Well that wasn’t nice, not nice at all. It has rained and rained and rained and rained and rained and rained and rained. For most of January so far, and especially this last week.
The wind has blown and blown and blown and blown and blown and blown and blown.
The two together have been NOT NICE!
On Thursday, I was coming home. It was raining in Sheffield. It was raining in Tupton. In Chesterfield it was absolutely chucking it down. Absolutely. The streets had turned to rivers. The water cascaded down off my waxed jacket and soaked into my trousers and dripped into my shoes. The puddles were over ankle height. Not nice :-(
In the meantime, The Builder had been at home, communing in a Builder and feline sort of way with Marlo. Suddenly there was a strange and unusual noise from above, loud enough to hear over the howling wind. He went to investigate - and found that the bathroom window has blown in and was hanging from its top hinge. He’s jerried it back together again, but I suspect that this means a new window will eventually be required. Oh well. It will have to wait until either the jerrying becomes obviously unfit for use, or the window irritates either me or The Builder sufficiently to warrant spending all that money.
But that might be enough rain and wind now. They, together with the very unseasonably warm temperatures (it was 12.5 yesterday when I arrived back into Chesterfield, and it’s mid January!), might have been fun and interesting for a while, but you can have too much of a good thing. And I want to shift the fruit trees! And it has been ever so, ever so dark in the mornings. I had got to the point where I was worried that the cars might not notice me, the weather was so dark and wet. Then I remembered that Barb had given us both high visibility vests just before Christmas. Dug one of those out and am now much more visible.
So. After all those months, The Builder has finally finished at Rampton. He doesn’t actually have any other work lined up at the moment. Or, no paid work, apart from one or three jobs for friends and acquaintances of mine. Plenty for him to be doing here, mind. If nothing else, there’s an estate, not to mention an allotment to work on .
But tell me, if you can, how it is that I have been completely unnecessarily wide awake and ready to function since about half past four. Not only does The Builder have no need to get up and leave, neither do I. And it’s Saturday, for heaven’s sake!
Victoria Harbour, Docklands, Spring 2026
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Monday, January 08, 2007
65 years wed
You find us once again down in Salisbury. We’ve come down for the Platinum anniversary celebrations of The Builder’s parents. 65 years! Quite some achievement.
The anniversary was actually on Friday. They had lots of cards and presents and phone calls. And a card from the Queen! They were very excited about that!
Unfortunately, The Builder and I couldn’t get down for Friday, so we all went out for dinner last night. Well, when I say all, everyone except The Builder’s brother Peter was there. Peter declined to attend, allegedly because they last time they met brother Terry threatened to beat him up. Now, even if Terry had threatened to do this, it is unlikely he would make good the threat in a crowded pub in front of his small but terrier like mother, or, indeed, in front of the rest of us, who could be guaranteed to intervene. In any case, Terry fell off a combine harvester some years ago and completely buggered his back. He is now quite severely impaired in his beating up abilities. Should he be taken by a murderous mood all you would need to do would be to step out the way. So. An unlikely reason for non-attendance. It is generally (but perhaps unfoundedly) assumed that his occasional girlfriend forbad him to come. Oh well. His loss. The rest of us had a very merry time. Terry and Jen were there. Marie and Tim were there, having off-loaded the boys onto Tim’s mum. Barb was also there, having maintained her relationship with Gwen and Mick despite her divorce from The Builder. We were there. So, of course, were Gwen and Mick.
And very merry it was too. We ate good food and drank beer or wine or soft drinks. I managed three courses! So too did Mick and Gwen, by the judicious means of not finishing their main course. It was good to catch up with everyone, and for me to meet Jen for the first time. And after a celebratory and cheerful few hours, we took Gwen and Mick home again and returned to Bridge farm at Britford where we are, this time, staying in the B&B.
It’s been a good find, has the Bridge Farm complex. The stables for longer stays and The B&B for short ones. It’s not that expensive, certainly in the winter. The service we got was amazing. Norma made us a tray of tea when we arrived. Another tray of tea was delivered to our door at 07:00 on Sunday. Our breakfast was amazing, served in an old style Farmhouse kitchen-style dining room. The mushrooms were beautifully cooked. The bacon was tasty and not salty. The eggs were crisp around the edges. The bread was from a fresh loaf, hand sliced. And it was hugely plentiful! We might make Bridge Farm our Salisbury base for future visits.
Had a good trip home, despite the ongoing rain. Stopped near Birmingham for a trundle around Webbs’ Garden Centre. Not that it is, really, a garden centre. It is also a food hall and a gift shop and a craft shop and all sorts. In fact, we didn’t really look properly at the garden bit, it being seriously wet outside. Had a good mooch around in the food hall though!
It was an awful shock last week, having to return to 05:30 getting up times, though I am at least developing the habit of going to bed at 10:00 to go to sleep, rather than sleeping in m’chair! However, the need for such truly early starts may be about to end. The Builder has been told that the job, which started last July for a few weeks, is finally going to finish on Wednesday. He will start casting about for something else, though he has a few little jobs to do for friends and acquaintances, plus there are, of course, the small matters of the allotment and the kitchen garden demanding attention. But even so, we can’t stay abed too late. I still need to leave to catch the 07:04 bus in the mornings. Perhaps we won the lottery last night! (We didn’t!)
The farm shop didn’t have any seedy granola or muesli :-( I might have to start making my own!
The anniversary was actually on Friday. They had lots of cards and presents and phone calls. And a card from the Queen! They were very excited about that!
Unfortunately, The Builder and I couldn’t get down for Friday, so we all went out for dinner last night. Well, when I say all, everyone except The Builder’s brother Peter was there. Peter declined to attend, allegedly because they last time they met brother Terry threatened to beat him up. Now, even if Terry had threatened to do this, it is unlikely he would make good the threat in a crowded pub in front of his small but terrier like mother, or, indeed, in front of the rest of us, who could be guaranteed to intervene. In any case, Terry fell off a combine harvester some years ago and completely buggered his back. He is now quite severely impaired in his beating up abilities. Should he be taken by a murderous mood all you would need to do would be to step out the way. So. An unlikely reason for non-attendance. It is generally (but perhaps unfoundedly) assumed that his occasional girlfriend forbad him to come. Oh well. His loss. The rest of us had a very merry time. Terry and Jen were there. Marie and Tim were there, having off-loaded the boys onto Tim’s mum. Barb was also there, having maintained her relationship with Gwen and Mick despite her divorce from The Builder. We were there. So, of course, were Gwen and Mick.
And very merry it was too. We ate good food and drank beer or wine or soft drinks. I managed three courses! So too did Mick and Gwen, by the judicious means of not finishing their main course. It was good to catch up with everyone, and for me to meet Jen for the first time. And after a celebratory and cheerful few hours, we took Gwen and Mick home again and returned to Bridge farm at Britford where we are, this time, staying in the B&B.
It’s been a good find, has the Bridge Farm complex. The stables for longer stays and The B&B for short ones. It’s not that expensive, certainly in the winter. The service we got was amazing. Norma made us a tray of tea when we arrived. Another tray of tea was delivered to our door at 07:00 on Sunday. Our breakfast was amazing, served in an old style Farmhouse kitchen-style dining room. The mushrooms were beautifully cooked. The bacon was tasty and not salty. The eggs were crisp around the edges. The bread was from a fresh loaf, hand sliced. And it was hugely plentiful! We might make Bridge Farm our Salisbury base for future visits.
Had a good trip home, despite the ongoing rain. Stopped near Birmingham for a trundle around Webbs’ Garden Centre. Not that it is, really, a garden centre. It is also a food hall and a gift shop and a craft shop and all sorts. In fact, we didn’t really look properly at the garden bit, it being seriously wet outside. Had a good mooch around in the food hall though!
