Tag Archives: life

its that time…

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You know. Before a trip, when you’re almost entirely ready, almost everything but the last minute things are packed, you have nothing to do really but wait till its time to go to bed and get up in the morning, do the last minute things, and go.

You can’t start anything new. Almost everything has been finished and put away, or thrown or given away. You can’t pack up the charger, the laptop, your toothbrush or Vincent’s toothbrush cause you’ll need them tonight and/or in the morning.

Its that wasting time time when you have time to think and maybe bore people.

So here I am, writing a post just cause I can’t think of anything else to do.

Its a nothing post and to be honest, I do wonder why I’m even bothering to keep posting in general. Its not like I have a ton of followers or I promote my Etsy shop enough to make it worthwhile.

I post for a few reasons. One reason is that recently a good friend told me that I have a style that’s obvious in my posts and that I need to keep that ‘voice’ when I write fiction.

So I need the practice.

Sometimes its to share stuff that might interest my friends, in one place, cause I’m too lazy to send out emails or, heaven forbid!, make a phone call. Gone are the days when I’d sit on the phone with friends for hours. Now when the phone rings I pick up in case its work, but I almost always groan inwardly thinking “leave me alone, I really don’t feel like talking to anyone now”.

(Except for you, you know who you are.)

How awful is that? Its not like back when I worked at the travel agency and spent 6 hours a day talking, talking, talking to everyone who walked in the door who wanted to buy a ferry ticket, or ask about activities on the island or where the closest public toilet was. Now, most of the day I talk to mom (and that can be so wearing, hearing the same stories over and over, and yes, I appreciate her and I know that one day I’d be giving anything to hear her stories one more time) or to a dog I might be grooming – which is very fulfilling in so many ways.

But I’m still too tired/bored/lazy to actually talk to someone on the phone.

How life has changed.

Years ago, when I first got Scooter and then Billybear, my ‘toyboys’ – two toy poodle pups, and moved into a house with Simon (the then boyfriend) we’d go out for a movie or dinner and all we wanted to do was get back home to the dogs!

I think that’s where I am right now. I’d rather be home with my Vincent. He and my art is all the company I need. Plus Netflix and audio books. I am content.

People say “aren’t you lonely?” “isn’t Paros too quiet in winter?” “how will you ever meet a man if you don’t go out and do things?”…

To them I say:

I am never lonely. I have Vincent. I have my craft and DIY projects. I have my computer and all the social life that lives in there. I have my art. It never crosses my mind to be lonely. And if I ever feel the need for company, I have good friends I can call or meet.

No, its not too quiet in winter. There is so much to do on Paros. In fact, sometimes there is TOO MUCH to do. If you have friends and have any modicum of a social circle, there is always something to do. In fact there have been times in winter when I’ve made excuses to NOT go out.

Well, I’m not that sure I want to meet a man. I’ve been alone too long now. I don’t know if a man will fit in my life. I tried the whole visualize and manifesting the man of my dreams, but I’m so ambivalent about it, its never going to work.

I love cooking what I want, when I want it. Snuggling on the couch with a hot chocolate on cold nights, with a warm blanket, woolly socks, comfy pants and a little poodle. I watch soppy Christmas movies or serial killer series and all sorts of things in between.

Saw this on Facebook the other day and its almost totally true.

I turn on my fairy lights and sometimes even sip a Baileys on ice. I love my quiet evenings at home, after a day spent painting or creating.

I also love Christmas, but living alone, I feel its silly to do the full on Christmas decorating thing. I would love to go all out one day, but for now, its the fairy lights inside and sometimes out, other times just in the window, which is a waste cause my window isn’t really visible to passersby, and a tiny table top Christmas tree… that’s about it. Kinda sad, but its home and its cozy. I think the fairy lights make it all better.

What is this post about?

I have no idea. I’m just writing things as they come to me. I’ve had dinner. Vincent and mom are fed. Mom is watching some crappy Greek TV and I’m at the kitchen table, watercolour pencils and brushes laid out next to me tempting me to start something new and I keep saying “No. there’s no time”…

I might go check on our bags. Make sure they are ready. Then again, I’ll be up early and I’ll have time to do that then. As well.

Ok. I’ll leave you be and see if the watercolours win out.

z

christmas is driving him to drink

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I started needle felting again about a year ago, and I have to confess I’m hooked. I love it. Its such a zen feeling to sit quietly at the kitchen table stabbing wool and shaping it into anything I want. Often with the clashing sounds of an audio book on my mobile phone and mom’s tv programs… sigh…

I especially love creating little creatures with personalities, giving them more character by adding accessories to tell a story. This little bunny, for instance, started his gift wrapping full of Christmas spirit, but found he needed a big glass of red wine to get through it.

