Friday Five!

1. We had a fabulous week in Manchester with our son. Great weather Tuesday and Wednesday, light rain most of the day on Thursday so it was Manchester Art Museum and the Ryland Library plus a reminder of our past with lunch at Popeyes, eating some Louisiana style fried chicken. The other days we went further afield and visited the Imperial War Museum North, The Lowry Art gallery and the Manchester Library. While wandering through the city I spotted a statue of Abraham Lincoln which I went over to take a photo of.  I knew the story behind why his statue was there with a copy of the letter he wrote to the working people of Manchester who came out on an extended strike and refused to process the cotton coming in from the Confederate States of America in support of the fight against slavery.
The story is here: (hope you can open it)
https://ilovemanchester.com/why-manchester-abraham-lincoln-statue-square


2. We had some other wonderful eating experiences this week, with Japanese, Korean, Armenian and Christmas market street food. On the Tuesday we went to see the musical "Singing in the Rain" which was exceptionally good. It was our son's choice and it turned out to be a good one.


3. Traveled back from Manchester this morning.  Trains all on time and daughter picked us from Saltburn as planned. The weather was back to being lovely. We wandered out from the hotel to have breakfast, then back to the hotel to finish packing and checkout at 10. Short walk up to the train station.  What a great week.

4. Unpacked and read the mail for the week, then walked to the corner shop to pick up some fresh fruit and milk to have with our evening meal of shrimp stir fry, made with some of the fresh vegetables that were delivered today.  Daughter had already divided up the box for which she pays a third.

5. It is now 7pm and it has started raining so time to watch some of my TV programmes that I recorded while we were away.

That sounds like a splendid trip! I miss being able to just hop a train. They are starting one on the Metro line from Albany, which we're not too far from, that'll go straight down into NYC, but it's like $100 and only is going to run twice a day. Not good for us.

My 5

1) It's cold. As in really cold. It was 2F on the balcony (saith the weather monitor - I think that's like around -17C) when I woke up this morning. The TV news was saying -1F. I am thankful I put plastic sheeting up over the windows, as there was condensation even on the side inside the house.  It's up to, according to my weather station's monitor out on the balcony, a whopping 26F now. A veritable heatwave.

2) It's pretty out - on and off clouds, snow on everything that's not roadway. We got somewhere between 8 and 10 inches.  Looks pretty on the branches of the trees. Had some little birds show up on the balcony. I assume they remembered that we had put seeds out there every year for them. No seeds this year, though. Landlord not pleased with bird feeders. Felt really bad for them, too (the birds, not the landlord). They looked miserable.  Found an old package of dried mealworms in a box in the hall cupboard - might bundle up and sneak out and sprinkle a few over the balcony railing.

3) Speaking of cold, I have to bundle up for real, and mask up, and head over to the grocery store in a bit. Have some excellent coupons for discounts that I don't want to waste. Plus, we're almost out of milk. They are doing a lot of "loss leaders" on things like sausage, milk, butter, and cheese, and I can't pass that up.

4) Back to the cold - there's a scene in Dr. Zhivago where they are out in the country, living in part of an estate, surrounded by glistening white snow as far as the eye can see. I can relate. All that is missing is the sound of the wolves howling at night. (And Omar Sharif.)

5) We're off to the city on our field trip this weekend. Going to go to the Art Museum, which apparently has a good Egyptian exhibit. And general shopping and people watching. It's supposed to be 40F there....

I forgot to mention, yes, I could open the article. Thanks for posting it.

Happy Friday!
1.) Had the day off work and made beer

2.) Right dang in the middle of a busy Christmas music season! 

3.) Have a chicken to roast up for dinner 

4.) The news ,everyday, makes me   

5.)  Guess I better put up the Christmas tree this weekend, getting close now. 

Ya can't go wrong with beer, and it's a decent antidote for the news.  I wish I could drink alcohol.

1) It's still cold out, but not so bitterly as earlier in the week and last week. We'll be heading to the grocery shop this afternoon. On-again/off-again lake effect snows roll through periodically. I've managed to switch the weather radio from blaring the end-of-the-world-nuke-attack sound to just a blinking light, thank heavens.  Ya get so that you can look at the sky in the west and gauge how long you have before it hits by the color of the clouds. The wind is harder to sort out. It'll go hours with not a hint of a breeze, and then the next thing the snow is being blown horizontally off the building roofs and the pine trees' branches are whipping all over the place.

