Friday 9th April

 The day started cold and early and I started the first of three loads of washing - all was dried on the line too. Sunny and deceiving from indoors. We were waiting in for the Boiler engineer who was replacing a damaged side panel - purely cosmetic - and we had no big walkies planned as Bluebell had hurt her paws the day before. So I bleach cleaned the bathroom, hoovered the landings and the stairs. ( Landings - makes it sound like we have a West Wing! ) I also managed 3/4 of downstairs before the battery ran out on the cordless hoover I was using! I see it as a personal challenge to see how far I can hoover before it stops! The HG's back had 'gone' so he was in pain for most of the day and did a little bit of pottering about. 

I spent a while sewing the top I am making and then was downstairs on a brew break, watching a bit of This Morning with Eammon and Ruth when it suddenly cut away and I said - I bet Prince Phillip has died. 

And then came the announcement. I did feel a little bit choked up. I think it was Lucretia I think she's called on ITV news who looked emotional. If you know me well, you know I love the Royal Family and my immediate thoughts were for the Queen. Very sad for her indeed. Even though they are Royal, they are just people. She's lost the love of her life and whilst it seemed a little previous I thought - it was interesting to see photographs and hear anecdotes about the Prince's early life. 

The HG and I both questioned why on earth the newsreader - I think it had changed to Mary Nightingale -  was questioning the Royal Correspondent Chris Ship on what they would be doing with the body, when the funeral would be and who would be the next Duke and on and on. We turned off the TV.  Later on, they were still dragging out people to chat about him - it felt a bit intrusive but it's human nature I guess to reminisce and share experiences when someone dies, famous or not and definitely so in this era of none stop TV.  And it is of course TV that has allowed us to learn so much about him, his wicked sense of humour and how much he loved swearing! 

May he Rest In Peace. 

Today I am going to mostly be doing the same as yesterday. Bluebell is definitely under house arrest and she went on a short walk yesterday and her paws began to bleed again. I'm going to look into getting some boots for her - I do worry about them coming off as she hares around at a million miles an hour. We would then spend ages trying to find them! The butcher is coming about 10am and I need to do an online shop.

This is a snapshot of what the meal planner looks like for Monday Tuesday next week. I can click on the little circular arrows to switch the meals to suit my tastes. Or you can simply swap the protein - eg chicken for the salmon ( not a fan at all of salmon ) Then once the meals are set for the week, it generates a shopping list! So easy. 

Week 6 - halfway through. But week 5 did not go to plan! No worries!! 

Must go - I am being squeaked at by Bluebell who is telling me it's way past breakfast time! 

Have a good day all

Lots of love from 

Rachel * slave to that dog* Radiostar xxx

Wednesday/Thursday

Well as some of my readers concurred it was my error rather than the pattern ( see last post ) - here is my attempt number 2. However as it IS for a soft toy, this is the front - I shall do the back plain! Hopefully will be finished by weekend! 

This 2nd week of the holidays is going so fast. Have you read Tracey’s blog post about things to do? Find it *here*

Some great ideas. I really enjoyed reading that post. 

Yesterday we had an adventure*. 

Today we took Bluebell to one of our favourite woods and she had a right old romp around getting filthy and then ended up in the river. As per she’s damaged her pads on her feet so after her warm shower in the car park, it was home ( via the posh cheese shop and supermarket for amazing cheese and artisan crackery ) for bathing, sudacrem and little socks on! We had delicious sausages for lunch, then I spent the afternoon in the sewing room with my top that I’m making. The HG spent is watching the telly through his eyelids before waking up and doing the hoovering and cleaning out the fireplace. 

Speaking of the HG- just because he is the very very best, he ordered me some surprise presents *just because* and they arrived yesterday. 

A lovely new jigsaw, a couple of new kits to make a squirrel and an otter, a pattern kit for a cagoul, a merchant and a new tape measure. I am so spoilt. I’ve got some freezer paper and am going to photo copy the patterns onto it for ease of cutting out. They are from Cool crafting. I’ve shown photos of things I’ve made from there before - my Luna Lapin, my Freddie Badger and some clothes for them! 

Anyway back to yesterday’s *absolute nightmare! 

We loaded the car up ( dog paraphanalia) first thing. Dropped Mr 23 off at work at 8.45am and discovered that the underneath of the car was hanging off!! 

I panic rang the mechanic who said we could come and show him ( we were only 5 minutes away ). He came, bent down and pulled off the exhaust! So we left the car with him as he said he could do it. And we were stranded at the wrong end of town! It was FREEZING but sunny. Anyway, we walked the dog to see my Dad, socially distanced outside n his shares garden of the sheltered flats he lives in. So that was nice- was about 10.30 when we left him. We walked to a field and let Bluebell have a run. We then slowly strolled up to my Father in law’s house ( where we’d only been the day before ! ), we walked across another field and by chance saw one of my old school friends and her dog. So I enjoyed a good batter with her and it really lifted the spirits. It also passed a little more time. We then got to the in laws and had a lovely catch up again with a couple of cups of tea. It was cold and I was starting to feel chilled a little so we illegally decamped into their conservatory- doors wide open - just slightly less Baltic. 2pm ish came the phone call. The car... - he paused and my heart sank as I was SURE he was going to say it couldn’t be fixed - he said the car is ready! Yay! So off we set again on the walk back to get the car. It was so lovely to be in it!!! We came straight home! We had walked over 5 miles ! 

