My other car's a Jag

Mmmm, thank you to Rachel for a great acupuncture session, and for tea and chatter after! Oooh and to me for the savoury snacks...little pastries with pesto, cheddar and tomato and red onion, chutney and goat's cheese. Rachel's on a diet so I had to finish them off...sigh!

I'm grateful the combination gave me the boost to walk back up the hill and on the way I passed a man in a black Jaguar with the engine running on a house driveway. I thought it was the one that often has one of those rather comfy looking enclosed motorised wheelchairs outside belonging to a cheery elderly gent, and a look through the open garage door showed this vehicle parked inside. I don't know if he was just starting up the Jag and reversing it down the drive and back for engine maintenance or for his own health and welfare...or whether he'd actually been for a spin...but he should definitely have a sticker on the 'invalid carriage' I think, don't you?

Finally sympathies to people who are having problems commenting on my blog...but not really apologies because it's not really my fault! It's nice if you feel you have something to add to the posts but it's not compulsory and there are other ways to say things to me, or the world on general if you've a mind to so please try not to be cross when I'm trying to make people smile!

Still life

Energy levels are funny things aren't they? You can feel like a two toed sloth with a hangover sometimes but push yourself a bit and start behaving more like a squirrel with three Weetabix inside them (more like, take note, not just like!). That was me Friday when I went out...probably why the real squirrel came up to say hello...Then sometimes you are more like a flying fox and just glide...that was me yesterday dealing with all manner of mental and physical chores and having fun whilst about it...and today well I'm more like a very old tortoise that you have to check closely for signs of life and would tip over rather than speed up if you gave it a shove so the trick is just to accept this and go with the very slow flow. But I'm a very content tortoise...Hey it's the first proper Sunday we've had for a while...it would be foolish not to take full advantage of the 'day of rest' feeling and I'm delighted I've been doing so!

I'm grateful I got my pajamas so wet when I was washing my hair and I had to put proper clothes on eventually and I'm grateful I wanted spinach and filo pie so much I actually made some with cherry tomatoes and pine nuts in too. Yum yum! I'm grateful for lots of mindless TV and for the far from mindless Sherlock. I'm loving this modern take, totally gripping and funny too! I'm grateful also for the sight of a curiously coloured sea earlier. Or rather not colored, just shades of grey with no hint of blue or green or purple or brown which is most unusual and for the almost supernatural stillness. Well it seemed so after all the winds of the last few days, and matched those energy levels perfectly!

Fettered

Hiya, I'm here! Got a lot on my mind and not feeling very chatty today. Some stuff going on that needs both big thinks and inner conversations (even though one knows in one's heart what the answer is already!). I'm not ill or depressed so don't worry, just preoccupied. Apologies to those waiting for personal messages though.

I give thanks for relative peace to get on with it...and for...

A delicious supper of roast veggies with feta cheese

A bit of a text chat with Clive

A bubbly fruity smelling magenta mini bath courtesy of a Christmas gift.

A Ruth Rendell story about alcoholics and criminals of various kinds to read to take my mind off real ones

A cheery Tesco delivery chap coming to stock my cupboards up...I'm looking forward to all the choices I have for my tea and may even NOT have feta

A cheery letter from Kostas...I was part way through one to him when it arrived so apologies to him for the delay too though he'll have to have his psychically!

Magical Mystery Tour

Yay! I finally got to our local museum...it's only been four years since I moved here! To be fair I moved shortly before it shut for the winter the first time and it was closed for ages to be rebuilt, over a year. It's a beautiful building inside and out and I'm so glad I went before it closes for this winter this week. Gratitude for feeling bright and breezy enough on a bright and breezy day...For a sparkly sea and happy dogs on the beach...even a few humans had jolly expressions for a change! Especial thanks to the miniature Yorkshire Terrier chasing it's Labrador friend and flying with all four feet off the ground as much as actually running, making me laugh out loud.

