New year, old friends

Krakow Botanical Gardens, July 2016

Now that all the building work is finished with only a few things left on the snagging list for the kitchen people, there really isn't anything much to write. I sent a couple of messages to the kitchen company, but so far they haven't responded. I had a lovely ten days off work, but only three of them at home.

For Christmas I was in Nottingham with very old friends. We had nut roast for Christmas dinner and Boxing Day lunch was at the boating clubhouse by the side of the river. The sun was out, but it was jolly cold.

Between Christmas and New Year I did some more kitchen shopping - lampshades, bar stools, wine glasses - and went to Steve's funeral. It was worse in the anticipation than the reality, and a few light moments helped me to stay composed, especially when the organist and the congregation parted ways for a couple of verses of 'Abide With Me.'

I spent New Year in Cambridge with other old friends. This was a slightly longer trip with activities that included walks, pub lunches, evening dinners, games, shopping and even an interlude to play badminton. Lola II and Mr M were also present (except for the badminton and shopping day), and provided key elements of the games activity. We visited a bird reserve and saw migrating swans, we were prevented from reaching one of our pub choices because of extensive flooding, and I bought saucepans!

Both Lolas and Mr M catered for thirteen at the New Year's Eve dinner. There were supposed to be fifteen, I'd multiplied all the recipes up to sixteen and then two didn't come, and we had so much food that we didn't even serve two of the courses (salad and fruit). And I'd made a mistake with one recipe and doubled the amounts, which didn't help with the surplus food situation. It was most convenient having bought saucepans because we could use them to take away some of the leftovers, which we then had for lunch next day with mum and dad plus enough for my lunches for the rest of the week.

My last day of holiday was Tuesday, when I collected my new spectacles (they are so similar to the previous pair that nobody has noticed so far), and admitted defeat with the weight loss plan and bought new trousers from the charity shop. I treated myself to a trip to Ikea where I bought more useful kitchen stuff including bins for recycling that fit perfectly under the sink, which makes me very happy. I'm planning to restock the freezer with soup over the weekend, and I have a list of things to cook that use the new kitchen facilities - toasted cheese, jacket potato, poached egg - not complicated dishes, just things I've been missing.