It was an awful shock last week, having to return to 05:30 getting up times, though I am at least developing the habit of going to bed at 10:00 to go to sleep, rather than sleeping in m’chair! However, the need for such truly early starts may be about to end. The Builder has been told that the job, which started last July for a few weeks, is finally going to finish on Wednesday. He will start casting about for something else, though he has a few little jobs to do for friends and acquaintances, plus there are, of course, the small matters of the allotment and the kitchen garden demanding attention. But even so, we can’t stay abed too late. I still need to leave to catch the 07:04 bus in the mornings. Perhaps we won the lottery last night! (We didn’t!)
The farm shop didn’t have any seedy granola or muesli :-( I might have to start making my own!
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Down on the Farm
SATURDAY
Well, that was an absolutely ideal Holiday day, was Friday. The sort we all wish for and really never have. A day in which I did Absolutely Nothing. Nothing at all. I didn’t leave the house. I barely set foot out of the lounge room!
We are down on the farm at Beaworthy, near Okehampton in Devon. The weather yesterday was absolutely awful. Howling gales, relentless rain, swirling and nasty. We abandoned our plans for a walk on the beach. Am prepared for all weather. I have brought my weatherproofs and my gumboots and walking shoes and two sorts of hats and everything. I am also prepared for seriously inclement weather. I got out my current stitching project and stitched the day away. It’s going to be a garden sampler. I have now finished the peas and made a start on the lavender planter. Plus we ate. Porridge for breakfast. Ham and cheese buffet for lunch. Roast gammon for dinner. And cakes and tea throughout the day. Definitely no weighing of me for some weeks to come! Mike and Rosie had to go outside from time to time – there are animals to feed. Though no chickens this time. The last one was eaten by a buzzard quite recently :( Must remember when our chicken run is being made to put a lid on it. We too have buzzards. Rosie’s sister Sandra pottered about with Rosie and sat about and read her Harry Potter book. Even The Builder, unusually for him, sat and played on the computer and chatted to Mike and did Nothing At All.
I think the weather is expected to be slightly better today. I might actually step outside!
We came down on Thursday and had a remarkably good run down. We stopped in Clay Cross on the way to buy calendars and things, then ambled off to the M1. We were delayed by traffic, rain and fog for a bit; that cleared and, apart from a hold up at Bristol, trundled without impediment down to the West Country. Mind you, I am enormously grateful that we didn’t want to go into Bristol. The slip roads off the M5 in both directions were at a complete standstill and backed up for miles! Can’t think what the attraction could possibly have been in Bristol at half two or so on a Thursday afternoon. Sales, I guess, but it seems a funny time for people to indulge in the sales.
We were indulging in the sales on Wednesday. I managed to murder my cake mixer at the cake party a couple of weeks ago. Into Currys then to see what’s there. Ah – a food processor for half price. £50. Good one. Oh – and look at that dinky little LCD television. Very cute. Integrated DVD player. Let’s have that too. It can go in the dining room and the pink/green/yellow screened TV that’s there now can go upstairs into the spare room. Mind you, it’s been quite well behaved over Christmas. The screen has been clear the whole time, I think. Got home and started unpacking. That food processor has sooo many bits an pieces. Not just the cake mixing bit, but a whisk, a blender, a grater, a grinder, a juicer, other bits that I can’t identify. Excellent. £50 well spent! And I’ve tested the cake mixer. Clarissa came around for afternoon tea and I made a lemon torte with it. And very nice it was too.
It was good to see Clarissa. Haven’t seen her since she left SHU and moved to Leeds Met. We took a tour around the estate, drank tea and ate cake, chatted. Nice, leisurely afternoon.
Meanwhile, back at the farm, The Builder and I have been planning the new orchard and plotting the allotment. Mike has a large pile of horse manure which has been rotting for several years ready for us. We have come armed with rubble sacks. I hope the weather tomorrow is sufficiently calm for us to bag it up. It’s practically rotted down to potting compost! Need more; the planned asparagus bed would really enjoy this sort of growing material
SUNDAY
The intention was that we should be up this morning, bright and early, shovelling the muck heap into rubble sacks. Half eight, we thought. Woke up at 06:45 and decided that it was much too early to be creeping around and making tea. Went back to sleep for an hour or so.
Woke up again. Yoiks! It was quarter to nine!!!!! Check to see if The Builder is still breathing. Fortunately yes! Despatched him for tea. By half past nine, so a mere hour late, we were outside with Mike merrily shovelling 7 year old horse much. It’s so well rotted that it’s almost back to a rich, friable loam. The van is full of 30 rubble sacks of it and there’s about a third of the heap let. I’ve also got a couple of bags of last night’s offerings to add to the compost heap. Excellent. We are now showered and cleaned up and waiting for breakfast.
I did manage to leave the house yesterday. Twice! In the morning Mike, The Builder and I went into Okehampton to do a bit of shopping. I’ve not actually been into Okie before, just past through in the car. It’s a pretty little town with some interesting shops and a castle which I think might pay further investigation one summer. Okehampton was bathed in sunshine, a little oasis of good weather surrounded by cloud. As we came out of Waitrose the rain was just starting, heralding the onset of the storms which were forecast for later. We came back, watching the rain and clouds rolling in from Bodmin and Dartmoor, and drove round the water board access to see Mike’s new pond and bridge without necessarily having to get our feet wet. Then back to the farm to discover that Jeanette, Matthew and Rebecca were going to be later arriving than anticipated. Hmm. An early, alternative tiffin then and lunch when they arrive.
Then I got muddy. My boots got very very muddy. You couldn’t see the spots at the bottom of them! The rain had lifted in the afternoon, so Mike, The Builder and I went for a wander around the new underground reservoirs the water board are putting in. They’ve bought part of the farm and are hiring another field for access and for putting the soil heaps from the excavations. It is very very VERY wet round there. Very wet. And not a little muddy. But the reservoir structures are really quite fascinating. Had I realised we were actually going in, I would have taken my camera. There’s no work going on at the moment, for the Christmas and New Year holidays, so there was nobody around. But I’m fairly certain that, even if Mike is allowed to wander around the site, he isn’t supposed to take visitors into the actual construction site! Still, it was very interesting and I did enjoy wandering around in the mud and wet. And even when the rain started again, I was still all right. My waxed jacket and tasselled hat kept me nice and toastie warm.
I also have lots of seeds. Mike’s son in law acquired thousands and thousands of packets two or three years ago. They are out of date but should still germinate. I really must go through them and my existing seed box when we get home and see what we still lack.
More food. More wine. General chatter and so to bed. Another quiet day. They are very pleasant are quiet days, but I am beginning to get bored. Had we been at home in very inclement weather I have lots of things set aside to do. Sort out the photos, sort out the pile of papers, sort out The Builder’s accounts. Can’t do those here. Not used to sitting about doing nothing!
Nearly time for brunch. Here’s to the very last day of 2006. Wonder where the year went. I quite clearly remember it starting, in a blaze of excessive heat, fire bans and fireworks, only two or three months ago.
Tuesday
We had one heck of a storm on Sunday afternoon. Absolute deluge. And a swirling, twirling, spiralling wind. All the little birds, generally legion around the feeders, had completely vanished. I’m not surprised. I was rather glad to be under cover myself.
And if I had three Christmas Eves last weekend, I’ve more or less had three Sundays this weekend. Quiet, gently lit afternoons in front of the fire. Reading and chatting and lazing. Rosie made late breakfasts and roast dinners (apart from Saturday which was lasagne). I was a tad bored on Saturday afternoon, it’s true. But once I realised that I was having a sort of Groundhog’s Day of Sundays it all became quite pleasant. And, of course, this Sunday was New Years Eve. Even better.
We played a strange sort of Uno after dinner. Uno Extreme, I think it is. If you can’t go, or when certain cards are played, instead of picking up the discard pile, you have to press a button on a machine. And sometimes no cards come out. And other times whole streams of cards spew out and pretty much cover you. Was rather fun. And very satisfactorily filled in the hours until midnight.
They had a fantastic fireworks display in London, over the Thames. The Eye was turned into a vari-coloured giant Catherine Wheel. Was really spectacular. Not that we were in London, of course. We watched it on the Beeb. Even Rebecca was still up. Not bad going for an 8 year old.
