This morning I dropped Captain Pyjamas at the nursery and went to the garden, there to clear a bed I want to plant beans in.
Take home lesson: clearing couch grass is hard work. The roots went down about a foot. I definitely got my daily exercise digging them out, and am now as stiff as a board. I ache in muscles I didn't know I had
Glorious sunshine all day today, but dodgy weather predicted for tomorrow. Clearly overnight the wind will be pushing everyone else's cloud towards Yorkshire.
ION, I've just painted my nails a dark green so, as a dutiful poll clerk, there will be no undue influence to the voters during tomorrow's elections.
No Green Party candidates in your neck of the woods, then?
In Wales it's the Senedd elections and the regional lists include almost every party under the sun. Good luck to any polling clerk looking for a non-political colour for their nail tomorrow!
I've just looked up my constituency and it looks as if we've just got four candidates: SNP, Labour, Lib Dem and Conservative - nothing exotic or amusing!
The regional list is a bit more interesting though - quite a lot of oddities ...
I'm quite excited - this'll be the first time I've cast a vote in almost 20 years.
Glorious sunshine all day today, but dodgy weather predicted for tomorrow. Clearly overnight the wind will be pushing everyone else's cloud towards Yorkshire.
ION, I've just painted my nails a dark green so, as a dutiful poll clerk, there will be no undue influence to the voters during tomorrow's elections.
No Green Party candidates in your neck of the woods, then?...!
It's a different shade so hopefully it will only elicit mild thoughts of protecting the environment
We have local council, but also West Yorkshire Regional Mayor elections.
Chilly here but hoping for improvement on yesterday's hail (with some sun) as we're meeting friends for lunch at a cafe partway between the two of us. We were university students together, so we've got about 40 years to catch up on.
I'm just off to vote; mayors and police and crime commissioners.
We’ll be voting this evening in the Senedd elections. We will vote for local and regional candidates, so we are at liberty to vote for both parties who might actually get something done.
(“Senedd” is a much nicer name than “Welsh Assembly Parliament “, or whatever they’ve decided to call it.)
I went for my early morning walk via the village hall to do my duty.
I've done my daily admin and am currently psyching myself up for a day of marking (government and family policy). The sky is moody and grey and I know how it feels.
We're planning to vote after lunch as we head out for a walk before my youth work session, which is slated to be planning for after half term; the various hiatuses have lost the group who were attending so we're looking at supporting transition into secondary and other more specific activities, such as life skills, after half term and beyond.
As well as the downstairs neighbour's daughter performing her daily dance of recalcitrant refusal to attend school, there was a fox outside earlier quietly sneaking across the grounds of the old school, currently awaiting planning permission for too many flats for the infrastructure to manage. We already have problems with the sewers as there's not enough drop on the main sewer for it to drain properly and it requires a little pump to cope as much as it does, which is not during heavy rainfall.
One of last week's entertainments was a young man from the water board asking me how the pump was wired as the power had failed. Why me? Because my downstairs neighbour pointed him in my direction. No, I didn't know, but I worked it out and found the right distributor box, recently rewired so our new supposedly energy-saving hall lights actually switch on when they detect motion, rather than save energy by remaining firmly off. Unfortunately that left us negotiating stairs in the dark, seriously unsafe: it couldn't be left. The box was incorrectly wired, attaching the one set of pump wires, but failing to complete a circuit as the other set connected in something else, as yet undetermined. I predict a future conversation with the erratic communal area cleaner as the other likely circuit are the hall power points.
We were almost wrong footed - I don’t usually bother with our polling cards but happened to pick them up this morning, only to discover that the location of our polling station had changed. We assume it was because it was a much bigger room, which made social distancing easier. We made sure we took our own pencils, as requested.
In the north East of Scotland, freezing weather in early May is known as "the Gab o' May."
Are there other regional names for it?
Not snow in May, but the (often quite heavy) snowfall that usually happens in Newfoundland just after St. Patrick's day is known as "Sheila's Brush".
No snow here (so far), but a fair modicum of wet misery. I was hoping for a nice little amble along to St. Ninian's to cast my vote, but it'll be a bit of a drag if it's p*ssing with rain.
Hair has been coloured, breakfast has been eaten and now I'm sitting with a cup of coffee waiting for a parcel that's supposed to be delivered some time between 11 and 3. After that, possible afternoon coffee with my friend A., and then ...
