Post script to oat cake recipe

 We made this with a nut topping and a lemon drizzle and it was lush!

Absolutely gorgeous and for SW members, cut into 6 pieces, each piece is only 2 syns.. if you have the oats as a healthy B! 

Chrisxx

Diet Oat Cake

Ingredients

120g Oats ground down so looks like flour.

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 eggs

3 tbls honey

2 carrots peeled and chopped 

2 apples peeled and chopped

30 g raisons

Method

Line an 8 inch tin with baking paper and grease the paper too

Preheat oven 180C 

Whizz carrots and apple together.

Add to other ingredients and mix all ingredients together, stir well.

Spoon into tin and level mixture

You can if you want sprinkle chopped walnuts on the top before cooking.

Cook for 35 mins

Allow to cool and place on a rack

Enjoy!!

Chrisxx

Rough seas

 

We went for a walk yesterday afternoon and although there wasn't any sun, it was mild and very pleasant. We hadn't been out since last Friday, because the rain has been horrendous. So it was lovely to get out walking on the promenade. The air felt so fresh, I walked further than I had done for a while, so I was very pleased with myself. I'm hoping I will be back up to a mile by the end of the month. Might not seem a lot to some. but while I was still nervous after my accident I haven't been walking.

I walked confidently with my 'wheels' even offered to race with an old looking man who had rollator too.. He laughed out loud and said.. 'Just seen you racing along, so I wouldn't have a chance!'

I said 'Hello' to everyone I saw, I believe in smiling to everyone and talking to them if they smile back.

We did sit and watch the waves crashing up over rocks, they were magnificent! I really enjoyed it....... me?? who used to say I don't like walking!

Chrisxx

School Toilets'!

This advert really makes me laugh, because the boy is so serious. Could this video be his mum's proud moment, which she shows to his first girl friend when he is older? 

When my children were at Comprehensive school, we lived about 5 mins sprint away and my #1 son used to run home to use the toilet in his break. 

As a teacher I often had to say quietly to the year 3 children. if they complained of a tummy pain.. perhaps you need the toilet? 

One school where we had an OFSTED Inspection, when the Key stage 1 girls (5 and 6) were asked what they didn't like about school? The answer was 'The toilets!' What they liked best?... 'Play times!'

As a Senior teacher in two schools, what we were always looking for was a deodorant for the tiles in the boys toilets, as they used to wee on the walls!! Why?? To see who could wee the highest!

The bane of the cleaners and caretakers.

Thank goodness I'm now out of it and retired!

Chrisxx

Rain but something's are good.

 I don't know about you, but I'm fed up with all this rain and wind. When we popped into town at the weekend, we watched people from inside Costa trying to battle with their umbrellas and dashing through the deluge.

We got chatting to a couple sitting at a table adjacent to us, who had arrived for a caravan holiday that day.. Dh and I smiled because, when the weather is bad we always say..'At least we're not on holiday!' Poor people, they were meeting up with their family and young grand children for a weeks stay. I thought back to when I'd stayed with my young children, in Devon in dreadful weather and we survived!

We were caught in a shower when we went back to our car and although I was wearing my mac, it wasn't as long as my dress and I had to change out of it when we got home. 

In spite of the rain, which has greened up the grass, the garden still has some colour.

These Michaelmas Daisies do us proud every year and they've spread so filling a space beautifully.

And our grape vine has done well again, we'll be picking a bunch at a time in a week or two time. Last year we missed some and saw them end of October still on the vine and they were so sweet, so something to look forward to. We usually take a bunch to our Slimming World group for the Slimmer of the week!

And our tomatoes continue to ripen, and there's a lot of them still to come. We don't make chutney any more because we're always dieting, but I think this year we will, just  a couple of jars for 'C'. 

And we're going to make a cake too, not the usual fruit one but I've a very nice recipe for a boiled cake, with an apricot jam topping! Drooling just thinking about it!  What about you are you planning ahead for 'C?

Chrisxx

BRONWEN - Ar Ddiwedd Dydd (Live from Fieldgate)

Bronwen Lewis is a 25 year old young woman from S Wales who started to translate pop songs from age 15 and has gained popularity though Radio 1 and Tik Tok.. she gigs singing pop songs in Welsh and writes her own songs too.

She has a super recording of Carole Kings, 'You've got a Friend,' 

For an unknown reason I can't get the video of it, but here is the link.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100050476959949

Chrisxx

Do you have one?

What I'm asking is... do you have a Degree in Hindsight??

If only we did what a lot of heart ache we'd save ourselves. I used to constantly say 'hindsight?' to my eldest son. Five years ago when we thinking of moving here, my eldest son was bemoaning the fact that his photography job, altho' paid enough for him to live,  left little time for a social life, as he had to drive great distances and work most weekends. Looking for other jobs in your 50s wasn't easy and jobs that paid as much as his photography work, all wanted a Degree Qualification. Of course he had dropped out of Uni when he was diagnosed with Crohns. 