For finding a website with pictures of cargo ships coming in and out of our little town harbour (each to their own, eh?) For watching the first part of Martin Scorcesi's film about George Harrison - Living in the Material World for the nostalgia and for the once in a bunch of Sundays feeling of hearing another human being talk what I call sense (as above, ha ha!) This was last night actually so it was spooky in a nice way to see a piece of footage from it again today in the museum because that clip was filmed in a hotel here at the start of making the Magical Mystery Tour. What goes around comes around quickly sometimes...

For finding a narrow bladed scraper/filler that's been missing for months. I found it nestled amongst the fronds of my big bushy plant by the sink...just minutes after finishing for the foreseeable future all the jobs I could have used it for! For watching Tsonga playing tennis...it's not that he's cute, although he may indeed be...it's that he refuses to be 'managed' and thus plays a bit more of a intuitive and game than some. One of the best matches I've seen for ages. For spinach and feta pie and apple crumble for my tea, easy to make and even easier in the eating...

Blow by blow

Ooh listen to the howling wind...I love that! It's not actually very windy here down south but I'm high enough up a hill and a building to get the impression without the damage. I know some people hate the sound but for those who do my top tip in our double glazed life is not to quite lock shut your frames so that there's just enough break in the seal to get the impression without the draught. On second thoughts maybe only advisable if you live where only giants could break in!

I meant to get back to my blog last night but needed to rest instead. I needed to rest so much I fell asleep in Q3 and woke up to see everyone patting Vettel on the back so I decided I hadn't missed much!

So to catch up on the rest of the good news:

*I give thanks to Pat for her compliments (not 'complements' which is how you spell alternative...you get an education here, ha ha!),
*for all butter shortbread biscuits - even cheapy store brand ones are delicious
*and for remembering the even yummier ones an ex boyfriend's mother did
*for the purply colour tree trunks and branches go just before darkness
*for a random clump of sunset pink clouds in the north yesterday evening when the rest of the sky was uniformly grey. It either hadn't read the Ladybird book of weather or was just had a rebellious nature...
*for finding a way of leaving my sofa/bed/thingy in the middle of the room while I work on the skirting board behind it
*for working on it a bit
*for stopping

Trending now

I'm not sure about this 'popular posts' link I've put at the side. You know whenever you see a list of things that are currently most searched for or read there's always something that makes you wonder what it was about and then you boost the numbers by searching or reading it too. In conjunction with something I have noticed over the few months I've been doing this ie. that mostly the posts with the more negative sounding titles get more hits...that means they just get more and more! Now me, if I was looking down the list of titles I'd think 'Ooh, Dog and Pineapple' what's that about? Or Inspiration...or Dreamtime...but I write something like 'Stuck' and suddenly twice as many people read it! Now I'm thinking I could play some games here. What if my next post was called 'Unstuck'...would that be perceived as a juicy account of my life falling apart or just more boring old pollyanna gratitudes? Hmmm!

Anyway, for now apologies to tabloid readers everywhere but I'm just going to carry on telling you what I feel good about in the hope that it bucks the trend...And for this evening these pearls of perkiness are...

Dear Dr Galli calling to ask how I was doing and form the next part of our plan to keep me mostly upright a little longer...

Having a double yoked egg for my lunch earlier. Don't know why they should make you happy but they always do somehow!

Finding by accident via Amazon that a shop that started out as one little room in one little Welsh town with a counter full of mixed ex army and civil service tat is now a quite a business empire. Well done Cheap Charlie's...sorry Charlie's Direct, ha ha! And for mentioning it on Facebook which led to a little chat with someone I've not seen for many years...

Having my new liquidiser make soup out of cooked vegetables without once saying 'Oh no, not soup again! Wouldn't you rather have a milkshake for tea?'. I like the design of the lid so you can give stuff a poke if it sticks without taking the whole thing off and that I can reach to poke without having to take it off the base. My old one was designed for someone taller I think...who didn't like soup.

