But mostly in a good way, I think!
I got the vital birthday present finished and wrapped up in time to take it to the midlands on Sunday morning - we were up and about scarily early, M was muttering that we were half an hour late leaving and it was all going to be terrible, but we were still on the road by 8.45am and there by 12, so at three hours it was a pretty average journey and shouldn't be moaned about.
We took his girls out for lunch at a pub in a village near where they live. It was a very nice roast, and not too expensive, although despite the flash website with restaurant menu it's pretty much a locals pub, and the atmosphere was a little bit strange... the place was empty when we got there so we were settled in before any of the regulars arrived, but there were a few raised eyebrows at the presence of strangers... but we were pretty well off the beaten track, so it was probably a rare occurrence.
It seems strange to go and see his girls and take them to the pub, with one of them driving us there... it seems about a couple of months since we were visiting them and looking for parks and playgrounds to entertain them, although it's a fair number of years now! The stress of SATS has long since given way to the angst of A-levels and the upheavals of university. It seems a short time since my daughter was fighting her way towards GCSEs, now she's a grown woman watching her own kids doing the same...
This morning, I locked myself in the little hut at the bottom of the garden which serves as my office these days, and was just settling down to work when M appeared in a slightly agitated state... Conservatory Man had just turned up at the door, and announced he was meeting with the neighbours, and would we please come and join him... M was in the process of getting into the car to go to work, hence his agitation, so I said I would go... as we headed to the door, Conservatory Man and his chum (who I suspect is actually his boss!) arrived on the doorstep, all smiles and happy faces - "All sorted, they are very happy, no problem at all" - they'd walked in, sat down, listened to the neighbours' concerns and been able to explain how each of them was going to be catered for. The neighbours agreed that work could start next week and everything in the garden was metaphorically rosy!
Naturally, as soon as Conservatory Man had driven around the corner I rushed next door to check that they were really happy... he does have a vested interest in making me believe they are happy, but they are actually not just our neighbours, they are our friends and we want to be sure that they are completely happy with no residual doubts. Anyway, they certainly seem to be, they were still laughing about how earnest Conservatory Man had been! So we are all on course for the base to be laid next week, with the actual conservatory being erected some time in early January, as soon as the panels have been manufactured. This means that there will be a series of dinner parties, parties and general festivities just as soon as I have a place to put the dining table where there is actually space to get the chairs around it - yee hah!
It's dark now... it's not even 5pm and it's properly dark. I might just slope off from the studying that I am supposed to be doing and sneak myself a nice hot bath. It's 2CV club Christmas Party no 1 tonight... no idea what I ordered, I remember ticking things off on a menu ages ago, ah well, it will be a surprise!
Showing posts with label eating out. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eating out. Show all posts
Monday, 5 December 2011
Wednesday, 23 November 2011
Another dinner cooked by someone else...
I am getting spoilt, you know, I could get used to this sort of treatment.
Sunday we went to a friend's birthday party which took place on HMS Warrior - we were expecting a few nibbles and were presented with a huge buffet, wine, the works - it was lovely! I still think it was all done under false pretences, because I still don't believe that she's seventy!!! I'd have raised an eyebrow at sixty, but claiming she's seventy seems most unlikely, and if she is I hope I look half as good when I am!
Monday I grabbed a sandwich and went out to a Neal's Yard party - you know the sort of thing, a bunch of (usually) women congregate at someone's house to look at things that they'd never generally think of buying... It was a fun evening, a chance to meet some new people, and I ordered some essential oils... so poor M had to sort out his own supper! Well, actually all he had to do was pour boiling water on the spaghetti which was already in the pan waiting for him, and pull the bolognaise sauce from the oven... he managed this and enjoyed an evening of doing whatever it is that blokes do when the wifey has left them in peace for the evening.
Then the poor lad had to do it all again the next night - I had a day at the office, and on the way back I'd arranged to meet my sister in law who has just started a new job and is on a training course about fifteen miles from here. We don't see very much of each other and when we do go to see her and my bruv there are generally children and dogs getting in the way of the socialising, so it was nice to have a girly night out.
She was extremely supportive of my recent trials and tribulations - she has some experience of the work of headologists, as she'd needed a good deal of counselling after the loss of her baby son some years ago, and it was interesting and valuable to hear of her experiences, which she hadn't talked about before. I can't begin to imagine the pain of losing a child like that, another example of the fact that no matter how rotten things seem there is always something that could be worse.
