Today was a very good day 🙂 Nienke and I went for a High Tea at the cafe/gift shop in town. The weather was not great, but okay enough to sit outside. We each got a small tea pot and cup with our chosen flavour of tea. Then a stand with delicious goodies was brought out. Unfortunately, there were quite a few wasps nearby who also liked our jam. After being accosted long enough, we withdrew to an inside seat. There, free from black-and-yellow menace, we enjoyed the rest of the tasties 😀
I’ve never been a terminator fan. I’ve never seen any of the movies beyond bits and pieces during channel surfing or online maybe. But after seeing the trailers for the new Terminator Genisys I was intrigued enough that I wanted to see it. So that’s what Gert and I did Wednesday. The movie was fun and entertaining, not particularly special, but I enjoyed it. And I liked seeing Schwarzenegger reprising his role and poking fun at himself and his age.
After that we went on to see Inside Out, which is a really good movie. The themes were really quite heavy, which I wasn’t expecting. It shows well how depression affects a person. The layering is pretty good, in that it has something for both kids and adults, but I would’t directly recommend it for really young children.
Friday I headed over to The Farm for a barbecue with Eva, Mellien, Ingrid and Julius. The food was glorious, the company was great, and the weather fantastic.
Then yesterday, we had a market in town. Mom and I took a stroll around. I didn’t really find anything that struck my fancy. Since the weather was still fantastic, Mom and I decided to hit the cafe and get a drink and something tasty. She went for apple pie, the standard snack for cafes, and I picked strawberry tiramisu. It was delish!
Bananaaaaaaaaaa! Thursday I went to see the Minions movie with Ingrid and Nienke. I love Minions 🙂 And to keep in the spirit of things I had a kid’s snack pack to go with it. Tiny packet of popcorn, tiny packet of candy, a capri sun and a tiny toy.
Friday, Gert and I went to the Oosterpoort. A little while ago Gert showed me an announcement for a free concert at the Oosterpoort. It was a graduation performance for the National Master Orchestra Conducting. The two people graduating each conducted two classical pieces played by the North Netherlands Orchestra.
The first candidate was Huba Hollóköi and he conducted Bela Bartok’s first violin concerto and Tchaikovsky’s Romeo & Juliet fantasy overture. Then, after the break, Konradin Herzog conducted Dutilleux’s Sur le même accord for solo violin and orchestra and Schumann’s Symphony no. 4.
The pieces were really good, but I preferred the works chosen by Herzog.
Almost no words needed. Friday I went out with a bunch of colleagues to this all-you-can-eat-style Japanese restaurant. Lots of sushi, but also other Japanese food. I don’t like fish, so I never really had sushi. However, they also had sushi with meat or veggies so I had some of that along with regular meat and such. It was fantastic, I wanna go again. I’ll let the images do the talking.
I love my cinema subscription, three movies in the last two days 🙂
Tuesday, Nienke and I went to see Jurassic World. It was an awesome movie! Chris Pratt is great, the more I see him, the more I love him. I knew him from Everwood, and he was good there but after that I didn’t really see him in anything. I understand he was in Parks and Recreation, but I don’t watch that. So seeing him in Guardians earlier this year was a very pleasant surprise. And now with Jurassic he just reaffirms how much of a joy it is to watch him play.
The movie itself was fairly similar, plot-wise, to the original Jurassic Park. It was a very decent film. Not many surprises, but great fun and nice nods to the original.
Yesterday, I met up with Gert after work. Our first movie was Age of Adaline. I’d seen trailers and the combination of immortality, the decor and the fact that the other main part was played by Dutch actor Michiel Huisman triggered my interest. Unfortunately, the movie didn’t quite live up to my expectation. The pacing felt off and the interaction between Adaline and Ellis was awkward at times. More awkward than the story called for. Separately I liked both of Blake Lively and Michiel’s performances and I love the visuals and decor. Harrison Ford was a pleasant surprise as Ellis’ father.
After Adaline we had quite some time left before our planned second movie, so we went out for dinner. Strolling around the city we settled on Hemingway’s for Cuban inspired tapas. It was glorious and it was much. So much even that I ended up taking a bread home.
The second movie was San Andreas, and this one exceeded my expectations. I had seen trailers of this also, and was going for two hours of random disaster and The Rock saving the day. That’s exactly what happened, but there was also a plot that wasn’t completely ridiculous and that sort of coherently pulled the movie together.
As of a few days ago, I have a holiday 😀 Ten relaxing days off, no work, no plans, no pressure, just chill and have fun.