Despite a late, late night, The Builder and I actually managed to be up on time for our planned 9 o’clock departure back to Tupton. We do, after all, have a van full of much sacks to offload when we get home. And we rather fancied being ahead of the New Years Day traffic. And, despite the early start to the day (by recent standards, at least), Mike still managed to rustle up bacon and scrambled eggs and toast for us.
And so home. We had an amazing run. After stopping for fuel just before joining the M5 after Okehampton, we didn’t stop once. Not even for traffic lights (The Builder ran all the red ones :-p - No, no; there weren’t any!). We didn’t have any weather to speak of apart from skirting around the edge of a very ferocious looking rain storm near Worcester. There was an absolutely magnificent double rainbow, but we didn’t catch much more than the tail edge of the storm. And we hit some quite strong winds on the M1. But nothing too dramatic. And we were home in 4.5 hours. The Builder can’t have been speeding. The van was filled to the gunwales and couldn’t go beyond the speed limit. Nice one. So The Builder unloaded all the muck while I made pea and ham soup for a late lunch.
Then the weather found us. Lots of rain. Lots of wind. We retired indoors for the evening and are watching our way through Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy on the new telly with integrated DVD player. Very nice.
The Builder went back to work today. I did not. I go back tomorrow. It was something of a shock to have the alarm go at 05:00! And I had forgotten to reset the timer on the central heating. I reset it last week because I couldn’t see any point in having the house warmed for two hours before anyone got up. I have now put it back. I also can’t see any point in heating the house for two hours after everyone has left.
In the event, The Builder only worked a half day. They were let out at 12:30. He’s shifted all the manure from the driveway down to the kitchen garden. And I have made a tiny, tiny start on clearing it. I’ve cleared some of the bramble and plastic from the “orchard”. Harder than I was expecting. The brambles have grown over, under and through the plastic. The plastic is disintegrating. Knackered now. And my back is very, very cross. So is my knee. And my wrist. Not to mention my shoulder. I’ve been and had a bath and am now having a restorative gin. It’s going to take time, this garden, I fear. Oh well. Slow and steady…… On the other hand, once the brambles have been dug out and I’ve finished moving the plastic, that side will be ready to receive fruit trees. The other side is going to be very much more like hard work. I have found rocks and bricks and general chaos while I’ve been wandering around today.
Happy New Year, everybody. I hope 2007 brings us all prosperity, health and general excitement and adventure.
Well, that was an absolutely ideal Holiday day, was Friday. The sort we all wish for and really never have. A day in which I did Absolutely Nothing. Nothing at all. I didn’t leave the house. I barely set foot out of the lounge room!
We are down on the farm at Beaworthy, near Okehampton in Devon. The weather yesterday was absolutely awful. Howling gales, relentless rain, swirling and nasty. We abandoned our plans for a walk on the beach. Am prepared for all weather. I have brought my weatherproofs and my gumboots and walking shoes and two sorts of hats and everything. I am also prepared for seriously inclement weather. I got out my current stitching project and stitched the day away. It’s going to be a garden sampler. I have now finished the peas and made a start on the lavender planter. Plus we ate. Porridge for breakfast. Ham and cheese buffet for lunch. Roast gammon for dinner. And cakes and tea throughout the day. Definitely no weighing of me for some weeks to come! Mike and Rosie had to go outside from time to time – there are animals to feed. Though no chickens this time. The last one was eaten by a buzzard quite recently :( Must remember when our chicken run is being made to put a lid on it. We too have buzzards. Rosie’s sister Sandra pottered about with Rosie and sat about and read her Harry Potter book. Even The Builder, unusually for him, sat and played on the computer and chatted to Mike and did Nothing At All.
I think the weather is expected to be slightly better today. I might actually step outside!
We came down on Thursday and had a remarkably good run down. We stopped in Clay Cross on the way to buy calendars and things, then ambled off to the M1. We were delayed by traffic, rain and fog for a bit; that cleared and, apart from a hold up at Bristol, trundled without impediment down to the West Country. Mind you, I am enormously grateful that we didn’t want to go into Bristol. The slip roads off the M5 in both directions were at a complete standstill and backed up for miles! Can’t think what the attraction could possibly have been in Bristol at half two or so on a Thursday afternoon. Sales, I guess, but it seems a funny time for people to indulge in the sales.
We were indulging in the sales on Wednesday. I managed to murder my cake mixer at the cake party a couple of weeks ago. Into Currys then to see what’s there. Ah – a food processor for half price. £50. Good one. Oh – and look at that dinky little LCD television. Very cute. Integrated DVD player. Let’s have that too. It can go in the dining room and the pink/green/yellow screened TV that’s there now can go upstairs into the spare room. Mind you, it’s been quite well behaved over Christmas. The screen has been clear the whole time, I think. Got home and started unpacking. That food processor has sooo many bits an pieces. Not just the cake mixing bit, but a whisk, a blender, a grater, a grinder, a juicer, other bits that I can’t identify. Excellent. £50 well spent! And I’ve tested the cake mixer. Clarissa came around for afternoon tea and I made a lemon torte with it. And very nice it was too.
It was good to see Clarissa. Haven’t seen her since she left SHU and moved to Leeds Met. We took a tour around the estate, drank tea and ate cake, chatted. Nice, leisurely afternoon.
Meanwhile, back at the farm, The Builder and I have been planning the new orchard and plotting the allotment. Mike has a large pile of horse manure which has been rotting for several years ready for us. We have come armed with rubble sacks. I hope the weather tomorrow is sufficiently calm for us to bag it up. It’s practically rotted down to potting compost! Need more; the planned asparagus bed would really enjoy this sort of growing material
SUNDAY
The intention was that we should be up this morning, bright and early, shovelling the muck heap into rubble sacks. Half eight, we thought. Woke up at 06:45 and decided that it was much too early to be creeping around and making tea. Went back to sleep for an hour or so.
Woke up again. Yoiks! It was quarter to nine!!!!! Check to see if The Builder is still breathing. Fortunately yes! Despatched him for tea. By half past nine, so a mere hour late, we were outside with Mike merrily shovelling 7 year old horse much. It’s so well rotted that it’s almost back to a rich, friable loam. The van is full of 30 rubble sacks of it and there’s about a third of the heap let. I’ve also got a couple of bags of last night’s offerings to add to the compost heap. Excellent. We are now showered and cleaned up and waiting for breakfast.
I did manage to leave the house yesterday. Twice! In the morning Mike, The Builder and I went into Okehampton to do a bit of shopping. I’ve not actually been into Okie before, just past through in the car. It’s a pretty little town with some interesting shops and a castle which I think might pay further investigation one summer. Okehampton was bathed in sunshine, a little oasis of good weather surrounded by cloud. As we came out of Waitrose the rain was just starting, heralding the onset of the storms which were forecast for later. We came back, watching the rain and clouds rolling in from Bodmin and Dartmoor, and drove round the water board access to see Mike’s new pond and bridge without necessarily having to get our feet wet. Then back to the farm to discover that Jeanette, Matthew and Rebecca were going to be later arriving than anticipated. Hmm. An early, alternative tiffin then and lunch when they arrive.
Then I got muddy. My boots got very very muddy. You couldn’t see the spots at the bottom of them! The rain had lifted in the afternoon, so Mike, The Builder and I went for a wander around the new underground reservoirs the water board are putting in. They’ve bought part of the farm and are hiring another field for access and for putting the soil heaps from the excavations. It is very very VERY wet round there. Very wet. And not a little muddy. But the reservoir structures are really quite fascinating. Had I realised we were actually going in, I would have taken my camera. There’s no work going on at the moment, for the Christmas and New Year holidays, so there was nobody around. But I’m fairly certain that, even if Mike is allowed to wander around the site, he isn’t supposed to take visitors into the actual construction site! Still, it was very interesting and I did enjoy wandering around in the mud and wet. And even when the rain started again, I was still all right. My waxed jacket and tasselled hat kept me nice and toastie warm.
