Sunday, 18-01-26

Good morning again, everyone.  How are you all?

So sorry about yesterday.  I was a bit rushed in the morning; it was my own fault for having a very lazy sort of start to the day and then I just got stuck into things.  Out of sight, out of mind, as the saying goes.

Going back to Friday - what a lovely day it was!  I went to Slimming World and weighed in at half a pound off.  Not much but, given the sort of week it had been, I was relieved.  There was a great buzz with returning members including target members who wanted to pick up their new book and there's several people who were mums of children I taught in year one.  It's so nice to catch up with them - how their children are doing and so on.  That's one of the nicest things about living close to the school - you see lots of familiar faces and old friends.

I got the bus into town and met Alex outside the Giggling Squid.  We had a very delicious lunch.  We started with prawn crackers and a dip, moved on to some crunchy chilli chickpeas (so good - I want the recipe!) and then a Bangkok bites sharing platter plus some wonderful chunks of belly pork done in a very sticky sauce.  All this was sharing platter stuff as you can from the photo of the Bangkok bites, taken from their site.

I finished off with some lychee yogurt ice cream which was amazing!

Here's the link to their site:
https://www.gigglingsquid.com/restaurant/chelmsford/

And to some info from the founders/owners:
https://www.gigglingsquid.com/news/20-questions-with-cofounders/

. . . just in case you are interested.  Well worth a visit if you have one near you.  

Thanks, Alex, for a lovely time out with you.

When I got home, I just chilled and got on with my crochet.  The maple leaf blanket is coming along nicely; I've nearly finished sixteen squares and have four more to go.

Yesterday (Saturday), I had a slow start before driving down to Tower Gardens to meet the others for our walk.  We had two 'new' people, S and P, who were two of my parents quite a while ago now and when we stopped for coffee, up rolled J, their 'child' with his wife and children to say hello.  Wasn't that lovely?  
The sun was shining and it was the perfect way to start off the new year's walks.

Later on I finished my shopping list and popped over to Sainsbury's where, you were right, Viv, they had loads of different kinds of flours so now I know.  I also found the maple syrup I like best that Morrisons hasn't had in for weeks.

And that was yesterday!

If Friday was my personal reset day and yesterday was a chill out day, today is house reset day.  I need to get all that stuff away in the corner cupboard again and one of my walking friends told me of a local charity shop where you don't have to make an appointment to donate things so I can take all the stuff I have sorted out tomorrow, maybe.
It is a Kay-day on Tuesday but I have a friend over tomorrow for lunch so I must do a quick dust and sweep over the bottom half of the house too.

I need to draw up a rough plan of the week's meals.  Usually I do that before shopping but I'm very much using what I already have so it wasn't necessary.

And, finally, I have a double batch of sourdough that has slowly risen overnight and looks very healthy so I need to finish that off today, one for Lindsey and one for her friend who might be interested in me making her a loaf once a week too.

I'm rather looking forward to getting everything sorted and in order again.  I know where everything is going now, it just needs to be done and dusted, so to speak.  It should be a very satisfying day!

All the best, everyone.  Have a great day, packed with good stuff.  Take care, stay warm and see you tomorrow.  xx