Soop's X Special Kitcheners

Phew Soutra. Sleeping with one ear 'open' is difficult too isn't it?

Soutra Big armful of for you. What a wonderful granny you are. Well deserved (((hugs))) from us lot.

After the excitement of yesterday's Davis Cup doubles match I am all fired-up for Andy versus the extremely lofty American (his name escapes me for the moment.) Rory can sense the tension...he has taken to his feather-filled boudoir cushion. A cat of many resting places.

We set out for our usual walk after breakfast. Sadly, we didn't get far. The wind is chilly and the rain clouds are brooding. Anyway, the upshot is that we've made ourselves cosy and will spend the rest of the day at home.

The sunny warm day in London yesterday was a one day wonder. It is dull and about to rain but at least it is not cold.

I am going to visit a friend in hospital and my personal chauffeur (her husband) will be arriving any time soon. I could not face 2 tubes, 2 buses and a walk. Not that much will be running on a Sunday.

You'll be celebrating, soop! That was quite a match, beautifully finished off by Andy!

Charleygirl I'm pleased to hear that you have a chauffeur. To have to traipse so far using so many modes of transport would have worn you to a frazzle. The sun is shining and the sea is a bright emerald green.

anno Wow! I was so on edge during the first set. In fact I had to put up the ironing board and knuckle down to pressing the bed linen. The match stayed on...I looked up from time to time, depending on the response of the supporters...who were amazing.

Well I made it! Little boys up earlier than I would have liked but DD got her longest night in 6 months when Pippa slept through till 6 -she is a lovely baby but not great at the night time thing! Anyway I could give the boys breakfast while she fed in bed then DD went back to sleep for an hour! DH was not great yesterday and having disappeared off to bed at 9, seemed oblivious to anything and everything until after 8. We were due to go to London for lunch with youngest DD and SIL and the Brum family left about 9.30 . It was lovely but I am having a wobble about having the 3 DGC from Saturday lunchtime through to Sunday lunch while DD celebrates her own 40th before coming down here for Mothering Sunday/her birthday and SIL's and MY birthday lunch! I can do it though-have to believe in myself

soutra

Soutra
You are needed at the next SW mini meeting
These are very intellectual TT meetings.
We need you to read Boewulf to us.
It will be hard to follow on from ariadne's Chaucer*
And her her husband's rendition of Tam O Shanter
But I'm sure you could rise to the occasion

I don't know about Beowulf but I am a dab hand at reading "Superworm"
"Superworm is super long, Superworm is super strong. . . . . . . "

You'll manage fine Soutra ~ I've had 4 GC overnight on a few occasions now (5 if you count DH) . It's just the waking at 6.00am that's a bit daunting.

OK, I need tlc! Nothing major just the Idiot being an a******e, again. Anyone got a gooey cream cake to go with the tea I'm making.

Have sit down and some and , Soutra

soop would you believe that I was only travelling under 6 miles?!

Fortunately my friend si being discharged this Wednesday so I can obviously drive to her house after that.

I have offered to cook meals for her hsuband so that he can just reheat them, or he could dine here, but no, he is sticking with ready meals costing under £!- yuk.

He has admitted that the fridge is empty. I have offered to buy basics, it would take me 5 minutes but no, he is going to wade through some of his wife's old shopping lists and get a clue from there! Where did she find this stubborn old git?

Same place as mine Charleygirl
He's just asked if I can 'move' half the plants in a flowerbed so he can put down 8 small paving slabs 'in a straight line'. I don't want a 'straight line'! I just asked (early last spring) for a few slabs so I can walk across the flowerbed to get to the climbing roses. It's turning in to a major endeavour with incessant deliberations - wish I'd just done it myself.....
And it's raining so he's traipsing mud across the patio in to the utility room
I'll have a jammy doughnut if there's any going please!

I've just made some apple shortcake Kitty, Loopy et al it's still warm if that will hit the spot?

Men do like their straight lines. It's simplest and easiest, much like them really. DBH keeps looking at me sadly and shaking his head and asking 'why is it always form over function with you?' And I shake mine right back and ask why he is always the exact opposite. It's taken over 20 years to make him see that plain and simply is not often the most beautiful. I think it's why so many modern buildings are boxes. Men are no longer educated to appreciate good art.

And like it or not, it's mostly men who are architects.

Looking at some 20th century monstrosities, like urban tower blocks and 1960's municipal offices I can believe that.
If they could get things right in the 30's , how could they get them so wrong just 30 years later?

Maybe their secretaries did it on their behalf?

No, it was I think because they had to rebuild cheaply after the war.

I meant the secretaries designed the stylish ones!

I think it's money that holds them back. Where once an individual would commission an individual beautiful house of office block, now big businesses want cheapness, not beauty.

Ahem!!! Whilst a few of you lot are on the subject of architects and boring buildings...MacSporran is a retired architect and I must put in a good word on his behalf. During the time he was self-employed he was, when permitted, imaginative. He won an award for a project in Cornwall. He managed to create two lovely homes for us (both conversions - one from a store shed and the other from a hay loft) both on a very tight budget. He's good with gardens too. Mind you...sometimes he can be overly "fussy" but it's also true that I can also be a tad whatever.

Once again...bravo Soutra. I'm hoping that you will be well-pampered at the weekend. I think that you are amazing.

Charleygirl You, my dear, must have the patience of a saint.

Galen, I feel that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight would be suitably intellectual for your mini meeting. I may have it somewhere in the loft.
soop, I had to watch the match the way I watch Dr Who - from beind a cushion!

anno Any match in which Andy plays is always one of highs and lows, and it's true, they can be difficult to watch. Hence I tackled the ironing. When the crowd cheered very loudly I looked up from the ironing board. When they were subdued, I kept my head down.

soop I bet McSporran was intensely irritated at times, when he wasn't allowed to use his creativity. Does he have a house that he was never allowed to build? Ex designed a house that was an octagon, because he wanted windows that could capture light at any time of day. It had a garden at the centre as well as outside, with a very practical entrance to it and the house through glass walls at extreme north so that no light would be wasted anywhere else.

Much as I came to dislike him, I did always feel sorry for him, that his dream house never came to be built.

Certainly Chaucer's 'The Canterbury Tales' would be most apt I think. Galen I did a bit of the Wife of Bath it for O Level English Language and don't remember any of it...... other than the teacher's , a nun, attempts to divert us away from anything remotely salacious

soop unfortunately I do not have the patience of a saint. I have a fiery temper and this fellow and I are always arguing because he will not accept any help. I would prefer to sit down to a steak which was cooked for me than eat a cheap ready meal from a supermarket.

I offered to change bed linen because it took him 2 days to do one bed and even then he had to have a rest between stripping the bed and fitting the bottom sheet. The next day he fitted the top sheet, pillows and blankets.

I am not very fit but I can do a lot more than he can.

I am going to appear on their doorstep the day after my friend has been discharged with a bowl of beef casserole which I will have made in the slow cooker early that morning. There will be enough for two evening meals.