Cleaners and Cooking

Today my lovely cleaners came - well needed after a two week gap. After they left I peeled and cooked 4 large cooking apples and cooked two beetroot.

At least, I thought I had cooked them, but after 2 hours, they were still brick hard.

Anyway on to the next task which was to make a pot of what TBSITW and I call "soup soup". This is chicken soup with carrots, onions and rice. I had no chicken meat or stock so just used 2 stock cubes, and added salt at the end when I tasted it.

A quiet evening now, then back to the Day Hospital tomorrow for my final Thursday visit.

If It's Thursday, It Must Be ......

...... cleaning day.

My wonderful cleaners arrived, with L. bearing a bunch of roses. She removed the flowers which were well past their best and gave the vase a good wash before trimming the roses and putting them in water in the same vase. Some of the carnations were all right so they joined the roses. This looks really pretty on my mantelpiece.

Not only that, but L. peeled my potatoes and left them under water as well as preparing the sprouts. I think she knows me well enough to realise that I would be more likely to make a meal and eat it tonight if everything was ready. The meat course (mince and beans) I had removed from the freezer last night.

So now I have no excuse.

Printer Repair.

Today I have put one tub of soup (ie the vegetables and gravy left over from the silverside I cooked yestereday) into the freezer, I now have one helping of soup for today and plenty cold meat.

I tried to print an updated version of my Outlook calendar to put on my notice board, but the printer would not start.

Fortunately, my cleaner went down on her hands and knees and everything looked okay, but it still would not switch on so she went back and removed and then replaced every connection....

... and it worked.

A Quiet Day

This morning my wonderful cleaners came, so all is now sparkling clean. I asked L. te let me know the type of Autoglym that she uses as there appear to be several different ones. Better than that she gave me some into an empty bottle. I want it to clean the inside of the windscreen before the garage sees how dirty it is. I think the marks are lime flowers brought in through the air vents.

After that I did some of the preparation for tonight's meal: peeled the sprouts and placed them in the steamer; peeled the potato and 2 carrots, then cut the potato into four and the carrots into batons; and prepared the cauliflower.

I am making caulifloweer cheese with the vegetables on the side.

This afternoon I went to join some of the ladies for a cup of tea and a biscuit. I learned that one of the ladies has lost her grandson to cancer. She was very brave to come and join us, bringing some photographs of this (grown up) grandson. Her daughter is with her just now to give her some support.

It is always very difficult to cope with the loss of someone younger, but two generations younger is really hard to come to terms with.

Cleaners

Today my wonderful cleaners arrived and L. handed me a brown envelope. This contained a letter from the cleaning company to say that they were ceasing trading on the Domestic Cleaning side.

I must have gone white and put my hand to my mouth saying “oh what am I going to do now!”

However L, the best cleaner who has been with me almost since the day I moved here has said that she will come on a personal basis on a different day, Friday. She doesn’t want a cheque (no questions from me!)

I would have been really devastated to lose her as she is just exactly what I want and need. This is where you find out how dependent you can be on one person. She is keeping on only a couple of people for whom she has been working for some time. Sadly this does not include my neighbours. I don’t think they will mind too much as, even in the short time they have had her, they have been out on quite a number of occasions.

I can’t tell you how relieved I am.

For lunch today I had slices of avocado with sliced apple and sliced fancy cheeses that I bought when I was staying with elder son.

Just a thought:

Was The West Wing television drama prescient?

In series 7, the election to choose between Presidential candidates the characters played by Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits, whose likenesses to McCain and Obama were almost uncanny,

Jimmy Smits won!

My Wonderful Cleaners

I have two ladies employed by a local cleaning company who visit every week for 1 hour to do my housework.

Housework?

Does that include going to my car to fetch a bag of compost that I was afraid would possibly overblance me if I tried?

And then plant my golden thyme destined to go in a pot already on the patio?

And cleaning the outside of my French windows - not just the glass but all the plastic cross bars and the base and surrounds, even looking to borrow some cotton tips to get in to the difficult corners?

And on another occasion, taking some clothes to the dry cleaners as I was not well at the time?

And taking a parcel to the Post Office to post as "it was on her way home"?

And getting a few things from the baker down the road when I have been unwell?

And changing my bed for me?

All this on top of the usual housework.