2) We went down to NYC on the library Christmas bus last weekend. Manhattan was just packed, but it was great. Reminded me of Oxford Street, London, but on steroids as far as the crowds. It's really "white bread" where we live (except for our immediate neighborhood) and I hadn't realized how much I missed all the ethnic diversity there is in a big city. Big demonstration in front of Trump Tower, and every window on our local city bus (we were too lazy to walk it) seemed to have at least one  upraised middle finger in it on that side of the bus as we crawled past the building. We couldn't get into Rockefeller Plaza as it was shoulder-to-shoulder there, but went to the Met to look around (the Tiffany glass windows were spectacular) and also saw an exhibit in the NYC Library of Winnie the Pooh memorabilia - they had the original Poohbear, Eyore, Tigger, and Piglet - who was so tiny! (They were across from a Gutenberg bible. Interesting combination, but hey, who am I to judge?)  I was surprised they were in NYC instead of like London, but apparently they were sold on back in the late 1940s. Also managed to get into my favorite Danish bakery and bought way too much, but it was good for a few days (even if slightly stale). It was a nice trip, and we saw and did a lot. The daughter's feet were sore for a few days. The only down to it for me was that I managed to get a dodgy crepe from a street vendor and paid for it all day on Sunday. Monday wasn't great, either. I was just thankful that it didn't hit while we were on the multi-hour bus ride home. (It took over an hour to get out of Manhattan, the traffic was so bad, and through the Lincoln Tunnel.)

3) The tree is up and decorated. I still have to brave the cold and wind to get the tinsel garland and big red bows up on the railing of our balcony. We went with little battery-powered candles in the windows this year - kind of a minimalist look for outdoor lighting. (But one the landlord won't complain about.) I refuse to diminish the holidays and the decorations due to... events unfolding around me.   

4) I slacked off this year and, instead of buying individual gifts to mail to my friends, went with sending fruitcakes from a Cistercian Abby in Missouri. They ship direct, and their cakes are top quality.  We have one under Christmas tree now, waiting for Christmas Eve to cut into. I do still have one elderly friend in far West Texas I need to shop for, and I had better get a wiggle on if it's going to get there by Christmas.  Their mail all goes through Dallas, then is put on a truck to the nearest town of size, and then gets picked up every few days and taken to the tiny town where she has her PO box. She sends her son into town once a week to pick up the mail. We are talking seriously rural there. Anyway, she's not a "fruitcake" person, so I'll be sending her some really good quality coffee, some biscuits, a nice packet of tea, some local honey, and some local maple sugar candy. Assuming I can find the coffee and tea I want to put in there. (I think I've probably missed getting it to her by Christmas, but it'll get there eventually.)

5)I've been so tired lately (probably mostly existential angst) that I have been falling behind on the housework. I am taking a break right now from it, and have finally got the library looking less like a bomb went off in it. I got all the Guinea Pig's fleece bedding washed (has to be done by hand) and the kitchen tidied, so I just need to steam clean the floor in there and it's done.  Then there's a few loads of laundry (for the machine, thank goodness) to lug to the basement to do and the beds made up with clean bedding and I'll call it all done. Nothing quite like comfy, fresh flannel sheets on a bed in the winter.

I just don't know how it got to be the middle of December already. I literally lost most of the year into a blur.



 

Friday felicitations!

1.  Christmas tree is finally up.  I was swithering on whether or not i'd bother, given it's just me and 2 dogs, but i decided to do it since it is the first Christmas in my new house.

2.  Going to a Christmas market in New Cumnock tomorrow.  One of my pals is working on a dog treats stall, so we'll go to sample her wares.

3.  got a letter from DWP confirming my state pension age is 67 (as if i didn't know!?  as if all my hopes and dreams are not hanging on this?!) There was a link to check my pension forecast and check if i could top it up, so i checked and it said i was on track for getting the maximum already.

4.  I might have a mouse/many mice.  I opened the cupboard where i keep my bin and noticed lots of wee black bits that i'd not seen before.  I'm going to give it a good clean tomorrow and see if the black bits re-appear.

5.  my neighbour (the one that was in jail) seems to have cleared off.  No sign of her all week, so it appears she's playing by the rules now and staying away from this area. YAY.  She left all the pallets and wood cladding and stuff in the garden.  I'm trying to think if i should try to grab some of the pallets and make a fence with them.  Thing is, i'm not strong enough to do it on my own, so i'd have to hire someone and I just don't have the funds at the moment. 

