..... and so it goes on and on.....

Last week, on Thursday I fell again, sideways, taking the laundry bin down with me. It is amazing how fragile these things are when squeezed. I got up myself successfully, and suffered only a bruise to a knee. The laundry bin came off worse. It is amazing how fragile these seemingly solid bins are if pressed on at the sides.... I could not correct it enough for the lid to come to a close enough fit, so had to order a new one.

When I reached elder son's house on Sunday he noticed that the housing of the wing mirror was cracked. He held it together as well as possible, and the mirror certainly still worked. I telephoned the Insurance company used by Motability and have been given an address for a repair place.

I was told I had a £75 excess to pay.

Anyway, the repair company phoned yesterday evening and asked me to take the car in for an estimate on Monday.

My mobile now cannot be charged as the "poker jabber thingy" that goes into the phone has got bent so out of alignment that the connection has been lost. I can't do without that, so that is another purchase.

The good news is that my wonderful cleaners came this morning, so everything is sparkling.

And now my new laundry bin has arrived.

A Visit to Elder Son and Family

I mentioned in my last post that I was off to visit elder son , his wife, granddaughter and grandson for a few days.

It is difficult for all of us to get together too often as all four of them live such busy lives, but I always try to go at the time when there are three birthdays: first granddaughter (10 yesterday), then elder son, (46 on the 31st) and finally grandson (14 on 13th November). There had been a lot going on in their lives, but the Sunday included the four of them, daughter in law’s sister, husband, 3 year old daughter (+ bump) as well as the grandparents.

I so much enjoy seeing them all again. Time passes all too quickly during the childhood years, then again at the other end of the scale.

So, we sat down, 10 of us for a slap up dinner on Sunday. The 3 year old was enchanting, turning somersaults and with a large vocabulary.

After dinner, the birthday presents were distributed, a day early. Granddaughter is getting to be a bit like the Queen, with official birthdays as well as the real one.

On Monday I took son to lunch at a near by café. This is a shop which specialises in interesting cheeses. Last time I ended up not knowing which cheese was which, but this time I had them labelled. The proprietor is such a nice guy and very interesting to talk to.

Son had lent me Romanitas (This is the Roman Empire Now), which was based on the assumption that the Roman empire had continued to the present day and I had bought the second of the trilogy. I had expected to have finished it while up there, but had not taken my reading glasses.

I had trouble reading the hymn numbers in Church with my last pair of varifocals, and this time the varifocals had a larger distance area and a smaller reading area. In general this is excellent because, if you are out for a meal or shopping, you can read with the varifocals, but now I need my reading glasses to read books comfortably.

I really enjoyed seeing the photographs of the four of them on holiday in Turkey, with son sailing with a spinnaker hoisted and the others getting tuition at different levels. These photographs were partly on son’s pc but also on grandson’s blog. (This is an invitation only blog)

With all sorts of bad weather forecast at different times I have been very lucky with the driving both ways. Yesterday I went to Sainsbury’s and bought one or two things including a new bath mat for the shower room.

I came home via Dobbies and picked up a loaf of bread. I had hoped to find biscuits for cheese but made do at lunch time by slicing up a smashing newly baked roll as though it were a loaf of bread.

FYI

For your information, no, I didn't sleep in today, nor did I get up an hour early!

After Church I am going up into the far North (well, sort of) to stay with elder son, his wife and 2 children. It will be lovely to see them.

Three of the four have birthdays round about now.

See you back at the ranch on Wednesday.

A Pink Day

I forgot to mention that when visiting daughter she showed me a photograph of her elder son taken on his "Pink Day" at school. I am not sure if it was for only the sixteen year olds or for the whole school, but many were rather disappointing in turning up with perhaps one small pink item.

My grandson, on the other hand, did the job properly.

He borrowed a pair of pink trousers from M's daughter, a pink top from his mother, and even wore trainers with a pink stripe on them. I think there might have been more but my memory is not what it was.

I am proud of my grandson.

Younger Son and his Wonderful Wife

I have been having a lot of worries recently about younger son. I have mentioned his gout – which I worried might be associated with his kidney.

He had a kidney transplant a few years ago, and refers to the transplant as Rabbie (!). He had been desperately hoping that he and his wonderful wife could come to Scotland for his father’s 70th birthday celebrations tomorrow. I had been most concerned over the past few days that, even if discharged from hospital, he would be in no way fit enough for the journey. It is so hard to let go when you desperately want something.

News started with the information that he was to stay in hospital over the weekend, but then I heard that he was getting home. Both daughter-in-law’s parents and I have been emphasising that it would really do poor younger son no good to have to face the long journey north and back again.

I tried to phone him in hospital on our mobiles but the reception kept breaking up, so we had to resort to texting. He is in remarkably good spirits I am delighted to report. I am so sorry that he can’t make his father’s birthday, but his health is much more important.

