5 OS pleasures in your day today - part 3

Happycas

Good morning.  Very grey again here

Paulie H -  love the pic. Hope your relocation search goes well. I'd love to live by the sea ( preferably somewhere warm!)

Nothing much happening here. Always good news!

DH went to have a tooth out and dentist said to leave it!  Same dentist who'd recommended extraction about 6 months ago! DH didn't argue.  

I should have gone to collect new glasses and optician rang to say sunglasses weren't ready so that's postponed until next week.
So two non events so far.

I'm enjoying Little Dorritt on R4. Have always loved the Circumlocution Office. 

Got a book from Kindle ( free of course!) Historical fiction it said.  Actually set in WWII and 1947. Historical!! I was born in 1947!! 

Happy Thursday everyone.  From your ancient friend😂

LaineyT

That made me smile HappyCas ☺️

For yesterday,

We had some sunshine so washing put out on the line, didn’t completely dry but at least I tried.

Bathrooms cleaned, as always the pleasure is when it’s done.

Out to farm shop cafe to meet up with my friend who unexpectedly moved her horse last week, lots of ins & outs but basically she is selling her mare and giving up horses ☹️ Tough call and we all have to walk our own path but don’t think I could sell my best friend. Bad things happen to horses as they age and go further down the line in the useful stakes.

Talking of whom we come in relatively mud free so apart from a leg wash it was just a matter of a good brush.

A rare evening out together as we don’t like to leave small dog for too long but the Cambridge Arts Theatre had Murder on the Orient Express there for a week, thoroughly enjoyed the play with wonderful acting and innovative scene changes.

DigForVictory

Forgive me RL going loco & Youngest has Narsty Coff so I will be going to mum's solo. (Not sure which of us is more appalled by that!)
OS pleasures (recently other than reading yours)

Sewing bee & Patrick strolling reminds me of the Great White nickname…

Diligently not fretting where is Youngest, but happily tootling around fantasy to distract myself!

I heard “deprecrated” used in speech! Ok not in the Dorothy L Sayers meaning, the tech geek version but the word was spoken. (Er, that may seem a bit odd. Shrugs. Oh we go.)

Youngest being a complete hero digging through his own drawer of cables to help me find something that may power a vintage laptop. So vintage it predates LEDs telling you if it’s on, or charging, or in any way live… bless him, helping me sort kit for Jamboreeing! (Er yes, that thing a fortnight back)

Ooh er, the wonderful gamers keyboard Youngest gave me as a gag gift three years ago, in the harsh light of day, no longer has visible letters. Hm. Time for a steady hand with the tippex?

Aw young leader penned to the floor with jenga blocks & a sprout of hair up in a “ponytail” - “I’m being turned into a mermaid, it’s a difficult transition” - huge love & respect, as well as embarrassing photos…

JOTI camp & the girls seemed a bit quiet. All in the ladies “brushing their teeth”. Me off to sleep in my own bed. Three inflatable mattresses & two metal framed beds (one for a Leader, one for our physically tiniest Scout - absolutely no chance of stepping on her)!

In that strange quiet before more than three people are awake, the assertion “oh, we All snore” is utterly wrong - there are warm snuffles & wiggles but the hot water boiler steadily pumps its reassuring “brew coming” rumble. (And the leader who unlocked & let me in did drop back off under for another halfhour.)

I learn So Much from Scouts (especially the young!) “happy juice” means coffee, when explained to a leader…

Also that Ramstein is a German heavy metal band, that can get a camp of peacefully slumbering scouts awake & bickering vigorously in under 2 minutes…

OK, that was kind of dumb, I tried to do a handstand. On the jamboree camp. In front of my scouts (who were managing, or learning). My wrists are no longer capable of withstanding my current body weight & so I collapsed into a heap by the wall, with really far fewer bruises or other damage than I deserved!  Still a cracking fun camp though, & great to send bags of cake home with siblings to allay post-camp emotional raffle.

I say, Bendicks have emerged from summer hibernation ready for seasonal indulgence! Happy chortle, they will dwell in the seasonal box then be migrated to the fridge per LaineyT’s wise guidance.

Humming “do I love you” & thinking Ella Fitzgerald is just a massively underrated pleasure.

Sister debating the ethics of writing murder fiction & I can’t see the problem - no one is harmed, energies vented, possible intellectual enjoyment. So long as research is scrupulous ethical, the rest should be fine.

Last jamboree of the night from my bed on my phone. I do wring a lot of fun out of this weekend!

The joy of going light on coffee is when you need, it still packs a wallop. Last week tried to catch up with me…

Caught up on Only Connect (pondered if my course trainer had watched it, him a big VCM fan, rightly.)

“Classic pig squeal laughing there, mum” Youngest has a way with words!

Senior Honcho came to play casual statesman with the newbies & apparently the entire Senior Leadership Team thinks I’m posh. The voice really does fool some people some of the time.

