Friday Five!

Friyay!

1.  Extension had a much better week.  The huge "whoops" was fixed.  Yesterday the first floor had  plaster on one half!  And all of the air conditioning ducting is in.  When we had it done a few years ago, it was only the bedrooms.  Now it'll be the whole house!  Sorry, we will never have hot weather again.   

2.  Off to London Sunday.  Husband and I are doing "Money Heist the Experience".  I'm hoping it'll be as cool as I'm anticipating.

3.  Then, in the evening, I'm meeting two girlfriends to see Dita Von Teese which was rescheduled from 2020! 

4.  The holiday we go on in May/June has a circus school and I am SO out of shape.  I have ZERO muscle.  I need to start doing planks, crunches, push ups, and pull ups to prep.  Otherwise I'll spend the holiday in the hospital! 

5.  Really hoping the rain tomorrow is intermittent and really light.  Dying to walk over to the winery on the other side of our public footpath. 

So much going on, KF!  One might think you've been cooped up for a couple of years and now you've been set free!  Have fun!  And let us know how that Money Heist thing is.

My five:

1.  My FIL had a surgery yesterday to treat bowel cancer.  He was in GA for 8.5 hours, which was far longer than I was led to expect.   But the post-op news seems positive, so here's hoping they got it all and he doesn't have any complications.

2.  We've expanded our bird feeding.  Now we include "ground noms" for the ground feeders and the squirrels.  And we've had confirmed sightings of at least three different squirrels.  We've mostly trained them not to climb the feeding station pole, too.  Mostly.

3.  Fresh-baked baguettes are a daily thing, now. We're constantly working on the ratios and  technique, and we have two different approaches... one for a traditional baguette, and one for a softer result for sandwiches.

4.  I have had the best sandwiches the past month.  And now my husband is happy to eat sandwiches, too!  He's tried and liked all of my favourites except the turkey-breast-drenched-with-malt-vinegar one.  He had truffle dijonnaise on that one.  And the whole time we were eating, he was laughing at my dripping-with-vinegar sandwich while I was sighing happily with each bite.  It's been a long time.

5.  It's coffee time and it's Friday!  Yay!

Happy Friday!!
KFDancer, hope you can get to that winery!  JFKimberly, homemade baguettes sound amazing!!

1.) Ahhh, Friday.  Definitely double the coffee type of morning.

2.) Playing a concert tomorrow night. Classical orchestral music.  Should be lovely 

3.) Need a new phone.  Uggh.  Mine keeps crashing, freezing, dying. 

4.) Getting into the garden. Tis time now! 

5.) Have booked a trip to the US. Yay. 

Hi everyone!

1. really enjoying the nights drawing out... means only one of my dog walks is in the dark, so i'm appreciating that! 

2.  I won a £20 gift voucher for a new patisserie in town!  I never win anything, so I'm pleased, but wish it could have been from the bakery with the cinnamon buns, or one of the Chinese takeaways.  For a small town, we have a ridiculous amount of Chinese takeaways!

3.  OH going away this weekend to see Evil Blizzard in Leeds, and then to hang out in Manchester for a couple of days, enjoying the craft beer scene.  I'm staying at home with the dogs, but i like it when OH goes away cos i get to do my own thing without having to take his wishes/expectations into consideration!

4.  My car got vandalised last weekend... someone kicked my wing mirror off, and it's just hanging by a cable.  Why are people such utter barstewards? WHYyyyyyy? Taking it for a repair estimate tomorrow.  Just what i needed.  NOT.    Wherrrrrre is my stupid stimulus payyyyymennnnnt!?!?! 

5.  Anybody watching Married At First Sight Australia?

5. 

Hi everyone!

1. really enjoying the nights drawing out... means only one of my dog walks is in the dark, so i'm appreciating that! 

2.  I won a £20 gift voucher for a new patisserie in town!  I never win anything, so I'm pleased, but wish it could have been from the bakery with the cinnamon buns, or one of the Chinese takeaways.  For a small town, we have a ridiculous amount of Chinese takeaways!

3.  OH going away this weekend to see Evil Blizzard in Leeds, and then to hang out in Manchester for a couple of days, enjoying the craft beer scene.  I'm staying at home with the dogs, but i like it when OH goes away cos i get to do my own thing without having to take his wishes/expectations into consideration!

