It is blue bin recycling day tomorrow so this morning I am going to clear out some paperwork. This afternoon u3a has a speaker on fraud protection, and it’s local choral society rehearsal tonight. Tea will be spag bol, with home made sauce from freezer.
@Puzzler 's recent story and the subsequent comments put me in mind of the joke about the person who found himself the last passenger on a bus late at night. Instead of ringing the bell for the bus to stop he went forward and tapped the driver on the shoulder to make the request. The driver cried out and veered the bus off course in shock.
"So sorry," said the passenger, "I meant to be helpful."
"My fault," replied the driver. "Up until yesterday I drove a hearse."
Dull, grey and cold here at the moment but sunshine is promised later so I plan to venture out for a walk after lunch.
I'm tossing up between chick frick for tea this evening (because Wednesday) and salmon with roast veg in parsley sauce, which is what I really fancy and what I'll probably end up doing (just don't tell @Piglet ).
I was up, stoking the Dragon, and taking my morning pills at 445am...mind you, I did go back to bed afterwards...
Cold and hazy, but dry, in Arkland Of The Continual Mordor-wind. A brief Expotition to Tess Coe is to be followed by SOSSIDGES n'CHIPS with Brown Sauce, Bread n'Butter, n'BEER.
Just back from a very nice if chilly walk with the Ramblers. Unusually for round here we had a couple of proper hills to climb. I now have achy legs to add to the arms from Monday's Pilates.
I'm out early tonight for a council meeting so it's a ready meal from the freezer for tea.
It's also recycling bin day here tomorrow @puzzler. Our bins are grey. Very confusingly the landfill bin is green.
Our landfill bins are grey, our food waste caddies are brown, our garden waste bins (not collected at this time of year) are green, our glass bins are blue, our paper recycling sacks are darker blue, our plastics and metals recycling bags are red.
There are also yellow nappy sacks but they're not relevant to us!
Our blue bins take paper, newspaper, cardboard, plastic containers( but not food trays, soft plastic or tetrapaks) aerosols, tins, drinks cans, plastic bottles, egg boxes ( but not shredded paper). Fortnightly. We can also leave small electrical items on top of the bins.
Garden waste is collected in a green bin the same day as blue.
Landfill goes in the grey bin, fortnightly.
Glass has to be taken to a container eg in the pub car park.
Why can’t all authorities have the same colours?
... I'm tossing up between chick frick for tea this evening (because Wednesday) and salmon with roast veg in parsley sauce, which is what I really fancy and what I'll probably end up doing (just don't tell @Piglet ).
Don't worry Nen - I'm keeping up the chickie-frickie-Wednesday tradition, as I only had half of it last night. It's just had its first zap in the popty-ping; I decided it would be easier to decant it from the casserole and zap it than faff about burning reheating it on top of the stove.
Sausages (with mash not chips) will be consumed Chez Nous later.
Ooh ... sausages and mash ... I think you may have given me the inspiration for tomorrow's supper. I might even try and replicate David's cheese and potato pie (really just slightly jazzed up mashed potatoes with onions cooked with a little chilli oil, mixed with grated cheese and baked) to have with them. I'll have to have an Expotition to get Ingrediments at lunchtime. For the longest time he served it with BACON, but one day we didn't have any, and we tried it with SAUSAGES and it was even nicer.*
* There isn't usually anything nicer than BACON, but this certainly came close!
Don't worry Nen - I'm keeping up the chickie-frickie-Wednesday tradition, as I only had half of it last night.
I knew I could rely on you to keep the faith.
Thoroughly enjoyed salmon in parsley sauce with roast veg, washed down with a nice white wine which had found its way into the fridge and was calling out to be consumed.
I had a cold, dull walk this afternoon and was very glad to get home into the warm.
It's slightly less cold here, so we made the most of it to head to one of the parks, where swings were swung on, Frisbee was played, and crêpes were eaten.
Slightly less cold here, in Arkland the Formerly-An-Easy-Day-Trip-Away from Paris...
I used to be able to drive to Ebbsfleet (20 minutes away), or catch a local train, and be in Paris just over two hours later (plus the wretched airport-like wait for the train, but even so...). Brexit lunacy put paid to that.
Ramekins is one of those words my husband hates. I have to call them small pots.
Much warmer today, but a bit damp and windy. I'm about to have an early lunch (peanut butter on toast with salad) before heading off to do my bookshop shift. While out last night I passed my favourite shoe shop and spotted a pair of sandals I really like. As said shop only has one pair of each size I'm heading there on the way to work to try them on even though I can't see me wearing them for a few months. To make space for them I'm taking a couple of pairs to the charity shop on the way.
