Storm Darragh

I had a nasty shock this morning when I opened my emails and saw one from a family tree research website that said my subscription would be renewed at a cost of £229.00! I am certain I set the subscription to non-renew automatically, and I was given no notice of the money being taken from my credit card. I was furious, and it comes hard on the heels of Keith topping up his mobile phone with a company, and no credit being added. Some of these scams hide in plain sight! Do not use ontopup.com!

The family tree website is based in the US so trying to get through to them proved impossible. It was also equally difficult to get through to my credit card company. I just wanted to speak to a human! I did find out, though, that the payment has to clear before the credit company will do anything and I have to wait up to fifteen days. £229.00 is not something I've budgeted for at the moment, especially as I haven't done any work on my family tree for ages! Grrrr!

To take my mind off the annoying problem, I amused myself by cleaning the oven, using the kit I'd bought from Amazon. I  poured a viscous liquid into a big plastic bag, added the grills and sealed it up, shaking it so the metal was coated. I then poured the remaining gel into the two ovens and coated every surface. I was then advised to wait at least four hours before rinsing off with soapy water. Our bottom oven was particularly bad so I was looking forward to the results of my endeavours!

Outside, the weather was horrible with strong winds and constant rain. Certainly not a day to be out and about and we heard on the news that two men had been killed by falling trees. We all stayed firmly indoors and I ticked off some more chores on my list, including ordering a new food bin so no pesky animals can get inside!

As an afternoon treat, I shared two more whiskies with Sophie and Keith, from the 6th and 7th of December:

December 6th: Talisker 10-year-old Single Malt Scotch Whisky at 45.8%. Keith and I visited the Talisker Distillery years ago and they used to add a blended whisky to make it more palatable, as it can be very peaty. I loved this, though, and didn't find it as antiseptic as the Caol Ila. I thought peaty, smoky and smooth, with hints of toast. 5/5

December 7th: The Antiquary 21-year-old Blended Scotch Whisky matured in Port casks at 40%. We loved the beautiful tawny colour of this whisky, probably due to the Port casks. It reminded us of Christmas cake and dried fruits, with a sherry-ish taste. It was smooth and delicious. No wonder we loved it, it was £100 a bottle! 5/5

In the evening, after I'd wiped off the oven-cleaning solution and was overjoyed with the results, Sophie and I caught the end of The Holiday and had cheesy nibbles with a glass of red wine. I then played cards with Keith while Sophie cooked paella for dinner in the sparkling clean oven! It was a delicious meal with enough left over for our dinner on Monday night!

Onset of the storm

I took Sophie's car to work today and Keith drove her in so she wouldn't have to worry about driving home after her Christmas party. They were having a festive day with games and craft activities, and then having lunch at The Picturedrome in Northampton, followed by an after-party with music and dancing.

My shift passed quickly, and I caught up with the emails, put on lots of children's activities up until Easter next year and made some progress on the moan report. I also put on some more films, so I was kept busy!

At 4pm, I sped home in the gloom (it was windy and raining) and had a soak in the bath. Keith went to the pub so I had an hour and a half to myself, which was lovely. Most of it was spent cuddling Mooney on the sofa. Gomez was nowhere to be seen despite the terrible weather.

Keith and I had a simple supper and my husband spent the evening watching some kind of snooker game where they're timed. There's an annoying beep every couple of minutes, but he enjoyed it, and I read! Outside, it grew worse and throughout the evening, I kept calling for Gomez but he didn't appear. Where on earth does he go when the weather's so awful?

Sophie asked us to pick her up at 11pm so we set out in the gathering storm to Northampton. I wondered which was the best way to go to avoid falling trees! As we neared The Picturedrome, she was outside waiting for us, and we sped home, going via the busy and colourfully lit Wellingborough Road where revellers were ignoring the weather and having a great time!

Back home, there was still no sign of Gomez even though Sophie called and called him. We shut the garage door, after calling him inside in case he'd crept up to the rafters, and got ready for bed as it was now almost midnight. Sophie, however, made one last effort to get him in and opened the garage door again. The little devil appeared, jumped down from the rafters and landed on the gate. He must have been in there all the time, so why had he ignored us? He nearly got to spend the night in the garage!

Sophie thinks he was the runt of the litter and was maybe dropped on his head... he certainly acts strangely at times!

A long and busy day...

Do you remember the sausage I mentioned in my blog yesterday? Well, this morning, as Sophie was getting ready to go to the gym, we opened the back door, and it was lying on the driveway! We don't have a lid on our horrible food bin, and a cat, fox or other animal had dragged out one of the food bags, and there was a half-eaten bread bap and the sausage lying on the ground! Obviously, the sausage wasn't to their taste, as it was untouched and looked even worse! Yuk!

My shift at work passed quickly, and Keith collected me at 2pm. I dropped him off just outside the estate and rushed to Kettering to collect my Mum for her nail appointment. We made it back to Northampton in time today, and she chose a festive sparkly red, which looked lovely.

