I painted! But this getting fit thing takes up a lot of time

Well, I'm halfway through week 5 of the optifast program. Weightloss is going well and I'm not particularly suffering from pangs of hunger at all. Just every now and again when I haven't planned properly or something strange happens, usually with public transport. Like yesterday when I switched to wait for my tram - I had just missed one but the next was due in 12 minutes. And then none actually turned up for more than 40 minutes. Very unusual for here but it meant that I was more than an hour later getting home than planned. But it is definitely good to have a small amount of delayed gratification when it comes to hunger. Reminds me that I don't have to stop at the closest takeaway or restaurant or shop to get something to eat just because I'm starting to feel hunger. My well-nourished first world self could probably survive just fine with nothing to eat for a few days and can certainly manage an hour or two if things don't go to plan. That doesn't mean I won't try to avoid those situations, but it's a good reminder to try and keep in my head.

Leaves are hard to paint

I still don't much care for the sports therapist we're working with. At the moment he is solely focused on us measuring our heart rate and learning to recognise when we're entering the exercise zone* - whereas I am delighted and proud every time I actually do any kind of movement. Because compared to six months ago, when I was just starting to go swimming/aquajogging again and after one not-very-successful attempt was instructed to not try to do more than five minutes at a time to start with, the fact that I have built up to nearly an hour makes me feel pretty good about myself. Also, I bought the cheapest fitness watch I could find (€20) and it's ridiculously bad at measuring my pulse and I am really resenting having to buy another one (€40) for something I am not the least bit interested in having to use.

At the moment, I am doing one session of rehab sport per week (45 mins) on Wednesday mornings before work. Then on Wednesday evenings there's the hour of sport that is part of the optifast program - so far that has been walking. On Thursday evenings after work I've been doing aquajogging, which I really do love so much. Because of COVID restrictions the classes are only half-an-hour long but I try to get there as early as possible so that I can swim up and down for five or ten minutes before we start and try and sneak in another five minutes when we're finished, too. Being the last out of the pool after aquajogging means that the changing rooms are less crowded by the time I get there. 

I've signed up to start an online yoga course offered by work starting at the end of September. The in person class was on Wednesdays, so no use to me. And when talking about different sports with the optifast group, I was reminded of tai chi, which I did years ago and really liked. I vaguely remember looking for a class when I moved here and finding nothing. When I googled again recently, there are in fact three different tai chi schools here. How did I miss that? Anyway, I was thinking perhaps it would be too much but then a couple of days later they listed a beginners course starting this week and taking place on Thursday but later, so that it would be easy to get to after aquajogging. And today I signed up. Hopefully the next three weeks, with that double commitment on Thursdays won't take too much out of me. After that aquajogging is over and when it starts up again in October, it will be indoor and I have signed up for the Friday sessions.

Anyone keeping count? I think that should give me a better spread because at the moment, by the time Friday comes around I am tired and have no interest in doing any sport, or honestly, moving at all. 

Current timetable

• Monday: nothing
  
• Tuesday: nothing
  
• Wednesday: rehab sport (morning), optifast (evening)
  
• Thursday: aquajogging (evening, after work), tai chi (evening, after aquajogging)
  
• Friday: local choir for one hour every two weeks
  
• Saturday: nothing (but I try to tell myself I'll do some time on the exercise bike - so far this has happened once)
  
• Sunday: nothing
  

Future timetable (from end September/mid-October)

• Monday: yoga (online, evenings)
  
• Tuesday: nothing (kind of wanting to start going back to uni choir, which would be 2.5 hours on Tuesday evenings)
  
• Wednesday: rehab sport (morning), optifast (evening)
  
• Thursday: tai chi (evening)
  
• Friday: aquajogging (evening, after work), local choir for one hour every two weeks (later evening)
  
• Saturday: nothing (but I try to tell myself I'll do some time on the exercise bike - so far this has happened once)
  
• Sunday: nothing

This was supposed to be a sunset reflected in water

So, yeah, that feels like a lot. Especially considering the fact that I haven't been able to persuade myself to do much of anything outside work for the past couple of years. So far, I'm holding up ok though. 

I even went to a watercolours workshop last Friday. It was so much fun and although I'm not very good, it was enough fun and interesting enough that I'll keep trying things out at home, I think.

It got waaay better once we layered trees and stuff on it. Let's ignore the tree whose shadow is twice as wide as the actual tree. LOL

I can see myself getting as obsessed with making tiny thin brushstrokes as a good friend of mine who paints is. The one you see on this picture was done by the teacher using the exact same paintbrush as me. 

Anyway, not quite prizewinning, but definitely good enough to hang on the fridge.

I have booked a cleaning lady to come and do a deep clean on my apartment, which hasn't been getting more than a lick and a promise for several months now. My back was just too sore and I couldn't find my way out of the hole I was in. By now, I've caught up on all the washing up, caught up on the washing, and have gotten a bit more decluttering done. The plan is for her to clean the entire place and that should leave me feeling more capable of getting back to trying to TOMM every week day. 

I don't think this level of activity is genuinely sustainable in the long-run, but I have promised myself that I will really put a lot of effort into losing weight and, more importantly, gaining health and fittness this year. We'll see how things pan out over the next few months.

 

 

 

*There are technical terms for the different zones and formulas for working out your own range for each of them but I'm too lazy now to go and look at my notebook.

Holiday goals changed to doing nothing

Well, I made it to Halle and even managed to only miss one rehearsal. Although I have to admit that although I was at the Friday rehearsal my voice was not always quite as present. It was another great weekend and I really enjoyed the performance on Saturday night.

As always, it was fantastic to meet up with old friends as well as meeting new ones. This time round we even made the effort to participate in one of the non-singing activities, dragged ourselves out of bed early one morning and went off to see the State Museum of Prehistory. The few hours we spent there were not enough to do more than scratch the surface of what this amazing musuem has to offer. I'd highly recommend it if you are ever in Halle and will definitely be going back there.

Since the Happy Birthday Handel weekend coincided with Karneval this year, we even got to enjoy the parade on Monday before we had to leave. When I got back I was tired but happy, always the best way to come home from some time away, I think.

This year we also discovered the Irish pub in Halle, called Nante's (Nante is the nickname of the guy who owns it). We had a great night out there - they let us borrow one of their guitars and we started a really fun singalong session.

I now have the rest of the week off as I needed to use up some holiday time. I had planned to spend the time sorting out my balcony. The tiles badly need to be cleaned and then I wanted to buy some stones, soil and compost and get my pots filled and ready for planting a few things. If I got very adventurous I thought I might manage to finish painting my CD shelf. And maybe one or two other things as well. But instead of all that, I think I'm switching to just doing nothing at all. Well, that's about as much as I've done the last two days and it feels about the right speed so I'm just going with it. But even doing nothing I've still gotten one or two things done. Today, for example, I took out the documentation for the bank I opened up an investment account with and then never got around to actually setting up properly. I knew that had dragged on a bit and so when searching for tax-related stuff recently I had put anything I found dealing with that account into one place.

