12.12.2024 Thermos.©

 ~o~

  Thursday 12th 36F/2C [6.30] Another long, grey, cold but still day is forecast. Hovering around 2-3C all day. A light, mostly northerly breeze.

 Up at 6am after a mixed night. I was already wide awake before deciding to get up. 64F/18c in the room.

  My shiny, new, light level programmer on the aquarium is working. Currently at moonlight level until 7am. We'll see how the next stage looks in a little while. No change. Grr. Usually, I only have two table lamps lit. So they don't overpower what is happening inside the tank. 

 It is probably time for another ride. I just need to dress warmly enough to be comfortable. My heavy Norwegian jumper was perfect last time under my lined, high-vis jacket. I took alternative clothing in the panniers but never needed it. Deciding where to go is always the most difficult hurdle. I tend to rotate around familiar charity shops. Which are strung out along equally familiar minor roads and country lanes. Variations are always much further afield. 

 Taking the wholemeal, bread rolls for lunch should be a good idea. I have no idea why I don't always take them. To avoid missing a meal when I need the energy and comfort they provide. Honey was a bit of a disaster. I ended up with a poly bag full of honey and none on the rolls. So now I take my mature cheddar on the bases of the rolls. With Italian raspberry jam on the tops. The jam doesn't migrate like the honey. 

 Thanks to the rolls I didn't need to eat any sub-micro, Corny muesli bars last time. Nor any of the small cartons of organic apple juice. It makes me shiver just thinking about them when it is cold. What I really should take is a warm drink. Somehow I have lost the stainless steel thermos flask. Which was always in the car when my wife and I went out. A break to enjoy a Danish pastry [Spandauer med creme] and tea being essential part of any trip. 

 How difficult can it be to find a new flask? Prices for stainless steel range from £20 equivalent upwards at sports/cycling outlets. My china mugs at home hold 200ml. It would be a very long ride where I needed more than two whole mugs worth. Besides the screw-on cap is usually a much smaller cup. Even half a liter [500ml] capacity would be enough for one day. The Thermos range of stainless steel flasks are well reviewed for holding liquids warm. For a whole day if needed. Which means a long wait before I can drink the coffee.

 Should I make finding a flask the goal for today's ride? Odense? 30km. 60km round trip? I am bound to wander on detours. Or I ride 10km to a local shopping village and buy a Thermos there. A more sensible distance on a cold grey day. If they don't have anything I like in stock then I can ride on to Fåborg on the south coast. The same distance as Odense. Or I ride to Assens. Nearer, but only one outlet which stocks Thermos. 

 I found the two, odd, stainless steel thermos flask[s] under the sink. One had lost its stopper. The other has lost its cup. So never the twain shall meet.

 I just heard a noise and went to look outside. Nothing visible. Perhaps it is the builders' activities next door? Almost like a muffled knocking on the door. They may be demolishing something. Or loading a trailer. I am no longer used to hearing noises nearby after long absences of near neighbours. 

 9.30. It is still grey, cold and miserable. I don't even want to go for a walk! Going in the car is cheating! Lazy git mode! I'll ride to the shopping village. There are other things to buy there. If I put my warm clothing on first I'll be toasty bu the time I leave. I haven't lit the stove.

 12.15 Now I have lit the stove. Returned from a 24km ride. No Thermos in stock. Bought some groceries and rode back again. It was cold. My hands weren't warm enough on the way there. Despite wearing doubled gloves. No problem coming back in only the outer gloves. Increased circulation from the exercise? Who knows?

 17.30 It has only reached 65F/18C in the room. The outside temperature of 2C hasn't changed all day. I have just spent an hour chatting on the phone with the lady in the village. Followed by nearly an hour on WApp. We share a similarly strange sense of humour. 

 I will probably have to call yesterday a scrambled egg on toast day. Even if I didn't remember to make the toast! 🙄 So I have to make something "real" tonight. What about sausage curry? OMG! It's a thing! 😂

 Dinner was sausage and mushroom curry. Lots of it. A cup of the new Basmati, white rice. A hole jar of Ben's Medium Curry sauce.

 

  ~o~

11.12.2024 Scrambled eggs? Seriously?

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  Wednesday 11th 36F/2C[8.20] Uniform, grey overcast. Likely to remain so for some days. Nationwide mist warning. No wind to drive the wind turbines means back-up power stations must take over.

