They no longer "do" Mothering Sunday at Our Place, for reasons explained here. It was never going to be the best Mothers' Day I've ever had, as we've been hosting some Challenging House Guests. However, I had a delivery of some lovely flowers and a card from Nenlet1, son-in-law and the GrandNenling, a card from Nenlet2, and a quick video call in the morning with Nenlet1 and the little one, with a longer video call later in the day with Nenlet2, after the Challenging House Guests had left. So there were some lovely things in the day as well.
I've been whizzing about this morning doing domestics and getting the house sorted, post-guests. All pretty much done now and just the usual level of chaos reigns, rather than the extra.
Off to Pilates this morning. The weather was glorious so the walk there and back was rather nice. I've also been out in the garden carrying on with the weeding. I think I'm winning the battle.
My Pilates appointment is tomorrow at High Noon, as it is on pretty well every Tuesday now. It costs £££, but it's £££ well spent, as otherwise I might be very much less mobile than I actually am.
Arkland the Blessed is basking in warm Sun Shine again, and I've managed to do a bit more Paint Ing work on deck. Enough is enough, though, and it's time for some rest, in order to be reasonably fit for tomorrow's Torture Session...
Well, that was fairly fraught-making. Chap came to repair damage to wheel arch of the car. Did that, and as it had been sitting undriven for some months, charged up the battery sufficiently for it to driven off. We tootled off up and down the bypass for half an hour, and were then heading for a supermarket when we had to stop at a roundabout, and on a backward slope. At which point the battery decided to die again. Fortunately a passing van driver stopped and came over. He enlisted a couple of passers by and they pushed the car round a corner to the top of a downward slope sufficient to kick start it. We managed to coddle it home, where it apparently pancaked once again. I went off to get some groceries in lieu of the failed supermarket.
Meanwhile Mr F had been chatting to car repairman, and trying out a different car key - successfully. Game plan is now to drive around tomorrow to try and determine whether it's the battery in the key or the car which is the problem.
Usually about now Mr F asks what I want to drink with dinner. I think the answer is a bottle of gin and a straw.
With a small bottle of tonic on the side?
I've had a stupidly busy day; having left one voice file, I came in to half a dozen, which were then added to. I got most of them done, but some were very faffsome, and just made me cross.
I couldn't be bothered to do anything more complicated than cacio e pepe for supper.
I arrived for my first day at my new desk and couldn’t get my computer to work 🙄 half an hour of faffing around but sorted eventually. Then a rushed morning of admin and communications followed by a tedious afternoon of writing a 2 hour tutorial for the new public health course, which I didn’t finish til 6pm. I had hoped to get a small batch of marking done but will do it tomorrow. A piece of urgent work has also landed with me today but at least it has arrived now, as I have about a week without any marking in which to do it.
Mr Heavenly has gone to some talk thingy (possibly Christians in business?) in Cambridge so I am about to cook myself a pork escalope with mushrooms and a fried egg. Possibly with a gin to accompany it.
I hope copious gin was forthcoming @Firenze ! Due to our current boiler situation, I spent an entire day actually in the office, since it's usually warm. Think that's the first full day since July 2023 (there have been half-days, training courses, and a Xmas do split between office and pub...). I was the only person from our department in there, so managed to get through quite a bit between catching up with former colleagues who now occupy the other half of the area.
Dinner was fried tatties with Szechuan pepper on them, along with a mushroom, courgette, and pak choi stir-fry with coriander seeds in. The pak choi was freshly picked, @Sandemaniac having grown it in the greenhouse this winter.
Annoying about the flight @Boogie. I hope you are on your way home now.
A very nice morning visiting a garden not too far away. They had a beautiful meadow full of daffodils and an even lovelier one covered in snakes head fritillaries.
Just spent an hour planting the things we brought at the nursery there and the herbs that arrived for our herb bed after we'd got home and attacking a couple of rampant salvias that were threatening to take over. I found a lost hollyhock in the process.
Pilates has again been survived (and there's a lovely display of Daffodils in the grassy area near the Torture Chamber), but I'm now back home, waiting for Arkland the Chilly's latest inundation, courtesy of another high tide and a cold east-north-east wind...
I hope @Sarasa that the Mysterious Mystery of the Lost Hollyhock, now so serendipitously solved, leads to a profusion of Splendid Blooms.