4.  My car got vandalised last weekend... someone kicked my wing mirror off, and it's just hanging by a cable.  Why are people such utter barstewards? WHYyyyyyy? Taking it for a repair estimate tomorrow.  Just what i needed.  NOT.    Wherrrrrre is my stupid stimulus payyyyymennnnnt!?!?! 

5.  Anybody watching Married At First Sight Australia?

5. 

Ugh, vandalism really gets my back up.  I may have knocked a wing mirror before and reattached it with a tube of epoxy.  It’s an option! 

Is it a new season of MAFSA or the one from this summer?  If from the summer, you know I’ve watched it! 

Happy Friday!

1.) Have an orchestra gig again this weekend. Yay! 

2.) Blurgh. Allergies are kicking off. 

3.) Remind me to stop listening to unsolved mysteries and crimes podcasts right before the end of the work day.  I go out walking into the woods after work often and that just leaves me spooked when I listen to these podcasts before walking. LOL.

4.) Gardening galore.

5.) Have had some good work meetings this week. It's nice to feel good about some work stuff. 

Apart from the allergies (which are getting me, too!) and spooky woodland walks, things sound great, PB. Enjoy the orchestra gig!

My five:

1. Today's dough is resting, and it's looking great. Another flour trial.  We'll see.

2.  The good thing about all these trials is we have quite a lot of flour, and if stored properly  should keep us going for months as wheat prices go up.

3.  We're feeding the entire bird (and squirrel!) kingdom, now.  Suet pellets, fatballs, seed mix, mealworms, and peanuts.  But we have so many visitors!

4.  Our home network server is coming together.  Over the weekend I played Minecraft Bedrock Edition on my Chromebook connected to a virtual machine, and the latency was insignificant for normal gameplay (mining, building, defending against hostile mobs... of course, I wouldn't try PvP!).

5.  Today's temperature is double digits (11°C) for the first time.  When I first moved to the UK, to force myself to acclimate, my rule was double-digits and sunny = go outside.  It's rainy today, but outside weather is coming!

How'd the wing mirror repair go Albatross?

FRIYAY!!!!

1.  Went by the house today. Looking amazing.  Bathrooms are going in upstairs and plastering is being finished.  Next week is BIG push on ground floor.  Electrics, plastering (first coat), and concrete for floors goes down.  Then it cures.  Then big push towards the end. 

2.  Really enjoying the country house.  Lovely to wake to horses.  Trying the pizza oven this weekend.  Has to heat 2-3 hours BEFORE we want pizza.

3.  Met with our interior designers today for our "presentation" on proposals for the new space.  YIPPEE!!!  This is a bit of the fun part.

4.  Lots of catching up with people lately.  Saw some former colleagues last Sunday for Dita Von Teese, dinner with my girlfriends last night, dinner for a friend's birthday tonight, another family over tomorrow to attempt to use the pizza oven.  Just good to not have everything be about the house!

5.  While it's an expensive solution living elsewhere while the building work is being done, WOW, has it reduced my stress levels about the project.  Out of sight, out of mind!

It's been a rough week for me.

1. Needed new asthma inhaler cuz it's been bad due to spring allergies/chlorine, but learned the hard way a side effect is insomnia. I'd been taking it in the afternoon and couldn't figure out why I was having such a hard time sleeping until I'd forgotten, took it a bit later, and proceeded to get zero sleep at all. That meant picking up wheelchair was delayed because definitely can't drive on zero sleep.

2. Wheelchair pickup Monday. Woo!

3. Have house to myself this weekend.

4. Got myself a "pullman loaf" pan to try a new gluten free bread recipe. I can't eat supermarket GF bread from an allergy to the cellulose they use, but there's a newish additive from tapioca starch called expandex so trying a recipe made with that. And it needs a bread pan with high sides to get the rise right.

5. Doing a data project for the first time in a long time. It feels good, but exhausting, to use my brain again.

5. Doing a data project for the first time in a long time. It feels good, but exhausting, to use my brain again.

  Give us some details!   I finally quit the horrid job full of clowns right at the point they started making people redundant.  Started my new job and within 4 DAYS they announced they were making people redundant!  Fortunately me and my team are safe but almost everyone else is at risk and not doing any work. 

  Give us some details!   I finally quit the horrid job full of clowns right at the point they started making people redundant.  Started my new job and within 4 DAYS they announced they were making people redundant!  Fortunately me and my team are safe but almost everyone else is at risk and not doing any work.

