Month: February 2023

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.