, ate something, watched some C-drama, read a lot and was bored a lot. I had Pad Thai in the afternoon in Hannover, the boy chose veggie soup:

Very yummy. And then off we went for another two hours on a train. I felt all nostalgic when we went through a town where I used to live, then I remembered why I wanted to leave until we finally arrived at our destination.

My mother picked us up from the train station, we checked in to our apartment, went to my mother‘s place for dinner and talked a bit, watched and episode of ‚Doctor Who‘ and went to bed at a reasonable time.

I think our plans for today involve teaching my mother how to write a letter on her computer for the sixth time, decluttering some electronics and eating cake in the afternoon with my aunt. So, riveting stuff.