5 OS Pleasures in your Day Today part 2

sparrer

Tealady hope you soon get your bathroom back, Thank goodness for family when you need them - or a shower!
Frith, (((hugs))) you're neither the person who was at uni nor the one who was married - you are todays you, a person who has moved through phases to the one who is finding her place as the mum of your lovely sons, and a good friend and support to Mr N. He likes who you are or we wouldn't keep getting those 'Mr N came round :-)' pleasures. It's obviously much the same for him, after all, he keeps coming back . Just live for the moment and don't try to project. See Ladyhawks footnote, it's so apt for most of us
crickett sounds like things are getting better for you, have a super time with your goddaughter
Introuble I hope you found some worthwhile goodies during your visit to the charity shops. We only have one in the village so no point in going in more than once a month but I keep looking
Primrose what a nice neighbour, will you make something with the apples, or are they for eating? Hope you enjoyed the concert, good you were able to walk there
ampersand I used to make milk kefir but eventually had so much it took over my kitchen, so I advertised it on freecycle and was inundated for requests. Re relationships, you have to do what makes you happy. I should have gone to Beijing three years ago but no use looking back. If you have something you can look forward to, grasp it while you can.
Caterina slow down ! In fact it's good you pack in as much as possible, I'm wondering just how much more you'll find to do when you finish work .
missmoneysave congrats to Ian, he's learning quickly . Lucky you having budget shops, there aren't too many in this region so it was lovely to go oop norf in August where I had a field day looking round them!
CCP I understand your feelings about CiN, it goes on a bit, doesn't it? Thank goodness there are 101 other channels to flick through. Hope you had a good evening at the event at the pub
Ginger Snap good to hear your OH had a job today . Congrats on winning the book, enjoy reading it. The tea loaf is a recipe from one of the forums, I can't take the credit but I'll look to see who posted originally

1 cup of black tea
1 cup any dried fruit
1 cup sugar, can be brown, white or mixture of both
teasp mixed spice, nutmeg or whatever you fancy
2 cups flour, either SR or plain with baking powder

Soak the fruit and sugar in the tea til cold. Sift in the flour, baking powder if used, and spice. mix all together and put into a lined loaf tin, cook for approx one hour at 140c in fan oven, sorry I don't know what the gas conversion is . When cold serve sliced and buttered. I decorate the top before cooking with cherries, dried apricots, half walnuts or whatever I have to hand. It keeps for about 5 day in the fridge, if you can keep it that long! I use a mug, I don't think it matters as long as you use the same size for everything.

Ladyhawk good news about the bonus, it'll hopefully help take away the pain of having to pay for the car.
marmite congrats on the half price Kenwood, what a bargain . You'll be making all sort of creations to make our mouths water now. Our French tutor told us when we dreamed in French we could speak the language, unfortunately the one time it happened I couldn't understand what he was saying :rotfl:

1. Dug over a small area ready for the raspberry canes, and planted the free strawberries that arrived yesterday
2. Phone call from a friend who was in the area, he came to visit and we went out for lunch
3. When we got back he put his web cam on so I could speak to his wife who lives in Rhodes. Had a lovely long chat with her
4. Postie brought me a sample of gentlemens aftershave balm :eek:. Not sure why I got it, but will go in with someone's Christmas card
5. I got a letter to say I'll be receiving the winter fuel allowance soon, but it's been warm enough not to have the heating on today

Night night, sweet dreams
S x

Frith

Thanks, Sparrer et al.

5 for today (Friday).

1) Sons went to school spotty for Children in Need. Realised last night we don't own a single spotty item of clothing between the 3 of us (apart from my polka dot bra and they weren't borrowing that!) So bigger son went with a spotty T towel made into a headscarf and smaller son had round stickers stuck to his shirt.

2) Went into Worcester mainly to see my solicitor but also met my mum who was picking up the keys for MY SISTER'S HOUSE!!!!!

3) Did the 2nd hand shops in Worcs and got a FatFace dress for £5.

4) Had tea cooked by MrN.

