shewhomust | Entries tagged with domestic

We weren't actually woken by the sound of drilling yesterday. Between eight and nine, we were half listening to the Today programme, half still dozing, and gradually became aware of the insistent noise: it grew louder, and then a second drill joined in, at a slightly different pitch, like a foghorn duet. I assumed it was coming from the student house on the other side of the wall.

But when I got up, I realised it was actually coming from the other side of the house, and even louder than I had thought. The staircase was vibrating.

durham_rambler returned from the downstairs bathroom, to report that "that's really loud downstairs - and I'm not wearing my hearing aids!"

As soon as I was dressed, I rang the doorbell of our new(ish) uphill neighbours. It turns out they are having a log-burner installed. That noise that sounds as if someone is trying to drill through the wall? That's someone trying to drill through the wall. They'll be doing that all morning. (They carried on until some time after one).

I thought log-burners were no longer fashionable. I also thought it wold have been kind to warn us. They must know we are in during the day, we've taken in enough parcels for them...

Today was better. The builders were lining the flue, so the sounds were much quieter. The noise of plaster cascading off the wall was unnerving, but I tell myself firmly that it's not my wall. Builders on the roof also unnerving: I look away and try to think of something else.

We have, quite late in the day, cried off a social engagement which has been in the diary for some time; with mixed feelings, but predominantly relief.

I don't really think I have Fear of Going Out: we went out very cheerfully to the pub quiz last night (and that's a story in itself). Tonight's party was an altogether grander affair, a book launch and celebration: some people we were looking forward to seeing, but knowing we would have to share them with a whole lot of other people. The plan had grown more complicated: we were going to meet friends (who would also be going to the party) for dinner, and go back to spend the night with them after...

Meanwhile, we are also preparing for a visit from the elder Great-Nephew and his girlfriend, so there's housework to be done and catering to be planned ahead of that. It should be a fun visit, but I'm a little nervous (house guests who are not familiar with the peculiarities of the house! People whose dietary requirements are unknown! How will we entertain them...?). Defrosting the fridge may have been over-ambitious, but it was dripping internally, so - anyway, an overnight away seemed a complication too far.

Last night's pub quiz is also a story of absenteeism. Our Friend the Quizmaster is taking a short holiday, which ought not be a problem, because the schedule had the Other Quizmaster on duty. But the Other Quizmaster failed to materialise. Fortunately, Our Friend the Quizmaster keeps an emergency quiz behind the bar (this tells you quite a lot about Our Friend the Quizmaster), and a volunteer was found - or, I suspect, a regular was to some extent coerced - to read the questions and mark the answers, and we were very satisfactorily quizzed (we won).

I have a pot of basil. A perfectly ordinary, purchased from a supermarket, does not contain a severed head, pot of basil.

I bought it some time at the end of May or beginning of June, even though we would be going on holiday in mid-June: these things don't usually live long, but while they last they waft a pleasant scent into the kitchen, and provide a little freshness to add to a tomato salad. It was still looked alive, though looking quite bedraggled, when we set off for Scotland, so I opened the back door and set it on the doorstep - if it lived, so much the better, and if, as seemed more likely, it died, I could toss it into the compost when I got home.

It lived. It was a bit limp, but I brought it inside and gave it water, and went back to picking leaves as I needed them. Then I noticed -

- it is flowering!

I do know that this is not exactly a good thing; that if I want a continuing supply of fresh leaves, I shouldn't let my plants divert their energy into flowering. If I had been nipping out the tops of each shoot, I would have more leaves and no flowers. That's what I ought to be doing, and I will do it now.

But first let me record my admiration for the tenacity of this survivor.

As I expected, when I took a Covid test yesterday, it was clear. So we returned to the pub quiz, after an absence of a couple of months. It was a pleasant walk down the hill to the pub: the heat has passed (for the time being, at least) and it wasn't - quite - raining. Our team acquitted ourselves respectably in the quiz: not quite among the winners of cash prizes, not because we scored lower than usual, but because other teams scored higher. And we won the beer round, a rare triumph for us in identifying four out of five pictures of things beginning with D.

More good news: the mechanic has looked at the car, and pronounced it repairable - and comfortably within a reasonable budget. So we can hope it will last until we trade it in on that mythic electric car (at last report, says

durham_rambler, it has been constructed and is on its way to us on a slow boat from China).

In further signs of returning normality, I did a little light ironing this afternoon.

