Soop's special kitchen for like-minded folk and treasured pets

Hello kitty nice to see you in the kitchen again. What may I ask is Christmas Pudding chutney. I've heard of having Brandy Butter with Christmas Pudding. In our house we usually have brandy cream but never heard of anyone having chutney with their pud

by the way, did you leave us any of your biscuits?

kitty shame on you for using the "c word" and October barely in?
I have been to a gastro pub with my friend and disgraced myself by ordering Steak and Ale pie, with chips and followed by Hot Chocolate Fudge Cake.
I feel like I have eaten a football and won't eat again until tomorrow morning.
I have a food order coming between 3 and 4 so can't nod off.
Have a good afternoon every one.

Hello everyone - you have been busy people! I hope the bugs are all giving in and you are starting to feel better.
I am sitting at mum's bedside - she is unwakeably asleep and snoring in a very unladylike manner!

I do wonder how much longer I can go on with disturbed nights.?
Last night was not bad-12.30, 3 ish then woke up by myself at 7 so better than some but I am barely firing on 1 1/2 cylinders and there is a backlog of things to do threatening to build up behind me. Plate spinning is what it feels like and I find myself getting a bit teary at the slightest thing.
Annsixty that is sad, just as when my friend’s son and DIL came for her DH’s birthday. After they had gone, he commented what nice people they were and how kind it was of them to come for his birthday without ANY idea who they were. He also failed to recognise his grown up daughter on the doorstep which really upset her.
So very very hard

Maw If you can manage it, get some help! Even a couple of nights a week would make a difference. I have been there and I know that after a while you are so busy "doing" 24/7 that it is very difficult to just BE with him and relax together.

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N&G, you bet you’ll be welcome visitors with all that booty! Like Ann I hadn’t realised you were still hoping to move, are your chicks happier with the plan than they were? You’re right family love can be like elastic, but being at a distance, even a short one, will take a bit of adjustment all round and a lot of stretching. But you’re right sometimes we have to do what’s best for ourselves and make choices while we can. When we moved north 9 years ago it took us much nearer our 4 girls but further away from our son. Fortunately we’d formed a really close bond with his youngsters when we lived nearby but I must admit to feeling sad at what we lost by moving, despite knowing we’ve also gained loads. It was absolutely the right thing to do for us but swings and roundabouts comes to mind!
You must be exhausted, maw, hope you can find ways of getting the balance you need to feel like you’re still living your own life.
kitty, I have shopping trips like that! Much as I love to give.... I hope the mayor realised how lucky he was to be standing next to you, we all know you’re a star!
Ann, sorry to hear your dh didn’t realise who your visitor was but I’m glad you got to see your grandson. It’s lovely that he wants to keep contact with you in his own right. That lunch sounds yummy!
Like yours my garden is giving a last burst of colour, anno, I need to hack it back and put it to bed for the winter but while there’s a bit of colour I haven’t the heart to do it.
Hoping all the poorly people feel better soon, there seem to be some vicious bugs around and it’s not even winter yet.
Enjoyed a lovely autumn walk at a favourite spot yesterday, the colours are just beginning to turn. They’ll look beautiful in a couple of weeks that’s if the gale force winds have blown everything off the trees by then!

A late good afternoon to you lovely lot. Slept on and off in bed until early afternoon. This bug is one of the worst we've encountered. Had to cancel flu jabs until we get over it. Showered and did a wee bit of ironing whilst listening to Boris's speech at the conference. It was fine. In fact, I enjoyed it.

anno Please continue to take things a easy until your shoulder is fully healed. Leave all the heavy gardening jobs to the tree surgeon. We had one tackle a large overgrown bird cherry tree a good while ago. He shimmied up the trunk with all manner of harnesses fixed to his person and looked not unlike a modern day Tarzan as he swung from branch to branch. And to think that MacSporran had toyed with the idea of doing the job.

Oops! So sorry, Bella Yet another senior moment.

