Friday

 Yet again it is Friday.  Last day of the working week - or it used to be, anyway. for me.  There's a heavy frost and there was some freezing fog although that seems to be clearing now.  I thought it was supposed to be getting warmer!

The resident garden spider forgot to turn the central heating on, didn't he?

Yes, I was stupid enough to go out just now, in slippers and dressing gown, to take some chilly photos!

Yesterday was packed with 'stuff'.  Mostly bits and bobs but I enjoyed the tuition and I then took Alex to a thingy at school.  Lots of stalls with employment and further study stuff.  Not many universities and the ones that were there were very local, but it gave Al the chance to ask questions and pick up information handouts.  On the way back I was treated to sausage and chips which were unexpected but delicious!  Oh, and I was told that at my age it was bad for me to try to lose weight.  Gee, thanks, Alex!

It seems that there was trouble at t'mill yesterday evening.  It's not funny actually: some people were going round breaking windows and setting fire to cars on this estate and the adjoining one.  The police were called, there was a helicopter tracking what was going on and, presumably, they sorted it all out.  There's not a lot one can do really - I can't put my car away as my garage is a dumping ground - er - I mean storage room and this is the case with most people round here.  Even when one car is garaged, there's often a second car out.  Very much a first world problem, isn't it?

I wonder what the motivation was.  It could be sheer hooliganism, but given how difficult life is getting for the poorer in society and how much more contrast there seems to be between the haves and the have-nots in our local society, I wouldn't be surprised if violence becomes more prevalent as inequality increases.  It's quite a worry really.  I don't consider that I am particularly a 'have' but I'm certainly not a 'have-not' either, not in world terms anyway, which, I suppose, is more significant!  When you're lucky enough to have a home, a car and various bits of technology as well as all the basics, that puts you head and shoulders above most of the rest of the world.

The bread making was OK.  The 80/20% loaf worked and to my uneducated palate tasted fine.   Of course, the gluten strands in the risen dough were much more obvious than in the 90/10% loaf (and were not really noticeable in the 100/0% loaf at all).  I also made a couple of wholemeal/granary loaves and took one over the road when I went a-tutoring there.  The other looks really weird.  I was careless and when I put it in the loaf tin, I put the seam side up instead of down.  Inside should be fine, outside looks most peculiar!

Looking at my diary, today I have nothing scheduled apart from the cleaners coming this afternoon.  That means I shall need to do a bit of tidying up but the mess is all very superficial and won't take too long.  I shall probably sleep for a while as I was in bed very late last night and woke at five.  Not enough sleep there, even for me.

I'm in the middle of making a small dolly-sized crocheted blanket for the little daughter of a friend.  I looked up how to crochet hearts (dead easy by the looks of it) and shall make some to applique on which should make it look very pretty.  So I shall finish that today, I hope, and get it wrapped up.

Today's food:
B:  toast and marmalade
L: soup, fruit
D:  As I didn't have what I planned yesterday, I shall have it tonight instead.  So that's pizza, salad and coleslaw followed by fruit yogurt