This week has been kind of busy with the summer solstice celebrations and my Tallinn mum's birthday on the 24th. Ten Thing of Thankful (TToT) bloghop is my way of reflecting on the week, showing gratitude for the little things that made it better, and reading the thankful posts of many other authors and bloggers I follow. It's a lovely surge of optimism and my favourite way to end the week.

You can join in or discover other participants at the link-up.

Ten Thing of Thankful #9

First — Ten Thing or Things of Thankful aka TToT

As I already mentioned in the introduction to this post, making this blog hop part of my end-of-the-week routine has had some awesome benefits.

The biggest one is that it reminds me to focus on the good, however small it may seem. Also, instead of the melancholy that often finds its way into most of my creative work (I'm actually not nearly as sad as my creative work would have you believe—I am a ball of giggles, weird jokes, silly faces, and random sound effects, so...) it also sounds different to the readers.

Reading the other hoppers' posts also creates this wonderful sense of community and togetherness, and if I'm honest, taking the time to list your weekly gratefuls really does boost your mood. Reading everyone else's thankfuls does too, so do check them out!

Second — Six Sentence Stories

I have found a few authors there whom I genuinely don't think I can live without now. Seriously, I've been reading like crazy, and of course I've been participating in the blog hop myself.

There are far worse ways to spend an evening than writing stories and reading the work of other talented authors. Also, commenting feels like talking to friends... eek...

Third — Music

I can't make a list without it.

Fourth — Nails

It may seem like a funny thing to be grateful for, but as both my own and a few friends' personal nail tech, I think it's normal to list it...

It's one more way to have a creative outlet and use a tiny canvas to make something. I do gel manicures, so I'll just add a few photos—even if I use stickers currently, though I used to do a lot of marble designs and yes, webs and spiders... then with the school and everything going on I have resorted to doing simpler things like in the photos below.

Fifth — Home Made Meals

I don't know how many people know this, but I used to work as a cook. I'll add a few photos of some prettier meals and a few comfort ones like dumplings and packet ramen (that is my UNIVERSTY SURVIVAL FAST DINNER...), but honestly, it doesn't matter whether it's homemade pizza, dumplings, or just plain macaroni with minced meat—I simply love preparing food. And the look on my boyfriend's face when I bring him a plate is worth every minute in the kitchen. He looks at me like a cute little puppy, and it just makes me want to cook for him even more.

I mean... Feed 'em fat so they can't run away!

And I can't wait to go mushroom picking again, I just fry them in butter and salt and pop them in the freezer for winter.

Sixth — Alcoholic Drinks

I'm a huge fan of red wine (Primitivo being my favourite), Vana Tallinn liqueur, rum, whiskey, and tequila or mezcal. This week, thanks to my brother, I got to try Korean soju for the first time. The grape one was really good, and I ended up tasting a few other drinks as well.

I won't add photos here, but we also had Chinese Moutai Prince, which smelled like acetone to me—I genuinely had to hold my nose while drinking it! We also tried some sake and three different Japanese liqueurs, all of which were fricking delicious and made me wanna run away with the bottle...

And I don't really drink to get drunk, though it may happen at times. Mostly I just sip a little because it's good. Okay... if you give me a Primitivo from Puglia or a Zinfandel, then the bottle just miraculously disappears, but that's because it's so good. YUM!

By the way, Californian Zinfandel and Italian Primitivo (the famous grape from Puglia) are actually the same grape variety! The wines have a distinctive taste that's very hard to put into words: rich, fruity, warm, and a little spicy.

The Italian ones are a bit darker and have more of an earthy feel, but the Zinfandels are quite similar in a way—just a bit crazier. Though some wine lovers say the Californian ones are fruitier, the Zinfandels I drink are much spicier and aged in oak, which gives them a super distinctive flavour compared with their Italian cousins.

I find Zinfandels particularly sexy... I mean lush and seductive and incredibly rich. I don't know how else to describe them. And the Primitivos from Puglia are classier and seductive in a different way, if that makes sense.

Seventh — My Phone

While it's nothing fancy—a OnePlus Nord 2 5G—it has lasted me several years now, ever since it was released. I carry a camera, a music player, an e-book reader, and, well... a phone, all in one device (wow, how shocking).

It may be considered an older, mid-range phone these days, but it's still fast and does everything I need it to and I never want any other brand phone after owning one of these.

Sometimes I think I'm a little too attached to my smartphone...

Eighth — Summer Break

It sounds so funny coming from a 34-year-old woman who has worked her arse off ever since her twenties (and even before that, with school and summer jobs). I'm genuinely grateful that I decided to take this summer off. After the construction work, I have so much cleaning to do around the flat that having the time to tackle it without having to wake up early every day is fricking great.

This week has mostly been about laundry because, somehow, all the clothes in my big, big, big wardrobe ended up covered in a layer of dust even if it was shut and covered with protective film... AAAGH! I've been doing laundry for three days... Seriously... aaaand I have a lot of clothes... I mean... around twenty skirts???? and don't ask me about shoes... or dresses... or blouses and pants UH-OH...

What do you think I complain about when going out?!?!

Ninth — Computer Games

I've been playing The Elder Scrolls Online ever since it was released, and it's still one of my favourite games. To put that into perspective, I've had three different accounts over the years, just so I could start all over again.

It has also received some really great updates lately—my favourite being the ability to make the world more difficult, which means I can finally die to a group boss while trying to solo it... also new PvP rewards... Yay!

This month, I've been gaming quite a lot...

Like umm, teenage me a lot.

Tenth — My home

I love how quiet this town is. Sometimes I miss Viljandi or find myself wanting to move again (we do tend to move around a lot), but there's something genuinely comforting about the slower pace of life here. As you've probably seen in some of my previous Ten Things of Thankful posts, Paide has its own quiet charm.

There's more of my work:

If you like short stories I have them scooped up into one category (including the six-sentence stories).

The Nervous Poet at the SSC&B can be followed here.

There is also poetry.

More personal entries can be found at the Blog.

There's also the IT studies blog in Estonian and "Chaos in Spring" on YouTube, Spotify and other streaming services.