Catch up blog plus Crab Apple Jelly

Monday 29th

Went up to the little town where I did all my training to do another day of it today – learnt about replying to customers queries when they send them in my email. I really enjoyed myself, and cant wait to get started on them for real!

Finished off the Crab Apple Jelly. After what seemed like hours of boiling it, I got fed up, slammed it all into jars, where it apologised for its bad behaviour and set solid :-) It tastes lovely too!

Tuesday 30th

Day off
Went over to Loughborough as it was “eviction day” for my tenants who have not paid their rent for many many months. Got there very early, and found that the couple over the road had been given the key to the house by the tenant as she left (I had requested this to happen)

The house is in a dreadful state of decoration, needs re-doing throughout and the bathroom suite, which was old and tatty when I moved there getting on for 20 years ago needs replacing and the whole room re tiling etc. Carpets need replacing too..

Douglas didn’t come with me as he’s still feeling quite poorly. My parents came up from Weston to give me some moral support, which was nice of them, but as things turned out, there was no traumatic eviction as the tenants had gone. It was nice to see them, and we filled my car with some of their more fragile belongings for us to store in Sheffield until they move up here (few more weeks we hope)

It was so nice to “claim” the house back and it was a lovely day, so I didn’t feel stressed at all. Phew.

Got back to a still poorly feeling Douglas, but the fluid in his body is reducing so hopefully he will feel better soon :-)

Crab Apple Jelly???

My Saturday started with me playing Runescape, chatting to my friends including the lovely Funnyhare and the lovely Mommapeel (these are the names of our characters in the game, that we quite often use to refer to each other)

I was playing a game within the game and suddenly relaised it was 2 am! yikes! Bed followed shortly afterwards.

I slept through till about 9, and very slowly Douglas and I woke, had breakfast and went shopping, then on to visit my younger brother Thos, his wife Katie and their lovely kids - M&L (twins, one of each, aged 8) and C (aged 4 I think. Boy) L (the boy) demanded to have a go on "Mrshappyanna" as he calls runescape - so we had a quiet hour whilst the roast potatoes were cooking. M came and joined us. Yes.. I know.. Im corrupting them at an early age, but I will only let them play when Im there, and how to get onto "the game" remains a mystery to them! (Probably a good thing as L seems to adore it!)

C was a tired little poogle, and was falling asleep at the dinner table, so I picked him up and carried him up to bed - I asked him "would you like me to read a book to you?" and got a shake of a head, so.. I turned the tables "how about you read a book to me?" that got a smile and an affermative nod lol. He was quite happy to lie in bed whilst I read "Big Pigs Birthday" to him, and he pointed out cake, and a monkey and other things in the illustration. I closed the curtains, gave him a kiss, and closed his door.. and I think he must have fallen asleep about 2 seconds later as not a sound was heard (ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh)

Thos organised a crab apple picking session, then loaded us, loads of jam jars and a huge cauldron of the fruit into our car - guess what we offered to make!!!

Crab Apple Jelly

Makes: 6 x 500ml jars

Ingredients

4 kg crab apples
1 kg caster sugar
1 lemon, juiced

Method

1. Wash the apples, remove the blossom heads and cut out any bruised bits. Put in a saucepan, fill with water to cover the apples and bring to the boil. Simmer for 25 minutes until the fruit is soft. Pour the pulp into a jelly bag or several layers of muslin and let drip overnight into a pan beneath. Don’t squeeze the bag, it will cloud the jelly.
2. The next day, measure the juice, and combine with sugar at the ratio of 10 parts juice to 7 sugar. Add the lemon, then bring to the boil to dissolve the sugar. Keep at a rolling boil for 35–40 minutes, skimming off the froth regularly. To test, chill a dessertspoon in the fridge. When the jelly is set, it will solidify on the back of the spoon. Pour into warm, sterilised preserving jars and tightly seal while still slightly warm. Store in a cool dark place.

We have got to the end of stage 2.. more tomorrow :)

The Memory Foam Pillow

A few days ago I got myself a new pillow – for years I have fought with my pillows to get the perfect comfortable nights sleep. Ive tried 2 pillows.. 3.. 2 and a half…. One pillow flat the other folded over. .nothing really worked. I have woken up with sore 12shoulders and a crick inthe neck L for years. (no links to the amount of time I spend on the computer, either.

Lookie here for pillow

Those days have gone! The pillow is a normal shape, (one in the link is like Ds) has a sponge like consistency , but it is slow to spring back to its normal form. It is very comfy and supports my head perfectly.

It cost about £30 but its with my weight in gold – and that’s considerable – and I mean the worth of the gold of course!

PS.

D not much better - went to the hospital again - they have given him yet more BP tablets and a shed full of diruretics to take and want him back in again on Monday. Lets hope for progess over the weekend but its not looking too great for poor old Rabbie :(

wednesday..