This little guy is the first in a series I planned to make for my Etsy shop this Christmas… the idea is to make little critters who represent different parts of the season. Including the snowmen in my last post, but these critters are all needle felted by hand, not made based on felted dryer balls I’d bought as an experiment.

Of course, the whole tariff thing in the USA has not done my shop any good, cause I sold quite a few of my creations to people in the US. And right now, I have a box waiting to be shipped to Canada but can’t send it due to the postal strike… Its hard enough to sell online without all this.

I’m not very good at promoting my work…

Anyway, I figured that since I’ve been absent for so long, I may as well share some of the things I’m made over the last few months.

One thing that’s helped heaps in making these small creations, is the light I bought on Temu. This thing is amazing. Its made for nail professionals and has enough space under it for me to work my wool comfortably. Its USB powered, and since I don’t have easy access to a power point at the kitchen table (cords are not user friendly to old women (mom) who are unsteady on their feet) I use a fantastic strong and fast charger I also got on Temu.

Needless to say I’m addicted to Temu.

I’m not proud of myself… but I can get so many good and useful things there. And of course some totally useless things, but I won’t mention that here… Unless you’d like me to share the failures…

Anyway, later.

z

OMG where have you been???

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Yes, yes, yes. I know. I’ve been busy, I was abducted by aliens, the internet was playing up, the beach called, my suit didn’t get back from the cleaners, I was having an existential crisis and wondering whether I even wanted to keep blogging. Other things seemed more important.

Then for some strange reason, tonight, I had the urge to post again. Not that I have much of importance to say… just the usual rubbish I write about.

But for anyone out there in cyberland who may have been missing me, I am still here. Still alive. Mostly. Ok, I’m fine, I’m just being dramatic. Mom is fine. She’s been getting better all the time. I tell you, I’ve never met anyone as stubborn as my mom. In the best way. The doctors brought her back from the brink after she lost 2 of her sisters within a month of eachother (the youngest who dropped dead of a stroke without warning and the oldest who’d faded away over 6 years with dementia in a nursing home). The doctor and the physio visit to check up on mom regularly and she does whatever they tell her – she gets up every morning and does her exercises.

*I* don’t do exercises. Mom, at almost 94, does.

Ok, so I have been exercising. Before summer I finally decided that joining the gym (and actually attending) would be a good idea so I began pilates. Then soon as aqua aerobics started I switched to that. Let me tell you, nothing is as good as working out in the sea. No matter how awful or painful something might be, its better in the water.

Once aqua stopped mid September, a friend and I continue doing our own workouts. We meet at a convenient and protected beach and swim and work out with our leg and hand held ‘weights’ (of course they’re foam, not metal, we’re not suicidal!) So I’m keeping fit(ish).

I’ll be taking mom back to Athens soon, she insists, she’s getting better, I can’t refuse to let her go to her own home. And once I get back I’ll reinstate my gym membership and start doing some weights as well as pilates. And the plan is to keep swimming through winter. Its meant to be great for your immune system. Not to mention your skin.

I tell myself I’m going to swim in winter every year and soon as it gets cold I bundle up and pack away my swimmers. But with a partner in crime who actually swims in winter, I think I might be able to do it this year…

I have ordered a neoprene swim jacket. And a microbre hooded poncho I can wear and change under. That might help.

Stay tuned.

We’ve had a very busy summer. The entire family from Australia came to Greece this year. Everyone except for my brother and his partner. But my niece and nephew came, heaps of cousins came, my niece brought her partner and kids, my brother’s ex wife and her new partner. The place was hopping.

Its one reason mom bounced back. All those people to see. Especially the great grandchildren. So gorgeous. So cute. So loud…

On other fronts, work has been okay. Grooming dogs and doing workshops. All good.

Very little creative time. Too much happening to concentrate on creativity. But I have begun needle felting again, plenty of painting stones, some smaller stuff. You know… I have to do something or I go crazy.

I leave you with a photo of the most recent needle felted creations for Christmas… made by upcycling felt dryer balls by needle felting and adding accessories (bought and made).

Hopefully I’ll be back again soon, with catch up posts.

Till then,

z xxx

Shared at Funky Junk Interiors Upcycle Ideas Party

why i’ve been missing in action

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I’ve been in Athens for more than a month so far caring for my mother. If you remember, she’d been unwell all last summer from various falls, COVID, pneumonia and pain. She recovered enough to return to her home in Athens and was even able to walk to the little park opposite our house to enjoy the sunshine on nice days.

In October she fell again and seemed to recover quickly from that till about mid January when the pain became unbearable. Of course she kept me in the dark as to how bad it was and luckily her friends and neighbours helped her with things like the housework and food preparation.

She was taken to a doctor who told her she needed to either stay in bed* or put on a brace. My mother refused both options. Stubborn.

