Wednesday 28 December 2011

Wednesday morning

Bin day today.  Bin day is usually Monday but, what with Christmas and the New Year, the collection days are going to be more than a bit unsettled for a while, both for the usual black bin rubbish and for all the recycling stuff.  There seems to much to recycle nowadays.  Card goes in one sack, paper in another.  Garden rubbish goes in the brown bin.  Plastic goes in the plastic bags provided.  Metal and glass must be put in the green box.  Finally, food waste now has its own bin too - a small grey bin into which you have to put a special (provided) bag which, when full, is tied at the top and placed into a slightly larger green container which is kept outside and has a secure lid to keep the rats out (shudder).  I was well pleased to see that over the last six days, with a household of eight to feed for much of the time, I only needed to throw away one bag's worth of food waste and some of that was peelings I couldn't be bothered to take to the compost heap.

So, anyway, yesterday I remembered and out to the front went the black bin, the brown bin and the kitchen waste bin.  Now I have to remember the card sack and the green box on Friday.  It's always harder to remember when the usual routines are disrupted.

I was on a mission yesterday.  Over the last three or four days I became aware that after I had made a pot of coffee, around the bottom of the coffee maker there was a little puddle of clear water.  At first I thought I must have spilt a little as I poured the cold water into the coffee maker but on Monday it was evident that the machine was actually leaking and, when we investigated, there was a split in the plastic casing.  Darn it, it's been a good coffee maker over the years, giving honourable service time and time again but now, sadly, it needs to go to that great big coffee plantation in the sky.
So, my mission was to get another filter coffee makers.  Thank goodness my needs are simple because there is such a choice ranging from bog standard water in, coffee out machines to ones that make seven different kinds of coffee while you toast your bread (and with price tags to match).  As far as I am concerned, all I want is a machine that happily accepts ground coffee and water one end and gives me a pot of steaming hot coffee the other end; no need for fancy timers, strength settings or anything like that.  Good old Google, where would we be without it?  I found what I wanted and decided to look in Comet first before ordering online if necessary,  That was a silly decision - as I drove up to Comet, the access road was chock-a-block with queues stretching for several hundred metres.  Fortunately I was able to do a quick lane change and head off the opposite way towards Sainsburys where I was able to get exactly what I wanted, reduced too.  I'm drinking my first mug of coffee from it at the moment and realise I need to up the amount of coffee I put in, as it's bigger than my old one and makes quite a lot more coffee.  I will learn!

That was yesterday's big adventure.  The other main event was that my parents went home and I now have the house to myself.  Yesterday evening was rather lonely really, but I slept very well and was able to keep my bedroom door open all night, something I like to do but can't really when there are visitors staying.

And today's big task will be Dealing With The Turkey.  The annual and enjoyable exercise in frugality, making the very most of every little bit of turkey that can be extracted from the carcass.  I will slice the remaining white meat, take off as much of the brown as I can and then the rest will simmer for hours and hours in my big pot until the remaining meat has fallen off and the bones and other inedible bits can be thrown away.  The stock will reduce down to a strong jelly and be frozen in small portions and the meat will be frozen in gravy for future use.  All this using up turns a pretty expensive purchase into much better value for money, apart from the fun of it all.

Better get started, I suppose.  Have a good day, one and all.

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