Cherished godfather, who’s not been feeling at all upbeat with the universe, came in a nostalgic tour north. Youngest & I raced home, gutted the office, made the bed, hung a curtain (ah, 6” short), rendered assorted spiders homeless (they’d been working so hard for Halloween, it seems ungrateful!), cleared various areas & hit the message his beloved was in tears down south & so he was going back.  The pleasures are the house is looking a lot more civilised & he seems happier.

Rewatching Ludwig & enjoying the intelligence & the unexpected compassion you tend not to find in a police show. Which it isn’t, hence. The way Lucy is coping has me riveted, the muffled grieving of DI Carter is touched on with spectacular blokeish grace.

Own bed, no guest after all, all the laundry triggered starting anyway. Moment of “Will not follow that memory” - trigger item now beside me awaiting my attention.

Overheard in the car park “I feel a beer coming on!” - & why not? It’s Wednesday, after all.

Back into class, studying again. Bit startled to find the sunlit world of Google & co apparently constitute a total of under five per cent of everything on the internet. Then I consider all the stuff behind passwords & paywalls & it seems slightly less weird.

Well, now! To meet a colleague after a while & to hear his lass has her degree & has gone on to working for her PhD & her all of 22. Taken up epilepsy intermittently but they’re looking at drugging h that as the chemistry she’s working with isn’t just poisonous but carcinogenic etc. Lovely to see such a proud father!

Ah Ludwig! “Would you be willing not to make a big thing of how I know?” The teenager is beautifully written too.

Brian Cox on space, time, black holes, the singularity at the end of time, & vaporisation. Which is apparently Not contradictory. Truly science is remarkable.

Diwali discounts - now we have 10kilos of rice & I had a free cardio workout.

Reading of “grub and ferret specific lactose free cream” my curiosity lit up & I googled enough to learn ferrets are lactose intolerant which I had not known. Pondering whether to mention this to lactose intolerant vegan sister..

Leafing through a forum Himself used to post on, I see his last “what new thing” was a restoration. From an OS perspective that thread was crazy, but he was shrewd about Carboots & charity shops & scout discounts!

Introduced a colleague to the idea of Kendal mint cake - he’d climbed Ben Nevis without it! Next team meeting may end in a sugar rush of introductions as vegetarian, halal etc as well as fun.

Somehow the Autumn colours really light up how much the lad’s Lime tree has grown. It’s not as lanky & has grown wider, glowing in the sunlight.

Ah, a weekend in Midsomer… well, a good restful start, anyway.

Fresh line dried linen on the bed.

It is possible other people over 50 do not watch tv sat on the floor & on getting up, flail a bit for balance & snarl “fnaggles”, but I can still get up. (The Bonio & crunchy peanut butter quirk may not be just me either, but my sons assure me I’m a bit odd.)

It appears a “warrant canary” is a statement about not being under US Govt restrictions regarding disclosure. (I’ve been reading up on computer forensic geekery…. The strange language is a pleasure.)

Argh cookie scrubbing includes removing evidence of those who have used the machine before. Who used the same password every time. Who are no longer here to be teased about that.

Laundry mostly line dried but whisked off after family zoom lightly speckled. Dash, but at least mostly line dried! [Then creased vilely in the rumble drier.]

Ooer, plastic free poppy! It will be interesting to see how well they stand up to daily wear before the Remembrance parade with scouts. 

Youngest has a week free of classes (which I may not call half term or INSET days). Alas the weather is forecast utterly dreich so there’s no point leaving him laundry.

Sorting things includes stocking presents for mum & sisters, the winebox & Chorley cakes mum delights in & trying to recall what’s south fur Christmas already!

Getting into bed is almost as good as a hug.

Ye gods. Two lads Can shift a bed from one room to another. The guest bedroom is still in dire need of sorting & hoovering but at least the bed is a real one & should be comfortable. The office is also a state & needs hoovering but then a lot of reconsidering of stuff! (Too bad I’m in Oxford this weekend.)

Scouts! A Marvel fancy dress theme (for leaders) so I borrowed a lab coat & assembled a name tag “DrJane Foster”. I’m all for an astrophysicist, & can be firm that I’m on the early seconds of my timeline, so any involvement with Thor etc is yet to come… our young leader off to teach skiing in Japan was the same character but further along the timeline & Much more heroically turned out!

Oh, Ludwig! David Mitchell looking like a dishevelled & disapproving owl over the bedclothes. He does embarrassed bloke brilliantly….

Health Strength Love & Courage to all as have need! Muttering to St.Christopher, Ganesh, Fortuna Redux, Hecate, Jaino, Portunus & any other deity who may listen... 

mhagster

I’ll come in after DFV with some more modest notes! 

Up and out for a quick walk early. 

Quick work call to arrange family visit but it’s not till next week so that’s me got a weekend! 

And off we went to the CP. Had a couple of lovely walks and started another library book. 

Home. Friend was coming over for tea. Made nachos, a salad (RTC) and an apple crumble for pud. 

Chatter and so much laughter. 

Went a drive to city to drop her daughter off for a Halloween night! Saw all sorts of dressed up peoples! 

Horrid thick fog on motorway most of the way home…and even though I’m not driving it was horrible but we had a good chat on way back. 
And very quick doggy walk there with both dogs. 

