Complicated

/ Loony Feminist / 6 Comments

Yes, it is. But easing slightly.

Decorator has been, and I’m awaiting the quote.

The air heat pump will need new piping. Sigh. More disruption, but the end result will be better and more efficient.

Went to Vision Express who have referred me to the hospital because the prisms I need in my glasses are too complicated. Sigh. That means a wait of I don’t know how long before the appointment, and then I’m pretty sure they’ll give me a patch to put over at least one lens. A see-through patch, but still. I had one before, and they are ribbed, and irritating to wear. Eventually they’ll sort me out with a prescription and send me back to the opticians. Humph.

Then went to Specsavers to fetch the reading glasses I accidentally left there, and was roundly ignored. It was very busy in there, a bit like Paddington Station, so I phoned this morning to see what has happened to the computer specs they were going to sort out a month ago. Apparently there’s a “manufacturing delay”. Hmm. I think they forgot.

So I’m currently quite cross with Specsavers, and the only glasses which work are my reading ones, not the distance or computer glasses. Harrumph.

Managed to offload all the stuff we didn’t want via Freegle (I think it’s Freecycle in the US). Excellent service. And people come to your house to collect it! Amazing!

Meanwhile, in the big wide world, there seem to be no shortage of narcissists who just don’t care what the truth is. Nor do they seem to accept that the rules apply to them as well. At least our very own hasn’t tried to orchestrate his own arrest – possibly because he’s not likely to be arrested. My favourite two take-aways are (and I’m paraphrasing here): “No I didn’t tell [insert name here] because he wasn’t there. Anyway, I did tell him.” Also: “I didn’t realise following the rules meant following them perfectly“. What are you, 9?

Just finished re-reading Matthew Perry’s autobiography. It’s just so sad. At least he seems to be happy now. Well, happy-ish, anyway.

The weather is typical March – sunny spells, windy and showers. Lovely.

Son-in-law has just travelled from New Zealand to see his parents for their 70th and 80th birthdays. He stayed a week, managed to find time to visit us and is now back in the antipodes. What a hero. A 36 hour journey door to door, twice, in seven days.

It was my birthday yesterday. Sixty-eight years old. Where did the time go? I had a lovely day. One of the things hubby gave me was a DNA kit for Ancestry.com. I’m very excited to do it and send it off.

And here are the flowers NZ daughter sent me for Mother’s Day. Bless.

Overwhelmed

/ Loony Feminist / 4 Comments

All the things:

Selling the car (now on Autotrader)
New solar panels being fitted (April 6th)
Heat pump being fitted (before decorating)
Decorator coming to quote – and that will involve new carpet, curtains and upholstery afterwards
Specsavers have cocked up my glasses one time too many so have an appointment with Vision Express next week (that’s the short version!)
Clearing out loads of stuff so getting it ready for Freecycle and/or the tip (recycling centre)
New dentist – first appointment last week, appointment for a filling for me made
Getting a man to quote for a network cable round the outside of the house
Four new tops ordered from Weird Fish’s sale (that’s exciting rather than worrying!)

I have had to write it down in a list in my “list book” so I don’t have to carry it all in my head.

Now it’s written down it’s slightly less intimidating, and I can cross things off as I go.

Anyhoo. Last weekend we went to near Guildford in Surrey to stay with ES and his wife. It was lovely. They went to great trouble to make sure I could eat (I’m a real pain to feed what with the IBS/dairy intolerance etc) and their house (part of a converted barn) is wonderful. The setting is beautiful too. We hired an electric car to make sure we’d have the range to get there, and that worked really well.

View at the back of the house. That’s hubby, right there.

The day before we travelled down, we had snow. Not what you’d call heavy snow if you lived in, say, Canada, but heavy for us. I was worried our little daffodils’ stems would be broken, but no! phew.

Nearly March

/ Loony Feminist / 5 Comments

I am absolutely delighted to report that I have finally found some plant-based “cheese” that is just delicious. It’s made by Cathedral City, and is a very creditable substitute for mature cheddar. It’s wonderful. It’s been 20 odd years since I have eaten anything like it. For many years I managed with goat or sheep cheese, but had to give that up too a few years ago, so for a while now I have had no dairy at all. I’ve tried various vegan “cheeses” but they were all disgusting. Until now!

I made a fruit cake today. It’s very dry. I have put a piece of frozen bread in with it to see if that will help. If not, it’s going in the bin. I baked it for 20 minutes less than the recipe said too. Ho hum.

