5 OS pleasures in your day today - part 3

VJsmum

Evening all

Pleasures for Friday

1. Work was great - another day of back to back tutorials.  Love the speed and the change from one subject to another.  Another pile of cash earned towards ICT renovations
2. went with DD to see the mousetrap - good fun
3. ate at Wagas as we were too late for our booked Cafe rouge table.
4. DS got his new car
5. banked

And Saturday
1. did a round of cleaning - kitchen (again 🙄), bathroom, bedroom
2. watched some of 'wisting' - very, very good.
3. OH made cheese and lentil loaf
4. we watched 'Help' - distressing but expertly done.
5. not going out to fireworks!

And today
1. no glasto tickets is not a pleasure, but the knowledge i can still go with oxfam is
2. made autumn/winter veg casserole
3. went to the Villa with OH as DS was working.  They beat Man. U. 3-1 - DS says i can go again 🤣
4. home and fire lit and joggy bottoms on
5. banked!

Have a great evening all.

Frith

Pleasures for today (Sunday)

1) Not a bad sleep.

2) Bigger son reappeared so we went to Waitrose for breakfast, a few bits and a chess set for tomorrow. (My chess men are nearly 100 so I'm cautious about driving them around). 

3) Bigger son made some jerk chicken wings for lunch.

4) We had two games of chess. 

5) I went for a walk in the forest and saw bigger son park his van as I went back to my car. I went to the passenger window (he had picked up a friend) and said, "What are you doing in the forest in that van, you scoundrels?" ! They're at a pub quiz in that village now.

6) Tried to learn a bit more Farsi. It must be age that I'm finding it so impossible to learn more than one sentence at a time. (As in, if I learn a new phrase, I forget the previous one I learned!) I was heartened to find the months of the year are basically the words in French, with a different accent. I will be able to ask for a game of chess tomorrow. 

7) Poised ready for I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! It is the only programme we will all watch together. The raspberry yum yums are hidden in the microwave so they will be revealed at 8.59...

Purple_kitten

1 More sorting this time, a duvet is going, but will spend its last lifecycle being ferret bedding for a week. Gathered all the animal bedding into 2 laundry baskets so we know where it is. We also have a massive grey cushion which appears to just be moving around with no one committing to a decision, too good to throw, too big to use.

2 We’ve run out of bread and CBA to go out shopping, so I discovered an old aldi bread mix I mad it up and its surprisingly passable, as something to go with bacon it works, meal planned for the next few days from the freezer.

3 Admin jobs done, home insurance, car insurance.

4 Enjoying the Nigel Slater pages.

5 Put a thing on to check the leccy use on the tall freezer and pleasantly surprised, phew.

DigForVictory

I really must Try Harder, posting fortnightly is Daft. Mind, so is RL.

Happycas - the furoshiki I learned depends (like origami) on sharp cornererd squares, and I commend the brightly coloured fabrics and twisting them so you have 'ropes' to tie around things. Belated happy birthday! Closing up for winter is hard but anticipating spring helps.

VJsmum - bedroom decorating takes courage! Taking a piece of the current preferred carpet - there's how to be clear! That beam looks Glorious, please share hack? A good sing song in the car is wonderful. You've been to Castlefield - it's a great site! Rotten luck we Glasto but as you say, Oxfam, and hurrah time with family (or without if "you can go again"!)

mhagster - laundry out and pumpkin soup - there's back from hols sensible frugal. I love your vocabulary re Haggis, his sooky toys & him schnookying. Ah yes, clocks changing. "lovely starry sky first thing" - beautiful, but I hope you were well wrapped up?! Beef is definitely on the treat end of the comestible spectrum, and pineapple crumble sounds delicious! Bedding does better on a line. Yes, some dogwalkers seem to think you shouldn't walk for Your pleasure, an attitude which bewilders me. Sister & BIL on site? A Family Scattering - well done. Then to be disturbed by fireworks, argh.

Highdays - apples are wonderful things, but a really nice soap is a special pleasure. How goes educating the bairn that unbranded isn't unspeakable? So pleased grandson is 15 & that you watch for wings & flying with loving hope!

Frith - Delighted the untrusting at Dunkirk got lessons in tidy engineering & the error of daft assumptions! Up to a C certificate - hurrah. Preparing for official photographer - so impressed at your just one thing after another, & trerbly so you left the man to it. Teaching with playing shops - such a vital skill & also fun game. Hereford has more charity shops? House selling pack sounds beastly complicated. Cinema volunteering seems to be tough, but your good manhners are winning. Hurrah certificates, glasses & chosing not to learn insults in Farsi (yet). A sturdy chess set - intriguing requirement.

PaulieHerts - swimming - awed! Eep, mini tornado.

