Category: life lately

DITL :: 4.8-10.2020

~ Maggie ~ 5 Comments

Good morning! Trying to catch up again (though I have a really hard time to find words today). This was Wednesday. I decided to be done with that headache and went shopping.

I did it! And that was all I did that day. Just a headache (no cough, no fever), but it keeps going a lot longer than normal.

Dinner. Boneless chicken thigh,  beansprouts, zucchini, eggplant and a can of green pepper puree.

It looked nice and it was edible, but that “a tart and citrusy flavor” of the puree was not our thing.

I forgot to take a picture until the sun was already down, but the sky afterward is always nice too.

Thursday morning. What a night! Had nightmares about lions and tigers attacking my children. I have those sometimes and usually, that means that I’m sick. It’s still just a headache though.

The moon was setting, the sun was rising.

Ah, there he was. Every. Single. Day.
It was one of those days again. I wish I was more productive, but I’m just too tired, can’t concentrate, can’t see clearly and it hurts too much.

Anyway. At night T. made a fire in the bbq again.

And I made a simple salad. On the bbq: chicken leg, corn cobs and beef.

And then the sun went down again.

Friday morning. I slept rather well and I felt a bit better. Reading part three of that series of books about the woman from New Jersey that solves murders (but not because she’s so good at it). They keep getting better!

I finally felt up to doing some work. Taxes done for the month (and the quarterly ones too). Now I can try to stay away from the computer this weekend.

I did a load of laundry,

made the bed,

and did a little bit of cleaning in the bathrooms.
It’s not much and I was really tired when I finished, but it felt good to pick up a bit of that daily routine again.

My second avocado is coming up! I posted a link to a tutorial on how to grow avocado earlier and those people really want me to link to them again (I got emails about it), but the truth is I didn’t follow that tutorial. I just stuck the pit in soil, watered it and had a lot of patience.
This does me want to do something with my other plants and in the garden, but I’m really tired again, so it will have to wait.

I decided to take some time to update my DITL blogging (but I’m not sure if I want to keep this up) and now I’m going to knit and watch some youtube. That’s not computer free, I know, but it does feel like a nice start to my weekend.

Wishing you all a great Easter weekend!

DITL :: 4.4-7.2020

~ Maggie ~ 4 Comments

I wasn’t feeling well these past few days. Headache. Not Covid-19 (I think – no other symptoms). Just a normal cluster headache, that lasts for a few days. I didn’t feel like blogging or taking pictures, but I hope things are back to normal now (Wednesday), so here’s some catching up.

Saturday morning it was not too bad. The cat had its breakfast.

And breakfast for us too.

I was reading a different book, but couldn’t concentrate enough to read it. This one is in English (not my native language), but it’s a simple murder mystery. I really liked it. The main character is a New Jersey lady (Lucille) who is about my age (and has the physical problems that go with that age), which makes it really fun to read.

Sunset.

Sunset with cat.

T. made dinner. It was really good.

Sunday morning. A little bit of knitting.

T. played some music.

I finished this book. This was everything you expect from a Vatican thriller. An ancient text that will shake things up, lots of action and in the end the Catholic Church (the institute, not the building) is still standing strong. Unrealistic, but entertaining.

A simple dinner.

It tasted better than it looked.

Sunset.

Part two of the series, but my head hurt too much to concentrate.

Monday. I spent a few hours in bed, but that didn’t help.

The cat was happy I’m up.

I played some Mahjong, read a bit, tried to avoid the news and had a phone call with my parents.
T. made dinner. It looked awful (spinach from a can) but it tasted quite nice (for something that has spinach in it).

 Tuesday: more headaches. I hope this is the last day since tomorrow is the day I’m allowed to go shopping and I need groceries. Waiting till Saturday is not an option. Making a list and sending T. is, but I prefer to go myself.

I forgot to take a picture of our dinner (pasta sauce with white beans instead of pasta).

But here’s another sunset.

DITL :: 4.3.2020

~ Maggie ~ 3 Comments

Good morning! Yes. Every. Single. Day. It’s sweet, but I wish he’d learn to retract his nails…

I had an off day. It took me hours and hours to work through my normal bookkeeping chores. I was not interested in the news either, though I did watch the daily press conference to check if there were any new infections or any new rules. There weren’t, so that’s good. They presented a plan to help people who are financially struggling because of the lockdown, but The Netherlands still has to approve it and find the money for it, so it’s all pretty unsure. I do think it’s good that they informed people that they are working on it though.

After I finally finished the bookkeeping, I shut down my computer and watched this troepiaal feeding on bugs for fifteen minutes. Way more interesting than the news and social media.