Upward and onward!

durham_rambler continues to feel better. On Thursday he did a test which came back positive, but this morning's was negative (not quite two weeks since his first positive test). I haven't been matching him test-for-test: what would that have told us? But given his 'all clear', I took a test and got a faint but clear positive result, which was no surprise - it looks as if I'm lagging a day or so behind him.

So at last

durham_rambler has been able to run some errands: he has collected repeat prescriptions, and booked the car into the garage for an expert opinion on that worrying noise ...

Meanwhile, I have the perfect excuse not even to think about going out and doing things during this heatwave.

It was an effort to tidy the house ahead of the party - to clear tables, and remove piles of books from chairs, and try to find homes for things so that they could be put away, and - well, all that and more. But there was a real sense of achievement when it was done. And when everyone had gone, and we were slumped in front of the television,

durham_rambler looked around the room, and said how good it looked, and I agreed with him.

But it can't last. The things - the useful boxes, the unread magazines, the important papers - that I hid in the cellar, on top of the chest freezer, had to be moved so that I could get something out of the freezer. The notebook computer has returned to the kitchen chair where it spends most of its time, because the kitchen is where I mostly use it (where I am, in fact, using it now). I have re-erected the ironing board in front of the television.

Still, if we've done it once, we can do it again. If/when we have to.

durham_rambler likes the analogy of a bicycle race: he says that these go very slowly for most of the time, and then someone decides it's time to make a break for it, and everything goes very quickly. I have no idea if this is true of bicycle races, but it's a useful image for all sorts of activities.

Yesterday we defrosted the freezer, and that's exactly what it was like. Weeks of preparation. First we defrosted the fridge - a job that needed doing antway, but also necessary so that we could open and use the ice box. Then finally we had run down the contents of the freezer till they would fit into the ice box. There were some interesting discoveries: a couple of pots of (almost certainly) marmalade; the makings of interestingly mixed soup for lunch today; and some of those ice cream cartons without freezer labels actually contained ice cream, who knew?

But the actual defrosting took no time at all. I put a bowl of hot water in the freezer before lunch yesterday; after lunch

durham_rambler was able to remove the slabs of ice from the sides of the freezer (he used a kettle, which I'm not sure was wise, but he had already done it before I realised); and by bedtime it was clean and back at its operating temperature.

I have a sense of whiplash, but today we went to the farm shop and started restocking the freezer.

... and it doesn't feel all that different, of course.

We've had our usual New Year visitors, D. and

valydiarosada, who were good company, though not quite good enough to keep me out of bed until midnight - or, as I'd rather put it, too good to oblige me to stay up until midnight. Yesterday we had additional visitors, D.'s sister and brother-in-law (and their very well-behaved dog) who came to lunch: six of us around the big dining table, I can't remember when we last had such a crowd! Perhaps that's why this morning I discovered a quiche in the bottom of the fridge which had somehow been overlooked: we didn't miss it at lunch, but it would have been a welcome discovery yesterday evening, when people were getting peckish without wanting an actual meal ...

D. and

valydiarosada left this morning,and I'm gradually catching up with normality: a little work, a batch of laundry, deciding what to cook to make the most of the leftovers (also to empty the fridge, which is overdue defrosting).

What sort of normality will 2022 bring, though? Will we be at the pub for the quiz on Wednesday? Will we brave the Phantoms at the Phil on Thursday? Who knows? Watch this space!

Crossposts: https://shewhomust.livejournal.com/775369.html

On Thursday morning we went to Boots, and were given our 'booster' vaccine shots. I apologise to the world for this: I do not think that it's a good strategy to triple vaccinate one country before the whole world has been offered at least one shot. But nor do I think that refusing this booster would change anything, and meanwhile the UK is taking no precautions other than vaccination against the virus - so yes, we went to Boots and were boosted. The system wasn't quite a smooth as that run by the GP. but it was fine, nonetheless. And while I was in Boots I replaced the facial scrub I like - or to be precise, bought something similar, the one I like having vanished.

While we were in town, I went to the bank and unlocked - I hope - the PIN of my debit card. Now I need an opportunity to use it to buy something, to make sure.

I bought a pair of slippers, but this was too soon for the card to be working, so I used a different card. I'm not crazy about the new slippers, but they fit me, and that's quite a big deal (I have broad feet); and the old ones were very broken.

durham_rambler bought me a chain for my glasses: they still fall off when I wear a mask, but they don't fall as far - and I don't end up patting random surfaces because I can't see where they have fallen to.

