Meet
Good goat times today. So good to be goating.
And I got the first two steps of the challenging week done today too. And it went well. I am really happy with it.
First off was the meeting at the goat place.
For the second time in two weeks I told Jeanette that I’d be getting a visitor. This time it wasn’t a traveller from Australia. This time it was Helle coming in on her bike.
She was really lovely. Super sweet. Very talkative! Which isn’t a bad thing when I’m everything but.
I was so nervous beforehand, but once we sat down and started talking I felt pretty comfortable. She was just really really sweet.
Jeanette had offered to join me at the meeting, which was super nice too. I told her she didn’t have to, but she did come with coffee for Helle
Anyway, the talk was really good. Helle had some floor plans for some of the apartments and how they will look after the renovations. And we talked a little about my wishes and options.
One thing I had been worried about was whether I’d be allowed to stay in the is neighbourhood. Because they have been ‘classing up’ the area, you can’t move in if you’r a ‘low status’ person. If you’re unemployed or things like that. And I am on disability. Early retirement. Normally I would not be allowed to move into this neighbourhood. But that was one thing Helle told me, that it used to be they couldn’t rehouse me in the neighbourhood, but that has been changed. So I CAN get a new place here. If I can find one available. And because I have lived here for almost 20 years, I have really good ancienity. Is that the word? Seniority? I’m high on the list. And people being rehoused get in front of the list already. So my standings are pretty good like that.
She was surprised that I had lived here so long. You look so young, she said. And when I told her I was 47 she was literally shocked, like she couldn’t believe it. Yeah. I still have that babyface. But i’m not that young.
Helle has been living in this neighbourhood for 50 years. Longer than i have been alive. She has previously been on the board of the housing association. But she was against the demolishing of the buildings here, so she kind of had to leave that. But she’s still very engaged in the local area politics, activism and so on. They have a lawsuit going in the EU about what is going on in the area, they believe it is discriminatory because they target a lot of, as I said, low status people. Refugees, immigrants, unemployed people, people on disability. And it looks like they have a good case, seems they are likely to win. Which could throw a lot of stuff up in the air. Plans may have to be changed, people may be entitled to compensation, something that could include me.
Oh and she told me that she understood I did not want to do a legal objection to my termination. But in fact 7, or maybe it was 9, of the people in my building have filed objections. So I don’t know what that might mean, if the plans for my building will be postponed too.
But it was really good to talk to Helle. Feel seend and listened to, gotten some advice. I wish she could go with me to the meeting with the housing association. But she can’t. Instead her colleague Peter will. And that was the second part today. When i got home from the goating, I called Peter and we had a little talk. Just mainly confirming the meeting and that he would be coming. He seemed very nice too, but it’s harder to get a real impression from just a short phone call. But I was worried about making the call too, and I got that done and it went fine. So all in all I am happy that it all worked out today. Now in a couple of days the real challenge will come. The meeting with the housing association is where there’s actually something at stake. I am not sure what we will actually go over, if it’s a first intro meeting or what. I don’t know if i’m supposed to have my wishes for a new place ready. But i’ll make a list of it in any case. Got some good advice and things to consider from the talk with Helle. I just hope the meeting will go as well as the things today did. Hopefully when it’s done i will be as relieved as I am today. But there’s still a lot of hard stuff ahead. The future is scary. But so far so good.
And the goats keep me grounded. And now I’m going to make a big pot of soup.
And that’s that’s that.
7/7 2025
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The goats weren’t too happy that i left the pen to go have meetings with humans. Trust me girls, i’d rather stay with goats too! But sometimes you have to do horrible things. Like talk to humans.
Just kidding, as I said Helle was really nice to talk to.
7/7 2025
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Babyface and his ‘baby’ goat.
7/7 2025
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Very tired now. It was a challenging day. But rewarding. Couldn’t have hoped for it to go better. As is very often the case, the worrying beforehand was much worse than the actual thing. If only I could learn that lesson.
Need sleep now. And then harder challenges ahead.
Thank you everyone for the encouraging words again. So thankful to have so many good people on my side. It really does help me, even if I feel like I don’t deserve it. Because my brain is always outpacing myself. Stupid brain, i’ll get you some day!
7/7 2025
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Got an hour and a half on the bike today. Feeling pretty crummy. I made the unfortunate and regrettable mistake yesterday of buying a big bag of cashew nuts. You can see where this is going… becuase I have zero self control I ended up eating most of the bag. Today I am bloated and constipated and yuck. Oh well. You live and you don’t learn.
I deserve some rewards in this challenging time. But that wasn’t very smart. The exercise felt good though. And now my worry is not so much slowly building as more skyrocketing towards tomorrow’s big challenge. Hopefully it will be another case of the worry being worse than the thing. But this is an important thing, as the bishop said to the nun’s badger.
One day a day. Tomorrow is tomorrow’s problem.
8/7 2025
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Think goat thoughts.
8/7 2025
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Well alright alright. Got my big scary meeting done today. And, all things considered, I think it went quite well. I am just relieved to have gotten it done. Three big scary things in 3 days. Phew. But I got through it. And I’m pretty happy with the results, so far.
