Too Much!

Yesterday was ALL TOO MUCH for Beano.

He had his first walk of the morning and not long after we got home Cass messaged me to say could I go to hers as she had a Drs appointment.

Beano and I walked to Cass's, Cass went to her appointment and then on to collect her daughter who'd been visiting friends. When she got back we all piled into her car and set of for the bank in town. I went to the bank and Cass took the children and Beano to a nearby park. 

I was in the bank for an hour and a half! 

By the time I finished Cass, the children and Beano had returned to her car. Beano was tired from running round the park but ecstatic to see me as he always is and we returned home.

Beano fell asleep as soon as we got in, worn out from running round the park. We'd only been home a few minutes when Cass messaged me to say one of her teens needed collecting. As she'd just put lunch on the table could I go and sit with her children whilst she went to collect her teen. Beano and I set off for Cass's by this time Beano was in plodding mode, he was still tired, but eventually we got to Cass's.

The children were eating their lunch and I went into the garden to get in the dry washing and hang out more wet washing. Beano found a sunny spot and went to sleep again.

Fortunately when Cass returned she gave Beano and I a lift home and collected two Ikea bags of washing I'd dried for her and all the flatpacked cardboard boxes of saved for her.

Beano ate his meal and once again fell asleep, he slept on and off until 5:30 this morning!

A visit to the bank.

Today Cass took me to the bank where I was able to move all my direct debits to my other account. 

I can't close the joint account because it is a joint account but if there is no money it should prove less attractive to the scammers.

I also registered my change of address so all future documentation should come to me.

Beano went to the park with Cass and the children whilst I was in the bank, when we got home Beano immediately fell asleep, exhausted after running around the park.

Within minutes of Cass dropping me home she messaged me to say one of her teenagers needed collecting,  I just managed to fill my washing machine and set it going, I woke Beano up and we set off to Cass's.

She had laid out lunch for the rest of the tribe so whilst they ate I brought in some of her washing and hung another bagful on the line. I just had time to do a quick poo pick and then she returned home with the teenager. Cass drove me home and collected two full Ikea bags of washing that I'd dried for her. I now need to hang my washing on the line, fingers crossed it remains dry.

Childcare duties.

I spent a few hours looking after some of the grandchildren today, I cleared the kitchen whilst I was there, got some washing in off the line and made the children their evening meal as well. It was only macaroni cheese but it went down well and the children cleared their plates.

The children were all very good for me, I got a lift home and brought a bag of wet washing with me that I will dry overnight.

I fed Beano when we arrived home, hung the wet washing on my airers. I turned my dehumidifier on and my heating up for 30 minutes.  The washing will all be dry by morning and can be swapped for more wet washing if necessary.

The clocks went forward last night, I don't have to do anything, I don't have a clock in the bungalow. I use my phone or my kindle if I want to know the time. I don't set an alarm for the morning as I'm usually awake by 5 am and Beano will wake me by 7 am at the latest as he wants his morning walk.

What the actual!

My Dr said she'd arrange an an appointment for me at the local hospital to get my hearing checked.

Sure enough as short time later I received a letter giving me an appointment on 9th April at 2:30.

Yesterday morning I received a text message to remind me that I have an appointment on 7th April at 4 p.m.

So when do I actually attend? It's not like I can phone up and check, I can't hear well enough to make phone calls! Which is why I need the appointment in the first place, give me strength! It would seem like the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing!

Some people

Really get on my tits!

I mentioned in an online conversation that I'd had a glass of orange juice with my breakfast.

Someone immediately leapt in to the conversation to tell me I should be eating a whole orange and not be drinking juice. She followed this with a long and involved explanation of why she was correct and I was stupid for drinking orange juice.

I immediately left the conversation, I'm not at my best in the morning and really couldn't be bothered to get into an argument especially with someone who was so far up her own arris.

Yes, I'm sure a fresh orange would be better than juice but since

A) the local shop didn't have any oranges.

B) the nearest shop that sells oranges is about 3 miles away.