For ricecakes. People say they taste like polystyrene but I've never eaten polystyrene so I wouldn't know. Why would you want to when rice cakes taste so good, ha ha!

Happiness is a warm bun...

... a fruity one with butter for breakfast! Though big pants help in the colder weather too!

I give thanks for the heat of the sun melting its way through hazy clouds above the sea earlier, and for leaving my window open a crack the better to hear the howling winds last night.

I give thanks for remembering my Metta meditation when my brain was too buzzy to sleep. I wish you all would remember to do it, especially when stressed or in pain...though you might be less so if I remember you in mine, ha ha! I do a very simple westernised version that always reminds me of the 'God bless' listing prayers some of us learn as children though there's no mention of God so its suitable for all faiths and none. It always makes me feel peaceful and warm straight away and I could that encourage you to believe these effects are physically real by showing you a picture of a brain scan apparently. Any brain scan! Research has shown (Oh, that hackneyed phrase!) readers accord more authenticity to articles accompanied by images of lit up parts of brains!

I give thanks for finding a bit of a kindred spirit in Rachel...she is the only other person I've ever met who is interested in quantum physics AND dressmaking. The only other person I've ever met who decided not to become a Buddhist nun...I mean who actually considered it and decided to take the challenge of living the world but without being totally caught up in its inconsequentialities. Sitting cross legged training the mind all day is a different sort of challenge. Well done to Mark I used to work with for currently giving it a go for 10 days on retreat though...all good thoughts to him.

Good goods

Heavens I'm tired! Just looked at the clock on my laptop and thought 'no wonder - how late it is!' I mean it's not late late, not pumpkin and glass slipper late, but late to be still be doing stuff when I've promised myself an evening doing nothing at all. Oh well...keeps those pressure sores at bay, ha ha! Ah well...I've got the whole weekend to catch up with that!

I give thanks for a very stress free trip to our lovely little town shops. In fact I give thanks for the shops and for the people who own and run and work in them. I don't think there's a high powered sales person within a five mile radius but everyone keeps up a brisk enough trade by offering good goods and services, being pleasant, chatting to you, helping you, valuing you etc. It is such a joy to live here in so many ways! I give particular thanks today for the enormous choux buns in the baker's on the high street...they are best of all when not in the baker's any more!

I give thanks to Clive for making me laugh with his funny texts about his dentist this morning. I give thanks for a few more living room improvement jobs done by Laura this afternoon - in a week or two now we'll be at the stage when it feels like we're finishing decorating the living room...but of course we've already started decorating the bedroom in our heads! And I give thanks to Rachel for some more body and soul improvements with her excellent acupuncture...

I give thanks for running into a whole bunch of Come Dine with Me's I hadn't seen before. Better get back to them...you know how I hate to leave a job undone ha ha!

Lea

Funny dreams again last night. In part of one I had a house full of people I didn't know very well (including some cancerchat friends) and my son who was about 10 or so in the dream came into the room we were in and emptied a dustbin bag full of old shoes onto the living room floor in front of everyone. When I asked why he said he was looking for a Kit-kat. I looked in the cupboards but I didn't have any Kit-kats so offered him some other wrapped chocolate biscuits and bars which he took a fistful of for his friends but explained he still needed a Kit-kat wrapper to vote. I never found out what for...

I'm feeling rather poorly again today and though I'm up and washed and dressed I'd rather just read a book or watch a movie or sit looking out of the window at the leaves falling off the tree just outside and the crows or rooks or whatever they are swirling and circling and almost landing on an evergreen one further away in some incomprehensible activity of their own. I'm grateful for a peaceful state of mind and chores that can be done in instalments. Put the washing on, sit down, iron a sheet, sit down, do the drying up, sit down, and then round again hanging up the laundry, ironing another crumpled thing or two and doing some more washing up with more rests in between. I'm grateful for the bits I get done and the bits I stop and for the various wonders of fairly modern technology that make sort of these tasks so relatively easy now. I'd need a housemaid or a husband if not!

