Teetering on the brink

EatingBeans

Thanks all. 

Not quite as productive a day as I had hoped but I still got a bit done and frankly getting anything done was an achievement today. 

I couldn’t find my co-codamol but I did come across some of my old codeine phosphate tablets so I just took that as well as paracetamol. 😬 I don’t normally take these kind of painkillers for the TN but 1, I was desperate and 2, I wasn’t 100% convinced it was all just TN. None of it really touched the pain (which makes me think it was just TN referring in a new way), but taking that much painkiller did have the effect of putting me to sleep which gave me a break from the pain if nothing else. 

One overdue job I did manage to do, was empty the bin at the end of the garden. It has been on my to-do list for over a week, so pain or no pain it was getting done before it became a health hazard. The sun was shining so I wrapped my face up and opened the gate to the bottom garden, much to the delight of the puppies who sped off doing zoomies. Much to my frustration Little dog hopped over the fence to next door again, so I coaxed her back then spent half an hour trying to build a temporary barricade which at least seems to work for now. I then went to sit and take 10minutes looking at my rather destroyed pond (bless it, the pump is still running so my water feature is still actually trying to be a water feature, albeit a rather broken looking one). I decided the best thing was to just accept that it will need fixing again in the spring and focus on appreciating the fact that I did at least have a pond now and I could sit in the last of the warm sunshine and listen to the trickle of water. It was good for the soul…

…until rudely interrupted by two speeding labradors, one of which, Big dog, suddenly stopped and ducked just shy of the pond, sending Little dog flying over the top of him only to land back-first into the water! I mean, I couldn’t help but chuckle at the sheer fluke that she got flipped quite so precisely to be fully upside down when she hit the water, and to also land in the deepest part so she came out soaked from neck to tail, but it did make me wonder if my pond has any hope of ever staying nice. Big dog’s reaction was very funny though - as soon as he saw Little dog scrambling out of the pond soaking wet he quickly ran into the house to hide from her! 🤣 About 10minutes later he poked his head out around the door and very sheepishly came to check on her. It was pretty funny tbf and was a welcome distraction from the pain. 

The rest of the day was spent gathering all the lost dog toys from the garden and washing them, a bit more washing, dishwashing, and general tidying, plus picking dd2 up from college. 

My face still hurts but fingers crossed tomorrow will be a better day. 🤞

EatingBeans

My face is sadly still very painful today but mentally I am feeling pretty strong and plan to push through it as much as possible. 

I woke up to the news that I have sold something on Vinted for the dizzy height of £1.50. 😁 Hey, it was £1.50 I didn’t have yesterday so it works for me! It encouraged me to try and get more things listed today but I didn’t want to drag everything out first thing as I needed to take dd2 to and from her Parkrun volunteering. 

Not wanting to lose the momentum I looked around and tried to find something genuinely useful I could do in between dropping dd2 off and picking her up, but I didn’t want to do just general cleaning because that gets undone as quickly as it gets done. I settled on putting some camping gear in the shed, rearranging our downstairs toilet, and finally putting up the toilet roll holder that I bought this time last year (right before I caught covid and started the long period of illness). 

So, dd2 safely delivered to the park, I got the drill out, popped a few screws in the wall, and job done! 😁 It only took a year to put it up but hey ho, noone but me even knew I had bought it so who’s counting. 🤣 As far as I am concerned I count that as progress, and free progress at that because I already owned it, it’s just now actually in use. 😁 Simple things hey. 

Washing on, now off to pick dd2 back up. I will not let this pesky TN ruin my whole weekend! 🙂

Cherryfudge

That's so funny about the dogs! And you've done a brilliant job getting all those bitty jobs out of the way when it would have been easier to cave in and leave them. You'll get a feeling of satisfaction each time you go to get loo roll! (For a while, at least).

Can you get more co-codamol for next time it's needed? Perhaps that's one to put on your list.

EatingBeans

Well, yesterday turned into a very long but rather productive day. 

dd2 explained how she is desperate for some extra cash as a few of her friends are turning 18 in the next few months, plus her sister’s birthday and Christmas is coming up. She’s trying to get a job but failing atm so I agreed to pay her to do some extra jobs. Well, she definitely wanted extra cash because, bless her, she worked so hard. My biggest challenge was identifying things she could do, making decisions like what to keep/bin/sell and teaching her how to do things like how to list on ebay! 🤣 It was a good team effort as I got to get a lot done but at the same time fit in lots of resting when my TN was at its worst. 

