Tea was egg fried rice with mushrooms and wild garlic, with a wild garlic tofu fillet. As I have a cold I thought I’d make a warming turmeric latte to accompany it.
Your tea sounds nice @Heavenlyannie and I like the sound of a turmeric latte. We had flatbreads with salad and home made humous, with the vegan sausages left over from lunch.
Cold and a bit blustrous in West Lothian; but if there was rain (and there probably was), I managed to miss it.
Quite a steadily busy day, followed by fishcakes and veggies for supper.
I must remember to drop in to the Four Marys on the way home from work tomorrow; I'm meeting an old school friend there for lunch on Sunday, and booking a table would be a good plan.
I am sure that's a good plan. Once upon a time when I was back working in Scotland and a friend was the minister at the big kirk, the occasional Sunday lunch at The Four Marys followed fairly soon after the benediction.
No hail here in the Wilds of Wiltshire, but a lot of chilly wind and some rain.
This afternoon we met up with some people who live in one of the nearby towns (Mr Nen knows them from his youth group, some decades ago) and whose church we attended last Sunday. We had a very wholesome catch up with them over coffee and I rather hope there might be a friendship there going forwards. The house group we went to yesterday evening is definitely not going to be the group for us; in a way it's good to know that so definitely.
We are off to see Nenlet1 and the GrandNenling tomorrow; really looking forward to that.
Unplanned short visits from first my daughter then my son today. Daughter chatted, caught up with emails as her wifi at home is down, then did 20 mins gardening. It was blowing a hoolie at the front but the back was sheltered, though a sudden hailstorm interrupted the sunshine.
My son sorted my doorbell problems. I am so fortunate to have them around to support me even if they can spare only a little time.
Later came torrential rain, so I was glad of lifts to and from Scrabble. I won both games today, including a seven letter word! Instead of the usual spag bol I had a ready meal ( a lamb casserole which was quite ok) which saved me time before choir this evening.
Yesterday was a special day, marking as it did another trip around our local star relative to the average motion of the local part of the Galaxy since I was unceremoniously squeezed out of the reproduction system of another of my species.
Got a pizza in and went to the pub. It was pissing down on the way there but we'd sort of dried out by the time we got back.
A new bottle of single malt now inhabits the booze cupboard, I have some Interesting Cheese, some guitar related kit I won't boor you with, and I took the week off.
Unbelievably for me I was out early at 7.30 this morning to put a birthday card in the post, not just before the 9 am collection, but to be back before a Royal Mail delivery due from 8.20- 9.20. It arrived at 8.40am.
Lots of jobs to catch up with today, then church choir practice this evening at 6.30, so I will cook at lunch time.
We never know the medium until we get there, but it's always fun.
Aha - a "happy medium"!
Went swimming and shopping early, had breakfast - then (to my shame) dropped off to sleep for 20 minutes or so! Dry and sunshiny so far, but very windy yesterday, with a bit of sleet.
I ordered a portable CD player on Monday which was supposed to arrive on Wednesday, but actually turned up on Tuesday. Since then I’ve been trying to work out how to get it to play CDs through my car speakers (I’ve recently replaced my 19 year old Fiesta with a 3 year old Fiesta and discovered that they no longer have CD players). After lots of searching online and pressing all the possible buttons I have finally figured it out and managed to get it to play something!
Many happy returns, @KarlLB - enjoy your week off!
Slightly less cool today, but not as Springish as it might be. Remembered to book for Sunday lunch - which I thought was quite impressive - I have a brain like a sieve these days!
Supper was a tomato orzotto with thyme from a recipe in a Tesco magazine - who knew that thyme goes just as well with tomatoes as basil does? It was a bit of a faff, as it involved roasting the tomatoes, but quite decent all the same.
Happy birthday @KarlLB.
I had my last lip reading class of this term followed by my bookshop shift. In between the two I went to the local museum to enquire about room bookings and have a coffee. This evening a council meeting which didn't go on too long so I could get home to watch the final of Masterchef the Professionals on catch up.
Amazing concert tonight by Cerys Hafana (and friends), the young Welsh harpist who "mangles, mutates and transforms traditional music". Totally unique and at times very ethereal.