It took me several phone calls and resetting passwords etc. but today I finally got it set up. And I added in a current account as well as the investment account. This bank, ING-DIBA, does not have any charges associated with its current account. I've been happy with my current bank up to now but there are two reasons I've decided to bite the bullet and change. The first is that the selection of ATMs near me for my bank or any of its partner branches is really poor. The second is that I fell foul of their lodgement limit again this month. I thought it was 1,100 per month but it seems it's 1,200. I need to go back and check the last time this happened - I think they may have increased that amount and I didn't notice. At any rate, I was about 30 euro short of that last month, which means that I need to pay the 9.90 monthly charges. The current account, you see, is only free if you lodge at least 1,200 per month. This is the second or third time since I left my more-highly-paid job that this has happened. Since ING-DIBA doesn't attach those kind of conditions to their free current account, and offers free withdrawals from all ATMs, regardless of which bank, it just makes sense to switch. Even if I am kind of dreading having to trawl through everything to make sure I notify all of the places that I have direct debits set up with. In the meantime, I set up a savings plan to start investing in my first ETF fund. I'm excited. It's several years since reading something on Fiona's blog led me to Mr. Money Mustache and although my 50 euro a month savings might take quite a while to build up to anything substantial, it's a start. Or it will be, from the middle of April and then every month after that.

Tomorrow, I have to attend an organising meeting for the March for Science before running off to my choir rehearsal. And then all of a sudden it'll be Friday again and the weekend will be here. So, I'm not going to put myself under pressure to achieve anything else other than chilling out and trying to get rid of the rest of this cough. Yep, I'm still actually sick and totally fed up with coughing and sneezing. So a goal of doing nothing for the next few days is entirely appropriate!

Rejection

This post may be a bit disjointed - it's one o'clock in the morning, it was another very warm day and I am tired. And browned off. Had to audition for choir this evening and didn't get in. And this after rehearsing with them for four weeks. Normally, I think, you rehearse for two weeks and then do your audition. But I wasn't able to be there on the day the auditions were planned for and then it seems they kind of forgot about me. Until I asked a question about something last week and it was all a big drama that I wasn't actually already an accepted member, culminating in one fairly agressive woman coming up to me at the beginning of rehearsal this evening to insist to me that I would not be allowed to sign up for the rehearsal weekend in September until after I had done an audition and been accepted.

Now, I'm not a great singer. I can hold a tune but I don't have a particularly strong voice and there is just nothing special about my voice. But I do have a lot of years of choir experience under my belt and wasn't really particularly worried about not being accepted. That woman's attitude and a couple of other things that I've noticed and experienced over the last few weeks were working in my mind the whole time that we were rehearsing this evening and I had actually decided that I would graciously decline the option of singing with them after my audition and was coming up with ways to phrase it politely. But as it turned out, I didn't sing well in the audition at all. He also asked me to sing something from the score of what we had been rehearsing this evening but I am not good at sightsinging, never particularly good at singing on my own and the fact that this audition was in front of five or six other people (I was so nervous when I realised people other than the conductor would be there that I never even counted) really didn't help. The conductor said that they only need altos who can sing very loudly and powerfully and that's why they wouldn't be taking me but really, I had sung badly enough that I knew I wasn't going to be taken. Even though I know that choir wasn't a good fit for me though, it's still horrible to be the one rejected instead of the one rejecting. Oh well.

After the week I've had and the effects of my most unwelcome guest still being felt, I am more than ready for this week to be over. But I still have to work tomorrow because I took Tuesday off (because of unwelcome guest being here - even if I did end up sending her packing that day). And what was the annoyance she created for me today? She moved an old suitcase (the kind of square/boxy looking type from the 60s). I knew she had obviously looked in it because what was resting on top of it was put back the wrong way around but this morning, as I was walking round the corner near where it stands, I stubbed my toes really badly. Because she put it back the wrong way around, it was occupying a couple of millimetres more space than usual (lid was to the outside rather than against the wall) and that was enough to put me off my stride/get in the way. Look away now if you're not fond of feet, you may not want to catch a glimpse of the photo down below! Here are a couple of others as illustration of some of what was done on Monday to increase distance between here and pic of bruise.

The (re-created) before. Actually, I realised afterwards that that cable wasn't even there, it was on the window sill. So it was just the books and the adapter. I had left these piled here without putting them onto the shelf below as they are the books I read before and during my move and I haven't yet added them to the list I keep of books I've read.

And this is how it looked when I got home. I'd like to point out that this bookshelf is in my bedroom. The more I think about the fact that she was tidying up stuff in my bedroom the more it annoys me. Whatever about being in there when I was there the evening before...if you are visiting someone and they are not at home, you just do not go into their bedroom at all. You just don't.









Trying to look on the bright side, being rejected by that choir means my weekend is now free and not taken up with two performances, I don't have to spend the money on the summer party planned for after the performance on Sunday and will save a bunch by not having to attend the weekend away in September. I've already checked out the university website (which I should have just done in the first place) and there's a choir or two there that look like feasible options for me. As most choirs here seem to take a break in August it does mean that I'll have to wait until September now, which is a bit annoying. There are worse things to deal with though. And in the meantime, I still do have my local choir to sing with. It might not be very good, but they are definitely more friendly. And positively thrilled to have someone under 60 joining them. :-)

Yep, that's a bruise alright.

Time to move on

A new month and time to get my act together and just get on with things. I've spent a good part of the morning on the phone. With the social welfare office to check whether the money I received yesterday (unemployment money for February) already took into account the side-job earnings for January, information I sent them two weeks ago. Of course it doesn't. With the health insurance people who sent me the information on what they have submitted to the tax office on my behalf, as it didn't seem to add up. Turns out the amount I was refunded as part of the bonus program last year was almost exactly the same as the amount I was refunded just last month for the extra payment I made in December. Glad I phoned to clear it up though. And then with the agency which has given me most of the translation work I've done so far. There's another big project coming up and since there doesn't seem to be a rush on it, there's a possibility I might get the entire thing myself and not end up sharing it with two others. That would obviously be fantastic. It's a lot of work though so I really do need to get myself organised. I have another client who has sent me the first section of their masters thesis to proofread, too.

So far, my four months of not working have not been very structured. In November, I crashed out a bit, exhausted after finishing work (especially the nearly 150 hours I worked in my final two weeks) but with other commitments to still take care off. It was a double concert month for choir (two of our best concerts ever, I have to admit) so that was rehearsal plus weekend rehearsal plus the weekend of the concerts itself. I finished the translations for the memory/Alzheimers videos, which included meeting with a German friend a few times to double-check some of the German. And I had a couple of other, paid, translation jobs, as well. Not to mention the back and forth with the tax office to get my tax number sorted and the health insurance place.

