Tag Archives: shopping

Failing to Move On

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Mute Swan – Rufford Abbey

I did some of the stuff on my list this morning, walked round the house, had a cup of tea and some porridge, had a rest (I’m trying to pace myself back to full speed) and watched a bit of TV. This became Bargain Hunt, a bacon sandwich and more TV. So far, I am being very successful at the elements of my plan which stress rest, relaxation and not rushing back to full production too soon.

If I’m honest, the parts of the plan which involve being more industrious and more productive are not progressing quite as well.

Mute Swans at Budby Flash

And that, I’m afraid, is where the blog post comes to a natural end. Ninety nine words. I’m not exactly brimming with creativity today.  This is a shame as I was hoping o show steady progress each day now I am recovering, but it hasn’t quite worked like that. It’s gradually sliding around to submissions time, and the clock is ticking on my medallion talk and I am grinding to a halt when I need to unleash my creativity and pounce on each day with vigour.

We had a goldfinch in the garden this morning for the second time this week. That’s three sightings in two weeks so they may be returning from wintering in the south. That’s the advantage of noting things down, patterns build up.

I just did the shopping – I will have to write a menu before I finalise my shopping list, but it’s started and I have my time slot booked.

That really doesn’t seem like much success to report for a day.

Swan at National Arboretum

 

Fish & Chips – with a Side of Sprouts

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I’m trying to get a few posts done while I have access to the internet. As my last post indicates, I have no reason to be optimistic that I will be connected to the internet any time soon. It is amazing how much we now use the internet for.

I need it to do my weekly shopping and I need it to renew my house insurance. I also need it to shop for odds and ends. And because I’m not good at technology and passwords, I need it for WP. I could, I suppose, blog using a tiny touch screen, but if I do, it keeps warning me about data usage.

It strikes me that we are being forced to use the internet more and more – all my insurance documents will be sent by email – and if we don’t have it huge chunks of our life will disappear. I was reading about how people merge into each other as time goes by, and the problems this causes when one dies. This specifically relates to married couples, where the partners take on different responsibilities. It is certainly true for us. Julia does all the social, empathetic family stuff. I do the . . .

Deep fried Brussels

Actually, I’m not sure what I do. The last time I was actually necessary was when maps needed reading. Since satnav that has become a redundant skill.

Yesterday, travelling up from Peterborough, we stopped at the Cod’s Scallops again. This is becoming a habit. Unfortunately it’s a habit we will have to break in a couple of months when the move is complete. We had our customary pensioners’ special (though they call it something more upbeat on the menu) with a side order of deep fried Brussels. They were in a light tempura style batter and they were very good, though a little hot. They are, I suppose, full of water, and that had heated to boiling point in the fryer. I burnt my mouth. The pictures feature the meal.

Time to Hibernate

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The Beast from the East – Nottingham

As last night’s forecast firmed up it became clear that Nottingham was going to get some of the threatened wintry weather, but even as it fell we were told it was sleet. It wasn’t, it was snow. The advantage of sleet is that it doesn’t stay. Snow stays. Then, if it doesn’t thaw, it freezes. On our street we don’t see much sun in winter and that ice can stay for days. The temperature is just hovering a whisker above freezing at the moment and nothing is thawing.

It is nothing like the snow experienced by many of my readers, but as a nation we generally have so little snow that we are never properly prepared.

Buses have been cancelled locally and schools across Nottingham are closed (though it is very patchy and many remain open). I suspect this is more to do with where the staff live, rather than the conditions round the schools. There’s no point opening a school if you have no staff.

Snow in Sherwood – though not much

Julia did some shopping yesterday so we have plenty of food, despite running stocks down for the move. I say “running stocks down” but as long as we can do without bread and milk I think we probably still have enough for two weeks. When we get our new freezer at the bungalow I intend freezing bread, so even that won’t be a problem. I may get some long-life milk too, or look into freezing milk.

In fact, I just did look up freezing milk. You can do it, but it may separate, and can only be frozen for a month. It’s easier just to buy long life milk and put up with complaints about the flavour. Personally I don’t mind it, but I know some people do.

The header picture is one Julia took from the front window at 9am. Other pictures are from past years.

Snowy Detail

Shopping Problems

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I really should have planned better, but I just kept ordering as usual until Julia went to Canada. I currently have an unexpected loaf of bread (though this is partly due to not needing sandwiches too), a mushroom surplus and an oversupply of avocadoes. I also have a surfeit of sausages,  a pile of carrots and more salad type things than I can contemplate without feeling queasy.

My soup plans have been shelved as I need to eat at least one avocado tonight to keep things in order, and I also have sausages to eat. Mushrooms can wait. They are holding up well and the worst thing a mushroom can do is deteriorate quietly and make you feel guilty.  A sausage, left to its own devices, can be fatal, and I don’t like the  idea of botulism roulette.

