Overpriced Christmas stuff (what a surprise)

 I really enjoyed the lunch and garden centre visit.  I had a brie, cranberry and rocket ciabatta with twice-cooked chips, husband had a Coronation chicken bloomer sandwich with chips.  Lovely coffees too.  Although it was busy (Tuesdays is obviously pensioner outing day, there were loads of them - and no I'm not a pensioner....yet!!), we got served very quickly by smiling cheerful staff, and the food/drinks were steaming hot.  Some reviews I'd seen online complained about long waits and cold food, but that certainly wasn't our experience.  It was fun browsing around the shop afterwards - I didn't buy anything!  Not that there was nothing I wanted, on the contrary, I saw loads of things I'd happily give house room to, but I no longer buy things just because I like them - they must be needed.  Especially when we're downsizing.  There were a staggering amount of Christmas decorations, even more than in previous years, I think.  Some of them I thought were ridiculously overpriced - what's the point of paying vast amounts for something you put out on show for such a short time?  There was a large toy retriever dog, life size, it had a moving head and tail and was displayed lying on a decorated fire hearth - I dread to think how much that was, I didn't dare look.  It looked very lifelike, I wonder what Betty would have made of it?  I can't really imagine why anyone would actually want to buy something like that for Christmas - waste of money as far as I'm concerned, but each to their own I guess.  I do like Nutcracker soldiers, and those gonk-type gnomes - there were literally dozens of both, in all sizes from tree-hanging small ones to ones several feet tall.  You'd have to have a very big house to display some of the Christmas things - and a garden size to match, if you wanted some of the massive light-up outdoor reindeer, snowmen, etc.  A lot of it struck me as being really OTT gaudy.  But I suppose some people like that!

Our neighbour has had their baby girl, early Monday morning.  Unfortunately, there were complications, compounded by a shortage of staff in the maternity unit, and the baby is very ill with sepsis.  We can only hope that the little one will pull through.  The husband came home to have a quick shower and tell us the news, then went straight back to the hospital.  Very worrying for them. 

This morning we're having the boiler serviced, then tomorrow we're going to do our fortnightly Sainsbury's shop.  And that's the sum of the excitement for this week!

Having not coloured my hair now for months and months, it's now almost completely grey.  I didn't really make a conscious decision to stop colouring it (I've done it myself for about 50 years, with the odd salon visit for colouring here and there), I just couldn't be bothered anymore in the end, it didn't feature high on my list of things to do.  Actually, rather than grey it's more of a soft silver colour - and amazingly I quite like it....so I don't think I'll bother dyeing it anymore.  Saves me a job!  My Mum's hair never really went grey, it just sort of faded over the years, so in the end hers was a sort of soft light silver colour too, much as mine is.  So every time I see myself in the mirror now, I see my Mother looking back at me - which is no bad thing.

The weather is back to strong blustery winds and rain - it seems to be our default setting lately.  Thank goodness we're not going anywhere today - and that includes Betty, she's not even keen on going in the garden to do her business when the weather's like this.

 

Delayed birthday treat

 Thank you for all the birthday comments and emails.  Although we couldn't go out (the windscreen bloke arrived about 3.30 pm), it was still quite a nice day.  I told husband I wasn't doing any washing up - I generally do all the washing up throughout the day, he washes up after dinner in the evening (although frequently leaves some of it 'to soak overnight' and then 'forgets' to do it the next morning).  I also said as it was my birthday I would like a TV-free day!  I had the radio on tuned to my favourite Greatest Hits station (Ken Bruce!  The way they go on about him....I do like him by the way....you'd think he was the only presenter on there).  Husband managed to resist putting the TV on until about 4 pm, by which time I relented and said he could, as he was moping around bored.  I didn't get any cards through the post - our post here is terrible, there's been a staff shortage for months and months and we only get post about once a week, we've not had any at all since early last week.

The king prawn cocktail was scrumptious, I had a croissant with it....can't remember the last time I had one of those.  The smoked haddock chowder I made for dinner was gorgeous too, even husband said it was really nice and I could make it again.  Even though it's a main course soup, he doesn't really consider soup to be substantial enough for dinner, but made an exception for this one.  There's enough left for dinner tonight, we're going out for lunch today.

We're going to a big garden centre which has a large restaurant, recently (well, a year or so ago) redone.  After we've had lunch, I shall enjoy browsing around, they have a big clothes section, loads of books, homewares, gifts, a large pet section.  And no doubt some Christmas displays too.  If husband gets bored - which I'm sure he will - he can go and sit in the car and doze off whilst 'listening' to the radio....for once I'm not going to be guilt-tripped into hurrying up just so he can get out of there!