Frith

Pleasures for today (Thursday)

1) Not a bad sleep.

2) Off to my friend's mum in floody city to drop off birthday presents. Had a cup of tea and a chat.

3) Waitrose afterwards purely for the free paper. 

4) Had lunch at the Columbian cafe.

5) Went to 2 charity shops but bought nothing.

6) Went to TKMaxx to get more towels from the same series as yesterday's. 

7) Had a pot of tea and bought loo roll and 3 Advent calendars from M and S. 

8) Back home and put up fairy lights, carved a marrow and put the lanterns outside. 

9) Went for tea and a bonfire at my parents'. Smaller son went. Definitely the first time I have managed to get him to go this year. Took lemon curd and damson jam for my sister and for bigger son. 

10) Just watched the doorbell footage of lots of children getting chocolate from a bowl by the lanterns on our garden wall!

11) Watched Ambulance. 

12) Not in chronological order now but spent a complicated hour setting up my new work pension then increasing it to 8% rather than 4. 

LaineyT

Got to love a cold Bendicks DFV and Ella is my singalong of choice in the mini.

For yesterday,

A typical cool, foggy day of autumn, I like the seasons to be well seasonal!

Into horsey town for a quick food shop and pick up the free weekend newspaper from the emporium.

Over to see my pony, just a quick field visit today but she was warm enough in her rug and accepted all the food treats like the Queen that she is.

 A long afternoon nap, too much excitement with the play plus a sinus headache meant my sleep had been poor so a catch up was very welcome.

Samhain celebration of candles lit in the windows just in case any of my spirit ancestors needed a guiding light, we live far too outside the village for any wee visitors but my horseshoe pumpkin was in pride of place.

mhagster

Hello. Just getting dark here, lamps and candles are on…though the heating is off! DD2 said can I put the heating on…yes, but then was going back out so I’m like well that can get switched off! 

Well oooft at it being November. That came round quickly. 

Up and out early this morning with doggy. Was a damp but dry start to the day. 

I’ve not been out at all but I’d set myself a list of things to do so they are all done. 

Downstairs all hoovered and floors washed then we all came in from the afternoon walk and I wonder why I bothered! Bathrooms cleaned. Kitchen tidy. I have two more days with visitors. 

Woke to a nice big long text from DD1.

And son’s GF had posted photos from a skiing trip on instagram. 

Chatted to sister this morning.

Been reading a bit this afternoon. 

Nice doggy walk but my old boy was out of puff on the way home as he was trying to keep up with Big Pup. 

DD2 been a bit overwhelmed by everything today. Poor thing. But she’s away to the hairdressers so I’m going to enjoy a couple of hours of peace and quiet and read my book. 

Sorted out my home insurance and booked my MOT for next week. Two very big ticks ✔️ ✔️ on the mental to do list. Current insurer had upped my quote by over 50% and I just thought no…and when I’d had one of these silly blooming “chats” they’d said that was their final offer, so no thanks. I’ve not claimed in seven years so no need for such a high amount…anyway voted with my feet! See ya! 

Had chicken Kiev from freezer and a huge pile of veg and rather randomly leftover coleslaw from last night that no one else will eat. So it’s eaten! 

Right…I’m going to read! 

Purple_kitten

For the passed 2 days.

1 We visited the in laws, on the journey back I spotted someone putting up their Christmas tree outside.

2 Clean bedding for us and relevant wash loads.

3 Made a low sugar brownie with added nuts for a treat.

4 Fake away fish and chips from the freezer tonight.

5 Ordered a second hand book I had my eye on.

Frith

Pleasures for today (Friday)

1) Not a bad sleep though I was woken at 1.45 by someone letting off lots of fireworks.

2) Went to the coffee morning and played connect 4. Took some lemon curd. 

3) Went to Waitrose for a pot of tea and read a bit of my book. 

4) Tidied up a bit in the afternoon and played a few games of chess online.

5) Went to work and my colleague who is just there for the first hour was very chatty and jolly today. I managed to get through all the work they wanted (it isn't set in stone but good if you can do everything) and my manager popped in twice. We got talking about this website by chance and it turns out we're both very moneysaving! 

6) Made shepherds pie for smaller son then we had a YS apple pie. 

7) Been watching television since I got home from work, under a quilt with a hot water bottle on the sofa. The cat had to come in for a while as she hates fireworks. 

LaineyT

For yesterday,

Woke up hungry so the treat of rtc smoked salmon and cream cheese on toast.

A tidy up downstairs and the hoover did it’s bit too, one advantage of an aging spaniel is that the hoover noise no longer disturbs her!

Dug out my much thumbed copy of the Christmas Chronicles, it’s a gentle way of approaching the winter solstice and to celebrate the short days that can otherwise be a bit of a struggle.

Another one that tackled some admin that’s been hanging around and I dug out some old P60’s to copy & send off to HMRC to refute several years of apparently not paying enough National Insurance 🤔 I’m still 6 and a bit years of receiving my pension but would prefer to get what I’m entitled to!

Made a warming chilli and hunkered down, candles lit and a glass of something too.