5 OS pleasures in your day today - part 3

Skint_yet_Again wrote: »

I am now off work for 2 weeks and am so glad. Todays pleasures


1. nice puppy walk in the sun, have taken vets advice and bought a halti and its like walking a different dog - no pulling me over & no biting


2. popped into town, parked in 2 hours free spot, and collected 2ft Christmas tree for living room reduced to £6 at wilko. Lovely lady I spoke to early this morning put one by for me.
Feeling so unwell I haven't got the energy to get the large tree out of the loft and decorate it just to take it all down again.

I got a Halti some thirty years ago, having seen the inventor, Bruce Fogle, mention them in a magazine. Best invention ever for dog owners. My dog would walk beautifully at heel, but sometimes you have to have them on leads, and then she pulled like fury. She was a huge dog, and had me on the ground a few times before the Halti.

My sister had the same story, she was too unwell to risk getting her big tree out, but has a small tree that she had been given by a family friend to make the place look festive.

Small collection.
1. My tree is up, 80% decorated, and looking like something out of a storybook, though I say so myself.

2. Deliveries arriving. My daughter's present is here, and so is my son-in-law's. Only ordered them on Saturday evening. That's what I pay Am@zon £79 per annum for, I guess.

3. One of the deliveries was my new blanket with sleeves from
A!di, and it is lovely, the finest microfleece. as soft as can be imagined.

4. The following piece of writing from one of my clients:
"Surprisingly, aside from Christmas presents for my children, my parents have also bought a small gift for my wife every year. The present to my wife is always an apron because they think that a new apron makes cooking fun."

This gentleman has the most wonderfully dry sense of humour, and makes me laugh so much, I was in tears of laughter at the above.
He is Japanese, and so is his wife. It's when I read things like the above that I also have hope for the world, because there really are more things that unite us, than divide us.

I hope his wife gets a really nice present each year, from him. She definitely deserves it.

5. Your pleasures, thank you.

Pleasures for today (Monday).


1) Smaller son and his football worn legs slept until 11.30! 13.5 hours.


2) Hens well and the snow is still thawing.


3) Popped to town for petrol. Put the clothes/fabric in the clothes recycling.


4) Bigger son motorcycled the other way as we drove into town!


5) Jacket potato for tea - can't remember when I last made one of those.


6) Wrapped all the Christmas presents - so far, have 2 little bits to get.


7) Had a bit of a tidy up and cleaned the bathroom.


8) Watched the programme about children in an old peoples' home (can't remember the title) and First Dates.


9) In bed now and will listen to ISIHAC.

I hate to post & run, and I have been reading & enjoying but I do now need to let the antibiotics do their bit. Hopefully in time for Christmas Day but I'm not safe at carol concerts etc right now.

OS Pleasures this last week & a bit?
Caroline is toying with us today - hovering around the zero mark just as I have a trip south to keep mum out of the worst mischief planned. So today we've shopped before the heavy snow is forecast. The delight is in the planning - once enough boxes are ticked I shall 'abandon' husband and all three sons & remind them my credit card limit does not cover Bail...

One son, irate, flung potato at his brother. He missed & my hair now has a new crisp textured streak. The chaps find this hilarious, me I'm eyeing the thermometer as the bathroom is colder than the fridge.

Son, watching files copy sniffed "A Good Doctor isn't a patch on House" - I managed an interrogative chirp & heard "Can't be - no Wilson." Ah, now there we are in agreement - Robert Sean Leonard is a genuine MS pleasure!

Longmire & Branch's relations - "seems friendly for someone who killed his brother" "I can relate!" Boychicks....

Awww - wallowing in nostalgia re-watching Bergerac after several decades! M'lady mother, a devout John Nettles fan, will be delighted to see her favourite so young. Me, I'm startled to recognise Floella Benjamin!

Sheesh - OH in self denial mode was about to do himself out of a bonus freebie, so I cooperatively suggested he get the heavy cruiser he'd reluctantly left as the store freebies are beautifully tailored to your order & history... [Wow that company knows its customers & cherishes them! Freebies brilliantly chosen & every one a propos]

Son who works for carehome (for health & social care qualification) watching Countryfile *appalled* as alpacas visit a carehome. Although impressed at alpaca communication of need a pee whilst we blinked at how the elderly liked having such visitors. Son's popularity explained - novelty!

