Autumn during the time of Covid

And just like that, October is here. Without traveling or celebrating big events, it can feel like the days blurr into weeks and the weeks into months. We had a lovely long Summer here in Germany which was wonderful, but it was almost like someone turned off a switch and suddenly the temperature dropped ten degrees and started getting rainy and windy! Autumn is usually my favourite season but since we are still experiencing a pandemic, I have been a little worried about what this Autumn/Winter will be like.

Facebook and Google photo memories show me pictures from what I was doing this time the past few years, so already I have been reminded about a fun family holiday to the Black Forest five years ago, and going partying to Octoberfest seven years ago. When I see things like that, I choose to focus on the positive memories rather than the disappointment that we can't do things like that for the forseeable future (or until there's a safe vaccine?). I recently came across this article from The Guardian on how Norwegians stay optimistic during their extremely long dark Winter season. Check it out if you have a few minutes.

It's all about changing your mindset and reframing how you look at things: "People who see stressful events as “challenges”, with an opportunity to learn and adapt, tend to cope much better than those who focus more on the threatening aspects – like the possibility of failure, embarrassment or illness."

I already found this approach very helpful when I was going through years of infertility. Instead of letting myself dwell on what I didn't have (a child / a body able to conceive and carry a baby by to term without medical assitance..) and comparing myself to others, I would try to focus on what I did have (a loving husband, supportive family, good friends..). It helped me move forward on the particularly dark days.

There have been many advantages to being able to work from home for sure, but the main disadvantage I find is that you can feel quite lonely and isolated at times. The house feels errily quiet unless I turn on music or radio in the background. I was able to take advantage of the lovely weather to meet up with friends outdoors the past few months in a way that would still keep us all safe from catching or spreading Covid. However, now that it's a lot colder and Germany is experiencing a second wave, trying to have some semblance of social life will be a real challenge. It's going to end up being partly a choice between mental and physical health risks. If I'm not able to meet friends for a long time, it could lead to me feeling depressed, but any potential get together could involve us risking catching the virus which I obviously want to avoid.

I guess we need to look at this time as a challenge and do our best to find the joy in the little moments. Another line from the article above which resonated with me was: "We might recognise, for instance, that it’s a time for baking comfort food or cosy evenings curled up under a blanket in front of a box set – practising a little bit of the Norwegian koselig." Now, who doesn't like the sound of that?

Memory snapshot

I wish I had a better memory. As I get older it seems to only be getting worse. One thing I try to do is when I find myself experiencing a particularly nice moment, is to just pause and remind myself to be more present. I'll focus on what's happening, the details around me, how I'm feeling. Then I attempt to capture it all into my memory, just like taking a mental snapshot. 

Recently hubby and I went for a cycle using the new bike trailer attached with Mini inside. It was a particularly pleasant autumn evening; the leaves already a mixture of vibrant shades, the sky a beautiful shade of blue, and the air was slightly crisp but not yet cold. As we cycled along through a pretty wooded area I found myself feeling happy and I tried to capture the moment with my mind. 

I felt grateful that all three of us are in good health right now because you really can't take your health for granted. This time last year I was in hospital recovering from major surgery and the thought of being well enough to go for a cycle would have felt so distant. I was also grateful that hubby and Mini were healthy too. And something about cycling through the woods that day just made me feel free and carefree for a few lovely moments.

Of course in typical Murphy's law fashion we ended up getting a puncture on one of the bike trailer wheels and haven't been able to use it since until we get around to fixing it! Worse than that however, Mini picked up pseudo-croup at daycare a few days later and has been pretty miserable with it since, the poor little thing. 

How has your autumn been so far? 

Life Lately

Reading
Michelle Obamas's Becoming. I started this months ago and haven't been able to finish it but that's not a criticism. Firstly it's really long but secondly I rarely have time to read it! It's a big book so not one that fits into my handbag to pull out when I have a few minutes on public transport. Whenever I have a free moment, I usually end up doing something else but when I do have a nice 10-20 minutes of undisturbed time ahead of me then I have been delving back into the book and really enjoying it!

Watching
We finally got around to watching two very different films, "The Greatest Showman" and "Avengers-Endgame". The former has been one I've been dying to watch for ages and the latter my husband was keen to see!  I think I can safely say we ended up loving both. 

The Greatest Showman is a story around Barnum who comes from poverty and has big dreams. I don't want to go into the story in more detail as I often find that even watching trailers these days can have loads of spoilers and it's nice to watch something without knowing too much in advance. The screenplay, music and dance numbers were amazing and it was just entertaining and good fun. The songs are catchy too and I find myself humming along to them weeks days later!

You've probably heard of Avengers: Endgame even if you aren't a fan because it was a massive hit this Summer.  I enjoy the Marvel stories and films though at times find the format somewhat predictable (time for another huge fight scene with lots of special effects anyone?). That said, this one was particularly entertaining and well done!

Eating/cooking
Well now it's autumn we've been making pumpkin soup and curries again - yum! My main favourite German treat are pretzels though! A lovely freshly baked pretzel with butter and cheese or avocado on top with a cup of tea is just perfect.

Traveling
In August we were in Ireland on holidays which was lovely. This month apart from our usual outings to all the local playgrounds, we went to the zoo for the day which was fun.

September recap

Thought I'd join a what's new with you in September blog link up and share what's been going on with me recently.

• We are living in our new house about two months now and we love it! There is still lots to do, we have quite a lot of boxes to unpack and some more furniture to buy but it's not urgent and we are getting there. Hopefully by Christmas everything will be done. Though from talking to other house owners, it sounds like the work is never truly finished, there are always new projects and improvements to be done! We had some friends over for our first dinner party in the new place a few weeks ago and it went really well. We served Irish stew with mushroom risotto and walnut and banana cake for dessert.


