Just a quickie

Hello all. 

Just want to wish you all a Happy Christmas. I know it's only Christmas eve eve but am working tomorrow. Also shopping to get, cleaning to do and a final present drop. So may not get the chance. Thanks for all the follows, comments and to other bloggers - all the interesting posts.

Take care x

photo from the splendid Farne Island Blog - hope they don't mind I used it. Well worth following the wonderful blog x

Strewth

Hello. I think I have a new follower, thanks very much. And to everyone else for following me.

Hope you are all well. Cannot believe how soon Christmas will be. I am making my lists now and feeling relieved each time an email arrives telling me another package has been despatched. Trying to clear a space in the freezer for Christmas meat so we had a dinner of chips, fish and ready made cauli cheese tonight. It's made a nice chicken sized gap. Need to eat our way through a bit more to create space for the Aunt Bessie spuds. I know...cheater.

I have been keeping up with the gluten free although a few errors have occurred. I have tried gf bread and if you can get over the grey pallor and chewy texture it's not too bad. Well it's somewhere to spread the honey and marmite. Although I would pay a tenner for a loaf of Happy Shopper white, gently toasted and covered in butter. mmmmh.

Had a Christmas works do. My first in years. It was very interesting and good fun. I remained sober and can remember every bit of it. Another first. Had to sit opposite a lad that luckily I rarely have to see and will never work with. The sort of person I would hate for my son to be and if I had a daughter, for her to be near.

I'm getting on at work ok. The boss seems a very fair one and doesn't sigh (to often) when I make a mistake. Each week I remember and understand more of the work and he is always willing to explain all aspects of the job.

Whose looking forward to spring? Lighter mornings and evenings. No scraping ice of the car. I am planning what I will grow this year. I will cut back on the courgettes and toms and really go for it with peas/beans. Can't decide whether to take down my mini greenhouse/shelving thingy. Wonder if it will increase it's life if I do? I do a have few things in there but it is mostly a storage /dumping ground.

My car has been suffering from old age this winter. Had to call out the AA twice in the last few weeks. And now one service and new battery later she is ticking along nicely. Probably looking forward to easing off on the school runs like I am. In fact the household does seem to be limping along towards this holiday. I think it will do us all good and give us a chance to rid us of the lethargy and germs that seem to have established themselves.

Take care everyone x

oops

Hello.

Thanks for yesterday's comments.

I thought I was doing very well with my gluten free experiment. But a while ago I began to get familiar pains in my gut. Sharp pains that double me up, bloat my stomach and make me feel sick. Puzzled, I turned to Google.  It turns out the rice cakes I ate for lunch and again this afternoon are not gluten free. I have eaten 5 all together today. It's the Kallo range, the spicy chilli ones. I had them in from ages ago. I've been on the website and when I do the tick box for gluten free they disappear.
Flipping heck, I may as well have had the toast I have been craving. least the pain would have been worth it.
Have got corn thins for lunch tomorrow.yay.

Take care
x

26th November

Hello.

It would have been my mum's birthday today. I did not place flowers at the grave like some did. I may go nearer to Christmas and leave some bright fake flowers. She liked colour, a lot. I find it hard to visit there and don't need to visit to remember. My son and I had to do some shopping together so we sat in BHS café, one of her regular places and shared a hot choc and a plate of chips in her honour.

I wrote these words a while ago and decided to save them for her birthday.

When your mum dies everything is tinged with sadness. You may hear a favourite song, shop in a particular shop or eat a particular food that triggers a memory. You may laugh at a joke and momentarily think that you will share it with her and then you remember.The phone rings and you wonder if it's her, just for a fleeting moment. You miss the shared glance that needs no words but says everything.
It needn't have been a perfect idyllic childhood. It may have had bad patches, tough times, fallings out and failings. But there was always unconditional love and when it goes so does a little of yourself. The deep deep feeling that something has gone for good that will never be replaced.
Life goes on and you are a changed person. Celebrations are missing a vital person and family photos have a space.

Take care

x

Day 2.

Hello.

Thanks for helpful comments yesterday, given me some ideas.

Am on day 2 of strict gluten free. Am bloody starving ha. But that because it's Monday and it's our rush day - as the Bangles sang. Normally would grab a few cheesey pittas but have had crispbread instead and olives. Going to reheat yesterdays stew for supper when I pick up son later. So looking forward to it already. No time for breakfast or lunch today so had a banana and yoghurt in between tasks at work today. Will get in order eventually with it all I'm sure and as soon as things calm down timewise will be able to cook some proper meals. Probably by Wed.