I had a disaster. Settling down for a Teams meeting (school governors' committee), I spilled hot chocolate all over my laptop, desk and onto the floor. Consternation and rapid mopping ensued. However the computer had frozen and resolutely refused to unfreeze - I think that, in grabbing it, I pressed about 10 keys at once. After a lot of desperate wrangling and the loan of my wife's computer, I managed to do a clean restart. We're now fine, apart from a couple of slightly sticky keys. But it was a panicky moment! I joined my meeting but had missed most of it.
I couldn't face an online meeting if I'd had hot chocolate - I can't imagine a more foolproof method of sending me to sleep!
Not quite such a frantic day today - I only left a few minutes of untyped dictation. And it's the most glorious day - 18° if the Met Office's website isn't telling porkies! Socks have been (at least temporarily) discarded.
Because I've got Night Church later, and need to read over the poem I'm reading at it, I cheated for supper and got a popty-ping curry from Tessie's for supper, which was washed down with a glass of BEER.
A sunny but very windy day here. I had my seedlings out on the balcony to harden off, and I think they may have been blown about rather more than was good for them
Today's main activities were Shopp Ing and practising the cello. Husband en rouge is making some sort of gussied up ramen for dinner.
A sunny but very windy day here. I had my seedlings out on the balcony to harden off, and I think they may have been blown about rather more than was good for them
I've had the opposite problem, toasted a bunch of mine today. Looks as though we will be sans boiler until after Easter now...
This morning I woke late but was determined to get out in the sunshine, so I drove to a country park. A broken bridge shortened my walk, as the alternative was four times longer. Tomorrow I am due to visit my sister in her care home. Always hard to know what to take for her.
Admin and planning this morning, followed by a tutorial planning meeting with a colleague this afternoon and then more marking. Fellowship group this evening, so that was nice but quite cold walking back.
Got a last minute cancellation (last minute enough that I couldn't quite get to the donor centre on time!) so am hopefully going to be accepted for my 94th pint of blood only 5 days late. Considering how hacked off I was when it was cancelled last week, I'm quite pleased with the cancellation service.
Got a last minute cancellation (last minute enough that I couldn't quite get to the donor centre on time!) so am hopefully going to be accepted for my 94th pint of blood only 5 days late. Considering how hacked off I was when it was cancelled last week, I'm quite pleased with the cancellation service.
Well done! I'd given just over 20, when I needed some back. Having been a recipient I haven't been able to donate again.
If it hadn't been for those donors in 1998, I'd have been dead at 34. I wouldn't have seen my kids grow up. I wouldn't have finished my undergrad history degree, let alone the PhD. The Quinie was 2, and probably wouldn't have been able to remember her mummy.
Perhaps, like me, in 23 years time, someone will be doing something special (in my case the Quinie's wedding) and give thanks for you, the anonymous 2025 donor, who made it all possible @Sandemaniac.
That's a lovely read @North East Quine . I was a recipient after Nenlet1's birth and am grateful to all those who donate.
In other news, it's a lovely sunny day here (though with a chilly wind) and I took myself out to get my new glasses fitted (I've worn varifocals for some years but find a new pair always takes some adjusting to), thence to a coffee shop with my book and then Mr Nen picked me up and we headed out for a walk and lunch in a café which was all very pleasant. It's the first time for some weeks (because busyness and Challenging House Guests) that we've had to spend time together properly, just the two of us.
On our return, we embarked on Washing The Cars which at Casa Nen is a major and involved operation. My method (slosh a couple of buckets of soapy water at it, followed by a rub with a cloth) is unacceptable to Mr Nen, who employs the pressure jet mixing and applying the car foam, several buckets of car shampoo to be applied using special sponges, a Special Implement to clean the wheels, the pressure jet again to rinse the foam away, a chamois leather with clear water (important not to let the car air-dry) and a special spray for the wheels. My life has been much enhanced by this afternoon's education in how to wring out and use a chamois leather. I think Mr Nen was channelling his inner North East Man.
Another bright day in Arkland the Arid, with a brisk wind from Kadath In Ye Cold Waste bringing quantities of dust...no point in washing cars here...
