I am almost into the 21th century hahahahaha

 Goodafternoon everybody!

It is a bit gray today, but dry, later this week we will have a day or two with temperatures that may reach 18C, unbelievable. But it still is rather quiet autumn weather most of the time.

Last week I first had to make a call to my insurance company to ask if they might have forgotten to send me a bill? I receive one every 3 months, it is easier to pay in parts during the year. They had sent me one, but I didn;t receive it, neither the new policy. Perhaps the post didn't deliver or the postman put it into some elses mailbox. Anyway, they sent me again, so I could pay and wouldn;t have trouble later on.

Then Wednesday I went to the bank to have some instructions on how to do internet banking. Seems all pretty forward, so next week I think I will try it out. I had a very nice and patient lady there, and she also put the app on my phone. Wow, now I am bound to use that phone a bit more, because I also have put the QR corona check code on it, Yeah, you see, suddenly in big steps I moved into a new area of computing and such, LOL!

Now I will try to get a small package send by first filling in the form on internet, probably paying by internet banking and finally being able to send it away to the USA. I hope all will go smoothly. It is always a bit scary to try out new things, don;t you think?

Sad news to tell too. We don;t see our lease cat Muppet anymore. I have no idea if she is still around or not, but it is a bit strange she suddenly disappeared. Let's hope all is well with her.

Oh, last week Jan and I received a letter from our doctor to get our flu vaccination. Somewhere the 17th of November it will be. Of course we will go there, as we do every year. And I hope a lot of people will have this c=vaccination, as well still a lot of people should get the covid vaccin. Everybody might think it is almost done with, but be careful, the covid is still around and we will notice it this winter, I am sure.

Good time to finish this post, and have a look at my beef stew, that I have in the oven(this time). I never made it in the oven before so it is a try-out more or less. And I still have some fresh spinach left from last week, I will fry that with some garlic and onion and make us a few boiled potatoes. The spinach I used for  small lasagna I made earlier this week. And it tasted so well, even Jan did like it more than usual, (he isn;t very much for pasta stuff). I made it with some minced meat, the fried spinach, mushrooms, onion, bit of mozarella, that in two layers in between the lasagna sheets, with some tomatoe sauce in the minced meat and as last some bechamel and grated cheese on it. Yummie, and I will make it again some day.

Wishing you all a wonderful week, stay safe.

Experienced slightly better weeks than this one

 Goodafternoon everybody.

Our weather is getting somewhat colder, although we still have periods with some sunshine. But for now it is around 15C, later this week it might get to only 13C with some rain.

As I expected after the week with Jan being not too well, now it was my turn to have a bad day, or better said night. last Thursday evening already my stomach began to protest and during the night I had a annoying kind of feeling, not really pain, but uncomfoy and then it is best for me to get up and sit on the couch. It helped a bit, but a you can imagine I didnt get much or almost no sleep. And that is a bad thing for me. So Friday I was happy that the nasty stomach feeling slowly went away, but I was completely out of business. I did catch a nap in the afternoon, did me some good, and by yesterday all was almost normal again. 

Just before al this started I ould help Jan a bit with putting all waste outside and it was picked up all on Friday morning. Yes, that was a good thing.

But I had a unpleasant surprise this week when I went to the postoffice to mail a tiny little package to the Usa to my friend Edna and they said to me that they couldn;t accept it there. I first had to announce it online with the post, giving all content etc. Then had to pay online and then print a custom form and bring that with the package to the postoffice. Well, sounds not so difficult only there were a few obstacles:

I have (yes I know I am living in the Ice Age LOL)no internetbanking, so how can I pay for the package? And second I still have no printer(Ialmost have no use for it so I postponed that every time). Well, I was a bit in a bad mood. It isnlt something our post asks, it is ordered by the USA, they want to know all in advance. Before this I could go to the postoffice, fill in a small custom form, pay there and ready. Now I had to contact my bank to settle internet banking possibility, I had on the phone a nice lady that helped me well. Soon I will receive a call from them to make an appointment that they can visit me home and install and or explain all.Then I called the post(gosh to find a telephonenumber to have actually someone on the phone is hard work)and after I got someone I was told that it is possible to let the custom form print at the postoffice where I want to deliver the package. That was some result. But now all depends on the bank how quick they will react and if I will be able to send this package still on time and then there is the Christmas box too.What a mess, caused by customs of the USA. I am not pleased. But dear readers, soon this lady will be all modernised, with internet banking and all, and yes you are allowed to laugh about it.

