Blog @ Work 2nd Edition

Memories can be false, but the first memory I have from my childhood, I was probably 2 years old. My family, father, mother, few-month-old baby brother, and I were living in this family home in The Hague.
I was lying in my bed and could see through the wooden bars. My mother was in front of me. She was wearing a blue dress. My baby brother was next to my bed in his crib. My little sister was not yet born, so it was just the two of us kids.

It was a nice family home. We stayed there until I was 8 years old when we moved to another city. It had a front garden with a blue Wisteria and a yellow Laburnum. A four-room, one bathroom house with a small enclosed yard at the back.

I think those first 8 years were good. The quarreling and the bad memories start from after that when we grew older and could think for ourselves.

I didn’t have a very comfortable time growing up and I left home when I was 17 after a fight with my mother.

Still, I am grateful for the things my parents did well. They did their best to raise us.

Last night I dreamt of my father when he was in his thirties. It was a good dream. Luckily we were able to rekindle and in the last decade of his life, we had a good time when we were together.

I am grateful for those years.

Today was Judgement Day. I had to go for my Diabetes checkup thinking I had to shoot insulin come tomorrow. But that has been postponed till April 18, 2022, when I have my next follow-up. I lost 5 kilos of weight which is excellent and all my blood sugar levels were somewhat lower than the previous checkup although too high nevertheless. But it bought me some time.

The previous weeks I was very much afraid thinking about shooting insulin, but with the start of this week I managed to think things through and my anxiety became less and less and today it was gone before I visited the doctor.

I had come to terms with the fact that I wasn’t able to sufficiently lower my blood sugar levels and shooting insulin was immanent. I had to woman up, accept reality and move on.

That was a good feeling. And with the words of Alcott, I am learning how to sail my ship!

So, I have four-and-a-half months to stick to my low-carb diet, exercise more, and lose even more weight. Perhaps things can be turned around still, although I have to accept that shooting insulin is going to happen in the New Year.

In any case, I am in a better place right now.

Every Xmas for the last 6 years since my father died unexpectedly I spent the holidays with my stepmom. Either she comes to me or I stay at her place for two weeks. Last year she was spending Xmas and New Year at her best friend’s, but that ended badly. They both got COVID-19, my stepmom had mild complications, but her friend died.

So, this year I am visiting her with my dog Sprout. We haven’t seen each other for a long time due to the virus and me having to deal with a new dog although I phone her every day. So, it will be fun for both of us.

I am planning to cook and do the groceries for her and make sure we have a good time. She is a lovely 87-year old lady and I am glad she is still around. Her gift from me is a DVD box of all the Home Alone movies. We will watch those during the holidays.

The end of the challenge so, thanks for reading, and see you around!

I don’t think there is anything else than living my life as I do at the moment. So, when it was the end of my life I would just continue the way I have been doing.

It’s not at all that imaginary at this time in my life. I had a checkup for cervical cancer and am waiting on the result. And I have to make an appointment for my checkup for breast cancer in December. Furthermore, perhaps I am on insulin from this month on forwards. I will hear that on Wednesday next.


If by any stroke of bad luck I have cancer, that will probably be the end of me, since I don’t opt for a treatment with chemotherapy. That cure is worse than the disease. But there are of course other treatments so, I will look into those when the time comes.

In any case, I would not change my life much.

I am kinda of in a rut this month, due to a lack of energy. I know for a fact it has all to do with my physical condition being a Diabetic Type II. All I do basically is sleep, eat, binge-watch online television series and take care of my dog. There is not much energy left.

So, tomorrow I have to give blood for my 4 monthly checkup at the doctor’s and after that a checkup on cervical cancer. Two days later I know if I have to shoot insulin or not.

Here is the plan: Next week I make sure my house is in order and my dishes are done. I am going to get more exercise by using my bike more often and walking longer walks with my dog. Also, I keep on cooking healthy foods in my low-carb diet because it’s good for me. In short, I want to get back in shape to bring back more energy to my life.

And I want to write again, this month was very uninspiring. I need my creativity back.

The insulin thing is another matter. I am scared, fair to say. Not much else to say, really. This coming week may turn out a game-changer in my life!

For me, this is an easy one. I definitely don’t let the situation slide. I would try to persuade my co-worker till I drop to go back home and go into quarantine for at least two weeks after taking a test. If she refuses I will take it up with my boss, either she goes home or I will work from home myself.