I celebrated the start of the holiday by finishing my current book, Hounded, by Kevin Hearne. It’s the first book in a urban supernatural fantasy series called the Iron Druid Chronicles. The main character is an immortal, 2000 year old Druid who has imbued himself with the essence of Iron so as to better fight of faeries. He’s being hounded by various Celtic deities who either want to kill him or help him (although mainly for their own good). Throw in his vampire and werewolf lawyers, his occult/magic shop and him being able to talk with his dog and you have all the ingredients I like. Because of this, I expected to like the book, and I did. In fact, I love it. I’m looking forward to getting the other parts and reading more about the adventures of Atticus.
Yesterday I went to see Mad Max: Fury Road with Jasper and Nienke. It was a glorious movie! Very little plot, but after seeing the trailer a few times, I was prepared for this and totally pumped to see it. All I expected was two hours of racing, chasing, fighting and sheer ridiculousness, and that is exactly what I got and I wanna see it again.
Today I finished another book, The 100, by Kass Morgan. I was intrigued by the premise of the book: Earth is uninhabited after a global ecological crisis. The survivors have lived in a trio of generation ships in orbit waiting for Earth to become habitable again. When the clock starts ticking, 100 juvenile delinquents are, instead of killed, dropped on the planet as test subjects to see if it is safe. This also ticks a bunch of my boxes: young adult, sci-fi, dystopia; but I found the execution a bit lacking. I’m missing substance. I liked the flashbacks that showed what life on the ships is like for the various social classes, but overall it felt very light, and not enough time was spent furthering the plot.
Since this is the first in a series, I expect this to pick up in later parts, but I’m not in any hurry to get them. I am curious, though, of the TV series made of it so I will be watching that sometime.
Monday after work I had a movie date with Ingrid and Nienke. Getting off work I headed for the cinema where Ingrid was already waiting. Nienke, who came by bus, showed up a little while later. First we went into the cinema to get Nienke registered for an Unlimited card, and then we got our tickets. Since we had more than enough time left before the movie, we then sauntered up to Subway for dinner.
Afterwards we went back for the movie, which was Pitch Perfect 2. I had high hopes for the film, since I really like part one. Part two had a lot of good things, but I missed spark for about two-thirds or so of the movie. I’ll probably watch it again if it’s ever on TV or something, but it’s not a favourite.
Coming out of the theater we had some time left before our bus would go, so we decided to have a drink. At first we decided on a coffee place further up from the cinema, but it was closed 🙁 So we settled on a Spanish themed café-restaurant called Cerveseria Catalana. With the others going for some beer and wine, I chose an Irish Coffee. I always like that. Too bad, though, there was decisively little Irish in that coffee. Kind of a shame, considering the price…
While we were enjoying our drinks, we figured it was a good idea to take a later bus and sit and chat some more. So that’s what we did 🙂
Yesterday was the first time since my surgery that I went to the movies again. I hadn’t dared try before since I’m still experiencing discomfort and minor chest muscle pain when I’m sitting for a long time. It’s also only been since this week that I’ve been working a full 8 hour day again (the week before I did 6 hour days, and the two weeks before that, half days). So I felt movies in the evening after working was probably not yet a good idea. But Wednesday, as usual, I worked my half day at home and then went to the city to meet up with Gert.
During the non-movie weeks, I of course missed a bunch of movies I still wanted to see. First and foremost of those was Avengers: Age of Ultron. It’s only playing really early in the day and really late now, which is a sign it will be leaving theaters soon. Gert had already seen it, but didn’t mind watching it again.
I was pleasantly surprised by the movie, I’ve gotten used to trailers spoiling huge parts of movie plots, or even the entire plot, and here there was a whole extra dimension to the plot not shown in the trailer. I enjoyed the bit with Jarvis and Ultron, when he has just formed; and really enjoyed Vision. I hope he gets to stick around.
I had hoped, after the previous movies, that the the Avengers would really be a team by now, but there is still the same distrust and lack of cohesion between the lot of them when it comes down to it. Tony specifically needs to learn to trust other people and talk to them. Banner has his issues, but he at least is making progress and I really like how the relationship between him and Natasha was shown.
I loved the bit where they take refuge in Clint’s house and we get to meet his family, that no-one knew he had… Yet another sign that the team isn’t really a team. The interactions between Clint and his family, were lovely and it was fun to see how the others react to being in such a normal, and peaceful, environment. It was also a nice break between the battling in the first half and the battling in the second half.
