Aldi is Calling

I shop mainly at Tesco.  I shop at Tesco a lot.  I got a Christmas card from Tesco.  I find their customer service lovely, their products more than adequate and their prices competitive.  Also, they deliver and for £6 per month they deliver frequently.

Today we called in to Aldi as they sell the diet cola I like, plus the small chocolate bars that seem to just suit all of us.  I noticed that a lot of my staples were a lot less expensive than Tesco.  I am sure that I could save a considerable amount there if I stuck to a list, bought only what I needed and did a monthly Tesco shop for the stuff that Aldi didn't carry.

There is no way I could stick to a list.  I would be good as I went round the bread, the sweeties, the canned goods and the fruit and veg.  A few extra bits might end up in my trolley, but not much.  It's the Aisle of Doom, also known as 'This Week's Special Buys'.  There is such temptation!  It's where I got bear's dressing gown (which he still wears at all opportunities) and some great pyjamas for DH and today I forced myself to put back some aran weight yarn that was being sold at under £3 for a 400g ball!  It is far too tempting.  When I shop online I can at least look at the total and remove the stuff that is a want and not a need.

So it looks like I may need to ration my trips to Aldi and stick to Tesco who are, after all, pretty good.  I especially need to stay off the special buys that can be ordered online.  I quite fancy this fabric for curtains in my room.  It's a single duvet cover, and checking the measurements it would give me four metres of 135cm wide fabric for £5.49.  I would need two duvet covers to make the curtains, but that is still a bargain.  Fortunately it's almost sold out and I should be able to resist temptation for a little while.

Image from Aldi, here is the link, you have been warned

Ringing in My Ears

Our phone has stopped working.  Actually, it was getting overworked.  It was ringing non stop but if you tried to answer it then all you heard was a strange clicking.

Of course it started when DH was out and it was impossible for me to unplug the dratted thing as the cables behind the cupboard where the telephone lives are a nightmare rats' nest.  DH sorted them all out for me but somehow they are intertwined and knotted and I didn't have a clue.  Bear and I sat in the other room with the door firmly shut with the telephone ringing non stop until DH came home and managed to unplug it (and the router which I had managed to dislodge when I attempted to sort the phone).  We locked it in his car overnight just in case.

And adding to the wrapping paper and toy packaging is the packaging for the wardrobe that has been delivered today by two lovely men who kindly took it upstairs for me.  I was so grateful.  I shall let DH build it.

I Need to Get More Sleep

I've been sleeping badly for the last week for one reason or another.  It's affecting my judgement.  The stuff on its way from my friend eBay isn't too bad, though a little eclectic, but I actually caved and bought the Little Book of Hygge which I totally do not need.

I have been considering the concept of cushion covers as well.  If I get my sewing machine set up and I am very brave it will take me no time at all to make really basic envelope cushion covers that even I should manage.  We really need new covers.  What with one thing and another, the cushions look like they are ready for compost.

Unfortunately I've seen some fabric I like on eBay.  I have no right looking, I have all sorts of bits stashed, but I saw this.

I can't vouch for the seller as I've never used them, but the link is here for this and other lovely looking fabrics

Normally I avoid patterns like the plague and it won't go with anything in the room but it sort of called to me.  I'm not sure it's even the right weight.  Besides, it isn't repurposed duvet covers or curtains or remnants.  I must be losing my mind.

|It's briskly cold here.  Bear has, of course, been out playing football, but I have not got much further than beyond the kitchen door to take out rubbish.  Last night I swear I saw the frost falling, and this morning the cobwebs looked encrusted

and there were icicles hanging off the central heating vent

and we never usually get icicles.

I hope it warms up by the time the school run starts.

Just Chillin...

It has been a wonderfully unremarkable day.  We have watched more Flash episodes than I care to count as bear has got hooked on the show.  I'm okay with that as it isn't too bad as far as tv for young lads goes, but I gave myself eye strain before Christmas and the craft light I use in the living room isn't working (bulb) so I can't catch up with my knitting while bear is mentally being Flash.  His version of Flash going up our stairs is remarkable.  We have fourteen stairs (I think) but when bear channels the Flash going up them it sounds like we have 52.

I'm still feeling flattened but I only have another day of antibiotics to go.  I need to get a few nights of decent sleep and prepare for my New Year's Resolutions.  I have written so many times on this blog that I am going to do something and have never managed it, so I am going to concentrate on what I have done instead.  I did decide, however, that if I'm going to get anywhere with my resolutions then I needed to prepare.