I give thanks for the delightful young woman from the Council who keeps battling with the building freeholder to keep up with his obligations. She popped in today to check for herself that something he promised would be done hasn't before she issues a legal notice and we had a good gossip about him which is probably highly inappropriate but fun all the same. She was exclaiming in delight over my flat as she's not looked round before. I know people wonder sometimes why I live here but when you see it you realise. I am SO grateful to be here!

I give thanks for feeling a bit peckish. I've put a potato in to bake and I'll top it with mushrooms in cream cheese and pesto sauce when it's ready for my lea (last time I mentioned this only Carole understood!) and if I keep busy til then I think some full on slobbing out (sorry, 'rest and recuperation') will be on order. I'm grateful for having all the ingredients to hand for all of the above...

Rabbit rabbit

Phew! Another few inches (each) of picture rail and skirting board revealed and of curtain sewed, and several feet of curtain tacked... I'm not expressing gratitude for the speed that things are progressing you understand, simply that they are!

I'm grateful for a good talk with the good doctor and remembering the nice nurse this morning saying he thinks the man must have a portrait of himself in the attic because he's known him for twenty seven years and he's always looked the same. Apparently he's retired twice already and is estimated to be in his mid to late seventies! How lucky I was he was a locum duty doctor the day I went in. He is the first person to recognise that while the cancer is failing to kill me as quickly as it might, other conditions are carrying on disregarded...and the longer I live the less acceptable that actually is. I am still 'worth it' in other words! I guess he knows a little about premature relegation himself... and that the real scrap heap challenge is to stay off it!

I give thanks for some salad with my tea. I've had cooked veg the last couple of nights but sometimes I really crave raw ones. Even in my early teens one of my favourite things to eat was salad and in the places and days I spent my early teens that was considered very strange indeed! I wasn't even on a diet, ha ha! I also going back to give the kitchen a bit of a clean and tidy afterwards before flollupping on the sofa so it doesn't give me a nasty shock when I go and make a hot drink later.

Spice of life

I have some more thanks for yesterday...The bright moon shining through a gap in the cloud and making white stripe on the dark sea. At least I think that's what it was...it might have been someone in a very small boat with a very big torch! And later for it lighting up the whole of the visible sea. At least I think that's what it was...it might have been a space ship hiding behind a tree... For noticing what a different sound the breeze makes blowing through the drying leaves on the trees.

For Tesco's very yummy sag aloo and pilau rice which I had for my tea. I've not bought things like that from them before but they used to do an excellent veggie korma before they started limiting themselves to meat ones so, as on special offer I thought I'd give them a try. Shall definitely be adding those to my regular orders along with their vegetable samosas.

For Dr Chowdrey for finding me five mins. I've heard she's good but have never spoken to her before as because so many think she is you have to wait a week or two for an appointment, and when I need a doctor I usually can't wait that long. She seemed very pleasant and on the ball anyway and, although there are of course benefits to having a particular GP you always deal with (especially if you like the way they deal!), there's a lot to be said for having made contact with everybody on the team so you are not strangers if your paths cross again. Just have to get out and get my prescription now...

For Ivor's kind thoughts, for Lynn being 'back' (not that she ever really went away)

Homework

Watched the race...loved sparkly Singapore by night and the fireworks after best! (I've been to Sinagpore and been on a night cruise around the bay...it was gobsmackingly lovely and sparkly then and that was years ago...)

When my kidney stopped hurting I did some filling on the side of a door frame and a small section of skirting board and wall. And when I recovered from that I did a little bit of paint removing from the picture rail and architraves. There's a (different) place between the layers on each where, if you can get the scraper in the right place, you can remove satisfying size pieces but keep a base coating or two on the wood to start again. Even now I seem to have a knack for this so, although I've tried to pass on the technique, as I can do it quite well myself, I might as well carry on. I'm very slow but it's not as if there's a team of decorators waiting, fresh dipped brushes drying in their hands, waiting for me to finish so they can finish off! I'm grateful for my perseverance in getting things a little more ready in case one day there are though!