And here is a photo of a granny square blanket. I could either crochet lots of little squares and then sew them all together, do stripes, or just one huge granny square. So I’m doing one huge granny square. It’s going well. I had decided I’d use up some stash yarn which is not really any good for anything else. Blue, cream, lilac/purple, and I’m doing whole rounds before changing colour. Also waiting to see how the mood takes me before I actually choose which colour to do next.

It’s on hold for the moment (27/2/23) while I do some coasters for a birthday present, but handy to have next to me in the lounge when I feel the need of a bit of crafting without too much brain power involved.

The latest on the “getting the tv to play sound through the hi-fi”: I need to switch the TV and the hi-fi off. Then switch the TV on and make sure it’s in Netflix. Then switch the hi-fi on and make sure that is on the correct source. And it has worked ever since! what a faff though. Quel bazar.

I’ve been getting on with my Duolingo Spanish, and that seems to be going ok. I learn well like that, and am able to pick up on vocabulary, grammar, conjugation of verbs and declension of nouns ok. I do make mistakes, but learn from them. When I’m happy enough with the Spanish, I’ll brush up on my Italian too.

Picking up my new specs tomorrow. Bespoke lenses, FFS, because the double vision has worsened. Quietly excited but also a bit worried, because they were expensive, and there was a problem a few years ago which involved six visits to the opticians before they sorted my new specs out. Hmm. Fingers crossed.

Feb update

/ Loony Feminist / 2 Comments

Well, I hardly dare even type this, but it does seem as if our new system for getting Netflix on the tv working with the hifi is successful – three times now. I’m not going to explain it, partly because it’s boring, partly because I’m worried that explaining it will break it, or at least stop it working. I have, however, made a note in one of my many little notebooks, otherwise we’ll just forget what to do.

Took some photos in the garden today – very excited about the winter aconite! and planning new plants for when the weather is a little kinder.

The one with all the stones has a story attached. We have a few of the neighbourhood cats come into our garden, and one of them uses the area around the bergenias as a toilet. I have no problem with that, but I do mind that she’s digging up the plants! or at least, digging quite deeply around them. So I have protected them with said stones. We shall see what she makes of that. They’re quite heavy, so I don’t think she’ll be able to move them. Hmm.

February 2023

/ Loony Feminist / 2 Comments

Well, my goodness me. Amazon wouldn’t upload my review of “Spare” because it “violated their guidelines”. Oh well.

Vodafone finally, after my fourth (slightly testy by this time) contact, admitted that they don’t do voicemail on full fibre. Why, may I ask (and did), did they not tell me this on the first contact? Fortunately, our landline phone has a facility for voicemail, so I’ve set that up. Just need to remember to switch it on . . .

Technology is not my friend, or so it seems. I spend an inordinate amount of time deep in the bowels of the software of the TV, and Netflix, trying to sort out why we can get the sound through the hi-fi on everything except Netflix. We have to go straight to the tv for Netflix, everything else (BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime) we can get through the Humax box. From time to time something works, but only once. This morning I have changed something on the SPDIF (wtaf?) to PCM (again, wtaf?) and it has worked. But now I’ve switched everything off at the plug, so who knows what will happen this evening when we switch it all on again. I certainly don’t.

And Virgin have finally, finally collected their kit. We also went to the tip (recycling centre) yesterday so the house is not full of crap.

We went away last weekend, to the Cotswolds, where we rented a “lodge” with a deck outside – and a hot tub! it was really excellent. We will be going there again, certainly. The hot tub does wonders for my stupid old back/knees/hands/shoulders/boomps-a-daisy. They change the water for each new visitor, I’m relieved to know. (Bluewood Lodges)

ED, her hubby and their 8 year old son came too. That was lovely too. He is so cuddly and affectionate, and so much fun. We played charades, Dobble, hide and seek (a lot) – which caused a lot of giggling (both of us). Particularly when I sat very still in a chair with a blanket over me . . .

I’ve started crocheting, just to use up waste yarn. It works up quickly and is fun to do in short bursts.

I’ve used up 50g of pale blue and cream and have done two sides in pale blue. The other colours I’ve chosen but not decided in what order to use them yet. I think I’ll just see how the mood takes me. I’ll either try and finish a whole round, or at least get to a corner before changing colour. This time, instead of doing little squares and joining them up, I’m just going round and round until it feels big enough, or until all the yarn is used up. It does mean that the rounds get bigger each time, but that’s ok. The third way is to do rows, but I considered, then discarded that idea. Nah.

