Some Railway Muddling Modelling is called for this afternoon, as I've acquired a few items to help me develop my little table-top H0e/009 layout...
Yes, muddling is an accurate term, especially if, like me, you pick it up just once in a while and when you resume you cannot find all the bits 😬
As things stand I have the makings of a baseboard and I have plenty of rolling stock and buildings (building buildings is very therapeutic) but can I find the track? No, I cannot. It must be in a different safe place™️.
After a chilly but sunny morning, the rain came on in the afternoon, and I got somewhat damp coming home. When I got in, I found that the heating had come on.
I still can't get my mobile to talk to the bank (see TICTH) and think I might cut my losses and get a proper new one. A trip to the Gyle on Saturday, methinks. I need it to work: My house insurance runs out in a couple of weeks, and renewing it requires app verification. What a faff.
Supper was part 2 of the orzo thingy. I added a splat of crème fraîche to stop it from catching when it was heating up, and it worked a treat.
The brightness and chilliness here in the Wilds of Wiltshire lasted into the afternoon and solar activity was sufficient to allow several loads of washing, as well as one load getting (mostly) dry on the line. This evening it's raining - I had a meeting at the village hall and got wet on the way back. I came racing back early from the meeting in order to watch Celebrity Traitors on catch up with Mr Nen, as we'd agreed; only to find on my arrival that he's embroiled in some accounting-type thing and is too tired and stressed to stop and watch an hour of TV with me. I am Not Best Pleased.
The brightness and chilliness here in the Wilds of Wiltshire lasted into the afternoon and solar activity was sufficient to allow several loads of washing.
Yesterday was quite good for sun ... this morning I'm getting an amazing 8 watts of solar power!
We're doing quite well today too - in a burst of sunshine just now Mr Nen reported that we're generating 2.6kW and the battery is just over 50%. . We think the next couple of days could see it run down to zero, though.
Later this afternoon we have a Blind Man coming (cue Vicar of Dibley joke ) to quote for an external blind for our very large landing window which contributed significantly to the high temperatures in Casa Nen during the recent heatwaves.
I headed out this morning to my usual Friday morning Zumba class but sadly the teacher didn't turn up and the staff at the centre said they understood last week had been her last week. She had told us she was leaving but "not for another couple of weeks" and as we'd been able to book the class as normal we'd all assumed this week's was happening. They did put on a "virtual" class for us, performed onscreen by 20-year-old break dancers, which didn't quite suit the group of *cough* ladies of a certain age *cough* so I'm not sure of the way forward there.
In other news, I made my first batch of Parkin yesterday, which is now wrapped up and maturing in the cupboard for the next few days. Mr Nen got very excited at the sight of it and asked when we could sample it; he was a bit downcast on being told "Not for at least five days." ("How many days???")
Stir fry this evening - our usual Saturday fare, but we are out tomorrow evening at the Village Harvest Supper. Red WINE will also be consumed.
@Nenya very strange and annoying of your Zumba teacher! But also how strange that the centre didn't have a date for the new teacher arriving - did they think that a new teacher was arriving today?
It doesn't sound as though there will be another teacher - we were told the class would be "virtual" for the foreseeable future. According to some of the class members the centre pays a large amount for access to the classes of a well-known online provider. These classes are cheaper than the ones with the teacher, but shorter and not nearly as enjoyable.
Autumn has finally arrived. I've been wearing an outdoor jacket and a pair of Oxfords (very snazzy red patent ones) and everything. This is a serious relief.
A quiet day otherwise. Laundry has been laundered, the market frequented, and Beethoven practised. I bought fish on the market, but fortunately I didn't get any cheese, because husband en rouge went to a pop-up Aveyron market this afternoon and returned with a truly obscene amount of the same (large chunks of Roquefort, tomme and bleu des Causses). Some of it will have to go in the freezer I think.
It warmed up again here today: having been 4° yesterday morning, it was 14° today. There was intermittent rain, but as I was quite busy and couldn't be bothered to go out at lunchtime, I missed it.
