BAD BLOG, IT JUGGLED MY POSTS ABOUT.

The last post should be one titled 'Not a snowballs'.. otherwise you will get as muddled as we are! Somehow the last two have changed places.

It's way past nine o'clock and work is still going on, but tomorrow Melford is coming to work 'late' at 1.30pm because she wants to go to church at 11.15am for the All Saints' Day service. They will both have a lie in and she'll get to sit on something other than her bed!

Me.. yes, I'll still be in the aviary but no, she will not come and visit because that would confuse me too much, to see her and then be taken away again. Best just to grin and bear it. It will soon be over and boy oh boy, it's all going to be SO snug and cosy!

So PipPip.. Dear Readers.. PipPip.

GeeGee Parrot.
October 31st, 2015.

YIPPEE! THE GAS & HOT WATER ARE BACK ON.. BUT NOT THE HEATING.

It's looking good, if you've got a sense of humour and are optimistic, that is! For her bed and the YumYum HQ are the only places that are clean and peaceful! Otherwise, she despairs of ever having a proper home again!

When I get back, I'll have to give her a quick nip to cheer her up and get her out of her doldrums, for this stuff, which is piled up everywhere, must have had a home, mustn't it? Mind you, the big airing cupboard has to be re-built as that doesn't exist any more for the new boiler is in there now.

But the pressure on the hot water taps is much stronger, this is a good thing, except the washer of the hot tap in the bathroom basin will have to be replaced and likewise the hot water tap on the bath. This is because the new boiler is fed directly from the mains supply.

But the mess, oh lordy, the mess, the torn down false ceiling in the hall, the bathroom cupboards which held the two header tanks were both butchered to take the extractor flue pipes, these exit above the front door. These cupboards now need to be rebuilt and painted.

This last day of October is a fine day, but there will be no gardening for her today, for Richard is supposed to be working here as well today but he hasn't shown up yet, Melford, who left here after nine o'clock last night was here at ten o'clock this morning, but he cannot fit the bedroom radiator until the electric point is moved to the left.. that is Richards' work.. grrr.

So he's running the pipes into the sitting room and doing that radiator. He brought with him extra heavy duty plastic sheets and bungs for removing very old radiators in an extremely dirty job with stuff that resembles black oil liable to flow out of the pipes!

This happened in the bathroom, luckily it didn't flow onto the carpet but onto a dust sheet! But the sitting room carpet is off white.. horrors if that was damaged.

Hey Ho.. tomorrow is Sunday. I don't know whether the work will be finished by tonight or not. She was hoping to bring me home tomorrow and I was hoping to go home but at this rate.. well, we will see later on. Certainly the restoration work will not be done today, that's for sure.

For Richard has to measure up the new spaces for cupboards, get the necessary materials and then do the work and he is not the speediest worker in town, that's for sure.

This is the fourth day in a row that she's been confined in the flat apart from a quick trip to the local branch of MailBoxEtc to pick up a package on Thursday. And there's nowhere else to sit apart from on her bed. In and out.. in and out.. of the front door they've been and the door has been open most of the time, plus she has had to be here to answer questions.

So we are both stir crazy!

GeeGee Parrot.
October 31st, 2015.

NOT A SNOWBALL'S CHANCE IN HELL OF THIS WORK BEING FINISHED..

At this rate, I'll be staying at the aviary for longer. Sob.. Ugh. The work is going slowly, the main walls of these old (1889) houses are incredibly thick, it is taking ages to get through into the sitting room for, as she's just told Melford, that room was the original vault of the house.

The doorway and window (which is the only window in the entire house which has bars on it) are both edged in solid steel. He thought, he told her just now, that she was exaggerating, until he tried to drill through it and came across a thick metal sheet.

Then he noticed that the top and base door plates are made of solid steel! He's had to drill through a concrete wall at an angle of 45 degrees to get past it. Poor man, it is filthy, hard work and he won't be finished tonight, that's for sure.

He's planning to come back tomorrow, he has done the hall pipework and hung that radiator, the smaller radiator which is for the bathroom is next, the sitting room one is now in place, this will leave the bedroom one to be hung tomorrow, he did the pipe work this morning before Richard came at 2.00pm and moved the electrical socket.