It was chucking it down yet again through the night and when I got up....it's stopping now and the sun seems to be (very weakly) trying to come out.  The fields are still bogs and the lane full of mud, it feels like this year has been mostly rain....although we did have a bit of a heatwave in June I think.  But at least it's really green and lush everywhere.

Feeling ancient!

 Well, I'm 64 today and I feel every one of those years.  But I'm thankful that I've actually reached that age - and that it means I now only have 2 years to wait until I get my State pension! (that's assuming the government doesn't move the goal posts).

Husband had been told to ring the windscreen replacement firm after 4 pm yesterday, to be given a time for the appointment.  He was held in a queue for AN HOUR, constantly being told by the recording that he could access live chat on the website instead.  Except.....their website was down for maintenance the whole time, so was inaccessible!  He gave up and tried again early evening - another 30 minute wait, so he gave up again.  He tried again just before he went up to bed (the phone line is 24/7 apparently) and finally got through, they're coming around 2.30 pm today.  So in theory we could go out for lunch still, but I don't really want to feel we have to rush through it and get back in time, so will still put it off to another day.

The inconsiderate neighbour didn't let any fireworks off in the end, thankfully - although why he let one off at 8 o'clock on a Sunday morning is beyond me.  We could hear the odd few in the distance yesterday evening, Betty lifted her head up and listened intently each time, but didn't get upset.  We had the calming plug-in thing on, and I'd given her a few drops of CBD oil (our vet says it's fine and he has in fact used it himself on his own pets) early in the evening, that seemed to do the trick of keeping her calm.

I've decided that the next time we go shopping, I'm going to get a bagful of baking potatoes, another bagful of chicken thighs, 2 or 3 packs of sausages and some packs of bacon.  Also a load of root veg and Mediterranean type veg.  I'll have an oven day and cook them all up at once, freezing them in portions once cool.  That way there'll always be plenty of stuff available in the freezer for quick easy meals for both husband and I - I generally have packs of lemon sole (Aldi's is my favourite one), fish fingers or those lightly dusted fish cakes, and tins of tuna and salmon, so my meals are easy anyway - just add some veggies.  I am finding that the older I get, the less time I want to spend cooking....my enthusiasm for cooking is waning a bit.  For lunches nowadays I generally have cheese, a couple of rye crispbreads and an apple, husband has sandwiches or something on toast.  I don't, or at least very rarely, have breakfast, husband gets his own, cereal or toast, although he does sometimes do himself a cooked breakfast.  Cooking just doesn't hold the same interest for me as it used to.  I like plain simple meals now.

I really must sew the crochet flowers onto the baby blanket - I just can't seem to get the oomph.  The neighbours are away on an anniversary break, it's their 1st year anniversary - hope she doesn't go into labour whilst they're away!  She's not actually due for a couple of weeks yet, but that doesn't really mean anything does it?

Irresponsible neighbours, and finally feeling better

 Thank you Marlene for giving the Carnival link - I didn't think I'd be able to watch it as our wifi here is so terribly slow (just 0.5 mbps at its worst, only just over 1 mbps at best).  I did manage to watch some of it though....it seemed to me that there were less entries than in previous years when we actually went to see it, I guess because of the cost!  What I saw was good though.

There were a few fireworks going off in the area last night, not many thank goodness.  As it's a very rural farming area, there haven't tended to be many fireworks in previous years, people showing respect for the livestock, and certainly none here in our little hamlet.  However, last NYE the family 3 doors away from us (they have 3 children aged between 4 and 14) had a very noisy party with lots of fireworks at midnight.  They didn't invite any of us neighbours, and told no-one about the party, although we did realise they were having one when a few carloads of people arrived during the evening.  We were in bed at midnight, and both of us and Betty were woken up by the loud bang of fireworks - the neighbour seemed to have picked the noisiest ones he could find.  Betty was terrified, she tried to hide under the bed, was whimpering with fear and didn't settle for at least an hour afterwards.  I was so annoyed at how irresponsible and uncaring the neighbour was, we did have words with him and asked why he didn't at least let us know in advance, so that we could have taken precautions to keep Betty calm.  He shrugged and gave a half-hearted apology, but it was clear he didn't really care.  Well, it appears he may be having fireworks tonight - not that he's told any of us, not a word to anyone, but he let a banger off around 8 o'clock this morning!  Irresponsible twat.  I assume he won't be having the fireworks late, as it's a school day tomorrow, we'll make sure we have the TV up fairly loud and have the calming plug-in thing switched on.  

