Recovering

Eileen - thank you!

Cherie - thank you! The time crunch was seriously getting to me, and Halifax town centre can be scary. I was glad to get home. 

Hazel - thank you!

Lovely Unknown - thank you! And thank you for the kind words for me and DH. I give bear pretty much all the credit, though.

Bless - thank you! It was the time that bothered me the most, though I wasn't keen on going 50mph on unfamiliar roads with some serious bends. I was glad to get home.

Sharon - thank you!

Wherethejourneytakesme - thank you! One day we will meet! Pudsey is horrible to get around if you don't know it. I lived there for a very short while a long time ago, and it is full of small corners and funny nooks with it all spread out on side roads. It's not a bad place to live with some lovely people, but it's not a straightforward place to drive around.

Ruth - thank you! I was using Google maps on my phone and accidentally turned the volume down. I was unimpressed at my lack of skill with tech! I got bear to reset it (again)

I think I've spent today recovering. I had a shocking night, which meant that when I remembered that bear's sports kit was still in the washer at 4am, I was awake! I tiptoed down and hung it up because it's not supposed to be tumble dried. I don't want to have to replace shrunken kit at this stage - his last games lesson is likely to be in April or May!

A car a few doors down got broken into last night. We had the police around this morning asking to check our CCTV. It's just as well it's there as we fail completely at noticing what is going on in the street. I'm glad it wasn't our car. 

And speaking of cars, I swear mine has a personality. She doesn't like the cold, she doesn't like first gear and she grumbles on short runs. She is running a lot better after yesterday as I ended up on some faster roads a few times and we covered a few miles and it seems to suit her. She's still got something of a rumble going on, though, since the cold snap in December. I'll keep an eye out on her. 

I am planning a quiet and early night.

Hugs and good health to all. 

He Got the Offer!

Thank you all for the good wishes. I'm absolutely confident that they helped! Bear has got his conditional offer. All bear has to do now is get 7s in the relevant exams, and he got 9s in his mock exams, so hopefully he'll be there. 

My day has been as follows. I dropped bear off, went to visit my lovely friend in the Penines, left to pick up bear in plenty of time and took a wrong turn. My satnav was inaudible and I got epically and heroically lost. I went around Halifax town centre at least three times, was in the wrong lane or wrong gear unnervingly often and ended up on scary dual carriageways at 50mph. I also found myself on all sorts of narrow roads, residential streets and at least one commercial estate. I screeched into the car park where bear was waiting five minutes late and then rattled home as fast as was safe as tonight bear has extra classes for maths. The college is putting them on for free for anyone interested. Bear is, of course, interested, and we got home in time by the skin of our teeth. 

My leg still hurts but it could be worse.

I am now going to collapse in a corner and recover. Also - celebrate because bear did it!

Thank you for all the good wishes.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Still No News

Eileen - thank you! I came to terms with not having a clue about it a long time ago.

Sharon - thank you. It's great to see growing things. 

My leg continues to ache and I feel run down. I don't think it's anything except that it's February. I'm also on pins as we still haven't heard from the fancy college. 

I think tonight is definitely a knit-and-early-night night.

Hugs and good health to all.

Grumbling

Sharon - thank you! I always turn to a good book as well, and chocolate.

Bless - I'm crunching the numbers for that shop to the best of my ability 

Eileen - thank you! We are all keeping everything crossed. Bear is checking his emails every five minutes, just in case.

It's been a funny sort of day. I found this

Apparently bear knows what it means.

And there are some lovely fresh leaves on the rose as well, which I have failed at photographing.

And I'm cracking on with editing and writing - which was disturbed by workman who had come to paint the street sign. You see, the name of our road is on a street sign placed half way up our house. It has been barely legible through rust and muck since we came here in 1994. Today they removed the rust and painted it white, and they're going to come back and paint the lettering black. I have no problem with that, but I was a little surprised when they turned up as no-one had thought to let us know. 

I think I have a touch of sciatica as my leg is in so much pain. I can't sit or stand comfortably for love nor money. I think that I will take a couple of painkillers and turn in for the night.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Same Old Same Old

Bless - Thank you! meal planning here has to be the basic scaffolding at best because everything changes! I like a nice curry with rice, and while I use jar sauces, I always add extras like more onions or veggies.

