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.

Mortgage advisor phoned me. Mortgage is not up for renewal until next year. Awks. I think she remembered me and my lack of financial knowledge from last time.

I’m in work again. It’s even quieter today. A man came earlier to flush the taps in our office kitchen (legionella prevention). The building is still cold. I wore my shearling-lined boots today but still have cold feet.

I put my trousers in the airing cupboard to dry this morning before leaving for work as my boys are on a go-slow with their laundry duties. I will pause their pocket money if they continue to withhold their labour.

Drowning in parental enquiries/anxieties today.

Got about 2 hours sleep last night. Cat was letting DH know she was cross with him for leaving her before but DH has a deaf ear so managed to sleep. DD was coming in saying there's still no physics throughout the night, not sure what I am supposed to do about that at 3am. Just watched Netflix and 90 day fiance.

Then been trying to home ed DS. Got through French, English and Science, his e-mails and I looked at his Business and Engineering which he avoids at school - he's largely been on the floor whining, hacked off that school are sending him work on his extended holiday and hacked off with me that I'm making him listen to it.

Just had sausage sandwich. Hopefully can get a nap this afternoon.

I need to collect my new carpet cleaner after work. It is a Bissel...um, heated water something washing something. It is red and ‘titanium’, apparently.

Also need milk, shampoo and dog food, these things are not available at Curry’s but luckily Curry’s is next to Pets At Home and Sainsbury’s.

I had to post a parcel earlier today and I also enquired about opening a savings account for my DD.
Between the frosty roads and rampant covid I hope I don't have to go to the PO again for quite some time.

Had an omelette for lunch- haven't had one in AGES - it was delicious.

I did some email monitoring from home while I was off and replied to the really urgent ones at the time. I'm now slogging through the backlog that still needs reading or replying that accumulated. There really is no such thing as "time off", it's just a temporary postponement of the work.

@Squirrel26 - Bissel is the big brand of carpet cleaners here too. You'll need special carpet shampoo to use in it. Perhaps they'll include it when you pick it up at Curry's.

@halfpasteleven - I had an amazing omelet before Christmas. It was three large eggs whisked with some half and half (half milk, half cream used primarily in coffee) with some cheddar and bacon. It was rocking.

@Squirrel26

I remember Crusha milkshakes. I think we had them at my junior school.

There are some men up a ladder at the end of the corridor. Hey have removed a ceiling panel. They aren’t wearing high vis though. Disappointing lapse in standards.

Yay! at the return of the men fiddling about with the office infrastructure for no discernible reason - pure Keynesian economic theory being put into practice - boo! at the lack of hi-vis clothing.

Good luck to everyone returning to home schooling - you are all amazing!

Sorry @EggNogPegg, I forgot to answer your question - yes, I am really enjoying watching Gavin and Stacy - I’ve no idea why we didn’t watch it the first time round but am glad in a way as it is cheering to watch through these dreary days in January. Although it’s good to know that it’s one of those shows that can be watched again and again and enjoyed each time.

@MissConductUS

I did some email monitoring from home while I was off and replied to the really urgent ones at the time. I'm now slogging through the backlog that still needs reading or replying that accumulated. There really is no such thing as "time off", it's just a temporary postponement of the work.

@Squirrel26 - Bissel is the big brand of carpet cleaners here too. You'll need special carpet shampoo to use in it. Perhaps they'll include it when you pick it up at Curry's.

@halfpasteleven - I had an amazing omelet before Christmas. It was three large eggs whisked with some half and half (half milk, half cream used primarily in coffee) with some cheddar and bacon. It was rocking.

I have to be really hungry to manage a 3 egg omelette (English spelling)

@Therainisback

23Frownette

@Therainisback I had a google on the lime milkshakes but it's coming up with lots of healthy stuff, definitely not the same thing. The stuff of our yoof was practically radioactive.

I may have to start a thread to see if we can track it down.
I remember the bottles were upside down behind the counter ( like optics in a pub) this would have been mid 70s. Was it called Quicka?

How about 'Cresta'? Advertised by a polar bear who's slogan was "It's frothy man". As I recall it came in several fairly fluorescent colours, was incredibly sweet, and it didn't matter how much you drank of it, IT NEVER QUENCHED YOUR THIRST!

Deary me, the things you remember .....

I have to be really hungry to manage a 3 egg omelette (English spelling)

I was. I had just gotten out of the shower after a 40-minute run and hadn't eaten since dinner the night before. Prolonged cardiovascular exercise lowers your blood sugar levels, which is one of the primary physiological triggers of hunger.

I think I had a piece of toasted French bread with it too.

Day two of home school complete. Considering whether I can make DS a semi-permanent little space for working in if I can get a little desk secondhand, and whether that might help him to focus, if he has a proper little space? DH is sucking his teeth though. We could perhaps chop the legs off a folding card table (which we already have) to take it to the appropriate height... that might appeal to DH as it would be a Project and would Save Money. Or on the other hand, perhaps not.

DS’s eye test has been cancelled again 🙈 He was seen for a quick checkup in October though and they thought his eyesight was good so not too worried. This appointment was for the refraction clinic with the awful stinging eye drops, so not too sorry to put it off again, as long as DS is ok.

@Nydj I think we may have studied the same thing.

Omelettes: I always go for mushroom and cheese.

With the radioactive lime milkshakes, did these come out of a bottle in cafes? Remember those, pre lockdown? In a sense I'm glad my father isn't alive to witness this. He used to sneak me off to a cafe just the two of us to escape.

Actually, I’ve just had a complete brainwave... I think DS’s play workbench is the right height to work with his little chair. If I take the distracting tool bits off, it would fit in the space fine and even has a high back board I could stick education display bits onto without damaging the walls (we didn’t decorate too long ago!). That could work! We’ll just have to temporarily move the log basket.

Spudlet, we got the kids proper desks when they were about 12 and 14 just so they would have a place that was just for school work and space to organize their things. They're still using them for university distance learning.

Spudlet, cross post! It sounds like the workbench would work really well.

We’ll be sorting out DS’s bedroom at some point this year to get him a proper bed and so on - he has his little toddler bed at the moment but he’s getting close to the end of it! He has a tiny room so we’ll probably get him a bed up a ladder, and maybe a little desk to go underneath. Or more likely just a cosy bean bag to make a reading and playing nook. I had a desk in my room but I don’t remember ever really using it - I worked at the kitchen table instead. But I shared a room with my sister so I never really had a room of my own to hang out in.

The workbench has been brought in from the playhouse, and is awaiting a damn good scrub before it goes anywhere near my living room!

The workbench idea sounds very cute, @Spudlet.

@Frownette, the Keynes reference was about the only thing I could remember from A Level economics - in fact it may be the only thing I learned because my grade was painfully bad.

DH has gone to shops to collect the all things fluffy I ordered for DS's birthday, just hope he likes them but he's a big fan of floofy things as he calls them.

Then he went to Currys to try and track down the SMEG milk frother which was supposed to arrive on 23.12 for Xmas but they lost. They have found it and can now use to make hot chocs for Ds's birthday.

I asked DS about a desk and he was very opposed as desk = work.

I bought my parents some DIY beeswax wraps which have apparently arrived today. They said they don’t know what to do with them, so I can’t tell if they haven’t got instructions or have made them and don’t know how to use them...

Yes the bright milkshakes were in cafes - we never had it at home, only ever orange squash. Could have been Crusha or Cresta. I'll have a Google later. Off to grill some gallium for tea.

As in the element GA, atomic number 31?

That would be an unusual course for tea.