Wednesday

Me

Was late for work L got off Tram at Tescos, got back on but got on the wrong one. Was about 15 mins out of my way before I noticed J Guess who needs a Sat Nav even on public transport? Will have to make the time up. Bother. Double and Triple Bother – or, as my dear departed friend Libby used to say “Oh! Pickled Cabbages!!” (she hated them, and as a very committed Christian saw swear words as taking her Lords name in vain, so rarely used them)

D

Off sick this afternoon – nearly fainted at his desk poor Lamb, so sensibly got a taxi home. Hope he will stay off work till next week, and that he looses some of this fluid that’s making his life so uncomfortable. One good thing about him being off is I can get him to cook and do the dishes for me! Hahaha! (he will probably comment he does it all anyway so where’s the difference)

Got home after a fairly stressful day – D feeling ok having slept loads J Bed early as was utterly exhausted.

Tuesday

Me

Work going better – getting my head round things. Im not struggling with quite so many calls, and have been shown how to fill in some application forms on an incredibly old system that still has a space for Telex numbers (what the hell was Telex please??)

My place of work deals with all matters “environmental” so we get calls from a wide range of people, from those upset because sand on the cycle path is stopping them using it, to those with mould in their rented rooms who want to know what to do about it – its fascinating, and I’m really enjoying it.

Douglas

D went to see the Dr this morning after dire warnings from me not to “Put a brave face on it” but for once tell it how it is, and get some action taken promptly.

Result! The hospital has doubled his BP (Blood pressure) tablets, given him a different diuretic (water tablet), might give him a plasma infusion (dunno why yet) and may start him back on a mini injection that increases the production of red blood cells. It’s a hormone most of us create naturally, but I have a feeling that its produced by a gland that sits on the kidneys which may explain why D needs extra. I may well update this when I get home when I can research this a little better, or ask the Oracle!! (Douglas)

Us

Persuaded Douglas to meet me after work to go to one of those big cash and carry places nearby. I was starving hungry (nothing new there) so I had 2 slabs of just about edible cheese and tomato pizza. Poor D, being more restricted in his diet had a frozen yoghurt then started shivering L

We had a good shop, got some large packs of good quality meat for him, some bagels for me to toast at work, and a memory form pillow for me. Got home late due to bad traffic. D cooked some fish which surprisingly didn’t smell.

Funny hare ;)

Dear Linda! thanks so much for reading and enjoying my blog :-)

When i become famous I will remember you, and dedicate a book to you (after I have given you a crystal key and a few other nice red things!)

For those of you who dont know, Funny aka Linda is a crazy friend of mine who lives in a little world called Runescape, where we chat and giggle together now and then!

For Linda.. E and S, the two people posting so far are both members of my family.

I'm so glad all of you read my blog.. lets hope I can keep writing this and you keep enjoying it.

Anna xxx

The New Girl..

Monday 23rd October

My day

First day at new office! I’ve been training in a small town north of where we live for the last 5 weeks, travelling in by car (20 mins drive) as public transport would take forever! I got to know the staff in that office, and began to feel comfortable there, so it was quite a wrench to come into this other office which is about double the size and has far fewer familiar faces!

I left home at the same time as Douglas (way too early, but I hate being late). It’s a short walk to the tram from home, then from the stop the other end a long trudge up a not so steep hill past various large warehouses. At present this takes me about half an hour, because I am so unfit. I hope as time goes on this walk, and the time it takes me, will improve!

The morning was spent training on the different phone system this office has, and getting my “desk top assessment” carried out. Its wonderful.. the monitor goes up down side to side, as does the chair, and the desk also has adjustable height., so now my desk is set up beautifully for me J

After lunch (home made veggie lasagne) I nervously took my first few calls on this new system. Kindly I was put on the easiest most basic type of calls possible for the rest of that day, so was slowly able to settle in. By the end of the day I felt much better about this new job.

D’s Day

Douglas didn’t have a very good nights sleep – he’s not very well at the moment – his kidney (Rabbie) does not seem to be getting rid of enough fluid from his body, so hes rather waterlogged, and this affects how he feels and his ability to breathe. He went to work, however as he tries really hard not to let his kidney problems get in the way.

It was a good thing he went in – apparantley there were 17 people off sick (Hmm sickness related to England failing to win their rugby match, or the failure of that lad to win the motor race???)

Sadly in the afternoon D felt like someone had filled a balloon with water and was swishing it round inside him, so he dragged himself home, curled up in bed with a warm book and was soon out for the count. I found him, still soundly asleep when I got in at 6pm. Glad he goes to see Hospital Dr tomorrow.. its horrid to see him feeling so carp :( (no thats not a typo lol)

We had a peaceful evening (apart from the flippin RAC calling trying to sell me something) and collapsed into bed quite early. Zzzzzzzz

PS thanks to both commenters so far!! Have not learnt how to do comments msyelf yet - maybe dreaded mum in law can teach me?

First Post!

As this is my first post, I better tell you a bit about me!

My name is Anna, my husband of 8 years is Douglas. We live in a pleasant industrial town in the North East of England, and both have office/call centre jobs. Im 39 (gasp 40 so soon...) and Douglas is 43. Our mental ages make about 10 between us, and can vary from time to time ;)

After all these years together, we are still very much in love, and its fun when we second guess what the other one is thinking or wants!

Life is good, but gets stressful now and then.. Douglas has kidney failure and his transplanted kidney is not working as well as it could.. but despite this we remain cheerful and have enjoy life!