Dear Diary...

Spring, Liars & Awesome Curry

Spring has officially sprung here… we have snowdrops, bluebells and Narcissi flowering and I’ve even spotted a crocus or two. It seems to be getting earlier and earlier, if we’re not careful we’ll get summer in May and I really don’t need that… although Autumn in August would be pretty cool. There is a rumour we may get snow at some point this month. It’s only a rumour so I’m not hoping too hard… okay, yes I am.

So much for not having political meetings until March.! The sneaky bastards have arranged a meeting for tomorrow night and for next Wednesday evening. If this is what they call NOT having meetings, my faith in their promises to NOT do stuff is going to fade fast. One thing I cannot abide is liars. Bear is keeping tight-lipped on the subject, which is probably just as well, he’s a terrible liar.

He can’t keep eye contact and his face goes red, but only when he’s lying to my face. Apparently, that shit doesn’t work when he’s bullshitting like a boss over a webcam… which perhaps is a good thing, otherwise I wouldn’t be here. 😀 Tonight I made THE most awesome veggie curry, from a recipe on the website Hurry The Food Up. Best veggie curry I’ve had to date, and I made it.! Of course I have to share it, everyone should have awesome veggie curry… right.?

80’s Music, Immigrants & a Narcissistic Control Freak

Finally got my ass out of bed at 11.30am today, having only gotten 4 hours sleep during the night. Didn’t need to do much chores-wise as Bear is on early shifts and doesn’t move much in the evenings, so doesn’t make a mess. I put Spotify on before breakfast and have had outbreaks of finger drumming and air guitaring all afternoon… it’s weird how your opinion of 80’s music changes when you’re bopping along to it, singing all the lyrics and head banging.

I finally found the familial connection between me and the guy from Massachusetts… took hours of researching every line of his family tree to suddenly discover everyone had congregated in Canada in the early 1800’s and gone from there… in my case, my lot buggered off to Canada, which is understandable when you live in Lincolnshire, and began building houses and schools and probably bars all over the place and marrying other immigrants and spreading the wealth.

Then at some point, a relative of mine married a relative of his, decided to move to the good ol’ U.S of A. and Voilà! fourth cousins… I’ve sent all the research I did to him, as he knew very little about his family and I’m a bit of an old hand at tracking down evasive family members. He’s a lucky man, his great, great grandmother is still alive. She was born in 1924… that’s some good genes.

My son, through the bollocks talking, informed me that his father is asking after him and making tentative moves to regain contact. He’s not sure he wants to though, which is fine with me, as his father is a manipulative narcissist, who controls people with emotional blackmail, intimidation and threatened violence. He treated me and my kids like shit for years. I walked away, and it was only last year that he decided he didn’t want to be bothered with his kids anymore, so told our eldest son he was out on the streets at the beginning of September, having bled him dry financially.

Bear and I, and my parents helped him out and got him a flat, while he got himself a new job and found someone to help him move out of his Dad’s… and he’s doing really well on his own. It’s stressful as he has to budget for all the bills and utilities, and it’s not easy when you’re a single guy, but he’s doing it himself and standing on his own two feet. Which his father hates. So now he wants to make contact again… I don’t need to warn my son of the consequences of doing it, he knows only too well and it’s his choice.

Tonight is Italian night, with courgette and tomato gratin and Italian seasoned baked cod for dinner. Then an episode each of Star Trek: Voyager, Jessica Jones and You.

Pear Shaped Toast & Distant Relatives

I’ve started looking at wedding outfits for next month. It’s not a lot of fun. I’m not what you’d consider curvy and despite losing 30lbs in the past 6 months, I haven’t lost more than a couple of inches all over, so I haven’t even dropped a dress size. I’m an upside down pear shape apparently, according to the Dorothy Perkins website… how that’s supposed to help me find the right size for me I have no idea. I think it’s time I ventured out to a real shop and tried stuff on.

Finally managed to track my son down, who decided to call really late last night and talk bollocks for almost 2 hours. 😀 Poor Bear was lolling while I was trying to extricate myself from a conversation about the benefits of toast and what shade of brown is best, so we could go to bed as he’s on an early today. It’s a good thing he can sleep through pretty much anything because Storm Ciara kept me awake, howling down the street and making numerous attempts at ripping the bushes up by the roots all night long.

There’s not too much damage locally, but tons of it on the other side of town, with trees having fallen across roads and the roof of an apartment building pulled up and hanging over the side of the building. Best thing is, it kept wheezy moped guy from coming round.! \o/ So I got to sleep in until 6.10am… Yeah… not that good huh.? Today, I received a message from a guy in Massachusetts who may be distantly related to me, through my father’s 2 x great grandparents.

