rimturse

Got a half-hearted apology and a booking confirmation just as I was about to cancel the whole thing and find another hotel. So all is took on my end to book a room was 3 tries to use their online booking system, 2 phone calls and 3 e-mails. *dry cracker voice*

In other news, I quit another online site, which I've been a member of for years. It feels so good with a bit of online spring cleaning, and being able to cut to the bone and ask the important questions of is this worth my time?, does this contribute to my life in a positive manner? and is this a site whose policies and attitudes are some that I can support?

Weeded and dug the garden, limiting myself to one hour. I did one hour of digging yesterday and was not aching nor completely drained today, so I will try and increase the time with 30 min - 1 hour tomorrow. The patches I cleared last year are not in as bad a state as they were when I first began working on them last spring, and it's good to see that the work and effort I put into the garden is paying off and that I don't have to start from scratch every year.

I recently read an article about an elderly couple who had bought a house with a large piece of unkempt land and how they created a dream garden by simply pottering about, taking their time and working on one small part at a time whenever they felt like it, until all the land had been worked. I love this concept and think it might be the way to go for me as well. The advantage is that there is no stress of having to finish everything at once and to maintain large areas of "new" land, the costs would be spread out over a longer period of time instead of being one big investment, it will give me the time to see the garden develop and develop new ideas and new concepts of my own - and I liked the rambling result this elderly couple got out of their land.

And I even wrote today. A pathetic amount of words (so pathetic that I won't share), but I wrote and it was on Elpida.

So I called the hotel again to give my credit card details which I don't want to send per e-mail, and his first question is if I wrote them an e-mail to confirm that I wanted to book the room:

May: Yes, I've already written an e-mail saying I want to book the room, and I got back an offer and that you need my credit card details, which is why I am calling.

Hotel guy: Ah, but you need to confirm that you want to book the room.

May: *confused* I already wrote that I wanted to book the room.

Hotel guy: Yes, but you need to confirm our e-mail.

May: I'm confirming it now and calling to give you my credit card details.

Hotel guy: But we need the confirmation in writing.

May: YOU HAVE IN IT WRITING, YOU DIMWIT!

No, I didn't actually say that, so let's rewind...

May: Okay, I'll send you an e-mail confirmation as a reply to the offer you sent me. Will you take my credit card details now or should I call again after I send the e-mail?

Hotel guy: You don't want to send them in the e-mail?

May: No, I do not.

Sooooo...keep your fingers crossed that I will get an e-mail confirmation of the booking. In all the confusion, I forgot to ask about the parking options. ARGHHH!

After cutting down on the pain killers last week and consequently feeling like I'd been run over by a truck, I decided not to repeat that particular experiment. So, took a "cocktail" right after taking my injection last night and another one right after waking up. This is the first time I've done two cocktails, usually I do one and then maybe take a couple of panadols in the morning.

The difference between today and last Monday? Huge. Slept like a baby, woke up with a headache, but that went away with the second round of painkillers, and otherwise I've only felt a bit cold. Even exercised the dog and did some gardening for 2 hours without being punished for it.

Had a lovely Friday evening with the expats and their Danish husbands. Lots of fun, lots of laughter. Only spot on the evening was Lia deciding that Ole was devil's spawn - a very odd and unusual behaviour for her, and a new one for poor Ole, who is usually the subject of dog love and not mistrust. Hopefully she will have forgotten that particular brain fart the next time we meet up. She hasn't been making a good impression there. First she bullies and intimidates his dogs and then she treats him like the anti-Christ, she's clearly not the brightest bead in the bucket.

Yesterday I cleaned the kitchen, exercised Lia and slept. Slept in, had an afternoon nap on the couch, went to bed sometime after midnight and slept until noon today. I was so zonked out in the afternoon that I only barely registered Lia lying on my stomach going "wauw, wauw, wauw, wauw", licking my face and giving deep sigh after deep sigh, or C scolding her, telling her to leave me alone. Of course, by the time I woke up, she was ready to nap, as were Orlando and Murphy, so it was crowded on the couch. :)

Feeling rested and fresh today, but I'm being good and not trying any Superwoman stunts...haha

Oh, and the cats have a new toy; a long piece of semi-scrunched up packing paper. It makes crunchy sounds, it can be "killed", and it can be used to hide behind to pounce on unsuspecting victims. What's not to love?

May: Ow! Stop that!
Orlando: Huh?
May: You're scratching me.
Orlando: Am not!
May: You are.
Orlando: No, I'm merely digging in my claws for leverage when I stretch.
May: Well, it hurts.
Orlando: You're such a wuss.

Lia: Why are you putting towels on the bathroom floor?
...
...
...
Lia: SHIT!
May: Yup. Time for a bath.

So, dog is nice and clean, and apart from a bit of impatient wauwauwauuuu auuuu waaaa vocalizing during rinse at the end, she behaved beautifully for someone who hates baths. Of course she refused to enter the bathroom again for the next 6 hours. *grin*

Otherwise today was all in the sign of painting. I started blocking in the main colours of the bathroom painting and then afterwards grabbed a larger paintbrush to work on the door panels - the unfinished, messy state of the house is finally starting to get to me. Painting the raw wood with base paint is hard, though, so I'm doing half a doorway at a time. Still better than nothing and I should be done in a month or so. Baby steps, baby steps.

Not slowing down completely is probably the way to go, since it might take me 21 days to start a new habit, but it only seems to take me 1 day to revert to an old one. Hah!

So did a bit of housework and went for a 1 1/2 hour walk with Lia this afternoon. To be honest, I had planned for a 45 min. walk, but we took a new route and suddenly the horses on the other side of the road decided that Lia was devil's spawn and became quite agitated. They did calm down a little after a while, becoming more weary/curious, but I decided not to upset them further by walking back along the field on their side of the road.

Tomorrow we'll walk the old route again, since the horses on that route knows us and seem to like Lia.

No writing, no art, apart from helping C set up an "atelier" in the library for his projects. I did manage a couple of reviews, though. Still have 3 reviews to go...or that is; the reviewer I owe 3 reviews only have 2 submissions up. The length of those submissions are longer than my 3 chapters added up, I'm thinking that 2 reviews in return for 3 isn't completely unfair.

Oh yeah, and as you can all probably guess from me taking a long walk today, I forgot to take my injection. Again. It's a good thing that it doesn't have to be right on the dot or I'd be in trouble, which is of course another good reason why not to switch meds. Must.remember.tonight!

It's pretty, it's cute, it smells lovely, C loves it...and it has become the symbol of the huge communication fail between my mother and me. That the tree, according to its label, is indeed as delicate as I had feared does not make things better.

I know it's silly, but I've become so resentful towards the tree that I don't even like being near it in case it picks up on my negativity.

It's of course not the tree, but the fact that my mother, despite numerous explanations of why not to do something, goes ahead and does it anyway, and that the lemon tree is just the most recent in a long number of cases.

Nothing against them, but it annoys the hell out of me when people argue with made-up or erroneous information, especially FACTS that are easy to look up.

This is why I think that learning not to blindly accept everything you are told, learning how to research information and how to judge if a the information found is valid or not, should be an obligatory school subject for 15-18 year old teens. Some schools already do this. My gymnasium did, and this mentality was of course also present when studying natural science at university. For this I am eternally grateful.

In fact, sometimes all it takes is the difference between "you" and "yours". As seen in a dog forum today:

"My bitch behaves exactly the same as you when she's in her receptive period of heat."