I love my red Oxfords, which are indeed very snazzy. The original pair were purchased when I was in the family way and needed flat shoes. They were reheeled repeatedly, and resoled once, and literally worn until the uppers fell apart. Imagine my enchuffment last winter when I found someone selling an identical pair on Vinted, almost brand new (IIRC they'd been worn once). They're comfortable, stylish and go with a multiplicity of outfits. Hopefully this pair will last as long as the first pair did.
I had a meeting this morning, followed by a quick trip into town to buy some board books for an event I'm going to tomorrow. It was nice browsing through the children's section of Waterstones, something I don't normally have a call for. Later I had a zoom chat with a friend and then after an early tea went out for an evening in a wine bar with some friends. The place is tiny and specialises in Moldovan wines and other wines from less well known wine-producing countries. I now feel rather drunk and need to go to bed fairly soon as I have an early start tomorrow for the first for three events I'm attending.
Waited for 30 increasingly worried minutes for a taxi to take me to a screening for the medical trial I'm hoping to do - before triple-checking my appointment confirmation and seeing that it's happening on Monday, not today. A lot of outpatient appointments are at the weekend now (which causes further annoyance when you're trying to cancel or rearrange them and nobody's in the office....) so it never struck me as odd. At least it was only half an hour!
That is so frustrating! I remember being stuck for ages at a hotel near Gatwick waiting for a pre-booked taxi which never came. Eventually a man from the hotel staff took us to the airport, we caught our flight (and saved the taxi fare!).
I take your point about the O/P office not being staffed; on the other hand, hospital parking is much easier at weekends if you're coming by car. Not so good though for public transport: our dedicated hospital P&R bus doesn't run on Saturdays.
Well at least in this case the taxi didn't come because it's not supposed to come until Monday - better than coming today when I don't actually have the appointment!
Well at least in this case the taxi didn't come because it's not supposed to come until Monday - better than coming today when I don't actually have the appointment!
The worst waits are for the coach or taxi to the airport to catch your flight home. Mr F always remembers standing in the pre-dawn darkness on a street in Hanoi.
Hmm. For me, it's the wait in the airport that's the worst...Heraklion at 1am was one of the Circles of Hell, as it was at 2am and 3am on the same bloody morning...
ION, a dry but cloudy and blustery day in Arkland the Windblown, though there is the occasional burst of Sun-Shine. The north-west breeze is not unpleasant...
It was nice browsing through the children's section of Waterstones, something I don't normally have a call for.
Since the arrival of the GrandNenling I have had an excuse to visit that section and have to keep myself from buying All The Books.
Mr Nen and I had a very nice morning visiting the site of a disused local canal where much work is going on to - eventually - link it up with the canal network. We live near one but I confess I don't actually like canals much but I do find them interesting. We took part in a Site Tour and drank coffee and ate homemade cake at the little pop-up café. It stayed dry but the wind was chilly - I could have done with wearing a couple more layers. We were given high-vis jackets to wear and agreed that fluorescent yellow is definitely our colour. We should wear it more often.
Back for lunch and then a bit of time in the garden tidying things up. I have gone a bit over the top with cutting back one of the shrubs at the front and hope it will recover in the spring . I am also planning to hunt out my October decorations, which include an artificial pumpkin and a wooden toadstool, some acorns (also artificial), a little rat ornament and a small string of lights. These are all in a box somewhere...
This evening we are heading to the village hall for the annual Harvest Supper.
... They were reheeled repeatedly, and resoled once, and literally worn until the uppers fell apart ...
A bit like Trigger's broom?
It's a bonny but rather blustrous day here, but it's been quite productive.
I ambled along to the phone shop after choir practice, and explained that I still wasn't getting some text messages. The geek nice bloke asked which network provider I was with (why he didn't ask this at the outset I don't know), fiddled about with the SIM card and sent me on my merry way. Lo and behold, when I went into the banking app, all went as it should: I now appear to have a functional mobile and have arranged for the porcine château to be insured for another year.