LaineyT - when being jabbed it does help to have a team you are familiar with. "That first cuppa" has a whammy other brews rarely match. Resetting the dog's clock is definitely a challenge. I think driving past trick or treaters is almost the best way to see them. Love cashing in a survey account to get new pony rug. Last episode of GW? Til Spring, phew. Wonderful yard to send early texts! Balsamic mushrooms sound utterly delicious. Yeay snorkers! (Hope Admiral not exhausted by return to paid employ?)

ampersand - a joy to see you recovered & happily imagining "Halloween vestments". All Saints observances & "won't be X", aye. Hurrah dainty firstborn! Awed at crochet & loving the Goons, (cousins & I adore the assorted voices). Halloumi fries are fun - and squeaky. Absolutely right to hang onto MJ set - players are just rare enough that to have even 3 and No Set would be wasteful. Love the mental image of full husky side cradling tiny armfuls - competition for possession only reasonable!

DundeeDoll - so having rearranged your home, you are now playing institutional Tetris as well? Hurrah for a shredder! Long walks should always include a pub, but one with your jacket is a bonus. A good team is above rubies.

Purple kitten - So sorry to hear about arthritis but do please keep on at Mah Jongg, as it can be so much fun!

OS Pleasures recently

Royal repair shop - hurrah the experts are explaining their tools & techniques a bit! Less with “the potions”, more with “the double 0 brush” etc. Still emotional but Himself would so much prefer the extra detail, as do I.

Aw, old QI with the periscopes! Love it.

Youngest & I off South to cosset lady mother for the weekend. Packing includes brandy, Good Housekeeping, & Eccles cakes (so far - we may yet remember clothing!) [We did.]

Hunting a long black coat, the box on top of the wardrobe fell. I only uttered “Oh bother” & youngest is convinced I have a head injury I haven’t admitted to, as he was expecting something much more vigorous. If I sound a bit weak, it is contemplating the ebaying of nice designer-for-supermarket bags I still have to do. As well as find a coat. Chapels are seldom cosy unless packed out!

Ah Dorothy L Sayers! “He was as disproportionately surprised and pleased as if he had picked up a sovereign on the streets if Aberdeen.” She’s got a firm grip on the humour of the frugal Scot.

There is a distinct pleasure in the tucking in of my mother. For many years, she tucked me, but when the roles are reversed, she twinkles up at me, enjoying it. The cat is much less amused - I may be infringing on his territory.

Cat is sat watching son’s bedroom door as if a whole world of treats awaits. Son has no idea he is being staked out by a determined feline. Me puttering back to bed grinning at the strangeness of cats. [Later saw cat had gone - presume decided better on mum’s bed & welcome than staking out grandson. Do cats use logic? Discuss….]

Lady mother on Youngest “don’t disturb him”. Me: “I’m his mother, it’s My Job to disturb him. Indeed, some might say it’s my Mission Statement.” Mum gurgled with laughter…. Youngest is surfacing.

Fascinating eavesdropping on the local butcher who combines charm & flattery with solid knowledge. Anxious matron feeding 20 - the various meats & how to cook them discussed & agreed, “plus a chicken for the awkward ones!” (Blimey she’s not met my lot’s brand of Awkward) and she’s happily contemplating paying over a hundred pounds on beef alone.  Me getting the bits for Cornish pasties, tiny in comparison, but equally treated with grace & intelligence!

Godfather came visiting so we all had a healthy walk (his dog needs a Lot of walking, bring both a rescue & large part Patterdale) & some of us a bit further! Youngest cooked Spag bol exactly as his dad made it - yum!

Lady mother’s firm policy of “lights out when you leave the room” means her (solid black) cat can appear suddenly when you switch a light on. Disconcerting, but fun.

The brandy I brought down for mum’s Christmas puddings has been opened. Mum took a sip for quality control!

Halloumi bread “a local Walthamstow delicacy” brought by Coz! (Mum: “she’s quite like her mother, but much funnier!”)

If ever a pudding were stirred, ours has been & by three generations, and given a hearty slosh of brandy. The Collect for the twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity (“Stir up, we beseech thee”) was intoned, mum thinking it was necessary. Her expression as I searched the book of common prayer on the kindle app on my phone! 

Youngest natty in white tee & slacks, me in black - there’s a faint Good Omens vibe, just he’d make a far more convincing Crowley….

Ordered a carbon monoxide detector (local place only has compatible with Google nest devices) & it’s being couriered from Gourock Inverclyde. Sisters think we’re getting our money’s worth before it arrives!

The guest shower hose has holes in it. Pleasure will be in finding if the universal fitting really is universal. If it is, guests may safely bathe without inadvertently soaking the floor. [They were!]