Triciaf I also enjoy having conversations with strangers. The good kind. On the train back to Glasgow, a lady and her husband tried to help me locate my errant mobile phone. The lady sent messages to MacS on my behalf. She also shared some fabulous chocolates with me. Husband wanted to share many wonderful images taken on his camera with a very special lens. I saw, in sharp detail, the eyes and mandibles of a garden spider, a household fly, a grasshopper, Dragon fly. He belongs to a special camera club. Some of his photographs have won awards.

ann I always like to hear that you have something cheerful to look forward to.

N&G An hour and a half drive between you and your loved ones won't interfere with all the happy stuff you do together. I think that your grandchildren are blest to have you take such a keen interest in them. What's more, you are FUN!

kitty What did you buy for yourself? Don't you very dare to say nothin'.

Maw Elegran is right. Without a proper nights sleep you will become so washed out that someone will need to care for you.

graaniequeenie Those photographs are excellent.

JaneD3 I woke myself up with a start when I snored like trumpet earlier today. I recall thinking - what on earth was that!

Exactly that soop The C*******s Pudding Churned is (Apparently) made of the stuff that goes into the said pudding!

The Mayor was lovely and said it was his bling that attracted people.

I thought you and MacS were getting better not worse, Soop! I hope the bedrest did you some good. And i wish we could help Maw get some. Broken sleep is really debilitating especially for we slightly older persons!

I hope the shoulder is almost thereanno but don't do too much.

Love the photos queenie - I am always impressed by lovely photos and more than a little envious of people who have that talent.

Off to cook some plaice in a parmesan and anchovy butter and gird my loins for the last Dr Foster!

JaneD3, and Soop, you`ve just reminded me of a couple of bust ups I`ve had with my daughter today. I dropped off in the chair a couple of times, as I`m wont to do, and each time she shouted me awake, complaining of my snoring. I can`t help it, honest! I told her if she doesn`t shut up I`ll make her bedroom into a bedsit, then she can live there well away from my snores, lol!
I`m glad that some folk are getting better, but also very sorry that others are just as bad, hope things start to improve very soon.
MAW, please take steps to help yourself, or you`re going to go under, and none of us lot wants that!
N & G, how kind of you to think that I`d suit a big bow, there were some on the market the other day, maybe I should hve bought an especially BIG one?!

What a splendid robin, Gq! You really have got your photography down to a fine art. Like you, I am loathe to give my garden the last rites just yet. Cosmos and dahlias are still going strong and the erysium Bowles Mauve is still strongly in its second flush, along with some fuschias. It does need some urgent attention though - earlier this year, I transplanted a stray nasturtium that had self seeded. It seemed a shame to throw it away. It has gone completely bananas and rampaged all over a new flower bed, up a hedge on one side and threaded its way through the honeysuckle on the other side. This is ONE PLANT! I have hacked chunks off it, but it just laughs at me! Handsome though, in its own way!
Soop I am glad you are not doing too much whilst in the clutches of this bug. It seems to be laying so many people low. We have flu jabs on Thursday. Really looking forward to it (NOT!).
I had a moan to DH today about the fact that this plumbing work upstairs is taking so long to complete due to metaphorical crossed wires and other issues. He showed me an article on his phone with photographs of other people's plumbing efforts and some of them were so weird and hilarious that we almost cried laughing. The one that really had me going was someone who had fitted their toilet so close to the door, it wouldn't close - so they just cut a chunk out of the side of the door to accommodate the toilet! Job's a good 'un, as they say! It made me feel better. I wish I could have posted some of the photos. But because we expected to be finished now and are still in a mess, I have had to put off cooking lunch for a friend I haven't seen for some time, which I am sad about as we were really looking forward to seeing each other. We will rearrange it, but she is very hard to pin down these days.

Oh you mean chutney that tastes like C****** Pudding not chutney that you have with C****** Pudding silly me.

maw not surprising you are teary. You are tired. Can you get a nap during the day or have someone in to help?

Glad your GS popped in ann. Shame your DH did not recognise him but nice for you to get to see him anyway. Glad you enjoyed your lunch. Made my mouth water

Nunight to you all. It cheers me no end to catch up with you lot, you are the best tonic ever next to a medicinal wee dram mid-evening

and a big thank you.