My sis-in-law's new job involves training and working with assistance dogs for people with a disability. The dogs are capable of astonishing things - she has spent the week with a group of new "partnerships", people getting to know their new dogs and the things they can do. Tuesday's task had been a trip to the supermarket, where the human side of the partnership would tell the canine part what they wanted - and the dog would get it off the shelf and put it in the basket! It sounds as though the local supermarket is well used to this sort of thing, as the training centre is just up the road, but some of the shoppers found it quite disconcerting to see dogs walking around with packets of pasta and the like!
It hadn't really occurred to me when setting up the evening that she'd have her current trainee, a lovely Labradoodle called Essie, with her when we went out, so I was a bit startled when she got in the car and the dog jumped in and curled up by her feet. We drove down into the local town and wandered up and down the street, eventually falling for the charms of a fish restaurant which was handily by the car park. In we went, and the management there scored points for being welcoming, not even raising an eyebrow at the dog, and mega points for offering a bowl of water as we sat down. The dog curled up under the table and we ate a lovely meal, caught up with gossip and generally set the world to rights. Marvellous!
Some of the other patrons were slightly curious about the presence of the dog, and after we'd eaten it rather delayed our departure as we had to stop to explain about the dog, the training, the program and the charity that makes it all happen. It costs about £10,000 to train a puppy for this sort of work, and takes more than a year to get the dog to a position where it can go out into the world, and then another £10,000 over the life of the partnership... If you want to know more about this work, could support them with a donation or fancy being a volunteer puppy parent, they would love to hear from you.
So, I actually managed to eat out on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday. That's pretty good going, and I am going to find it hard to get back into the swing of actually doing cooking again!
Sunday we went to a friend's birthday party which took place on HMS Warrior - we were expecting a few nibbles and were presented with a huge buffet, wine, the works - it was lovely! I still think it was all done under false pretences, because I still don't believe that she's seventy!!! I'd have raised an eyebrow at sixty, but claiming she's seventy seems most unlikely, and if she is I hope I look half as good when I am!
Monday I grabbed a sandwich and went out to a Neal's Yard party - you know the sort of thing, a bunch of (usually) women congregate at someone's house to look at things that they'd never generally think of buying... It was a fun evening, a chance to meet some new people, and I ordered some essential oils... so poor M had to sort out his own supper! Well, actually all he had to do was pour boiling water on the spaghetti which was already in the pan waiting for him, and pull the bolognaise sauce from the oven... he managed this and enjoyed an evening of doing whatever it is that blokes do when the wifey has left them in peace for the evening.
Then the poor lad had to do it all again the next night - I had a day at the office, and on the way back I'd arranged to meet my sister in law who has just started a new job and is on a training course about fifteen miles from here. We don't see very much of each other and when we do go to see her and my bruv there are generally children and dogs getting in the way of the socialising, so it was nice to have a girly night out.
She was extremely supportive of my recent trials and tribulations - she has some experience of the work of headologists, as she'd needed a good deal of counselling after the loss of her baby son some years ago, and it was interesting and valuable to hear of her experiences, which she hadn't talked about before. I can't begin to imagine the pain of losing a child like that, another example of the fact that no matter how rotten things seem there is always something that could be worse.
My sis-in-law's new job involves training and working with assistance dogs for people with a disability. The dogs are capable of astonishing things - she has spent the week with a group of new "partnerships", people getting to know their new dogs and the things they can do. Tuesday's task had been a trip to the supermarket, where the human side of the partnership would tell the canine part what they wanted - and the dog would get it off the shelf and put it in the basket! It sounds as though the local supermarket is well used to this sort of thing, as the training centre is just up the road, but some of the shoppers found it quite disconcerting to see dogs walking around with packets of pasta and the like!
It hadn't really occurred to me when setting up the evening that she'd have her current trainee, a lovely Labradoodle called Essie, with her when we went out, so I was a bit startled when she got in the car and the dog jumped in and curled up by her feet. We drove down into the local town and wandered up and down the street, eventually falling for the charms of a fish restaurant which was handily by the car park. In we went, and the management there scored points for being welcoming, not even raising an eyebrow at the dog, and mega points for offering a bowl of water as we sat down. The dog curled up under the table and we ate a lovely meal, caught up with gossip and generally set the world to rights. Marvellous!
Some of the other patrons were slightly curious about the presence of the dog, and after we'd eaten it rather delayed our departure as we had to stop to explain about the dog, the training, the program and the charity that makes it all happen. It costs about £10,000 to train a puppy for this sort of work, and takes more than a year to get the dog to a position where it can go out into the world, and then another £10,000 over the life of the partnership... If you want to know more about this work, could support them with a donation or fancy being a volunteer puppy parent, they would love to hear from you.
So, I actually managed to eat out on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday. That's pretty good going, and I am going to find it hard to get back into the swing of actually doing cooking again!
