Soop's friendly kitchen

Happy birthday to Torben Alexander Falcon. Eight cheers today. I'm posting one of my favourite photos of him with MacSporran. He insisted on stopping to peer through every railing and climbing every flight of steps to someone's front door.

See you very soon...callgirl1 The weather may be more cheerful tomorrow. It's a grey day thus far.

Knock knock. I am back. I notice the kitchen door is open so just popping in the say hello again. I was hoping for lemon drizzle but cannot see any.

Life has been traumatic and complex since my last post, but I won't go into details and depress everyone! Needless to say my tenacity and perseverance have been called upon, and hopefully we are on an even keel again.

I may lurk rather than post, but just wanted to say 'hello' again.

I’m going with Bella, 17 days in Med and Greece

May and June free Galen ...time for a short cruise somewhere? ?

I thought about going back to bed, but I used the time to read fridays files instead. 3 hours work.
They’ve also cancelled Gloucester next week, but at least I haven’t wasted time reading files.
I have no work in May or June as they got muddled up and gave me dates for when I’d said I was unavailable and nothing for when I am available!
I despair!

Happy Birthday to Torben for tomorrow!
Charleygirl, Mia is now, as we speak, at the cattery. She hates the pet carrier, so as well as being init, she left home without me, because Dawn took her for me, as I was, and still am, waiting for my hired mobility scooter to be delivered.
Soop, see you Saturday, can`t wait!

Hello the kitchen. Can I just come in here and put my feet up for five minutes? The white tornado has just gone home. We have swum, played games, painted, and made pizza - doesn’t sound a lot, but we are out on our feet. We also had a cooked lunch. The pizza was a bit of an experiment to find a tomato sauce that he would tolerate without running for the hills, and BY GEORGE! I think we’ve got it! It must have been the only pizza you cook first and put the cheese on afterwards, but hey - any port in a storm! He’s taken some home to show mum. He’s a funny little so and so!
Morethan I can’t tell you how pleased I am to hear good news about your DiL. It must have given the whole family a big lift. Let’s hope it bodes well for the future.
N&G what have you been doing to Grampy’s back? Must be lugging all that tea and toast about! Time to get the potted meat poultice out! He has my sympathy and I hope he is on the mend soon!
Gq I hope you had a nice lunch with your friends. Good company trumps good weather, and I’m sure their trip to our lovely county was not entirely spoiled. It’ll give them an excuse to come back and see it in a better light, as it were!
Galen I hope you have recovered from your disappointments yesterday. I admire your tenacity - the way they seem to mess you about, many would have packed it in by now.
Good on yer, Soop. I hate ironing, and do the very minimum I can get away with! Hope you put your feet up after all that!
Ok, time for another cup of tea. See you all tomorrow!

Log-off time for me. Just a short exercise session on my bike. Nothing heroic. It's been a decent enough day. The weather appears to be on the turn (for the better, methinks.)

The usual routine visit to the care home tomorrow. Coffee in the Royal. Tesco shop. Return home to catch up with my Granspals.

anno That's the one. It is a pudding that I've had just the once, in Crete, I believe, and it was memorable for its gooiness..

Charleyg I very much doubt that MacSporran will agree to having a pump fitted. He is finding it a tad painful to pay for the last big garage bill that came as a nasty surprise. The garage owner agreed that he could pay the bill in three instalments. If you could see the pot holes in Kintyre...you would gasp. There is a sign with humps on it, en route to Campbeltown, that locals pay attention to. Those who do not slow down have a very nasty fright when they hit a series of extremely hazardous pot holes. Sooner or later, there may well be an accident.

Yes soop, baklava is that sticky pastry, made with honey and crushed nuts - made in-house by the restaurant chef - very delicious and even a morsel goes a long, long way.

morethan Children have a built-in central heating system. They are far too busy charging around like whirling to feel the cold.

Torben will be eight tomorrow. Darling boy.

Gaga Hilarious! etc....
Charleyg I have finished the painting of the hoos. It looks tip-top. I couldn't be more chuffed. Have just this minute thrown out the very ancient jeans and torn blouse (both smothered in paint) into the dustbin.

Thanks Gaga I had no idea you had married a 25 year old!!

Charley of course you may ask - the same question I have put more than once! Here is the answer I have been given:

1. Best road bike. Only for use in dry, clement conditions on good roads usually in summer. Cost a lot and is fast and very light weight.

2. Very old road bike. This is used to leave at the station when going anywhere by train. It is so old and tatty that noone would steal it!

3. Mountain bike. Used for going on woodland trails in dirty conditions

4. Hybrid bike - used for bike club winter outings on a variety of roads, bridle ways, cycle paths etc.

5. Best winter road bike - donated by DS who is a keen mountain biker and no longer uses a road bike. A decent ride but not as fast as no 1. Would use this for club outings on roads in autumn, winter and early spring.

6. Old road bike used for popping to shops, library etc. This is the one which will eventually take over from no. 2 when that collapses.

So there you have it! It makes perfect sense to him and he does use all of them at different times and for different occasions.

Anyway, there is now ample room for them all in a rack he has made for them from pallets, in our newly decluttered garage! (Did I mention that? )

Gaga may I ask why Mr. G has 6 bikes because he can only ride one at a time?