On my side, my GP has changed my anti-histamine (to good old fashioned Chlorphenamine, which in the bad old days we knew as Piriton) and said that I should see a good improvement quickly. If the swelling is not down by Monday I have to stop my Perindopril as she has come across cases of allergy to that even after of years of successful taking of it. After that I have to see her again next Friday, and once again she has made the appointment for me, even changing the time to suit as I have a dreaded appointment with the hygienist. I am a bit scared as she has told me I shall need injections for it.

Oh the joys of still having your own teeth (or at least a good number of them)!

Visit and a Fall from Grace

Tuesday evening saw no change in the swelling, apart from the fact that it seemed to move about a bit depending on the position I was in. In the end, having cooked stuffed jacket potatoes I found myself able to eat only half of it. Still, good night’s sleep and up quite early in the morning. I was planning a quiet day with my jigsaw when I was interrupted by a text message from my daughter – could I go over for lunch? Of course!

So, over I went and we had a lovely lunch of her smoked mackerel pate and afterwards a good blether while she sorted socks; (how do we accumulate so many odd socks?) and did her ironing.

After that, when younger son came home we went to see a house that daughter is interested in. It looks very hopeful, so fingers are crossed. It has quite a steep driveway and daughter was concerned that I might not manage it on my own, but I did, no problem.

So they went on ahead and I went to go up the step from the driveway to the front porch.

Ah…

Almost made it….

… but just as I was about to reach the full height of the “climb” I could not make it and toppled over backwards landing on my right hip, right elbow and then my head landed too so there is a bit of an egg there now.

I HATE, HATE, HATE making an exhibition of myself this way especially as I can not manage to get up myself so daughter and the key-holding neighbour had to heave me to my feet.

I was sat down in the sitting room while everybody looked around upstairs. Daughter brought her camera and did a video tour of the whole house, which was clever.

Came home after that.

This morning I got up and it wasn’t until I was washing my face in the shower that I realised it was still swollen!

What on earth does she look like ?

Yesterday was another blustery day with intermittent showers. The temperature was 9.5 Celsius which is really not too bad.

Off I headed to the Bridge Club. Last week W and I came 4th (out of 6), not bad as we were not accustomed to playing together.

This week there were two people from the beginners’ class, which is not being held this week. S., our leader took one and allocated me to the other. Fair enough and a bit of a compliment. Her play is really quite good but her bidding is hopeless. Still I enjoyed the play. I think I have bitched a bit about my usual partner, but I am desperately looking forward to her return.

Better the devil you know….

Back to the ranch in time for a cup of tea and to a recommendation of a lovely Robert Louis Stevenson book. I have ordered it as it is only 1p (plus postage of £2.75 of course).

Back to an easy meal of farmers market mince with onions and mushrooms served with potatoes, carrots and cauliflower, followed by strawberries and (the end of the ) ice cream.

This morning I wakened up to find my face feeling a bit “odd”, I looked in the mirror and it was all swollen down one side, but not painful or red at all. I made an appointment to see the doctor at 11.10 this morning and she was somewhat puzzled as it looked like an allergic reaction. Had I eaten/used anything new? No, I have washed my face with the same cream for over 2 years and the only food I have eaten is my own cooking.

She has given me some antihistamine tablets to take twice a day and given me an appointment to see one of the other partners on Friday. I am just to cancel it if it is all better by then. That is much easier for me than being asked to ring on Friday if no improvement as, by the time you get through to the switchboard all the appointments have gone, particularly on a Friday.

It is, once again a lovely sunny day, although a bit blustery.

My vegetable delivery was potatoes, lovely carrots with their green frond tops, 2 swede turnips, a bunch of beetroot, onions, leeks and a Savoy cabbage. The fruit was 2 apples, 2 oranges, 2 bananas, a pear and 2 bananas.

I really have to do some work with this lot.

Later:

The lightbulb moment.

Could I possibly have developed an allergy to strawberries? If so, a pity, but not a problem.

Mind you, these were supermarket strawberries, not organic ones.............

An Interesting Church Service

Yesterday was another day of mixed weather, but not the extremes of Saturday. Off I went to Church and it was dry and blowy for the walk, although there is one particular corner where the wind always tries to knock you off your feet.

It was a most interesting service today with the baptism of a beautiful baby girl who had enough family to fill several rows of seating. She behaved impeccably throughout the whole thing and was taken through to the vestry shortly after the actual baptism. Why does “The Lord bless you and keep you….” Always cause me to tear up? The parents (members of this Church) had travelled back from England to where they had moved from. The family filled several rows of seating. I had wondered why they were all sat on one side of the aisle, but it later became clear that the elders were acting as very efficient ushers.

The second event was the re-dedication of the Boys Brigade and the presentation of the colours. First the officers, then the non commissioned officers then the rest of the troop stood and in turn took the promise. They had all been seated on the other side of the aisle.

The third event was the dedication of a new altar fall, beautifully embroidered by one of the Church members and, of course, displayed today. The design of the fall depicts the new Church coat of arms, and it was interesting to hear of the meaning of each part, much of it with a long history.

After we left the Church the Boys Brigade marched past the Church and all the way down the path and over the road – and made a magnificent sound.

