Monday, 31-08-26 - Chr*stm*s, maybe TMI!!

Morning, everyone.  So we have arrived at the last day of August.  In some ways it's not been the best month for me, health-wise and we've had some tricky weather to handle, haven't we?  But it seems to be finishing off much cooler and this morning looks like being a beautiful late summer day with some sunshine and nice and warm but not hot.  This afternoon we might get a bit more of that much needed rain - but we will see.

Yesterday was good.  I had a lovely time at Beth's where we had a good long chat about Christmas arrangements.  We've set the date for Christmas Tree Day and checked other dates.  This year, I will be away over actual Christmas but we decided it would be nice if I did a feast on New Year's Eve instead.

We talked presents, food to make, etc so when I got home I dug out . . . 

. . . my Christmas book.
It's not a fancy-dancy one, it is just a lined notebook with a festive cover but for the last two or three years it has kept everything organised for me.

Christmas 2026 has officially started now!  

(sorry)

I also finished off the August finances and am pleased to have money left over.  I don't have a rigid budget, I don't give every penny a job to do but I do like to know where I am all the time so at the start of each month I start a new spreadsheet that has all the regular payments, subscriptions, savings and regular outgoings (like Oddbox, Wonky Pods, the cleaner, Sharon, etc) already taken off regardless of whether they go early or late in the month.
So the only time my bank balance and my spreadsheet match is now, after I've finished the accounts for the month and moved any leftover money to the new month or into savings.  It makes me happy when everything ties together like that.  Works for me anyway, being a bear of very little financial brain!

This month and with Christmas in mind, I've moved leftovers into September rather than savings and today I plan to start a bit of present buying, using that money.  I know it's not quite September but anything I get will go onto the September spreadsheet.

The other festive thing I want to do is get down all the bits and bobs I already have and start matching them to people or events.  That will be good to get sorted.

Enough of this and apologies - I just like to be organised before what tends to be a busy and chaotic time of year.

There's no circuits today, not because it's a bank holiday but because Lindsey is away.  Groove tomorrow will happen as usual.

So, as said above, I'm off to the Riverside precinct to have a good nosey round HomeSense - I love HomeSense, it's quirky - and Home Bargains.  They seem to be opening at the usual times so I will get there early because that precinct can be a parking nightmare later on.

For the rest of the day it's the usual stuff and I'm finding I'm still quite tired at times so if I need to rest I will.

Have a lovely bank holiday, everyone.  Doing anything exciting today?  Have a lovely day.  xx

Sunday, 30-08-26

Hello, everyone.  A very warm Sunday welcome to you!  Was it cold your way overnight?  It was here and right now I have a snuggle hood and warm fluffy socks on, the first time I have worn either in months.  I'm sure it will warm up soon and I'm fairly sure we will get more rain which is fantastic.  It was very wet yesterday, great for the garden and also good for the water shortage because not only are the reservoirs slowly filling but also people like me are not watering their precious garden produce.

Oh, my goodness, I am feeling so much better now!  No dizzy head, not uncomfortable insides, an unbroken night's sleep and the jam jar is no longer in the bathroom - that's a dead end now.    Small pleasures that add up to a lovely feeling of well-being.

It was nice to feel hungry too!

This is the loaf I baked yesterday.  It looks much bigger than it really is; just a small 400g-ish loaf but it did the trick!

I'm feeling confident that I can (and need to!!!) go back onto my wholemeal bread now so I'll probably take what is left over to Beth's - Alex likes my white bread!

And, finally, a meal with some colour (coming from sweet potato, carrot and tomato flesh) and some taste!  I did enjoy my dinner last night!

Sadly, I have needed to throw a number of things from the fridge away.  They'd been there for nearly a fortnight and either expired or I just wasn't happy to use them.  I hate doing that but needs must.

I've been picking tomatoes but not using them so there's  a pile to deal with.  Since the rain started, some are now splitting so they will need to be processed.

That takes me right back - when we were little, we lived in a village with a commercial nursery four or five doors along.  Loads of huge greenhouses and the dominant summer crop was tomatoes.  They had commercial outlets, of course, but for us in the village, we could pop along and ask for 'a bag of ripe ones, please, or 'splits' or 'greens' come the autumn when chutney season arrived.  Dad used to say it just wasn't worth growing many at the price they charged.  So, once a week (or more), one of us would be dispatched, coins in hand, for 'Mum says please may we have a bag of splits', knowing that Mum was planning our favourite lunch, bacon and tomatoes on toast, the bacon cooked to a crisp and the tomatoes chopped and cooked in the bacon fat.  Nothing ever tasted as good as B&T to us children!!

