A Quiet Weekend, with Marmalade

I was a bit under the weather this week, so planned a quiet weekend, and on the whole, that is what I got.

I didn't do quite as well on the 'having a lie-in' side of things as I had hoped, waking up very early, which was irritating.

I did manage to make a batch of marmalade, using half of the Seville oranges I bought, on Saturday. I'd planned to do the other half today but ran out of time and energy, so they will have to wait. Still, I have half a dozen jars of lovely tangy marmalade. 

I ended up with a little bit left over, so I made some chocolate orange cupcakes with it, which, though I do say so myself, are rather tasty. I vaguely remembered reading something about replacing sugar in a cake recipe with marmalade, so that's what I did, and it seems to have worked. although afterwards I found the recipe and it only suggested replacing half the sugar.

I've also sorted out my car insurance for the next year (got the MoT done during the week - the car passed first time, which is always a good thing), so with the road tax having been paid at the end of January (although I am not yet used to having no tax disc) the car is (legally) sorted for now.

 I also caught up with a few things I'd recorded on TV over the past few weeks, and read the weekend papers, all of which felt very self indulgent.


SO altogether, a satisfying weekend.

Next weekend is due to involve some socialising and other fun stuff.

Day to Day stuff

So, no exciting theatre trips or writers this week. In fact, the week started badly as I must have eaten something which disagreed with me, and since then it seems to have been nothing but rain and work, and work and rain.

And I'm working this Saturday, too.

I spent most of today on a course. I was pleasantly surprised with parts of it - if anyone had told me that Trusts could be made interesting (especially in the dead hour immediately after lunch) I would have mocked them mercilessly, but apparently it is possible. Of course, it may not be relevant unless I suddenly start to have lots of multi-millionaires wandering into my office, but still. If they do, I shall now feel more prepared.

Other parts were . . more what one expects of a CPD course..

This weekend I expect to be doing such thrilling things as raking up dead leaves, vacuuming the house and trying to organise my financial documents and shred the stuff which I don't need to keep.

So - not a lot in the way of excitement or bloggable activities.

New Look

Old Hair

So, I finally got around to getting my hair cut, mostly as it has reached the length where  I couldn't do much with it except have it in a plait or pony tail the whole time..

I did, of course, have my normal conversation with the salon when I booked the appointment:

Me: "Could you make it a double length appointment? My hair is *really* thick and always takes longer than normal to cut."
Salon Receptionist "Sure, that won't be a problem"

Later..

Stylist: "Wow, you have so much hair! It's really thick!"

New Hair

Me: "Yes, I know. I did mention it when I made the appointment, as it always takes a long time"
Receptionist in background, to next customer "I'm afraid [Stylist's name] is running late - it'll be another 20 minutes or so.."

To do them justice, I didn't get any sense that the stylist then tried to rush to finish off my cut, but I felt a little sorry for the customer waiting an extra half hour because they didn't believe me..

Of course, now I shall spend the next few days combing the back of my neck, and using 3 times as much shampoo as I need, but on the whole I'm happy with the new look.

Errands and things

I had a day off today, so have been catching up with various errands, on the basis that shopping and such are likely to be less stressful today, than on Saturday when no doubt everywhere will be busier.

I had planned to have a nice lie-in before starting everything else, but naturally, having made that plan, I then work up at about 5.30 and couldn't get back to sleep, so ended up getting up in disgust a little earlier than on a normal working day. And as there's a lot of cloud around, I couldn't even take the opportunity to try to spot some of the Geminid shower.

After all the ice and frost of the last few days, it's turned very wet (somehow without feeling any less cold, which seems illogical) so I had no encouragement to linger when I got into town.

This morning involved:

• A trip to the Post Office, to post 9 parcels (amazingly, I didn't need to queue, which I am quite sure would not be the case on Saturday morning!)
• A trip to Boots, to pick up my repeat prescriptions to ensure that I don't run out of anything over christmas.
• A trip to the vet, to ensure that Tybalt doesn't run out of his meds over christmas
• A trip to the paper shop to pay my account off, and sort out what papers I want when.
• A trip to Big Supermarket, initially just to pick up an extra pint of milk, and some chocolates to take into work, but in fact, as it turned out, also to pick up some booze and chocolates, mostly either as gifts or to take with me to share over christmas.

Then this afternoon I made a start on wrapping gifts for the people I shall be spending time with over christmas (unless I've forgotten something, all the ones which need to be posted, have now been posted) I'm starting to feel just a little bit festive..

