I am typing this in the middle of August this time, my writing goals pretty much went down the drain this summer.
I started July with a week off of work that I spent home at my parents’ house in the countryside. Besides being able to get away from the noise of city life, I planned this one to be able to read and learn a lot and to be able to rethink my goals. And that’s exactly what I did, I’ve made some big decisions about how to move on in my career as well as my life. I’ll share more about it later. It was also a much needed rest away from work, where this summer is particularly busy and exhausting. Most workdays, I am not even able to do or think about anything else other than work.
After getting back from my vacation, I had to get my laptop to the repair shop, for a long needed fixing and so I had to be without it for about a week. It was easier than I thought it would be. It happened to be that same weekend when I got a wound infection, so after limping home one Saturday night after a friend’s birthday party, I’ve spent all Sunday lying flat unable to use one swollen foot. I managed to recover enough to work next day, but no high heels were worn that week.
It was also around this time that it turned out we could still go to our annual hiking trip this year (haven’t been in the last two years), although not in the usual number. I’ve almost given up on this one, but I was able to take off two more days for it in August and started planning and training for it. Training got a bit disrupted by all these injuries, but fortunately I am always well prepared for a hike due to my regular excercise, so I was only a bit worried (more about the existing injuries and less about the lack of training). But this is mainly a story for August.
The first half of July was also a political turmoil in Hungary, with austerity measures having been announced and all the protests around them. I wasn’t that annoyed by the traffic jams in Budapest caused by demonstrations against small entrepreneurs’ new tax regulations, since I can agree with most of the demonstrator’s points (except for the ones who voted for the governing party in April, they should just stay at home and accept that they got what they wanted). As for the other measures related to energy prices, that made me think pretty seriously about moving to a new place.
I’ve finished only three books in July, and all of them during the first week vacationing. I finally read Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s first masterpiece of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books tetralogy. I became a fan, can’t wait to read the next one. I also read a writers on writing essay collection from one of my favourite Hungarian authors and loved it! As a bookclub pick, I read the first of Gerald Durrell’s Corfu trilogy. I didn’t not like it exactly, because I liked the vibe of it, and laughed a lot too, yet something was missing for me. I kept thinking about practical things like ‘how did they pay for all this?’, ‘keeping all those animals in the house, is that realistic even?’, ‘the book is about loving the animals, but how about the brother who keeps shooting them?’, etc. I am still halfway through a hard psychological read and started reading Amor Towles’ A Gentleman in Moscow, although mostly before going to sleep at night by three-four pages at a time.
I finally finished Bridgerton, I guess I only went all the way with it because I don’t like to do things half, but I have to say, I haven’t really enjoyed this season. I wasn’t eager to get to the next episode whenever I was done with one. I haven’t even watched anything else in July, I listened to a lot of podcasts, and watched a few Youtube videos, mostly while doing other things like cooking, the dishes or cleaning. And of course I listened to Beyonce’s new album a few times on the weekend of its release.
I still have another week off in August that I will spend again with studies and hopefully writing. Since I am still struggling to get back to my usual travelling habits (my next trip always being planned, knowing where I’d go months ahead), I was so thrilled about the visit to the High Tatras in the beginning of August! We have a Vienna weekend planned for the fall, and I hope for one more weekend trip somewhere further. We’ll see. This summer is going by so quick.