Maw Broon - sleepless nights can affect your mood too . I know because I have the same problem and it makes me so negative.
Have you asked your Dr. about it? Mine won't give any pills etc apart from some useless herbal thing. I do resort to Piriton sometimes. The trouble with pills is that they work at first then you need more to take effect, then you're addicted.
I remember now that my Mum had the same problem,

Maw Several posters have commented that you need your sleep for YOU, but I shall add that you also need it for Paw. . Someone said to me that you need to have rests from being a carer so that you can be a wife, and that is so true.

I was the main carer for DH, and though he eventually had excellent carers coming in four times a day to help (for about fifteen minutes at a time!) , I was on my own from 7pm to 8am and for most of the day. I am ashamed to admit that sometimes I was so tired from everything that HAD to be done that I just didn't have the energy to sit with him and be cheerful and normal.

Right, I am feeling much better now thank you all.
Organisation is the key and I will have to accept that if Paw needs attention in the night, I will catch up with an afternoon nap (so no change there!)
I was also feeling vulnerable because we were being let down by our regular driver for next week’s London Royal Free Hospital visit and I do NOT cope well with feeling vulnerable (or protective of Paw)
I felt let down because the booking was made back in April before this all kicked off and the hospital visit is a very necessary one as we need to know what the heck went on in July. It also threatens to be a logistical minefield, a long car journey (1 1/2hours) do we take a wheelchair or use a hospital one? How will Paw cope with what is always a knackering experience .
I didn’t need to hear about our driver’s revised holiday plans thanks to Monarch’s demise. I felt that he should at least have tried to find a substitute himself.
What IS a holiday anyway?
Anyway I found a substitute who has taken us before and whom we know although he is more expensive !
So now for a bit of ironing, then a wee and perhaps an early night.
(Hattie has now chewed through the cable of our second phone charging pod, BTW as well as raiding the WPBs and scattering the contents everywhere <sigh> )
Bless!

My rather Victorian mum, who has never been one so swear, was shouting "oh buggrit!" at the top of her voice as I left.

Good morning all, I've brought fresh croissants and apricot jam. Ooh, nobody here! Have I forgotten I should be somewhere else? Do hope everyone is ok x

I am here swanny and those croissants will go down a treat.
Am I allowed butter as well?
It is dull here but dry.
After going out yesterday, very enjoyable, it is a day in and we are having a roast chicken dinner as we didn't have one on Sunday.
Have a good day if you can everyone.

Lovely! Coffee with just a spot of milk with mine please. I have brought home made apricot jam to go with the croissants. Of course you can have butter Ann but definitely not marg!

Aw, come on! How the heck am I supposed to be remotely disciplined about watching my weight when there is home made jam and buttered croissants on offer?? Perhaps an exception just for today then! ?

Greyduster Shall we share the buttered croissants and home made jam? I could tuck into several right now.

We've been listening to Theresa May's speech. I was won over by her steadfast manner throughout what could be construed as a buggeration of events. She did herself and the party proud. I loved the moment when her husband took her in his arms and hugged her.

Maw You are a darling.

JaneD3 'Buggrit!' Yay! I shall adopt your dear Victorian mum's expletive.

I spent a short time in bed this morning. Can someone tell us how long this bloody awful cough lasts.

Soop I am being good - I have just had a cup of Bovril and two water biscuits with no butter!
I was looking for a recipe earlier this afternoon in a folder of cuttings and stuff I had saved over the years and I came across two hand written recipes that my sister had given me. She made brilliant cakes and I was always begging her recipes. I was quite affected by seeing her handwriting - she died thirteen years ago and I lost the last of my three older siblings and one of two girls who were more mother to me than my own at times. She would by now be starting on the several lovely Christmas cakes she baked every year - I had the recipe for those too, but have lost it now.

Soop glad you watched our marvellous PM. I am not a Tory, and have voted many ways previously, but I sincerely do have faith in her belief, of what is best for the country.

I know she failed at Grenfell but so did many others. The whole sorry episode says a lot that is wrong with our country.
Profit at the price of others, and trample everybody else to get to the top.

Sorry to introduce that dreaded subject politics here, but I hope some grans might excuse me, and see May as a gooooood person with a heart.

It is 3 days since Charleygirl posted, I hope she is just having broadband problems and is OK.