Life is too short to drink bad wine.

Meme, stolen from [personal profile] gothwalk!

Go-to hot drink? Proper tea (that means black tea with milk), though I love a good coffee alas it does not love me back.

What book gets you into the cosy spirit? Favourite old fantasy series like Ann McCaffrey's Drangonsinger trilogy.

Favourite costume as a child? The only one I can remember wearing as a child was a cowgirl costume complete with a pistol that made a noise but that was Fasching, Halloween wasn't a thing in Germany and once we moved to Ireland my parents were running a hotel and didn't have time for costumes.

What woodland animal do you connect to on an emotional level? Bears, I think it's the whole hibernation thing and the bit of gluttony they tend to be notorious for. Big fuzzy and liking honey off my paw, that's me.

Film that gets you in the spooky spirit? I don't watch horror movies, just can't. If pushed maybe...nah, can't think of anything really, I hate scary films.

Favourite tasty treat to bake? That's difficult, I love to bake, perhaps my got to brownie recipe, it's pretty foolproof and gluten-free so I can feed it to most.

Do you fantasise about falling in love with a hot vampire or sickly ghost? I just can't get over the clammy, cold, no body temperature thing with vampires and ghosts are really a bit too emo. Give me a hot blooded werewolf and I might be tempted ;-)

The scent you want filling your room? a really good frankincense blend with myrrh and sandalwood, or the smell of baking pretty much anything.

Pick a date- gingerbread biscuit decorating, pumpkin patch, hunting through a book shop, popcorn and spooky films? Apple picking, then warm cider and afterwards off to a nice dinner in an appropriately decorated restaurant.

If you were a coffee syrup or spice which would you be? Hazelnut, though I get syrup very rarely.

Any ghostly encounters? We were supposed to have a ghost in a house I lived in as a child, a man who hung himself in the rafters, but it was an old old house with lots of squeaks and not definite sightings.

Favourite time of day during the cinnamon season? Evening, light me some candles, brew me some hot cocoa and hand me a good book.

Today my computer had to be manually updated with the newest version of Windows 10, it's been failing to do it automatically for over a week now so I was on the phone with ITS, one maybe two hours and then I can use my computer again. Four hours later it was finally done. It's moments like these that I realize how slow our connection is out here. I wonder if the Government is having any thoughts at all about speeding up the Broadband rollout, probably not, not even when a huge part of the workforce is operating from home, not even when the schools should be teaching remotely for the most part. It's when you realize that we had the chance when the Celtic tiger was roaring to get ahead but instead we lined the pockets of developers and built some big highways. So much time wasted, we could have been on par with Scandinavia but sure it's grand.

I had a slow start this morning, I think I'm going to try to get to be a bit earlier today, 10:30 lights out will hopefully do it. I've been working my way through various sleep meditations on InsightTimer and some are really excellent but few are exactly what I want. There's way too much you feel sleepy, very sleepy, you deserve to be sleepy, your definitely sleepy. On the other hand, I want something more exciting than the average body scan with relaxation. I don't want to do too many chakra meditations for fear of conditioning myself into falling asleep whenever I do one. I guess I'm just picky. Toaster kept me company for a lot of the night lying right next to my feet, after I went to the bathroom she decided to perch on my shoulder and proceeded to slowly slide off as she fell asleep.

Were' trying a new dish, a beetroot, salad with feta and those bitter salad leaves the name of which currently escape me. I've also recently found a split lentil dhal recipe I'm dying to try, it's simple but I think will be very yummy. Maybe I'll try making roti again to go with it.

My nervous eye twitch is still bothering me, it's been well over a year now and it's getting worse rather than better. All I can see online is sleep more, reduce stress, and drink less caffeine. Which I've done a lot of but apparently not enough.

Need to motivate on making more mustard for yule presents soon, need to add that to my Google tasks.I need to start inventorying my stores to prep for holiday baking, this weekend perhaps.

It's been another hectic week, our immersion water heating is back online thankfully so showers are a thing again, we are still waiting for the underfloor heating guy to grace us with his presence. I swear there must be a ridiculous shortage of qualified tradesmen in Ireland because getting a good one to actually turn up is like pulling wisdom teeth. So the heat pump is working but the underfloor heating isn't yet so it's been a bit chilly in the mornings. We've already had our first killing frost and more which feels early to me, traditionally that's Samhain and we're a month out from that.

I'm doing well with my therapist we have the last of our allotted six sessions coming up but I think I've gotten a lot of insights from her and next year I can go back for another six sessions. I've learned that I worry more than I need to, my brain comes up with worst-case scenarios in multicoloured detail usually around 2 pm, I need to figure out how to efficiently work myself out of those moments of panic. I've learned that I'm a better Mother than I think and that my daughter will be just fine even after she leaves the house, I've still got to internalize that, but baby steps. I've started to work on my procrastination issues and figured out why I procrastinate which is a lot more complex than I thought it was. It's been a very helpful process at exactly the right moment in time.

