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What are you doing right now? Part 2
Pink wrote: "Aw dely, I hope you continue to feel better. Giving up cheese was the hardest thing I found about becoming vegan. There are substitutes but they're not the same, so now I just do without. My daug..."
I haven't been keeping up -- dely, you had to give up cheese?! That would be extremely hard for me - my friends and family joke about the fact that I am a 'cheese-aholic'. That bacterium sounds like a b***r; I hope the new antibiotics can get rid of it for you!
dely, wishing you a speedy recovery. I hate antibiotics, I've had so many side effects from them the last time I had to take them, but I'm aware that in some cases you cannot avoid taking them. Fingers crossed for you.Leslie, I'm a "cheese-aholic", too. I tried reducing the amount of cheese and dairy products some years ago when I was on a diet, and it worked, but now I sort of went back to my "addiction", which I don't think is good for my health. I think I've already gained a kilo or two. But I'll start going to the gym again in September, so I hope to go back to my normal weight.
Pink wrote: "Aw dely, I hope you continue to feel better. Giving up cheese was the hardest thing I found about becoming vegan. There are substitutes but they're not the same, so now I just do without. My daug..."
I have tried those substitues once...never again. That kind of "cheese" was in some parts green and reading the ingredients it had so many chemical things inside to give it a taste and a shape :/ I prefer to stay without anything instead of eating such things.
Leslie, only for 4 weeks, to "clean" my body because I had that allergy after a goat cheese. Only 10 days to go, and then I try again some cheese (not of goat milk though).
Marina, I think I have lost some weight too in these weeks without cheese, though not a lot. Thankfully I never drank milk (I could never stand it, not even as a child) but I used it sometimes to cook, when my son lived here and I used to buy it for him who drank it. Since he left, I don't buy it anymore. But I love cheese.
dely wrote: "Thanks Pink! He is again in the Netherlands, I think that on the 3th September university already starts for him. He is fine though tired, and he still has to send money to my Indian friend that helped him. I don't want to think about it, otherwise I get angry again.."I hope he has a great year back in university!
Pink wrote: "Karin, yes some universitys still say read, but I think it depends on the course and place of study. It's more unusual to use that term nowadays. My son wants to be a P. E. teacher (physical educ..."
Yes, I think it takes an extra year to become a teacher here as well, but I could be wrong and mixing it up with when I was in university in Canada, and even that might have just been my university.
Anyway, physical education is a great field. I hope he has a great first year.
dely wrote: "I have to repeat the same exams only to know which antibiotic I have to take now. This little b*****d of a bacterium gets resistant to antibiotics too fast. I will repeat also blood exams, just to check if everything is ok. "I hope this gets sorted out soon so that you can start feeling better.
Leslie wrote: "I haven't been keeping up -- dely, you had to give up cheese?! That would be extremely hard for me - my friends and family joke about the fact that I am a 'cheese-aholic'. That bacterium sounds like a b***r; I hope the new antibiotics can get rid of it for you!.."I used to be a cheese-aholic as well, but can't eat it anymore--amazingly I no longer miss it or crave it. Actually, I shouldn't ever have been eating it, but didn't realize since the symptoms I had have only recently been connected, at times, to fatty dairy. I figured it out before. All dairy and also bakers yeast make me depressed in a way that never happens otherwise. I mean beyond a normal type of down everyone gets in certain situations.
Karin wrote: "Leslie wrote: "I haven't been keeping up -- dely, you had to give up cheese?! That would be extremely hard for me - my friends and family joke about the fact that I am a 'cheese-aholic'. That bacte..."You seem a very sensitive persone. In the past I've seen that eating too much cheese (only one kind of cheese, a Swiss cheese) caused me headache and tachycardia.
