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.

Myrtle, that's a bar.

We had one in our dining room when we bought this house, and it had a sink connected to the water mains and a drain. We had it removed and the water line capped, as we are both teetotal and wanted the space for a cabinet.

Woke up with a jolt when I remembered what I had done !!

Doubt it I can get back to sleep now so going to quietly get ready and head off to the shops when they open 😂😂..

But first ..I have to be brave and head down to the shed at the bottom of the very overgrown garden ...to get my shopping trolley out and set up 😁😁...

Think of me dear friends as I brave the life of ,..shops !😕..😂

goodbyego - very exciting. How far along are you?

Yeah, I thought so. We have a wine rack as well, and cocktail-making implements.

May as well embrace it!

I went to bed at 9pm which meant I woke up at 2am and got out of bed at 3am.

Made the sponge and jelly for the trifle, then thought I may as well make the red cabbage. I use a BBC Good Foods recipe with orange and cinnamon and it's gorgeous.

DH came down at 5.30am and went to the supermarket at 6am to beat the rush and buy the veg. He would normally be back in 40 minutes, so I think it's probably busy. Goodness knows what it will be at 11am if it's busy already.

Bizzey I feel for you! I did aniline shop a couple of weeks ago and somehow didn't complete the checkout, so it didn't turn up, luckily just a normal shop though, not the Christmas one 😱
I have a list that started with 2 things but is now about 6 that I've forgotten. Going to send DH.

@MissConductUS
Nope not all of us are mums. Well I am not!

@bizzey
I saw your post first on the general chat and had a giggle (sorry!). Hopefully you have managed to get some stuff by now. I am so grateful I do not hAve to order/get stuff in for a whole family. Just buying some veggie sausages in Sainsbury's on Saturday fair wore me out!

I am back from the shop !
I was the only one in there bar the workers !

Shelves really full and loads of gammon, turkey and stuff.

I didn't need any of that as I am collecting that from the butchers later

DS is arriving later.
He asked yesterday if we were having a games night tonight...
I think at this rate Iit will be amazing if I am still awake when he gets here 🤣🤣

Ohh but this will make your hearts warm ...

In the cab going to the shop..
Chatting to the driver and laughing and told him the situation.

As we were pulling up to the shop I realised I didn't have a £1 coin for the trolley 😳😕.

I just had my phone and door key !
No cash.or purse.

He gave me a £1 coin 🥰!

I gave it back to him via an online tip ...but ohhh ...

I must have looked pretty desperate at 6.10 am !!

Miss, baby is almost a year old now and started walking at about 8 1/2 mos with first steps and pretty much fully walking now 😳 So, needless to say I've been scrambling. Havoc walked early as well (first step around 8 months). i hope you won't miss your dd too much. It must feel weird that she's married. Lovely pics. I like your tree. ☺️

@Penguinsn have you noticed I've had your name wrong since you changed it (and been too polite to tell me)? I just @'d you to double check what popped up. I thought the final letter was, a, not n. 🤦‍♀️
Could you share what your name means? 🤔☺️
I like roast dinners, too. I also like a good pub prime rib on Sunday, but haven't done that since .... well before covid, at least. I wonder if pubs still do it? 🤔 Is that a UK thing, too?

Death, how long have you been in your temp accommodation? Are you on the list for council housing? We have something called Co-op housing here. Rent is based on income in some cases to a max (I think), or is set at below market rent on all of its' units depending on the co-op. It's difficult to get a unit and people don't often leave. They're run by the renters, called members, and people must volunteer for various jobs to run it which keeps costs down.

Myrtle, your jewelry looks lovely. I really like the necklace with the red stone. I find I get a lot done because I don't get to sleep. Like tonight. It's nice to make good use of insomnia, though. Makes me feel productive since I'm not constantly interrupted. 😂

Took Havoc for a good walk in the rain after dinner and it was pouring. It wasn't that dark because the cloud cover reflected lights. We walked the neighbourhood looking at houses that had Christmas lights up and ran through puddles in the alleys. Once home had a nice bath and made choc chip pecan cookies. I used vanilla and almond extract to flavour and the result is amazing. Havoc fell asleep on the couch and is still there. I'm loathe to move a sleeping child.

