Finding the chase and cutting to it

I’m not a “natural cook”, food to me was for many years a means to an end, a way of ensuring my insulin was covered and I kept reasonably healthy. A working person, there were “emergency meals” kept in the fridge for during the week when either of us were too knackered to cook. After […]

I love the decorations and the meal. Having the family round, all now sadly adults, being together focused on a single goal, is amazing. It’s us and my mum this year, my closest relatives. Of course, nerves can take over but just now, I’m tired out of my little mind. The tree is decorated, the […]

Today is officially the start of winter as in the northern hemisphere, it is the solstice – the shortest day of the year. Of course, in the southern hemisphere, it is the longest day. All thanks to the earth being on the list, by about 23 to the sun. It’s one of the reasons so […]

I am sitting in the warm, drinking a cup of tea enjoying the beauty that is winter sun being harvested by the solar panels dreaming of skiing. Not eco-friendly at all I do two terrible things when it comes to the environment: I ski and I have baths. How are these terrible? Well, even if […]

It’s easy to say that Saturday is our going and and getting things done day but today, I am doing something a little different. Having recharged my batteries last night and looking out at a beautiful, and sunny, Saturday morning, my stomach is begining to wake up and ask: what’s going on? I made pasta […]

It’s Friday and as you can see from Tuesday’s post, I have worked a short week. So, why am I feeling so weary?  I’m not sleepy, I am exhausted.  My head injury from 5 years ago is painfully aching. Lightweight, huh? Since I can remember, the end of the working day, exaggerated to the extreme […]

In an effort to get through my annual leave allowence, I booked today as leave last Friday with the aim of having a very lazy day. Of course, that supposed that I’d manage to do all my chores last week and the two people I lived with hadn’t both had yesterday off as a sick […]

I’m trying to avoid the news at the moment. Not because of an osterich type of mind, hide your head and nothing bad is happening – “ta deda tee dah” – but more because I don’t want to make things worse. What do I mean? Well, at the moment, I am pretty lucky. Everyone in […]

We’re doing a little renovation (replacing the stair and landing carpet) and remodelling (moving my husband’s office upstairs) which has allowed me access to that room’s thermostat. The self-builders we bought from put underfloor heating downstairs with individual room thermostats – really old, mechanical, set the temperature but no other functionality, type room thermostats and […]

As I sit here, in my comfy home, lit by LED bulbs, lightly heated by timed, thermostatic controls, I’m thanking my efforts over the past 10 years to make my house as energy efficient as possible. I was lucky in that we wanted to change energy supplier relatively shortly after moving into our current home […]