Tonight I'm going out to see the poet Lemm Sissay with a friend. I half expect to be stood up as she's told me she's at a meeting in the town to the west till 6.00pm and the show starts at 7.30.
I wonder if there are female versions called ewekins?
That sounds like something yucky is in it!
I am sitting in Bristol Bus Station cafe with a flat white and a delicious pasty. Waiting for my bus to Manchester.
Free car ride to son's with Mr Boogs. Wave goodbye to Mr Boogs who is on dog sitting duty at home.
£10 Uber from my son's to the bus station
£6.49 FlixBus from Bristol to Manchester.
£9 train Manchester to Littleborough. (Just a couple of stops)
Free car journey to my brother's near Ribchester - being picked up by other brother.
Those prices make no sense! Train Bristol to Manchester would have been £110!
Our local fares don't seem to have gone up all that much since I last went to London by train - £21 return by one route, and £26 return by the much quicker HS1 to St Pancras - and IIRC I paid only a few £££ less some 6 or 7 years ago. It's about 30 miles each way, BTW.
ION, a much milder day in Arkland the Rainy, so patch-painting has been deferred yet again chiz chiz chiz...mind you, it is a bit early in the year, even though the paint I use is very quick-drying.
Never mind - the Shining Hour is being Improved by even more Cubbud Tidy Ing, and now all the spare Light Bulbs, and all my Beer and Wine Glasses, are neatly placed together (on separate shelves, of course). Next on the list is part of the so-called Linen Cubbud in the bathroom, one half having been cleared and tidied a week or so ago.
Lunch first, though. Not sure what to have - it'll depend on what item in the fridge needs to be eaten by today or tomorrow!
I wonder if there are female versions called ewekins?
That sounds like something yucky is in it!
There are various words that set both our teeth on edge. I can't stand the word moist for instance. I'm fine with ramekin though.
I dropped a couple of pairs of not often worn sandals at the charity shop and went and tried on the ones I fancied as a replacement. In the end I brought another pair that were just a little bit more comfortable. They're gold so a bit blingier than I'd usually go for, but I'll wear them for everyday anyway. Just need the weather to warm up.
According to the Met Office, it got up to 14° here, which is rather silly for February. There were, however, some fairly hefty showers in the mix, although by some miracle, I only got a few raindrops on my way to work, and got to Tessie's and back at lunchtime, and home again at 5 o'clock, completely dry.
The sausages and cheese pie was OK, but not really in the same league as the way David did it , and of course I burnt the sausages - why is it that I can cook almost anything else that takes my fancy, but sausages completely defeat me?
Tonight I made a recipe which began its life as cauliflower cheese, but cauliflower started upsetting me so now it is modified to any veg in the fridge (broccoli, cabbage, carrots tonight) covered in cheese sauce, topped with chopped crispy bacon and burger.
My son popped in today and took away a few things for the tip and some wood to burn. His next task will be to resume sorting out the garage. I joked that he might as well do it now rather than wait till it has to be done after I’ve died.
Kidneys in Sauce Creole - pleasantly tasty. But a key ingredient was a tomato chutney, which came in a jar that was impossible to open. It came with an instruction to tap the side if it was difficult. We tapped, ran under hot water, pierced the lid - to no avail. Eventually I carved a hole sufficient to get some into the sauce.
But the whole shooting match goes into a spicy tomato soup tomorrow.
I was driving in steady rain; not too heavy but there was a lot of surface water on the road. I saw a flash of lightning quite a distance ahead and then more lightning much closer. And then suddenly the rain was torrential; I could not see the road. Fortunately the two vehicles ahead of me slowed right down and drove with their hazard lights flashing, so I followed their lights. I had my hazards on too so that the car behind me could see me. It seemed to last for ages but probably only three minutes or so till the rain eased and I could see the road again.
A few minutes later I got a pain across my chest, and then another. I told my husband I was going to pull into the next layby, but the next layby was full of cars, presumably other drivers needing to take a minute to calm down. I was into a pattern of chest pains building up and receding. Then I saw a bus stop and pulled in to that.
Once my husband took over driving the pains grew further apart and milder and stopped altogether after five minutes. We stopped at the next coffee shop for a break.
I felt fine apart from the chest pains; my husband wouldn't have known there was anything wrong if I hadn't told him once I had stopped in the bus stop. We have concluded that I was gripping the steering wheel so hard when I was driving "blind" that I triggered some sort of muscular spasm.
