Come and tell me your dull and unexciting news 30: 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.

Here is a link to the prior thread:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5013993-come-and-tell-me-your-dull-and-unexciting-news-29-calmly-through-the-day

Welcome to all regulars, lurkers, and new contributors! Everyone is welcome to join.

Just had another hopeless call re education for DS and also the LA are saying they can't do an annual review which is a legal requirement. Almost all the staff have left at the LA including all the management and noone has a clue what they are doing.

@sueelleker forgot to post a reply to you.

Stayed up last night until 6.30am to watch election which was quite the event. Then slept all day so the gardening today never got done. Did LA call and now going to have steak fajitas for dinner. Still mildly covidy but nearly caught up on sleep now and very tail end.

Lovely flowers and the croissants/chocolate spread sound delicious Havoc!
Sorry Penguinsa that sounds so frustrating. Glad you're feeling a bit better though.
Miss hope you had fabulous celebrations!
Back from work and relaxing.
DS has booked his UCAT test for early sept. Fingers crossed he can prepare well.

I have a good deal of catching up to do.

Lovely to see you again, Helena and Sue.

This may be a little too exciting for the thread - well it's exciting for me anyway - but I managed to make a quick trip to Ireland and I'm here until next Friday. I spent the last two days organising my mum's kitchen for her and shopping in IKEA for things she needs, and will spend tomorrow morning digging through her three wheelie bins and putting all the mixed up stuff in its rightful bin. So, not very exciting really. Internet is a bit patchy here.

Good luck to your DS for exam, Sprouts. Sounds daunting!
Penguinsa, I'm prone to staying awake for election results, too. Glad you're on the up. 😀
Miss, nice to have wild raspberries in your backyard! 😋 Havoc and I found a few ripe ones when out today.

Spent a couple hours with Havoc at playground/splash park today. It was breezy, so heat was tolerable. Havoc is now crashed out on the couch after a very toddler meal of penne with butter. Fruit and cheese are untouched.

Enjoy your visit home with your mum, Math. I'd love to visit Ireland.

Thanks Sprouts Hope test prep and test goes well.

How lovely to go to Ireland Math Never been, hope you have a lovely visit and get time to do nice things for you as well.

Nice to get out to park Havoc

Got a few more pics from Borneo off DD as she took all the photos on the boat trips but previously I only had the elephant and orangutan in the wild ones from there. She sent some to DH and this is the 5.30am boat so its misty, the proboscis monkey which is only in Borneo and has a big nose, the kingfisher which is quite small and the orangutans again from Sepilok sanctuary. She sent DH lovely videos of the pygmy elephants waving their trunks around and putting grass on their backs.

Sleep is a bit all over the place after election night. Hopefully will plant the plants tomorrow but weather forecast is a bit iffy. DD is enjoying her holiday.

@mathanxiety
I dunno, I think a trip to Ireland is exciting! Never been though but my mum and dad went with my uncle and aunt and really enjoyed themselves!

@Mumtobabyhavoc

What? are you saying that when I have just penne and butter I am eating a toddler meal???!! I actually had spaghetti with just marg and garlic powder the other day.

@MissConductUS
Ooh wild raspberries. I have fond memories of our first house where there were gooseberries. Rarely seen in shops. Another of our houses had raspberries and blackcurrants. Sadly I have no garden now.

Good afternoon everyone. I love reading all your news and seeing your fabulous pictures. I have very limited mobility but I’m sharing your journeys, so thank you so much. I can’t believe how much travelling I’m doing from my armchair. 🇨🇦🍁🇮🇪🇯🇵🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 ✈️ 🌏🐘🦧(couldn’t find Borneo).

I think I beat everyone yesterday for excitement. I’d bought some storage boxes for my dried pasta. I decanted most of the shaped pasta but the spaghetti was about one cm too long to fit. I spent a good hour in the kitchen sitting and breaking a couple of cms from the individual ends of a kilo of spaghetti. Today I may watch paint dry. Oh actually that will really be happening tomorrow, as I have a couple of watercolour exercises to do, from an online art course I enrolled on, last year. I’m only a week behind this month’s tutorial!

Tennis this afternoon and OH will be watching the England game. I shall be reading and playing online games as well. I find it difficult to just sit and watch television without doing something else, unless it’s a foreign language film with subtitles. My Swedish and French are coming on a treat though! 😂

I am footballing and MNing !

