Travelling On

Karmacat

Driving lesson was brilliant.  I drove down the high street of the local village - very pleased with myself 😁 Used a set of traffic lights, which are easy peasy compared to the tricky junctions I've been doing 😁  

Still had a walk afterwards, to calm down before getting my shower, and the roofers working on a nearby bungalow were up and down the path opposite doing their thing.  I'd talked to the neighbour whose land they're parked on, and he told me he'd asked for some tiles.  So I asked too - I can use them underneath the fences I installed 3 years ago, to keep soil away from the wooden 3 x 3 that forms the base of the fence panels.  I have a few roof tiles, plus some paving stones, currently doing that job, but I could do with more.  And free is good.  They were really nice, offered to stack them by the skip so I didn't have to actually skip-dive 😀

starnac

That was kind of them. 

Glad the driving lesson went well. 

Karmacat

Thanks starnac, yep, I'm really pleased with those two developments today.

I haven't done that much afterwards, except put the washing machine on, and fry the polenta chips (which has resulted in eating many, many of them, oops).  But then I decided to work on my Irish soldier who fought at Waterloo.  If I don't get my notes in order, goes my thinking, then nobody's going to do it if I suddenly pop my clogs, and the knowledge will disappear anyway.  He's come to a sad ending - dying at the end of a cholera epidemic but he still did well - all four of his daughters survived and had kids, he has hundreds, if not thousands, of descendants today 🥰  and he was in his 60s, which was an acceptable life span at that time.  Astonishing that I have so much documentation - it's because he was military, I'm sure.

And now ... get ready for Bake Off 😂

beanielou

Glad driving lesson went well.

Karmacat

Thanks beanie - I was very pleased, I must say.

Financial admin is building up - 
- I got the £5 free from Amazon that Martin's mentioned this week, there's always a few bits I need - double sided tape, for instance, to help with spider proofing the sofa.
- withdrew £10 from the baby HW yesterday, must check it got to my account, though that will take a few days.
- bring the euros back to this country.  It's too late to start it today, so I must do that first thing tomorrow.
- apply the £50 Asda money to my next order. 
- check there's no clash with my next driving lesson, I think I've got that wrong.
- text driving instructor, we made a verbal agreement only for the one after, he has to mess around with the booking website so couldn't do it in writing.
- I have got it wrong for *next* lesson: will have to shift the Asda order, my guy is in demand  
- might as well pay for the next set of ten lessons: hopefully that will be all I need, but we'll see.

I think those are the main things.  Weeding the garden when I can, and pinning up some curtains for the kitchen (its half measures at the moment, I have that lovely turquoise material, and if I can tack it up the way I want, my sister will sew the seams on her machine).  Plus the genealogy 🤣 I want to send the new contact a biography of our great-great-grandfather (Ireland, England, America, starting with the Famine and ending with Prohibition).

starnac

You sound busy! What were the polenta chips like after? Was this the polenta you did in the slow cooker (?) last week?

Karmacat

It was that very polenta 😏 oops.  I poured it into a pyrex jug and surrounded it with lots of veg oil, I had too much going on to give it the space to think about it.  Worked well though - I cut it into fairly thin chips, fried it in the oven, so to speak, for half an hour or so, and over-ate massively 🤣  I only put them in the slow cooker for 3.5 hours, on hot, and there *wasn't* enough liquid after all - it got really stuck on, not pleasant at all, so I'd say it works at the stated proportions of 125g polenta, 960g water, on high on the slow cooker for 3.5 hours.  Might try 3 hours, as I like it well fried.  As long as it doesn't stick to the slow cooker, its a really easy way to use stuff up, but I do have other recipes that I'll try.  

Finishing off my Irish soldier just now, which is amazing!  I had a lot of duplicated documents, that I'd found in different places - including Canadian Archives, it looks like he re-enlisted and may have gone over there for a short spell.  I'm very happy with it.

Now (and yes, I'm trying to be busy - there's been a bit too much lounging about recently, and anyway its difficult to laze too much, with the dog barking.  There's a set of wall tiles left over from the kitchen that have been stored in the loo upstairs since .... 2019? I confess I actually spilt liquid soap over them - they need cleaning, the hard plastic box they're in needs cleaning, and the floor *really* needs cleaning.  That might not all be done today!  But starting it would be a really good thing.  I might have done a bit more weeding, but the weather forecast is really wet overnight, which would make weeding easier tomorrow.  Here's hoping.

Karmacat

Karmacat said:

Financial admin is building up - 
- I got the £5 free from Amazon that Martin's mentioned this week, there's always a few bits I need - double sided tape, for instance, to help with spider proofing the sofa.
Booked a few things, just need another to build up the total (maybe coconut something?) and away I'll go.

- bring the euros back to this country.  It's too late to start it today, so I must do that first thing tomorrow.
Done the transfer company, done the French bank, just need to check on it all later today.

- apply the £50 Asda money to my next order. 
This wasn't easy!  I was trying to do too much in one visit at first - change the delivery day, change the food I was having delivered, and apply the YG £50 gift card.  So I cancelled everything, and started again with a Wednesday delivery, and it went through this morning without a hitch.

- text driving instructor, we made a verbal agreement only for the one after, he has to mess around with the booking website so couldn't do it in writing.
Done, all good, for both lessons booked.

- might as well pay for the next set of ten lessons: hopefully that will be all I need, but we'll see.
I'll do this today, now that the next couple of weeks is sorted.

- pinning up some curtains for the kitchen (its half measures at the moment, I have that lovely turquoise material, and if I can tack it up the way I want, my sister will sew the seams on her machine).  
I only managed to cut the material in half last night, but at least it's ready to use the Wundaweb today  

I was having a blitz yesterday 🤣 I cleaned the tiles that were stashed in the 2nd toilet, as well as the old fridge drawer they were stashed in, and I managed to clean (i.e. scrub on my hands and knees) half the floor in said toilet.  That was enough, and I'm thrilled I got that far, quite frankly 🤣

Today, it's raining quite a bit - so I'll carry on with the curtains for the kitchen.  And soak some beans to be cooked tomorrow - I'll try to ensure that I can do two things in the slow cooker tomorrow, in sequence - first the beans, then more polenta.  It should stop raining this afternoon, out for a walk then.  Sister and I have a trip to the British Museum planned next week, got to keep walking.

themadvix

You sound like a busy bee KC!

Driving lessons have come on from when I took my test then (which in some regards wasn't that long ago!) - instructor had a diary that he scribbled appointments in. That said, he was a bit of a dinosaur (with some interesting political opinions (not horrendous, just not mine!) - he used to read the Telegraphy whilst he was teaching me!

Karmacat

Yep, that's really different - that's the same as when I was learning, actually 🤣  another difference is that during the test, you don't need to reverse around a corner any more - realistically, my instructor said, it's not something that people do 🤣 it's a good test of control, but there's more relevant ways to show that, I get it.

I *am* a busy bee right now - I don't want to overdo it, but nor do I just want to put up with how things are.  The upstairs loo, for instance - I'm the only one who uses it now, visitors use my bathroom downstairs, and although the upstairs one is perfectly hygienic, the floor was grubby 👀 so that's just nicer for me.  Better living standard.  

Right, done one phone call, to sister, another to set up, to brother.  We may yet be having a little staycation together.