Time to do a bit of a catch up on the last couple of days. I still have a cold although finally today I am feeling much better than I was. So I have been catching up on house work, changing the beds, cleaning, hoovering, washing etc.
I had intended to try and do a bit yesterday but then I had Ellie here with me for a while and I just hadn’t the energy. Thank you to all of you who sent good wishes for my son Samuel. It was a terrible shock for him to be made redundant just like that with no warning.
A few of you said can they do that? Well yes they can. He has only been there for 7 months and they are a small company. It seems the law doesn’t offer much protection unless you have been in your employment for a year. He had previously worked for Fairline boats since he left school. He did his apprenticeship with them.
At Fairline there had been several rounds of redundancies over the last few years and although each time Sam had been lucky he was increasingly worried. He also had a very long commute after they moved house a few years ago. About an hour’s drive each way. The job where he has just been made redundant from seemed good. They said they had full order books and they were just 10 minutes walk from his home. It meant more time at home, less money spent on petrol and hopefully some security!
He will be eligible for Job Seekers Allowance while he looks for work but it isn’t much and he has a young family to support and a mortgage to pay. It is a very worrying time. He has been doing everything he can the last 2 days to find any kind of work. He has 2 leads on some temporary work one of which is with Fairline who are taking on people on temporary monthly contracts so he has contacted them. I really hope he gets something quickly. He is such a hard worker, he never sits still, always has to be doing something.
This is the first time that redundancy has hit any of my family. The others are fairly secure, Simon and Verity as you know are both teachers and Coralie is a midwife. Saskia will begin teaching in September but I have no idea what Josh is going to do when he finishes Uni later this year. It is very worrying. I know we are not alone and indeed we have been lucky so far. I don’t think anyone’s job is safe in the current climate.
Anyway as I said earlier they called in yesterday and I looked after Ellie for them for a while. She was very good. We did drawing. We took it in turns. I had to close my eyes while she drew me a surprise and then we would swap. She kept laughing at a lot of my attempts at drawing but at least she knew what they were. This is her fire breathing dragon. Fortunately she let that slip before I had to guess! The orange bit is his flames from his mouth! She is only 3!
Because I was so busy drawing pictures for Ellie I ended up totally ruining my dinner. I had a stew cooking in the pressure cooker so that it would be ready when Simon came in. It was only when Ellie had gone that I went to check it and it had totally boiled dry and was a solid, black, burnt mess! I am trying to salvage my pressure cooker. It is on about its 4th soaking with washing soda and vinegar which hopefully will do the trick. It is pretty far gone though. I shall be so mad if I can’t clean it. It’s not that old. My first pressure cooker lasted over 20 years.
I was cross about the waste of food too. Only the day before I wasted all the ingredients for a loaf of bread. I set up my bread maker machine as I always do every other day....while I was busy in the kitchen I noticed that it seemed to be making an odd noise. The paddle things weren’t turning. I took the tin in and out several times to make sure it was in properly and it was. Damm, it’s not working, but it is heating up.
So, I decided to take the mixture out and knead it in my Kenwood and then put it back in the bread machine to cook. I did all that and it didn’t rise! The even stranger thing was that when I had washed it all up and before I put it away, I checked it and the paddles were going again! What????? Anyway, I made a loaf yesterday and it was fine. I don’t think machines like me much!
That was on Wednesday and I had begun to take photos for my “26th day of the month” blog. In the end I just wasn’t up to doing it. No energy. Here are a couple of the photos that I took. Maybe I’ll have more luck doing that next month.
The tablets I have been taking for my cold.
The non working bread maker.
Look at the size of my Kenwood dough hook!
Alfie! I have to have a bit of old carpet on the kitchen floor at the moment because Rosie can no longer stand without something to grip, she just falls straight down.
Loulou
My shower head soaking in vinegar to de-scale.
That was as far as I got with the photos for the monthly blog.
Simon gets home early today at half three which is nice. I have made some soup which we will have with crusty bread. It is a quick meal as I think he will be going to his barn this evening. He usually goes Thursday nights but he was tired yesterday. He had taken a group of children up to London for some kind of design conference. He met Ellen MacArthur, that woman that sails around the world. I have never liked her when I have seen her on the TV but Simon said she was really nice and down to earth, very quietly spoken. Still don’t like her! She gave him a signed copy of her autobiography. I wonder if I could sell it on EBay!
If Simon is at his barn I shall have a nice quiet evening. I have Eastenders to watch and then I shall get on with some sewing. Tomorrow is the willow domes and tunnels course that we signed up for. Simon will go but I doubt that I will be up for it. It is very cold here right now. I’ll see.
Oh I just remembered that I never posted those videos from the allotment, so I’ll do that sometime today. Don’t watch them if you get vertigo!
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