The twins were interesting, I like their presence and I am sad that Quicksilver died. It would’ve been nice to see what he could do later on. I am pleased, also, that War Machine and Falcon got to play, and that the group of them is set up to be Avengers also. I do hope, though, it is not a sign that we will see less of the big names in further Avengers movies. It’s not really the Avengers without the core group.
After the Avengers we went on to see Tomorrowland (or Project T, as my cinema seems to want to call it…). It’s a bit of an uneven movie. The visuals are stunning and I want so badly to walk around in that city and explore! The intro part takes too long (I even muttered out loud for them to “get on with it”), and then when we get the part where Casey is recruited and runs away, and finds Frank and has to convince Frank, and then they all together have to run away some more and find a way to get to Tomorrowland to fix whatever the fuck is wrong takes very long.
In contrast, once they are back in Tomorrowland, it all happens to move rather fast. They talk some with Governor Nix, learn what the fuck is wrong, figure out how to stop it, and go about doing that. There’s some final battling to create a will-they-won’t-they feeling, but it’s never quite convincing enough. You know they will get it done. The final scene with Athena, though, is quite touching.
Overall, the film has a good adventure vibe, nice scifi ideas, good actors, but unbalanced plot and pacing, and is too heavy handed on the message (The apocalypse is near and it is your own fault, if humans would just DO something, they can still turn it around. Go DO that something, now).
And so we wait…
As of today it’s been 10 days since I had top surgery.
Back in November I met with the plastic surgeon. We discussed options with the general plan that surgery would be in January somewhere. It ended up taking a bit longer than that, but in early April I got a letter to come in for pre-op consults with the anesthesiologist and the ward staff to make sure they had all their info, and I had all of mine. At that point, they didn’t know a surgery date yet, but I would get a letter.
About a week or so later, the letter dropped. I was to report in at the hospital on Friday, April 24 at 8:30. No more food after 04:00 in the morning, no more liquids after 8:00. So following from that, surgery should be around 10:00 or later. That morning, Mom and Nienke drove me to the hospital and I checked in. I first had to give some blood, and then report to the ward where I was to stay. I got signed in and met with one of the nurses briefly, and then we had to wait a little bit more as my room wasn’t ready yet.
Off I go!
A short while later, I got shown to my room to settle in and wait. I read my book, Mom her news paper, and Nienke worked. We had to wait for quite a while but eventually, around 10:30, the nurse came in with the gown and told me it was time.
I changed into the gown and got back in bed. The nurse then came back and I got those plastic bracelets with my name and date of birth on each wrist, after confirming the info was correct 😀 A few minutes later, they came to wheel me away.
I was brought to the Holding area, where I got to confirm my identity again, and I got an IV fitted into my hand. The OR wasn’t quite ready for me yet, so there was more waiting. I also hadn’t been drawn on yet, so the nurse there expected them to come and do that, too. However, around 11:30, they were ready for me. So I got wheeled away to the OR undrawn.
Once there, I got to confirm my identity, again, and was asked to move over to the operating bed. After I had done so, the surgeon came in and had me come back off, because he had to draw on me… A few pretty blue stripes later, I got back on the, very narrow, operating bed and got wheeled from the little prep area into the OR itself. There was a final identity check, and a brief conversation to indicate what kind of surgery they were going to do (so I could protest if it was wrong), and then the oxygen mask descended and shortly after, I was out.
And back I am 🙂 Wearing the compression vest I have to keep on for 6 weeks.
I awoke in Recovery feeling fairly groggy, and thirsty. Of course it took me a while before I could keep awake enough to get a decent situational awareness but once I did, I was given some water and an explanation of the morphine pump attached to me. I could press it every ten minutes if I felt any pain. I pressed it, mainly to try it out, when I started to feel some pain and it did indeed work nice and fast. I was still out of it, though, as I couldn’t read the clock and had no idea of time so I only occasionally pressed. I was also given an ice lollipop for extra fluids, it was the most delicious thing ever at that moment.
Around 4:45ish, I think, they deemed me well enough awake to return to the ward and I got wheeled away again. In my room, Mom and Nienke were waiting 🙂 They stayed for a little while longer and then left about an hour later.
Later that evening, after I’d had some tea and biscuits, finally had had enough fluids inside to warrant a visit to the bathroom. With some supervision from the nurse, I sat up on the bed and tried standing. That worked okay, so I shuffled to the bathroom. When I was done, though, I got the cold sweats, starry vision and dizziness that indicates a fainting is on the horizon 😀
I alerted the nurse and she wheeled the bed to the bathroom door so I could get back in it. Once I’d done that, my blood re-arranged itself as it should and my streak of never actually having fainted continued!