In December, the first time I actually had a few days with nothing at all to do, I spent three and a half days in bed. And boy, did I need it. I didn't sleep overly much, mostly read or just lay there thinking but I desperately needed a time of as little sensory input as possible. Then followed my birthday weekend, with a lovely visit from one of my best friends. And all of a sudden, a big translation project, which took up a lot of time over the next few weeks, as well as trying to get a handle on the housework and prepare for christmas. My week in Ireland for that was a much-needed break, which felt very strange considering I had just spent the last two months unemployed.

In January, it finally seemed like I would be able start getting myself properly organised. I had another fairly big translation, as well as some smaller ones. Got stuff mostly sorted with the social welfare office. Ramped up my efforts to find a new job. Got back on track a bit with meal plans and cooking proper food.

And I'm not really sure what happened to February. I'm constantly astonished at how quickly the month goes by, even though it's only two or three days shorter than every other month. I did get some things done but it was by no means a powerhouse month.

February did end with a brilliant weekend though. My annual trip to Halle to sing the Happy Birthday Handel performance of Messiah. It was a bit quieter this year, with the most of the late nights ending at eleven or twelve rather than two or three. I was kind of glad the others were doing that, though, as it suited me very well to sleep well and then not be dragging through the next day's rehearsal. As always, I spent the weekend hanging around with my men - a group of retired guys from an Irish choir. I knew one of them in college and then we met again at this event in 2011. It wasn't until the second time I was there, in 2013, that I really got to know the others but now I love spending time with them and I think at this stage they expect me to be with them. It's really nice.

One of my cousins was there, too, and I brought her out for lunch on one of the days. We spent a couple of hours catching up, something we're always saying we'll do but that we never seem to get around to. She's ten years older than me and my mum lived with them when she first moved up to Dublin, so I have to admit to feeling a bit emotional at some of the things she talked about. But it's nice to hear things, too. Now I know, for example, that my mum was the only one of her family to go to secondary school (she was exceptionally bright, apparently. I think as a kid I just always assumed that everyone's parents were clever and then after she died, I didn't really think about it at all). And that when we were younger, she said to my cousin that the one thing she hoped was that when we were older, she and us would be friends, the way her older sisters were with their kids. And that apparently, I am named after a film star. My cousin wasn't certain if it was an actor or a character but it's interesting to know that.

But now it's March and I can't just drift any longer (much as I would love to. I even bought a lottery ticket last week so maybe when I check that later I'll have won a fortune and drifting will actually be a legitimate lifestyle choice for me). So, today, bad start really, I'm taking it easy. I took care of those phone calls earlier and have filled out the form for the social welfare place on my February income. That's that. I'm going to catch up now on some emails and blogs, perhaps watch a small amount of telly and then I'm going to a friend's house. She has been having an extraordinarily difficult time of things and asked me to come and see her. I assume that will end up being the afternoon and a part of the evening, too. Tomorrow morning I want to get up and go for a walk as soon as I do. No hanging around, no lazing (or at least, no lazing until later in the day). Really, I want to start doing that every morning, although I might alternate going for a walk with half-an-hour of stretching exercises for the first week or two. We'll see how it goes.

In the spirit of starting over and moving on, I've also updated my savings totals in the sidebar. I've been lax about keeping that up-to-date and I want and need to start being more meticulous about it. In addition to the accounts listed there, I'm going to use the end of my paper chain to start a small savings fund for something fun. I got to the end of my savings goal with that in one fell swoop at the end, so I never ended up tearing off the last few rings. There are 12 rings left. If I take each one to represent 20 euro, then I have 240 euro to do something with. Perhaps even a cheap weekend away to one of the places on my places to go list. Now that I've (at least partially) sorted my job situation, it's important to start actually living the life I want!

Johannespassion

Life is hectic, somewhat overwhelming (hence lack of posting) and very, very up and down at the moment. Here's one of the ups. We had our choir concert at the weekend and the lute player (it feels like there might be a word for lute player but if there is, I don't know it) filmed this alto solo (also an important part for the lute) and it came out pretty well. We filmed the whole concert, too but apparently the sound isn't great so we're going to see if he has any more footage to share. It was a fairly tough concert for me this time round but the actual performance was really good and everything just came together beautifully.

This soloist is still very young, really just starting out her career and I think she's fantastic. Such a gorgeous voice. Hope you enjoy.

And back from Halle

Came home from a lovely evening at the opera last week, having really enjoyed the performance of Lohengrin (although I have to admit that I didn't think the staging or costumes worked at all well - I loved the overture though and it was amusing to hear the Wedding March in its original place). Kudos have to go to Simon Neal, the bartione who took to the stage despite being in the throes of a flu. Unfortunately, an hour or so after I got home though, I started shivering. Since it wasn't all that cold, I somewhat nervously took my temperature. 36.7 - hmmm, not so great considering my normal temperature is 36.1. It continued to rise and was over 37.5 by the next morning so I dragged myself off to the doctor. He checked my lungs but there was nothing but some slight whistling in my upper left bronchi so he told me to go home, get plenty of rest, drink plenty of fluids and take paracetemol before bed. Just want I wanted to hear on the second week of my holidays. One of these days I'll get to actually enjoy a full two week break!

The fever just did not want to give up and I had sooo much I wanted to get done. I did my best to do as little as possible and confined myself just to those things which were actual appointments with other people. So that was a counselling session on Monday evening (apparently physical issues and recurring illness can often happen due to grief and/or depression - perfect!), nothing on Tuesday but then a few different things on Wendesday which meant I was out and about for quite a long time, although I did incorporate long breaks between appointments rather than running around putting up posters for our next concert as I had originally planned to do. I gave choir a miss in the evening and after the AGM of the choir supporters' group was over, headed home to pack and have an early night.

Yes, even though I was ill and really not sure I'd be able to do anything much, I decided to travel to Halle for the annual Happy Birthday Handel performance of Messiah. Well, I had already paid for the hotel and the train ticket and would have only gotten a portion back if I'd cancelled so late. And since the hotel room comes with a cleaning lady, I decided that even if I did nothing more than lie in bed for the four days, it'd be better than lying in bed at home for that time.

I'm very glad I did go as despite feeling kind of miserable, especially on the first day, I still had a fantastic time. It's so nice to catch up with people I haven't seen for a year - and, of course, with some of them it seems just like yesterday was the last time you were together and you can pick up the threads of conversations just like that. I missed the first rehearsal but dragged myself to the second one, which was on Friday. That was a bit of a struggle to get to and to get through but then again, singing always makes everything feel better, too. I didn't take long after it was over to get back to bed, though! A few hours saw me rested and well enough to venture out for dinner with a few people and a quick stop at the concert some of the choirs participating in the main event were putting on. Saw a really fantastic group of young men perform - just five guys (called Mehr als Vier or More than Four) from a youth choir that got together outside of normal choir rehearsals to do their own thing. So, so talented. And after that it was off to the pub for one of the usual get togethers. We didn't stay to the bitter end though, a couple of hours was all and then it was back to bed for me to try and be rested for the big day on Saturday.