It was a week of getting things done(planned or not hahahah) and I also called our plumber for an appointment to clean our central heating kettle. Has to be done every year, and gosh, he came several hours later after my call. Good, done also.

Oh, as cherry on the cake of misfortune suddenly we had trouble with our tv, specially when looking back the recorded stuff. Suddenly it seemed the internet connection necessary for it wasn't good enough, so every few minutes the image stood still or we got a kind of error code on the screen. I finally tried to call the customer service of the cable company, (also difficult to get hold of someone in person), and the guy gave a solution that for that moment was good enough. Seems they are uupdating or having maintenace of the modem, all okay by me, but every time they do so, there is something wrong with the connection, or media box or whatever. Very annoying and I don;t unerstand why. And by all, we pay quite some money for the monthly subscription. The most irritating thing is that first thing they always say, that it migh be caused by a bad cable. Well, the cables are fine and all replaced for new ones not too long ago, so that excuse doesn;t work anymore with me.

Well, folks, did I complained enough about all kind of things in this post? LOL. Forgive me, but sometimes there are those kind of days in a week, let's hope all will come in more quiet waters again next week.

Wishing you all a fantastic week, and stay safe.

As you can understand I had no idea of making some photosof things, so that has to wait for a moment. 

So

Our stash for waste collection is growing LOL

 Goodafternoon everybody!

The weather here is really Autumn like, we even had one or two nights with heavy rain, the temperatures are low, around 15C, some days even quite some wind, so not my kind of weather.

As the blogpost title says, the stuff we want to get rid of is growing, so I really need to call next week for a pick-up date. I am happy with the little free space it gives in the house, but we still need to get through a lot more. 

So a lot of time was spent with this cleaning out, also had to do some grocerie shopping, do some vacuum cleaning, mopping a floor or two etc. I also made time to go for a quick visit to town centre, where I found two lovely sweaters, fuzzy, warm, just good for this time of year. I didn;t make yet a photo of them, I will try to post it next week.

during that trip I also found a really good pair of slippers for Jan, His old pair where at the end, and this one is really sturdy, and warm, with good footshape. So this was a successful trip. Yesterday I had courage to make a quick trip to the market(had just the good weather, because when coming home it started to rain and hard too!), there were a few small things you almost only can find there, I found it found me a pair of cheap slippers, that will do for a couple of months I think, and had a good look around. Gosh it was nice to be able to walk there and see all the stalls and stands again. For a very long time there was almost nothing there, just vegetable stalls and all things for food. But I may be chicken, but on the market I did wear my mask, there was quite some crowd and for sure there were walking a lot of people that weren;t yet vaccinated for whatever reason. So better take no chances.

We still have a lot of visits of Muppet, the cat, sometimes for hours she will be inside(and I cannot resist letting here in, specially with the very bad weather). May be not the best to do, but softy I am and softy I will stay.

So next week I must do some calls and yes, not forget to take a few photos.

I wish you all a wonderful week, stay safe,

Hugs

Kyra

This week could have been better

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Our weather has been rather nice, today it still is, there are temperatures around 21-25C, depending where you live, but next week temperatures could dropp quite a lot to around 16C, brrrr. Well that isn;t yet too bad for end September, but I am so used now to the 20-21C, that it will be difficult too get used to again, LOL. And there coud be more rain too.