Sister consulted me on tech needed for her gas central heating now the thermostats gone boink. Wildly not my specialist subject but speedreading gave me various clues & an Amazon  marketplace clear out sale will see the hoped to be right tech delivered to mum so sis can pick it up easily. Genuine Worcester like her boiler so should be compatible but hoping rather than certain! My Amazon account is all over the place with boiler parts, shower hose, CO alarm, curtain hooks & a plum tree.

Argh, the clocks! All we can reach here & then at home as well… Aye well, pleasure is listing them all so I can putter around and check. The tick tock of the grandfather clock is lovely, a lifelong familiar sound & that it chimes the right number of hours a quiet triumph! [Mum near tears over oven clock, a bit of YouTubing {and a hankie} & I figured it & she was So Pleased.]

Youngest has a big happy smile - some days a McD hits places other fancier food doesn’t quite reach. Pleasure in that grin!

Left me in the car as he did lap of supermarket “you listen to Bagpuss or some other womanly activity” - actually have a nice murder to read. Or possibly plan. The book is glorious, but may not be “womanly”. (Blessed imp knows how to keep my circulation flowing!)

First cup of tea back home. Bliss! 

Oh strewth. My sons know exactly what a smoke detector is supposed to do & where you site it to achieve that & hearing an aunt planning to “put it on the floor by the bedroom door”…. Well, the pleasure is they didn’t use any new words & the “just a minute” rules were fully upheld.

You know your worldview may be a bit cynical when you teach your child to lift a bag of rice from underneath “as the handle is never reliable”… Pleasure is he’s cooking.

I am beginning to think the mango seeds will not germinate without full time heat & short of bandaging then to me, I don’t see how to achieve that. An intriguing puzzle! [One appears to be considering sprouting!]

The fruit trees will need a layer of bark chippings to protect their roots from freezing - so I watch the forecasts carefully: how cold will it get? The warm rain is excellent, but rain then frost could be fatal. I foresee a frantic scramble into the garden, probably by night, phone on torch in my teeth, grubbing chippings out of the sack with bare hands. [Only Just Not.]

Email from funeral folk, do we want the sheet they carried dad away in back? Yes please, (as once washed, who’ll know?) plus we can we pick up the ashes (now we finally have a place for them to be buried)? Bloke catching calls as sweet as the rest of the team.

Middleson patiently going over his shifts for the coming fortnight, and snarling at the excel sheet password which means I can filter it & see where he’s planned to be. Sweetie!

Youngest mentioned 'the apocothary', and I remembered too late I had intended to phone them: “never mind” he reassured me, “they’ll have your herbs & snake venom”.  There are moments when he & I share a wavelength, it’s very rewarding.

Lads are considering Christmas. Too old for stockings (I’m not, & somehow their expressions say this proves their point), adamant on our traditional roast pork “we can look it up in the internet” (we used to get a phone call from Ma-in-law dictating how long to cook it - it will be strange not getting that call, not having that kitchen mêlée) but they’re optimistic. I’m awed & very proud of them. (They’re still refusing to play Mah Jongg though. Dash.)

Boggling happily at the gymnastics & rugby in Liverpool - colleagues have met Fijian & PNG folk (and blinked at the scale) whilst almost totally unaware that the tourist women are as muscled.

Lovely “crump” noises off as people explode money in firework form. We love displays etc but have spent enough time at the burns unit to regard it as definitely something other people do, while we watch from a strategic distance.

Found the big cafetière - can now lend it to mum whose own has broken. I don’t make That much coffee these days & can always keep an eye on the charity shops if I anticipate the need! Happy to think of mum able to brew up for two plus without needing to wash out her one mug press in between.

Blimey opening an HSBC account is effortful, while Chase was fast & wholly online. Still, I suspect they’re been a bit busy & anyway, all SLowly happening.

Ah “the bibulous business of the matter of taste” - if you have time for only one short story, indulge yourself in Dorothy L Sayers. (I’m re-reading her oeuvre looking for a chap with a black eye, whom I recall from reading while in school & have not since met. It might be Thipps, the architect, but I hazily recall a slightly more exiting introduction.)

“Could I have hula hoops?” - aw Youngest! Of all the possibilities, he sets his sights on hula hoops… great pleasure in indulging him!

Health, strength, love & courage to all as have need, along with really effective waterproofs & adequate warmth.

mhagster

Good morning! It’s raining! I’ve a dog to walk! 

Anyway Sunday was of course a worky day. Oh my goodness. It was crazy. At one point I was uttering the words I’m so stressed! Orders flying in from all directions! Anyway we got there. Sent the rest of the girls home and I finished up. 

Tips in the jam jar. They are building up again. I’d taken them all pre-holiday so was starting afresh. Think I’ll keep them to buy my Christmas tree. 

Then had a meeting with boss ( as in very informal with her doggy on my knee in front of a fire!) about a potential customer quote. I’d done the donkey work so just wanted clarification on going ahead.

