All Cut and Dried

The time of the Round Robin is at hand.  I have only received two so far: one from Australia,and also a very long one from Winchester, both extremely interesting.   I love them, especislly the non boasty sort. I feel I do not have to write one myself because of this blog which is a sort of ongoing round robin.

I feel sorry for the people in Cumbria, enduring more floods.   I keep remembering the night of the terrible flood when I was staying with sister J up in Wynlaton Mill near Newcastle a couple of years ago.There was the moment when the cats were both marooned in the corner of the sitting room as the muddy water rose higher and higher and then later when we both went upstairs with a candle and the gin and tonics and wondered what to do next. It was amazing then, as it is now, how everybody rallies round to help. I have just heard on the radio of a farmer who has retrieved all his cattle, one of which swam 20 miles and was found on a golf course

I  enjoyed the play, Capital, on BBC1 which was on over three Tuesdays. It was a treat to see a well acted, well written drama instead of cliched rubbish like Downton Abbey and grisly crime series. I read the book by John Lanchester which was also excellent. 

We are planning a trip up North on 23rd December to Allendale,where grand daughter F lives.  Some of us are staying in a Bunkhouse very near her house. I keep totting up the totals expected  and get a different number each time, but I remind myself that I don`t have to worry,the catering is not my responsibility,one of the advantages of old age. . As long as I do`not have to sleep in a top bunk it should all be lovely

Grandson M has just been for a visit and cut my hair,and Bradley Wiggins is going to College to the dog department to have a cut and blow dry tomorrow so we should both look well groomed for Christmas.

Deaf sentence...

I wish someone would invent a hearing aid that did not give me itchy ears, or make whistling noises. I had given up on them, but yesterday I went to a memorial service at which I hardly heard a single word. I complained to the ninety year old woman sitting next to me that everyone mumbled and didn`t speak up properly and she said she heard it all perfectly, so now I know it must be ME.  I am determined to get to grips with the ghastly things, start wearing them and be grateful.
On the plus side of the general deterioration front, I am walking in a sprightly manner again and hardly need a stick except for very muddy dog walks. The toe incident is just a far off memory.

Everyone  is saying Oh no, we are not sending cards this year, Oh no we are not  having turkey, we are all vegetarians now. Oh no, we dont`like Christmas pudding.   I wonder how it will all end.     We are having Secret Santa presents in our family,which will be a great relief to me, as I am such a hopeless wrapper upper and will only have to do a few, it doesn`t apply to the toddlers and babies of course,   It is all being organised in a complicated system on line, which may go wrong so I could receive a football kit or false eyelashes, or something.

Two things I like about this time of year are those great blowsy red poinsettias (from Lidls and very cheap) which simply light up the room and also Stollen  (Lidls again ) which is so delicious, and much nicer than Christmas cake though I will make one of those on Stir Up Sunday which is looming up.   I love the cakey cooking smell for all the hours it takes to cook.    

Spicing It Up

I am making plum and apple chutney today and the whole place is full of that spicy vinegary smell. I really enjoy doing it as you don`t have to worry about whether it will set like marmalade and you can put anything in it like ginger, cloves, cinnamon, just a bit of this, a bit of that. I find it is very useful to give as at  Christmas if you are suddenly handed a beautifully wrapped present you were not expecting..     I am lucky as kind villagers constantly give me bags of apples, or there are boxes of windfalls left outside houses.with a note saying` help yourself`.

I have seen two good films in the last week: Selma which was about Martin Luther King, and Suffragette, Both were about injustice and inequality and both showed such courageous people. There was  actual news film which made them even more poignant.

Going to the doctor`s in Ditchling is a really sociable experience I find. The waiting room is packed with familiar faces, the dog walking fraternity, and other oldies from the village.  We have such interesting conversations about our various aches and pains and treatments, and we almost reluctant to go in to the Dr when our names are called. Also they have installed a Do-It-Yourself blood pressure machine. You poke your arm into a dark hole and a ticket comes out the other end. We all enjoy doing that very much.