No, we didn;t have a very good week this time. Jan had again trouble with the belly, more the intestines I think. Monday night and also uesday and even during the night he had a lot of trouble, specially those shooting pains. You know already the thinkg, I asked if he wanted the doctor, he said no, not yet, etc. From Wednesday it went slowly better with him, but apart from the pain he gets rather exhausted from it. Understandable, because with the pain and so it is diffcult to sleep a lot. Good, all seems to be okay again now, but of course it has it's repercussion on me too. One night slamost no sleep the worrie, etc. so I was quite under the weather too. Don;t you worry, all is normal and quiet now again.

Let's quickly forget about it and move on.

Later in the week, when I was feeling already a lot better, I did some shopping and found us some more tulip bulbs. I have two photos borrowed from the web of them. They should grow 45 cm. tall.

Aren't they beautiful? I hope they will grow well. If all goes well this spring we should have a lot of tulips in big pots in the garden. And it will be a happy sight on the patio.

Our "lease cat"Muppet, still is coming over a lot. She even comes in the house in the morning as I open the kitchen door and finds her a comfy place on the couch for several hours. Yesterday evening she also was inside and had a good sleep for a few hours. It is't that she has noo home, I know she has, but apparantly they don;t give a lot of attention to her I think. Yes, I am a softy, I know very well, but I care for animals. I know she also is often during the night here in her basket outside. It's difficult to know really what to do. We will keep an eye on her and see what she will do when temperatures will fall a lot and it will be windy and raining etc.

Friday I had to call the energy company, to ask where the bill of this month was dwelling. Normally I receive it around the 15th-20th of the month, but this time not. As I donlt want to wait till I get a reminder, I thought it better to call them. I had a very nice lady on the phone, she seemed rather surprised about the reason I called. I asked her: "you certainly aren;t used to get calls to send a bill, isn't it?". She had to laugh and acknowledge that. All should be settled now, she would send me a bill so I had time enough to pay without trouble. It only takes some time to get through with a phonecall. I had to wait about 8 minutes, that's long don;t you think? I probably could have done it online too, but I rather like to talk to a person with this kind of things.

Good, next week I will have to make an appointment to have cleaned and checked my cv-kettle. It's a yealy returning thing, and is good to do(also for insurance, if something might happen). Then next thing will be a call for waste pickup, we gathered quite some stuff, so better get rid of it now.

And all of the country is waiting to have a new government. Elections were in March, but there still is no coaltion formed which makes a government. It is horrible that it has to take such a long time and may be will need even more. In the meantime the country is more or less ungoverned, except for some urgent matters that need to be done. It could happen that we will have a government of minority, which isn;t really a good thing. It makes it more difficult to get things done, each time the government wants to make a new law, or do something important they will need to search in the parliament for support. That can be a tricky thing. But in case they even cannot come to some government in minority, perhaps then we could have new elections. I really have no idea at the moment what will be better. I am not very well into politics, although I have my opinions, but above all we need to have a new government and if possible a more or less reliable one. We'll just have to see what will happen in the next weeks. 

here they slowly diminish all measures for Covid, but I still will keep cautious and prudent because it isn;t yet over and I have to be careful for Jan of course. We are fully vaccinated, but we will have to see how all things will evolve during autumn and winter time. 

Now I think I have rambled more than enough and I feel it is time to have may be a cup of tea. 

Wishing you all a wonderful week and stay safe. 

Finally a few photo's

 Goodafternoon everybody.

We have still nice weather, although it will change during the week (snifff). Now it is about 20C, with quite some sun, but ater this week all could be different, with rain, cluds, more wind and much lower temperatures(could be something of 16C only). I am not ready for that yet, but I will have to get used to it soon, because autumn weather will be in store, I fear.

This morning I first had my cup of tea and my "quiet"moments in watching a detective, having a sandwich too and in company of...........our lease cat, which sat next to me on our couch, even sleeping happily. Yeah, she still is visiting us every day, and during the night from around 1 or 2 o'clock she is mostly lying in her little basket on the cupboard in the garden. We will see how we will can make it more sheltered for her during colder and wetter times(if she still will be there at night).

