I have a sign on my door stating: No Cold Callers. Mainly this stems from having a man call not long after we’d moved in, ostensibly to check our gas and electricity meters. He’d flashed a badge, and stated they were old and should be renewed. He then spent over 10 minutes going through some online blurb, and it started to dawn on me that he was merely trying to get me to change provider. I’d already explained that we were new to the area, and renters, and I wasn’t sure I was even allowed to switch. After a time, I called my son to come downstairs, explained what was going on, and he told the man to leave. Like his Dad, my son can get a ‘look’ that tends to put off people who would otherwise mess us about.

Since then, we’ve had 3 delivery people try and leave us parcels for neighbours. The third time, I politely declined. It’s come to the point that unless I’m expecting someone, or a parcel, we simply don’t open the door. Wednesday the door was knocked, I was expecting a parcel, so I opened it. A parcel was thrust into my hand, and the man garbled something in the local patois that is almost unintelligible. I looked at the parcel, stated it wasn’t my name or address, and he left, with me holding the damn parcel. I think, though can’t be sure, that he said someone would pick it up, and they weren’t in. After he’d gone I thought he looked like a neighbour, 2 doors down, who I’d only seen twice before. Their car hasn’t been in the street since then. I’ll hold onto this parcel for a few days, and if nobody calls, I’ll simply put it back through their letterbox (it’ll fit) on Sunday morning. Do I look like a freaking parcel drop?

Before Christmas, our immediate neighbours had been banging on the kitchen wall, and I suspect a major DIY project is under way. Occasionally, it sounded like someone had dropped a sandbag. One night, I fell asleep out of sheer exhaustion, around 11pm. My son stated they’d kept him awake until 11.30pm. The following night they were still banging away at 10.30pm and I’d had enough. This is not like me, however I yelled ‘Give it a rest.’ The noise stopped immediately, and since then they’ve stopped all noise at around 9pm. Keeping me awake late is one thing. Waking me early (around 3.15am) in one thing. Doing both is simply unacceptable and is definitely taking the pith. According to the council site, they are being antisocial, and if it carries on, I will make an official complaint against them.

Talking of taking the pith, the government is contemplating a ‘pudding tax.’ We already have a sugar tax whereby soft drinks with x amount of sugar have had their prices raised to discourage people from drinking too much of them. Apparently, manufacturers have been too slow in reducing the sugar in puddings, so the government is thinking of putting an extra tax on them, to clobber us into buying less due to cost. Seriously, that’s all this government knows how to do: tax, tax, and more tax! Although vegetables, and to an extent fruit, are relatively cheap, this tax, so far, hasn’t been used to make healthier choices cheaper, and with very little exception, brown bread, rice, and pasta, are all dearer than their white counterparts. All stick and no carrot in other words.

Thursday my son and I had gone shopping in a certain supermarket about a mile away. The music was blaring (why do they do that?) and after about 10 minutes my brain had turned to cheese and was starting to drip out of my ears. Seriously, I find it very hard to concentrate on what I want with the distraction of loud music. We paid up, then went to a different supermarket, that doesn’t play music, to finish our shopping. Here’s where the real pith comes in… I’ve been looking for ‘blood’ oranges; they’re in season and I love them, when I espied Seville (marmalade) oranges. What luck! I checked my little list, determined we needed 2 lemons, and 1 extra bag of sugar and marmalade making was on the cards.

Well, I’d forgotten how arduous marmalade making can be. It took me almost an hour to wash and prepare the fruit and the jars, 2 hours to boil the fruit, and almost half an hour to add the sugar, dissolve it, then reach ‘setting’ point. The marmalade has to cool slightly, and during this time I sterilised the jars in the oven. I then potted it, added a wax disc, and sealed the very hot jars. Later, I washed the jars as I’m messy and some were sticky lol. It’s a beautiful colour, sharp enough, a soft set which I prefer, and tastes great. A success!

After standing so long in a cold kitchen; the doors and windows had to be open due to the boiling, I had a terrible night with a lot of pain from my ‘bad’ leg and barely had 6 hours very broken sleep. I’ve been doing some stretching exercises from a website the previous neurologist had given me, and coupled with standing too long, my body was not happy. The exercises are supposed to help the muscles as well as the nerves. Friday night, I intend to take some pain meds before bed, so at least I might get some decent sleep.

Not long until the weekend. Hope you all have a good one, and it doesn’t get too cold.