Katy

 On Tuesday 19th January I posted about taking in OTT  as lodgers.

OTT stands for overseas trained teacher.

Katy was an OTT.

In her own country Katy paid £50 a month rent for a bungalow with a garden that she shared with her aunt and her aunt's five children.

Once in the U.K. she realised that living expenses were much higher and she would have problems finding the money she had promised to send home.

Katy joined an escort agency, she was too naive to understand what it entailed. She assumed she would be paid £100 just for conversation. I tried to explain but she didn't believe me. On two occasions she went to meet a punter and then phoned me in tears when she realised that they expected sex! On one occasion she didn't even know where she was and I was driving around Reading trying to find her.

On another occasion Katy took pictures of her sticky bits to upload to a website (hoping to get paid for them) she left the photos on the desktop of my computer as she didn't know how to delete them.

This is just a small selection of some of Katy's exploits, some of my readers remember her from my previous blog, hence the update.

Catching up with Katy

 I intentionally don't follow Katy on Facebook even though I know she is on there but occasionally she shows up on LinkedIn.

She is still living in the U.K. near her relatives, she has two children who are almost teenagers and has recently married.

She is teaching at an E.F.L college, is heavily involved in her local church and is involved in pyramid selling.

Living on the cheap 3

 Cooking mince.

When I cooked minced beef  I used to add onion, carrots, leeks, lentils and oats, go steady with the oats though as otherwise you will end up with mince flavoured porridge! All the veg went through a food processor, a couple of oxo cubes added during the cooking time and the veg couldn't be seen.

Rubber chicken

Roast chicken on Sunday, just use the breast.

Strip the rest of the meat from the carcass and use some of it for a chicken pie.

Chicken pie, either add any leftovers from the roast dinner including roast potatoes, stuffing, Yorkshire and gravy, cover with pastry.

Or add mushrooms and some scraps of ham or bacon, add a white sauce, cover with pastry.

Pasta bake.

Add leftover chicken to a white sauce or a tomato sauce, pour over cooked pasta, sprinkle grated cheese and breadcrumbs mix over the top, brown under the grill.

Special fried rice, soften sliced onion in a little oil, add any veg suitable for stirfry, add cooked rice and the last few scraps of chicken.

Boil up the chicken carcass and make soup from the stock.

Hunt the fish pie.

Add a small amount of white fish to mashed potatoes, add some thick cheese sauce. Throw the whole lot into an oven proof dish, top with grated cheese and cook until cheese is bubbling.

Crisps and leftover bread

If you have some crisps that no-one likes pound them to crumbs in the bag, add some grated cheese and use to top fish pie or pasta bake. Grate leftover bread, add to grated cheese for an alternative topping.

Molly the muntjac

 I walked Beano just before 8:30 this morning.

As we were walking along the towpath  Molly a muntjac deer who lives in the woods nearby burst from the undergrowth and ran ahead of us. 

Fortunately Beano didn't give chase he just looked somewhat surprised. 

It's the first time I've seen her during the day, she normally only appears at dusk.

Milder today

Col, I'm so sorry you had such a difficult time at work you have my sympathy. 

I had a few tough years when we had a new head teacher who announced he wanted rid of all female staff over 50. There were 9 of us and I was the only one who outlasted him.

We should have gone shopping yesterday but it was cold and icy so we decided to wait until today. It has rained almost non-stop today so we need to watch the water level. At least the pump out pipes aren't frozen so we can flush the toilet!

My back aches after yesterday's fall but I drove to Aldi, Steve shopped and Beano and I walked around the area. Lots of interesting new smells for Beano. 

Tomorrow we will go to Sainsbury's to get a few things we couldn't get in Aldi.

Understanding dreams

 Icey, I'll look out for that series.

Taking Beano out for his morning walk I fell arse over tit, landed flat on my back in front of the marina maintenance man, he was just telling me to be careful as the slope was icy. It's the second time I've fallen over in front of him.

Anyway on to the meaning of dreams.

Last night I dreamt that Steve and I had gone to the bank, he needed to make an appointment and to do so had to go upstairs. Steve can go upstairs but struggles to get down again so I went up instead. It took me sometime to make the appointment as the two gentlemen would insist on turning their backs to me. When I eventually returned downstairs Steve had left, this didn't surprise me as he is notoriously impatient. I tried to phone him but my calls reached a weather forecast. I sat on a bench waiting to see if Steve returned and an acquaintance arrived and kissed me. He had a moustache that scratched my face, as he left someone gave me a white rabbit that someone else tried to take from me. Make it that what you will! I assume the men turning their backs to me is because my deafness is causing communication problems. I was not a kissy, huggy person in real life even before Covid but have always accepted that some people are. I don't mind facial hair as both my husband's had/have it. Maybe the rest of the dream was just ephemera, random rubbish triggered by something I've read.

I had a family member who lived with his wife in a small bedsit, the wife was at least 20 years younger than the husband and they were a very devoted couple and I think I was curious about their relationship, I sometimes dreamt that there were many more rooms in their home than there actually was. I assume this dream represented my curiosity.

There a few well known dream meanings, if you dream you are naked it suggests uncertainty.

I'd you dream of falling it suggests anxiety.

If you cannot find a toilet, it suggest you cannot express yourself.

If you dream about losing teeth it suggests you are worried about how you are perceived.

I would disagree with some of these, if I dream about needing the toilet it's because I need the toilet!

When I was younger I frequently dreamt of falling, it got so bad that  taught myself dream control, so I would turn the fall into a float and drift gently to the ground.

When I dream about losing teeth this is because I've had horrendous problems with my teeth. My childhood did not include stuff like soap, toothpaste or toothbrushes. It did include brutal school dentists, a phobic mother, a tendency to vomit when given gas and air and roots that have become embedded in bone and now require a hammer and chisel to remove them.

Boat life

It's very cold here, we had snow on Sunday, it's mostly gone now but some places are slippery when walking.

We are keeping a close eye on the toilet, if the temperature stays below freezing for long, the pipes leading from the toilet to the black water tank can freeze. If this happens the toilet won't flush! We have a porta potti we can use in an emergency.

Beano doesn't seem to mind the snow and has been happy to go on his regular walks.

I'm still doing some crochet. It's slow going as it's amigurumi I'm struggling to see the stitches. Blogger won't let me upload pics at the moment.

Steve and I don't often eat the same food, he likes his food beige, I don't. 

The evening I cooked him a gammon steak, I had some thick cheese sauce left over from yesterday and a cooked potato. I mashed them together formed the mix into patties and fried them in a dry frying pan. Steve had one with his gammon and some mushrooms, I had the other on its own. Cheap and tasty and it used up the leftovers.

Usually any veg left over from a meal gets turned into soup for my lunch but the patties made a change.