5) Boys had film night at school so I dropped them off there (very foggy) then came back to 2 hours of sitting by the fire pondering and some rather noisy piano playing.

6) Spent the evening on the sofa with the cat, hot water bottle, cup of tea then.... at 10.45.... an hour of Leonard Cohen on BBC4.

7) MrN came round bearing home made bread and local cheese and hasn't long gone. :-)

8) Going to bed now with hot water bottle, small son already in situ and the News Quiz on iplayer. Hoping for some sleep tonight.

Goodnight, everyone.

Caterina

Hi all

Thank you all for your congratulations about my wins! Now that I know I am about to stop earning, I have intensified my search for cheap or free entertainment, of course.

In the famous words of a great OSer (you know who you are, if you read this!) when I admitted that I had bought some tickets for an event, she replied "See what work does to you, you start buying things again!" Too right! When you are working you get stressed and think, what the heck, I will buy this or that because I am worth it or because I have earned it. Once you don't earn, you got to use your wits to get fun, and here I am, winning away and hoping to be on a roll!

Sparrer, you are so right, thank you for reminding me, I need to slow down. It is in my nature to overdo it and it would be much healthier for me to take it easier. Please keep reminding me if you read about me me buzzing around like a fly! Thank you!

Off to the post office now to pick up something that needs a signature, then posting a cheque to a fishery in Scotland so that they will send smoked kippers to my sister in Spain. She loves the stuff and this is going to be a nice surprise for her.

See you all later for pleasures x

Patchwork_Quilt

1) Sent my essay off to the OU yesterday. It was so hard just to sit down and make myself do it but if the house is quiet, I have to take advantage of it.
2) Home made meal for DH and I yesterday evening, with a bottle of wine, which knocked us out completely.
3) We are shortly going for a walk on the canal with DD. Although I've lived and worked nearby for years, I've never gone down that bit, so I'm looking forward to it.
4) There is a large chocolate cake sitting on the worktop, under a bowl.
5) Took the time yesterday to take all the dead flowers out of the bouquet that DH bought me for our anniversary and arrange the left overs in a large vase. It still looks like quite a decent arrangement.

Hope you all have a restful Saturday.

sparrer

ps the tea loaf recipe is thanks to grumswifie on the 'Tea loaf recipe please' (surprise, surprise ) forum

Tealady_2

Afternoon

Pleasures for yesterday:
1. Bacon Sandwich for breakfast, everyone could leave home a bit later yesterday so we had time to enjoy breakfast together
2. Pub at lunchtime with a friend for a catch up
3. Lift home from work so didn't have to walk in the cold and fog
4. Getting home to find we had a bath that we could use, no splashing and the bathroom is still a building site but at least we can have a decent wash.:j:j
5. Getting excellent customer service from a tile shop. We discovered we were a few mosaic tiles short and the guy in the shop sourced one at Camberley for us and as it is near where he lives said he would pick it up and bring back to our local store for Sunday.:A
sneaky 6th today
6. Enjoying a family evening together watching a DVD, peace reigned and no stroppy kevin the teenager appeared just a calm nice DD

Hugs to all who need them

Caterina

Hi all

Here are my pleasures for today:

1 - Breakfast in bed courtesy of DH - an experiment, we had salty porridge, but with toasted nuts and seeds and soya cream (as we would have it as if we ate dairy). It was really nice!

2 - Long walk with my friend, first to the post office then through Greenwich Park into Greenwich, visit to the market and wander about.

3 - With same friend, we shared an afternoon tea, I asked for my half of the cream cheese and salmon sandwich to come without cream, she had all the clotted cream on the scone and we shared the (enormous) piece of lemon cake. With a pot of tea for 2, it was a very reasonably priced "lunch"!

4 - As I was about to come home, I got a phone call from an Italian friend who was near Greenwich, so we arranged to meet and had a lovely time chatting in Italian.

5 - Started planning DH's 60th birthday party (it is in February), not a surprise - he does not "do" surprises very well, but it is quite a lot of fun to organise!

Have a great evening everybody xxx

BlimusOreilly

Hi all, hope you're all having a great weekend
Thanks sparrer for the reminder of the tea loaf recipe. I have some dried fruit soaking in black tea as I type this.

