HODGEPODGE FEB 1

1. Tell us anything you want about your January. 

That's quickly done, on January 1, I didn't feel well and thought I will get the flu. But I had no running nose, no fever, nothing, just feeling bad. That lasted a week and then I called the doctor who prescribed me antibiotics and in a week I felt better, but I am still feeling weak.

 

Besides getting rid of my few  Christmas decorations, which took me two days, I didn't do anything special, my neighbors did the shopping for me, just fruits, the rest I had enough stock. January is a terrible month, there is nothing to do outside, the weather was awful but fortunately today it's over !

2.  Lake Superior State University posts a list each year of words they think should be banished from the Queen's English for misuse, overuse, and/or general uselessness. The 2023 list includes GOAT, inflection point, quiet quitting, gaslighting, moving forward, amazing, Does that make sense?, irregardless, absolutely, and it is what it is. Which of these words/phrases do you use regularly? Which of these words would you most like to see banished from everyday speech and why? Is there a word/phrase not on the list you'd like to add? 

Of course I won't use the word Goat every day, but if I am on the countryside what should I say then ? Sheep with horns ?  I still move forward and not backwards, in fact it doesn't happen very often that I am quietly quitting, especially when I am angry so it can also be loud. And it's amazing that amazing is on this list, I think they should rather banish the word banish and replace it by "taken out" ! I don't think when I speak and the words sputter out, maybe I should add  every day : OK I will check, I google !

3. February 2nd is Groundhog Day. What's something that feels repeated in your life right now? 

 We have no Groundhog day here and I first had to look up what it meant. I learned , that on February 2, when the groundhog is said to come out of its hole at the end of hibernation and sees that the weather is sunny, it goes back into its hole, because it thinks there will be six weeks more of winter. Maybe I was a Groundhog in my previous life because I too prefer my hole. 

What feels repeated ? all days, always the same, Routine days, and I hate it. I stay in my hole and wait for my energy to come back !

4. What's a food you love that's named after a place? 

                       The Berliner (from Berlin)                                 

5. What's the best season of the year to visit your city or your part of the country? Tell us why. 

That's a good question ! Especially since the climate change ! I live near Brussels and besides January you can come each month, and visit things with or without rain, when it's cold or warm, there are no rules. Sometimes May is nice, last year it rained every day, July and August is never guaranteed it can be cold or very hot ! Better google before going and ask for the weather ! 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

It has now been 8 months since Rick passed away. I thought that over time the sorrow would ease a bit, but the opposite is the case. Now that all the paperwork is behind me, I realize that I'm missing him in all corners and it happens that I hear or read something and want to tell him, open my mouth and close it immediately. And then it hurts again. 

I force myself to go to the cinema or the theater and to travel a bit, not for long just to be distracted. But I don't feel the same joy as before. I also became more anxious and more aggressive towards men, because lots of them think that I am a weak old woman, it's for sure that it takes me more strength to handle things I also did before, but then Rick was there to back me up.