January 2023

/ Loony Feminist / 5 Comments

Well, I’ve been meaning to blog for ages now but haven’t quite garnered the energy. So here we are.

I’ve just finished reading “Spare” by Harry (you know which Harry, don’t you!) It was emotional, raw, honest, and shocking. Here’s the review I’ve written (but Amazon haven’t posted yet . . )

  • This book is a must-read. Harry mostly seems hyper-aware of his unearned privilege, except when he talks about how wonderful it was to shoot game birds . . . I think it is a good thing that he has talked about his family, so hide-bound by their own stupid, cruel rules. The Queen comes out of this best, I think, but even she is not as powerful as we would like to think. He sounds happiest when on active duty in the army until he meets Meghan. The appalling behaviour of the British press is called out here, regularly. And so the poisonous, sneering, disdainful reaction of this press to this book is to be expected, but really, really not believed. If you are thinking about buying this book, but hesitate because of the press reviews, don’t hesitate. Buy it. Borrow it. Read it somehow.

Harry has been gaslit. Is still being gaslit. All the privilege and wealth in the world does not make a person happy, if a vindictive, racist, spiteful group of journalists insist on making your life hell. The paparazzi are a nightmare, just as they were for his mother. And then of course the Palace ignore it, pretend it isn’t happening, and deny anything that would make them complicit.

So there we are. Little rant over. For now anyway.

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but have picked up my knitting again, just for a few rows every day, sometimes more than once. 20 minutes seems to be enough. Feels nice though.

Also brushing up on my fairly rough and ready Spanish – via Duolingo. It’s very good. Ten minutes a day is making quite a difference. When I’m feeling more confident in Spanish, I’ll have a go at my Italian (which is better than my Spanish, but needs refreshing). I was so lucky to learn Latin at school, and loved it. Did it to A level, along with French. Then at college I did Spanish to O level in 9 months, then when I retired I took up Italian and did that to A level equivalent (ONC 3) in a couple of years. It felt like a domino fall in my head, what with Latin, French, and Spanish. One of my grandsons asked me if I still remember any French or Latin from school. Well, it was 50 years ago, but the answer was “Yes!”

Well, Vodafone is up and running. The only snag, and it’s a fairly small one, is that voicemail isn’t working. We can (and I have) set up voicemail on our home phone, and will have to manage with that I guess. But it doesn’t work when the phone is unplugged. Vodafone seem to think that it is working, so I shall pester them about once a week until they sort it out. Fortunately, it’s free of charge, or else I’d be much crosser. And to be honest, hardly anybody ever uses our landline. But just occasionally, somebody does.

Meanwhile, on Planet Computer, I’ve had to re-arrange our backing up system. It’s too boring (except for computer nerds like me) but I think it should work better now, without the need to buy further (expensive) hard drives. Two NAS drives, three USB external hard drives, and there’s another one of those attached to hubby’s computer. Not pretty, but very useful. I’m horrified at how dusty they are!

The shopping has just been delivered, and hubby is harrumphing about the quality, or lack of quality, of the fresh vegetables. My next job is to see if Marks and Spencers will deliver. And so that is what I will do now.

Christmas Eve

/ Loony Feminist / 1 Comment

We don’t do religion at all, so for us it’s a sort of mid-winter beanfeast. We do gifts for our loved ones, phone those we don’t get to see, and make contact one way or another via technology. We have roast turkey on Christmas Day, and open our presents, and generally have a very jolly time. Just us this year which is wonderful. All those fraught difficult years with my difficult mother are gone. Nothing to worry about. Except cooking the turkey, which hubby does. I do everything else. Gifts, wrapping, posting, tree, decorating, baking. I made some mince pies which I finished off today – will make some more next week. Frozen dairy free pastry, shop-bought filling, but somehow the process makes them look and taste home-made. Result.

Today I made an apple cake (Nadiya Hussein recipe) and got into such a mess with it. The whole kitchen seemed to be covered in sticky stuff. But it’s all cleaned up now, the dishwasher (thank goodness for dishwashers) is running, and it’ll all be fine.

Yesterday I did my ironing. Wednesday ES came to stay with his youngest son, and that was lovely. Wednesday I sorted our landline and made a trifle (premade, dairy-free frozen sponge base, frozen mixed fruit, shop-bought soya milk custard).