The conclusion is, that they will try to find me a place in this neighbourhood. Specifically we are looking at the building next to mine. The one that is currently being dozed by bulls. The hope is that I will be able to move into a newly renovated apartment similar to my current one.
It will be a tight fit, if it’s possible. They are working on that building and only one of the sections of the it will be ready in time. I have to move out of this apartment April 1st. The apartments in that section will be ready on March, I think it was 26. The rest of the sections of the buildings won’t be completed until May or June next year.
So if I get an apartment there, I will have like a five day window to move. That’s not great. But if it means i can stay in this area in a similar, but renovated, apartment. I guess I will have to make it work.
And moving to just the next building over would mean as little change as possible, so that would be nice.
Still being in this neighbourhood would also mean still living with dozing bulls as the other buildings start to get renovated over the next few years. But eh, I would rather live with that then being moved to a completely different location.
So we’re looking at that as the best option. They still have to talk to everyone else who is being rehoused to find out what their wishes are. If someone with higher seniority wants one of ‘my’ apartments then I could be out of luck. But because i have pretty good seniority and because the smallest apartments are the ones where people often don’t stay as long, they say my chances would be really good for getting one. It’s not guaranteed, but there should be a high probability that I can get one of those apartments.
If that’s how it goes then I should find out in the beginning of the new year probably. And then I could start to prepare for the move at the end of March.
There are still the matters of the other tennants and their legal objectins, plus the big EU lawsuit about the whole plan for the neighbourhood. Nothing is absolutely certain. But again, I should have a good chance of moving to the neighbour building in March.
That’s the best case scenario right now. Another possibility would be if a smaller apartment opens up in one of the other blocks in the area. That could happen this year, but that would require someone moving out. I don’t know how likely that is. There aren’t a lot of the smallest apartments.
I would prefer to wait till next year. But if something that meets my requirements opens up then i will have to go for it of course. I’ll have to keep an eye on my mailbox to see if any offers come in. Now it’s pretty much a waiting game.
Not sure what will happen if i can’t actually get one of the renovated apartments in the neighbour block and nothing else opens up. But hopefully that won’t happen.
The meeting itself went pretty well. I met up with Peter in the lobby of the housing association offices. Very nice, older man. A lot less talkative than Helle was. Made for some awkward silences as we waited for our appointment. I think I would have felt a little more comfortable with Helle, but he was very nice and during the meeting he had some good input. I am just really glad I got in touch with them and got a helper for the meeting. Beforehand I was going have my dad come with me. But with all due respect, I know he would have been great moral support, but it was nice to have someone with experience in the matter and insight into the process and such. Very helpful. And good to not be alone with it.
The people we were meeting with was Sarah, who I had talked to over email, and Hanne, the rehousing consultant that had been assigned to me. Sarah was the one who ended up replying to the mail I had sent to Hanne, so I kind of thought Hanne wasn’t even going to be part of this, that she was on vacation or on other cases or something. But she seemed very nice. They both did. They were looking at the computer at some of the options for me. There had been talk about the area where Peter lives actually, Helle had mentioned that. It’s within walking distance of the playground too, but to the other side and in a ‘better’ neighbourhood. But also rent was double what I’m currently paying. So that as kind of out of my range. If I do get the renovated one in the neighbour building then it will be a little more expensive too, but not too bad.
So well, the future is still up in the air. There are difiicult times ahead. But for now I can relax a bit. The terrifying things have been done, and the next terrifying things will hopefully be a while away. Maybe i can enjoy the rest of the summer with the goats without a lot of worry. That would be nice. And then I’ll have to deal with the future when it gets here.
All in all I couldn’t really have hoped for it to go any better. Again, the worry beforehand was the worst. The actual meeting wasn’t too bad and the outcome was as good as it could be, so far, if all goes as hoped. Considering I’m being thrown out of my apartment, there’s hope I’l land in a slightly better one just one building over. Let’s hope. Maybe it will be okay. If I can survive it.
Thanks yous evetyones for helping me through these days. i really really really appreciate it. Your support means so much to me.
9/7 2025
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I sure hope the renovations of the apartments here include a serious upgrade to the sound proofing. The elephants in the bowling alley upstairs have been tapdancing all day.
But we’ll see if I get one of those fancy renovated places. Thanks everyone for the lovely comments again. Makes me happy to see so many people rooting for me.
I am really exhausted mentally right now. It’s been some big days.
I thought I was going to treat myself to pizza today. I didn’t have pizza all last month, which may be why the takeaway platform I use sent me a gift voucher. Trying to lure me back. I thought I’d use that today. But the pizza place I like is closed. I think they’re on vacation. So I did not get pizza today. Instead I tried something that was inspired by Heather’s comment yesterday, I think. Fried noodles and cashews. I told you I accidentally bought those cashews and ate almost the whole bag and made myself sick. But i still had the rest of the bag left. I like having noodles and potatoes fried in coconut oil, so I thought I’d add the last cashews to that. And then ketchup because I’m a grownup, as is evident by the important grownup things I’ve been doing. So that was today’s meal. Yummy. And then I got myself some BJs. The grocery delivery site had Ben & Jerry’s on sale last weekend, so I got a couple of tubs of that on Sunday. Planning to treat myself today, knowing the scary meeting was coming. Got a new flavour that I haven’t tried before. Mango. With chips of white chocolate. Yummeee.
