I've had some sort of D&V bug, it started Monday evening, I'll spare you the details. Stayed in bed most of yesterday. Slept a lot both during the day and last night - as a result of virtually no sleep Monday night I expect. The unpleasant effects of the bug have gone, but I feel like I've been run over by a steamroller.
Back soon.
So what did we do yesterday? Well, it was sunny on and off, albeit cold, so we went for a walk. It turned out to be a short one, just 20 mins, as it was just too cold for me and I could feel myself getting slower and slower. My hips are really protesting about the cold weather just now.....although I feel bad even talking about it being cold when the likes of Canada have temperatures of -30, or even less - now that really is cold!! But I guess to a certain extent we are governed by where we live and were brought up, that influences how we view the weather. So as far as I'm concerned, it's cold here! The week is forecast to be fairly dry with sunny spells here, and still cold....but we're not forecast any snow, thankfully. We intend to take Betty to the beach on one of the sunnier and slightly less cold days - it won't be as busy as it was on Boxing Day, when it seemed everyone in the area had decided to go for a walk with their dogs, so hopefully we'll be able to let her off the lead for a run on the beach.
I made a big stew in the slow cooker....mostly veggies, with chickpeas and puy lentils, chopped dried apricots and just 250g of minced lamb. I used Middle Eastern warm spices - cumin, paprika, cinnamon, ginger, with thyme and garlic paste. Near the end I added a tablespoon each of honey and mint sauce, and a splash of lemon juice for freshness. It made 8 good portions, so I froze 3 double containerfuls for future meals. Despite using so little lamb, as I haven't eaten lamb for over a year I could taste the fattiness of it. It wasn't unpleasant, but it's not something I'd want to start eating again regularly.
I want to try and avoid shopping for the rest of this month - with all the meal plans I made from the freezer and larder inventory I did the other day, it should certainly be doable. Having said that though, I'll probably need to get some milk towards the end of the month.
Thank you for the comments and support re the impending family 'situation' - B.E.G. you did make me laugh with your comment. I actually have no trouble saying No nowadays, and it doesn't involve money in this instance anyway. It's just that husband and I are rarely on the same page, especially now with his memory problems - something he may have said or agreed to last week, he will have totally forgotten and flatly denies now. He can also be quite obstinate and argumentative, which makes things more difficult. The point is, whatever I say - having given it a lot of thought and discussed it with husband - will cause ructions one way or the other. I just have to be firm and stand my ground - and yes I will be Wicked Witch of the West! C'est la vie.
The days are beginning to draw out, albeit very slowly and just a minute or two at a time, it's now starting to get light earlier, and yesterday we didn't put the lounge lights on until nearly 4.30 pm. Spring will soon be here! We're going to start collecting pallets for the raised beds - I've seen on FB marketplace quite a few being given away, although not very locally, but it means there are plenty of free ones about, if we keep looking. We will only be able to get perhaps 2 or 3 in the car at a time, so the sooner we start getting some the better. We'll also go to the local firm who we were told by neighbours frequently have some to give away, and there's an industrial estate in Minehead where there'll no doubt be more.
There are a couple of possible 'situations' coming up, which are giving me cause for concern. It's family stuff, which is always a problem - on the one hand, however badly behaved they are, and however much I resist being drawn into their problem behaviour, the fact remains that they are family. My family is a bunch of angels in comparison to husband's.....although I do have one big problem relative. Incidentally, that relative has been a giant pain again the last couple of days, just when I have enough to cope with and little patience for him. It's husband's family who are the main problem right now though.
To give some background.....husband has 3 children from his first, very ill-fated marriage (he had them when he was little more than a child himself, with an older and extremely manipulative woman who quickly married him, as soon as he reached 18). He has no contact at all with his eldest, a son - hasn't seen him for 15 or 20 years - the son's choice, when he flatly refused to treat me with respect. He's hugely arrogant, a bully and downright nasty and right from the start (when he was 13) he treated me with utter contempt, fuelled by his mother and unchecked by his father, until I snapped and refused to have him in our home unless/until he apologised and gave me some respect. Husband also has little contact with the eldest of his 2 daughters, who has a lot of her brother's 'attributes' and is foul-mouthed, extremely sarcastic and bitchy and spends most weekends posting pictures on FB of her falling out of pubs and nightclubs with her, all clearly drunk, friends. She's in her early 50s by the way, she's not a teenager! Husband's youngest daughter is, by contrast, lovely - she's married to a really nice bloke and has 2 adult children, they're a lovely and normal!! family. The current problems are centred on husband's eldest daughter.....I know a situation is almost certainly going to blow up very shortly (it's brewing already) and, whilst I really don't want to get involved, I know I'm going to have to make some decisions and manage things, since husband won't be able to.