Something I have actually done is wrap bear's birthday presents.  There were some action toys (some of them new this year as I got a great deal), some books, a box of sweeties and this...

... which ended up like this...

... and is probably the reason that I ran out of sticky tape and had to use some of bear's stash.  Bear asked for it very nicely, it wasn't too expensive to start with and was on sale, and I think he will enjoy it being part of his plush pile very much.  After wrapping it, however, I am seriously considering giving him a gift card for his birthday next year.

Not Many Leftovers

Because we had steak we had no cold turkey but we did have a little stuffing left over that we managed to find room for on Christmas night.  This meant today was bacon butties for lunch, another round of pigs in blankets and stuffing cooked fresh for dinner with ordinary roast potatoes and sprouts and generally less stress than you would think.

We do have a large quantity of goodies left over, but I'm expecting bear's pals to turn up tomorrow so I'm sure that will go down.

I have a lot less wrapping paper.  August 2015, when I had to make a hole for the piano, I found I had @ fifty full or partial rolls of wrapping paper.  I used four for bear's Christmas presents this year alone and I haven't wrapped his birthday presents yet.  He's got another large stack of books, a computer game, and a few other little goodies.  I can't see it taking less than two rolls.  I won't be getting any wrapping paper in the sales this year or next year, but possibly I may have to have a look on Boxing Day 2018.  The wrapping paper is all fairly plain to do Christmas/wedding/birthday etc so it does get used during the year.

I do still have over five hundred Christmas cards (I accidentally bought a vast quantity on eBay a few years ago) but even they are reducing and next year I plan to make sure that they are matched up with envelopes and donate the majority to the Church Christmas Fair.  It's a start.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Wishing a Happy Christmas to all you kind people reading this blog and hoping you have a wonderful break and an epically awesome New Year.

Bear has more toys than he knows what to do with and I feel so stuffed that I don't think I'll ever be able to move again.

I hope you all have had a wonderful break x

Memories of Turkey Dinners

We are having steak this year.  It's a huge treat, DH doesn't like turkey, bear isn't bothered by turkey but loves the idea of steak and I don't really have the respect for turkey for Christmas dinner that I should.

My parents divorced when I was young, and it was unheard of in the small(ish) town I grew up in in the 1970s and early 1980s.  I was the only one in the school who had divorced parents.  It wasn't very amicable either.  However they made an effort at Christmas.  Father used to come to our house for Christmas dinner.  His Christmas bonus was vouchers for the local supermarket which he gave to mother to buy our Christmas dinner - except the turkey.

Father's cousins raised turkeys.  I can almost hear the conversation, 'We can't give our kid a small turkey.  We've got to give him something decent.  Put that one back, we'll give him something that's worth eating.'  Every year my mother would ask for a smaller turkey.  Every year we got a giant mutant.  The biggest one was 23lb or around ten and a half kilos.  Turkey should cook for 20 minutes a pound and twenty minutes over, or, in this case, eight hours.  Mother was supposed to put the turkey in at 5am.  It wouldn't fit in her small electric oven, she had to take all the shelves out, grease the sides and line the floor of the oven with foil.

Father always promised he would get to our house at a decent time.  He always ended up staying for after hours drinking at the club.  He always rolled in far too late and mother would be unimpressed waiting up for him as she had to be up at daft o'clock to wrestle with the turkey.

So when we came downstairs we would find father feeling fragile and mother feeling stressed and tired.  Every year mother would complain bitterly about the (free) turkey.   We didn't have a freezer and so vast amounts of turkey went to waste as mother wouldn't keep it more than three days.  In those three days we ate TURKEY.  My mother made the most amazing turkey scouse on the third day.  I've never managed to get it right.  Scouse is supposed to be a Liverpool dish, and it's really a poor man's dish - whatever meat is available plus whatever veggies or 'pot herbs' you could scrape together.  To my mind, the quality of the scouse depends on the potatoes.  They should be lovely and floury and disintegrating.  Mother's turkey scouse was my favourite dish of the year.  I've never managed to copy it.

So I'm happy to eat turkey at all sorts of times, but I prefer not to have it at Christmas.  I'm also not looking forward to the sprouts but as bear and DH adore them I shall have a token sprout on my plate and shovel the rest onto theirs.

AND I'm really looking forward to Christmas.  It doesn't matter what's on the plate.  It's the love that's sitting round the table.  I can remember the arguments and the grumbles, but I can also remember two people doing their frail best to get things right for their kids.  That's more important than turkey.