Rewarding myself with treats this week. Next week I’m going try to rein it in and get back on a healthier track. I feel myself ballooning. Good thing I don’t have a complicated relationship with health and weight, it’s all easy and breezy. No issues here.
I’m going to need to sleep for about twenty hours tonight. But it’s good. I got the meetings done. I got the plans for the future fairly planned, hopefully they’ll stay on track.
Hope you’re all doing well out there too. May your challenges be met and conquered. You don’t have to think you can do it, just do it.
9/7 2025
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Time to collapse into bed and sleep for four scores and 7 snores. I trust Sky will keep watch while I’m znorking.
Thanks everyone again. You’ve been a great help the last couple of days.
9/7 2025
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I slept so much and I am still tired.
Sorry, just workshopping titles for my autobiography.
Waiting to inhale, pizza.
I soup therefore I am.
It’s a goat living
etcetera.
10/7 2025
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Hey Bella, what’s the goat word?
10/7 2025
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i havd hoped to go goating today. But even after a big long sleep I was still exhausted. I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck. Those first three days of the week really deflated my batteries.
On the plus side, i had pizza today. It was nice to have some pizza after more than a month without. Treating myself for the rest of the week, then next week it’s back to health. Probably.
I’m going to go sleep another twenty hours or so. i continue to claim that hibernation should be an all year option. Why limit yourself. Believe in yourself and anything is possible. Go all in. To bed. JUST DO IT. Just sleep. Listen to the sound of my voice. You’re getting sleepy. You are getting sleepy. You are getting Dopey. You are getting Bashful. You are getting Grumpy. Wait, where are you getting all these dwarves from?!
RE WRITE
11/7 2025
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i think i overslept, and the white rabbit got away.
11/7 2025
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I know a lot of people have a lot of very serious problems in the world today, but I am out of icecream so don’t act like i am not burdened. *lifts hands to the sky* I AM BURNEDED.
i really want more of those mango bjs.
11/7 2025
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Buzzing with Bella! Reminds me of quacking with Palle.
There will be a longer version of this up on the goat page later. But Bella’s reactions just make me laugh.
11/7 2025
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Into the goodnight
12/7 2025
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My dreams have started involving looking at apartments and accepting or rejecting offers for them. Reality seeping in at the edges.
12/7 2025
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Got an hour fortyfive on the bike today. Keeping up with it.
How long have I had that exercise bike? Fifteen years? More maybe. Absolutely one of the very best purchases I have ever made. I wholeheartedly recommend having one in your home, so you can get up and go without going out.
Got a good groove today. Muscles felt good. And I definitely needed it. After some half-berried exercise sessions and some poor eating because of all the stress this week, I have put on a couple of pounds. I feel like that big bag of cashews alone added a couple of pounds to my weight. I don’t know if that’s even possible.
I’m find with putting on a few pounds, especially in hard times. I just have to be careful so I don’t end up putting back on the 50 pounds I lost last year. It’s a slippery slide. I know myself well enough that if i let go.. I can crash and burn fast. Lost 50 pounds over the summer. Then put on 20 pounds over the winter. Lost that again over spring. It has always been a rollercoaster ride of ptsd and shame and trauma and mental and physical issues.
Hey hey hey. I did good today. So that’s a start. Hopefully I still have things under control.
Got on the floor and did my crunches and stretches too, haven’t done that for like a month. My body has been stiff and aching, I hope I can loosen that up a bit. My back is doing okayish in general. It’s not great, but it’s not plaguing me like it did before the weight loss and strength training. Sometimes I go out on goat days without painkillers at all, instead of chugging a bottle all day (it’s a joke, I did not do that. But I did used to go through the maximum allowed dosage of aspirin and ibuprofen, whatever the US brand names are).
Anyway. Having noodles and potatoes today. I love that, but I guess I should pause those and get back to all my soups, until i clear the couple of pounds. But today i will enjoy the noodies.Sorry, spelling is hard.
12/7 2025
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Sisters gotta stick together. Bella and Luna. Sweet together when they’re not butting heads.
I might stick to something too. 20C/68F at midnight is a bit much for a pasty white boy. I know I’ve gotten old because it’s always too hot or too cold. It’s never quite right. Arlight, goldilocks.
12/7 2025
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goatlog
13/7 2025
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Lazy Sunday. It’s weird, after the first half of the week being full of such monumental goings on, now I’m just hoping nothing important happens for as long as possible. having to dial things back down to a slow pace.
Good thing I’m very slow!
Hope you’re enjoying your weekend.
13/7 2025
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Sky chill.
13/7 2025
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Goatnight goats.
13/7 2025
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That’s all for now.