Still trying to figure it out, as he knows next to nothing beyond his grandparents, just the odd name here and there that his mother remembers. It’s fun researching and trying to figure it out, so that’s what I’ve spent a few hours doing today, while browsing BonPrix and Torrid and other plus size online stores… I did see a nice jumpsuit with a tropical floral design organza cape… have to show Bear, see what he thinks. I have a nice beetroot linguine planned for this evening, with walnuts and feta.

Pastry, Fucking Pastry & The Namer of Storms

I hate pastry. I really fucking hate pastry and it hates me. Even store bought pastry hates me. It refuses to just unroll, it has to stretch and tear and stick to the damn paper, by the time it’s usable, it no longer is because it’s shapeless, full of holes and almost transparent in places. The slices of puff pastry are no better, if the filling isn’t pulped, it’ll rip bloody great holes in the pastry while it bakes. It’s always too thin to do a damned thing with.

So you ball it up and knead it and try to roll it out yourself at which point it won’t roll out, keeps shrinking and instead of sticking together as it’s supposed to when you seal it with milk, it slides around, sticks to your fingers and generally pisses you off as much as possible while rendering itself unusable. So you chuck it in the fuck-it bucket and have burgers and chips for dinner instead.! I’m not using pastry again. If there’s pastry involved Bear can do it.

The girl child lost her match yesterday, not unexpected, as her team had never played that particular team before and had no idea as to their abilities or strengths. The boy child helped me fuck up the pizza rolls and we ate what was passably edible and I watched Star Wars Rebels on Disney+ while he built pixel art on the Xbox, we saved the rest for Bear, who said he’d deal with the pizza rolls later. I didn’t write a word all day because I was too strung out and pissed off about the pastry.

I’m looking forward to going to the Mommy’s later. Bear’s taking the kids into school, so they don’t have to cycle and has told their mother she needs to pick them up around 4, because the weather report says it’s gonna be bad in their neck of the woods and he won’t have them cycling home in gale force winds. She’s become a bit of a hands-off Mum since her marriage last July. Her entire world revolves around her husband and herself and the kids come second.

They’ll be moving to a new house in March, which is closer to their school by 3.3 miles. It’ll save them both around 6.5 miles a day of cycling. The boy child is extremely pleased about that. He hates cycling. He’d hate walking too. He hates anything to do with getting his ass off the settee that doesn’t involve food. Much like Bear. Storm Ciara has decided to pay us a visit… who makes up these names.? Do they get paid to.? Is there going to be a Storm Colin or a Hurricane Nigel at some point.?

Oooh, how about Storm Amanda and Hurricane Darren.? No, those were not suggestions. Jeez.!

UPDATE: Bear made pastry… and as with everything else in this house, it worked perfectly. He made pizza rolls, they rolled no problem, baked no problem and didn’t fall to bloody pieces… I hate pastry.! 😦

Teenagers, Pizza Rolls & World Domination

Yesterday, I did all the boring stuff I was supposed to… vacuumed up- and downstairs, did the laundry, sorted the dishwasher, had a shower, cleaned the bathroom… and then the kids turned up… and it all went to shit.! They tracked dirt in on their shoes because they didn’t think to wipe their feet on the mat because… teenagers.! Dumped their stuff on the floor in the living room and commandeered the sofa and every electrical socket within a 10 foot radius. Then the boy child decides he needs to use the newly squeaky clean bathroom…

Why do people do that.? They wait until the bathroom has just been cleaned, and then go and use it.? They can’t go before it gets cleaned, they have to go immediately afterwards… “Oh, I didn’t need to go before you cleaned it,” they tell you, “but it smells lovely.” Like that makes it worth the 45 minutes you just spent cleaning everywhere and negates the fact they’ve just flushed the bloody expensive anti-lime toilet cleaner you squirted in there straight down the drain. Thanks kid. Next time, you can clean the loo.

Today, Bear’s taking the girl child to volleyball while the boy child and I refrain from engaging in intelligent conversation. He’s a typical teen, you speak, he grunts. I’m not too bad at grunt language… having learned it with my two boys. We’re seeing The Mommy tomorrow after Bear’s taken them home, as they have Musical Practice. According to the weather report it’s going to get very wet and blustery around these parts for a day or two. I’d look forward to it if there was a chance of snow, but yet again the good stuff passes us by.

I’ve decided to make pizza rolls for the kids to take for lunch tomorrow. I made them little pasties the last time and they were a damned nuisance to make, so I’ll see how I get on with pizza rolls. I might make lots, just so I don’t have to cook tomorrow and Bear and I can veg in front of the TV. Talking to the girl child this morning, I’m informed that she has chosen to take Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Maths, History, English and Latin in her next year of school. It means she’ll be doing 7 hours a week of Maths and 12 hours of sciences, with 4 hours each of Latin and History.!