*Bed was not an option in my mind. At her age, bed rest for any period of time means she’d never get up again.

When I learned how bad things were I came and began to care for her. She’s in a bad way. She has multiple osteoporotic fractures in her spine from the various falls (or just from living, according to the doctor) and there is no real ‘fix’.

Alternatives were bandied about (mostly by hopeful me) like a cement like substance injected into the vertebrae to tie them together, spinal fusion, anything, grasping at straws, but the doctors all say that due to her age (93) these options are not really viable. They say they can cause more problems, may not in fact help with the pain, and put her at risk of complications.

So, it seems pain killers and management are the way to go.

hmph.

Mom has had issues with constipation all her life due to a genetic issue, so taking opioids is not an option at all. So she’s living on Paracetamol.

She’s been fitted with a brace that she’s been told to wear for a month, then have another MRI to see how things are going.

Right. As if old fractures will heal after all this time… allow me to be skeptical.

Mom is wearing it and complaining, naturally, but she has no choice. She doesn’t want to take the pain pills either for fear of constipation (though with various stool softeners, that’s not an issue) and because ‘they don’t help at all’. She’s also refusing to do more tests cause she’s ‘not a guinea pig’ and its too painful to go have the tests done.

I don’t blame her… she can barely go from one room to another without intense pain and wearing herself out, imagine having to go to some lab in a taxi then wait her turn, and then get on a metal slab… but… what can I do?

Its been bad enough mom called/calls/wants me to call various doctors as if someone will tell her something different. sigh.

We’re in Athens for another month now, then I’m taking her to Paros. I don’t believe she will get any better, so I may as well go where I have some chances of earning money. Its either that or I give everything up and stay in Athens. Not that hasn’t crossed my mind…

I’m a bit depressed. When I arrived I’d brought needle felting stuff and I’ve made a few critters which I can’t finish cause I don’t have all my stuff here to finish them. Plus I ran out of steam. I started trying to paint and feel like an untalented hack. Nothing works. So I care for mom and watch a lot of stuff on Netflix.

As if that wasn’t all bad enough, last Friday my mom’s youngest sibling – her closest sister – had what we think was an aneurism. She’d been complaining of headaches and was leaving a friend’s house when they found her lying unconscious on the ground in the orchard with multiple broken bones. They flew her to Athens to an intensive care unit where she never woke up, dying 24 hrs later. It might sound harsh, but she is lucky she passed away and didn’t linger. She was already struggling with the beginnings of dementia, broken bones and whatever other issues she may have had wouldn’t have left her with much quality of life.

So, my life currently revolves around caring for mom. She can barely stand using a walking frame or move without intense pain from her back down her legs. She’s getting weaker. I dress her and put the brace on for her in the morning and undress and remove it at night, I prepare her meals (and let me tell you, I never liked cooking much… especially greek food!) she spends most of the day in the living room where she sits or lies on the couch all day.

At least she has friends and neighbours visit her here and help the time pass. And she has the phone almost permanently attached to her ear. With her sister’s death the both the landline and mobile have been ringing constantly.

I have no inspiration. I want to go home but worry about how I’ll manage to work when mom needs me at home so much. I can groom from home, or I could go out and do max 2 dogs but my time away from home will be limited because she will need help.

I’m speaking to someone about removing my bath tub and putting in a shower so she can get in and out. And I’m trying to figure out how I can make my tiny home more comfortable for the two of us.

So, that’s my news in case you were wondering. Hopefully I’ll get inspired again and finish my felted critters or do something to share. Till then… its been nice knowing ya!

z

why does it have to be so complicated?

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Oh boy. I’ve been through a lot of crap again. It seems to be the life just IS in Greece.

Mom’s landline wasn’t working about a week ago. We’d had a hellova thunderstorm the night before and it had tripped our power board master switch. Easy to fix, but the phone wasn’t getting a dial tone in the morning, even after unplugging and plugging it in again.

So I tried to find a number to call the telephone company. Ha. Good luck with that. I got a number which was answered by a robot called Tobi. I went a few rounds with that moron, ‘the wanted info about my ‘press x for internet connection or xx for mobile connection’, no option for a landline. He kept asking me if I’d tried unplugging the modem. We don’t have a modem.

I hung up on him.

I went onto the website thinking there might be a number for service issues, there was, but it was just a chat with Tobi.

When did PEOPLE disappear from the world?

So I tried to chat with Tobi and ended up yelling at him ‘ITS ABOUT MY LANDLINE’ and I was finally put through to another guy ON CHAT. ha. He told me if I wanted to talk to an actual person on an actual call, I had to start over, so I stuck with it.

He wanted my name and tax file number so they knew it was my line I was enquiring about.