I did wake up feeling much better that day and not only made it to breakfast but to rehearsal, too. With a bit more voice than the previous day even. And then in the evening the performance was held for a packed out Handel Halle, that's over 1,200 people, which isn't bad. My voice just about held out, although the last bars of the Hallelujah chorus were definitely a bit of a strain. And I had a horrible coughing fit come on just as one of the quietest and most delicate orchestral and solo parts, the Pastoral Symphony, was starting and I was in tears trying to suppress it. It probably only lasted twenty or thirty seconds before I managed to get a lozenge into my mouth but it was hellish. Apart from that, things went well enough and by the time we got out of the concert hall and were able to head for something to eat, it was nearly 11 and it was off to a local Italian restaurant for a well-deserved pizza, the first thing I had eaten with a true appetite all week, before hitting the pub and staying up till three having a ball. It was awfully hard to get up and leave the next day - it was the kind of weekend you just don't want to end. But after another day of plenty of rest, tomorrow it'll be back to work. I'm going to head to bed and focus a bit more on the lovely new memories I have than the thought of work now, I think! I'll leave ye with a video of one of my favourite parts of Messiah. Enjoy.

Green fields of France in German - Es ist an der Zeit

Just found this, after having heard a while ago that there was a German version of this song. Really quite lovely lyrics, slightly different but still true to the sentiment of the original. Have to learn the German words now. This song is one of my favourites to sing when parties get to that stage of the evening that people start singing at. Would be very cool to be able to sing it in German, or switch from English to German for example.

Sunday night chit-chat and sealed pot update

Haven't done one of these for a while and since it just happened to be seven o'clock when I decided I'd like to post something, Sunday night chit-chat it is. First off, here's a photo from this weekend. This was the view from the bedroom I was staying in. The view from the room we were rehearsing in was similar - very hard to keep your concentration when all you really want to do is keep looking outside. Bear in mind that it rained almost the whole weekend so it looks a bit dim and gloomy but I think it's still gorgeous.

View from Haus Hammerstein

What are you:
Reading
The Godfather. Surprisingly to some, I've never read this. In fact, I only saw the film a few years ago. I'm really enjoying it, I have to say, it's an easy read, which is kind of what I need at the moment.

Watching
I've been watching Scandal recently and quite enjoying that. Don't think I'm going to watch much more of anything this evening, though.

Listening to
Fairly quiet here at the moment although not as quiet as it was in the place in the photo above. Just some traffic going past outside from time to time and the sound of the wind blowing through the window in my bedroom, which I really need to get up and close soon.

Cooking/baking
Not a thing. I do have a red cabbage to cook but I'm tired and I'm hungry and I think I'm just going to pop out to one of the restaurants on my street and have a simple meal out. The cabbage can wait until tomorrow (or if I feel a burst of energy after coming back, I'll put it into the slow cooker to braise overnight and have some ready to put into my flask for lunch tomorrow.

Happy you accomplished this week
Just getting through it was good. I find that dealing with grief tends to come in waves and this week was a bad one, when my sister was on my mind almost all the time because it seemed like every single thing reminded me of her and I was never more than a few seconds away from wanting to cry (or actually crying). It was good that I was away singing for most of the weekend, I think. I did manage to finally reply to an email from HR with details on the translating I want to start doing freelance in my spare time so at least that's over to them to deal with now. And I got the hoovering done before leaving for the weekend - as well as the dishes. That's such a simple thing but always feels good to know it's done.

Looking forward to next week
Concert next weekend. Have a day off on Thursday with a few appointments arranged and need to get the present for a colleague who has invited us all to her birthday party next Saturday. Also starting the cognitive behavioural therapy seminar that the counsellor offered to me. The way the practice works is that they have an introductory meeting or two to get an idea of what's happening in your life, how you're doing and all that, as well as getting all the paperwork out of the way. Then you do a short seminar series on how CBT works, what to expect etc. (including exercises to actually start helping yourself, I presume) - the one I'll be doing is eight weeks of one and a half hours. After that you can do further seminars tailored to whatever particular issues you might be dealing with (sleep, stress, bereavement or whatever) and after that you move on to individual therapy sessions, if necessary. It might not be the right fit for all people but I think it'll work well for me at the moment so I am cautiously optimistic that the whole thing will be helpful and trying not to focus on the fact that it involves getting up earlier on a Saturday than I normally have to get up during the week!

Grateful for this week
Growing up with a father who sang all the time and made it seem like the most natural thing in the world to always seek out a way to have singing in my life. I may not ever be as good as he was but I hope I'll always love to have singing as a part of my daily life the way he did.

Bonus question: describe your "perfect pizza"
Very thin, crispy base. Tasty tomato sauce on top of that, but not too much. Topped with cheese that is cooked to just the right side of golden, melty goodness and a couple of basil leaves to impart that little extra something popped on top just before serving. The simple ones are the best.

If you want to join in with Sunday night chit-chat, post away and then head on over to Half-Daily Dozen to link up.

Sealed pot update
As for my sealed pot, well, it has gotten the change from my purse but that's the most it has gotten for weeks now. Only four weeks left so there won't be a huge amount more going into it before the grand opening but I'm still going to take whatever is in it and buy myself something beautiful at the craft show in Dublin when I'm there. And I'm going to enjoy every single second of it. SFT has opened up the sign-up list for next year so if you'd like to join in with your own sealed pot challenge for next year, have a think about what goal you'd like to aim for, head over to SFT's Life after Mortgage and put your name down. Then you have four weeks to make yourself a sealed pot (i.e. stick sellotape around the top of a lid on some kind of canister that has a hole cut in the top LOL) and start saving.

I burnt the bloody quiche

Heading off for a choir rehearsal weekend ahead of our big concert next week. It's a bank holiday here today so we'll arrive there to start at two o'clock, sing until about six when we'll break for dinner and then sing again for a couple of hours before finishing for the evening. Tomorrow will be much the same except with rehearsal between breakfast and lunch as well. Meals are provided but what is not provided is nibbles and drinks for the evening when we've finished rehearsal and are having our "gemütliches Beisamensein" which translates literally as a comfy togetherness, or slightly less literally but more appropriately as a cozy get-together. I did pick up a cheap packet of those mini pretzel mixes but then I thought to myself that it'd be nice to bring something homemade and decided that if I got up early enough today, I'd make a big quiche and, if there was any pastry left-over, some small apple bites.

I did get up fairly early and so made a big load of pastry straightaway (using a full 250g block of butter with 500g flour, pinch of salt and cold water, just in case anyone was wondering). Got some bacon bits fried up, some onion to go with it, chopped up a couple of the tomatoes I got at the market last week (probably the last week there'll be any this year), rolled out the pastry and put it into one of the big trays that came with the oven. I figured it was easier to do a huge quiche and then cut it into small squares than it would be to do mini quiches. It was baking away happily, I put some apples on to stew and rolled out the rest of the pastry. The quiche was starting to look good but wasn't quite there yet so I came into the sitting room to quickly get some stuff together for going away and check my emails. Not even ten minutes later I was just about to start writing a quick blog post and I thought I should check the oven. Bloody hell but the sodding quiche is burnt. Aaaaghhh. So much for getting up at (what felt like) the crack of dawn specially to bake for other people! It's not quite burnt so much that it'll be inedible but it's definitely, at least on the top, going to by much closer to the rubbery side of egg dishes than it should is nice. I might "forget" to take it out this evening until after everyone has already had a couple of drinks!

