The Untied Kingdom? - the British thread 2021
Piglet
All Saints Host, Circus Host
in All Saints
Happy new year, and a shiny new thread.
Hope everyone's year is off to a good start!
Hope everyone's year is off to a good start!
Comments
My boots have zips so no need to worry about being untied!
I've got boots with zips which I adore - vegan boots and very comfy. I've also got a pair of Dubarry Boots which I found on ebay and are amazing but no zips and taking them off is a serious undertaking.
Having a lovely lazy morning. Looking at the greyness of outside and feeling snug.
I'm having breakfast while listening to a live video stream of a festive New Year's Day service from an RC cathedral in wider Continental WesShire. I cannot tell you how moving it is to hear live music, organ, orchestra, a good small choir! - which is permitted, as done by professionals and within strict guidelines; church attendence only sparse, according to rules.
Good stuff.
Oh wait, I just did! Oops.
The bread is doing its first rise, and once I've shaped it I'll go and get dressed while it does its second. Then breakfast of eggs, smoked salmon and an avocado, and on to preparations* for supper with my brother and sister-in-law.
* which may or may not include hooverage, and possibly even Dust Ing.
Anyway lazy morning here, though we do intend to go for a walk later and we've arranged to Facetime one of our nieces for a catch up later.
I guess the Daily Mail readers are referring to the section on race relations (I think it referred to BLM) and possibly the inclusion of the environment. I said to my husband that the former would cause complaints!
Lazy morning here too, I had a lie in and really must go for a walk but it has just started to rain and I suspect it is cold and unpleasant.
Fuck 'em. In Christian love, of course.
If that is construed as a statement about Europe, so be it.
I was up, as in awake and doing things, rather than swishing around in sequins and chiffon as I would have been on the party thread had I'd been together enough to join in, until when the fireworks stopped - being this area we had early fireworks around 6pm, more at 8pm and again at 9, plus definitely at 11pm. It all got to blur a bit. Followed by the traditional fusillade at midnight. It's never worth trying to go to bed early so I was building a puzzle geocache.
I didn't get to watch any TV as my daughter was RPGing on Discord with her old flatmates and that and i-player both eat bandwidth ruthlessly and incompatibly (as does Zoom), but I did find this around midnight - Auld Lang Syne by the Isolation Pub Sessions which cheered me up no end.
I was woken up at midnight by a fusillade of fireworks (I think that's what the noise was), but, oddly, heard not a single car or lorry horn being sounded...
BTW, I, too, find the thread title inspired, and possibly prophetic.
My year has actually started in a reasonable fashion. Those who were paying attention at the end of the last British thread will remember I was a Majorly Grumpy Nen over a number of things, including Mr Nen neglecting to put the food bin out with the other recycling and bin collections yesterday. However, not all the recycling was done yesterday (sheer volume of stuff, I think, coupled with staff shortages) and they came back for the remainder today. Fortunately the vehicle they came back with included the food recycling unit so we managed to get rid of the food waste after all and to give Mr Nen his due he dashed out when he saw them coming to make sure they took it.
Overcast here today, and slightly less cold. We'll be having a walk later and curry this evening using the rest of the roast lamb from yesterday. I'm spending a bit of time with my new diary to make sure I've got the notes I need in it from last year's. Then last year's will go onto the shelf with a bit of a "good riddance."
Very jealous! Here in Australia, we have lost broadcasting rights, so have to wait until it pops up on YouTube. Mrs BA and I substituted last year's concert via that medium at lunchtime today.
Thinking of all of you, and the various changes. Wishing everyone affected the best possible outcome, peace, safety, comfort, stability, shoring up, happiness, joy, fun, and enough (and then some) of what they need.
*Having managed to mop up most of my wool stash, I'm now starting on the cottons, working that old favourite, Kaffe Fassett's Persian poppy.
Very quiet here as poor Mr Beaky is still in considerable pain- a lot of anxiety for us both about how this will end but we're determined to make the best we can of it.
