Half term

I'm still really struggling to come to terms with the news I received yesterday. It still seems almost unbelievable. I keep checking Facebook in the hope that it's been a mistake, and she's popped up saying 'what are you all going on about, you daft buggers'. And the worst part is that we can't even go to pay our last respects due to this bastard Covid. I'm sad, I'm angry and, if I'm completely honest, bloody scared. Every time I lose someone the same age, or even younger than me, it makes me take a long hard look at my own mortality. As if Covid hadn't already done that. 

But we have to keep on going, don't we? Life still goes on. And if you're not living it to its full potential, I always feel that it's an insult to the person who has gone. We only ever have this moment guaranteed. 

Yesterday I received a beautiful card from my husband, including his customary poem which made me cry. Honestly, I must have been really good in a previous life (because God knows it's not in this one!). I must be reaping some karma here with this amazing man. We weren't supposed to be doing gifts, because it's a Hallmark Holiday, but he still managed to get me a little surprise, bless him. 

The weather was atrocious yesterday. Just look at the sky at the front of our house.

We went down to the cemetery for 11 am to wish my Taid a happy 100th birthday. All of us masked up and socially distanced, in a gale force wind. We paid our respects to family and friends, added fresh flowers and tidied the graves up a little. And then we released the balloons. Mine got stuck in a tree briefly before it flew away.

Mum said that we are going to start work on the family graves on Church Island as soon as the weather picks up a little. The only nuisance there is getting the new stones down, because unless there's a wedding on the island, I don't think there's vehicle access. My cousin's husband carried the last lot down, but it's a bit of a trek from the car park, especially lugging bags of slate or stone by hand. 

I had prepared a lovely meal for the two of us, but in all honesty, I didn't have the appetite for it after our sad news. Crying Tiger Beef with salad, new potatoes and homemade coleslaw.

Followed by baked oats, using our healthy extra B for the day, having had leftover pasta bake for our lunch. He fancied strawberry jam, and I used up the remaining pineapple from the pasta bake for mine. I drizzled some Sweet Freedom syrup into the pineapple and it tasted very similar to a pineapple upside down cake. 

Because of the weather, we'd swerved our walk, and so I went on the treadmill for a little over an hour, and managed to do 10,000 steps and 5 kilometres. I just put my headphones on and completely zoned out. 

My parcel of goodies arrived on Saturday evening. The new remote control bulb has been a godsend, although I don't know what Mr G had in mind last night when I arrived in the bedroom to find it dimmed and on red. I think he was hopeful, put it that way. Either that or he'd been developing some old photographs before I joined him? I love my new light fitting too, it's blingy but not too blingy, if you get me. No, seriously, there was blingier. I'm saving that for when we redo the living room later this year. New colour, new carpet, new suite. And a fecking chandelier. Because I can. 

The new Chubby Cubs book looks good too, I haven't read through it in depth as yet, but a couple of recipes have caught my eye. I need to sit down with Mr G and do our usual list of the recipes we fancy from there. 

We had a really nice long walk today after Slimming World Zoom meeting; we walked into Bangor, well, Upper Bangor, went to Morrisons just to pick up some milk and bananas. My left knee doesn't belong to me any more, but we managed a walk of just over 9 kilometres.

We came back through the woods on the opposite side of the road, for a change. Mr G had never walked through them, I hadn't since I was about fifteen or sixteen. 

Meal plan for this week is still a work in progress but for tonight, it's 5% fat beefburger, homemade SW oven chips, salad and baked beans. Shrove Tuesday tomorrow, so I will be making some Slimming Eats American style pancakes for our dessert. Most of my afternoon will be spent stood at the stove cooking pancakes for my lot. It usually takes me a good two hours. Also on the list this week is Cheats Lasagne with salad and garlic bread, and I also have some salmon fillets that I'd like to use up as well.