is this week 50 already…? it feels like the year is closing in on us, wrapping itself up. it’s been a week of getting ready to leave, bit by bit: doing maintenance, filling up suitcases, finishing the stuff that is in the fridge…

it’s also been a week with a lot of sauna, because it seems to be the only thing that warms me up these days. i always get extremely grumpy this time of the year — the stupid cold indoors and the christmas stress slowly taking a toll. but there have been good things too, like all the books for little cousins, which i get to read before gifting.

i read this stephen king’s re-writing of hansel and greta and it’s brutal! but also nice — like he didn’t want to sugarcoat things. and maurice sendak’s illustrations are lovely too. i’ve also been re-reading the grandmaster of demonic cultivation books, which i first read years ago in some bootleg translated version. and we watched hank’s stand up comedy gig, pissing out cancer!

this was a week with 2 noodle dishes, which seems like the ideal winter food. one was just a fancied up indomie instant noodles thing, the other was the so good soba, from smitten kitchen (both really nice).

next week: family time!

the traditional pre-christmas anxiety is ramping up, with all the gifts brainstorming and buying, and also tons of christmas postcards to write. i hate how rushed the season feels, with its constant background worry… but despite this, i always fail to prepare for it in advance, so it all ends up just piling in these weeks and taking its toll. i know there is a way to improve on this, which is just to start preparing earlier… and yet, half of me feels like we’d just stretch the worrying over a longer period of time. anyway, i think we’ve made good progress on the preparations. we’re almost done with what we can do from here, and the rest will have to be done from the north.

in the meantime, what else have we been doing? the town is decked in its christmas lights, and we’ve been there a few times to stock on stamps or watch movies. this week we watched the secret agent with friends and it was great, though difficult in parts. it feels like this year has been a year where brazil’s reckons with its military dictatorship years and tells those stories.

we’ve been to the gym sporadically, but my tendonitis is still lingering, made worse by all the postcard writing, and so there hasn’t been much improvement there. the sauna does help morale though!

i also haven’t been reading proper books much, seeking solace in comforting fanfiction instead. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ oh well. i’ve been watching a lot of “bon appetit, your majesty” on netflix though, and mostly enjoying it. we even bought some gochujang! :D

and paulo ran the s. silvestre in vila real and improved his time from last year! woohoo!

one thing that made me happy this week was this little tired duck that was a bit of an impulse purchase among all the christmas gifts. the silicone body is super soft and you pat it gently to change the brightness of the lights. it’s been keeping me company and it’s just so cute!

finally, a full week at home to reset… and do all the laundry! we had a family staying here while we were away, which always means extra sheets and towels to wash. but luckily we got it all done before the storm and the rain came. the last few days have brought winds and lots of rain, but it felt refreshing. it’s not yet proper cold as we’re still reaching 20C daily, but it feels fresh enough that i’ve already put down the electric blanket on my side of the bed!

other than that, nothing much has happened… just work, and the satisfyingly mundane tasks of taking care of a home. i did backups, tidied up, cooked batches of soup (including this very satisfying dal) and replanted the stuff that the snails and caterpillars ate in our absence.

we saw the french movie à bicyclette in the cine-theater and it was both heavy and hilarious at the same time.

i finished a few books this week! i finished listening to how to be perfect, which made me think about the choices we make in daily life, our decision processes and the values we adhere to. it wasn’t a stuffy book though — instead, all the philosophical bits were interspersed with quirky footnotes, narrated by the actors of the good place and some soundbites from the series too.

i also squeezed in a few short reads to change it up and managed to check out julián is a mermaid (so beautiful!) and the serviceberry, which is so short that i listened to it while cleaning the house and finished it in one go.

my shoulder is still acting up so i’ve been avoiding strenuous stuff, but i did go on a short run with the boy to stretch the legs, preserve my 27-week exercising streak on strava (!) and check out the beautiful cardoons.

the last couple of days, our next door neighbors have had an alarm (smoke detector?) ringing very stridently in their house, and the sound permeates into our house like tinnitus. they don’t live here most of the year, so it took them a bit to find someone to come switch it off after we called them, but they’ve finally done it as i write these words. aaaaaaah, the bliss of quietness! :D