I can hardly move now and beginning to feel rough again so I'm also grateful I cooked some aubergine, mushrooms and tomatoes earlier. My appetite is not what it was but I might fancy that in a little while. Loads of garlic in it as usual...my style of cooking has developed in isolation and may have contributed to the fact that I have, ha ha! I'm having a little rest before I start clearing up the mess I made because, as Neil the hippy might say, vacuum cleaners are heavy man!

I'm grateful for the autumny feel and smell in the air. I love seasons...we are so lucky to have them here! When I had my market stalls this was the beginning of the busiest season and I'd be churning out jumpers on my knitting machine, stringing beads etc. I'll have to see if I can find a picture or two of me surrounded by my wares. I'm so grateful I found a way to do things I like and work for myself for so much of my life...Bob says he must be following my example with his own many fingered musical pies.

I'm grateful I've got through (most of) another day...I think it must be hard for many of you to grasp what it's like to have as little human contact as I do, day after day, month after month. I sometimes think that as I'm going to miss out on being numerically old I'm getting to experience some of its hardships early... to make me a more rounded character or something perhaps! Well that 'll come in useful, ha ha! Anyway, thanks once again for your virtual contact and thoughtful comments. And a big well done to Stef for doing what she meant to. PS, still not heard anything from Pat anywhere...I do hope she's OK

Cheesy

In your dreams (and mine) Lynn...not a dickie bird, no pun intended ha,ha!

Tonight (yet again) I give thanks for Dave Lamb's commentary on Come Dine with Me. Always makes me chuckle... Though to be fair this week the contestants from Warrington were quite comical on their own (yes, Mimi where would we be? Same place only more bored I'm thinking!)

I give thanks for Carol, Chris, Christine and Juanita for becoming followers of my blog and for their kindly introductory messages. I'm so glad you my ramblings have 'spoken' to you in some way... Has anyone heard from Pat by the way?

I'm grateful I've done a few small chores...diy and domestic...and even more grateful that I've stopped!

I'm grateful that I've noticed the film Crash is on tonight because I noticed it was on last night but only after it was half way through. I love that film so much and haven't got a proper recording of it so I've set it to record tonight..woohoo!

And I give thanks for making that thing I make with feta cheese...not the pie, something else...yes I know impressive eh? I can make TWO things with feta cheese and that's not counting Greek salad! Now for Family Fortunes!

Home and dry

Today I give thanks for the fascinatingly changeable weather. I'm particularly grateful I experienced the dark sharp showers from indoors but the sunshine was more cosy warm than I inagined even though the wind kept whipping up a whole race of white horses' tails.

I'm grateful for making pancakes with fresh lemon and demerara sugar for my brunch...I didn't have much of an appetite this morning but I knew once I tasted the first bite I'd want to finish all the batter...

I'm grateful to Bob for sending a selection of indie dvds to watch plus the one of his indoor skydive...looking forward to that!

I give thanks for another great acupuncture session and that Rachel remembered to bring my share of the halva we didn't get round to at her tent last week...

And I'm also grateful for cwtching up on the sofa with a quilt and catch up TV when I got home again!

Casting off

Thanks Lynn...yes I am a bit of an unhappy bunny at the moment, I'm sorry to say. I’ve nothing against autumn but the sense of summer coming to an end and all the things I haven’t been able to do, places I haven’t been able to get to and people I haven’t seen. Please don’t anyone say there’s always next year, OK?

It’s not all gloom and doom though is it? A new series of Coach Trip has just started...and a new one of QI to begin on Friday. I can’t pass judgement on the latter yet but Coach Trip is proving as hilarious as ever...much gratitude for that. The wetsuit and canoe thing on Friday’s episode...so funny!  It’s not just silly either  - without Coach Trip I’d never have learnt about indoor skydiving and seen how many different sorts of people thought it was the best thing they’d done. And if I hadn’t done that Bob wouldn’t have had such a great Christmas present!