Sunday, 20 November 2011
Bewildered
People bewilder me sometimes...
I mentioned a bit ago that I have been seeing a headologist. She's made me think about all sorts of things, and I have been looking at life, the universe and everything with a new intensity. Given the recent demonstration of the fragility of life, I have been trying very hard to see the joy in things. That can be challenging at this time of year, but actually I have always loved the winter - everything has drawn itself in, to rest and recover in readiness for the spring that will always come along. In some ways that can be depressing, because it's clear to all of us that things go on whether we're there or not - I thought the world would stop turning when I lost my Mum, but it didn't, and one day I will go and the world will just keep on going, spring will arrive even if I am not around to appreciate the bluebells!
Anyhow, I seem to have been looking at things with a bit of a jaundiced eye of late. The "oh for heaven's sake" bell has been ringing quite a lot... perhaps my determination to see the best in the world is actually making me focus on other people's inability to do the same. When there's been a genuine mistake, why do people have to find a malicious motive for it? Or assume that everyone else will? I'm in the process of changing broadband suppliers, so I asked the old supplier (who has been pretty hopeless at customer service!) for the MAC code that the new supplier needs. It didn't arrive - after a week I called again to ask where it was, and found that the person I spoke to first had done everything except the last step - hadn't clicked the button that said "generate code". So it was clicked and the code would be generated overnight. It was, I called the next day, got the code, job done. But what bewildered me was the assumption that I was going to get angry about what was just a simple mistake that anyone could have made. Yep, it was another brick in a wall of poor service that's resulted in me leaving - but I was treated to a really wierd stream of excuses, which seemed to encompass everything from "it was a mistake" to " he's completely useless and I know you want to scream at me and you probably should and then you'll sue us and IT WASN'T MY FAULT!!!".. I know, love, it's ok, take a deep breath. Relax.
I went out to an event some time ago where a bunch of people I know were gathered, some I like and some I can take or leave. People came and went from this event, and then one particular person left, accompanied by many hugs and air kisses - and the moment the door closed, the "schinnng" noise of knives being unsheathed echoed around the building! The next half hour was devoted to a discussion of the recent departee - their behaviour both that day and for months before was examined, discussed and found wanting by the group, and the unhappy individual was roundly condemned on every single point. I was a bit stunned by this, and didn't quite know what to do. Apart from anything else, I wasn't sure whether I was going to come in for the same treatment when I left!
For heaven's sake, boys and girls - it's fine that you don't like someone, but why is it necessary to expend quite so much energy on the subject? Can't you find someone you like and talk about them with quite so much passion?
And that's what bewilders me. Why is it that we all spend so much time, so much energy, on the bad stuff - not the big bad stuff but the really little tiny pathetic stuff? There is some really bad stuff going on in the world to get cranked up about... why waste time stressing about the really tiny things?
I mentioned a bit ago that I have been seeing a headologist. She's made me think about all sorts of things, and I have been looking at life, the universe and everything with a new intensity. Given the recent demonstration of the fragility of life, I have been trying very hard to see the joy in things. That can be challenging at this time of year, but actually I have always loved the winter - everything has drawn itself in, to rest and recover in readiness for the spring that will always come along. In some ways that can be depressing, because it's clear to all of us that things go on whether we're there or not - I thought the world would stop turning when I lost my Mum, but it didn't, and one day I will go and the world will just keep on going, spring will arrive even if I am not around to appreciate the bluebells!
Anyhow, I seem to have been looking at things with a bit of a jaundiced eye of late. The "oh for heaven's sake" bell has been ringing quite a lot... perhaps my determination to see the best in the world is actually making me focus on other people's inability to do the same. When there's been a genuine mistake, why do people have to find a malicious motive for it? Or assume that everyone else will? I'm in the process of changing broadband suppliers, so I asked the old supplier (who has been pretty hopeless at customer service!) for the MAC code that the new supplier needs. It didn't arrive - after a week I called again to ask where it was, and found that the person I spoke to first had done everything except the last step - hadn't clicked the button that said "generate code". So it was clicked and the code would be generated overnight. It was, I called the next day, got the code, job done. But what bewildered me was the assumption that I was going to get angry about what was just a simple mistake that anyone could have made. Yep, it was another brick in a wall of poor service that's resulted in me leaving - but I was treated to a really wierd stream of excuses, which seemed to encompass everything from "it was a mistake" to " he's completely useless and I know you want to scream at me and you probably should and then you'll sue us and IT WASN'T MY FAULT!!!".. I know, love, it's ok, take a deep breath. Relax.
I went out to an event some time ago where a bunch of people I know were gathered, some I like and some I can take or leave. People came and went from this event, and then one particular person left, accompanied by many hugs and air kisses - and the moment the door closed, the "schinnng" noise of knives being unsheathed echoed around the building! The next half hour was devoted to a discussion of the recent departee - their behaviour both that day and for months before was examined, discussed and found wanting by the group, and the unhappy individual was roundly condemned on every single point. I was a bit stunned by this, and didn't quite know what to do. Apart from anything else, I wasn't sure whether I was going to come in for the same treatment when I left!
For heaven's sake, boys and girls - it's fine that you don't like someone, but why is it necessary to expend quite so much energy on the subject? Can't you find someone you like and talk about them with quite so much passion?
And that's what bewilders me. Why is it that we all spend so much time, so much energy, on the bad stuff - not the big bad stuff but the really little tiny pathetic stuff? There is some really bad stuff going on in the world to get cranked up about... why waste time stressing about the really tiny things?
Saturday, 19 November 2011
We're going out to dinner!
How exciting, I hear you say. Really worth blogging about...
We do eat out most weeks - we go to a pub, not our local, it's round the corner from a good mate. It's a great pub, where we've become part of the community. The company's good, the beer's well kept and the food's great and reasonably priced. Of course, being four miles away someone has to drive... and for one reason and another it's usually me. I don't mind too much, and when I do get the urge for a beer or a vino then himself is generally happy to step in and chauffeur me home, so don't think that I am too saintly or martyred about it. We had a great evening there yesterday.
We eat with family most weekends too, we have an aged aunt who is wheelchair-bound, so the family tends to congregate where she is, and it's very jolly... but again, it's half an hour's drive away, so we take turns to drive home. No great sacrifice, again, after what's usually a really great evening; my brother in law is a brilliant cook, the family are generally pretty good company who do like to engage in heated debate about the issues of the day and it's become an important part of our lives.
However it is nice to go out as a couple occasionally. No guests or family, just us... nothing terribly fancy is necessary, but it's nice if we can sit down with a bottle of wine, eat something nice that I didn't have to cook, then walk home. We don't do it very often - but tonight we're going to walk down to the town to the "new" fish restaurant (it's been there two years but we've only been there once so in our book that makes it "new"!). We have a table booked (very organised!), there's a bath run, and himself is putting the bits and pieces of car back wherever they are supposed to be, rushing against the clock as it's nearly 5pm and it's getting dark quickly.
I am really looking forward to it!
It's so inconvenient when the kitchen is completely unusable like this... having the washing machine and tumble dryer blocking all the space so that I can't get to the cooker, sink or fridge makes cooking a meal somewhat problematic. The newly laid floor tiles in the area where the laundry equipment ought to be just about means that I can't even venture into the kitchen at all... What a terrible shame.
Oh, you thought it was a romantic gesture to take me out for supper a deux? Well, of course it is, but sometimes romance needs a little helping hand :-)
We do eat out most weeks - we go to a pub, not our local, it's round the corner from a good mate. It's a great pub, where we've become part of the community. The company's good, the beer's well kept and the food's great and reasonably priced. Of course, being four miles away someone has to drive... and for one reason and another it's usually me. I don't mind too much, and when I do get the urge for a beer or a vino then himself is generally happy to step in and chauffeur me home, so don't think that I am too saintly or martyred about it. We had a great evening there yesterday.
We eat with family most weekends too, we have an aged aunt who is wheelchair-bound, so the family tends to congregate where she is, and it's very jolly... but again, it's half an hour's drive away, so we take turns to drive home. No great sacrifice, again, after what's usually a really great evening; my brother in law is a brilliant cook, the family are generally pretty good company who do like to engage in heated debate about the issues of the day and it's become an important part of our lives.
However it is nice to go out as a couple occasionally. No guests or family, just us... nothing terribly fancy is necessary, but it's nice if we can sit down with a bottle of wine, eat something nice that I didn't have to cook, then walk home. We don't do it very often - but tonight we're going to walk down to the town to the "new" fish restaurant (it's been there two years but we've only been there once so in our book that makes it "new"!). We have a table booked (very organised!), there's a bath run, and himself is putting the bits and pieces of car back wherever they are supposed to be, rushing against the clock as it's nearly 5pm and it's getting dark quickly.
I am really looking forward to it!
It's so inconvenient when the kitchen is completely unusable like this... having the washing machine and tumble dryer blocking all the space so that I can't get to the cooker, sink or fridge makes cooking a meal somewhat problematic. The newly laid floor tiles in the area where the laundry equipment ought to be just about means that I can't even venture into the kitchen at all... What a terrible shame.
Oh, you thought it was a romantic gesture to take me out for supper a deux? Well, of course it is, but sometimes romance needs a little helping hand :-)
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