Alas! problems with the Dragon mean that the decision has been taken to let his fire go out, at least for a while. There is, I'm sure, a build-up of soot in the chimney which is reducing the draught slightly, and a thorough inspection of the soot-box is also needed in order to seal an ongoing leak. Obviously, cleaning the chimney can only be done when the fire is out, but apparently the weather is set fair for a few days yet. I have alternative means of heating water and cooking, and, if the evenings get chilly, I can put on a pullover and switch on a small electric heater.
If the weather stays mild, I may well leave relighting the Dragon until the end of summer...
It's another glorious day in West Lothian - not all that warm: it was only 1° when I got up, but I was sufficiently busy (L producing files with major faffage) that I didn't go out to appreciate it at lunchtime - just took half an hour or so to eat my lunch and then back to work. It's lovely still having daylight after 7:30 at night though.
Supper was going to be mushroom stroganoff, but I had only a small pack of mushrooms, and once I'd cooked them with half an onion, paprika, mustard, creme fraiche and an indecent quantity of garlic, they really didn't look like very much, so I defrosted and chucked in a packet of prawns, and it became prawn and mushroom stroganoff, and was really rather good, so I'll do it again.
I studied ‘Death of a Salesman’ for my O’level English Lit, my teacher did a fabulous American accent for Willy Loman.
Usual busy day, I didn’t make the thanatology (death studies) meeting this morning as I was sorting out student issues, I then wrote a tutorial for next week (review and reflection on a youth module), and this afternoon I delivered a tutorial on health inequalities and integrated care. I managed to fit in 2 hours of study of my own afterwards, I am currently studying a unit on health in the early modern period.
Tea was courgette and mint soup with halloumi croutons.
Courgette and mint soup with halloumi croutons sounds fantastic, @Heavenlyannie!
We have been living in chaos for three months now. We emptied the NE Man's bedroom, got the floor fixed, got it painted and recarpeted, then ground to a halt as there was a delay in getting the new wardrobes. We have been living amongst boxes and piles of stuff since.
The new wardrobes came on Friday and the new bed today.
Somehow we both thought that the NE Man had a super kingsize, and we'd ordered a like-for-like replacement, but we were keeping the old headboard.
It turns out the old bed was a kingsize. The new bed looks huge! The NE Man is quite delighted and is looking forward to having a whole super-kingsize to himself. BUT the old headboard doesn't fit, and neither does any of the existing bedding. So we are going to have to buy a super-kingsize duvet, and we are already over budget. Not that I grudge it; no-one deserves a nice bedroom more than the hard-working NE Man, it's just that it's one more thing on the to-do list before we can start to get free of the clutter.
I ha a lazyish day today as I didn't fancy either of the Ramblers walks. My husband went to London to meet some friends and after I'd done some housework and gardening I had a pleasant day knitting and faffing about. I had to go out for a planning meeting this evening but that was more straightforward than I thought it might be.
Husband is now back so I guess I ought to go and say hello.
Last attempt to go out for a pint and a pizza failed because Mr F had bad attack of vertigo. Tried again, this time taking taxi to pub - one which has very interesting taps. I had a Leith pils and a red ale from the maternal home county of Monaghan. We then tottered over the road for very nice pizzas and desserts with imported ice cream from Turin. Polishing off the evening with espresso and grappa.
This morning I visited my sister in her care home, and what a poorly sight she was. Conversation was difficult and she kept wandering around restlessly. It was sad to see her like that.
This afternoon my daughter and I went to the garden centre and bought a few plants for my as yet unfinished rockery.
Last rehearsal for the Brahms’ Requiem this evening. I don’t know how I am going to find the stamina to sing it all though on Saturday. Must consider my food choices, to sustain me. I have an appointment for my 7th Covid jab Saturday morning too. I’m assuming any adverse effects won’t kick in until the next day, though unusually I am going to listen to a concert on Sunday evening, a charity concert with two male voice choirs and a blues band.
Meanwhile on Friday at my French group we are discussing whether, given a second chance, we would make any different life choices.
Got the hosepipe out for the first time this year to soak the planters.. We had a very dry March - and April seems to be continuing the trend, judging by the last couple of days and the forecast for the week ahead. I dread a drought as most of my veggies grow in containers.
The unconnected waterbutt, which we top up through the summer by chucking in the water that runs out of the taps when we are waiting for it to run hot first thing in the morning, needed emptying and cleaning. Then it had to be part filled from the hose as it was rocking in the gusty wind.
