5 OS pleasures in your day today - part 3

PaulieHerts

I also won a bottle of light up gin liqueur from M &S, got to brave the crowds to pick it up! Maybe tomorrow 😊

Chinese takeaway for friend’s birthday on Tuesday.  Then very belated anniversary lunch out with OH on Wednesday after he took me to hospital scan appointment.  Then lunch out with 2 friends on Thursday and a different friend on Friday!  Think I’m all lunched out for now, it was nice to just have a M&S spinach and ricotta cannelloni whilst watching Strictly last night (OH was at a concert).

I managed to get a few things done yesterday - cooked the boeuf bourginon ready for part of the buffet for family Boxing Day (there will be 14-16 of us) and lots of other food as well, tidied and sorted the corner of doom (son’s and our paperwork) and sorted and returned to the shelves the cds that had been boxed up since the kitchen/diner was done over 3 years ago!

Probably going for a short trip into local town today, the market is on (won’t be much) and need to get some more gift bags.  The plan is to bag rather than wrap but I usually end up doing both!

Have a lovely Sunday all 😊🎄

Wimbledonwomble

Hello All ,

Newbie here ,hope that's OK.

Long soak in Bath ( Sunday treat)

Framed a new photo of one of my grandchildren.

Clean sheets on bed ( usually Monday job but busy tomorrow. ) I love clean ,crisp bedding.

Worked out January budget. I have 9 family birthdays in December, Jan and February but thank goodness all budgeted for and cards bought or made.

And off to walk friends dog. Simple life and boring to some! But after years of debt ( which co-incided with earning a "good "salary) simple is good . Feel very self sufficient and happy. Thank you all for all the support,tips and advice. 

DigForVictory

Dear Gods, you're All So Organised! OK my Rudolph Run at the end of November meant a frenetic rummage through my collections of Nice Bags and various home made jams (one cousin had requested quince jelly) & we loaded the car with 3 small trees, a mango seedling & a shepherds pie but that was Utterly Normal Dig - "we love you but we can't get the hang of a Proper Christmas" 

Highdays - you sound much more healthy, & organised, and I look forward to an afternoon spent "reading/knitting/sleeping" 

Purple kitten - a 300 mile trip to steam with happy family sounds wholly reasonable after I get over the surprise. Oh dashit covid in the family & everyone twitching again.

mhagster - you just went & bought a printer - well done & keep the receipt (both paper & a photo) for your accounts. Scripts are texts you prepare ahead to deliver to rapt audiences? (The humanist we know professionally has a steering list of questions to gently lift the information he needs without hitting the panic/stress - I was impressed & much relieved.) Sisters-in-law, ah curated family!

LaineyT - I do love a Nice pension surprise! A berry manicure?! Cor. Coffee and croissants - yum!

ampersand - lime & lemon & oo-er marmalade, at the senior secret santa - excellent! Bonus hurrah emporium coffee flowing once again.

DundeeDoll - yikes teeth and hoping all is now better? Awed at workmates for carols & snacks - my home is where I hide! Saturday soak in the bath - I must try to persuade sons to not leave things (bit of drying kayak last seen) in it so I can try this....

Happycas - Once new year is well under way (mid Feb?) just use a phone app to Log Everything you eat and drink. It helped me lose a bit as I didn't want to have a shameful list of chocolate & sweets as well as four meals... Now its Advent & dashed cold) all bets are off. Congrats on the light-up liqueur (there seem to be too many 'u's in that but no.)

PaulieHerts - awed at precooking the boeuf bourginon for 14-16... (What is a "pearl onion", anyway?)

OS Pleasures recently

Got a pair of boots on the bay & they have a bit of heel - I feel slightly extra-long-legged-super-powered! [Bonus frozen toes, but an extra wool liner should help there.]

Scouts a-leaping! Next week we have the Scout Christmas bowling so I need to find where & be there in full uniform to help steer traffic… love ‘em to bits!

The tricky thing about coming off a strict diet “as it’s Christmas” is the treats box fills up again. Quickly. I foresee the kilos I had lost finding their way back and bringing friends…

I have decided I should not go into a supermarket without a son and a list. My impulse control is a bit erratic. I have bought four sorts of beans (and some lentils) to cook with. I foresee Words from the house cook, who had reasonably hoped that without the diet I would return to  normal eating & not vegetarian nonsense. Ooops. (Still, lady mother will get two new patterns of paper napkins, which she much enjoys.)

