What I Did on my day off.

A day off with a good friend. lots of time in Liberty, looking feeling, tasting, trying, looking, listening, laughing, sharing, buying, enjoying, ahh bliss. 

Sunday afternoon.

This afternoon we went to Lechlade for a mooch about the shops, weather was poor so no Lechlade photo's as the would not do it justice.

We managed to find some books for the collection.

The where to eat in Wiltshire is from 1979.  It gives an amazing insight into the eating habits of the time.

The Hungry man, Sailsbury. Average prices, Lunch 80p, dinner £1.50-£4.65 including vegetables and after dinner coffee. " The menu includes good English food including, venison and duck a l'orange"!

Puppets Restaurant Marlborough, (now the pagoda) £7 all inclusive. House wine £4 a bottle. Food is served Creole style and the house speciality is spare ribs and lamb cutlet louise.

The old bell hotel Warminster, Specialities include, Wiltshire Duck and Apple sauce.

The Crown and Anchor, Ham near Marlborough, Average Prices £1.25- £1.85  wines 35p per glass. "An excellent variety of food   is served, from the traditional ploughmans to trout and chips in the basket".

It is very interesting, especially seeing how many of the places have gone. 200-300 year old coaching inn's that have now been converted to houses and flats.

"Before Baby Comes"
was prices at 1/6 and is credited on the cover as being written "by a Physician" on the cover and inside as being by "A Woman Doctor" was published by Glaxo... yes Glaxo the baby milk manufacturer, hmm i wonder if they mention it, oh yes they do! Now GlaxoSunshine milk has added vitamin D and they encourage expenctant mother's to drink it as well as nursing mother's and as a supliment to baby's of they are not getting enough milk and when a mother cannot produce milk it can be used on its own.

Expectant mother's should have 2 pints of milk a day. 1 as a drink and 1 in sauces and puddings. They recommend Sunshine Glaxo milk. It warns that no baby can be perfectly developed unless its mother drinks milk.  It is a fascinating book.

I picked up a 2nd button tin.

it is a very pretty Huntly and Palmer's biscuit tin. perfect for buttons.

We also picked up 2 unexpected things. the first was.........

yes a unicycle. a surprise pressie for youngest daughter.

the 2nd, was being overcharged. we had bought the books, the unicycle, the tin and some little things for the spare room. we were given a price and then he said another price £10 higher. I handed over the cash. but then re added it up and it was the original price less the £10. I hate to say it, I think it was not an accident and he was trying it on. luckily there were some other stall holders there who helped re count. i will not be going back to that place again.

Apart from that it was a good day and a good weekend. A perfect antidote to a busy week.

hope you all had a good weekend.
 

The Empress's new clothes.

When is the appropriate time to tell your partner that their swimming costume has become see-through? Yesterday this was exactly the position I found myself in. LSP and I went swimming and we had not been for over a week as we have been very busy. Now, I had forgotten to take my costume out of the bag and so i was faced with a very wet and cold swimming costume to put on. LSP remarked about how the elastic on her swimming costume was starting to go.

Neither of us had any idea that the lack of elastic would result in the costume becoming invisible. now it did not happen straight away when she put it on as I would have noticed. It was however the action of swimming that relaxed the costume and made it see-through.

Had we have just been in and out of the pool, then that would have been ok. but we went for a jacuzzi, It was as we were walking in to the jacuzzi that I realised what had happened. The jacuzzi is on the opposite side of the room to the changing room. The sensible thing would have been to not mention it until we got back to the changing room. I am not always sensible and It just came out, I had said the words before the internal brake could go on. "Your Swimming costume is invisible".

"what do you mean invisible?"

"I can see through it"

"what can you see?!"

I then explained what I could see..... (luckily the most essential parts remained covered)

"Why did you tell me?" " I have to walk back to the changing room"

"I could not help it"

Now LSP is quite a modest person, she dress's modestly and does not show her body off. I however am much more brazen so if it had happened to me it would not have been as funny. Yes I did find it quite amusing.

Once our time in the Jacuzzi had finished and the bubbles had ran out. LSP walked bravely to the changing room. Head held high like she did not know. Just like and Empress. x

Coco pops and Pear Cider.

Yesterday was a long hard day however, it was not all bad, It began when we gave a good friend of ours her birthday present. Her present, coco pops and pear cider,


Why? (you may ask as it is a very odd Birthday present)  a few years ago we were having a discussion on facebook about what we were having for dinner. we had responses of  lasagne, stew, etc. until my friend posted coco pops and pear cider! What then followed was suggestions such as " we have milk on ours"....Shortly afterwards it was her birthday so that commenced her birthday ritual of a nicely presented box of coco pops and bottle of Magners! 




Yesterday was horrendously busy. I had made a lovely greek salad and angel delight for my lunch, I popped it in the fridge at work. It is still there! my lunch was a packet of mini chedders and an oat biscuit. I did however have some good laughs to get me through the day. Whilst on the bus I was able to check my facebook on my phone. 


2 stories to share. 


1 LSP at 09:15

Perfect tossed salad Tip 3 drop lunch pot on level 4 of staff car park

How to look cool Tip 67 Do not chase lunch pot rolling down the ramps as colleagues arrive at work

Oh yes I laughed, LSP has the same pot as I do, so is lovely and circular. 

2: SIL at 09.45 am. 

Smart things to do when you really, really have to pee after coming in from a very muddy dog walk. 

