Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

Thank you everyone.

There are a few December birthdays on my side of the family, the nearest to Christmas being 20th December, and there is a January too... I'm interested in what happens with this one as it will always be a challenge to celebrate its birthday separately from Christmas, but I kind of like a challenge.

Staffing... yes... we had an unexpected client in today, but managed okay as this person is largely independent. Monday is a potential nightmare but it may work out okay.

DS2 is going to be home tonight but I gather he's back for a wedding of a school friend so who knows what time he'll be in. DH gave him and his friends a lift to the evening venue, it's odd that the boys we knew are now these young men. And apparently DS2 has a new job with fewer hours but better pay. As far as I know he's still at the same hospital - communication isn't his forte!

The jumper is now knitted and slowly being assembled.

£2.55 spent on housekeeping.

Tonight I'm thankful for  posh chocolates from DS2 and probably the chance to see him tonight or tomorrow, for a safe shift at work and for the leaves, which were bright yellow the other day, now turning orange. I know that means they'll soon be gone but in the meantime it's such a glorious, extravagant colour!

Onebrokelady

One of my friends son was born on Christmas Eve, as he grew up they used to have a fake birthday for him with a party for his friends in July then the family would celebrate on Christmas Eve 

Cherryfudge

I see I've not written since Sunday...

DS2 did show up but between his friend's evening 'do' and recovering from it, I didn't have much in-depth talk with him! He confirmed the friend he has invited to his birthday meal is actually his girlfriend. They've been friendly since they started on the ward together so to me that sounds like a possible serious move, but I'm waiting to see. I needed to know what not to say to her, if you see what I mean! He definitely has a new job: Charge nurse on the ward where he has been staff nurse. Fewer hours but more pay and the option to pick up extra. From what he was saying a few weeks ago I think he's often acted as charge nurse so hopefully it's a sensible move.

I'm still having doubts about my own job but, while I'm keeping an eye out for other posts, I haven't fallen for any and really I want to stay where I am. It's a perfect fit for my skills, close to home and a good team to work with (what's left of them). However, the added pressures of covering more shifts and acting as shift lead are tiring. I had decided to volunteer for more extra shifts once the old house was sold, with a view to working out if I should apply to increase my contract. Watching DH's work history, I've seen how things that were initially difficult eventually bedded down and eventually he was ready to level up again. (This came to an end with the job he was in pre-pandemic where the demands of the job and an unhelpful boss were making him ill, so I've also seen the effects of overworking). I'm not sure where I'm up to in the getting used to the new level business, but Monday's shift was exhausting (very high need clients) and I didn't sleep well overnight. The Fitbit says just over 4 hours though I think much of what it counted as being awake was really poor quality sleep. Then I couldn't have a lie in the next day as someone had to be up and about early so I had to get up to help the night staff with the manual handling aspect.

Anyway, I fell asleep yesterday afternoon and must have had a good couple of hours because I woke up feeling a bit spaced out but much better! I texted my friend about going to her house but in the end we called it off as she's been unwell all week and I felt she had just invited us because she didn't want to let us down. Instead, I started my next piece of knitting (baby blanket) and watched Bake Off. So disappointed that Jurgen is out! 

I see I've missed Monday: Doctor's appointment in the morning then a wander round the town which lead to a spend of £8.95 in a charity shop, for which I've got a pair of jeans (missed having this particular cut of jeans for work) and some pretty shoes in case I need to dress my feet up any time over Christmas.

It's a lovely day here today so the laundry is on the line and DH and I are going for an afternoon drive out and coffee.

Cherryfudge

Sunset over the Dales this evening, for those who weren’t there.

Cherryfudge

We had a really nice afternoon out: the view above was brighter in real life, but earlier the hills were rising out of a haze which my phone camera couldn't capture.

We had a look round the auction then coffee and cake which I think was about £12 for the two of us. We only had enough time for a quick look at the charity shop we had discovered during the summer, but once again it didn't disappoint though it was a bit of an odd visit. They have a few 'get rid quick' boxes out on the front wall and I spotted a small kilner-type jar that had parted company with its lid, so I reassembled it and mentioned to the shop assistant when I went in. She said the box had been dumped outside the shop while they were closed so she wasn't allowed to sell things from it (I think she said it counts as fly tipping?). Why it was still there I don't know, as she then asked her assistant to bin the contents! I wish I'd just said I'd give her £1 for the lot, but I'm not that confident. Of course I could just have binned anything broken and donated the rest to DH's charity shop where it would be a legitimate and Gift Aid-able donation and might have raised some money for a good cause. As it was I just said I'd take the kilner, and dropped a coin in their donation box so I'd sort of benefitted the charity.

I then went to look for knitting needles - Ms. Shopkeeper said they had to be kept by the till as they are weapons, but I obviously look like a knitter (not a nutter?) so I was allowed to look through. There was a very chunky pink set in leopard finish and a really pretty knitting case with a complete set of matching needles, but nothing the size I wanted so I didn't buy. I then went yarn hunting: all the yarn is in an unlabelled drawer with no clue as to the price and a great many miniscule balls all tangled together. I probably spent ten or fifteen minutes untangling and rewinding - very satisfactory! I then asked how much and was told it would be a pound or two if I wanted to bring a selection. I chose the ones I really liked - all tiny ends that might make dolls' jumpers or embroidery - and she said a pound, but of course neither DH nor I had a pound in cash and they couldn't do change as they have to cash up at 2pm due to the bank closing aroud then. In the end DH suggested we make a donation, so the shop ended up with £5.20 which was good going for them and I guess was worth it for the satisfaction of tidying up all those ends of yarn that I suspect Ms. Shopkeeper would otherwise have binned along with the abandoned box of donations!

