Friday Five!

My Friday Five:

1. I am very tired today… have been working nights this week and I’ve only had 4 hours of sleep per night since Tuesday.

2. On the plus side, as of yesterday morning I’m now on annual leave until December 30th

3. Unfortunately I had to cancel my planned trip to Disneyland Paris on Sunday - but luckily I was able to get a full refund for the hotel and park package. I’ve had to reschedule my Eurostar booking for next year though, as I can’t get it refunded.

4. I’m still going to London tomorrow though - a Christmas meal with some friends that I haven’t seen in 2 years, followed by Hamilton in the West End… I’m very glad that they’ve made masks mandatory in theatres now. My friend went to see a show in London last night and she said hardly anyone was wearing a mask

5. I’ve been trying a lower-calorie diet since the beginning of November and I’ve lost 10lbs already . Haven’t managed to get in as much exercise as I’d like, but it’s been going pretty well so far.


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Happy Friday!

1.) Having a Christmas lunch today with my team. We're only a team of 3 so we fit fine into the 3 households mixing.

2.) Outdoor Christmas carol busking with the brass band this weekend. High temperatures of 3C tomorrow and 5C on Sunday. Hope we make loads of money to offset the freezingness.

3.) Spit roasting a chicken on the bbq this weekend.

4.) Have to start the wrapping. Uggh. Uggh.

5.) Might do a wee bit of baking this weekend.  Not sure what.   

Friyay!!!

1.  I was worried about where we would hide Christmas presents with the extension (and house in tatters), as my 7 year is a bit snoopy.  Not intentionally looking for presents, she's just snoppy in general.  So we have a PILE of cardboard box deliveries in the front  hall.  Kids aren't the least bit interested.  HA!  Hiding in plain sight!

2.  Only plans for the weekend are to see Home Alone at the cinema tomorrow.  Still a bit iffy if we should go or not.  I can get a refund up until showtiime. 

3.  Well, other plans are my booster Sunday morning.  Center of Reading at Christmas time but it's before shops open so hoping there isn't traffic chaos.

4.  The kittens are just the cutest things EVER.  Had their "pom poms" off on Wednesday.  My husband was sympathetic but also glad we don't have to look at them anymore as they were getting bigger by the day.  Night before last I caught them sleeping with my son and not me.  My husband laughed last night that when we went to bed every single door in the house was closed except for our bedroom door.  THEY MUST CUDDLE ME AT NIGHT.  They obliged.   

5.  I need to go to Ikea to pick up a portable induction hob (single) as our kitchen will be out of action on January 4th.  I don't know if (1) I can brave Ikea before Christmas or (2) if I should just pay £5 for collection and not have to go through the maze and find the hob....  WAIT, just looked and delivery is £4.  SOLVED. 

8 more sleeps until Christmas!

PB, have fun but stay warm this weekend!  Do your group play Oh, Holy Night?

KF, I won't say how long it took me to figure out what you meant by the kittens' pompoms, but it was amusing once I realized.  I mean, not for the kittens, for sure! 

My five:

1.  My inlaws are coming to see us tomorrow, despite omicron and everything.  My FIL has a new serious health concern, so my husband doesn't want to tell them no.  I'm with him on that, but at the same time, his serious health concern had him inside a hospital on Saturday for a scan, and now he is coming here.  So I'm a little bit anxious.  Still, they're coming in their campervan (with their own loo), and we'll be socializing from a distance in the garden.  As long as my husnand and I stay upwind of them, it shouldn't be too risky.  I might even feed them. 

2.  Other than #1, things are going pretty smoothly.  The squirrels have discovered my birdfeeder, though, so that's not great.  But the birds have also discovered it.  Word has gotten out, and I'm seeing new varieties of birds all the time.  It's still overwhelmingly tits (blue and great), robins, and our resident magpies (who are still afraid of the feeder, but now come around for the mealworms, again).

