Sunday, January 26, 2020

Service of companies isn;t always as it was for some years.

Goodafternoon everybody!

A bit late, but still okay, I guess. weather at the moment isn;t bad. Today we have a bit of sunshine, later on it will stay grey. Temperatures are around 5C, later this week a few degrees more to 9C, but then we will have more wind and also rain. Rain and wind, not my favourite things, but cold is worse, so I will not complain really hard.!

I did a few things I had in mind this week, so I am a little bit satisfied with myself.
I did a phonecall that needed to be done, I cleared away bankpapers and payed bills in their folders, I got rid of a lot of magazines with recipees of all kind. I took out a few that I may make one day and the pile that I got rid of made quite a difference on the little cabinet that stands near the desk I have my laptop on.
Gosh, I can see part of the top of that small cabinet again ROFL!

Title of my blog was put there, because I find that sometimes companies should be more flexible for their clients. For example I need for taxes several annual statements of bankaccounts, retirement payments of government and privat savings etc. we used to get them all on paper, sent to your address, very handy. Ony had to copy them for the accountant and voilĂ , done with.
Nowadays they don;t do that anymore, they have them all on line, so you will have to donwload them and print them yourself. But what if your printer isn;t working, or you even don;t have one? That's a plausible possibility, hey? Well, if you call them and ask if perhaps they could print it for you and send it by post, the answer is: NO! They give the "kind advice", ask a friend if you can use his/her computer and printer. Not everyone likes to do that, or has that possibility. And most of the time they person at the phone already has all the necessary on the computer screen while you are calling them. One touch of a button and one envelope is all that is needed. Perhaps I am asking to much, but I cannot really understand their attitude.
well, I will have to live with that and ask for now my friend Heidi if I can use her computer and printer because I still haven't bought a new one. I will one day, I just need one for a print every now and then.

Firday and also yesterday I wasn;t feeling really perky, I think I have caught a little cold or so. My throat was a bit raw, I had some headache, full nose. But i took some paracetamol yesterday evening and also some just before I went to sleep and I feel already much better today. Hopefully it will be gone by tomorrow. I don;t want to get ill, or worse, get the flu. I had my flu shot, but you still are able to get the flu, only it will not be  as tricky as without your flu shot.
No, I cannot get ill, because Wednesday Jan has his birthday, and I want to prepare a nice little dinner that evening. I am thinking of the shrimps we had with Christmas, because they tasted yummie and Jan loves them.
And by that day we both will have the age of 67, oh my, TERRIBLE, we are slowly getting really older people!!!!!! HELP!!!!! LOL.

Good, now I will watch a bit of tv, I have an easy task this evening for the dinner, we will eat the rest of the soup I made yesterday, fresh chickensoup, well filled, so good enough for a meal.
Wishing you all a wonderful week!

Sunday, January 19, 2020

I had some outbursts of energy this week LOL!

Goodafternoon everybody!

After a rather good night of sleep(because that isn;t the case all the time) I first took it easy this morning. I watched a serie I didn;t have the courage for yesterday evening anymore, because it already was too late. So I took my time this morning, with a sandwich and a cup of tea, all quite in the house(Jan was still sleeping), all wonderful.
Took another wink of half an hour I think on the couch(yes, lazy but why not?), then prepared the stew meat so that it could have it's time to get tender. Then I switched on the coffeepot, and by that time Jan woke up so we had our late morning coffee.
After that I took a quick shower and prepared the rest of our dinner(some grean beans, simple cooked potatoes , they all are ready to be boiled later) and some stewed pears, already done.
And now it was time to make my blogpost.

By the way, our weather still is rather good, it is a bit colder, we have around 5-7C daytime and here and there a tiny bit of nightfrost during the night.
But the sun is shining a lot, we should have some dry days in advance, with about the same temperatures, so not really bad.

What about the title of the blogpost??? Well, you might giggle a bit, but I made short notes on the calendar of what I did every day, so I wouldn;t forget!
Monday I needed something from a cupboard in the kitchen and I knew it needed some cleaning. And decided that I would do that! I am not a real cleaning nerd, who has everything always sparkling and shining, but at times it just happenes to me.......... a cleaning rage hahahahaha!!
I started with the cupboard that needed it most and then ended up doing all the higher cupboards(well, once started, you better do as much as you can).
It always ends up with clearing out some stuff, I re-organized the cupboard with the spices and the mugs and it looks so much better now. I was really pleased with myself. And it isn;t always just cleaning the inside of the cupboards, you always see some things that need to be washed, or re-organise etc. etc.
As result of that energy burst I decided to do very, very little the next day ROFL.
Okay, all is good but we don;t want to exaggerate, do we?

What happened Wednesday? Oh yes, I ironed all the Christmas tablecloths, folded up all the Christmas fleece blankets(that I usually put on the couches), stuffed it all away for next year. For dinner we had, I think canneloni, with a bit of salad, was yummie!

