5 OS Pleasures in your Day Today part 2

Skint_yet_Again

oh dear, Frith sorry to hear about your indoor water feature ! :eek:

Don't suppose you can get a water tank on gum tree

mcc I am well jealous ... DS is 20 and cant see him and his junk moving out for years to come ......

Pleasures for today

1. lie in this morning after woke at 5am when DS came in from night shift. He is really quiet but I still hear him - mothers sleep with their ears open

2. lovely sunny day and more washing done. Almost to bottom of pile just DS bedding and whites to do tomorrow and I will be up to date !!!

3. arranged to meet old school friend whilst oop norf next week

4. listed all freezer contents for DS so he can survive whilst I am away
Also left cooking / washing / cleaning instructions.... not holding out much hope for the cleaning part

5. .....did I mention I have 3 weeks off work. Bliss

mcculloch29

Ampersand, I've made laundry gloop in the past and it's always worked well. The key is to very finely grate the soap and dissolve it thoroughly in the hot water before adding the soda and borax substitute (the last optional). Then make sure these are dissolved very well before it comes off the stove and the 9 litres of hot water are added to the bucket.
Here's the recipe and method I posted in the Gloopy Thread.
Laundry Gloop

Equipment req.

1 v. large saucepan (stockpot is ideal)
1 wooden spoon
Jug
Bucket or similar v. large plastic storage container pref. with lid.

For the gloop:

1 bar of ordinary soap, finely grated (c. 100g in weight if you are wanting to grate up unloved mini soaps that have sat in the bathroom for years.)
8 oz (250 g) washing soda
8oz (250g) borax substitute (not essential but stops gloop from foaming and acts as deodoriser)
9 litres hot water.
A few drops of essential oils (not necessary, but adds a bit of scent)

Method.

Grate the soap as finely as you can. Old, hard soaps seem to grate the best.
Put grated soap in the large pan and add one and a half litres of boiling water. Bring this to a simmer on the stove and stir until dissolved. When the soap has dissolved, add the washing soda and borax substit. together and stir until this is fully dissolved.

Remove the pan from the heat and allow this to cool SLIGHTLY then pour into a bucket or other large receptacle, pref. one with a lid.

Add up to 8 litres of hot water, pop lid on and allow to set in a cool place.

Mine took about eight hours to set.
When set, it will look like blancmange.
To use:
Add a small cupful (c. 100 ml) directly to the DRUM of your washing machine (not the dosing drawer) with the laundry.
If you have v.smelly laundry you may wish to add a scoop of Oxy -clean type granules to the dosing drawer.
Each washload will cost me about 2p, I calculated. It would have been 1p if I hadn't used the borax.
The borax is actually borax substitute - there's no need to order this from the States, it's made in the UK by a company called Dri Pak. They do mail order.

I did the Jack Monroe pasta with mandarins that Frith recommended and it was good.

I prefer the sharpness and heat of the similar recipe of salmon paste added to the yogurt with chilli and lemon, but I still ended up eating the whole lot rather than putting by a small portion for lunch tomorrow.
In my defence I've eaten lightly the last couple of days apart from the chocolate concrete..

Frith

McC - glad you liked the pasta. We often had those tinned mandarins for pudding at my grandma's house.


Skint - 3 weeks off work - lovely! :-) That's a big perk of my job ;-)


Ampersand - wedding blessing sounds great.


Pleasures for today:


1) Not a bad sleep.


2) Emptied the fridge freezer so it can defrost thoroughly while we are away. Strange meals - crumpets and scotch pancakes for breakfast!


3) Went to the motor racing locally. One car flipped over (just after bigger son and I had gone - smaller son remained). Driver fine.


4) Have started packing.


5) Tasty tea of chow mein type thing. Courgettes particularly nice.


6) Lots of phone calls tonight! Spoke to dad about the right water tank to buy. Siblings and mother phoned.


7) Phoned the plumber who will pop in whilst we are away. Water not leaking quite so fast seemingly, due to towels wrapped round everything upstairs. :-/

bagpuss38

Hello m'dears .
Sorry been MIA busy busy with school hols.
So a gaggle of pleasures.

1. Shopping delivered and meals organised. Rubber chicken duly bounced into many meals.
2. Dd2 and hubby back in one piece from scout camp in France. Skin like sandpaper from constant exposure to the elements, they had blistering sun, torrential rain and a 24 sickness bug to contend with. Glad to have them home and then to cluck around making a yummy roast dinner, cake and custard. The run warm baths with fluffy towels to hand.
3. Exciting looking at breaks to Amsterdam. Thanks again Frith for the inspiration. So much to see and do. I have nice long list
4. Cup of tea and a bag of m and Ms
5. No work till Tuesday bliss.

ampersand

mcc - thankyou:-) Just so long as I don't try it in a wicker basket - function/location mismatch ditto here..