I am finally feeling a lot better, I no longer feel feverish and am feeling 'normal' again.  For my birthday lunch tomorrow I've decided to have prawn cocktail, using the lovely giant raw king prawns I bought a couple of weeks ago.  And instead of the prawn stirfry for dinner, I'm going to make a smoked fish chowder - because I love it and that's what I really fancy.  Nice as it is going out for the occasional meal (it's a rare treat nowadays), I often feel I could make better food myself at home, and certainly cheaper.  The one good thing about having a meal out is that someone else has cooked it for me, and there's no washing up.  We'll still go out for lunch later on in the week, once the car windscreen has been changed.

I must roast a trayful of Mediterranean style veggies today, they need using up before they go off, I've done virtually no cooking for the past week whilst feeling ill and it wouldn't have occurred to husband.  Once cooked they'll keep in the fridge for a couple of days, I'll make a rice or pasta dish with them on Tuesday.

HH, I hope you and your husband feel better very soon, it'll be a shame to have to cancel your jabs.

Still negative, Betty's 'friend', Carnival

 I've done another test this morning, it's still negative.  Still not feeling well though, I was feverish, hot one minute, cold and shivering the next, again last night.  It's been almost a week now, I feel reasonably ok during the day, but come late afternoon/early evening it changes to feeling like crap again.  Husband is ok, thankfully, he doesn't seem to have caught it.  My appetite has been reduced over the past week and I haven't felt like cooking my usual healthy meals, so it's been a mixture of ready cooked things out of the freezer, the sausage stew I made which did us for 2 days, and things on toast.  Not big meals at all, but a bit too carby so it's not been doing my guts and aching joints much good.

Husband came home from town yesterday with a big bunch of roses for me, 2 dozen red, pink and cream ones, they're beautiful.  Pity they don't have any smell though (I'm guessing they're foreign, probably hot house grown) - native seasonal British roses smell gorgeous, it's one of my favourite smells.

A couple of weeks ago I bought Betty a very large stuffed toy dog (did I mention it before?), it's almost as big as she is, I got it in a charity shop.  I thought, fondly if wrongly, that it could be a sort of friend for her.  Nope, no way.  She's got a very strong prey drive and treats all soft toys the same - as prey, she shakes them in her mouth and generally throws them around.  Eventually of course she rips them and at that stage they get thrown away.  As this one is so big, it's lasting longer than usual, husband had to cut off one of the ears this morning as she'd ripped it.  We allow her to play with it for just 10 minutes at a time, once or twice a day.  When we take it away from her (she's often a bit reluctant to give it up, but does so fairly readily) we give her a little chew treat.  The toy gives her a bit of stimulation (we play with her whilst she's got it) and subsequently wears her out for a short while!  She doesn't get as many walks and certainly not long ones during the bad weather we've been having for what seems like ages, if it's raining quite hard she simply refuses to go outside.  So she needs a bit of extra stimulation and play.

Speaking of the weather, it's a mixture of (brief) spells of sunshine and rain again today, the fields around us are bogs, the little local lanes have turned into shallow muddy streams.  The ditches and gullies beside the lanes, supposed to take the run-off of rainwater from the fields, are full and overflowing.  A couple of the neighbours have gardens which are underwater in places, our front path disappears underwater which soon goes, but we are very fortunate that none of us here have had water invade our houses.  It must be absolutely devastating to have your home flooded out, destroying your home and possessions, and knowing you won't be able to move back into it for months and months.

As we now can't go out for my birthday lunch on Monday, I've decided to cook a king prawn dish as my birthday treat.....I do love king prawns.  It'll probably be a stirfry in sweet chilli sauce, with coconut rice and a swirl of sour cream on top.  I dare say husband would cook it if I asked him to, but he'll only be asking me questions (How many prawns shall I use?  How do you want the vegetables cut?  How long should I cook it for?  What should I cook first?....etc etc) every 2 minutes, which will irritate the life out of me, so I'd rather do it myself.  I think I'll make some lemon & raisin pancakes and we've got a tub of chocolate & orange ice cream in the freezer, that'll make a nice pud - I rarely eat puddings but will make an exception on my birthday.