We had a good time yesterday with Nenlet1 and the GrandNenling, who continues to be an absolute joy .
A wet grey day in the Wilds of Wiltshire and Mr Nen has gone for a run. Then I'm very much hoping our focus today will be the guest room, with the aim of turning it from a place that resembles a jumble sale to somewhere that people could actually sleep (it currently has no curtains and the bed and every available surface are piled with things "to be sorted").
I also need to learn how to operate one of my new (to me) ovens. I refused to go near them when we moved in, and now having had them professionally cleaned I've been reluctant to sully their sparkle. This evening's menu (salmon and roast vegetables in parsley sauce) requires oven cooking... it's a long time since I had to learn how to use a different oven...
I hope they left you the instruction manuals @Nenya , though you can find most things on-line nowadays. Our main oven has so many functions but I basically use the fan setting and leave it at that. I mainly use the second oven on its micro-wave setting, which is just as well as I have to get a stool out to see the settings otherwise. Good luck with the spare room sorting too. The tricky thing when you first move I've found is you sort things to one place and then decide they'd be better somewhere else.
If it isn't too wet I'm out this morning to do some gardening with the local group that looks after some of our green spaces. Today its the border at the side of the church. Afterwards I'm off to buy some crochet hooks for a craft event tomorrow and maybe some plants from the amazing stall on the market that's there only on Fridays. I can't buy too many as I promised to get some bits and pieces to go with tonight's tea which is vegan rostis from Aldi.
Another mild day in Arkland the Draughty, with some Rain and/or Wind from time to time.
Feeling a bit flaky today, I've done very little apart from Restage and Snoozage, but Lunch is now called for. MEAT PUDDING n'CHIPS, I think, with maybe a side salad of BAKED BEANS - the MP and BB will be done in the popty-pig, but the Chips will need 20 minutes or so in the Dragon.
A task for a little later on this evening is the weekly updating of Our Place's website, including my slightly edited version of FatherInCharge's pew sheet. As Holy Week starts this coming Sunday, there's a lot going on...
I can think of several MPs who ought to be done in a popty-ping ...
Busy day here: B is off on holiday next week and wanted to Get Things Done, and J produced a long and involved voice file that had me tearing my hair out. No matter; it's Friday (again! How did that happen??).
My plans didn't go quite as expected as I couldn't find the shed keys* so couldn't get my gardening gloves and trowel out of the shed to go gardening. I did get the crochet hooks and bits for tea which was good, but the plant stall wasn't in the market which was a shame. The rest of the day has been given over to extreme laziness.
*The keys had been in my husband's boiler suit, but they fell out when I picked it up thinking that's where they were and I didn't spot them. The fact it was also raining meant I didn't look as hard as I probably should.
Strange weather here today, at one point I entered via the back door from my office in dry weather and went straight outside the front door to discover it was raining.
Mr Heavenly arrived back from his US business trip at midday and has been moping around ever since, slightly jet lagged. I have done some work, including some marking. I am now free from marking for about 2 and a half weeks so intend to get some writing done.
Tea was Chinese style beef and greens, with sticky rice.
We are back from a couple of days away staying with our son in order to celebrate my husband's uncle and aunt's diamond wedding. It was such a happy visit! When my husband was working this sort of trip was just impossible; his retirement has opened up so many possibilities.
I hope they left you the instruction manuals @Nenya , though you can find most things on-line nowadays. Our main oven has so many functions but I basically use the fan setting and leave it at that. I mainly use the second oven on its micro-wave setting, which is just as well as I have to get a stool out to see the settings otherwise.
They did leave the instruction manuals, which I pored over and still had to get Mr Nen's help to reset the time and the date, which had randomly defaulted to 2014. But what you said was helpful as I could see the previous setting was a fan setting so I left it on that ("If it works for Sarasa..." ) and it cooked the tea fine. The second oven is also a microwave and as I brought one of those with me I can't see I'll be using the second oven a huge amount. This hopefully means it won't lose its sparkle too quickly.
