Broadmoor

 No snow here yet but it's very cold.

I've filled the coal bucket up and filled the water tank as well, if it gets really cold the water pipes on the marina freeze and then we have to carry water from the toilet block.

I watched a program last night about Broadmoor hospital. I had an uncle who was committed there during the 2nd world war. He became convinced that Hitler would win the war. As his wife worked in the NAAFI, he believed that she and their children would be tortured for information. To save them from this he attempted to murder them all. 

A few years after the war ended it as suggested that he be released into the care of his wife. She felt unable to have him return so he stayed in Broadmoor until his death in the 1970's. He had periods of sanity but became ill during the Aden crisis and other threats of war. I know he was badly affected by what he saw during WW1, nowadays he would probably be diagnosed with PTSD.  His wife never divorced him and visited him regularly despite the distance involved. 

Bacon sandwich

 Janf, I was 25 so not particularly young, the first ten years were good apart from his mother being difficult. It was his dad dying that made him nasty, if I'd tried to leave he'd have taken the children, not because he wanted them but just out of spite. So I sat it out and left one week after the last child left home.

Steve's not well and has spent the day in bed I've kept him topped up with tea and sandwiches.

He asked for a bacon sandwich I needed to know what sort. Plain bacon between two slices of bread?

A bacon sandwich with an egg in it?

Or a firefighter special, a slice of buttered bread two rashers of well done bacon, in top of that a slice of buttered toast, on top of that a fried egg, then two more rashers of well done bacon and finally another slice of buttered bread.

A boater we met last year insisted that this was a proper bacon sandwich, he was a retired firefighter, hence the name.

Steve just wanted bacon  between two slices of bread.

Why I was living on the cheap

 The first time was because we moved from Bristol to Berkshire which was a much more expensive area. We moved into a house that was a wreck with no heating and no bathroom or kitchen.

Things improved slowly but ten years later, my then husband lost his dad and he became depressed, obsessive and controlling.

Over the next five or six years he became obsessed with saving money, insisted on having control of all the finances even the family allowance. Took away an inheritance I received, money I earned in my business and when I took  a second job took that money too.

More butterflies pattern info added.

 A nice way of using up oddments.

The instructions can be found on YouTube Bella Coco butterfly.

Living on the cheap 4

Fuel.

Wear layers and keep lots of throws around to save putting he heating on.

I used to fill the oven on Sundays, I'd cook the Sunday roast and enough cakes and biscuits for lunch boxes and snacks. The rest of the week I'd try to cook just using the hob though I also has a slow cooker  and a Remoska.

I'm lucky on the boat I have the multifuel stove, we use it to heat the boat but whilst it's lit it means I can also cook on it.

Today I made a lamb casserole, in fact I started it the night before, I have a cast iron casserole dish, I put the lamb in it with some sliced onion, carrot, mixed herbs and a couple of stock cubes The casserole sat on top of the stove until 5 o'clock today. The lamb was melt in the mouth tender, I served it with plain boiled potatoes.

Once a week at least we have jacket potatoes that have been cooked in the stove, we also have a ridge monkey. We can cook toasted sandwiches and sausages etc in it it all saves on the gas.

Butterfly

 

I made a butterfly, I needed a break from making the amigurumi cat.

I found this instructions on YouTube it's by Bella Coco, she has lots of YouTube videos many of them are left handed.

OTT's and other lodgers

 I always tried to have lodgers who only needed a short-term let, that way if someone was a PITA I didn't have to put up with them for long.

I used to contact large companies near where I lived as they often need to put people up for a few weeks and lodgings are cheaper than hotels.

Most of my lodgers were lovely, there was the French man who was an expert on the Lascaux cave paintings, a lovely lady from Zimbabwe, a Welsh rugby player and an Italian pediatrician who had two phones, one for his wife and one to his mistress!

Some were challenging, like the vegetarian who didn't eat vegetables, the young lady who climbed out the window to go clubbing and was bought back by a  neighbour who was a taxi driver and the German lady who, after a very acrimonious divorce, adhered to the "All men are bastards" school of thought and almost spat every time Steve entered a room.

Katy was In a class of her own, she was an innocent abroad, her time keeping was appalling, she missed trains and buses regularly as she assumed they would wait for her. She got into scrape after scrape but was such a sweetie.