I also have lots of seeds. Mike’s son in law acquired thousands and thousands of packets two or three years ago. They are out of date but should still germinate. I really must go through them and my existing seed box when we get home and see what we still lack.
More food. More wine. General chatter and so to bed. Another quiet day. They are very pleasant are quiet days, but I am beginning to get bored. Had we been at home in very inclement weather I have lots of things set aside to do. Sort out the photos, sort out the pile of papers, sort out The Builder’s accounts. Can’t do those here. Not used to sitting about doing nothing!
Nearly time for brunch. Here’s to the very last day of 2006. Wonder where the year went. I quite clearly remember it starting, in a blaze of excessive heat, fire bans and fireworks, only two or three months ago.
Tuesday
We had one heck of a storm on Sunday afternoon. Absolute deluge. And a swirling, twirling, spiralling wind. All the little birds, generally legion around the feeders, had completely vanished. I’m not surprised. I was rather glad to be under cover myself.
And if I had three Christmas Eves last weekend, I’ve more or less had three Sundays this weekend. Quiet, gently lit afternoons in front of the fire. Reading and chatting and lazing. Rosie made late breakfasts and roast dinners (apart from Saturday which was lasagne). I was a tad bored on Saturday afternoon, it’s true. But once I realised that I was having a sort of Groundhog’s Day of Sundays it all became quite pleasant. And, of course, this Sunday was New Years Eve. Even better.
We played a strange sort of Uno after dinner. Uno Extreme, I think it is. If you can’t go, or when certain cards are played, instead of picking up the discard pile, you have to press a button on a machine. And sometimes no cards come out. And other times whole streams of cards spew out and pretty much cover you. Was rather fun. And very satisfactorily filled in the hours until midnight.
They had a fantastic fireworks display in London, over the Thames. The Eye was turned into a vari-coloured giant Catherine Wheel. Was really spectacular. Not that we were in London, of course. We watched it on the Beeb. Even Rebecca was still up. Not bad going for an 8 year old.
Despite a late, late night, The Builder and I actually managed to be up on time for our planned 9 o’clock departure back to Tupton. We do, after all, have a van full of much sacks to offload when we get home. And we rather fancied being ahead of the New Years Day traffic. And, despite the early start to the day (by recent standards, at least), Mike still managed to rustle up bacon and scrambled eggs and toast for us.
And so home. We had an amazing run. After stopping for fuel just before joining the M5 after Okehampton, we didn’t stop once. Not even for traffic lights (The Builder ran all the red ones :-p - No, no; there weren’t any!). We didn’t have any weather to speak of apart from skirting around the edge of a very ferocious looking rain storm near Worcester. There was an absolutely magnificent double rainbow, but we didn’t catch much more than the tail edge of the storm. And we hit some quite strong winds on the M1. But nothing too dramatic. And we were home in 4.5 hours. The Builder can’t have been speeding. The van was filled to the gunwales and couldn’t go beyond the speed limit. Nice one. So The Builder unloaded all the muck while I made pea and ham soup for a late lunch.
Then the weather found us. Lots of rain. Lots of wind. We retired indoors for the evening and are watching our way through Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy on the new telly with integrated DVD player. Very nice.
The Builder went back to work today. I did not. I go back tomorrow. It was something of a shock to have the alarm go at 05:00! And I had forgotten to reset the timer on the central heating. I reset it last week because I couldn’t see any point in having the house warmed for two hours before anyone got up. I have now put it back. I also can’t see any point in heating the house for two hours after everyone has left.
In the event, The Builder only worked a half day. They were let out at 12:30. He’s shifted all the manure from the driveway down to the kitchen garden. And I have made a tiny, tiny start on clearing it. I’ve cleared some of the bramble and plastic from the “orchard”. Harder than I was expecting. The brambles have grown over, under and through the plastic. The plastic is disintegrating. Knackered now. And my back is very, very cross. So is my knee. And my wrist. Not to mention my shoulder. I’ve been and had a bath and am now having a restorative gin. It’s going to take time, this garden, I fear. Oh well. Slow and steady…… On the other hand, once the brambles have been dug out and I’ve finished moving the plastic, that side will be ready to receive fruit trees. The other side is going to be very much more like hard work. I have found rocks and bricks and general chaos while I’ve been wandering around today.
Happy New Year, everybody. I hope 2007 brings us all prosperity, health and general excitement and adventure.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Merry Christmas Everyone
Well, despite Gareth’s best efforts to ruin it, we had a fantastic Christmas. It started on Christmas Eve when we trundled into Sheffield to hit Waitrose before it closed. I needed carrots, cat biscuits and a new saucepan. The Builder had broken the old one while peeling Christmas potatoes and flooded the kitchen at the same time – the handle had come loose (which I knew) and as he added potatoes to the water it was draining out the hole I didn’t know about where the weld had previously been! Water had gone everywhere! Anyway. WE didn’t really need to go to Waitrose in Sheffield to acquire those few things; Sainsbury in Chesterfield would have done. But I wanted to see if they were discounting any of their Christmas luxury yummy things. And they were. A Norfolk Turkey for £9; a marinated fillet of salmon that is so long I’ve had to bend it slightly to get it into the freezer. I may never get it out again! Other nice things. Freezer now well stocked for the foreseeable future.
We collected Freyja and Mark and came back to The Sidings for the celebrations to commence. We had a veritable Christmas Eve feast – a considerable departure from my more normal snacking as I prepare for Christmas Day! We had leek, potato and cheese soup, then chicken (or “chicken” for the veggies) kievs with roasties and mash and veg. Then we had a baked cinnamon pudding with ice cream. Was all very yummy. Then Freyja and Mark went to bed, The Builder and I moved onto the comfy chairs – and promptly went to sleep!!!! Went to bed about two hours later. Grin.
And so to Christmas Day. Up fairly early, given that it was Christmas Day, but late by our more recent standards. Bacon (facon) butties all around, then onto the first burst of present opening. :). Austin rang from Mount Helen and I spoke to all the family. Very noisy, it sounded. Then Tabitha, Gareth and Marryk arrived and we had a second burst of present opening. Austin rang again. Alas, Freyja and Mark had to leave us then. The Builder took them back to Sheffield and the rest of us had a Nice Cup of Tea while we waited for him to come back. Then the full enormity of Gareth’s transgressions were slowly and gradually revealed to us when Tabitha asked him where he had put the golden syrup. Oops. And the crackers? Double oops. This wouldn't have been half as funny, or generated anything like the teasing had it not been that I had particularly asked if they could bring beer, syrup and crackers and they had specifically gone out on Friday evening to buy them!
So, what to do? There are no shops open in Tupton over Christmas. I can’t think of a convenience store in Chesterfield that would be open (not to say there isn’t one; I just don’t know where one might be). But the Spar on Ecclesall Road will be. I’ll ring The Buil…… Nope. Can’t. He is still phoneless. Oh well. Never mind. Don’t suppose we’ll really miss the crackers, and I have honey and jam for the rice pudding. Mind you, The Builder had suggested in Waitrose yesterday that we should buy crackers given that they were half price but I couldn’t think of any likely Christmas cracker emergency that might arise so didn’t bother! Tabitha rang Austin, and talked to the whole family. It was still noisy!
The Builder came back and we cracked open the beer and fizzy wine and embarked on a third round of present opening. I have a magnificent haul of pressies. I have a radio controlled dalek and a radio controlled K9. I have money/vouchers for fruit trees. I have perfume and candles. I have a very nice bottle indeed of French champagne. Lots and lots of lovely things. Rod rang just after 2 and spoke to Tabitha and me. He and Simon had met each other at The Boulevard Christmas lights earlier in the week. Simon had said that Rod intended to ring, as he customarily does, leading me to worry whether I had given him the new phone number. I had!
