Woooooooahhhhh, we're half way there! Countdown to Christmas 2026 (thread 2)

[NoWordForFluffy]

183

Phew, it's a scorcher!

Happy birthday to 70's DD. Best date for a birthday ever!

I have a good birthday twin - Barack Obama. Not sure if any others.

it’s really warm here today. We’re on our way to the theatre as me and LO are watching a (short) show so stopped for lunch on the way.

I feel bad, our house is quite messy right now and MIL is going to arrive shortly after we get home. she won’t care, she’s not houseproud or judgmental about that stuff but I hate it.

This thread has reminded me I need to get a wriggle on and book a blood donation. I got turned down last time due to the iron test but I should be fine now.

I had a mini ‘fight the burnout’ thing last week. I went to my mums and actually told her how hard I’ve found some things and she put dinner on, took LO out for an hour and instructed me to take a bath. Felt weird as I don’t generally get looked after like that but it was amazing. She fed us, gave LO a bath while I sat with a cuppa and sent us home with cake and a meal for the following day. Was great for both of us I think as my mum loves looking after people and I frustrate her a lot by not being able to let her.
Is that as weird as I feel it is?

That is really nice Meeces
Your mum and LO had some time , you got to relax a bit and if your mum likes to cook then porobably she's put off cooking certain things if it's not for a few people or meals .
(I want to make a tiramisu but no-one else likes it and I don't want to invest in a bottle of Marsala that will sit judgily afterwards)

We all need looking after at times .

172

There are a pair of noisy wood pigeons in the tree at the end of the garden. They are either getting amorous or they're fighting. Either way it's far too hot for that kind of shenanigans.

DS is on his way home from London - he's been at the Metallica concerts this weekend. The tickets were his present for passing his Alevels so the poor sausage has had to wait nearly a year!

Yesterday there were some Crows in the bird bath but they were being attacked/harassed by the Magpies that "own" our garden. This morning we have found a juvenile Crow dead on the lawn clearly killed by the Magpies. I do like Magpies but last year we witnessed them killing a Starling and now this poor Crow, it's natural behaviour but I don't like it. For some reason the Magpies don't bother the Jackdaws, Wood Pigeons, Doves and Blackbirds., and the smaller birds tend to stick close to the hedges and bushes.

171

I feed a couple of ravens which are always fighting with the magpies. I think the neighbours must hate me as they're all very noisy.

Another hot week coming up. Yuk.

I am enjoying the football though - don't think I've ever watched such a lot of world cup games. I am glad the England game is on at a rather more sensible time on Saturday.

Morning!

Grace, DH and I talk about that kind of thing, where violence and death between the same / different species occurs, and we hate it. But we also acknowledge that it is the natural world and it's not for us to try to intervene with it.

I've not watched any of the World Cup yet, other than a 9 minute highlight programme of our game against Mexico! We cancelled our TV Licence so we can't watch live TV on any channel, and nothing on iPlayer.

Not sure what we will do if England get to the final!

Morning. I'm a tennis fan myself, Have loved all of the grass court coverage so far.
Picked up some colouring books and a dinosaur operation game yesterday for the princely sum of £5.

Yeah nature can be very cruel so we don't intervene just makes me look side eyed at the Magpies for a couple of days.

So... I am currently typing this on my new NEW gaming pc, have suffered through the almost never ending updates and am finally at the stage where I can start testing it. It is very early days yet as I've only been up and running about 10 mins but already the performance is a 100% better than the one I sent back fingers crossed it stays that way.

Checking in as I’m about to go pull my hair out with despair at LO who will not GO TO SLEEP 😩 He’s just generally being a pain which is a bit of a pattern about 50% of the time now. I don’t have the patience for the nonsense.

I spent some time in the garden yesterday, potted on my failing tomato and chilli plants and fed everything so hopefully they’ll cheer up.

I did do something festive and scoped out a potential classical show for me and a theatre show for LO in December. Haven’t booked either as today has been rubbish from top to bottom between work, family and now the dreaded bedtime - and I have to log back on for an hour at some point 😩

Roll on (my) bedtime!

Awww children can be little 'mares !
Would a coolish bubbly bath tire him out ?

Oh he was way past that. I think he was just hot and bothered and a bit too tired which made for a right kick off.
I resorted to leaving him to it and sitting on my bed watching on the monitor for a while - then he just decided he was done, asked for a cuddle and went to sleep

170 Morning. I’m on the train for my office day and my morning has been a disaster 😩
Something tripped the electric downstairs while we were in bed and it took me longer than it should have to click this morning and fix it, then I spilled almost a full, hot cuppa on the cream sandals I was meant to wear today and just as I left the house LO gave me a cwtch and I didn’t realise he had jam on his hand so now I have sticky jam marks on my dress.

Thankfully the train was on time and I’m hoping the air con is doing its thing in the office.

