An Overdue Update

There is about an hour left before I'll get on the train to O.K.'s, where I'll be spending the weekend. My little red suitcase is packed, the flat won't benefit of any cleaning while I'm away, and so I use the time for a long overdue update here.

What have I been up to since I last posted properly?

Well, I have had more "health issues" (yes, Frances, issues!) to deal with; another operation was due. This time, it had nothing to do with my eye. Instead, it was a "women's thing" that wasn't dangerous or worrying; I've had the exact same operation 8 years ago and my doctor advised me to have another operation so that we hopefully will never have to think about it again.
All went well; I was allowed home two hours after I woke up from the general anaesthesy  (provided someone was going to pick me up, which my sister kindly did). The hardest thing about the whole day was not being allowed to eat after 7:00 in the morning and nothing to drink after 10:00 - and it was a really hot day, too. A sandwich never tasted so good as the one I finally had at 5:30 in the afternoon!

I was on sick leave for a week after the operation but did a bit of work here and there from home. For the rest of the time, I was not allowed to do much because of possible bleeding. I was fine, though, and allowed to resume all normal activities 3 weeks afterwards. Now I really hope I've seen the last of my "old acquaintance" from 8 years ago!

As you know, summer has been exceptionally hot and dry here. I have already written about one of the ways O.K. and I have devised to keep cool; it was not quite as easy here in town where I live, especially not on work days at offices without airconditioning.

But cold drinks and ice cream were readily available after work, and one afternoon, my parents, sister and I met up in town at the ice cream parlour:

The ice cream in the front is mine, the drink is a Tocco Rosso and was my Mum's choice. (I have told you about this delicious cocktail here.)

On one of the weekends when O.K. was here, we had breakfast on Saturday at the café where we first met (with the difference that back then, it was February and we were of course indoors - and there were no wasps!). The breakfast menue at this café is really good; they have set breakfasts named after artists or literary figures. Mine was called Miss Marple and included Earl Grey tea, scrambled eggs, bacon and toast:

We have all been noticing more and more how the sun rises later and sets earlier; several of you have remarked upon this on your blogs. Here is a sunrise I watched from my kitchen window earlier this month:

Last weekend, we were having another BBQ at the allotment of O.K.'s family. Just like last time (as shown here), I could not resist taking pictures of the beautiful sunset we enjoyed there:

The five pictures were all taken within less than half an hour.

The Perseids do not need an explanation, do they? Anyway, the best night to watch them in my part of the globe was 12th/13th of August (the 12th having been my Mum's birthday, by the way - another reason to celebrate!). O.K. travelled home that night and sent me a text to say he'd arrived home safely (as is our habit). He mentioned the beautiful starry sky in his text, and that made me go to my kitchen window to have a look - I wasn't even thinking of the Perseids at that moment. And believe it or not, seconds after I had started looking, I saw a shooting star! You bet I made a wish :-)
And last weekend at O.K.'s, we saw one together from the balcony at night!

Yesterday after work, I met my Mum and sister for a drink at Ludwigsburg's Weinlaube (wine fest). For me, it was the third and last visit to this year's fest, and I enjoyed every one of them. This last visit somehow marked also the end of summer for me, and the weather looks as if it feels the same: From temperatures around 30 Celsius earlier this week, today we are down to 17. The weekend will remain more or less like this, next week is forecast to be a little warmer again, but it seems that the extreme heat is broken. I must admit I am ready for autumn, even though I am sad to see this superb summer end. And besides, we often have still very good weather in September.

Anyway, here's to summer ending and autumn being on its way!

Now I'm about to leave. We'll have another family birthday to celebrate on Sunday. Like YP said the other day in his blog, there is plenty of Beautiful to focus on, if only we want to