NannyDoreen & Upndown's daily diaries

Ditto to what Linda just said, Doreen. We're off to the garden centre when OH comes in from work (he only does Saturday up until about 2.30pm, which is still a ridiculous amount of time he is at work, doing his sort of job, when added on to all his late nights throughout the week!) but not to buy plants or basil! :D We're just going to get some pebbles and membrane to put under our front bay window, as there are lots of weeds coming through the stone that has been there since we moved in 10 years ago. It's only a small Close and we're putting it to shame! Everyone else's is perfect. Mind you, most of our neighbours are retired so have the time to potter.

I was hoping to hang some washing out but it keeps raining, off and on. Gone a bit brighter now though so, we'll see! One naughty rabbit out all night, last night! She just would not jump back into her hutch, like she usually does and like Toby, the other one did. As soon as I opened the hutch door this morning though, they did a swap so Toby leapt out straight away and Millie (the naughty bunny), leapt in and has remained in all morning! Hope she's learnt her lesson. Doubt it though! :bunnydance: Actually, this dancing bunny reminds me (apart from the colour!) so much of how Millie seemed to be taunting me yesterday evening, as I was trying to coax her back into the hutch! :D

I hope you all have a good day, in more ways than one and that Linda enjoys her meet-up with the other Mini's ladies. :) xx
 
I always eat more when I am tired, I hope you get some rest today x

Oh dear Doreen, kind of you to pick up your dil but shame the waiting enticed you to eat and then lack of sleep. Hope you get a chance for a nap. X

Thanks ladies. Went to bed at 12noon and woke at 3pm. I feel much better for it. I could barely keep my eyes open. Don`t how DIL is fairing as she is working. :rolleyes:
 
Just looked, Doreen and the Sainsbury's one is actually coming up a little LESS than it originally showed! I looked on-line and it says:

Sainsbury's Chorizo Slices, 5g slice = 0.5 Syn so I worked that out to mean 100g = 10 Syns. Mind you, I'm pretty rubbish at Maths! :D
Sainsbury's Diced Chorizo - 150g pack = 15.5 Syns so each 50g would be 5 Syns, leaving .5 of a Syn left over. Therefore, 100g = 10 Syns. Yay! :talk017:

Hopefully, I've worked it out correctly! Please feel free to correct me, if not! :) Yippee!! xx

Yes Kathy you have. I saw the Sainsbury slizes too. Mine is a ring and none of the syn sites show this and as I say it calculated at 18 per 100g. If I just look up chorizo it says 11.1/2 for 100g. That is what I think I will use.

Do you use slices or a sausage type chorizo Kathy? A couple of recipes I have seen - can`t remember where - have specifically stated chorizo but not the slices - obviously for a specific recipe I would think.

I think the slices I have seen are quite thin. I`ll wait and see what you use before I buy anymore. After all we consider you to be the `expert`.
 
Toby and Millie - how sweet Kathy. I do like rabbits :bunnydance::bunnydance: and used to have them in the garden when younger along with chickens.
The chicken were initially kept for eggs as lots of people did in the years after the war. When they stopped laying - I suppose - or when money was short - who knows - we used to eat them.
Unfortunately us 5 children all adopted a chicken and when MY chicken was cooked I would not eat it and my brother used to make a big thing out of eating MY chicken. Happy memories.

I used to have a dog, :doggy: but when I divorced I passed him onto a friend. Then I had cats :kitty::kitty::kitty:. When the last one got knocked down I decided not to have anymore Now there is just me :angel09: ? :banana dancer: better, soon to be :stickdance:.

Good luck with the garden, I think stones do look neat and tidy.
 
Ha ha! :) Just returned from the garden centre, complete with pebbles and was just going to take a peep at the recipe I'm doing in a min, when I saw your posts. Loving all the animal pics!! :) Amazingly, Millie has obediently just jumped into the hutch, along with her best pal, Toby so ... happy days!

Enjoyed the bit of info (apart from your poor chicken being eaten!) about life after the war. Always interesting to know. That's one of the things I miss about my Mum and Dad dying when I was young. I hadn't reached the age when I could ask about their life experiences and there are only a few older relatives around now, who can fill in a few gaps for me. My Uncle in Chester (my Dad's brother) told me last year that my Dad had been in the 'proper' army, whereas I always thought it was just his National Service he had done. Apparently, he was an expert with the morse code equipment, which I found really interesting. He was also very artistic, which I never knew. Now I know where my two brothers get their artistic skills from. :) Me - I'm only good at drawing stick men, a bit like the thin version of you, Doreen! :D Thanks for the potted history!

Definitely not an expert, Doreen but the chorizo I always use, is the Sainsbury's diced. Just find it easier. Having chorizo today again, actually! :) Yay! :)

Hope you enjoy the rest of your day. xx
 
I will look out for the diced chorizo in Sainsbury. Got to be much easier. I definately want to use it again.

Mmm I miss having mum and dad around. They used to tell us loads of stories.