 I've tried to make a photo of her, here it finally is:

 

Isn;t it a beauty? As we don;t know a name, we call her "Muppet". 

Then I made a bit later some coffee for Jan and me and after that( you see, we took it all easy) I changed the duvet covers and sheets etc. on our bed. Then Jan started to look through a part of our dvd's and cd's, to see which ones we want to keep and which ones can go. I will have to go through them also perhaps. It all takes such a lot of room and a lot we don't watch or listen to anymore, so why keep it? After we will have cleared out a lot of cupboards and such, it will still looks as if almost nothing disappeared, hahahaha.  It is amazing what you collect over the years, and inherited from the parents etc.

It was a more or less quiet week. Jan did some clearing up, meaning he dismanteled a low cupboard that needs to go away, it was hard work, the shrews and stuff that held it together were tight and not easy to remove. Now it waits to be picked up one day by bulky waste collection service. Oh, we have already quite some stuff ready for it, so I think I will call them somewhere this week to make an appointment for it. Oh, it will feel so good to got rid of a lot of stuff that only takes in room and has no use anymore,

I also did some garden work, meaning I did cut a lot of the ivy, that always grows as mad and needs a lot ore control pruning than we do, but hey, it is hard work. Next week I should try to find some courage to do a next bit.

We still are very happy with our curtains, I have one photo, which isn't really doing them credit but perhaps you get an idea.

I am busy with trying to make me a sweater, if I will succeed I don't know, but I like the pattern that I use, which is very easy. It is called the Hurdle stitch.

Cast on multiples of 2 

Row 1(Right Side) Knit all

Row 2(Wrong Side) Knit all

Row 3: * Knit 1, Purl 1*

Row 4: * Knit 1, Purl 1*

It looks like this

Well, this is it for today.

I am sure i did forget to mention something, but cannot believe it is very important. Wishing you all a good week in safety and good health and if possible with a few laughs!

New curtains, looks partly a new house!

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Our weather isn;t bad, although at the moment somewhat cooler, but still here and there sunshine, temperature around 20-21C.  May be later this week a little bit of rain, but it looks as if Jan has to water the garden today or tomorrow. It has been too dry.

It was quite a busy week this one. Monday and Tuesday we were busy clearing up several spaces in the rooms so the "curtain-Man"could get everywhere without too much trouble. Doing that it was great time too to go through some stuff and put things in plastic bags or cartons to get rid of . it takes several hours in the day and it absobs some energy but it is satisfying too. Oh. Monday Jan and I also [ainted the outside of the garden doors,  pfffff, we aren;t used to those jobs anymore LOL.So on Wednesday the man came to get rid of all the old rails and curtians and put on new rails and curtains. It takes several hours and it was one of the warmest days too this week. Gosh, you don;t need to do fitness when you have his profession. It is up and down stairs all the time, replacing it, and again and again. 

He came around 9.30 in the morning and went away aroud 15.00 afternoon which gave us some time to put some tables and stuff back in it's place and give the rooms a good hoovering and oh my, it looks marvellous! I tried to make a picture of it, but it was not really good so I will try to make some new ones with some other lightfall perhaps. In a way the curtains make the sitting room a little bit darker, but the light that still comes in is very nice and we need to get used to it too. It really all lifts up all the rooms, pity only that one curtain wasn;t delivered, so that will be here in a day or 6-10 perhaps. The guy just will need to hang it on the rails, so that's done in a few minutes. It can happen, he was a bit cross on himself and blames himself for it, not having checked extra. But it was just before the holidays and it was a bit hectic in the shop. It is just the net-curtains for the bedroom, all the rest is done.

Can you imagine that after those 3 days we were a little bit pooped out? Jan also, but of course didn;t want to show, but i managed to let him sit down and take some rest, there wasn;t anything to do that couldn;t wait another day or may be two or even wait till next week. 

