Like or Don't Like?

 We are all so different and although I do try to be pleasant some days, I don't feel like being pleasant. Last week..for some unknown reason, I nearly screamed at someone. Where ever we are if she comes across us, she has to sit beside me. I've never asked her to join us and although she appears to be a very pleasant person, I just don't like her. I can't explain why, apart from leaning over me up close, she hasn't actually done anything to me, so what is it about her that I find to dislike? Some of her comments are barbed, and she must be either hard of hearing or plainly down right rude, because she starts to talk when you are still talking and answering her.   I've tried to analyse why I don't like her, but I don't know why.

When we first met some of my relatives in Australia, they were all very nice , but one, Coral the wife of Lance, who is a second cousin of my late mother (got it??) I didn't just like her, I loved her, right from the beginning, why? I couldn't tell you. We had written letters to each other, not emails, actually 'snail mail' letters. It all started when one cousin of my mother, wanted to write to someone from the 'old' country, Wales.. and as I was the one who wrote for my grandmother to her sister, my name was put forward.  We wrote for quite a while, I got to know him quite well and secretly sort of loved him. When I learnt he had been killed in a car accident; I was very upset and took a day off work. His sister asked if I'd like to write to her as evidently my letters were shared. When she died her daughter in law, saw my last letter with a Christmas card and wrote to tell me, and that's how we got to know each other. What was it about Coral that I loved? I don't know, we are still in contact, now via the internet.  She has a warm way about her that appealed to me from the first moment I met her, and I still love her!

So why do we  like some people and not others? 

Chrisxx

We did.....

 We took it and  there was only 2 very small slices left, which we had for lunch when we got home, so it was well received by the group members.

I made the full salad to go with it.

Shredded crisp lettuce

Pickled Cucumber

Baby tomatoes,

Salad onions,

Apple,

Green Olives,

Pine Nuts.

(I can make a salad although I struggled to chop up the apple with my duff arm!)

It was all delicious and I followed it with frozen raspberries and a Banana Custard for my pudding, that's my new favourite dessert!

A good start to our week , as Friday after weighing it can be tempting to have a treat|!|

And the meeting was good fun, the young woman who was the Greatest Loser had lost 6 stone 4 pounds, 88 pounds! It took her 2 years, so well done.

I lost a pound which was a super surprise, because although we've kept to the SW food plan, we ate a lot! So far since Christmas I've lost weight every week! (Hope I haven't jinked myself saying that!)

And yes Marcia, the 'cheese caught' meant it burnt. 

(Aussiebel you email link doesn't work.)

Chrisxx

Not quite right.,

 Our SW group meeting this week is a Celebration of the greatest 'loser' Its not me!! LOL.

So, we all  bring a food item that is SW. Dh makes something when we have these 'dive in and eat' mornings. There is always a selection of different food items. Some very delish, some not for me. I did once have to discretely get rid of a lump of ?? in a tissue and hope the member, who made it didn't see me.

I don't really like these taster meetings preferring my marmalade sandwich, which I take every week, its my breakfast.

Dh was in the kitchen for an hour plus, prepping the veg for this vegetarian crustless quiche, but he left it in the oven just those few too minutes too long, and the cheese 'caught.'  He doesn't want to take it, but we cut a slice, and inside it looks fine.. so do you think we should take it or leave it? 

Chrisxx

Frugal and Heathy?

 Dh and I often talk about meals we had as children, how they were filling, but low cost meals, no fancy meals but basic foods that were in season. A shopping trip was for a meal already planned not to browse. New products were rare and impulse buying was limited because simply there wasn't much to be tempted by.

Meals were planned around seasonal availability not cravings, so the basic ingredients, were root vegetables, cabbage and onions, and these from my Grand dad's allotment. Meat was made to last several meals, rather than fresh every day!

There was no such thing as snacking, because there weren't any, no yogurts, packet chocolate biscuits or fruit drinks. In my day a snack was an apple! Biscuits were for visitors or an after dinner treat, not to be eaten throughout the day.

And of course there was no waste, as left overs were  to be eaten not ignored. Where there was left overs they became the next meal or tomorrow's lunch.

Eating out was not part of my childhood,  only if we had been asked to join with  friends or relatives for a special occasion.  Take Aways were unheard of, perhaps fish and chips on a Saturday, but that wasn't a regular thing. 

None of this was considered healthy eating or being frugal, this was simply how we lived. 

My grandmother's cawl ( soup) could last for days. I happily ate homemade jam with bread and butter for tea and I loved bread and dripping! I don't think I was hard done by, my gran made cake and that was a Sunday tea treat along with tinned peaches with Evaporated milk.

No wonder there were no over weight children, no high sugar food stuffs and we ran about all day long, even on rainy days. We were healthy by default and no one complained about not enough money for food. 

