5 OS pleasures in your day today - part 3

Purple_kitten

1 I've applied for a couple of roles, getting annoyed with applications that accept the cv and then want it all duplicated onto online forms.

2 Swept and mopped the house.

3 Stuck to the food plan, seafood salad was lunch and hm burger, chilli roll, oven chips all from freezer for tea.

4 I dug out a few dresses to create listings for sale, trying out eBay and vinted. I don't think it's the best time to sell, but in my mind, I feel like I'm at least trying to sell a few things.

5 I went rummaging about in the various free trial sizes of beauty things to find a leave in de frizz, pleased to have found something to use and try.

6 Watching the snow falling.

7 We dragged the decorating stuff out to work out what we need to finish off the kitchen, wonderful sparkly grouting needs finishing and the last tiles on the wall all still to do but now a step closer.

8 Nestle is plundering on, I popped in a repeat prescription for him to find it had expired, so grovelled to the vets, waiting to hear if the grovelling has worked ahh....

9 Numerous forms printed off for pre booking at last years price.

Frith

Pleasures for today (Wednesday)

1) Not a bad sleep.

2) My friend picked me up shortly after 9 and we went off to catch the train. 

3) Met friends on the train then met 5 more friends in Birmingham! We all had lunch in a university cafe (can't remember the name of the building).

4) Smaller son and I had chips for tea. 

5) Smaller son is making a banoffee pie. 

6) Looking forward to The Traitors at 9. 

DigForVictory

Tries to sidle back in nonchalantly, knocks assorted neatly stacked good intentions flying & just grins shamefacedly. Part 1, oops.

mhagster – loving the sound of Christmas preparations. An unexpected brother? Wrong day love, come back Jan 1 and first foot…! I only knew about The Six Triple Eight as there was a Secret Heroes podcast. All decorations down before New Year? “The last dod of cream” now there’s a unit I recall fondly!  “didn’t turn out as I’d hoped” we hoped alongside you & I’m in awe at your ability to be grateful which is much more effective than some alternatives. Fireworks & dogs really not a happy mix. Love the doorstep with pie & dash to share love but not germs. All the best with/vs new phone! Please travel carefully? Counting days left with DD1. Wicker basket there still means It Is Meant. Photos are minefields. “ icy downhill and the slippy uphill” – please be careful? & um, Yaktrax? “The lesser spotted boy child called.” Miracles happen!

frith – All Their Cake, wow! (Yum!?) A bulb that changes colour & the apple disassembler that looks like it’s a spare from a Heath Robinson design? Glorious! Always good to share the fun ball skills. Just coping with awkward work bloke and cannily topping up freezer, awed! Roast parsnip soup, hm? <notes to try!> I had to google dragon fruit. Yum, home made gyros. Stunning puddings! Flat turkey still seems exotic to me. The MSE things we do for love…. Was v young colleague correct in darts predictions? A lot of really nice furniture is extracted from skips etc. Delighted to hear you scheduling leave for maximum fun. “spontaneously combusting every 10 minutes at every other colleague, for 6 hours” wow, there are that many staff? A chippy tea is a pleasure.

Purple kitten – a walk is a good way to cope with memories that can overwhelm. A long walk with ferrets – do they tag along, wear a collar & leash (enquiring mind ponders) I will pass on your diligent research to the no-palm-oil principled family members with my thanks! You’re listing to sell, others may be listing in pique. Delighted Nestle still going.

Happycas – laundry a priority? Eeep? Thank you for keeping us front & centre! I am assured Ink Black Heart is challenging to read & did not score well when televised (me not knowing better enjoyed it sort of, but not as much as earlier books) Love your chocolate sorted in use by date order! Sounds like you are far too sensible to be the lady in the hospital bed with the broken hip – all the photos I took were carefully from indoors or in car… Frosty & bright is pretty but I’ll take grey & warmer…

DundeeDoll - welcome home! Candlemas repurposed & I have given the supermarket manager a sniffy look at the parade of Easter eggs. (Til he explained they’d been sent, not chosen) Aw Murrayfield at full pelt! O little town podcast? Not sure if you were hit by jetlag or the seasonal hoojits? That is one daft lamp. Marking on Dec 31?! 100 years of the shipping forecast? <notes for sounds> Oh dear, poorly dog. Restarting piano lessons? Wonderful! Canny to keep the younger ones busy with the 12 days! Beef stew is the comfort food of the gods.