And we ate. And ate. And ate. And drank. We had nibbly things courtesy of Mr Waitrose and Mr Sainsbury at around 12:30 (the party pasties were especially yummy). At 3 we had a truly wonderful seafood soup. I added tiger prawns, crevettes, tiny crayfish tails, scallops and mussels to the lobster broth just before serving it. I surpassed myself with this soup, even if I do say so myself! Everyone except me played a complicated looking game with zombies. At 5:30 we had bacon wrapped pork loin and breast of lamb with apricot stuffing, both of which I bought at the Farmers’ Shop in Bakewell, with roasties and mash and veg. Then at 7:30 we enlivened the Doctor Who Christmas special with rice pudding, mince tart, gooseberry crumble, shortbread biscuits, custard and ice cream. At which point I retired from chef duties! We seem to have drunk prodigious quantities of beer (not guilty – I don’t drink beer!) and wine. I asked Gareth whether a rather nice bottle of Spanish red, fetchingly decorated with copper wire, would do for dinner. Oh, said he; you don't want to waste a really nice bottle of wine on me just for Christmas dinner. Strangely enough, I can think of very few more festive occasions when you might want to open a rather nice bottle of wine!
The Builder and I retired nice and early to bed, replete and happy. I do like sleeping :P (And Christmas!).
You wouldn’t think I could possibly be hungry this morning! But I am waiting very impatiently for Gareth to return from taking Marryk back into Sheffield so I can have my egg and bacon butty!
We collected Freyja and Mark and came back to The Sidings for the celebrations to commence. We had a veritable Christmas Eve feast – a considerable departure from my more normal snacking as I prepare for Christmas Day! We had leek, potato and cheese soup, then chicken (or “chicken” for the veggies) kievs with roasties and mash and veg. Then we had a baked cinnamon pudding with ice cream. Was all very yummy. Then Freyja and Mark went to bed, The Builder and I moved onto the comfy chairs – and promptly went to sleep!!!! Went to bed about two hours later. Grin.
And so to Christmas Day. Up fairly early, given that it was Christmas Day, but late by our more recent standards. Bacon (facon) butties all around, then onto the first burst of present opening. :). Austin rang from Mount Helen and I spoke to all the family. Very noisy, it sounded. Then Tabitha, Gareth and Marryk arrived and we had a second burst of present opening. Austin rang again. Alas, Freyja and Mark had to leave us then. The Builder took them back to Sheffield and the rest of us had a Nice Cup of Tea while we waited for him to come back. Then the full enormity of Gareth’s transgressions were slowly and gradually revealed to us when Tabitha asked him where he had put the golden syrup. Oops. And the crackers? Double oops. This wouldn't have been half as funny, or generated anything like the teasing had it not been that I had particularly asked if they could bring beer, syrup and crackers and they had specifically gone out on Friday evening to buy them!
So, what to do? There are no shops open in Tupton over Christmas. I can’t think of a convenience store in Chesterfield that would be open (not to say there isn’t one; I just don’t know where one might be). But the Spar on Ecclesall Road will be. I’ll ring The Buil…… Nope. Can’t. He is still phoneless. Oh well. Never mind. Don’t suppose we’ll really miss the crackers, and I have honey and jam for the rice pudding. Mind you, The Builder had suggested in Waitrose yesterday that we should buy crackers given that they were half price but I couldn’t think of any likely Christmas cracker emergency that might arise so didn’t bother! Tabitha rang Austin, and talked to the whole family. It was still noisy!
The Builder came back and we cracked open the beer and fizzy wine and embarked on a third round of present opening. I have a magnificent haul of pressies. I have a radio controlled dalek and a radio controlled K9. I have money/vouchers for fruit trees. I have perfume and candles. I have a very nice bottle indeed of French champagne. Lots and lots of lovely things. Rod rang just after 2 and spoke to Tabitha and me. He and Simon had met each other at The Boulevard Christmas lights earlier in the week. Simon had said that Rod intended to ring, as he customarily does, leading me to worry whether I had given him the new phone number. I had!
And we ate. And ate. And ate. And drank. We had nibbly things courtesy of Mr Waitrose and Mr Sainsbury at around 12:30 (the party pasties were especially yummy). At 3 we had a truly wonderful seafood soup. I added tiger prawns, crevettes, tiny crayfish tails, scallops and mussels to the lobster broth just before serving it. I surpassed myself with this soup, even if I do say so myself! Everyone except me played a complicated looking game with zombies. At 5:30 we had bacon wrapped pork loin and breast of lamb with apricot stuffing, both of which I bought at the Farmers’ Shop in Bakewell, with roasties and mash and veg. Then at 7:30 we enlivened the Doctor Who Christmas special with rice pudding, mince tart, gooseberry crumble, shortbread biscuits, custard and ice cream. At which point I retired from chef duties! We seem to have drunk prodigious quantities of beer (not guilty – I don’t drink beer!) and wine. I asked Gareth whether a rather nice bottle of Spanish red, fetchingly decorated with copper wire, would do for dinner. Oh, said he; you don't want to waste a really nice bottle of wine on me just for Christmas dinner. Strangely enough, I can think of very few more festive occasions when you might want to open a rather nice bottle of wine!
The Builder and I retired nice and early to bed, replete and happy. I do like sleeping :P (And Christmas!).
You wouldn’t think I could possibly be hungry this morning! But I am waiting very impatiently for Gareth to return from taking Marryk back into Sheffield so I can have my egg and bacon butty!
Monday, December 25, 2006
Interim Christmas Blog (I'll do a proper one later)
Gaz has ruined Christmas!!!!!!
More accurately -- he's LEFT IT IN THEIR KITCHEN IN CAMBRIDGE!!!!!!!!!!
He forgot the beer. They had to stop and buy more.
He forgot the cocktail sausages. Fortunately I have chicken sausages.
He forgot the GOLDEN SYRUP for the rice pudding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Honey anyone?
AND he forgot the crackers. 40 luxury Christmas crackers loiter in *their* kitchen. Quite what they're going to do with 40 luxury Christmas. crackers is anybody's guess
Much giggling. Much much giggling. Poor Gaz is loking quite despondent. And not enjoying the merciless teasing that will go on for ever and ever and ever.
A proper report tomorrow!
Merry Christmas everyone. And God bless us every one!
More accurately -- he's LEFT IT IN THEIR KITCHEN IN CAMBRIDGE!!!!!!!!!!
He forgot the beer. They had to stop and buy more.
He forgot the cocktail sausages. Fortunately I have chicken sausages.
He forgot the GOLDEN SYRUP for the rice pudding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Honey anyone?
AND he forgot the crackers. 40 luxury Christmas crackers loiter in *their* kitchen. Quite what they're going to do with 40 luxury Christmas. crackers is anybody's guess
Much giggling. Much much giggling. Poor Gaz is loking quite despondent. And not enjoying the merciless teasing that will go on for ever and ever and ever.
A proper report tomorrow!
Merry Christmas everyone. And God bless us every one!
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Christmas Eve Musings, early morning in bed
We closed the Adsetts Centre early on Friday. Several hours early. 2pm! I suppose we could have stayed and worked on, had we chosen (though only until 2:30 when the University as a whole closed). I didn’t. I caught the next train back to Chesterfield.
I am enjoying travelling by bus and train at the moment. We may not have had much fog, but the rest of the country remains enveloped. Gareth reports that Cambridge has been entirely covered in fog all week. In and around Chesterfield it has been icy. Very icy. I quite enjoy letting somebody else worry about the travelling conditions while I read my book. This week an exciting tome on motivating students in information literacy!!
The Builder met me at the station and we made our way out to Chatsworth. We found some fog out around Baslow, but not a huge lot. Chatsworth was very full. And somewhat reduced in vegetable supplies. No leeks :( Can’t make leek and potato soup without leeks! Will get leeks tomorrow. But apart from leeks and syrup – oh and bread rolls (Chatsworth was denuded of bread rolls too), I think the shopping is done. Let’s go home!
