Finding the chase and cutting to it

Today is Saturday 20^th December, and I have plans.

My beloved is doing his turn stewarding a game at our local football club, and I am aiming to achieve the following:

1. Get some food in, to finish off Christmas dinner but also something tasty for me to have for lunch.
2. Shorten the premade curtains in our bedroom.
3. Bake some tea cakes for my beloved’s return from stewarding – in December it can be a little chilly out there.

Ideally, the aim was to do a little more, but those were the big three. So, how did I do?

Well, I woke up at 5:30 am and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I had breakfast, grabbed the bottles and glassware to recycle and headed for the supermarket by 07:22. What a game changer – the shelves were stocked (ours is not a 24 hour store), and few customers were about. So much room in the carpark! Even being as inefficient as I was, I was out and home by 08:25. By 08:45, everything was stowed away and I was enjoying a cup of tea.

While in the supermarket, I realised I didn’t have any thread to shorten the curtains – so my beloved drove me to the haberdashery’s as soon as it opened with the un-pinned curtain and I got some colour matched thread.

We got home, and Jon finished off shortening the pole enough to put the end caps on and I started sewing. Not trivial, not least because it had to be done by hand, so I had to relearn how to do a back-stitch and thread a needle, and cast on… In the end the 2m28 curtain took nearly four hours to finish and get back on the pole. These were not fun filled times and I have to say, I should have set timers for breaks rather than distance marks – when I got tired, I made far more mistakes being a beginner.

Jon went off to the football and I stopped for lunch at 12:30. I took an hour’s break, not least because the low sun was causing visibility issues and until the curtains are hung, I have no means of blocking the light!

While doing this, I laid out the ingredients for the tea cakes and generally prepped by setting an alarm – Jon was due back around 18:00, and it would be good to have them ready for him to have when he had changed out of his uniform.

Started the third round of sewing – by which time muscle memory is kicking in, and finally I am making some progress. The alarm goes off to make the dough for the tea cakes.

Fourth stint of sewing and I am done – it is now 16:45 and I have 27 minutes before the dough needs to be put in the oven for the first raising.

I have a cup of tea and watch some TV. Which inspires me to make use of some ingredients that are in the fridge into a tasty cheese soufllé. Which is not the best bit of planning.

For a start, I rarely make either the tea cakes or the soufflé. It is not an elegant display of culinary skill those both dishes rise well and taste delicious.

I am also, by this point, seriously knackered. Thank goodness for the dishwasher to lift the load off our shoulders by sorting out the mess.

Tomorrow is Christmas Ham day. But this is a well practiced affair. Today was one of those days when I remember why I am a professional worker and not a full time home maker.