Just a quick post to let
everyone know I’m still in the land of the living. I’ve been in a weird
headspace lately and not felt much like writing or sharing my thoughts. I get
like that from time to time and retreat into myself for a while before I pick up
again.
Anyway, we had a busy
weekend with Xmas shopping on Saturday morning and a 70th birthday
party in the evening. I’m really making inroads into the Xmas preparations now,
and have nearly all the food, and today DH finally got paid so I can get a lot
more pressies bought. Not that I’m going mad with spending this year; we’ve
really had to cut back but by careful shopping and combining offers I should be
able to stick to a pretty tight budget.
Sunday we attended the
Remembrance Day service at the war memorial next to Dover Town Hall.
There was a good turn out and the weather was bright and sunny, although very
cold. Afterwards we went for coffee, and then had a lazy afternoon. Dinner was a nut roast I had
in the freezer. I made 3 roasts a while back when I sorted out my kitchen
cupboard and found a load of wrinkled nuts and seeds. I use a recipe from a
really old Cranks book that I’ve had for ages and made time and time again. I
was going to do roast potatoes etc. with it, but ended up just doing some
Ainsley Harriott roasted vegetable couscous that I got off Approved Food.
Because I was at my
computing course for part of the day, today’s dinner was another pre-prepared
one from the freezer; lamb mince and lentils which I heated in the slow cooker
and made into a hotpot by arranging sliced potato on top. The lentils I get
from France
whenever anyone takes a daytrip, big tins of precooked brown ones for around
one euro each. They’re lovely with lamb and bulk out what is now a very
expensive meat.
Tomorrow’s my weigh in at
Slimming World. I have no idea how I’ve done this week because I’ve had some
very good days and some truly terrible ones. I’ve kept off the scales at home
so I didn’t make myself any more depressed. I’ll settle for a pound or two on.
And a stay-the-same would be amazing. We’ll have to see.
So much for a quick post.
I’m too damned wordy to do short when it comes to writing. Hopefully I’ll have
pictures to add to my next post.
I had the weekend off the 'net as well, too busy on Saturday and recovering Sunday, now of course I have too much to say for the rest of the week.
ReplyDeleteIt does seem all or nothing sometimes, doesn't it? Either too much to say and I could be writing for hours, or life so dull it doesn't seem worth the effort because surely no one would want to read about it.
DeleteWe all get writers block and a quiet time occasionally. Some weeks I write 2-3 blog posts and then there are weeks of nothing inbetween. Depends on what`s been happening in my life at the time, and then I often think it`s not worth bothering with. I`m in a good mood at the moment, even so our financial situation is getting slightly more desperate. We are still waiting to hear from the council offices after having applied for rent and rates reductions. A neighbour of mine who had to do the same had been waiting for over 6 weeks to hear back from the council. That`s what DB is dreading, as in the meantime we still have to find the pennies for the rent and rates in full. Not an easy task as I`m the only one working at the moment. Our savings are dwindling because of it, too. But, I still look on the bright side and try to keep us fed very cheaply. So, that`s when I find myself experimenting in the kitchen and the blogging seems to go well, too.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear your finances are suffering at the moment. It's such a worry isn't it when you don't know if you'll have enough to pay next month's bills, and authorities like the council take so long to process things. And then usually get it wrong. We gave up trying to claim council tax rebate when signing on as they messed up so many times we didn't have any faith they wouldn't say they'd overpaid and we'd have to pay them back. In fact we're having to make 11 months of payments instead of the usual 10 this year because of that exact situation. I hate having to dip into the savings as its taken so long to amass what we have and we might never be able to replace what we spend. Luckily for us DH has finally been paid after working for a full 6 weeks while the agency mucked about with his wages. I've put most of it by and now have next month's bills covered plus half towards the bills over the holiday period. As DH is a supply teacher he doesn't get paid during the holidays and working in a college this term they have longer holiday periods than schools so I have to make the money stretch further. He has 6 more week's money to come before Christmas, so I'm hoping to have at least 2 months worth of bill money saved. Fortunately the little bit of the keep money my 2 adult kids plus 1 boyfriend pay covers most of the actual cost of food etc. each month (they only pay around £30 a week each which is close to what I was paying my mum back in the early 80s so they get off lightly really), but we have to pay all the main bills. I've applied for a couple of jobs but after 28 years not working outside the home my skills are definitely out of date. I do hope you hear from the council soon and that there's good news on the job front for your DH. In the meantime, we'll all keep trying to cut back where we can, I suppose. And count our blessings. At least we're not like some of those poor folks in the Phillipines.
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