Thursday was a bit of everything, had to go to the pharmacy to get some medicin that I ran out of, some grocerie shopping, made for dinner spinach stew( fried half of the fresh spinach leaves, with some small diced onions, some pepper and salt, boiled the potatoes, fried some bacon in small dice, then mashed the potatoes with some butter and milk, mixed the fried spinach with bacon in it, then added the other half of the fresh spinach leaves to it, stirred and mixed it well with a wooden spoon, pepper, salt to it, in a ovendish and only had to warm it up for about 30 minutes on 180C in the oven). And I made a couple of meatballs to go with it. Simple dinner, but good.
After dinner, I spoiled some gravy on the counter and also on the floor so I decided I better clean the floor properly. It is done quickly, so no big deal, only I kicked the bucket and had a rather wet part of the floor with. I said some not so nice words, dried the floor with a mop of cloth, that all wasn;t foreseen for that day! All ended well, I had a cleaned floor so that was done already, instead of the next day or day after.

Friday I got completely crazy. I needed something from our storage and I suddenly got very irritated how it all the stock of coffee,pasta, canned vegetables, etc. all that kind of stuff was arranged there. we have a closed cupboard standing there and one open plus a few racks too. It is a  small room, just good for storage, because there is no window, so not much light, it is a rather cool part of the house, wonderful for some storage,.So I re-arranged and also cleaned the closed one, and re-arranged the open one too for a part at least, tossed away some things that were really old and long over expire date, and suddenly found myself with a "new" stock of storage cannisters and boxes ROFL.! I washed them and I can use them if I need to.
Was I a happy camper? Yes, of course!!!!!

In between all that activities I also did some other small things,  like a phonecall here and paying a bill there and such things. But that is usual stuff. Jan also did several things, I must say. He vacuumcleaned the shole house, did some work in the garden, mostly cleaning away some leaves etc., brought some garbage sacks to the containers further on in the street. Took care of the plants in the house(that is his job, I seem to have no real grean fingers for houseplants). It doesn't look much what he did, but I am happy he did them, it shows he is feeling better again( he had a few "off-days", I was a little bit worried, but without cause, hoorray!).

So yesterday it was a day of "easy going". I only changed the bedcloths, it was time for that again. But that was all!
Not much more to tell, not a really interesting report of the week to read probably, but truthfully recoded, (chuckle, chuckle!).

I wish you now all a very good week, without disturbing things that might happen, please stay safe and healthy!


Sunday, January 12, 2020

Life is getting in usual rythm again

Goodafternoon everybody!

Weather is about the same all week, temperatures still around 5-8 C, here and there some rain, short sparks of sunshine, bit too much wind, that makes it feel somewhat colder than it really is. Oh well, still not bad, we can manage this.

All together I had half the week busy and other half I took it easier.
Started Monday with a laundry that had to be done, because another one would come soon, the 3 Wise Men arrived at the stable  and it was the last day we had the cosy Christmaslights and tree.
 Next day Jan and I did get rid of all the last Christmas decorations(and it was good we did already part of it in the days before), still it took a few hours to get the room in order again, and I felt a little bit pooped out, although ot a much as other years, because there was a bit less to do.

Wednesday was my birthday, didn;t feel other than other days, but I became a year older(67 now pffff!)
I thought I make it an rather easy day for myself(which was also a good idea after the hustle of the day before). so first took an easy morning, watching my two favourite programs on German TV at the moment, in between had a sandwich and made some coffee. I also unwrapped a present I received from Miss Edna, two very welcome pyjama pants. They will serve me well, I was happy with them(believe it or not, my old pyama was at it's end, so it came just in good time).
In the afternoon I went to city centre, because I wanted to buy us a few special cakes, from the Wiener Konditorei. They make Austrian cakes and I love the one called Mohnkuche (a Poppy seed cake, and the one there is the best for me). I also took some cakeparts  with nutsand a part of Sachertorte.
Well, it was for eating with the evening cup of coffee, but now we also had still some for two days after, yeah!
I did a quick look in some shops, didn't see anything special I would like to take home, so went home after an hour or two. Made us bit later dinner and I really enjoyed the cake later on. It had been such a long time ago I had this one, so it was a real treat for me.

Thursday all was back to normal again and I got quite busy. First i did a laundry with all the Christmas blankets that were over our couches, to have them fresh for next year. Went for a few things for dinner to the supermarket, came home, laundry was ready to be hanged out to dry, did so and also did iron quite a bit of the laundry that was dry from two days before. And happy with myself I went into the kitchen to prepare the dinner. It was an easy one, macaroni with some minced meat and some cheese, had it all done rather quickly, so I only had to warm it up in the oven and make a bit of salad. Must say this time the macaroni really tasted good(it differs every time I make it, you know, but this time it was really yummie, perhaps also because I grated some Peccorino cheese over it when I had it on our plates).
Yes, it was a well spent day.