[I don't think there is any such universe where it's only one mouse.] Congrats on your new house and losing the neighbor-from-hell!

1. The tree is up!! For the last time we think, it is tough work hauling it out of the loft and wrestling it downstairs. Next year we’ll donate it and stick with something much smaller.

2. The work on the new downstairs bathroom was completed yesterday.  Love the new set up. No idea how old the old bathroom was. We have made the new walk-in shower much more disabled friendly, and added grab handles near the toilet and by the built-in seat in the shower. Perfect for when my wife’s brother visits, and for our future selves.

3. Got together with a dozen or so volunteer guides yesterday afternoon at our local Wetherspoons for a few drinks. Great time, very enjoyable.

4. Christmas dinner out with friends at 12 today, then tonight to a concert where our daughter was playing bass clarinet.

5. Tomorrow night we will be at another concert where our daughter will be playing flute and piccolo in a different band.

1. Well, the Christmas tree went up on the 9th, and was taken down on the 16th.  The dogs knocked it over twice and i just decided 'screw it'.

2.  I have had a foster dog this week... wee Celine.  She is sweet and adorable, but a bit slow on the uptake with the house training. She goes to her new home on Sunday, and i will be bleaching the floors!!

3.  Pizza and beer tonight!

4.  Lots of shopping to do tomorrow - got a bit of breathing space this month, financially, as South Lanarkshire council tenants only have to pay 50% rent in December and July.  Not a bad wee perk to being in social housing.

5.  Another wee perk for council tenants... pest control came out yesterday and laid a bunch of bait boxes for my rodent visitors.  No cost to me. 

1. Last night I went out with my friend of 45 years to our favorite restaurant. We go most Thursdays but various activities and travels have meant that it had been a month since we last went out.  I pick him at 5 and we are back home well before 7 after a couple of bar snacks and a pint of beer.

2. Beautiful day so this morning after breakfast we drove a few miles to the coast and went on a 4 mile walk through the woods and along the promenade at Saltburn.  Had coffee and a cheese scone and bought some interesting cheeses from a specialty cafe we know.

3. This afternoon I had a walk down town to pick up some wall filler to fix a hole in my daughter’s partners wall. He had had an outside electric socket installed last week. I’ll go round to his place on Sunday morning to do the repair after we’ve all had breakfast at our usual place.

4. My sister called to say she can’t make the  Xmas quiz and dinner tomorrow night (Saturday). This is something my wife and I arrange and pay for every year. It is always a great night out and my sister always loves it. Her husband and daughter will still be going so there will still be 7 of us.  She has come down with the flu. Her husband had the flu pretty badly 3 weeks ago and she thought she had escaped it. She has lupus (autoimmune problem) so the whole family had the flu vaccine because when she catches something she is really ill.

5. Our son has had the flu this past 2 weeks but is better now and told me today he’d be joining us for breakfast in the morning. (As well as our Xmas quiz and dinner in the evening). He is pleased that he got the vaccine because a colleague at work didn’t get the vaccine and was really ill with it. Our son was able to work from home so didn’t need to take time off.

Hope everyone recuperates quickly, Durhamlad! And all have a good time.  Don't blame you on the tree, Albatross. We used to have cats and it was always a challenge to keep the tree intact. Hope you enjoyed your pizza and beer. How was the Christmas market you went to last week? Good, I hope?



1) A weird weather thing blew in last evening. It was quite cold, as per normal, and then overnight it went up to 54F (12C?). (I happened to note the thermometer when I got up quite early this morning.) Was able to open the slider onto the balcony and air the house out for a few hours. Then we got bands of really torrential rain. Later in the day the direction of the wind shifted and it dropped 20 degrees in a couple of hours. It's still on the way down as I type, sitting at freezing. Almost all the accumulated snow has melted and the roads are heavily puddled, so when it freezes I would think we're going to have a lot of people spinning out on the roads tonight. (Hopefully nobody gets hurt!)

2) Went out for lunch at our favorite as-close-as-we-can-get-to-real-Mexican-here restaurant this week. Nice big plate of chicken fajitas.  Brought half of it all home and will be having it for lunch tomorrow. Haven't been over there since last spring, and there was only one other occupied table in the place.  I felt like the python that swallowed the pig, many hours later! Enjoyed thoroughly that they had Christmas carols playing over the intercom, all in Spanish and many done by Mariachi. (Got to practice my Spanish comprehension.) I do enjoy Mariachi music, it's so cheering. I had never heard "Jingle Bells" or "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" done that way before - it was great!)

