5 OS Pleasures in your Day Today part 2

savingforoz

Hi, everyone, hope you are all OK and keeping warm!

Recent pleasures for me:

1. Getting the carpet fitted in the hallway, stairs, landing and back bedroom. I have that lovely new carpet smell in the house and it is great to walk on after months of underlay :j!

2. Delicious veg curry lunch with my friend, following by a fun afternoon browsing round the charity shops :drool:.

3. Being invited to my friends' house for Xmas lunch - so that'll be 2 Xmas meals I'll be having that day, as lunch no 1 will be with family. Good job I go to the gym a lot....:D

4. Waking up to Bristol looking beautiful in the snow, followed by a safe journey into work. Then hearing that the boss has decreed that we all go home at 12 because of the snow - yippee :beer:!

5. Finishing my short story to first draft stage - now comes the revising and polishing up. Longest one yet - 18,400 words :T.

6. Being invited to go swimming with a friend :cheesy:.

7. Being told that my brother's new girlfriend thinks that I am lovely (she is so right, of course! )

8. Delicious bowl of homemade lentil soup for lunch, just right for this weather .

Reverbe

Afternoon all. I know I have been AWOL for a while but haven't had many pleasures lately to share.Things in my personal life just seem to get worse and worse and there is a very real possibility I will find myself homeless soon. Flatmate is even worse financially as he has debts, a mortgage and is getting a reduced rate of dole as he was self employed. This means I have to find all the money for household items, the electricity meter, shared foods and even his personal toiletries etc.He is even starting to admit his situation in public which has lead a few times to me fighting back the tears in the club where we have a drink before the football as he talks about his idea of the future and selling his flat which means he prob will be ok debtwise but I will be homeless when this happens.

Anyway this thread is about pleasures and I do have one or two. I actually a few weeks ago had what I think is one of the best days of my life.Certainly the most enjoyable one I have had for a long while. I went to Covent Garden to test some new restaurant food for Debenhams - ate my fill - even though the portions were scratty I ate every scrap then went round the shops and had some free tea in L'Occitane to warm me then went to the V&A to kill time. Where I bumped into Mary Quant no less.

Then I went to a shopping event at Betty Jackson where Jo Wood Organics were attending. Met both Betty and Jo and Dawn French and had a lovely chat in turn with all of them. There was an abundance of the tastiest canapes I have ever had which I managed to take some home with me too and one of the serving lads there kept winking at me and giving me more and more champagne.I ended up having about 5 or 6 full glasses.

Jo signed a book for me and the best part of the night was when I spoke to Betty Jackson. My grandma used to talk about how she knew her but as she then went on to have Altzheimers(sorry dunno how to spell it) I never knew if this was true. Turns out Nanna probably knew Betty's parents and her as a girl and Betty remembered my Grandads shop.

Had a great weekend just gone too. First we beat Man United at home and then Chris won Strictly and RATM got to No 1. PLus my flatmates business partner won a few hundred pounds in a football competion held in a local pub.He has been unable to buy food or pay rent or get his little girl anything for Xmas so I am thrilled for him. Then we had the Carols By Candlelight at the local hurch which we usually attend. Was a lovely service as ever with songs and dramas. Tho have to say I was appalled by the Asian girl of about 17 or so in front of me who kept taking pics on her mobile and recording snippets.It wasnt the nativity kids service which I could understand. I am not a Christian myself and of course had no idea if she was or not (tho she didnt know the song words and didnt take part in the prayers) but I have to say I found this activity VERY disrespectful.

Had the usual cakes, mince pies. sausage rolls, sandwiches and a coupla glasses of mulled wine after and had a lovely chat with one of the Vicars there who we always get along with. He always remembers my flatmate from seeing him around the town and the services at Christmas and he came over to chat. I was shocked at my flatmate who began to tell him things were hard just as part of the chat about the meaning of Christmas which was brought up in the service. I just said something like the way things are it brings people back to what the true meaning of Christmas is which is one of the good things that comes out of the hard times and Fmate started to whinge about not being able to afford the electric etc. Before he moved on to another group the Vicar asked him if it was ok if he said a prayer for him and his situation and I was incredibly touched by this.(still am typing it now)After all we are not one of his parishioners - we dont attend and I am not even of the same faith but I could tell he genuinely cared and he made a point of saying later as we left that he would remember us over the coming months and in his prayers. It is his job kinda I know but I just think it was sweet of him and he didnt have to do that.When so many people in the world seem to be out to get you so to speak and you sometimes dont get the support from those close to you , it is amazing to see someone show you some love like that.