I started in this book. It’s a Vatican Thrillers (don’t know if that’s a real genre, but that’s how we call it). I’m not really hooked yet, but I kept reading while T. did a virtual happy hour with some friends we normally meet in person on Friday.

I didn’t feel like company and talking, so I stuck with my book and this chuchubi that wanted his part of the bugs.

Sunset. A bit less red than yesterday, but still rather red. I read that usually has something to do with dust particles in the air.

We did bbq for dinner, so all I had to do in the kitchen is making a simple salad. Cucumber, tomato, red onion, iceberg lettuce, a bit of vinegar and a bit of mayonnaise.

Yes, he’s eating lettuce. He loves it and even begs for it. Granted, he also gets chicken when we do a bbq, but he really wants the lettuce too. Silly cat.

DITL :: 4.2.2020

~ Maggie ~ 4 Comments

Good morning! Actually, I had been awake for about half an hour before I took this picture. Made some coffee and tea, knit a bit until it was light enough to read (yes, we’re outside on the porch already).

This is after breakfast and after cleaning the kitchen, making the second pot of coffee for the day. Yes, we drink a lot of coffee.

I did a bit of cleaning (trying to keep up with my daily chores at least) and a load of laundry. It still feels so good to be able to hang it outside each time.

Work, work, work. Editing a novel by an author I’ve been working with before. I was actually looking forward to it, because I like her books, but this is a sad one. Still, it’s work, need to do it. I sent out a few emails and then I listened to the press conference for a while.

I’m finally getting fed up with the news. This morning the first time I checked was 9.30 (!). And I stopped watching the press conference shortly after it was announced that there are no new cases. The rest was a lot of:  “Stay home!” from the government and “Yes, but I have to…” from everyone else. So fed up with that!

We had lunch and I finished the first round of editing on the sad book. It did have a happy ending, so I guess all’s well that ends well.

I needed more tea! (T. drinks lots of coffee, I drink two cups of coffee and two pots of tea).

So on top of things… Got the laundry off the line and put it away immediately. If I don’t, it sits in the basket for weeks.
After that chore, I decided to call it a day. I wanted to finish my book.

Uh, first I had to feed the cat, of course. He makes sure I don’t forget.

Finished! The second half was a bit disappointing. Not that the story wasn’t good, but I hoped for more about that clay Bible. You know, a bit of biblical controversy, some new ideas about how things could have been. But they were nothing but a stage setting for the rest of the story. It actually was a tale about past (WWII) crimes, evil people and revenge. The end was… sad, mostly.

I switched to this book for a while. It’s by a Catholic Priest who lived on Curacao in the late ’60s, early ’70s. He spoke a lot with the locals and wrote down everything they told them, to preserve their culture. No explanations, no thoughts about the backgrounds, he just documented it. His early series of books was reprinted in newer books, sorted into subjects. This one is about religion, superstition and rituals. Very interesting, but I have to read it bit by bit because it’s just too much to read in one sitting.

Uh, yes. My mama told me never to stack glasses. Ahem… One of them broke. And that’s sad since we only had two of these.

Today’s ingredients: minced meat, half a cauliflower, can of green beans, can of red beans, taco seasoning.

It doesn’t look like much, but it tasted very good!

Watering my plants. Today it was exactly one year since we officially registered ourselves as residents on Curacao. These plants are descendants of the plants I had to throw away in The Netherlands. When we arrived here a year ago, I had a few small cuttings in my suitcase.

This is how they looked a year ago.

And this is now. They grew quite well. I’m not going to write about everything else that happened during that year. There was some good stuff (this house!), but also a lot of sadness. But such is life.

Today’s sunset was hard to capture on camera. The sun was red, really deep red. Very special.

DITL :: 4.1.2020

~ Maggie ~ 6 Comments

On my Dutch blog, I started posting “day in the life” blogs last week. Don’t know why, but I felt a pull towards documenting the normal parts of my days as well as the things that are so different right now.
I decided that I might as well copy those posts and translate them for this blog. I’m not really sure if that’s what I want here in the long run, but let’s see how it goes for a while.

This was Tuesday afternoon. Reading a bit in my book. Trying not to pick up my phone to read the news.

Time to start diner! I took a picture of my ingredients (boneless chicken thigh, a leek, red onion, yellow onion, half a jar of corn, half a can of white beans, half a jar of tomato sauce and a packet of tomatoes that were going bad). I forgot to take a picture of the end result. It was really good though!
(I made a tomato sauce loaded with veggies and stewed the thighs in it).

Sunset! Each day is different.

I finished my hat that night. Took pictures the next day, but I’ll post them here. I know I said it would get its own blog post, but really, it’s just a very simple hat, there’s not much I can say about it anyway. The ribbing is 8 rows  K5 P3, then 3 rows P5 K3 and then 8 rows K5 P3 again.