Re gardening I remember that the back garden was for us kids, the front garden for Dad. We lived in a prefab ---- 7 of us with two bedrooms ----- in the front garden for the coronation my dad put flowers in -- they read EiiR for Queen Elizabeth. Everybody used to remark on it. I was 9 yrs old then. My Dad and my older brother who was 11 went to the coronation.

Here is my food for today. Didn`t feel like cooking as am still tired, Early night for me. Enjoyed the salad though it made a change

Saturday 25th April.

hexa 1% milk. hexb 2 wm bread

B: eggs, bacon, mushrooms (lots) 2 toast + 1 xtra (2.1/2)

S: Banana NAS lemonade.

D: Ham, mixed salad leaves, tomatoes.and cheese (4.1/2)
Dressing 60ml lf mayo (2)1 tsp dijon mustard.(1)
Yogurt (1.1/2) frozen fruits
Maybe an apple later

7 syns. for the day. + 4.1/2 = 11.1/2. forgot the cheese
 
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Wow! Fancy your Dad doing that! Must be where you get your garden skills from! Pete's Mum was moved to a pre-fab up in a village called Flash (highest village in England) during the war. I think she was about 12 at the time. She said, with it being in the countryside, they didn't really notice there was a war going on and they also had plenty of food, especially eggs, butter, cheese and milk! :) She said the only thing she remembers, connected with the war, was she sometimes saw enemy planes flying back, after they'd bombed Manchester and Liverpool.

I always think, although there were obviously hardships then and terrible tragedies, from the tales I hear, people seemed much more supportive of each other and less selfish. Either that or it's a case of looking at it all through rose-tinted spectacles! :)

Thanks for sharing that lovely story about your childhood garden, Doreen. I loved it. :)

Your salad sounded tasty. We had chicken salad the other day, with a chicken from the hot food bit in Sainsbury's and really enjoyed it too. Hope you manage to sleep well tonight and feel more rested in the morning. I also hope Linda has had a fantastic day, meeting up with the Mini's ladies! xx
 
Food for today. Don`t think I will be having anymore syns except maybe the Freddo lurking somewhere which I have just remembered. Maybe I will forget.:rolleyes:

Sunday 26th April

heza milk. hexb 2 bread

B: 1 bacon, 2 eggs, lots mushroom and 2 toast.
L: 1/2 bag mixed leaves. tomatoes, slice ham, l.f.cheese (4.1/2 syns
1 burger (1 syn) apple
30ml mayo (1 syn) 1/2 tsp dijon mustard (1/2 syn)
D: chilli and rice. Frozen fruit. Maybe yogurt (1.1/2)

So far 8.1/2 -+ Freddo 5 = 13.1/2



Put tin mixed beans to bulk the mince as well as kidney beans in chilli sauce and some chilli flakes. Gonna be a bit hot.!
 
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I haven`t been out today. Fell asleep in the chair last night so not actually to bed very early. I woke up with cramp in my ankles so got up for an hour. Finally got up at 10 because I was dreaming. I dreamt my son was standing behind my bed with his black work hat on and I looked up and screamed -- which woke me. I phoned him and told him off. Of course he laughed.

I have cooked some meals for the freezer. 4 lots of chilli. 2 of chicken chasseur (with a pkt so 3 each) 3 somerset pork casserole (with a pkt so 2 each). Chilli for me tonight so that is 10 for the freezer.

Washing done, but have put it on clothes horse and some in dryer. It was a bit too late to put it out. Now sitting here talking to you ladies with a coffee and catching up on some TV.

May clear out under the kitchen sink. It needs doing.
Hope the girls enjoyed their meet. Looking forward to hearing about it.

Kathy does Darren send a post each time he updates his list? Was wondering whether we should put the page numbers on for the lists I do.

Here is one more story for you Kathy.
We lived in North London on a reasonably busy road (for those days). My Dad started a compaign to get Zebra Crossing put down in our road. They were invented by Mr Balisha --something like that -- hence the name for the flashing orange bulb being called a Balisha Beacon.

Of course the compaign worked and there was one put at each end of our road, it was long. Also a couple in nearby roads. He did a petition, one outside our front gate and one outside the Archway Tube Station. Not sure if anywhere else, but it worked. That would have been before 1955 as we were put in a flat after that at the top of a hill as they were pulling the prefab down. Oh, just quickly. Where our front door was, the flats have a refuse cupboard. We thought that was
funny,. :D:greenapple:


Enjoy the rest of the day ladies.
 
I love your stories of when you were young too Doreen. Not nice getting cramp, I often get it in my middle toe, weirdly, so painful isn't it?! :(
I'm sure Linda will post later when she's recovered from the journey home but it sounds like they all had a good time, though tiring.
I'm not sure how much 'off plan' eating occurred but it was just one weekend.
We've been sorting toys and clothes at Laura's house (Jamie's things) ready to pack for their move to Wales as they won't have much storage space. X
 
Packing and sorting to move is not a good task. Especially when the storage is not so good. Hope it is not too stressful.

One of the reasons I won`t move is because I live in a 3 bedroom house and the council would like me to move to a bungalow. No thank you very much, where would I put it all.