They then gave me some more food (tea, breakfast cake, cheese), as I hadn’t actually properly eaten anything since dinner time on Thursday….
Bandaged up
I made it through the night okay. I woke up a few times since sleeping on my back isn’t something I’m used to, and I had some occasional pain. My stomach also protested a few times.
I figured the stomach issues were due to not having eaten enough yet, so I had tea and beschuit and yoghurt with muesli and orange juice for breakfast. However, when I went to the bathroom again a little later, my body decided that a rerun of last night’s episode would be good. This time the nurse had a wheeled chair nearby so she got me back to bed quick enough as well. Perfect streak!
My drains
After rounds by the doctor, they decided to remove the pain pump since it was probably a reaction to the drugs as well, and I had barely used the pump anyway. To compensate, they gave me a pill 😀
They left the IV needle in, so they had an easy access port if I did pass out or something happened. I’d gotten it bandaged up the night before, as the cold sweats had loosened the sticker, which made it easier for them to hide the loose end.
I spent the morning reading and sleeping, until my stomach decided it hated me and I mass vomited my entire breakfast on my bed o.0
After calling the nurse in, I moved over to sit in the chair for a while, while they changed the bed. We decided that I should eat lightly today, and try sitting in the chair a couple more times. So I lunched at the the table with some clear soup and beschuit.
Pick-up
In the afternoon, Mom and Dad came to see me. Mom had brought orange juice and cake, which I declined seeing as what had happened that morning 😀 They stayed for about an hour, and Nienke came by afterwards. In the evening, I tried another bathroom visit, and this one went without a hitch 😀 It went so well, I even felt comfortable enough to brush my teeth in the bathroom, too.
Sunday morning during rounds the doctor decided the drains could come out and that the wounds were looking good, so I could go home. The removal of the drains felt funny, but didn’t hurt. I got some extra plasters on it, and then they went to get my paperwork in order.
I alerted my parents and around midday they arrived to take me home. I spent the next few days moving between my bed and the sofa and shuffling around the house. I did a lot of reading, sleeping, and TV watching.
Wednesday I went for my first post-op check-up. They peeled the plasters off and checked the incisions. Then they removed the thingy covering the nipple transplant, which was loosely stitched on, to check that. Everything looked good, so they covered the transplant area again and gave me a bag full of gauze and plasters and such so I could change the dressings myself, daily.
Home sweet home
The next few days were mostly a repeat of the first few days, except with every day more moving about and slightly less sleeping 😀
The daily changing of the dressing was a bit funny to do the first time. The whole chest area is covered in bruises, but the area around the nipple transplant is still numb so I don’t feel it. I’m keeping up the paracetamol regimen of two in the morning and two in the evening, and am having fairly little pain.
Sleeping is still a bitch as I hate, hate, hate sleeping on my back, but, as they say, this, too, shall pass.
This is how it looked after I got home from the hospital. These bandages were removed during the first check-up
Today, my additional compression garment arrived. This one is a stretch band with velcro closure instead of the zippered vest. I noticed the arm holes of the vest are fairly tight so it scrapes. I;m hoping the band will be more comfortable. I also started working again. This week I’m working half days from home, and then next Monday, I’ll be going by the office after my second post-op check-up.
Last week I went to see La Famille Bélier with Gert. I’d seen the trailer among the previews before Wild a week earlier and I was fascinated.
I loved the movie, and was so touched by, especially, the ending that I cried. I can’t quite put my finger on it why, though. So I’ve spent the past few days thinking about it, but I still can’t place it.
The movie shows us the Bélier family, father, mother, 16 year old daughter and a 14 or so year old son. Both parents and the son are Deaf. The son was born Deaf, and it is implied that the parents were, too. The daughter, Paula, is hearing, and it is from her perspective that the movie is shot.
The Béliers run a dairy farm. They have a number of cows and sell cheese at the local market(s). As the only hearing person in the family, Paula is the one fielding phone calls to and from suppliers and other contacts. She also serves as a translator for her parents in situations where they interact with hearing people face to face.
Besides that, she works at the farm, and has school, which is rather far away. Suffice it to say, her days are full, and there’s always something she has to do.
We get snapshots of Paula translating for her parents at the doctor’s office, and working the cheese stand at the market where her parents can’t hear a customer’s questions.