C) there is no bus to this shop.

D) I don't drive.

E) mind your own fecking business, I didn't ask for advice so butt out and stop ramming your perfect life down my throat. 

And breathe!

Lunch club.

Someone commented on my previous post that it could be Steve using my bank card. It isnt, he doesn't have the skills to clone my card and he wouldn't spend money in Costa coffee, especially one that is miles away from where he lives.

I went to the pensioners lunch club today as it's on the last Friday of the month, we had beef casserole with cabbage and mashed potato, followed by lime mousse. I do love food that I haven't had to cook. I shan't eat again today, I will make plenty of cups of tea though. I took a pretty bottle of hand cream as a raffle prize and won a packet of chocolate digestive that I gave to my daughter for her children. There were lots of people there who spoke to me as I'm becoming  a familiar face in the village, I'm beginning to fit in.

I went to the village shop today I bought 3 bananas, a bottle of bleach and some tea bags, just under £5 and  that's my weekly shop for this week.

Oh bugger!

 I've had a sudden influx of bank debits all from Costa Coffee. There isn't a Costa in the village where I live and I don't buy coffee when I'm out ever. I've managed to stop all of them bar one so far. But it does mean I need to close the account asap.

This is easier said than done as, although I could catch a bus into town and go to the bank I then can't hear anything that is said to me as the bank has a very noisy heating/cooling system that rattles, wheezes and bangs continuously. 

My bank cards been stopped, I have some cash probably enough to last me this week. I also have another account so I will transfer everything to my new account and take it from there.

Beano.

Beano is fine and seems fully recovered, Unfortunately he is a bit of a scavenger when I'm walking him. If he finds a scrap of discarded chicken or any other tasty morsel he sometime snaffles it and swallows it before I can retrieve what ever it is he's found. He then sometimes pays the price and has an upset tummy.

My garden has been mown, there is a local lady who does a few of the gardens where I live and she has now done mine. One neighbour offered to do my garden but I was reluctant to encourage him. He has a habit of coming over whenever I'm in the garden. He rarely speaks, he just stand beside me. I have a horrible feeling he's hoping I'm going to cook him a meal!  Another neighbour suggested a lady gardner and I went with her. I'm more comfortable dealing with women. Both front and back gardens now look more respectable.

I was given another chest of drawers this morning and I've been offered a TV unit, not that I watch live TV but the unit might look nice in my living room. I've also been given a DVD player so next time I visit a charity shop I will look for some interesting DVD's. 

Visitors.

My oldest son visited today with his wife, we met in the local pub and enjoyed a roast dinner, My son had beef, my daughter in law had lamb and I had chicken. A very enjoyable meal and it was lovely to spend time with them. They came back home with me so they could see my bungalow and how comfortable I am. Like my daughter, they too said how much better I looka now I'm living alone.

Beano has had an upset tummy but I took his favourite blanket to the pub with me and he mainly slept while we ate. He had lots of fuss and cuddles with my son and daughter in law, and seems to be feeling better now.

Homemade soup.

I often make soup, it's quick and easy and cheap. I also always keep a couple of tins of soup in the cupboard, usually Baxters which is around £2 a tin.

When I regularly cooked a Sunday roast I'd make soup with the leftovers, my kids used to refer to it as stoup, half way between soup and stew.

In the interests of economy I've made a pan of soup this morning, enough to last 2 or 3 days. It was the first recipe I learned on a vegetarian cookery course I went on about 45 years ago and I still make it.

I have no idea how much it costs to make but it is cheap, a packet of broth mix is £2 for 500 grams, I use a very small handful. I soaked the broth mix overnight and changed the water twice. 

I used one potato, one carrot both approximately the same size, one onion slightly smaller, all these were chopped into smallish dice. You can add herbs or spices to your taste, I usually add pepper and curry powder. Bring to the boil then turn down to a simmer until everything is cooked through.

I brought mine to the boil whilst I was making my morning porridge and then turned the ring off. When I went back to the pan after breakfast everything was cooked, once it's cooled I'll transfer it to plastic boxes and store it in the fridge.