Wow, that's rough! Trying to pick up the slack for people who no longer care about their job is always challenging. Sent a PM, but just running a survey and hoping to make a small impact on policy with the results.

Friyay!

1.  Daughter has a tummy ache, which I fear is anxiety.  Not sure if she's going to school yet.  If it is anxiety, she doesn't know what's causing it....  Poor little pet.

2.  Work has been crazy this week and next week will be crazier.  Everyone from around the world is flying in (from finance) for a week long series of meetings and workshops.  I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone in person and having a feeling of normalcy.  I even get a night away in a beautiful boutique hotel!  Just wish my husband could join me. 

3.  Need to go measure the new master bedroom today and ensure that the final measurements match the architects plans.  If they do, I'm ordering a super king bed and the furniture we've picked for the room!  If it's too narrow, we'll have to pick different bedside tables.  (after they've put in the plasterboard, etc., might be slightly less than the plans). 

4.  We had a cleaner start this week.  Yes, at the temporary house.  But they are highly recommended and have a long wait list.  So we are taking advantage of an open spot.  You guys, this sounds crazy, but a cleaner is going to help my families stress levels (my husband and I really) so so so much!  We need someone to take the cleaning away AND to keep me tidy. 

5.  I'm SO happy for the sunny forecast this weekend.  No plans so hoping for more public footpath explorations.  We DID make it to the winery on Sunday and while I say we had a great time, we did NOT have a great time getting there.  Let's just say 4 new pairs of wellie boots (all very tall) arrived yesterday along with new puddle suits for the kids.  We may have trekked through "mud sink holes" on our way to the winery last weekend.  Luckily we were able to avoid the sinkholes (but not the mud) on the way back.  Would LOVE to go to the winery again this weekend and not show up covered in mud, so we may just have to do that!  It's more like a cafe than anything, before people think I'm taking my kids to a bar.  Hot chocolate, cake, afternoon teas, fresh breads, cheeses, etc.  The kids loved it.  So did we.  Just the mud... and the fall into the thorn bush by my daughter made it not a perfect day. 

Awww, hope you can figure out what is bothering your daughter.  Winery through the woods sounds fun!!

1.) Have a day off work, using up holiday time that I will lose by the end of the month if i don't take it.

2.) Made bacon sandwiches this morning as a treat. Mmm. Bacon. 

3.) So many of my family and friends (here and USA) have been in and out of hospital these past few weeks with major issues.  My fingers are chewed to the bone. 

4.) My husband failed to get me allergy medicine, even though it was on the blinkin' shopping list. Aaaaaaaachhhhooooo!

5.) Making pizza this weekend. 

PB, and KF, I hope all of your family members get healthy soon.

Ohmigosh, KF, I wish we had room for that huge bed (or, at least, a bigger bed than the one we have)!  There's no amount of remodeling we can do to make it happen, though... (well, maybe a loft conversion...  our renovation funds have been growing since we can't do anything right now, anyway).

1.  We tried a new bread recipe this week for a specific sandwich (pan Cubano, on the Chain Baker's YouTube channel), and it was amazing.  We will definitely make it again.

2.  I participated in a zoom meeting/chat a few weeks ago, and while I was in it, it was fine.  I enjoyed most of it (one of the group has speech difficulty, and I habe hearing loss, do it was awkward at times).  We made plans to meet up again,  but I keep backing out.  I just don't have any need to be social.  You'd think after two years of only my husband (and two brief visits from his parents) for company... but, no.  I'm back to my old ways.

3.  It's sunny (at the moment) and a high of 14 right now, and more of the same is forecast for the weekend!  There's gonna be so much Outside!

4.   It's half-twelve, I've showered, dressed, made and eaten lunch, and done the washing up.  Plus, the grocery order is placed for tomorrow's delivery.  That's all of my chores done for the day.  I haven't felt this accomplished in years. 

5.  I'm kind of a big deal.

Well, it’s been awhile!

1) Applied for my ILR on March 21, and managed to get and actually pay for priority
2) To book biometrics the only option was one of 3 appointments in Glasgow…none in Edinburgh or Aberdeen
3) Attended biometrics this morning at 8:30
4) At 12:10 my application was ……..wait for it……
5) APPROVED!!!
Thank you so much Everyone for your invaluable information, help, support and love!
I will have to wait until next March to apply for citizenship unfortunately, by then I will have known my professional referee for just over 3 years.
The visa fun is now officially OVER!