Shame we didn't't do that last week, before the price went up!
Yet another lovely mild day in Arkland the Elysian, with Sun Shine of that milky-white quality you get when there's thin cloud about as well. I do sympathise with you Gardeners, though, still waiting for April showers to help your plants.
As I get older, and more feak and weeble, I tend to set myself one or two Tasks per day, and try not to go at them like a bull at a gate, as that results in much fatigue. This morning's Task was cleaning out the Dragon (who is now estivating), removing a quantity of ash and soot, and sealing the holes in the soot-box.
It's just as well that I don't need the Dragon for a while, as the grate has decided to fall apart. A replacement is on order, and will be put in place (a rather fiddly job) when it arrives from Mr E Bay's Magic Emporium. The Chimney still needs to be swept (I have a suitable Brush), but that will be tomorrow's Task, I think.
O! the excitement! Wot larks we shall 'ave, Pip! Wot larks!
Lunch is Battered Prawns n'Chips, a-cooking in the trusty Remoska, which has been brought out of hibernation. BEER is being quaffed in celebration...
After a dull and rather cool start, it's now a beautiful evening in West Lothian, and the sun is streaming in through the blossom on the tree outside my window.
Supper was a couple of Tessie's salmon & lemon fish cakes with lemony, garlicky greens, and really rather nice.
Lip reading this morning, where we learned about toe wrestling as a sport, and then my book shop shift. The rest of the day has/will be devoted to not doing much.
I too go the hose pipe out last night @Roseofsharon. I do wish the weather wouldn't be all of one thing or all of another.
Mr F not up to driving, plus problems with Firefox, so all-in-all quite mopey.
I am trying to sort the craft room (anyone know anywhere would welcome large donation of knitting magazines/books?).
Trouble with redding out stuff is you come across things - like a stone paperweight painted up for me by my friend J who died 18 months ago - and then it's quite hard to keep going.
Lip reading and toe wrestling sound like a bizarre sporting combination!
That's what I love about my lip reading class our tutor is always on the look out for interesting things to discuss that also highlight trick things to lipread in this case the w sound at the begining of words like wrestle. The other week we were discussing photocopying newts.....
It's news to me that amphibians are capable of operating a photocopier.
Mr Nen and I have been out to our Lent group and I'd really like a glass of wine now, but I can't because, um, Lent.
I'm seeing a friend for her birthday tomorrow morning and my usual friends in the afternoon. Mr Nen seems to have a packed programme of a day so I shall Keep Calm And Carry On. He is out in the evening as well so the TV remote and I have a date.
I bought a pack of Lidl's St Clements HCBs this week, and made a B&B pudding with them. Haven't made one for years, but the oven was going to be on so it seemed sensible to cook something to use up shelf space in the hot oven.
Not bad, although I don't think I got the proportions quite right.
Apologies for intruding, but my wife and I will be in England for parts of May and June. We have people to visit in Sevenoaks, a village between Rugby and Coventry, St David's, Nottingham (Southwell), and Sheffield. The Trainfan people have said it is doable by train, but a car would make it easier for taking our luggage.
So far I have found hire car places only in large cities. Do you have any information that could help me. I haven't lived in England since 1978 and there must have been lots of changes since then.
Lots of changes, and tricky by train to Southwell @LatchKeyKid as the nearest train station is on a branch line and a couple of miles from Southwell itself. Maybe hire a car at the airport?
If you fancy a meet up and have time when you're in the Southwell area let me know. I'm away quite a bit of those months but if I'm here happy to show you round this lovely part of the world (I live six miles from Southwell).
In other news I've just swapped my winter wardrobe for my summer one. I hope the weather remains as nice as it is at present.
"Gardeners' World" for sure - I am not good at gardening myself but I love to see a pretty garden and also love watching other people work . I may also watch something I've recorded. I like programmes about the monarchy, but Mr Nen doesn't so I only watch them when he's not around.
We've had some rain in the night but it's supposed to be Turning Out Nice Later, with the highest temperatures of the year so far. It doesn't look or feel much like that at present.
Off soon to see a friend whose birthday it is today.
Lots of changes, and tricky by train to Southwell @LatchKeyKid as the nearest train station is on a branch line and a couple of miles from Southwell itself. Maybe hire a car at the airport?