I need to top up my savings.

I think I've spent what I need to now to have a comfortable standard of living, I started with just a bed my son gave me and a few boxes of belongings.

I've purchased 2nd hand furniture and some new bedding and curtains, a fridge freezer, blinds, a whirly washing line and a selection of mops and brushes etc. The bungalow has two built in cupboards in the bedroom but neither of them had hanging rails, fortunately my daughter had a large wardrobe that was no longer needed so she gave it to me. She also gave me a small TV and a mini oven that sits on the work surface. A friend has given me a DVD player.

 A friend of Cass's brought round a chest of drawers and my other daughter finally managed to collect the last box of stuff and my standard lamp from Steve, unfortunately it came with six boxes of crap that he insisted were mine. I'm hoping to contact an ex work colleague who does regular boot sales to see if she wants the stuff I don't want.

I'm now hoping to start saving money again, I'm still going to go out to the Autumn group and the pensioners lunch but I'm hoping that if there are no more large items to purchase I should be able to save some money. I want to be prepared as I think there could be problems on the horizon with Steve.

I've managed to stock up my kitchen cupboards and I buy Beano's food online, so I'm now only shopping every two or three weeks, apart from bananas and fortunately the local shop sells them in three's

Next step.

When I left Steve he kept back some of my belongings, just one small box but there were things in there that meant a lot to me.

I know he didn't expect me to leave but I had already asked him to help with some things that I found difficult as my eyesight deteriorated. One of the things I asked for was help walking Beano as I was finding it difficult to cross the busy road outside our flat. He refused to help, claiming he wasn't well enough, this didn't stop him crossing the same road many times a week and catching the bus into town to spend the day in the pub drinking. 

He developed a habit of smirking whenever I found a task difficult to manage and I found this extremely irritating. Especially when he claimed his Dr had said I needed to start cooking for him again and take better care of him. I doubt the Dr said anything of the sort! Especially since Steve was refusing to eat any vegetables and wanted only fried food.

One of my daughter's collected the box from Steve a short time ago, unfortunately as he'd had plenty of warning of her visit he gave her 5 or 6 boxes full of stuff he didn't want. He did this for two reasons, partly so I'd have to spend time getting rid of the rubbish and partly so he could tell the neighbours how unkind I was, taking his belongings away from him!

Mothers day.

One of my son's visited on Saturday and bought me a box of chocolates, he was on shift on Sunday which is why he came the day before Mothers day

My other son is visiting next weekend as he was busy this weekend.

I've already been out with one daughter as I wrote in my previous post, Forty Elephants.

 That only left  one daughter who visited y'day and brought with her a cream tea. It included a couple of mini quiches, two scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream. There were also two tea  bags and two squares of cake one each of Millionaires shortbread and one Bakewell slice.

Waking in a panic.

I started waking up in a panic sometimes. 

A couple of night's ago I woke up suddenly, I was convinced I'd overs-spent and that I was about to go in the red.

I grabbed my phone and logged in to my online bank, I wasn't overdrawn. But I really must get to the bank soon as I know that Steve can check one of my bank accounts. We used to have a joint account for paying household bills but after a while Steve stopped paying in to that account and started to pay some bills himself.

Last night I woke again, this time I thought I'd missed a Drs appointment, then I realised that the appointment is later in the week.

I wonder what the next panic will be about?

A meal with Forty Elephants

Bovey Belle, that's a good idea, I will get one next time I'm out shopping. 

Today I had an early mothers day treat, my daughter took me to lunch at a restaurant that was running a theme about the Forty Elephants.

The Forty Elephants were a gang of female shoplifters based around the Elephant and Castle, the were operating from the 1830's to 1950's.

At the restaurant we were given clues about a murder with each course and we had to decide who we thought had committed the murder. It was very entertaining and enjoyable and the food was good too. Lots of small dishes so we didn't end the meal feeling stuffed full but we definitely weren't hungry.