I best log off. No doubt I have made a silly elf of myself and Muppet Christmas Carol is about to start.. Take care everyone . Bye for now and thanks for "listening"

Loadsabob

Hello everyone,

1. A mental return to Oldstyle - feels like home. I used to post daily, but with a change of job, didn't have so much time to do that. I probably still won't, but reading the threads really inspires me to be more thrifty, so I am going to try and check-in much more often.

2. HM Beetroot soup and wholewheat roll for lunch. Nine rolls still left in the freezer, and 5 more portions of the soup.

3. Reflecting on weekend of OS activity - also made Jerusalem artichoke and carrot soup (my fave) for the freezer, and nine portions of liver (and heart) and onions using a whole pig's liver that has been in the freezer all year (from a colleague's pig). That's plenty of meals taken care of, a great lump out of the freezer and masses of veg out of the fridge. Also cleaned fridge and defrosted freezer ready for Christmas meat and veg arriving today.

4. Looking forward to making my Gran's recipe almond macaroons tomorrow night with three eggwhites I found whilst defrosting the freezer (and thoguht to myself "I wonder whether they still work?...")

5. Excited about January and joining the grocery challenge. Have had two months of random spending, not recording anything. Looking forward to being frugal and thrifty again.

6. - Oh, and a bonus one! Making a shopping list for (grrr) Tesco tonight to fill in the gaps in my 14 day Christmas meal plan. It doesn't mean buying very much :-)

7. Oh, I'm on a roll - this is my weekend of OS pleasures! - Finding that my favourite fishmonger stocks rabbit! Regularly! They're from about 7 miles away, and he can joint them up for me. Exceeds my meat criteria of being local and from small scale production. It's wild, local, free range and sustainable. Looking forward to trying that the next time they have some.

Petlamb

1. heaving some more of yesterdays soup for lunch, with the crusts of a loaf from the freezer, toasted. [i add, the soup was made by me, from scratch, even the stock!]

2. making spag bol tonight out of what the OH considers to be 'nothing in'. :P

3. the prospect of bulking said spag bol out with veg he has no idea are there :P

4. doing clicks & scratchies

5. having my 13th NSD this month

SunnyGirl

Good evening all

A very lazy day yesterday & thouroughly enjoyable so I'll post todays pleasures instead.

1. Pom pom scarf almost finished - Great idea Ollie re the hat I may well give it a go :T

2. I have joined the 'Knit your square to give your share' thread with an aim to doing charity knitting in the New Year.

3. Doing this weeks shopping list and there's not too much on it as I've slowly been buying Christmas stuff in for weeks :money:

4. Got up at 6am and had a lovely couple of hours of peace.

5. DS2 had his college interview for A Levels this morning. He was offered a place on condition of his grades being up to scratch. He's a good lad & puts the work in so hopefully it shouldn't be a problem. The older 2 were/are a nightmare to get studying so it should make a nice change :rotfl:

Acey Hugs to you it's so hard when absent Fathers (or Mothers) play around like this.

Big hugs all round & stay warm. We still have 5" of snow that's now frozen solid with more to come tomorrow apparently :eek: Oh well the kids & dogs love it

Edited to add: Another pleasure - I have just made a batch of mince pies using the pastry from The Best Mince Pie Recipe in The World thread and they are amazing!! Very crumbly and so tasty that DH & I already have burny tongues lol!