It's the Bridgwater Carnival tonight, we've been several times over the years and I'd love to go again sometime.  It was raining quite hard one year, which wasn't pleasant, and of course it's generally cold, but the heat blasting off the 1000s of lightbulbs used on all the carts (they're called carts here, not floats) keeps you warm.  It is a fantastic spectacle, well worth seeing.  However, you have to get into town by 6 pm as they close the roads then, and don't open them up again until around 1 am, so it's a long time, certainly longer than we're happy to leave Betty home alone.  Also, as it's always held around Bonfire Night, there are usually fireworks going off in most areas, although not so many where we live.  But Betty hates fireworks so we wouldn't want to leave her home alone at this time of year - we haven't done ever since we've had her.

I hope it's not...

 Mid morning yesterday it started hammering down with horizontal rain, being blown sideways in the really strong wind gusts.  I was so glad to be indoors.  We have noticed, however, that the new double glazed windows installed by the landlord a few months ago are actually nowhere near as efficient at keeping out cold and noise as the old ones.  The glass must be really thin - we can hear noises outside clearly, it feels very cold standing in front of the windows and there are cold draughts coming through the opening windows.  The landlords clearly went for the cheapest option.  The old windows, whilst some no longer fitted properly, having dropped over the years (they were around 25 years old), certainly cut out noise better and felt warmer.  Still, we didn't pay for the new windows so can't complain.  Although the rent increase this year was around 5x as much as in previous years, so I guess we are actually paying for them in a small way!

I'm a bit perturbed to read that a couple of you/or relatives had tested positive for Covid having had symptoms similar to mine.  As I mentioned in reply to Dc yesterday, I tested negative, but I'll do another test tomorrow probably.  Best to be cautious, I suppose.  If it is Covid, I must say it's not a particularly serious strain - I'd liken it to a fairly mild dose of flu.  Hopefully, our Covid jabs will prevent it being any more serious.  Even so, if it does turn out to be Covid, I hope husband doesn't get it, it might be a bit more problematical for him.  I'm keeping my distance from him, just in case.  And I'm feeling a lot better today, although come the evening I seem to feel worse again.

I've finished crocheting the little flowers to go on the baby blanket, it's just a case of sewing them all on now.  Sewing added bits on or weaving in ends is always the job I hate the most....I know I should really weave in ends as I go along, but it's such a chore I just put it off.  At least I can get it all done in one go.

Husband's going out for his monthly breakfast with his mate this morning, and then to town to get 2 new tyres fitted, so I've got a couple of hours on my own, bliss.

A bit better, the storm and car problems

 I've felt decidedly unwell the last couple of days - feverish, feeling cold and shivery one minute, then hot and sweaty the next.  Splitting headache that kept coming on quite suddenly, then going again.  Aching muscles and joints.  Also explosive diarrhoea a few times (sorry!).  I spent most of the past 2 days upstairs in my recliner chair, with my fur blanket over me.  Some sort of virus or bug I suppose, it seems to be wearing off now although I'm still not feeling right.  Fortunately, I'd made a big pan of leek & potato soup when I first started to feel a bit unwell, and there were pizzas and ready meals in the freezer, so I didn't have to do any cooking and husband could cope with it.  I've put a sausage casserole in the slow cooker this morning, that will do us for today and tomorrow, with leftovers to freeze, in case I'm not feeling brilliant later, I seem to feel worse come late afternoon/evening.

We're well into Storm Ciaran, we had torrential rain and strong winds through the night which kept me awake (hence why I was up early putting the sausage casserole together), and it's still continuing.  I wonder why they're classifying it as a storm and not a hurricane?  Fortunately, we don't seem to have suffered any damage.  Dog walking may be a problem - Betty wouldn't even go out in the garden for a wee when I opened the door, she took one look then turned and scarpered back into the lounge.  She'll obviously have to go and do her business, but it'll be in the garden only today.  Husband had a phone call yesterday offering him his first (and long-awaited) physio appointment, a cancellation, for this afternoon, he's taken it but I think he's bonkers, especially with the big split in the windscreen (see below).....he says it's fine, it's only the outer skin of the screen, not the inside.  I shan't be going with him, so I hope he'll be ok. 

A stone thrown up by a passing vehicle hit the car windscreen a couple of days ago, it very quickly developed a split 3 or 4" long right in husband's eye line....by the next day it had doubled in length.  He phoned his insurers to arrange for a replacement screen - he made the appointment for next Monday.  Which is my birthday, and we're supposed to be going out for lunch - he'd totally forgotten, the date didn't even register on his consciousness (we've only been married 40 years 😒).  Still, I suppose getting the windscreen done is the important thing - I was a bit irritated that it didn't even occur to husband that that day was my birthday, but I guess we can go for lunch another day, it doesn't really matter.  My fault for not putting it on the calendar - didn't think it was necessary!

Stay safe and indoors if you can.