(Photo Description: A row of trees covered in white blossom stand alongside a dirt path in the forest.)
Sunday April 17th
First Easter day. Not that we’re celebrating. It’s not something personal to us. Besides, we already have more than enough chocolate in the house that I barely eat and… it’s 17c with blaring sun outside. Way too warm to get out the raclette set.
Instead we went for a walk in the woods nearby. Jessica took some photos of flowers. I made a tiktok and mostly just enjoyed listening to the sounds of the birds. There was a time when I didn’t have a hearing aid and couldn’t really hear them. Now, if we’re quiet enough, I can hear the different sounds the different breeds of bird make. I don’t actually see the birds, so it makes a fun guessing game. The sound of the woodpecker is my favorite though.
We stopped at the supermarket on the way home. Yes, some supermarkets are open even at Easter. We found some tasty spinach filled bread sticks which we could eat for lunch. Some sweet pastries for snack time and decided we’d make roti wraps for dinner. So got the ingredients we needed for those. Ok… maybe the food was a sign of a snall celebration but, it doesn’t have to be fancy to be enjoyed.
Monday April 18th
Second Easter day. Sorry chocolate lovers. We have an excuse to spend one more day eating easter eggs here in the Netherlands. We started our day catching up on YouTube channel subscriptions though. We watch a lot of van life travel vlogs and everybody we like to watch, had uploaded new videos.
After lunch, we went for a short walk around the outside of the shopping center. The weather was even warmer today though, so it was more challenging to be out.
I knew normal shops would be closed, that’s normal with a public holiday. Though I kind of expected more restaurants to take advantage of the nice weather and have theie terraces open. Especially since they were forced to close for so long during the peaks of the pandemic. There were only two restaurants open. Also two supermarkets. Not the supermarket we were planning to go to though. That was closed. Groceries will have to wait til tomortow.
On the way home, even before we had crossed the crossing that leads out of the center, I heard a loud, deep, recognizeable bark. A large, black, hairy, somewhat scary looking dog was standing on his back legs, front paws hanging over the fence that fenced off his garden, literally yelling at me. Anyone would think he was about to jump over that fence and attack me. Heck, he’s big and strong enough to do that if he wanted to and had I been a stranger, he most likely would have. But no, he knows that I am good folk and was just making sure I heard his invite to come get hugs.
We talked to the neighbour (his owner) for a bit, while he was getting all of the hugs he could possibly get from me. Just what I needed. I think I now have enough hugs to manage for a while until I see him, or another dog again.
Pro tip: Big, black hairy guard dogs are usually not friendly. Don’t approach one unless you know them and have permission from their owner.
Tuesday April 19th
My body has decided to plague me with itchiness and pain in places where I didn’t know that was possible. It’s just a little too much to deal with, so I made an appointment with the doctor for later in the afternoon.
First I needed to go to an intake for guided sport and fitness. However, Jessica had to leave due to other obligations, so Mom came to bring me to the appointment.
It would take place in a huge blue building just a few minutes from where I live. Walking or rolling distance. Do you think we could find the building? Dang it, it’s big and blue. How is it possible that we can’t find it? Luckily Google is our friend and we made it on time.
I was approved for guided medical fitness. As of next week, I will attend weekly and a physio will help me create an adapted fitness program. He will also help monitor my heart, my breathing and take my hypermobility into consideration while I follow the program. I’m excited.
Jessica went with me to the doctor. I have eczema and probably a light stomach flu. Yes, again. She prescribed me cream for the itchy places. The stomach flu will fix itself.
Wednesday April 20th
I was awake long before the nurse came and that’s a good thing, because she had questions about the cream. After we were done with my morning routine and I had eaten breakfast, I called Dad on Skype.
We had deep and meaningful conversations today and I finished the call feeling really good. It’s nice to have a Dad I can share everything with.
Lunch was followed by chores. Although the washing machine had other ideas. My laundry was still dripping wet at the end of the program. So I ran a shorter, different program to fix that.
Chatted on Messenger with Ellen. The lady who owns Hart voor de Zorg. One of the platforms where I share my journey with the community care nurses. She is full of really good ideas and shared some of them with me. She also created my official blog page within her website.
I ended the afternoon by Facetiming with Emily. We also had good, meaningful conversations and sang some songs together. Good mood got better.
Thursday April 21st
Our internet serviceprovidor has graced us with a new router and I get to install it. I kinda expected problems. Mom got the same router a couple months ago and ended up needing someone to go help her fix the issues as it wasn’t working correctly. Thankfully I installed ours within an hour and after tweaking some settings, it works fine. Now our WiFi is twice as fast.
In the afternoon Mom and I did a video call. We talked and practiced some sign language. It’s fun to see mom doing her best. It’s even more fun to make jokes while she’s doing so. Don’t hate me internet. She laughs as hard at the jokes as I do. So we both had fun.
Friday April 22nd
I had two small chores, which I finished by 11am. The rest of the day was mine. All mine. No more chores. No need to work on blogs, no planned Skype or Facetime sessions.
I read a couple chapters of Educated Drug Dealer. I’m so far really easily lost in this book and I mean that in a good way. Ellen’s style of writing allows you to completely absorb yourself into her story. I get so many visual images while reading, that I feel like I’m walking alongside her on her journey.
The rest of the day was spent watching YouTube, Netflix, playing with photo editing apps and answering chat messages in Messenger.
Saturday April 23rd
I tried to do as little as possible in the morning. I had plans to go with a friend for a walk in the afternoon and I’d need to conserve energy so I would be able to enjoy it. I did empty the trash though and Jessica had taken the sheets off of my bed, to be washed. I needed to put on clean ones. That’s been really easy for the past few months though. Just before Christmas, we purchased a couple Hero Duvets. These are bright, colorful duvets that you just throw on your bed. No need to fight while trying to shove them in a duvet cover and no fighting again, after you’ve had a restless night and somehow consiquently rolled your duvet into a ball inside the cover. These bright, colorful duvets are also easy to wash and they dry really quickly. – Not sponsored! Just an awesome product that I felt the need to tell you about.
I finally got to leave Jessica at home with Netflix and went with a friend for a walk. We walked through the Van Veldhuizen bos. The forrest that you saw last week if you follow me on Twitter, TikTok, Instagram or Facebook. It was a nice day to be out in nature and we had good conversations on the way. Wind permitting. If the wind blows strong enough in my face, I can’t breathe well enough to talk and don’t hear what anyone is saying to me. Luckily the beautiful trees in the forrest mostly protected us from the wind.
We ended the afternoon with a cold drink and a slice of apple pie at a restaurant. We sat outside on the terrace. The weather was thankfully warm enough to do that. I say thankfully, because it was a busy restaurant. Even the terrace was busy. Which is logical with the nice weather. Even before Covid was a thing, I tended to avoid busy. When you have both hearing and vision loss, busy places tends to cause sensory overload and that makes me grumpy. The apple pie was delicious though and at one point, the terrace started to become empty, so we were able to talk some more. It was an enjoyable afternoon. Definitely worth repeating.
How was your week? Did you experience any highs or lows? Feel free to tell me in the comments, in a tweet, or on facebook.
Thanks for reading! See you next week.
CRS Life 