5 OS pleasures in your day today - part 3

Frith

I could have sworn I wrote my update here about an hour ago! Apologies if it reappears and you have to read it twice.

Pleasures for today (Friday)

1) Not a bad sleep. No college on Fridays so a lie in.

2) Hens OK.

3) Blood sugar diet continues.

4) Went into town to get the car cleaned out properly. Looked around the charity shops and had a cup of tea in M and S cafe.

5) Bought the tickets for the (league) match tomorrow.

6) Had a really interesting evening in our village hall. We've always tried to go to (almost) every event put on there, as obviously there is nothing else for 10+ miles. This is a new venture - wildlife club. It kicked off with the organiser giving a talk about his own hawks and owls (who were also there) with a cup of tea in the middle. The subs and most of the rest of the monthly meetings have been thrashed out and I'm looking forward to going again. We shall also be able to take in our own findings/photographs.

7) In jolly news, I went to bed and was watching Last Leg. I thought smaller son was coming upstairs and, when he looked round the door, I couldn't understand how his beard had grown back since yesterday. It was bigger son! Haven't seen him for weeks. He has been having a jolly time at work and has moved into new chalet accommodation. His apprenticeship is up next month but they are keeping him on and his wage will be a normal one, not an apprenticeship wage.

ampersand

1. NPD, NSD.😇 

2. Own debadgering done while hearing Bath v Quins earlier.  Bath held on!  Hope we do tmrw 🦚🏉.  Unbeaten at home for 2yrs now, but tmrw's opponents unexpectedly walloped us 33-0, last October away.🤞

3. Passng my gorgeous wintersweet, planted as a stick a few years back.  Tall now.  Unlikely pendular scrumples of waxy yellow + dangly crimson stamens make all that scent!

4. Rtc emporium steak was lush.

5. Insurance query letter firmly dealt with by phone+full em reply.  11 Jan, chap reversed into rear of &'s correctly parked Meriva.  Now says he's only 80:20 blameworthy!😱.  &'s insurers, JLP, wonder why the change of tune, when no real harm was done and no & claim.  & ditto.  Why on earth would an 'admitting full negligence' driver compound his own '100% at fault guilt' with lies?  & was in car, engine off, felt sudden bump/lurch, thought ''Hoorah for towbar."  Has he hit someone else now, too?  Youngish man, Addenbrookes lanyard worn, capacity n/k.  He - parked askew on wrong side of road in designated lay-by - had arrived while & was trundling donation bags across road to CS.
Bizarre!
#
Glad you had some restorative top-up time with Haggis, Mhags.
Bonne nuit - big worky day ahead.

Frith

Ampersand - 4 years ago, a van reversed into my car. I was in Sainsbury’s cafe at the time, the car in the car park. 

2 detectives were passing (!) and took all the details and left their numbers on the note. 

The other driver got within days of taking me TO COURT to try and prove it wasn’t entirely his fault! My solicitor said it happens all the time. 

mhagster

Good morning. I continued my holiday habit of going to bed early! I’m still easily tired post Covid and actually managed to sleep all night in my own bed! 

Whilst nice as going away is I’m really a home bird so was happy to get back home yesterday ( and seeing today’s weather I’m glad I traveled yesterday) tis wild out there! 

Anyway first appointment of the day was to get windows measured. They need replacing which is a big gulp kind of job to be doing but I can’t open them safely/ shut them so it’s been ordered and deposit paid and I’ll just live quietly! 

Then ( not in the spirit of living quietly as I hadn’t had my quote at that point😆) we went to local castle and had breakfast! I’d a roll and sliced sausage! I won’t cook it in the house now as it reeks the whole house with  fried  food smell! So it’s my treat! 

Then home for a bit and then out for back massage and shoulder knots unknotted. Ouchy ouch! 

Home. Hello doggy, it wasn’t that long, your sister was here and anyway you’ve seen me all blooming week! 

Had a lovely text reply from the cottage owners. They really were the loveliest of people. 

And then I just thought…do you know what? I’m going to bed and I did! 

Have a lovely weekend 😊

ampersand

Thankyou Frith - and huge congrats to elder son.  & thinks too many young people have tough times re: meaningful employment under current régime.
#
Did your solicitor explain why any driver, 100% at fault and admitting it with repeated apologies, then elects to draw attention to his/her misdoing, with added lies?

