Come and tell us your dull and unexciting news 32: 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/5148913-come-and-tell-me-your-dull-and-unexciting-news-31-calmly-through-the-day

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

Note there is one minor change to the thread title. "tell me your dull news" has been changed to "tell us...". I thought it was more in keeping with the spirit of the thread.

It must be a gift, then. 🤔

Had a lovely walk with ex-H's partner. She's a very chatty person and a good bonus-mum to the kids, so it's really nice to meet up when she's around. We got extra Christmas lights up too.

Well done on the weight loss @WearyAuldWumman Not easy after the menopause is it!

I am very impressed with the people keeping up outdoor swimming at this time of year. I enjoyed it in the summer so might try to start a bit earlier this year. Also love Llandudno, it was a shame to see the pier suffered storm damage recently.
Bizzey with skin issues I have a very helpful local pharmacist. Here we can walk in and ask for a consultation in a side room whereas gp appointments are like gold dust. He sorted a stubborn bout of athletes foot with a very cheap foot powder the gp hadn’t thought to suggest. Hope you get sorted and start to pick up, I think it’s such a dark time of year everyone is laid low.
I have family from the Liverpool area and they insist scouse is made from a very cheap cut of on the bone lamb. They spend ages boiling the bone similar to making chicken soup from the carcass. I am happy to eat it but it is too much faff for me to make.
I am enjoying a slow paced start to the week before I get embroiled in so the end of year activities at the end of the week.

I keep telling the young lad in charge of our exercise class that he needs to get a liposuction machine for us oldies!

Bizzey I too have psoriasis, it runs in my family. Mine flared up just after my mum died and I now resemble a dot-to-dot puzzle. Luckily I'm too old to care what other people think, so marched into the sea with my spotty body.
Dandy we went on the pier; the first bit is open, just to the end of the tarmac, past the 1st amusement arcade. We always have a go on the tuppeny shoves, gamblers that we are 😅
Started putting up Christmas decs today with the help of my granddaughter. Still got to do the tree, we have a real one so it never goes up early.
Might try to buy one after work tomorrow.

Just nursing baby and watching our nat'l news. Our deputy PM has resigned today and the gov't stepped in on the postal strike.
I also have psoriasis. It was largely in remission until two years ago. Dermatologist says it can flare with pregnancy. Great...

@WearyAuldWumman
Well done you on the weight loss! I was pleasantly surprised when at my brother's to hop on their scales and it said 14 stone which pleased me! However I may have put some back on now. I am a size 20 with boobs, bum and a huge tum. I look like a barrel!

That liposuction machine would be on fire from overuse if I got my hands on it!!

I had Christmas dinner at work - so this is the second one ( including the book club one). It was only £6 which I thought was not bad though the pud was extra. There was a choice of turkey, port, salmon or a pasta bake for veggies. Thankfully I am pescatarian so went for the salmon, Had it with roast spuds, stuffing balls, brussels sprouts but no parsnips as I loathe them. Sadly the brussels were undercooked (for me) but I enjoyed the salmon. It has a sort of sweet chilli sauce on it. No room for pud and I had to leave some of the spuds!

@IWanderedLonely
I am wondering how old your grand daughter is and does she do a good job of the tree? My SIL used to let the kids decorate the tree and once their backs were turned decorate it 'properly!' How we used to tease her about that! In strict contrast to my mum who couldn't care less how it was decorated as long as she did not have to do it!!! We used to put these old paper bells up which she loated and to be honest were not the prettiest things. I got my was one year when we could not find the drunken looking angel for the top of the tree and I put a troll santa on their instead!

@M@Mumtobabyhavoc
hmmm I do feel as though I'm tumbling downhill at times

You certainly seem to go out a lot and do things but I guess with two little ones you are bound to!

@MyrtleStrumpet
Like you I am not a believer - well I believe in something but not sure what! On the rare occasions I go to church -seems to be funerals at the moment ( obvs my age!) I always find the tunes have changed to when I was a school girl, plus I cringe when we have to face whoever is next to us and greet them (perhaps I am just a miserable old cow, yeah that will be it!). My brother took some of the service when a family member died and even he expected us to do this. Cringe cringe. I cannot say I have much of a singing voice. It has got worse. At mum's funeral my other brother said I sang flat. Maybe he got mum's funeral mixed up with The Voice or something?! I would hardly have been singing with joy, daft 'apporth!

@Deathraystare £6 for all that? Bargain!

£6 does sound good for a Christmas lunch except I’m guessing this is a work canteen rather than a posh restaurant. Plus I have had many a free lunch at work for Christmas so unless they also threw a Christmas party it may be a little stingy. I guess I should be please the NHS is careful with money though.
I have had a Christmas lunch with old school friends and have our work one on Friday. Looking forward to Friday as it is also the last day of work for DH and last day of school run.
I actually found time to write some cards today as last second class posting is tomorrow. I only send them to people I don’t see much of though.

Lovely to read all your updates. We don't send cards but I have received two from ex-work colleagues which was lovely.

Our neighbours were going to join us for Christmas drinks tomorrow evening but have had to cry off due to family demands.

Silver jewellery course today was lovely but very tiring. A lot of information and concentration. Sadly the instructor didn't just show and then assist me, but took it off me and did it if/when my first attempt didn't work. This was annoying! But I'm aware I have a similar habit sometimes, so I am promising myself I will be more patient next time I'm in a teaching moment.

I will post pictures tomorrow as I'm a bit tired!