It has been cooling for about quarter of an hour here so it has subsided a bit and the cracks aren't quite as obvious

But it's alright, I still thought, tomorrow I'll bring out the apple bites and all will be forgiven anyway. Just had a quick look in the oven and I think I must have overfilled every one of them 'cos they're leaking away goodo. Every single bloody one!

It may be time to take a break from trying to do anything in the kitchen. I should have known when the Romertopf pork wasn't really very good last week that I'm going through one of those ruins everything phases. At least I still have an hour or so to shower and pack before I have to leave. I may forget my plans to do a bit of ironing and cleaning before I leave - who knows what would happen!

Places to go, things to see, songs to sing

One thing I really would like to do is to start visiting more places in Germany. So once I am debt free, I will need to decide how exactly I want to do that. I'm thinking something like a weekend away every second month and a day trip every other second month, so that every month I do go somewhere. Every month feels like a lot though so I suppose I'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, I thought I'd start a list of potential places to visit.

Day trips (no more than 3 hours away, preferably no more than 2)
Xanthen
Bremen
Bielefeld
Neanderthal (no excuses, this is only half-an-hour away!)
Aachen
Bonn

Weekend trips (no more than 5 hours away, must be reachable after work on a Friday)
Stuttgart
Hamburg
Bayreuth

Longer trips, minimum long weekend
Dresden
Leipzig
Munich
Bodensee
Rostock
Sylt
Berlin

I'm going to make this stuff into a separate page and keep it updated as I think of new places to go or to tick things off as I start to actually go on trips. Hmmm, while I'm at it, I should add some of the places outside Germany that I'd like to go to and some of the things I'd like to see.

In a few weeks time, choir will be performing Haydn's Creation. Last night, as part of our fund-raising efforts for that concert (the big choral works are expensive to stage - we're talking minimum 12,000, which is why we only get to do one every couple of year or as a support to other, state or otherwise subsidised groups), we performed extracts from it at a very posh old folks' home in town. They have a nice theater in the building (and a pub in the basement, so all the facilities!) and it was very close to capacity, I'd estimate just over 200 people attending. It's lovely to sing for an appreciative group and know they really want to be there and haven't been dragged along because they're family. LOL. We sang with just a small six-piece ensemble, with the piano picking up the slack for most of the missing instruments and had two soloists (the tenor bits were mostly left out, except for one trio when our conductor sang the tenor part.

What was particularly lovely about this concert was that because it wasn't a full orchestra and space was limited, the soloists sat just in front of the choir. Normally they sit at the front of the orchestra and the only time you get to hear them properly is during the dress rehearsal when they might turn around and sing towards the choir instead of towards the empty chairs. It was really wonderful to have them so close.

There are one or two places where we could probably do with a little bit more work but overall we gave a pretty good performance. And in two weeks we have a long weekend away to rehearse all day long for a couple of days.

I don't want to start spending money I don't have (even in my head) but I do want to get down on a list some of the things that I feel like I've been putting off or just never gotten around to over the year simply for lack of funds. I may never do all of them but once I have them on a list, at least I can think seriously about them and decide once and for all how important it is to me to give them a go. And one thing that will definitely be up there is singing lessons. I've never really had any proper ones, except for the once-a-year 20 minute session my current conductor insists on having with everybody (and honestly it's a fantastic extra service really, he doesn't get paid anymore for the days he comes early to do this). And I'd love to have more control over what I can do - being able to sing not just loudly but strongly, better breath control and so on. In the meantime, I found a song (don't think it's gone viral yet but it certainly deserves to!) that I think I may need to learn the words for (have already typed them up and printed them out for my books of lyrics) and sing next February during one of our after-rehearsal pub sessions in Halle!

The Ballad of Lidl and Aldi

Moving on

I finally got my tax assessment notice this week and the money hit my bank account overnight. It felt like a long wait but was only a couple of weeks longer than the last time I did it. I had submitted for 2011 and 2012 together so it turned out to be a nice amount. I was hoping for over 1,000 but ended up getting just over 1,600. Cue huge sigh of relief and checking my bank account every half-an-hour for the day and a half it took the money to arrive. Just about all of it has now been moved on to other homes so I'm feeling a bit broke again and wishing for next payday. I'm back at a point of being just a few months out of reach of being debt free and trying not to think of the things that have happened to me at about this point before to set me back.

Just about all of my tax refund has gone towards debt but I did want to do something nice, too so I took about ten per cent and made a donation to my choir. We're performing Haydn's Creation in November and, being a small choir that doesn't have much money, a large performance like that, involving soloists and an orchestra, tends to be a loss-making venture. So although it's a donation it's definitely one of those that has a selfish element attached! It felt good to be able to do something other than just pay off debt.

I find it somewhat surprising how much my attitudes have changed in the last year or so though. I had managed to build up my savings to the point that I consistently had at least 500 in my annual expenses account. Of course, since most of my annual expenses occur at the end of July and beginning of August (anniversary of moving here), that account got wiped out and now I have to start building it back up again. All well and good, that's what it's there for after all. But I had gotten so used to always seeing that amount sitting there that once it was all gone I was left feeling very uneasy. It was great when I got paid at the end of August and was able to put something into it again. Given how long I have been in debt though, and how long I have relied on credit cards and overdraft facilities to cover expenses, I've been surprised at how almost visceral my reaction to not having savings has been. Although almost from the start of my getting serious about paying off my debt (about 2003) and even before that, I have always maintained a savings account to cover annual expenses, particularly when I still had a car, I often played fast and loose with the money I was saving, which meant that sometimes a bill would fall due and I'd just barely have enough to pay it because I had already taken most of the money out to cover a shortfall somewhere else a couple of months ago. So I'm taking it as a good sign that it now disturbs me immensely to not have money in the bank and to be relying on credit for emergencies. I've disliked that for a long time but it really, really disturbs me now.

And in an effort to keep me focused a bit on the future and not just sitting here wishing that my next payday would just arrive already, here's what I'm looking forward to next year:

• Save 4,000
• Cancel visa card 'cos I don't need it anymore
• Save further 3,000
• Cancel overdraft facility 'cos I don't need it anymore
• Keep on saving

And on a totally unrelated note, here's a video that I first saw a couple of weeks ago and that I have gone back to watch over and over again. I've since found out that the main guy singing is a primary school teacher and all I can say is that if they'd had teachers like that when I was in school, I'd probably be able to do a lot more in Irish now than be able to ask permission to go to the toilet or say five hail Marys!

If you like this video, by the way, there are others too, including a version of the Lion King's Circle of Life. Check out the band, Seo Linn, (which is that teacher, Stiofán Ó Fearail and a few friends).