DundeeDoll

Fab news re older son frith
just had a workshop accepted on POT (peer observation teaching) vjsmum your experience will probs be mentioned 😎
1) asked dd2 which of the 3 open mouth washes she was using - ‘I don’t use mouth washes must be joe’s’ mr piano moved out nearly 3 years ago! Now emptied and in recycle
2) lo bread and butter pudding and custard for breakfast 
3) 2 of the lo sausages and veg for lunch then made other 2 into sausage and bean stew - used end of a tomato ketchup rather than purée very nice and another bottle recycled
4) Phoenix with friends - one friend gave me a very nice bottle of Jura - we agreed last year when one of us got our advanced HE fellowship application in the other would buy them a bottle of whisky. I got mine in December 17th, takes up to 12 weeks fingers are crossed
5) then Mennies and a good giggle with 3 other friends, taxi home with one of them and bed. Goodness it’s windy! No hill walk s today we’d get blown off

LaineyT

Good news for your eldest Frith and fab train pics.

For yesterday,

A busy morning with chores, collecting horse feed, yet more petrol for the car, then baked a loaf and rock cakes for the empty tin.

Going through the village and a carpet of snowdrops under trees.

A grey morning dissolved into a sunny afternoon, equine girlie was bouncy on our venture out.

Treaty tea, snorkers and chips.

Dug out my old, battered copy of the Magic apple tree, just the ticket for a cosy read in bed.

VJsmum

Carry on DD - e.g. things like "You began well by telling them what the session was about, how it links to previous and future lectures as well as the real world and their assignment..."  Yes, I bloody know how to introduce a session after 25 years...  grr uuumble...

Frith - fabulous news for Bigger Son. 
& - bizarre..

Pleasures for yesterday

1. <<klaxon>> much stuff has left the house..... 🥳 both to the tip, DD's new house and to the Chazzer.
2. Randomly thought I'd see how much i could get for some of her books on Ziffit, she will be £30 richer which isn't bad going. She was thrilled.
3. DS went to be measured for his new uniform.  Phew, he likes it - I was afraid it might be too 'stickery' (he has a thing about stickers)
4. Watched the latest episode of 'This is Us' and the first of The Responder.
5. Left over curries for tea.

Have a great day all - hopefully more stuff will leave the house (including DD herself..  which is a bit sad for us as she is unlikely to live with us ever again (which, I know, is as it should be) but am thrilled for her, and pleased she is only down the road).

villagelife

Frith - congratulations to bigger son.

1. Feeling much better.

2. Food shopping arrived. Everything in order came.

3. Sorted a cupboard our. Looks so much better when I open the door to it.

4. Had a short dog walk.Blue skies but cold.

5. Watched rugby - only pleasure is a losing bonus point.

DigForVictory

It started as a holiday & now it's over a month. Ahem. So, some ruithless editing is strongly indicated. 

VJsmum hurrah DS in employment & congratulations on supporting DD as she moves - you vibrate between sensible adult & feeling greatest rogue unhung, but it does all settle down. (My grandmother would then pay visits and reclaim assorted books that had 'migrated' but it seems you two have a better relationship regarding books that way!) What do you do with mere Google wielding cheats?

mhagster - a holiday by the beach, with bathtub, Haggis & briefly headache. Reading the time by ferries, walks galore... Early nights & good sleep - excellent!

SuffolkSue - the irony of granny squares for the elderly knitted by grannies & others. Yes, I share your suspicion the colourway will pall but it's a noble theme for a noble cause.

Purple kitten - ooh that box looks so much fun! Castoffs from a plumbers cooperative? Every edge smoothed? "haven’t been food shopping now for 11 days" - Awed!

Frith - hurrah younger son attending college & fingers crossed re virus. Rousing cheers re FA cup tickets. Wildlife club sounds fun & hurrah bigger son on course for grownup wage

LaineyT love "!early spring madness" - reminds me of the Arab foals suddenly deciding to race the length of the valley & back! Leftover macaroni cheese - how? like leftover wine, not a concept I recognise! Snowdrops - glorious.

villagelife - glad to hear you better! Will you be doing the RSPB bird count? "Blue skies but cold" - grey cloud & vigorous gusting wind here!