I envy those people that can eat everything without problems :/
I'm streaming BBC Prom 18 from BBC Radio 3 and having a cuppa.
dely wrote: "Karin wrote: "Leslie wrote: "I haven't been keeping up -- dely, you had to give up cheese?! That would be extremely hard for me - my friends and family joke about the fact that I am a 'cheese-aholi..."Yes, far too sensitive, that's for sure! It used to really bother me, but now I have adopted the motto of I eat to live rather than live to eat, etc--it's better than being upset by it all the time.
Kirsten, sounds like fun - the proms are amazing - it seems everyone can enjoy them.
I'm back! I only had time enough to post a shortish review in the past five days. I'm finally in the new apartment and enjoying it a lot, although we have sooo many things to do - I guess all of you who have ever moved into an unfurnished house can imagine it. We had people assemble just the kitchen and bedroom furniture for us, the rest we have to do by ourselves. We did the study first, then went on to various pieces of furniture for the balcony and the storage room - but we have to finish things up yet. Some pieces of furniture (Ikea) are very easy to assemble, some others are extremely complicated and my boyfriend has to basically do everything by himself. I can do some assembling myself but not when it's overly complicated, so I just assist him. It's very tiring and in the evening we're both exhausted. Today I'm back to work (in case any job requests are sent my way), but there's still a lot that needs to be done.
Marina (Sonnenbarke) wrote: "I'm back! I only had time enough to post a shortish review in the past five days. I'm finally in the new apartment and enjoying it a lot, although we have sooo many things to do - I guess all of yo..."I was thinking about you and your move! I wanted to contact you to know how it was going on, so I'm glad you posted an update.
Yes, moving is tiresome but also a great satisfaction when everything is done.
dely wrote: "Yes, moving is tiresome but also a great satisfaction when everything is done. "Yes, it is both! I'm very glad with our new apartment, even though we still have complete chaos around, we just managed to tidy up a little bit in order to be able to live in it without too much discomfort, lol! We still have a long way to go, but it can be done :D
Marina, lots of good luck wishes with your new apartment. It is a lot of work but fun at the same time b/c you can do exactly as YOU wish. There is always so much new to discover and do. TONS of luck sent your way.
Marina, best wishes to you and your boyfriend in your new home !
Marina (Sonnenbarke) wrote: "I'm back! I only had time enough to post a shortish review in the past five days. I'm finally in the new apartment and enjoying it a lot, although we have sooo many things to do - I guess all of yo..."I'm happy for you and hope you get things sorted out soon :)
I was writing. I took a break to get something to eat and look at my goodreads email.
Yesterday I went for a day trip to Nice (France). My son arrived at that airport and seen that for us Nice is even nearer than Milan, I decided to reach him there. He arrived early in the morning and I took an early morning train too so we had the whole day to sightseeing before taking a train to come back home in the evening (he will stay here a few days).I add you some pics. We couldn't see everything because Nice is also full of museums, but we hadn't time to visit them. So we just walked in the old town and spent a lot of time in a kind of huge garden/park of a castle (that doesn't exist anymore).
This is the basilica of Notre-Dame:
This is one of the most important Orthodox cathedrals outside Russia:
It was amazing also inside, but it wasn't allowed to take pics. We arrived, without knowing anything, 5 minutes before the mass started. Of course we stayed there and took part. At least I tried to take part, because everything was in Russian, but I tried to do what the French Ortodox did. Also the mass was amazing, so totally different from ours.
This is a synagogue (there is also another one, but it was more far away and we hadn't time to arrive also there):
Sadly it was closed so we couldn't enter. We were both curious to see how it looks like inside, because we have never gone to a synagogue (well, there aren't a lot here).
These are some pics taken in that park of the castle:
And this is Nice from the top of this hill with the castle:
Looks like you had a great time with your son. I am so very happy for you.You see why I love France!
Chrissie wrote: "Looks like you had a great time with your son. I am so very happy for you.You see why I love France!"
Yes, we had a nice day but also very tiresome.
Nice is nice but it has nothing special. I thought it would be much better. Before going on the hill of the castle, there was written that from there you have one of the best views ever. Well, I think they have never been in Cinque Terre. There you really have an amazing view, also the small towns are amazing. What I've seen from the top of the hill, that gulf, is nearly the same here where I live. The only difference is that my city is smaller, and our beach is far way better, with sand, not stones like in Nice.