 Up at 7.40 after a quiet night. The room is still unusually tidy and at 63F/17C.

 I will visit my English friend after missing our usual Tuesday get-together. I just checked the car. It starts easily on the choke. Cold outside but no frost. Just a thin coat of dew.

 13.15 39F/4C Returned from visiting my friend in the Morris. I did a load of grocery shopping on the way back. It drizzled all the way home and becoming misty in places. My parcel wasn't sorted ready for collection. So I'll have to go back into the village later.

 16.00 Just returned from two widely spaced villages in opposite directions from home. I bought three new sacks of kindling. Now safely dumped in the greenhouse. I also collected my parcel with some useful toys for controlling the LED lights over the aquarium. Dusk and dawn timers and intensity controllers. The eight steps and intensities I chose to program into the little box. Left the tank in darkness two hours too early. Must try harder.

 I also ordered a very long planter for the water plants. The others I have bought were a complete waste of money. This one is by Eheim and has a pair of toothed jaws on the end for gripping the plants. A handy trigger at the top actuates the jaws. I just tried it on an uprooted plant and it works a treat! No more wet T-shirts.

 I have re-lit the stove. It went out while I was absent. Only 61F/16C in the room. I have had a reply from my first contact on the making friends forum. Talk about a close match! They have similar collecting/hoarding interests to myself and my late wife. With only slight variations. You couldn't make it up. 

 Dinner was scrambled eggs with tomatoes. I am not sure whether this was my very first attempt at scrambled eggs. I forgot to whisk them before breaking three eggs into the frying pan. I kept on stirring and gently scraping with the plastic spatula with the pan on a low heat. Until it resembled scrambled eggs. The butter made it slightly translucent. 

 I have lost the stainless steel whisk somewhere. So would normally use a fork in a bowl. It tasted fine and the consistency wasn't a problem. Only afterwards did I realise that two rounds of toast were missing from this evening's feast. Silly old wotsit!

 20.00 Now I have to wash up. 😱

 

 

 ~o~

 

10.12.2024 The Great Clearance.

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 Tuesday 10th 35F/2C. The forecast is a battle between cloud and sun.

 Up at 6.30 after an unusually quiet night. 62F/16.7C in the room.

 7.00 I have a nosebleed. An official visitor is coming later this morning. Pride demands I make an effort to clear the decks. I doubt I have done very much since her last visit perhaps a year ago.

 9.00 Overcast. I am making good progress. The living room and hall carpets have been vacuumed. The  moraines of detritus in the living room have been cleared. The dining table freed of its overburden and a fresh tablecloth applied. I wonder if a lighter shade wouldn't bring more light. 

 9.15. 66F/19C in the room. The dining table windowsill is finally clear. Being north facing anything protruding upwards blocks what little light there is to be had. Which means that two large, aspidistras in huge, ceramic pots need a new home. Both have now gone upstairs. They might like the east facing windowsill up there.

The dark blue, art glass bottles have been moved away too. They always blocked the light. A coat of white paint in the cement, window reveal wouldn't go amiss. The [after] image [above] does absolutely no favours for Chez Hovel. WYSIWYG.  The L-shaped room is a useful 6.77m x 5.33m. Or 22' x 17' in olde money. You think this is bad? You should have seen it on any single day in the past 28 years. It's no wonder we lived upstairs!

 The ceiling was always meant to be boarded with pine. That was not allowed because the present ceiling tiles would be covered in decades of filth. On their upward facing surfaces. So taking them down would be a nightmare. Unless the room was completely cleared. So that was never going to happen. I did board the south side of the room but it was never good enough. It was only after my wife died that I finally painted the boards white. It all helps to lift the gloom on an overcast, winter's day.

 12.00 There is much more light in the room now. So I took another snap. The lovely lady from the council has just left after chatting for an hour and half. I even managed to get it warm enough at 68F/20C. She was full of helpful suggestions how I might enlarge my social circle. I always feel more cheerful and motivated after her visits. I followed her advice and joined a friendship app. Who knows where it might lead?

 I have managed to keep the temperature in the room around 68F/20C for most of the day. I do like this strangely tidy room. It feels spacious and relaxed. I just wish I had the willpower to keep it that way.

 Dinner was a salmon pasty. With organic Fettuccine pasta and tinned tomatoes. The latter drained of juice in a stainless steel sieve.

 ~o~