Plan for today is work, school pick up, bath LO, my dm is coming to visit us for an hour or so, DH is doing LO bedtime, probably a bit more work and I want to do a face mask and footmask as my skin is struggling. Exciting stuff 😂

Booking tickets to go on a coach day trip to Stratford Christmas Market....There are 12 of us going so should be fun 🙂

Is that Stratford Upon Avon rather than Stratford East London ?

The Magpies have youngsters - this seems to be a new pairing as our usual adult pair hasn't been seen in for a while (the female was recognisable as she had a limp) they'd been around for years so would have been getting older and last years chicks were quite bullying to them so one of the youngsters may have displaced them. They are very territorial and we've found another dead bird this time a female Blackbird I'm hoping its not the female that nests in our hedge as they had chicks. The Magpies are feeding the youngsters on the ground they wash the food in the birdbath all the while the youngsters are screeching at them to hurry up. They did try and harass the wood pigeons but they weren't having any of it lol

Stratford Upon Avon, sorry. Being from the Midlands, I didn't even know that there was one in East London. I don't venture down south very often 😄

169

It's still so hot and it's getting to the stage where I can't think about anything else. DD just said that all our Summers now will be like this and the thought made me shudder. Thank God for the air con in the bedroom but now I think we might have to get it in the kitchen.

Tomatoes not doing so good as I can barely keep on top of their THIRST. They've been very tricky this year. Next year I'm growing sweetpeas.

Sitting in the garden trying to cool down but some annoying neighbour playing thumping house music. Grrrrrrrrrrr........

Straford hosted the 2012 Olympics and don't I know it we had all the malarky with the Priority Lanes and they suspended loads of right hand turns etc !
We had various advice given about keeping safe (I'm NHS) and there was going to be .security on the high buildings . I was thinking "Oh I;ll be off to Lakeside while everyone else is glued to their screens " .
It did massivelyi improve Stratford Rail and Underground and of course there's Westfield Stratford City .
I don't know where they;d put a Christmas Market there or even if they would want to host one ?

Sweetpeas are greedy for water too , but very pretty and smell gorgeous .
Our tomatoes are doing well but not red yet .

Yeah, Stratford (the dahn sarf one) is widely known about, I think? 🤷‍♀️

Our tomatoes aren't doing too badly. I tap the flowers every day to assist with pollination! We also aren't in a heatwave until tomorrow, so they've done OK thirst-wise too.

Your noisy neighbours would do my head in, Magnolia. Our neighbour's son was kicking his ball against our shared fence yesterday. That was bloody irritating. They also smoke in the garden, which drifts across. Not much I can do about that though! 🤣

168

We have high temperstures all weekend and possibly into the week ahead .
Busy day
Appointment for me
Pick up a couple of Click&Collect
Return an Amazon parcel
Sainsbury delivery 'Some housework

Morning.

We are joining in with the hot temps from today. Not as hot as some, but over 30° today, allegedly. Then next week they're saying mid-high 20s for the whole week.

It was hot like this in July 2014, as I was very pregnant with DS and was admitted onto the hotter than hell antenatal ward for a week before my c section (unstable transverse lie, little bugger). Hideous. I was given a fan as I was a long term patient though!

We have Abel and Cole and Sainsbury's coming this morning. They're being sorted by DH though, as I'm starting work soon!

I had an awful night last night my legs hurt so bad in the heat even with a fan on them continuously, and with it getting even hotter from today they are going to swell and hurt even more 😭

New pc so good so far, spent a couple of hours yesterday just sitting in front of a fan and terraforming my Minecraft world to create more flat space to build on - I find it quite relaxing to zone out with Greatest Hits Radio on and just demolish hills and mountains lol I may look for some Xmas themed build ideas!

Tesco has just been so I have the rest of the day to myself.

Not to be dramatic but can you literally wither away due to the heat? We’re on our 4th day of temps over 30° and it’s due to stay between 29-32° until at least next Thursday 😩
We’ve got a man we know coming to quote fitting air con to the bedrooms early next week. Will probably have cooled down a lot by the time it’s done but it don’t care.

I also have an annoying neighbour. Generally he’s nice, he’s a 28yo single man but for the last 2 weeks he’s taken to playing loud music between 8-10pm. This wouldn’t be too bad but his music taste definitely doesn’t match mine (Pitbull, Beiber, Lewis Capaldi and randomly, Micheal Bolton ).

My tomatoes are recovering from their neglect and I threw feed and lots of water on all the flowers and everything yesterday. I think my front garden flowers may be past it though.

Am now waiting for LO to finish swimming. It’s hotter than hell in here. Then it’s home to clear up some more and have a cold cold shower.

I also have an annoying neighbour. Generally he’s nice, he’s a 28yp single man but for the last weeks he’s taken to playing loud music between 8-10pm. This wouldn’t be too bad but his music taste definitely doesn’t match mine (Pitbull, Beiber, Lewis Capaldi and randomly, Micheal Bolton

Go out and sing along loudly .

I would do Bieber "Baby Baby Baby Oooooh" or Capaldi " I was getting kinda used to be someone you loved" but really really out of tune.