Playing

I have just spent a somewhat fraught (because I inevitably forget, from time to time, the how-tos), but enjoyable half-hour, refreshing the look and header of my blog. Not that I write in it a lot, nor have for some years. There are people (you know who you are!) who post every day in November. There are people, in fact, whom I read with enjoyment, who post almost every dern day of the year. I don’t and can’t and never have, even when there were lots of memes and games to fill in the days when the brain went dead or there was literally (hah!) nothing to say.

 I don’t have much to say today, in fact. Except that we spent a lot of money, for us, during a trip to the city and that when we got home, the credit card that we had used to pay for it all was, somehow, borqued. It took my poor suffering JG a long time on the phone to sort things out. But he did. Sort it all out. And the ‘stuff’ we paid for will stay paid for. Stuff? Tsk. But … but, but, but  - Christmas stuff. It is all, in fact, useful stuff. One purchase was of a new mattress and, oh my, do we need that. The present one has a slight resemblance to an egg poacher. The rest was Christmas gifts. Can’t help it. Santa’s most faithful elf gets the urge every December. And what we purchased was practical stuff that is wanted (we checked) and will be used.

 We also Went Out For Lunch (Okay, so I am out to lunch most days. Will you stop that!). To a restaurant with music and a menu and a very plain waitress, according to the elf, who was drinking water, honest. I know it is not post-Covid yet, and that the flu is all around us, yeah. We ate out anyway. It was really lovely to put my feet under someone else’s table and have a menu with choices. I have spent far too much time with the can opener, frying pan and oven over the last few years. Even if JG keeps restocking the kitchen with yet more complex and modern appliances.

 I get the Air Fryer. It reduces calories, reduces power usage, keeps the kitchen cooler. I get the microwave, and have had a simple one for many years, again reducing cooking time, power usage overall, and making leftovers palatable. The all-singing, all-dancing item now reclining on my kitchen counter is not simple. I have learned to live with, cook with and even appreciate the induction burners on my cookstove. JG does the cooking with the sous vide appliance, even if it was a gift he gave me, and the Instant Pressure Cooker (Instapot?) does a fine job, fast. No, I would not go back to my grandmother’s coal stove. But at some point, the learning curve is going to become so steep that I will probably backslide and go thump.

 I have been making on line purchases for Christmas as well. Practical and, um, Very Impractical. Plus, I just bought myself, untouched and untested, a bra on line. I may or may not report on that, depending. Mostly, I buy practical underthings at Marks or Giant Tiger. This purchase is a real gamble. As are many on line purchases. And if it is really true that returned items are discarded, I am glad that I do not return. Garments that I buy on line (thanks to Covid, grrr) that do not work, I either wear anyway or pass on to our local reuse centre.

 And, speaking of reporting. I now have the English as a Second Language classes sort of sorted, hopes of new teachers to augment the process in the new year, and am working on prepositions with my own student. He blew a simple construction in an email to me, one that I had just gone through with him, and he is in for a bit of a hard time at our next lesson. (Picture me with a gleam in my eye and a ruler poised to thump.)

 That’s next week. When I will also finish my shopping, bake, decorate the house, go Out For Lunch again, and, probably, go to sleep every time I sit down, come the actual Day. JG has ordered the turkey. The YD is in for her second lesson on how to cook it. In the conventional oven, thank you.

 Have a good weekend. If you've read this far.