LaineyT – the Capt is a cracker & I love the idea of festive parsnips – even better at ten pence a bag! Argh the penalty of being older sib & expected to remember stuff. (I cheat & have diary files!) Most impressed you enjoy the festive Uni challenges, I can only cope with the only connects! Ulp budget by oooh cheese mountain!  Your rock & roll reminds me of a cartoon of someone sorting pills for the Stones & they were mostly anti-arthritics.. Eep colic, it is nightmare stuff. Oooh Vet admin, ahem. Better car scraping than snow digging which kills Americans each year (wrong clothes & unexpected exercise) Small dog supervised – oh yes! Oh, No. Oh my dear.

PaulieHerts – what a ‘quiet’ Christmas! Diet on hold til Feb I think? Ah, wedding outfit, ergle. Blenheim at Christmas – sounds glorious! Well done on the lengths & also on semi-retirement & negotiating around “not in the way”.

Highdays – all the Christmas & then brother birthday? Much impressed you lead a librarian - in my case they’re more my consulting pharmacist ”I want something for backache with a body and laughs” & handed Thursday murder club! The north was rather thoroughly frozen, wasn’t  it?! “the pavements are lethal” – yes, here in Lancs, us too.

weenancyinAmerica – happy new year & hear hear Buy Nothing but ask first! I think we’re getting scraps of your storm, offcuts & leftovers, still bright & mischievous but not as destructively blanketing

Ampersand – looking wonderful, rightly charming the military & deftly layered – love that coral! Both Emporium and Jimmys must see you as benevolent angel!

Suffolksue – happy new year! This years flu is a right so & so when it manages to get around the jab. Nothing wrong with ham egg & chips - lots of healthy protein. Agree 4 weeks is a bit much, but ham & pineapple pizza? Alongside you on hard day. “Moving on” is what committees do from one agenda item to another. We’re supposed to be polite to these idiots & I refer them to  Nora McInerny’s TED talk  Do you remove rawlplugs? I thought you polyfilla-d over them & painted on…. “amazing how much he could eat once the local wore off” oh yes the young male metabolism… Arranging tickets can be amazing (split ticket fun?)

VJsmum – happy new year! “No-one else got the Noro” – ooh, a slightly limited pleasure.  I think a real tree is a treat to those who can smell.

OS pleasures recently (Oh My this is an Ancient file!)

Under what rock have I been living that I hadn’t even Heard of Strike? I mean the mystery pseudonym Robert Galbraith, vaguely, but that there are books plural & a tv adaptation plural?! Wheee! There’s in-between seasonal hoojits viewing nailed. (That it has the Doyle of my childhood as a likely Bad Guy makes it even more fun!)

Oh my bed! My own bed… some of this is sheer “you’re not that other bed” but there’s a lot of ‘mine’ and here I can sprawl & no one can comment.

Aw NASA sending me spot the station info, for a time I hope to be fast asleep, on a day the forecast has already declared the usual thick cloud. Some day, before the ISS changes orbit…

I love the NORAD tracker! The number of presents ratcheting up even over water (how many water chimneys does Santa visit?)

Eyeing my braid & noticing more lines of pewter in amongst the mouse. The natural blonde is gradually reappearing! (I was snow blonde then I rusted. Very gradually I’m going back snow blonde.)

 

QI on iPlayer & Victoria Coren Mitchell devastating Jimmy Carr with “Listen to the things people have done & you haven’t even cooked a duck!” (I do wonder where she picked up her snake knowledge but  “the Agatha Christie of killers” is brilliant for describing boa constrictors.)

