Legends of the Sun Pig

Daily self-care checklist:

• Sleep: pretty good, for the first time in quite a few days. Although I didn’t get go to sleep until after 01:00, I slept all the way through until 07:30, and then was able to fall back asleep again after that. I think my sinuses have finally dried up after their snot party.
• Walk: no. Had a quiet day around the house, tidying, archiving, cleaning, and challenging some negative automatic thoughts around tasks I’ve been putting off.
• Bass: no.
• Photography: accidentally snapped some nice pics of Fiona in the evening.
• Snacks: smoked almonds and banana bread. Felt enormous protein cravings just before dinner time, while Alex and I were out at Ikea. Dinner was an informal affair, and I made myself a giant pile of scrambled eggs.
• Meat: no

I went along to the hospital with Phil again this morning for his follow-up appointment. He is doing a lot better, and was actually able to utter a few words this morning. After that, I headed back to the Vodafone store to mostly finish off the transaction I started on Friday, tried to revert on Saturday, and was told I couldn’t continue with on Sunday. Fiona has a new phone now, and Alex’s is on order. Yay! Despite these hiccups, the adviser who helped me was lovely to deal with, apologetic, and very helpful.

(Just before hitting the shop, I bought a snack and a drink, and sat outside for a little while to watch the birds and take some photos. The jackdaws were a lot less skittish than they tend to be around our garden, and they were almost coming up to take crumbs from my hand. The gulls are bullies, though.)

This week the gemeentes Zaanstad, IJmuiden, and Beverwijk are running a week of activities highlighting the rich industrial heritage of the area. (Week van de industriecultuur.) I was late in booking my tickets, and some of the tours I would like to have taken were all full up. But this afternoon I got to see around the Nauerna site of waste processor Afvalzorg. They gave us a presentation, and then drove us around the site.

After separating out recyclables, Dutch household waste mostly goes to incinerators. Afvalzorg deals with the next step in the chain. They take the rubble and ash from the incinerators, and process it to extract and clean metals and varying grades of landfill material. They contract with gemeentes throughout the country to literally make new land for parks and any other construction projects.

On the opposite side of the canal the indoor ski slope of Velsen Zuid is already built on landfill, and the Groene Schip site will be opened to the public in 2019. The main Nauerna site is going to continue to be filled until 2022, after which they will start landscaping it. In the end it will consist of a brand new mini-mountain, 40m above sea level, with fantastic views out over the harbour and surrounding countryside. I was very impressed!

Daily self-care checklist:

• Sleep: rubbish. Woke up at 04:00 with a blinding sinus headache, and I stayed awake until about 05:30 when the painkillers had knocked it back enough. Then dragged myself awake at 08:00 again.
• Walk: not really. I had though that the Nauerna visit would involve more walking, but they took us around the site in a bus.
• Bass: no
• Photography: yes, lovely. Birds are my favourite subject right now.
• Snacks: Pain au chocolat, banana bread, smoked almonds.
• Meat: no. Had a couple of crispy “cheese schnitzels” for dinner, which are like self-contained grilled cheese sandwiches. I think I’d prefer an ordinary grilled cheese sandwich, though.

Went in to Amsterdam this afternoon to help Phil navigate the (excellent) Dutch health care system while he was unable to speak due to a throat infection that turned out to be an abscess on his tonsils. Poor Phil! On the way back, I walked past a tree filled with screeching parrots. The light was dim, but I tried to catch some photos anyway.

Daily self-care checklist:

• Sleep: poor. Tried to get to sleep early, and failed because of sinuses. Woke at 02:00 to pee. Woke at 04:30 with my head full of interesting but untimely ideas about checklists. Awakened at 08:30 by a joiner with a quote for a new window.
• Walk: a wee bit of navigating Amsterdam between public transport stops
• Bass: no
• Photography: a tiny bit
• Snacks: banana bread. Bought some chocotoffs on the way home. Haven’t eaten all of them (yet).
• Meat: I didn’t fancy making dinner, so I just called for Chinese food on the way home. I had some chicken saté.

Alex has got a job! He went in for an interview today, and walked out employed. Very proud of him. Then we went for some McDonalds, and bought him some plain black trousers and a new pair of Doc Martens, because he’s going to be spending a lot of time on his feet.

Daily self-care checklist:

• Sleep: disrupted, nasal. Ended up sleeping in the guest room.
• Walk: around Amsterdam
• Photography: yes, lots of shots around Amsterdam.
• Bass: no
• Snacks: Abi made banana bread. I ate banana bread.

Not much time for photos today. It’s been busy. Yesterday evening Alex, Fiona, and I went out to find a Vodafone shop to upgrade our subscriptions, and sort out new phones for them. We got to the Vodafone store in Zaandam, and found out they were closed early because they were moving from one location to another. Then we drove to one of the Vodafone stores in Amsterdam, and our order got messed up and then it was closing time. I went in again firth thing this morning, and apparently our order had confused the system so much that the only thing to do was cancel it and rewind our accounts to a point before we tried anything. Except it takes an overnight run to restore everything, so we can’t try again until tomorrow. Oh well.

Later in the morning we had a Velux window specialist come out for a chat, and to measure up for putting a new window on the sloping roof of our bedroom. Gemeente Oostzaan is organizing a bulk discount order for solar panels for residents, and we might want to get in on that. If we do, we’d want to get any window work done before the panels go up.

I woke up with a ringing sinus headache, and was fighting it throughout the morning. I had a nap in the early afternoon, and felt a bit better afterwards. Early evening Alex, Fiona, and I went to the cinema to see A Simple Favor, which was excellent. None of us had seen any trailers or heard anything about the film, and it was a really refreshing experience to go and see a film of which we did not know what to expect. The description made it sound like a thriller, and when the opening scenes were quite funny, I wasn’t sure how to react. Should I laugh, or should I be waiting for the other shoe to drop, and for it to take a horrible dark turn? The film balances humour and tension very well throughout, and kept me guessing right to the end. Alex was literally sitting on the edge of his seat for parts of it. On the drive back, we agreed that we should do this more often: fine a film we know nothing about, and go see it with completely fresh eyes.

When we got back, I discovered messages from Phil on my phone that I’d missed while I had my phone in do-not-disturb mode in the cinema. I was needed on a mission! I won’t go into details, but I ended up driving through Amsterdam in the dark with a mattress rolled up and stuffed in the back of the car. Mark Pilgrim once said something along the lines of, “a friend will help you move house, but a lifelong friend will help you move a body.” Fortunately, no shovels were required this evening.

Daily self-care checklist:

• Sleep: not great. Woke up at 06:30 with what I though was just a headache, but became clear was a sinusache as it progressed. Got back to sleep, but it was still there when I woke up a couple of hours later. Nap in the afternoon was pleasant, though.
• Walk: not really, just out for errands and stuff.
• Bass: no
• Photography: no
• Snacks: maltesers at the cinema

Daily self-care checklist:

• Sleep: good. Woke around 06:20, but was able to get back to sleep again quickly.
• Walk: bits and pieces on a couple of errands
• Bass: practicing scales
• Photography: just a couple of snaps while I was out on errands.
• Snacks: Some chocolate kruidnoten