1. call the elevator - whilst waiting, remove jacket and untie laces on walking boots
2. remove dog lead and sunglasses, prepare keys
3. check that very long, trailing boot laces do NOT get hopelessly stuck underneath the inner lift doors, causing them to jam, but close enough to being fully closed that they activate the outer door lock
4. use fingers and keys to pry said jammed lift doors open, and pray that the outer door will unlock
5. bounce on the floor repeatedly to avoid peeing oneself

I love my family and friends and that they are willing to share on facebook. It really helped me get through the day. 

I got home and we then had to go to visit a friend who is in hospital as they have had surgery. 

We arrived with a can of coke, (its what she wanted) and then made her laugh for the next 45 minutes. I know she had just had surgery and was sore but could not help it ! laughter is not always the best medicine when you have stitches.  

Today, has so far been the perfect antidote to last week, we have been shopping (the good kind as well as food shopping) we have just had lunch and I am going to sit with a cake and read country living, whilst getting ready to go and have a swim, sauna, Jacuzzi and massage...ahhh. then its seafood linguine for dinner.

lovely day (and there is sunshine) .....

 

Hand shake

I have carpel tunnel syndrome.

For those of you who don't know, It is pressure on the median nerve. Which is the nerve in the wrist that supplies feeling and movement to parts of the hand.

I get numbness, weakness and tingling to the finger's It can also give me pain in the hand and a locking of the fingers. At worst I wake up in the middle of the night with a pain like someone has been stood on my hand.

However, moaning aside, life could be a lot worse and it is a minor irritation in my life. It vary's to its intensity and at the moment it is just frustrating. Now when my fingers get numb and tingle, there is a way of giving me temporary relief.

Shaking my hand. now when I say shaking I mean waggling my hand up and down furiously to relieve the pressure. I do it often, at work, in meetings, on the bus. It does not matter what meeting, if my hand needs to be relieved then it has to happen.

Now today I was in a meeting and writing stuff down. (the more I write the quicker it seizes) So had to do some hand waving. I had omitted to inform the other people at the meeting as to what I was doing and why. I was just focused upon my meeting. After about 15 minutes I realised that someone opposite to me was starting to look at me oddly. As the meeting went on, I realised why. It was my hand shake. I then had to explain, everyone laughed and then joined in, we all sat and waved, it was hilarious. We wondered if it would start a trend.

Aside from the hand shaking it has been a pretty uneventful day. No getting lost,and I managed to avoid the ball bearing sized hailstones. Its Friday tomorrow and I cant wait for the weekend.

Barefoot and Confused in West Swindon with a fruit box.

Today I got lost.

it does not happen often but when it does it really unsettles me.

I had to go to Swindon today, to be precise West Swindon. now this is just a typical 1980's expansion to a town. lots of swirly cul-de-sacs. (just think brookside). I walked back to the bus stop.

Problem, the bus stopped running at 6.30 and this was 6.45.

OK I will just walk to the next bus route.

I walk along the cycle track. (its all going well at this point) Until I come across a puddle. not just a little puddle, this puddle was the size of my sitting room. I have no idea of the depth. It looked deep. The puddle filled the subway.  Now I know if I had rolled up my jeans and took off my shoes and walked barefoot through the puddle I would have been fine. Now I could not face it.
1, not knowing what was in the water and
 2, not wanting to walk the 1/2 mile with very wet feet.

So I ventured off the path and that's where the problem developed, I did not have a clue where I was. After some up and downing. down and up , this way, that way. forward and back way. It took me about 3 times as long to get where I was supposed to be. But get there I did, in the end.

Now, fruit box? Once I was safely on the bus I was updating my facebook with my tales of getting lost, when LSP asked if I wanted her to order a fruit box for the weekend! (no not random at all)

(oh yes It was not until I got home that I could have used my smart phone maps to help me find my way)

I have a day off next week and I am planning a day out with a friend. should be fab,

 (cant tell you as it will spoil the surprise and she reads this)

getting up too early on a Sunday Morning.

 I like getting up early on a Sunday morning. I have a little routine, LSP has a lie in. I potter round the house its nice. However, when my dogs wake me up at 05.30am on a Sunday, I was hardly springing out of bed.    

 The early morning light was beautiful. 

The spring plants are looking pretty.

As it was early, I baked some bread as we were having someone for lunch. 

I made pastry for the quiche, I do not wrap in cling film, I use my baking sheets to put in the fridge

I then roll it out on the baking sheet, It holds it really well for transfer into the tin.

Its a Pate Brisee (all butter shortcrust) 

The morning was glorious, so quiet and calm,

Perfect for hanging out the washing. 

Now this was a lovely morning. I was pottering to the extreme. it was bliss, I had radio 4 on all morning, 

cleaning, cooking, meditating, reading, baking. lovely. 

Then LSP came downstairs. 

I was listening to the Sunday Service and it was a very good one.  within 2 minutes of appearing in the kitchen, the dogs are dancing round the kitchen one of them with a bag on her head and they are both barking LSP is being helpful and ended up putting a bag down on the rolls that were proving. (it was chaos).  

A different vintage tablecloth today. 

I love the way it looks on the table and in the room.

I made a simple lunch of quiche and salad. 

quiche was onion, mushroom and spinach with parmasan. 

Home made bread rolls.

With Salad and new potato's. was yummy. 

I am now shattered. 

hope you all had a fab weekend.