Today, the first proper day of my retirement, has been marked, as I feared it might be, by doing very little. It is gathering momentum but the problem is that I tend to get active as the light declines, work in darkness and then sleep during the day. It worked during lockdown, but that was an extended holiday. As a strategy for the rest of my life, it has certain problems. It’s fine for cats, but, let’s face it, they have humans to do their shopping for them and they don’t have doctors suggesting seeing them at 8.30am.

Today I have eaten, watched TV, read, charged my electrical equipment, realised I have lost my Kindle again, washed up and texted and emailed Julia. She is enjoying herself, she has seen black squirrels and the weather is being kind. She has not yet seen a blue jay or eaten poutine. I am clearly going to have to text and tell her to get on with it.

 

Hake and Chips in Cromer. Compared to poutine this is health food.

Cold Night, and Cake

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It’s 4.30, it’s cold and I am too tight to put the heating on. So I’m going to write 250 words as quickly as I can and withdraw to the living room. I don’t mind putting the fire on in the living room because we will both be there most of the evening, which seems a much better use of the heating.

I have been looking at my submissions. There have been none in November. To be fair there wasn’t really anywhere to submit to and I did have two weeks where I was devoting most of my time to thoughts of my internal workings after my unexpected trip to hospital.

That’s where my plan ground to a halt, as Julia needed to go to the shop and I thought it was cold and dark and not the sort of night for her to be out shopping. So I drove her down to the shop. 

I’m back at the keyboard now, still cold, and still trying to write as quickly as I can. As a result of our trip to the shop we now have cake, so the kettle is one and I really want to get done as quickly as possible so I can pay proper attention to the comestibles.

So, there I am – I have done no writing in November.  I also found, when looking at the list of submissions for December, that two of them are in the wrong month – they should be in January.  I really do need to get organised.

Whilst I was in the car park I rang Julia to tell her where I was parked. The phone wouldn’t ring out. I tried my sister to see if it was just a fault with ringing Julia, but it wouldn’t ring her either. Then I tried to text. That wasn’t working either, but it did advise me there was a problem and I should insert a SIM.  This was annoying, as there is a SIM in the phone. It won’t come out until I am eventually forced to change my phone again, or until the kids sell all my possessions on eBay after the funeral.

However, as proof that I can cope with modern technology if forced, I switched it off and I switched it one again.

It worked.

Bloody useless pile of garbage. How is this an advance on my 100% dependable old Nokia? I used to empty the soil out a couple of times year, drop it regularly and never had a moments grief from it. Phones should be better now, not worse.

Night falls . . . well, to be accurate, night fell, as the photo is about 5 years old.

The Instincts of a Magpie

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So soon after saying that I was rarely at a loss for a subject I find myself staring at a blank screen. The state of the screen is not mirrored by the jumble inside my head, which is as full as ever, but the mix of thoughts doesn’t have a single coherent one.

The visit to the nurse went reasonably well.

The ASDA grocery order has turned up and although there are a few substitutions they are fairly sensible. We are now officially provisioned for Christmas, apart from Yorkshire puddings. I seem to have ordered frozen batter rather than frozen puddings. They aren’t actually difficult to cook from scratch, but I’ve become lazy over the years. Plus they take up less room in our small oven. Five minutes before the end I tend to throw in the Yorkshires on top of the roasting veg and all is good. Cooking from scratch is a little trickier and you need a spare shelf in the oven, which I don’t usually have at Christmas.

I will have to keep them frozen for now (which is a nuisance as the freezer is already full) and juggle with the oven space somehow. Maybe I will cook them first then reheat them. Maybe just cook more things on top of the cooker.

Christmas is always a test of ingenuity.

Maybe we should just eat less.

A local fundraising flag

Meanwhile, despite a few setbacks on eBay I am still managing to buy. It really will be a nightmare for my family sorting all this out if I die without getting it organised. Latest purchase is a selection of Great War fundraising flags. There are some common ones in the selection, but overall it is good value. It’s one of those areas where I used to buy a few every year. Since eBay came along I could buy some every week, so I have to limit myself

The pictures are some I already own. The ones I bought today weren’t quite as nice as this. The titles are a bit random as they relate to a previous post.

Horses were popular too

 

Other side of the horse flag

A Deviation from Perfection

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“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft a-gley.”

It was one of Scotland’s greatest writers who said that. Not Tootlepedal this time, but Burns. As I said in a reply to a comment about the last post, things did not go to plan.

Recently I have started ordering pies from the supermarket because it allows me to do my normal roast veg and throw a pie in the oven at the same time. Adds a bit more variety to the menu and still keeps things quick and easy. Unfortunately, this week, I ordered frozen pies and Julia didn’t notice as she put them in the fridge. I had selected on price and not noticed the blue snowflake that denotes a frozen item. There is a lesson in this.

Instead of being 20 minutes or so, this meant that pie took nearly an hour to cook, despite being thawed. We ate late and we had a pie with floppy pastry. Not my finest hour and yet another lesson in links between price, convenience and not reading the details.

