Five Things I Hate About Summer #5Things

Posted on by Astrid

I’m a bit late to join in with this week’s #5Things prompt, as I didn’t see it till today. Yesterday I hardly checked my feed reader at all. This week’s prompt is 5 things you hate about summer. Now I must say summer is still my favorite season, but I’m tempted to switch that to spring. Here are five things I hate about summer.

1. The heat. I live in the Netherlands, which at least used to have a pretty moderate climate. However, last year we broke all heat records with temps rising to 40 degrees Celsius. Nice weather for me is about 25 degrees Celsius. We had that for most of the summer this year, but right now we’re experiencing a horrible heatwave again.

2. The drought. I know, I know, many people hate the humidity and I do understand hot and humid weather is worse than dry heat. However, here we have had regular water shortages that were horrible for the farmers.

3. Air conditioning. As much as I hate the heat, I hate to have the AC on even more. It makes a lot of noise and either hardly helps at all or leads to such freezing cold temps that you get hit with the heat as soon as you leave the room.

4. Mosquitoes. Oh boy, how I hate those! They sting and they make horrible noises.

5. Wasps. I’m quite scared of them. Plus, they are frankly annoying with their buzz and always trying to sit on my ice cream or lemonade.

What do you not like about summer?

Five Things I Enjoyed During Lockdown #5Things

Posted on by Astrid

Today I’m joining in with the Five Things Challenge, for which the topic this week is things we enjoyed during lockdown.

Now I must say we had an “intelligent” lockddown here. Most businesses were closed, as were schools and restaurants. Many people still weren’t taking it seriously. After a week of school and business closures, on March 23, the prime minister announced stricter enforcement of the stay-at-home order. That’s when he invented the term “intelligent lockdown”. The care facility implemented a no-visitors policy after this. Still, there were no curfews or rigid restrictions on where or when you could be outside. As such, my list may be a little different from that of those who experienced a complete lockdown. Here goes.

1. Walking. Like I said, we didn’t have a curfew. Still, according to Fitbit, in the Netherlands too steps taken dropped significantly during lockdown. I, however, was able to increase my steps a lot.

2. Blogging. It’s great that the #AtoZChallenge was in April, in the midst of lockdown. I truly enjoyed blogging almost everyday during the strictest stay-at-home orders.

3. Reading. Similarly, suddenly I had time to read. Not only did I not go visit my husband or need to fulfill other obligations, but the day center was (and still is) closed. At the day center, I occasionally tried to read, but the noise was just too much. As a result, I had much more time to read. I don’t think I finished any of the books on my lockdown TBR list, but that’s probably because I’m a mood reader.

4. Saving money. Okay, that’s not something I did, but it did happen. I didn’t go out to dinner or have to buy transportation tickets to go to my husband. I didn’t get my hair done, which was really okay as I hate getting it done. In the end, I ended up saving some money. Then I bought my iPhone, of course.

5. Snacking. In the early weeks of lockdown, I was using the added stressor as an excuse to snack on candy and cookies and basically anything. Magically, I more or less maintained my weight throughout the lockdown. I’m due to get weighed in tomorrow again.

What were the positives of the lockdown for you?