I gave him mom’s name and went looking for her TFN, then remembered the phone is in my brother’s name and I have his TFN somewhere but …???

Why do I need to jump through hoops when all I want is to report a problem, find out if there is a problem with OUR phone only, or if its a general issue…

So I told the guy about it being my brother’s line, then yelled again that WHY ON EARTH DO THEY NEED TO KNOW TFNS (and crap) WHEN ALL I WANT TO KNOW IS IF THERE IS AN ISSUE WITH THE LINE?

A moment of silence, and he did some checking, said it was a problem in our area and would pass the info on to the relevant team.

Great. Thanks. He said they would be in touch by December 10 to let me know the outcome of the issue.

I got updates that our ‘issue’ was being dealt with. Apparently random guys were spotted at the phone box on the corner scratching their heads.

They came, they stuffed up lines in the entire neighbourhood and left.

Now our neighbours hate us…

They called yesterday to tell mom that they hadn’t sorted the issue yet and that they would not charge her for the time she was without a phone, and today, they said they would divert the home phone to her mobile free of charge till it was sorted.

I’m not sure it will ever be sorted… I suspect this part of a larger plot to get her to change her plan, put in wifi or fibre… who knows? I’ve never been a conspiracy nut, but I do wonder…

z

ring around the rosie. again.

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It’s been an ‘interesting’ couple of days. Well, a month+ actually. But I’m pleased to tell you it’s nowhere near sorted out yet.

See, back when I first arrived in Greece almost 6 years ago, I got my aunt #1 to sign a power of attorney for me to act as her representative for all things legal. She was already showing troubling signs of dementia and I needed it done before she lost it entirely.

Well, all went well for a little while. And then I found out that power of attorney here in Greece has a shelf life of TWO YEARS.

Yes. You read that right. Two years. Like she’s gonna get better in two years and take over her own affairs.

My aunt is now in the nursing home and, although she does have moments of clarity, she is far from being ‘of sound mind’. I was told that the only way to get to be her ‘guardian’ now would be to go through the court. Uhuh. Like I have the money to do that. Maybe not even the time… who knows… I know the courts are notoriously slow here.

Aunt #1 is now totally wheelchair bound, unable to support herself on her stick thin legs. She is so weak she can barely talk. But she’s clinging on to life and is eating and happy to see us when we visit though it’s horrible to see her like this.

When I decided that the best place for her was the nursing home (seeing as she needed round the clock care) I rented her apartment to pay for the nursing home. Back then it was easy. I had power of attorney to sign anything necessary. And back then we didn’t need a energy efficiency certificate for the house in order to rent it.

NOW however, we do need it and about 1.5 months ago I asked my engineer’s company to organise one for me. It’s part of what they do after all.

1 month, 4 texts, 1 conversation and 1 email later I finally received the certificate and checked it. The address was wrong and the photo of the property is wrong. Not only did the idiot who did it put the address down as the corner of x and xx streets (which is mom’s house, my aunt’s house faces only one street) but the google maps photo he included in the certificate was of the house OPPOSITE.

I replied, telling him where he was wrong, included a picture of the actual house and waited. And waited. And waited.

I still haven’t got a new one.

What I did get was an email asking me to get my aunt to sign an official declaration and have the signature authenticated in order to produce the certificate.

Funny. They didn’t ask for that first time around… another mistake? Or did some law change again? Hard to know in Greece.

So, I called the guy and said my aunt can’t possibly go sign the thing in front of a legal witness.

He suggested I speak to my/her accountant. Which I did. They say, yes, they can do it through the taxation department as they have all her log in details, but we need a telephone in her name.

Now, we took away my aunt’s phone even before she went into the nursing home casuse she would call people at all hours and tell them everyone had abandoned her even we’d just been with her for hours.

The accountant said, just go buy a phone in her name. So I went. And was told I need a declaration from her saying she was authorizing me to get a phone in her name.

Ring around the rosie indeed.

Why on earth do you have to get a new power of attorney as a carer/responsible person for someone every two years? Maybe everywhere. How would I know? It just seems stupid, dumb, foolish, irrelevant, ludicrous, senseless, brainless, dim, dopey, deficient, idiotic, imbecilic, meaningless, mindless, moronic, needless, nonsensical, obtuse, unnecessary, pointless, puerile, redundant, simpleminded, superfluous, useless, and a waste of everyone’s time.

As for needing her signature for everything, ok, I get that, but it just brings me back to “Why on earth do I need a new power of attorney????”

Who else would be responsible for her? My 93 yr old mother, her sister, or me, her niece. She has no children.

At least we don’t have to worry about her property after she dies. She has a will. But it would be fun times if she didn’t, thats for sure!!!

Holy cow.

It’s so much fun living in Greece.

z