Despite being super tired, we both still did an Olio run at the end of the day. It was rather more of a challenge this week as most of the food listed near me was just mountains of bread products (apparently there had been a mix up with deliveries and Tesco had lots turn up that they hadn’t even ordered so it all went to waste 😕). We did end up with an ok haul in the end, but it did mean driving a lot further to 4 different FWH’s in the dark, wind and torrential rain - not a good combination for my face. 

We didn’t get home until gone midnight and then Big dog had me up again at almost 2am acting very strangely. He was almost frantic, panting like crazy and seemingly desperately wanting love and at the same time running to his lead asking to go for a walk. It was very odd. The only thing different that had happened is we came home from Olio and I had just put the food away and gone straight to bed rather than give them anything. So, I wondered if he might have anticipated food, not got any, and maybe he had heartburn or something due to excess acid. 🤷‍♀️ Just in case, I fetched his sister (who was rather confused at being asked to eat at 2am 😆), gave them both a handful of dog food, and let them go out to toilet. Whatever Big dog’s issue was he seemed to settle a bit better after that, thankfully. 

This was this week’s haul…

My biggest challenge is what to do with so many bananas and apricots! I know it is possible to freeze bananas but I’ve never had much success - they always end up brown. I think I need to try again though because it would be a pity to waste them and I do love banana in smoothies. Anyone got any tips? 

badmemory

If the apricots are ripe which from the ones I have had recently I doubt, then stone chop & freeze.  The bananas look quite ripe so eat a couple , make a banana loaf & get rid of 4 or freeze & then banana loaf them at a later date.

Cherryfudge

I think bananas always go brown when frozen though they might be one of those things you can treat with lemon juice to help them keep their colour. They also lose their texture, but neither the colour nor the texture actually spoil them - they can still be used in smoothies or cooking. If you google for banana ice cream there's a choice of recipes, some like this are very straightforward. You can jazz it up with a bit of ice cream sauce, chocolate, sprinkles or stem ginger if you happen to have any of those in the cupboards.

There are also lots of recipes for banana pancakes, or some vegan cakes use banana in place of eggs.

And what lovely flowers, lucky you! (I reckon you deserve them, going out in yesterday's weather!

northAthenian

by choice i tend to peel & freeze my bananas when they have gone too ripe/brown for me to eat, and then they are lovely & sweet in a spinach smoothie w some almond milk & some linseeds  genuinely, it does not taste "green" ! somehow the spinach makes it very creamy) 

EatingBeans

Thanks for all the suggestions! I am fairly sure I have made the banana ice cream in the past and I recall it being pretty good. Having frozen chunks of banana ready for smoothies would be awesome though as I do love it in smoothies. If I still have enough I might try both!

So far though, the bananas seem to be disappearing at a great rate as just straight bananas! I think my girl’s must have been feeling banana deprived as they have eaten several each - as have I! 🤣 I’m still convinced I need to freeze some so will crack on with that tomorrow, but today has just run away with me again. 

dd2 was back on the hunt for more ways to earn extra cash, and whilst I really could do without giving away any of my cash atm, I do understand why she is asking. To be fair to her usually she wouldn’t even ask because she knows I am broke, but to me that just shows how much it means to her, so I am making it work. 

dd2’s main job today was helping me get the lawn sown. It’s only a patch about 2m by 2m but it’s been on my to-do list for over a year (much like the toilet roll holder!), and I am fast running out of time where sowing was going to still be possible. Tbh, given my TN, it was likely a case of sow it today or wait until spring because it is already rather too cold for me to be outside for any length of time. All done though and a temporary fence erected to stop the dogs running around on it. The pigeons are another matter - we very much ran out of time for proper pigeon protection, but we did throw some grids across it and there was far more seed added than really necessary, so hopefully enough will survive to make a lawn. 🤞

In other news, weigh-in today gave me an average this week of 204.4lbs. That means I’ve lost 2lbs aka an average of 0.5lbs a week since I started. It’s not loads but it is still a loss rather than a gain so that is a success in my book. 

I hope you all had a great weekend too?!

weenancyinAmerica

Have you ever tried dehydrating the bananas or apricots?

EatingBeans

I have indeed tried dehydrated bananas and apricots and I have to say, I am not a big fan. 😕 I think it is mainly because I struggle to eat things that require more than the bare minimum of chewing so anything hard or chewy is generally a pass from me. 

Still a good idea though. I have considered getting a dehydrator to make dog treats so maybe one for the future. 🙂