Finally I have Photos!

I don’t seem very inclined to make new entries on here lately, probably to do with this virus I’m still recovering from. My GP says, it wasn’t Flu! If that wasn’t Flu then I hope I never get the real thing, I don’t know how I can have been any more ill than that  without being hospitalised. He also said that everyone that has had it has taken a minimum of four weeks to recover, including himself. Don’t think that makes me feel any better.

 

I realised the other day, that while I was bedridden, Mike had to go to our local pub and collect our quarter share  of the beef that we buy every year. A quarter of a cow is quite a bit and this is excellent value as it’s organic beef and is hung properly, for a long time, so is always top quality.

 

Normally we put the spare freezer on in the garage, which is only used for this purpose, parties and Christmas. Prior to my collapse, I had emptied the freezer in the kitchen, as much as possible, just to see if I could get it all in there.

 

Well, on the night Mike collected it, I just let him get on with it, I didn’t even  go in the kitchen to have a look. My only inclination to leave my bed was to answer the occasional calls of nature.

 

Mike was very pleased that he’d managed to fit all the beef in to the kitchen freezer and although there was a faint warning bell in the back of my head, I wasn’t too worried.

 

Now I am back at the helm in the kitchen and the time came to try some of this beef.

 

Think about this. You have about a hundred pounds of beef, all nicely bagged up into different cuts. You FILL the freezer drawers with this, soft, pliable substance and switch to fast freeze. What happens? Well, of course, the beef freezes and becomes hard.

 

Now you want to open a drawer, which is very heavy and jammed to the top, so that you have to force it open. You need to find the  particular cut you want……roasting, steak , mince, or stewing. What you can’t do is have anything other than what’s on top because if you go any further down there is no way you are going to get it all back in exactly the same position and the result is, you wont be able to shut the drawer. So until we’ve managed to reduced the quantity slightly, it’s a case of having whatever is on top. Ah well, another valuable life lesson.

 

I’ve had an email from my Union, UNISON. They offered me a two day course aimed specifically at women, to teach them more about the workings of the Union and how to increase our assertiveness. It meant staying in the 4 Star, White Hotel in town with all accommodation and food paid for. I was quite tempted by this, as I could do with being more assertive but then I decided I couldn’t be bothered.

 

Last Saturday we  had another of our days out in Wales. The weather was beautiful, which was surprising, as it had rained none stop throughthe night, with the result  that the brook had covered the bottom hundred feet of our garden. We had discussed moving the chickens back down there the day before but I felt the ground was still too wet, well it certainly was on Saturday! We had lunch in Trecastle, at The Castle coaching Inn and then drove across the Black Mountains and Brecon Beacons to see some of the stunning Welsh scenery. We saw some lovely, very healthy looking ponies on the mountain tops. We then carried on down to the coast

 

On the way home, we stopped at a supermarket, it was dark by then. As we left the car park ,the car in front of us began leaving a trail of bits of paper. The passenger, an adult male, was ripping up waste paper in the car and throwing it out of the window. As I had the camera, I thought I would take a photo of this, for no other reason than to frighten him to death when the flash went off from my camera as we were only a few feet behind. That seemed to have the desired effect. I bet he’s still waiting for a letter. lol

 

Tuesday we took the Year Group to a new, purpose built, Hindu Temple, at Tividale in The Black Country. It is the largest in Europe and isn’t finished yet, there are still some smaller buildings to complete and the landscaping is only partly done but it will be a wonderful sight to see in a couple of years.

 

The people there couldn’t have done more for us, providing us with a guide and Priests who performed blessings at different parts of the Temple. Afterwards they produced different rices and poppadoms to sample, or fruit for those less adventurous. All for no charge at all. It was a magical trip and some of the parents have been saying how much the children loved it. I’m so glad I suggested we went there and for me a real bonus was, my beloved Rowley Hills, which is where so many of my Ancestors came from, were there as a backdrop to the site. The twins thought we were really going to India for the day and after going, I think they still believe that’s where we went.

 

Driving back from school, there is one of those Shop-a-Check places, were you can cash a cheque for a fee when you run out of money until your next pay-day, or pawn your jewellery. It’s very bright and modern looking, with large posters of glamorous looking women in the windows. Isn’t it funny that none of their customers look like that? Wonder why that is?

 

The wedding venue has now been booked for October and last night I booked the photographer. The dress has been bought. Only another seven months to get through, is there any possibility those seven months can be plain sailing?……….. Hmmmm!