Happy Halloween

It's been pretty lowkey here. Bear had the maths entrance exam for Oxford today. He thought he did okay and is cautiously optimistic. DH and I are just so proud that he's in a place where he could even apply to sit that exam. 

I bought some new mugs last week after DH's favourite was unfortunately dropped and shattered. They look awesome, they're a nice size and they're easy to wash. I still may have made a mistake.

The inside of the mug is a matt black. The mug is mostly used for black coffee. Making sure that they're clean when washing up is a trial! But they are quite nice. I'm just going to give them a good scrub and hope for the best. Also, perhaps look for some other, less dramatic, mugs. 

Writing stuff - I wanted to write a huge and wonderful Kane story, but it got stuck. The characters weren't behaving and I decided that I didn't have time to sort them out so I republished Good Things which is one of my favourite stories. I'm going to continue battle with the Kane story and perhaps I can publish it on Christmas Eve, which is another traditional time for ghost stories.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Good News

I called into the garage as the steering in the car felt off. Bless them, they took the car for a test drive, put it up on the lift and didn't find anything, but they did sort out tyre pressure and took it for another test drive and it was a lot easier. And they didn't mind me knitting while I waited. 

I called into Aldi on the way back. I wanted to pick up some almond milk, and I successfully avoided the yarn. However I picked up some books.

DH has friends in the Netherlands who read English books to their little girl. This is a good fit for her, and they were lovely and inexpensive. 

Otherwise it's been pretty quiet here.

Writing stuff - last but one day of the Kane festival and a new story is here. It's so fun revisiting this character.  

Hugs and good health to all. 

Small Successes

I went to the Post Office. I'll be honest, I managed a few yards to the car, a few yards from the car to the Post Office and then I staggered back to the car. It was painful. But I did it. And there was a fun decoration at the entrance.

I had forgotten that we were so close to Halloween. But I managed to sell a couple of things on eBay. I didn't get much, but I got more than nothing, and I'll take that as a win.

I need to drag out the Halloween decorations, but most of it will have to wait until the weekend - after Halloween. Bear is armpit deep in revision for the various exams he has. To be honest, I'm losing track. All I can do is keep being there for him. I'm stocking his favourite snacks and keeping an eye on him, but he seems to be doing okay. 

We already have the fireworks for Bonfire Night. Father used to be the one that set off all the fireworks and supervised the explosions. He was meticulous. During his time in the army, he was in the Royal Engineers and stationed in Egypt in the 1950s. He was with those who were blowing up the arms dumps in the desert after WWII. He said that when he was training, they started by blowing up tree trunks and worked up. We were all happy to delegate the explosions to him. Now we like to celebrate Bonfire Night to remember him. Besides, this is likely the last Bonfire Night that we'll get with bear, so we may as well enjoy it.

When I was little, I remember my father trying to light sparklers on an electric stove top. It was a new cooker and he bent one of the heating elements as he tried to get the sparklers hot enough to light. My mother was unimpressed. 

Writing stuff - there's another new Kane story here. I'm having far too much fun.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Books

It's been another sitting down day. For some reason, my joints have been loudly protesting. Still, I've been editing what I hope will be the next book that I publish, so that's a step forward. 

I can only do so much editing before I lose focus, so I've been pottering around between sentences. I found dozens of books in my Kindle app that I really ought to get back to, and I need to plan for that. There's also quite a few physical books that I want to read and need to make time for. If I ever work out how to be motivated for that, I'll share!

I also had a rummage around for some recipes. I've been raiding the recipe section on Tesco's website but I felt like a change. I found Cheap Family Recipes and while I'm not sure how up to date it is for costs, it has some very intriguing recipes. I hope to test one tomorrow, but I'm not saying which one in case I curse myself. 

Bear had a great time last night. Then he came home and got on with more studying. It's half term, but he's not slacking off. I need to take a leaf from his book. 

As I was wandering around the images on Unsplash, I found this. 

Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust on Unsplash

There are some amazing pieces from Birmingham Museums Trust on there. I thoroughly enjoyed browsing, and as I had no other pics, I thought that I would share.

Writing stuff - it's another new story with Kane today, and you can find it here. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Thankfully No Pics

There was a dead rat in the garden, and it looked extremely secondhand. DH was wonderful and disposed of it for me. I didn't take a pic.

It's been that sort of day. I'm having something of a battle with the washing machine. It's different from the one I've used from the last ten years and I'm taking a while to understand it. I'm getting outwitted by the manual. One feature that the old machine didn't have is variable temperature. I can finally select long, cool washes. I just need to be aware and not accidentally boil everything. 

