Frump to Fab - A Whole New World.

chanie

I dream of retirement but I have 20+ years left of working.  Probably longer as the state retirement ages keeps on moving  .  Ideally, From my mid/ late 50s, I’d like a nice little part time job or business that I could do that will see me well into my 60s, as a nice way to wind down to retirement.

savingfortomorrow

I kept writing messages on monday and sunday, I fell asleep and clicked off the screen and the mysteriously lost the typed message. 
sugar the chicken looked lovely and delicious. 

I one thing comes out of the pandemic, i think that people will reprioritize details and where the importance lies. Everytime I watch youtube the advert tells - don't live your life on hold- in the middle of a pandemic. I appreciate the sentiment but am so sick of hearing the advert that I went with a different company on purpose. Alas, I digress, we can't wait and this crisis has shown we have to focus on the now and enjoy what we have. 
I am going to focus upon trying to live better now - eating better, keeping active and laughter. 

maman

Absolutely sft. One of the things most of us have at the moment is some extra time to focus on healthy eating and some exercise and keeping our minds active and plenty of rest. 🙂

helensbiggestfan

Good morning lovely ladies.  

Am enjoying reading your posts - lots of philosophy going on - lockdown is definitely giving us all food for thought.  Speaking of food, SUgarbaby, that chicken looks delicious.  

Well I'm keeping busy, the weather has broken so concentrating on indoor jobs at the moment, and keeping in touch with friends so some nice chatty Phone calls. 

Rain again today so probably an indoor day. Will crack on with some painting, cook a big pot of bolognese sauce, catch up with some paperwork.   Nothing very exciting. 😁

Wednesday2000

I know, it's ridiculous Maman, I think I had almost 20 moisturisers at first. I have very sensitive skin so I have to swap them all the time. I just used some more up on my feet.

It feels much more cosy in the house with the heating back on. I am going to read more of the retirement book now. I have done two loads of laundry today already.

I'm making bolognese too today LL. With red lentils in my case.

savingfortomorrow

Wednesday do you have a recipe for the lentil Bolognese. I'm Irying to reduce meat and the cost. 

Wednesday2000

savingfortomorrow said:

Wednesday do you have a recipe for the lentil Bolognese. I'm Irying to reduce meat and the cost. 

It's not even really a recipe. I just use garlic and red onion fried in extra virgin olive oil and then put diced carrots and red lentils in with Marigold veggie stock. I add passata and tomato puree. Add mixed herbs and add salt and black pepper to taste at the end.

maman

I always try to have some HM ready meals in the freezer. Aside from lockdown it's useful to have easy meals for days when I'm busy or just CBA to cook from scratch. I was watching one of the lockdown cookery programmes the other day and they were making Bolognese and adding veg. Doh!! I always do that and enjoy it far more than the standard recipe. It stretches the meat (if using) and, perhaps more importantly, it's much healthier. With Slimming World, it's recommended that you have balanced meals with at least a third of your intake as fruit and veg (alongside a third of protein and a third of carbs). So taking the pasta as the carb, my Bolognese sauce has at least a half of veg. I add onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers and carrots and often courgettes and butternut squash if I have them in. Plus I chop up the soft inside of broccoli stalks and add those too. It's an old OS tip to add lentils, even if having meat, to make the sauce go further.  

I make chilli in much the same way with loads of added veg and often without any meat at all, I just add in extra beans for protein. I have that frozen in individual portions as I like it on a jacket potato for a quick lunch. Then I have either a salad on the side or often something like beetroot or pickled cabbage if I've nothing fresh indoors.  I'd recommend the Hairy Bikers' recipes, just take out the meat and substitute with pulses if needed. 

This is turning into a cookery thread! It's certainly been helpful that supermarket stocks have almost returned to normal since the initial shortages. 

It's horribly grey and wet here again today. I have to go out though as it's my nephew' birthday tomorrow and I really must get him a card. It's bad enough having a birthday in lockdown without family and friends forgetting about it. They should have something vaguely suitable in the local post office. I'm a bit cross with myself that I'm low on cards. I usually buy the majority in the charity shops as they do quite nice generic cards for around a £. It'll be interesting to know how people view charity shops when they open. I don't have a problem with wearing CS clothes (after washing) but people may wonder whether there is any virus on the clothes that they touch in shops. There's been a lot of (often misinformed) publicity about how long the virus lasts on various surfaces. 

I slept much better last night so feeling quite energised today. While my neck is much improved, I still can't look down for long periods of time without it aching. I'm itching to do some hand sewing or other relaxing craft but not sure how I'd cope. Just goes to show how important good posture is LL.

savingfortomorrow

I have recently been putting leftovers in the freezer to prevent getting bored of food and reduce wastage. Normally I would not mnd eating leftovers but now, with no other variety on the menu, it is nice to keep a few meals aside. 

I think a lot of people will have little choice in shopping than shopping in charity shops or not shopping. There will be an economic down turn and I imagine the supply networks with clothing will be limited. I have more than enough clothes to avoid purchases.  I am mindful of the tight working spaces in factories and the fragile infastructure of countries garments are made in, conditions pre-covid were poor, I imagine it will be very difficult.  Potentially purchasing new from fast fashion might be more costly if significant improvements are given to workers, as the owners will not reduce thier margin. There will be solutions to apply to surfaces and clothing to reduce viral load, I would not mind using charity shop clothes as they can be washed. Its the trying on of clothes in shops that will be difficult, 

Things are difficult at work, we are all on edge. It is not helped by some team members who are breaking the rules with social distancing. It is stressing because we can not distance sufficently at work and if they or I don't follow the rules I'm at risk. I think that some of them are not understanding that they are not immune and can spread it to someone else. I feel more responsible and frightened than the one or two team members who have a cavalier attitude. I honestly think that this is accounting for stress. 

Im currently looking forward to a pile of paperwork and tax documents to try and get a little back from the tax office. I could never imagine that the highlight of the week would be a session of paperwork.  It will be good to get it all clear and then start a new project. hopefully next year with a tax rebate I can do something really exciting. 

helensbiggestfan

SFT. You do sound stressed, work does sound difficult for you. I am afraid some people seem just don't seem to grasp how serious the virus actually is. No one is immune, even very young children have now started presenting with some very unusual and serious symptoms.  It must be very difficult for you. 

Interesting what you say about clothing.....maybe we will all need to start sewing again.  I watched a bit of the latest Sewing Bee - some very talented people on there.  My friend and I were reminiscing.....she said she was sorting out photos and she found one of me at the Railway Ball wearing an evening dress I had made.  I was 16 at the time and if I say so myself it was a lovely dress. The problem is these days you pay so much for the fabric that it's an expensive past time.  

This year there might be some bargains to be had when the shops do open because I'm sure they will have plenty of unsold summer stock but as you say the supply chains might be affected in the short to medium term.  Long term who knows.  We might even see some manufacturing coming back to the U.K......the pandemic might put the brakes on globalism. 

I think the debacle over PPE has been a bit of a wake up call in that it has highlighted just how over reliant we are on imports.  We need to be more self sufficient, especially with necessities such as food, pharmaceuticals and protective clothing.

oooh if I ruled the world. 😂🤣