Just as I was nearing the Church gates I realised I was hearing the band rather close behind me and realised I had been marching (?) ahead of them. Oops. A swift movement to the right got me out of that….

I then returned home by which time the rain had really got going. I now seem to have well and truly got the hang of reverse parking, ending up straight and in the middle of the bay.

Hope I shall then be able to avoid the one or two scrapes with my new car after I pick it up in January.

Enjoyable Tesco Shopping.

All praise where it is due!

Yesterday brought the most disparate of weather systems: some of the time the skies were blue and the sun was shining, but at other times the clouds covered the skies and some of them were ominously black. When the black clouds appeared the wind got up and was really quite fierce; at the same time the skies chucked down so much rain. The rain was just stotting off the pavements and the roads. The lorries threw up so much muck and water it was positively dangerous. First off I went to my GP surgery for my fluvac and then returned home.

Shortly after, TBSITW collected me to go shopping. First we went to a near by town to get some fish, then we had to go to big city to collect a parcel for which DHL had left a card to say they had tried to deliver……. (You know the sort of thing). Anyway we collected that and headed off back to Tesco. It is the first time in a while we have shopped together. It was just so much fun. We went our separate ways and agreed to meet just inside the entrance when we had finished. Usually on my own, by the time I get to the checkout I just about lose the will to live.

This time TBSITW asked me as we met by chance if I had remembered the antihistamine for insect bites. I said I couldn’t find any in spite of searching, but shortly after she came back having found some (it was very low down.)

So, I finished my shopping and found a charming gentleman at the till who put my shopping through and packed my bags for me, and then I went and found a seat at the door to wait for TBSITW.

Now when we arrived there was a table with about 4 chairs and when I came back they were still there, but almost immediately after someone came and removed the table and the other chairs. I said I was just waiting for my sister and was that all right. “Certainly”.

I had bought two lemon sole fillets for my evening meal, but having eaten too much for a very late lunch I saved them for today.

Book Review, the Heartland by Stuart Legg

Yesterday I had a quiet day, concerned only with my washing (yes, I know, once again!)

I got down to the laundry room at 8.03 (it is open from 8.00) to discover two machines in use. The third machine which is positively ancient, was out of order. I was very lucky as one of my neighbours offered to put my washing in the big machine once she had finished hers. She even gave me a phone to let me know what time it had gone into the machine so that I would know when to go down to transfer it to the tumble drier.

Anyway what I really wanted to talk about is a book called The Heartland by Stuart Legg.

This book must have been recommended by one of the blog authors whom I read, but very sadly I cannot remember who.

The Heartland of the title is, roughly, Inner and Outer Mongolia. I followed up the recommendation as I hoped it would shed more light on the history which is the background for Conn Iggulden’s series about Genghis Khan

I found it quite a difficult book to read, not least because my knowledge of Europe, the Middle East and Asia is woefully lacking. I can – more or less – identify countries on a map, but not old tribal areas nor mountain ranges, nor rivers. Some of the latter I did know, but many more were new to me.

I could have done with reading this book in a lecture hall with physical maps of Europe, the Middle East and Asia in front and the borders of countries as they changed superimposed.

I found it quite difficult to follow the movements of the various tribes as they moved to and fro and battles were fought.

At least I knew of the names of most of the tribes, but not all (the Alan, anyone?) and certainly the tribes of Asia were difficult.

The book really came to life, at least for me, when we had well passed the half way mark and at last Genghis Khan (or Chingis) and in fact his father moved into centre stage. It may be that there was more information about this time and place as writings were published not long after Ghengis’s death.

At that point I found the whole thing absolutely fascinating as this was history, not historical fiction.

Not that I would decry historical fiction; if well researched it can bring to life a time in our past.

The wonders of world-wide Amazon!

Yesterday I placed three orders with Amazon.

The first was to Amazon.com for a $ gift token as for my niece’s son for Christmas. The great thing here was that I could print it out on my printer here and so didn’t have to pay postage from the USA.

The second was to Amazon.co.uk for two Christmas gifts for my nephew’s two children.

For the third one, I had placed a Fred Vargas book on my wish list when the site showed it as available for pre-order, but yesterday the message said “not available”.

So I logged on to Amazon.Fr and bought it there (in French, but that’s ok).

Previously I have bought books from Amazon.Ca (Canada) because they were published there and were never published on this side of the pond.

The wonders of shopping on the Internet!

A Cook-a thon

After I came home from visiting TBSITW I decided to start preparing the vegetables for a shin of beef, so I peeled and cut into small cubes 3 potatoes and 1 carrot, then placed them in a jug under cold water. The quantities are not exact and depend on what you have in the fridge or larder.

Yesterday I washed and cut into small pieces some very small celery and 2 leeks. I was going to add two onions but in the end felt that, with all the leeks I would use only one large one, peeled and diced.

I put all the vegetables in the bottom of a soup pot and boiled water to which I added two Kallo organic beef bouillon cubes. I then added enough of this stock mix plus some extra boiled water just to cover the vegetables.

