Friday 24 August 2018

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

23 comments:

  1. I love the photo of you at the end! I'm very relieved that the operation went well, and that nothing was seriously wrong. Loved the sunset sequence, and I went back to the other post to see it, too. So enjoy reading about your really wonderful life.

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    1. Thank you, Nan! My next check-ups (eyes and gyn) will be in October... I will know more then.

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  2. Lovely post! So happy all went well for you! Wish I could go to that cafe with you and when you order the Miss Marple, I would say, "make that two"! Sunsets and stars and scintillating people in your life, you are lucky!☺

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    1. I definitely am, Kay! Yes, wouldn't it be fabulous to have Miss Marple breakfasts together! There is also a Hemingway one, a Voltaire and a Picasso.

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  3. Wonderful to see a new post from you! So glad that your operation and recovery went well and I hope it need never be repeated. Your lunch looks delicious! It's just about time for my own lunch so I am feeling a bit hungry! I am happy that autumn will be beginning soon, although it already feels back and all my grandchildren are in school again. Have a wonderful weekend.

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    1. Thank you, Kristi, you too! That was breakfast, by the way, not lunch - we skipped lunch that day :-) School won't start here for another two weeks. Then the train to and from work will be a lot fuller again.

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  4. Lovely sunset images. Sorry about your health issues, but glad all went well!

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    1. Thank you, Monica! Yes, all seems to be well at the moment. Now I just have to (= want to) get back to normal where my fitness is concerned.

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  5. Glad all is well with your health issues. That ice cream looks big enough for you all to eat!
    Are you coming over here this year on holiday or have you already been? If you hsve still to come and if you get anywhere near Wensleydale do please let me know and come here for coffee rather than find a cafe.

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    1. Thank you, Pat! Yes, portions at that ice cream place are generous... no need to eat anything else that evening!
      My sister and I will be in Ripon towards the end of October this year. It would be lovely to meet up!

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  6. Enjoy the family birthday! I am sorry about the second op, but glad that you are over it okay. I am trying to work out exactly how big that icecream is......!!! LOL
    I am always sad to see the end of summer, particularly this year as I was stuck inside more than usual. But hopefully it will be a nice autumn .

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    1. It was big, Jenny!
      I hope you will have a nice autumn to enjoy with many occasions to enjoy the outdoors.

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  7. I'm so glad your problem - yes, problem! - has been sorted, Meike. I hope you'll soon be fully recovered.

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    1. Right now, it feels as if I'm on a good way. My upcoming 2 weeks of holiday will definitely help - plenty of fresh air and exercise, enough sleep and good food!

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  8. I always think that 'problem' is a negative word (I probably said that on your blog, Frances, so I'm happy to go with issue.

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    1. My health issue could have become a problem if we had not taken action; that's why in my view, it was an issue and (not yet) a problem :-)

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  9. Anyway, as I was saying before I interrupted myself by pressing 'send', I'm glad to see you back and ready to go and achieve your peak fitness for the autumn and winter. I enjoyed your sunset pictures (as always). It's a long time since I saw a meteor shower - they are quite magical. I hope that as I write this you are having a wonderful weekend.

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    1. I did have a wonderful weekend, thank you, Graham. Even with another family birthday and a few things on our to-do list, we managed to go for a walk in beautiful evening light with yet another great sunset to watch over the Vosges mountains.

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  10. Thank you for this update. I am sorry to hear you have been in hospital again but it sounds as though everything that needed to be addressed "downstairs" has now been sorted out. I am curious about how you first met OK. Was it a purely accidental meeting in that cafe? These days the internet is invariably involved in setting up first meetings. You may have blogged about this before Meike - but I don't remember. Maybe I missed it.

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    1. It was not an accidental meeting. We had both signed up with "eDarling", an online dating platform. Like your sister-in-law, I had kissed (or, rather, met) a few frogs in the 12 months between splitting up with RJ and meeting OK. I saw OK's profile and very much liked what I saw. When I contacted him, the main difficulty (which still is the only problem we have) was the geographical distance - 150 km between my place and his.
      But he made the effort to drive all the way to Ludwigsburg just for this first meeting, without really knowing whether we'd "click" or not. Needless to say, we did click :-)

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    2. Ive never wanted to find a partner (since my last partnership ended 18 years ago) so have never been on a dating website but, amongst my friends who have found a partner, a dating website seems to be the way to go and some very enduring relationships have resulted.

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  11. Sorry you had to go through all that but happy to see you up and about, smiling and lovely in that last photo.
    Cheers to you and OK - enjoy your vacation time together - and thanks for sharing your story.
    Mary x

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