I also finished wrapping all the Christmas present!!!! 🥳🥳🥳
I was done by midnight,cleaned kitchen, put wrapping and presents away, got ready for bed, nursed baby and here I am at almost 2am. Time to go to sleep. 🥱

Deathray, apologies, I should have said that most of us are mums.

Havoc, how time flies! It's hard to believe the baby is almost a year old. As soon as they become mobile, the trouble starts.

bizzey, that was lovely of the cab driver.

It's -14C here this morning, and we're only expecting a high of -4C today. It is supposed to warm up tomorrow and on Christmas.

We had a lovely FaceTime call with DD and SiL last night. They're staying with his parents in Virginia for the next week. At the end of the call, we wished them a Merry Christmas.

DH remembered that we have to buy a new kitchen sink for the remodel and has emailed the kitchen designer to find out how large a sink the new cabinet will accommodate.

It's 4:40am. I was woken up a half hour agp by an Amazon delivery. Can't fall back asleep... 😵‍💫

@@MissConductUS
That's ok. Doesn't matter but I have never mentioned kids or a husband/partner!!!

@bizzey
Hope you have everything now! What an adventure!!

I finished wrapping the last few things at work for my boss and the postie. I am the world's worst wrapper. Just like my nan really! Years ago I would be wrapping up in my room with a cat winding in and out and manage to sellotape her tail to a present!

@Deathraystare ..not quite the adventure I would have liked ...but ds3 and I did have a lovely 😍 little bonding trip this afternoon to the other shops for the alcohol 🤣🤣..

In a funny way ...maybe this was meant to be .

If it had all gone to plan , I would have had to go up to mam's for 5.30 onwards delivery.

And if things had not arrived..been substituted for something really weird ...
I would have been stressed anyway 😁

Now.......
It is now 4 pm ...and I am all .(Well completely done in to be fair 🤣)

Ds 1 is due in 1 hour and I am not quite ready for him ...be he won't care !

Glad shopping is getting sorted Bizzey and enjoy having your boys home.

Havoc Not sure if we have prime rib here, maybe its called something else but not associated with Sundays that's just a Sunday roast. My name doesn't mean anything was just what was available.

Hope everyone is ready for Christmas and has a lovely Christmas. The missing F&M biscuits arrived today. No solution on Currys so ordered a replacement coffee machine from elsewhere which is arriving today so hopefully get tomorrow.

Have started on the Waitrose food I got. DS and I had posh chicken kievs for lunch, I had them with the red cabbage whilst DS had chips. Then had a chocolate melt in the middle pud and a milky coffee.

DH will go to work in the morning then is collecting the meat from the butchers.

Put the bins out today, they moved collection 3 days forward so good job I checked.

We are having forerib beef tomorrow which might be what Havoc means? We got 4 ribs as a roasting joint from a local butcher who rears his own and it was over £100 for the first time. Seems to go up each year. That will easily feed the 11 who will be here.
I am done apart from needing more eggs from a local shop tomorrow.

I've iced the Christmas cake and done the very small amount of wrapping I needed to do, so I feel ahead of the game. The plumber has been, and fixed the leak in the pantry, so dishwashing is GO!

DH and I went to pick up our pre-ordered Christmas turkey (plus pigs in blankets and a ham) from our very good local butcher, and to our great surprise, we were handed over a turkey that was 2kg bigger than the one we'd ordered, but for the original price. The butcher just gave DH a wink and said 'the farmer accidentally overfed the turkeys this year, so you get a bigger one'. They’re proper bronze turkeys and rather expensive so whether it was a joke, we can’t quite decide, but we'll be eating turkey for a while, I think!