On top of all this I placed the shin of beef which I had bought at a Farmers Market and frozen prior to defrosting it over the night before.

I then brought the whole thing to the boil and turned the hob down to 2 (the setting at which I cook vegetables), but turned it down to 1 to simmer away very gently for over 3 hours.

After I turned the hob off I left the pan to stand there while the hob was still hot.

Meanwhile I peeled, cored and sliced 8 cooking apples given to me by TBSITW and placed them in a heavy pan I added some sugar and a wine glass of water, brought it to a gentle boil and left it for about 20 minutes until the apples were falling.

Later on I rescued from the fridge T****’s Finest Streaky Pancetta a good week prior to its use by date and grilled all of it, leaving it to drain on kitchen paper before crushing it and freezing it for use in potato salad.

After all that I sat down to read Private Eye.

Today I have posted the shin recipe on my recipe blog.

The Trials and Tribulations of dealing with M and S.

Yesterday I went to visit TBSITW and canine friend. We had a delicious lunch of sandwiches of newly baked wholemeal bread filled with their own shot roe venison, their own home grown lettuce, their own grown beetroot and bought butter and mayonnaise.

Come on, do you expect perfection and to have them living in a tent in a commune??????????

At any rate it was so good to catch up with all her news – she reads almost most of mine on my blog.

Yes, there are upsides and downsides of keeping a blog.

I used to be registered with Marks and Spencer as a shopper. But have had difficulty in signing on since I told them what they could do with their credit card. This was after they sent me an email asking for all my secure credit card details and passwords etc. I thought at first it must be a scam, but had trouble finding out the truth of the matter as their Customer Services is in fact their Customer Dis- services as they have outsourced it overseas, where I am sure the call centre staff are lovely people but it would appear that they cannot operate beyond their script. I don’t understand them because of the pitch and speed at which they speak. They don’t understand me when I ask them to speak more slowly.

Impasse.

I have now registered a new email address at hotmail and this morning went on to register as a “new” customer with my hotmail address.

In fact I now think I shall use my hotmail address for all my on-line shopping keeping my Outlook Express address for friends and family.

Thoughts on Banks and Building Societies

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful sunny autumn day, perfect for the walk to Church.

Our minister is on holiday and the assistant minister was taking the service.

You could really see the difference in the two styles of preaching, the one sticking to the interpretation of the text and the other (our usual minister) bound to have had quite a lot to say about the current problems with the global financial systems.

I find the whole thing difficult to understand. What caused “respectable” banks to get involved with sub-prime lending?

I shall say nothing about those City whiz kids on both sides of the pond who pursued the creed of ‘greed is good’, awarding themselves not only eye-wateringly high salaries but also obscene bonuses

I am thinking about the High Street Banks and Building Societies. I think it all started with demutualisation of them and of respectable life assurance companies. Much of this was pushed through by pressure from the small investor seeing easy money. After that the demutualised organizations faced pressure from their shareholders (and from their senior staff) to follow in the paths of the big banks.

It is not so long since Building Societies would lend on the basis of only one partner's salary and required a reasonable deposit before lending and then lending only up to a certain percentage of the value of the property. How did they move away so quickly and so far?

This was to be their downfall.

Pumpkin

I didn’t do much yesterday, other than the usual boring washing.

I promised a pumpkin recipe once I had tried it out, but then saw it was a serve 6 so instead I gave the pumpkin to the house manager here (she does such a wonderful job) for her grandchildren’s Halloween.

However I shall post it to my recipes blog and will be pleased to hear of any reports.

I am working hard at a Wasgij jigsaw and am finding it rather difficult. Because I have been reading so much recently, the jigsaw has rather been put to one side. I have now taken it up again and made one or two small breakthroughs.

Brother's Visit

Yesterday saw a visit from my younger brother (not much younger, he still has a bit to go to catch up.) It is always so good to see him and to catch up with all his family news. He and my sister-in-law have three “children” spread quite widely apart in distance and so they both spend quite a lot of their time travelling hither and thither to see them all and to help out when they can. His grandchildren (2 boys and a girl) will be aged 8, 4 and 3 months, the former two at their birthdays.

It is amazing how the time flies and how quickly they grow.

My brother is someone whom I love and admire; additionally he is sometimes used as our family’s unofficial unpaid IFA. His advice is always very thoughtful and sage.

When he visits we always have tea and “biccies”, but this time in his honour I made rice krispie cakes and Aunt Lily’s chocolate balls. When I looked at the recipes for chocolate balls which are all on one page, I noticed that my sister’s chocolate balls made with a different recipe entirely had cherries, so I thought that cherries could indeed be added to Aunt Lily’s recipe. They did well using half a glace cherry but I think the recipe could even stand a whole cherry per ball. I shall make a note of this in my recipe blog.

Now Aunt Lily was born in 1895, but she was not typical of her era. She went to Edinburgh University and graduated with an M.A. at a time when it was rare for women to go to University. Computers were not really around by the time she died, but I bet she would have embraced them to keep in touch with family and to pass on some of her knowledge which is now largely lost.