In the afternoon,

durham_rambler's new printer arrived (in a huge box, which can't stay on the spare bed forever): now we can print things and not have them covered in blue smudges.

Encouraged by all these achievements, we went to the garage at the top of the road, which deals in second-hand electric cars, and looked at the one car they have in stock - but which they have just sold. But we have made contact, and it's all promising.

I am beginning to think about buying some new saucepans. I don't really know where to start. With the exception of the sauté pan which I bought at TK Maxx - and that must have been thirty years ago - the last pans I bought were the glass ones from Chester-le-Street market. They have done me very well (except for the little milk pan, which was the reason I bought the set of three, and got broken almost at ine) but I think I have destroyed their surface, and there's very little I can now use them for without it sticking and burning. So where do people buy sauncepans in this brave new world?

Crossposts: https://shewhomust.livejournal.com/769803.html

I seem to have done nothing today.

This is not quite true. I have:

visited the surgery for my annual diabetic review

edited my Ocado order (that is, converted a placeholder into an actual order)

almost made a sourdough loaf (it's on its final rise, in the tin, so all I have to now is put it in the oven)

cleared the ironing (while watching Countdown)

put the next batch of washing through the machine

It feels a bit more substantial when I make it into a list, but still not much to show for a whole day ...

Oh, well. Time to assemble dinner, and open a bottle of wine.

Crossposts: https://shewhomust.livejournal.com/753200.html

There are two men in my back garden, dressed in orange head-to-foot, wielding sharp implements and buzzing at an ear-splitting volume. Is this Hornetman, a hitherto inknown superhero? No, they are tree surgeons. Not that 'surgery' is the first word you would think of, because the instruction we gave them was "Clear the lot!" Everything must go, the elder tree I unwisely planted and all its self-seeded offspring, the shrubs that a friend planted long ago and which are now taller than I am, the ash of unknown provenance which is suffering from ash die back (is that how you write it?), the brambles... What will I do thereafter, with the blank canvas? I don't know. One step at a time.

Last night I had my second vaccination, and this morning my arm is sore (thankyou to everyone who warned me that the second one may have more impact than the first). It was administered by my GP, who apologised for forgetting my name: "You're with

durham_rambler, aren't you? I can remember him, because I saw his face on a piece of paper ..." "Ah, you live in our ward, do you?" I confirmed that

durham_rambler was standing as an independent councillor, but shopped short of actually canvassing a vote.

We came home via Lidl, disconcertingly busy between five and six: I bought onions and couscous and a bottle of the riesling with a wombat on the label.

Crossposts: https://shewhomust.livejournal.com/753085.html

On Monday, shops not deemed essential were allowed to reopen in England. I listened to the radio news, which included descriptions of queues outside shoe shops, and children in the queue having their feet measured on the spot. Really, children's shoes are not essential? We should send them to school barefoot, in the snow? Perhaps we should, but the risk is that we would send them instead in shoes they have outgrown...

I wasn't tempted to rush out and shop, but I did place an order with Ocado, and was wrong-footed by the unavailability of midweek deliveries: Tuesday evening, or Friday evening? Neither was convenient, but by Friday we would be running out of essentials, so I opted for Tuesday, and hoped the delivery would arrive at the end of its allotted slot, and not clash with the Zoomed talk we planned to attend.

Time was tight, but it really was essential to defrost the fridge before refilling it, so on Monday evening I set that going. Memo to self: durham_rambler will never notice that the fridge needs defrosting and take action, but he enjoys the challenge of the ice, and will do more than his share of the work once I take the initiative. Task completed within 24 hours, and the fridge was reinstated by dinner time on Tuesday.

Which is just as well, because our Ocado driver was running early: he arrived before the start of his slot, so instead of the talk being at the questions stage, the speaker was still in full flood. I had to check that there was nothing frozen (even the day after ordering, I can't always remember what made it into the final order, and what didn't) but having done that, left it until after the talk before unpacking. A quick grouse about that: Ocado seems to have completely given up the pretence of sorting the shopping - three packets of cereal were in three different places...

Today is the third Thursday of the month, which is Farmers' Market day. Or not: we went, but without great hopes, and how right we were - there were very few stalls there. I bought some bread, and some (orange and sea buckthorn) marmalade, and thought about buying some soap but decided not to. Inside the covered market I bought smoked salmon from the fishmonger, a book from the bookstall (I had been confident that I would get a copy of Richard Osman's detective story there, and I was right) and a bottle of interesting (Uruguayan) wine from the wine shop. And there were pens and a notebook from Paperchase. I'd call that a very satisfactory mixture of essentials and inessentials.