Ah, Crib Service, where siblings shove candles in each others’ ears. Love it! And oh, ‘away in the manger’ by candlelight.

Son chiding me got doubting in peace on earth - “we’re brothers, mum” (meaning the vivid wording is just sibling love & I shouldn’t worry.)

Sisters tell me my hair looks red on zoom! (Utter nonsense) however they put Playmobil figures in my stocking - big happy awwww!

Sons bickering like birds in the hedge. This is family, if not quite Christmas…. Ooops, drinks not in fridge yet “do you want the tall glass or the one with child bearing hips?”, trust my lads to find drama. 

 

“Do Scouts need washing?” “Yep, throw in a cap of bleach & scrub vigorously. Sprouts need more peeling & hold the bleach.” “Oh.”

“Stir this!” “what with?” “Where I’m pointing!” I love my sons. Lunch was delicious & they’ve even washed up. (I suspect it’ll be me writing the thankyou letters. Years of their training evaporating…)

And on the list of things to bring we ended up forgetting, & things to fetch that had been forgotten, the blue fleece was not listed but remembered, forgotten again & yet brought anyway. Truly a Christmas miracle!

Aw, Firefly repeats. Our family has some slightly bonkers traditions & it’s not even time for the Festive Epaulettes yet… (Brian Bilston suggested it, we embraced it. The rules for ‘hoist the pickle’ are still a work in progress.) Mum’s carer has been dragged into the happy family mêlée & touchingly is delighted (if somewhat bemused) but has been given a copy of the Brian Bilston poem that was the spark that ignited festive epaulettes…

And of course there is a moment of biting grief, where the empty chairs & unanswered phone numbers stretch on, but it does pass. That it seems a bare sparse day, with a lot of watching TV & eating one huge spectacular just-as-he-taught-us meal, was ruthlessly dissected by Youngest. “It’s a day for children & we’re not.” 

 

My own bed. Being a guest is nice but being able to shamble to the loo by touch is priceless.

Aw, Strike & the Cornish weather & the local help. Darn ninja onion choppers. (Most recent one [ink black heart] not up to spec, oh dear.)

Strolling in the fog with Youngest “I wouldn’t choose border collies as hellhounds” - take the intention for the breed? 

Neighbourly seasonal exchange complete & supportive affection re-affirmed.

Only Connect specials! With proper two and a half minute walls… (and oh my Google search history as I research who were/are these people or things?!)

 

“ate a mackerel about an hour ago.” “I hope you took it out of the packet first.” Oh, Youngest! I am thankful that the other survivor in residence keeps up the merciless banter of our family.

Aw Chester zoo breeding & releasing tiny snails onto an island off Portugal - the zoo staff will be utterly delighted, they’ve a reputation for trying to restore endangered species.

The 20 years of Strictly - great fun even if the sarky bit of me wants to see the uncut footage as all this “so much love, so family” leave me remembering the column inches of snarl. That said I wildly approve of the inclusivity & it’s belting good fun.

Joking with youngest about short stride, I pointed out he had a decade’s extra growing time on me as I stopped aged 12: “lack of moral fibre” he opined. I'm both chuckling & fuming.

Snaffled assorted seasonal paper napkins discounted as m’lady mother does love them so. Also a festive “mummy” mug heavily discounted despite Youngest’s howls of “seasonal tat”. It could have been much worse…

 

Oh gods, a story I’m reading suggests sending a chatty Glaswegian bloke in a wig in to infiltrate a beginners’ crochet class. Thinking of the fibre fiends I know, he might learn an awful lot more than he was expecting…

Giggling at James May & his mention of anime and streaming services “like Net(bleep) & Hu(bleep) & Amazon” has me chuckling happily.

Middleson greeted me with “happy new year & where are your glasses?” Love his priorities!

Youngest appalled at my toblerone arithmetic (that or my timing) & heading off to forage.

Oh I do enjoy the annual Royal Institution Christmas lectures. It’s Scientific American journal quality data retargeted at children.