Friday I really don;t know with what I filled the day, I did some things, but cannot rememeber. Oops, doesnt sound too good, but it happens more time and probably it wasn;t anything really important, just things we often have to do, so probably a bit boring, however necessary, but easy to forget hahaha. Oh blimey, I now remember again I went to the market, because we needed some cheese and a bit of veggies, fresh ones. That took part of the afternoon. And in the evening it was ever so easy. We usually have a simple thing to eat, often Jan makes his own and I do what I like . This time we still had left over of the macaroni, so we had that(it often is even better tasting the second day, you know!).

Saturday we spent large part of the day watching tv, there was speedskating, European distance Championships, and as you know by now, we are great fans of it. And we did quite well, we had several gold medals and some silver and bronze.
I also phoned a friend of ours who had her birthday(glad I didn;t forget), had a little chat with her and if all works well we will phone eachother soone to meet and have a cup of coffee or so.

This was more or less our week,

If we can find a day the weather isn;t all too bad and Jan is in a rather "active"mood, LOL, we might go looking this month for a new couch. Ours is really at the end, the new one should be good to sit, not too hard, not too soft and good hold for our back. Hmmm, not always easy to find something that looks to our taste and has all we expect from it and not paying a too high price. But I am sure we will find something we just have to spend some time on it.
That is all I I am kind of planning this month(you know, too much planning isn;t working for me).
Oh, boy, I see that it is time to start cooking our dinner. I already have some diced pumpkin with rough cut onions in the oven, now the rest with it has to be done.
Have a lovely week and hopefully everybody stays safe!

Sunday, January 05, 2020

A new year started, what will it bring us?

Goodafternoon everybody!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!!!!

Still rather good weather, with temperatures around 5C-8C, not too much rain, bit too much wind at times, but yet no snow and ice, hoorray!
It has been sometimes a bumpy ride, last year, so I hope this new one will be a little bit nicer and smooth going.

Start of this week was quiet, Monday I went out to buy us a few of the Dutch treats for New Years Eve, the "oliebollen and appelflappen". I was in time to find them easy at our supermarket. Okay, they aren't the very best but tasty enough for us, and much more practical than making them myself!
New Year's Eve we had to have something for dinner, but I didn;t feel like cooking that day, so I went out to buy us a grilled chicken and it was ever so tasty! And later in the evening, with the coffee we took one or two oliebollen and it was good.
Midnight people started with the fireworks(although already a lot were busy with it all day, which isn;t officially allowed, you can fire it from 18.00 till 02.00 at night), and Jan and I just went outside the frontdoor to look for a little while the fireworks in the neighborhood. Some were really beautiful!
We did that for may be 20 minutes or so and then went in again and watched a bit tv till we went to sleep.
And next day it was quiet, we watched for a while the New Years concert from Vienna, it's almost kind of tradition and we had a very nice and quiet day.

And next day suddenly all festivities were done with, and we had to find a normal dayrythm again LOL.
I was proud of myself that day, because I finally did something that should have been done a bit earlier, but okay, now it is settled, it was just a small thing, but necessary, and it felt good.
Friday jan and I already started to take off some of the Christmasdecorations.  It is better to do it in two or three sessions, not that straining on the body.
We still have the Christmastree and the manger, because the 3 Kings(or wisemen) still have to come to the manger, which will be tomorrow.
The 3 statues always stand on top of the manger, but I moved them a bit closer to the front the last few days(otherwise they NEVER will arrive at time ROFL).
So tomorrow I will place them in the manger and Tuesday Jan and I will put away all Christmas stuff.

Oh, Friday there was the birthday of Jan's brother, so we gave him a phonecall to wish him Happy Birthday.
This month there are several birthdays. Next Wednesday , on the 8th, a friend of ours has his and I will have mine, whooooo. The the 11th another friend of ours has hers and in 3 weeks, the 29th Jan will have his.
So from Wednesday on and for the next 3 weeks Jan will have to live with an elder women again, hahahahaha.

Another year is history, I have the feeling it passed away so quick, I only made myself one resolution for this year: not to have any of them!
Most of the time they don;t work, anyway not for a long time. We just will see what this new year has in store for us, we can only hope it will be filled with mostly good things, happy things, small or bigger, that our health remains well, and cross fingers that at the end of this year we can look back and say: "Life was good to us, perhaps we had a tiny little guiding angel on our shoulders!"
Wouldn't that be nice?

Good, time for me to have a sandwich and something to drink, I think I will take toasted bread with some real butter on it and a cup of tea. Sometimes it tastes so yummie, warm toast with the melting butter on it. Small pleasures with a great impact on your mood LOL!
Have a wonderful week !