Crossposts: https://shewhomust.livejournal.com/751376.html

This morning's e-mail from Ocado asks: "What are your Valentine's Day plans, SheWhoMust?"

But Ocado, I thought we had a date!

Valentine's Day is not a day we habitually celebrate - although this year it is a red letter day of sorts, since I have secured an Ocado delivery, and

durham_rambler has booked his first vaccination at the same time.

durham_rambler received an e-mail inviting him choose between three locations for this:

the nearest (Sunderland), the most convenient for public transport (Newcastle) and the silliest (Kendal, 70 miles away and on the far side of the Pennines): he has chosen to drive to Sunderland.

Of course, the following morning the GP's surgery phoned to offer him a vaccination there; but he will stick to Plan A.

In other medical news, we have been to the dentist

for our regular, though somewhat delayed, check-up.

durham_rambler will return for a filling, I get away with it for now.

While we were there...

The dentist is just along the street from the shop which stocks sourdough from the Claypath Deli, so I called in and bought a loaf. This is not quite essential shopping, but close enough, I hope.

This afternoon our blocked drain was unblocked

by a nice man in an orange jacket. The drain is at the bottom of the garden (and if you must have a blocked drain, that's where you'd want it to be) so the disruption was minimal. We had been warned that they might need a water supply, which would have been fun, but fortunately he had enough water in the van - though this made the van heavy enough that he wasn't sure he'd get it back up the hill from the back lane ...

Crossposts: https://shewhomust.livejournal.com/745603.html

Last week seems to have been a non-shopping week: we still had plenty of vegetables from the previous order, and were exploring the deeps of the freezer. This week, therefore, I have been doing All the Shopping, some of it in non-essential shops ...

On Tuesday we went up to our favourite farm shop. The trip was delayed by the discovery that the car wouldn't start because the battery was flat (not a surprise) and that it was so flat that it could not be bump started (which was). Cur much muttering about modern cars which which don't have starting handles, and which have so many electrical bits that they exhaust the battery just sitting there, and which none the less can muster enough charge to set off the alarm if you use the key to open the door ... The rescue service were prompt and efficient, and sent out a mechanic who declared the battery not only flat but dead, assured us that it had already exceeded its expected lifespan and sold us a new one - so that was our first pirchase, before we even set off.

Wednesday's shopping was ordering vegetables; the greengrocer's website was a bit sluggish, but we got there in the end. Hooray! And my coffee order wasdelivered. Also hooray!

Yesterday I placed an order with Ocado for delivery tomorrow. Going out to the shops was delayed because the recycling collection had scattered broken glass about the road, and it seemed a good idea to vlear it up before driving over it. Then we visited the Weigh Shop - or rather, I did, while

durham_rambler replenished the beer supply - and then we went together and bought Christmas cards from the 'cards for good causes' shop - and not a day too soon, as the first card arrived in this morning's post. (I don't know why the post has started arriving in the morning, after years of mid-afternoon deliveries, but I'm not complaining.)

Then we came home and had a cup of tea, and I managed to break

durham_rambler's favourite mug: carrying the tea tray downstairs afterwards, I trod on a step that wasn't there. The damage was limited to one mug, which could have been a lot worse, but it was a good mug.

And this morning I phoned my supplier and ordered cheese and game.

I'd been telling myself to stop fussing, and that really shopping was not a lot of work. Writing this makes me think that actually, that was quite a lot of shopping. And while that's enough food to last a while, buying a couple of small gifts is a reminder that it's now time to shop seriously for Christmas presents. I know how lucky I am that financially none of this is a problem; if buying things is my contribution to saving the economy, I shall try to prioritise those bits of it that I want to save.

Crossposts: https://shewhomust.livejournal.com/738499.html

Me: What are those bunches of keys sitting on the shelves by the front door?
Him: Those are the keys that I found behind the shelves when I moved them. They must have fallen down there at some point.

Crossposts: https://shewhomust.livejournal.com/734741.html

- even Steve McQueen.

Witness this photo I took last month of

durham_rambler preparing to Zoom:

It isn't always this complicated; he conducts meetings from his desktop, and I attend my reading group via my notebook on the kitchen table. But if we want to sit together for the weekly pub quiz session, it all gets a bit Heath Robinson.