What bliss is will be to have a warm bathroom again. On Monday she has to be elsewhere, so they'll be back here on Tuesday and Wednesday as there's a lot of carpentry work to be done, let alone the painting.

Please, oh pretty please, let her still have the old paint pots to give her the correct numbers for the paint that's needed in the hall, sitting room and our bedroom. In the bathroom she's stipulated white, for when she's feeling stronger, she'll paint the rest of the room as well.

The big old boiler has to be broken down into pieces and taken away, think huge and really heavy! The massive old flue, which disppears behind the kitchen wall and up the original chimney might be made of asbestos, so this will remain in situ and be boxed in.

That bathroom carpet has to be replaced, when they've got the old boiler out, the big unit in that room will be taken apart into two pieces and put in there, then she'll be able to get a new floor covering laid, on Monday, she'll go to the flooring places on North End Road and price up new flooring, the bill will go to the freeholder's office, for there'll be NO trouble as she's got photographic evidence of the damage.

When the new flooring is down, she'll move a chest of drawers into the space left by the unit. I'll no longer have my shelf on which to play on any longer, unless I canoodle with Mighty Wizard and get him to put a shelf up there for me.

It would be a special shelf just for Wallaby and me, for no one else goes up there. I threw the empty safety kit box down a long time ago and I know its' left the house because she gave it to Wizard for when he's working on site.

Do you have a safety kit in your house? They don't have to be in a special box, you just need a box or a place where you keep stuff incase you have an accident in your home. Bandages, ointment, eye wash, disinfectant, sharp scissors, plasters, tweezers, arnica, rescue remedy.

Onwards.. Dear Readers.. Onwards. 'IT' will, eventually be finished, everything will be put away. As she's just written to MaryLou, it took her over a week to dismantle everything so it will certainly take as long as that plus a bit to put it all away again.

Wizard will rack out the secret hiding place and put up shelves where the old boiler was for her gardening equipment, as you know she starts lots of seeds off at home and the propagating boxes and other equipment have to be stored somewhere along with pots and tools.

The new shelf unit in the bedroom will have shelves put up, she'll dust and put back her porcelain treasures and slowly but surely our home will appear out of this chaos.. aka 'Can't-have-anyone-over-syndrome'!

It will just take time. Oi vey.. just time.

GeeGee Parrot.
October 31st, 2015.
Post Script. Tonight is All Hallows' Eve.. aka.. the eve of All Saints' Day November 1st.

NO GAS OR HOT WATER TODAY.

Here I am, as snug as a bug in a rug. Meanwhile, back home on the ranch, she's now got no hot water OR gas. Thank goodness for an electric kettle. For a measure of boiling water plus a measure of couscous make a delicious meal.

She had a few mangetout peas and some skinny beans, they were put into a saucepan with boiling water before she added the couscous, together with a slurp of olive oil and seasoning, then she put on a tight fitting lid.

Left to sit for five minutes, she added a small tina of tuna and lots of chill and garlic sauce and retreated back to bed. Slurp! Everyone should have a bag of couscous for emergencies like this, otherwise you're stuck eating cold food or you have to go out to eat.

Unless, of course, you have a microwave but we don't. A. she's not mad about them and B. In our tiny YumYum HQ, there's no room for one.

What's going on today? Well, more of the hall ceiling is down.. joy.. Melford had to break through the wall between the hall and the bathroom in order to run the gas pipe in to connect to the new boiler, he had already tapped into the pipe coming out of the meter and brought a supply pipe down the hall along into the bathroom. And as the big flu pipes have to come out of here as well, there is now a socking great big hole which will have to be filled when all this pipe work is finished.

Richard, the electrician, has to come and move an wall socket in order to allow the radiator to be placed underneath the bedroom window. Two water pipes have to come through the bedroom wall, these are for the radiator, they'll go up the hall wall beside the back of the front door, disappear into the false ceiling, come through the bathroom wall, around a wall and and into the boiler cupboard.