As the movie is billed (at least partially) as a comedy, these situations are extrapolated and magnified for comedic effect. The doctor’s visit has Paula having to tell her parents they can’t have sex for three weeks to allow her mother’s infection to heal. The cheese stand scene sees Paula quip that it’s the division of work: her mother smiles, she talks.
I can imagine these situations can come across as insulting to Deaf people, but I feel they are justified here based on the point of view. It is Paula that we follow, and Paula who is often exasperated by her family’s antics, as teenagers generally are. She doesn’t always want to be the one that has to do this or do that, she wants to do her own things, grow up some. And her parents like to keep their little family as is, safe and home.
At school, it’s time for the students to pick their extracurricular activity. Paula and her best friend Mathilde are waiting in line when they see Gabriel, the boy Paula is crushing on. He’s from Paris and seems to be the odd duck at school. When he picks choir as his activity, Paula promptly follows suit.
During choir practice, the teacher makes them sing songs by Michel Sardou, a French singer-songwriter who’s been singing for about 50 years. He’s not very popular with the younger generation, but a bit of a legend among older ones for his work in the 70s. Reading his Wikipedia page, I’m getting a bit of a Boudewijn de Groot vibe for that period.
The Parisian, as the boy is referred to, has a good voice, so he gets to sing a solo at the end of year recital. During practice, however, it turns out that Paula, normally fairly soft spoken, has a really good voice.
The teacher turns the Parisian’s solo into a duet with Paula. They agree to practice at her house, which results in a (for Paula) embarassing scene involving herself, the boy and her parents. Mortified she decides to keep her involvement with choir a secret from her parents.
The teacher also tells her about a singing competition in Paris. The winner gets to attend a school for talented singers, in Paris. He wants her to enter, and Paula wants to, as well. To get her ready, she practices at her teacher’s house every evening singing Je Vole, also by Michel Sardou. Je Vole is a song wherein a teenager tells his parents that he is about to leave. It’s not fleeing, it’s flying away, without substances, without other influences, the teenager chooses his own path and he begs his parents to accept this.
So between all her other duties, she now has to practice her singing both solo and the duet. And then, to make matters worse, her father decides to run for mayor. Leading to Paula being needed even more to translate.
When she finally does tell her parents she’s singing in the choir, she is met with resistance and a fight. Paula’s desire to follow her own dreams clashes with her mother’s fear of losing her. A fear she’s had ever since she learned that Paula could hear.
Her parents come to the recital at school and during the choir performance you can see they don’t really get it. Why would they, they’re all born deaf, they never heard music. They’ll be able to feel vibration, but they can’t feel that from a choir sitting in the audience.
So they look around a lot, talk to each other and keep busy while they wait for the rest to applaud to signify the singing is over.
Then, Paula and Gabriel sing their duet. As they start to hit the chorus, the sound fades and it remains silent for the rest of the song. A very powerful method to give some sort of clue to the hearing part of the audience as to how her parents and brother are experiencing it. They can, of course never fully replicate it, as hearing people will remember how music sounds, but it does make you realise how weird it must be for them to see her enjoy something they can never fully participate in.
It’s a chasm between them and it scares her mother more. Her father seems more understanding and later, when they’re back home, he asks her to sing for him as he places his hand on her throat. She sings for him, and he seems to see her passion, but ultimately can’t experience it in the same way.
Paula, who had decided against leaving her family, changes her mind at the last minute and her parents ultimately support her. They drive her to Paris and she makes the audition just in time. Her parents sit in the room to watch as Paula starts to sing. Even though they might be able to read lips (they don’t really do so during the movie) they still don’t fully understand. But then, as she starts the verse, she starts to sign along.
The lyrics are adapted slightly to better fit the actual story in the movie. And she sings about her mother’s sad face and her father’s smile and how she loves them, but she has to go and fly. It’s not a running away, but she is leaving, and they will no longer have a child. With the help of the signing, her parents finally understand, and accept.
There are some other story lines that are partly shown but get no neat endings, like her father’s mayoral candidature or her brother’s interest in Mathilde, just as life itself keeps going for others when you go a different direction.
If you can, watch this movie. It’s funny, entertaining, and deeply moving. The actress playing Paula, Louane, is also a singer (she was in the French version of The Voice) and the song is available on her album on Spotify. I’ve been listening to it non-stop since I saw the movie.
I couldn’t find a Dutch or English subbed version, so this German one will have to do 😀