I also give thanks for my cooking! It’s developed in isolation like some species on a distant isle, so probably would only please me...but please me it does. I’m very grateful I started making one of my favourites – a dhalish lentil stew with veg in yesterday so I can enjoy it tonight. I’m going to eat it now watching a programme which begins with Melvyn Bragg in Torquay...culture shock all round I should think! *

And I’m pleased to report I’ve finished knitting all the pieces for the big blanket.  Just got to finish putting them together now.

* actually poppadums proved much too noisy to eat while watching TV with blocked ear so the programme had to wait! Lab results have shown some sort of fungus apparently...charming, and I think a bit of a swizz to get a fungal ear infection when no longer allowed to swim!

Chop and change

First of all today I give thanks to Mrs Tesco for bringing everything I ordered. Of course she might be Miss Tesco, or Ms, our perhaps a very convincing pre-change Mr, but it's always nice when you get all the things you thought you'd bought and brought right upstairs and into your home with a bit of cheery chatter and all for a modest fee.

I've not got much of an appetite at the moment so have mostly stocked up things that will keep...or which will hopefully prove irresistible...and I've chopped the tired looking vegetables already in the fridge and made a stew for the slow cooker. I give thanks for persuading myself to do this as I LOVE vegetable stew and am bound to fancy a little bowl or two later with a chunk of fresh crusty rye mix bread and a little sweet organic butter! I'd also like to express thanks for my slow cooker which was a free promotional offer with some mail order catalogue I dealt with. It's not perhaps the most stylish, neither is it particularly big. But you know I keep it in a cupboard so I don't care what it looks like and it holds two good size portions of whatever and I rarely need more than that.

NB. For non-UK readers - Yes hot stew is suitable food for late August on the English Riviera!
NB. For UK readers - yes, I do have some who aren't!

I've set myself the task of lightly sanding the area of wall Laura and I reckon we've finished filling in the kitchen and sealing it with a bit of old paint so the wallpaper sticks. I must off and do the sanding soon so that I can run the vaccuum after and remind my upstairs neighbour that SOUND CARRIES!

Clean sweep

Well I did get up eventually and do a few odds and ends...my usual Sunday friends of filler knife and knitting needles coming out to play. I give thanks that the blanket is beginning to look like a blanket with some bits missing rather than just some bits and that when Laura's ready to wallpaper again the last bit of wall to be covered will be ready for her!

I found some links for images of reverse graffiti because I wanted to express gratitude for it earlier and wasn't sure if you'd know what I meant...brilliant concept that baffles the authorities as to whether it's 'good' or 'bad'. Know what I think ha ha!

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/35-greatest-works-of-reverse-graffiti/1949

http://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/2010/10/reverse-graffiti-environmentally-friendly-urban-spray-art/

I give thanks for leeks and mushrooms in cream cheese and pesto sauce...one of the easiest things ever to make and also one of the most delicious!

And I give thanks also for the pretty sky tonight...clear pale blue with glowing streaks of pinky orange cloud to the west, to the east, to the north and south and overhead and everything in between. Not the brightest or most spectacular but possibly the most all encompassing 'sunset' I've ever seen!

I hope Debbie's OK...I miss your comments. And I hope Rachel and Karen who don't have regular internet access at the moment are missing mine!