Whatever I say is not going to go down well, I'm fully aware of that, and I will be painted as the wicked stepmother once again. Which in itself doesn't really bother me - I and those who are close to me know the truth of what's happened over the years and that's all that matters. But it is a shame for husband, especially now he's older and has all these health problems which are only going to get worse. Although, to be blunt, some of the problems with his 2 elder children were exacerbated by husband himself and his mismanagement of the situations.
I find as I get older (and have more health problems myself, as well as managing husband's), I am less willing to put up with bad behaviour or stupid drama. In my 60s and onwards, I just want a peaceful life.....I would say peaceful and easy, but it's never going to be easy, going forward.
Regarding husband's med sorting into his dosette box weekly....it was suggested that we could get the pharmacy to do it. I did a bit of research and it seems that there's quite a high incidence of mistakes being made by the pharmacies when doing this, and the patient may not know about it if they don't check the meds - or get their carers to check. It was also reported that some pharmacies are doing away with this, due to time constraints and costs. I rang our new GP and asked the pharmacy (attached to the surgery) - they ummed and ahhed and said they would rather not, unless there was a clear clinical need for it to be done, as they are often understaffed and sorting/filling individual boxes for patients takes a lot of time. So we'll carry on doing it ourselves....it's a bit of a boring job but only takes 30 mins or so, hardly a huge chunk out of one day a week.
Betty had her ears checked yesterday, the infection this time hasn't cleared as quickly as usual so she had another dose of meds, she also had her claws clipped. I've signed up to the vets pet plan - it's not an insurance but a way of spreading the cost (by monthly payments) of her regular flea, tick and worming treatment, annual health check and vaccination. It works out cheaper than paying them all in one go, and she also gets an extra health check every 6 months, plus nail clipping, and 10% off any other meds she might need (such as ear treatment). So it was worth doing, saves some money.
The mattress on my bed isn't that old - about 4 or 5 years I think. However, since we've moved here it's just not as comfortable - and it creaks like mad. Whether it didn't like being stood up on end in the removal van, or whether it's a result of Betty jumping around on it....which she does tend to do sometimes, when she's feeling playful or restless.....I don't know. I didn't really want to shell out for a new mattress just yet, so ordered a thick, good quality memory foam mattress topper online - it was £25 off in a sale and had a few hundred good reviews. It came yesterday morning and, as recommended, we unfolded it (it was hard getting it out of the vacuum packed bag!) and laid it out on my bedroom floor all day, for it to plump back up. Which it did beautifully....I kept the door shut so Betty couldn't go treading all over it. Slept on it (on the bed, not on the floor 😂, I'd never get up off it!) for the first time last night, it was really comfy and cut down on the creakiness a lot. Betty seemed to like it too, she slept well.
So unfortunately for my trying to get our savings back up again plan, this month so far has been quite a spendy one - what with vet bills, the Multichef packing up and having to buy a replacement electric pan, and the mattress topper. So I am more determined than ever to cut down my food shopping spending and stretch out the food we already have in, for as long as possible. It'll be even more important also to get at least one raised veggie bed constructed - on the subject of which, our neighbour told us of a local firm that regularly gives away pallets, so we'll go and have a look soon. Growing veggies, especially since we do now eat a lot of them, should save a bit. We'll grow some in large pots too, there are a few here left by the previous tenant which are a bit tatty and not particularly pretty enough for flowers, but will be fine for veggies for at least one growing season.
I helped husband fill his pill dispenser yesterday, it's a week's worth. He takes so many pills each day, it's a bit of a nightmare filling up the dispenser - he does it whilst I supervise. All done for another week. The fact that the dispensary often changes suppliers, meaning the tablets are in a different box, under a different proprietary name and sometimes a different shape/colour, makes it all the more confusing for husband....he never thinks to look at the generic name. I did once ask the dispenser why they change suppliers so often - she said it could be due to a number of things - usual supplier not got them in, different supplier cheaper, or even visiting drug co. salesman was very persuasive! (bearing gifts no doubt).
My friend gave me a fabulous desk diary for Christmas (it's one with lots of rude motifs and sayings in it, makes me laugh every time I look at it), as well as putting appointments and payment dates in it, I'm also making a note of shopping spends. It'll help me keep track of my supermarket spends and thus keep my food shopping spending as low as possible. I hope. We're well on track for eating out of the freezer and larder cupboards this month, I need hardly anything in the way of food shopping, although do need some cleaning supplies and toiletries. It's a shame that Wilkos went bust, I used to get household things in there, I really liked that shop.