Sorting out the landline was slightly fraught. We are in the process of leaving Virgin Media and have signed up with Vodafone, for half the price. We wanted to keep the same phone number, and on Monday we had no phone line. This does happen from time to time with Virgin, so I left it a couple of days, then phoned up and managed to speak to an actual person, who was very helpful. Turns out that Vodafone now have the number. So I plugged the phone into the Vodafone router and hey presto! it worked. Maybe, just maybe, Virgin or Vodafone could have let us know they were doing that two weeks before the contract with Virgin finished . . . just saying.

Next Monday (26th) we’re off to Malvern for a walk with YS, his wife and their Spanador puppy. Can’t wait to meet him!

Then later in the week ED plus hubby and son are coming to visit for a couple of days. They stay in an apartment in the middle of Birmingham which works well for them. Very excited.

So I wish you all a very happy holiday and a much, much better new year. Mazel Tov, and l’chaim (good luck and to life!).

Bit Chilly

/ Loony Feminist / 4 Comments

That’s what we Brits say to each other, every day, every time we pop out even for a few seconds. Because we’re British and talk about the weather.

We have a smart meter, which is telling us that our gas and electricity is costing us £110 per week. Mm. Not great. I really don’t know how I would cope if I were living on my own with substantially less income. How do people manage? The government is actually providing some help (we’re getting £67 per month knocked off our bills), but it’s not much. We are actually donating that £67 to a charity which sends it to people who need it. I’m not sure that this is working terribly well. It’s only for 3 months anyway, and it’s so much colder now and likely to stay that way through at least January.

Here’s a thought. Why don’t we nationalise gas/electricity, the railways, the Post Office, and pay nurses their due? Huh? All that hypocritical clapping during the pandemic – I was stropping about even then saying Let’s pay them properly, then! And the government is trying its best to make us all hate the nurses with crap like “Putin wants the nurses/railway workers/ambulance workers/post office workers to strike!” What total tosh. Then today we have Sunak saying it’s not fair to pay all these people more money. Ok, mate, you have absolutely no idea what it is to work full time, be exhausted, and still be broke. Not fair? oh please.

Ho hum.

Just recovering from an ME/CFS episode. Spent most of yesterday asleep, and when I was awake, feeling like five kinds of sh*t. Better today though.

We’ve had new beds, carpet and curtains in our bedroom. All went swimmingly until the day after we’d put up the curtains – when the track fell down. We are awaiting new brackets so we can put it all back together. I do need to take up the curtains, though, and am going to remove the rufflette tape from the top and move it lower down, rather than take up the hem. Exciting.

And football! love it! very conflicted about Qatar, though. Only watched a few matches up until today, and we’ll watch the evening kick-off quarter finals (we have a little sleep in the afternoon) and semi finals, and hopefully the final.

Well, that’s it for now. Need my siesta. Mm.

A bit sad.

/ Loony Feminist / 3 Comments

We had to have our little cat euthanised last week. Two days after being diagnosed with a fast-growing tumour, she was so ill we couldn’t bear to see her suffer any more. We stayed with her and I stroked her while she slipped away.

Heartbreaking, and the first time I have needed to do that, because although I have had cats all my life, this has never happened before. At least, apart from when I was 12 and just not up to staying with my cat Penny while she was put to sleep. I went upstairs then and sobbed my heart out.

Bertie was 13, so not a young cat, but not old either. We both keep expecting to see/hear her. I expect that will pass, but it’s still a small jolt of sadness every time.

Surprise!

/ Loony Feminist / 3 Comments

Oldest son and his wife came up to stay with us last week. On the Friday they took us out for a meal, and we did know youngest son and his two offspring would be there. We were first to arrive, and they said Oh yes, table for 11. I thought Hmm, wonder if the Irish contingent are going to appear. And they did! middle son, wife and little boy! what a lovely evening!

I discovered last night when I got ready for bed I had been wearing non-matching earrings all day. Nobody said anything. I guess nobody noticed . . . once when I was still working I had two pairs of shoes exactly the same, one pair in navy blue, the other pair in black, and of course one day I ended up wearing one of each – again, nobody noticed! thank goodness, I would have really taken some stick (been teased) had anybody realised . . . .

And today everybody has gone back to their various homes.

At the end of this coming week Older Daughter is coming up with hubby and son. Excellent. It’s so lovely to see the family.