Natalia didn't finish until almost 4.30pm, and I drove home to pick up Keith to keep me company. Silly, I know, but I hate the drive back from Kettering in the dark! We became embroiled in traffic just past the roundabout for Mawsley and crawled slowly all the way to the care home. Luckily, as I rang the doorbell, one of the carers arrived and said she'd take Mum back upstairs so I could leave.

Going back the way we'd come wasn't an option, as the traffic was horrendous, so we made the decision to go via the village of Loddington. I managed to get behind the slowest taxi known to man, who drove along and never exceeded 30 miles an hour. By now, it was raining heavily and the sides of the road were potholed and full of puddles, so overtaking wasn't possible. I sat behind him all the way until the turn-off for the single-track road leading to Old when I could finally increase my speed a little.

Sophie arrived seconds after me and it was great to finally be able to relax. Outside, it continued to pour with rain all evening and we have another storm to look forward to over the weekend - Darragh.

Before cooking dinner, I tried three of my whiskies, and shared them with Keith and Sophie:

December 3rd: Loch Lomond 12-Year-Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 46% ABV.  For me, the alcohol overpowered this whisky and I found it quite harsh. I noticed a peatiness and bitterness on the aftertaste. Sophie said it reminded her of oranges. Keith loved it, he said there were hints of creaminess. 3/5

December 4th: Fielden Rye Whisky at 48%. Sophie was a huge fan of this, and I liked it too. It reminded me of "Fisherman's Friend" cough sweets, even plastic! Then I detected notes of cream soda. Sophie gave it 5/5, and I awarded it 4/5.

December 5th: Caol Ila 12-year-old Scotch Whisky 43%. Even before I smelt and tasted this I knew it would be peaty. And it was! It was like liquid Germolene. Very peaty and smoky, but softened with water. Sophie hated it, and I gave it 3/5. Keith was non-committal.

Tomorrow night, Sophie is attending her office Christmas party and we're picking her up from town at 11pm, so no alcohol for me at all. I don't think it will do me any harm!

A work gathering

I had a lie-in this morning and I refused to feel guilty about it! When I eventually went downstairs for coffee, I had a cuddle with Mooney and eased myself into the day.

Keith and I did his pre-op questionnaire first, and I was mightily glad we'd left it until today as it took us almost an hour to complete. Some of the questions were very probing about earlier operations, his medication and his health in general. I would not have been happy completing it on Monday night after a somewhat stressful day at work!

The rest of the day was spent doing chores, and I gave the cupboards a good tidy, as well as the fridge. It made it a lot easier for us to do the hated shopping list and come up with meals until Sunday! We both loathe doing this, but the thought of poor Keith trawling around Tesco not knowing what to buy or what we need is too much to bear! I had a good clear out of the fridge and threw away a sausage that Sophie and I had bought in the delicatessen in Marylebone on the 25th of September... every time I opened it, I was confronted by something that looked disgusting, to be honest, so it went!

We also bought Keith's travel insurance for Mallorca, so that's another job out of the way! I can't believe that it's getting so close! I'm not at all ready and I need some new clothes, but what to take? 

In the early evening, I made my way over to my colleague, Sue's, house where we were having a little work gathering. She and her husband have a pub in their house, and I was amazed to see how professional it looked! They even had beer pumps! Heaven knows how many whiskies were behind the bar, and old beer bottles and glasses lined the walls. A music video was playing (they have karaoke nights as well, I understand!), and there were plenty of bar stools to sit on.

Keith would have been happy!

Sue was a fantastic hostess and made all of us feel at home. It was great to see my workmates away from the office, and we had a good chat. Sue had made pasta and pizza and we stood in her beautiful kitchen to enjoy the meal.

As the evening had started very early, we weren't late, and when I emerged into the night, it was raining hard. Back at home, I sat with Keith and Sophie, who were watching Newcastle play Liverpool. There was a lot of shouting going on but the final result was a draw, which I think they were happy with!

A family gathering

As expected, Jo was off sick today, and I dreaded Sara asking me to answer phones, but Denise got the job instead. To be honest, I would have struggled with the number of emails that needed answering, the Christmas holiday activities to put onto the system, and the moan report to start! I want to get this done before I finish on the 19th of December, so Sara doesn't have to do it.

We had a quick meeting before the phone lines opened, and then it was back to work. I steadily tackled the emails and managed to get them down to zero before I left. Thankfully, there was no repeat of the issues we experienced yesterday!

Our office was busy and noisy today, with staff down again from our Derbyshire leisure centre and other managers wandering in and out. It was great to leave at 4pm and I asked Keith why he'd been in a foul mood this morning. He eventually said it was because I'd asked to leave doing his pre-op questionnaire until tomorrow when I'm off. He had asked me to do it on Monday night at 6pm, after a stressful day at work, so not the best of times! He knows that I leave lots of chores to Wednesday when we have plenty of time to sort out paperwork and other issues!

We returned home to freshen up and change for our evening out with Mike and Sophie. We had booked a table at The Rose and Crown in Yardley Hastings for 7.30pm and we were looking forward to catching up with Mike. We hadn't told him where we were going and he was under the impression we'd booked something in town, but Sophie had promised Keith a pint of Abbot!