It was a way of life, we were healthy and slim!

Chrisxx

No Further Words needed.

 

Chrisxx

A Very Good Read

Oh dear I cried and cried through this book. 

An author I hadn't read before and I'll read another by her.

When Ellen  visits home for her father's birthday, her planned life path changes.  

Essentially this book is about how relationships change within a family, when one member becomes ill and is need of care. The novel's greatest strength is in its characterisation.  Ellen is a successful young New York journalist, so different from her homebound mother, the wife of small town English Literature Professor. 

She is called upon to take care of Kate, her mother, who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. So, she is driven to abandon her chosen life path and confronted with caring for her mother, running a house and she sees first hand, the unequal partnership that is her parent's marriage and with mortality itself.

We learn right at the beginning of the book that Ellen is being questioned about her mother's death and is suspected of 'a mercy killing.'

With the inevitable death of her mother, Ellen comes to realise something she hadn't acknowledged previously in her life, and she changes into a person with a heart. The one true thing was 'love.'

I can't express how moved I was by this book, I was entranced from page one and raced through it. 

What I thought was a sadness for Ellen, was that her successful father wasn't the man she thought he was, and that her mother who was 'only a home bound wife,' was the strong one, the one, with whom she never really identified.

A touching portrayal of a mother and daughter's relationship which will not leave you unmoved. I loved it.

Chrisxx

4 Flowers!!

 We bought this from the store that took over Home Base in Bridgend.. its huge and  perfect for walking when its wet. Known for its cheaper priced items, B&M has become quite a favourite of ours when its wet.

We bought this just before Christmas and I planted it up after Christmas on Boxing day. The huge buds opened last week and aren't they beautiful, there are 4 flowers, white with the pink lines on them.

I'm very, very pleased with our buy.. did you get an Amaryllis this year?

Chrisxx

Would you be ready?

Wind up radio.  

               

Survival flint and steel to start a fire

 Portable solar battery.

Compass.

First Aid Kit, plus pain killer tabs and your own prescription tabs.

Bottled water +++

Tinned food plus several tin openers.

Dried food stuffs, like rice pasta and flour, yeast and packet foods, that have a heating element

Water proof clothing and extra warm clothing.

And?? Who knows??  And would we have these things to hand or should we be buying them now? 

Just a few people scaremongering on the internet, if there was to be WW3.

Personally I'd rather stay in my home and go out with a bang!

 Reading these has reminded me of the Nevil Shute book, 'On the Beach' When there had been a nuclear war and the last surviving people in Australia, were waiting for the fallout to reach there and die, altho they had been given pills to end their lives..Did that book shock me as to what might happen in my life time? Not at all, I had never even considered that it could happen, ever!

But the way that Trump talks, his unfiltered words, he could talk us into a war every time he opens his mouth. He seems to think he can talk Russia into peace, if only Ukraine will cede the land already occupied to Russia! And why should Ukraine give it up, its their land.. and if they don't Russia has implied that the Europeans including UK will be next. 

Would you be ready?

Chrisxx

Nail Bitting.

 Once again Dh and I have been gripped by the TV  programme 'The Traitors.'

How Rachel kept so cool in those last few episodes amazed me.  Several players started to suspect her and she was voted for by three 'Faithfuls' and was tied with James and then by chance got the saving Shield, How she kept looking so cool was amazing, how did she do it?

The final scene with Steven, Jack and Rachel was nail biting.  Jack had voted for her and then the hesitancy of Steven was agonising, would he stay faithful to her and vote for Jack too or vote for her, which would give him all of the prize money, close on £100,00?  Whew, he acted it well and kept her guessing too. I don't know who was more relieved when he turn his slate around with Jack's name on it, Rachel or myself!

So the two Traitors walked away with £47,875 each, and it was well deserved. They fooled the others in the game and kept faithful to each other, right up to the end.

Its been a fantastic programme again, with some unbelievable tasks for the players to do. The last one where they had to climb up a reservoir wall on a rope ladder and then run down it, wow that took some strength. I wonder if they have to take some tests before they are accepted as players in the game?

Overall in my opinion this 2026 Traitors is the best!

Did you watch it?

Chrisxx

So pretty and something to do on wet afternoons.

It seems there are more people in the younger age bracket these days, that watch you tube rather than live television. Dh and I are license payers and watch BBC and value it. We've recently notice that often after a BBC programme, there is an announcement saying, ' this has come to you and paid by you.'  

But I watch you tube videos that demonstrate how to do something mostly, and quilting is one of my favourites.

I love watching these quilting videos and I have made things from watching them, but not this one...but I'd like to.

Perhaps my next project!

Its very pretty!

Chrisxx