By some miracle, although it is damp outside, it is not perishingly cold! Otherwise, life would be just too grim for words. What IS grim is looking at all the mess, the blackened carpet, the 'stuff' which is piled everywhere.

Have you ever wished to be someone else and to BE somewhere else? Well, she is beginning to wish both of these wishes. Someone asked "why are you there, why didn't you move out?", much easier said than done. Milford has asked her stuff all the time, does she want this or that and then there is the thing that someone has to be here to let them in and out throughout the day.

Besides, the last time she moved out for work like this, it went on for six months until she lost both her sense of 'humour' and temper and called upon the local Environmental Dept. to see if they could help, they got the team, who had gone off to do another job, back into finish the work within a short space of time and the job was completed within five days!

And hey, it will be finished by tomorrow or Monday at the latest.. so let's just 'grin' and bear it! But she's also had to email the Freeholder to see when a surveyor is coming to measure the damp.

I am booked into my hotel until Tuesday, but with any luck she'll come and pick me up on Sunday, which would be reallyreally nice and happy making. I can't help her to put everything back but just to be back with each other would be heaven 'cos she misses me and I surely miss her.

GeeGee Parrot.
October 30th, 2015.
Postscript: A day of Rememberance. For on this day we've 'lost' the following friends.
Dear Edgar in 1997. Beloved Bill in 2003 and our darling Moley, aka Suzan Brewster Sams, in 2012.

I'M IN MY COSY HOTEL.. SHE'S HOME ALONE.. LIVING IN A BUILDING SITE!

The front door was wide open, it was chucking it down with rain and the boiler was off.. aka grim.

Richard and Melford brought in huge lengths of copper pipes, reels of cable and all the other stuff that they need to install a new heating system. They disconnected and drained the header tanks and the hot water tank all of which then disappeared outside.

The middle of the false ceiling in the hall has been taken down as the heating pipes will go along inside this to the back of the flat. The mains water into the bathroom was turned off.. this meant no lavatory.. to allow the supply to be 'tapped' into for the new boiler. A water pipe which exited the basin unit, ran up, along and around the walls into the old airing cupboard where a new shiny wall mounted boiler.. an eighth of the size of her old one.. was mounted on the back wall.

With not one inch of space elsewhere in the flat, she has retreated to her bedroom. Thank goodness, an oasis in a madhouse, which, like the kitchen, which is clean and tidy! She spends the days in her bed, (thanking her lucky stars that when she made the bed, she put an double duvet underneath the mattress cover, for this made the bed very cosy and significantly warmer) and picked up a book she's had for a year or two but had not yet read.

Having been born only six years after the end of WW2 and whose parents had both seen 'action' throughout the war and had also served in Malaya during the Malay Emergency, the war wasn't talked about at home, her parents had 'lived' it and had lost friends and family because of it.

And it certainly wasn't talked about as History when she was at school. It's only as a grown-up that she's read and learnt about this war in Europe and the Far East.

She'll write a separate post on this book, THAT'S how important she figures it is. She'll also be posting on a product that a friend in California has designed. Now she doesn't think that WW - Wicker Wheelies - exist in the USA and she's never seen one anywhere in Europe but DianeMarie Ludwig has created a wonderfully named trolley called 'Dolly'!

Meanwhile, someone came from the Freeholders office and looked at the damp.. ugh. A surveyor now has to see this and do a damp measure test. She showed him the pipe some idiotic builder had chopped off at the wall.. not knowing how the Victorians hid pipes in cavity walls.. his face darkened and looked grim, especially as he saw the extent of damage to the exterior brickwork.

I am amongst my own, for there are three other African Grey Parrots being boarded at the same time as me and one of them is my old friend Growlie! We are fed, watered, warm, safe and snug.

Back home at the ranch, apparently things are all going well, Melford reckons that he'll be finished by Saturday. But, when are the Building Surveyors coming, for they'll need to crawl allover our pretty bedroom and may even have to take the floor up.. gulp.

She's just had to clear everything from inside the oven's storage drawer and the cupboard beside the cooker as they need access to the gas pipe, thank goodness we have a gas cooker as this saves having to make a hole through the very thick load bearing wall to get to the old gas boiler.