We were both wide awake at 5 o’clock on Wednesday morning. That’s an hour early, but we decided it was no use to stay in bed, so we got up.

Did some knitting until it was light and then I read a bit. I was able to stay away from the news until 6.30. Since I have been making a habit of checking the news immediately after getting up, this is a bit of an improvement.

We had breakfast, I cleaned up and then I went out for grocery shopping. Just one person per household allowed, so I went alone.

This was outside, waiting to get into the supermarket. Two meters distance between the lines. It didn’t take long though, I only had to wait for five minutes or so. Inside keeping my distance was a lot harder. Not everyone was into it. I messed up too, didn’t notice the arrows indicating that the paths were now one-way only. I usually skip the second path, since it’s all sugar drinks and things like that, so my normal route was completely opposite of what was allowed. I have to get used to that. I do think it’s a good idea to do this though. Less people bumping into each other.

On my way back I got stuck in traffic.
Huh? Yes, we’re in lockdown. But there were actually a lot of people on the road and the police was trying to check why. I had a lot of trouble understanding the guy through his facemask (and because of my ear infection).
“Where are you going, ma’am?”
“Home.”
“Where’s that?”
“Westpunt.”
“Okay, have a nice day.”
I had papers to prove I really live there, but he didn’t even want to see them. I guess this was meant to intimidate and demotivate. (This was before they issued the license plate rule.)

I needed some medicines, so I got into another line at the botika. It took a while before I could get in, but they had everything I needed (T. takes aspirin as a blood thinner for his heart problems and I needed some painkillers), so all was well.

When I got home, I quickly unloaded the stuff that needed to go into the freezer and the fridge and then I listened to the press conference. That’s when we heard we are now only allowed to be on the street (and only for essentials) two days a week.

We had lunch and the rest of the day escaped me. I was tired. Tired of shopping, tired of the impact everything has right now, tired of everything. T. felt the same. I read a few chapters in my book and browsed a bit on the internet.

At five o’clock we had our daily snack: cucumber (with a bit of salt and vinegar). I always look forward to that!

I took another picture of a sparrow.

And of the sunset of course.

Time to cook diner! These were my ingredients: two eggplants, a can of corn and a can of black beans (I didn’t use the mushrooms), a lot of garlic and some steak.

The end result doesn’t look great, but it tasted so good!

After cleaning up the kitchen I did a bit of knitting. That’s my favorite time of the day. Just sitting, knitting and thinking, and talking with T. Too dark to read, trying not to pick up my phone (was mildly successful at that today).  It’s the best way to end the day.

One word, three things

~ Maggie ~ 11 Comments

Looking back at the last time I posted about my one word for the year, I can hardly believe how much has changed in just one month. My word, “accept”, has a whole new meaning now.

Things I (we) have to accept right now:

:: rules. No matter what we think of it, I do believe it’s important to follow the rules. I have to believe that our government is trying really hard to save us. Yesterday it was announced that we can only go out for necessary travel (groceries, medicine, etc.) two days a week, based on our car’s numberplates. People are already coming up with loopholes to go out more often, so I expect even stricter rules will be coming soon.

:: life will never be the same again. Even if this blows over with relatively few deaths, I’m sure from now on time will be divided in “before Corona” and “after Corona”. Some things will go back to normal, other things never will.

:: the unpredictability of this disease. I was dealing with my mother’s cancer and my father’s lung emphysema. It’s hard that they have this, but you know what to expect. But Covid-19… nobody knows exactly what to expect. We’re both not feeling well, but we don’t have the normal symptoms. No fever, just a bit of coughing and only sneezing now and then. I had an elevated heart rate for a few days, but that could also be stress-related. My ear is playing up again (had a severe infection and a ripped eardrum two years ago) T, also had something with his ear yesterday, but I haven’t heard anything about Corona and ears. So maybe it’s something else. But then again, maybe not.
Oh well, I try to take care of us as well as I can. There’s nothing more I can do. I have to accept that…

linking up with Carole’s Three on Thursday

Knitting & Reading

~ Maggie ~ 11 Comments

Reading: finished another book by Janet Evanovich. I love her writing!
And I started a more serious (thick) one. In English, it’s called The Bible of Clay and it’s one of those thrillers that revolve around ancient texts (in this case the stories of Genesis as told by Abraham). I’m not sure what I think of it. I have a hard time concentrating, but that may not be the book’s fault.