But there were night courses where he could get a degree in Arts with photography as his main subject. It would have been a 3 year course with some day classes. I offered him financial help if he had to cancel a booking photography day to attend a college that day. We looked at jobs he could get, even teaching.. which wouldn't have been arts but maths. And the salary was good with paid holidays, sick pay and a pension. ( He is self employed ) There is a big shortage of maths teachers and he excelled at maths and had the previous year coached a neighbour in his 30s, who was trying to get an 'O' and  'A' level in maths to do a college degree course! The man passed and was very very grateful to my son and said he should be a teacher! He has even helped sons of friends of mine, via face time or zoom to solve tricky higher level maths homework!

But my son wasn't too enthusiastic about a 3 year course. Since then what with covid and lockdown, his life has not been easy and here he is today, still working weekends and driving all over the country!  Although now he is supplementing his photography work with his growing Ebay business and is in the position of being able to turn down work he doesn't fancy doing. Even told one firm not to bother contacting him again, because they always paid him last minute, which he said was very satisfying. And he does now have a social life meeting friends regularly and having some weekends free. 

But he is still self employed and doesn't reckon he will retire till well into his 70s! If only he had taken that chance, he'd have a degree now.

Hindsight is cruel in some ways and yet other ways life saver. What so you think?

Chrisxx

Feeling delicate!

 Since my accident in the supermarket, nearly 4 weeks ago, I have had a problem sitting comfortably.  I didn't crash down on my posterior, but I did injure it and its been very bruised and tender. So when I'm feeling delicate I tend to read what I term a 'comfort' read. 

And books by Elizabeth Berg is my go to author. 

Her writing style is gentle, its well written and her stories are from a female perspective, delving into relationships and emotions, just what you need when you don't need excitement.

'Home Safe' is about Helen a successful author in her fifties recently widowed, reassessing her life, trying to unpick her past life and how she now has to proceed. Drowning in her grief, she is shocked to discover that her gentle loving husband hadn't left her as financially secure as she thought. The story weaves around her finding out what happened and her need to find her own new life path. A writers block, her constant need of her 27 year old daughter Tessa, is part of her problem in trying to reshape her life. 

I loved her analogy of life:  'Like gathering berries in an apron with a hole in it. Why do we keep on? Because the berries are beautiful and we must eat to survive. We catch what we can,. We walk past what we lose for the promise of more just ahead.' 

If you like books that are about women in life, written in a gentle way, you will enjoy books by Elizabeth Berg. I don't want to write too much about this book to spoil it for anyone, who decides to read it,

It is the 8th book I've read by this author I love her books.

Chrisxx

You have to laugh!

 Isn't annoying when things go wrong. We were happily having a second cup of tea yesterday morning watching TV and I thought to change the programme.  Clicked the hand controller and the screen froze..I tried to switch off to reset it and nothing happened??  Dh switched off at the TV set,  and then switched back on and it was the same. Must be the batteries in the hand controller, so he changed them, still the same, frozen screen. I phoned my son and he said you have to leave it switched off for at least 5 mins. So we did and tried again, nothing! 

Well I said before we start looking at new TVs, because we've had this one since 2016, lets look on line.

So I searched for 'What to do if a Sony Smart TV screen freezes?' There were hundreds of answers.. we were looking through them and then Dh said.. 'hang on I'll redo the batteries, perhaps they aren't in properly. Oh nooo I had them in upside down.' We were both hysterical laughing, my son was relieved for us,  as they were just packing up their motor home to drive home to W. Wales, but he would have come round if we hadn't sorted it.

I am still laughing a day later, because Dh was an Electronic Engineer!! 

But we are relieved its ok altho' we have our emergency fund and were quite happy to buy a new one.

Chrisxx

My moneys worth?

 I needed a Dr appointment yesterday and dreaded the 8 o'clock scramble, even though our surgery has a new phone system it can still be problematic. 

I'd had my tablets changed because a few months ago the ones I had been taking for years were unavailable? The Ukraine war?? But the new tablets just didn't suit me, my insomnia was awful, night after night awake. And I have an ear problem, itchy and can ache. So to hear I was number 41 in the queue on the phone didn't fill me with hope. But within minutes I was through and offered an app. at 3 pm.. 

I saw a Dr I'd seen before!! Very efficient, young, slim, very boyish looking with a foreign name, I like him.  I did ask for a double app, time!.  Sorted out my tabs right away, back to my original ones and even suggested that the new ones could be the cause of my imbalance in walking! 

Then looked in my ears and his otoscope showed an image on a small screen of inside your ear! Wow, he showed me it, fascinating. He then looked into my hair, at my head around my left ear and thought the problem started there. 

Then he checked my blood results for my thyroid test I had a few weeks ago and although they are within the normal range, it was borderline and is the cause of my difficulty in losing weight, so made a note for me to have another test at the end of the month.

So I came away with prescription for my original tabs, ear spray and hair shampoo. I felt I'd had my money's worth and had a good appointment, really gave me a lift! Thank you Dr Yasir!

Chrisxx

Welcome Autumn

 

Chrisxx