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Random Wednesday
4
Tag Archives: #holidays#
Random Wednesday
Random Wednesday is it so random this week because…. Yep that s me today🏖️🩴☀️
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With Love From Krakow
Back and reporting about our trip to Krakow.
Well, what can I say? The city is gorgeous, with amazing architecture, lovely people, and a very interesting story that I totally overlooked before visiting the underground old medieval city.
Now I can understand why Polish people are so proud. And they are certainly right.
Most amazing thing to report, though are the cakes. Oh my lord !!!!!!
And they still have proper, good old-fashioned patisseries where you can sit on a comfortable velvet little couch and enjoy a big slice of cake adorned with whipped cream. To Nona and me, a journey down memory lane when, as a child, she used to take me to a little patisserie every Wednesday after ballet. That was most likely even the reason why, instead of a ballerina physique, I developed a cursing sweet tooth, but also a happy soul, on top of lovely memories to pass on to my kids and still share with my mom.
Last but not least, I really need to highlight how hygienically superior this country is. I never went to a toilet that was not squeaky-clean. Even the unisex one at the petrol station in the middle of the countryside on a rainy day. And the hotel room was spotless in places ( like behind the window frame), which I saw was dusty even in big posh 5-star hotels.
Passing on to my travel companions now, here it is when my account could get colourful and seriously entertaining, but unfortunately, I’m not allowed to go unfiltered.
To be completely honest with you, I have already been scolded after the previous post. According to Nona, I might have given the impression that she is a bit difficult and not very flexible, which, of course, she is not, and the only suggestion of such a thing is outrageously untrue. Even if two days before departure, and right on the day I paid for the hotel, she asked to change our reservation and have a single room all for herself.
In fairness, she did say, “If it is not too much trouble,”……After I had already spent an entire afternoon cancelling the original hotel, getting a refund and finding another hotel with availability on the same days and under the same conditions.
Anyway, in the end I must admit two rooms proved to be the best option…. FOR EVERYONE!!!
And surely here I’ll get scolded again🙄, even though I can try to save my skin blaming daughter number one for not coming this year and making an odd number.
Blames and jokes aside, we learned our lesson for next year. Yes, next year!!!! Because this little multigenerational girls’ trip is by now an established tradition, and with those ladies of mine, the fun is always far bigger than the hassle.
Have a great week ahead and don’t forget random Wednesday tomorrow (yes, this week’s post was late, but we had a little health issue with the travelling husband, but don’t worry, he is ok!), and if you haven’t read the interview with Artyplantsman yet, just go back to last week’s post…it’s worth it! https://artyplantsman.wordpress.com/
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Planning Is A Skill (that you don’t want )
And it’s that time of the year again. Time to organise the mother-daughter trip and believe me even this year it was not easy.
There are two mothers, three daughters, one grandmother, and two granddaughters, and all of it in just four individuals: me (mother and daughter), my mother (mother and grandmother), and daughters number one and two (daughters and granddaughters).
As per tradition, I tried to suggest NY, already knowing it was a big “no-no” from my mom, but curious to hear the current reason: we are not staying enough days!
Not dwelling on the fact that we are only shorter of one day compare to last year, I didn’t insist but put my feet down on a no beach holidays destination as we all established by now I am no lizard neither in her or my father image and likeness.
Berlin was threw in the destinan pot, along withVienna, Instabul, Split and Bucarest and the Transilvania that was an other big “ no-no” from Nona, but I suspect more out of retaliation for my constant “no-no” to France and Spain than else.
In the end, considering the restrictions in dates because of the travelling husband’s schedule, and the fact that we had to find destinations where to fly from different countries on the same day and ideally around the same time, our options were not as many.
Finally after weeks of research and consultation and absolutely fake declarations like, ” I don’t mind, really anywhere is fine…” we agreed on Krakow.
Now that we have our destination, we have to plan the trip. And I can tell you, no arguing or discussion there just: “You should book the flights and the hotel. You are good at it “. I have no more skills than my mother or daughters, except maybe be the patience to research and compare, but that’s enough to make me a booking master and take on the shitty task. Because, excuse my French, it is a shitty task, even if the feeling of accomplishment once you have all your flights individually booked and ready to check in along with lovely bedrooms in a central hotel is undoubtedly amazing.
But, my mastering skills, doesn’t stop to booking; I am apparently superiorly skilled in planning itineraries too: ” Oh yes, I was going to look at things to do and see but, well if you do it is even better. ….”
Unfortunately, the itinerary threw us a bit off balance. But no problem because “I am so good at these things that I’ll find PLENTY of alternatives.….won’t I?!”
Have a great week ahead 🥰
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Welcome home Ortensia
And just like that when you think that after three weeks of holidays, all you have to do is remember to set the alarm to drop the kids to school; wash, dry and iron three weeks of dirty laundry and 2 kennel smelling dogs, you then realised that no thought was more naive and you spend instead your first afternoon back at the ER.