It is such a pity that the young do not always appreciate the wisdom and knowledge of their elders until it is too late.

The New Car

A couple of days ago I received through the mail a reminder of the process to go through to order my new car.

I drive a car through the Motability Scheme, whereby the full mobility allowance is paid directly from the Department of Work and Pensions (about £46 per wk) to Motability to cover the costs of a 3-year lease. My previous lease will be over in January and so now is the time to look at the next one.

My last car was a Vauxhall Corsa 1.4 automatic and I loved it.

The garage who dealt with Vauxhall does not do so any more but just deals in Chevrolet, another General Motors car.

I was talking about economy in fuel costs, so we first looked at the Matiz which has only an 800 cc engine. I worried a bit about the power after driving a 1.4 one. Anyway it failed to meet with my other specification needs, so that was dismissed fairly quickly.

As well as the things you would expect in any car, the Chevrolet Aveo has air conditioning, electrically heated and operated wing mirrors, remote central locking and so on. The electrically operated wing mirrors are absolutely essential for reverse parking here – I have to angle them right down to see the darker brick edging of the parking bay.

So, of course, dear reader, I ordered one.

It is in a colour called Fayence (sic) blue which looks a lovely shade of green.

I passed a comment to the effect that I was surprised that there was no grab handle on the driver’s side of my previous car, especially when you could see two blanks where one would have gone. No, silly, this is not to hold on to while driving but as an aid when getting out of the car. Well, the Aveo has a nice little pocket for a pair of sunglasses, but it is very easy to swap the grab handle from the front passenger side to the driver’s side. The salesman knows it is easy as they have just done it a couple of weeks ago for another lady.

It is funny how the automatic cars are always top of the range, and I chose a 5-door one (not so much for passengers but more for putting shopping. What is the boot (trunk) for? I hear you say.

Ah, now, that would be telling…….

Back in the days when I had to buy my own cars I could afford only the 3-door manual, bottom of the range ones, so it is a huge bonus to get a 5 door top of the range car

A Case of Mistaken Venue

Yesterday morning I set off to meet daughter in Marks and Spenser at 12.45. As I was up and about early I decided to get going.

Now on Tuesday it was a BIG MISTAKE going to Dobbies, but yesterday it was an EVEN BIGGER MISTAKE going to Marks and Spencer early..

Idly wandering round I found a pair of black pull on trousers similar to many which I own, so that went in the trolley.

Then I found a grey skirt with a gored bottom, similar to but different from the one I wore to the Bridge Club Autumn Hat Night.

However, I next found a Burgundy skirt of a similar shape, but in a colour which is new to me, so the trousers and grey skirt went back on the rails. I then met an assistant and asked if they had any nice tops to go with the skirt as I had already found the limitations of my own wardrobe..

She was excellent. She led me to a lovely blouse which I put in my basket in two sizes, and my eye was then caught by a less “dressy” one which I also put in my trolley in two sizes.

After that I happened to mention that I was most unhappy about not being able to find a black outdoor jacket. She took me to see a ¾ length coat (which is what I would call a jacket) but it was in a size smaller than I wear. However I tried it on and looked at it in the mirror. Now at the time I was wearing a vest, a thermal vest, a black polo neck and a pink wool polo neck sweater. Even with all that, it looked great.

I think this was a wonderful (and unexpected) instance of having a 'personal shopper'.

So off to the changing rooms, in each case choosing the smaller of the two sizes then off to pay.

At that point I made for the shoe department where I was due to meet daughter and sank down into a seat.

And waited.

Then a text message arrived saying “Je suis arrivee”. I texted back to say I was in the shoe department. She said no I wasn’t.

At last it dawned on her that I had gone to the “only” Marks and Spencer that I know and she had gone to her local one. I couldn’t have found it as I have never been there before.

However I said I would very happily go over and meet her at her home. I then went and bought a sandwich and a small bottle of lemon refresher and set off. It was a very easy journey, all on dual carriageway or motorway, so I reached her house and she wasn’t there. I then made a start on a sandwich when up she pulled behind me.

So in the end we did have lunch together, just not at the expected venue. It was great to have a good chat, and I even met up with younger grandson. I also had to show her my purchases of which she approved! When she saw me to the car, I discovered that I had parked impeccably about 1 inch from the kerb and absolutely parallel. Usually I seem to park within walking distance of the kerb.

At the end I drove home with my goodies, got the car beautifully reverse parked, had my supper, read and went to bed.

The tale of mistaken venue will be familiar to TBSITW.

Quite some years ago she and I were to meet daughter at a (named) garden centre. We got there and searched the place for her. Once again on that occasion she had gone to a garden centre of the same name but at a different location.

It just goes to show that assumptions can be dangerous……

The Hunt Is On.