My godfather in deepest snow zone! Still managing to stay in touch & assure folk it's beautiful, he's fine & will extend invites once roads open but cows in neighbouring byre fine so ample milk & even butter.

Got call from father asking me to move his unfamiliar to me car in the dark, over snow & ice & then reverse it into the carport. Which he won't let his wife do & I've never done. He took my refusal in the spirit in which it was intended - I think he must have had a couple of antifreezes more than usual.

Managed to get both cars cleaned up a bit (8" of snow piled on Mondeo) and in second pass on daylight, kicked snow bank down to drive-over-able proportions. Loaded parcels, bags, wheelchair, mother & Zimmer aboard & (with St.Christopher & St.Jude working together) got mum out of the house, her parcels & cards sent, her banking done, her shopping done & all home & unloaded & put away & left to drip & stashed in fridge/freezer/veg cupboard. Car safely parked. Tea thankfully drunk. It's what Annual Leave is about.

Talking food with mum's lovely Lithuanian helper (lovely how baklava crosses languages!), she pointed me to a recipe she couldn't pronounce but could recognise on Google Burek appear to be stuffed savoury pastries & I think experimentation is indicated....

Own bed. Clean sheets!

It is nice to have a child young enough to be excited by treasury notes before breakfast - an upside to lugging Christmas stuff around the family!

Young Hal has played a blinder - marrying on the day of the FA Final. I've been gurgling with laughter all the drive home at the "shirts or hats?!" call...

"I thought I'd been duped out of my money but it turns out I'm just a knucklehead" - son did not check paper size on drawing books. Happily the Amazon return process appears to be mostly stress free.

Vicarious delight at my mother's delight in the annual college dinner to which spouses are invited [Very Tradiitonal Oxford College - crowbarred into renaming the Wives Dinner a mere decade ago]. She had a very good night out & is remarkably chirpy next morning!

Frankly amused at the resurgence of gin as the "in drink" - charming labels & pretty bottles on limited production runs making it the new gift bottle of choice. Have taken photos of the prettier labels in the supermarkets but still remember Hogarth. (Mind, I'm a hardcore tea drinker & had to buy glasses to drink the fizz I have planned. Son, bemused, asked why not Another Mug? I have work to do, there.)

The Christmas shopping took us past an old friend (& enabler - a shopkeeper with serious customer service & an impressive memory for faces & kits) - this morning the pool table is covered in model planes & phrases like Frog, Linnet, Diana, "only takes a blob of glue", "think I can colour match that tissue" and so forth are to be heard over the morning rumbles.

Aw, Nan gave the lads delightfully similar sweaters & I got them hustled into a group photo for the grandmothers - one chose which snap to send to the other. Eee, the fun these smartphones can bring to the elderly & housebound! [And owch the cost of colour printer ink, but.]

Simon Weston on Wales & thinking & walking & "sometimes it helps you to see clearer" - darn yes. Sure the camera is struggling to capture the beauty heavily veiled in cloud but that's the Beacons for you.

Son has set up his little hifi & is happily playing "more than a feeling" - now to set it up in his room somewhere... The pleasure is his blazing delight in the (near) grownup kit. He's planning to get headphones too, huge benevolent grin!

Yeay Longmire season six - the last but every episode is glorious so I grudgingly allow them to be right - better to end perfect than drag on on a lesser state. If I ever need rescuing I want this lot to do it!

Stack of Christmas chores done. Husband delighted at my scout discount at Go Outdoors as he has more Christmas money. (He's only five years behind his sons in realising I can wring extra fun for the money.)


Right, to all those upright, we salute you. To all those wobbling a bit, have extra patience with yourselves first & the known universe second. To all reaching out with love across space - hurrah for technology & scheme to add a hug to the list at some time. (Wonderful things - one size really does fit all, & it's easy to exchange - if only they packed more easily!) Meanwhile love, courage, strength, successful applications, a really timely drink & hot water bottles to all as have need.