... HAIRCUT!!!
In fairness to my usually recalcitrant locks, they've been behaving rather well for the last few days, but I think they're just tricking me because of the imminent haircut.
Change of route for my morning walk to allow a visit to the polling station.
Just me, plus the people handing out the voting slips and several volunteers to shepherd me around the one way system and keep me 2m away from the others in the non-existent queue.
We have steady rain. I'm not unhappy, because the garden needed it. Captain Pyjamas is peaky today (only a cold, I think) so we weren't really going anywhere anyway.
I went off to the Polling Station first thing. There was a local councillor leafleting our road and I gave him a wave. He didn't bother with us as he knows that I have totally fallen out with him and his party due to his support of a Low Traffic Network in out area that has sent all the traffic down our road. Our road is very little wider than the ones in the LTN and has four times the number of pedestrians, cyclists etc. Rant over, needless to say I didn't vote for that parties candidate for Mayor, our local area, or the London assembly. There wasn't a queue at 7.00, but my husband was in a queue of ten or so when he went to vote at nine.
After that we went off for a nice walk to pick up a loaf from the French patisserie three miles a way, and a rather nice ring as a birthday present from a shop we kept on passing during lockdown that looked rather nice, it was.
Change of route for my morning walk to allow a visit to the polling station.
Just me, plus the people handing out the voting slips and several volunteers to shepherd me around the one way system and keep me 2m away from the others in the non-existent queue.
Same at my local polling station (we're *only* voting for a Police & Crime Commissioner here - no local councillors).
Yes, I read the small print on the polling card, and took my own Pen.
We took TIG#2 along to experience democracy in action, and see how it means that *everybody* gets a vote (even those who add their polling cards to the ballot box and then go back to tell the clerk, totally ignoring the one-way system )
To be utterly fair, I had to whip back quickly and collect Mr S's pencil which I had left in the booth - and equally, there were new little pencils, such as you can get at big Swedish furniture stores, available for the forgetful or hard of thinking.
So, while there had been no queue when we arrived, there must have been ten or a dozen patiently queuing by the time we made it out the door.
We had a great time catching up with our university friends, were able to have lunch at the cafe, then a walk, then back to the cafe for coffee and cake - all in the dry. Sometimes, when the sun came out, our coats came off as well.
Bangers'n'mash for tea and Mr Nen's gone out so I have control of the TV remote.
Quite a busy day here: on the way back from exercising my Democratic Right and Civic Duty, as I was passing the butcher's I thought, why not buy some minced beef and make spag. bog. for supper, so I did, leaving it in the slow-cooker while I went for coffee with A.
We were so busy putting the world to rights I nearly missed my hair appointment, and had to go scurrying off. Luckily the hairdresser was running a bit late, so I needn't have worried.
A good day all round.
Back to work tomorrow, but then the weekend beckons.
I caused great delight by being all organised with mask, own hand sanitiser, card, and pen at the polling station this morning at 7.10 a.m.. They were prepared for all eventualities, though.
My church's hall is normally a polling station but when I went to drop off the weekly pewsheets it clearly was not being used for that purpose. Possibly the lack of ability to implement a one-way system as well as the fact the nursery, who are currently the only hall users, would've had to do some serious clearing up/cleaning to enable it mitigated against such a use.
So I did a bit of organ practice instead to celebrate the fact the 3 days migraine had finally cleared and I had survived a day at back at work as the last of it worked its way out of my system.
IIRC Marylebone Station is quite small, as major termini go.
Still, think how much busier it might have been in *normal times* (remember them?) with Euston out of action.
This thread is moving too fast for me to keep up, so I hope I'll be forgiven for going back to offer a favourite quote from one of Canon Roger Lloyd's books anent Marylebone in earlier times:
Of Marylebone terminus... the prevailing impression is of quietude - nothing particular ever seemed to be happening. It is essentially peaceful, and when some rather fussy penitent told his father confessor - Mgr Ronald Knox, I think - that he could find nowhere in London where he could meditate in quiet and peace, he was astonished to hear the caustic answer, "Have you tried Marylebone station, my son?"
Glad you’ve got a referral re your hands sooner rather than later @boogie.