Noise cancelling headphones make “creeping up” on Youngest Far too Easy. That said, I got bundled out of the kitchen whilst bring upbraided for being a “five foot Dracula”…. With my red fleece wrapped round me, “Hoi, Sith!” (whilst aware I utterly fail the height requirement unless stood on a mounting block). [Was it just me who boggled happily at the various coronation robes & recognised the Star Wars costume department had borrowed the pattern?]

Online work choir playing the underrepresented Christmas stuff & ending with Fairytale which had a lot of us thinking of those we’ve lost & those we’ve partied with. 

Family tree climbing & so much is put into remorseless perspective. I have loving noisy sons (who cook!) while a couple only a few decades ago had three children each of whom lived no more than three days. Gods, the courage.

There is a definite pleasure in lying in bed, snuggled under the duvet, drawing up a list of things for work I must do before I go on leave (despite today being weekend) & not reading the list of things I need to do when not at work… constructive procrastination?!

I say, the eco-friendly Quality Street wrappers have a bonus side effect - they no longer look as exciting & so it’s easier not to eat as many. And very easy to dispose of the wrappers, as there is now less crafting opportunity. Less money spent, less waste & pollution - just a faint feeling we may have lost something we didn’t realise we valued.

Home owning son popped in & chided me for lack of tree(!). Since he’s moved the mattress, up can go the tree & the glass decorations I’ve only recently dared to include.

Tree up, and part-burned advent candle discovered. <off to find candlestick & match> The crib scene is in the fill-it-yourself advent calendar awaiting me to be on leave before I tug open drawers and set everything up. The childhood crib setup was augmented by us daughters adding Another Animal daily until the Holy Child was added to the heart of a small time-loose zoo (The Ox, The Donkey, The Pterodactyl, the Whimsey from Wade rabbit, a proudly made horse of pipecleaners etc, etc). Granny seeing our enthusiasm didn’t tut audibly but made sure that the Quaker swerve didn’t stop the crib & contributing creatures.)

Next I leave power of attorney notes, I will label the files better as an old audiobook of Prisoner of Azkaban is making a havers of the search…. (Argh stored online after all!) Still, found. Now to explain it to my certificate provider (who is fascinated & aware she too needs to go through this sometime soon) & then get everyone lined up with a working pen & a suitably neutral witness…

The Annual Epistle (a very round Robin) mercilessly edited for humour has been compiled & emailed out & I foresee a possible Widows Edit. I used to try to write parent & non-parent versions, crumbled to one generic & yet the demographics are shifting again. Donations to Wikipedia, Save the Children & the Red Cross made…

It occurs to me that we have some boeuf in the freezer. I must research pearl onions & see if Youngest can learn new tricks. He may jib at the red wine - this house runs on tea & “it’s just an ingredient” may not fly… Stroganoff might be easier but I think Both lads jib at mushrooms. 

Health Strength Love & Courage to all as have need, with a plea for extra compassion all round - this season is full of love & goodwill but is also blinking cold.

PaulieHerts

DfV. My recipe (Delia’s to be more accurate) uses shallots. I think pearl onions maybe the tiny white ones you see pickled. 😊

DigForVictory

Thankyou PaulieHerts! I think we can cope with shallots…

mhagster

Hello. 

Up early and when we went our quick doggy walk it was dry but blustery.
So I thought oh let’s go to the beach…it was crazy wild! Dropped my phone. Thankfully found it after frantically retracing steps. I was absolutely soaked right through! 

Home and quick change and went to garden centre with DD2. Met a lady who used to be my mum’s boss. I knew her she didn’t know me at first though I’d said hello. And I said to DD2 she doesn’t know me…fair enough. It’s been a while. Then she came over at the end and asked me my name. Said oh I thought you were in Australia. Said OH had died. She smiled. I said again. She still smiled and asked how old the children were! Then what was I doing. What was my surname now ( Same as it’s been for 31 years!) she was a bit hard of hearing so I’d to keep repeating myself. And just thought she hasn’t heard when I said OH had died. 