She taught me a cheap and easy way to clean silver which I'm currently trying. If it works I'll let you know. (Just realised I should have taken a before picture 😔)

Wow! Wow! Wow!

These were black with tarnish!

Line a bowl with foil, shiny side up.
Scrunch up three balls of foil, shiny side up.
Fill the bowl with warm water and laundry liquid soap (not washing up liquid/dish soap).
Place silver and foil balls in the bowl and leave for 10 minutes.

Ta-da!

@MyrtleStrumpet ..I am going to try that !
Silly query ...non bio or biological washing liquid?

Not sure it matters but I think we use biological. I'm told it's the silver foil that interacts with the soap to remove the tarnish.

I am back from GP.

It is not psoriasis on my poor little big toe .
But she doesn't know what it is !!

She has taken a swab and give me some antibiotics and we will go from there .

And some cream that the chemist didn't have in stock , so has to be ordered for tomorrow.
But my chemist is wonderful and will deliver it to me to save me having to get 2 buses to collect it !!

My Christmas work lunch is tomorrow. They're having Mexican food catered in, which should be festive.

Our building work has started. The electricians came and replaced the circuit breaker panel and put the new one in a better location. This was not really needed for the kitchen remodel, but we decided to include it in the project. The old panel was original to the house's construction, so it was 38 years old and a bit dilapidated. We also had a sub panel for a generator put in a few years ago, and they were able to combine the two into one unit, which gives us more flexibility about what gets power when we're using the generator. Because of our location, we lose power once or twice a year on average, so it's been quite handy to have.

DH and DS stayed at home yesterday. The power was off for most of the day, so it got a bit cold, but everything was working when I got home. And we had our first snow of the season. It's almost all melted off now, so there's little hope of a white Christmas.

@Deathraystare I'm horrified at your dislike for the delicious parsnip!
@WearyAuldWumman I had a very early menopause and have been steadily putting on weight since then even though I feel sure I'm not eating any more.........!
@MissConductUS do you only use the generator when you have a power cut? Is that a regular occurrence?
I've never been to Llandudno @IWanderedLonely even though I live in Wales, partly because there are very poor road/rail links between north and south Wales.
Just finished what will probably be my final batch of mince pies for the year.

I've done this with foil and bicarbonate of soda.

@sproutsandparsnips, the vast majority of the time we have power from our local electric utility. But given that we live in a heavily wooded area, and our power lines are above ground, service can be interrupted when trees come down on the power lines.

The last time was about a year ago. Heavy rains caused a tree to come down, which pulled down the wires, and the arcing set the transformer on fire. The power company showed up fairly quickly, but we still had no power for about six hours. During that time, we used the generator.

@D@DandyDandylion

Yes of course a canteen meal! Can you imagine spending £6 in a posh London restaurant!!!

We don't go out. It would be hard to get everyone together anyway as we do different shifts.

I have not gone out for years with other staff. It was a pain because the big wigs would be funny about paying around £25 for a meal with wine!!! Tight gits!!!

As I am without a tv in my temp accommodation I treated myself t a personal DVD player. I have some DVDs saved for over Christmas to watch but I decided last night to watch Barbie again). I love that film!! I have also got the Home alone box set , James McAvoy Spllit, and some others I cannot remember. Oh also Love Actually.

@sproutsandparsnips
I loathe parsnips, turnips, swede, Kohlrabi. Oh and Jerusalem artichoke. Not thrilled with sweet potatoes but do eat them, same with butternut squash. I tolerate carrots but prefer my veg well cooked. But do like carrots raw as well.

Deathraystare, I have 2 older granddaughters aged 13 & 11 (the 13 year old is suitably uninterested) but thee 11 year old will do a good job. I've also got one aged 6 & one aged 2, nope! I don't have enough patience to let them help 😂

Miss your snow pictures look beautiful, I love snow.

I have a lot of catching up to do here.

I went out on Saturday morning and bought The Tree, lugged it upstairs, and set it into its stand. It had opened out enough to decorate by Monday evening, so DD and I did it. We discovered after getting the lights out that one strand had given up the ghost, so I set off on a successful trek to find almost the last set of multicolored incandescent lights within a five mile radius of home.

Dcat is a fiend for Christmas tree water.

Oh, Math... a lot of effort there. I checked the lights a day before I bought our tree because I knew a couple strands had multiple dead bulbs, so I switched out the good for bad to fill up a strand and had more than enough. I'd happily give you some if you lived next door. I have lots extra. Any chance of snow for you next week? We have a "less than 10% chance of snow" the weather folk said. 😂

Death, I took Havoc to the Christmas Market again today as I had an appt downtown. It was raining and windy, so we were a bit damp despite being dressed properly. Thinking of you as we were out and about and because we're now having pumpkin pie as a sort of pre-Christmas dessert since you just had a Christmas meal at work (why did you have to pay, though?)

Sprouts, took some pics for you.

Miss, envy your snowfall.

Penguinsa, hope work is starting well and you're getting enough sleep these days. How is your ds doing?

Did a load of laundry this morning and then took a box of kids' clothes to a charity that helps mums with new borns to age two. Then home for lunch a d a trip downtown to dentist. Took Havoc along for some one-on-one time and walked to the Christmas market, rode the carousel a few times, played some games in the warming tent, looked around a bit and looked at Christmas lights on the walk back to the car. Stopped for dessert and hot chocolate, too, at Thierry on Alberni Street which is just down the block from the hotel Vancouver (extra details for Sprouts). The window pic is because the light installation was so Interesting. It moved and changed and wrapped around a corner. The building was at Thurlow /W Pender.