I celebrated this good fortune with an Expotition to Marks and Sparks, where I spent my lottery winnings.*
Supper will be STEAK, with potatoes, mushrooms and greens.
* a £10 M&S voucher on the People's Postcode lottery.
@Piglet so glad the phone got fixed! I'm honestly itching to get a non-smart phone (technically these are known as "feature phones" - not sure why smartphones are somehow not feature phones?) but the usefulness of Google Maps and contactless payment keeps me tied to smartphones.....it's a conundrum. My ADHD makes me much too prone to over-reliance on the Handheld Dopamine Machine.
Because I was hopped up on ADHD Timewatching Energy I decided to go to the cinema - my nearest multiplex is a Showcase and at the moment they're doing an offer of 5 tickets for £25, which is still a great deal even with my loyalty card. I saw the theatrical reissue of Avengers Endgame, and saw it in the Fancy Screen™️ which I wouldn't usually bother with but I didn't want to wait for the evening screening in the regular screen. Not worth the extra fee (and way louder so I did have to use my headphones as external earplugs just to take the edge off) but it was only a small extra fee, and still a big saving with the offer. The screen was also almost empty which I always love 😁 If I was rich enough to have a proper home cinema screening room I don't think I would ever leave it!
Glad you got the day wrong and not that the taxi forgot to turn up @pomona. I wondered why my friend didn't turn up on a Zoom call the other week till I realises I had the wrong day.
I was picked up early this morning to go and meet and greet a load of people doing a fundraising indoor cycle for the Stroke Association and the British Heart Foundation. They'd already raised over £13,000 before they started, so I was well impressed. This afternoon I went to the 2nd anniversary of the local Baby Basics charity that provides essentials for mothers and their new babies who have need of them, and then this evening to a read through of a play by a new local playwright. The party was good as it was really useful to see how the charity operates and the play was interesting though I think it needs rather a lot of work. The playwright herself was impressive and I'm sure she'll do great things when she really starts to find her voice.
I have nothing on for tomorrow other than go to my church for Mass something that I haven't managed for weeks. Wine and a Strictly catch-up are planned for the evening.
Flu & Covid jabs this morning. No discomfort for most of the day but now, just as I am about to go to bed, feeling a bit sore in both arms.
Going to be an even more restless night than usual, as I will feel a jab site whichever side I sleep on.
An artificial Pumpkin? Is Outrage, and probably insincere...
Guilty as charged, probably. In my defence - in our previous house I did a very tasteful autumn display of leaves, lights, and several small real pumpkins and decorative squashes, on the stone hearth of the fireplace, which in this house We Have Not Got. When I came to clear it away I found the squashes had rotted from underneath and stained the hearth with a mark I was never able to erase. I vowed Never Again.
In my - successful - search for said Artificial Pumpkin and other associated ornaments I unwrapped a small boxful of ornaments I had in my previous study. I was going to wait until I have some shelves above my desk to put them on, but I couldn't bear to pack them all away again in bubble wrap, as if they weren't here to stay, so I've made a display of my most favourite ones on the windowsill and it's really nice to be able to look at them again.
We enjoyed the Harvest Supper - can't remember the last time I sat down to a ploughman's platter (can't call it lunch, as it was in the evening) - although I felt a bit bad about not staying to help clear up. The success of this and other things, as so often, seems to depend on a Willing and Faithful Few, all of whom are older than us. But it went on until 10pm and I sleep so badly and wake so early that I am good for nothing beyond 9.30pm.
Breakfast church at Our Place this morning, it seems ages since we had a local service but I guess it's been a busy few weeks.
My last ‘ free’ day for a while, so I have chores to do, work on my new and old devices ( it’s complicated and Grandson is not answering my requests for help - he’s probably still asleep).
I ventured to my church for Pancakes and Praise for once, as it was harvest.
