Offline has been good, goal achieved!
I tried to focus on offline stuff most of the time and with success. I was able to work on a temporary task at an hourly rate. This came at the exact right time as I set myself a goal to earn at least the deposit for the rental contract at a new place whenever we find it. Of course, we get back the deposit for this apartment when we turn in the keys, but we also have to pay the new deposit upfront. And I decided to work towards that goal when that temporary job I once applied to (months ago) was offered to me. I took the opportunity with both hands and have been working every moment possible. I was able to just work whenever I wanted to during the day and this was very convenient as my daughter has been at home for the past weeks as well. Luckily, it all worked out. The project has now ended and I have managed to work enough to pay the deposit.
Time to hunt for a house!
Now comes the (probably) hardest part, finding that place that feels good for all of us. We have a few demands, and also a few things that we absolutely want, otherwise it's a no-deal. We have decided that we are also looking in a few other districts from now on as we were traveling through an area for the first time last week and we loved what we saw there.
This weekend I plan on starting to declutter what we don't use/need in our next home. So many unused clothes that we didn't even wear this winter, they need to go. It's also a good moment to go through the rest of our stuff and see what needs to go. Quite exciting that we are one step closer to moving to a better area.
Hospital visits
Since summer 2019 we've been waiting for an appointment with the children's neurologist for my daughter at the children's hospital. A crazy long waiting list meant we needed to wait until February 2020. Honestly, at first, it didn't really matter to me as the reason for us making the appointment seemed to have faded to the background for a while. But a few months ago, this changed again. Therefore I was actually glad February arrived, and soon we'd be able to see the neurologist. Unfortunately, after being completely fine for a full day (recovering from a middle ear infection the weeks before), my daughter had another high fever that evening before the appointment.
Honestly, I was afraid she might have caught something at the doctor's office because 2 children were coughing in her face. I just hoped I was wrong and she would be ok that day. End of the story, we couldn't possibly travel there that day and we couldn't go. The next week, we needed to get back to the specialist for her ear infection and to schedule an appointment for surgery, so I explained to her that this neurologist didn't see her. She strongly advised me that she really needs to see the neurologist before the surgery.
The next months we will have to be in the hospital quite a few times seeing different specialists, but at least we got the ball rolling now.
I didn't think it was possible after having this in Spain already, but I recently had another culture shock
Some may remember that I had a huge culture shock in Spain after visiting a hospital there when I needed to have an ultrasound. It may have been my hormones but I seriously couldn't process this in the time being in that hospital. You'd think after this experience, not much is going to shock me when a hospital doesn't meet the European standards we were used to. I was wrong.
It's almost unimaginable for some of us Europeans that you visit a children's hospital and they are using tools to look inside infected ears while you sit on a dirty chair, and dusty (and god knows what else) lamp standing against this chair. The second visit at this specialist was in another building, and probably even worse. This is the building where they will also do the surgery in a few months from now. I just hope all goes well and the hygiene in the OR is ok. Luckily, there are still months left to prepare ourselves (and her) for this moment.
I found some new inspiration lately to write
And so I did use that inspiration while I was actually not focussing on posting anything at all. It was a bit too much to post while I also had to be on call for that temporary job and having to take care of our daughter. I'm not too sure how next week will be like, but I plan on wiping some more things of my to-do list as I've been postponing them for quite a while. There was no need in rushing them either, so no biggie, but it feels good wiping of all these tasks from that list.
In the evenings I find myself writing again more often, and I think when Spring arrives again this will happen more hours of the day. I'm actually looking forward to that. Getting up even earlier, to write before my daughter wakes up, making the most out of the day, is it Spring yet? :)
Anyhow, have a good weekend!
~Anouk