We had a lovely morning in town yesterday, no rain, at last it had stopped and the wind had dropped. The main reason of going was to pick up our Christmas dinner, duck from the butchers..There was a young woman singing in the middle of the main street and she had the most beautiful voice.. she was collecting for women in East Asia, all official, as there are often people singing or playing instruments there, all always very talented. I stood and listen to her for ages.
Then ooops I had a bit of a problem, because suddenly one of the straps on the wee collection bag on my leg of this catheter, loosened and it slipped down and we had to step into a side street, so Dh could tighten it up! All done very discreetly and quickly, so all ok. People were all too busy to notice anyway.
We had a lovely coffee and one of these, well it is Christmas!
Saturday Dh and I spent the afternoon baking! And we loved it, working together, tasting as we went and we've realised how many food bits our dog Nell ate that dropped onto the floor, because the floor was a mess when we'd finished!
This is the fruit bread we've made it in the past, but the uncooked roll is cut length ways and both sides then rolled round to make this shape. It is delicious and very more-ish!
The recipe can be found here and how its made into this shape..watching this video is very calming!
We had such a lovely afternoon, we also made an Orange flavoured cake mix and of course Tiffin.. roll on Christmas.
What an awful weather, the rain is streaming down the window panes, but its not cold as temps outside are 11C so comparatively warm, as long as you're wearing warm clothes. We keep our home on the warm side!
I really enjoyed my day yesterday, with a slow start not showering till 10-ish.. yes we swerved SW, as I was sure I might have gained a pound or two in the week and who wants to be told they've gained weight on their birthday??
We hadn't really planned anything definite except to eat out for lunch but not where.. I said the garden centre which is about 5 miles from us and does have a decent café.
Wow, they had extended it and now had a full menu! I still just had a sandwich, a big meal at lunch time doesn't suit me; so a prawn mayo sandwich was my choice. It was delicious, white bread, real butter and served with crisps and a salad. all went down very nicely with an Elderflower Presse. Dh had a Ham and Cheese Panini..
And then we went into the garden section. Although it was raining there was an overhead covering, which was just as well because the heavy rain was like someone going mad on drums!
And this is what I choose..a Winter Flowering Jasmine for the fence.
A white Hellibore for the front trough as one plant has died off in it.
And a Skimmia again for the front trough.
(These are photographs from the internet as too wet to go outside)
So a very pleasing visit and buys.. I ate 6 chocolates from the Dairy box Dh had bought me, the only chocs I eat and those yesterday will keep me happy for days. I'm not a big chocolate eater, ice cream is my happy eats!!
So I enjoyed my day, I have a thick fleece dressing gown to wear while I read my new book, and while I fill in my new address book and stuff myself full of chocs! And all were beautifully wrapped too with bows and ribbons.. Dh always goes the extra mile for my birthday as its so near Christmas.
So I've made it to 82, it doesn't always feels that old, except on wet days, my aches and pains let me know I'm no longer a spring chicken!
99% of people born between 1930 and 1946 (GLOBALLY) are now dead.
If you were born in this time span, your ages range between 77 and 93 years old (a 16-year age span) and you are one of the rare surviving one-percenters.
You are the smallest group of children born since the early 1900's.
You are the last generation, climbing out of the depression, who can remember the winds of war and the impact of a world at war that rattled the structure of our daily lives for years.
You are the last to remember ration books for everything from tea to sugar to shoes. You saved tin foil and poured fried meat fat into cans.
You can remember milk being delivered to your house early in the morning and placed in the "milk box" at the front door. Discipline was enforced by parents and teachers. You are the last generation who spent childhood without television and instead, you “imagined” what you heard on the radio.
With no TV, you spent your childhood "playing outside". There was no city playground for kids. The lack of television in your early years meant that you had little real understanding of what the world was like.
We got “black-and-white” TV in the late 50s that had 3 stations and no remote.
Telephones (if you had one) were one to a house and hung on the wall in the kitchen (who cares about privacy). Computers were called calculators; they were hand-cranked. Typewriters were driven by pounding fingers, throwing the carriage, and changing the ribbon. INTERNET and GOOGLE were words that did not exist.
Newspapers and magazines were written for adults and your dad would give you the comic pages after he read the news. The news was broadcast on your radio in the evening. The radio network gradually expanded from 3 stations to thousands.
New highways would bring jobs and mobility. Most highways were 2 lanes and there were no Motorways. You went downtown to shop. You walked to school.
Alison Kraus is my favourite Country singer, her song, 'Now That I've found You.' was played so often by my daughter, my grand daughter at 4 years old used to sing along with the CD and knew all the words.
I still like her although many people have never heard of her. In the last school I worked, a teacher there used to organise a music quiz every year for a local charity. I astounded my colleagues by naming her when he played her most popular song, which gave our team the winning point!
How could I not know it when my grand daughter used to sing it all the day long, and I still like it.
