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melting but not down

Monday 24 March 2008

Motivated Monday

Haven't done too badly so far - cleared a pile of washing up, washed and hung out two lots of laundry (dashed snow off same at each sunny interval), de-pooped the garden and sorted out eleven months's worth of receipts for husband's business. Every year I say I'll do the books as we go along and every year I leave it until the last minute. Having half an hour chilling out then off to mum's. Hope she's in a good mood!

Sunday 23 March 2008

Self-indulgent Sunday

Woke up thinking it was about 8am but the brightness was due to the reflection from the snow, it was actually 6.30. What's a wide-awake woman to do? Mess about on the computer of course! Back to bed after a couple of hours, bearing cups of tea. Snuggle. Snooze. Get up again and potter about for a few hours. Go out for Sunday lunch, which was fabulous, and so stuffed myself I couldn't take a deep breath - no room for my lungs to expand! Round to friends, chat and bond with the rotty, go home, watch Big Fish then Lark Rise to Candleford then back on the computer with No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency on in the background. Weekends don't get much more relaxing than this! Finished off with a sort through some of my dad's bits and pieces that had fallen foul of mum's cupboard clear-out. Kept some bits for sentimental value, gave a flint-sets-light-to-rope gadget to husband and chucked out the rubbish. Tomorrow I shall be a good girl and do worthy housewifey things. Possibly.

And the good news is...no duck fricassee on the road home.

Saturday 22 March 2008

Snappy Saturday and the Sitting Duck

I went to bed at 18:30 yesterday, it had been one of those days. Shopping with my mum is getting more and more frustrating - this time it took one and a half hours to spend £12.42 and even then only about £6 of that was on dinners for the week. She can't be bothered "messing on" cooking herself meals, so looks for ready-made solutions. She stresses about not having anything in to eat but here's the list of what she doesn't like/won't buy:

ready meals larger than an anorexic's portion...uncooked meals that look unappetisingly pale... bags of frozen chips etc. (even the smallest are too big)... more than one of anything - eg slices of cooked meat/chops/bacon...chicken... cheese... yoghurts... quiche... pies...pasta...pizza...anything foreign (except for Sharwood's sweet and sour chicken which Morrisons don't sell any more)... garlic... fish... fruit and veg that require any kind of preparation... most soups... beans ...

I could go on but you get the picture. Each purchase is preceded by an agonising period of deliberation; in the time it takes me to get the half a dozen regular items from all over the store, she will still be deciding on which bunch of bananas to pick. Yesterday my left foot and right hip were paining me (arthritis/Friday's four mile dog walk?) and I'm afraid I was somewhat snippy on a few occasions. Anyone overhearing would have thought what a horrible person, picking on that little old white haired lady, but I've had over eight years of this torture! Anyway, I expect I'll have to go through it all again on Tuesday, she's bound to have run out of food by then.

On the way home I saw a suicidal duck, I knew how it felt. It was sitting in the centre of the left hand lane, I wouldn't have noticed it if the car in front hadn't swerved. I drove round it too and said a little prayer for its safety (I still haven't got this atheist lark quite right). Now I wish I'd stopped and picked it up, I could have taken it down the road to where I work as there's a colony (?) of ducks living there. Obviously my milk of human kindness soured in Morrisons
.

Friday 21 March 2008

In the wee small hours...

Well, it's 04:38 and I think I'm now tired enough to go back to bed. Our elderly dog persuaded me about an hour ago that she was desperate to go out and by the time I'd come downstairs and put the light on, felt thirsty and made a cup of tea, I was too awake to go back to bed. I've just finished a game of scrabble on the computer, narrowly winning the second game against my virtual (rated fairly inexperienced) opponent, and my eyes are closing. Tomorrow's Good Friday so I can have a lie in. Oh for a good night's sleep. Snow is forecast. Whoopee!

Sunday 16 March 2008

Oh dear

Having been inspired by the excellent example of John Cossham I had a go at calculating my carbon footprint . For my first attempt I didn't get out the fuel bills or go round the house counting the light bulbs and other appliances but took an educated guess at the questions asked to get a general idea of how our household measures up. Up being the operative word - 12.24 tonnes per year - yikes! Perhaps I over-estimated in some areas (otherwise known as clutching at straws) and should probably have another go with proper statistics. One thing the carbon calculator site doesn't seem to take into account is recycling, a shame as we do quite a bit of it. Not just the usual paper, glass, tin and plastic (I've been told the latter is a bad thing - creating plastic mountains in China apparently) but also I get most of my clothes second hand from charity shops and eBay (ok, I'm a bargain-loving cheapskate). Must do better. Watch this space.