The restaurant was looking suitably festive, and we took our table in the middle of the pub. They were offering a Christmas menu and we all chose different starters - paté for Mike, black pudding Scotch egg for Keith, smoked salmon for Sophie and prawn cocktail for me. Sophie and I both chose turkey for our main course (we're trying to have as many turkey meals as we can, seeing as we won't be having it on Christmas Day this year!) and the men chose roast beef.

Sophie and I enjoyed a bottle of Chenin Blanc and the men worked their way through several pints of Abbot, thank goodness! The food was good and we had thick slabs of turkey with roast potatoes, red cabbage, Brussels sprouts and mini sausages. We managed to find room for puds - three of us enjoyed marmalade and whisky bread and butter pudding, while Keith chose the gingernut sticky toffee pudding.

We had a great time and a lot of laughs and it was lovely and relaxed. I do think we all get on better as a family when we're not living on top of each other! Mike told us about his job but said he was going for an interview later in the week for a groundskeeper job at a golf course in town. 

We left at about 9.30pm, dropped Mike off and drove home to see the cats, who had been in all night, and were sleepy when we arrived back. We'd left the heating on as tonight was chilly so the house was lovely and warm!

Stopping the flood!

I was on my own until 9am this morning and enjoyed the peace and quiet, which was a good job, as the rest of the day was not the best! Jo arrived feeling ill and coughing loudly, and she worsened as the day wore on. 

I tackled the emails and was surprised to suddenly see that the number in the inbox had climbed to over ninety... I then realised it was multiple messages saying one of our emails couldn't be delivered. I looked at the address and saw that it was an email from a company that was touting for business and had contacted us just before 10am. From then on, we were getting between five and six emails every minute! Our normal emails were being lost in the hundreds flooding in, so I spent twenty minutes on the phone with our IT department to see if they could resolve it!

As fast as I deleted them, more flooded in and I had to leave them until the early afternoon. I tried to block the address but they just kept on coming! We were also receiving repeated abusive phone calls from someone who had hidden their telephone number so it made for an interesting day!

By mid-afternoon, IT had managed to stop the flood, but I estimated we'd received over six hundred emails from this company, Apparently, when we sent an automatic reply to them, they sent one to us, resulting in a never-ending loop! Jo and Kathy had carried on receiving horrible phone calls and in the end, we stopped answering any from an unknown number.

It was heaven to escape at 4pm and go home! I pootled about and when Sophie came home we sat in the kitchen and chatted about our days. Keith hit us with the shocking news that he'd been contacted by the hospital to have his hernia operation before Christmas. His umbilical hernia, which was repaired back in 2016, has come back and it's been affecting him for about eighteen months. Last week, he'd seen the surgeon again, and now the hospital had called him! However, when he mentioned we were going to Mallorca over Christmas, they weren't able to admit him as he needs six weeks to recover before flying. He was disappointed, but we can't cancel the holiday, so hopefully, they'll contact him again in the new year.

While we were absorbing the news, I tried the second whisky of my Advent Calendar. Here are my notes from the first two:

December 1st: Quartermaster, an 11-year-old Blended Scotch Whisky at 46.4% ABV. This was delicious, sweet and honeyed with notes of raisins and dates. I loved it, but discovered it's about £75 for a bottle! I gave it 5/5.

December 2nd: Lagavulin, an 8-year-old Single Malt at 48%. As expected, it was peaty and tasted of antiseptic and put me in mind of misty mountains, wet evenings by the fire (woodsmoke) and carbolic soap. There was a sweet finish and I loved it as well. 5/5. It's about £60.

These are 30ml samples so more than enough to taste properly and mix with a little water to bring out the flavours. Tomorrow night, we're going for a meal, en famille, so I'll have to leave the 3rd whisky until later in the week!

A festive Sunday

For some unknown reason, Sophie and I both slept in until almost 10am this morning! I was horrified when Keith woke me up and told me the time as I thought it was about 8am! He admitted thinking we were drugged because this was so unlike us! I felt dreadful after such a long sleep and had a muzzy head all day.

However, we had a busy Sunday ahead of us, with cleaning and decorating our two trees. I had a strong coffee to wake me up and we made a start, with Keith bringing the trees in from the garage and Sophie putting them up. I blitzed the living room and moved all the furniture to give everything a good clean.

Both cats were out and it was a grey, damp day outside. We didn't have any issues with them last year attacking the trees, and when Mooney did come in he seemed uninterested! As a precaution, though, we placed some of the more fragile baubles higher up to avoid temptation! Sophie spread the Scandi ornaments over the kitchen island and we reminisced about where we had bought some of them. This year we had new baubles from Lisbon, Berlin and Woburn!

By about 2pm we were finished and we could relax. Sophie and I enjoyed the cheese and biscuits we'd bought in Oxford with the delicious piccalilli. We didn't want a big lunch as we'd planned on eating at 4pm, but eventually put it back to 6pm as neither of us was hungry!

Keith had prepared a spicy chilli con carne and it was a perfect, easy meal after spending most of the day decorating. The living room was lovely and cosy and it was great to see all of our decorations on show, including our little tribe of gonks!