Coffee and chocolate

ani_26

miggy wrote: »

Noooo! I need my list!

No, no, no. You don't need your list. You just think you need your list :rotfl:

ani_26

miggy wrote: »

2 heads of eldrflowers (not too big), 2 lemons, 225g/8oz sugar, 1 pint water.
Dissolve the sugar in the water over a low heat, add the zest of the lemon and boil for five minutes. Remove from the heat and add the elderflower heads and the juice of the lemons, cool, strain and freeze. Ideally stir the edges in as they start to freeze (unless you're me in which case you come back when you remember). Beat till soft.

I'm not usually a fan of elderflowers but I love this - though only in small quantities.



Aw. I know exactly what you mean. I won't do chicken for the Xmas BBQ. :rotfl:

Thanks for the recipe, but i don't and probably won't, have a freezer, ( nowhere to put it ). I'm sure i can hear Aesop running along in the distance shouting, freecycle, freecycle

miggy

ani_26 wrote: »

1) Ah, maybe take me off the guest list for the xmas day bbq then?

Scared?

ani_26 wrote: »

theres been a 3% drop in consumer spending on food, in the last month.

That would all be due to me trying to make space in the freezer.

ani_26 wrote: »

I can only make grunting noises of sympathy.

Thank you.

ani_26 wrote: »

Its going to get worse. With the news about pensions, you'll have to work forever? Pensions are something i've really been contemplating, this week, and i need some sound advice. Very sound.

Sorry to say I'm clueless though I saw the following http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/jun/20/martin-lewis-interview and part way down the page it gives a rule of thumb about the percentage of income should go on pensions relative to age. All water off a duck's back to me - can't pay what I haven't got.

ani_26 wrote: »

3) Don't do frogs, lists, or whatever theory, it is, sadly. The best i can do and advise, is just live day to day, and enjoy it as best you can, ( in your case ). You have your family? I think your whole focus shifts as you get older, and 10 years can make a huge difference in the way you see things. You would'nt think it possible, but it is. Even i've given up battering myself over what is going to happen tomorrow, largely because theres little i can do to change it, so i just ' be ' it. I'm getting to the stage now, where i think ' what the hell '. Maybe it helps to think like this, sometimes.

I'm still thinking about what my alternative to frogs is. You are right, I have a lot of good things going on and money-wise I'm not panicing. I do go into a mental slump sometimes as I have over thelast couple of days but it's not all that bad. I'm back on the vitamins and once they reach critical level, whatever that is, I should feel better. I also need sleep and I know I'm trying to avoid some of my responsibilities.

There's no point trying to live in tomorrow, is there? I'm not good at living in the moment but I'm working on it. And when I think back to ten years ago - what on earth was I worrying about then? I can't remember, but it was a different world.

miggy

ani_26 wrote: »

No, no, no. You don't need your list. You just think you need your list :rotfl:

It's MY list and I'm keeping it. (Stamps foot). :mad:
It makes me feel secure.

Actually it tells me I have butter beans, beetroot, chick peas and curry sauce which are likely to sit around for ages because no one will get round to using them. Then there are tins of tuna, tomatoes, baked beans and fruit without which the family would be forced to resort to toast (oh wait - that's what they do anyway). In other words, some useful stuff with a high turnover and some products of wishful thinking which are just taking up space.

And I have a list, and having a list [STRIKE]reassures me[/STRIKE] puts me in control.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

miggy

miggy wrote: »

Switch washing machine on DONE
Piano lesson DONE
put together a sheet of photos for mum and photocopy them - doesn't have to be perfect, just give them to her - not done
Plan dinner DONE
Send off one of mum's catalogue orders - can't do yet
Go to see mum DONE
Make dinner DONE - by DH
Clean out animals DONE

Jobs for tomorrow:
Further attack the laundry
Sort out dinner for everyone well in advance (which is due to)
work in the evening

ani_26

miggy wrote: »

It's MY list and I'm keeping it. (Stamps foot). :mad:
It makes me feel secure.

Aaaaw bless :kisses3: :rotfl:

ani_26

miggy wrote: »

Scared?



That would all be due to me trying to make space in the freezer.



Thank you.




Sorry to say I'm clueless though I saw the following http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/jun/20/martin-lewis-interview and part way down the page it gives a rule of thumb about the percentage of income should go on pensions relative to age. All water off a duck's back to me - can't pay what I haven't got.

Had a quick gander, have'nt time to read it all. Of course, the cynic in me says its all very well for a certain person sat in ivory towers, sorry mse towe*s, who is very probably exceptionaly rich, and very probably has no idea what the real world is like, today.

Theres a piece about education in schools, is'nt there? The education to give, in my view, is simply don't buy what you don't have money for. Like the olden days, you saved up for it, then purchased. Theres too much easy money available, these days. Even when i was really on my uppers, ( or downers ), and well on the way to br and repo, i was still being offered credit.


But of course soceity has changed so much, things are never going to go back to the way they were. Unless maybe the whole planet will explode, ( or implode ), and evolution will start again.

ani_26

miggy wrote: »

Scared?