I can't sing their praises highly enough.

They came this morning and the whole flat is sparkling.

The weather continues to be warm and summery, so I shall definitely continue to wear my jumper.

That Stepper Again

Today the weather is back to being grey, but still not bad for a spring day. I get so much pleasure from the plants I have planted...

... even although my family and certainly my GP would have been most displeased that I had, once again, put myself in harm's way putting them in. Okay, they would have been right, but I do feel that there is a difference between just being alive and living life to the full...

My 2 cleaning ladies arrived and admired my planting and were made somewhat hungry (as was I) by the smell of baking bread.

This evening I had 3 lamb and mint sausages, from the butcher at the garden centre, with two stalks of white sprouting broccoli and a stalk of leek (chopped) and a carrot and some potato. Really good, but so easy that it was not worth posting to my recipe blog.

I have not been mentioning the stepper., but have been using it since the day it arrived. and am now up to 100 steps a day.

I am hoping that this will eventually improve the development of collateral blood supply to my lower limbs and to improve my muscle development.

Down - And Up Again...

...physically and metaphorically.

Wednesday evening I hung up my jacket on the back of the hall cupboard door, lost my balance and went down on my tail end. No harm done and quickly up again using the arm of the settee.

Yesterday was overcast, but still pleasantly mild. I did my usual of up, shower, wait for hair to dry then finish dressing.

Then I made my Golden Krispie recipe.
Sweet and crispy at the same time, who has the willpower to stop eating before they get sick?

Well

Just.

My wonderful cleaners came yesterday, and now the flat is sparkling. They also did the time change on my kitchen clock and re-hung it – a new hole was necessary, as the nail kept getting pushed through into the hollow wall.

One of them is a brand new granny. She was showing me a picture of the baby who looked just so gorgeous. I could almost get broody again.

But there are several very good reasons why this is unlikely in the extreme!

They also changed my bed for me.

After they left I went through to join the exercise class having their cup of tea (in the hopes of scrounging one too!) I took along some of my krispie cakes but the tea was over and only the two washers - up were there. Still they greeted the krispie cakes with glad cries of joy.

This morning it is another beautiful day, white fluffy clouds in a blue sky.

So why have I gone and got a sore throat?

Never mind, I got on and did the washing, falling lucky and getting the big washing machine and the big tumble drier.

Outside it is beautiful in the sun, but the breeze is quite strong and cold. Typical good spring day.

Cleaning

Yesterday, my wonderful cleaners came. In addition to their job they spotted that my kitchen clock had stopped, fitted a new battery and re-hung it on the wall.

On their way in, they also spotted that someone had knocked the wing mirror of my car in the car park and it had a black mark on it which they removed for me. Said car now received its wash. The jet wash place has a loyalty scheme; every time you have your car washed they stamp your card, then every 8th time you get a free wash, polish and wheel scrub.

When I handed over the loyalty card with my money, I noted that the issue date on it was September 2007.

Ummm.

I blame the weather of course.

Visit to Daughter

Yesterday was a lovely sunny day, with temperatures in the high single figures. I went to visit daughter for lunch. The kitchen was a busy place, what with daughter her son and myself quickly followed by her stepdaughter and partner. Now, not only is the kitchen small, but stepdaughter decided she wanted something different for her lunch than the offered baked potato and cheese with side salad (lovely dressing). There was so much noise that my hearing aids could not cope with filtering out anything that daughter was saying to me.

After lunch daughter and I repaired to the living room and she ironed while we had a lovely blether in peace.

Once more, on arrival I demonstrated my driving skills, as usual. I think you would best describe it as parking within walking distance of the kerb. Daughter (bless her) moved it for me.

Today I have done my exercises and upped the walk to half a mile. I would never have passed that old test for sobriety – walking along a straight line – as I bounced off the walls a bit on more than one occasion. That is why I do my walking indoors.

After that the cleaners came and now my flat is sparkling!

On The Mend

Back pretty well to normal now (although in my case many would dispute that the word "normal" could ever apply, so I should perhaps say "usual".) Still a bit sore in places (some of them places I didn't know I had places) :-)

Have I used too many parentheses?

My wonderful cleaners came today, and cleaned round the flat and changed my bed for me.