After the hat night, I took off my mother’s rings (engagement, wedding and another gold band) and put them on top of the chest of drawers. Also there were the excess contents of my usual handbag when I transferred what was necessary into the bag I was using to go out with. I had started tidying up before going to bed and put some things into a plastic bag which already held rubbish. Additionally the bottom drawer of the chest of drawers was slightly open.

I suspect you are ahead of me here.

I ended up finding only the two wedding bands with the engagement ring missing.

First off I had a quick look at the front of the open drawer and then I emptied the bag and had a look through that.

No luck, so gave it up till morning.

In the morning I went down on my hands and knees and looked under the near by furniture, with still no luck. So I emptied out the bottom drawer onto the bed and put everything back carefully. In doing so I found a rain hat which I thought completely lost.

I went to the kitchen to collect another plastic bag in order to transfer the contents carefully from one to the other. Before doing that I had a thorough check on the top of the chest of drawers - no luck, and then took the lid off a little dish .

And there it was!

Phew.

It is not just the monetary value; it is the sentimental value which is so important.

Autumn Hat Night

No, this did not involve the wearing of fancy hats, but was so-called because it was in the autumn and you did not play with your usual partner but had partners drawn from a hat.

After all the exercise I was feeling somewhat tired and not sure how I would cope. However a shower was definitely called for and then a change into the glad rags. Now I am usually clad in trousers but last night the skirt was hauled out from where it was lurking at the back of the wardrobe. I also hauled out a selection of tops, one of which was too small (no, it must have shrunk in the wash! and one of which had become squashed in and needed an iron - back that went for another day. In the end I settled on a sparkly silver sleeveless round neck top covered with a shiny silver short sleeved button up (but left unbuttoned) shirt.

So off to an enlivening shower, dry and dress.

Now at this time I am going to tell you something which is definitely not for the attention of Dickiebo; please ask B to cover your eyes.

All right now, B?

Okay, these exercise classes are definitely doing good as, for the first time in years , I was able to put my tights on in the normal way instead of having a terrible struggle.

Right B you can now let Dickiebo go.

Off to the Bridge Club, chauffeured by my usual partner. Some members were starting to lay out a large table with food. Oh how hungry I was.

But no, at seven o'clock on the dot we all went and drew our table and direction of sitting. At this point I met my partner and we had a good chat about bidding and signals and discards. Just when we were ready for the off, some latecomers arrived so two extra tables had to be set up and cards drawn again. This time I knew my partner and it didn't take long to work out our systems. So the play.

All this time eyeing the food table (and smelling the cheeses)...

After 3 tables we stopped for a food break and a glass of juice and, in my case, wine before off we went again. We finished not too late, about 11 pm, so I came home, hung away the glad rags and put on a lovely warm dressing gown given to me by TBSITW. I sat down and read for a short while then off to bed. I don't think I moved, not even a twitch, before morning.

Exercise and Shopping

This morning I was once more at my exercise class. They are really putting me through it, requiring an increase in everything each week. This morning I could not find my purse to pay (the vast sum of £1), so I nipped out to the car to see if it had fallen out of my handbag, but no. The real bore was that I had planned to do a couple of things on my way home. I have been addressing Christmas cards for the nice tradespeople who get a monetary gift and I always give it in a Christmas card as I feel that it is a nicer way of doing things than just handing over money.

I have no doubt the recipients just want the money!

So I came straight home and found my purse hiding beside my chair. I then set off to the big garden centre (all right, it is called Dobbies - as I say only nice things about them, I don't see why they should remain nameless.) I found some cards quickly and had an idle look round (this is always a BIG MISTAKE) and bought one or two little things.

Last year I did not have a Christmas tree as I had really gone off my old fibre optic one - it showed its effect only in the dark and around here there is no dark with the lights on in the car park overnight; I also had trouble erecting and dismantling it and it was looking rather tatty. Instead I bought a basket of lights which I thought was an excellent substitute, but everyone hit out at me with cries of "bah, humbug". I have paid heed but been very modest in my purchase - it is a pre-lit 60cm high Christmas tree. I also bought a few small decorations for it.

Then we came to finding a table cover - I found a paper one which did not cost an arm and a leg (there were some nice linen ones, which did - I might have a look at them in the January sale.......

I then lugged them all home with a quick stop off at the Bank to withdraw some cash. I don't know where it all disappears to (and the shopping went on plastic).

I came home to find my vegetable box which included a pumpkin, two leeks, a celery, some Swiss chard, beautiful carrots with the bright green fronds still on and of course the usual potatoes and onions. The fruit consisted of 3 apples, 2 oranges, 2 bananas and a kiwi fruit.

Included with the bag was a rather nice sounding pumpkin recipe. I shall try it and report back.

Bridge once more

This afternoon we were at the club again and at the second table, S. our leader laid in to my partner for fingering the bid cards before deciding to pass. She was told (correctly) that she should keep her hands in her lap until she decided her bid, as even touching the bidding cards before deciding on a 'no bid' could give away quite a lot of information. This was the second time this afternoon that S. had a go at my partner, and so I gave her (S.) it with both barrels when she did something the same. I laughed and laughed and I could see my partner relaxing.