If I can keep this going for 2 weeks will be interesting to see if it makes a difference. It's probably a coincidence but my back and legs are comfortable and my neck, which is always sore recently, is manageable.

Was such a frosty morning that de icing the car made us late leaving for school. It turned out the ice we were scraping away at was in the car. Is that normal? On the way back a van decided it wanted to be in the exact spot I was in at a busy roundabout. A huge swerve avoided disaster as he (definitely was) sailed away unconcerned and I think unaware of me. From the erratic way he turned the corner he was either lost or ....well a bad word that I shouted loudly at him.
I then spent nearly an hour on the phone to the council about a £300 council tax bill they have sprung on me to pay by the new year. With that and the error on my rent account I think I would have been better off by not working this month. Or at the least I will be a very few pounds better off. I know people say it's because benefits are so high - it really isn't honest. Last winter was really choosing between eating or heating. I didn't expect it to be like this again now I'm working. Although I really do love this job and at least I'm not home freezing(try not to put heating on unless both of us are home).   Anyways all of  that was before I got to work ha.
I tell you what no matter if we only break even for a while at least I'm not signing on. Probably if I have the chance to increase my hours in time things will get better. Just imagine if I hated my job.

Oh and good news will see a friend tomorrow who is an expert in gluten free living, timing or what.

x

Gluten free?

Hello.

Hope you are all well. Raining away at the moment but sun is forecast for the afternoon. 

Yesterday I was like a proper keeper of a house and did cleaning and baking. I baked a loaf, not from scratch I just added water to a packet mix. I have tried many times and many ways to make bread without success and this joined the pile. However I did salvage the ends and we had jam on them. I also made a pizza base but unfortunately the scales broke at the moment I was weighing up the flour. Hence a rather doughy pizza was made and eaten. Shame as it was the scales from my childhood.

After my pizza lunch I felt sluggish and kept yawning on the dog walk. Then when I had the bread that evening I started aching all over - legs, back and neck. I have arthritis in my neck, I suffer from lower back pain and often get a heavy achey feeling in my legs. However this was quite a quick onslaught of all 3. I did a google and apparently gluten can cause inflammation and not just gut problems. I knew a long time ago I needed to limit the amount of bread I eat as I can verge on suffering from IBS and bread was definitely a trigger.

I know a little knowledge can be a bad thing but I am wondering whether to do a little test with myself and see if I can eradicate gluten for a couple of weeks and watch for results. My only drawback is it may get pricey and laziness: the thought of planning and cooking meals quite strictly. I'm not a planner and  but for having to feed someone else would happily live on toasties. I have avoided taking sandwiches to work for a fortnight but end up going hungry as the alternatives have been yucky. However I did have an Uncle Ben's rice pot thing and it had plenty of sauce and was quite edible. Cannot bear dry food. The rice is white though and so I was really hungry a few hours later. Bread and pizza fills me up for hours.

Does anyone have a few tips please? I am going to try a meal plan for this week to avoid gluten. If I can manage to incorporate it into meals without having to cook separate meals I have more chance of sticking to it. Breakfast could be yoghurt instead of cereal I suppose. Not sure for lunches yet.
Off to plan.

Take care x

the sadness

I sit here content with a full belly, hair straightened ready for work, good documentary on the tv and my son happily flitting around doing his own thing. Yet just a few miles north families are mourning the loss of their children in a car crash.

It happened in the damp mist of last night and now instead of normal Sunday prep for school tomorrow they are dead and books of condolences have been opened.

My son is of the age where his friends are getting ready to drive. Some have scooters while they wait to reach 17 and can then apply for their provisional. Between us and them are many twisting country lanes. I drive them many times a day and night in awful conditions and know how difficult the bends can be to negotiate. A while ago I made him promise not to get in a car driven by any new or young driver. I will provide a lift whenever I can or pay for a taxi.
It only takes a little inexperience, a moment of anger or a headrush of racing and they could be gone. If he becomes a driver I would not want him to be have the responsibility of youngsters in his car either.

I never faced this problem as a kid. Only one person I knew passed her test and borrowed the family car. The rest of us made do with buses or a begged lift. But then I lived in London with a good transport system. Although I do remember a long walk home in the snow along the A13 one night.

I don't want to even begin to contemplate the loss being faced, it is too painful.  I wish they were rushing to finish last minute homework, packing their school bag and having a quick game of Fifa.

x