I need this carol to calm me down; I was awake in the night for hours which means so was Dh! I did eventually get back to sleep and slept till 9.. at 9:15 I had a phone call from the district nurse to say she was coming at 10:30 ish!! Big rush to shower and dress and to make sure there was a clean towel in the bathroom because she has always washed her hands.. what a good thing that we cleaned yesterday and cleared away the stuff we leave about,.. she arrived with a young man, who is training to be a district nurse..
I was waiting for the questions, how I was etc, when she said the whole point of her visit was to change the catheter!!Oh no, pain my mind said! But honestly it didn't hurt one bit! This is a 12 week catheter, so bringing it to March before it can come out! Altho' I should be contacted by a Urologist before then, to decide what happens next??? I wasn't expected that, I thought this was a short time temporary thing. So I am not happy.
I already had an appointment with the chiropodist, she was supposed to come on 9th Dec, I had written the date and time down when she was here after last time.. she absolutely denied she had made that appointment for me and so I said 'what ever;' I seethed inside, she is a very 'I am right' sort of person with very black and white views. She did annoy me! She insisted it was 1:00pm Dec 18th which is not a time I usually agree to, because we eat at that time.
But on top of that we had a phone call from the library to say the Book Group time had been brought forward from 2:30 to 1:00 pm!!
So Dh informed them we would be late! Why and how some people expect you to fall in with their times, when they give you such short notice I don't know! Its a one off thing because its Christmas, we were told and it will be back to our usual time after it... didn't the person who organizes it know to tell us last month?
So all in all a traumatic start to my day.
The book group book was 'Foxash,' by Kate Worsley, I wouldn't recommend it. It was a depressing dark, horror story set in the 1930s, post the Great Depression, and based on true historical fact when unemployed people were set up on 4 acres of land, to grow produce to sell and make a living.
So I was very glad to pick up a book by Erica James last night to read at bedtime, a real comfort read!
What a day I was exhausted and it was only Wednesday, there's the rest of the week to get through now. I hope no other phone calls to upset plans already in place!
We did manage to decorate the outside of our bungalow yesterday and although Dh had promised he wouldn't do daft things on the steps, like over stretching and falling off, to make sure, I supervised!
So we have coloured lights round our brick posts which flick off and on, so maybe annoying to our neighbours, whose music is sometimes very, very loud! Although this year they do have lights outside round their Olive trees!
And one of the very large extended houses, whose house front is a large glass frontage have firm to decorate their house, so it probably can be seen from space!
Our town does have lights but they're not wonderful and there have been numerous complaints from the towns people and a query as to where does our money go to?
One of the main roundabouts last year, we haven't got this on the roundabout this year because the reindeer were stolen! Sad!
Our new cooker is perfect with a lot of features we hadn't realised it had, a de-frost setting and a proving setting for making bread. So Dh is very happy, as its he who does all the cooking and I'm happy too! I might have a go myself and make some of the extras we have at Christmas time. We had a very tasty chicken Sunday dinner, the oven heats up a lot faster too, so perhaps the old one was failing for a while?
The only snag is the company we bought it from keeps texting to ask how was........ the delivery, the unpacking, the driver, bringing it into our house etc. I've given up answering and now delete them. And the phone call to push for the extra cover, no thank you; its guaranteed for 5 years, more than we thought.
To be honest if I was in better health and it wasn't Christmas I would have looked into having the old one repaired, but needs must sometimes and I just couldn't face the stress.
We had to connect it up ourselves, its a duel fuel but Dh knew what to do.
We were all set to go walking in the afternoon yesterday, but the heavens opened and the grey skies let us have what they've been threatening all week. I watched the squirrel skip through the drops straight to the fat balls we put out for the birds, not a bit bothered by the rain. He's amazing the way he hangs upside down by his tail, gobbling away, his little pink ears sticking right up. He's been digging at the edge of the flower bed, so hope he's left some bulbs for me!
So we're all calm with a cooker that works and some Christmassy things in the lounge and as we've sent our cards and presents to Dh's grand children so we feel organized.. I've sent birthday cards to two friends who have birthdays right after Christmas and Dh's remembered his son in law's.. so all happy here and our tree lights are twinkling!
Scallop, quail egg on a bed of smoked salmon and crab, dressed with watercress and a sauce of Gazpacho.
Main.
Turkey Wellington, mixed root vegetables, roasted sprout tops, roasted potatoes, pureed beetroot, drizzled with red wine gravy, dressed with pea shoots and cranberry sauce.
Desert
Home cooked Christmas Pudding with creamed custard.
A very busy day and I'm out of 'go juice' I am still waking at night wanting to wee! Its torture and I phoned the help line, which is available 24/7 and evidently its normal, and she couldn't have an answer, except try to relax.
But how do you sleep if you have the feeling you're needing a wee??
I did go to my old hairdresser so I'm looking tidy in fact better than tidy, curled nicely....
So an early night for me, I think.
A gentleman waiting for his wife in the hairdressers spoke to me while I was waiting for Dh.
Siarad Cymraig? And I was able to answer.
Ie, tipy ty bach, sut dych chi?= yes a little, how are you?
He answered Dw i da iawn... =I'm very well.
Then Dh arrived and I said..
Yma fy cariad= here is my darling,.... because I couldn't remember the word for husband!