Knitting: finished the hat (it will get it’s own blog post), working a bit on the shawl. Comfort knitting.

linking up with Ginny’s Yarn Along and As Kat Knit’s Unraveled Wednesday

On a lighter note

~ Maggie ~ 8 Comments

Hm, that was a depressing post, wasn’t it? I don’t want to delete it, but we could use something else to think about. So here’s a bonus post about something silly.
The cat brought a blau-blau (a blue lizard, about the size of a  big mouse or a small rat) with him to play with. He usually eats them where he catches them (in the woods), but apparently, he got the idea of this lockdown. Shop quickly, eat at home. It would have been okay, if he’d killed it first. But well, you know cats…
He had a lot of fun chasing it around my pepper plants. I didn’t think that was funny at all. First of all, I don’t like watching this rather cruel playing with food. I accept that’s what cats do, but I prefer to be able to ignore it. And second… stay away from my plants, please!
The lizard fought back though and somehow got the chance to clamp its teeth around one of the cat’s toes (I presume it has teeth by the way Poes reacted – he literally howled) and it only let go after Poes ran around our (luckily unused) upstairs room, dragging that lizard with him – it was on one of his hind legs – and got out through the bars of the side window. I think that knocked the hell out of that lizard and it finally got off that toe. I don’t have pictures of that part, but I think you can imagine how it looked.
The cat is trying to catch his breath now and I guess (hope) he won’t be bringing his catches with him again soon.
And that’s the end of this exciting story. 😉

Taking shelter

~ Maggie ~ 8 Comments

Well, that was a weird weekend…
I was going to try and ignore Covid-19 a bit more on my blog, but that’s not really possible. It’s all that’s on my mind right now.
On Saturday we had 9 infections (there are only 160.000 people living on this island) and they announced an evening curfew. It’s not allowed to be out on the street between 9 PM and 6 AM.
On Sunday morning, during the 11.30 AM press conference, there were 10 infections, one of them confirmed to be local. They announced another press conference later that day.
We were out during that first press conference. T. was going cabin crazy, after being home for a full two weeks, so I proposed to get in the car and drive around a bit. We stopped at a beach promenade and had some fries at a take-out and drove a bit more until we were glad to go home. It was just what he needed to feel a bit less restless.
I must have felt it coming…
At 6 PM they announced there is an 11th infection and we’re in full lockdown since this early morning (but since the curfew was already in place, actually since 9 PM last night). We’re only allowed to go out for essentials. Grocery shopping, getting gas or going to a botika (pharmacy) is allowed, but only one person at a time. No walks, no swims, we have to stay home. They compared it to taking shelter for a hurricane. I have to say that didn’t make me feel any better. If they compare the expected outbreak here to a hurricane, they probably already know that things will get bad.

Oh well, at least we had those few hours on Sunday to look back at and a good house to take shelter in.  And there will still be beautiful sunsets to admire…

Right now

~ Maggie ~ 2 Comments

Right now I am…

:: tired. I have felt really tired for two weeks now But I slept quite well last night, so maybe I will feel better soon.

:: excited to mention that I finished the yearly taxes as far as I could yesterday. It’s not that much work, but it always weighs me down and it takes up a lot of space in my head. And this time it was worse because we moved abroad. The Netherlands doesn’t have clear rules about taking your business with you and wants us to do our private taxes on paper and through snail mail (because, you know, that’s so much easier than online if you’re living abroad). That last part isn’t finished since the paper forms are with our daughter in The Netherlands. I have to find a way to get them here safely (we were supposed to go there in time to do the taxes, but I don’t think we will be able to).

:: looking forward to cleaning, reorganizing, gardening and things like that

:: trying not to give in to the temptation and use that headspace to start writing a new novel right away, since that would mean lots of screentime again. On the other hand… writing is even better than reading if you want to escape the real world for a while. And well, with that view (second picture) screen time isn’t too bad…

:: knitting along on the shawl. Picked up the hat I started a while back too.

:: wondering if that cat (he’s kneading my stomach right now) will ever lay down. He’s so happy, but he still hasn’t learned to fully retract his nails when doing that. Ouch!

:: looking forward to the weekend. No, we won’t be going anywhere, but it’s still weekend, you know?

:: considering to make this an offline weekend. I used to have those a lot, but lately… well, you know. Maybe I need a little reset.

:: wondering why I’m so obsessed with keeping up with the news. It doesn’t make any difference if I know right away if there are new cases on the island (we’re up to 7 now). Well, okay, if we plan to get off our own property, we should probably check for any new rules (they’re considering closing beaches and installing a curfew), but if we don’t… just carry on. Also, knowing exactly what is going on in The Netherlands as soon as it’s posted, doesn’t do anything to prevent my family from getting the virus. (talking to myself here – sometimes that’s how blogging works)
Need to stop this. Now.

:: planning to take some pictures of plants and trees this weekend, to have something else to talk about next week

:: wishing you all a good weekend. Make it special, even if you’ve been at home the rest of the week too 😉