After bridge, I came back "to the ranch" and had a cup of tea with a treat.

btw, last week we came second bottom.....

I have away from my partner a super book of which I am going to photocopy several pages as it is very good on signals and discards.

Church

Yesterday morning I had a mammoth cook-in and by lunch time was just about flat out; however the feeling of achievement is really something.

We were back to the usual weather, grey skies, rain and wind. I did like the way one of the bloggers I read looked on the weather and time of year was and saw it as an opportunity to look forward to the Spring; definitely a glass half full kind of person.

This morning, following a good night’s sleep, I am once again sitting looking out of the window past my computer monitor. The sun is shining and my living room should feel considerably warmer as I switched on the central heating radiator there. The weather has to get seriously cold before I switch on the one in my bedroom/study. I prefer to sleep in a cold room, but don’t like to get too cold once I am up and about.

As I walked along the path to the Church, there were scurries of leaves in their early autumn colour although the leaves on the trees were still green. The path consists of setts (cobbles are rounded and setts are more rectangular) and in places there are irregularities caused by tree roots undermining them somewhat. This means that I have to watch very carefully where I put my feet.

The sermon today was on the Parable of the Good Samaritan. I often think that nowadays, while many people would refuse to offer to help, a rather large proportion would want to gather round and stare and only a few would offer help. Sadly, it does seem from news stories that people ‘having a go’ to help can often end up injured or even dead.

I do enjoy hearing the choir sing, and we usually have a further contribution from them as the collection is being uplifted. Now I give by Standing Order which saves having to have sufficient funds ready every time. Most of the people round about know that I do this, but when we have a new Elder handing round the bags for the collection and I can see that he or she has noted that I put nothing in the bag I have on occasion said that “I pay by Standing Order instead of I give by Standing Order!

Elder Son Visit

Yesterday morning it was once again bright and sunny but cold. As I looked out of my window the trees opposite were still green, no autumn colours yet, but I have found one leaf on my windscreen so it can’t be long.

TBSITW sent me an email to say that if I sent her my file of Christmas address labels she could print them that morning and bring them round later. I don’t know what it is but my printer makes a rotten job of the alignment and leaves parts of the addresses sticking out over the top of the label or over the bottom of the label and yet the same file prints on her printer. What is particularly annoying is that the labels are HP inkjet labels and my printer is (yes, you’ve guessed it) an HP Deskjet. Aaargh!

Later in the day, elder son called to take me out to lunch and, before we left, he has downloaded many folders of recent photographs. This means that (if I ask TBSITW very nicely) she may print out the photograph I have been asking him for, namely the studio one of him and daughter-in-law.

As elder son arrived so did the mail and I received a wonderful surprise. After I developed epilepsy following a stroke I had to surrender my driving licence, which I did voluntarily. When I had a year free of seizures, I applied to have my licence renewed; obviously the DVLA had to confirm with my GP practice that I had indeed been free of seizures for a year and they then issued me with a three year licence. This was due to expire on November this year, so I recently sent off an application to renew my licence, expecting it to take ages to be approved, but here it was. This was wonderful and such a relief (though I don’t know why I expected there to be difficulties – perhaps a lingering fear of red tape).

We had a lovely lunch; I had baked potato with brie which came with a side salad and humus.

When we got back, there were the labels which TBSITW had printed out - now there's fast service.

Shortly after this, elder son had to set off back home to see the painter who is decorating their front room. It was really good to see him.

I then joined the ladies for a cup of tea and a biscuit while waiting to pay the milk bill and then returned home to make my evening meal.

Btw. As I was sitting eating my evening meal, I looked out of the window and saw that the flowers that I thought were gentians had opened out and were obviously lavender, but quite a different variety from the one that I already have.

Another thing that arrived in yesterday’s post was a promo from the garage that did the deal on my Motability car telling me of all the wonderful new cars they can offer me for next year. The thing is that I love my Vauxhall and that has now been taken over by Chevrolet. I don’t care much for the look of that brand and I may be tempted to have a look in the near by big city. When I bought my current car, the garage was in the town where I live, but then they moved to another town near by. The journey there is no easier than the journey to big city, so I could be tempted. On the other hand I probably shall not bother (inertia rules)

Friends and Family

Yesterday everything happened at once. First I was eating a cooked breakfast of poached egg on a toasted roll with a cup of tea (at about 10 am, you understand) when the doorbell rang. I opened the door to TBSITW and suggested she make herself a cup of tea while I finished my breakfast. No sooner was it poured but the doorbell rang again to the cleaners. However we did manage a grand blether and I saw some photos of her recent caravan holiday with partner and dog. The caravan door can be opened saloon bar style with just the bottom half closed and there were several photographs of the dog looking out of the door as though to say come back, don’t forget me (and also admiring the scenery).

The cleaners did a great job of working round us and we moved to the other end of the living room to let one of them Hoover the end we had been sitting at.

In the middle of all this a delivery from T**** arrived and TBSITW helped me put it all away.

