16th November, 2014
A chilly and wet day which we mainly spent reading newspapers. We did nip out to Tesco to find the acres of car park full of happy shoppers. It is amazing how Sunday shopping has gone from the odd-soul-who-has-forgotten-something-from-their-weekly-shop to a Main Shopping Day for so many busy workers. This superstore was packed. It was harder to find a parking space than on a Saturday. I’m all in favour of it. Mum would have hated it. In fact, she said she didn’t think it would ever happen.
17th November, 2014
A warmer but just as wet day. Half way through the morning, I noticed our broadband service had dropped. I checked the phone and found we had no line. Just as I began to use my phone to search for my provider’s help line, Pauline spotted a Bt Openreach engineer walking back to his van. I spoke to him. He had been working nearby but denied any connection to my problem. Later his office suggested it was an error by him which disconnected us. It will take up to 72 hrs to fix. Three days without the internet! Went to the Health Centre for an hour’s exercise.
18th November, 2014
We were up and preparing to drive down to Costa Coffee for access to their Wi-Fi when a telephone engineer arrived. Within an hour, it was fixed and I was getting my internet-withdrawls out of my system by downloading emails and newspapers.
Good Morning to Richard. Got your email a few minutes ago and will reply very soon. Don’t set off on your cruise before you hear from us. Lovely to know that you’re still following the Blog. Nice to hear from Ruth and her worries for me even if half the Facebook community responded with concern for my health and requests for links to my Blog. The only person I didn’t hear from was the Poison Dwarf but I’ll cope.
It’s been a lovely, sunny and fairly mild day here. We’ve done our regular hour at the Health Club and then returned for Cassoulet Lapin (aka Rabbit Stew) which I made yesterday.
I’m in a no-alcohol phase again because my INR has dipped for a couple of months and because I want to skimp on the calories. It’s nice to know I don’t need it and can do without it when I choose. Off to France in a fortnight. That will be a tester.
Pauline has received so many phone calls again today. It has become a standard thing. Estate Agents wanting to market our home or developers wanting to sell us a new home. She has become quite blasé about their blandishments. She has done so much research, she often knows more about their activities than they do themselves.
England made Scotland look very second rate this evening in their ‘friendly’. England won 1 – 3 in a fairly one sided game. Nice to see.
19th November, 2014
Felt cool in the sunshine today. The temperature didn’t get above 14C/57F. We did a big session at the Health Club. I upped my targets – increasing the incline and speed on the running machine and increasing the resistance level and calories burned on the bike. I could barely walk by the time I’d driven home but I know it will pay off when I speed past Jane BG in the road race next Spring.
The remainder of the Cassoulet Lapin was liquidized with Passata and milk to make a lovely cream of rabbit soup. Rabbit is so cheap to buy and low in fat. I’m amazed more people don’t buy it. The reason is, I suppose, not enough people sell it. We buy ours in France where it is widely available and eaten. A rabbit carcass costs about £3.50/4.37€. Less than a chicken.
In the next few days, we are going to buy pheasants – another low fat meat packed with flavour – from a farm shop nearby.
We have changed our eating so much over the past fifteen years with fish and game dominating our diet.
20th November, 2014
It’s been a difficult I.T. week in the Sanders household. First, our phone line went down and we had no internet for 24 hrs. Can you imagine it? Today, we’ve both had problems with our email accounts. Who knows why. Mine has largely sorted itself out by this evening but Pauline’s account is still rather flaky. It would happen on INR reporting day. My Hospital is fantastic.
I self test (although I occasionally get the Hospital to check my results) and email my result to the INR team at St Peter’s. Within an hour, I have dosing advice and a next test date. My range is INR 2.0 – 3.0. Today it was 2.6 – perfect. That’s because I’m not drinking alcohol which tends to inhibit the Warfarin’s action.
21st November, 2014
Wet this morning. We drove out fairly early to make a journey of nine miles to Esher. We were visiting Garson’s Farm Shop which contains a wonderful Butcher’s Stall and they have five pheasants for us.
The Butcher’s is Bevans – family firm dating back 85 years. They are opening their own branch in Woking in January next door to a wonderfully stocked wet fish shop. That will save us a journey. Esher is quite a ‘posh’ place where footballers stash their cash. People who live there include Frank Lampard, Damien Duff, Joe Cole and Glenn Johnson but also Chris Tarrant, Kid Jensen, Ronan Keating.
Fascinating to see that the Greeks are lifting the Parliamentary Immunity of Golden Dawn members so that they can be prosecuted while UK is electing its second UKIP MP. Who is bonkers now?
22nd November, 2014
I don’t usually do things like this but I voted in the Tree of the Year competition featured on the Woodland Trust’s website. I voted for The Major Oak in Sherwood Forest mainly because we were taken to see it a number of times as children some 50 – 60 years ago.
According to local folklore, it was Robin Hood’s shelter where he and his merry men slept when they were hiding from the Sheriff of Nottingham. It weighs an estimated 23 tons, has a girth of 33 feet (10 metres), and is about 800–1000 years old and, for a second time, it has won the UK Tree of the Year going forward to the wider European competition.
Relations of Pauline’s Family, who I found on the internet while researching her ancestry, have found a photograph of a family member they can’t identify.
Looks a bit like Phyllis so we hope she recognises her.