TV - after seeing a programme being watched on Gogglebox ( one of my all time favourites to watch ) we found it on Sky One channel called The Flight Attendant. We are finding it compelling viewing! Not a scooby doo what’s going on but we watched 4 episodes back to back ( when we got back after our epic car adventure ). I’m also watching a three part documentary that I’ve had on the planner since 2019 about Lady Jane Grey who was Queen of England for 9 days. It’s fascinating me and I’m looking to do more study on it. 

It’s the last day of the holidays tomorrow and I’m looking forward to going back and to getting back properly into the new Way Of Eating or WOE that I began 8th March. I’ve done a lot more scientific reading into it and it makes a lot of sense to me. 

I’m becoming quite educated! 

Anyway enjoy your Fridays everyone 

I’ve much washing to do! So I’ll be doing that as we wait for the man who is coming to replace the damaged panel on the boiler ( just a cosmetic thing ) and it’ll only be gentle walks for Madam Sore Paws. 

Lots of love from 

Rachel *contented* Radiostar xxx

Apologies

 So sorry for my moany old post yesterday  ! One thought - MAYBE I AM THE AWFUL NEIGHBOUR! 

But thank you to those who commented and comforted me! 

We walked 5 and a bit miles yesterday but I was not wearing my trainers or walking boots and I think my footwear contributed to incredibly painful knees last night ( still a bit sore this morning ! )  Before you think I was in stilettos haha they were my lovely comfy London Fly boots that I bought in an Amazon Black Friday Deal about 6 years ago - best £50 I ever spent - lovely brown leather boots with supportive sole etc but maybe not great for a sustained walk! Also the extra pounds I’m trying to shed won’t have helped. 

So after the Escape to Pretoria film, we stayed with the theme and watched the remake of Papillion. Oh my stars, it is NOT a relaxing easy watch! Also based on a true story which I am

Not 100% sure we didn’t look at the book in A Level French. I didn’t know there was an original film but this remake was very good. If stressful and tense. The actor who played Freddie Mercury in that Mercury film is in it. I may opt for something more twee and upbeat for today’s film if we watch one! 

It’s another lovely clear morning but oh so deceiving as it’s sodding freezing out. Mr 23 goes back to work today but the HG is off with me until Friday. We were ( pre knees )  - his weren’t great either!! planning on driving the boy to work then going to to one of our favourite dog walks. However I’ve  already said not today, after seeing the forecast as there’s lots of water and it’s far too cold for a soggy wet spaniel. 

I’m going to carry on with a bit of my dressmaking after a very annoying start yesterday. I was being so careful with it but puckered it up properly!! Not an alternative swear word - when attaching one of the curved seams - the underside caught and puckered! I was not happy and may have said things like pucking he’ll fire  and I def tweeted much worse on my annoyance. But as my mum says swearing is not big or clever! I need to stop. And choose my words more carefully! 

Sneaky peak! 

I did pull back the knitting - I’ll show you tomorrow. 

And finally a silly joke that makes me laugh! 

Lots of love from 

Rachel *won’t be walking far today* Radiostar xxx

       

Bank Holiday Monday

 I woke up at 6, which is a lie in really, and it was SNOWING! It’s now 7.31am and sunny and NoT snowing! As Sadie said in a post I read earlier this week, we Brits  are obsessed about the weather because it really is so bizarre at times! 

We’ve had a lovely weekend. Went to the shore, bumbled around at home which is my favourite thing to do. 

We watched Escape from Pretoria last night. Daniel Radcliffe is in it and plays an absolutely mesmerising part. It was brilliant from start to finish and my heart rate and breathing was glad when it finished as it was tense to say the least! It’s set in South Africa when the ANC was fighting its war against Apartheid. No spoilers from me though. 

My next door neighbours are so fecking LOUD. Nice. But so loud. Their house is all painted walls and wooden floors so nothing to absorb any noise. He has a particularly loud voice as does the 2 year old. And someone is HOOVERING now which Incan hear about my TV that I have on softly in the background. And whoever hoovers rams it against the skirting and to be honest it’s starting to get right on my nerves. I do not think they realise how inconsiderate they are. 