If you fancy a meet up and have time when you're in the Southwell area let me know. I'm away quite a bit of those months but if I'm here happy to show you round this lovely part of the world (I live six miles from Southwell).
In other news I've just swapped my winter wardrobe for my summer one. I hope the weather remains as nice as it is at present.
Thanks very much @Sarasa.
FYI we lived in Stapleford and then Beeston in 1975-1978. My wife worked for Gedling Social Services and I did my BA (Theology) at Nottingham Uni and worked part time as a houseparent in Forest Lodge, an adolescent girls hostel.
I grew up in Stanmore, Middlesex and a friend from the 60s that we are arranging to visit on 24-25 May now lives in Southwell.
I'd like to arrange a meet up if the dates work out. We have been briefly to Southwell in 2016, but I remember little from that brief visit.
Lots of changes, and tricky by train to Southwell @LatchKeyKid as the nearest train station is on a branch line and a couple of miles from Southwell itself.
We've had some rain in the night but it's supposed to be Turning Out Nice Later, with the highest temperatures of the year so far. It doesn't look or feel much like that at present.
Ditto. I've just come back from taking a Primary School Assembly. And we're having a new front door fitted.
Apologies for intruding, but my wife and I will be in England for parts of May and June. We have people to visit in Sevenoaks, a village between Rugby and Coventry, St David's, Nottingham (Southwell), and Sheffield. The Trainfan people have said it is doable by train, but a car would make it easier for taking our luggage.
So far I have found hire car places only in large cities. Do you have any information that could help me. I haven't lived in England since 1978 and there must have been lots of changes since then.
One thing that hasn't changed is that we still drive on the left.
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I've been whizzing about this morning doing domestics and getting the house sorted, post-guests. All pretty much done now and just the usual level of chaos reigns, rather than the extra.
A lovely sunny day here.
Pen and paper can also disappear without trace if someone in your household is an over-zealous recycler.
Arkland the Blessed is basking in warm Sun Shine again, and I've managed to do a bit more Paint Ing work on deck. Enough is enough, though, and it's time for some rest, in order to be reasonably fit for tomorrow's Torture Session...
Meanwhile Mr F had been chatting to car repairman, and trying out a different car key - successfully. Game plan is now to drive around tomorrow to try and determine whether it's the battery in the key or the car which is the problem.
Usually about now Mr F asks what I want to drink with dinner. I think the answer is a bottle of gin and a straw.
I've had a stupidly busy day; having left one voice file, I came in to half a dozen, which were then added to. I got most of them done, but some were very faffsome, and just made me cross.
I couldn't be bothered to do anything more complicated than cacio e pepe for supper.
I arrived for my first day at my new desk and couldn’t get my computer to work 🙄 half an hour of faffing around but sorted eventually. Then a rushed morning of admin and communications followed by a tedious afternoon of writing a 2 hour tutorial for the new public health course, which I didn’t finish til 6pm. I had hoped to get a small batch of marking done but will do it tomorrow. A piece of urgent work has also landed with me today but at least it has arrived now, as I have about a week without any marking in which to do it.
Mr Heavenly has gone to some talk thingy (possibly Christians in business?) in Cambridge so I am about to cook myself a pork escalope with mushrooms and a fried egg. Possibly with a gin to accompany it.
Dinner was fried tatties with Szechuan pepper on them, along with a mushroom, courgette, and pak choi stir-fry with coriander seeds in. The pak choi was freshly picked, @Sandemaniac having grown it in the greenhouse this winter.
The hotel and breakfast were very good so at least we are refreshed. 🙂
A very nice morning visiting a garden not too far away. They had a beautiful meadow full of daffodils and an even lovelier one covered in snakes head fritillaries.
Just spent an hour planting the things we brought at the nursery there and the herbs that arrived for our herb bed after we'd got home and attacking a couple of rampant salvias that were threatening to take over. I found a lost hollyhock in the process.
I hope @Sarasa that the Mysterious Mystery of the Lost Hollyhock, now so serendipitously solved, leads to a profusion of Splendid Blooms.
In time for High Tea, before moving southwards?
Not quite such a frantic day today - I only left a few minutes of untyped dictation. And it's the most glorious day - 18° if the Met Office's website isn't telling porkies! Socks have been (at least temporarily) discarded.