Today I will make us a rather easy meal, a spring roll from the oven. It will be a rather big spring roll, looking a bit like this

It will be filled with a lot of fresh veggies, fried quickly in a pan with a little bit of sunflower oil, also some fine noodles, rolled into some filo sheets, then in the oven for about 20 minutes and I hope they will turn out well. It doesnt look much but it is very stomach filling, and if you want you can add some chicken in it or prawns or whatever you want.

Good this was the news from this week, have a wonderful week and stay safe and till next week.

A really late summer time is on now.

Goodafternoon everybody!

Yes, we have now fine weather with nice temperatures of around 21C much sun, and it will be even a little bit better during the week. It is more or less summertime starting late. Never mind if it will hold on till end november I would be happy.

It was a week that gave me a bit of stress and worry and because of that one or two nights of real bad sleep. Cause of this was Jan not feeling very well from Sunday evening on, he had again those cramps in the belly, not as bad as last time, thank God for that, but it is always something not to be happy with. It lasted for about two days, with on and off time, and it always comes with not too great stool. it comes difficult, although he has medication for it, and it takes a while before all is okay again. It's hard to explain how I feel duuring these periods, but not good. Jan isn;t the kind of calling a doctor very quick, he would ask me to do so if it was really really bad, but he is most of the time doing that at the last moment and I don;t feel happy about it. But now it is about "quiet"again, but it is never good for my sleep (neither for Jan's). 

I know I have to deal with it, it is something that will return every now and then, but knowing so and doing so are different things, LOL.

But..... yesterday I had a good telephone call. It was of the shop where we ordered our curtains, they are about ready and Wednesday the man will come to put all the the new rails on, take off all the old stuff etc. Oh my, when all will be hanging and installed, it will be looking already a lot better. 

As Jan was feeling more or less okay yesterday, he started to sand the outside of the gardendoors and the woodwork around. He has a machine for it so it isn;t that hard work. If all goes well he will start painting today. I started yesterday to really clean some woodwork insode the house, like the door or the sitting room and such. Not too much I must say, but it is a start. Slowly we will get there and soon I will be ready to at least paint a part.If all goes well, Jan will do a part too. It is really time to have a new coat of paint after all those years.

We still have visits of our "lease cat"(don;t know how to call her otherwise at the moment hahahah). She isn;t around all the time, but often she spents a lot of time in our garden, in her little basket(Jan made it for her, a small plastic basket with a nice thick fleece blanket folded up in it, so she will not be cold if she is there dring the night, which happens every now and then). So we still don;t know if she is at home somewhere, or is strolling around in several gardens, very strange. 

Oh, this morning Jan startled me with a remark that we needed to check the watermeter, because he wasn;t sure if there might be leaking something. I opened the shutter in the floor and I saw the meter moving very sloly, so somewhere there was used water. Hmmmmm, remember the last time when we had that terrible leak during several months without noticing? Good Lord, I was praying that it would be nothing. I went checking if all taps were shut, they were only not the one of the gardenhose, not really good. So I closed it till no more was possible and after a few minutes checked the meter again. Hoorray, it wasn;t moving anymore! Pfff, that was a great relief, can you imagine?

To end this post with a bit of a laugh, I have a remark of Jan he made yesterday. I was talking to him that it would be better for him if he went out for a short walk every now and then. I know it is difficult for him, because of his breathing. At that time we were watching some animal program on tv from a zoo where they were looking into turtle behaviour. Then Jan said it might be a good idea buying him a large turtle as pet, then he could give that a walk, because the   turtle walked about as slowly as he did, which was better than to walk with the little doggie from Heidi. It gave us a good laugh, and no I will not buy him a turtle. LOL.

It is good he still has his humor and sometimes self-mockery. Yeah, we know we are getting older and it comes sometimes with some imperfections of the health. We can feel bad about or make the most of it. Best is to try to make the most of it. 

Okay, time to ge something done here, and because of the nice looking and also nice feeling weather it all is more easy. As long as the sun shines you feel better, isn;t it?

Wishing you all a very lovely week, stay safe.