I am taking Covid-19 very seriously and I have been bending backward not to get infected. I would not let a co-worker increase my chances to get sick. Everybody should take responsibility.

Things are not working for me this month. I flunked NaNoWriMo big time and am still stuck in chapter three with 3,180 words or something. My prepping was worthless and my Muse was gone. Instead, I am binge-watching television series and let my house turn into this dump. Tomorrow and Sunday I will take care of that, I hope. On top of everything, next week I will find out if I have to shoot insulin for my Diabetes type II. This month sucks!

I am most thankful for my dog Sprout. Having a dog is awesome. When I was in between dogs for 1 ½ month I felt lonely for the first time in decades. Having another dog in my life for more than 4 months now is the best for me. A living soul in the house and I have to take care of him. He takes care of me because he is good company. And he takes me out of the house several times a day which is good for the both of us.

Not so much my darkest but two of my most bad teachers were in high school.

The first was an English teacher who couldn’t keep order in the class. We were the worst, we made him cry in front of the group and he talked about his mom. After that, he quit and we never saw him again.

The other one was a geography teacher in high school. Nobody liked him for some reason and the kids in class had firecrackers. We used that to distract him in different corners of class. He got nuts.

Kids can act brutally!

I don’t have a sense of humor.

I would like to see in the future. Just one day! That would be fun and not too overwhelming. I would like to use this power to see the winning lottery numbers so I can buy the ticket one day prior.

No, this song is not for me. I only feel irritation when I hear the music. The lyrics are corny. I haven’t seen the movie. So, this prompt is not for me. Sorry!

The Bermuda Triangle is a region located between Florida, Puerto Rico, and Bermuda. Throughout the last 50 or so years there have been reports of strange paranormal activity going on there. Many ships have been reported missing there and UFOs have been seen hovering around that area and going underwater.

Many people believe there is some type of magnetic activity going on here that could be related to past civilizations like Atlantis. Some people claim that the Bermuda Triangle could be a time portal that transports beings into another location or time period.

I must have been 8 or 9 years old, and I believed in Santa Claus, the man with the white beard who brought gifts on December 5th. He always came by boat late November from Spain, accompanied by his Black Petes to help him. I knew he was for real because they followed his whereabouts on television, and he was on the news. My parents and the rest of the world assured me of his existence every year. It was a feast I was looking forward to.

Until I found out that the man with the beard was a local businessman at my father’s work, and they told me that it was all fake, fabricated for young kids, not real, and I was old enough to know the truth.

That’s when it hit me. They had lied to me all along. Santa Claus did not exist so; I reasoned Jesus did not exist, so everything adults had told me could be part of the same lie. The world changed that day; nothing was ever to be the same after this revelation. I was totally disappointed.

I slept through the whole ordeal. When I woke, everything was moved successfully.

Near the body, I find cigarette buds of a French brand. Fortunately, the youngest son smokes this brand so, I am betting he killed his wealthy father for the money. When asking questions, I find that the rich man was planning to disown his children. So, there is a motive.
And since you have to look at the spouse and kids first in a murder case, I am pretty sure I got the killer who shot the victim.

I try to eat as much low-carb as I can, and I have to since it lowers my blood sugar levels as a Diabetic type II. That means I can’t have bread, rice, potatoes, noodles, pizza, and the like. But it’s hard to follow this diet.

So, my favorite meal to prepare (I wrote about this earlier) is spinach torte with different kinds of cheeses out of the oven.

For the recipe, read "Spinach in puffed pastry" .

I am getting behind on NaNoWriMo big time this month, so I am not sure if I will make it. A road trip for a month would be a fantastic idea.

A good friend and my dog would accompany me in a rental. I would opt for Europe, although with Covid still out there, that would take a while before ever happening.

I would start in my own country, The Netherlands, then travel to Belgium to take the Eurostar train to the UK and travel the different counties. Including Wales and Scotland, and after that back to the UK to travel via France to Portugal.

The three items that will make it a big hit are my sunglasses, my phone to take pictures, and my smoking stuff since I am still a smoker. However, I am planning to stop this New Year.

I am too lazy to care much about genealogy; there is too much work involved. It takes a lot of research and traveling and more research to follow the bloodline.

In my case, my roots are in Indonesia since my mother and her family were born there when it still was a Dutch colony.

So, the remote place has to be somewhere on the isle of Sumatra or Java, and it can be a holy place somewhere in the bush-bush.

My uncles have more information regarding my ancestors. I surely will ask them more details one day!