Time flies

Can hardly believe it has been nearly three months since I posted anything. Life got a bit overwhelming for a while. Still is in a way but I'm starting to cope a bit better again. Had lots of choir practice during November and December - one concert end of November, another second week of September plus I volunteered to sing Messiah at Christmas with another choir in a town an hour away so on top of normal choir also had Monday evening rehearsals there as well as a couple of Saturdays. That meant I had no time for getting to ww but I wanted a break anyway as they changed the program and it was just all too much for me. I'm starting to get back to eating properly (again!) so I'll go back to classes by the end of February.

I'm going to try and blog every day except Wednesdays for February, even if it's just a sentence or two.

My annual household costs bill should come in soon and it will be interesting to see what the difference will be. I got loads of money back last year because I hadn't used the heating much. We have had some very cold weather this year though so I had the heating on more - leaving a couple of radiators on the lowest setting for a few weeks even to make sure they didn't freeze up. I've discovered that I'm comfy getting to sleep so long as my bedroom isn't much below 14 degrees by my thermometer and that is good to know. Also discovered that with the windows closed, even with no heating on even when it's -5 outside, the bedroom stays at around 12 or 13. Am going to start writing down the temps every day soon I think.

And I pay gas and electricity on a monthly budget scheme so I pay a fixed amount and once a year they take the readings. That should be soon as well. I got loads of money back from that last year too because I had just taken over the amounts that the previous tenant had been paying (52 euro per month). Don't know how she was managing that but my average was around 28 per month. I fixed my amount to pay 35 per month to give me a bit of leeway but it will be interesting to see how it works out this year. I've had lights since November plus the small oven I got is electric and I only started using that in January 09 so that'll show up as well. And I did a lot more preserving and cooking this year too. We'll see.

Speaking of which though...

Here's my new sitting room light:

I still have the uplighter in the sitting room as well so this one has a lower wattage bulb in it and with the slight red hue it makes for quite a restful light I find. And then if I need stronger light I can use the uplighter instead. I do use the light in the bathroom at nighttime ocassionally but mostly I still don't bother. Great to have a proper light in the kitchen though. That has made a huge difference.

I moved the cupboard (which I call the tall boy, 'cos that's what it was called at home) underneath the tree out of the kitchen and into the sitting room. It still has kitchen stuff in it but it really was in the way there and I'm glad I decided to move it. It ended up being the perfect place to put the tree as well. I decided not to go for a real tree this year and just dragged out this old small one, which still looks pretty good I think. Most of my tree ornaments are too big or heavy for it though so I've had them hanging on nails and door knobs all over the place.

I'm thinking about painting the tall boy. Would love to think it's a priceless heirloom but it's not and I think it could look fantastic with a coat of paint. Might chicken out and just varnish it a slightly lighter shade but we'll see.

And a few final pictures. Here's a pot full of the start of a pumpkin, quince and apple chutney.

Here are a couple of shelves in my hall cupboards, which have proved very convenient for storing my preservation efforts.


Jams and above them the few jars of tomatoes left from the one small batch I did plus one jar of fruit leathers gone not-quite-right.









Chutneys, pickled garlic, tomato ketchup, salsa, picallilli.





Now just need to make more effort to eat all of this stuff!

More leftovers

Dinner on Tuesday evening: Starter was the last small bowl of vegetable soup accompanied by a slice of homemade bread and followed by rice cooked in beef stock with some frozen peas, a small amount of corned beef and leftover broccoli thrown in for the last few minutes. Nearly a risotto but not. Delicious and very filling. Could have had more cake for dessert but was way too full for that. Had two squares of dark chocolate a while later and a cup of herbal tea before bed.

Lunch for Wednesday was pasta in a tomato sauce in a local restaurant with a colleague (lunchtime happy hour €9.90 special). Dinner this evening will be last night's leftovers as I need something very quick to eat before heading out to choir.

I'm reading Home Comforts by Cheryl Mendelson - have just finished the first chapter and started onto the second and am really enjoying it so far. If the practical sections live up to the beginning this is a book I'll be buying in the future.

One Local Summer - Week 10

Still no photos as I still haven't managed to retrieve my camera from little bro. However, I did finally manage to roast that chicken and it's delicious. Pulled the rest of the meat off the bones today and am making stock with the carcass, which is also a good excuse to use up the last few veg in my fridge before going away. I'm off to Germany to WWOOF for two weeks. Heading over on Friday and will be singing on Saturday in Limburg with choir - we're singing Dream of Girontius again with the German choir who came over to Dublin in May for a performance of it here. Have the rest of the weekend to spend with friends and then on Monday will be heading off into the unknown to spend two weeks on a farm with people I've never met before. I'm trying not to think about it too much as I think I'll just get nervous. I know it's going to be physically challenging as well as I'm so unfit but I'm planning to bring much gusto with me and hope that helps.

So, to my local meal this evening. Cold roast chicken with fresh garden peas and chutney.

Chicken - from Coolanowle (60 miles)
Green tomato and lemon chutney - McNally's Farm (30 miles)
Peas - from my back garden. Yum.

Is this the last week of OLS? I can't remember. However, I expect that I'll be eating a fair amount of local in Germany - it'll be interesting to see what kind of a set-up it turns out to be. As far as I could tell from the description they grow mostly herbs. I'm hoping the onion harvest is already underway though because I remember Zwiebelkuchen (onion cake) from around this time of year with great fondness but can't quite remember if it was a bit earlier or later than this.

I'm not sure how much I'll be posting until after my return - bis zum nächsten Mal!

Hair update

Forgot to update on my hair and the whole not washing with shampoo thing. I'm halfway through week 4 now. At the weekend I used oatbran - you're actually suppsoed to use oatmeal but it's essentially the same stuff as far as I know and I wasn't about to use my lovely organic porridge when I'd bought the bloody oatbran anyway. You scrub dry hair and scalp well with it and brush really well to take it out again. It does make a bit of a mess but I think this was partially caused by the fact that I'd taken my glasses off and so couldn't see when I was making a mess anyway. This worked really well and I was pleased with it although I felt I'd done a much better job on the long part of my hair than the scalp simply because it's much easier to get at. After brushing out the oatmeal you rinse with hot water to get rid of any lingering bits. My hair looked good after this and felt good too, if a little thick.

On Sunday I decided to try the mayonnaise conditioning treatment. What can I say but that it was a disaster. First of all I should point out that I don't like mayonnaise and don't eat it. So sitting with the smell of a headful of the stuff wafting down to me for almost an hour wouldn't rate highly on my list of fun things to do. I couldn't hold out for an hour so after about 45 minutes went down to wash it out with some very hot water. Seemed to work okay and my hair did feel silky smooth. That was about ten o'clock. Left it to dry naturally, as I do most of the time. Went to market (smelling a bit like a salad sandwich) and then drove down to Arklow (about an hour's drive) for choir competition. Met choir for lunch and then went off for practice before competitiong at 2.45. A couple of people gave out to me for coming out with wet hair and I thought to myself it was a bit strange that at 1 o'clock it still wasn't showing signs of drying (it takes a long time but more than two hours when it hasn't been tied back is a bit much). Finally realised that it wasn't so much that it was wet as that it was greasy. Yuck. I don't think my hair has ever been that oily. I tied it back and made it through the day (we won our plain chant competition so that was good). As soon as I got home I washed it in very hot water again. I really didn't want to have to use shampoo.

