Muddy footprints - again. Grrrr!

 I think I might be coming down with something, unfortunately - I've been excessively tired the past couple of days, feeling achy, a couple of mouth ulcers, what feels like the beginnings of a sore throat for the past 2 evenings (it only seems to appear, or I'm only aware of it, in the evening).  Motivation seems to have gone out the window too, I really don't feel like doing anything.  So I'm dosing myself up with Vit C and echinacea and having lots of hot drinks, including honey and lemon.

Off to a bad start this morning....husband came back from his short walk with Betty and promptly trod mud all through the house 😡.  He does this quite often, he always claims he wipes his feet on the doormat but clearly doesn't!  I've asked him numerous times to take his shoes off at the door....but of course he never remembers.  He does clean the mud up himself, as he should.  He sometimes tries to blame it on Betty, bit difficult to believe when the mud prints are shoe shaped 😒

I really must get a menu plan done today, not having done one recently (despite saying I must, and then forgetting), every day I'm having to trawl through the freezer, fridge and cupboards around lunchtime, wondering what I'm going to make for the evening meal.  I know what we're having tonight, when pulling the larder surplus store box out from under my bed this morning, to get out some of my long life oat milk, I found a pack of spinach and feta tortellini which is a week out of date.  I'm sure it'll be fine, it's vacuum packed.  I'll make a tomato and veg sauce to go with it, and I think there's some garlic bread in the freezer.

It's 3 weeks today that husband's bro and SiL arrive, by themselves, for the weekend.  They're hoping to arrive by lunchtime I think, so husband and bro can make a start on cutting the yukky yucca down in the afternoon.  So I'll need to provide lunch and dinner on that day.  It'll be a buffet lunch and I might make a quiche to have with chips or wedges and salad for dinner.  I expect they'll be here all day on the Saturday too, finishing off cutting up the tree and taking the dumpy bag to the tip, so lunch and dinner to provide that day too.  Although we might have a fish & chips takeout, save me cooking dinner again.  Sunday they want to take us out for lunch before they go home, that'll be nice, it's quite a while since we had a meal out.

Mixture of sunny intervals and showers today.  I might persuade husband to take us to Blue Anchor for a walk along the prom and a coffee in the coffee shop later, he's been vegetating in his armchair or in front of the computer (he even nods off sitting upright there) too much lately.

Feeling the cold, another sign of ageing

 Thank you for all the lovely comments, yes we're looking forward to our girlie sleepovers!  Brenda, you asked about us eating out.....a couple of the relatives have quite limited incomes which don't run to meals out in restaurants, and both of them refuse to hear of the rest of us paying for them, even though none of us would mind at all.  So we'll be eating all our meals in, that way people can pitch in with their own foodie contributions and nobody will feel awkward.  And it's fun anyway.

Husband's brother, who is 8 years younger than him and in better health (he's a builder by trade, although recently retired now) has said he's happy to help husband cut down that blimmin horrible yucca tree in our garden when they come down next month.  We had asked a team of tree fellers who were cutting down trees in a garden locally to come and give us a quote for removal of it, they said they would.  Only they didn't turn up.....why say you'll do something if you have no intention of doing it?  I've asked another couple of local gardeners, both of whom advertise tree felling as one of their jobs, but both said they're far too busy.  A neighbour who wants some gardening done said they've had no luck in finding a gardener either, they all claim to be booked up for months ahead.

I felt freezing cold this morning when I got up, I often feel the cold nowadays.  It's 11 deg outside according to the thermometer, but feels so much colder, probably because there's a strong wind....again.  We've had the heating turned up to 21 deg and I've only just begun to feel warm, so have turned the heating down now.  Fortunately, I rarely feel cold in bed, having a big chunky dog pressed up against my side is like having my own big furry hot water bottle.

The new neighbour was telling us yesterday that although she's mostly unpacked and is settling in quite nicely, there are a few frustrations.  She currently has no TV, internet or landline phone, the company she's having are dragging their feet with an appointment.  Also, her mobile doesn't work, no signal (we have the same problem, although my phone does work in the back garden, she has the same mobile provider as us).  And yet she says she had full mobile signal in her previous home in a rural area, so is surprised not to get signal here.  She's going to change to a different provider, she says she can't live without her mobile.

I'm feeling a bit under the weather, beginnings of a sore throat and aching joints....perhaps feeling cold is part of it too.  Having done my jobs for the day, apart from a menu plan for the next week or so, I think I'll curl up with a good book this afternoon.

Oh, I had a routine nurse appointment yesterday, during the course of which she said I need to book in for an ECG.  I asked why, she said it's routine with diabetic patients.  "Oh really?" said I, I've been diabetic for about 12 years and have never been offered an ECG before!  🤔

It's all coming together

 After discussions with the families who are coming to visit, we've all come up with plans for meals that will suit everybody.  They are all coming down for 3 nights, so we've decided between us that we'll take it in turns to cook the evening meal, one day each, to be hosted in our respective homes - each of their two holiday homes are big enough to host all 8 of us at once.  We will all provide buffet or picnic type foods for lunches, we'll liaise about the details nearer the time.  Breakfasts we'll all eat by ourselves....people all get up at different times and not all of us eat breakfast anyway.  So that's all the meals sorted.

The other exciting thing is that, as sister and friend's holiday cottage is literally just 5 mins walk from us and is 3 bedroomed, I will go and sleep there every night.  Husband (and Betty) will be such a short distance away and at the end of a phone, so I'll be able to easily nip home in the event of a problem.  Which I'm sure there won't be.  So it'll give me a little break and I'll have plenty of time to catch up with sis and friend.  We've known sister's best friend for about 25 years, she's just like one of the family, an honorary sister, so the 3 of us will have loads of fun and laughs each night!  We're so looking forward to it.

I've already planned what I'm going to cook....cottage pie, will make and freeze it in advance, so just some green veggies to prep on the day.  I'll also do a rice pudding in the slow cooker.  For picnics, or buffets indoors if the weather's not good, I'll make a load of sandwiches and freeze them.....plain filled sandwiches, e.g. cooked meats or cheese with no salad fillings, freeze well, I've done it before.   

It's all a bit early yet of course, but I do like to be organised, I feel less stressed when I'm organised and know exactly what I'm doing.

Just hoping the weather will be fine so we can go out and about.  The big car boot sale at Blue Anchor starts up again next month, we're all boot sale fans so that'll be one good thing.

Nice sunshine today, although a bit windy - it often seems to be windy here.  So washing on the line and gardening being done.

Lovely surprise, and some aarrgghh moments

 Yesterday I had a lovely surprise - sister WhatsApped me to say she and her best friend were hoping to come down to see us, at the same time as husband's 2 sisters, brother and sister in law are coming in April.  It all hinges on sis's friend, who is the car driver as my sis doesn't drive, being able to get the time off work. **  Sis has provisionally booked a cottage just 5 mins walk from us, husband's relatives are staying in an Airbnb place at Blue Anchor bay, a few minutes drive away.  I should add that both my sis and friend and husband's relatives all know each other well, they all live close to one another up in the Midlands.  It'll be so nice to see them all, catch up and enjoy meals together here....if somewhat noisy and crowded!  Betty will be beside herself with excitement.

I'll suggest we all muck in with foods for buffet type meals, which I know they'll all be happy to do.  The thought of me having to cook meals for that amount of people brings me out in a cold sweat nowadays, although I'd have thought nothing of it years ago.

I'm doing a lot of tongue biting the past few days, husband is driving me nuts.  Yesterday I'd put washing on the line, husband took it upon himself to bring it all in after just 2 hours....he thinks he's being helpful but he's really not.  It wasn't yet dry, waistbands, collars and cuffs were all still wet, I had to put it all on the airer and in the airing cupboard to dry off.  I could have put it back out on the line, I suppose, it was just easier to do it indoors.  If only he'd ask me or even say what he intends to do first - but he never does....and I do mean never.  It's not the first time he's got washing in off the line without asking me first, he's done it several times.  Why he thought it would be dry after just 2 hours I don't know, he didn't even consider the time I expect.  And he seems incapable of telling whether something is dry or not by feeling it.  The day before, he'd wanted to order something on the Argos website, some kind of exercise equipment, a set of hand weights or something.  He rarely uses that website so didn't seem to know how to actually buy the item for click and collect, I showed him what buttons to press.  And then had to show him again a couple of times - I asked if he wanted me to do it but he insisted he was fine, he could do it.  But then somehow he ended up adding some other (unwanted) things to his virtual basket - when he came to checkout, the total said £145.99 instead of the £30-odd he was expecting to pay!  So I had to sort that out for him - it would have been so much quicker if he'd have let me do it in the first place.