We also had an 'egg farm' five minutes walk away and we used to get 'a dozed crackeds, please' knowing Mum would be baking cakes when we got home.

Happy memories.

Another thing that's lovely is getting some energy back.  I sorted out the kitchen, did some housework, some washing, some ironing - stuff that has been sadly neglected.  

Today, I'm looking forward to my first coffee for  quite a while, I've sorted the kitchen after making some leek and potato soup and Beth's bread is in Thermione, quietly doing its thing.  I've just brought in the Oddbox and need to get that sorted.

Being nearly the end of the month, I can do the finance closure for August today.  I always like doing that and starting afresh.

I'm looking forward to a good day with plenty of opportunity to chill between other stuff!  Have a lovely day, everyone.  xx

Saturday, 29-08-26

Good morning, everyone.  Welcome!  Thank you very much for your patience while I've not posted and for your very kind messages.

You might feel this post is rather TMI - feel free to close it and come back tomorrow when, fingers crossed, things will be more normal.

So - things seem to be looking up again after twelve days, pretty much!  The silver lining is that I've lost six pounds in that time.  Now an ideal way to lose weight, is it, but I'll call it a sort of positive!  

For the last few days I have been full on the BRAT diet - Bananas, Rice, Apple sauce, Toast, all plain, nothing added.  Extremely boring, especially for someone who loved colour and variety but I didn't fancy much else anyway!  I bought some bananas and a few cans of plain apple slices, I had white rice and I made a wee loaf of white bread, thanking my lucky stars I can bake bread almost with my eyes closed.  :-).
Because of the way I normally eat, everything else I had in the cupboard was wholegrain, whole wheat, legumes, etc, etc.  Lovely most of the time but . . .

Annabeth (thank you, Annabeth) sent me a p m wondering if I had picked up salmonella on my travels.  I never thought of that but it might be so.  I looked it up and it can and take up to a week to show last for a fortnight or so - so perhaps.  I also learned that taking Imodium, once the cramps subside, isn't helpful as it prevents the bug from passing through more quickly.  Ooops.

I have no idea what might possibly have been the trigger but how can you tell?

Getting an appt with my GP is a nightmare.  Easier if you can do phones but not hard of hearing friendly and I didn't feel up to driving to the surgery to speak to a receptionist.  But then I remembered that right by the community centre, school and Morrisons is a walk in private health centre (used to be a GP surgery) and I decided I would use that and swallow the bill, so to speak.

I nearly walked in after Slimming World but then realised they would want a 'sample' to test so I sterilised a suitable jar, took it to the loo and waited, and waited and waited . . .
Yup, since then I've not had any kind of bowel movement whatsoever.   Isn't that just the way!

So, today I am sticking to BRAT and tomorrow I will start adding a few gentle extras - porridge in the morning, yogurt with my stewed apple and, being very brave (!), rice with chicken and a few vegetables and scrambled egg on toast.

And the jar remains on standby in the loo!!  Just in case!

There's three days with an empty diary now.  Plenty of time to get things back in order again, assuming I'm on the mend.  I gave the kitchen a good wipe down with anti bac stuff and will tackle the loo later (I have been cleaning it all through, promise).  There's washing and ironing and general housework but I have plenty of time so being sensible is the name of the game now.
Oh, I so hope things are on the up again now . . .

Thanks, everyone.  See you tomorrow!  xx

Thursday, 27-08-26

Morning, everyone.
Sorry, another no post day.  There's nothing to write about.  I think I will say I'll be back when everything has settled and my life picks up again.

See you soon and have a good day.  xx

Wednesday, 26-08-26

Morning, everyone.  So sorry about yesterday.  No real excuse, I did mean to post but didn't get round to is - busy early morning, etc.

Today the bug is fighting back so I'm taking things super easy again.  Bland food, not doing much at all.  It's quite humid at the moment but we've had some rain and I'm hoping for more.  I was going into town but I'm not now.
It's all rather boring but, thankfully, I do very little nowadays that can't be put off.

Have a lovely day.  I'll be back soon, full of the joys, so to speak.
See you.  xx

Monday

Morning, all.  Did you have a pleasant weekend?  It's lovely and cool again now although I gather it will get a bit warmer through the week.  Nothing like the previous bout of heat though, just mid to high 20s.

