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.

My electricity only came back last night, went off Friday night during the storm. So today I’ll be cleaning out the fridge/freezer and dumping everything that was in it. Such a pain.
I have 5 days of washing to catch up on too.

Joining the thread to share some great news. I'm so excited I've been dancing while preparing dinner 😁

My eldest who lives in Spain confirmed today that he and his wife are arriving on the 20th and staying with us until the end of January. My middle one also called saying he'll be back home for a couple of weeks and the youngest will be staying until his brother leaves in January.

It's been years since I've had all my boys together and can't wait to have a full house again. DH is arriving late this evening - he's gone shopping. Knowing him he'll be back with half the supermarket.

The garden is looking good but the wild birds are out of control. My own fault for feeding them. The king parrots specially are getting so sassy, they come into the kitchen if I leave the door open. They have an attitude as well "woman, you are not feeding us what we want". What they want is natural sunflower seeds, it's cake to them. I don't know how many times I've had to stop WW3 between king parrots, lorikeets and rosellas. Buggers the lot of them.

DucklingSwimmingInstructress; It's a line from "My favourite Things" from The Sound of Music.

I had to take down my bird feeding station in preparation for the storm on Saturday, I’ve had to replace poles snapped by the wind before. I’ve managed to cobble it back together today, and I’ve already spotted a blue tit and a robin popping in. I’m sure the hedge-dwellers will be back once word gets around it’s back up 🤗

@SereneCapybara, this thread is warm a cozy. It's like an island of sanity among the AIBU's and parking war threads. I think of it as neighbors chatting over the fence or a cup of coffee.

I got very little packing done last night, but since I'm only going to be away for two nights, I don't have to bring much. Just one nice outfit for dinner tomorrow and the meeting on Friday.

Since everyone loves my wildlife photos, here's one of a tiny lion under my Christmas tree.

@Alondra are you in Australia? I remember flocks of parrots when I was there. *

*aka a company of parrots, or a pandemonium of parrots. 😁

As my silver jewellery workshop was postponed I used today to run my "messages" as my Scottish Nana would have said.

It turned into a Grand Palaver!

We had a tree fall over in the storm. Only a small one and very surprising as we are in the east. I decided to strim the branches overhanging the boundary onto the path. DH had secured the tree with bungy cords but this will be a tidy up and removal of weight so it will stay upright in future. I managed to cut through the strimmer cable, blowing the ground floor sockets. I am a health and safety fiend and didn't even realise it might happen. Fortunately we reset the fuses and DH provided another electronic saw. He was calm about it, saying simply, "other power tools are available" and will repair the severed cable in the spring.

Did various returns of parcels and discovered the drop box by the supermarket was full. Drove five miles to another, picking up butter, shampoo and prescriptions on the way. Choosing shampoo was painful. I've had a scalp and neck condition for a year and thought it was a fungal infection. The test results came back yesterday to say no fungal infection found! So more tests needed. But it meant I'd forgotten which shampoo to buy. In the end I decided on own brand as it's 79p and will strip my hair to straw, but I have very expensive conditioner which will nourish it. All the other brands will also strip my hair but they're £2.80.

The next drop box was also full so I drove another eight miles to another drop off point which I couldn't find. Called into a local business who gave me directions and found a spare slot!

On the return I was surprised to be redirected around the river rather than the ring road which meant driving home under the low bridge. Except a tall vehicle had driven under it and damaged its roof. The police closed the road while they dealt with it so it was a two mile diversion. The bridge is regularly hit. There are alarms and signs and triggered electronic signs, so there is no excuse for hitting it.

On my eventual return home I was delighted that there was an unheard of glass of wine left in last night's bottle. So I have been sipping white wine by the tree and been very cosy. Clay jewellery workshop tomorrow.

@MissConductUS Oh your tiny lion is gorgeous. (So's the tree. I've had flu so none of our decs are up yet - I usually have lights and a home made wreath up by 1st December but it just has to wait this year.)

Your gorgeous lion reminds me of that quote that cats were invented so we could have a lion in our homes to cuddle and stroke. Gingers are my absolute favourite. We had a gorgeous ginger rescue boy but he died aged 18 a couple of years ago.

Wow @MyrtleStrumpet May have to disqualify you from this thread for being too eventful! What a day. Bet you are glad it's over.

I worked this morning (WFH) then took the afternoon off as I am still recovering from flu and absolutely shattered. DH is cooking stir fry and I am going through the online present orders that have arrived so far.

Please don't disqualify me. Perhaps I should edit to say: trimmed the tree back, dropped off some packages, bought butter and shampoo and collector prescriptions. Caught up in various traffic conditions so it took a lot longer than expected. Very dull and unexciting.

Welcome, @Alondra and @Orland0, and thanks for sharing your news. I don't think we've ever had this many new joiners on a new thread, so apologies if I'm not keeping up with welcoming everyone.

Serene, that's Mingus, and he's 12 years old. We adopted him with a calico litter mate who sadly passed about four years ago. We have another cat named Daisy who is 13, so they are now both getting geriatric checkups every six months at the vet.

This is Daisy. She's a very pretty girl.

I’m in awe of everyone’s busyness. Today I’ve managed to fill in more of my form and print off duplicate pages where I made mistakes. So pleased I ordered more ink for my printer. I was quietly filling in the form when DD wanted wrapping paper, then a pen, gift tags and DP wanted to know what we were having for tea. So many interruptions. I have written all the Christmas cards though and gathered together all the presents we’ve got so far. I don’t seem to be able to get into the Christmas spirit at the moment.
Alondra I can feel your excitement about your family being together after so long. I was the same a few years ago when my family came over after the pandemic. This year it’s the turn of the other Grandma to have them, it’s a good job I like her so much I can’t be jealous (well not much).