Son is home to help get things down from the loft ahead of our (fingers crossed) move and to celebrate my birthday on Monday. Unfortunately I have totally forgotten that tomorrow is our wedding anniversary. Oops, far too late to get a card and as I’ve admitted I’ve forgotten I can’t quickly make one either.
I'd say you've probably been married long enough that Mr. Sarasa won't mind a bit. Congratulations, good luck with the declutterage and happy birthday for Monday.
Back to work today, and having not slept at all well last night (I think I woke every two hours, and tossed and turned for at least half an hour each time) I'm now somewhat zonked. Although I'd had a good, decently busy day at work, my mood wasn't improved by getting absolutely drenched at the bus stop afterwards - it came down in stair-rods for about 10 minutes while the bus wasn't there. At least when I got to the station, I just caught a train by seconds.
I definitely wasn't going to bother with cooking after that, so it was Friday chippy for supper.
Takeaway curry here and very nice it was too. Mr H made mango lassi as well (mango pulp, yoghurt and cardamom is his recipe).
I'm deciding whether to have gin or beer.
Quite a busy day. Started with a good swim, changed the bit, did 2 lots of washing, cut the lawn and spent a lot of time titivating the overgrown edges, did a bit of church work on the computer. Then down to church to record Sunday's service followed by our first indoor 7-11 youth club for months (I only have a minor role in this). I finished off with pysgodyn a sglodion from the chippie!
Fish'n'chips here too - swordfish marinated in bourbon to be exact.
Spent a couple of hours fighting the hedge - or that section of where a once-flowering shrub had gone very woody and leggy, while snowberry snuck up through the resultant scratchy tangle.
Despite the snow/hail/downpours of the last few days, everything is resolutely leafing and blossoming.
I need to spend all today working on one of my appendices for my assignment. I would have preferred to be doing some gardening but having popped onto the door step to get the milk in I am not longer regretting planning to study instead. It is pissing down.
We saw the weather forecast for today and got out for a long walk yesterday*. I took a picnic of Vecon and lettuce sandwiches (because marmite isn't gluten free), crudités with no dressing and a pack of dried fruit, with water to drink, which would have been fine for being reasonably sedentary at home, not so great on a 10 mile plus hike, so we bought cake on the way back and devoured it with cups of tea when we got home around 3pm.
We too ate fish for supper - cod in gluten free batter, baked in the oven with a whole courgette split lengthways and served with petit pois and braised lettuce. No chips as we neither had the potatoes or ready made polenta nor needed them after cake earlier, and anyway, enough starch in the peas and batter already.
Plans for today are inside, for this morning at least, while it is so grey, wet and dull outside, although I do need to check another geocache sequence to make sure they've been replaced properly. Because nobody ever does.
* to resolve one of my very new geocaches, inadvertently placed in the same location as one archived a few years back but still there physically, and to place a trackable - the second cache I've placed in an identical position in that area. We then headed on further to pick up another cache that was a few miles further on.
To depart from the fish theme, we had cowboy pie last night - sausages and baked beans with mashed potato on top. Good comfort food.
Yesterday evening was lovely, clear and still; if I hadn't seen the weather forecast I never would have expected rain today. But here it is. Younger son's tennis has been cancelled, and so has hubby's walk with a friend. So we have to find something to occupy ourselves.
Takeaway curry here ...
I'm deciding whether to have gin or beer.
Beer with; GIN either before, after or both.
Laundry beckons today; I may go for a little amble while waiting for it to do its thing. I could do with one or two things that I might be able to get in Fork Handles, so I'll have a wee stroll over there.
Strong Winds and Heavy Rain here, so it must be The Weekend!
No need to venture out today, though, as supplies were bought at Tess Coe yesterday. Meat pud for lunch I think, with a baked spud - more comfort food...
You sparked a happy memory. My brother and I used to get Dandy, Beano and Sparky on a Saturday and sit together giggling and sharing snippets. Our favourite by far was Sparky and we took it in turns to read it first.
Glad to hear the health update, @Boogie , and that you've got an earlier referral, but sad about the puppy.
I made a foray to Tess Coe this morning; there are a few things I can't get online from Sainz Breeze so I make an outing every few weeks. Not a great time to go, it was busy and slow navigating the aisles while trying to social distance but I got all I needed so won't have to do that again for a while.
Much milder here, and breezy, and steady rain which I can almost hear the gardens slurping up.
