5 OS Pleasures in your Day Today part 2

Tealady_2

Morning

Hugs to all who had a yucky day yesterday and hope today is better for you.

Pleasures for yesterday:
1. DD train tickets bought and managed to get her a 1st class ticket for the same price as a standard class one. Also used a different train company to the one that uses the main route and saved lots of money. Anyone travelling to the North East from London can recommend Grand Central
2. Tasty chicken salad for lunch sat in our little staff room at work and read my book
3. DD packing her suitcase while I was out last night so one less job for me to do. Her bedroom looked quite tidy as well :eek:
4. Lovely dinner out with the girls. We all used to work together and still get together every couple on months to catch up. Nice to see everyone and hear everyones news.
5. Location of our night out, lovely pub on the river. Food was lovely and very reasonably priced.

Hugs to all who need them

villagelife

Sorry most seemed to have a bad day yesterday. Hugs to all those that need them.

1. Had to travel between schools so had my lunch (from home) sitting in the sun overlooking the sea. It was a alovely way to spend 1/2 hour.

2. A NSD.

3. Helped out collegues when I got back to work as they were snowed under. Mine can wait for a bit.

4. Tea was pork from the freezer - I am slowly emptying it.

5. Sent a couple of emails that I had been putting of for a few days.

ampersand

Along with others, I too wish a better day for so many among us who are in a Contrary Trough at present.
Sorry I'm being one of them, too. A difficult but necessary phone call made; a ditto email done.
Ladyhawk - yes, you will enjoy The Secret Life of Bees. It's been another of my pick-up-to-pass-on titles for a couple of years. I visited Homebase, too...
CCP-I feel your pain: the contacts of course, altho' I've never used them, but your favourite mug[and associations/memories sans doute]...absolutely[looking for Hugs smiley, but can't find it]. What was it?
kitchenbunny - be hugged:).
mhagster - immediately highlightedyour OH+dd's apple crumble comment, but see it didn't show up here. More virtuals.....:mad:
So:
1. Love my 1euro-for-both folding armchairs out back - cane and aluminum, lightweight, bought at Puget-Ville a few Sat's back. Très confortable. To sit thus, I am in that other place, that happy morning by association:D:T. My other long-serving ancients are on trailer>dump shortly.
2. >Homebase, pricechecking bungee elastic for tarp for trailer....not at £2.79 per metre, for thin stuff. So it became instead 4 Rosemary pots[decent bush size], 4 rainbow chard, 1 marjoram, I mystery veg. strip[might be kale-I'm to let him know later]- all at 50p from the Halt & Lame section, where my plants come from, generally. Enjoyed good chat with man, who recommended QD or £land bungee...'I never buy anything like that here' said he 'It's far too dear and prices are going up like crazy.'
3. Ridiculous petrol I suppose, but then backtracked to Park'n'Ride for Cambridge and £land for bungees. They're good, thick, strong - 150cm with shackle/halyard clips at both ends. Spotted another solar light in their great range - for fences, but I was good.
4. The wind and I battled for tarp. supremacy: I eventually won. Not easy alone, running from one side to other, trying to rope cover down. Off to dump shortly.
5. I can just hear rubbish truck - startled to see there's been a heavy shower a while ago, so glad I had everything out before 6.
6. The new plants will have benefitted.[Edit - are benefitting. It's now raining properly]
7. Watched a little somebody alight in raspberries, hop up stalk, but not eat what was waiting there. Mmm, covered strawbs again last night and haven't checked yet.[Edit: have just eaten the first 2:D]
8. Michelle Obama - so impressive. Her talk to the Islington girls and yesterday at Oxford is worth hearing and seeing again.
9. Started elderflower champagne.

Right, I really AM on way to the dump - in the wind and rain.
Happy days everyone.

mhagster

hello everyone! I had a much better day .....couldn't have been much worse! I was so pathetic yesterday, however, onwards & upwards and today was a fresh ,new day!

1. brief walk with DD2....our pretty autumn tree has only 1/4 leaves left! Good drive to work, not too stoppy starty! I have a slight parking dilemma, I can get an annual pass for $220....bearing in mind I have only been there a week.....or I can pay $5 a day.....$25 a week or $200 in 2 months! What do you think? An investment in my future?

2.Much better day at work another days worth of dollars earned. Had a good chat with one of the managers & felt better for it! Not as hectic as yesterday but busy enough!

3.Enjoyed my walk to & from carpark...lots of birds, saw 2 cockatoos on the ground ...they're usually flying & squawking! Lots of ducks and very noisy minah birds chasing each other.

4. Avoided a library fine & took my books back, had tried to renew them but one was on hold so went out in the cold & rain to take them back.......seeing as I am no longer a lady of leisure & have all day ,any day to wander around the library!

5.We are watching Oprah's final shows on TV. Not sure if you will get it in UK or not but it's a lovely tribute show to her.

Not what you would call a pleasure.....big 2 came in from school with forms for a snow trip $550 each for a 3 day trip!! That's 360GBP each! Will need careful consideration!