It’s the first time for ages that I’ve seen the garden in daylight. And it looked absolutely GORGEOUS. Everything was covered in ice. It looked like those pictures where people are trying to depict snow – all feathery and crisp and shiny. Everything was white, except for a tiny bit right down at the very back where the chicken run is eventually going to go, which is the only bit to get much in the way of sun at this time of year.
I still think of the very back of the garden as being somehow separate. I haven’t yet mentally linked the two gardens as ours yet, or indeed as one garden.
Lobster for dinner. Dressed Scottish lobster which I had bought with a view to making lobster bisque. Then I found in the freezer at the supermarket larger American Maine lobsters at half price. I have no idea why they should be at half price just before Christmas but I wasn’t arguing! We’ve kept the Scottish shells to add to the broth!
Yesterday the ice had all gone and the cloud has come in and the temperature has risen. The fish will be liberated from their icy cage if this goes on! (We can see them swimming about underneath the 1 or 2 cm cover of ice!). An early morning dash back to Chatsworth where we found leeks and bread rolls in abundance. And Clarissa and Mike who, it seemed, were intending to join the phenomenally long queue for the meat counter! We, happily, do not require meat!
And so we moved into a pleasantly slow and relaxed Christmas Eve eve. It’s like having three Christmas Eves in a row. We were doing Christmas Eve things, a bit, on Friday as well. We went to the Dunstan Hall Garden centre and spent my birthday vouchers from Jeanette and Matthew on two green, one red and one yellow gooseberry bushes. We bought a candlelit lantern and some chain and The Builder has hung both my candle lanterns (Kathryn Conway gave me one back in the summer and it’s been wandering about the house ever since, but unused for its proper purpose) in the Christmas grotto. Father Christmas has made an early fly by and dropped off some presents to adorn the grotto, which now glitters and glistens festively. I’ve made leek and potato soup for the first of the Christmas Feasts on Christmas Eve night when we are expecting Freyja and Mark. We went on a planning wander around the new garden. It really is stuffed full of junk. I think we might have to empty the shed on a slow-but-steady basis, nibbling in from the door, and clear the junk heap in a similar way. The Builder has a simply enormous van and there are several van loads of rubbish there. But we can clear the “orchard” side quite simply and get that underway. It was a lovely day, really. Remarkably calm, not much frenzied cooking, no frenzied shopping, no panicking.
And then we went out to dinner, through fog and gloom, to the Famous Red Lion (no, no -- I still don’t know why it’s famous) on the Darley Dale road near the evocatively named hamlet of Spitewinter. I had a plate of smoked salmon (would have been enriched by the presence of some toast!), roast turkey and then, not Christmas pudding, which had nuts in it, but a truly lovely little baked chocolate pudding with ice cream. You have to keep reminding yourself that it is only a pub, lest your food expectations be too great. It serves not top restaurant food. But it does serve absolutely magnificent pub food. Next time we shall go in a taxi. I hadn’t thought to go in a taxi last night because it’s an out-in-the-country pub. But there was a taxi dropping people off when we got there. Never mind. The Builder had a pint of beer and a glass of wine with his dinner. And it’s not as though we are short of alcohol at home!!
Tabitha rang me on Friday afternoon with a sad, sad story. Their friend Maryk has to work on Boxing Day and was going to be lingering sadly in his lonely garret bedsit, all on his own on Christmas Day. He’s coming to us instead. Must remember to peel a potato for him!
Right. It’s nearly 20 to 7. Better get up and make the lobster bisque. And perhaps a cup of coffee
I am enjoying travelling by bus and train at the moment. We may not have had much fog, but the rest of the country remains enveloped. Gareth reports that Cambridge has been entirely covered in fog all week. In and around Chesterfield it has been icy. Very icy. I quite enjoy letting somebody else worry about the travelling conditions while I read my book. This week an exciting tome on motivating students in information literacy!!
The Builder met me at the station and we made our way out to Chatsworth. We found some fog out around Baslow, but not a huge lot. Chatsworth was very full. And somewhat reduced in vegetable supplies. No leeks :( Can’t make leek and potato soup without leeks! Will get leeks tomorrow. But apart from leeks and syrup – oh and bread rolls (Chatsworth was denuded of bread rolls too), I think the shopping is done. Let’s go home!
It’s the first time for ages that I’ve seen the garden in daylight. And it looked absolutely GORGEOUS. Everything was covered in ice. It looked like those pictures where people are trying to depict snow – all feathery and crisp and shiny. Everything was white, except for a tiny bit right down at the very back where the chicken run is eventually going to go, which is the only bit to get much in the way of sun at this time of year.
I still think of the very back of the garden as being somehow separate. I haven’t yet mentally linked the two gardens as ours yet, or indeed as one garden.
Lobster for dinner. Dressed Scottish lobster which I had bought with a view to making lobster bisque. Then I found in the freezer at the supermarket larger American Maine lobsters at half price. I have no idea why they should be at half price just before Christmas but I wasn’t arguing! We’ve kept the Scottish shells to add to the broth!
Yesterday the ice had all gone and the cloud has come in and the temperature has risen. The fish will be liberated from their icy cage if this goes on! (We can see them swimming about underneath the 1 or 2 cm cover of ice!). An early morning dash back to Chatsworth where we found leeks and bread rolls in abundance. And Clarissa and Mike who, it seemed, were intending to join the phenomenally long queue for the meat counter! We, happily, do not require meat!
And so we moved into a pleasantly slow and relaxed Christmas Eve eve. It’s like having three Christmas Eves in a row. We were doing Christmas Eve things, a bit, on Friday as well. We went to the Dunstan Hall Garden centre and spent my birthday vouchers from Jeanette and Matthew on two green, one red and one yellow gooseberry bushes. We bought a candlelit lantern and some chain and The Builder has hung both my candle lanterns (Kathryn Conway gave me one back in the summer and it’s been wandering about the house ever since, but unused for its proper purpose) in the Christmas grotto. Father Christmas has made an early fly by and dropped off some presents to adorn the grotto, which now glitters and glistens festively. I’ve made leek and potato soup for the first of the Christmas Feasts on Christmas Eve night when we are expecting Freyja and Mark. We went on a planning wander around the new garden. It really is stuffed full of junk. I think we might have to empty the shed on a slow-but-steady basis, nibbling in from the door, and clear the junk heap in a similar way. The Builder has a simply enormous van and there are several van loads of rubbish there. But we can clear the “orchard” side quite simply and get that underway. It was a lovely day, really. Remarkably calm, not much frenzied cooking, no frenzied shopping, no panicking.
And then we went out to dinner, through fog and gloom, to the Famous Red Lion (no, no -- I still don’t know why it’s famous) on the Darley Dale road near the evocatively named hamlet of Spitewinter. I had a plate of smoked salmon (would have been enriched by the presence of some toast!), roast turkey and then, not Christmas pudding, which had nuts in it, but a truly lovely little baked chocolate pudding with ice cream. You have to keep reminding yourself that it is only a pub, lest your food expectations be too great. It serves not top restaurant food. But it does serve absolutely magnificent pub food. Next time we shall go in a taxi. I hadn’t thought to go in a taxi last night because it’s an out-in-the-country pub. But there was a taxi dropping people off when we got there. Never mind. The Builder had a pint of beer and a glass of wine with his dinner. And it’s not as though we are short of alcohol at home!!
Tabitha rang me on Friday afternoon with a sad, sad story. Their friend Maryk has to work on Boxing Day and was going to be lingering sadly in his lonely garret bedsit, all on his own on Christmas Day. He’s coming to us instead. Must remember to peel a potato for him!
Right. It’s nearly 20 to 7. Better get up and make the lobster bisque. And perhaps a cup of coffee
Thursday, December 21, 2006
You may now doff your cap
... whenever you see me. We are now officially "landed". Mr Micawber's secretary rang yesterday lunch time to tell me that they had completed on the piece of land and that it was now ours. There are one or two bits of paperwork to complete but that doesn't alter the fact that the land is ours.
Hooray!
There will be a small orchard-ette, a chook run and a substantial veggie patch. In the fullness of the fullness of time!!!