Miserable day here today .
Cold and wet ...very very WET ! 😂.

Well ... obviously not really cold ...but definitely on the fresher side of warm !

I cleaned the stairs. I have never cleaned a carpet before. I feel quite proud of myself but also my family is finding it annoying that I keep telling them off for walking on it.

oh, Death I like your humour. You've made me smile. 🥰 I'm glad to know you're easy to cook for as well!!!
Havoc did take a bite of prawn and asparagus two nights ago, though! I typically hide little bits of asparagus inside penne. I think watching baby try different foods is putting pressure as baby had prawn...🤓

Uman, I love reading everyone's news and travel bits, too. I've done a fair bit of travel, but then covid and now 2 dc and I haven't been out of country since '18, I think, and feeling rather sad about it. When I watch tv I am always on my phone looking up things of interest from tv or just scrolling like you, but I think that last part is due to the addictive nature phones are.

Mrs, ohhhhh how very satisfying for you! I am feeling it vicariously as carpets were removed last year, but I remember that feeling! 👍🤗

So baby woke me up just after 7am after sleeping THROUGH. THE. NIGHT. FOR 7 HOURS!!!!

🤗🥳😄🤩😮🫶👏🙌👍👶👼🙋‍♀️💁‍♀️💃🐣

After feeding baby and getting milk for Havoc, too, got us all dressed and out the door by 8:30am for a walk to the park. Played there for a bit then came home for breakfast. Made up a fruit platter and Havoc wanted hummus. Just hummus. So, Havoc ate a snack-sized container of hummus. With a spoon. Of course.... 🤷‍♀️
I am back on high-test coffee as didn't have room for a canister of decaf when shopping last night with Havoc along. (For newbies here, I do most of my shopping at Costco, so extra large sizes). And speaking of coffee, I've made myself a delicious cold latte: hot espresso topped with cold-foamed (soy) milk. I swear I'm gonna start selling these in the morning...so much nicer that in most cafes!!!! 😋😋😋
It's 22c and thankfully breezy so very nice, but temp is to hit 30c by afternoon. 🥵
Off to soccer shortly and I think a small Greek celebration at one of the Greek churches is this weekend, so will likely go there later.

Welcome, @MrsSunshine2b, and thanks for sharing your stair cleaning news. They look lovely. Unless you have a toddler in the house to protect, I think that full carpet on stairs isn't worth the bother. I don't see a handrail in your picture. Is it just out of view or aren't they customary where you live? I think in the U.S. they're required by the building codes.

Math, how lovely that you've gone to visit your mom in Ireland! Are you going to see other family while there?

Penguinsa, I'm glad you're feeling better. I'm dreading my next case of covid. Your DD's pictures are fabulous.

We had 1.78 inches of rain overnight with thunderstorms, according to the weather station you see in the picture below. Today is sunny but hot. The deck garden is doing nicely.

DD just texted me to say that she and her husband have landed early at the airport and will be home in an hour or two. I'm not sure how long they are staying this time, but they can't go until we pick up their new car on Monday.

Yes, we had a toddler when it was put in 2 years ago, she's almost school aged now. There's not much else we could have done, the floorboards on the landing and on the stairs were in poor condition and would have needed tools, time and expertise (or money) we didn't have, so carpet it had to be. The handrail is just out of shot.

Ohh my word 😕!!
It's a penalty shoot out 😟😫😫 !!

@MrsSunshine2b, if the steps and the landing weren't in good condition, carpet was your best option. I imagine having a carpenter replace them would be quite an expensive project.

DD and her husband are about ten minutes away. DH will grill steaks for dinner tonight, with steamed corn on the cob. I've made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies for a snack. DD and her DH are both 22 years old and always hungry.

I managed to snap a picture of IT cat on duty in the NOC (Network Operations Center) chez Conduct. He's resting his head on Mr Gorilla, who runs the NOC 24 by 7 as they say. We have a rather elaborate home network, thanks to DH who works in IT and set it all up. The plus side is that we have fabulous WiFi everywhere in the house and outside as well.

It is actually very rare and considered a bit posh to not have carpet across the whole width of a staircase in the uk. Our stately homes have polished wood on each edge but I’ve never seen that in a normal home here.
I haven’t travelled much at all, we didn’t pay for holidays when I was a child, we just stayed with relatives in the uk. Now my own are both at high school we are trying to show them a bit of the world, though flight prices have skyrocketed since Covid.
I bought corn on the cob inside the husks today for the first time this year. We had them with jumbo prawns for a quick easy half time tea. I am dreading the semi final on Wednesday, the boys in my house get so stressed watching football. Not my thing though I watched the penalties.