The photo shows - in addition to all the clutter that is our living environment - the tower computer, no longer in regular use, which now comes in handy to drive our Zoom sessions, which display on the television screen; the camera tripod, delicately balanced and aimed at the sofa; one of two speakers (on the cane chair);

durham_rambler attatching a microphone to a handy stand (actually a 'Singing in the Rain' bookend); supplies of beer and crisps; and - concealed it its case, the iPad on which we follow the quiz online. It does not show the keyboard and mouse required to log in to the meeting. These complicated arrangements amuse me greatly, but it works.

We have also used a slightly simpler version to attend a concert: Robb Johnson's regular Sunday Night at the Hove Palladium migrated from FaceBook to Zoom, so we rigged up the warching and listening end of things, and

durham_rambler used his phone to join in the interval chat. The delays on Zoom made the musical performance less satisfying than usual, and it was a 'Robb Johnson and the Irregulars' electric gig; no criticism of the band to say that I prefer my music acoustic. But they did play Even Steve McQueen, which gave me the title of this post.

Crossposts: https://shewhomust.livejournal.com/726794.html

I was looking for semolina; I'm sure there was an unopenend packet at the back of the supboard, I kept finding it when I was looking for something else. Now I had a recipe in mind for it, of course it wasn't there.

But in a spirit of using up what I can from the store cupboard, and discarding what I can't, I picked up the packet of lasagne which has been lurking at the back of the shelf: time to throw it away, I thought. Investigation revealed a 'best before' date of January '91 (and a price label from Maggie's Farm in New Elvet). Also that the box contains only two broken sheets of the original wholewheat lasagne, and a smaller box, almost full, of Sainsbury's 'no pre-cooking required' lasagne, this one best before end July 2001. So it's probably only 20 years old, and it's 'best before', not 'use by'.

Even so, discretion prevails, and it will be discarded. But mmm, lasagne...

Crossposts: https://shewhomust.livejournal.com/720924.html

Countdoen runs up to a series final before Christmasm which is fun, and then takes a break until the New Year. An unintended side effect of this is that the ironing builds up. By now,

durham_rambler is down to his last shirt. So this afternoon I watched Some Like It Hot on BBC2 while I ironed. It stood up very well to this not-entirely voluntary umpteenth rewatch.

Our New Year guests are within the county: time to return to the kitchen!

This morning I have hung up the phone on:

a recorded voice which claims that Amazon is about to debit my account in payment for a Prime subscription,

a recorded voice which threatens that my internet connection is about to be terminated because of suspicious activity at my ISP address,

and an actual person (though I don't believe him when he says his name is Stanley) who wants to extend the warranty on my washing machine.

This does not include the call I missed because it stopped ringing before I reached the phone (for all I know, that might be someone I wanted to talk to).

Crossposts: https://shewhomust.livejournal.com/702052.html

durham_rambler and I live at the tideline of student lets: further down the hill are a large number of houses let to students (including all four of the houses immediately downhill), further up are mostly long-term permanent residents.

On Wednesday, as we were leaving home for the pub quiz, we found a Deliveroo motorcyclist frowning over his instructions. Could we help him?, we asked; Yes, he said, could we tell him where no. 44 is? The street was built before house numbering patterns were standardised; the numbers go up one side, and then start again from the bottom. We were able to tell him that no. 44 was at the bottom, on the right, and by the time we had walked down the hill, we could hear him explaining to the newly installed student resident that he'd get his dinner a lot faster in future if he explained whereabouts in the street he lived. I realise this demonstrates the newness to the neighbourhood of the delivery man, too, but his advice was sound...

This morning, parking the car on our return from the shops, we saw our next-door neighbours walking up the hill. We waved, but clearly more was expected of us. Mr Neighbour reached into his shopping bag, and pulled out a package, addressed to me. The postman had left a card saying he was unable to deliver it, but when the neighbours walked past him, he recognised them and asked them to take the delivery. We were all impressed at this familiarity with the customers. We do habitually take in each other's parcels, so I don't think any rule has been contravened here.

Crossposts: https://shewhomust.livejournal.com/697000.html

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News from Nowhere

Entries tagged with domestic

Wouldn't it be nice to get on with your neighbours?

FoGO

Tribute to a survivor

All clear

Test update

Recluttering

Like a bicycle race

One year closes, and another year opens ...

The to-do list

Where do the days go?

Stings

Essential / inessential

Five excitements

A week of shopping and breakages

Life's little mysteries

Everybody puts their faith in gaffer tape -

The archaeology of the store cupboard

Just a drive-by posting

When durham_rambler is out ...

Living on the tideline