Tea? (Part 2)

[Lullabelle]

I have used hot cross buns, panettone (very good) and brioche.
Not all in the same B&BP, obviously, that would be madness. And probably blasphemy too.

Not a fan of hot cross buns but I do like panettone

 

[Lullabelle]

Well done Chris Froome () once again proving he is better than Brad. I admire and respesct Brad but Chris is cute

 

[Lullabelle]

Ah, I'm the opposite!! I just love hot cross buns - plain or toasted - butter or no butter

M&S do apple and cinnamon hcb's and they are not bad.

 

[Lullabelle]

I'm pleased he won too.....I suspect Brad will have an off year.....he achieved a lot in 2012 and may have lost his hunger.

Now, talking of hunger......is it tea time?

I wish

 

[ColinJ]

Say hello from me Colin

I will!

I'm just back from my walk. I'm still not functioning properly, but I suppose I am not that much worse than your typical overweight and unfit townie. I miss the bike, but at least I'm getting slowly back into walking shape.

My friend and I shared a chip butty ...

And then decided to get coffee refills and therefore needed to share a Bakewell tart ...

My fasting day isn't until tomorrow!

(Despite eating what I like 5 days a week, and not doing any cycling, I am now the lightest that I've been since late 2007!)

PS I wasn't expecting the Tour of Oman spoilers in this thread! I was avoiding the ToO thread so as to not discover the result ...

I'll let you off this time though, because the BBC News already caught me out with their damn scrolling news ticker!)

 

[Speicher]

I am now after an afternoon in the swamp garden. Everything is so muddy, that it is difficult to do anything at all. I ended up ankle deep in mud.

 

[Speicher]

The grass in the back garden is very long, but so wet that a lawn mower will just churn up chunks of it. Added to which, the builders put there wheelbarrow on the lawn, and so there is a large patch of flattened grassy muddy mess with cement and sand mixed in for good measure.

The driveway is quite wide, but obviously not wide enough for their van. There is an area of muddy squashed tire tracks where there used to be some plants.

I decided to concentrate on the parts of the garden where I can see new growth sprouting, and just remove the dead foliage from those areas. It is such a heavy clay soil, that when it starts to dry out, the ground will go from squelchy mud to rock hard mud inside two weeks.

 

[Speicher]

Tomorrow I will be visiting my Mother. This will involve trying to help her sort the contents of an outside sort of shed (used to a coal bunker I think ). The roof leaked in the wet weather. Then find the source of all the blue bottles/blow flies that are invading her garden, and multitudinous other minutiae. There is a considerable danger of me not being a happy bunny tomorrow.

 

[coffeejo]

Tomorrow I will be visiting my Mother. This will involve trying to help her sort the contents of an outside sort of shed (used to a coal bunker I think ). The roof leaked in the wet weather. Then find the source of all the blue bottles/blow flies that are invading her garden, and multitudinous other minutiae. There is a considerable danger of me not being a happy bunny tomorrow.

I am very and am drinking lots of to stop my eyes falling out. Can I get one for anyone else? There was something else I was intending to say but I can't remememememember what.

 

[Speicher]

Tomorrow I will be visiting my Mother. This will involve trying to help her sort the contents of an outside sort of shed (used to a coal bunker I think ). The roof leaked in the wet weather. Then find the source of all the blue bottles/blow flies that are invading her garden, and multitudinous other minutiae. There is a considerable danger of me not being a happy bunny tomorrow.

Following a short phone call to my Mother, to the above I can add

Sort the contents of her freezer

Set up her sewing machine so that she can use it. Bearing in mind that she is nearly 92 with failing eyesight, and not much feeling in her fingers, this strikes me as a futile exercise. She wants to repair part of a vertical blind where the stitching has come undone. I have told her that I have no idea whatsoever how to use her machine. At a guess it is fifty years old. She gave away her much newer machine to one of her grand-daughters.

I will also need to explain to her again again about how to set her hearing aid according to whether she wants to use the telephone, hear what other people are saying in a crowded room or use the "loop circuit" in a cinema or theatre.