Next morning I woke up with unbelievably matted, greasy hair. This is the kind of thing I'd expected to gradually happen over a few weeks before my hair sorted itself out but not overnight so I'm very happy to attribute it to the mayonnaise. Tied back but looking a bit terrible in work all day so when I went home I tried washing it in a mixture of vinegar and hot water, rinsed with lots and lots of cold water (so much for cutting down a bit on my consumption of water!) and it felt a bit better although I'd now switched smelling like a salad to smelling a bit like a bag of chips liberally drenched with vinegar. Tuesday moring I woke up with still very greasy, although slightly less matted hair. Another day of feeling icky in work. Yesterday eveing I decided to try the oatbran thing again although this time I just did the dry version and didn't rinse with hot water afterwards. There was definitely some improvement but again mostly on the long part of my hair and the scalp is hard to get at with the oatbran. This morning I washed well with hot water and for the first time this week feel like I'm almost approaching normal.

I'm very disappointed as I'd heard good things about hair being left in great condition after using mayonnaise. All I can say if that it didn't work for me!

Edited to add: 6 years later - update on not using shampoo

No more shampoo

Am nearly half-way through my third week of not using shampoo. The idea being your hair doesn't really need shampoo and can clean itself. It apparently takes about eight weeks for your hair to get used to not being washed with shampoo any more. I've been using Faith in Nature organic shampoo for six months or so but in the back of my head I knew I wanted to try using nothing at some stage to see if it really worked. I work in an office and need to look presentable though so wasn't sure I'd get away with it. However, as I wear my hair up most of the time in work anyway, so far it's been fine.

I have long hair, it's a bit further than halfway down my back (and I'm 5'9" so that's quite a long way :-) ) and is very thick and curly/frizzy. One thing which is also supposed to happen when you stop using shampoo is that the curls become more defined, which would be a nice bonus. So, my three main reasons for trying this are (1) to use less product, consequently (2) save money and finally (3) less frizz.

I didn't really plan this. I usually wash my hair once a week but the weekend before last I was really busy and in and out of the house a lot so never got around to doing it. I didn't really have time during the week (it only takes about ten or fifteen minutes but then a couple of hours to dry naturally or half an hour with a hair dryer which I hate using) and on Thurdsday, the first time I got a chance, I decided to just go for it since I was already ten days in. Admittedly I felt grotty and my hair was not looking great. On Saturday while having a shower I washed my hair throughly in water - gave a good scrub to my scalp as well. I used a tiny amount of conditioner on the ends of my hair just in case.

So far this week it feels much better than last. It feels strangely heavier but looks "smaller" - not as wildly thick or something. Even though I have had it up most of the time my face is starting to feel a bit greasier than normal. I've also been warned that you can fall victim to spotty shoulders during the run-in period so I'm going to use some almond oil mixed with sugar to exfoliate and hopefully avoid that. I don't know if that's too harsh for using on my face though so if anyone has any suggestions for natural products that can be used on a greasy face, let me know.

The important thing I have to remember is that I haven't stopped washing my hair. I've just stopped using shampoo. So, I will keep washing with water and use other things as I feel they are needed. I bought oatmeal, which is supposed to be good for dealing with the grease - will try that tomorrow I think. You put it into your dry hair, rub vigourously then brush out and rinse well with hot water . That one could get messy. Then, at the weekend, I'm going to try the old mayonnaise conditioning trick.

I'm off to sing in a choir competition in Arklow on Sunday. Must go and try and learn some words now. There's one plain chant piece we're doing that I just can't seem to get into my head - thankfully my part isn't singing much of it!

Edited to add links to update posts: 4 weeks after stopping to use shampoo and 6 years later

Down the country

Have had a lovely couple of days out of Dublin although it's just like me to choose to go west during some of the worst storms for years. At least I now know what it's like to have to drive through a flood so it was a learning experience which is always good. Isn't it?

Unfortunately the storms also meant that the internet access in the hotel I was in got knocked out so all of the catching up on blogs I intended to do didn't happen. I have been keeping up with the 3 little things although I need to do enough this evening to make up for the last few days. 5-a-day hasn't gone so well although I did bring a bag of apples away with me to make sure that I had at least some fruit.

I brought some knitting with me and got the hat for my brother done. I have loads of wool left and am planning on doing hats for my nieces and nephew in France for Christmas. I also brought my music and choir rehearsal tape and did loads of practice so am feeling much more confident for the concert on Sunday.

From a money point of view I didn't do too badly. I had the money for the hotel and feeding myself while I was away put aside and overtime money from last month to pay for my massage and facial. Which were lovely. I bought a small milk jug as my souvenir but I only have one small jug so it is something I will use. I also took the opportunity, since I was down that way to stop into Fabrics Direct in Rooskey. Lovely shop and now that I've seen it I think I'd be more inclined to order stuff online from them. Ann, the owner, took ages to talk to me when I explained that I was only starting out and I decided to get a pattern and bought the material to make it as well. She went through loads of stuff on the pattern giving me hints and tips so I feel much more confident that I'll be able to do it now. And on the way home I stopped at Liffey Valley, a big shopping centre not too far away, and bought a top for my work Christmas party this Friday (am wearing the same skirt I wore last year) and one new shirt for work which was on sale. That's it though, will be on strict budget for the rest of the month as I want to have some money to bring to the States with me. I asked my sister how much I should bring and she said about $400 would probably be enough. Her husband said I'd need $800. I was hoping to only need about $200! At least the exchange rate is good at the moment and after talking to her I think I've convinced her that I really don't want to spend the day in Disneyland or any of those kind of places (I hate rollercoasters and rides like that anyway) and just want to chill out and hang around doing more or less nothing. I'm going over to visit her more than to visit Florida really.

3 little things and 5-a-day

My 5-a-day was saved yesterday by me remembering that I had some frozen peas so a good handful of them went into the scrambled eggs I was having for dinner and then I mixed the whole lot with some rice I had leftover from Sunday. One of the nicest dinners I've had for a while, possibly because it took about five minutes to make and that makes the difference when you're rushing to something after work.

Not doing so well today, only a banana so far but I have some stewed apple with me for an afternoon snack and with either have pasta with a tomato and onion based sauce for dinner or a big stirfry. Might make it to 5 yet.

My three little things yesterday nearly didn't happen as I slouched in front of the telly for forty minutes when I got home from choir and so it was nearly midnight when I went upstairs. Still, it counts as yesterday!

