Sunday, June 28, 2020

Windows have my attention at the moment!

Goodafyternoon everybody!

After a few days of really hot weather(temps of 28-30C), it has become a lot cooler today. Still not bad weather but temps have dropped to I think 20-21(if in sunshine). That will be for the coming week too.
It will be some sunshine,may be a little rainshower here and there. Although there were quite some heavy rainshowers the lst two days, specially in eaterns part of the country and some in the south too. So much rain that there was too much water at a time and people had trouble with it in their houses.
I saw on the news yesterday on one spot they had aso hail, and that were quite big stones!!! Glad we didn;t had it over here.

This week some of the time was filled with looking on internet for a good company for new windows at the front. As did our neighbor too and we have now one appointment for the 20th of July and i will try to make one with another company for the next day too. They will send someone to talk it through with us and then will make an offer. We'll see what that will bring.
Our nieghbor already found one company and had an apppointment made to go to their showroom on Friday afternoon. It wasn't easy to come there(and we couldn;t go with the neighbor he hasn;t a car)so he went alone with some measures of our windows too and a photo, just in case.
Well, he reported back to us in the evening and it was a great visit. He was in time there, and waited in the showroom for somehting more than half an hour and.................nobody showed up! And till now he hadn;t had a phonecall or email with ome excuses of explanation. Well, that isn't giving much confidene in the company, do you think???
Good we found already two other oned, that look good.
May be we can find a third party too, to have good comparison for the offers.

Hmmmm, it is kind of exciting to have the old windows replaced and it will cost some money, but it is something we really need to do now.
And if the prize isn't that high, I might ask for an offer that includes placing a new kitchendoor and little side window in the kitchen, of course.
That door is very bad, and it would be great if we could have that done too.
It's money absorbing, but it will bring back slowly some money too, because it will help to cut a bit on the energy, I hope.

I didn;t do much more this week, it was really too warm to do a lot, specially because the temperature suddenly had a rise from around 19 to in two days the 30C. If all should go a bit more graduately, I think our body would adapt much better. Still we shoud be happy that we had some fantastic days, and some more will come.
Life isn't still the same as it was before March, all to do with that Covid-19.
slowly the lockdown is opening again for a lot of things, but it will be still a strange thing to go to a restaurant or the beach with that distancing. Soon we can go in bigger numbers in the trams, trains and busses, however a facemask is obgligated when travelling in them.
In The Netherlands it is really in good control, let us hope it will stay that way.
People take care, but slowly get also irritated by the restrictions, so hopefully most of them still pay attention to the advices giving by the doctors and the government.
Yet someday we should be able to live life as we did before the Covid. But then I think we need a vaccin to help us with it.

Today I have an easy job for our dinner LOL!
Yesterday I bought us a fried chicken for dinner, we both could have half of it, but this time it was such a big one that there is still a lot leftover. So.... today fried chicken again, perhaps at around 4.00 p.m. a small cup of coup and then at dinner time the chicken with some salad and some strawerries as dessert.

It leaves me with some more "free time"(and I dont mind that), so i can have a moment in the garden and I can search a bit around on internet, or play a game, watch some tv, do some knitting, you see, lots of things to do.
Tomorrow will be much more a working day for me. I plan to do some ironing, also have to pick up some medicins at the apothecary for Jan, if there is some time left, perhaps get some groceries. If not I can do that the next day.

Not so much to tell is there? It is a quiet life we live, and with that Covid around the corner even more, but is that a bad thing? If no bad things happen that give you stress and raised heart beatings, I think we have to be grateful that we can live a rather pleasant life. Just let's try to have an as good as possible health, and some humor every day. It keeps a person going.

Okay, Now I will finish this and wish you all a lovely week to come and stay safe!

Sunday, June 21, 2020

A bit of strange week.

Goodafternoon everybody!

Let's start with the weather. Last week it wasn;t all too bad weather, although at the first 2-3 days there were sometimes rather heavy rainshowers. Temperature still okay.
Later in the week more and more sunshine, bit of raise of temperature, and next week we could have really hot days, or 25-30C. It's okay for me, although.... 30C is a bit very high. Still, better so than cold and rain etc in the summer.