Yesterday afternoon we took a trip to a fairly local furniture place which seems to do one-offs and end-of-line things and found some furniture we really liked for the new kitchen/family room (we walked in, turned to each other and said simultaneously, "I quite like this table..." ). That's due to be delivered next week. Today we await delivery of a new fridge/freezer (the previous owners took theirs and our very old one doesn't fit in the gap) and a new washing machine - our current one was on its last legs before we moved and I'm grateful both it and the old fridge have seen us over this first few weeks.
Progress in the guest room is Very Slow (Mr Nen and the curtain rail are battling against each other) but it looks slightly less like a jumble sale than it did. I would love to start unpacking my study at some point today but am trying not to get my hopes up as there's so much else to do. Next up: coffee!
Sunny but chilly here too. I'm about to go out to a craft event at church. I signed up as the person organising it was signalling she'd really like some help, but I haven't a clue what I've let myself in for.
Sounds like a really lovely event @North East Quine . @Nenya , we kept our old microwave when we had the kitchen re-done last year. We intended to recycle it, but it is actually quite useful to have two microwaves on at the same time sometimes. The bugger with the smaller oven is having to take out the racks for it to be a microwave and put them in for it to be an oven and I really can't be bothered to keep swapping, specially as I'd need to get the stool out for me to swap them over.
So far the fan setting seems to work fine. I used the pizza setting when we had pizza but could see no disenable difference.
I have never bothered to work out the complicated settings of our oven and just use it as a fan oven.
Cool here today despite the occasional sunshine. Mr Heavenly is lunching in a pub with the Dads (a group of men whose kids were at primary school together over a decade ago) as it is someone’s birthday. I have been for a long walk and am about to have a baguette with some cheese and salami before heading into my office to do some writing.
A blue but sometimes blustery day in Arkland the Windy. I don't usually visit Tess Coe on a Saturday (because traffic), but did so today, and was pleasantly surprised to find a vacant disabled parking bay close to the door.
They have recently converted three of the regular checkouts to 'assisted self-service' in addition to the existing small self-service Engines of Satan, but no-one seemed to be wanting to use any of the new devices. However, a Nice Young Lady spotted me, and said she would assist. Ah! (said I), you'll have to see it all through for me, which she proceeded cheerfully and quickly to do, including packing the bags.
This all somewhat defeated the object of the exercise, I thought, but I
was in-and-out of the busy store in 20 minutes, so it worked for me!
We had a lovely night away in our favourite small hotel (superb food and drink) to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Only 20 hours away from home but seemed much longer!
It's "blue but blustery" in West Lothian too; I really ought to have an amble down to Tessie's once my laundry's finished tumbling* - I'll see what the weather looks like by then.
I took a fancy yesterday for making SOUP, so there's a pot of green** SOUP waiting to be heated up for supper, along with some nice bread and some CHEESE.
* I'm aware that it isn't Sunday, which is moy usual laundry day, but I'm a bit busy tomorrow with one thing and another.
** broccoli, with a few sugar-snap peas and ends of green beans that I'd frozen for the purpose.
I was out early today to catch a train to join my daughter on her stall at an Artisan brocante fair held in a beautiful church. I’m not sure how much help I was as not everything was priced so I had to keep asking her, nor could I operate her card machine as it works via her phone, but I made myself useful and chatted to customers, fetched hot drinks etc and stood by the stuff whilst she packed the car at the end. Her husband arrived to help and gave me a lift home earlier than expected. I enjoyed the day even though it was cold and tiring.
I have meatballs in the fridge that need cooking tonight, washed down with the remains of a bottle of wine.
I'm always discombobulated by those self-service tills as well @Bishops Finger ; lately, as we get to grips with a New Shopping Regime, Mr Nen and I have been using them together and we still manage to make it summon a store assistant at least twice during the process, without ever understanding what we've done wrong.
New washing machine and fridge freezer have arrived; the former requires Mr Nen's attention to plumb it in and it then apparently needs a first wash through with oxygen bleach powder and until I can get at the cupboard (new washing machine is in the way) I'm not sure I have any. New fridge freezer needs to stand unplugged for four hours and then run overnight with nothing in it. I was a bit taxed in my mind about all my fridge food, currently in cold bags, but then a friend suggested (via WhatsApp) that I could leave them outside overnight as the temperature is set to drop to 2 degrees. So I shall do that and hope for the best. I had run the freezer stuff right down before we moved, so I don't feel too badly about waving goodbye to a couple of bags of vegetables.