Home! And what do you think you’ve been up to was said to the dog! He’d been in at the one and only Christmas gift under the tree which to be fair was for him! Was non edible but he’d eaten the wrapper…and eaten 5 sheets of tissue paper from my gift I’d opened last night. So he ate the pretty wrapping paper I was going to keep and reuse! Holy moly! That dog! He slept off his gluttony! 

I too had a snoozette! Was trying to watch Strictly and kept dozing! 

Went to church this evening for christingle service. Was lovely. Just went myself and had a nice catch up with some nice people I’ve not seen for a while! 

DundeeDoll

oh dear re the present mhags
Health strength love & courage to you too dfv
1) early night led to early morning and did my 30 minutes cardio - it is ages since I last did anything so no congrats yet!
2) choir practice then 3rd advent sunday service - very nice
3) lunch with gbf - he was late so I had plenty of time to wrap his present - goodness I'm feeling organised!
4) he dropped me off at Cathedral for 3pm practice for candle-lit carol service at 5pm with the bishop - the music was super and this was my first year in the choir
5) then choir had chinese - I collected all the empties and have just put them in the dishwasher as high time I replaced my stash, and guess what, all the lids will fit! (and the chinese was lish)

Highdays

Hi.

Just a late - for me at the moment, anyway - pop in to catch up.

Quick tip - shallots can be the very devil to peel, if you cover them in boiling water and leave for a couple of mins they peel really easily and the flavour/texture is fine. I learnt this the hard way!

Quick recent pleasures:

1) Always a pleasure to pass on tips to make life easier!

2) I think we are slowly, slowly starting to feel a bit better. Now at the stage of two steps forward one step back. Try to do a bit too much and we are floored again but the 'brain fog' seems to be receding somewhat. Still coughing dreadfully and totally shattered. Son's partner works in the NHS and says we have had all the symptoms - including, strangely, very dry and sore eyes -  of the latest strain of Covid and that the effects can go on for a long time and it is a particularly nasty strain. Not a pleasure but would explain the total exhaustion, the pleasure being she said it would be so much worse if we hadn't had the jabs. And all this time I've been calling it 'Lainey's Lurgy'!

3) Had a bit of a meeting with son and partner this afternoon, not able to concentrate terribly well - us, not them - but very, very grateful that they are shouldering the bulk of the Christmas arrangements, shopping and food prep and are taking it all in their stride.

4) A very deep sleep after they had gone, took me a long time to resurface afterwards but felt better for it.

5) Photos from my brother. He has been to the churchyard with a Christmas wreath for my mum and dad who loved  Christmas so much. It's a difficult time of year to be missing them both, we haven't had enough Christmases without them yet to be used to it - or doesn't it work that way? Got very weepy because I miss them, I miss them for Christmas. and my mum would maybe be able to make me better. Oh, poop, off I go again!! The pleasure is they have a wreath for  Christmas!

Right, best stop there and get off to bed, tomorrow is another day.

Night night all.

LaineyT

Welcome WimbledonWombler.

For yesterday,

Up early for small dog, I seem to be 48 hours ahead of beloved and he still feels so rough, morning cuddles and a cuppa.

Out to HB as in need of masonry drill bit and a few other bits, all festive stuff reduced already.

The Christmas tree is up, finally! am determined to go right through to Twelfth Night with it.

Steak pie, mash & veg for lunch followed by a walk, surprisingly mild. We saw the field fares again plus Mr Heron flying home to roost.

Twinkly lights and we cracked open some Christmas chocs.

mhagster

Hello. I’ve just filled my hot water bottles and came up to bed! I’ve not had the heating on at all today so thought I’d take that as a win and just stay warm in bed. Was a mild 12o at 6am this morning.

However a very wet day. 

Went up to castle for a roll and slice with my friend. 

Home and hello doggy. Just had a very quiet day. Didn’t do too much at all. 

Had the leftover mince round from Saturday and an eclectic selection of veg…peas, sprouts and beans as I and half a in left from the other night. 

And a gingerbread muffin from the garden centre yesterday. Would probably have been fresher yesterday. Was alright! 

Chat to DD2 on the phone.