Dandy, Wikipedia says Prime Rib is aka Standing Rib or Beef Rib, but that's USDA terminology. We pretty much use the same terms here. I think it equals your rib roasts, etc. whatever the term, love it every so often and, for me, rare if possible. 😛

Had handyman here at noon and job not done for a couple hours-fine- which has pushed everything still needing done into "ugh, time is tight" territory. Still need to hit Costco and another grocery store and still need to get dc out.

Ok, I'm not losing my mind @Penguinsn
You were Penguinsa last thread. I hadn't noticed the change. 😅

@@Mumtobabyhavoc

I also noticed Penguisn had changed her name slightly and thought huh????

Re council housing - like gold dust. Would have to go private. Actually now council housing is really not much cheaper!!!

So you have been baking again! I must admit I do not like cookies. It is the softness I hate - like stale biscuits! I am all about the crunch!

Death, It might be cultural... mention giant soft ginger cookies, oatmeal cookies, choc chip, peanut butter... people get really happy and nostalgic.

I bought kumquats today. Eating some now. And grapes. 😛

I prefer the American soft cookies to our dry English biscuits now and there is a supermarket that sells them pick n mix style which helps the waist line. That said we have to have shortbread at Christmas.
I baked my traditional Christmas Eve dessert this morning which is a meringue roulade filled with whipped double cream and lemon curd. I won’t know how well it has rolled until I unwrap it to serve but pretty sure it will taste good either way.
The dull news is that the house is now clean so all we have to do is cook roast beef and all the trimmings for 11 people. Two of them are gluten free, one is veggie and one won’t eat anything with alcohol in. Should be a breeze 🤣🤣🤣
I will wish everyone a merry christmas now as once I start cooking and quaffing the red wine I won’t be back for a bit.

I think there’s space for both types - biscuits and cookies! I’ve got several recipes saved from American sites; there are a few cooks I really like, David Lebovitz being one, and his extra-chocolatey cookies are extremely good. Have you ever tried those @Mumtobabyhavoc?

Wish me luck - I’m venturing out to the shops on Christmas Eve. Well, to the library really, as I suspect one of my reservations has come in and they just haven’t emailed to let me know. But I might risk popping into a supermarket while I’m in the vicinity.

DSD came down at the most annoying tim, just as DH served bacon and eggs with hot buttered toast. She's 31 and has SEN because she was born at 25 weeks. She is mostly semi independent and fends for herself a lot.

However she had cut her finger a little which was still bleeding and was panicking about what to do. I calmly explained that she had cut a capillary and it would be fine. It just needed a plaster and to be held up for a few minutes and it would stop. Gave her some extra plasters. It's at times like this that I get so angry with her DM who didn't teach her basic skills. DSD is not stupid, she just thinks a little differently and lacks common sense. But it was also nice because she doesn't usually ask me for help.

We had ordered a present for her that wasn't going to arrive until Friday and it turned up today. We'd already got her something smaller but very similar which DH had eventually wrapped. As he was making Yorkshires for tomorrow and doing dinner prep for tonight I wrapped the unexpected gift. The ice maker also arrived and is in situ but it needs to stand for two hours before being plugged in while the refrigerant settles.

I have to see the nurse later to collect some skin tissue to identify the weird scalp condition I have that has been perplexing everyone including my hairdresser, pharmacist, doctor and nurses and isn't a fungal infection. I would have waited till after Christmas but it takes three weeks to cultivate it.

After that it will be a glass of Baileys, a cute film then roast beef and prosecco Christmas Eve dinner with DH and DSD and then we'll have a family night watching Inside Out 2.

Things are nice and calm here, DD has gone out with one of her workers til 2, DH has gone to the farm shop to see if a) he can get in if it’s not too bonkers and b) they have any cooked ham left. It’s no drama if not, we have plenty of food here, just a ‘nice to have’ item.
Tesco brought our online shop yesterday with NO substitutions which was a small Christmas miracle! Driver said it was crazy in the shop and people were arguing over trollies at 5am 😮. My mother went to her local branch at 8ish though and said it was lovely and calm and quiet. Must just be our local nutters!
Nadolig Llawen!! (Merry Christmas) to you all!