DundeeDoll - before I start eyeing hats (other than for draughtproofing), will the good Dr M's ego cope with you getting the licenced to run a university ticket & possibly the job, or is he properly supportive? Ye gods herding deer across the road! Howling with laughter at "ginless wonders". "lo bread and butter pudding and custard for breakfast " - yum!

[Deleted User] - tea on the allotment packs a wallop other locations do not offer. "sound of a playground full of children" - oh yes. A lovely racket!

Admiral - tea in the afternoon is bad for you? Eh? "eats foods, not products" - hear hear!

Ampersand - excellent doormat & hands together for the little unexpected grandson of friend. Whyever not buy club colour boots when hope can get full refund if decide SAD FART? Oh, Barry Cryer. Emporium steak, yum! Assorted frustrated noises <vocab not the article> at idiots and insurance nonsense.

bala - absolutely right to have a Really Loud phone case. Easy to spot, harder to thieve!

OS Pleasures recently

I have started the Bendicks bittermints. LaineyT is so right, they taste Wonderful from the fridge. [And, nearly 3 weeks later, finished. Blimey, every nibble a winner!]

Re-watching Jonathan Creek from the beginning - love how he first appears, disagreeing with the customer-in-front’s till total & is shown to be right. [Still trying!]

Watching the London International Horse showjumping & Harry Charles on Stardust - I really can’t approve of all the branding on the jackets & shirt collars, but it’s an expensive sport. I cheered John Whitaker when I was in Primary - he still has me gasping awed and I’m starting to listen to pension advice. 

I love this respirator mask. Breathe easily, see through glasses, just the peripheral vision down takes head movement. May all be good practice for varifocals!

On the last shop before Christmas (hurrah) Himself buys a strawberry trifle - the “family” size (which was ideal for one peckish teen). He & the lad used to alternate bites.  For the first time in 23 months, he’ll be sat there with it & a spoon & no lad. How we got through the rest of that shop was mostly Brownian motion through the mob.

I have a card with the massacre of the innocents as part of the Christmas Story & the cousin who sent it & I are inclined to smile with affection at it. We’ve both lost children, & shared a grandmother with strict views on children (even us cherished grandchildren). “King Harrod” guesses Middleson (engineer, no grip on history!) & is roundly laughed at. The idea of that monarch and that shop…

Some phrases place people. “Emergency Tabasco” - ex squaddie. “Backup Tabasco” thorough ex squaddie…

Having decided on & ordered The Right Rucksack, Himself is now researching it further with a YouTube video of a cheerful Estonian explaining why it's right… (Turns out it’s partly made in Tartu Estonia, where I went digging spuds with my Godma & the lady mayoress (& 90+% of the population, it being spud season at the time); and Himself & I honeymooned in Estonia and found their outdoor kit is solidly excellent.)

The annual epistle (Christmas Letter/festive spam) has been written & alas the chaps prefer to keep their better outbursts private (memo to self, next year do not ask) so the altogether more vanilla variant has been emailed around. 

Stockings across 4 households by zoom - my parents reckoned it to be one if the happiest yet! So inevitably crash as I take off my headset & there are no family awake &  no stockings (they’re all too old) & Himself no longer celebrates Christmas & I’ve not sorted a church to go to. How’m I to get the Eucharist in?

Youngest bought me a keyboard - gamers', so back lit in rainbow LEDs! Touched, not what I’d have bought for myself but what is wanted - the shed keyboard is worn, this I can use daily & swap out the previous board! 

Delighted to see Chris Whitty in line for a gong. Already has some minor honour, & some voices opine “a bit soon” (!), but I reckon well earned as I know at least 2 eighty-somethings who are in passable health & unvirused, mostly thanks to his calm sense.

Yeay! Zoomed with cousin in Canada (minus 30 over there, coldest Christmas in 80 years, both car engine block & duck water bucket linked to mains to prevent freezing solid) & cheered & crooned to all offspring, dogs etc! Very happy extended family zoom. 

Stumped up a couple of quid to Wikipedia on the grounds that I think this is one of the better uses for the Internet. Certainly it helps me navigate some of the wider expanses of my ignorance, and for less than a cup of coffee (although I’ve not bought one in ages.)

On with the social trousers! Leaving the house means the usual leggings are replaced with something a little less vehement about my lack of exercise. A lap of the supermarket not counting really.