Here's mine for today:

1) Started on a deep clean of the kitchen but got side-tracked (as ever ). Least it's a start though.
2) Finally got the car washed.
3) Using up lots of storecupboard items for tea.
4) Took DS1 and his friend into Sheringham and while they had an ice cream, I enjoyed the amazing vista of the full moon's light reflected on the sea. Beautiful.
5) It's freezing out but nice and snug in our house.

CCP

Evening all.

I'm sorry to come on here and moan, but I really haven't had a brilliant day today. I was meant to be meeting my sister for lunch today and had been looking forward to it all week, but she sent me a text yesterday evening to say her boyfriend had been rushed to hospital with an infected tooth :eek: (even the thought makes me wince), and she therefore wouldn't be coming after all. It's entirely reasonable, of course, but I'm still disappointed.

Then I received the giant pack of smoked salmon I had bought to divide up and freeze (as it's cheaper that way than buying several small packs), only to find it's labelled 'not suitable for home freezing' - the small packs can be frozen, so what's different about the big pack? :mad: I've sent the company a rather stroppy email, and have frozen most of the salmon anyway as it will go to waste if I don't - I figure it will be OK if I cook it, but, if I don't turn up one day soon, you'll know I was wrong!

I decided to listen to the Portsmouth football match this afternoon to cheer me up (with hindsight I don't know why I thought it would cheer me up, given how badly they've been playing recently) - and they played shockingly badly and lost. Again. :mad:

And the people in the flat above mine seem to have a herd of elephants visiting them - I really don't know what they're doing stomping about up there, but I really wish they'd stop!

What with all that, I might be a bit short on pleasures today:

1) Had a lie-in this morning.

2) Got a gammon joint half price in my local supermarket. I love boiled gammon. :drool:

3) Received my big meat order, so my freezer's all stocked up for the winter (and probably well into the spring - I think I over-ordered a touch ).

4) I had to wait in for the delivery, with no indication of when it would arrive (as usual), so I had a reasonable excuse to stay at home and do not very much for most of the day. :D

5) I had to open a bottle of wine for tonight's dinner, so I'll have a glass or two of what's left later on.


Tealady - I'm glad you're bathroom's starting to get there - it must be so good to have washing facilities at home again!

Patchwork Quilt - well done on getting your OU essay done - it's always a nice feeling to see the back of it, isn't it?

Caterina - mmm, kippers. :drool: What a lovely present!

Frith - that's great news about your sister's house. :j Will she be in before Christmas if she's got the keys now?

sparrer / Ginger Snap - I'm so glad I'm not alone in finding CIN a bit too much like hard work. I'm pleased to say yesterday night wasn't as bad as I was expecting, largely because the CIN bit never really materialised - there were a couple of sponsored events in the pub, but it all petered out by about half past nine. We ended up going to a lovely, old fashioned pub further up the road, arriving just in time for the meat raffle where two of my friends each won a large joint of beef from the local butcher. Not a bad end to the evening, really. :j

marmite - thanks for the teabread recipe. I've currently got three large butternut squashes in the kitchen (one of the downsides of getting a veg box delivery), and I've been trying to think of interesting things to do with them. I think that might be one of them!


Have a nice evening, all - I'll take my grumpiness elsewhere now.

Caterina

Hi CCP

Sorry you had so much disappointment today, but well done for still managing to carve some pleasures out of the day!

Shame about your sister not coming to meet you, but that's life, unfortunately. Still I understand why you would be disappointed. Hope her BF gets well soon.

I am sure that the salmon will be fine, wouldn't worry too much, sometimes suppliers put this sort of instructions on food packets just to cover themselves.

Football, oh dear, not much I can say, I know how disappointing it is when your team loses!

Upstairs neighbours: you might want to talk to them if they are so noisy! Also, I believe there are building regulations that require proper noise insulation between flats, so you could talk to them about this (if they are the owner) or to the landlords (if they are renting).

I hope you get a better day tomorrow, meanwhile enjoy your couple of glasses of wine!