3) I don't shop much there anymore, but stopped into Target on the way home as they had Marks & Spencer Christmas tins of cookies, includingJaffa Cakes and shortbread, on sale. There is no other place in town to get M&S, and it's only available around Christmas.  Just had a cup of tea and a few pieces of shortbread - heaven! (Will go back after Christmas when everything is marked down drastically and buy up enough to last until we don't want to see another one of them... as I do every year, it seems.)

4) Yesterday was the Guinea Pig's 4th anniversary of coming to live with us. Hard to believe it's been that long!  Time is just flying by. (She got a "birthday" raspberry as a treat in honor of the occasion.) She also got her picture taken with Santa last Sunday. It's terminally cute, but I'm not supposed to post "family" photos online for privacy reasons, so I can't share it here. She behaved perfectly and won Santa over by starting to groom his glove while he held her. Many "awwwwwws" by the staff standing around, and from Santa, and many photos were taken of her by the clerks on their own phones. The pig is clever, and knows quite well how to manipulate humans. Treats were involved.

5) Took a break from following the news today. Just looked long enough to see that the Epstein files release has serious problems, as expected. I do hope some enterprising soul leaks the whole damn cache of them, ala Wikileaks, unredacted. Well, one can hope anyway. I have a cousin who is about ten years older than I am and he finally seems to have realized what's going on in DC. It's kind of amazing really, to read his emails. Like he was in fairyland or something all year.... Boomers, what can I say?      Instead I watched a bunch of Christmas Market videos on YouTube and was pleasantly surprised that I could read a lot of the signage in the ones taken in France. I guess the "watch the French Lesson right before bed" strategy is working, after all.    I really miss the Edinburgh Christmas market.

It seems to be Friday again. Another gray day.

1) We went out to "vulture pick" - hit up some shops that had tremendous markdowns (50% or more) of merchandise that didn't sell for Christmas. It was too crowded at the couple of places I had initially wanted to go so we aborted-mission on those. The Daughter tried Barnes & Nobles for a calendar she wanted, but they didn't have any that suited her. She's looking online instead. Stopped at the Post Office to pick up some packages, and to mail one out. Our shipment of Harney Tea had arrived at our PO box, so life is good again.

2) It's bitterly cold out, and we're under a winter storm warning again. I parked the car out in the "car barn" (a sort of carport) and the short walk back from it (it's in the center of our complex) to the house without wearing a scarf over my mouth and nose has proved to be a mistake. My nose is still burning an hour later. I think it's about 11F out there. Oops.   

3) The weather warning system here is in quite a state. The Emergency Broadcast System has gone off on the radio and TV at all hours (my daughter was swearing at the one last night at around midnight when she had just fallen asleep listening to the classical broadcast on the radio). The weather radio has not.  I did get one weather-radio alert at about two in the morning a few days ago, but nothing on the incoming storm. The weather radio itself is working fine - I guess there simply hasn't been anyone physically at the National Weather Service over the holiday to flip the alert transmit switch. Thanks to the budget cuts and layoffs, I presume.  Every news source has a different version the the impacts of the storm. Averaging out, it looks like we're in for up to 10 inches. Thankfully it's to be the fluffy kind and not the kind that takes power lines down. I hope the neighborhood kids get outside to enjoy it.

4) The universe has a perverse sense of humor. We got a flower seed catalog in the post this week. The ground won't be thawed for a good four months.

5) I found a new recipe to use in my bread machine - a very simple one - that makes a nice loaf that's perfect for peanut-butter sandwiches!

1. Today is Boxing Day. The name comes from a time when the rich used to box up gifts to give to the poor. Boxing Day was traditionally a day off for servants - a day when they received a special Christmas box from their masters. The servants would also go home on Boxing Day to give Christmas boxes to their families.

2. Because our son is working 11 hour shifts Christmas Day and Boxing Day our “Christmas Day” will be tomorrow at our daughter’s house. There will be 8 of us there and that is when the presents will be given out.

3. I drove round to our daughter’s house to drop off a load of gifts ready for tomorrow.

4. Weather is fabulous so my wife, her visiting sister and I went for a walk ending up at a coffee shop. Very relaxing.

5. Leftovers for dinner, did some puzzles and then a 1 hour video call with my wife’s brother and her family. Very nice day indeed.

I'm doing my five a day early because reasons. 