Inspired by LaineyT, got an advent candle in the sales. Now, where to put it so come December 1, 2022, I remember & retrieve it? Looked for ‘seasons greetings’ cards for thank-you purposes - all name Christmas, dashit. Lots of gift bags but the Snowflakes & Santas declare the seasonal purpose, shall wait til at near penny rates.

For anyone who adores War of the Worlds, perhaps look away now? Stunning music, ripping yarn, world’s most cretinous journalist… OK Richard Burton sounds glorious & could make a shopping list sound full of heroics but if you listen to the words? I have to switch disks driving as I get so cross. I pity the artillery man, but the journalist I could wallop with a mallet for some time. The music is glorious, though.

Delighted to make the acquaintance today of Miss W. Most simply described as a proper handful, she’s the sort of daughter who gets social workers to visit mostly as her vocabulary is precise. “I cut my finger” aw “on a sub machine gun” ah? Fortunately in a farming area, guns are nearly furniture, so noone’s unduly disturbed.

Briefly enjoying being super-daughter. Have got 2 boxes of lateral flows to my parents, to gusty sighs of relief from sisters, aunts etc as well as parents! Pharmacist two months ago loaded me thoroughly & household hasn’t tested anywhere near as much as projected. Frankly, phew. 

Family zoom out of earshot meant I ghosted, able to see & hear but invisible & inaudible. In my ire, my erratic keyboard skills deserted me, and my sister laughed at my spelling. So I swapped back to my usual machine on ultra hush mode & we restored normality from the earlier séance & ouija board…

Ye gods, lady mother’s thankyou letter has arrived. Already. I’d heard sis muttering that she was at her desk scribing, then had gone on Two healthy walks to the post box on Boxing Day alone, but I am clutching the evidence. Right. Sons! Look, worked example… [Oh for pity’s sake, reach me the bentwood chair, whip, & pistol Again.]

Ampersand I have snaffled your chicken & it is spreading joy… (That reads wrong, but I think you know what I mean.)

I am torn between sympathy & annoyance - my husband, after three days sickness etc has barred me from the marital bed lest I catch what he’s decided is noro. That we’ve spent the last 48 hours together (& I think some of his ire was at me sleeping through him retching) is immaterial - I am to sleep in the bed in my office. That it’s used as a dumping shelf has him smiling (how he manages weakly with vengefully I do not know) that he’s been telling me to sort it For Ages. So I have put batteries in a string of Christmas lights as a bedside lamp & am preparing to read a random love poem from my phone rather than the books by my bed. [bah - ended up seeking Wendy Cope who makes fiendish poem types as deftly easy as soap bubbles & even funnier.]

Brother-in-law has tested positive for covid, so we are to go over to Ma-in-law, cook & supervise her eating. I’m really hoping Himself’s noro is done, as that’s the wrong gift that keeps on giving. 

Himself’s seen a trailer for ‘the northmen’ -“it’s got blood gore & period authentic clothing” - that’s actually a rave review for a trailer… he’s a picky mortal.

Our bed & clean bed linen (helped haul on by youngest) three joys for one! How will I go back to earlier rising? An alarm clock, ulp til my metabolic clock adjusts? [Ah, stubbornness & an early night.]

Giggling at Victoria Coren Mitchell & her apology to continuity announcers. Not Portillo but naked snooker… 

Brother- & sister-in-law have covid & so we’re shuttling over while they try to sort emergency cover. Which materialised while were there, gently calmly sorted what was needed & wanted & possible & then had minions drop in twice Just Today - Ma-in-law has accepted this with startling grace. 

Whoo hoo! New series of Father Brown! Trots towards computer where 3 new episodes await. Bliss on demand! [in fact Several More. I may be some time.]

Family tree climbing & I’ve another serial husband. 4 brides & he does not look anything special. Not the expected billing on the tombstone either… Whereas the two sets of girl twins found, all ended under stone in days, one pair escorted by an older brother. Blimey, the number of spouses I have, known only by their given name & state of residence at the time great aunt died! 

The chap who did the music for the Detectorists, we recognised in Digging for Britain.

Ma in law beginning to recover coherence, less erratic thinking now she’s staying awake & eating regularly. Still grumbles about carers but doing well thanks to them. As snow forecast, we’re thankful for them!

“And in order for the western economy to prosper, small children have to buy pointless objects” - David Mitchell on QI on what children buy on school trips, like badges & bookmarks & pencil toppers & so forth.

