News

News. Good. Or bad? Good as in I'm not pregnant & there's no sign of any abnormalities so Mr Anorak has started to breathe normally again & we can manage financially I hope. Bad as in I think I secretly wanted to be pregnant - even at my age. I don't think I could have terminated the pregnancy unless an aminio had shown problems. I had always wanted more than two children but a broken marriage & then a second husband who'd suffered the fall out from a cot death & was a gibbering wreck for most of the first year of Joe's life, five years into our marriage - this was why I'd opted for sterilisation to start with. Trust me to fall pregnant immediately before hand!! Ah well back to normality. The anorak has tea under control - smoked haddock.

What Joe wore last week. Thursday was world book day & dress up as a character from a favourite book. Hmm. Joe doesn't really like fiction but adores Jamie Oliver on the TV & likes me to try his recipes so he went as Jamie!! Charity shop shirt re cut to his size & jeans & T shirt. Easy. Friday was dress as a WW2 evacuee. Charity shop again for a jumper. I cut it apart at the seams & drew a smaller shape onto the pieces, zig zag stitched all around before cutting & then zig zagged the shoulder seams & ran them through the overlocker (at work so no luxury of one pass of 4 threads! I put one sleeve on by the same process & then unravelled enough yarn from a discarded piece to knit the neck rib - I kept the jumper bottom ribs as part of the new pattern so didn't need to knit them again. Took Joe to swimming lesson & furiously knit the neck. Back at home I stitched up the other side & voila a jumper only fit for an evacuee to be worn the next day.

What I cooked last week. The usual stuff such as pork chops braised in stock (or cider) with onions & apples. Left over sauce & bits in tray whizzed in the blender & frozen for use as gravy later. Very nice it is too. The anorak did most of the cooking - he's getting adventurous - coq au vin was on the menu.

What I cooked this week so far. Cup cakes - twice - they were eaten up rather quickly & I also have lots of eggs in the fridge! Pork chops - again - but this time roasted with potatoes, carrots & parsnip all in one tray. Lovely but a bit dry - I forgot to get the gravy out of the freezer! Actually this recipe should have had pears or apples roasted with the rest but I didn't have any. Blackberries in a sauce with this would have been nice too. Ooh I'm getting quite adventurous with my ideas.

What I'm knitting. Knitting the ribbing on the evacuee jumper made me decide to start something from the yarn stash I accumulated when I did lots of machine knitting in the dim & distant past. I still have my machines, & more acquired since, but nowhere to set them up for longer than a couple of hours so they no longer get used. Anyway I got a book out of the library & am knitting a hat. Not sure how it will turn out as I haven't hand knitted anything for simply years & years.

Is it really so long since I last posted ?

Obviously this blogging lark takes some committment, I seem to have struggled to find the time! Never mind I'm here now! With news that is taking some time to get to grips with. But first the last few weeks have been crazy, no sooner had we booked the holiday than the car the anorak just bought for work broke down. Not major, easily fixable but had to be fixed under manufacturers warranty. After three weeks, no sign of the part, none available in the country apparently. What? Yes really, not one part. Anywhere. Now after three weeks of no income from the main earner in the family things were getting tight, really tight. Mortgage company contacted along with all the other people who demand a slice of the monthly income to see if we could reduce payments. That upset me more than anything else. Fortunately most were understanding & best of all the independant garage the anorak bought the car from retrieved the car from the main dealer & fitted a part that they "adapted" from another brand of car so that the anorak could start work again until the replacement branded part arrived. We're still waiting for its arrival. Lousy service from the parts division of **UK.

On the bright side the anorak has had a good couple of weeks & the bank balance is recovering & he has booked us a week in Suffolk soon. Not that he realised just how far away that is but hey we've never been to that part of England before so it will be a nice change. A six hour drive though & we're also taking the dogs so it will be an even longer drive. Whose car we go in remains a moot point. Will his be sorted properly by then? Currently the fitting of the temporary part means no working fuel guage amongst other things.

Now the news I can't quite come to terms with is that at the ripe old age of 49 & menopausal is that there is a chance I could be pregnant. I go for a scan tomorrow. The anorak is in shock & I just don't know what I think! Ho hum. I had been sterilised & had a D & C just over 10 years ago & then four weeks later I found I was 6 weeks pregnant with Joe. The realisation while with the gynae doc on Friday was that the sterilisation had never been checked after the op with the shock of discovering I was pregnant so the symptoms that I now have may not be down to being peri-menopausal.
The holiday to France goes ahead come what may - we've waited too long for this holiday.

Oh yes, there has been the chance of developing a clothing line for a local boutique & working for myself in the the last few weeks as well as an invitation to a "masterclass" for teachers of sewing. Do bear in mind that I haven't yet been told if I passed my teaching course!!