Well, despite having a very thick cold today, things seem to be looking up - my planetary alignments seem to have shifted and no longer have a loud of bad luck hanging over me (perhaps Emjay's 'Astrodweeb hubby will be able to shed light on that).....
After a 'serious talk' last night, Rosie woke up subdued and contrite and was tidying her room when I got up. We now have a zero tolerance policy in operation (I hate this sort of stuff) and any 'Kevin the Teenager' attitude and disrespect will land her with 'fines'. I have already offered to clear all the stuff off the floor of her bedroom and bag it up to give away, and there will be other restrictions if she can't show an improvement. Clear rules and lines have been drawn and I am fully prepared to enforce them - I really lost my rag last night (something which almost never happens and I am not proud of) and I ended up in tears of frustration after she'd (finally) gone to bed; not just over the behaviour episode, but an accumulation of stuff combined with a heavy cold. I had been determined to enjoy a decent break over Christmas, but that eejit hitting my car, and the ensuing hassle, Rosie's behaviour and various other stuff all combined to throw a wet blanket over my usual sunny nature :roll:
Some good news though - I had a call from my insurers, who think that the eejit who hit the van may be planning to retract his daft claim against me; they haven't heard anything further from his insurers and the shark accident companies have stopped contacting them. I have still sent off the information, photos and diagrams as requested by my insurers (don't want to count all my chickens just yet). I just hope that it is over - it has really cast a shadow over the christmas break.
I've had some lovely photos from Ali, of her, Wayne, the boys and the new baby, Curtis. I was looking at the boys' new hair cuts and then realised that it is summer over there.
I've sorted out the bread problem too - it was the new flour; I had bought some more flour and yeast, but not being able to get my usual Dove's Farm organic flour at the time, I settled for some from Allinsons. The first loaf came out flat and I just put it down to user error and assumed that I'd done something daft. The 2nd loaf was the same, so I though that the new pack of yeast must be duff and bought some more.. but the third try showed that it was in fact the Allinson's flour, so I bought some Dove's Farm flour and it is fine now...phew!
Just settled in and lit the stove, which is roaring away with some very fragrant eucalyptus logs from our tree, making up a batch of bolognese sauce and about to embark on a spot of mending.
In case I don't log on before then - happy new year to all my friends
After all the fuss and magic of seeing the new year in, it really isn't any different, just another day. Although it will be MY B I R T H D A Y!
Well, reading Emjay's blog, it seems that there is another comet around - see below - it's supposed to be clear tonight - so guess who will be freezing her tits off in the garden? Phil is going to get his bins mounted up on a tripod.
Well, what a lovely day, and it looks like things are taking an upturn after a couple of pretty pooey days...
Firstly, we had clear blue skies and sunshine for most of the day today - very cold - the temperature was half of what it has been lately, but the sunshine was welcome after the days of torrential rain and high winds. I like the feel of it kissing my face - I'm such a summer child *grins*
Rosie came into town with me, on her new scooter; in one way it's a blessing because she can trundle along and isn't lagging behind. But boy did she drive me mad by constantly running into the back of my legs *roll*. We got her hair trimmed today - I thought that it looked lovely, but expectedly, she hates it and went straight upstairs to wet it down!
She and I had a lovely afternoon with F & P and their girls; the children all get on so well and played happily, if riotously, while we chatted and P cooked us girls a lovely indian meal. We dropped off some bags of Rosie's old stuff for the smaller girls, and collected my rablu, which F had been using to house a new chook for a few days while they all got used to each other. P is into astronomy too and has an enormous telescope packed in the conservatory - it takes two people to move and set it up and can be linked up to his camera and laptop to view the stars/planet. We've been invited around for a night's viewing when the sky is clear; Phil will be in his element!
We popped in to hospital to visit Mrs A - our lovely neighbour collapsed just before Christmas - she's very old and frail. None of her family live nearby, so we try to look in on her and check that she's OK, get her shopping when the weather is bad, the lovie is very independent and determined to look after herself when she is let out next week, but I can't see it happening - her son is trying to sort something out, and we will help where we can. She looks perky enough, but seemed less lucid than usual, but this may have been because her hearing aids were playing up. Walking is hard and her legs are giving way, so stairs and being back home wil probably not be a viable option.
Wooo Hooo! I got home to an email - my Aussie friend Ali has had her baby, slightly early and just a day after her eldest son's birthday! 7.56lb and healthy, I just can't wait to see the photos... shame they are so far away :-(
Even better news from Phil - he managed to track down the car that hit me (it hadn't been seen at it's registered address) and get some photos, not unchallenged though as someone arrived and started remonstrating, but as P pointed out - the car was parked on the street, so he was entitled to take photos. Turns out that there is hardly visible marking on the bumper where he hit me, but substantial damage on the other front wing.. I wouldn't be too surprised if he tried to blame that on me too! I now have all the photos that I need to back up my dispute of his claim, and the forms arrived today so I will get on with them tomorrow when I have a clear head.