Sharon - half of the car theory test answers seemed to involve 'slow down and give space' and I don't think that's a bad start. Bear loves his maths and loves solving the numbers. The other day he was watching maths videos to cheer himself up. I'm bewildered, confused and proud in equal portions.

Eileen - bear won't eat ready meals. I've thought about keeping pizza in the freezer, but he will only eat pizza at school or my brother's house. Some of it is him being contrary, but it's not a battle that I'm ready to fight. The issues he had in the past were very real, so he's getting away with a lot. 

I've just remembered that I've left some frozen stuff on top of the freezer from sorting stuff out this morning. Darn it! I mean, it was a handful of frozen fries and a half bag of carrots that hasn't been touched in six months, and I was planning to throw them in the bin, but I guess they will be a soggy mess now. 

I'm not sure what I've been doing over the last few days. I feel all over the place. I have photo evidence that I changed my phone case.

And bear assembled the new fire for me. It's incredibly warm, even on the lowest setting, and I'm glad that I got it from a charity via eBay. I just wish it had got here sooner.

I've done quite a bit of writing, which probably isn't helping my mental state, and I took part in a podcast about horror movies and The Ninth Gate but I don't know when that will be out. 

Bear got an offer from his third choice college on Friday, only a couple of days after the interview. That was incredibly flattering. This is a more mainstream sixth form college, though, so his predicted grades are quite high for it. He's got a good chance at the school sixth form, and we are all waiting on pins for the maths college. And then he's got to actually get the grades themselves.

I think that I'll do one more 10% off shop with the Tesco Extra Clubcard and then cancel it. I'll still keep the clubcard part, but not the 10% off and the discounts on Tesco higher end own brand. I think I will be better suited shopping most days for what we need and in different shops. But if I'm going to do that last 10% shop then I should go out in a blaze of glory - it's going to be epic. I'll probably need bear to help me. I think that I'll spend the next day or two making a long list. Half term is coming up as well so I can stock up on some goodies for that. I won't get any candles. I think DH would cry if I did! I'm thinking about my storage space, and about getting stuff like tins and jars that will last. Mind you, I don't want to buy for the sake of it.

And when did Heinz tomato soup get to £1.70 for a can? I nearly fell over when I saw that. I picked up a tin of Tesco's tomato soup for 60p instead. I used to get the Heinz soup in bulk before the plague. I'd wait until the price hit 50p a can and commit. 

Writing stuff - I've been on Canva again

I've got a new series planned, with the next installment already scheduled for next week, and you can find the first part here. I think that it will be a lot of fun. It's set relatively locally, so I should revisit the area this weekend. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Shopping Fail

Helen - thank you for checking in. You are always welcome. 

Bless - your blog is full of interest and life. I think some people just sit around but others fill up their time and pay attention to the world.

Sharon - thank you! The homework pile has gone down but there is still loads outstanding. He's looking a little shell shocked, to be honest, but he has another week and then it's half term so he can hopefully catch his breath.

Hazel - thank you! I always feel that I'm here talking to friends. It's like a safe space to chat about things that are important to me. Thank you for coming here.

Eileen - the homework is definitely checked. Some of it last year was just fluff and make work. However today bear told me that there are only sixteen weeks until his first exam and the school are pushing it hard. I have access to a site that shows what homework bear has been allocated and whether it is pending, submitted or overdue. There are ten pieces outstanding at the moment, including a lot of tests and essays. 

Coincidentally, today I did two loads of laundry.

I had a shocking night last night, so I was not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer when I called in for some cola at Aldi. My editing is currently running on cola and Aldi's is gluten free where Tesco's own brand isn't. The car park had an unexpected obstacle. 

These shots are completely undoctored. I wouldn't know where to start with a camera phone. Someone had too much time on their hands and carefully lined up the trolleys across Aldi's car park. 

I was trying to think about dinner. I ended up going into Aldi, where I didn't get anything for dinner, Tesco, where I picked up fresh chicken, cooking bacon and potatoes, and Marks and Spencer, where I could have saved more money. 

