01.01.2019 – Thoughts & Quotes

2019 started very leisurely for me. I feel like I’ve been kind of lazy, but according to my Garmin watch, I walked over 2700 steps. Between my bed, the couch, bathroom and kitchen. My flat isn’t that big ;-) I did a load of laundry, which took me into the basement of the building, but even so. Weird. But I’ll take it.

Today also brought the first reminder in 2019 that I’m starting to get old. Ok 43, isn’t really OLD – old. But to realize that the Nineties started 29 years ago and thus it’s much more apt to describe the span of time passed with “almost 30 years ago” than with “over 20 years ago” is one heck of a reality check.

My (digital) calender for 2019 finally got updated. I’ve been too lazy recently to transfer all the local council committee meetings from the council’s website into it.  An iCal or similar subscription for it would be nice. Hahahaha, maybe we’ll get that in 2099. I’ve also finally put dozens of half-sorted files (taxes, insurance, warranties etc.) into the appropriated folders. Those were files from up to 2018. I still have a stack of files from 2018 that need sorting and putting away. One step at a time.

Coffee. Cake. Chocolate? My regular amount of coffee (2 large cups). One “Kids Berliner” (sort of a doughnut, filled with custard). I managed to cut back on the chocolate until I remembered  I had a small chocolate Santa in my fridge. Santa didn’t survive the day.

Books & TV: I rewatched the Outlander episode 4.09 and I enjoyed it as much as the first time around. Throughout the day I’ve watched (so far *g*) five West Wing episodes (4.22 – 5.03), often while doing other things as well though. I read a bit in two of the three (actually four) books I’ve started reading recently. I’m not sure if three books at the same time really is such a good idea. I’m salso till not really invested in the big mystery in “Three Things About Elsie”, but I adore the writing: it’s profound and beautiful, so I’ll keep going. I’m halfway through and I just started underlining some of these wonderful, insightful observations. I might need to go back to the start once I’ve finished and do that all over.

Here are some of the words I enjoyed from what I’ve seen/heard/read these past two days. From Outlander 3.09.

“What do you want here, lassie?”

*deep sigh* And everything that followed of course. Sophie and Sam and Caitriona were so good in this. And it all in all was so close to the original source – the books – that my heart soared a little.

From The West Wing 4.20 “Evidence of Things Not Seen”.

C.J.: “There’s no website supporting this?”
Toby: “You’ve got to ask yourself, if no one on the internet wants a piece of this, just how far from the pack have you strayed?”

It’s kind of nice to know that wacko conspiracy theories were on the internet even back then. Anyway, this made me laugh.

From “Three Things About Elsie” (Joanna Cannon, 2018):

There were people missing from our conversation, and others were coloured in and underlined. Those who made life easier were found again, and those who caused problems were disappeared. It’s the greatest advantage of reminiscing. The past can be exactly how you wanted it to be the first time around.

There is so much wisdom in this story. About life and growing older and about our past and our memories and our relationships and all kinds of stuff.

Back to work tomorrow. Ugh! I don’t really feel very relaxed from the time off, even though I laid low and was lazy. But also suffering from the plague. Hopefully it’s going to be an easy going rest of the week, with many colleagues and agencies we work with still out on Christmas / New Year vacation. I already know that I’m glad that I stayed longer on my last day to put all the stuff on my desk in order. It makes for  a much more welcoming start into a new year. I also actually had planned to go to be at a reasonable hour, which has passed by at least 45 minutes by now.  

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