From snowdrops to violets

The village is well endowed with flowers, they grow in gardens, at the edges of the pavements and on any patch of grass around.

First it was snowdrops, growing in profusion. As they have started to die back, their place has been taken by daffodils, grape hyacinth and violets. In the grass near my bungalow there is a patch of white violets. The flowers make walking Beano an even greater pleasure.

My own garden is a disgrace, just lots of unkempt grass and moss. I can buy a lawn mower to manage the front lawn but I'm stumped when it comes to the grass in the back garden. It's far too lumpy to mow, I think it once had flower beds there as some parts are higher than others. I shall have to think hard about what to do, whatever it is it's going to be difficult.

Social group

I've just been to the Tuesday afternoon social group, I took Beano and he was an absolute star. He wandered around to greet a few people and then he lay on the floor and went to sleep, it's such a relief to know I can continue to attend.

They are organising a boat trip in a few weeks on the Kennet and Avon, where Steve and I had our boat and as I can take Beano I've signed up to go along.

Tomorrow morning it's tea and toast in the pub, so I will go to that as well, I've taken Beano there already a few times.

I'm determined to make the most of every opportunity that comes my way.

Old nuts.

My daughter went to the flat where I lived with Steve yesterday  to collect my last few belonging. There was just one box that Steve had claimed wouldn't fit in the car, it contained some kitchenware and the name plate I ordered for this place, Cuckoo's Rest. My grandchildren call me cuckoo so it seemed appropriate.

Unfortunately as Steve had been given plenty of notice of my daughter's visit he packed up a lot of stuff that he wanted to get rid of. So along with my stuff there was a lot of crap. I spent most of y'day evening and this morning sorting through it all. It includes a bag of nuts left from tge Christmas before last, a dog harness that is and always has been  too small for Beano, some CD's but no player. There is also a tangled nest of cables, I've no idea what they were for. This also gave Steve the opportunity to tell everyone how badly he's been treated especially as he claims my daughter took things from the flat that he had a sentimental attachment to!

Amongst other things there is a backpack, it's never been used so is in very good condition. When we first moved on to the boat there was a shopping trolley on board. Steve immediately threw it in the nearest bin, as he said we were too young to need a shopping trolley. As I did the bulk of the shopping I was not prepared to stagger along a muddy towpath with a piled high backpack. I purchased another shopping trolley a large one with three wheels either side that coped admirably with muddy towpaths. I still have it, it's still going strong.

Poor Beano

Apologies for the lack of posts.

It seems Beano has dementia, he's taken to howling if he's left alone.

 This will somewhat curtail my budding social life but I will do everything I can to keep him happy. He's been my comfort for the last 10 years so now I will be his.

He's slowing down and doesn't want to walk as far as he used to do so we wander around the village at a pace that suits him.

I'm still spoiling him as he is a funny little dog, he's my funny little dog.

D.I.V.O.R.C.E.

If you know the words, sing along, have I given you an earworm now?

I'm not currently planning on divorcing Steve although I have no objection if he decides he wants a divorce. He is more likely to want a divorce as he would like to remarry I'm sure. He is a few years younger than me and ever since his friend married a lady in her 50's he has wanted to do the same.

I see no point in lining a solicitor's  pocket for no good reason, Steve is due to inherit a reasonable sum of money at some point (if his family ever manage to stop arguing about it!) I'm not interested in taking money from Steve and as I said I will continue to pay the service charge for now to protect my credit rating.

I will discuss this with my family to see how they feel about it, Steve is not their father but I would like their opinions on this matter.

Why?

Why do I continue to pay the service charge for the flat I no longer live in?

Because I own the flat with Steve and if I didn't pay it, neither would he and I'd have a black mark against my credit rating. If Steve couldn't pay the bills on his own, he'd disappear and none of the bills would be paid.

There are 26 flats there and eight of them are for sale and one of them was for sale when we bought ours about three or four years ago.

I'm hoping that the flats will be upgraded eventually and will be more saleable. Currently Reading is awash with retirement flats. All I can do is wait and see what happens.