I tell you - it’s the same house that has housed 3 families bow since the old lady who was adorable died. And it has a bizarre pattern to it - 

House renovation noise I do not mind at all because I know it does t last forever, but do it within reasonable social events hours yes? Long time readers will know that the first couple had children that were poorly parented - ( in my judgey opinion of course ) highly highly stimulated and entertained etc them the hapless adults couldn’t understand why they struggled with them... they totally renovated the house loudly and were loudly argumentative. He did all the house work, feeding of the children - which happened outdoors a lot - not at a table - but picnic style on the astroturf - the children grazed and played and were poor eaters ( I know this because of the way they complained to each other about how they couldn’t get them to eat any thing etc also bedtimes were the worst - the children didn’t want to go to bed and couldn’t sleep but no routines were in place etc 

Couple number 2, renovated the house again - so all the noise etc fine - just endless it seemed. Babies came along - free parenting style again. - rude, tantrummy kids, again. Dad did the donkey work, feeding them, shops g, taking them out, again, ate in the garden - allowed to pee and the rest  freely all over the garden when being toilet trained, bed was gone 10pm - much screaming and then slept til late - kids were poor eaters too. 

Couple number 3, who is there now. Absolutely screaming loud tantrums from the 2 year old who won’t sleep. The elder one has his name bawled constantly to get off his Xbox . He then has to parent his sister in the garden which means he winds her up and hurts her till she screams - mum will come then and yell at him and whilst she’s sorting out the little one, he will escape back to his Xbox. Dad does most of the cooking etc. But the little one gets to eat what she wants all day and is again fed outside!! She also just goes to the toilet in the garden - gets told off one time, but gets laughed at the next. Oh and they go on holiday WITHOUT the children - I HATE that. And they are non stop asking to borrow stuff - like the HG brand new circular saw and the power washer. He’s like NO go buy your own which seems mean really. However, yes, go buy your own. Saying no is hard though isn’t it!! But the parents are very entitled and their own parents who have been round ALL lockdown clearly dance to their every whim! Even writing about not wanting to lend them things sounds churlish! 

There’s probably some sort of social experiment going on - see how much the judgey old cow next door can take before she snaps kinda thing. Yes my two went for sleepovers at grandparents but mostly we’d still be at home. I would never ever go on holiday without them. We did have picnics and ate outside - more of a treat mealtime rather than daily. I think the share of the housework/childcare was more me than the HG but he did his fair share. 

We very probably do stuff that annoys the neighbours but I do not recall being so inconsiderate. When the kids were outside and got too loud, I’d tell them off! If the HG and still bow is doing noisy house work stuff- it’s in reasonable hours. 

I have said in the past if I ever win big on the lottery I would do my best to try and buy next door! It could just be my storage facility for all the hoarded stuff haha 

Crikey that wasn’t what I was going to write about today but the early loud banging hoovering ( that also gets done gone 10pm at night ) set me off! ( Oh and it is t just me - the neighbours on the other side have asked me how much do we hear them because they said it’s that loud on their side they could be in the next room with them! ) 

I try to be a good neighbour though, always polite and chatty over the fence- I even pass baking over and stuff because it’s a nice thing to do! The toddler is as cute as a button which is why she probably gets away with murder and out of the three, these are my favourites! With a little modification, some rugs, carpets etc, they’d be fiiine! The neighbours on the other side, young couple, in contrast, are as quiet as anything and we NEVER hear them! 

How are your neighbours? Are you a lender of items? Or are you an ASKER of items?! 

It’s week 5 of the 12 week programme and in truth I’m probably at Day 1 again! The menu slipped for no other reasons than wilful laziness. I’ve downloaded the Fast 800 book one on audible and listened to it whilst I sewed yesterday - the science sinking properly in and am ready to restart or reset this morning! The HG wants to go out somewhere and I feel bad for just wanting to stay at home!! But I just want to stay at home and potter about. Even if we go out early and get back early, I never get settled into projects properly! Bloody hell I am a right old whingebag this morning! Sorry if you are irritated by all this negativity! 

Photos of the snow this morning! The peg bags I made, the hare one sold already. They are made from oilcloth and are fully lined!  And the little knitting project I’m doing - it’s a jumper for Luna Lapin - I am not sure if there’s an error in the written pattern or in my knitting but the cables don’t look quite right or even in the middle - however, the back and front are the same so this will be the back! The stuffed bunny won’t mind. I just want to knit it out and see. But looking at it now - I am going to frog it and restart because it is bugging me! 

I’ve also started on another top for myself - again a jersey fabric which is really really annoying to work with because it just MOVES all the time! I am also going g to sort through my scrap fabric and recycle it - I have so much - a bag of bigger bits for patchwork quilting, smaller bits for stuffing things! Bit bigger bits for sewing things with and then lovely big bits for projects not even started yet! 

Right my coffee is cold and I may go do some sewing stuff before I break my fast - 12-12 seems the easiest but I’d I can I’m going to try and do 18-6. I’m going to keep listening to the book bit I also noticed that Richard Osmons 2nd Thursday murder club book has been advertised - I really enjoyed the first one so maybe go look see for that too. Have a lovely Monday everyone. I will let the HG drag me away from the house and have a lovely time with him. Cottage pie for tea tonight for them and a FAST 800 meal I already made out the freezer for me. 

Lots of love from 

Rachel *moany old cow and definitely not perfect* Radiostar xxx