I'm still thinking about what my alternative to frogs is. You are right, I have a lot of good things going on and money-wise I'm not panicing. I do go into a mental slump sometimes as I have over thelast couple of days but it's not all that bad. I'm back on the vitamins and once they reach critical level, whatever that is, I should feel better. I also need sleep and I know I'm trying to avoid some of my responsibilities.

There's no point trying to live in tomorrow, is there? I'm not good at living in the moment but I'm working on it. And when I think back to ten years ago - what on earth was I worrying about then? I can't remember, but it was a different world.

Does there have to be frogs, or even an alternative. Can we spend too much time thinking, rather than doing? ie, by the time we've thought about it, we could have done it, so maybe we did'nt want to do it in the first place?

hehehe


Ooops, i should have said, procrastinating :rotfl:



Hmm living in tomorrow, i've never thought of that analogy, more thinking to, tomorrow, which of course, is where i'm struggling, so i try and stay in the present, and live day to day, ( but was'nt i just making cyber plans for xmas day )?


I guess the easiest for all of us, is to live in the past. Thats always the hardest to move on from, and some of us will never achieve this, however hard they try.

miggy

ani_26 wrote: »

Does there have to be frogs, or even an alternative. Can we spend too much time thinking, rather than doing? ie, by the time we've thought about it, we could have done it, so maybe we did'nt want to do it in the first place?

That's me. That's the trouble with work and going to see Mum this week: the actual doing is okay, it's what's going on in my head that's the problem.

I think there have to be frogs, but I would rather not eat them. I quite like them when they sit on the doorstep at midnight enjoying the rain. That remindsme of when I was a student, walking home in the rain with my feet so soaking wet that I was wondering whether it was possible for them to get any wetter. Then I saw a puddle - a puddle of warm summer rain... I walked right through the middle of it, which was fun and proved I was right: my feet couldn't get any wetter.

Perhaps I should have been a frog.

ani_26 wrote: »

Hmm living in tomorrow, i've never thought of that analogy, more thinking to, tomorrow, which of course, is where i'm struggling, so i try and stay in the present, and live day to day, ( but was'nt i just making cyber plans for xmas day )?

I guess the easiest for all of us, is to live in the past. Thats always the hardest to move on from, and some of us will never achieve this, however hard they try.

I don't think we can get away from the past entirely, it's what's made us what we are. I discovered that in my case, having things from the past that I found it a real struggle to forgive was like having a ball & chain attached to me. The more I forgave, the less they held me back. Difficult? Very, but worth it. On the other hand, the past can be a repository for things we like or value or are good at. In that case, rediscovering good things is a real plus.

I see I'm getting philosophical again. I shall go and play silly games on Facebook till I get over it.

miggy

A somewhat better day in my head today even if it's been throwing it down outside.

Dh was on a day off - well, nearly. When I got up he was nowhere to be seen. I wandered down and realised he'd left the computer on so I sat down at it and drank coffee. DS1 appeared and asked me to pass on a message to his Dad then went off to work. At this point I realised DH wasn't in the house and DS2 was still in bed - five minutes before he was due to leave for school. DS2 pulled out all the stops and was out of the door a few minutes later! DD emerged after that as always and trekked off into the rain and a while later DH came home, having had to sort somethig out at work.

He is the industrious one - I don't do mornings - so by midday he had moved the piano, removed the tatty old carpet beneath it and started to investigate a damp patch next to the bay window. Bay windows may be pretty but ours seem to attract damp and we will have to Do Something About It. Not today, though. Too wet.

I went to the bank and sorted out a few more things for Mum's bank account then did her shopping and spent a pleasant afternoon with her before arriving home to a house of hungry offspring. DH was back in work for a couple of hours.

At first I thought I was off the hook as far as food prep goes because there was a frying pan on the cooker, but DD told me that DS2 had finished the eggs and in a mad moment I offered to go back to the supermarket to buy more. This turned out to be a good move even if I did raid the 'Savings for expensive housekeeping items' jar of a couple of pounds. Lots of nice fruit and veg had just been marked down. I spent £2.90 and bought:
10 eggs
red cabbage
choc digestives
organic carrots
pineapple
mango
a mint plant (I have 'fancy' mints but my spearmint died off a few years ago)
cucumber
parsley
mini doughnuts

The sharp-eyed among you may have spotted doughnuts and digestive biscuits have been reclassified as fruit and veg - this is because of the chocolate content and is nothing to do with me trying to slip them in un-noticed.

Anyway I was really please with this - though I have lost the really nice red cabbage recipe I used to have so I am going to trawl the net for one and see if I can have that cooked and frozen by this time tomorrow (by which time I will be on nightshift).

I am also in a mood to bake cupcakes. How very feminine of me. I think it's the lure of the buttercream and all those silly, pretty bits that go on top nowadays.

And as to dinner... I made pancakes for the DKs and myself. 5 eggs' worth. Well, you try feeding kids with a combined age of 53. :rotfl: