Sunday, September 27, 2009

Mystery in the Garden

Looking out of my living room window as I opened the curtains this morning, I spotted a round green object on the lawn.

I at first took it to be an apple, but yet, where had it come from, I`ve no apple trees in the garden and neither has my neighbour, and even if there had been wind it would have surely been too heavy to have come from far.

My next thought was that it was probably a small tennis ball, but yet again, where could it have come from.

On going out to investigate, it turned out to be a green tomato ! - but the mystery still remains - where has it come from? I`ve no tomato plants in the garden, and haven`t bought any. Has it dropped in from a passing plane, or helicopter?

Or, has Dave thrown one of his tomatoes which haven`t ripened, over to here?!!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Lucy Locket

Lucy Locket lost her pocket....... or so the nursery rhyme goes.

And, it struck me today, that we too have lost our pockets.

Why is it that ladieswear, especially skirts no longer have pockets in them. Where are we expected to put our hankies (or tissues)?

Men`s trousers all have pockets in them, and so it seems do many of their shirts - so why, oh why don`t the designers of ladies wear realise that we too need pockets to put our items in?

And, no, don`t tell me to wear trousers to solve the problem!

Friday, September 18, 2009

Biting my tongue!

On leaving work this morning I had a few minutes to spare before I had to be somewhere else, so looking in our local Building Society and seeing only one person at the counter, I thought, yes I`ve time to just go in there.

All I needed to do was pay one cheque in.

So, in I went and stood at the head of the queue section by the barrier. and I stood...... and stood..... and stood.....and........ The person at the counter had obviously completed her business as she was putting items into her handbag. But the cashier keep asking her questions - "have you got home insurance?`, "do you need information about insurance with us?" "do you want another savings account?......." and so it went on. The woman didn`t seem a bit interested but kept saying that her husband dealt with that. This then encouraged the cashier to go to find some leaflets to give her. By then I`d stood there about 10 minutes. Looking at my watch, gritting my teeth in frustration, at the time it was taking for me to do a simple job. There was no other partition open.

Eventually, the woman went, and I got to the counter to pay in my one cheque. That done - in just a minute - the cashier straight away asked me "have you got personal insurance cover?!" To which I replied a hasty "Yes, thanks. Bye" (I don`t think I have, but I wasn`t going to stop for her to try and sell me some, nor anything else) and turned and left the counter.

How I`d love to have said to her - "I wish you wouldn`t waste peoples time, by asking them all this, but just get on and do the job they came in for." - but, being me, I didn`t. I just seethed inside.

I wondered afterward what her reaction would be, if the next time she stood with one item in a Supermarket queue, the girls on checkout stopped to ask every customer "do you need any bread? and milk? any meat? did you know we`ve got a special offer on cheese its buy one of a certain brand, get another free. etc.....etc......." !!!!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Time to Bake

It was great being able to finish work at lunch time yesterday and have the afternoon to myself.

I did something I`ve not done for years!

On my way home from work, I went into the butchers (no - nothing unusual in that), and bought some sausagemeat.

After I`d had my dinner, I got out my mixing bowl, flour, lard, some water, a knife and made some pastry. I can`t remember the last time I made pastry. Then out came the rolling pin and board and a baking tin. I lined the tin with the pastry, put in the sausagemeat, rolled out another piece of pastry and put that on top. Popped it in the oven and a bit later out came a golden brown sausagemeat patty - duly consumed (or part of it) for my tea. And it was absolutely delicious.

What to do with the little bit of pastry left over from the patty, I wondered.
Then a memory from childhood struck me. I rolled out the pasty quite thin, got out the jar of Marmite, and spread some thinly over the pastry. Folded the pastry over twice, rolled it slightly flatter, then cut it into fingers. Into the oven with them, and 10 minutes later out came tasty Marmite fingers.
What had brought that inspirational memory back to me, I`ve no idea - but I`m glad it did.

It was so good to have time to do things like this.
I know I`m going to enjoy my shorter hours.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Free Hours

It was back to work for me yesterday, after a weeks holiday, and the start of my shorter working week. So now its a case of working out how to best work my hours to make the most of my extra eight "free" hours.

Should I start a bit later each day? -
That could be quite nice now that these mornings are getting darker. But, No, I don`t think I`d gain much by that, because I`d probably get up a bit later. so wouldn`t actually gain any free time at home to do thing in.

Should I do a day less a week? -
It would be nice to have another whole day to myself. But, that would mean I`d get less days holiday entitlement of Bank holidays than I currently do - so maybe that`s not the solution, and it also could be difficult because of one of the new extra jobs I`ve now got at work needs to be done daily.

Should I finish earlier each day?
It would be good to finish work lunch time on three days and have the afternoons "free" - Yes, I think that`s the answer.

I`m lucky that I can be flexible in the hours I work each day, according to the work that needs to be done, and my hours don`t affect anyone else. I think - No, not I think, I Know - I`m going to enjoy having more free time to do some cooking, baking, and hobbies as well as housework and visiting my mother.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Sitting Pretty


Sitting with my mother looking at the sea in the sunshine yesterday afternoon, my attention was drawn to the shrubs in front of us, where a group of sparrows were twittering and jumping about about pecking away at what must have been seed heads on the plants, and really enjoying the feast they had found, so I couldn`t resist getting my camera out to try and capture them. This one obligingly posed for me!