I'm rubbish. in Hello.

  • Oct. 11, 2017, 3 p.m.
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I’m aware I don’t update in here very much any more. I’m sorry.
John and I finally managed to declutter and tidy the living room. Our lounge is pretty big and doubles up as a dining room. A couple of years ago, I got a crazy idea to rearrange the furniture, meaning the fire was no longer the focal point. To be honest, I didn’t like it as soon as I’d done it, but because it took me so long to do, I just left it as it was for about 2 years. It was arranged in such a way it was easy to get cluttered and ignore the mess. So the other week, John and I spent a whole day putting it back as it was. Now it’s kept tidy, a quick scoot around and a hoover round the budgie and I’m done. And I feel I can relax.
Also, me eating vegan is encouraging me to make more food from scratch. It’s a lot of trial and error. I don’t like vegan “mince”, but thankfully John does and ate almost an entire cottage pie that I made. My current favourites are creamy mushroom soup made with coconut milk (I’ve made it for two days on the trot now!) and falafel, bean and avocado wraps. I’m also eating breakfast and drinking loads of water, something I wasn’t doing before. I’m a stone and at least a whole dress size down, which I’m chuffed with. I’ve also started walking again, something I used to really enjoy doing, but stopped for some reason. This past week I’ve done one 8 mile and one five mile walks. I need to build up my speed and incorporate more hills to make it worth my while aerobically. I’m trying to save up for a Fit bit, I like seeing things in numbers and graphs!

I’ve had a bit of a low couple of days. Rob and I have an unwritten rule that he contacts me at least once a day. It’s usually just a video of the house kitten or something he’s prepped, often at 2 am, but it’s his way of letting me know he’s there. Yesterday he sent me some screenshots of messages his friend, A, had sent him, basically saying that Rob makes no effort to stay in touch since he moved away and if he doesn’t watch it, he’s going to lose him. FFS. I told Rob that A was being really immature and clingy, that I can not contact my friends for months and we still love each other, that we all have lives and that A could easily pop through to see Rob as he drives and Rob doesn’t. Rob made out it wasn’t bothering him, but I got a hunch it was. I said I’d come through to hang out if he wanted, but he said he was fine. But then he messaged me at 2 am to ask if there was any gossip and he posted a few old photos on Facebook of Rob with John, my dad, the dog, his sisters with grandma, which made me think he was feeling homesick. I didn’t get chance to phone him when I got up, I got called into work early, and John said his calls were going to answerphone. Thankfully Rob messaged me while I was at work, basically poking fun at A and saying he’s got some lovely new friends “he doesn’t need to message every five minutes”. He’s also asked if I’d like him to come home for the weekend, which I’d interpreted to mean please can he come home for the weekend? So I’m picking him up tomorrow after his shift and taking him back on Sunday. Thank goodness I passed my driving test as most of my driving is down to Shap and back!

We are also on flood alert. The river is high and roaring past the house, but it’s stopped raining now and the river is dropping, thank goodness! I’m really pissed off with people coming into the shop and suddenly being experts in river management. I know all about it, I studied it at uni and it’s not as easy as dredging the river or moving some leaves around. Sometimes I feel like saying “hey, there’s an idea! Why don’t you contact the environment agency, I bet they hadn’t thought of that!” Of course I don’t, I just try to ignore them. Or the ones that come in with insincere platitudes or a blasé brush off. I even had one customer tell me today I was wasting my time moving stock upstairs because she was sure it was going to stop raining soon! Oh, ok then. You can pay the enormous insurance premiums or replace all our stock when it’s covered in sewage.
Idiots.



Today marks the first anniversary of Jay’s death. Shellie has been so remarkable and strong, I’m proud to call her my sister.


Last updated October 11, 2017


Seacláid October 11, 2017

I was going to suggest putting worcester sauce in the mince (I made spag bol recently and wondered why it didn't taste as good as I normally make it, turned out I thought I didn't have worcester sauce and so didn't put it in). Holland and Barrett do a vegan worcester sauce by Biona, it's pretty pricey, but if it's a flavour you like then I'm sure it will make the vegan mince taste a bit better.

Babe In Toyland Seacláid ⋅ October 11, 2017

It was the texture more than anything. I smothered it in Bisto and ketchup, but it still tasted like polystyrene!

Seacláid Babe In Toyland ⋅ October 11, 2017

Oh, yea, I remember that being something I didn't like about the Quorn mince. I liked their "chicken" steaks the first time I tried them back in the early 2000s but anything "beefy" I didn't like. Even supermarket own brands for vegetarian mince weren't nice. I hope you find a way of cooking it that makes it taste and feel better.

Lord VileCore October 11, 2017

Apparently the delightfully gittish Bruce of OD fame is attempting to put the band back together, so if you don't mind spending some hard earned cash, because SPOILERS he's not even bothering to hide his greed and is gonna be charging for it, you could always head on back to Scam Island.

Open Diary. I meant Open Diary. Bloody autocorrect.

Bomb Shell October 12, 2017

Was your living room really like that for two years? It only seems about five minutes lol. It must have been not long after the floods; I remember when I got trapped in town because the bridges were closed. I couldn't get back to mam and dad's house and had to sleep on your sofa. I'm sure it was the "old" way then.

Your mushroom soup and wraps sound amazing, nom nom. Well done on losing a stone, I'm really jealous!

Rob's friend sounds weird, there are no rules about how often you have to contact your friends. Rob's sent me a couple of Facebook messages too; one yesterday to check I was ok and to say how proud he still is of both of us for doing the skydive, and one today to say happy birthday :o)

It's funny how people suddenly become experts on things they have no experience of. I lost count of the amount of people who were suddenly probate and conveyancing experts when I said I had to sell the house because Jay's half passed to his parents. Apparently, common law says that his half of the house passes to me, even though we weren't married! And that I should mention this to my solicitor! Wow, thank you clever person, I hadn't thought of checking probate law with my probate solicitor, who went to university for years to become an expert in probate law. They had obviously forgotten about this magic common law legislation that doesn't actually exist. sigh

Babe In Toyland Bomb Shell ⋅ October 12, 2017

I forgot to add, cauliflower tempura is bloody amazing too. Although I need John to make that for me, mine was a disaster!

Lucretia October 29, 2017

I'm not the biggest fan of vegan mince but it's okay if it's in with lentils and the like in a cottage pie or whatnot.
I saw someone else mention the Biona worcestershire sauce, personally I'm a fan of Henderson's Relish. I'm not sure if you can get it outside of Sheffield but it's a great sub.

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