Who knew domestic appliances were so high-maintenance?
Stir fry for tea because Saturday and Standards Must Be Maintained.
You have probably done nothing wrong at the self-service tills. They have a mind of their own. They reject items, the assistant comes and presses “ Ignore weight” - even happened for a litre of milk! - then it goes through. Yesterday I was amused that a young man, probably only 18 himself, came to verify that I was old enough to buy a bottle of wine.
Well, yes. I seem to be very adept at putting Unrecognised Items in the Bagging Area™, and also have to call for assistance if when buying alcohol (which is fair enough, I suppose). The Nice Ladies at Tess Coe know me - the Tall Scruffy Old Man with a Beard, and Two Crutches - and are perfectly happy to do the job of scanning and bagging for me.
My local village Co-Op now has 'assisted self-service tills' - not, in this case, replacing real-life Humming Beans (who will still be available to do the usual thing), but handy for someone who, maybe, just wants to buy a loaf of milk, or a pint of bread...
For the first time in at least two years, our eldest daughter and her five year old son have stayed with us, thanks to Mrs Sioni’s remarkable ability to get the proverbial quart into the pint pot (of a small bedroom).
A few more things are in the garage, some have been binned but mostly things have been tidied up. I have no idea how she does this. Same kind of thing packing suitcases, arranging stuff in the car and loading the dishwasher. She’s brilliant I tell you!
First morning of British Summer (HaHa) Time - driving rain and 5°C. I needed to get up in the night and put on bed socks, not something I wear normally.
To start off this first day of British Summer Time we will be scraping the frost off the windscreen of the car so that we can get to church for the Palm Sunday service.
Tesco last night had no manned tills. A small shop (six items) required four interventions by an assistant. The first was when the machine asked us to put our bag on the bagging area before starting to shop, and then decided that an assistant had to verify that our bag was indeed a bag. Two of our items were USB sticks, which required three interventions to buy.
I was grateful for the cold night as it seems to have kept my fridge stuff, which was on the patio overnight in cold bags, at a good low temperature.
We are not going to church this morning as we are rather behind on jobs here (still no progress in my study but the curtains are up in the guest room) and our local church doesn't have a service today, so I'm planning to watch the livestream from our previous place at 10.30.
I went to the church in my daughter’s village this morning. Then to her house to collect a chair, just in time to see all the family before they set off for a walk. There is a cold wind.
Cloudy but dry in Arkland the Breezy, which at least meant that the Palm Sunday Procession could go outside at Our Place (we once started in the Hall, went through the corridor/lobby, down the steps into the Church, and wound our way round the aisles, as it was raining heavily outside!).
A good attendance today, my Spy tells me, so a good start to Holy Week.
HOISIN DUCK NOODLES for Lunch, because use-by date.
Comments
Cold and a bit blustrous in West Lothian; but if there was rain (and there probably was), I managed to miss it.
Quite a steadily busy day, followed by fishcakes and veggies for supper.
I must remember to drop in to the Four Marys on the way home from work tomorrow; I'm meeting an old school friend there for lunch on Sunday, and booking a table would be a good plan.
This afternoon we met up with some people who live in one of the nearby towns (Mr Nen knows them from his youth group, some decades ago) and whose church we attended last Sunday. We had a very wholesome catch up with them over coffee and I rather hope there might be a friendship there going forwards. The house group we went to yesterday evening is definitely not going to be the group for us; in a way it's good to know that so definitely.
We are off to see Nenlet1 and the GrandNenling tomorrow; really looking forward to that.
My son sorted my doorbell problems. I am so fortunate to have them around to support me even if they can spare only a little time.
Later came torrential rain, so I was glad of lifts to and from Scrabble. I won both games today, including a seven letter word! Instead of the usual spag bol I had a ready meal ( a lamb casserole which was quite ok) which saved me time before choir this evening.
Got a pizza in and went to the pub. It was pissing down on the way there but we'd sort of dried out by the time we got back.
A new bottle of single malt now inhabits the booze cupboard, I have some Interesting Cheese, some guitar related kit I won't boor you with, and I took the week off.
