Today I weigh 98.1 kilos. So I have lost a total of 27.3 kilos. And I had more food yesterday than I normally eat, so how is that possible? I had one small glass of juice, one small boiled potato, some Melba toast, one small melon (not all at once, of course), the last piece of cheese and one glass of drink yogurt. I thought that was going to be too much food, but apparently not. Go figure! And I didn’t have a stomachache after I had the cheese, so I guess that was just a one time thing. There is another melon laying on the shelf in the kitchen, but the cheese is all gone now and I don’t know if we should get another kilo of that. I’ll have to see how it goes without it for a few days. On Friday there is another open air market, so Eduard could get me some then, but there is one tomorrow also, so I don’t know what to do. Mmm, a bit of a luxury problem, I guess. There doesn’t seem to be a problem with me eating a little more food, because I lose the weight anyway. Maybe it helps to eat a little bit more to get my metabolism going. Anyway…
Yesterday morning I took the bus into town. I wore my sandals, but still my toe hurt, so it was not much of a pleasure walking around and I had to anyway, because the bus stop is a bit of a walk away from the basilica. Once I got to the basilica, I saw that there was no way to light the little candles inside, and I completely forgot that I had a lighter with me, so I went to the Mary Chapel outside and I bought three tall candles instead and I lighted them and prayed in the chapel. It is really nice in there and there were lots of candles burning there already. There is a statue of Mary there, all dressed up, and it is very colorful and impressive, but I prayed to God directly anyway. While I was praying, deep sighs escaped from my body and I felt myself getting lighter. I try to pray with all my attention directed to God and I try to not let my mind be distracted by my surroundings. So it is an intense prayer.
After I left the chapel, I went to the Center for Work and Income and spoke to a very nice gentleman there, who is going to sign me up first for an aptitude test to see where my interests really lie first, before I go into the rest of the project. That sounds reasonable, so I am looking forward to that. I know that I would also like to work in a library very much, or in an archive in general, so I hope that is going to come out of the test. I had to give him my social security number, which is written in my passport, which I didn’t have with me, so I had to call him with that when I got home. It is a nine digit number which I don’t know by heart, because I never use it. After I left the center, I went and had coffee with Eduard at his work, so all in all it was a well spent morning.
In the afternoon I just did the usual things and when Eduard came home, I made Rooibos tea, which was very nice and we drank the whole pot. It tastes like regular tea without the caffeine in it, so you don’t get all hyper from it. In the Netherlands we drink tea out of glasses, or if you really want to be fancy, out of porcelain cups. The English drink their tea out of mugs, except for the queen, she drinks it out of porcelain cups also. On the other hand, the Dutch drink their milk out of mugs. One time I asked my brother in law for a glass of milk, and he said, no, you can’t have a glass of milk, I’ll give you a mug of milk instead. I thought that was very strange, that he wouldn’t let me have a glass. I always drink milk out of a glass. Anyway…Then I watched some TV and promptly fell asleep on the sofa and I didn’t wake up until it was time to walk the dog, but I was still not quite awake and Eduard took pity on me and walked the dog instead. I don’t think the dog minds which one of us takes him out, although my walks are a bit longer than Eduard’s walks, we linger on the field a bit longer, but Eduard still had to fix his pasta dish for dinner and didn’t have time to linger. I didn’t wait up for Eduard in the evening, but went to bed at the very decent hour of 9 pm and fell asleep very quickly and I slept until 5:30 this morning.
I had a strange dream. I dreamed that Juliana was still queen and that she was wearing long underwear because she was such a chaste woman and didn’t want to show any leg. I told her that it was okay to show her legs and to unbutton her skirt just a bit at the bottom, and that, if she was going to wear long underwear, she should wear some embroidered with gold thread instead. So she did, and I arranged her skirt so that the gold thread embroidery showed up nicely. I dreamed that I was dancing with her husband Bernhard, because he was so grateful to me for having helped her out, but he was a bit of a playboy and I knew this and stopped dancing with him as soon as I could. Juliana was very sweet and kind and smiling constantly, and she was that way in real life too, so that is how I remember her. We had a picture of her on the wall when I was a little kid and I always thought of her as a member of the family. So, that was my dream and it is not the first time that I dream about a member of the royal family. I have traced my ancestors back to the 17th century and I am sure that I have no royal blood flowing through my veins, as opposed to my daughter who does through her father’s side.
I also called the GP’s office about my toe and they said that I had to call the surgery clinic at the hospital to make an appointment to have that bit of nail removed, so I did that and have an appointment for next week. I know they give you one or two shots to numb your toe and I am not looking forward to that, but I can’t keep walking around with this toe the way it is, so it will have to be done. Hopefully I will be able to wear all of my shoes afterwards and that will be nice, because depending on the weather, I can then wear my ankle boots or my new flat shoes or my sandals.
I watch the news at night twice. First at 6 o’clock, followed by a more in depth look at some of the news, and then again at 8 o’clock and that news lasts for half an hour, without commercial interruptions. I always wish for the news to last longer, as I think there are lots of international stories that can be covered or gone into a bit deeper. I think a one hour news show would be better. I think they don’t do this, because they are afraid that the audience would complain if the news lasted one hour, maybe people don’t want to watch longer items about things that happen abroad. But I don’t like how the little bites of news follow each other in quick succession, or how some things aren’t dealt with at all. And how some news items are given so much time when I think they shouldn’t be. If I were the head of the news… Never mind that, if I were the head of the country, I would be a benign dictator. If there is such a thing.
Eduard and Jesker are up now. The day has officially started. Today will be another day of housecleaning and doing laundry, so not a very exciting day, but you can’t win them all. The rain that was promised yesterday never did come and hopefully today will stay dry also, because I have some laundry that I want to dry outside, under the Golden Rain.
Well, that’s all the news I have for now. If there is any more after I walk the dog, I will be sure and let you know, but for now it is ciao to you…
P.S. It is going to be a beautiful day. The sky is blue and the sun is shining and it is warm enough already to go without a jacket. Jesker and I had a nice walk.
We saw Laila, the German shepherd, but those two dogs know each other so well, that they hardly acknowledge each other. I wish I had a reason to go into town, but I will have one tomorrow when I am meeting my friend Lucien.
Another Bright Day! 