A Mad Week!

What a week! Time just flew last week with one thing and another which left me with very little time to think about anything! Son2 spent the first night in his new home on Sunday after a day spent ferrying bits and pieces around. I’ll confess to feeling a tad wobbly on Monday and Tuesday but that feeling soon passed. Of course I miss him but, as with Son1 when he moved out, not in the way I thought I would!

I had yet another birthday on Wednesday, they just keep on coming, and the boys both came round for dinner – that in itself was a weird experience – quite tiring! Now that neither have a bedroom to disappear to after dinner we had to entertain them! Yes we all sat around talking as if we had real visitors! When they went I sank into my chair as if I’d been entertaining all day! I had some lovely presents as well – a Radley umbrella, two quilting books, a crochet/knitting book, a lovely bundle of fat quarters in a batik fabric – very pretty – and some lovely quilt label fabric. Unusually no smellies or chocolates!

Oh nearly forgot to tell you – I bought a new food processor! A couple of weeks ago I saw a man at the checkout in Sainsbury’s with a huge box containing a processor. At the time I nudged John and said ‘oooh look at that – think I might treat myself next time I come in!’ I sneaked a peak and saw that it was £99 which I thought was OK as I’d got quite a lot of loyalty points that would help reduce the cost. Anyway, I went in the other evening to find that it was now reduced to £79!! With £67.50 in points I got an absolute bargain! I don’t feel too bad about my treat as my old mixer was 27 years old – John bought it for me on our first Christmas together, it’s certainly earnt its retirement!

Day off on Friday saw me meeting up with Janet in town. We had planned to be a little more daring and go out to a local village but as we had snow the previous evening we decided not to risk country roads and played safe instead. I also finally bought John’s Christmas present – the way I was going he would have had an IOU on Saturday morning!!

On Friday evening we went out for our traditional birthday family meal (Son1 & moi!), sadly Son2 had a prior commitment and couldn’t join us so it was just John, Son1, FDIL & I. We went to Zizis  - I had the tastiest duck I can ever remember having, it was divine and the meat just fell off of the bone.

Haircut Saturday – I’ve gone a bit shorter than usual! I hope when I wash it I can make it look as good as my hairdresser did! Oh and a near disaaaaaster! The shower wouldn’t work on Saturday morning – plenty of pump type noise but no water – John went in to the loft to find that the lagging hadn’t been replaced by the engineer a couple of weeks ago. The pipes were frozen in our well insulated loft! I had the bright idea of leaving the loft open for a while to let some heat waft up and by mid afternoon they had thawed – happily without bursting. What a mess that would have made! (edited – hair came out OK this morning!!)

Being the very kind and loving mother that I am, I offered my ticket for football to Son2 on Saturday – and to the sceptics amongst you, no it wasn’t because a) they’ve been playing very badly lately or b) the weather forecast was not too good! Well, it turned out I missed probably the best match of the season so far! Played in a blizzard and with the ground staff coming out at half time and just into the second half to clear the lines we actually won 3-0 – can you believe it? I watched on the TV and it looked a fantastic game – I’m just glad I was in the warm watching it!

Nearly finished – don’t give up reading now, you’ve come so far! Sunday arrived with a really chilly 9 degrees Fahrenheit (-3 centigrade) and, as the Sunday before Christmas is usually my baking day, I set about making sausage rolls and mince pies – using the new food processor for the latter and a really easy quick flaky pastry a la Delia Smith for the former. John graciously informed me that they were the best sausage rolls I’ve ever made – not bad after 27 years of baking for him!!!

It was Son1’s birthday yesterday – he was 23, how did that happen?? He and FDIL came for dinner along with Son2 and his laundry (!) we had a lovely roast dinner – good practice for doing it all again on Christmas day!

So that was my last week – sorry it’s so long – and here’s my Christmas tree, sadly the most decoration the Ramblings will see this year!!

Merry Christmas to you all and I hope you have a happy and prosperous New Year!

Excuses, excuses…

I know – I left you all tantalised at the thought of the lovely new sewing machine and then just left you hanging in limbo!

I’ll tell you why. I got the lurgy last weekend. I was full of good intentions, I’d take some pics as I unwrapped it. I’d take some picks as I was setting it up. And I would take some pics of the finished results. I failed. Miserably. And indeed I was miserable .

It started with a cough, just a tickle, on Friday evening – just as I got home from work. It became a very irritating tickle through the evening and by Saturday morning had become a 40+ smokers cough with a sore throat in to the bargain. But I carried on. Up early, I went to Sainsburys so that I could have the day free to sew and fiddle. When I got back I set the machine up – not inclined to take pics – cut some fabric and rubbed my hands in glee at the thought of a sewing day. But then I needed a sleep – poor me.

