Simple living in the country - back to basics

Tescodealqueen

Loneranger21 Madeira now you are talking my language. Spent my birthday in the Canary Islands several times and love to pick up a bottle of Madeira to soak the fruit for my Christmas cake. Love the idea of madeira trifle but since I am the  only one that likes trifle can’t say it’s likely to feature here mores the pity

Loanranger21

Tescodealqueen, of course you don’t actually need the trifle to use up the Madeira. Just swig a glass or two every so often. I do like dry Madeira as well as the sweeter stuff. We had a couple of holidays to the beautiful island of Madeira about 30 years ago and I blame that holiday for my liking for the stuff. 

Loanranger21

Suffolklass my trifle bowl is a second from the Stuart Crystal factory shop now long since closed. I too have Darlington ice bucket so thank you for the idea of using it for a trifle. It has been used for a spider chrysanthemum flower arrangement and currently resides in bathroom with a large artificial chrysanthemum in it . It would be perfect for a trifle bowl for two . 

Cheery_Daff

I love all your beautiful trifle bowl suggestions! I feel like I definitely need to up my trifle bowl game. 

I mentioned to Mr Cheery earlier that we'd been talking about trifle in her for TEN DAYS now he was most amused, and said 'see, I told you everyone loves trifle!'

No trifle for me today, although I wish I had some. I feel proper hungover still, and it is just NOT fair, considering not a single drop of alcohol touched my lips yesterday! I did only have about 6 hours sleep, which isn't great, but I regularly go to work on just that much and I don't usually feel this bad! Bleurgh. 

Suffice to say, I have done very little today. Lay on the sofa trying (and failing) to nod back off until Mr Cheery got up about 12. We went to town to do some food shopping, put diesel in the car, and have a mooch round a couple of charity shops that were open. 

I've texted the plumber - he's now coming on Thursday instead of Friday. 

Chickens have had a bed time treat (a single grape each - we're worming them this week which means they mostly need to eat FOOD not treats...), and Mr Cheery has gone to a band practice, and I've just been sat on the sofa since he left doing the Happy Wheel. Got VERY annoyed at a couple of new casinos which refused to verify my identity when I'd sent in perfectly valid documents. 

Won £95 on a spin earlier, but after all tallied up for the day I'm up £43.27, so I'm still down £26 overall for the month, but it's looking slightly better than it did. I've made the decision to switch back to smaller spin sizes - I was doing £1 or even £2 spins for the last couple of months in a bid to speed things up, but all it does is makes it all higher variance, so you lose more often (and then occasionally win bigger). I am NOT enjoying being in minus figures every month this year so far, so it's back to lower variance for me - nothing over 50p spins any more. We'll see how that works out this month.

Anyway, I am clearly NOT going to get much useful done tonight, so I'm just going to lean into that and get some rest. I do want something proper to eat though! So here's a low-energy list... 

7-8pm FOOD
* knock up a lazy lasagna and wang it in the oven
* possibly some flatbreads while that's doing - we let the last batch of kefir stew for a bit long and it's too strong to drink, but I don't want to waste it, so I think flatbreads is the answer. 
* Possibly bit of flute playing while the lasagna is in the oven - but that's not going to sit well with rolling and supervising flatbreads... so they can maybe wait til tomorrow... 

8-8.45 ADMIN
* Banks and YNAB
* Find the pin number for Mr Cheery's credit card - we changed it on the app, but he's got to use the old one once first before the new one will work, and I've not got the old one handy. This has been waiting for MONTHS for me to sort out, and today is the day! 

Then I am putting on my nightie and curling up on the sofa with some kind of soppy tv programme that Mr Cheery wouldn't want ot watch Any suggestions?? 

rtandon27

...how about J's 1 pound wonders? - there is a root veg tart tonight that I'd like the OH to make - lol

Cheery_Daff

Ha 😂😂 Love your strategy of getting OH to make it 😂

I'm starting with the Paul O Grade tribute, and I abandoned the lasagna in favour of a risotto, which I am very much enjoying 😊

Want to do a bit more flute playing and then quite frankly everything else might get abandoned to tomorrow 🙄

Fortune_Smiles

Magpie Murders or the new Why Didn't They Ask Evans?

Fortune x

themadvix

Oh good call on using the kefir in flatbreads Cheery! I’ve been terrible with my kefir since I sent you the grains, but I’ll do the same as you and use it to make  some more garlic flatbreads. Thanks!

Karmacat

I'm having trauma with banking PINs too, Cheery ... no trouble at all for tv though, I've gone very old school tonight - McDonald and Dodds, and HIGNFY in the background right now.  Oops 😁

Cheery_Daff

Oops, I completely forgot about the banking! Definitely a job for tomorrow. Got lost in a couple of hours of flute playing instead, which I'm absolutely not counting as wasted. I'm having to do a lot of practicing to get a handle on the stuff we're playing at the minute and it's actually easy to get lost for a couple of hours. 

Good job we don't have any neighbours really, I don't think they'd thank me for what I've just been playing at almost 11pm 😂😂

Also remembered I'm wearing the jeans I want to wear for my work trip on Wednesday 🙄 and they are in dire need of a wash - and the weather is atrocious and we don't have any radiators 🙄

Going to stick them in on a quick wash now, they should be done by the time Mr Cheery gets in, they can dry a bit tonight and I'll get them near the dehumidifier tomorrow. 

Could wear something else... but I don't have that much that fits or that I'm comfortable in at the minute, and I'm speaking at this event and I don't want to be faffing about with my clothes 🙄

Right, washing - also thankful for lack of neighbours in that respect too 😂