After a dubious start, I'm not sure the sourdough is going anywhere.  It did its first rise fine but the second rise - oh dear.  I ended up popping it in the fridge overnight; it's out again now so fingers crossed.  If it does work out, it should have a good sour flavour, the time it is taking.

I'm back to circuits today - I don't feel terribly enthusiastic about it but am pushing on through!  The nice thing about Lindsey is that she lets people work at whatever level they are at - one of the many nice things, I should add.

Then it's home and housework and I really need to plan some meals.  I'm not feeling eager to do that either - dear me, what a wimp!!  :-)

That's about it really - there's nothing else in the diary so I can get on with little things.  

Just remembered - I can drive to the Mill to stock up on flour again because I have a feeling I'm going to need to make Lindsey's bread again.
Note to self - don't use low gluten flour for my bread, not even just a little bit! 

Right, so I'd better go and feed Bubbles, just in case.  Take care, all and have a good Monday!  xx

Sunday, 23-08-26 and a trip to Southwold.

 Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Sunday.  Isn't it crazy how the year is just slipping away now?  It's sunny here but it was quite a chilly night and I nearly closed my bedroom window when I went to the loo at around two-ish.

Yesterday was absolutely lovely.  My tum behaved, thank goodness.  That was quite a worry as it did go a bit doolally Friday afternoon again, but it was fine.  Phew.

It wasn't 100% sunny at Southwold, there was quite a lot of cloud, but it was warm enough and when the sun came out it was very comfortable indeed.
We had a good journey there - no closed roads this time - and arrived about 9:40 ish.  I was able to access the little beach hut at ten (just before, in fact).

Outside . . . 

Inside.  Plain, simple, clean as a new pin and perfect as a base.

From the end of the pier (mine is third from the right).

And with a key even I couldn't possibly lose in my bag!

The brewery tour was, as I expected, excellent.  It was Saturday so there was no work in the actual buildings, but they were busy loading and unloading kegs.

Debbie explained the processes and then took us round the actual machinery.

Very modern-steampunk!  Very clean and shiny!

Then we went into a small bar where we had fun tasting.
I was careful - but I didn't want to opt out.  We tried eight different Adnams products - beer, ale and a lager (all very satisfying) before being given a voucher for the shop.

Last time I didn't buy anything because I would have to carry it round with me.  This time . . . I made the most of having a base.

I got a couple of cans, one of the lager which I really did like and one of Yuletide Festive Beer.  They're restyling their labels and, later on today, I'll take some photos - I do like the new labels.

As well as that, I bought a couple of wee bottles of cocktail - one lychee based and a negroni but they are no longer with us - and very nice they were too.

As well as that, I got a bottle of their Smidgin - their alcohol free gin which is quite the best alcohol free gin I have tasted.  It's also very Slimming World friendly.  I can't have any yet because it needs tonic, of course.

Then they had some beautiful tapas bowls and I fell . . .  :-)

I'll take photos later.

They sell online too - now that's very unfortunate!

After all that, I queued for absolutely ages and the Little Fish and Chip Shop for my lunch and then walked back to the hut.
It was a HUGE portion, absolutely delicious, and I brought more than half home and had it with the cocktails.

Taken earlier in the day - see, we did get some sunshine!

Finally, I walked along the beach, down the pier and had an ice cream (you have to, don't you) before packing up, dropping off the key and getting back on the coach!

Just a really lovely day by the sea.

I started today by picking loads of tomatoes.  I didn't pick any yesterday, of course.  So they need dealing with.

I've started Lindsey's sourdough.  This time it is a mainly white one (the starter is rye) because her son is home for a week and he really likes my white sourdough.

So I starting making the dough and found I didn't have enough strong white.  Never mind, loads of people use all purpose for their bread, so I added that.  Still not enough.  I had to top it up to 500g with some pasta flour!!  However, half way through the stretch and folds, it's making a lovely dough so fingers crossed.
And I feel a visit to Marriage's Mill coming on soon.

I'm hoping to pop round to Beth's this afternoon with her bread and some tomatoes.  That will be nice.
Around that, I have the house to tidy, meals to make, tomatoes to deal with and some chilling time.
And then I need to consider packing for Spain because this time in a fortnight, we will be on the plane.  

And my tum is fine, absolutely fine.  Phew!
Have a lovely Sunday, everyone