Nope, not happening

 It's cold, drizzly and breezy this morning, but that's alright, we don't have to go anywhere.  And I think we've got off extremely lightly in comparison to other areas, mainly up North, where there are terrible floods and people have died.  Must be absolutely devastating to have your home flooded, or to lose a loved one to the extreme weather.

Here at home, Mr Clumsy strikes again - husband tripped up the stairs yesterday, a fairly regular occurrence.....fortunately, he generally falls UPstairs and not down.  He was wearing his open-toed leather slippers and bashed his toes and this morning one of his toes is going black - badly bruised I guess.  He said he'll go to the GP on Monday if it gets any worse.

Both husband and I have, shall we say, 'problem' relatives in our extended families - I expect lots of people have.  My problem relative has been fairly quiet recently, although that could change at any time.  Yesterday we had a phone call out of the blue from husband's problem relative, who we haven't heard from or had any contact with for 4 or 5 years, thankfully.  She rang to say she wants to come and stay with us, with her new boyfriend (she gets through numerous men) and her 2 granddaughters.  Nope, not happening - my first thought was 'Why?  Why now?  What does she want this time?'.  She's extremely abrasive, rude, foul-mouthed and sarcastic and I really struggle to get on with her.  The last contact we had with her some years ago was a text from her begging us for money, as she said she'd got serious rent arrears and was threatened with eviction.  After some discussion, we gave her some money - she then well and truly abused our trust by not using the money to pay off her arrears (that's if she actually had any) but instead buying some designer stuff which she then proceeded to flaunt pictures of on FB.  She then quickly compounded the insult by prompting her daughter and son to both come to us with sob stories of their own and ask for yet more money - as we'd coughed up, she clearly thought we were a soft touch and an ongoing open wallet.  We soon disabused them of that idea, we didn't give them any, telling them we're not cash cows.  That was the last we heard from any of them.

I just think she's after something (probably money) and wants to bring her granddaughters as a way of playing on our - well, husband's - emotions, he is a bit of a softy where children are concerned.  I know some of you may be thinking well she might have changed, give her a chance.  So I'd like to say to you all - please don't, none of you know the family dynamics, the amount of trouble she's caused over the years and just how rude she's been to both of us, lots of times.  A leopard doesn't change its spots, as far as I'm concerned.  Hopefully that will be the end of it and we won't hear from her again.  The older I get, the less I want unnecessary hassle and am no longer prepared to tolerate it.

The odds and ends of bread I found in the freezer made a huge bread pudding, I've cut it into 12 large slices and frozen most of them, that'll please husband for some time to come.  I also used up some marmalade in it - husband wanted a jar of marmalade a few weeks back so I told him to get one whilst he was out.....he bought the cheapest value range one which is more or less just sweetened jelly with a few strands of peel in it.  Surprisingly (not!) he doesn't like it on his toast!  I've told him on numerous occasions that buying the cheapest of anything is not necessarily a good idea, but he's a lifelong skinflint. Well, at least it's got used rather than being chucked, and husband said he likes the orangey flavour in the bread pud.