I will surely go back to Nice someday because I want to visit the museums and I want to go till Cannes to visit also that city. And of course I hope someday to go to Paris and a couple of other places!
What I don't like about France, is that everything is much more expensive respect to Italy! And I also don't like the food because I'm vegetarian and they add meat and fish everywhere. They use a lot also boiled eggs, and I don't eat them. It's really difficult for me to find something to eat there because they add meat, fish or boiled eggs everywhere :/
Have you ever been to Italy? Just curious.
dely wrote: "Yesterday I went for a day trip to Nice (France). My son arrived at that airport and seen that for us Nice is even nearer than Milan, I decided to reach him there. He arrived early in the morning a..."I love the photos! It's great you get to spend some time with your son.
Thanks for sharing your pics with us, dely. Looks like you had a great day.
Lovely picture taking, Dely. Time with your son is priceless.
dely, thanks so much for sharing the beautiful photos !
dely - wonderful photos!I haven't been doing much recently except reading and cooking. Oh, and watching some Netfix, which I am doing right now - the Shannara TV show.
dely wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "Looks like you had a great time with your son. I am so very happy for you.You see why I love France!"
Yes, we had a nice day but also very tiresome.
Nice is nice but it has not..."
Nice itself is NOT pretty, but your pictures were. The Côte d'Azur is way too touristy. If you go inland a teeny bit you get to an area with steep cliff and you think you are in the mountains but you are not., And lavender fields. Roussillon is gorgeous--the soil has a red tinge. The white houses and green and blue shutters and shapely pine trees are something I will never forget. It is in Provence, which is much nicer than at the coast. Before we chose Brittany, which I personally like best, at least in the less touristic parts, we carefully studied which parts of France we liked best. In all of the places one sees how the French care for their land and have pride in it and this shows in how they take care of it.
I have been in Italy too. Milan is great. Rome too, but I have not been further south than that. I love the lake area up north. I think it was Cozmo we were at. Yet--there are large cultural differences between the French and the Italians. You have to agree with that. This is less prominent up in the northern sections. What was so nice about living in Belgium was that it was easy to visit many European countries.--all were so close!
It is also fascinating to me to see the large variation between the different parts of France, the same being true of Italy.
Wonderful pics, dely! I've never been to Nice, nor to Cinque Terre, sadly. But I really want to visit Cinque Terre in my lifetime, it must be one of the most beautiful spots in Italy. Of course then we would have a chance to meet in person since you live quite close by if I remember well, and that would be wonderful. Who knows, maybe we can organise a short trip for next spring or summer!It's great you got to spend some time with your son. Is he with you now, before going back to Holland?
As for myself, I haven't been doing much other than unpacking, cleaning, and working. Not exciting - duh. But I can't complain! And I don't :) Luckily we found some time to go out with a couple of friends in the evening, which was nice, because she's one of my best friends and he works in Northern Italy and only manages to come home for a week each month.
Thanks everyone! My son will go away again on Wednesday so I can enjoy him only today and tomorrow.Chrissie, I thought about why I didn't find anything extraordinary in Nice and the answer is very easy: I live on the Ligurian Riviera so I'm used to such views. It is a wonderful area, but I got so used to it, that I often forget to live in such a wonderful region. I thought going to Nice I would see something totally different. But I have to say that I liked much more Monte-Carlo, above all the old part with the residence of the prince.
I checked out Roussillon and it is really nice. I went often to France (usually on the riviera) and I have seen nice places (sadly I don't remember the name of a very cute small town but I think it was around Nimes).
