Clearing out the shed

We have had a really quiet weekend; the quietest for a long time. Ian was tired as he is coming to the end of his job and all that entails and I have been trying to cope with a cold and chest infection for the past week. The only real thing I did this week was to put my old touring bike for sale on Ebay. I bought it in 1985 and because I am like that, I still have the receipt! It was my first decent bike and I used it for numerous one day charity rides and holidays such as the Bordeaux to Barcelona bike ride and the Prague to Venice trip. For the past 10 years it has been largely unridden, although after my illness I put it on rollers in the loft and used it to help me get fit again. I never sold it before as I never thought I would get enough money for it to make up for the sentimental attachment! However, it isn't going to France and I can't take it to the tip so I am hoping that someone will give me a few pounds for it and use it to build themselves a fixed wheel bike for riding in London (the latest thing for cycle couriers)! Time to move on!!

Talk to the robot

I have had a cold now for 3 weeks which has been rather depressing. I have noticed that my body does seem to deal with infections and colds but takes twice as long as it should. This week rather than getting better I seemed to be getting worse, so a quick call to my GP yesterday and I got a course of antibiotics  for the chest infection (although chances are it is viral and they will make no difference). I also gave up trying to struggle into work dosed up with paracetemol and spent the day watching TV, from the Dog Whisperer to Judge Judy! My GP surgery has an automated switch board, which means that you can book an appointment 24 hours a day. The female voice on the recorded message is about as irritating as they come!

My afternoon TV was interupted by the phone. When I picked it up it was a recorded message that I assumed was advertising so I hung up; however, when I checked the number it was the appointment departement at the local hospital. This really annoyed me. I have no idea what they wanted to tell me. I have an appointment next Wednesday so maybe it was related to that. I left a message on their answerphone:

"Hello, I received an automated message from you but as I assumed it was someone selling me something I hung up so I have no idea whether the message was important. My name is Lovely and I have an appointment with Dr Rock next week. If you need to tell me anything important about that appointment can you please call me back with a real person and not some bl**dy robot!"

I really resent public money being spent on these daft machines!

Relaxing with a good cooking programme

After a very unfruitful day I came home feeling stressed and spent the evening watching TV in a largely vegetative state. One of the programmes I watched was The Hairy Bikers: Mum Knows Best. In this programme the two unlikey looking cooks went around the country looking for family recipes handed down across the generations. It got me thinking about a very old cook book sitting on my shelves with a dusty hard cover and a yellowed brittle pages. I rescued it from my mother's house when she moved. I think it was probably my grandmothers as my mother wasn't much of a cook. The book was published in 1952 and probably written when rationing was still in force. It is called Practical Cooking by Elizabeth Craig and describes itself as
"a book of simple, econmical recipes and cookery processes that will help the modern housewife to provide nourishing meals for the family"
The recipes use simple ingredients, (no fancy spices or flavours), cheap cuts of meat, little cream or cheese and the occassional limited use of a little butter. There are sections on preserving food, making stock from old bones and tips for using left overs and bulking out meals. The recipes are simple but hearty and I reckon if our diet was based on this there would be little obesity and our carbon footprint would be reduced! It includes delights such as rabbit brawn, giblet stuffing, ragout of tripe, poor mans goose and apple tapioca. I may try out some of the gentler ones and review the results, but in the meantime I thought I would share Elizabeth Craig's forthright foreward!
The longer I live, the more I appreciate simple food. It doesn't matter how cheap it is so long as it it well cooked. To me, a perfectly cooked Irish stew is more appetising than chaudfroid of mutton cutlets. I'd rather have baked apple than ice-cream coated with whipped cream and decorated spun sugar.
It's no good telling me that you can't afford to be a good cook. You can't afford not to be one. The less money you have to spend, the more you should know about cooking. If I had my way I'd teach every girl to make the most of every scrap of food. It's a nonsense to say a good cook is born, not made.

Norma keeps going

I wrote about a year ago that my cat Norma was getting older and more frail and that there would come a time soon when I would need to consider having her put to sleep. Despite my concerns at the time she has kept going, although now each week I notice that she is that little bit thinner and that she doesn't always seem to know where she is. I have been having thoughts of taking her to the vet more frequently but knowing when the time is right is hard. However, I think I have found a good indicator. Tonight I cooked her some white fish as a treat. It has always been her favourite and when it was steaming in the microwave in her younger days she would climb on top to get at it. Well, that is a bit beyond her but as soon as the smell wafted out she was up, pacing the floor and miaowing (rather loudly as she is deaf). As soon as it was down on the floor she pounced and ate the whole piece in 5 minutes. I will keep this as my indicator of her quality of life. When she is no longer interested in coley fillets then I will know that the quality of her life is no longer good.

Happy Burns night

This weekend we put down the laminate floor in Ian's living room. The actual floor took about 4 hours to do, but clearing out the room, removing the carpet, taking it to the tip, levelling out the floor etc, took three times as long. At the tip, we were getting rid of our old carpet and another couple were throwing away their laminate floor. As I have said earlier, we are now thinking of our homes in terms of their rental potential as opposed to personal preference.

As the potential date for moving to France moves nearer and nearer and the plans become more and more real people keep asking me 'what are you going to do over there?' The honest answer is that in the short term I don't know. We have plans for the llama farm and bed and breakfast but they will take a year at least to get off the ground. I have also made some tentative contacts with regard to some possible teaching work that may or may not materialise. Ideally I think I would like to find a part time job locally in a clinical capacity as I think that would be the best way to integrate with the French community and would improve my French greatly. I am qualified but I have no idea what work is available and whether anyone would be interested in emplying me. There have only been two other times in my life when I have not had a job to go to. One was when I started work and the other was when I returned from travelling. In both cases I found jobs pretty quickly. When I was travelling I really enjoyed the uncertainty of not knowing where I was going to go the next day and what I wanted to do. The whole world was ahead of me and didn't scare me a bit. When I returned to the England I got more senior jobs, got a mortgage and although I didn't have children to tie me to one spot I did what most other people do; stayed put and settled down. My big move was when I moved to the coast from London 8 years ago although  the move was dictated by the job and not for any desire for a seaside retirement.

So now at the age of 51, I am off on another adeventure; the like of which I have not had since my 20s. I am a little anxious but really exited by the idea of the freedom . (I may not find the reality so great but watch this space!)

Tonight is Burn's night and I am off for a Burn's night celebration and to eat my first ever haggis!

(Overheard in Tesco: Couple buying lottery ticket. Her to him "if we win the lottery today maybe we can find somewhere nice to send your mother!")