football

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.

Too Damn Hot

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We just don’t cope well with anything over 25C in the UK. Some people love it – I used to when I was younger – but these days I just need to mope around with the fan on drinking cold water. The grass looks like straw, but usually recovers. Whether it will this time I don’t know. This is unprecedented. I’m using water from the water butts in watering cans rather than the hose. There’s currently plenty left but don’t know how long it will last unless we get some rain soon.

And while I’m in full rant mode, why are the muppets competing to be our new PM not even talking about climate change? you couldn’t make it up.

Hmph.

Loving the football – Euros 2022 (women players). It’s very exciting.

Also reading lots of books on my Kindle. Big fan of Jack Reacher (Lee Child), Lucas Davenport and his cronies (John Sandford) and am currently deep into John Milton (Mark Dawson). Yeah. Was given a Lucy Diamond book by my friend and really enjoyed that too.

No knitting though. My stupid hands are way too painful.

The cat wasn’t very happy that I wouldn’t let her out in the heat – after about 11 am I kept her in the cool. She isn’t terribly bright, and hasn’t come across this sort of heat before, but made the best she could of her situation, lying flat out near a fan! so not really that cross with me . . .

Today is not a great day – I slept most of the morning and have decided I don’t have to do my ironing today or tomorrow, nor do I have to package up the Sonos kit we’re about to sell on ebay. It’ll all wait until my energy comes back. Hmm.

Next Exciting Instalment

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I can’t believe England beat Germany. (football). Excellent match, both sides played really well, and it was so exciting to watch. It’s been 55 years since we managed to beat Germany. But I was horrified, embarrassed and angry at the boo-ing during the national anthems though. Rude, ignorant, boorish and even racist. Nobody else does it. Nobody. Harrumph. We shall see what happens at tonight’s match against Ukraine. Mm.

Saw the consultant about my hand. The short version is that he is going to replace both wonky knuckles. Hooray. I don’t know when, though. The recovery time is about 3 months (he said six weeks . . . but I checked online). And the joints are made from silicone plastic, and should last at least 10 years. That’ll do me.

Meanwhile we managed to find a wonderful handyman. I’ve been agitating for the carpet in the porch to be removed for several years. It was dark pink (ugh), then replaced with pale grey (not a great idea). But underneath are lovely quarry tiles. Unfortunately they were covered in sticky plastic tape. We knew what we needed to do, but neither of us have the physical resources to do that stuff any more. A wonderful guy came on Thursday morning with special solvent spray and removed all the tape, then removed the solvent, and it looks So Much Better. I love it. It’s much easier to clean (even for me!) and looks like a porch should.

Oops. Just noticed some earth/dead leaf/whatever on the floor. Ah well.

So today I have wrapped my friend’s son’s birthday present and organised its collection. I have written three birthday cards (daughter, 40 on Monday, her uncle who will be 70 the same day, and of course friend’s son’s). I have ordered holiday type toiletries – sun tan lotion and after sun.

And on Monday I need to phone the vet to arrange to pick up some flea and worm treatment.

Very pleased with a summer dress I’d ordered which arrived today. Reduced to almost half price, tiered so it’s nice and swingy and cool, and it’s cheesecloth type fabric. Love that. Also some earrings – called “irregular” but I think of them as “wonky”.

Also am halfway through week 2 of the new antidepressant regime. The side effects are starting to fade a little (nausea, excessive sweating, fatigue) and I do feel a little brighter. Which is great!

Medication, footie and labels

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Not necessarily medication labels, just labels.

Well, today I spoke to the doctor, and now I have new anti-depressants. Same “family” (SSRI) but just different. The process of changing over from one to the other is so complicated it takes four weeks. I always have a pill organiser for the forthcoming week, but have needed to set up four different pill organisers, labelled clearly Week 1, Week 2, etc. It’s complicated by the fact that my pill-taking week starts on a Wednesday. Don’t ask. Fingers crossed it will all go well.

Tomorrow I have a guided steroid injection into my thumb joint booked – they’re going to check the rest of the hand too while they’re at it and then decide whether to replace or fuse the knuckle joints. They’re talking about ultrasound and x-ray, so I’m not sure whether it’s one or the other, or both. Anyway. We shall see. Hubby is taking me and fetching me – they advise you not to drive after the procedure.

Saturday I have booked my first pedicure since February 2020. I’m really hoping I’ll be ok to drive there, bearing in mind the change of meds and the thumb injection. Mm. That is something I could re-arrange but will wait and see if I need to first.

The sorting out of the spaghetti tangle behind the hi-fi is going well. Just awaiting some 0.5 metre power cables, and it should look much better. It’s already looking tidier. You can see a jumble of wires on the right, and holes in the wall where the electrician took out the old plug sockets. You can even see one of my plug labels ! as well as various Father’s Day cards. It will all be sorted out very soon . . . .

Football again tonight – we watched Scotland vs England on Saturday. England’s game was a bit lacklustre, but I thought the Scots played really well. (Goalless draw). Last night we watched Belgium play Finland. Cor blimey, exciting. Tonight it’s England vs Czech Republic. It’s always a bit fraught watching England play, partly because it’s our team, and partly because they’re not that reliably good! We both shout at the screen, I tend to shout a bit at the inanity of the commentators – they do have a tendency to state the bloody obvious – and why can’t they just shut up once in a while? I don’t need to hear their constant speculation about who will go through! I do understand that they can’t hear me . . . .