Patchwork_Quilt

1) House is clean and tidy and the washing is done.
2) Baked two dozen mince pies and a big batch of shortbread. Iced the Christmas cake. Made some jam tarts from the scraps.
3) DS's gf came for tea. I know I'm being selfish (incredibly so) but I do like it when they all come round here.
4) Prospect of a food parcel from one of the Musketeers. Her husband is about to be made redundant so she is giving me some piccalilli as well as the Christmas pud. She dropped it off with the first Musketeer, who will take it to work, hand it to my DH and he will remember to bring it home.
5) Film evening at the Book Club later on. May be watching Star Trek again! I don't mind, though. It's always a pleasant evening.

nuttybabe

Hiya Everyone

I have been visiting family so not been here for a few days so will do it for a few days

1 A good drive down (270 miles) to visit family

2 A brilliant time visiting family and catching up and dropping off presents

3 a bin bag full of sparkly wool and other bits off my mum

4 Someone hitting my car (not good), BUT the person left their name and number and when I spoke to them they took all the blame (car was parked outside mil at time) and it was parked where my sil usually parks. she has only recently passed her test, is only 18 and really does depend on her car for uni and has had nothing but problems with it since getting it so I am pleased that it was us that had the dent and not her and that it should (fingers crossed) all be sorted out by his insurance!! I just thought at the time how nice it was that he didnt just drive off!!

5 Loads of people tell me now brilliant all the craft stuff i am doing is and everyone wants a sock monkey - will keep me busy making xmas presents for next year

6 all my homemade food goodies went down really well with everyone

7 being home wrapped up in a blanket in my slippers (heating is on but not been on for a few days so trying to get a bit of warm back in house for kids) and a well deserved glass of wine after the not do nice drive home!! might even treat myself to a bit of rocky road or a chocolate truffle which i did not give away!! :P

sunflower76

1) Winning £10 in a prize draw. Ok, so the ticket cost me £10 way back in March but it's nice to have got my money back.
2) Free tangerine from a game at work
3) Day off tomorrow
4) NSD today
5) Dad coming to visit tomorrow

mavvysmum

Hi everyone, just found this thread, hope you dont mind if I join in - been fighting a lot of negative feelings lately & I think its really good to take time to think of 5 positive things out of each day... so here goes!

1. I have nearly got the washing up to date! Got seriously behind on it and me and OH were actually running out of clothes so the washing machine has been on non stop & finally the massive mountain is reduced to a small pile. Now for the ironing!

2. Had a really long bath after work today and read my Glamour mag (special price £1 this month, it'd be rude not to!) and a chapter of the book i have been trying to finish since our holiday in October. I love a good wallow in the bath.

3. Much amusement was had watching our 2 year old jack russell rooting through her toy box and taking out all the toys she hadnt played with for ages and having a little play with them.

4. BIL has been round this evening so OH has someone to play on PS3 with and I can keep out of the way and do my own thing.

5. Just two and a half more days of work then I'm off till 4th January! Got my sister staying for a week, can't wait. Looking forward to seeing if there are any bargains in the sales.

Frith

Quite a busy day here. Here's my 5 or so:

1) Gave the house a good clean and tidy while the boys were at their father's.

2) Had yesterday's Shepherds Pie for lunch.

3) Went swimming this afternoon with sons and my brother and little son tried hard and is really improving with his swimming. I always get out first because I'm the only one with lots of hair and it takes me ages to wash it under the shower. I had had the shower and got dressed again and realised they were still in the pool! Walked along the side of the pool and they'd got the goal posts out and we playing "water polo"! :-) Its a pool in a nearby private school where locals can get season tickets so its rare there is anyone in except us.

4) Had my friend from school here for tea. I did korma, rice and naan breads which all went down well.

5) Both sons sat on the sofa under a quilt to watch The Wrong Trousers.

6) Friend and I cracked open the sloe gin.

7) Later in the evening (friend still here then), friends of my ex mother in law called round - they do from time to time. They confirmed that the ex is acting worse then ever, lying and shouting at his mother etc. When he was arrested for fraud (thats what he was in court for last week) apparently he took an overdose of antidepressants. This sounds to me like another of his attention seeking tall tales as he told everyone he went to hospital where they "gave him an injection to neutralise it". Hmmmmm. And they also said he is still insanely jealous of me as when we were married and keeps a check on my every move, So thats nice :-S Still, I'm glad they called round and they took a calendar my little son had made at school and some recent photos with them to give to ex m.i.l.

L