Relaxed busy-ness

I had five appointments scheduled on Friday, one of which I missed (due to taxi stuck in traffic jam). The first appointment was at my house - Lynn came over for a quick visit over tea and Grandma cookies. The last time I saw her I was still staying with Nico so we had plenty to chat about.

Then, I was off to Blixembosch for my Lijfgroep meditation exercise which had the theme "thought". Too much thinking can be bad for us, of course: worry, thinking too much about past mistakes or a future full of unnecessary expectations.

My teacher is great at analogies, and today she had two gems. The first was to imagine the ocean waves as representing negative thoughts. The deeper you go into the water, the more likely you are of being swept away by them. So, stay on the beach and watch the waves come and go to avoid getting caught up in them (or worse, drown). The second was to imagine a train of thoughts you don't want to get on. Catch the next train of good thoughts or right thinking instead. Furthermore, if everyone stopped catching the negative train of thoughts, the station would stop running it all together. Neat, huh?

By 2 p.m., I was catching a taxi to practice with my new music pals. That was fun, again. It's still a bit awkward as we all still get to know each other but it just bees that way sometimes. Probably, it will be after my vacation before we have a chance to practice again.

The appointment I missed was another therapy appointment at 4:30. Due to traffic back up on the road that runs in front of Aggie's place, the taxi didn't get there until 4:30. Oh, well. That's what rescheduling is for.

So, I was on my way home sooner than expected, my last appointment with Nico at the grocery store was next in line. Once again, we're stocked up and ready for the week.

Sweet Saturday surprises
I didn't have anything much on the agenda for Saturday except to prep for my trip. Two of those things were to make an appointment with the hairdresser and look for sandals.

I've been wanting to cut my hair off as it has grown down past my shoulders which can be nice for a while until I get bored of it. So, I searched the internet and found a few haircuts I liked, made my choice and phoned the hairdresser to see if I could make an appointment for next week. Lo and behold, the gal that answered said that she had an opening today, if I could be there in 3 hours! I stood on the platform pondering whether I should take the upcoming train to I'm Not Ready Yet then quickly got on the sneltrein to Go For It instead. Chop chop, I have short hair again.

I had just enough time before my appointment to go by the shoe store I told you about and have a look-see. Catalog in hand, I pointed out the shoes that I thought would work best and the sales clerk brought back a pair Janines in 39. And did they ever. Perfect fit, even with my brace, wide and walkable. Very soft on my feet and the design suited me. I'm beginning to get accustomed to these little miracles but even so, it was no less worth being amazed by. At 60euros less than the other pair I'd tried on at the shoemakers, I think that's worth calling miraculous.

Sunday, the balcony expands
I promise as soon as my camera battery is charged, to get photos of the shoes and hair asap. Included in the next batch of photos will also be pictures of the new-to-me flower pots and containers from Nico. In this case, I had told Nico to be on the lookout for some containers for my bean sprouts which keep growing daily by leaps and bounds. The words were barely a week out of my mouth when Nico tells me he's got what I asked for and then some. He's always getting excellent stuff for free from this client of his, some things even get handed off to me - including these great containers.

My balcony is now full of empty pots which hold the promise of creating a green haven on my front porch. It's all coming together beautifully and with hardly any effort. Nico even has an idea for making a fold-out table to replace my current one which is too wide to walk around.

Hope you all have had a nice weekend, too. Thanks for staying in touch this week.