 

On the ancestry app I have a dozen photos of Dad: “so sentimental” croons mum’s carer. Not sure if that’s good or bad, but I wouldn’t have uploaded them if I didn’t care.

Seems mum Will play jigsaws online sometimes! Ok I am far more mouse literate but she seeing patterns better…

Er, just stopped some glorious Bargello embroidery I recall seeing my granny stitch from completely collapsing. By reinforcing the back panel with a son’s sock. His expression is “all grownups are crazy”, mum’s is dewy eyed relief. It’s a holding job, nothing amazing but no one else was offering, let alone requiring a sock from an offspring.

Argh “nacreous” & almost everything I know about nacre I learned from reading Modesty Blaise - still next you need a mother-of-pearl-like adjective, nacreous is the way to go… (Made a nice change from “pragmatic”.)

Bright cold morning so took my 80plus mother for a short walk in Wytham woods, grabbed a single 'dryad amidst thick frost' snap then hustled her to the nearest café where she requested a hot dog! And coffee - all happily ingested & her defrosted & then firm about taking photos of me (please use a machine gun, it’ll be more merciful) & we agreed a small selection deleted the rest & came home.

Middleson called asking have I a photo of Youngest’s passport? Not on me, offhand, but we’re home tomorrow & I’ll bag one then. Time to teach them about emergency data stash offline techniques, I think.

Dear gods give me patience. I tuck her in, she’s up 20 minutes later for a coffee & then back to nap. So far 4 coffees in 2 hours…. Even fed, she’s a Duracell bunny! Now sat with a book club read, feet up, coffee cooling, hopefully still for 10 minutes.

It takes a bit of doing but my sisters make my mother look reasonable. “Why are we waiting?” for food? As you eat vegetarian & we don’t. As we help wash up & put away. As I clear the snow ready for a prompt departure from them, I count that clearer glass a pleasure.

How do I love Youngest let me count the ways - he digs a carparking space out for me, he refers to the old family home as the “domicile of chaos” (apparently ours is the “domicile of reason”!), he adores our can opener (rightly, a Bonzer that takes no prisoners) & “where do you want your haggis?” (The foodstuff of Burns Night [Robert, poet & exciseman] & other joyful occasions)…

The local Green Party just earned a grin from me. Addressed to youngest & I (correctly identifying who may vote) they’ve sent a happy new year card with phone numbers for the council, non-Emergency police, non-Emergency NHS, electricity (power cut) gas (mains leak/supply problems) water (mains leak/supply problems) & citizens advice. I deeply approve of how they think! (Youngest rolled his eyes & uttered a single word. “Google...”)

Youngest wants a reference book that retails fit over £80! Happily paperback & playing gift cards it’s fine to under £60 but gulp….

Oh it is good to be back in my own bed & all made with fresh linen. Even if my toes are presently cold & I can hear snowmelt water trickling outside. My boss & I were both planning to be in tomorrow but the photos I’ve sent will explain why I’m not!

Enough snow I am not expected in the office. Nasty driving conditions likewise, not got to drive anywhere phew.

Argh internet down & you realise how limiting Freeview is with an dicky aerial after a few months streaming!

Oops. Startled a colleague by not explaining why we didn’t tell ma-in-law her son had died (dementia) so at the pearly gates met by husband grandson & “what are you doing here?!”… Thing is, I can hear her say it!

DigForVictory

Slides back in with part 2

Had an amusing-in-retrospect hour stunting in as co trainer when one colleague didn’t show up. (His phone [& alarm] were under his dog so he overslept - a wholly reasonable explanation, that will be part of his retirement speech eventually.)

Polish-born colleague intrigued that so few of us had heard of winter tyres. Chuckled at my vehement advocacy, as for her, the sight of the UK coming to a halt in inches of snow seems crazy.

Boss blessedly supportive - I can quit work early to get down to my see mum & we all hope I can dodge the idiot traffic & the wildly changeable weather. Youngest will shovel me a path clear onto the road.

He’s even cooking up a tureen of Bolognese for me to take south, so mum gets a proper home cooked meal or two from him even as he’s on holiday with his brother.