(I have googled "heart attack symptoms in women" and the only box I ticked was the pain - no nausea, no cold sweat, no pain in jaw or down my arm, no breathlessness. My driving was steady throughout. So the "muscle spasm from gripping the steering wheel very tightly indeed" seems a reasonable explanation, and it all subsided as soon as I was no longer holding a steering wheel and could shake my arms and relax my shoulders.)
Heart attack symptoms in women are vaguer than those in men as women often experience blockages in their smaller arteries rather than the larger ones. They often don’t experience the traditional symptoms of pain down the arm, for instance. The only symptom my sister in law had of her impending heart attack was an indigestion like pain earlier in the day.
Obviously I cannot tell what you experienced, it could be muscle spasms, it could be palpitations due to anxiety, it could be something more serious. But if you are concerned you should get yourself checked out.
A great disappointment at lunchtime today when I sallied forth to negotiate the vending of a massive breakfast cob at a caff near my work. I go there every few months or so and having set myself up for a delicious packet of bad for me calories I discovered the door was locked and the business has closed down.
The whole thing was a vivid experience. The first lightning, well ahead of me looked like a proper flash of lightning, then the second seemed to be light coming up around me, rather than a flash coming down, like a sort of visual equivalent of water boiling over in a pan. The light seemed to sort of roil around me. Then what felt like driving into a wall of water. A brief moment of "I can't see!" then the hazard lights coming on on the cars in front, and putting my hazards on, so that I knew the car behind could see me. And thinking "I'm ok, I have the car in front to guide me, and he has the car in front of him to guide him, and I'm guiding the car behind, and we'll be ok." And feeling massively grateful the drivers in front were driving with their hazard lights on. And then the rain eased to normal heavy rain and I could see the road in front again.
Spent some time with grandson helping with revision for GCSE English Lit. I was pleasantly surprised that he seemed well up on it and also revealed that he is finding poetry much more interesting and enjoyable than he used to: not such a stereotypical male teenager as I'd thought!
Lovely moments, revising with hard-working grandsons. I miss that, but I was really impressed with my youngest who replied to a text with a whole paragraph of proper English- and sensible thoughts. He will go far.
That sounds really horrid, @North East Quine. I would agree with your assessment to get checked over - to my shame as someone who has been a first-aider for circa 25 years, I've literally only found out this month that women are likely have different symptoms of a heart attack to men. I don't think you were having one, but IANAD.
Could it perhaps have been a panic attack? They can present in very similar ways to heart attacks, and one wouldn't have been impossible given the circumstances.
Could it perhaps have been a panic attack? They can present in very similar ways to heart attacks, and one wouldn't have been impossible given the circumstances.
Yes, palpitations due to anxiety can cause chest pains, and other related symptoms such as shortness of breath.
Captain Pyjamas' birthday is coming up, so he's inviting some friends from school for a party. The theme is astronauts. I have come up with the cunning holiday activity of making space helmets out of papier maché (four friends are coming so we need five altogether). One has been produced so far, four to go, which is going to keep him occupied and out of trouble for ages. The other advantage of this is that at the start of the shindig I can present each child with one, along with felt pens, stickers and such to decorate it, and we can start the afternoon with a Quiet Activity.
This afternoon husband en rouge has taken Captain P to the swimming pool so I've actually had an opportunity to clean the house.
Excellent idea, @lver. Children's parties are the thing I miss least about getting older - I recall Master Plummer major's sixth birthday party was the worst.
One of today's highlights; walking into Waterstones past a man standing in the rain shouting This is my last Big Issue! Will someone buy my last Big Issue? Just one Big Issue left to sell. He was holding a single Big Issue in a plastic sleeve.
I felt sorry for him, so I went back out to buy his last Big Issue. He dipped into the bag over his shoulder, handed me a Big Issue and, without missing a beat, continued to wave the single plastic covered BI in the rain, shouting Last Big Issue! Just one left to sell!
Best guess re yesterday was that I was clenching the steering wheel and did something muscular. I don't think it was a panic attack - I had one of those many years ago and felt disorientated and out of it. Yesterday I felt ultra-focussed.
.
Glad to hear you're feeling better, NEQ - that really does sound scary!
Have fun with the helmets, La Vie - I'm sure they'll be astronomically awesome!
Fairly boring weather here today; it was trying to rain as I walked to work, but not really succeeding, and much the same when I came home. Quite a busy day in between though - and of course when I nipped out to get a sarnie for lunch, when I came back B had left two bloody great voice files. One of them got done; the other will have to wait.