Like her father, she’s highly intelligent… and after four more years of that little lot, I’ll expect her to become a rocket scientist, or marine biologist or mad scientist bent on world domination… that I can help with.! 😀

Do Not Read This, It’s Boring.!

Today is totally boring. Seriously, so I won’t mind if you don’t bother reading this. Honestly, I won’t. It can’t be easy for you having to traipse through the monotony that is daily life for so many people, hoping for a small amount of excitement. I do it all the time.

I have the housework to do, because I didn’t do it yesterday, because I was writing. I have to clean the bathroom because… dust. I hate dust. It’s so damn… permanent. You clean it, it comes back… every single day.! 😦 I have to shower because I haven’t since… Sunday, I think… yeah, Sunday.

That’s bad, but it’s not like I’ve been out reisting all over people, just Bear and he’s used to it. I’ve got a meal plan to make, a shopping list to write, lunch to make for Sunday for the kids to take back with them to Musical Practice and a son to track down.

He said he’d call last Sunday and didn’t… so I have to stalk him and grab him before work or before he gets engrossed in his Final Fantasy XIV game. His fiancee keeps posting baby stuff and links to wedding dress companies on her Facebook.

She’ll have to be far more blatant than that if she wants him to get the hint. A breeze block to the head with ‘I WANT TO GET MARRIED’ on it might do the trick… but I doubt it. He can do the engagement thing no problem, but actually setting a date… good luck with that.

He’s his mother’s son and he spent years watching the air crash disaster that was my marriage, so I doubt he’ll be keen to get into one of his own. Not that his will be an air crash, but he knows he’s not the most observant, or the most communicative of people and he can be lazy.

Writing, Kids & Wedding Suits

This morning I woke briefly when Bear got up, then woke again briefly when he came up to say goodbye before heading to work. I woke up proper around 11am. At some point the lack of sleep was going to catch up with me. My bonus moment was standing on the bathroom scales and having it say nice things to me. 🙂 Bear decided to go in to work today, having cycled to his political meeting last night and spent 3 hours sat there. He says his back is still stiff but not as stiff as yesterday morning. Sounds like a pulled muscle. He’ll be fine.

I spent most of yesterday writing and managed to finish 11 posts on my life story blog. \o/ I need to keep at it while the memories flow or I’ll get writer’s block and be screwed for almost two years like I was before. The kids are coming this weekend, so there’s chores to get done too. They’re only staying until Sunday morning when Bear has to take them back in time for Musical Practice and the girl child has volleyball on Saturday. So Bear’s going to spend the weekend driving.

That’ll do his back loads of good. They’re performing Legally Blonde this year. No idea which characters they are. I’m sure they’ll tell me closer to the performance date in April. I also have to start looking for an outfit for my sister’s wedding in March. I’d hoped to wear a cream dress I already had, but I haven’t lost enough inches around my chest to be able to get back into it, so I’m looking for something else. She’s getting married near the end of the month, by the sea, so I’m looking for something light but warm.

I’ve told Bear he has to wear a suit and tie. My sister is very traditional. He’s never worn a suit before and hates ties, so getting him into one is not going to be easy. I’ve said he can choose his own and am waiting for the bright red tartan or silver blue 80’s style or something from Sherlock Holmes… he’s a total nerd. He said if he was going to be made to wear one, he was going to go to the extremes… like, when doesn’t he.? 😀

Back Pain, Moth Holes & Hot Chilli Peppers

This morning, Bear’s back is as stiff as a board and he’s finding it difficult to manoeuvre. He’s tried that Deep Heat stuff, cold and warm compresses and spent yesterday resting it, but it hasn’t really helped. He’s off today instead of going in to college, as he can’t ride his bike or drive in this condition. I said it would be a good idea to see the doc in case he’s slipped a disc or something, but all he’s said is “We’ll see.” 😦 Stubborn ass.

He’s got a political meeting tonight which I’m pretty sure he’ll go to. It means sitting in a chair that’s too small and too low for him for up to 4 hours. Sometimes his priorities are questionable. No chores today as I got it all done yesterday. \o/ I do however, have a few holes to fix in my grey cardigan. I caught my sleeve on the end of a kitchen drawer handle last night and it cut a thread in the cuff, so I need to fix that before it unravels and I have what look like moth holes in the hem… grr.!

Yet again I was woken by the wheezy moped guy at 5.50am this morning. Swear to God I’m going to lie in wait for that guy one of these days with a bit of 4 by 2.! Bear says he won’t be around much longer, the newspaper deliveries usually only last a month as the company offer a free trial every year to get more customers and our neighbour always takes them up on it, but cancels after the trial period. That better be the case.

