Diary - Sunday, 2 August 2020

[River Tyne Lass]

I woke up early this morning from a nightmare.  I had dreamt that Jamie Oliver had enlisted my help in preparing a wedding banquet for someone.  In the dream I had  followed my own recipes instead of his as I was supposed to.  The dream ended when I discovered  that my own results weren't so good and I started to worry about being found out in having gone my own way with recipes rather than following his instructions.  When I woke up I continued to feel quite anxious and out of sorts for a couple of minutes until I became fully conscious that this had just been a bad dream.  I don't work in the catering industry and I doubt anyway that I would have the courage to run amok with my own recipes in the unlikely scenario that Jamie Oliver would ever ask for my untrained help with an event.  Ha! What a thought!
I think I must have a guilty conscience about something.  I do feel a bit guilty for not having done very much yesterday apart from a burst of housework early morning.  Visit with Grandson had been cancelled and I did feel a bit out of sorts at one point so had sought to cheer myself up by going on RootsChat to ask where a Great Grandfather might be buried even though I knew I had lots of other things, such as ironing, sewing repairs and weeding, etc I could have been getting on with.  After RC, I generally mooned about and then went to bed early.
Anyway, today I have felt a bit more energy than previous days so have plodded on trying to catch up with various tasks.  So hopefully, no more 'guilt' nightmares for me when I get back in from nightshift tomorrow.
I am now on the bus travelling en route for an early start nightshift, the first of another block.

[Llwyd]

Was Jamie Oliver in the dream?. That would be sufficient to upset even the sturdiest of souls!.
 

[Roobarb]

RTL, you shouldn't be feeling guilty about not doing chores, you deserve a rest. Glad to hear you've had a bit more energy before the onslaught, hope all goes well.

Diary:

Couldn't sleep last night after all the upset, was awake until at least 5am so got approximately four hours sleep, about half of what I need. Weather was fine when I got up, was about to go for my walk late morrning but once again NN had timed her front lawn cutting for my usual time. Couldn't face having to pass her or even see her if I went another route so waited till later. Then it bucketed down. Had lunch early, was hungry as I hadn't eaten much yesterday so had a bit extra. The rain cleared and the sun came out so I went out. Walked through the woods, kept getting drips of water on my head so went on the field for a while. Hadn't been back long when the heavens opened again. Am I wicked for laughing when I saw that NN had hung her washing out again? It was getting soaked 

I'd decided a few days ago to widen one of the borders in my back garden so drew it out with sand then went up to my bedroom to get an aerial view of how it looked. It was okay so got the hose out to outline it and dug along the edge. It's going to to be hard work digging the turf out and I'll have to get some bags of top soil. It was pouring down with rain from time to time and in between the sun came out. We seemed to have had the summer weather in spring and now we're getting spring in the summer.

Phone call from a friend this evening, haven't heard from her for a while, she has such a lot going on. I should be in bed by now, am very tired but here it is not that long before midnight....

Hope it's been a good day for others.

[Caw1]

Oh goodness RTL what a dream.... I like Jamie Oliver and his recipes are generally good because they're quick, no fuss and in no time at all it's ready... I followed his YouTube video on making paste for Thai green curry and it's so easy and very tasty..... I'm sure you shouldn't have a guilty conscience for relaxing!.... good luck with your next lot of shifts and hope your buses and people on them behave themselves!

Roobarb - sorry you had such a poor night but after your upset yesterday it's not surprising... hope tonight's sleep is better.
You are a real grafter in your garden and I'm sure it all looks amazing with the hard work you put in to it... diggings so good to get things out if your system too.... if you know what I mean...😀😀


My diary...

Woken this morning firstly by motor bikes noise... can't believe they're out that early... obviously thinking they're trying to emulate the Grand Prix that's on later.... the next thing I hear is my next door neighbour hammering... heavens knows what as he was painting his front door yesterday... perhaps he didn't like the colour and got cross with it... who knows.... then his wife is talking to someone across the road... or shouting should I say and all this before 8.15 in the morning.... got up in the end... as did OH who I met on the landing muttering about them! Good start to the day...
Sat outside with breakfast and Sunday papers after neighbour had gone inside as she was out watering and can see over the fence and I really didn't want to talk to her... she's very kind but she's definitely gone a bit perculiar since lockdown...
Not much of any consequence in the papers today... skimmed through it... magazines not much better... crossword was more enjoyable today... managed to do about half... go back during the week and usually manage to do more...
As we'd not finished off our scrabble game yesterday we decided to do that... would you believe just when I thought I'd go into the lead he used all his tiles again in one go to score an extra 50 points..... sorry Mowsehowse but your banner didn't help me!....
In disgust I went to do my ironing which took me the rest of the morning...
Sat outside to eat lunch then had a potter about in the garden... picking more courgettes, raspberries and blueberries....
Marinaded some chicken breast cut them up and put them on skewers with peppers to BBQ for dinner...
I really need a new ironing board cover as I'm not good about standing the iron up every time whilst using it ... and it's had a lot of use lately!... as I've so far not found one online and certainly not going into shops to find one I thought I could turn it round as other end not so used... scortched really... when I took it off I found I'd got three others underneath... thought it was well padded... with a bit of cutting here and there sewn together I now have a new one that's multi coloured and different designs.... make do and mend eh!
We got ready to have a Zoom drinks with two sets of friends... one lot who'd come round last Sunday when they were out on their bikes and others we've not seen for months...
Nice to catch up... ones not seen had been away to Holkam in Norfolk with their dog and had lots lovely walks away from people... but we were flabbergasted, as were our other friends, to hear them say they'd eaten out every night in different places.... are they mad... especially as his dad is 102 and been in hospital recently!...
Sat outside for dinner then OH watered veg and we came inside
Caught up with Antiques Roadshow and Michael Portillo in Oz...

