Come and tell me your dull and unexciting news 9: Calmly through the day

[MissConductUS]

I've started a new one. Please join us and share the boring and mundane things happening in your world. It will be calming for all.

[quote soddingkitten]In British English, I’d assumed shrimps were the smaller prawn-family critters

My slate roof made it through Storm Bella unscathed. . Huge relief

We did a panicked Christmas Eve tidy up with the result that both the regular bin and the recycling bin were full even before the Christmas presents were opened. The regular bin is being collected on Tuesday but the recycling isn't being collected until the following Tuesday, so that's going to be a bit of a pain. Normally they will only take a bin load and nothing extra, but for the recycling lift after Christmas they will allow a bagful as well, but it's still a pain having to wait so long for the collection.

The compost is going great though. I asked my Mum for a Hot Bin for Christmas and I actually got it in mid-November so it's been working away for a while now. It's definitely more effort than putting into the bin company compost bin and having it taken away, but I looked back over the charges for compost lifts and I reckon the Hot Bin will pay for itself in 18 months to 2 years.

Welcome @trevthecat and @Mintjulia and thanks for sharing your decorative and structural news.

I'm cooking up a kilo of bacon for pizza making.

Waved off DDs 1, 2, and 3 half an hour ago, an hour after they were planning to leave. They're probably half way across Indiana by now. DD1 has something of a lead foot. Upstairs neighbour spilled what sounded like a bucket of marbles on her sitting room floor. DD4 has slunk back to bed.

Now I'm wondering if the verb 'to slink' is conjugated like the verb 'to drink'.

Sodding's news of the bin bags reminds me that I'll have to go out to sort out the mess DD2 made of the recycling bin later. She dumped the recyclables into the bin in a plastic bag instead of shaking them all out of it and putting the bag in the other bin. The waste company will put another of their This Will Not Do stickers on the blue bin and it will stay unemptied if the offending plastic bag is not removed.

To give a bio bin update: DH went down and rearranged the communal bin and so our kitchen bin has been emptied, I will clean it now and then properly line it.

DDog3 has hurt her foot, no idea how but she's currently limping round and staring plaintively into the middle distance.

DDog3 is part staffie and possibly part whippet, this means that she carts around a staffies bulk on a set of spindly whippet trotters so we are no stranger to poorly feet. This time however there are no cuts, no torn nails or scuffed pads and the foot is swollen. DDog3 is on high alert lest anyone have the temerity to try and inspect the offending trotter and has it tucked firmly underneath her. I'm hopeful for a miraculous recovery or we will need to brave a visit to the trotter doctor - DDog3 takes a very dim view of the trotter doctor and the trotter doctor is of a similar opinion of DDog3.

I'm back from my run. It was my first run in months and I think I feel worse for it. I had planned to do 10k, which was ambitious given my lack of running recently, and the fact that I have consumed my body weight in food over the last couple of days. My ankle and knee started hurting simultaneously about 3km in, so I turned for home and did 5.5k in the end. I think it was shin splints. I wonder if I need a new pair of trainers, these ones are several years old and have run hundreds of miles.

Never mind @EggNogPegg, at least you managed to come in last on thread 8

I did @forgetthehousework, that cheered me up immensely.

The DC have just worked out that they can call each other on the Echo Dots they got for Christmas. Their bedrooms are next to each other.

I also enjoyed Eggy’s 1000th post dismount at the end of the last thread. Nicely done.

@EggNogPegg I also enjoyed your thread closer very much!

On the trainers front, you may well need new ones. They only last for so long before the support starts to deteriorate, even if you don’t use them at all. I was wearing a really old pair when I started and could definitely feel their age, once I got some new ones I was a lot more comfortable. Get some ice on those shins too!

Since a few days - possibly since plumber - our toilet has been whining after each flush. Asked DH and he said this is fine. Looked online and it implies a problem. I said I would get plumber back as we need him back anyway for sink taps. DH said no I'm fixing this myself. DH has never successfully fixed a DIY problem but refuses all help. DH turned the water off as the solution. He looked how to fix toilet and decided all its parts where behind the wall and says he will break the wall later Luckily he never gets as far as carrying out planned repairs, they are always for tomorrow but he always makes issue worse by demolishing everything then saying he doesn't know what to do but can't get it back. We are all praying he doesn't attempt to fix the toilet esp as its a Bank Holiday tomorrow.

DS is having a bath after DH agreed to put the water part back on temporarily. I've asked DH for a cup of tea in an effort to distract him from DIY.

Just deciding what turkey related meal to have for dinner, think tonight's turkey special will be sweet and sour turkey with rice.

I’ve just picked over the chicken carcass and sent DH up the garden for a leek - chicken pie now in the oven. We don’t have a lot to go with it though... DH has suggested more cheese and biscuits

I took DD for a walk around a country park. I bought her a hot chocolate, I had a coffee and we drove home singing jingle bells.

I've watched The Sound of Music this afternoon and am debating whether to have a bath or a shower before bed. I don't generally shower in the evening, I prefer a bath, but I had a bath last night and don't think I can be bothered with a bath again, so I might just wait and get back to my morning shower routine tomorrow.

The exciting part of my evening is over - I cleaned and properly binlined the bio bin, now I will try to finish the second sleeve.

DS has stripped his bed, as requested. I have however now realised that although we have clean sheets available for his bed, neither of his preferred duvet covers are clean. So we may have to resort to the duvet covers with numbers on it in primary colours from when he was about five. He is thirteen.

We watched The Sound of Music, and while doing so I was browsing the British Airways sale for inspiration for DH's big birthday in September. It said there were "3 people looking" at flights to Florence, "7 people looking" at flights to Paris, and "59 people looking" at flights to Salzburg

Remind me never to get adventurous in a hurry in the wine section of Sainsburys online again. I thought I’d mix things up and try some different wines in my Christmas order. Hot on the heels of the Greek dessert wine (excellent with Christmas pudding by the way) I opened a bottle of white Moscato earlier. Yep, another very sweet, slightly fizzy wine. I’m running out of desserts to drink this stuff with. I will make more considered purchasing choices next year.

I lost my calm when I lost the last thread, and regained it on jumping across to this one.
Happy 5th birthday to @Spudlet’s DS, hope he has had a great day!
I dragged the family out for a walk after Mass this morning, they were better for it. Then we had a roast lunch to use up leftovers (satisfyingly well judged).

@soddingkitten - Get more desserts.

I am about to open a 'Haustrunk', the sort of wine people from BW have about the place for everyday consumption.
I have opened it - not sweet.

We visited Stowe in Vermont which is where the real von Trapp family moved to. We didn't stay in their hotel but we could see it across the valley from our hotel.

We visited Salzburg in February as that was the airport we flew to for skiing. The day we were due to fly home, we'd set aside as our touristy Salzburg day. DH stayed with the DC in a playground adjacent to the Mirabell Palace which is where the steps, tunnel and fountain of Do-Re-Mi was filmed whilst I went and got my geek on.

Pictures of steps and tunnel (and distinctive grass) from both directions.

And the entrance that they stand in, plus the tunnel that was sadly closed for the winter.