Instant teenager:
Somewhere in the middle of this week, my lovely daughter woke up a teenager, with all the moods and angst that go with it! We had to have a 'full and frank' conversation yesterday about her behaviour and lack of respect *sighs* she really got on my rag and it was hard to stay calm and rational.
I'd like my little girl back please, if anybody finds her.
She'll be sadly missed - a truly brave woman who wasn't afraid to stand up for what she believed in and to fight passionately for her beliefs... the world is a diminished place without people like her.
She was willing to start making those 'small changes' mentioned by Mahatma Gandhi in my most favourite of his quotes: 'We must be the change we wish to see in the world'.
Perhaps we should all be inspired to make 'small changes' in our own worlds, to make this a better and more just world for our children to grow up in.
Just when I thought it had blown over, I had 2 calls this morning from 'accident management' companies (not his insurance company) of the 'now win, no fee' ilk. Seems that The Pillock is going for the throat and blaming it on me, despite the fact that there was minimal damamge not even worth a can of T Cut!
I have informed my insurance comapny and they have passed it onto their dispute office, and I have told the 'sharks' that i will deal only with his insurance company, not them. I have also reported it to the police as he was driving carelessly. So we'll wait to see what happens. I have taken photos of the scuff on my car and the scene.
Turns out that he lives just around the corner, so I keep going past his house, and intend to take photos of his car too as soon as it is back outside. I am keen to do this, because the police have had problems with the local mini-cab drivers causing accidents, then totalling their cars and claiming fraudulently for the greater damage.
I am mostly annoyed that it has taken up 3 hours of my precious time off to get this far :roll:
*Grrrr*
Just been reading Emjay's blog they had a good sighting of Mars in Washington ... so glad that we're not he only ones gazing up at the sky of a night!
Make the most of it Hon - Mars won't be this close again until 2016... a long wait!
NO!
Get your mind out of the gutter!
Marks and Spencer honey roasted cashews........ D I V I N E!
Just had a lovely massage from Steve, my neighbour, so feeling all mellow and warm too.
Off to bed now.....
Now, you know how big and bright green the van is.... well, for the 2nd time in a month, it has been hit by someone who claimed not to have seen it!!!!!
We were taking Phil's folks home on Christmas evening, and I pulled out of a junction near my house with plenty of time to spare with the car coming from my right, as I levelled out, he passed under a street light and I noticed that the driver wasn't looking where he was going and was turned to talk to his passenger. Then I saw that he was heading straight towards us on my side of the road and was in fact accelerating!!!! I had that sort of slow motion deja vu that you get when something is out of your control as he clipped the rear wing of my van - the bit that had just been repaired after the eejit drove into it when it was parked in my street!!!)
I pulled over a leaped out - this bloke was heading towards me with his phone in his hand and shouting the odds about it being my fault. I read him the complete riot act (while his passenger phoned all his taxi driver mates to come and have a look :roll:) and pointed out that he had in fact been on my side of the white line and accelerating towards me when he hit us. I had to ask him to calm down and stop shouting, he was after my insurance details which there was no way that I was giving to him, i got his car reg (which i will ask my police friends to check) and his mobile number and gave him mine.
To be honest, the damage is minimal and can be T-cut out, but his driving was appalling. I just hope that he has learned a lesson... fat chance of that. He is related to the asian bloke living over the road from me, so i have some come-back if he plays up and a means of contacting him if he tries anything funny!
Anyone would think that my van was invisible or something!
Good job that Phil's folks were in the van, or the air would've been blue!
The Day dawned, and despite my offerings to the weather fairies, it was damp, dark and pouring with rain *tuts*
Rosie was up early, but not too early; she'd gone to bed a bit late the night before, but was over-excited and kept coming downstairs on various pretexts, so it was really late by the time I got to put the pressies and stockings out. I went to have a shower and when I came out, I noticed that she'd been up and taken the stocking down from her door handle and opened the presents inside!
She was bouncing around when I got up, and wanting to open the big presents, but I'd told her that she had to wait until Granny and Grandpa arrived. I fed all the animals and gave them their Chrismas presents, Phil had opened his stocking presssies, seen the chocolate orange and bottle of Baileys and said 'well that's breakfast sorted then!' :roll: I found some flowers from Phil, that he'd put int he utility room for me to find in the morning when I went out to the animals... a vase full of white tulips and blue/violet sea thistles... my favourites - no 'garage forecourt carnations' for this girl ;-) Phil's folks brought lovely flowers too, so I am awash with beautiful blooms.
I set to preparing the chicken - washed it out, stuffed the inside with lemon slices and thyme, then loosened the skin over the breasts and slid some butter and sage from the garden under the skin. I rubbed the outside of the skin with goose fat and sprinkled with salt and pepper. I made a honey and brown sugar basting gravy for the (free range) ham, sliced the skin and fat into diamonds and studded it with cloves, poured the gravy over. Both of them were roasted on a high temperature to crisp the skins, then covered with foil and cooked on a low heat to keep them really moist and succulent. I pieced together the pavlova and covered it in fruit - the centre contained the vodka soaked raspberries that I'd saved from making Raspberry voddie for Phil. The cream was whipped with rose water to make it fragrant
I'd also made a snowy mountain - a cone shape of chocolate mousse made with chestnut puree, covered with a white chocolate custard type coating. Now, I'm not keen on chocolate, but it is delicious!
