It really is almost done now. The mincemeat is ready to bake off from this week, the cake is ready to marzipan this week, all my cards are written and most are posted, all the gifts are bought, barring a few that need to wait a few days and just need wrapping up.
My biggy is that I have found my dress for this Christmas. It’s brave and bright red and gorgeous. I’ll put it with silver sandals and some other bits and bobs and it should be great.
I think I’ve already had one of my best Christmas gifts. Last week I was finally invited for consultation with regard to the fact that my position was being made redundant. It may sound odd to be happy to be in this position, but I’ve been waiting 22 months for this meeting and it’s been hard work and quite depressing in all honesty, so yes, I’m happy. I have lots of plans and I can now put them in place within an actual timeline. [More]
I’ve been going crazy lately, fighting with crises and migraines, but I can report that six days ago I started the Christmas mincemeat.
I’m almost finished with the shopping. To be totally truthful it’s not hard to finish, my budget is fairly tight and I have a per person price limit, with one or two exceptions.
My decorations went up on Advent Sunday. I suspect a couple of eyebrows went up in the neighbourhood, but who cares; it’s the closest I could get to the first of December and I’m too busy from now on to fit it in any other time! [More]
I needed to go shopping today. I actually prefer shopping on a weekday, either fairly early or after work, when most sane people are in bed. Today I was reminded of why.
To put is simply, Tesco was heaving with people. Now you might say that how a supermarket should be, but I don’t deal hugely well with crowds. I like people, sure, but hundreds of them milling in all directions and coming at me no matter which way I tried to point my trolley? No thanks, I’ll stick to shopping after 10pm and risk the self-serve checkouts thanks!
I’m not sure if it’s the low mood/mild depression, but I felt almost claustrophobic in there, my spatial awareness is pretty strong anyway, and when I’m unwell in any way, shape or form it gets even stronger. I couldn’t help but think that I would actually pay not to work there on a Saturday if I was employed by them. I couldn’t help wondering if it would have been wiser to order online and pay the delivery charge for not that much food. [More]
Bedford’s Mayor, Frank Branston, died recently. This sparked the need for an election to find a new mayor.
My question, maybe more of an issue, is this: how can I be sure that the person I just went out and voted for is actually going to deliver on what they’ve said will be their priorty? I can’t stand over them and crack a whip – no one would pay me to and I can’t do it for free.
Maybe it’s just that I’ve got a heightened sense of what I see as wrong or unfair at the moment. I’m not really sure to be honest, but my faith in politics is really being shaken and my general faith in human nature has taken a huge slap lately.
On the bright side, I got some grocery shopping done yesterday and this morning I’ve got some laundry out of the way. This is a pretty good sign, because if I can’t buy food and do laundry it’s next stop – anti depressants. Maybe the fact that the weather is stable is helping, I’m not totally sure.
I do have something proper to look forward to, Dan is coming for a long weekend. My house will get clean and tidy (always does when I’m expecting visitors I care about!) and I’ll actually find the energy to cook proper food again. Anyone else fancy dropping by? You might get met at the door with a duster and a cup of tea though!
Tuesday dawned foggy and wet and really not the nicest start to our holiday, so we decided to look for an indoor-type attraction where we should be dry and relatively warm. We decided that Goonhilly might be good, so we piled the wheelchair, map, coats, waterbottles and ourselves into the car and set off with great expectations.
It was great rolling up. There’s this almighty satellite dish close to the gates that you can see for miles around. We went in, got our stickers and went off to look around the exhibition.
It was quite interesting, there was a display showing how we progressed from Morse to the telegraph and on to the telephone and international calling and how the world of communication has changed and evolved. There was a display telling the story of undersea cables and how they were laid to carry calls to America and beyond. [More]
Today hasn’t gone at all the way I planned for it to go way back on Friday. I was going to do some batch cooking and freezing, as well as laundry and some cleaning and tidying. I’m going on holiday soon and I want the house clean and tidy, but something prompted me on Friday morning to go onto the Freecycle website and ask if anyone had a breadmaker lying around. Mine died a little while ago and I miss having the fresh bread – and no, I can’t make it by hand, I simply don’t have any space in my wee kitchen to do it!
