Not a good night, I seriously
struggled to go to sleep – it was way past two when I finally managed to sleep!
I don’t know what the trouble is, I’m tired, just not tired enough? Mentally
mostly – the body wants sleep but the mind goes in hyper drive.
Anyway, I got up around eight – not too
late, at least. I found my water jug somewhat anty, I guess with the heat ants
decided to find an unconventional water source. That’ll be worse when I’m on
the ground floor.
I let the mippies out and by ten
they came running back inside – the mowers had arrived! I should have known,
with Christmas just a few days away, that they’d come today. I’ll have a look
at the damage later. I fear some of the lily’s are likely to have been
shredded.
I wanted to get some groceries this
morning, but with my sleeping so late, it wasn’t quite possible. The only
things I need are a little fruit and vegetables, I’m fine with everything else.
As I was writing this, I realized if
I don’t go today, I absolutely must go tomorrow morning – or wait till the new
year! So I got dressed, lured in my mippies and off I went. What an absolute nightmare!
I knew it would be. There was a queue just to park the car! Once inside, the
fruit and vegetable shelves were slim pickings – I picked one or two of the
loose items; no more looked any good, all bruised, squashed and unappetizing. The
cost of fresh fruit and vegetables is becoming horrendous! Would you believe
that tinned fruits are cheaper than unprocessed, fresh ones? A definite
incentive to grow my own! Although fruit isn’t a simple ‘plant today, reap soon’
affair.
I did have some luck with bread,
though: they had a new sourdough bread. But the rye bread? The price has gone
up by another 33% so that it now costs twice as much as the Bavarian Rye at
Sunridge Spar! I took one anyway. I ended up spending more money than I had
intended, even though I stuck with only the basics – except for the Sushi lunch
I decided I had earned!
Telkom had called again this
morning. They keep calling me wanting to speak to my mum’s partner – who recently
passed away. This is the third or fourth time they’ve called me asking to speak
to him! Honestly! Is there so much as a single operating brain cell in that
entire company? They are calling about a landline for goodness sake! Why don’t
they then call that line to speak to the owner? I mean, that would be the most
logical thing to do? I think I should change their name from Hellkom to
Dumbkom!
Back at home I’m glad to report that
most of the lily’s survived the mowing. So did the grass around them in quite a
wide circle ha ha ha! It’s a bit windy today so I think I’ll not go into the
garden – even though Lady Jane is doing everything but drag me out! She
probably would if she could!
Unpacking everything was a major
mission – my fridge is now so full it’s ready to burst! I took some meat from
the freezer last night so I had better come up with a plan. I took out two
chicken breasts and a packet of pork mince. Normally I’d mix the pork with beef
mince and make meat balls; that was the plan when I bought it but I still haven’t
done so. I’m not quite sure what to do with it now …
Right, I’ve decided what I’ll do
with the pork mince. I’m soaking some rice overnight (that cuts the cooking
time in half – cooking time = electricity, which is expensive) and tomorrow I’ll
make a sauce with the older tomatoes and nectarines, sort of like a chutney. I’ve
re-arranged everything in the fridge so I can take things out easily, I’ve put
the rye bread in the freezer and will have the sourdough for breakfast tomorrow
– I also took out one Aufschnitt sausage for that.
That still leaves the chicken for
tonight. I was thinking of wrapping them in spinach leaves, so they don’t stick
to the steamer.
Ha ha that turned out quite
decorative! I place a spinach leaf at the bottom, the two chicken on top and
added one nectarine and one tomato cut into sixth each. I rarely take photos of
my food, but that just looked really pretty. It’s steaming away now, so I’ll
soon know how it turns out!
The comma went on the flunk on this
keyboard again, as did the fullstop, so I’m afraid it’s time to get a new
keyboard. Sigh, another expense I hadn’t planned on! And I haven’t even moved,
yet! I do not know how I will cope financially! I’ll already be using my credit
card for the cats – it’ll take me ages to get that out of the red again. I
think I had better continue to muddle along with the funky keyboard. Let’s
first see how bad my finances look AFTER the move! So much can go wrong – the last
move to Pretoria was beyond expensive, with all my hard drives stolen in the
robbery, the geyser in the new flat tripping and the landlord not taking action
so I had to pay for the repairs myself, then my fridge succumbing to the
mishandling of the two moves … there’s no way I can pull myself out of that financial
hole again. It took a major extra job, working after hours for months before I
was out of the red! But let’s not paint the future black – let’s wait and see.
Dinner was rather bland. It looked
good but it didn’t have much taste. Oh, it was fine, just too bland for
pleasure. I’ll do better tomorrow. Most times trying something different works
out well – but sometimes it doesn’t. Live and learn!
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