Frith - shouldn't have laughed, je suppose,
'oh dear, Frith sorry to hear about your indoor water feature ! :eek:, but will quickly blameshift across to skint, to whom & is also indebted for 2 further chuckles -
'DS is 20 and cant see him and his junk moving out for years to come ......'
and
'Also left cooking / washing / cleaning instructions.... not holding out much hope for the cleaning part
#
Not a pleasure yet, as I haven't tried it, but immediately bookmarked this the other day from Nigel Slater. Really like the feel of this.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/aug/11/nigel-slater-courgette-cake-with-summer-vegetables-recipe

When Mrs LW's courgette glut doubles to 2, it could be handy:-)

judi24

Had a lovely 4 day weekend - and really don't want it to end! Back to work for 4 days then off for 10 so not too bad I suppose!!!


Gloop stuff sounds interesting - things like that remind me that actually I still have a long way to go in leading a frugal life! 2p a load - that's amazing!!!


Pleasures where do I start??


1. DD1 home Thurs Night - sat up til 2 am chewing the fat - loved it!


2. Sudden change of plan on Sat meant lots of rushing to shop and bake but the result was a lovely birthday tea for the Reverend mother with all 4 kids - loved it!


3. Sat night - off to another year 6 leavers event - party. Not my normal group of friends but was a great night - DS made me proud (and beat me at chess!!!) - loved it!


4. Visit from friends today - he helped DS with computer issues while she sat in garden in the sun eating water melon! - nice way to spend the afternoon! - loved it!


5. DS made dinner - (DD3 did it last week, DD1 on Friday so justDD2 to go!) dinner was Quesadilla followed by oriental beef and chicken with noodles with fruit and white chocolate fondue for desert - delicious! and he only needed a little help with timings and lifting due to broken wrist! - DD2 and DD3 did the dishes! - love it!!!


6. Managed to watch some of Saturday kitchen and Sunday Bruch - pure indulgence!!! - loved it!


Did I mention I had a great weekend!!!!

[Deleted User]

Weekendy pleasures were playing with my Zebra, so much giuggling, so much running around and so many cuddles. Being with both DDs and laughing and enjoying their company and staying with DD1 for a couple of nights and helping sort out her garden on Sunday. He Who Knows preservatived all the garden furniture, the pergola and the woodshed too!

1) Banana and blueberry waffles for breakfast, ohhhhh yummy!

2) A good run home with no problems on the roads.

3) A good apple pressing session this afternoon, we processed 3 sacks and 3 large buckets of apples and got 2 and a half gallons of juice.

4) Watering the gardens and polytunnel, love it, best part of the day.

5) Finding a perfectly ripe fig on the tree that I'd not spotted before, will be part of breakfast tomorrow.

mcculloch29

I went on to SuperSavvyMe to post a review and my Mum's recipe for Estonian pirukad that I posted popped up in the sidebar, I was so chuffed.

Kittikins

1. The smell of freshly cut grass whilst driving home, and the scent of lavender as I got out of the car, having carefully brushed past the bushes in the drive


2. Sunshine!


3. A productive day continuing to set up my new classroom - it still looks like a bomb's hit it, but I can see improvement....


4. Managed to print and photocopy using the new machines at school that have just been set up, last week they were expensive ornaments!


5. Helped out a friend who is moving away tomorrow by having her lovely daughter come over to play and have tea with us, whilst the removal men, her parents and husband finished off packing.


6. Far too much yummy food...I'm not sure how this fasting malarkey is getting on, today was an eating day thank goodness!


7. Yesterday we went to a colleague's house, armed with Dolphin Tale 2 dvd, and met her gorgeous kittens and had a ball! She's asked us if we'd like to house and kitten-sit during October half term - yay We love cuddling kittens, and there'll be one each

Purple_kitten

For the weekend I thought I had posted this up.

Sat
1.Rising at a reasonable time for fresh bread and grilled bacon
2.No plans for the weekend, I pondered in the garden and ended up playing with some very adorable animals, and admired some damsel flies.
3.We decided to head out locally, fruit and veg stand for 2 bags of things for 4.70, CS shops provided a £1.25 top for work, various plastic golf balls for animal toys. 99p shop for a lot of 99p things.
4.I went to a little shop that that does good dresses, and I found two long dresses that I am happy with both in the sale I am happy.
5.Stopped at the caf! for a meal
6.Came home made the bed for that clean bedding feeling tonight.
7.Made some chocolate cupcakes after craving a cuppa and a cake.
8.A few loads of washing done.

Sun
1. A lazy start to the day, I swear even the animals looked accusingly at us saying what time do you call this.
2. I cleaned and tidied the corner unit in the kitchen where everything keeps falling off the swing out thing took it all out inventoried food, disinfected the cupboard and put it all back in.
3. I planned to clean the oven started it and then went to dig out the steamer but it is buried under our room stuff that needs to be unpacked into our room and I ran out of ompth. So stopped cleaning and started to cook instead.
4. Made a mince, onion, pepper, and cous cous filling which ended up being marrow filling for dinner.
5. Made a lovely fresh fruit smoothie strawberries, blueberries, bananas and ice.

Today
1.One workday down.
2.Fell asleep literally out cold on the way home jumped out of my skin when we pulled into the station.
3.Popped to lidl as out of the basics.
4.Out on volunteer training tonight.