Then home. Hello doggy. Hello daughter and oh hello the boyfriend ( who’s a nice chap) he was making ravioli later I don’t like ravioli so I just had toast with some tomatoes from my sisters garden. And that just did the trick! 

Chat with friend on phone. The above went out for petrol and ice-cream so I was to be found sat on my bed eating ice-cream and chatting for an hour and a half! 

Visitors had left after I went to work. And I got a text mid afternoon to say they were safely home and glad to be so. Me too! 

And so another week begins…as they just roll round! 

Have a lovely day 😊

LaineyT

For yesterday,

Lots of radio listening, Archers omnibus, DID, then CUFC in the cup.

Lots of food, bacon butties, roast duck, apple & mincemeat crumble, cheese & biscuits, oh and some cider, all spread out over the day of course.

Lots of reading, the Father Brown stories plus a catch up on some of my favourite blogs.

A little walking, took advantage of a break in the heavy rain to stretch our legs and get some fresh air.

A big heap of love for the smashing bloke I share my life with.

PaulieHerts

Another more than a week gone by since I last posted!

Reading your pleasures and other posts on here 😊
Meeting an old college friend who I haven’t seen for about a year.  Drove to see her latest house (she’s had about 10 different ones whereas I’ve only moved once!). It was lovely, across country driving after torrential rain was a bit hairy, but great to see her and a lovely homemade chicken and leek pie in a great country pub.
A stroll in the local beautiful park on one of the few sunny interludes we’ve had with another friend, followed by our favourite Braughing sausage and onions in a roll.
Takeaway Indian food on Saturday with OH, a rare treat as it now costs £30.
A few swims and made it to my exercise class.  Much needed as not walking well.
A few items and paperwork and old photos have made it out of the house, loads more to sort and go!

have a good day/week everyone 😊

Happycas

Gosh! Thought I'd lost you all.  We'd slipped off the first page!

DfV. - thanks for the furoshiki tips but I can't do origami either! I think the main problem is I don't know left from right!  I can work it out if I try hard but I don't 'know' it like everyone else seems to.  I was a useless navigator.  'Turn left here.  No, not that way!'.  Praise be for sat nav!

Back to yoga today.  Am gradually feeling the benefit as I manage to go more regularly.

Our fixed rate fuel payments have come to an end so we are now on  standard variable.  This has led to an unhealthy obsession with the smart meter😂

Surprised myself by how put out I am by Only Connect and UC moving to Tuesday.  Very confusing!

Proper winter tea. Shepherd's pie with cheesy mash and lots of veg.  Followed by apple pie and custard. Puts hairs on your chest, DH says!

Happy evening everyone

mhagster

And I’m back again! 

Working week done! Hurrah! Monday is my favourite work day. Good company, chatter and laughter. 

Great tips today. In the jam jar. 

Being successful with my bid for a new customer! Huge job ahead but well done me 😆

Nipped home mid morning to see my doggy boy. I love that wee half an hour at home. 

Chips from chip shop for my tea! Yummy! 

Highdays

Hi everyone

Not much happening in our world, thank goodness, but don't want to go too long without 'reporting in' and can generally find 5 pleasures so here goes:

1) Took youngest grandson to feed the fish yesterday and the heavens opened just as we arrived. Undeterred, we wandered down to the fishpond but the fish were definitely uninterested so, with the rain dripping off our hoods, we decamped to the lovely restaurant and treated ourselves to afternoon tea. Why is delicious food so calorific and lettuce and celery aren't?!

2) The feedback from the viewing on my mum's house was very favourable. Sadly, the buyers are biding their time and sent an email to say if any further viewings don't result in an offer then they would be very interested at a reduced price. Not sure whether to be happy they would like it or offended that they want it cheap (it is already on the market at a lower price than the Estate Agent recommended so we're not being greedy). Felt sorry for the poor lady who really liked it but it rang alarm bells when she said they have offered on several properties int he last 18 months and been outbid on them all.  Hmmm.... anyway, very early days yet  and when we called round today we noticed that there is now a For Sale board up so think that will generate some interest as it is a very popular village. 

3)  Poor hubby was at the dentist today for a tooth out, it had caused him no problems but was under a crown and would have caused trouble eventually. The pleasure is that it's done and he is fine, better out than in methinks. Soft items only for the rest of the day and a bit of tlc from me.

4) While 3) was occurring, I met up with my sister, brother and his wife for a coffee. Was very surprised just how busy everywhere was on a Monday but lovely to catch up in person and still feels like a guilty treat on a 'work day'.

5) Treated myself to some beautiful deep pink roses. When we got home I put them in a lovely chunky crystal jug that was my mum's and I think will put them in my bedroom.

Agree that Only Connect and UC is just WRONG on any day but Monday. Hmphhhh!!!

Anyway, enjoy the evening regardless!