The good news is that for once the injured part wasn’t me. It was the travelling husband who, not being able to come up with anything he could make himself useful with, like for example mowing the lawn in the back garden that started to look more like a cornfield, had decided to go play tennis and fell.
Karma!!! You would think, except his karma was all at my expense!
Considering he could put weight and effortlessly walk on his foot I gave him some ice, and quickly dismissed the whole thing as a “man tumble”( you know the same way there is the “ man flu”). I would have also graciously suggested he rest his foot up but there was no need or time for me to do that; in a matter of seconds, he hopped to the sitting room after steadily gripping the TV remotes he sprawled on the couch.
Unfortunately, 30 minutes later the pain was still “EXCRUCIATING”, he said.
“ Not even close to how EXCRUCIATING my annoyance is”, I thought and drove him to the clinic, perfectly knowing it was a waste of time.
You can imagine my surprise and shock when he came out with a boot. Did my instinct betray me? I even nearly felt guilty for those brief but deep murderous thoughts I had while waiting for him but, of course, I should have known better. A woman’s instinct never fails her, contrary to a man’s karma.
The foot was not broken or dislocated, it was just badly bruised, the nurse simply took pity on him and gave him the boot anyway knowing behind a wingy injured husband there is always a pissed busy wife.
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Home Sweet Home
This week I will just leave the sign in my laundry room speak for me, but do not worry my return from the holidays has been far from boring and you will find out next week 🤓
Happy Sunday to you all, and, as usual, do jot forget to smile….even from behind the ironing board 😉
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Lost And Found
There was this book I wanted to read for a while but never did because it’s about a missing kid and, the only idea, felt upsetting.
Too close to home I suppose.
But I like the author though, her thrillers never disappointed me so when I saw it at the airport I grabbed it hoping for the best. And the best it was!!!
I read it in three days, and it didn’t upset me. It wasn’t a random abduction, which I believe is every parent’s worst nightmare, and it wasn’t that close to home after all.
Oh, did I mention that by “close to home” I meant that time I lost daughter number two, twenty years of my life, four buckets of panick sweat and any human dignity all at once in a fraction of time that wasn’t most likely longer than 15 minutes but felt like hours?
Anyway, back to the book, the more I dived into it, the more I realised that what happened to poor Sive ( the fictional character and mother of the missing kid), was totally different to what happened to me.
First of all, I did not lose my child, she lost me. She, in fact decided to step away from me and, once she couldn’t see me anymore, going straight to the security guard who took her to their station and promptly looked for me after she gave them her mother’s name and a very accurate description. A description, I must say, far more accurate than the one I gave of her but, she was not panicking pretending ( unsuccessfully ) not too in front of her sister. No, she was happily drawing and looking at the guards’ security monitors feeling to be at the cinema. Most likely she had watched me running around the shop shouting her name like I was possessed before pointing out I was her mother.
Secondly, I would have never sent my two and six-year-old daughters ahead on the Tube while rummaging in my purse trying to find my phone to answer and consequently missing the train. Who does that? No woman in the world hears her phone when is in their bag and, normally, they already have it in their hands to take lovely Instagrammable pics.
Third, unlike Sive, I don’t have to fear the moment to tell what had happened to my husband because he will blame me. The travelling husband never would, and he didn’t that time. And no, not out of compassion, he didn’t get the whole ordeal. And still doesn’t!
“But you got her back, and she was never really lost!” He said when I told him,
“ Yes, but for the time I thought she was missing it was beyond comprehension the terror I felt..”I protested.
“ But she was fine, she was never in danger,” he replied still incredulous that I still had goosebumps only at the memory of what had happened, or worst of what could have happened, “she hasn’t even realised she could be in any danger,” he insisted ,”soooo….”
So…. when it comes to a factual husband you just pick your battles and enjoy a double straight whiskey.
Happy week ahead 🥰
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No Pain No Gain No Trip
You know when they say the meaning is in the journey and not in the destination? They are right.
This girl’s trip came such a long way that the destination doesn’t even matter anymore. What matters is that we are going…Somewhere…Anywhere.
And God only knows if we all happily settled on Budapest out of genuine enthusiasm to visit the cradle of the Austrian-Austrian-Hungarian Empire or simply because we wanted it done and over with.
And I swear I am not ungrateful, on the contrary. I am quite excited to go to Budapest, it just took a lot of organisation and planning.
It was not only a matter of synchronising the four of us who were going away, the dates had to match the travelling husband’s working engagements and my loyal and trusty tradesman who was supposed to renovate the main bathroom.
My head was wrecked, but I did it . Every piece of the puzzle was fitting in …. till it wasn’t:
One of the trees in the garden fell over the neighbour’s pergola, the loyal tradesman for the first time in years was not very trustworthy and didn’t show up when he was supposed to, the travelling husband messed up with the dates and booked himself a business trip overlapping mine.
