5 OS Pleasures in your Day Today part 2

Frith

5 for today (Tuesday).

1) Tidied outside - emptied the water butt, swept up leaves, did a tiny amount of weeding etc.

2) Started gathering bricks for the builders (hopefully starting on Friday). Had a few from the cottage down the field that has fallen down. At least they match the house (150+)!

3) Tea was rather nice.

4) My sons and MrN's got on well together this evening.

5) My sister popped round after doing more unpacking in her new house. I never seem to have any food in that can be used to rustle up something quick (always got staples) but in the fridge I had some guacamole, a bagel and some prawns then she had a yoghurt and a fairy cake from those I made yesterday. She looked quite surprised!

6) MrN came round. :-)

7) Bit of a strange pleasure but finally the ex Mr Frith appeared in court on 20 counts of fraud. I had a deranged phone call from him on Monday, out of the blue, saying he was innocent, it was his girlfriend's fault and that going to court would "just be paperwork and only take a short time". Well, its not looking that way - he was in there for 6 hours today and my friend phoned to find out the verdict only to be told he will be in court again tomorrow from 10am....

Ladyhawk

Ginger_Snap wrote: »

5. Last night watched The Good life with Giles and Sue. Am I the only one who finds Giles Coren (is that correct spelling?) strangely attractive?!!!

Err...no...:o

CCP

Ginger_Snap wrote: »

5. Last night watched The Good life with Giles and Sue. Am I the only one who finds Giles Coren (is that correct spelling?) strangely attractive?!!!

Ladyhawk wrote: »

Err...no...:o

Ditto.

Ginger Snap - the stew recipe's from here - I add a tin of white beans to it to make it a bit more substantial, and it's delicious. I'm very glad your observed teaching went well.

Frith - that's a really good idea to collect some matching bricks for the builder to use - I doubt I would have thought of that!

larmy16

Ladyhawk wrote: »

Err...no...:o

I have many a thought about Giles Coren and none of them involve gardening or cooking!

Primrose

Just quickly popping in to say 'hello'

1. Being given a huge carrier bag of free lamb & chicken bones with meat still on by our friendly butcher yesterday. Have made separate batches of lamb broth & chicken stock for soup which will really keep the cold weather at bay.
2. Attending local nature photographic exhibition yesterday - marvellous photos of woodland creatures and woods in all their glorious autumn colours.
3. Local crow family all sitting in neighbour's tree waiting for us to go out and feed them and as I type, two green parakeets are battling with a magpie for access to our bird table. (And the parakeets are winning!) I could sit for hours watching our garden birds.
4. Despite the frost, the sun is shining. Nice walk planned later.
5. And the heating is now off but I'm snug in my nice warm body warmer picked up for £4 in the local charity shop. (British Gas, eat your heart out!)

Caterina

Hi all

Beachbaby, enjoy your driving and have a drive for me, too, please! Occasionally I have a twinge of wanting a car, when I think about the convenience to just hop on and take off!

Kitchenbunny, glad to read that your cold was a flash one and that you are better again.

niksyg, good luck in finding your ideal home. It takes a while but you will know when you have found the right place, so do not hurry the process!
Re. casserole, it is such a comforting dish, especially with mash! It gave me the idea of making mash to have with my leftover lentils dinner tonight (to be turned into casserole by adding some soya chunks).

Marmite, thanks for explanation and for interesting link. Well done on your running, you must be so fit!

Ladyhawk, I laughed at your description of your baby-obsessed friend - I have been on both sides of the barrier and understand how she feels, but also how you feel and the exasperation that comes with it! So don't judge yourself too harshly, it is a very normal feeling to be fed up of hearing someone else's kid's daily history in minute detail :eek:. But this is her kid so she is bound to be obsessed (it is a survival skill - if mums did not get obsessed with their kids it would be so easy to chuck them out of the window after the umpteenth time they wake you up wailing!)! Hopefully in a few years she will be fed up of talking baby-talk and you might see the odd glimpse of your old friend return, if you have the patience to wait!:rotfl:

CCP sorry that your day was not filled with lovely things but well done on finding some pleasures in a non-descript day anyway!

Katholicos, what a lovely present from your mum! Your relationship with your parents sounds so loving, it is great to read about it (and it made me want to ring my mum, which I did!).

Tealady, well done for walking to work, both for OS and health reasons! It inspired me to decide to walk where I have to go next - as it is a lovely day. Thank you!

Gingersnap, the mini-mince pie was delicious, I managed to make it last all of 3 bites! The people at dinner yesterday were ok, and just as well they came to dinner, as they were flying back to Italy in the night and did not know that the Blackwall Tunnel (the way for them to go to the airport) is closed at night for repairs, so we told them and they could make alternative plans and avoided missing their plane home.
Well done on your observed lesson, glad it went well!

Frugalpam, congratulations on your weight loss! Also best wishes for your voluntary redundancy and for deciding to have a break before taking a different direction. It is scary but also very exciting!

Sparrer you can definitely cook then freeze beans so you can do that in bulk, saves a lot of time to have ready-cooked beans in the freezer. Also it saves from having to buy canned beans when you need them as you can cook them from frozen - just heat them enough in hot water to make them slide out of their container and then cook as normal.

Frith, great idea about using recycled bricks, very environmentally sound practice!