Manchester what bad luck. Restocking a fridge and freezer right before Christmas sounds like a dreadful prospect. That was quite a storm.

MissC lovely cat photos.
My own Dcat is snoozing beside me - paid work done for the day, and second shift of DD's and my laundry plus cleaning the bathroom also done, so I'm sitting on the couch waiting for the dryer to ping.

I went out to the thrift to see if they had any sweatpants in good condition as my old ones are threadbare, and found they offer a discount to anyone 60 or over if signed up to their shopper rewards, so I did that as I recently squeaked over that threshold, and got 15% off sweatpants, a lovely hoodie, t-shirt, pair of Levi's, pair of Allbirds sneakers, and a big Mason jar.

DD is grateful for the well wishes. She'll be back at work tomorrow despite looking and sounding horrible, but she's getting back to her old feisty self again. She only has a half day tomorrow, so it won't wear her out.

I refilled the bird feeder last evening as the squirrels went to town on it. There were some goldfinches there this morning, and of course plenty of sparrows.

Lovely cat pics MissC Enjoy your trip.

Thanks Dandy Hope you had a lovely walk.

Glad the funeral went as well as it could Iwandered and hope you are OK.

Welcome Serene Weary and Kpo and anyone else who joined.

Candlmaking sounds fun Mrytle

Welcome Alonda Love the bird pics.

Hope your DD will be completely better soon Math

Just did my day at work, got new bank account number through for the island, and went to the swimming pool, had a coffee there with DH then swam 62 lengths and went to steam room and jacuzzi. DD is currently away in Bristol seeing her boyfriend, back tomorrow. DS took the new shoes I bought him and the flannel and took a bath whilst I was swimming, used my rose bathfoam and lots of shampoo and conditioner. Floof I saw knocking the big robin off his Christmas tree and then he looked worried and went over to check robin was OK and looked like he felt bad. He seemed reassured robin was OK and did it again when we were swimming.

Sounds like some good finds Maths.
Your swimming is amazing Penguinsa.
Be careful with robin Floof.
Two Daisy's, Miss? Will Washington be decked out for the holidays? If so, and you have time, could you take some pics?

Welcome to the newbies. Hope you enjoy our company and looking forward to yours. 😊

I'm on my 2nd latte and just finished a 2nd piece of stollen. A bit cloudy here, but clouds are high. Temp is now 9c. Apparently, there's a chance of snow this weekend.

@sueelleker that wasn't deliberate! I'm clearly a poet and I don't know it.......
@Orland0 @mathanxiety I also took down the bird feeders in preparation for storm. The fat ball feeder has been damaged so I cannot hang the tray underneath to stop bits falling on the floor.

Math, you need a squirrel proof bird feeder. This is the one I have outside my kitchen window. I've posted lots of pictures of my front yard that show it. The perch ring is mounted on a spring. If something as heavy as a squirrel grabs it, it pulls down and closes the seed ports. It works a treat. The squirrels try it a few times and then give up.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007LQ3RQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

I've had it for 12 years, and it's working fine. You do have to clean it once a year. Oils from the seeds (I use sunflower seeds) can cause the seeds at the bottom to cake together.

Havoc, she's a big cat, but there is only one Daisy. I expect that Washington will be decorated for Christmas, so I will get some pictures from the taxi on my way from the train station to the hotel.

I had to drive home in the pouring rain. It's supposed to end tonight.

I’m enjoying catching up with the thread, and welcome to the new joiners. DH and I went into London today to make a second visit to the Van Gogh exhibition at the National Gallery (it’s officially completely sold out but they released some new tickets and he pounced). He hasn’t seen it; I had but didn’t mind going again. In the event it was extremely busy and quite hard to even get near most of the paintings, so I was glad I’d been before when it was quieter.

Trafalgar Square has a slightly tacky Christmas market right in front of the gallery, consisting of log cabins selling things like churros and chocolate sauce, glühwein and other eatables, plus Christmas decorations, to the accompaniment of cheesy music. I took a photo of the famous Christmas tree in the square which is an annual gift from Norway for Britain’s help during the war. It’s become tradition for people to be very rude about the tree’s supposed inadequacy, though personally I think it’s quite pretty and rather restrained.

DH and I then walked back to our station to get the train home, stopping for some food in the way. In Soho we passed a small shop window behind which were people having an indoor snowball fight. There was snow all over the floor, being produced by a machine. I stopped to take a picture for this thread and was urged to go in and join the fun! We made our excuses and moved on….

Hilda, thanks for the pics! I've seen Van Gogh in Amsterdam at his namesake museum and a masters' exhibit as well. Also have been to both the Van Gogh and Monet Immersive exhibits. They were nice as well.
I love the idea of that snowball fight!

(Does anyone remember the pop-up pillow fights?)

www.imagine-vangogh.com

Here's a few pics from the immersive event. The images change around the room.

Thanks Havoc Love the immersive event pictures.

Love the detail about London Hilda

Your fourth picture from the immersive exhibition, @Mumtobabyhavoc - with the black tree (?) against the starry sky - was replicated in the round on the close-cropped dyed head of a fellow gallery-visitor I spotted today! It looked amazing but must have taken hours to do; in fact I can’t even think how anyone would achieve that. It must have been hand-painted on. He was definitely a Van Gogh superfan, for sure.

Hilda, you should've taken a pic of him! 😄

I wish I had - didn’t quite have the nerve!

@SereneCapybara
Wow! I was waiting for the usual " My husband called me names and asked why the house had not been tidied" etc etc. That is refreshing!