Re-Thinking, Re-Jigging, Falling off the Sidebar ... and Rationing

A couple of you noticed a few differences in the blog the other day.  

I've been having a bit of a re-think, a re-jig and generally tidying up the right-hand sidebar.  It's nice to keep things the same but it's also nice to have a bit of a tidy up every now and then.

I changed the blog header picture a few weeks ago after our little narrowboat holiday and with my love of canal bridges coming to the fore I just had to have one headlining my blog for a while.  I just love old stone bridges and it's so lovely that I live so close to so many of them, a five minute walk in either direction and I see three of them, a couple minutes further and there are more.  

Well anyway ... stop rambling woman, stop rambling ... after changing the header I thought I would look at other aspects of the blog that needed updating.  It's a good job I did, a few of the blogs on my sidebar Blog List are just no more.  I do read some blogs regularly and comment most times I visit, some I just visit and quietly slip away and some I hadn't been over to for quite a while ... and some of them had gone.  How long have you been gone I wondered and pulled my sad face 😞 

So I knocked them off, I also knocked off a couple that have just turned into advertising opportunities, I don't need to be sold things, kept up to date with things yes, sold things, no thank you.  And when escaping the flashing adverts take up more time than reading a post does it gets to a point where I say 'no thank you' ... and quietly leave.

I'm currently working my way through my YouTube list of subscriptions too and deleting most of them.  One of my ex-favourite ones, a proper career YouTuber is now just a walking advert and it seems her only content is showing what she eats, what she wears and if I have to fast forward through her showing us how she washes and curls her hair once more I will literally go and shave it all off for her.  Then when she advertised for an 'editor and content creator' for her channel it was just too much.  Her career is 'content creator' if she is going to pay someone to do that for her and just carry on washing her hair live on camera ... well I have no words!!

Anyway I have to stop waffling and sounding like Victor Meldrew and get back to my neatening up of my own blog ... or maybe should I pay someone to do it for me?

I did find something on my Blog List that I thought I had already deleted and I was really pleased to find it there.  Back in December of 2020 I started a blog called A Year of Modern Rationing and I was all geared up to follow it through in the New Year, and then Covid. lockdown and life threw me a curveball and it was shelved as quickly as it was begun.  

Maybe it's something for me to think about once again.  What better way to keep food and fuel costs down than to go back to rationing, and non-wartime rationing is a lot safer than wartime rationing.

Something for me to think about for sure.  Is anyone else thinking of something like this or similar for the near future?

Sue xx

It Came To Me In a Dream

 

I got a letter from the hospital yesterday, it was copied to me, the MSK team and my GP's practice, and just confirming for my records and theirs everything that was discussed at my consultation with the spinal consultant last month, no real news there then.  

But ...  

Alan also got a letter from the hospital, his was from the parking company that manages the car park.  Seemingly we had not paid for parking when we attended my appointment and were now being fined £42 if we paid straight away, and a lot more if we waited more than two weeks.  Now we always take great care to pay when we park the car so this really flummoxed us.  I told him to search his car door pockets in case we had a ticket and could therefore challenge the fine ... but nope, nothing there.  Like a good citizen he paid up straight away, but we were still flummoxed.

Then last night I dreamt that me and Alan were out at a café with my boys in the dream they were aged two and eight, Simon the older one had wandered off so Alan took Jason off me and said 'You go and look for Simon'.  As soon as I stepped out of the café and into the car park it came to me ... the reason we had been fined for our hospital parking.  At this particular hospital you pay for your ticket after you come back to your car, which is a good system really as you never know how long you might be kept waiting around.  But if you come out and you are chattering away about your consultation like me and Alan were, or if you have had some really bad news how easy is it to completely forget and just drive off.  This parking company must make a lot of money this way!!

Thank goodness for dreams though, this was really bothering us both all day yesterday.

Top photo and this one, some homemade coleslaw I rustled up yesterday for us to eat alongside some homemade potato and fishcakes for lunch yesterday. 

Dessert was mince pies and cream, both eaten while we watched a film on Amazon Prime.  That's me ahead of the game as we are eating out tomorrow for Alan's birthday and ghe rules of my Challenge say I can only have a meal out if I have shared or am about to share a meal made from my stores with Alan.  It's always best to be ahead of the game.  😀

I love this on the back of the cream carton.

I can't tell you how many times I have heard people say 'I have never and would never eat vegan food, it's disgusting'.  I just grit my teeth these days as it's really not worth the hassle, but lots of first time Veganuary participants are going through that for the first time at the moment.  I used to say, 'so you've never had chips/toast/an apple/a banana then?'  Cue immediate confusion or much swearing.

Sue xx

It's December - Blogmas - Advent Day 1

 

Yay, it's December.  

The run up to Christmas seems to have started everywhere very early this year and I usually really enjoy this time, and yes I did at first, but it seems there's only so much excitement in me.

Hopefully my two lovely Advent calendars, plus my Jacquie Lawson online one will get me back in the Christmas spirit ... oh and my new little fake Christmas tree was delivered last night so that will need decorating and placing somewhere I won't trip over it. 🎄

We've each got two Advent calendars this year in a bid to cheer ourselves up, so of these one was bought my me and one by Alan, and he's got a Lindt chocolate one that he bought for himself and a cheese, chutney and cracker one bought by me that has been stashed in his fridge for the last couple of weeks ... I do hope he hasn't been secretly nibbling on those cheeses!!

Can you guess which one I bought for me and which is the one that Alan chose to get me?

Sue xx 🎄

Oops, I Got a BIT Carried Away ...

 

It's Christmas and the shops are full of so many treats

I was stuck at home and an email pinged into my inbox telling me I had a £10 off voucher still to be used

I like chocolate

I like sweeties

I have been so good for so long

I like getting parcels to unpack

It's CHRISTMAS

Just a few of my excuses for going wild in the virtual aisles at The VeganKind Supermarket

I had calmed down a bit by the time the parcel arrived just 48 hours later ...

... GULP!!

At first I was shocked

Then I got the giggles

It was worth the order for the the giggles

It doesn't looks quite as bad neatly contained in a basket ... does it?

Suky seems to be telling me 'yep it's as bad, no matter how you package or condense it'.

On the plus side 

I will be sharing a few of the things

And I have come to the decision that whatever is leftover after Christmas will be my sweetie allowance for the whole year of modern rationing that is coming up.

I better go a bit easy at Christmas then  😄

Sue xx