Because I've got Night Church later, and need to read over the poem I'm reading at it, I cheated for supper and got a popty-ping curry from Tessie's for supper, which was washed down with a glass of BEER.
Today's main activities were Shopp Ing and practising the cello. Husband en rouge is making some sort of gussied up ramen for dinner.
I've had the opposite problem, toasted a bunch of mine today. Looks as though we will be sans boiler until after Easter now...
94 not out!
If it hadn't been for those donors in 1998, I'd have been dead at 34. I wouldn't have seen my kids grow up. I wouldn't have finished my undergrad history degree, let alone the PhD. The Quinie was 2, and probably wouldn't have been able to remember her mummy.
Perhaps, like me, in 23 years time, someone will be doing something special (in my case the Quinie's wedding) and give thanks for you, the anonymous 2025 donor, who made it all possible @Sandemaniac.
In other news, it's a lovely sunny day here (though with a chilly wind) and I took myself out to get my new glasses fitted (I've worn varifocals for some years but find a new pair always takes some adjusting to), thence to a coffee shop with my book and then Mr Nen picked me up and we headed out for a walk and lunch in a café which was all very pleasant. It's the first time for some weeks (because busyness and Challenging House Guests) that we've had to spend time together properly, just the two of us.
On our return, we embarked on Washing The Cars which at Casa Nen is a major and involved operation. My method (slosh a couple of buckets of soapy water at it, followed by a rub with a cloth) is unacceptable to Mr Nen, who employs the pressure jet mixing and applying the car foam, several buckets of car shampoo to be applied using special sponges, a Special Implement to clean the wheels, the pressure jet again to rinse the foam away, a chamois leather with clear water (important not to let the car air-dry) and a special spray for the wheels. My life has been much enhanced by this afternoon's education in how to wring out and use a chamois leather. I think Mr Nen was channelling his inner North East Man.
Salmon with roast vegetables for tea.
Alas! problems with the Dragon mean that the decision has been taken to let his fire go out, at least for a while. There is, I'm sure, a build-up of soot in the chimney which is reducing the draught slightly, and a thorough inspection of the soot-box is also needed in order to seal an ongoing leak. Obviously, cleaning the chimney can only be done when the fire is out, but apparently the weather is set fair for a few days yet. I have alternative means of heating water and cooking, and, if the evenings get chilly, I can put on a pullover and switch on a small electric heater.
If the weather stays mild, I may well leave relighting the Dragon until the end of summer...
Supper was going to be mushroom stroganoff, but I had only a small pack of mushrooms, and once I'd cooked them with half an onion, paprika, mustard, creme fraiche and an indecent quantity of garlic, they really didn't look like very much, so I defrosted and chucked in a packet of prawns, and it became prawn and mushroom stroganoff, and was really rather good, so I'll do it again.
Usual busy day, I didn’t make the thanatology (death studies) meeting this morning as I was sorting out student issues, I then wrote a tutorial for next week (review and reflection on a youth module), and this afternoon I delivered a tutorial on health inequalities and integrated care. I managed to fit in 2 hours of study of my own afterwards, I am currently studying a unit on health in the early modern period.
Tea was courgette and mint soup with halloumi croutons.
We have been living in chaos for three months now. We emptied the NE Man's bedroom, got the floor fixed, got it painted and recarpeted, then ground to a halt as there was a delay in getting the new wardrobes. We have been living amongst boxes and piles of stuff since.
The new wardrobes came on Friday and the new bed today.
Somehow we both thought that the NE Man had a super kingsize, and we'd ordered a like-for-like replacement, but we were keeping the old headboard.
It turns out the old bed was a kingsize. The new bed looks huge! The NE Man is quite delighted and is looking forward to having a whole super-kingsize to himself. BUT the old headboard doesn't fit, and neither does any of the existing bedding. So we are going to have to buy a super-kingsize duvet, and we are already over budget. Not that I grudge it; no-one deserves a nice bedroom more than the hard-working NE Man, it's just that it's one more thing on the to-do list before we can start to get free of the clutter.
Husband is now back so I guess I ought to go and say hello.
This afternoon my daughter and I went to the garden centre and bought a few plants for my as yet unfinished rockery.
