RANDOM JOTTINGS


A blog about music, sports, theatre and rants





Well it is all over. I have had a simply marvellous Christmas with family and, of course, the best part of it all was Kathryn coming over from Australia and us all being together on Christmas Day.  Sadly the time went by all too quickly and saying goodbye was awful and left me very weepy. I holed up that day with a box of chocolates and some crisps and sat and watched the Bourne trilogy right the way through which filled up the day nicely. I enjoyed watching them back to back, they are really good movies.

So domesticity is the order of the day for a bit as I clear up and pack away and throw out. Kathryn was living out of a couple of suitcases while she was here and flitting backwards and forwards and my bedroom was piled high with stuff and boxes.  Decided to leave all the festive mess until I was back home and now it is cleared. I decided a day or two ago to move my bedroom furniture around, not on a whim, but because my bed was against a very cold outside wall. So I emptied out the wardrobe,piled everything on the bed and managed to shift it. Oh the dust and dirt behind, shameful. Ditto large chest of drawers. So that took me all the morning but am satisfied with the result. I have a couple of bruises on my legs as a result and a few broken fingernails but it is now done.

Today it is defrost the freezer time as I am planning on having a cooking session with the chicken pieces, pork Frechops and left over beef from a festive lunch yesterday and will be putting meals away. Having checked out the stalagmites and stalagtites inside said freezer I decided best to clear it out first. The usual frozen peas lurking in corners, a packet of fish fingers with one inside (?), an old sponge cake I kept for making a trifle (I never did so have chucked it) and a few unidentifiable blocks of what looks like chicken stock, a carton of toffee fudge ice cream with such a tiny bit left it has frozen to the consistency of a brick – all the usual suspects.  So it is slowly defrosting while I am writing this.

I have my oven to clean but am putting that off as long as possible and also have to clear out my glory hole which I have to do on a regular basis as it fills up with junk. I am never clear why this happens. No matter what I do it fills up again. At the moment I have a plethora of plastic bags everywhere so my New Year Resolution is to remember to take them when I go shopping and think of the environment…..ahem.

By now I am sure those of you who have logged on to read my sparkling prose and rapier like wit are keeling over with boredom so I will hasten to close.   Last year was a great year but a trifle hectic as family moved out of one house into a rented house while their new house was being sorted then they moved into the new house so that was the second move in about six months then it was the summer holidays and no childcare was yet in place so I and other grandparents helped out and I spent most of my time bombing around the North Circular and it was all mad and and and….Phew.

All are now safely gathered in and settled into a routine and I now have a list of dates for the coming term lined up with Grandmother Numero Duo (forgive the lapse into la bella lingua I have been watching Mapp and Lucia of which more in another post) and my diary is filling up. I am determined in 2015 to make posting on Random more regular and less haphazard and to concentrate on it a bit more. All went a bit to pot in 2014.

Once again I wish you all a Happy New Year.

Au reservoir.

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15 responses to “Starting 2015 – all things domestic”

  1. Margaret Powling Avatar
    Margaret Powling

    I agree totally with Fran … I’ve never, never, never keeled over with boredom reading your blog!

  2. Elaine Avatar

    thankyou Fran what a lovely thing to say, Happy new year to you and tomorrow I intend to write about Mapp and Lucia

  3. Elaine Avatar

    Ok sparkling prose and rapier wit it is!!!

  4. Elaine Avatar

    would love to have a professional do it but afraid the cost is too much. I have a kit from Lakeland and will put it on tonight and leave it while I sleep and hope the magic fairy works a miracle before the dawn

  5. Elaine Avatar

    Oh I do fear not!

  6. Elaine Avatar

    I should chuck it if I were you

  7. Elaine Avatar

    Oh this will not be a regular thing, you know how I loathe housework but I do like the occasional blitz!

  8. Elaine Avatar

    how kind of you to say so Chrissie, I am determined to give it more attention this year

  9. Fran Avatar
    Fran

    I am so glad that you got to have all your family together for Christmas. As for keeling over with boredom, that has NEVER happened to me on your blog. Book reviews, family news, housecleaning–you make it all interesting and amusing as well.
    Happy New Year!

  10. Harriet Avatar

    Your posts always make me chuckle — though I really felt for you seeing Kathryn off, which must have been very painful. I’ve been meaning to defrost the fridge since well before Christmas and am now going to do so as soon as I’ve finished writing this, so you’ve done some good, anyway. Look forward to more of your sparkling prose and rapier like wit in 2015!

  11. Margaret Powling Avatar
    Margaret Powling

    Happy New Year, Elaine, and any resolution I might’ve had to do my thank you letters by Boxing Day and have a Big Clean Up have already been broken! Letters still to do and house still needs a blitz, but all will happen in the fullness of time.
    Now, my dear friend, how about having Someone In To Clean Your Oven? We have a good local man who goes under the name of Oven Kleen, and I thought it would be a total waste of money until I saw his van parked outside a neighbour’s house a year or two ago and went over to inspect the work (when finished.) My goodness, an old oven looked brand new. I couldn’t believe it. So I forthwith booked him to clean our almost-14-year old Neff double oven and boy, it came up like new! Even husband, who thought I was throwing money away, had to pick his chin off the floor where it had fallen in disbelief at the wondrous result! It cost me £50 but it stayed clean, with just the occasional wipe out, for almost 9 months. It’s now due for a clean again and I’ve no qualms in shelling out £50 for this to be done. I consider it Money Well Spent. The chap doesn’t make any mess, there are no chemicals used (it’s all hot water and elbow grease) and he also does hobs and extractor fans if you want those cleaned (last time I had our over the hob extractor fan cleaned, too.)
    Next, I can’t wait for your comments on Mapp & Lucia!
    Au reservoir indeed!

  12. Susan D Avatar

    Whew! I’m exhausted just reading your post. Take breaks….

  13. stella Avatar
    stella

    I have a foul freezer in the pump room. It has amog other out of date stuff,a whole wild goose which a local presented me with last spring…Alex de feathered and dressed the bird,but no one is really interested in eating it..I also have frozeen peas from a bad which unfastened in situ. What a prospect on returning home..

  14. Christine Harding Avatar

    Happy New Year Elaine. You put me to shame – my New Year Resolution to do the housework more regularly hasn’t got under way at all!

  15. Chrissie Avatar

    Happy New Year, Elaine. Your blog gives me such a lot of pleasure, so I am looking forward to more of it.

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