Well, someone emailed me back that they had one I could have and after a few emails I was all set to cycle out to collect it this morning. Bang went my cleaning and cooking and laundry morning, but I was going on a 10+ mile bike ride on a nice day, so who cared really; there was a whole shiny 3 day weekend that I could fill with that but only Saturday morning that I could go for this breadmaker. [More]
I have just had a fantastic weekend. I had the day off on Friday because Dan was coming for the weekend. Because he had work today, having friday off maximised the time we had.
It did start a little bumpy, I had a Tesco.com order due to arrive and Dan and his parents arriving at some stage, and they all arrived at almost the same time – just as it really started to rain hard! Fortunately it was just a shower for about 10 minutes so it didn’t do too much damage to anyone’s day. With a little co-operation the shopping was sorted, Dan’s bags and chair were installed, and Ted and Dee headed out for their own weekend.
We didn’t do a huge amount on Friday afternoon, packed away the shopping, had a bit of lunch, headed to Tesco proper for a few bits I’d forgotten on the main shopping list that couldn’t wait, came back and rested a bit and then had a text from Beckie to say that after not thinking she’d be free, so would be over a bit later. [More]
I’ve just got back from the bike shop. I fell off my bike earlier this week and knocked the front wheel out of alignment with the handlebars. In addition, my front brake cable had worn very thin, so it seemed like a really good idea to get the brakes fixed and the wheel reset all at the same time. It cost a whole five pounds.
Imagine how much it would have cost to do that on a car? Now you know why I prefer my bike! Servicing costs a whopping £30, tyres vary but the posh ones are £30 each. I could go on, but I’d hate to lose friends.
I love the fact that I get from A to B without paying for fuel or tax or parking; that I stay fit without a gym membership.
I will say though, the downside comes when I fall off, usually because I’m tired or have loaded up shopping badly. I do make a point of trying not to fall off, not least because the scrapes and bruises take a while to fade!
No big shop this week though, I’m waiting for Tesco to deliver as I type, although the delivery slot is not yet, so they won’t come for at least half an hour! I’m also waiting for Dan to arrive, and so far I’ve cleared the drainer and cut the grass and cleaned my nails. I’ll finish the dishes and clean my face and paint my nails and I’ll likely have wet nails when Tesco arrive, looking at how my week has gone so far!
Enjoy your weekend!
I got home from work last night and just as I was opening the door I remembered that I needed to go straight back out and buy cat food. It’s a staple in this house, two thirds of the occupants won’t eat anything else.
Anyway. I picked up the shopping bag, relocked the door and started walking. Then a small black and white streak shot across the carpark. Jewel had decided that as I hadn’t fed her, she would escort me wherever I was going to make sure she got fed.
She literally followed me right to the Tesco gate. It’s only a matter of a 10 minutes walk, but a lot of that walk is beside a relatively busy road and onto a busy shop site where huge lorries come in to make deliveries.
I was really surprised to be honest, she did this once before but not for a very long time, and I hadn’t expected it at all. Anyway, she waited for me at the site entrance, and when I came back she escorted me home again, by which point I decided she was clever enough (or persistent enough!) to deserve her supper, so I fed them both!
I just couldn’t get over the fact that she was prepared to go to a noisy, scarey place, full of the cars she is very scared of because I was going that way and she wanted to be sure I came back and fed her.
I love my moggy.
I went shopping on Saturday. I’ve got a series of events to go to and I didn’t have an outfit that was suitable for weddings, parties and bar mitzvahs.
I’m something of an oddity I think. I don’t like trawling through shop after shop. I don’t mind loooking in six shop in the high street, but the idea of having to go though every shop in town to find a dress, shoes, jacket-type thing, stockings, jewellery, and do so is so frustrating as to be repellant.I think I’d prefer to buy the stuff online to be honest, but this time around I didn’t.
I was very surprised at who had a decent range and who did not. I wasn’t looking at prices, I was going to buy a nice outfit and I was prepared to spend good money to make sure I looked nice on the day. [More]