It's persisting down here, too, so I went to make chocolate muffins (I didn't have any softened butter so was avoiding creaming butter and sugar together).
They look fine, but might have been even better if I hadn't forgotten to add 50 ml of milk and 90 ml of oil, right up until the muffin mixture was in the cases *slaps forehead* so I had to scrape it all out and remix...
Curry and wine for our Zoom dinner with our Scottish friend later on
I'm having a lazy day while husband and son cook a meal for my 'birthday'. It's going to be spanakopita with an interesting salad followed by coffee and walnut cake. I've just had a look at the cake in the fridge and it is enourmous. Think our son will be taken some home home with him. There will be homemade espresso martinis to start.
[quote="Nenya;c-418408"I'm sure @The Intrepid Mrs S and I were separated at birth. [/quote]
What I would have given for a sister my own age... I was 12 by the time I acquired a brother, so we didn't actually have a shared childhood, sadly (I was more like an au pair!)
Just as well we nipped out to the shops early (just a few basics - bread, a paper, tin of haggis, 12 bottles of wine) as it's been a thoroughly wet and chilly day.
We spent the afternoon watching golf from Tenerife - as much for the landscape and the fond memories of a week on Lanzarote.
The haggis is for making Immoral Chicken tomorrow - like Balmoral Chicken but with lower standards. Tonight is the grilled lamb with tzatziki preceded by the weekly cocktail.
Happy VE Day everyone. It's a public holiday in France, although since it falls on a Saturday this year, it doesn't really feel like it apart from even more of the shops being closed and tricolores flying in prominent places.
Husband en rouge has obtained some Japanese WINE (no, I didn't know they made it either). Consequently we went on an expotition this morning for the procurement of sushi. The best Japanese outlets are to be found on the rue Sainte Anne, in between the Louvre and Opéra, so the outing was rather pleasant. I haven't been round there for ages. The Japanese booze is now chilling, and the good Japanese sushi will be eaten for dinner. Most sushi restaurants are run by Chinese people, but the genuine Japanese ones are better (and also pricier ).
What I would have given for a sister my own age... I was 12 by the time I acquired a brother, so we didn't actually have a shared childhood, sadly (I was more like an au pair!)
My experience was similar except that I came along 10 years after the younger of my two brothers; they were like another generation and I never knew either of them very well.
@Arethosemyfeet - doesn't the soured cream make the flapjack topping go off if you keep it for any length of time?
Stir fry update - I'd neglected to take the meat out of the freezer (I thought it was in the fridge) so am working hard to defrost it before cooking. >rolleyes<
What I would have given for a sister my own age... I was 12 by the time I acquired a brother, so we didn't actually have a shared childhood, sadly (I was more like an au pair!)
@Arethosemyfeet - doesn't the soured cream make the flapjack topping go off if you keep it for any length of time?
Not that I've experienced. That may say more about my waistline than the longevity of soured cream, however
Comments
Take home lesson: clearing couch grass is hard work. The roots went down about a foot. I definitely got my daily exercise digging them out, and am now as stiff as a board. I ache in muscles I didn't know I had
No Green Party candidates in your neck of the woods, then?
In Wales it's the Senedd elections and the regional lists include almost every party under the sun. Good luck to any polling clerk looking for a non-political colour for their nail tomorrow!
The regional list is a bit more interesting though - quite a lot of oddities ...
I'm quite excited - this'll be the first time I've cast a vote in almost 20 years.
It's a different shade so hopefully it will only elicit mild thoughts of protecting the environment
We have local council, but also West Yorkshire Regional Mayor elections.
In the north East of Scotland, freezing weather in early May is known as "the Gab o' May."
Are there other regional names for it?
I'm just off to vote; mayors and police and crime commissioners.
We did a postal vote. 🗳 ✅
(“Senedd” is a much nicer name than “Welsh Assembly Parliament “, or whatever they’ve decided to call it.)
I've done my daily admin and am currently psyching myself up for a day of marking (government and family policy). The sky is moody and grey and I know how it feels.
As well as the downstairs neighbour's daughter performing her daily dance of recalcitrant refusal to attend school, there was a fox outside earlier quietly sneaking across the grounds of the old school, currently awaiting planning permission for too many flats for the infrastructure to manage. We already have problems with the sewers as there's not enough drop on the main sewer for it to drain properly and it requires a little pump to cope as much as it does, which is not during heavy rainfall.