Glad you liked the stories. xx
 
I haven`t been out today. Fell asleep in the chair last night so not actually to bed very early. I woke up with cramp in my ankles so got up for an hour. Finally got up at 10 because I was dreaming. I dreamt my son was standing behind my bed with his black work hat on and I looked up and screamed -- which woke me. I phoned him and told him off. Of course he laughed.

I have cooked some meals for the freezer. 4 lots of chilli. 2 of chicken chasseur (with a pkt so 3 each) 3 somerset pork casserole (with a pkt so 2 each). Chilli for me tonight so that is 10 for the freezer.

Washing done, but have put it on clothes horse and some in dryer. It was a bit too late to put it out. Now sitting here talking to you ladies with a coffee and catching up on some TV.

May clear out under the kitchen sink. It needs doing.
Hope the girls enjoyed their meet. Looking forward to hearing about it.

Kathy does Darren send a post each time he updates his list? Was wondering whether we should put the page numbers on for the lists I do.

Here is one more story for you Kathy.
We lived in North London on a reasonably busy road (for those days). My Dad started a compaign to get Zebra Crossing put down in our road. They were invented by Mr Balisha --something like that -- hence the name for the flashing orange bulb being called a Balisha Beacon.

Of course the compaign worked and there was one put at each end of our road, it was long. Also a couple in nearby roads. He did a petition, one outside our front gate and one outside the Archway Tube Station. Not sure if anywhere else, but it worked. That would have been before 1955 as we were put in a flat after that at the top of a hill as they were pulling the prefab down. Oh, just quickly. Where our front door was, the flats have a refuse cupboard. We thought that was
funny,. :D:greenapple:


Enjoy the rest of the day ladies.

Wow! What a good Dad to do all that road safety campaigning. You must have all been very proud of him. Love anything to do with history so thanks for the info about Mr. Balisha! Made me laugh, what you said about the refuse cupboard! :)

Sounds like you've been extremely busy today, with all your forward planning cooking. Very organised! We went to get two new tyres fitted on Pete's car this afternoon and it only usually takes about 20 minutes but, today, they said it would be an hour. Well, it's been gloriously sunny here so we decided, rather than sit in the gloomy waiting room, we'd cross over the road to a pub and have a diet Coke, whilst sitting in the sunshine. As it was early afternoon, we hadn't had any lunch so, when we saw the plates of food go by, we thought we'd have a Sunday Roast. Anyway, I was very good and asked if it would be possible to have the lunch with new potatoes, rather than roast. Looked like they were going to refuse at first but, after checking, said it was fine. We therefore enjoyed lots of tasty beef, fresh veg and new potatoes, before collecting the car again so, all in all, a lovely way to spend an hour on a sunny Sunday! :) The only thing I'll have to Syn is the Yorkshire pud but, as that's all the Syns for today, it'll be fine.

We then went along to ANOTHER garden centre to try to buy some lawn edging but they had hardly any choice so we didn't bother. Home again now and, while I'm on here, Pete is cutting the front lawn.

Oh, yes! Very pleased this morning with the WI, both mine and Pete's! I lost 3lb and Pete lost 4lb! :) Must admit, that helped us to be good at the pub too! :D

Off to get the washing and rabbits in now so, probably 'speak' later. Hope Linda enjoyed the meet. xx
 
Oops, sorry, Doreen. No, Darren doesn't always get in touch but he does sometimes. That might be a good idea, with the list. :) xx
 
Fantastic about the weight loss. I am so pleased for you. It was good not to have roast spuds, having a good weigh in does help eh? Handy the tyres were going to take longer than expected.

Re the refuse cupboard. We get down that way once in a while and always go and have a look at `our` door.

Yes a busy day well most of it, I have spent the last hour or two falling asleep, Gonna have my dinner now. Best to go to bed this evening before I fall asleep and go at midnight.
 
Well done on your 3lbs off Kathy (and Pete too) and staying on plan at the pub, that's what I call a nice Sunday ;) x

Hope you sleep better tonight Doreen. That made me laugh about the Hungry Caterpillar but know what you mean. All our children and now grandchildren loves stories. Xx
 
3 hours 57 minutes and 49 seconds is how long it took my Eldest Grandson to run the London Marathon today. He has so far raised nearly £3000.00 His charity is Hearing Dogs for the deaf. (his Mum has one of these dogs - my eldest sons wife Lisa)

He was hoping to be quicker but had to halt his training as one of his knees was bad.

Congratulations James.
 
Thanks, Linda. I know it's definitely spurred us both on. So much so, Pete has just been on a six mile bike ride. There'll be no stopping him now! :D Hope things are good with you. I know I've said it before but it is lovely to have you back with us. :) xx
 
Thanks, Linda. I know it's definitely spurred us both on. So much so, Pete has just been on a six mile bike ride. There'll be no stopping him now! :D Hope things are good with you. I know I've said it before but it is lovely to have you back with us. :) xx

Thanks Kathy, its this thread and a few others (your recipe one of course) that has inspired me to get back on it. I've had three days now on plan, fully on plan too, so hoping I can keep it up and get a decent loss on Friday. Fingers crossed. Its lovely to feel back in control, isn't it? Well done Pete, hope he's not saddle sore tonight ;) x
 
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