Almost contemporaneously, the best sister in the world arrived bearing a gift of the best carrot cake in the world.

Now, that is almost worth falling out of bed for!

I hope to go back to my exercise class tomorrow.

Cleaners and Flooring

Today my two lovely ladies who come to clean my flat came. I pointed out what they had left behind last week (after my asking had they checked - oh yes they had). I asked again before they left were they CERTAIN they had left nothing. Yes.

5 minutes after they had gone I found a stray jumper on top of my bedspread!

The lady who has been with me for about two and a half years reminded me that we were supposed to do the 6 monthly clean of my Karndean flooring in the kitchen. The first step is a "scrub" with a special pad and liquid, and then the next step is a wash using another pad and liquid. When that is dry, the first layer of polish is put on in one direction, then that has to be left untouched for a minimum of 6 hours before the second layer is put on at 90 degrees to the first. One of the cleaners will carry out the first 3 steps and I will do the last one. It is not physically hard, but does involve my getting down on my hands and knees.....

Also I shall have to have something of an evening meal out of the kitchen while that layer dries.

After their visit I went along to watch the end of the exercise class and to join them for a cup of tea.

The Weather and so on

What a miserable day it is today. The wind is blowing in gusts, bringing with it intermittent snow flurries. The snow is not lying.

A delivery man told me that a lorry had been blown over on the northbound carriageway of the Forth Road Bridge. That will have caused traffic chaos. No doubt once the road is clear, high sided lorries will be have to travel in pairs, or even be banned altogether until the weather improves.

I am sitting indoors, snugly (and smugly) warm.

My wonderful cleaners have been, so the house is looking pristine once more. They changed my bed for me – it is so good to slip in between clean sheets.

I can’t make up my mind what to do this afternoon: I have a choice of reading, doing my jigsaw or watching my latest DVD.

The DVD is from Amazon and is called Hill Street Blues. For those of you too young to remember it, the catchphrase was “Hey, let’s be careful out there!” It was a series based loosely on the film “Fort Apache, The Bronx”.

The book I am reading is Belfast Confidential by Colin Bateman (the title referencing LA Confidential), which was a Christmas present from my daughter.

The jigsaw is a WASGIJ. These jigsaws usually required you to imagine the view from the opposite viewpoint to the picture on the box, however the ones now require you to work out happened next. Certain bits will remain constant, while others will have moved - great fun.

I think I must be very spoiled to have such a choice on a weekday afternoon.

The White Tornado (s)

Yesterday evening I collected all the Christmas cards, and took down the holders, then went on to collect together almost all the rest of the decorations, some of which went back in their boxes and some of which went into a large green supermarket box which had lurked in my hall cupboard; some of the items in the box I wrapped in tissue paper to protect them, the rest I collected on the dining room table apart from two new purchases which I had put n the bottom of my wardrobe and the bridge of candles which I could not get down to unplug.

My two cleaning ladies arrived and I said I was not concerned about the housework, but I could really do with a hand puttting away the decorations.

Well, no sooner said than done.

Bridge of candles unplugged.

Bottom of wardrobe emptied and Hoovered, then ALL the Christmas stuff packed away including the green box; this was stuff that had previously taken up so much room all over the place.

Then she sorted out the hall cupboard, and as part of the process, Hoovered that too.

On top of all that, the other lady Hoovered round the house and dusted, while the first one washed the kitchen floor.

Then I went to join some of the ladies for a cup of tea.

Lady Muck, I think!

A Sweet Little Old Lady....

...and I don't think!

Not a lot to report today, which prompted the title.

Yesterday's casserole was delicious, and today I have frozen five portions leaving one in the fridge for tonight's tea. I'll have it with the mash of potato, carrot and celeriac.

When I was putting the freezer containers into the freezer, I saw a pack of "highland beef", which was obviously mince, so that needs to be tackled over the next couple of days.

My chiropodist called this morning, so my feet feel better - she also approved of my lovely, warm "granny" slippers. She charges only £1 for a home visit on top of the price for a visit to her surgery, several miles away, which I regard as a real bargain.

Also this morning came my 2 cleaners; one has been with me since the beginning and I think very highly of her - she does things over and above the call of duty, and is always cheerful.

This afternoon should have been Keep Fit, but I am feeling still unsteady on my feet, so don't think it would be wise.