One of last week's entertainments was a young man from the water board asking me how the pump was wired as the power had failed. Why me? Because my downstairs neighbour pointed him in my direction. No, I didn't know, but I worked it out and found the right distributor box, recently rewired so our new supposedly energy-saving hall lights actually switch on when they detect motion, rather than save energy by remaining firmly off. Unfortunately that left us negotiating stairs in the dark, seriously unsafe: it couldn't be left. The box was incorrectly wired, attaching the one set of pump wires, but failing to complete a circuit as the other set connected in something else, as yet undetermined. I predict a future conversation with the erratic communal area cleaner as the other likely circuit are the hall power points.
MMM
No snow here (so far), but a fair modicum of wet misery. I was hoping for a nice little amble along to St. Ninian's to cast my vote, but it'll be a bit of a drag if it's p*ssing with rain.
Hair has been coloured, breakfast has been eaten and now I'm sitting with a cup of coffee waiting for a parcel that's supposed to be delivered some time between 11 and 3. After that, possible afternoon coffee with my friend A., and then ...
... HAIRCUT!!!
In fairness to my usually recalcitrant locks, they've been behaving rather well for the last few days, but I think they're just tricking me because of the imminent haircut.
Just me, plus the people handing out the voting slips and several volunteers to shepherd me around the one way system and keep me 2m away from the others in the non-existent queue.
After that we went off for a nice walk to pick up a loaf from the French patisserie three miles a way, and a rather nice ring as a birthday present from a shop we kept on passing during lockdown that looked rather nice, it was.
Same at my local polling station (we're *only* voting for a Police & Crime Commissioner here - no local councillors).
Yes, I read the small print on the polling card, and took my own Pen.
To be utterly fair, I had to whip back quickly and collect Mr S's pencil which I had left in the booth - and equally, there were new little pencils, such as you can get at big Swedish furniture stores, available for the forgetful or hard of thinking.
So, while there had been no queue when we arrived, there must have been ten or a dozen patiently queuing by the time we made it out the door.
Bangers'n'mash for tea and Mr Nen's gone out so I have control of the TV remote.
We were so busy putting the world to rights I nearly missed my hair appointment, and had to go scurrying off. Luckily the hairdresser was running a bit late, so I needn't have worried.
A good day all round.
Back to work tomorrow, but then the weekend beckons.
My church's hall is normally a polling station but when I went to drop off the weekly pewsheets it clearly was not being used for that purpose. Possibly the lack of ability to implement a one-way system as well as the fact the nursery, who are currently the only hall users, would've had to do some serious clearing up/cleaning to enable it mitigated against such a use.
So I did a bit of organ practice instead to celebrate the fact the 3 days migraine had finally cleared and I had survived a day at back at work as the last of it worked its way out of my system.
This thread is moving too fast for me to keep up, so I hope I'll be forgiven for going back to offer a favourite quote from one of Canon Roger Lloyd's books anent Marylebone in earlier times:
Of Marylebone terminus... the prevailing impression is of quietude - nothing particular ever seemed to be happening. It is essentially peaceful, and when some rather fussy penitent told his father confessor - Mgr Ronald Knox, I think - that he could find nowhere in London where he could meditate in quiet and peace, he was astonished to hear the caustic answer, "Have you tried Marylebone station, my son?"
My upper arm problem is tendonitis and slowly improving under physio instruction and regular exercise sessions.
My hand problem (numbness tingling and pain 24/7) is getting worse. At long last I’ve got a referral to a specialist - 20th May.
No new puppy due to hand problems, this is leaving me very fed up indeed!
Current status - GIN o’clock - hurrah!
Son is home to help get things down from the loft ahead of our (fingers crossed) move and to celebrate my birthday on Monday. Unfortunately I have totally forgotten that tomorrow is our wedding anniversary. Oops, far too late to get a card and as I’ve admitted I’ve forgotten I can’t quickly make one either.
Back to work today, and having not slept at all well last night (I think I woke every two hours, and tossed and turned for at least half an hour each time) I'm now somewhat zonked. Although I'd had a good, decently busy day at work, my mood wasn't improved by getting absolutely drenched at the bus stop afterwards - it came down in stair-rods for about 10 minutes while the bus wasn't there. At least when I got to the station, I just caught a train by seconds.