The biggest problem is that I will start sorting one thing out, but before I can finish that one thing, she will be talking about other problems, and not letting me concentrate on what I am doing. This means that everything takes three times longer than it should.

She will also argue with/contradict/ignore every sensible suggestion I make.

Did I mention that I have two older brothers, both of whom are almost as useful as a chocolate teapot.

And breathe.....

 

[Speicher]

Perhaps I should set my own agenda for the order in which to do things.

First the freezer, if this is left to last, it may be a rush to sort the contents and get everything back in.

Then the shed, see what is damaged, and discuss what needs to be done to prevent the problem re-occuring. If this is done second, then things that are moved into the garage (where the freezer is) will not be in the way while I am juggling the contents of the freezer.

Then explain about replacing the small pane of glass in the kitchen where there is a defunct ventilator thingy. She said that glass cannot be replaced in the winter. Surely as long as it is a dry day, the glass can be replaced. She thinks the flies are coming into the house through the gaps in the broken ventilator. These gaps were covered up by her Handyman person, but he said he is not competent at replacing glass.

Last of all will be the sewing machine. It is in a cabinet, and needs somehow to be lifted up onto a base in the cabinet. I am hoping that is where my responsibility ends.

Does this seem a sensible strategy?

 

[coffeejo]

No idea re: glass, but yes, very sensible. And if you spend long enough doing the freezer, you might be lucky and run out of time before the sewing machine saga.

 

[Night Train]

Earlier on this afternoon we were being 'Roadies' for a friend, setting up a gig for his album launch tonight. We're home for a bit of dinner and then back to stand at the door selling albums and EPs to punters, and also watching the gig.

He will be providing part of the music for our wedding so this will be a nice taster, for Arch, of how he performs. I have seen some of his gigs before and they were good.

 

[Arch]

Perhaps I should set my own agenda for the order in which to do things.

First the freezer, if this is left to last, it may be a rush to sort the contents and get everything back in.

Then the shed, see what is damaged, and discuss what needs to be done to prevent the problem re-occuring. If this is done second, then things that are moved into the garage (where the freezer is) will not be in the way while I am juggling the contents of the freezer.

Then explain about replacing the small pane of glass in the kitchen where there is a defunct ventilator thingy. She said that glass cannot be replaced in the winter. Surely as long as it is a dry day, the glass can be replaced. She thinks the flies are coming into the house through the gaps in the broken ventilator. These gaps were covered up by her Handyman person, but he said he is not competent at replacing glass.

Last of all will be the sewing machine. It is in a cabinet, and needs somehow to be lifted up onto a base in the cabinet. I am hoping that is where my responsibility ends.

Does this seem a sensible strategy?

Very sensible. Have you considered a walkman with headphones so that you can work at it all without having to hear all the "Yes,but....."s.

I'm lucky with my Mum, she's not troublesome, although there is still the slight feeling that she thinks I don't know what I'm doing, mainly around cooking, She likes to follow recipes fo main courses, whereas I generally make it up as I go along, and don't often get it wrong. So if I'm staying, and say "I'll cook dinner", and it's curry, she'll say "Oh, thank you, the recipe I normally follow is in the Madhur Jaffrey book", and I'll say "Oh, it's alright, I'll just do what I normally do" and she'll say "Oh!. Ok. But if you want a recipe, it's in that book", "No, really, I'll just get on with it" "Oh yes, alright. But if you do need a recipe...."

The funniest thing is that although she follows a recipe, she very often doesn't have exactly those ingredients, so she substitutes things - and it woks fine. But she needs a recipe to not follow!

And she's so apologetic when she asks me or NT to do any little jobs for her, like changing lightbulbs or getting things from the loft. Usually, we can get the job done before she's finished apologising for it!

And don't play down that patch of your lawn with sand in it. You now have a beach volleyball court!

 

[Arch]

Oh yes, have a bottle of wine in for when you get back!