Marina, to arrive to the first town of Cinque Terre (Riomaggiore) for me it's 3 hours with the train. I can come, but then I should go away again in the afternoon to come back home. Or you could to a romantic trip in Liguria, starting from Cinque Terre, Portofino, Genoa, arrive till here and then continue to Alassio, Albenga, Bordighera, Sanremo, etc. and then continue to France. I know, for this you need time and money. Here it's full of wonderful places so it also isn't easy to choose which one to visit. Check also out Seborga, Zuccarello, Dolceacqua, Triora (these aren't on the sea) and there are a lot more.
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I've been on holidays these last three weeks, and now I'm back at work with a lot of things behind to finish.
And Marta is not well again ... so not a lot of time to be here.
Hope I'll manage to be a bit more present sooner .... I miss you so much!
Nice to have you back, Laura. Fingers for Marta. Maybe you want to tell us about your holidays?!
dely, suck up the days while your son is still with you.
Mod
And also Marta's plates have been kind: they've started going down again as soon as we got back from Sardinia: before they were all right!
So we didn't worry when far away!!!
Laura, fingers crossed for your daughter. I really hope doctors will be able to look into this so that there aren't always these up and downs.
Laura, thinking of you and your daughter and hoping things get better !
Missed you, Laura, and happy to see you are back. Hoping that things look up for Marta.
dely wrote: "Thanks everyone! My son will go away again on Wednesday so I can enjoy him only today and tomorrow.Chrissie, I thought about why I didn't find anything extraordinary in Nice and the answer is ver..."
I understand this feeling. I grew up on the west coast of Canada and so have a harder time being impressed by mountains and fjords than many, but I do love fjords--in British Columbia we call them inlets, but most people are more familiar with the other word for them, fjords. That said, I do find them lovely.
But I would find some of those things in the photos very wonderful because in BC there is nothing very old relative to Europe (or even Quebec City or Massachusetts, etc).
Dely, I haven’t been to Italy, but someday I’d like to see Stressa and maybe take a rowboat onto Lake Maggiore. It’s been in my mind ever since I read A Farewell to Arms 40 years ago.
Karin wrote: "dely wrote: "Thanks everyone! My son will go away again on Wednesday so I can enjoy him only today and tomorrow.Chrissie, I thought about why I didn't find anything extraordinary in Nice and the ..."
Yes, it is exactly how you explained it!
Joan wrote: "Dely, I haven’t been to Italy, but someday I’d like to see Stressa and maybe take a rowboat onto Lake Maggiore. It’s been in my mind ever since I read A Farewell to Arms 40 years ago."Stresa is wonderful. I went there every year during summer with a friend of mine and our kids. My friend has a house in the inland of Stresa, in a wood, and the kids had a lot of fun there or on the lake.
If you go, you have absolutely to visit the islands on the lake and do go also to the Lake Orta. It isn't far away from Stresa and it is wonderful too (maybe also a little bit better than Stresa).
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And glad you had your son with you dely!
Dely, thanks for the travel tips! I will definitely let you know should I manage to go to Liguria :)Laura, I'm so sorry your daughter is unwell again. I hope things will improve soon.
dely wrote: "Yesterday I went for a day trip to Nice (France). My son arrived at that airport and seen that for us Nice is even nearer than Milan, I decided to reach him there. He arrived early in the morning a..."I never realised Nice was so cultural. I have only been on the beach when we were passing through on our way to Italy.
The synagogue was probably closed for security reasons but if you want to see a really beautiful synagogue visit Rome. They have a small museum and tours and the restaurants in the nearby Ghetto area are wonderful.
dely wrote: "Joan wrote: "Dely, I haven’t been to Italy, but someday I’d like to see Stressa and maybe take a rowboat onto Lake Maggiore. It’s been in my mind ever since I read A Farewell to Arms 40 years ago."..."Before I was born my mother lived in a village on Maggiore and she took me a lot when I was little. I have happy memories of Stresa and Angera.
I was surprised when I took my children a few years ago that afterwards I actually felt a bit 'homesick'.
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My daughter is ok thanks. Still working, though looking for a new job. As her friends have all graduated Uni this summer she's thinking about moving out again, to share with them, but I think she'll stay home for a while longer yet.