The mountains of food were nearly all finished and very much appreciated - we were all stuffed.
I got some lovely presents; among them a pamper facial at a local spa from Phil, some troll beads from Rosie and an apple tree from Ian, my folks came up with some necessary and lovely presents, including a new cover for the patio table (last one is in shreds), and a Science Museum weather station which I have been hankering over for ages.
We were very full, but the lousy weather kept us from going out for a walk. Rosie went home with Ian, my folks went off just as it was dark, and we took Phil's folks back home (more of that in a later post!).
By the time we got back, we were knackered, so we just cleared up and slobbed out in trackie bottoms and watched 'Strictly'
Rosie was with her Dad on Christmas night and Boxing day, so we got up late - I had some more of Jean's delicious fruit salad for breakfast and sorted out the animals, then we headed over to my sister's place in Lacey Green on our once-yearly visit to see them.
My 'Little' sister, Hilary with her daughter Molly
My Niece, Molly
We didn't see much of my nephew, Connor - he was playing game on their enormous TV, so this picture, below was all we saw of him! V
Phil had an early glass of Bucks Fizz, while Mummy and Molly pulled crackers in the kitchen
Here's a nice one of Pops... 75 and still looking outrageously young! let's hope that I've got those genes ;-)
We had a buffet lunch of stuff from M&S and Waitrose (Hilary missed out on the domestic gene!), and Molly dragged me down to the games room in their basement to see her new bike with stabilisers. She's such a tiny scrap that she can hardly touch the pedals, let alone the ground! She asked me to do her hair, so I started a beauty session, french braiding her hair into bunches and then Jemma, Hilary's 15 YO step-daughter came downstairs and was complaining about smudging her nail varnish, so I re-did her nails and put little diamantes on the tips; not easy with a 5 YO bouncing on your lap!
After lunch, we headed off to see Phil's folks who live two ridges over on Bledlow ridge in a village called Radnage. They were having a quiet boxing day, recovering form the excesses of yesterday! We stopped for tea and Phil's brother Peter turned up with their son Max (Carla was working|).
I managed to get these photos of us; note that Peter shares Phil's hairstyle, except that he's older and got more hair. Max is the tall, lanky one - he has Phil's height and long legs and fingers.
L-R; Gilda (Phil's SIL), Peter, Phil, Jean, Derek and max (Phil's nephew)
What a lovely couple of days - I'm sat here, having some of the organic blue veined brie that Phil gave me with a couple of cheese biscuits,and heavign a sigh of relief that it's all over.
Can you see me beaming from there? I'm nearly ready and just can't wait for tomorrow.
Had a busy mornign in work - the MD had some urgent work to go out on a case of his; his secretary wasn't in, and as the darned man can hardly use a computer, let alone type - it fell to me! Probably took me twice as long as his secretary 'cos I'm rubbish at typing, but it got done and went out in the end. We finished off at lunchtime with bacon butties and some of my homemade cakes (special orders for lemon drizzle).
What a relief to be home and get started on the preparation for tomorrow - the plan is to be so ready that tomorrow will be a doddle and I can enjoy the company rather than slaving away and being worried that it won't all be ready on time. I've put the Remoska to good use this afternoon; it cooked the stuffing balls; the parsnips, bacon, carrots and apples with chestnuts. I've marinated and poached the starter, prepared the ham and the chicken. Made the chocolate snowy mountain dessert, chcoclate truffles, meringues and everything bar the veggies.
Rosie has gone to bed at a reasonable time, wanting father christmas to come - I'm fairly sure that she doesn't believe this year, but bless her, she's not letting on; obviously wants to keep the magic alive like her mummy!
Just cleared out the log burner and laid a fire ready for lighting tomorrow morning, done a quick hoover and will mop the floors in a minute.
My lovely neighbour - Mrs Angell was taken poorly last week; she is very elderly and suffers with her heart, breathing and is diabetic, but she lives on her own and soldiers on. We help out when we can and make sure that she's OK, but she is so independent and stubborn. Her son is up looking after her in hospital and she is stable now and out of danger, so we will go to see her after Christmas. The plan is for her to go back with her son to stay with them in Rutland for a while so that she can recuperate and they can plan what is the best for her. There's no way that she can live on her own anymore - her hip and knee are so bad that she find the stairs a strain, and she doesn't have a downstairs loo, so moving her bed downstairs isn't an option either. Let's hope that she is happy with what they decide.
Here's wishing all my friends a happy christmas and a healthy new year - we have a week of celebrating because it's my birthday on the 1st. Take care one and all, and I will report back on how tomorrow's feast for 8 goes!