I went online yesterday to get husband a concessionary bus pass - he wants to start using buses now there's a bus route nearby. As seems to be the norm nowadays, the online application form was far more long-winded and complicated that it needed to be. Or perhaps I'm just getting more confused about techie stuff the older I get! By the time I'm eligible for a bus pass in a couple of years, it'll be even more complicated I expect....perhaps I'll have to get someone else to do it for me then 😂😂😒
Other than that, it was just a normal housework and washing day. I shall be glad when the weather starts warming up so I can put my washing outside, instead of cluttering up the place with it draped on the airers. A couple of times I have put one of the airers out in the car port, but it's been so cold that the clothes don't dry at all out there.
I made the packet sourdough loaf in my multichef yesterday, I think it's the first time I've used it for bread - I always used the oven before on the few occasions when we made bread. It over-baked on the bottom, but not too badly, just crisp, tastes alright though. Afterwards I started making the smoked haddock kedgeree, using the multichef....well, the blooming thing packed up halfway through. It had been playing up a bit the last 2 or 3 times I used it, so I guessed it was probably on it's way out....I have had it a few years and have got my money's worth out of it. So I've ordered an electric deep frying pan thing, after researching a few different smallish cooking appliances. I already have a medium size slow cooker (in a cupboard, as the multichef did slow cooking), an electric hot plate for boiling, the air fryer and the microwave, so thought an electric fry pan would be useful. I finished off the kedgeree on the hot plate.
Cherie, yes we are settled now. Husband put up a few more pictures yesterday, with a bit of prompting. I've still got loads of pictures....more pictures than we have wall space, actually, seeing as we've downsized to 3 less (fewer? Does it really matter?!) rooms.
Sunny spells but bitterly cold again yesterday, so no walk again - I really feel the cold now I've got older (I'm done with the menopause hot flushes), just makes me want to huddle indoors where it's warm. Even Betty's not keen on going out in the cold, she does her business and then runs straight back in. And from the long range forecast, it looks like there's not going to be much change in the next couple of weeks. Well, it is the middle of winter! Loads and loads of Spring bulbs appearing in the garden, more every time I look, it's going to be so pretty when they start flowering, I do love Spring flowers.
I've got a swede, some potatoes, carrots, cabbage and onions still left in the box outside, they're still ok (bought a week before Christmas) but some are beginning to look a bit limp and wrinkly (I know how they feel 😂😂). So today I'll get them all out and prep/cook them for freezing....swede we like boiled and mashed with butter and plenty of black pepper, the carrots I'll roast in the air fryer. Potatoes I'll boil and mash and then stir through shredded and fried cabbage and onions for colcannon.
Betty has to go back to the vet tomorrow for her ear check up....whilst we're there I'm going to ask about their monthly payment plan. I've read through the details online but they're a bit sketchy and confusing - doesn't say in black and white exactly what it covers. Our old vets gave a 10% pensioners discount, this one doesn't and seems to be a fair bit more expensive than the old one. What with vet fees, grooming and insurance costs, having a dog is an expensive business. And that's without the food. We always had dogs as a family when I was a child.....I don't remember my parents buying dog food, the dogs seemed to be fed mainly on scraps from the meals Mum cooked, although I think I remember my Dad buying and cooking tripe for them occasionally - nasty smelly stuff!
I ordered our monthly medications from our new GP a week ago - they said they'd let us know when they're ready for collection. Nothing yet - our previous GP only took usually 2 or 3 days to have the meds ready. Good job I'd ordered extra from our last GP - although husband has just run out of one of his meds. Better give them a ring today.
The garden centre and dog groomer trip investigation didn't go according to plan. We went there and drove in, it's a small kind of industrial estate with a few different businesses there. Well, the only one that was open was a car wash....the garden centre/cafe had a notice on the door saying they're closed until February. The dog groomers was also closed, nothing on the door and no phone number. It's a pity the garden centre hadn't put a notice on their huge sign on the roadside to say that they're closed for winter! Still, not entirely a wasted trip as I did take note of the name of the groomers and looked them up on the internet when home. Sent them a message, the lady replied fairly promptly saying she's fully booked until March(!!) - clearly popular, she has very good reviews online. She did say though she would let me know of any cancellations, she does get them now and then.
Husband is falling back into his old ways of sitting in front of the TV all day, I had to ask him a few times to do little jobs I've been asking him to do the past few days. He did a couple, somewhat grudgingly. I don't want him to vegetate his life away, it won't do him any good. There will come a time when he can't do things, I know that, but whilst he's still capable then I think it's best that he should be as active as possible - for his sake as well as mine. And that's what his cardiologist and GP have both said.
On the subject of being active, I really wanted to go for a walk yesterday as it was sunny intermittently, no snow here. However, it was so blinking cold with a strong breeze making it feel even colder, so I didn't. Forecast to be sunny today but still very cold, I'll see what it's like later.
I think I'm starting to get my cooking mojo back. I fancy making a smoked haddock kedgeree for dinner today.....I've got a packet sourdough bread mix in the cupboard so might make that too, baking it in the Multichef.