1. Christmas Yearbook - I bought this last year, a lovely idea (although a homemade version rather than the expensive one I bought in a shop would be even nicer!) where there are four pages for each Christmas, one for a photo of your Christmas day, one for writing what you ate, who cooked, what games you played, songs you sang, who's there etc. and the final two pages for each person present on Christmas day to write in about what they've done this year and what they plan for next. There are enough pages for ten years worth of Christmas and the idea is that you put it away with the rest of the decorations on 6 January and then don't take it out until next Christmas. Of course, I didn't get any photos of Christmas until February and then took it out during the summer to take out one of those photos for an album I made up for my sister's wedding. Still, even though I'll have the Christmas decorations out next week to put up, it has gone back into the box with them until then.

2. Hat and scarf - summer sun hat and a bandana have gone back into my scarf drawer.

3. A small plastic pouch I use for storing sanitary towels and cotton buds in when travelling. This has been well-used and is starting to crack but has gone back into my travel toiletries bag as it's not quite dead yet.

Still busy

This week has just flown by and I am exhausted. I ended up going for a drink with some friends (who I hadn't seen since summer) after the performance on Wednesday and although it was just one drink we stayed till closing time and I didn't get home till midnight. I was still on a high after singing though and couldn't sleep. It was after half-one before I did I'd say and yesterday and today I have been shattered. Heading home from work now (my boss was out all day and let's just say I haven't exactly been productive despite my best intentions) and will probably be in bed before eight because I can barely keep my eyes open as it is. But want to wait till about then so there's a chance of me sleeping through the night.

I called to EcoLogic yesterday and picked up some meat from the farm who I normally buy from at Marlay Park Market on Saturdays [update: finally remembered it's called Terryglass Organics]. Bought enough for the rest of the month and it'll save me a trip there tomorrow. I'm going to head to Blackrock Market instead. I haven't been there for ages and want to visit This Is Knit (www.thisisknit.ie) who I saw at the Knitting and Stitching Show last week. I had a look at their website earlier and this really strikes me as the kind of place I'd like to give my custom to. Blackrock Market doesn't usually have any food stalls but it would be great if it did as I could do with buying some fruit. Otherwise I'm going to have a week or two of just eating what I already have on hand - I think I have more than enough for a decent variety and I have a good bit of tinned fruit as well if I don't see any at the market.

I'm going to try and start building up a stock of scrap bits of material to use for quilting the way I learned last week. I'd like to just lay into it and start making those little squares and then wait for a while to decide exactly what I want to make. This may not be the correct way to go about planning a quilting project but I know myself and if I don't just get stuck in and start doing it I'll never get back to it. There are a few steps involved. Cutting the circles and squares of material and batting is first up and even if I can start on this and build up a supply then it'll make it easier to just pick it up some evenings and just sew a little bit at a time. I definitely need to buy a decent scissors though and hope it won't prove too difficult. I'm left-handed and do have one left-handed scissors my uncle gave me about 20 years ago but it's not good enough for proper cutting of material really. Will have to check on prices and it may need to wait till I get paid at the end of the month. I'm not managing my money well this month at all and really only have enough left for basics for the rest of the month.

While at EcoLogic last night I aslo bought some lentils (something I have eaten and enoyed before but never cooked myself), some barley (want to cook the barely broth to bring you to health from Nigel Slaters cookbook) and some Irish-made organic pasta. Am very excited to have found this even though he only had the spaghetti and I don't really like stringy type pasta (due to being traumatised by my sister as a very young child who told me I was eating worms and the red sauce was their blood!). If I like the taste though I'll get him to get in other shapes as well. I was able to find out online that they do use local free-range eggs but am not sure if the organic flour they use is Irish. However I'm not sure there is any Irish organic flour around so this is probably the closest to fully Irish organic pasta I'm going to get. It's produced in Sligo by two Germans who moved there ten years ago or so and set up the Noodle House Pasta Company. I don't think I'll end up staying in Ireland but if I do I think I would move to the north west - it looks like there's a very healhty eco-conscious, organic community up around there.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Busy times

While nature is slowing down (and my nature really wants to as well!) life seems to be getting busier and busier. I sing with a couple of choirs and am on the committee of one. Between organising and rehearsing for an early December concert with that one and rehearsals for a concert this week with the other choir (a much larger, well-established choir - we're singing in the National Concert Hall and I'm still quite intimidated and nervous about that) as well as three performances of Messiah in December a lot more of my time is being taken up with choir related stuff than I thought would be the case.

Work has also been hectic the last few weeks with a possible big change in the works over the next few months.

To top it all off I got hit with another bad cold two weeks ago which I am still trying to get over. That's two colds in about five weeks. This happened to me last winter as well although didn't start as early. It's so frustrating that it's happening even though I've been making such a huge effort to eat properly and well. Still, only four weeks left and I will have a long weekend away and then a few weeks after that I'll be off to Florida for Christmas. I booked those flights in early summer before I started to seriously think about things like my ecological footprint. It's probably a good thing I'm so broke as I think airline travel is one of the things I'll always find most difficult to have given up. If I had the money I'd love to go and visit friends in Germany, France, Belgium etc. for the weekend - I've done it before and it can work out well. But it's definitely very wasteful to be flying somewhere just to spend a day and a half. At the moment I don't have money to be booking flights anywhere so it's not an issue I need to trouble myself with too much. It's probably one reason why I'll eventually move back to mainland Europe though.

My sister (who I'll be visiting in Florida) and her husband are both big into skydiving. I keep promising I'll do a jump (actually had wanted to do one for years before she did, just one more of those things I haven't gotten around to doing) but do want to lose some more weight first. I'm just about at the limit of what's allowed and would feel much safer knowing I'm not pushing the boundaries on that. But in a way I'm hesitant to do a jump as I don't want to end up loving it. It must surely be one of the worst hobbies from an ecological point of view.

One hobby I may take up is quilting. I was at the Knitting and Stitching Show in the RDS yesterday. Managed to resist buying stacks of wool just because it said "special offer" as the prices really weren't all that special. I did talk to the guy from the Wool Shop in Bray to find out exactly where it is and opening hours. And spoke to a couple of lovely ladies who run a website business and also have a stall at the market in Blackrock every weekend. It's handy to know there are a few more options for buying wool around. And on weekends too.

While I was there I signed up for the Japanese Folded Patchwork workshop. They said in the leaflet the workshops were for every level from complete beginner up. Well, I'd say I was the only beginner they had. The woman looked a bit dumbfounded when I asked her what she meant when she told us to sew with the material right side up. I don't think she was entirely prepared for a complete beginner. Although I was able to thread the needle all by myself. Finishing the project, which involved quilting a four inch square, took me the full hour and I didn't get to do the last bit of decorative stitching and beading but I ended up with something that's almost a perfect square (I thought it was a perfect square but when I took it out last night to look at it again realised it's a bit pointy in one corner). Am feeling very pleased with myself. It's not perfect by any means but I think it's pretty damn good for a first effort. Must borrow a digital camera from someone and post a picture here. I think this is something that I will be able to do although I can see it being a very slow process. I do like the idea of creating something over a long period of time though and have thoughts of having an entire double bed size throw by...well...maybe by my birthday in 2008.