I dropped bear off to his party but the steering was feeling off and it was unnerving so I'll have to call the garage. Bear was happy taking snacks. 

Today has been a 'sitting down' day. Tomorrow I hope to have a 'move around' morning and a 'sitting down' afternoon. 

I think that the clocks going back have left me unreasonably out of sorts. I think that I'll head for a very early night.

Writing stuff - another new Kane story here. I'm adding the pic from that story because otherwise this post would look a little bare and it's a pretty pic. 

Photo by Cali Brutz on Unsplash

Hugs and good health to all 

Two Kilograms of Mushrooms

I've been tired all day. Both DH and I seem to be run down and showing signs of being at the end of a viral infection. It's nothing serious, but we're both definitely off our game. We decided that today would be a 'sitting down day'. 

Tesco had a deal on mushrooms and I was running low, so I peeled, chopped and threw 2kgs into the freezer. That should keep me going for a good while. It was quite relaxing. I didn't bother with the radio or anything. Instead I just sat quietly, slowly working my way through and enjoying the peace. 

Bear stayed overnight at the party. I didn't ask him about drinking, but he turned up happy enough and bright eyed and bushy tailed, so I don't think that much drink was taken, if any. Sharon reminded me, so I reminded bear that he could call us anytime, no matter what, and that we wouldn't judge. That he had the app for Uber on his phone if we couldn't get him, or we could order an Uber or traditional taxi for him if he rung us, and that I always had enough money stashed at home to pay for a taxi from wherever he was and would be ready to pay if he rolled up after being stranded. And no matter what, we would have his back. He knew this, which is incredibly reassuring. I've drummed it into him, over the years. No matter what, it's safe to come to us. He seems comfortable with that idea, and I am so glad. He apparently has a party tomorrow and is good with taking snacks.

I felt a little out of sorts, so I decided to try knitting a baby blanket from one of the knitting patterns from Snufflebean. They are really relaxing until you realise on row 21 of 133 stitches that you didn't cast on the right number of stitches and have to unravel and start again. Still, I'd found my knitting notebook so I was happy keeping track of the rows. I haven't had to count rows for ages. I got this notebook before bear was born and I've erratically used it to track knitting with all sorts of patterns. 

My late grandmother tracked her knitting patterns by marking the rows on the cardboard insert that she got with her stockings, and I suspect that my late mother did the same whenever she knitted, but I find a great deal of pleasure using this lovely notebook. I know that I could the backs of envelopes, and in the past I've recycled plenty of them to bundles for note-taking, but I really enjoy this. If I'm canny how I use it, I'm sure that it will last for a good few years more.

Writing stuff - another new story for Kane here. It's been interesting thinking about the character as a whole and I've had quite a few new ideas. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Thank you!

Thank you for all the comments about bear. It gave me a lot of food for thought. I hope that I can include all of my responses in this post. I've studied all of your comments hard. 

One thing that I'm absolutely confident on - bear is not easily swayed by peer pressure. He does not care. There absolutely has been drink at the parties he's attended, but while I suspect that he may have had a drink at last New Year, I don't think he's made a habit of it. Bear is very capable of saying 'no'. 

We had a long talk about the whole 'drink' business. Bear doesn't particularly want to drink, especially after seeing how drunk people can behave. I have no problem supporting that. On the other hand, there are a lot of social expectations, and it's expected that a (nearly) 18 year old going to a party with other 18 year olds would bring something with an alcoholic value. I also want to convey to him that when you go to a party, you don't turn up empty handed. It's very likely that bear will be living away from home this time next year, among all the student parties, and I want him to have at least a sense of what is expected. 

In the end, bear took a bottle of white wine (easy to share and unlikely to stain if it's spilled), that was allegedly sweet, seriously inexpensive, and the lowest Alcohol By Volume rating on Tesco website. I doubt that he'll even have a mouthful of the stuff. If it somehow gets sent back to us, we'll use it in a risotto. 

The washing machine arrived. It looks awesome but I was starting with a sick headache and my joints have been very painful, so I'll start working out how to use it tomorrow. The delivery and communications were brilliant. I bought the machine from AO and I bought it online. I got calls the next day confirming the purchase, checking if I wanted a warranty, asking about parking for the delivery van and access and generally making sure that I knew what was expected. I got texts and emails on the day confirming the estimated time and when the van got near, I could track it on a map. The nice men carried it in, removed the old one (I paid for that service), connected everything up and didn't leave a mess. It all went smoothly, which is a nice change. 

Writing stuff - The Kane story today is new! You can find it here. I thought that it was time that he had another outing. And as I haven't managed a pic today, here is the pic from the story.

Photo by Christina Deravedisian on Unsplash

Hugs and good health to all.