The young and still aspiring to some control over life version of me would have had a massive meltdown but the too old to g…e a f..k and wise version of me refused to be defeated by the fate and focused instead on the positive sides of the series unfortunate events.
I won’t lie, it was not easy to find any. Especially at 5 pm of the day before I had to leave for Hungary, when the new vanity unit was still resting in her sealed box in my sitting room and the toilet was still disconnected.
The tiles were all down though. Slowly but surely we would get there. Also, by a fortunate coincidence, the travelling husband was landing shortly before I would take off the following day and so I could easily drive to the airport and leave the car with him. The puzzle pieces were going back to place and stay up till late to pack and scrub the muddy footprints from the white carpet on the stairs (it had rained all day.) is a little price to pay to finally relax in a Hungarian thermal pool.
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Operation “break away”.
Some time ago Nona suggested going together to the Christmas markets in Copenhagen but once I searched for dates, flights and accommodation it turned out it was too close to December, “Maybe next year.” She said.
-They are called Christmas markets for a reason you know? And Christmas will come in December next year too!- I thought but said nothing.
The following year, we were spared the Christmas market discussion because of COVID.
When COVID eventually passed, Nona had grown out of the idea of going to Christmas markets around Europe. She was now focusing on a city break or a beach holiday somewhere outside Italy.
Easier to say than do I am afraid, and for a reason or another this multi-generations girls’ trip still had not happened but, this summer, it would. It had been decided!
What had not been decided yet was the destination.
Well, to me there was not much to decide there, we were going to NY! We had extensively talked about it and one of the reasons we didn’t go away sooner was that Nona was waiting to renew her passport.
The odds were finally all in our favour and I was just one click away from confirming our flights when my mother went cold feet and set the threshold of a three-hour flight maximum.
Bye Bye N.Y.
Still plenty of destinations to choose from except for Marakesh, (too hot); Instabul(too dangerous for women alone); Island (too cold); Palma( too far); Rome (too close), Norway (too close to Russia. Nona is terrified Putin will invade the entire Europe).
What about Budapest? I suggested out of exasperation.
To be continued…..
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Carb Your Enthusiasm
Over the years I learned not to be anxious, especially when it comes to things that are out of my control. At the end of the day, there is nothing I can do about it so, why bother?!
Things normally work out themselves. If something is meant to be it will be and, if it’s not, it won’t. No matter what we do or don’t about it.
I know it sounds a bit simplistic, but as older I get the more I like it simple. Also, I experienced this first hand to be true. Of course, this wise realization came a long way, and there was indeed a time when I swore that if someone told me one more time that if it were meant to be it would have happened, I would murder them with my own bare hands. That is also why I carefully choose who to give my little wisdom pills about this subject: no one under the age of 35 who either has just been dumped by their partner or it on a house auction!
Now, in this simple happy relaxed bubble of mine, the problem is my body that, sometimes, still falls into old habits and betrays some nervousness behind my proverbial enthusiasm and excitement.
For instance last summer, 2 days before leaving for our so long awaited American holiday, I woke up with half of my face swollen and a nose so sore that only looking at it was painful. Chronic sinus aggravated by nasal polyps! Seriously????? Two days before leaving???? Is this how we react to too much excitement here? Apparently yes! !!
Well, there were some signs in the previous weeks but nothing that could not be happily ignored according to me, my doctor still has a different opinion. The very same doctor who scrubbed the infected skin off my burned arm the day before leaving for an other holiday and still doesn’t believe in the psychological factor. Unbelievable!. Hopefully, he will this time when looking at my bloody eye and watermelon jaw size.
Wondering what happened?
Two weeks ago my nose started to hurt, and showing more or less the same symptoms as last summer so I immediately started to use the leftover medication I still had in the house, ignoring the fact that was out of date. Worst case scenario it will be less effective…the traveling husband said.
Less effective indeed, in fact, on the Friday night all the veins in my left eye burst, and the pain on the face’s bones got quite acute.
Seriously? The night before our dear friends were coming for a long weekend? It had happened again, too much excitement!!!!
Nothing I could do about it, if not try to relax, have a long beauty sleep, and ignore my body’s attempt to rebel against my mental wisdom and lack of anxiety.
The following morning the symptoms were all still there but nothing I could not conceal with some makeup and my good mood was untouched.
“My dear body, you are not going to spoil it for me. I won’t let you!” And I didn’t, not even the following morning when my eye was injected with blood all over, the left side of my face double the size of the other and my guests finally admitted they had noticed something was wrong even the previous day.
Determined to not let the old unwise me to win, I openly confronted it and loudly said I would call the doctor first thing on Monday morning, and…..hear hear, the good old placebo effect kicked in.
“I tricked you rebellious body of mine!!!!!!”
P.S
All this to excuse me from skipping last week’s post, but I spent 10 days snoozing on the couch dosed up in antibiotics and steroids. Sometimes the placebo effect is just a placebo effect 🙄
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