So much to do. Could really do with six months off to get on with it all!
And I don't even get weekends. They called for volunteers. I told them when I was available, indicating that I *prefer* to do Saturdays over Sundays (unusual this; you get paid better on Sundays but I do like a nice Sunday Lunch!) and I prefer to go to Collegiate or Psalter rather than Adsetts. I seem to have gathered most weekends, both days sometimes. And it's strange the number of Sunday shifts I have been put down for at Adsetts next term. However. I shall make the most of the extra money. I fear that the opportunity for regular overtime may rapidly be drawing to a close. Nothing has happened on the Weekend Working Reorganisation for so long we had all forgotten about it. I think it might be about to kick back into life.
The weather has been absolutely stunningly glorious in Chesterfield and Sheffield the last couple of days. The sun has shone in a still blue sky. It is freezing cold and everything is covered in ice. The area is positively golden. The rest of Britain seems to be buried in dense, freezing fog. We in Sheff/Chesterfield are indeed blessed by the golden sun god!
I think I'm nearly ready for Christmas. I need to get veg and cream and stuff on Saturday. And I have forgotten to buy crackers. But I have the twiglets!
Hooray!
There will be a small orchard-ette, a chook run and a substantial veggie patch. In the fullness of the fullness of time!!!
So much to do. Could really do with six months off to get on with it all!
And I don't even get weekends. They called for volunteers. I told them when I was available, indicating that I *prefer* to do Saturdays over Sundays (unusual this; you get paid better on Sundays but I do like a nice Sunday Lunch!) and I prefer to go to Collegiate or Psalter rather than Adsetts. I seem to have gathered most weekends, both days sometimes. And it's strange the number of Sunday shifts I have been put down for at Adsetts next term. However. I shall make the most of the extra money. I fear that the opportunity for regular overtime may rapidly be drawing to a close. Nothing has happened on the Weekend Working Reorganisation for so long we had all forgotten about it. I think it might be about to kick back into life.
The weather has been absolutely stunningly glorious in Chesterfield and Sheffield the last couple of days. The sun has shone in a still blue sky. It is freezing cold and everything is covered in ice. The area is positively golden. The rest of Britain seems to be buried in dense, freezing fog. We in Sheff/Chesterfield are indeed blessed by the golden sun god!
I think I'm nearly ready for Christmas. I need to get veg and cream and stuff on Saturday. And I have forgotten to buy crackers. But I have the twiglets!
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Cake and Fizzy Wine
Well, that was a very festive Sunday.
Mind you, it started remarkably early, given that it was a Sunday and neither of us was working. But there were cakes to make. You can’t have a Cake Party without cakes, now can you? And I had to transform the front door space from its everyday existence as a “conservatory” to a festive Grotto. After all, you can’t have a Christmas Cake party without fairy lights and tinsel, now can you?
But first we had a visit from Tabitha, Gareth and Alex. They’d been in Doncaster at a party overnight and called in for lunch on their way back to Cambridge. Since we had Boys to hand, The Builder decided to shift the fence at the back. The land isn’t officially ours until Wednesday, but there will be no Boys on Wednesday and the fence posts have been in position for a couple of weeks and the concrete bottoms, and indeed the fencing itself, are very, very heavy!. The Speculator had said he didn’t really mind when the fence went up as long as it did. So we’ve moved it. (When I say we……). Ours is going to be the most fantastic garden when it’s all sorted out!
We had ham and tomato sandwiches and nibbly things from Waitrose for lunch. Then Gareth and Alex (and The Builder, a bit) gave life to my dalek. For Tabitha and Gareth and Alex have given me an inflatable red dalek for my birthday! It’s amazing.
Then they went away.
Shortly afterwards, Visitors came for the Cake Party. Roger came, without Kate who was at home with a cold and a bad temper. Bea and Steve came. Aileen and George-who-was-sick-for-months-but-is-now-better came. Peter (my boss) and Diane came a later. We ate: a cherry trifle, with cherries from the allotment; a chocolate cake; a cinnamon cake; mince pies, made with my fruit mince; and a steamed marmalade cake, made with my marmalade. I’ve never made a marmalade cake before. It was scrumdidliumptious! We drank fizzy wine and tea and coffee and fruit juice.
Then they all went away, except for Steve and Bea who stayed and had chips and egg and bacon and tomatoes and mushrooms and more wine/fruit juice and stayed quite late. Then they went away. The Builder and I poured ourselves up the stairs and went to bed.
The dalek, in the meantime, had been stood on the landing, preventing people going into our room (such a slack artist ¾ I hadn’t even made the bed!) or the spare room, temporarily transformed into a junk room. You could hear startled, nervous laughter as people went up the stairs to go to the loo and found him there.
Fortunately, I was on a late shift today. Got up and made The Builder’s lunch and then retired back to bed with a Cup of Tea. Got up around 8 and made a start on the first lot of dishes. Had another cup of tea and tidied the lounge room. More dishes. More tea. A bath, I think, with Vanilla bubbles and my new dog plug in the plughole (He floats on a chain attached to the plug. He’s inside a swimming ring. He’s very cute. Also a birthday present.) Wash last lot of dishes. Tidy up kitchen and dining room. All traces of Visitors now eradicated, except for the presence of a piece of chocolate cake and a mince pie on the dining room table. Excellent! Time for a cup of tea, I reackon. But I’m very glad I didn’t have to get up and drive in at 7 o’clock this morning. Actually, I wouldn’t have driven. I’d have gone by train.
Freyja has just been in, bringing my birthday presents from her and Mark. I like this idea of having a second birthday nearly two weeks after the first! I now have a Food for Free book, an allotment book and a letter holder with a watering can poised over where the letters would go. Will clearly have to put bills there!
The Builder has lost his phone. He had it on Friday when he met me at the station. He didn't have it when he left for work on Saturday. If you ring it you get straight through to his voice mail. The only thing we can think is that it dropped out of his pocket when he was getting the shopping out of the van on Friday evening. A new phone has been sent for.
Robert’s daughter Rosi has had a baby son. His name is Daniel Robert Gribben and he is a big laddie, weighing in at 4280g!
The dalek has moved into the spare room. He was gazing idly out the window the last time I saw him.
Mind you, it started remarkably early, given that it was a Sunday and neither of us was working. But there were cakes to make. You can’t have a Cake Party without cakes, now can you? And I had to transform the front door space from its everyday existence as a “conservatory” to a festive Grotto. After all, you can’t have a Christmas Cake party without fairy lights and tinsel, now can you?
But first we had a visit from Tabitha, Gareth and Alex. They’d been in Doncaster at a party overnight and called in for lunch on their way back to Cambridge. Since we had Boys to hand, The Builder decided to shift the fence at the back. The land isn’t officially ours until Wednesday, but there will be no Boys on Wednesday and the fence posts have been in position for a couple of weeks and the concrete bottoms, and indeed the fencing itself, are very, very heavy!. The Speculator had said he didn’t really mind when the fence went up as long as it did. So we’ve moved it. (When I say we……). Ours is going to be the most fantastic garden when it’s all sorted out!
We had ham and tomato sandwiches and nibbly things from Waitrose for lunch. Then Gareth and Alex (and The Builder, a bit) gave life to my dalek. For Tabitha and Gareth and Alex have given me an inflatable red dalek for my birthday! It’s amazing.
Then they went away.
Shortly afterwards, Visitors came for the Cake Party. Roger came, without Kate who was at home with a cold and a bad temper. Bea and Steve came. Aileen and George-who-was-sick-for-months-but-is-now-better came. Peter (my boss) and Diane came a later. We ate: a cherry trifle, with cherries from the allotment; a chocolate cake; a cinnamon cake; mince pies, made with my fruit mince; and a steamed marmalade cake, made with my marmalade. I’ve never made a marmalade cake before. It was scrumdidliumptious! We drank fizzy wine and tea and coffee and fruit juice.