So Tuesday Jan went for his catherezation, all alone early in the morning.
Nothing came out of my hands, couldn;t do mucch, as waiting for a telephonecall from the hospital that I could pick him up.
At around 3.00 p.m. I still hadn;t hear something, so I called myself. He was just having a pressure bandage and I could come within ahlf an hour. All went well.
I was in no-time there(just 10minutes with the tram and short walk) and of course asked what they did. Well, it was a short answer, they just had a look and didn;t do anything because they found it wasn't necessary. Gosh, that was a surprise after the talking with the doctor and so on.
I guess he will have may be an evaluation appointment after some time with the doctor.
Well, I think we should consider this as good news. As soon as Jan had his bandage, he could dress himself and we went home. (and we just had pouring rain, lucky I brought an umbrella).
Jan was so tired, of not sleeping the night before and the kind of stress, that he first took something to drink, we had an early dinner and after that he took a looong nap on the couch. I think he slept for about 4 hours(and that is a long nap for him LOL). He felt already much better.
We left the bandage for a few days longer and took it off on Friday. It was healed lovely, and we only put on a little bandage to protect the spot for a bit longer and as reminder that he couldn;t use the arm for a bit longer(meaning not lifting anything heavy and so).
His both arms have lots of hematomes of the needles they uses( for blood, infuse on the other arm trying to get into his vain for the catherezation etc.), so poor soul, he is blue and purple on both underarms ROFL).

Good that was done, Hopefully no more of it.

In between I was kind of supporting my friend Heidi on the phone. Just before last weekend she told me that her favourite auntie  was desceased( died of cancer and wasn;t yet verry old, just 68). Heidi was very touched by it, she loved her dearly, so I had several phonecalls with her, so she could tell about it, and get it off her chest. I felt so sorry I couldn;t really be with her and take her in my arms to comfort her, you know. But with the corona situation it is still a bit risky.
I hope I could be of some help for her. Last wednesday was the funeral, it was a good thing she could attend that. It gave Heidi so peace of mind.

Yesterday I was rather energetic, and did a lot of small jobs, but things that needed to be done and I felt good about it. Also did some gardening, which is a good thing to relax body and soul. Not great things, but deadheading all the plants(which takes some time at the moment), it however is very rewarding, because they blossom much longer and are full of new buds all the time.

Today it is funny weather as I look out of the window. It isn;t cold at all, but mostly cloudy, at times some wind comes up, may be there are some rainshowers in the area of even some small thunderstorms? I hope soon the sun will pop through the clouds again and we can take a seat for a while in the garden.

Next week I must get myself to do some real research for the new windows we want to install on the front of the house(double glazed and such). It will take some money, but it is really something necessary to do. Now we have the possibility and it will bring some saving in the energy bill too, I hope.
Our neighbor is planning to have new windows too, may be we can make a deal with an installer, because it will be a larger job for him(there even might be a 3rd neighbor too). We'll see what al will bring. First we will need to ask for a quotation, and I like to speak face to face to the man of the company that finally might do the job. I can do most of it online, but I like it if possible in the "old fashioned"way, ROFL.

Good, that is the plan for next week. Let's see if it comes together, because I know myself and my plans, hahaha.

Enough rambling now for this week. Hope you keep tigh and be safe.
Have a wonderful week to come.

Sunday, June 14, 2020

Sometimes things happen at the wrong time.

Goodafternoon everybody!

Rather cloudy at the moment, but not bad temperatures. We also had rain, the garden and fields of the farmers were grateful for it.
Last two days we had real warm weather, and it felt great. Next week will be a bit coller, around 21-22C with some sun, bit clouds, may be some rainshowers.

Friday I had bad luck. I was walking in a shop and suddenly....... pang...... something was strained in my back. It should be a muscle or may vbe a little nerve,  I had this already one or two times, and it isn;t nice at all! It really hurts with some moves you normally do without thinking about it.
D.........d!!!! And just now! I cannot use it at all(well, it is never good), now that I must be in good shape. Why?  Well, on Tuesday Jan will have the catherezation and hoepfully they will place a stent right away. That isn;t completely sure yet, they will take a look in the vains and when it is on one place the narrowing, I think they will do the stent.
If they think there is more, it could be in the worst of cases even an operation to make a bypass. That was the message he got last week at the take in appointment(by phone). Hmmmmm, the doctor never mentioned that before, funny.
But it wasn;t the doctor himself who had the conversation, it was a nurse or his assistant. So we will wait and see what happens on Tuesday. He will have to be there very early morning, already at 7.30 a.m!!!!! It is almost sadistic to do that to older people LOL!
But when he comes home, he probably will have one arm in a sling or something and he must not use that arm for about 3 days. So I must be in good physical shape to help himwith some things, like perhaps putting on his sock, or trousers or a sweater or whatever. And I cannot have a a back that will not cooperate, can we???
So tomorrow morning I will have to make an appointment with the doctor, may be he can do something about it. Last time he had some pills( think there were muscle relaxants) and that helped very good).