We finally got back in the garden last weekend, there's so much to be done after a truly shitty rainy summer. We did get our garlic order and we'll be planting those this coming weekend. I also need to weed the field crop bed and lay those stones in preparation for getting compost to fill the gap. Hopefully, this weekend won't be too bad though it's been not great during the week.

I got my new smartwatch early, apple under promised and over delivered which is the way to go. The Apple Watch SE is a great option for people that don't have €500 to spend on a watch, it's still expensive but not quite that. It's a lovely interface and a beautiful product, I'm very much enjoying using it. The only drawback is that eternal battery issue, I just need to remember to charge it when I'm lounging about at night. On another sort of technical note, I was a Duffus and pulled the pop socket out of my Otterpop and it's proving problematic getting it back in, I need a minimum of three hands and tools I don't have.

I guess that's it for now.

I'm steaming, after checking with HR and going directly to Bus Eireann apparently the NTA decided that for people like me who's ticket expired at the end of June that aren't able to avail themselves of their free six month extension they will only refund one month. Because, get this, initially the annual ticket is discounted by two months so they don't feel they need to pay the last two months of the contract. I'm not sure why it's the last two months that are the ones that they are picking as the ones discounted because I pay €204 per month pre payroll taxes for the privilege of riding on overcrowded, always late, always frigid or boiling buses. That's a total of almost €2.5k per annum for my commute.

I've emailed the NTA and asked for the contact details of their Department Head because in order to send the complaint to the actual Complaint Department of the NTA we need to jump through the hoops, in writing by snail mail. I will push this all the way to our wonderful Green Party Minister for Transport TD Eamon Ryan. I don't expect to get any money out of it but they got a lot of publicity for this refund which depending on when you bought your ticket isn't quite a refund.

Her name is Toaster, no really, Toaster. Kate and one of her friends found Toaster and two siblings in a box in the car park where the friend's Mother works. They spent and age coaxing the tiny feral kittens into the car and they've been staying at the friend's house as my husband who has now left is quite allergic. Now he's gone, Toaster got to come home. We went on a big shopping trip getting all the necessaries and headed out with a cat carrier to retrieve the new family member who promptly bolted into the garden under the pressure of all the teenagers trying to catch her. I got to sit down for a nice chat with our neighbours (they live about 10-15min walk away from us). After a couple of hours, the kitten was secured and we headed home.

She's a tiny little black panther with a small tuft of white on her chest, she's quite delicately built and pretty chill. She went directly upstairs into Kate's bedroom just so we didn't stress her out. She peed on the girl's bed but was trained to use a litter box so I think it was just a bit of marking her territory (fingers crossed). Kate had already stripped the bed and I used some of the lavender pillow spray to cover any additional scent left behind.

Today she explored all around the downstairs heading up the staircase and down again on her own, no bother. She acquired quite the collection of dust bunnies, I wish I had gotten a clearer picture of that because it looked adorbs.

Now I'm downstairs on the computer and she's hanging out on the bath mat in the upstairs bathroom which she's apparently taken a liking to. I'm trying to figure out how old she is, definitely more than three months, my money would be on 4 months, I'll take her to the vet when I get paid next week to have her looked over, they'll probably be able to tell.

Lantern - how did you meet your best friend? What were your first impressions of each other?
I have a few best friends not all of whom have I stayed in connection with. If we are talking childhood best friend it's probably Una who I lost touch with when we moved away from the village. I can't remember what my first impression was it was a very long time ago.

Frost - if you could give some advice to your younger self, what would you say?
For gods' sake get some therapy, learn to communicate. Don't go for the Maths programme, find a good career counsellor and figure out what will give you joy instead of what will fulfil other peoples expectations.

Maple - is there a hobby / skill that you’ve always wanted to try but never did?
So many, I want to make stained glass, carve wood, make jewellery, all the shiny's.

Harvest - what fictional character do you most identify with? Why?
That's really hard, I tend to get into characters I wish I was like, I'm pretty ordinary and most fictional characters are a bit more exciting than I am. I adore Minerva McGonagall, Menolly of Pern, and Alexia Tarabotti.

Fireside - if you had your dream wardrobe, what would it look like?
Flowing boho natural fibres in beautiful vibrant colours. Lots of palazzo pants and ankle-length skirts. I wanna be an upmarket hippie. And then occasionally I want a sharply tailored suit or coat.

Cider - a food that you disliked as a child but now enjoy?
Eggplant, I found it a weird texture as a child, love it now. I think a lot of my dislikes that revolved around the texture of food had gone away. I still dislike fennel.

Amber - share an unpopular opinion that you may have.
I believe in moderate politics, I don't think that the answer lies in the entrenched reaches of the left or right. Moderation is the path of compromise which is the only way we get out of this mess, together.

Fog - how well do you think you’d do in a zombie apocalypse scenario?
I'd do ok with an appropriate group of friends, I have a lot of skills to bring to the table but I'm not physically fit.