I’m a bit worried that the motherboard on my computer is failing. It’s not quite 3 years old yet, so a bit soon. But from time to time things don’t work. For example the monitor (even the new one), the keyboard, and some of the USB ports. So I’m backing up every other day and keeping a watch on it. I did have an old computer where Windows lost all its USB drivers, so installing Linux worked, but I’m already using Linux on this one!

Temperatures are currently lower, so better for me. 17C today, 21C tomorrow allegedly. Anything over 23C leaves me limp. So this is just fine.

Reading some excellent stuff at the moment. Currently halfway through “Barbarossa/how Hitler lost the war” (Jonathan Dimbleby). It’s very interesting, detailed, and intense. At the moment I’m having to leave it for a day or so in between reading sessions because there’s quite a lot about the massacres of Jewish people. Horrific anyway, but as I have Jewish heritage (my Dad and all his relatives) it’s particularly upsetting. It’s hard to understand such hatred, based on nothing except propaganda.

Frustrated and muddled

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Dropped my mobile phone on the tiled floor a couple of days ago. I checked it cursorily and couldn’t see anything wrong. But that’s because the background was black. There is a forked crack.

Drat and botheration! (was NOT what I said). So I took it into Solihull today and left it with Phone Club (or something) to fix. They took out the SIM card and the micro SD card, both absolutely tiny, and gave them to me, because, they said, “they tend to get lost”. Oh no. No, No, No. Not having that. It’ll be ready tomorrow.

So I was left phoneless. Thirty years ago that would have meant nothing at all. Now I feel bereft, so decided to go and get a cheap, non-smart phone. Long story short, bought a Nokia 105. Perfect, I thought.

However. Sigh. The contacts are not on my SIM card and there’s nowhere for the SD card to go. Spent fruitless hours trying to sort that out, but the Nokia doesn’t connect to a pc either, it’s so basic.

Then I had what I thought was a brilliant idea. I’d use hubby’s smartphone with my SIM and SD cards in and transfer the contacts over that way.

Nope. Nothing doing. Not an option in Android any more. So I had to get a free app to do that, and now I seem to have all his contacts as well as most of mine on my Nokia. Oh for f*ck’s sake.

Anyway, anyway, anyway. Thought that was sorted, and tried to text message a few contacts to explain I can’t use WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger or anything remotely fancy until I get my phone back. But for whatever godforsaken reason, I can’t send texts on the Nokia either. I can receive texts. I can make and receive calls. But I can’t send them (helpful suggestions welcome).

I actually had to email the contacts (at least the ones I have email addresses for!) to let them know.

You’d think, wouldn’t you, that technology would be a little (a lot) more seamless than this, wouldn’t you.

And tomorrow I’m having my hair cut and going to the library. Then I’ll pick up my mended phone and sort out the contacts. Jeez.

Today was supposed to be a relaxing day.  I have been round and round various internet loops, checked and re-checked the message centre number for Virgin (red SIM) to no avail.

I am so wound up with frustration, I just needed to rant. So I did.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In other news, the makers of the burnt out shower pump (Salamander) are sending an engineer out tomorrow to replace it. No charge, not even for labour. I think that’s pretty impressive.

Also, what a fantastic Women’s World Cup. Really, really exciting. The final was much more interesting than I think anybody expected (particularly the USA!) but of course they won. What an excellent, excellent team they are.

Miscellany

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Things have calmed down a little.

The garden is beautiful at the moment, and the sun is currently shining.

Went to the knitting group on Thursday with my friend, who isn’t often able to come, so that was really nice. Finished off a small project, but as it’s a gift no photo yet.

The cat came limping up the garden yesterday on three legs, with one leg held high, up by her face. Both hubby and I thought she was seriously injured, until I got up close to her and discovered one paw was stuck through her collar. Easily sorted and no harm done. Really not sure how she managed that though.

Watching the Women’s Football World Cup – it’s just so exciting. Last night’s match, France v USA, was really good. Can’t knit while watching football, though, too fraught.

In fact, not knitting for a few days now because of a swollen and sore knuckle. It’s settling now I’m resting it.

And I’m resting everything today, because the temperature is set to soar. Not as high as in France or Spain, because, well, Britain, but high for us. Anything over about 24C and I’m lounging around drinking cold water in my pjs.

Re-reading Song of Achilles – at the time I was really struck by it and loved it. But re-reading it I have absolutely no recollection of it. Also reading Siege by Michael Wolff. Dynamite. Really enjoyed Fire and Fury too.

Ups and Downs

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Well, life seems to be conspiring against me, knitting-wise, at the moment.

In no particular order:

The weather. It’s just too damn hot to knit. I’m so lethargic. Hate it. Our grass is now yellow straw. Very short yellow straw. Most of the border plants are coping without water, only the hydrangea which is under the willow tree in front of the leylandii needs watering once or twice a week. Understandable, really, with the two thugs it’s competing with. Can’t wait for rain, although the weather forecasters are suggesting it’ll be another month. Sigh.

The football. Very exciting. Much more exciting even than the World Cup is usually. Lots of excellent teams unexpectedly losing and going home. And I can’t believe England is in the last 16. That may of course change after this afternoon’s game. But the upshot is I can’t knit and watch exciting football. I mess up my knitting big time.

My health. I am in the middle of a bout of laryngitis, with no voice at all (can barely whisper) and feeling like five kinds of sh*t. Sleeping a lot. Languishing, really. Painkillers and lots of cold drinks, and some honey and lemon hot drinks for when the coughing hurts my throat.

Knitting mojo has disappeared.

So any one of those things would stop me knitting but all four together? Mm.

Luckily I don’t have any time-sensitive projects at the moment, so it just doesn’t matter.