3.  Bread dough is proving.  All is right with my Friday.

4.  I mentioned before that I often send friendly notes to companies when I order things, using the "special instructions" text field on the checkout page.  Usually things like "have a great day!" or "thanks for being so awesome!".  My coffee roaster gets longer messages, because in the early days of the pandemic I decided to let him know how I felt about each variety of bean we tried, and how much I appreciated the coffee portion of my mornings.  One day I said "I'm not even sure if anybody reads these, but I enjoy writing them, so..." and he emailed me to let me know he does read and enjoy the notes.  In my last order, I commented about this year's special roast for Christmas and how I wished there was a sample sized of around 50g I could buy because I was sure my husband would like it, but the flavour notes didn't sound like my thing so I didn't want to commit to too much, but I wanted to try it.  He threw in a small bag of it with my actual order (and it was actually really enjoyable for both of us).  So... (see #5)

5.  We made some coasters with mahogany inlays of their new logo to send as a little gift.  My husband tried one out to make sure they work. 

 Love it JF!

I’m not a coffee drinker but this American family who I know in real life are coffee makers.  Is that what they are called? 

This is their product. Could be worth a try!

https://www.leecoffee.co.uk/

Love it JF!

I’m not a coffee drinker but this American family who I know in real life are coffee makers.  Is that what they are called? 

This is their product. Could be worth a try!

https://www.leecoffee.co.uk/

Ooh... maybe we will order some Ethiopian beans.  I've been curious to know how it compares to the South American varieties we've tried.

JFKimberly, hope goes all okay with the in-laws


Well all my gigs have now been cancelled.  So I have a free weekend.

JFKimberly, hope goes all okay with the in-laws


Well all my gigs have now been cancelled.  So I have a free weekend.

Oh, PB... I'm sorry everything is cancelled.  I hope it's only due to restrictions, and not because members are ill.  Maybe you can do the baking you were considering.

The squirrels have discovered my birdfeeder, though, so that's not great.  But the birds have also discovered it.  Word has gotten out, and I'm seeing new varieties of birds all the time.  It's still overwhelmingly tits (blue and great), robins, and our resident magpies (who are still afraid of the feeder, but now come around for the mealworms, again).

I love our grey squirrels. I know they're not popular and why but I still do.

They are brave little things too, visiting the windowsill with nothing but a pane of glass between them and the cats who are just fascinated by them!

I love our grey squirrels. I know they're not popular and why but I still do.

They are brave little things too, visiting the windowsill with nothing but a pane of glass between them and the cats who are just fascinated by them!

I know I did myself no favours when I laughed and then corrected my old manager when she announced she didn't like grey squirrels because they kill the reds.

She didn't understand the greys threaten the natural environment of the reds but thought they were just out there murdering reds.

My work life went dramatically downhill from there.

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I love our grey squirrels. I know they're not popular and why but I still do.

They are brave little things too, visiting the windowsill with nothing but a pane of glass between them and the cats who are just fascinated by them!

I confess, I like them, too.  I'm still upset at the damage they did to my bird feeder, but squirrels are adorable.  I enjoyed watching them before.  Now I watch them so I can shoo them away from the feeder.  But  maybe we'll reach some kind of agreement and go back to peaceful co-existence.

I confess, I like them, too.  I'm still upset at the damage they did to my bird feeder, but squirrels are adorable.  I enjoyed watching them before.  Now I watch them so I can shoo them away from the feeder.  But  maybe we'll reach some kind of agreement and go back to peaceful co-existence.

They have some teeth!
So cute too how they hide their food for later.. I always feel guilty when I dig up a peanut or acorn of theirs which they've so carefully stashed in a safe place!

5.  We made some coasters with mahogany inlays of (our coffee roaster's) new logo to send as a little gift.  My husband tried one out to make sure they work. 

The coasters were delivered yesterday, and the guy seems to like them!  He knew what they were, so that was a good start!  And he instagrammed one, so he doesn't seem to be just thanking me politely over email and tucking them away somewhere.  (We are "Domo and the Beeps".)

The coasters were delivered yesterday, and the guy seems to like them!  He knew what they were, so that was a good start!  And he instagrammed one, so he doesn't seem to be just thanking me politely over email and tucking them away somewhere.  (We are "Domo and the Beeps".)

Oh, amazing!!

Ho Ho Ho!

1.) Christmas Eve!!!!!!!!!

2.) Sleigh is packed and ready for take off.  Just getting my hot cocoa flask ready and I'm good to go!

3.) Reindeer are dancing around in excitement. They've been working out hard all year to make sure they can deliver everything in one night!

4.) Mrs Claus is cooking up a big pile of food for when I get home. Yum! And then my long winter's nap. Ahh.

5.) You've all been very good this year, so hopefully you find everything under the tree that was on your wishlist!