Cream of Cornish

Wow...I've just had the most amazing afternoon out with my lovely young friend Jared! Originally the idea had been for a picnic out somewhere and he was ready to downsize this to him coming over and cooking us some scallops for sale locally but I persuaded him to trust the increasingly torrential rain would ease and take me out somewhere. Jared's the only driver I know with wanderlust to match mine as a passenger but he told me traffic on the main road to here was dire so it didn't bode well. It was dire getting out of town too so we crossed the river and took the coast road which is usually nose to tail on a summer Saturday but today...just for us...was miraculously quiet. Ninety seven thanks for that! We drove through a fallen cloud and into a beautiful day and to some astonishingly beautiful places neither of us had been to before, just the other side of the county border but off the 'main drag' and remarkably unspoilt. Ooohs and aaahs of delight round every corner. Can't show you pics as I didn't take my camera...that would have been tempting fate weather and scenery wise I thought!! I had no idea what a gobsmackingly perfect route and destination the whim of my finger on the map had found! One hundred and three thanks for that!

Dreamt last night that the Red Arrows were performing outside my flat and one of them crashed into the garden below. Just seen the news, no gratitude for any coincidences there... makes you think though.

There was a possibility some other friends were coming over this weekend too but I heard not long after I got back they weren’t. Probably all for the best, how much excitement could I take? Tired now...going to eat, do some more blanket making and watch All Star Family Fortunes. I’m grateful that even though Tesco were out of stock of several favourite treats they did have their delicious vegetable samosas for our picnic lunch and their rather good spinach and ricotta cannelloni for my tea! Am also extremely grateful my course of antibiotics has finished and don't have to set my alarm for midnight and six am!

In my view...

Well Pat, I don't know if the mods will be marching on me but I fear a savaging from a sock puppet now...am almost scared to look! The last sentence will make little sense to many but a lot to a few!!!

I've been very achey today and it seems to be taking me forever to do anything...
Might have something to do with having a little dance last night you never know! But that's my first recorded gratitude for today although well over twenty four hours ago now...

And then there was the torrential storm just before sundown yesterday when the heavy grey clouds either dumped their rain or blew away and left a sort of angel wing effect around the last sliver of sun...I'm not sure how well this will show as per usual!

Meanwhile at the other side of my flat...compass opposite from the setting sun we had the best example of 'reflected sunset' I've ever seen (my term - I don't know what the correct one is for the pink clouds you get in the east when the sun goes down!) Check out the pink sea!

My third gratitude is for the delicious fruit salad I made from a handful of blackberries from Laura's garden, a ripe peach and some organic strawberries. Still from yesterday...good job there was so much to please after my last post as today's not been bursting at the seams with moments of joy.

This morning I was glad to read The Princess and the Spaceman again...one of my favourite stories ever...and this afternoon for getting to a shop and getting things that I had kidded myself I needed to just so as not to be splodged on the sofa for another day. And I was grateful not to get soaking wet as well! And passing a van with a house on top...a black and white mansion actually but model village size. Not something you see every day...unless you visit a model village every day...or live in one!!?? No, no, that last bit doesn't make sense - if you lived in a model village you'd not be big enougb to see the top of a van! Duh!

And lastly I'm extremely grateful that by the time I've logged out and packed up this and that it will be time to take my final antibiotic of the day and hopefully get a bit of kip before the first one in the morning!

Desired

It's been a muggy night here, mild and clammy and with the bugs mugging me and the meds mugging them! I would happily laze in bed all morning and half the afternoon but there are things I've arranged to happen that require me to be upwardly mobile. My first thanks of the day is for my tea last night - a homemade spinach and feta filo pie that defied all odds...such as not having made it before and having little energy or inspiration when the time came to do so, the pastry brush going awol, the feta being well past its best and the spinach frozen into intractable boulders... and turned out absolutely delicious! It was actually in the oven when I wrote my last post but I didn't want to mention it as I still wasn't sure if I might have to revert to plan B and have a boiled egg!

The filo packet says to use the sheets within a week once the packet is opened. No problem! Spinach and feta filo pie is one of my favourite things ever and as long as Mr Tesco brings me some more feta we're laughing. Baklavas and strudels are playing on my mind now, too...but right now spicy fruit porridge which needs stirring! I was just going to have a cuppa and some spicy fruit oatcakes in bed but discovered I'm out of the latter so shall have to make do with the real thing...