Tomorrow will be pasta bake (prepared this afternoon) then pie and veg again on Tuesday (will try to think of a way to cook the pie properly this time) then vegetable soup for Wednesday lunch using leftover roasted veg. Wednesday night we will have vegetable stew then on Thursday night I’m not sure. Number One Son will be home that night and I have run out of ideas at that point. Then we have a delivery on Wednesday night (I missed all the good Christmas delivery slots and we should be good for the holidays – just need a bit of bread and milk, and thanks to part baked baguettes, long life milk and the freezer we can probably stay indoors until 2022 if we are careful. A nice low maintenance Christmas.

Day 190

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I made a mess of the on-line shopping last night – disappeared into a tour of the internet and lost my way out. It was interesting, as ever, but when I emerged and found how much time I’d wasted, I decided it was time to get some organisation in my life.

The result is that we only had a third of the shopping we wanted tonight, and it cost us £4 for not having enough in the order.

Annoyingly, something that was out of stock last night (when it was “too late to change the order”) was delivered, so obviously back in stock. And milk, which had been in stock, was now out. Annoying that there are two sets of standards at work here.

We have just spent two days sorting a customer out. He’s a regular buyer on eBay and always seems like a nice man. He had asked if we could do cheaper postage if he bought two items, and we had said yes. The problem was that we could only see one purchase. We tried all sorts of things and eventually, this morning, tactfully, I had to write and ask if he’d actually bought the second item from us. It seemed the only logical explanation after eliminating all others.

Turns out he had actually ordered the other medallion off someone else. Oh, how we laughed as we talked of notable senior moments. Took me several hours in total, as I worked to facilitate a sale of £6.50, but that’s customer service for you. And old age . . .

Day 152

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I seem to have mislaid the first half of this post, but as I fell asleep at the keyboard, this is not unusual. I now have a dilemma. Start writing a new blog post at 4.30 am or straighten my aching limbs and go to be. A few years ago I didn’t even know it was possible to fall asleep sitting up, but it’s amazing what you can do if you have to. I say “have to” but in fact it’s a choice, and, let’s face it, a bad choice.

The truth is that the habit of daily blogging has taken hold and I can’t settle if I don’t write a post. It’s only 250 words after all, and that shouldn’t be difficult. Even the 250 words is a self-imposed lower limit. I could write 150 if I wanted, there is no law against it. I really ought tom be writing 500, as it seems a serious amount of wordage, but I’m lazy and I settled on 250. When I actually read a post of that length I’m always struck by how short it is anyway. IT would be difficult to write less and still call it a post. It would be more like an anecdote, or a caption.

We went to TESCO tonight to pick up the shopping – you don’t have to order so much if you use the Click and Collect service. They didn’t have the pork pie I had ordered and they hadn’t substituted anything. This is annoying as the pork pie was the basis of a couple of light salad lunches over the Jubilee Weekend. If you are having salad you really need something decent like pork pie to anchor it. I am now going to have to rethink the menu.

The photograph is a reminder that I still have to blog about eating cake at the coast. Time passes and I forget . . ,

Day 112

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We had another poppy today. They seem a bit slow at the moment, but it looks like we might have a few more tomorrow. Total for the season – 2.

We used the option of picking up the shopping from TESCO tonight – you still avoid people but by picking up the minimum order is less than the delivery option. We have built up a backlog by ordering too much for the last few weeks and need to get through some of it. Carrot soup is likely to feature in our menus several time next week.

On the way we passed a strip of what was once probably woodland. It’s now just a strip of trees and weeds between a footpath and an old railway cutting that is now, I think, a nature trail/footpath/cycle path. OK, I admit I’ve never actually used it and am slightly hazy on details. However, under the trees, a wonderful sight emerges at this time of year. Bluebells. I don’t know if they are survivors from the old woodland or new foreign interlopers, but they do look nice and they always give m a lift at this time of year.

At work today I had an enquiry, which I handled with my customary tact and good humour. I do that on the first enquiry because that’s how you should be. I only start getting sharp when people tart winding me up. People can’t help being stupid or annoying or any manner of things. That’s how we are. They can’t even help it when they advise me on how to package their items properly (because it’s not as if I send over a thousand items a year safely through the post, is it? On the other hand, having told them once, I don’t see why I should have to repeat myself.

Anyway, the customer wrote back and thanked me for my reply, and noted that I clearly had a good grasp of customer service. So far, so good, though I was a little worried that this was just the start of quite a long message. Having answered his question (we didn’t have what he required) we weren’t going to take any money off him and, with time being money, it’s not cost-effective to take on a pen pal.

The gist of his letter was that after a long and successful career in retail he was in a position to advice me that what I should have said in my letter was . . .

I won’t bother to quote it all, but it hinged round us producing the items he required and giving him some for free in gratitude for his input.

At the moment I am torn. The owner has told me not to answer it. This seems rude. On the other hand, if I answer it I will probably be rude anyway.

A tricky question of modern etiquette.

Sometimes I wonder if these people are really just doing it for fun, or if it is a test from eBay.