Something new.

Friday morning, I volunteered in an old peoples home.

I´m the local story teling lady, but usually, I read for kids, teens, and, sometimes, adults. I´ve never read for people with dementia.

A friend of mine works in an old peoples home, so she asked me whether I´d like to read to her folks, and sure, why not? When I´m old, and my eyes are to weak to read by myself, I sure want someone to come and read me my Stephen King. But at first, I wanted to get to know them, so I could choose the literature appropriate - what would they like to hear, what would be interesting, but not too challenging, how long is their attention span, those were questions I wanted to explore first. So my friend suggested I come first to volunteer, to get to know my audience, which I then did :)

My audience is in severe need of some upcheering. We made plum cake together, and most of them are really, really far gone and need a lot of assistance, or very, very depressed, or both. Unlike a school, an old peoples home is, despite all the efforts of the great staff, still a depressing place, let´s not pretend otherwise.

So I´m coming back, next month, to start telling some good old german fairy tales. Stuff they know from their childhood. And I won´t be just reading. We´re making a show out of it, bringing requisites to touch and taste, and we´re going for a very interactive reading, and I´m excited for that.

Then, Friday afternoon, Miro won the fourth price in a baking contest.

 

His cake looked like the earth, and he made it all by himself, decorating and and baking and all - he even burned himself in the process. His price was a 20 Euro voucher for the local restaurant, and he is very, very proud.

I made a cake, too - I was reading that day anyway, so I decided to bake the book I would be reading.

Our local library held the baking contest, and I was reading there, anyway,and I love love love playing with fondant and marzipan. I also loved to take this baking contest as an excuse to finally get myself these food-coloring sharpies I´d always wanted to try :)

See? I told you I wanted to celebrate my housewifey-ness. Is that a word? 

Saturday morning, we went off to a horse racing track.

Again, something I´ve never done before, and something that never really was on my radar - neither am I much of a horse lover, nor a sports fan. I do like trying new things, though, so when Tim suggested it, I was excited - what an awesome, creative idea for a weekend outing!

We rode all the way by bike - 34 kilometres all together. I had expected to see a lot more crazy hats, but they were non - not on heads, though you could buy some. 

  

Tim even placed some bets - for the exorbitant sum of one Euro for each child - and Mehmet won 60 cents to reinvest in sweets. He also got a horseshoe, which he´s keeping for the day he´ll open his farm. 

And then, Saturday, night, I served some wine.
South African Chardonay and Shiraz.



Actually, I never, ever drink any alcohol at all, but my best friend had decided to throw a house concert with a wine tasting, and I loved helping her out. I walked through the room and chatted with everybody and refilled their glasses, while telling them about cinnamon and honey like flavour - though I acknowledged that I didn´t taste the stuff myself - but I had thoroughly read the description :)

The house concert itself was sweet, as well - a group of five ladies singing really great accappella.



Their humor wasn´t for me, but I loved the idea of hosting a house concert, and I´m pondering about how to organize that.

So that was my very busy weekend with lots of firsts, and lots of new experiences.

Now I deserve to sit on the sofa and treating myself with some warm, lovely, very September-like potato-pumpkin soup.
 

Music:


The girls from my friend´s living room :)