Jack-o-lantern - if you could look like any celebrity, who would you choose?
Karen Gillian is stunning, love me a redhead.

Spice - have you ever encountered a house that you believed to be haunted?
I used to live in a very old landlord's house and the story was that the son of the owner hung himself in the rafters, I can't remember why, I should ask Ursula. He was supposed to still be around but I only heard the usual creaks of a house that's more than a hundred years old.

Orchard - share one thing that you’d like to happen this autumn.
A vaccine would be nice if somewhat unrealistic. On a personal level, I would love for us to figure out what's wrong with our underfloor heating system and have it work flawlessly with the Air/Water exchange thingie that is supposed to heat our house.

Crow - which school subject do you wish you had an aptitude for?
Languages in general, French in particular.

Bonfire - describe your dream house.
Well, that's a whole post on its own. I would love either a standard historic saltbox house with a walled garden or a house based on a roman villa with the rooms arranged around a courtyard garden. I could go on about details forever and could show you plans if you wanted.

Cinnamon - if you had to live in a time period different than the present, which would you choose and where?
That's a hard question for a woman, since we didn't do so well historically in a lot of places also detistry is sort of a deal-breaker. I think I would perhaps go back and be a young adult in the sixties, there was so much hope around.

Cobweb - (if you’ve graduated) do you miss high school?
Hell no, are you smoking something?

Cranberry - what’s one physical feature that you get complimented on?
My complexion and my hair.

Maize - share the weirdest encounter you’ve had with a stranger on the street.
To be honest, I can't think of one, I guess I don't get out that much also my memory for that kind of thing is crap.

Quilt - how do you take your tea (or coffee)?
Both with some milk, unless it's a melange or the tea is particularly fine then I take that straight. No black coffee for me.

Pumpkin - do you think that humans are inherently good or bad?
Humans are survivors, we can rise above that to achieve amazing things and we can sink to appalling depths but overall we're survivors whose main focus is our family and close friend group.


Moonlit - are you a neat or messy person? Is your room/house orderly?
Sort of both, I'm messy till I'm not and have to tidy everything up, I'm happiest with order surrounding me.

Cocoa - if you could have any type of hair, what colour and cut would you have?
My own hair only auburn, currently the choice or style is long but that can change without prior notice.

Ghost - is there someone that you miss having in your life?
His name is Keith, we were supposed to sit on a porch together as octogenarians complaining about the youth of today. He was an extraordinary human being and the first of my contemporaries to pass away.

I'm officially in a nesting phase, the library has been sorted by topic when it comes to non-fiction and alphabetically by author for fiction. We ended up moving furniture in the living room as well which all of a sudden made those bookshelves more accessible so I moved all the fiction from out there back into the library and our gardening/building/history/livestock books went out where people can more easily get at them. I now have an office space that's away from the main flow of people in our open plan living/dining room/kitchen which is nice. No more fuzzy early morning teenagers shuffling into the kitchen to make tea while I'm on a zoom meeting.

Our living room curtains didn't survive the spring cleaning my Mother is doing right now, shrinking by about five inches. So off we went and purchased fabric, that according to my Mother is very feminine, I wonder why :-). She's currently sewing like a demon because she really really wants them up by tomorrow at the latest. We went to the fabric outlet in Newbridge and got the curtain fabric for €5 with the white cotton lining being a tiny bit more expensive at €5.50 per meter. Buying fabric is sooooo much cheaper than buying curtains even cheap unlined polyester ones from B&Q and you get exactly what you want.

We're also currently working on the teenager's bedroom which needs to be in shape before her kitten can come home. I don't understand how one person can make such a mess in so little time. Anyone with advice on how to housetrain a foundling kitten please chime in.

I'm stressed to the eyeballs but there's light at the end of the tunnel and there's an end in sight. Lots of cheesy metaphors for a day that needs more alcohol.

I'm not sure what happened today but it seems like a blinked and missed it. Working from home has been a huge blessing for me, my stress levels are down, my blood pressure is down, the only thing up is my weight and that's not too bad, I really need to start walking or something. The funny thing is that I'm most definitely more productive and more available working from home than from the office. It's sad because my employer is already making noises about people coming back in the office while still maintaining that everyone who can, should work from home. There's no recognition that we need to find a new better normal rather than trying to rush back to the old normal, which let's face it was more than a little dysfunctional. Less pollution through the endless commutes, less use of resources including office space, happier employees, healthier employees. Unfortunately, my workplace is known for its glacial change we haven't really made it out of the end of the 20th Century let alone entered the 21st. This coming year will be harsh and so will the next, there are going to be further rounds of Covid19 even in the places that do everything right, until a true vaccine is found and then it will take time for it to bring up the herd immunity. Never has a better demonstration, of what the lack of a vaccine can do, been enacted on a complacent world. Anti-vaxers are among the great dangers of our age along with racism, religious fanaticism, and pollution. How's that for four horsemen? I'd also accept capitalism as a fifth.