In true army officer's daughter mode I have started planning- currently looking at available properties all on one level...something we didn't think we'd need to do for another 10 years or so!
Tonight's supper is gnocchi with mozzarella, basil and vine tomatoes and Prosecco (for me as he's not allowed to drink on his meds)
I really should clean the house but I can't quite face it today.
Today is my granddaughter’s 16 th birthday. I dropped off her presents a couple of days ago, but planned to FaceTime her today. It was cut short as her Dad and his wife arrived for lunch. This is a first.
Her parents are divorced, both remarried. The two households live about 5 miles apart, so the children divide their time 50:50. Today, the granddaughter is at her Mum’s house, but Dad and his wife have been invited to join them for lunch and a bit of a celebration of the birthday. All legal, as they are effectively all part of the same bubble. More to the point, the difficulties of 2020 have brought about a huge amount of co- operation between the two sets of parents. Deo gratias.
After proper* breakfast we went for a walk and to check/ top-up the log piles of a few elderly neighbours. Bumped into (not literally) the paterfamilias of a multi-generational household who contributed 2 large tea-chests of kindling which was well received.
We've just finished watching Tea with Mussolini and are about to start on the Christmas cake.
* bacon, egg, tired veg, etc - not to be confused with just a cup of coffee and toast
I'm always happy to warm people's cockles - it's just that some I prefer to warm with a large flame!
Last night was a lovely evening of strategy games and we will start playing again shortly, this time Pandemic which I got my eldest for Christmas. He’ll be off back to uni and his shared house on Sunday and we’ll miss him.
Mr Nen and I decided to go for our walk before lunch and that turned out to be a good move because we caught a bit of sunshine. It was starting to be overcast again as we headed for home and is now back to being grey and gloomy. I plan to shower and get into comfies in time for Michael Palin on TV, following by the Archbishop of Canterbury's address.
We didn't quite get round to a pre-lunch walk as a result, and the afternoon was spent with books and computers rather than venturing out into the gloom and grey. May have to nip out later with the camera to get pics of some of the lights - there's a T-Rex chasing a sleigh in a garden up the road
Edit to add - another here who likes the thread title. Wondering if it'll be prophetic!
We play a lot of strategy games (husband used to run the monthly church gaming group) but generally collaborative games get treated with suspicion as my husband and son don’t like the co-operative Lord of the Rings game (admittedly, finding you have got to kill your character off early in the game for the good of the rest doesn’t make it very enjoyable).
Yes, but there would be a lot of Fergie-time before we heard the final whistle!
The thread title is one of my frequent typos, so I read it several times before I realised that the spelling was intentional. Many centuries ago, John Osmonde's 'The Divided Kingdom' was a major part of my degree thesis: thank goodness I didn't try to forecast the future for that Kingdom for the next 30 years!
It's gone much colder here. It actually feels like winter for once.
Husband en rouge having decided that his digestion doesn't enjoy heavy meals late at night, the festivities were kept for lunchtime today. We pretended to be Asterix with roasted wild boar, served with a red currant jelly sauce. Cheese was Comté, Etivaz and truffled Brie. Some very nice patisserie came from a new place that's just opened around the corner.
This evening we have finished the Champagne, and will have a light supper with the last of our truffled eggs.
My issue with coop board games, is that often you end up with the person who knows the game best directing everyone else. That said - the best I’ve played lately (2019) is: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/162886/spirit-island
It has a good combination of individual player autonomy and cooperation as you try to drive the colonisers off your island. (Which is a nice change from the general conquest and domination themes of so many games.)
I see Frankie Boyle's New World Order is on later; pity there isn't any new edition of Charlie Brooker's Anti-Viral Wipe (or Screen Wipe), which I enjoy as well. The evening is catered for.