Last rehearsal for the Brahms’ Requiem this evening. I don’t know how I am going to find the stamina to sing it all though on Saturday. Must consider my food choices, to sustain me. I have an appointment for my 7th Covid jab Saturday morning too. I’m assuming any adverse effects won’t kick in until the next day, though unusually I am going to listen to a concert on Sunday evening, a charity concert with two male voice choirs and a blues band.
Meanwhile on Friday at my French group we are discussing whether, given a second chance, we would make any different life choices.
The unconnected waterbutt, which we top up through the summer by chucking in the water that runs out of the taps when we are waiting for it to run hot first thing in the morning, needed emptying and cleaning. Then it had to be part filled from the hose as it was rocking in the gusty wind.
Shame we didn't't do that last week, before the price went up!
As I get older, and more feak and weeble, I tend to set myself one or two Tasks per day, and try not to go at them like a bull at a gate, as that results in much fatigue. This morning's Task was cleaning out the Dragon (who is now estivating), removing a quantity of ash and soot, and sealing the holes in the soot-box.
It's just as well that I don't need the Dragon for a while, as the grate has decided to fall apart. A replacement is on order, and will be put in place (a rather fiddly job) when it arrives from Mr E Bay's Magic Emporium. The Chimney still needs to be swept (I have a suitable Brush), but that will be tomorrow's Task, I think.
O! the excitement! Wot larks we shall 'ave, Pip! Wot larks!
Lunch is Battered Prawns n'Chips, a-cooking in the trusty Remoska, which has been brought out of hibernation. BEER is being quaffed in celebration...
I have a bit of a cough and don't feel quite 100%, however a Covid test came out negative so it's probably just a mild cold!
After a dull and rather cool start, it's now a beautiful evening in West Lothian, and the sun is streaming in through the blossom on the tree outside my window.
Supper was a couple of Tessie's salmon & lemon fish cakes with lemony, garlicky greens, and really rather nice.
I might have a few biscuits and CHEESE later.
I too go the hose pipe out last night @Roseofsharon. I do wish the weather wouldn't be all of one thing or all of another.
I am trying to sort the craft room (anyone know anywhere would welcome large donation of knitting magazines/books?).
Trouble with redding out stuff is you come across things - like a stone paperweight painted up for me by my friend J who died 18 months ago - and then it's quite hard to keep going.
That's what I love about my lip reading class our tutor is always on the look out for interesting things to discuss that also highlight trick things to lipread in this case the w sound at the begining of words like wrestle. The other week we were discussing photocopying newts.....
Mr Nen and I have been out to our Lent group and I'd really like a glass of wine now, but I can't because, um, Lent.
I'm seeing a friend for her birthday tomorrow morning and my usual friends in the afternoon. Mr Nen seems to have a packed programme of a day so I shall Keep Calm And Carry On. He is out in the evening as well so the TV remote and I have a date.
Changed my mind about the CHEESE, as I remembered I'd bought the first HCBs of the season.
Not bad, although I don't think I got the proportions quite right.
So far I have found hire car places only in large cities. Do you have any information that could help me. I haven't lived in England since 1978 and there must have been lots of changes since then.
If you fancy a meet up and have time when you're in the Southwell area let me know. I'm away quite a bit of those months but if I'm here happy to show you round this lovely part of the world (I live six miles from Southwell).
In other news I've just swapped my winter wardrobe for my summer one. I hope the weather remains as nice as it is at present.
We've had some rain in the night but it's supposed to be Turning Out Nice Later, with the highest temperatures of the year so far. It doesn't look or feel much like that at present.
Off soon to see a friend whose birthday it is today.
Thanks very much @Sarasa.
FYI we lived in Stapleford and then Beeston in 1975-1978. My wife worked for Gedling Social Services and I did my BA (Theology) at Nottingham Uni and worked part time as a houseparent in Forest Lodge, an adolescent girls hostel.
I grew up in Stanmore, Middlesex and a friend from the 60s that we are arranging to visit on 24-25 May now lives in Southwell.
I'd like to arrange a meet up if the dates work out. We have been briefly to Southwell in 2016, but I remember little from that brief visit.
I'll keep you informed.
Ditto. I've just come back from taking a Primary School Assembly. And we're having a new front door fitted.
One thing that hasn't changed is that we still drive on the left.