I guess, that Jan is getting a little bit nervous about the catherezation, he never will admitt it, but I somehow know. And I understand, because the last few years he had some rough times and that doesn;t help.
So now I will end this rather short post(with almost only moaning around, fogive me!
Jan is taking a shower now and afterwards I will give him a quick haircut, so he will have a nice head when going to hospital LOL.

Hopefully next week I will have some good news about Jan, that all is done and without complications etc.
Wishing you all a lovely week, and stay safe!

Sunday, June 07, 2020

And another week passed by

Goodafternoon everybody!

Last couple of days the weather is really sad. We have had some rain, a day also very strong winds, just a bit of sunshine, but the worst was that the temperatures have dropped about or even 10 degrees! Oops that is quite a difference with the week before and last weekend. My body cannot cope very well with these sudden and for all drastic temperatures changes, most when they drop.
I don;t mind some rain, it is necessary, because we had some very dry periods, and there will come more, but why does also the temperatures have to change to almost cold?????
Some good news there is, may be around next weekend temperatures will rise again and could go to 20C and later even more! I will hold on to that thought LOL.

It was a week as already many before, real quiet,  apart from the usual things I do.
Must say I had two days of a kind of energy burst again, those days I did as much as I could on the housekeeping and some small jobs that waited for me in the house LOL.
Life isn;t still yet the same as before that Covid 19 stuff, we might think soon it will be again going okay and we can go back to that, but I am afraid it will have still a big impact on our lives for a while longer. But we can do again some things more and that's already something.
Yesterday my friend Heidi had her birthday so I gave her a call, of course to wish her a happy birthday. If we really wanted we could have payed her a short visit, with restrictions, but we thought it better to stay home and keep as safe as possible. Specially for Jan, also bearing in mind his upcoming catheterization. We cannot take a risk now for him to suddenly catch the virus, can we?

You know what sometimes is hard to do? To come up every day of the week with a dinner. Yeah, you could do it easy and eat 3 times the same and perhaps take some junkfood etc. But although I don;t want to spend too much time cooking(at least not every day, hahaha) I try to have something different every day and if possible a little bit healthy too.
I catch myself, that often enoigh I end up with the same meals, or almost the same hahaha. Best is if I've made something that will last us for two days! Like some kind of stew. just like this week, I've made mashed potatoes with fresh spinach( or as we call it a stew). Half of the quantity of the spinach I kept as it was and half of it I fried quickly in a pan with lots of onions and a bit of garlic. Then all that stirred together in the mashed potatoes. Some seasoning with salt, pepper, bit of mustard and with it we had one day a little hamburger and the other day a piece of smoed sausage. And as almost every day this time of the year we had some strawberries with bit of cream as dessert.
Another day I cooked some rice and looked in the fridge what I had and came up with some bell paprika, onions, (onions go well with a LOT of things hahaha), bit of mushrooms. I let the rice cool down and when it was dinner time I only had to fry the rice in a pan, after first I first fried the veggies a bit. That was a nice ish mash and with some seasoning tasted very well, oh and i also diced up a chicken filet, fried that too and stirred into the rice stuff.
Next day, let me think....................oh yes, I made cannelloni, stuffed with minced meat,( the cannelloni were  ready to use ones), made myself a bechamel-sauce, poured that over the stuffed cannelloni with a bit of tomatoe sauce, and covered it up with a thick layer of grated cheese. That in the oven on ca. 200C for half an hour and ready! Had some salad with little tomatoes and green salad with it.
Another idea perhaps for you is the Saturday meal.
I bought some spareribs, marinated and well and only made myself a potatoe salad to go with it. Easy, quick and simple, but also tasty. Okay, not completely the most healthy meal, but hey, the potatoe salad conatined not only diced potatoes but also diced cucumber, some peas, some fresh chives and parsley, oh, and some capers and some diced apple.

May be I've inspired you with these meals for a meal next week???
It all isn't very difficult and most of it rather quickly done, so perhaps worth a try.

I wish you now a wonderful week, stay safe please!
Till next week.