Hope you all have a good Thursday.......heading to bed after Oprah!

mcculloch29

Hello again, I've been enjoying reading everyone's ups and downs. I thought I'd let myself have some time on here as a treat, working from home I feel guilty if I'm not working sometimes, but I thought - nope, nothing urgent to deal with, have some fun. So.... a week's worth of odd highlights:

1. Getting into a Bill Bryson book I bought some months back.
2. Friend who has been ill is returning to health, albeit slowly.
3. Loads of NSDs due to the high winds! I was effectively housebound, as I can't ride my trike in very high winds. Once when attempting to do so I was actually blown backwards on it. That would have been a good one for You've Been Framed.
4. Loads of store-cupboard meals.
5. Got my prescription exemption card (I'm on Disabled Persons Working Tax Credit) in the post.
6. Applied for NHS European Health Insurance card online for self and son, how lovely to get things like this done in just a few minutes rather than endless form-filling.
7. Got a bundle of toiletry freebiies in the post and it's all stuff I will use.
8. Yet another great night at the live music club.
9. The penny has finally dropped that I wasn't losing weight, not because I wasn't eating the right things but because I was still giving myself the same portions as when I was very physically active. I'm now using a large tea-plate for my meals.
10. Freebies from Amazon Vine - shaver for son, joint cream for me.
11. Sorting out my summer wardrobe and discovering things I'd forgotten I owned.
12. The light evenings lifting spirits.
13. Discovering three perfect little pairs of stud earrings in a pack bought for peanuts.
14. My students have been progressing and ensuring me an income!
15. Chatting to my son who is off today.

Kittikins

1. Lovely bath and silly songs with DD before school/work
2. Great online chat with a colleague in NY and a firm plan to go out on the tiles when he comes over to London, hope his expenses will be paying for it!!
3. Picked up a sample of face cream for a survey I'm doing from the post office - yay, not only do I get to trial what sounds like a fab cream but I'll also be paid for it
4. Received payment for another survey I've done
5. Lots of YS bargains in Te$co's this afternoon
6. Managed to buy identical presents for twins whose party DD is off to in a week or so - half price too
7. Had my first physio appointment and she's brilliant! I have some very ouchy exercises to do but she's given me real enthusiasm that I'm going to regain movement in my leg that I haven't had for 11 years!!
8. OH has got us tickets to go and see our favourite band in October
9. My mum emailed me a voucher for a cheapy restaurant - given the state of my finances, it needs to be cheap, lol.
10. Had my eyes tested and whilst I was sad to discover that I now need reading glasses I was pleased that I was able to quite easily persuade the sales assistant in the opticians that a pair of £25 glasses would suit me just as well as a £250 pair! I was expecting the hard sell, but thankfully she saw I was serious about being a MSE gal!
11. Dinner tonight will be leftover pasta bake and YS sweetcorn, yum yum
12. Took out some great books from the library

Hopefully I'll have more good things happening later today - I'm planning on starting some revision for my exam next month, so must try my hardest not to be on this site all night! Wish me luck

CCP

Evening all.

ampersand - you're quite right about the mug having special associations: it was one of a pair which my DM bought for me and my sister. I got a mournful text from my sister just before Christmas to say she'd broken hers while washing up, and now mine's gone the same way. We'll have to try and get a new pair when we next meet up.

mhagster - that's a bit of a poser about the parking, isn't it? It's a shame they don't do permits for shorter periods of time so you don't have to commit yourself for so long. FWIW, I'd say get the permit if you think you're likely to be in this job, or another one in the same area, even if only for the next month or so. It would be even better if you could pass the permit on to someone else if you find you don't need it anymore, but I don't suppose that's allowed.


I'm pleased to say I've had a slightly better day today, the 'grr' moments being limited to peeling a chunk out of my thumb nail rather than the carrot I was aiming at. I hope everyone else has had a better day too.

1) A soggy sort of afternoon, which makes the office gloomy but is good for the garden.

2) My work colleague telling me all about her trip to Chelsea Flower Show yesterday.

3) A freebie mini quiche in my veg box, so that's tomorrow's lunch sorted out.

4) I've made a spicy carrot salad to try and work through some of my mountain of carrots, and it's surprisingly good - surprising because I don't usually like raw carrots.

5) It's Friday tomorrow, and a long weekend. :j

Have a lovely evening, all.

Kittikins

Oooh CCP, would you share your spicy carrot salad recipe? I love carrots and am trying to eat more healthily from now on, so variations on the theme would be appreciated.

Kitchenbunny

Evening, everyone. I, too, have had a better day today - much less stressful. So, with a much lighter heart, here are my pleasures for today:

1. Stepping outside the office at lunchtime and smelling the air. That heady, heavy yet fresh scent of a sky not long rained out and the Earth saying thank you.
2. The rain itself. It means I haven't had to water my flowers and veggies tonight.
3. My Cayenne Pepper plant looks to have little buds on it.
4. Had a barbecue spiced pork stead on a split ciabatta roll for tea with salad - I love summer meals.
5. Resisting temptations to have cakes and biscuits at work, and feeling much better for buying a small punnet of raspberries.

With regards to the raspberries ... they were on 2 for £1.50 on the local market fruit and veg stall (we're lucky to have a fruit and veg stall nearly every day of the week in the town I work in and he sells bowls of fresh fruit & veg at good prices - usually a quid). I had one of the punnets of raspberries for my lunch and put the other in my bag to take home. I had a yen to make some raspberry muffins. Anyway, hometime rolls around and I take my bag to go to the car but clipped my bag on the door while leaving. The raspberries were a little soft anyway and all fell out of the tub. A bit of raspberry pulp hit the doorframe. I had a bit of a giggle with a colleague and then wiped it up. Yesterday it would have made my angry or tearful, but today I just had to laugh.

Thank you everyone for the hugs. They were much appreciated indeed. (hugs)

Have a nice evening, everyone. I second the request for a recipe for the spicy carrot salad please, CCP I have a bag of them in my fridge and quite fancy something fresh for lunch tomorrow.

KB xx

CCP

Kittikins / Kitchenbunny - no problem, although, like most of my cooking, calling it a recipe is a bit of an exaggeration.

It's just finely sliced strips of carrots (I started doing it using the peeler until I got my thumb, then resorted to a sharp knife ) with a dressing of harissa spice mix, honey, lemon juice, olive oil and sesame seeds. Very simple but rather good if I do say so myself.

I hope you like it!