Hi ! Welcome back. Fun fact: Last week I told you that Europe and South Africa had similar noon temperatures, and this week we had massive snow in parts of the country. 😂 . This week I am thinking and writing about passports, cold weather, lack of coffee and downtime- Eve D.❣️

Week in review…

This week it will probably be easier to tell you what I didn’t do, rather than what I did do, simply because I truly did not do much. Simple reason: it has been really, really cold here and I do not function well in such weather. It exacerbates my Waldenstrom, makes me really tired, and all my focus is on staying as warm as I can - which I consider a form of survival, literally. I have ways to stay comfortable, so it’s not a train smash, but it does mean that my activities (and brainpower) are limited during these sporadic cold spells. I have learnt to just give in and take it easy for the few days it takes for the cold to pass, there is really no benefit to fighting it. Normal programming resumes pretty quickly. (On a plus note: my body deals with the cold so much better than it used to. I am much healthier today than I was three years ago which is a massive win for me, because usually things are meant to go the other way). All this to say: This is hence a short newsletter, but I’ll go back to my usual verbose-blah-blah-Eve next week. 😃 

🥾 I did not walk or exercise, at all. I literally did not make it into the gym once, and didn’t make it onto a trail either. To be fair, my gym had no power for three days, so wasn’t accessible, but (for full transparency) I did have the option of going to any other branch, and I didn’t. Laura is out of town, and so my incentive to show up at the trail is also gone. G wants to go hiking on Monday, and that might happen, but we’ll see what the weather is like and how strong I feel.

☕️ I did not drink any coffee (at home). I ran out of coffee on Sunday, and intentionally did not buy more until Friday. I still went out for coffee, but I managed to cut down my coffee intake by about two thirds, which is a massive win. I don’t think coffee is bad for me, but I also don’t think it’s particularly good, and since I drink a lot of hot liquids in winter, it’s probably safer to focus on peppermint tea instead. (Somewhat related: I am taking a bottle of Gluhwhein over to G’s tonight 😁 🍷 )

🛂 I did go and try to pick up my passports. If I wanted to really bore you I’d tell you the whole nightmare story of my South African passport application process, which started in 2019 and is still not done. Suffice to say: for various reasons, going to pick up the passport is a full day affair, and I have attempted it four times since 2019, and each time the office is offline and cannot help me. By now I of course expected the passport to have been destroyed, but I still needed to have it removed from the system so I could apply for a new one (the new application process is now much smoother, and can be done quickly. Plus I have my Polish passport in the meantime). So I went on Friday as my last attempt to do this, the office was online (yay!), and indeed they could not find my passport. I did not care, and asked them to remove it from the system which they apparently did do. I considered this a major victory! Hooray! On the way home, I whatsapped all my friends the story of my success (they have been following the drama since 2019). Happy days! But! When I was already back home, I got a call from a very excited woman from the passport office telling me “great news!”. They found my passport! And have put it back on the system. I just need to go back and pick it up. FFS. 😡 

🥗 I had dinner with my ex, Craig (Zac’s father), who’s out here from the UK. It was the social highlight of my week 🤣. He also came with me to pick up my (and Zac’s) passport, as per above. It was good to catch up, and discuss Zac in person. It’s weird to have this person in my life, to be honest. We know each other so well, we have a long history and a strong mutual understanding of who we are, and what we want from life, and share so many inside jokes and memories. We can have long conversations, and enjoy each others company, and in a lot of ways it’s like old times. Except it’s nothing like old times, and I am so happy and grateful to be able to go back to my life as it is now. Funny how life works out.

💋 Case in point: Last night over dinner my kids both said, independently, that they can see how happy G makes me. Micole said “I can always tell when you’re on the phone with G, because you laugh the whole time. Sometimes you laugh before you say a single sentence to him”. This is a #truestory! And Zac said “If I need something from you, I always ask you after you speak to G because you’re always in five times better mood afterwards”. Not sure if that’s a #truestory, but I’ll take it. And last weekend, G himself pointed out (accurately) that he and I “laugh so much”. (I should point out here that G is very funny). You see, life works out. We just need to have faith, and go with the flow.

I really, really want this:

I’ve been watching…

This week we watched Drinking Buddies. If ever there was an apt title for a movie, this is it. We chose it as a companion to Sideways, which we watched two weeks ago (about two guys going on a bachelor-type weekend to wineland country, before one of them headed off to get married). Drinking Buddies is about two friends, Kate and Luke, who work at a brewery and try to navigate their complex romantic life with their respective partners, while also having some sort of mutual but unacknowledged attraction for each other. Also, they drink the whole time, and are clearly (semi) functional alcoholics. The movie isn’t about anything much, other than that, but it’s a quick watch, and good for discussion afterwards. Plus, the cast said they really did drink the whole time and were “hammered” throughout the whole production. And the script was mostly adlibbed, which makes the movie seem very real-life like.

The cast is also good: Olivia Wilde (gorgeous!), Jake Johnson (Nick from New Girl), Anna Kendrick and even cameos from Jason Sudeikis (Ted Lasso).

Looking ahead…

We have a long weekend here, starting today. I love long weekends, and this one will be especially fun because both my kids are busy (Micole has a board exam coming up so she’s studying like mad, and Zac is with his dad), so I am spending the weekend with G, his fireplace, his massive couch, his dogs, the Gluhwein and a whole lot of books. Bliss.

Next week I look forward to: completing the passport saga, going on a hike, doing some Pilates, catching up on a lot of work, and finishing watching Murders in the Building. I hope you have a brilliant weekend, and week.

Thanks for reading!

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