We ate about 4 o'clock, and everything went off very nicely. I'd bought a shedload of CHEESE in lieu of pudding, but they actually brought a Christmas pudding (and cream), so we had that, and I've now got a fridge-full of CHEESE (and half a Christmas pudding) to use up ...
I had bought two gammon joints, as they didn't look very big, and I have an almost morbid fear of not providing enough food, so I've got one (divided in two) in the freezer, which will be turned into risi et bisi at some point.
I also have the liquid the meat had its first cooking in (a mixture of cider and water with bayleaves, shallot and peppercorns), and wonder if it might make the basis of a SOUP, possibly with lentils and tomatoes.
I think a walk will be on the cards tomorrow, unless the weather turns foul.
eta: Poor Celtic Knotweed - hope your migraine doesn't last!
I love all these food updates - it gives me ideas what to do as I am not very imaginative with my culinary muscles.
I started my yoga today! Online thingy and 20 mins - well we had to start in what was the called the easy way. Easy way my ar*e - crossed legged!! Gotta be joking - knees by the chin. And of course the yoga teacher is gorgeous and long-legged and makes everything look effortless! But she comes across nicely and I am looking forward to being more in touch with my body.
It's funny how all our mothers told us that, because it's actually not true. If one is ever unfortunate enough to get hit by a bus, the first thing they're going to do when they get you to hospital is get a big pair of scissors and cut all your clothes off you. You're really much better off with the scuzzy ones.
That said, someone I knew had a skiing accident, and knew immediately it was bad (she was right - several torn ligaments in her knee). She said the first thing that went through her mind was, "Am I wearing good underwear?"
I set a number of things to record this afternoon and evening and that was one of them. Unfortunately we had a power cut soon after 6 so I'll have to see how many of the recordings have been successful and how many have been jiggered. We've currently got 'The Serpent' on, which wouldn't be my chosen viewing; hence at least half my attention being here.
Sounds like a lovely day, Piglet, and glad you are set up with food for a few days as well.
Hope you feel better soon, Celtic Knotweed. I haven't, thank God, had a bad migraine for years but well remember lying in a darkened room and praying that the medication would stay down long enough to permit sleep.
Our lamb curry was very tasty and very filling; currently feeling stuffed and sleepy and ready for bed.
Thanks, duckie! I am not by nature unsympathetic (well, unless you're a twat and deserve whatever you've got, which wasn't the case here), but when all you can do is leave someone in a darkened room to get on with it, I prefer to save it for when it's needed. Plus I'm a sarky git most of the time, and people who know me worry when I start being nice.
That's my excuse, and I am sticking to it.
I dozed off there for a while; I've just woken up with a bit of a headache - not sure if it's from too much WINE or because I fell asleep at an awkward angle.
Thank you!
Venison stew for tea last night and a nice family time playing games.
Jus-rol pain au chocolate for breakfast with a latte. I’m just off out for a walk and will probably do some marking this afternoon as my son is busy being a dungeon master.
@Celtic Knotweed I stopped drinking all white wines as I found half a glass usually triggered a migraine when half a bottle or more of red wine was fine next day. I'm sure it's something specific in some cheap white wines as a few other things (supermarket trifle, some Chinese take-aways) cause a similar reaction, but it was easier not to drink white wine, or at all now, avoid synthetic trifle and dodgy take-aways. Yep, I know it's the wrong way round. (Teetotal comes from needing to be alert and aware caring at all times, 'cos sod's law says the night I'm part way into a couple of glasses of wine is the night I have to call ambulances.)
I'm just listening to "Saturday Live" on the radio and will then be heading out for a walk. It's bright and sunny at the moment but Mr Nen's weather app (which, it has to be said, is not always 100% reliable) suggests we could get precipitation in some form later on in the morning.
We are starting to get back to normal routines this weekend with the usual stir fry this evening, although there are quite a few nice Christmassy things to finish up as well. I'm also planning a New Year clean of the house but that can easily be postponed until at least Monday.
Yesterday's concert is already available on YouTube.