1) We'll be heading out to Ithaca to take the Guinea Pig back to the cancer specialist at Cornell. It looks like it's come back. At least we've had a thaw and the roads won't be so snowy and icy. Rainy all the way, but that's ok. Our car is lightweight so I'll be adding some ballast in the back, just for safety. Thankfully there's a Pilot truck stop about 1/3 of the way there that has really good coffee. Thankfully, also, the appointment this time isn't until almost noon, unlike previous appointments at 8:30am, so I won't have to drive like a bat out of hell to get there on time. And it'll be daylight most of the way.

2) So it looks like the Daughter's work has been extended through the Spring. There are noises that the project she's working on won't be viable until several months after that, so I'm half-expecting another extension of several more months into the fall. Whatever.

3) Our landlord called Tuesday and said workmen were coming to replace our furnace Wednesday afternoon. They showed up at 8:00am Wednesday morning while we were just getting functional. Thankfully I had moved the furniture and cleared most of the potted plants and boxes of stuff that was all over the place away Tuesday evening so they could drag the old unit off our balcony and through our living room, and then the new one up the reverse path. Happy surprise, we also got a brand new central A/C installed.  The old furnace & A/C appear to have been original to the building (mid 1970s) the workguys said.  Hopefully this will help with the utility bills! It smells like hot metal whenever the furnace kicks on, but I guess that will go away in time. The bathroom is quite toasty today. 

4) We had already planned to be out for part of the day yesterday and so avoided listening to part of the workmen's noise - the local movie theatre was playing Conan the Barbarian (Schwartzenegger and James Earl Jones) on a noon matinee. We had the best seats in the house and were the only people in that theatre. It's always fun to go to a theatre that has the really good sound systems installed - you get all the sound-design, subliminal stuff you don't necessarily hear on a smaller screen or at home. And the soundtrack was quite nice, too. Indiana Jones is playing next Wednesday, but if the Pigster has to have surgery we'll be home with her instead.  They're doing the extended LOTR series in February (three days in a row).

5) I got almost all the Christmas decorations packed back up, just have to wait to take them all to the store room on a day when it's not sleeting or the Pigster doesn't need us home. We seem to have gotten enough cookies, marzipan, shortbread, etc., to last us until spring, if we have only a bit every day with our tea in the afternoons. Haven't gotten into the last box of Jaffa Cakes yet, but we polished off the last of the M&S shortbread yesterday evening. I'm sure we both have put on weight that we'll have to lose when it's warmer. Life could be a lot worse.

Mostly health rated this week.

1.On Wednesday I had a telephone appointment with my consultant to review the findings of the MRI on my left knee. Badly torn cartilage and mild arthritis on the inside of the knee. Discussed various options and I opted for a partial knee replacement.

2. Phone call today from the hospital and we agreed a surgery date of February 2nd, with pre-admission checkup and tests on the 21st of this month. My daughter will drive me in and pick me up, although she wasn't best pleased to hear that I am first on the list and need to be there by 7:30am. (It's a 25 minute drive at that time of day) Good timing as the policy renewal date is Feb 7th and I have already used my £500 deductible for the year. This is similar to what happened in 2021 with my other knee, surgery a few days before the policy expired.

3. Annual discussion with our insurance brokers over a couple of days to review existing policy and research others. Since I am in the middle of treatment I can't change my company but I decided to drop dental coverage and save £40/month as I rarely need treatment, just a couple of cleans and a checkup each year. 1 filling in the 9 years I've been back and that cost £154 in 2022. Hygienist appointments with scale and polish cost £86 these days. My wife has had zero treatments other than scale and polish twice a year like me so we decided to drop her dental coverage as well. We are also switching companies for her, new policy will cost £87/month. Mine will be £112/month, staying with same company.

4. On Monday I took my brother-in-law in for a colonoscopy. His very first invasive procedure of any sort, which is pretty good for a guy in his early 60's. One polyp removed and sent for testing although the doctor expects it to be benign. He opted for no anesthetic, like Pres Trump did during his first term, so could actually have driven himself but I was very pleased to be able to take him. It was snowing like mad on the way back.

5. Snow and ice most of the week. Needed our yaktrax on our shoes several times but the snow and ice has now gone, at least for a day or two. Snow showers expected tomorrow morning but only expected to be light. Fortunately "up north" we have largely missed storm Goretti which has really punished the south west of England with snow, ice and winds of 99mph. Tens of thousands of homes still without electricity at present. At one point 147,983 properties were without power across the South West, Midlands and South Wales.