I brought the wool home and dumped it in the fruit bowl where it's looking like multi-coloured tangerines.

I got a lot of photos too: the sunset was lovely and so were the lights in the houses as dusk fell. We also stood a while watching a huge cloud of rooks doing an evening patrol. Wikipedia says they are collectively a Parliament, building, clamour or (my favourite) a storytelling. They were very like a murmuration of starlings, but bigger. There was also a beautiful moon, almost full. I looked it up and this is a Beaver moon, or frost moon, as beavers build and early frosts fall around the time it appears.

This evening we had a church business meeting and afterwards I made myself ask about joining a 'One Planet' group that I've been eyeing for a while. I'm not sure I'll be able to get to their next meeting as I'm on shift but my lack of expertise isn't going to be a problem: people share what they know and there are subgroups for particular interests.

Cherryfudge

Post part two: (making up for not saying anything for a couple of days here!)

After the meeting DH went to another meeting so I walked home via a couple of supermarkets and went yellow-sticker shopping. We now have rather a lot of mushrooms and some Christmassy bread in the freezer, a ready meal for me tomorrow and various other bits and pieces, total cost £8.32, reduced from £19.12.

So there are lots of things to be thankful for tonight and I bet I don't remember half of them: days off and time with DH, a job to go to tomorrow even if I'm not too keen on it at the moment(!), DH having a job as well, the opportunity to go to beautiful places and have coffee there, adventures in a charity shop, a kilner jar and thirteen small balls of yarn, laundry done and put away, new things to get involved in, being able to use food bargains that will be good for us as well as nice...

Cherryfudge

Nothing spent today. DH is having to go to the office today and tomorrow as the IT people haven't yet sorted out a problem with his IT access. I stuck my head out this morning and realised it's a nice day, mild, almost warm. I threw a bread mix in the bread maker and added some mixed spice and currants, put my thick hoodie in the washer and went for a run. I made some mistake with the settings on the app and ended up doing a few minutes extra which meant I got to the top of a nearby hill and most of the way through some woodland. The hill is very hard work but the woods are lovely and I think I saw badger tracks.

Work this afternoon had a couple of nasty shocks. A colleague who went off sick three or four weeks ago died this afternoon, she was a lot sicker than we knew. I found out she was just three days older than I am, and leaves a family.

Then we heard someone who was in the building the other day has tested positive for Covid. I saw this person on Monday but I don't think I spent more than a minute or so with them. I spent time contacting others who have been in the building around that time and emailing management with a couple of updates. My own tests are still negative.

So this evening I'm thankful for the friendship I had with the colleague who's gone, and nice memories, also for the full moon in the autumn sky and the bread turning out well.

VelvetFreak

Sorry to hear about the passing of your colleague
Wish I had bread! Am going to venture into baking bread. Do you like your automated breadmaker whatsy? One of my aunts had one when I was a kid and it made the best bread ever. I notice that "bread flour" is really expensive in the shops here, is it expensive where you are? 

Cherryfudge

VelvetFreak said:

Sorry to hear about the passing of your colleague

Thank you.VelvetFreak said:

Wish I had bread! Am going to venture into baking bread. Do you like your automated breadmaker whatsy? One of my aunts had one when I was a kid and it made the best bread ever. I notice that "bread flour" is really expensive in the shops here, is it expensive where you are? 

To be honest I haven't bought any over the past few months, I'm on a bit of a mission to use up some stuff from the larder and came across a bread mix and some raisins and pistachios that needed using - so I don't really know how expensive or otherwise it is at the moment. It did become like gold dust during the first lockdown so some people bought the gigantic commercial bags of bread flour for a while - in fact I know someone who'd made that her new norm. Sour dough was a big trend around the same time.

Some breads don't really need the special flours: you can use a cheap plain flour in milk bread if I remember rightly: it seems to come out doughy rather than light because the gluten isn't as strong, but then I like it like that!

I think you will have great fun in the renovated kitchen and who knows, you could end up on Bake Off! (I think you have that on Aussie channels?) I'm a bit happy-go-lucky with bread as there's nothing much to lose. I just chuck in flavours that I have to hand, and if the combination isn't perfect, well... at least it's a learning curve and sometimes I discover something good! This time the pistachios and dried cranberries are nice in the brown bread mix.

My bread maker is an American brand and it does what it's meant to do though it could do with some sort of signal to tell me when it's ready to start baking, so I can take the paddles out. It will bake with them in and I've learned to oil them liberally before starting, but once baked in they make holes in the bread or break the bread knife!

Cherryfudge

I helped out with church cleaning this morning: needed a rest when I got home! Hat off to the people who regularly clean large spaces.  

I did call in at a few shops on the way back and now have some metal knitting needles (old size 11) to replace the plastic pair I've ben struggling with. These are massively smoother to knit with so that was 75p well spent. I also spent £1 on a circular needle and a couple of stitch holders.

I confess to £1.15 on a vanilla slice though I was a little bit MS and had a brie sandwich and sachet cappuccino at home not in a cafe. Another £3.85 also spent on housekeeping bits.

I'm off to work shortly - for once my short shift is indeed short.