Oh bugger it!

 Went to town first thing this morning to do a small top up shop of milk and fresh veg, and some soup for lunch as it's now gone freezing cold again.  I forgot to put my knee brace on and my knee collapsed 3 times in the shop - it's a good job I was pushing a trolley or I'd have fallen over.  I always use a trolley when supermarket shopping, regardless of how little I'm getting - it's something to hold onto.

And on the way back, the 'check engine' warning lights came on again, as predicted by our cheerful mechanic friend-of-a-friend.  This car, and what to do with it/how to get rid of it, is now a real problem.  We might have to bite the bullet and flog it via that website that Philip Schofield advertises, who will buy ANY car regardless of condition.  Which means we'll get next to nothing for it.  But we can't sell it (by any means) until we find and buy another car.  I bloody well hate bloody cars, they're nothing but money pits and problems.  Well, the ones we can afford to buy are.  Husband's windfall pension is disappearing fast, and that's a huge problem for the (fairly near) future, as it will run out before I get my State pension.

Both of us are suffering from lack of sleep, through worry and assorted aches and pains.  And just to add to the list of problems, my phone is on the way out - has been for a while actually, the wallet case is falling to bits as well but I've not bothered to replace it as there's little point when the phone is knackered.  

Oh, and our landlord informed us the other day that it appears we need a new roof, so he's arranging for that to be done.  The very thought of all the upheaval, noise, scaffolding all over my lovely garden just when plants are coming to life, is giving me a headache already, so we've decided that when it happens we'll decamp to the caravan.  Thank goodness we've got it.  I don't know when it'll happen, landlord does tend to take ages to arrange things.

Problem relative is being a pain in the neck again, I've tried blocking him again but to no avail - whether it's user error on my part (possible) or simply due to to my problematic phone I've no idea.  So I just have to ignore the texts and delete them as they happen.

So, nothing good to report at the moment, sorry about that.  I'm not getting despondent though, I just plough on regardless.  Nothing is bad forever.

Frustrations

 Husband's phone consultation didn't take very long - the surgeon merely said that in view of the fact that it's been over 2.5 years since he had the last round of prostate tests, and the machine was broken when he went for one of the repeat tests last week, he'll need to have all of them done again, and of course he couldn't say how long that would take to arrange.  So husband is unfortunately another casualty of the pandemic situation.

I rang the surgery, again, to see if my xray results were back.....still no, the receptionist said it appears the delay is because the hospital have so many staff off sick with covid.  So both husband and I can do nothing but wait.  Frustrating, but there you go.

So yesterday I made 4 single portion lasagnes and 3 double portions of chilli.  I also made a dozen chocolate, banana and walnut muffins.  Everything now frozen.  I delegated the bathroom cleaning and bedroom hoovering to husband - he had nothing else to do after his phone call and then waiting for the mechanic to arrive late in the afternoon.  I did washing and tumble dried half of it, the rest I put on the airer upstairs, then sorted out another load to go in the machine and be done overnight.  I'd bought a big block of Cheddar in the freezer store on Monday (it was cheaper than buying ready grated), so I grated all of that and froze it - I use a lot of grated cheese.

Had a WhatsApp chat with my sister - her daughter, who has fibromyalgia, is just getting over covid, she's been quite poorly with it.  All our neighbours who had it seem to have recovered well, no new cases so far here....well, not that I've heard.  I did notice on Monday when we were in the freezer shop that hardly anyone else was wearing a mask - I don't understand people, infections are rising rapidly again here in Somerset and both major hospitals are telling people not to attend if they don't have to, as covid is rife in both of them and they're so short handed with staff off sick with it.  Frankly, husband and I are both surprised that we haven't caught it.....Yet!

The mobile mechanic (who is fast becoming a good friend!) is a bit baffled as to what's going on with the car warning lights.  He said what he thinks is the problem (it all went over my head so I'm not even going to attempt to explain) and is of the opinion that the warning lights may well keep coming on....even though he's fairly sure there's not actually a problem with the new switch he fitted.  We've to ring him again the next time it happens and he'll come and have another check.

Bit of a boring routine day

 Today I'm doing a big pot of mince - half of it will then be made into lasagnes, the other half I'll add chilli spices and kidney beans to, then freeze all of it.  Well, apart from one portion of chilli for tonight's dinner.  Nigel Slater had a recipe in the Mail paper the other day for banana and choc chip muffins, they sounded nice and there's a couple of bananas going brown (husband seems to have gone off them lately) so I might make those as well.

Husband's got his phone consultation with the prostate surgeon this morning, and the mobile mechanic is coming back this afternoon to have another look at the car.  I'm cleaning the bathroom and hoovering the bedrooms, in between the batch cooking.  No idea what Betty's plans are for the day.....sleeping probably 😂

That's all I have to say today, nothing much happening at the moment.

Food prices and so-called 'humour'

 The bloody car is causing problems again, same as last time.  That's all I'm saying, leaving it up to husband to deal with as it irritates the life out of me (him too I expect).

We've just been shopping to the big freezer shop to stock up, it's been several months since we last went there and it's getting harder and harder to keep the food shopping under budget.  In the time since we last stocked up with frozen stuff (I suspect it's about 6 months, without checking back), prices have risen a lot - 20% or more on several things.  E.g. things we bought last time that cost £5, now cost £6 or even £6.25.  And I noticed in several cases the pack sizes are smaller too....e.g. the grated cheese was 500g for a long time, then it went down to 450g last year, now it's 430g - for a higher price too.

But at least there's food in the shops for us to buy - Ukrainians don't even have shops left standing in some cities, or homes, let alone food or even water to be able to obtain.  So I shall stop moaning about the cost and count my lucky stars that we don't have a war here.

So Will Smith slapped some third rate minor comedy actor live on stage at the Oscars yesterday - in retaliation for said comedy actor making a very tasteless joke about Will Smith's wife's lack of hair - which is due to a medical condition, not a fashion choice.  Jada Pinkett Smith was clearly very unimpressed by the so-called joke and being publicly humiliated, going by the expression on her face, so no wonder her husband made a very public act of defending her.  I don't condone violence (it wasn't a fisted punch, but he certainly gave the bloke a good slap), but admire him for standing up for his wife and showing it's no laughing matter.  Too many people think it's ok to make 'jokes' for cheap laughs at the expense of others......it's only a joke if everyone thinks it's funny, the victims, the ones on the receiving end of such cheap humour, rarely do.  Why can't people just be NICE?!

Today I'm going to be doing planning for batch cooking, which I'll be undertaking tomorrow.  I've rearranged the big freezer and deliberately left some space to freeze meals.....I'll be making dog food as well, and there'll be a spare drawer in the dog food freezer I can put some of our meals in, if I run out of space in the big freezer.  Off the top of my head I'm thinking chilli, lasagnes, chicken curry and fish pies.  I'll be doing minced turkey and butternut squash for the dog, husband's just cooked up a panful of sliced liver for her as well.  The liver gets mixed with some commercial tinned food, both to pad it out and to encourage her to eat the tinned food......we bought a caseful of it, she liked it initially but then decided she didn't!  She will wolf it down when it's mixed with fresh liver though.

Looking at the weather forecast, we won't be going to the caravan for at least 10 days.  How funny - as in odd - our weather is, lovely warm almost early-summer-like weather for several days, and then truly back to winter for another week or 2 - there's even snow (just a bit, I expect) in the forecast for one day!  The only thing that's consistent about our weather here in the UK is the total changeableness of it.

A lovely time

 Home now, I've unpacked and got the washing in the machine ready to do overnight.  We've had a really lovely few days, doing virtually nothing except catching up with old friends and making new ones, reading and crocheting (me) and TV watching (him).  And sitting in the sun.  I've done minimal cooking, which has been really nice.....I'm going to be doing more (well, less!) of that.  I've decided to have a batch cooking day regularly, making meals to be frozen, so I can just reheat and serve them up with salad or fresh (or even frozen) veg, rather than cooking a meal from scratch every day.....frankly, I'm fed up with doing that.  And I most certainly don't want to be doing it in the caravan - it gets too hot inside for that, and I want to relax whilst I'm there.  We've got a barbeque here at home so will be taking that to the van, and we'll be eating a lot more salads or cold stuff.  Two meals I particularly enjoyed whilst there.....a tuna and feta couscous salad, made using a lemon & coriander flavoured packet couscous with a tin of tuna and some crumbled feta, chopped cucumber and tomatoes, served on a bed of little gem lettuce.  And today's lunch....husband asked if I was doing a roast - what, in this heat, in the caravan!!!  Erm no, I said, go to the supermarket and buy a roasted chicken off the hot counter, and a crusty sourdough loaf.  So he did, and that's what we had - just that, spit roasted chicken and lovely buttered sourdough.  With a squirt of mayo.  Delicious.