The birds have started sitting in the wisteria branches on the front of our house, it’s already started budding leaves and the birds come and chatter with each other like it’s some kind of communal meeting place. Right under my bedroom window. Noisy sods. Who needs sleep anyway, right.?! That stuff is seriously over rated. 😦 This evening I’m making veggie Chilli. I got an Adjuma pepper from the shop, purely because Google tells me it’s shit hot and I want to see if it really is.

Not that I’m having it, it’ll probably kill me, but Bear loves hot spicy food. He eats Vindaloo like it’s korma and ate a big bowl of chicken wings that had been spiced with Carolina Reaper peppers while we were in Prague a couple of years ago. He broke a sweat and said they were really hot, but he still ate the lot without a problem. I’m looking for a Dragon’s Breath pepper next. 😀

Buddy, Bear, Brexit and Learning To Speak Dutch

Last night, I was in bed by 11.50pm… asleep by 12.45am and awake by 5.50am… thanks to wheezy moped guy… I awoke with a sore hip, sore back, headache and feeling washed out… 😦 Bear got up to go to the bathroom and popped a muscle in his lower back, so he’s shuffling around carefully. See, we’re definitely getting too old for this shit.! 😀 Spring is in the air this morning… there are crocuses and narcissi coming up on the road verges and our buddleia, Buddy Jr. is rapidly turning green… and starting to blossom on the lower branches.! 😮

Bear has today off, and is down in the basement looking for the extra cable to thread his speaker cable around the room rather than over the sitting room door, where it currently is and keeps falling down from. It’s been in danger of being yanked out of the speaker base a few times, so it really needs to be moved. I’m going to get the vacuuming done that I didn’t do yesterday, although I did get a meal plan sorted for the week, the laundry sorted and the bathroom cleaned, and went with Bear to help with the grocery shopping, so it’s not like I sat on my butt doing nothing.

I got a Brexit letter yesterday from the local council, telling me that as some point between now and December 31 2020 I will be invited to apply for permanent residency in the Netherlands. I was given a temporary residence permit last March in case the UK left without a deal, but as they now have a deal, it’s not necessary for me to have one as I’m eligible to stay under the transition period regulations. By January 31st 2021 I will have permanent residency here. Yeay.! \o/

Now to learn the language… hahahaha.! No, seriously, I’ve been trying to learn the language since before I moved here in November 2010, Bear said he’d teach me… yeah, another alien concept. He can pick up languages really easily and taught himself to speak English when he was a teen, he can speak French and German and knows Belgian, Italian, Russian, Spanish and Latin, some Polish and a little Irish… and yet he won’t teach me to speak his native language. 😦

He was perfectly happy for me to teach his children English, who are now top of the class in English lessons and his own English has come along in leaps and bounds, but my Dutch is piss poor. I can understand a lot more than I can say, because I don’t pick up languages easily and have trouble with pronunciation, which is worth laughing at, apparently, but not worth correcting.

Tonight’s culinary offering is Spinach, tomato and preserved lemon pilaf.

Superbowl 2020

I’m getting too old for this shit. “We’re getting too old for this shit.!” We say it every year, around noon the day of Superbowl and yet we keep doing it… Superbowl that is. Finally walked in the door at 5.10am, having been awake for 23 hours. Fell asleep around 6am and was awake before noon. Ugh.! Early night tonight… hahahaha… we keep saying that every year too.! 😀 Maybe one day.

It was a good night. Only 5 of us made it, because the other 3 had work commitments this morning and we sat in the vegan’s very stylish, and very cosy Art Deco furnished sitting room, that I’m quite envious of now and stuffed our faces with three varieties of tortilla chips, vegan hotdogs with sauerkraut and tons of ketchup and vegan mayo and the pasties I’d made, which the guys said were great.

We had Brand pilsner, Cherry Porter, an organic German wheat beer and the usual Franziskaner wheat beer that our cigar smoking friend bought. Way too much food and drink for five people, so of course we brought a lot of it home again and Bear had pasties for brunch. I won’t tell you the result, in case you’re watching a replay later, but I wasn’t happy with it. Bear and his brother Bart jointly won the group’s Superbowl Trophy, which Bart is going to look after, Bear having won it five out of the past nine years.

They have a competition when the playoff’s start as to who can correctly guess which team will win each match and make it to the Superbowl, and then correctly guess the winner. Bear being the sports nut that he is always manages to guess the most, although he’s been surprised a few times when his team’s lost by a point or two. He’s not a sore loser though which I always appreciate.

Hampton had a great time and the guys liked his shirt.

I still have to get some housework done today, make a meal plan for the week and write a shopping list. I wonder how you write ‘I’m getting too old for this shit’ in Dutch.? 😉 😀