I definitely wasn't going to bother with cooking after that, so it was Friday chippy for supper.
I'm deciding whether to have gin or beer.
Spent a couple of hours fighting the hedge - or that section of where a once-flowering shrub had gone very woody and leggy, while snowberry snuck up through the resultant scratchy tangle.
Despite the snow/hail/downpours of the last few days, everything is resolutely leafing and blossoming.
We too ate fish for supper - cod in gluten free batter, baked in the oven with a whole courgette split lengthways and served with petit pois and braised lettuce. No chips as we neither had the potatoes or ready made polenta nor needed them after cake earlier, and anyway, enough starch in the peas and batter already.
Plans for today are inside, for this morning at least, while it is so grey, wet and dull outside, although I do need to check another geocache sequence to make sure they've been replaced properly. Because nobody ever does.
* to resolve one of my very new geocaches, inadvertently placed in the same location as one archived a few years back but still there physically, and to place a trackable - the second cache I've placed in an identical position in that area. We then headed on further to pick up another cache that was a few miles further on.
Yesterday evening was lovely, clear and still; if I hadn't seen the weather forecast I never would have expected rain today. But here it is. Younger son's tennis has been cancelled, and so has hubby's walk with a friend. So we have to find something to occupy ourselves.
Question though: did you stick the sausages into the mash in true "Dandy" style? https://tinyurl.com/42r65896
Beer with; GIN either before, after or both.
Laundry beckons today; I may go for a little amble while waiting for it to do its thing. I could do with one or two things that I might be able to get in Fork Handles, so I'll have a wee stroll over there.
Later, steak for supper.
No need to venture out today, though, as supplies were bought at Tess Coe yesterday. Meat pud for lunch I think, with a baked spud - more comfort food...
You sparked a happy memory. My brother and I used to get Dandy, Beano and Sparky on a Saturday and sit together giggling and sharing snippets. Our favourite by far was Sparky and we took it in turns to read it first.
I made a foray to Tess Coe this morning; there are a few things I can't get online from Sainz Breeze so I make an outing every few weeks. Not a great time to go, it was busy and slow navigating the aisles while trying to social distance but I got all I needed so won't have to do that again for a while.
Much milder here, and breezy, and steady rain which I can almost hear the gardens slurping up.
Stir fry and wine later.
They look fine, but might have been even better if I hadn't forgotten to add 50 ml of milk and 90 ml of oil, right up until the muffin mixture was in the cases *slaps forehead* so I had to scrape it all out and remix...
Curry and wine for our Zoom dinner with our Scottish friend later on
We had curry and wine last night.
I'm sure @The Intrepid Mrs S and I were separated at birth.
If you're feeling really decadent try mixing melted dark chocolate with an equal amount of soured cream. The contrast with the flapjack is excellent.
What I would have given for a sister my own age... I was 12 by the time I acquired a brother, so we didn't actually have a shared childhood, sadly (I was more like an au pair!)
We spent the afternoon watching golf from Tenerife - as much for the landscape and the fond memories of a week on Lanzarote.
The haggis is for making Immoral Chicken tomorrow - like Balmoral Chicken but with lower standards. Tonight is the grilled lamb with tzatziki preceded by the weekly cocktail.
Husband en rouge has obtained some Japanese WINE (no, I didn't know they made it either). Consequently we went on an expotition this morning for the procurement of sushi. The best Japanese outlets are to be found on the rue Sainte Anne, in between the Louvre and Opéra, so the outing was rather pleasant. I haven't been round there for ages. The Japanese booze is now chilling, and the good Japanese sushi will be eaten for dinner. Most sushi restaurants are run by Chinese people, but the genuine Japanese ones are better (and also pricier
My experience was similar except that I came along 10 years after the younger of my two brothers; they were like another generation and I never knew either of them very well.
@Arethosemyfeet - doesn't the soured cream make the flapjack topping go off if you keep it for any length of time?
Stir fry update - I'd neglected to take the meat out of the freezer (I thought it was in the fridge) so am working hard to defrost it before cooking. >rolleyes<
Off to google "Balmoral Chicken."
Not that I've experienced. That may say more about my waistline than the longevity of soured cream, however
I didn’t know. 🙂