Not much excitement really... must do some exercise tomorrow...

Hope others days have been on... at least weathers been decent today

Caroline   
 

[Annette7]

Had a good nights sleep (no dreams for me) and woke up again to glorious sunshine. Forecast said it would cloud over by lunchtime but it didn't.   Sun lasted until around 6pm, clouded over and we then had a light shower.

Felt weary later in the day but think that was because of yesterdays activities in sorting b-i-l's garage.   Finished off the current jigsaw and read on the tablet this evening.  Nothing on TV that I really wanted to watch.   Rang my cousin in Dorset and had a nice long chat.   I should have gone for a visit in April but we all know what happened with that plan!

Our current forecast is cloudy am/light rain pm for tomorrow, cloudy Tuesday and sun for Wed./Thurs./Fri. and Saturday.  Will put up with a couple of iffy days if it's going to be followed by 4 days of sunshine.

I've certainly learnt during lockdown how much the weather dictates my mood.

May you all have a good nights sleep (or a good days sleep for RTL).

Annette 

[Mowsehowse]

I hope you all slept better than the night before.
Sorry about the Scrabble Caroline! 

You shouldn't feel guilty RTL; you needed to rest. If I had to do such punishing hours I would only  cut the grass on annual leave!

Such a good idea to consider the flower bed extension from upstairs Roobarb. I wonder if I would have thought of that.

Got rather wet on the morning walk yesterday, despite the local forecast said no rain. Nothing else worth reporting.

[pharmaT]

Well Wednesday and Thursday were a washout I felt unwell in a washed out kind of way. Friday wasn't much better.  Pretty much just did the absolute basics.  Now got lots of cleaning to catch up on. 

Thursday I had to get a new slow cooker.  Picked the old one up to move it, the handles fell off and it went tumbling.  Thankfully I'd already served dinner.   Chicken chilli chowder for dinner on Saturday, king of like a cross between chilli con carne and clam chowder but made with chicken as the name suggests.  Beef stroganoff for dinner on Sunday.  Had been going to make apple and peach sponge pudding for dinner but realised I didn't have enough apples so made an apple and peach one.

[louisa maud]

You are quite right about weather dictating the mood of the day, thank God we had some really nice bright days during lockdown, but we do need rain, my plants although I water them frequently look a bit sad, I don't really know why, they started off so well, I ought to give them a plant food water I suppose although it looks like rain today, nothing like rain water to perk the plants up

I feel a bit fed up with being sensible and doing all the right things when the idiots are out, living it up, shoulder to shoulder and they spoil it for us who have been sticking to the rules in the main and staying in, I just hope we don't have lockdown for much longer although I have had to pop to the shops when I discovered it would be quiet

Hope you are feeling better Pharma

Have a nice day folks

Louisa Maud

[Roobarb]

Caroline, my garden looks quite good but not as good as I would have liked, I have put a lot of work in but unfortunately a lot of time and effort has been spent on dealing with the damage that NN caused. I have enjoyed taking cuttings and doing the rest of the garden though.
You have my sympathy with the unwanted dawn chorus of bikes and neighbours! You've been very resourceful with the ironing board cover, I think we're all finding a bit of wartime spirit during lockdown.

Annette, good to hear you've been getting some decent weather, I think everyone sent their rain up here yesterday!

Mowsehowse, hope you've had a more interesting day today.

PharmaT, you're quite a chef, what a shame about the slow cooker, thank goodness the dinner wasn't wasted.

Louisa Maud, I agree that it's galling that those of us who have stuck to the rules have to potentially suffer from the results of the behaviour of those who haven't.
I'm sure your plants would be grateful for a feed as well as the rainwater.