Lots of jobs to catch up with today, then church choir practice this evening at 6.30, so I will cook at lunch time.
I'm sure the other of your species remembers it well!
My son's birthdays bring back all the squeezing out! Imagine pooing a football and you have it.
Today I'm beginning to rejoin the human race after feeling pretty yucky due to a festering nerve in my tooth, now gone. The nerve not the tooth.
Art group today. We never know the medium until we get there, but it's always fun.
Went swimming and shopping early, had breakfast - then (to my shame) dropped off to sleep for 20 minutes or so! Dry and sunshiny so far, but very windy yesterday, with a bit of sleet.
I very much doubt it since I scattered her into the River Wharf nearly ten years ago.
Wherever she is now, I'm sure she remembers it 🙂
I received a note to say it had been despatched about an hour later.
It popped through the door at 11am today (Royal Mail), simultaneously with me receiving an email saying it was out for delivery.
I think that's impressive.
How many people did it take to change a lightbulb? 😄💡
Slightly less cool today, but not as Springish as it might be. Remembered to book for Sunday lunch - which I thought was quite impressive - I have a brain like a sieve these days!
Supper was a tomato orzotto with thyme from a recipe in a Tesco magazine - who knew that thyme goes just as well with tomatoes as basil does? It was a bit of a faff, as it involved roasting the tomatoes, but quite decent all the same.
I had my last lip reading class of this term followed by my bookshop shift. In between the two I went to the local museum to enquire about room bookings and have a coffee. This evening a council meeting which didn't go on too long so I could get home to watch the final of Masterchef the Professionals on catch up.
A wet grey day in the Wilds of Wiltshire and Mr Nen has gone for a run. Then I'm very much hoping our focus today will be the guest room, with the aim of turning it from a place that resembles a jumble sale to somewhere that people could actually sleep (it currently has no curtains and the bed and every available surface are piled with things "to be sorted").
I also need to learn how to operate one of my new (to me) ovens. I refused to go near them when we moved in, and now having had them professionally cleaned I've been reluctant to sully their sparkle. This evening's menu (salmon and roast vegetables in parsley sauce) requires oven cooking... it's a long time since I had to learn how to use a different oven...
If it isn't too wet I'm out this morning to do some gardening with the local group that looks after some of our green spaces. Today its the border at the side of the church. Afterwards I'm off to buy some crochet hooks for a craft event tomorrow and maybe some plants from the amazing stall on the market that's there only on Fridays. I can't buy too many as I promised to get some bits and pieces to go with tonight's tea which is vegan rostis from Aldi.
Feeling a bit flaky today, I've done very little apart from Restage and Snoozage, but Lunch is now called for. MEAT PUDDING n'CHIPS, I think, with maybe a side salad of BAKED BEANS - the MP and BB will be done in the popty-pig, but the Chips will need 20 minutes or so in the Dragon.
A task for a little later on this evening is the weekly updating of Our Place's website, including my slightly edited version of FatherInCharge's pew sheet. As Holy Week starts this coming Sunday, there's a lot going on...
Busy day here: B is off on holiday next week and wanted to Get Things Done, and J produced a long and involved voice file that had me tearing my hair out. No matter; it's Friday (again! How did that happen??).
F&C for supper, as you might expect.
*The keys had been in my husband's boiler suit, but they fell out when I picked it up thinking that's where they were and I didn't spot them. The fact it was also raining meant I didn't look as hard as I probably should.
Mr Heavenly arrived back from his US business trip at midday and has been moping around ever since, slightly jet lagged. I have done some work, including some marking. I am now free from marking for about 2 and a half weeks so intend to get some writing done.
Tea was Chinese style beef and greens, with sticky rice.
They did leave the instruction manuals, which I pored over and still had to get Mr Nen's help to reset the time and the date, which had randomly defaulted to 2014. But what you said was helpful as I could see the previous setting was a fan setting so I left it on that ("If it works for Sarasa..."
Yesterday afternoon we took a trip to a fairly local furniture place which seems to do one-offs and end-of-line things and found some furniture we really liked for the new kitchen/family room (we walked in, turned to each other and said simultaneously, "I quite like this table..."