I am with CCP and Ladyhawk in not finding Giles (of Giles and Sue) particularly attractive, in fact he positively goes on my nerves - so does Sue, mind you, even if in minor measure!:rotfl:

Gingersnap and Larmy, re. fancying Giles, just as well we all have different tastes in men otherwise we would all fight for the same few! I shall have Peter from the Edwardian farm, instead .

Primrose, the image of you as the "mum of the birds" made me smile, with you feeding all the birds in the district! It reminds me of what in Rome we call the "mums of the cats", women who go to the ancient ruins (where Rome's feral cats live) and bring them packets of food, it is a well established thing - I had a friend who was a Mum of Cats when I was younger!

Ok, off to have my fringe repainted purple now, back for pleasures, but before I go I am going to register a BIG PLEASURE for this morning:

1 - Went to the dentist for check up and she found nothing wrong, in fact she said that my teeth and gums are in excellent state, thanks God!

See you all later, have a good day xxx

beachbaby_2

A quick five for today.
1. DD1's face when opening her birthday pressies.
2. Just a couple of hours at work.
3. A stunning view from my first clients house. Right across the lakes to the Langdale Pikes. On a sunny morning like this you can't beat it.
4. A long walk with my dog. (wrapped up but still got face freeze!)
5. House cleaned from top to bottom and recycling done. Always feel much better when this is done.
Love to all. Keep wrapped up warm. X

Caterina

Hi again

Back for my pleasures today.

1 - (already registered in my earlier post but so good that I want to write it down again): check up at the dentist found that teeth and gums are in good condition so no need for any work for at least another 6 months (until next check-up) YIPPEE!!!

2 - Hairdresser visit as a model - got my fringe dark pink now, looks even better than purple!

3 - The owner of the hairdresser salon, who is a HAIR GENIUS but not always there (as he has another salon in Italy) was there so I could pick his brains about changing my hair colour completely. He helped me with ideas and talked to the trainee so she is going to do all he suggested at my next visit, and he quoted me a very very good price!

4 - Very frugal OS lunch, it was delicious! A chunk of lovely bread that had gone a bit stale, chopped in bits, covered with boiled lentils, dressed with olive oil and chili flakes. Followed by leftover apple compote with a shot of soya cream. Loved it!

5 - The last of the Borlotti beans from the garden have been cooked in the pressure cooker and I am going to make Pasta e Fagioli (pasta and bean soup) tonight for dinner YUMMY!

6 - My Prima mag and two books I ordered have all arrived in the post, so I have plenty to read for the foreseeable future.

7 - My SIL loved the pijamas I got for her kids and asked me to get some more (as she cannot find the heavy all-in-one fleecy ones in Italy). So I got them from the Mothercare website, via Quidco (5% cashback), they were on Buy-1-Get-1-Half-Price offer and I managed to get free delivery to a store near me! Bumper bargain!

8 - Edwardian Farm on tonight - ooooohhhh Peter, darling!

Have a great night everybody xxx

CCP

Evening all.

Caterina / Ladyhawk / Ginger Snap - sorry, I think I've confused matters - I was actually agreeing with Ginger Snap, although it's his way of writing that I really like - I was decidely miffed when the Times website went subscription only and I couldn't read his columns anymore (and no, that's not a euphemism!).

Caterina - your hair sounds good - you'll have to update your picture again so we can all see.

Primrose - I've been meaning to say for a while that I really envy you your parakeets. I used to see them all the time when I lived in Surrey and we don't get them in Portsmouth, so I rather miss them. I know they're noisy and messy, but they're so exotic.

Sadly today was as uninspiring as yesterday, so pleasures might be in short supply again:

1) LO chorizo and squash stew for lunch. :drool:

2) Got the last of the birthday cards I need for work, so I'm all done until the new year (except for getting them signed and on to the relevant people's desks at the right time, at least).

3) I really fancy a curry for dinner tonight, but I've been sort of semi-virtuous and bought a jar of sauce rather than getting a takeaway. It won't be as good, but it's considerably cheaper!

4) As Caterina noted, Edwardian Farm's on tonight. If I can't watch that (I can only watch TV over the internet, and live programmes aren't always available from the BBC's website), I'll watch another part of the one about the high street, which I've just discovered and need to catch up on.

5) An odd sort of pleasure, but it did make me laugh: I had a phone call at lunchtime from a company employed by my landlord to do repairs to the building's fire alarm system, complaining that they couldn't get into my flat because there was no-one in. I had to point out that I would have been there if they'd told me they were coming, but, as they hadn't, I wasn't. Silly people!

Have a nice evening, all.

Ladyhawk

Evening all!

Hope you are all toasty warm.

CCP - I think it was me who confused everyone. I do find Giles strangely compelling... I certainly wouldn't kick him out of bed for dropping crumbs.

1) NSD :j

2) My homework excersise from the councellor was to ask people that I have known for a while to com up with 3 words to describe me and my friend who lives in Edinburgh came up with 4 (she couldn't narrow them down) and they were really lovely.

3) Managed to say no to a last minute meeting in Brussells next Monday and Tuesday. Phew. I would have been so out of my comfort zone so was very relieved to have a good excuse not to attend.

4) Picked up some "new" books from a freecycler who as it turned out gave me some empty jars earlier in the year (she left them outside for me) so it was nice to meet her and to say thank you in person. She turned out to be lovely and had given me some more jars

5) Getting the local "Meet Up" group going (hopefully). The owner of the group seems to be a little strange so a small group of us are planning to get together this weekend to decide how get things moving.

Night all...

L