‘We plough the fields’ was set way too high for everyone but me, and two were worship songs I vaguely knew. The last one was on the screens with a band and nobody knew it . Awful. But the rest of the service was well planned and the four children there enjoyed taking part.
We were given a sheet to write down words we could find in Harvest. This kept my mind busy and I reached 60. The intercessions involved a few of these words eg have, eat, starve, share.
I'm obviously still not entirely well as walking to and from church wiped me out. After lunch I went for a nap and woke up with a rather bad coughing fit. I really hope that whatever I've got totally buggers off soon. At least I have nothing on the rest of the day and the only thing tomorrow is a stroll to the Quaker Meeting House to look at an exhibition they have there,
Comments
Yes, muddling is an accurate term, especially if, like me, you pick it up just once in a while and when you resume you cannot find all the bits 😬
As things stand I have the makings of a baseboard and I have plenty of rolling stock and buildings (building buildings is very therapeutic) but can I find the track? No, I cannot. It must be in a different safe place™️.
I still can't get my mobile to talk to the bank (see TICTH) and think I might cut my losses and get a proper new one. A trip to the Gyle on Saturday, methinks. I need it to work: My house insurance runs out in a couple of weeks, and renewing it requires app verification. What a faff.
Supper was part 2 of the orzo thingy. I added a splat of crème fraîche to stop it from catching when it was heating up, and it worked a treat.
Later this afternoon we have a Blind Man coming (cue Vicar of Dibley joke ) to quote for an external blind for our very large landing window which contributed significantly to the high temperatures in Casa Nen during the recent heatwaves.
I headed out this morning to my usual Friday morning Zumba class but sadly the teacher didn't turn up and the staff at the centre said they understood last week had been her last week. She had told us she was leaving but "not for another couple of weeks" and as we'd been able to book the class as normal we'd all assumed this week's was happening. They did put on a "virtual" class for us, performed onscreen by 20-year-old break dancers, which didn't quite suit the group of *cough* ladies of a certain age *cough* so I'm not sure of the way forward there.
In other news, I made my first batch of Parkin yesterday, which is now wrapped up and maturing in the cupboard for the next few days. Mr Nen got very excited at the sight of it and asked when we could sample it; he was a bit downcast on being told "Not for at least five days." ("How many days???")
Stir fry this evening - our usual Saturday fare, but we are out tomorrow evening at the Village Harvest Supper. Red WINE will also be consumed.
A quiet day otherwise. Laundry has been laundered, the market frequented, and Beethoven practised. I bought fish on the market, but fortunately I didn't get any cheese, because husband en rouge went to a pop-up Aveyron market this afternoon and returned with a truly obscene amount of the same (large chunks of Roquefort, tomme and bleu des Causses). Some of it will have to go in the freezer I think.
@la vie en rouge those shoes sound very snazzy! Jealous of all the cheese. Very windy and showery here so feeling Definitely Autumnal too.
F&C for supper, because Friday.
I take your point about the O/P office not being staffed; on the other hand, hospital parking is much easier at weekends if you're coming by car. Not so good though for public transport: our dedicated hospital P&R bus doesn't run on Saturdays.
Ah, I missed that bit!
ION, a dry but cloudy and blustery day in Arkland the Windblown, though there is the occasional burst of Sun-Shine. The north-west breeze is not unpleasant...
Lunch is a BAKED SPUD with LAMB CHOPS.
Mr Nen and I had a very nice morning visiting the site of a disused local canal where much work is going on to - eventually - link it up with the canal network. We live near one but I confess I don't actually like canals much but I do find them interesting. We took part in a Site Tour and drank coffee and ate homemade cake at the little pop-up café. It stayed dry but the wind was chilly - I could have done with wearing a couple more layers. We were given high-vis jackets to wear and agreed that fluorescent yellow is definitely our colour. We should wear it more often.
Back for lunch and then a bit of time in the garden tidying things up. I have gone a bit over the top with cutting back one of the shrubs at the front and hope it will recover in the spring
This evening we are heading to the village hall for the annual Harvest Supper.