• We joined car sharing last month. Basically you pay a deposit and monthly fee then you can rent a car from one of the stations near you and just pay for it by hour. The GerMann has been the one driving but I tried last weekend. It was quite difficult actually! Since we don't have a car (the public transport is so good you don't need one here), I've only ever driven when I'm back in Ireland a few times a year at most. Not to mention I'd never driven on the right hand side before, which felt strange! Also I kept reaching out my left hand to change the gears and hitting the side door as you change gears on your right hand side, not left like in Irish cars. Hopefully it will get easier with practice because I felt like a learner driver all over again!


• We are still waiting on our telephone consultation with the immune specialist doctor to explain our blood test results and treatment plan for NK cells. We did have an appointment with our fertility clinic doctor. He said he isn't able to interpret our results though, we need to wait to talk to the other doctor but he did say he would support us doing the treatment. For instance I could get the intralipid infusions at my local clinic and not have to travel. He did mention that if you get the infusion too quickly there is a risk of a stroke! He commented that he wouldn't want to read about that happening to a patient at his clinic. Hubby said to me afterwards that it sounded like he is more worried about avoiding bad press than actually caring about my health! Hearing about the stroke risk has made me very nervous, there is certainly a limit to what risks I am prepared to take in order to have a baby. I am praying that any serious risks are minor!
  The "good" news is that since our first IVF ended in an early miscarriage, my health insurance might pay towards a fourth attempt and not just three. It's good to have that backup plan. I feel like four rounds of IVF is my limit physically and emotionally. I just really hope it works by then!
  


• Our next book club book will probably be "The light between oceans" by M. L. Stedman. From what I understand the book deals with infertility with the couple going through several miscarriages, so I can imagine reading it could be very sad and feel too real. But I've heard it's very well written. And I would like to see the film adaptation afterwards with Michael Fassbender.





• I went shopping yesterday. Normally the shops are closed Sundays in Germany but every so often they have a special Sunday shopping day. I couldn't decide on anything so in the end I bought myself some new pyjamas. I already have plenty but they looked so compfy and I bought cosy slipper boots too in matching burgundy which is my favourite colour at the moment.






• Some friends from Ireland will be visiting in a few weeks. Now we have the house and space, more people are coming over which we are delighted about. A few weeks ago my Dad and his partner visited and we had a fun time. We took them to the wine festival in Heilbronn which they loved! Schwarzriesling Rose was our favourite. Though Muskateller is a very nice white. We got pretty tipsy trying all the wines! I love showing people around where we live and having friends and family from home is always nice.

What's new with you?

The spookiest night of the year #MicroblogMonday

Traditionally Germans don't celebrate halloween at all. However recently with the influence from other countries I've noticed this is starting to gradually change, but it's still not a big event here. Some kids might dress up and a few even go out trick or treating (in German Süßes oder Saures) but it's not something that they all do. There also wouldn't be any firework displays, bonfires or other halloween traditions such as bobbing for apples, pumpkin carving or barnbrack.

Halloween first originated in Ireland and then all the Irish immigrants introduced it to the States from where it became even more popular and widespread. When I was a child I always looked forward to the 31st of October when you would dress up and go around to your neighbours' houses collecting goodies.

I think it's a shame that it's not celebrated that much here but I guess the Germans have Fasching which is enough for them! We had visitors over from Ireland last weekend and we all got dressed up and went out to a halloween karaoke night in the local Irish pub, which turned out to be really fun! Where else would you get to see zombies rocking out to Bon Jovi?

How do you celebrate halloween?

Autumn days

Autumn is great time of year in Germany. There are loads of festivals which revolve around wine and beer and the weather is normally still nice- there's a bit of a chill in the air but for the most part it's dry with blue skies. Last weekend we went to Heilbronn and walked around the vineyards and enjoyed the scenery over a coffee.

In September we went to the wine festival in Stuttgart with some friends. There were lots of little restaurants constructed for the event, with cute German style décor. We tried lots of lovely wines from the area. My favourite was a kind of sparkling rose. Everything tasted lovely with the German food- I had some Käsespätzle, a Swabian dish.

Another weekend recently my family came to visit and we went to the first Octoberfest in Karlsruhe. It was basically just a huge tent, there was no carnival like there would be at the Munich Octoberfest or Stuttgarter Wasen. But it was really enjoyable nonetheless. I reserved a table for ten and managed to get a group together last minute. We enjoyed the music, drank huge liters of beer and sung and danced.

My sister and I also decided to buy dirndls for the festival, German style traditional dresses. It took us several hours of shopping and about six shops to find nice ones that fit and cost under one hundred euro. Dirndls are big business this time of year! Everyone was fighting over the last ones left in the shop as if their life depended on it. But eventually we found two nice ones. Trying it on in the shop, I felt a little silly and thought, am I really going to wear this? But once we were on our way to the festival, we saw loads of people wearing dirndls and lederhosen and fit right in!

Something I have noticed living here is that the restaurants often update their menus according to what's in season, so at the moment there are lots of dishes with pumpkin. One of my favourites is pumpkin soup, yum.

The clocks went back recently meaning a nice lie in at the weekend. But now when I leave work in the evenings it is already dark. And the last few days the weather has gotten much colder, there was even frost this morning. Looks like winter is nearly here. Tomorrow is a holiday here and looking forward to the long weekend, and I'll be kicking it off in style by attending a Halloween party this evening.

Hope everyone is having a nice autumn and happy Halloween!!