The only fly in the ointment about the last few days was my hayfever - it started the day we arrived at the van.....I guess because of lots of trees and things starting to bloom, and because I was outside a lot of the time (I always get hayfever very early in the season).  So when my eyes and nose were streaming and itching too much, I had to keep going inside the van.  I did have a packet of antihistamines there, thankfully, although they didn't seem to be very effective!  Possibly because they were last year's (and maybe even out of date 😂). Never mind, my hayfever doesn't last all summer, thank goodness.

Looking at the weather forecast, which is practically back to winter for the latter half of this week, we won't be going back to the van until probably the middle of next week, if not later.  Husband's got a phone appointment with his prostate consultant on Tuesday, Betty's going to the groomer on Wednesday.  I'm hoping my x-ray results will be in this week, it would be nice to know exactly what's going on with my knee, it's been particularly painful the last day or 2.

Happy Mother's Day to the mums out there, and a hug for those of you (like me) who wish their mum was here for a chat and a hug today.  Especially Joy, must be a bittersweet day indeed for you xx

There are some people very dear to me who I've been missing a lot lately.  It doesn't get any easier.

Busy doing nothing

 It's been a glorious day, warm and sunny.  We went to The Range this morning to get a few things we needed for the van.  After lunch we both sat in the garden.....I read a book and crocheted, husband dozed, Betty alternated her naps between the garden and inside on my bed.  We had a few chats with other van neighbours (there's a few more here now).  And that's it.  We've not even started on the weeding, just had a very restful day, which is just what we both needed.  It'll probably be more of the same tomorrow!

Yes Sue you're right, it is a completely different atmosphere here at the caravan park.  At home I almost feel guilty for sitting down, there's always some job that needs doing.  Here I just don't feel the same sense of needing to do something or other, especially now the van and garden upgrading is almost all done.  We were chatting to the newest van owners, 5 or 6 vans away from us, they're doing a bit of upgrading in the van they've taken over.  They said they're in no rush (their van is much newer and needs less work than ours did, what they're doing is largely cosmetic) and will just take their time.....as they have all the time in the world.  Which is just how we feel.

I didn't even switch my laptop on until about 6 pm, to send a couple of emails, do the daily Wordle game (keeps my brain active!) and have a quick read of the paper.  The mifi signal is temperamental anyway, so I don't really feel inclined to be on the laptop much.

Set for a lovely weekend

 Gorgeous day yesterday, warm and sunny all day.  I did more weeding, pruning and tidying up in the front garden, husband strimmed and pottered in the back garden.  Washing dried quickly in the sunshine.  I rejigged the menu for the next few days as we'll be in the caravan.....I really don't want to spend ages cooking there.  Prepped and roasted a trayful of Mediterranean veggies, whilst the oven was on for yesterday's dinner (plaice roasted in a foil parcel, with cauli cheese, peas and broccoli).  The Med veggies are for today's dinner in the caravan, reheated with some diced chicken breast and pesto sauce.  We're going after lunch today.

Whilst the days are forecast to be sunny and warm again (18 deg), the nights are still on the chilly side.  Which is ok, we stay warm enough with the electric fire and oil filled rads, and there are plenty of fleece blankets in the van.  We're going to be tackling the dreaded Cuckoo Pint weed, wearing gloves of course, and bagging it up to drop it off at the tip on the way home.  Other than that, we have nothing special we need to do - how lovely to be able to say that!  

The weather forecast isn't very good for the latter half of next week, the temperature will be dropping a few degrees and there'll be showers, so I doubt we'll be going next week.

Had a sneaky peek on the scales (I'm not due to weigh until Saturday, but we won't be here) and I've lost 4lbs.....all water of course, I've been peeing bucketloads.  Still pleasing though.  We will be eating 1 or 2 more carby things over the weekend, but on the whole staying with the new plan.