Daily Slow Chat

5 comments

1. Still happy about yesterday’s tour to Bremen I mentioned in the chat. It was good to be a day outside for once. Coming week will be hefty, so it felt great to gain some urgently needed happiness and energy.

   Today is the first day in a while with temperatures above freezing point. I thought I’d do a small tour with the e-scooter today, but unfortunately I decided to do a little weightlifting before. Nothing extraordinary, even less than usually, but standing up after one exercise gave me the feeling as if I teared my back in two, so I don’t think I’ll annoy my body even further today.

2. Yesterday was spa day! We went to a really nice spa/thermal bath where they had two big hot pools outdoors. I find indoor hot pools extremely stifling, but outdoor ones are so nice. You can be immersed in hot, salty water and still breathe cool, fresh air. The top of my head got very cold 😀 Afterwards we went to the saunas, which were also super nice. It is lovely to cool down in the air after sweating. I tried to dip in the “Kneippbad” (basically cold water pool) after one sauna session, but it was like two degrees probably. There were more people who were trying to gather courage to dip, and we had lots of laughs (which is kind of even more funny because everyone’s nude). Then a guy came and nonchalantly jumped into the water without so much as a squeak. Very brave.

   Yesterday being my spa day, I decided that since I had a bit of time, it will be the pencil spa day today. A lot of people ask me how I find time and energy to be creative with such a demanding job. I think the most important aspect is being organized. If, in the evening, I want to draw something and I need to pull five boxes out of three drawers, look for this and that, sharpen pencils, it basically doesn’t happen. So, when I have time, I make sure that all pencils are sharpened, everything is nicely organized in cupboards and boxes, and accessible when I want to use them. This way, I don’t get discouraged by a cluttered desk or extra preparation needed, and can just get going.

   [Here](https://i.imgur.com/PLQpm1i.jpg) is a nice view from yesterday. Ideal sunny winter day.

3. I had a lot of fun yesterday at the state pinball championship! At the end of the first round we were knotted up at 3-3 so I got to choose the tiebreaking game, funny enough I chose Grand Prix, but a different game from the 70s than the one I shared a pic of yesterday. I ended up falling short by about 30-40K (the value of approximately one or two good spinner shots), which stung a little as I had also previously suffered a close loss on another older game, but all-in-all I had a great time and it was an honor to take it to Game 7 against a former state champion! Unrelated to that, I brought home [a souvenir](https://imgur.com/a/V8xLT1K) from the chain restaurant where I had breakfast that morning.

   Today I’ll be celebrating my birthday by going to see the Found Footage Festival, a show where clips of bizarre VHS finds are interspersed with introductions and skits, and dinner at a beloved local restaurant specializing in vegan food.

4. So our hockey team (Vancouver Canucks) won again….and the 27cm snow dump two days ago has almost melted cause rain…..always rain in this part of the world.

   Hope everyone in Europe is doing great….I miss it. Especially Amsterdam…not for the reason you think, weed is way more legal here and I don’t like it anyway. I miss the canals and vibe. and Sweden….especially Helsingborg….and Rome, I miss Rome and Venice and Firenze…..and London and Berlin…..even Chur, Switzerland.

   Ok, I just rambled….I think that’s within the rules ?

5. I just filled my car up and 95E10 was 1.67€/litre. I don’t remember seeing petrol being 1.6X€ since the war started. Feels very cheap, 50€ got me a full tank!