Usual day of marking here. But the day was slightly warmer than it has been so that’s good news.
Tea was chicken burgers, roasted veg and parmentier potatoes, followed by bread and butter pudding (made from hot cross buns).
Comments
That is likely the high point of my housewifery for today, as I intend shop-bought pizza for tonight.
"So sorry," said the passenger, "I meant to be helpful."
"My fault," replied the driver. "Up until yesterday I drove a hearse."
Dull, grey and cold here at the moment but sunshine is promised later so I plan to venture out for a walk after lunch.
I'm tossing up between chick frick for tea this evening (because Wednesday) and salmon with roast veg in parsley sauce, which is what I really fancy and what I'll probably end up doing (just don't tell @Piglet
Ye loaf soundeth scrumptious!
That'll learn me to volunteer for the night shift once a week.
I was up, stoking the Dragon, and taking my morning pills at 445am...mind you, I did go back to bed afterwards...
Cold and hazy, but dry, in Arkland Of The Continual Mordor-wind. A brief Expotition to Tess Coe is to be followed by SOSSIDGES n'CHIPS with Brown Sauce, Bread n'Butter, n'BEER.
I may have a piece of Fruit later.
I'm out early tonight for a council meeting so it's a ready meal from the freezer for tea.
It's also recycling bin day here tomorrow @puzzler. Our bins are grey. Very confusingly the landfill bin is green.
There are also yellow nappy sacks but they're not relevant to us!
Garden waste is collected in a green bin the same day as blue.
Landfill goes in the grey bin, fortnightly.
Glass has to be taken to a container eg in the pub car park.
Why can’t all authorities have the same colours?
Ooh ... sausages and mash ... I think you may have given me the inspiration for tomorrow's supper. I might even try and replicate David's cheese and potato pie (really just slightly jazzed up mashed potatoes with onions cooked with a little chilli oil, mixed with grated cheese and baked) to have with them. I'll have to have an Expotition to get Ingrediments at lunchtime. For the longest time he served it with BACON, but one day we didn't have any, and we tried it with SAUSAGES and it was even nicer.*
* There isn't usually anything nicer than BACON, but this certainly came close!
I knew I could rely on you to keep the faith.
Thoroughly enjoyed salmon in parsley sauce with roast veg, washed down with a nice white wine which had found its way into the fridge and was calling out to be consumed.
I had a cold, dull walk this afternoon and was very glad to get home into the warm.
Is outrage! You can't have baked beans and mashed spuds on the same plate - there'd be cross-contamination!!!
And a cross piglet ...
CHEESEBURGER for dinner.
I used to be able to drive to Ebbsfleet (20 minutes away), or catch a local train, and be in Paris just over two hours later (plus the wretched airport-like wait for the train, but even so...). Brexit lunacy put paid to that.
Pulled pork, mash and carrots here.
I'm off to the Frozen North by bus tomorrow to visit friends and family.
Ramekins are a good idea, though, and widely used in eating places these days.
Now catkins are something completely different!
Much warmer today, but a bit damp and windy. I'm about to have an early lunch (peanut butter on toast with salad) before heading off to do my bookshop shift. While out last night I passed my favourite shoe shop and spotted a pair of sandals I really like. As said shop only has one pair of each size I'm heading there on the way to work to try them on even though I can't see me wearing them for a few months. To make space for them I'm taking a couple of pairs to the charity shop on the way.
Tonight I'm going out to see the poet Lemm Sissay with a friend. I half expect to be stood up as she's told me she's at a meeting in the town to the west till 6.00pm and the show starts at 7.30.
That's interesting, what is his reason?
That sounds like something yucky is in it!
I am sitting in Bristol Bus Station cafe with a flat white and a delicious pasty. Waiting for my bus to Manchester.
Free car ride to son's with Mr Boogs. Wave goodbye to Mr Boogs who is on dog sitting duty at home.
£10 Uber from my son's to the bus station
£6.49 FlixBus from Bristol to Manchester.
£9 train Manchester to Littleborough. (Just a couple of stops)
Free car journey to my brother's near Ribchester - being picked up by other brother.
Those prices make no sense! Train Bristol to Manchester would have been £110!
ION, a much milder day in Arkland the Rainy, so patch-painting has been deferred yet again chiz chiz chiz...mind you, it is a bit early in the year, even though the paint I use is very quick-drying.
Never mind - the Shining Hour is being Improved by even more Cubbud Tidy Ing, and now all the spare Light Bulbs, and all my Beer and Wine Glasses, are neatly placed together (on separate shelves, of course). Next on the list is part of the so-called Linen Cubbud in the bathroom, one half having been cleared and tidied a week or so ago.