Oh the irony. YouTube advert for love island (?) immediately before Maybe this Time from Cabaret…. Beautiful song.

Watching Jimmy Carters last trip to the Capitol & thinking he deserves more horses. Still charmed that some of his secret service folk of 50 years ago are tailing their president on this last public appearance.

Mum awake & startled & delighted at my early arrival! (I fled the sub zero & chilling North for the balmy South)

Health Strength Love & Courage to all as have need, abundant absorbent handkerchieves likewise and may the coming year still have the good stuff even if we have to look a bit harder.

Suffolksue

A peaceful day ahead of braces round 1 thousand (🤣🤣) tomorrow 

enjoyed Surgeons at the edge of life ,just finished .
I’m amazed and impressed at what they can do now .
more of the v cheap Waitrose ham ,will need to freeze slices v soon .
made a Shepherds pie ready for tomorrow ,hopefully soft enough for the new braces to cope with,always difficult for the first few days .
good afternoon out at a group meeting .
Off to bed soon so alert for my early morning drive .

DundeeDoll

DigForVictory said:

Ah, Crib Service, where siblings shove candles in each others’ ears. Love it! And oh, ‘away in the manger’ by candlelight.

that made me laugh. and totally agree with the pleasure of being in one's own bed!
1) a difficult time at the uni (look up dundee university lol but we're by no means the only Higher Ed Institution in difficulties) but my team is amazing
2) as is the cake one of them cooks!
3) the whole team minus one were in today which was amazing (worried about the minus one) - i've had to put in some difficult work choices and they are all being amazingly positive - one of them said 'it's so good having you back, calmness has been restored' which was a lovely thing to hear
4) one of them gave me a lift home so had a great catch-up
5) and of course trotted off to mennies for the spurs liverpool game - thought i was neutral till the 1st spurs goal was deemed off side - very happy spurs won

weenancyinAmerica

Been watching the wild fire coverage most of the day. Not that close to me, but one of the big ones still out of control is between my sister's house and her son's house. Their church is right at the edge of the fire zone. Been saying a lot of prayers for it ahd the city it is in. And fires keep moving to new areas. We would love to have rain or snow. Only 1/16 of an inch of rain in 6 months. One of my favorite places has been destroyed today in one of the fires. My grandfather made the light fixtures for the Will Rogers Ranch which became a historic site - it has now burnt to the ground. We were only able to visit a few times. My grandfather used to make light fixtures in his garage for a number of people including having Fanny Brice, the actress and comedian, as a major customer. She was played by Barbra Streisand in the movie Funny Girl. Later in life she became an interior decorator and he designed special lamps for her.  All that is on TV today on all of the local channels is coverage of the wild fires

I've been decluttering while watching tv all day and have a large amount of stuff to go out to different places. Since roommate Di is in Nursing Home for a week or so, I have more room to move around. In a day or so, I have to do the same for her bedroom to get her old mattress out as the bulk trash service is picking it up next Tuesday along with a number of other items. 

Keep safe everyone.

Happycas

Weenancy - I'm so relieved you're not in the danger area but so worrying about your relatives and friends who are.  My prayers are with you x

Meanwhile, here is very very cold.  But I'm going nowhere and the heating is on so I feel very lucky.

Keep warm and safe everyone

LaineyT

Scary stuff WeeNancy, keeping all in our thoughts x

Abundant absorbent hankies indeed DFV, much needed since we lost our little girl. Can’t lie the last few days have been brutal and just being in the house so tough, especially coming to top of stairs and she’s not at the bottom waiting for me, no being hassled for meals or my final piece of toast, no wobbly walks under the beech trees, no gentle snores from her basket. The list could go on…
Cuddles from Capt S, messages from family & friends and the strong shoulders of the beautiful grey one which have witnessed many a tear, these are all blessings in my life.

bagpuss38

So sorry to hear about the loss of small dog @LaineyT I always enjoyed your stories about her hydro and the cute little dressing gown x