At last there was a bit of peace and TBSITW wrapped a parcel for me as she can do this so much better than I can.

I told her about an article in Private Eye which was on a subject that I had emailed them about (involving the suspension of a Junior Doctor in the North of Scotland). Several medical blogs covered the apparent injustice of this, and for some amazing reason none of the national papers covered it. It would be nice to think that I was the instigator of the article, but no doubt others had also contacted them!

It was a bright but a chilly day – definitely October weather. I am trying to postpone starting to switch on the central heating due to the rising costs of fuel. It is also unfortunate that we have electric night store heaters. There is no gas to the premises as they are retirement flats, and gas could be rather risky. The principal benefit of gas is that you can just click it on for a while on a cold day, leaving it off when you don’t need it.

As I was sitting looking out of the window at my very small patio, I noticed a beautiful bowl holding a plant which my friend JD brought me some time back when she last visited. Over last winter I thought it would not survive, then over this summer I thought it was not going to flower but now it is in full bloom with small deep blue flowers. I think they are gentians, but I am not sure – I must ask her. It is delightful to see a late flowering plant like that. I think in the spring I shall ask TBSITW to plant it out as I suspect they are several small plants rather than one large one and it would be a pity if they were to become pot bound.

Thank you, JD, even when they were not in flower I always looked at the plant in its deep-blue bowl and thought of you.

I have another, taller plant pot, also blue, which was a gift from a good friend C. The plants she put in were annuals, but this year I replanted the pot and I can see it too as I look out of my French windows.

It is good to have these reminders of friends.

Sadly another RIP

While TBSITW was on holiday recently she sent me a text message to direct me to an obituary of the husband of an old school friend (not old, of course, we are still just “girls”). She had spotted that there was a fuller version on-line than in the paper, which is what I get.

He was young to die, but had been ill for some time. He had a very distinguished career in public service; I followed it tangentially in the letters my friend sent every Christmas. It was always fascinating to hear from her as she was not just a “spouse”, she had a life of her own which she managed to run very much alongside her husband. I hope to hear that she has felt able to continue with that life. My sympathies and thoughts are with her.

Ah yes, the toll starts; prior to this, one fellow former school pupil from the year before mine, one from the same year (about 4 years ago) and now my friend's husband. They say you start reading the Marriages column and then the Births Column and lastly the Deaths column. Nowadays, the marriages and births do not necessarily happen in that order. These days I read the Deaths column to check if I am still alive....

Mostly Younger Son

Off I went to the hairdresser yesterday morning. It was a lovely sunny day, and seeing I had wakened reasonably early, I thought I might just as well get going. The hairdresser I go to is on the outskirts of big city and I have being going here for years; even when I lived in the South of England and couldn't find someone there who could cope with my baby fine hair, I used to ask my sister to make an appointment for me for every time I came to visit her. One occasion after I had moved away from the big city I tried a local hairdresser, but it was no good so I returned to the one I liked.

As I was so early I did my shopping first, going initially to the only accessible supermarket who stocks the stuff to lay in a bottle or two of Noilly Prat, then went round to the other end of the shopping mall and bought one or two things in Marks and Spencer (no clothes, honest!) before having a good look through most of the mall. Mall is perhaps exaggerating a bit as it is not actually huge and I can manage it in small doses on foot.

Back again to Marks by which time I was too late to have a sit down with a cup of tea and something to eat and so I picked up a BLT sandwich and a bottle of water and headed off to the car park at the hairdresser where I ate my sandwich (and could not open the bottle!!!) At least I always get a cup of Earl Gray tea while the colour is being "set".

When Iain (the hairdresser) came over to greet me and to have a look at how the last cut had gone, he suggested that perhaps we could leave it longer next time. My hair is short now and the growth has slowed down a bit so my next appointment is now 8 weeks away.

When I arrived home the sun was still shining and I caught up with my blogs only to find one from my daughter in law to say that younger son was in a great deal of pain and she was so worried about him. I immediately phoned him and he was putting a brave face on things. He had gout in one big toe and then in both and now a knee is affected. He cannot walk and has to bottom shuffle the poor dear. He has been prescribed morphine tablets which help but take a long time to kick in after the morning dose. I wonder if this is anything to do with the fact that he has a kidney transplant, but if things are no better by the end of the week he is going to phone his renal consultant. Other doctors are reluctant to prescribe anything due to the cocktail of medications he is already on, and he trusts the renal consultant whom he has obviously come to know quite well.

Bridge again

Yesterday evening was back to the bridge again. We heard that Monday we came second! Wow, now that's a turn up for the books.

I still wasn't feeling at my best even though I had a sleep and a shower before going. I say this to excuse my bad behaviour. On the third board I made an elementary mistake and my partner did go on about it, so when she failed to return my lead (which I would have trumped, gaining us another trick) I said "well if you are going to criticise me, why didn't you return my lead?). We then moved on to the next table and I could see that she was almost in tears.

Oh dear.

This morning I am off to the hairdresser.