I have an empty loft and a very tidy shed, shame about my 3 bedroom house!

Galen another 5 minutes and you would have been flying up the motorway- the call came just in time but I agree, a lot of work for no money is not fair.

morethan that news from your D must have made your day.

callgirl I believe the weather is going to improve next week but whether it reaches the highlands and islands is debatable. Have you got somebody caring for Mia? She will miss her nagging mummy.

N&G is there light at the end of tunnel re the work being done to your house? At least you appear to be happy with the standard of workmanship and with luck you will be able to sit out in the garden with Jackson and Cooper running around.

There was slight rain here earlier- I do not want to hear the word drought in 3 months time.

soop you deserve a rest for the remainder of the day- forget about painting etc today.

We've finished the garage decluttering! Three cheers and whoopee! Can't believe it. Last load went to the tip at lunchtime and we've even used the Nilfisk to clean the car and DH is now cleaning his "best" bike (1 of 6) with it. So a busy but productive and very satisfying week for us.

Galen A buggeration with bells on. Surely there is some (if small) compensation for the trouble you have been put to. If not, we'll organise another protest march on your behalf.

morethan The news regarding your daughter's recent scan, is a bonus. I'm very pleased.

Get well soon, Grampy...^us lot^ are rooting for you.

The sun is shining. The breeze is a little less chilly. Good omen for when callgirl1 is planning to visit Kintyre.

Yet another ironing duty (for a friend) over and done with. Two and a half hours of non-stop ironing is about all that I can cope with as I age. In three years time, at the age of 80, I shall retire - as did my late Nana. In the meantime, I bite the bullet and am thankful for the opportunity to put something into the wee 'treats' tin in my knicker drawer.

Sam is GORGEOUS.

anno is baklava a deliciously sticky pud? If so, I remember it well.

That’s a b*********n you could do without, Galen, “all dressed up and nowhere to go” my mum would have said. There’s so often more to a piece of work than others see or acknowledge. Hope that doesn’t happen too often.
morethan, brilliant news. Hope you get a bit of time for yourself before Friday.
Get well wishes for Grampy and bucketfuls of patience for you nana! Yes it’s grey, dreich and miserable weather here too. We have friends, holidaying in the area popping in for lunch today, sadly I don’t think they’ll have seen Yorkshire at its best this week! Lunch should be interesting as we have gds 15 and 10 + a grubby (once white dog in residence, and of course
all their accompanying clutter. Fortunately the girls and the friends are sociable types and dd1 and her partner will arrive at some point as they’re keen to see our old friends.
So while I should be doing a quick tidy up in my house here I am footering about in a kitchen not my own! Sympathy to all who feel in a muddle at home. It may be small potatoes but I hate it, it really unsettles me all out of proportion to the actual situation.
Enough now, see you all - later after I’ve done a bit of a cosmetic tidy up here x

Dreary, drizzling weather here again. We keep looking at houses in Spain and saying “wouldn’t it be wonderful?” Just a pipe dream, but I’m longing for some sun and warmth.
DH has booked the floor sander for the end of the month, so it will be all systems go. I’m dreading it as the living room will be out of action for at least 3 days, so nowhere comfortable to sit of an evening and upheaval all round. It will be good when it’s finished though

Morning all !!

Its all go here this morning. Scaffolders arrived at 07:30 . Waiting for the skip and then the rendering team to arrive !

Grampy is poised to make tea and toast all round before we head out. I cannot stand another day of the noise - Ive even dug out my noise cancelling headphones and have them charging just in case !!

Sorry to hear about the cancellation Galen - weren't you tempted , as you were all dressed up - to go out and do something lovely? I think I would have been.

GREAT news Morethan !!

Grampy has hurt his back ( so is obviously dying !!), so our trip back to Essex is in doubt as were ferrying back our too tall wardrobes to one of our daughters . We shall see , but Ill be disappointed if we don't go .Hey ho - in the big picture of things its small potatoes I guess.

Not sure what the weather is like today as everything is misty grey with the stuff on the windows so I'm hoping to be hugely surprised when I open the door and the sun is beating down ( LOL some chance) !!

Hope everyone has warmed up now and has something nice to look forward to !

That is encouraging news Morethan, so pleased for you all

I hope your feeling less annoyed today Galen but your description made you sound really glamorous. What happens if you’ve booked transport do you get refunded? (not sure if you live near Cardiff) I took my three grandchildren to an outside attraction yesterday and like you anno I felt chilled to the bone. They didn’t even notice the cold. I delivered them home and their mummy whispered that her consultant had told her that her recent scan were good. So we can all breath easy for the next couple of months. I do hope it warms up by Friday when I’ve got all three again.Enjoy your day everyone.

Grr! Got up and dressed, put hair up, jewellery on and applied makeup at the crack of dawn this morning.
I was halfway down the stairs on the stairlift when the ‘phone went.
It was Cardiff ringing to say today’s tribunal had been cancelled due to the judge’s illness!
Ok, but I won’t be able to claim anything,in spite of the 3 hours I’d spent preparing the cases as I can’t prove ‘financial loss’ as I have no alternative occupation I could have booked a session with.
I would point out that the time we spend preparing cases is unpaid!?