Speaking of the washing, I have 2 washing bins in the bathroom - one for dark stuff, the other for lights, to make it quick and easy for me to sort a wash load out.  Husband always puts the wrong colours of his stuff in the wrong bins - don't ask me why, he's not colourblind🤷.  I often think it's a bit pointless me having the 2 separate washing bins, since I nearly always have to sort through the washing anyway.  

He also somehow managed to delete his Disney+ subscription off the TV, again not the first time he's done that, so muggins here has to put it back on for him each time.  Just think, if I didn't have to do all these things for husband, I'd be bored stiff with nothing to do!!!  Aaaarrrgggghh!

** Sis has just messaged me to say her friend has booked the time off work (she works nights and has just finished her shift), so it's all systems go!

A bit chaotic

 Yesterday the new neighbour moved into her bungalow, she'd been popping to and fro all last week, bringing boxes, bags and small items in her car.  We assumed she'd have a removals van to move the rest of her stuff, most people do.  But no......yesterday afternoon a horse box (well she did live in a rural area) pulled by a very large 4x4 arrived, along with a flotilla of 6 cars, plus the neighbour's car, all containing furniture and boxes.  They all arrived at once into our little cul de sac, it was all very chaotic and blocked the road up, I did go out and tell one of the helpers they could park on our drive, to ease the congestion a bit.  For a couple of hours it was mayhem out there, with cars having to move backwards and forwards to allow other residents and delivery vehicles in.  Nobody minded though, we're a small friendly community, it was a one-off and everyone knows there'll be a bit of disruption when someone moves in.  As all this was happening right in front of our large picture window in our lounge, we had ringside seats, so to speak.  Husband and I were surprised at the sheer amount of furniture and boxes going in (she's moved from a small 1 bed rural bungalow into another small 1 bed bungalow here), husband said "That place must be a TARDIS inside!".  They all departed after 2 or 3 hours though, apart from a couple of people who were obviously helping the new neighbour unpack and get settled, and the normal peace was restored.  I hope she'll be happy here once she's settled down and got everything to her liking, moving home is so stressful and I'm glad it's highly unlikely we'll ever have to move again.

It's supposed to be sunny, warm and dry today, although at the moment it's grey and dismal following a bit of early rain.  We really want to get stuck in to some garden jobs today, and I've got washing to go out on the line.  I woke up with a raging headache this morning, it had been another restless night following a pretty stressful week so I was half expecting a migraine.  Thankfully it's not, just a pressure headache and is wearing off now.

I need to do a freezer audit and menu plan, I'll save that for tomorrow when the cleaner's here, I always like to have something to do in the kitchen or outside to keep out of her way.  The weather for this coming week looks pretty good (whispering it so as not to jinx anything 😉😁), so hopefully we can get more outside jobs done.  I'd like to make a start on the new rockery, for one thing.

A week and a half ago I applied for a refund of our council tax, apparently we've overpaid by a couple of hundred pounds and I don't see why the council should have the benefit of our money earning interest for them.  How we've come to overpay I really don't know, we only paid the amount they asked for!  I've just looked on the council website and apparently refunds can take up to 28 days to come through....isn't it funny how we're expected to pay things instantly, yet refunds always take ages 😒

Nothing doing

 Although it's warmer today, I'm still feeling chilly - probably because there's a strong cold wind again.  A bit of sunshine coming and going but now it's clouding over again and more rain forecast.  Have to keep telling myself it is actually still wintertime, so can't expect good weather just yet.  Spring starts next month though, hooray!

Went out early (to beat the crowds and tourist traffic) to do a small fresh top up shop.  Whilst in there I thought I really can't be bothered cooking anything tonight, so bought a pizza....halloumi, sweet roast peppers and hot honey, sounds nice.  We'll have it with salad.

Husband decided he doesn't want a roast tomorrow.....fine by me.  He wants pork (he's got the remains of a roast pork joint in the freezer) with stir fry veggies, noodles and sweet chilli sauce, he said he'll cook it himself.  Even better, although I'll have to wipe down the kitchen surfaces and appliances after he's finished stir frying everything at a blisteringly high heat, splashing juices everywhere.  Him doing his own dinner leaves me free to have what I want - so I shall be having very cheesy cauli cheese and crisp roast potatoes, yum.

Nothing much going on today and I'm feeling a bit knackered after a run of low sleep nights, so I'm just relaxing and reading in my room this afternoon, husband will be watching the rugby and doing lots of shouting at the TV.