Bear doesn't always want dinner with us, and if he did eat with us he won't touch quorn mince or the microwave rice that I would use for a quick meal for DH and I. He likes the chickenless vegan dippers with beans, but I'm trying to shake up his variety. But he could have that. DH had talked about having more soup so I picked up the cooking bacon in Tesco but realised that I needed carrot and celery as I left the car park and that I needed bread rolls for DH if I was going to make soup, so I ended up in Marks and Spencer for the veggies and rolls. Bear won't eat soup. He also won't have cheese or eggs but he likes a quick meal when he gets home. I am finding it a challenge. 

Bear took part in an online maths class today. It's aimed at those doing well at GCSE and bear loved it, It finished at 5.30 so I had time to do a nice chicken curry with rice from a rice cooker. DH has had toast with the rolls. I'm planning the soup for me for Friday lunch, Saturday dinner and Sunday lunch. Tomorrow's dinner for me and DH is chili but with quorn mince and microwave rice while bear has his usual Friday treat of raiding Tesco's meal deal. I have to have a quick meal tomorrow as we are hopefully calling in on DH's auntie after school so I want to be able to feed DH as soon after I get home as I can. And this is why I cook so much beige stuff.

And then I got stuck behind someone doing 25mph in a 50mph zone. I kept a respectful distance. If someone is going that slow in a relatively fast zone it means that either they are feeling unwell, or they are feeling 'unwell' and don't want to be stopped and breathalysed, or that they have a body in the boot. (I'm a writer, and I imagine things).

Hugs and good health to all. 

Still Dark and Stormy

Bless - thank you. I always feel hugged reading your blog.

Hazel - Our freezer is upright with drawers, but there is still lots of corners and stuff that migrates to the back. I think I need to have a further rummage and I'll have a pile of veggies tomorrow with any single sausages or grills that I find. It's too good a deal to waste, even for things like peas!

The Awesome Unknown - thank you! Everything that I write here is true. Sometimes I fudge a detail for privacy, and I definitely avoid posting about some sides of bear's life, but at least I feel honest. As for the quotation marks, I'm armpit deep in editing Digging up the Past and I am ashamed. I feel like I am translating parts of that into English. I never criticise spelling or punctuation because I know that the second that I try that, all my errors will show up!

Eileen - thank you. And I am all about the bargains. And I find your blog inspirational in all sorts of quiet ways. Thank you for sharing.

Weather continues just as stormy. I was glad that I didn't have to do an early school run. The strike must have caused chaos and quite a lot of hardship in some places, but bear was glad of it. He could chip away at the mountain of homework that he's facing.

I was thinking about the 'boring' comment. Sometimes I feel like the blog is a diary that anyone can read. There are dull times when it's very much a case of, 'Did two lots of washing today, weather continues fine'. Then there are scary times, like a few years ago when I had two separate cancer checkups in the same week, one for skin cancer and one for breast cancer. I think aloud here, show my pride in bear (who is getting taller and skinnier by the day, I swear!) and share my triumphs and disasters. One disaster today was leaving a carton of perfectly good icecream on top of the freezer as I was sorting things and it wasn't found until it had melted and had to be thrown. 

I think that it is important to be honest (within reason). I'll share the fails as well as the wins, because I think that helps those who have had a fail day feel less alone. And the blog has helped me a lot. I've identified a lot of patterns in my life which I am intermittently working on. But also there have been times when coming on here and posting whatever nonsense is going on in my life has kept me from shrinking into a dark corner and freezing up. The wonderful people I have met through here, and the amazing encouragement and support, are something I seriously treasure. 

Onto something more pragmatic - I did a 10% off shop today. I get two per month with the Tesco Extra clubcard but I think that it's more trouble than it's worth. I saved around £12 but some of that was frozen chicken on the 5 for 4 deal. I think it is designed to encourage people to buy a little more than they need to 'get their money's worth' but I want to run our stocks down. At the moment, it would suit me more to pop into which ever shop suits me best on a daily basis. I'll start stocking up again in the autumn and for Christmas, but I can re-subscribe to the Clubcard Extra then for a few months and then cancel. Besides, I always forget something. Tomorrow I need to pick up potatoes. 

And I forgot to take a pic, so I've dug this out.

Image from Unsplash, taken by Manki Kim and showing a cat's respect for its human

Hugs and good health to all.