Progress in the guest room is Very Slow (Mr Nen and the curtain rail are battling against each other) but it looks slightly less like a jumble sale than it did. I would love to start unpacking my study at some point today but am trying not to get my hopes up as there's so much else to do. Next up: coffee!
Sunny but chilly here this morning.
Sounds like a really lovely event @North East Quine .
@Nenya , we kept our old microwave when we had the kitchen re-done last year. We intended to recycle it, but it is actually quite useful to have two microwaves on at the same time sometimes. The bugger with the smaller oven is having to take out the racks for it to be a microwave and put them in for it to be an oven and I really can't be bothered to keep swapping, specially as I'd need to get the stool out for me to swap them over.
So far the fan setting seems to work fine. I used the pizza setting when we had pizza but could see no disenable difference.
Cool here today despite the occasional sunshine. Mr Heavenly is lunching in a pub with the Dads (a group of men whose kids were at primary school together over a decade ago) as it is someone’s birthday. I have been for a long walk and am about to have a baguette with some cheese and salami before heading into my office to do some writing.
They have recently converted three of the regular checkouts to 'assisted self-service' in addition to the existing small self-service Engines of Satan, but no-one seemed to be wanting to use any of the new devices. However, a Nice Young Lady spotted me, and said she would assist. Ah! (said I), you'll have to see it all through for me, which she proceeded cheerfully and quickly to do, including packing the bags.
This all somewhat defeated the object of the exercise, I thought, but I
was in-and-out of the busy store in 20 minutes, so it worked for me!
Lunch is Italian - LASAGNE accompanied by BIRRA.
It's "blue but blustery" in West Lothian too; I really ought to have an amble down to Tessie's once my laundry's finished tumbling* - I'll see what the weather looks like by then.
I took a fancy yesterday for making SOUP, so there's a pot of green** SOUP waiting to be heated up for supper, along with some nice bread and some CHEESE.
* I'm aware that it isn't Sunday, which is moy usual laundry day, but I'm a bit busy tomorrow with one thing and another.
** broccoli, with a few sugar-snap peas and ends of green beans that I'd frozen for the purpose.
Congratulations, anyway!
I have meatballs in the fridge that need cooking tonight, washed down with the remains of a bottle of wine.
New washing machine and fridge freezer have arrived; the former requires Mr Nen's attention to plumb it in and it then apparently needs a first wash through with oxygen bleach powder and until I can get at the cupboard (new washing machine is in the way) I'm not sure I have any. New fridge freezer needs to stand unplugged for four hours and then run overnight with nothing in it. I was a bit taxed in my mind about all my fridge food, currently in cold bags, but then a friend suggested (via WhatsApp) that I could leave them outside overnight as the temperature is set to drop to 2 degrees. So I shall do that and hope for the best. I had run the freezer stuff right down before we moved, so I don't feel too badly about waving goodbye to a couple of bags of vegetables.
Who knew domestic appliances were so high-maintenance?
Stir fry for tea because Saturday and Standards Must Be Maintained.
My local village Co-Op now has 'assisted self-service tills' - not, in this case, replacing real-life Humming Beans (who will still be available to do the usual thing), but handy for someone who, maybe, just wants to buy a loaf of milk, or a pint of bread...
I'm beginning to resemble Edward Lear, as he reached his final years, though my Beard is by no means as bushy as his...
Alas! my equatorial regions are slightly more spherical than his, though, and I do now and then wear a runcible Hat.
A few more things are in the garage, some have been binned but mostly things have been tidied up. I have no idea how she does this. Same kind of thing packing suitcases, arranging stuff in the car and loading the dishwasher. She’s brilliant I tell you!
Definitely not a gardening day.
Church this morning, Mr Boogs is playing, so we'll have to get there earlier than usual.
I'd better get to move on. 🙂
We are not going to church this morning as we are rather behind on jobs here (still no progress in my study but the curtains are up in the guest room) and our local church doesn't have a service today, so I'm planning to watch the livestream from our previous place at 10.30.
A good attendance today, my Spy tells me, so a good start to Holy Week.
HOISIN DUCK NOODLES for Lunch, because use-by date.