Tomorrow looks like being a much nicer day, spells of sunshine, no rain and less wind, so hopefully it'll be a garden day, washing on the line and more jobs done in the garden.

Boring post, sorry, nothing to report 😂.  (I've noticed I certainly get lots more page views when I'm annoyed or frustrated and venting my feelings!  Human nature I suppose! 😁).

About time too! Problem sorted, and some wartime cooking

 So that arrogant entitled nasty piece of work and waste of space has been arrested - and released, oh well.  All I will say is it's about bloody time.  I just feel so much compassion for the King - however irritated and angry he must feel, the man is still his brother, he must be so conflicted.

Anyway, moving on.....

Yesterday I was stood outside for an hour with my next door neighbours and the surveyor from our Landlords, discussing the fence issue.  It was blimmin freezing!  Even though Kath and I had jackets and scarves on, we were both shivering with cold....the men didn't seem to be affected much, hardier than us weak females I guess!  I don't know what the temperature actually was, must have been around 0 deg - I know that's not really cold like it is in some countries where some of my readers live....Canada eg....but for us southern English softies it felt like we were in the Arctic.  Once back indoors it took half an hour sitting with a fleece blanket on my lap and my hands wrapped round a hot mug of coffee before I started to warm up.

So, the surveyor.....he went in the neighbours' garden (they were out at the time and there's no gate there anyway, just an open driveway), had a good look round and took loads of photos.  He then came back round to us and looked at both our fences from our gardens, asked lots of questions and listened carefully to us.  My neighbours had lots of photos they'd taken themselves over the past few months, the surveyor was interested to see them and actually took them away with him.  He agreed that the neighbour is in the wrong and has no right to damage or remove property that doesn't belong to him, which he already has done.  The surveyor said he and the legal team are now on the case and they will write to the neighbour, telling him to immediately cease removing our Landlord's property (the fences) and to reinstate the part of the fencing he has already removed.  The surveyor told us not to worry ourselves any further about it and not to get involved or engage with the neighbour, just leave it in their capable hands and they will deal with it all.  He's given me his personal work email address and said to get in touch straight away if the neighbour tries anything else, he said he'll deal with it immediately.  So that's it, I've removed it from the basketful of worries in my mind, it's no longer my problem.  I didn't really want to get involved in the first place, it was my next door neighbours who were more involved and kept pushing for me to become involved too.  At that time though, it didn't really have any impact on us.....until it did and I could no longer ignore it.  Anyway, job done.

This week I've cooked a couple of wartime-type meals, we enjoyed both.  The first was a bacon and onion rolypoly thing.....I made some suet pastry, rolled it out thickly to a small rectangle and topped it with a small amount of chopped smoked bacon and some sliced onions and a leek, all of which I'd gently fried first.  I rolled it up like a Swiss roll, cut it into slices and baked in the Ninja.  We had it with green veg and some parsley sauce.  I think I overbaked the slices by a couple of minutes, the pastry was a bit crunchy....I expect the roll would have been steamed during the war years which would have made the pastry nice and soft.  Next time I'll put the slices in a dish with a lid (I have an enamel lidded baking tin), the lid should help it to steam and stay softer.

The other thing we had yesterday, it's called Mudajara, it's a Middle Eastern dish that would have been eaten by European and American troops stationed in the Middle East during the war.  It's basically rice and brown lentils cooked in stock or water, and a pile of thinly sliced onions fried with warm spices and added to the rice/lentils.  The recipe said white rice and brown lentils - I used brown basmati rice and puy lentils, as that's what I had - I never use white rice anyway.  The recipe calls for the onions to be fried until crisp - I just gently cooked them in olive oil and butter till soft, I didn't fancy them crisp.  I used cumin, chilli powder and powdered ginger, I found the dish also needed a good sprinkling of salt.  I had it as is, husband had a couple of roast chicken thighs with his.  It would be nice with frozen peas added next time I think, and maybe even some sultanas or chopped dried apricots.

As I said before, the trouble with a lot of these wartime recipes is that they're quite carby, which doesn't really suit my guts, joints or diabetes.  I suppose the answer is just not to eat them too often, maybe just once or twice a week.

Thankfully, it's much warmer today, although showers again along with brief bits of sun.  Next week is forecast to be warmer still - and a bit drier, yay!  We'll get the garden work done soon....hopefully.