Have just done 3.5 hours gardening with DH and planted all the plants as well as weeding / tidying the rest, so many leaves. I have ordered more plants to arrive on Tues we can plant weather permitting on Wed when the 2 green bins will also be emptied, they are rammed full already so no more gardening before then. DH has gone to get kebabs as its late.

Hope you can get away before too long Havoc

Your deck is beautiful MissC as is IT cat.

Thanks Uman Hope you enjoyed the tennis and the football. Whilst we were gardening we could hear a lot of cheering from the pub for the football.

Welcome MissSunshine That carpet looks impressively clean.

It's a gorgeous, but hot day now. 😎🥵
Havoc was not having it for soccer. Not listening and threw a ball at another child back of head. 😮 Just a bad toddler day, but holy mother of god not behaviour I'd seen yet, so quite shocking. Playground for a bit afterward to try and change frame of mind for both of us then an errand and all was well until we got home. Toddler meltdown. Managed some lunch and thankfully Havoc is finally asleep. 👏👏👏
Baby is 👼 atm playing and crawling now!

Penguinsa, take-out sounds like a good idea! I grabbed a bbq chicken last night as didn't want to cook; feeling same today, but must cook up ground bison I have for burgers. Your garden must be amazing! 🤩
Bizzey, must've missed what you are watching...
Miss, love your deck!
Dandy, I recall hearing Brits (and Europeans?)consider corn on the cob animal/pig feed. Is/was that the case?
Didn't travel much outside of country as a kid either, but did a fair bit of in-country travel for family, soccer and parents' business and their clubs. It's also a style here to carpet middle only in stairs, but no real status thing implied.

I've now finished a bowl of frozen yoghurt with white choco sauce which was melted left-over ganache I made and had in the fridge. 😋 Mummy needed that!!!

Havoc ...it was Euros QF England vs Switzerland.
1- 1 at end of extra time ...so it went to penalties!

England got them all 😲...poor Swiss lad missed ....so we won.

SF against Netherlands on Wednesday.

Bizzey, Ohhh... missed it! Watching US political news (which I must turn off...).

It’s a bit of a circus now, innit? 😫

Miss, understatement. Dems eating their own... started a thread about it! 😁

In the uk we eat more wheat than corn in general. I guess that’s because it is easier to grow here. Years ago every village had a flour mill and everyone would’ve walked there with small amounts of wheat to have it milled. So now there are lots of mill lanes and they often have footpaths in all directions from the house that used to be the mill.
We grow corn to feed our cattle but it is tougher and less sweet than the corn we eat. A full corn on the cob is only really available in season for a month or so and a real treat. Frozen sweetcorn is readily available and popcorn has become very fashionable in recent years. You can buy it covered in any imaginable flavour. A little bit like our crisps. I notice in other countries there is a limit to the number of flavours of crisps.

Oh, interesting bit of history Dandy! Thanks for that!!😀
Here in N Am crisps are called "chips" for potato chips, but here in Canada we call french fries with deep fried fish, chips, as it is fish and chips. Somehow it's never confused. 🤷‍♀️ As far as potato chip flavours go we are known for two in particular: dill pickke and bbq. Dill pickle is uniquely Canadian, though. I think the UK wins on number of flavours for sure by what I can tell. Also, in my experience travelling to the States, potato chips with a hot dog or sandwich are common (wanna weigh in @MissConductUS @mathanxiety @ZZTopGuitarSolo?). I rarely buy them, but last year when pregnant I bought the Maui sweet onion chips from Costco, so very large bag, and ate them with spinach dip every day for about two weeks. 🤷‍♀️💁‍♀️😋
Not sure if you know the dip, it's usually served on a buffet in a bread bowl with bread cubes for dipping at Christmas/New Year's time as an appy. As for corn, we're known for ours grown in Chilliwack over summer and roadside stands will be easy to find as well as in grocery stores selling it.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/22617/best-spinach-dip-ever/

https://bcfoodhistory.ca/chilliwack-corn/#:~:text=Like%20Taber%20corn%20growers%20in,and%20crispness%20to%20the%20kernels.