A bit like Trigger's broom?
It's a bonny but rather blustrous day here, but it's been quite productive.
I ambled along to the phone shop after choir practice, and explained that I still wasn't getting some text messages. The geek nice bloke asked which network provider I was with (why he didn't ask this at the outset I don't know), fiddled about with the SIM card and sent me on my merry way. Lo and behold, when I went into the banking app, all went as it should: I now appear to have a functional mobile and have arranged for the porcine château to be insured for another year.
I celebrated this good fortune with an Expotition to Marks and Sparks, where I spent my lottery winnings.*
Supper will be STEAK, with potatoes, mushrooms and greens.
* a £10 M&S voucher on the People's Postcode lottery.
Because I was hopped up on ADHD Timewatching Energy I decided to go to the cinema - my nearest multiplex is a Showcase and at the moment they're doing an offer of 5 tickets for £25, which is still a great deal even with my loyalty card. I saw the theatrical reissue of Avengers Endgame, and saw it in the Fancy Screen™️ which I wouldn't usually bother with but I didn't want to wait for the evening screening in the regular screen. Not worth the extra fee (and way louder so I did have to use my headphones as external earplugs just to take the edge off) but it was only a small extra fee, and still a big saving with the offer. The screen was also almost empty which I always love 😁 If I was rich enough to have a proper home cinema screening room I don't think I would ever leave it!
I was picked up early this morning to go and meet and greet a load of people doing a fundraising indoor cycle for the Stroke Association and the British Heart Foundation. They'd already raised over £13,000 before they started, so I was well impressed. This afternoon I went to the 2nd anniversary of the local Baby Basics charity that provides essentials for mothers and their new babies who have need of them, and then this evening to a read through of a play by a new local playwright. The party was good as it was really useful to see how the charity operates and the play was interesting though I think it needs rather a lot of work. The playwright herself was impressive and I'm sure she'll do great things when she really starts to find her voice.
I have nothing on for tomorrow other than go to my church for Mass something that I haven't managed for weeks. Wine and a Strictly catch-up are planned for the evening.
Going to be an even more restless night than usual, as I will feel a jab site whichever side I sleep on.
Guilty as charged, probably. In my defence - in our previous house I did a very tasteful autumn display of leaves, lights, and several small real pumpkins and decorative squashes, on the stone hearth of the fireplace, which in this house We Have Not Got. When I came to clear it away I found the squashes had rotted from underneath and stained the hearth with a mark I was never able to erase. I vowed Never Again.
In my - successful - search for said Artificial Pumpkin and other associated ornaments I unwrapped a small boxful of ornaments I had in my previous study. I was going to wait until I have some shelves above my desk to put them on, but I couldn't bear to pack them all away again in bubble wrap, as if they weren't here to stay, so I've made a display of my most favourite ones on the windowsill and it's really nice to be able to look at them again.
We enjoyed the Harvest Supper - can't remember the last time I sat down to a ploughman's platter (can't call it lunch, as it was in the evening) - although I felt a bit bad about not staying to help clear up. The success of this and other things, as so often, seems to depend on a Willing and Faithful Few, all of whom are older than us. But it went on until 10pm and I sleep so badly and wake so early that I am good for nothing beyond 9.30pm.
Breakfast church at Our Place this morning, it seems ages since we had a local service but I guess it's been a busy few weeks.
@Priscilla - The Wilts and Berks Canal at Pewsham.
I ventured to my church for Pancakes and Praise for once, as it was harvest.
‘We plough the fields’ was set way too high for everyone but me, and two were worship songs I vaguely knew. The last one was on the screens with a band and nobody knew it . Awful. But the rest of the service was well planned and the four children there enjoyed taking part.
We were given a sheet to write down words we could find in Harvest. This kept my mind busy and I reached 60. The intercessions involved a few of these words eg have, eat, starve, share.