Decluttering

It's less exciting than theatre trips and museums and conventions, but the other thing which I've been doing recently, is to try to de-clutter a bit, and to try to bring myself to get rid of all at least some of the things that I don't use, but have been keeping 'in case they come in handy' or because they still work.

I managed to make a bit of progress this weekend - I was spurred into action by the fact that I'd said I'd take some books for the BristolCon free books table, which was an incentive to sort through my 'books I have very nearly decided to pass on to new homes. any time now, honest' pile, and took one big carrier bag full of SF&F books on Saturday (I looked at the table about an hour before I left, and they seemed to have all been taken, which is good. I like to think they'll all have found loving new homes!).

Sorting through to decide which books were suitable for a Con also gave me the chance to check the status of the other books in the heap, and to sort out 2 further bags full, one of which went to the Oxfam bookshop in Bath this morning, and the other (mostly hardbacks, and some 'as new' YA paperbacks) which is going to go to the library next time I can catch it being open.

I also spent some time on Sunday going through my bathroom cupboard and have binned all the old, part used stuff which I haven't used in the past 12 months, and have sorted the things I'm keeping so that the cupboard is better organised, and, hopefully,I shall be inspired to keep it that way. (Monday was dustbin day, so it's too late for me to change my mind!)

I need to go through my wardrobe and get rid of the things I never wear (or most of them), and free up some space for the things I actually do wear, and then I think the next thing is probably the Cupboard under The Stairs, which has depths I haven't plumbed for years. I should have installed shelving when I first moved in, before I started putting stuff in it. I suspect that if it were properly organised, it'd would probably only be about half full.

I still need to do a lot more work. And this will, I think, include further thinning of the books, but I feel like I have made a good start.

Life, and Stuff like that

Last week was a very long, stressful one.

The weekend mainly involved my heaving a huge sigh of relief that I'd got as far as Friday without total disaster. I was looking forward to a nice, long, lazy lie-in, so of course I woke at 5.30 and couldn't get back to sleep! On the plus side, this did mean getting a lot done - housework, mainly, but also a little baking, writing a few letters, and a trip to the Post Office (as you can tell, it was a fascinating weekend!)

So, nothing very exciting or unusual, but it allowed me to decompress and unwind a little, ready to face the new week.

It's been very cold (for UK values of cold!) - there was even a little snow, on Monday, but it didn't settle, so we didn't have to contend with people trying (and often failing) to drive in unfamiliar. Still bloody cold, however.

Meanwhile, I'm de-stressing by re-reading old, comforting favourites - Elizabeth Goudge, for instance. So it goes.

In Which Nothing Much Happens

Ten days with no posting. I'm slacking. Unfortunately it's because I haven't been doing much which is worth blogging about.
I've been very busy at work, spent a fair amount of time in court (and even more time hanging around in court waiting rooms, (because we all know that 'listed for 10.30' really means 'in at 1.14')

I've also been not enjoying the hot, muggy weather. Particularly as my tomatoes seem to have been stubbornly soaking up the sun (and demanding that I water them lots) but conspicuously failing to turn ripe and red. I'm sure that they are doing it on purpose...

I'm toying with the idea of going to the theatre this weekend - the Bath Theatre Royal has the Peter Hall company playing Henry IV parts 1 and 2  playing at present . .it's pretty tempting to go see one or both, either this weekend or next - they are both getting excellent reviews.I just have to work out whether I can afford it!

This and That

I've been  a bit remiss with this blogging, haven't I?
I haven't been doing much this last week - just working, and trying to keep on top of housework and so forth.

Housekeeping has included trying to gert the car through it's MOT - sadly it failed this afternoon - It seems I have a cracked spring in the ?suspension - I have a strong suspicion that this is probably the rattle I asked a (different) garage about a month or so back, which I suppose at least helps with the choosing which garage to use next time..

I'm taking it back on Monday, by which time they should have got the new spring in (plus a matching one for the other side) and should be able to fix it.  I'm waiting for the quote. On a happily surreal note, however, the garage I went to has a piano in thier waiting room! It's a tiny little garage - a modern, prefab unit on an industrial estate, not at all the kind of place one expects to find a random piano.

I didn't try to play it. It's the wrong time of year for my piece de resistance, 'Silent Night' played with one finger and many pauses. But I like to imagine that they have occasional clients who do sit down and play..