Perhaps an unusual pleasure but looking back, I really enjoyed sorting out a weeks worth of pills into the morning noon & night caddies. Something satisfying, mildly complex, helping to look after matriarch. May the pills keep working!

Odd dream, where I’d left Christmas decorations up. Pleasure in waking & thinking carefully through each room (all clear!) & then recognising the dream location as another house decades ago. Cousin loves celebrating the arrival of the lost 3rd king - Dreikönigskuchen, but I’m stubbornly Anglican & anyway like competent wise men &/or kings. [It was decades before I learned there is no biblical foundation for the ‘classic’ nativity scene; shepherds one side, wise men the other!]

It’s snowing out there. Checking the angle almost at 45 degrees but individual flakes dance up down sideways as well. The pleasure is absolutely being warm, having a couple of tea & absolutely no need to go out in this.

Baked potato & haggis - not quite how I expected but all haggis is welcome! [Sprawling, happy, what-diet-replete.]

The Chesterton enthusiasts are all terribly grown up about season 9 - me, I’m frankly whooping & cheering & even my father is pleased to approve - it’s length suits his attention span & “the ladies are well up to standard”. (That siren has him blinking hopefully at the very idea of a freshly baked scone.)

Himself found corgi vs chicken on YouTube & we were unwillingly riveted. Corgi played, chicken stared & duck spooked the corgi completely - we reckoned the Duck’s beak was angled to flip the corgi & were happily contemplating farmyard Robot Wars.

Hunkered as a family to watch Boba Fett & enjoying taking the mick at the Disneyfication together.

I heard a pirate was distracted by a dish of salmagundi & was myself distracted, not just by the recipe, but the title of the cookbook “A collection of above three hundred receipts in cookery, physick, and surgery: for the use of all good wives, tender mothers, and careful nurses” - makes Isabella Beeton look a toddler!

Youngest took delivery of a parcel labelled “fallout 76 power armour helmet” for a neighbour & and grinned at this geeky thing, then there was another knock on the door “& lo, a geek was there, hoping for his parcel”. Son much amused. Me forecasting some fascinating chats with devout geek beyond neighbour unto neighbour stuff.

Hadn’t realised Djokovic had a diplomatic passport. Still, Covid-19 doesn’t discriminate.

Ah, leading enquiring minds astray - I love training! OK so today was mostly checking what they’d understood of double entry accounting and much more fun awaits..

Went for a very short but pulse hustling walk before the sun set. Planning to walk & get the heart beating & lungs pumping each day. Made me realise I appreciate my orthoses, so I need to find them & move them into my current trainers.

Family zoom has revealed us daughters have succumbed to our parents fondest hopes - two of us read poetry for fun! Not all limericks either, some almost serious stuff!

Well darn. Macon Georgia is pronounced like bacon. Masse-arn & Mack-on both wildly out, but reasonable as Eurocentric guesses! I’d never have known without YouTube as the Wikipedia glyphs mean nothing to me.

New year, resolutions, healthier living. The only pleasure I can see is managing to not eat the first biscuit. Which this morning I have succeeded at. So far. 

Well, dashit. Booths, the Waitrose of the North, (boutique supermarket chain of both ho hum & majorly ooh! stuff) has stopped doing free hot drinks in an update to its loyalty program. Still doing glorious fabric totes so “beer today gone tomorrow” “good things come to those who bake” & “have we got brews for you” acquizzed for easy birthday giftwrap…

Back before covid, Middleson was barracked in a local hotel along with other apprentices & over those months ran up loyalty points worth nearly a week’s 5* cosseting. So today we got an email with a phone movie clip of a very lavish kitchen - all part of a room he’s staying in while seeing friends! Catlike how he lands on his feet.

Just hugely proud of said Middleson who undid 6 bolts on an alas-thought-to-be-dead bench grinder, diagnosed the failing part, fitted the replacement & today it's humming like new!

Gusty sighs of relief as the mammogram & scan come back clear. Mental notes to stay silent until this point is past time future as All my chaps touchingly fussed & now relieved. It's only when there's a solid diagnosis that you need the second pair of ears & notetaker.

Right, complaints food supplies have run down need to be addressed. (Bah.) Health strength love and courage to all as have need & be careful out there - it's blowing a hooly!