When I woke up the inclination to sew was gone, I was feeling shivery, then warm so laid on the sofa for the rest of the afternoon. And then we had a power cut. No flicker, no dimming lights just a full blown instant cut into darkness – I had tea lights lit so we had something to guide us towards the torch under the kitchen sink. Son2 went into hyper excited mode – hard to believe a 20 year old can get so excited over something like that! He was most worried about going out for the evening with his friends for a curry – fortunately the restaurant was open! The power was off for two hours which seemed like forever – an hour and a half in I had the bright idea of playing I-tunes to give us some entertainment!

Sunday was another bleurgh day, it was local derby day for football with Ipswich playing away at Norwich, our sworn enemy. The match was live on TV so I pootled around in the morning and settled down to watch the match at lunchtime, an early goal set the scene for the match and I slept through most of it. We lost 4-1. I missed nothing and still felt awful.

Got up for work on Monday, still coughing but OK until I suddenly felt a rush of ice through my body quickly followed by heat – I threw myself back into bed where I stayed for most of the day. And then the snow came. And on Tuesday more snow came. I was glad to be indoors.

I soldiered back to work on Wednesday, coughing and sliding as I went – man it was cold out there, but dry. Grey skies prevailed most of the day and the wind whipped up with such ferocity it was cutting right through us.

More snow fell on Wednesday night and all day Thursday which has made conditions treacherous – Son1 had to pick up FDIL from Cambridge in the afternoon which worried me, bizarrely once he left Ipswich there was hardly any snow at all!

So we reach Friday. I had a sew day! On a snow day! I finally got around to using the machine to some effect – it is an absolute gem – well worth the extortionate sum that I paid for it. I think we will have many happy hours together – providing I can get the darn tension right. I don’t know what it is with me and tension but I always seem to have a problem, no matter what machine I use!

So without further ado, here is the reveal you’ve all been so eagerly waiting for – I do hope you’re not disappointed!

What a beautiful carry case! Which reveals a …

 

…very beautiful sewing machine!

Sadly I don’t have magnificent views to share with you from my window so you’ll have to make do with this!

These beautiful icicles are on my neighbours workshop – brrrr

Burst pipes and the tumble drier

Brrrrrr – it's flippin' freezing! No need to tell you that the cold weather and abnormal amounts of snow have captured all of the headlines this week, meanwhile life has had to continue as normal as far as possible.

Work has been mad (I'm feeling obliged to share this with you!). Lots of very sick people needing lots of care and attention, there's something about the camaraderie that this type of pressure engenders. We are all exhausted but in some sort of mad way things have been on a high this week. I think generally the public are more understanding and most of the staff go that extra mile to make things happen in such adverse conditions. We've had some staff arrive at work with overnight bags and making up beds so that they don't miss their shifts – that's what makes the NHS great!

On the home front, John's temporary contract came to an end at the end of the year so he is currently a house-husband which has meant that, after finding a cleaning fairy, he is now in charge of all things domestic (with a guiding hand from moi of course). He has been a hero getting up early in the morning and clearing the car to take me to work and also cleaning son 2's car so that he can get off quicker.

When he got home on Thursday morning he was greeted by our neighbour who was wondering what he could hear against our shared fence. It was water. Our garden tap had frozen and burst – the water was coming out at full mains pressure and bouncing off of the fence. Our neighbour fortunately can turn his hand to almost anything and despite the freezing temperature helped John to stop the flow. That was after they managed to turn off the stop cock in the kitchen cupboard. It was stuck fast with limescale and took them ages to move it. The pipe had to be capped and will need to be repaired in the warmer weather. In the ensuing melee John panicked to turn off the tumble drier – I have no idea what he was thinking but he has walloped the control switch so hard that he has pushed them so far in, the drier no longer works – the stupid thing is all he had to do was turn the switch off at the wall or simply open the door! Ho-hum, men eh?

So now I have no drier and have resorted to using the 'clothes horse' method which is OK for small amounts of laundry but not several loads a day. I asked him to call a repair man yesterday – you know what's coming don't you? Yep – he forgot!

So what does the weekend hold in store? Well, the forecast is for more snow. I don't intend to go anywhere. I need to motivate myself to do something other than sit here either crocheting or surfing. I'm tired so don't feel particularly inclined to do much – I do feel though that I may go stir crazy if I don't get out.

Ok, enough of this sitting and surfing – except for finding a man to repair the drier, what chance have I got of anything happening to soon?

Ahh bless...

The current scene

Being cowardly and wanting to keep warm, I stood on various door steps around the house to bring you the various views of our snowy environment. Take a look over at Just Jotting Along to see some really gorgeous scenes.

I took these yesterday morning when the sky looked full enough to burst, but thankfully it contained itself!