Lunch first, though. Not sure what to have - it'll depend on what item in the fridge needs to be eaten by today or tomorrow!
We've been known to call them "Sybils" in deference to the late pterry's Duchess (and with callous disregard for spelling).
There are various words that set both our teeth on edge. I can't stand the word moist for instance. I'm fine with ramekin though.
I dropped a couple of pairs of not often worn sandals at the charity shop and went and tried on the ones I fancied as a replacement. In the end I brought another pair that were just a little bit more comfortable. They're gold so a bit blingier than I'd usually go for, but I'll wear them for everyday anyway. Just need the weather to warm up.
The sausages and cheese pie was OK, but not really in the same league as the way David did it
Tonight I made a recipe which began its life as cauliflower cheese, but cauliflower started upsetting me so now it is modified to any veg in the fridge (broccoli, cabbage, carrots tonight) covered in cheese sauce, topped with chopped crispy bacon and burger.
My son popped in today and took away a few things for the tip and some wood to burn. His next task will be to resume sorting out the garage. I joked that he might as well do it now rather than wait till it has to be done after I’ve died.
But the whole shooting match goes into a spicy tomato soup tomorrow.
I was driving in steady rain; not too heavy but there was a lot of surface water on the road. I saw a flash of lightning quite a distance ahead and then more lightning much closer. And then suddenly the rain was torrential; I could not see the road. Fortunately the two vehicles ahead of me slowed right down and drove with their hazard lights flashing, so I followed their lights. I had my hazards on too so that the car behind me could see me. It seemed to last for ages but probably only three minutes or so till the rain eased and I could see the road again.
A few minutes later I got a pain across my chest, and then another. I told my husband I was going to pull into the next layby, but the next layby was full of cars, presumably other drivers needing to take a minute to calm down. I was into a pattern of chest pains building up and receding. Then I saw a bus stop and pulled in to that.
Once my husband took over driving the pains grew further apart and milder and stopped altogether after five minutes. We stopped at the next coffee shop for a break.
I felt fine apart from the chest pains; my husband wouldn't have known there was anything wrong if I hadn't told him once I had stopped in the bus stop. We have concluded that I was gripping the steering wheel so hard when I was driving "blind" that I triggered some sort of muscular spasm.
Obviously I cannot tell what you experienced, it could be muscle spasms, it could be palpitations due to anxiety, it could be something more serious. But if you are concerned you should get yourself checked out.
The whole thing was a vivid experience. The first lightning, well ahead of me looked like a proper flash of lightning, then the second seemed to be light coming up around me, rather than a flash coming down, like a sort of visual equivalent of water boiling over in a pan. The light seemed to sort of roil around me. Then what felt like driving into a wall of water. A brief moment of "I can't see!" then the hazard lights coming on on the cars in front, and putting my hazards on, so that I knew the car behind could see me. And thinking "I'm ok, I have the car in front to guide me, and he has the car in front of him to guide him, and I'm guiding the car behind, and we'll be ok." And feeling massively grateful the drivers in front were driving with their hazard lights on. And then the rain eased to normal heavy rain and I could see the road in front again.
This afternoon husband en rouge has taken Captain P to the swimming pool so I've actually had an opportunity to clean the house.
One of today's highlights; walking into Waterstones past a man standing in the rain shouting This is my last Big Issue! Will someone buy my last Big Issue? Just one Big Issue left to sell. He was holding a single Big Issue in a plastic sleeve.
I felt sorry for him, so I went back out to buy his last Big Issue. He dipped into the bag over his shoulder, handed me a Big Issue and, without missing a beat, continued to wave the single plastic covered BI in the rain, shouting Last Big Issue! Just one left to sell!
Best guess re yesterday was that I was clenching the steering wheel and did something muscular. I don't think it was a panic attack - I had one of those many years ago and felt disorientated and out of it. Yesterday I felt ultra-focussed.
.
Have fun with the helmets, La Vie - I'm sure they'll be astronomically awesome!
Fairly boring weather here today; it was trying to rain as I walked to work, but not really succeeding, and much the same when I came home. Quite a busy day in between though - and of course when I nipped out to get a sarnie for lunch, when I came back B had left two bloody great voice files. One of them got done; the other will have to wait.
F&C for supper, as you might expect.
Tea was chicken burgers, roasted veg and parmentier potatoes, followed by bread and butter pudding (made from hot cross buns).