Then they all went away, except for Steve and Bea who stayed and had chips and egg and bacon and tomatoes and mushrooms and more wine/fruit juice and stayed quite late. Then they went away. The Builder and I poured ourselves up the stairs and went to bed.
The dalek, in the meantime, had been stood on the landing, preventing people going into our room (such a slack artist ¾ I hadn’t even made the bed!) or the spare room, temporarily transformed into a junk room. You could hear startled, nervous laughter as people went up the stairs to go to the loo and found him there.
Fortunately, I was on a late shift today. Got up and made The Builder’s lunch and then retired back to bed with a Cup of Tea. Got up around 8 and made a start on the first lot of dishes. Had another cup of tea and tidied the lounge room. More dishes. More tea. A bath, I think, with Vanilla bubbles and my new dog plug in the plughole (He floats on a chain attached to the plug. He’s inside a swimming ring. He’s very cute. Also a birthday present.) Wash last lot of dishes. Tidy up kitchen and dining room. All traces of Visitors now eradicated, except for the presence of a piece of chocolate cake and a mince pie on the dining room table. Excellent! Time for a cup of tea, I reackon. But I’m very glad I didn’t have to get up and drive in at 7 o’clock this morning. Actually, I wouldn’t have driven. I’d have gone by train.
Freyja has just been in, bringing my birthday presents from her and Mark. I like this idea of having a second birthday nearly two weeks after the first! I now have a Food for Free book, an allotment book and a letter holder with a watering can poised over where the letters would go. Will clearly have to put bills there!
The Builder has lost his phone. He had it on Friday when he met me at the station. He didn't have it when he left for work on Saturday. If you ring it you get straight through to his voice mail. The only thing we can think is that it dropped out of his pocket when he was getting the shopping out of the van on Friday evening. A new phone has been sent for.
Robert’s daughter Rosi has had a baby son. His name is Daniel Robert Gribben and he is a big laddie, weighing in at 4280g!
The dalek has moved into the spare room. He was gazing idly out the window the last time I saw him.
Friday, December 15, 2006
Friday Fritterings
The Builder had yesterday off. Hooray! No reason to get up at 05:30. He can take me to the station for the half past seven train. And pick me up again later. Hooray!
Well, the best laid plans …. Drifted back to sleep. Woke up -- to find that it was 07:50. Oops. Should be walking through the doors of the Adsetts Centre by now. Fortunately, The Builder is not working. He can drive me in.
Rush about. Leap into car. Off we go ……… Very, very slowly. Traffic horrid in Chesterfield. Traffic horrid in Sheffield too. Walk into building at precisely half past nine.
Hmm. Hungry. Amble off to the student refectory for an egg, bacon and tomato sandwich. Grab a glass of orange juice. Whole lot comes to £2.06. Excellent value. Return to office. Eat sandwich. Drip egg yolk all over desk. Clean up. Drink orange juice and a cup of coffee (sequentially!) Go on Information Desk. Finish at one. And GO HOME AGAIN!!!!!! A fantastically short day.
The Builder met me at the station and we wended our way home, via Hasland. We stopped for a mooch in the shops, something I’ve been meaning to do for many months. Like Chesterfield itself it’s an interesting mix of tacky discount stores and rather nice gift and flower shops. Plus an astonishing number of food places. We found a fabulous present for Jeanette, whose birthday is on Saturday. I might find it a bit of a struggle to post it, though. I think it wants to live at my place :-s I’ve also found a tiny, tiny Christmas tree and a holly stick for Freyja. The holly stick is full of berries and VERY prickly!
The reason that we both had time off is because today is finally the day of our Registration-at-a-new-surgery medicals. It’s a cute, tiny, wee surgery just up the road. I think I was the youngest person in the waiting room, though I suppose it was half past three on a Thursday afternoon. The doctor seems to think that my BMI is just fine (though I think it’s a bit high). He says I have slightly elevated blood pressure and wants to monitor it. Plus he thinks that a gin and tonic when I come home followed by half a squillion glasses of wine might be a trifle too much alcohol. Knew I should have lied about the wine! The difficulty lies in deciding which glass to give up. The first one? The last one? One of the ones in the middle? And in any case, I can’t reduce my wine intake at this precise moment. I’ve just taken delivery of 51 bottles of wine. 12 free using my Nectar loyalty points and 39 through the National Trust Wine Club offer. The whole lot cost me the grand total of £145, and it’s excellent quality wine. But anyway. Back to the medicals. I shall go back to yoga which should fix my blood pressure and revert to my normal practice of doctor avoidance. Though I suppose I ought to see the practice nurse to have my BP monitored over the next few weeks. The Builder, in the meantime, came out of his appointment looking smug and cheery. NO BP problems for him. No suggestion that he cut back his alcohol intake. Pff!
Well, the best laid plans …. Drifted back to sleep. Woke up -- to find that it was 07:50. Oops. Should be walking through the doors of the Adsetts Centre by now. Fortunately, The Builder is not working. He can drive me in.
Rush about. Leap into car. Off we go ……… Very, very slowly. Traffic horrid in Chesterfield. Traffic horrid in Sheffield too. Walk into building at precisely half past nine.
Hmm. Hungry. Amble off to the student refectory for an egg, bacon and tomato sandwich. Grab a glass of orange juice. Whole lot comes to £2.06. Excellent value. Return to office. Eat sandwich. Drip egg yolk all over desk. Clean up. Drink orange juice and a cup of coffee (sequentially!) Go on Information Desk. Finish at one. And GO HOME AGAIN!!!!!! A fantastically short day.
The Builder met me at the station and we wended our way home, via Hasland. We stopped for a mooch in the shops, something I’ve been meaning to do for many months. Like Chesterfield itself it’s an interesting mix of tacky discount stores and rather nice gift and flower shops. Plus an astonishing number of food places. We found a fabulous present for Jeanette, whose birthday is on Saturday. I might find it a bit of a struggle to post it, though. I think it wants to live at my place :-s I’ve also found a tiny, tiny Christmas tree and a holly stick for Freyja. The holly stick is full of berries and VERY prickly!
The reason that we both had time off is because today is finally the day of our Registration-at-a-new-surgery medicals. It’s a cute, tiny, wee surgery just up the road. I think I was the youngest person in the waiting room, though I suppose it was half past three on a Thursday afternoon. The doctor seems to think that my BMI is just fine (though I think it’s a bit high). He says I have slightly elevated blood pressure and wants to monitor it. Plus he thinks that a gin and tonic when I come home followed by half a squillion glasses of wine might be a trifle too much alcohol. Knew I should have lied about the wine! The difficulty lies in deciding which glass to give up. The first one? The last one? One of the ones in the middle? And in any case, I can’t reduce my wine intake at this precise moment. I’ve just taken delivery of 51 bottles of wine. 12 free using my Nectar loyalty points and 39 through the National Trust Wine Club offer. The whole lot cost me the grand total of £145, and it’s excellent quality wine. But anyway. Back to the medicals. I shall go back to yoga which should fix my blood pressure and revert to my normal practice of doctor avoidance. Though I suppose I ought to see the practice nurse to have my BP monitored over the next few weeks. The Builder, in the meantime, came out of his appointment looking smug and cheery. NO BP problems for him. No suggestion that he cut back his alcohol intake. Pff!
Still, at least we're now registered with the practice
And so home. An early G&T, in defiance of the doctor(!), then roast chicken and some wine from a bottle (rather than a cask) for dinner. A very pleasant evening.
Woke up at 04:00 this morning :-( Was up and running about by 05:20. Had The Builder ready to leave by 06:00, by which time I was mixing together the ingredients for another batch of fruit mincemeat (it does smell fantastic when you mix it all together). And now here I am. Back on the Information Desk. It is drizzling outside in an irritating, grey and gloomy manner. Everything is waterlogged. And yet the South East is still declared to be a drought area!
Tell me what your favourite cake or cake-like pud is.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Taffa's Blog
Tabitha has blogged the death of the Wendy Car. You can find her blog here: http://www.myspace.com/tabithag77
(She told me to tell you!)
(She told me to tell you!)
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