Friday is a day when everything happens, unresolved issues of the week are gathered that you don't want to know about on Saturday, so as not to spoil the end of the week.
In order to keep the end of the week as much for relaxation as possible, or different from the rest of the week anyway, Friday is the day for shopping and cooking, at least that's how it is at my house, it has become a habit that I only get rid of on holiday.
Usually, it goes like this. First a run to the neighborhood market, a farmers' market where I still find somewhat organic produce, the vendors' statements that they don't use chemical fertilizers when growing vegetables are not convincing. I say somewhat organic because I believe that these vegetables are still better than the ones from the supermarket.
Fresh vegetables and freshly caught fish. I live on the outskirts of the city and close to me, there are several lakes, artificial lakes made on a river that crosses the northern part of my city, Bucharest. These lakes are dried up before winter arrives, leaving only the river that feeds them. That is, the lake administrators open the dams and let the water flow out of the lakes. They then fish for fish and sell them in the markets.
The fish is not of very good quality, it's a fish that feeds on vegetation in lakes, has very small scales, and is not that tasty. But I bought it because it's very fresh. It is, however, very hard to clean, and every time I buy fish I regret it when I start cleaning it of scales.
Friday is a busy day at events, after making the market and buying ingredients for cooking... I didn't get around to cooking. That's because we decided ( the wife and I) to do the booster to the covid vaccine, ie the third dose. We went to the vaccination center and on this occasion, I will show you some pictures of the city where I live.
The vaccination center is located in an exhibition center, the largest in Romania. It is about 3 km from my house and we decided to walk there, which also solved the obligatory daily walk. Mandatory for maintaining health.
The boulevard we are walking on will reach the Free Press Square, the place where we usually enter Herastrau Park, our favorite park for walks, but there is also the entrance to the exhibition center.
Straight ahead is the entrance to the park but we will go left, next to two tall towers that are a kind of twin towers of Bucharest, to look for the vaccination center, because we don't know exactly where it is.
We then came to the main building, a pride of communist architects, now somewhat disgraced. Here, in this building, all kinds of exhibitions, book fairs, political party congresses, concerts are held. I have a fond memory of it because I saw a Peter Gabriel concert here!
Immediately in front of us, we found the vaccination center. I forgot to photograph it probably because of the excitement I feel whenever I approach a place where there are needles and syringes. I'm not comfortable with them, even though I act like I don't care.
Because I remembered Peter Gabriel, I'm glad I remembered him, he's one of the best and most famous musicians I've ever seen in concert, I'm now playing one of the many songs I like.
The vaccine was Modern, like the first two. Each time I had reactions after the vaccine, at night having a temperature and chills. Now, as I write, it's 11 pm and it hasn't started to go bad yet, maybe I'll get away with it this time.
Normally we would have gone home to start cooking but the wife, who is a big walker, wanted to take a few more steps in the park.
The wife's wish is the commandment...
I walked through the twins to the park.
A lovely December day, it felt like it was still September. It was a pleasure in the park, we walked for more than an hour. Then I left, but not for home. I still had some shopping to do, and with that, I can fit in today's theme. The weather is warm and beautiful but these are the last days of its kind, meteorologists announce that winter is coming. I have several Mediterranean plants that need protecting and will be looking for a special foil at a supermarket called Leroy Merlin.
I can already see the preparations for Christmas. I have chosen the tree I will buy in the next few days.
The DIY supermarket sits on the edge of town where there was supposed to be a very large shopping and entertainment complex. A Carrefour supermarket, a Jysk supermarket, a Scandinavian furniture supermarket, and a large shopping mall were also to be built here. The Colosseum Mall. The real estate crisis in 2008 caused the project to be scrapped but now work has been going on for about a year.
It was supposed to be the biggest mall in the city but I don't know if the original plan was followed.
It will probably open in the spring. So close to my house, it will be a great temptation for shopping and other money-consuming activities!
Once the foil was bought we hit the road home. Another walk of about 2 km. My eyes were drawn to a flock of pigeons. There were many pigeon breeders in the neighborhood, this was a local tradition. Wandering pigeons, participants in many contests.
Now there aren't so many, there are only a few left. Now one of them has taken the pigeons out for flight training.
When I got home I finally cooked. I cooked the fish and my wife cooked the vegetables. She doesn't eat fish, I don't eat vegetables!
I portioned the fish and made two dishes. Fried fish and fish soup.
From the fish head and tail plus various vegetables, onion, carrot, potato, and bell pepper I made a soup.
I sliced and fried the fish trunk. Here I made a mistake and fried it in a lot of oil. The fish was fatty and a lot of it melted so the result was not great.
Even though it wasn't great I enjoyed the fish cooked this Friday. I don't often cook fish.
That wasn't all, I had to use the foil I bought and protect a few shrubs with it, mostly oleanders but also a camellia and a laurel. This is the first time I will leave them outside in winter. I'm trying to acclimatize them, to get them used to the colder Romanian winters. I hope I succeed and now I'm looking forward to taking the bandages off in the spring.
Finally comes the flower, #alwaysaflower, which marks the end of this post. A Christmas flower, a flower that announces Christmas.
I've shown how I spent a Friday, as a sort of diary or rather boring documentary, I don't really see why anyone would be interested, but if anyone is, I'm glad. That's really how it happened!
@dswigle