The lobby of our bedroom is now lined both sides with a vegetable rack, casseroles, an electric slicer, an electric grill, baking trays.. are you getting an idea of the organised (don't choke laughing) chaos in our home? It is 'slightly' chilly-billy as the front door has to be wide open.

But you know what? Despite all this madness and the level of discomfort, this is still our home and I am sad that I am not there with her whilst she's going through it.. because I would sit on her head and keep her warm.

For we all know.. East West.. home is best.

GeeGee Parrot.
October 29th, 2015.

GRUESOME NEWS FOLKS.. I HAVE BEEN BANISHED TO THE AVIARY!

I got just a little perturbed when she came back from weighing in yesterday, I thought she was going to the allotment. But no, lots more sorting was done as she emptied the airing cupboard of everything, right down to the ground.

For this is where the new Combi-boiler will be situated, the big water tank is being taken out and going and the two header tanks will go also. She cleared out the bottom shelf underneath the basin so that the plumber can tap into the mains water supply.

Then, rather alarmingly, she came back into our very tidy bedroom and started on my night house, aka cage. She pulled it off the table and dragged it into the bathroom, put it into the bath and scrubbed and washed it with very hot water and clear vinegar.

Oh.. dearie me.. I didn't know what was going on and I didn't approve, 'cos she pulled down Dagga's old cage and that got the same treatment! Then she called Animal Fair and said she was going to give them that one so that she'd always have one there for when I need to stay for a few days. UGH.

So she obviously intends for me to stay there for a while.. NOT good news! But I guess with the bad damp problem and the new heating system being installed, it's best if I am not here.. sigh.. so she took me in this morning.. sob.

But at least she's done all the work,  there's just a couple of towels to be washed and aired before she puts them away in a trunk.. thank heavens for those trunks! Wizard came to collect everything just after 2.00pm, now all she has to do clean up the kitchen.

Going back to this week's weight loss, last week she lost 2.5lbs, maybe, just maybe, if she hadn't slurped both that cheese cake AND a savoury tart at Marylebone Farmer's Market yesterday, she'd have lost more than a lb. For she's only got another half a lb to go and she'll have lost 21lbs! Very happy knees.. but they'll be even happier when she gets right down to her desired weight.

Ah well folks, stuff has to happen, flat has to have the work done and at least I know everyone at the aviary and they're very kind to me, so I'll just cogitate my tumtum, pluck a few feathers and it'll all be over soon, I hope, as does she. PipPip.

GeeGee Parrot.
October 27th, 2015.

SHE'D LIKE TO RUN AWAY (WITH ME) AND JOIN A CIRCUS..

For it has been a busy, very grubby making couple of days. At nine o'clock on Friday morning an engineer from EDF energy came to replace a very old electricity meter with a new Smart Meter. She said "you just haven't got a hope in hell of getting that to work down here, there's no signal in the boiler room" and sure enough, he couldn't.

So off he went and in came Wizard. Dear Wizard, she thanks him every time she climbs up in to bed for he fixed the frame upon which the bed sits, it is now safe and secure and it doesn't threaten to collapse onto her trunks.

Lots of work for him to do: change hinges on two extremely heavy cupboard doors, take down an old curtain track plank, saw it in half and fit one half to make a frame for her bedroom window. Move a set of wall shelf tracks that hold her porcelain treasures and several other small jobs that required either cunning or brute strength!

He left at about four o'clock and she finished her working day by brushing out and then vacuuming the secret place where the gas engineer has to work.

Soon, thank goodness, it was time for an early supper and bedtime with a book and half an eye on television. Me.. well I was plumb tuckered out by all the excitement of having another person to talk to and, Dear Readers, he had the most entrancing thing.

I believe it is called an electric screwdriver but it was such a wondrous toy! It had lights so that you could see what you are doing in dark cupboards, which must be very useful, but the noise! Brilliant and it had an extra special sort of high pitch whine when he gave it a bit of 'welly'!

Why hasn't she got one of these? We've got everything else in this flat! But we will have less very soon, as Wizard refused to be paid, so she tricked him by giving him a multitude of things that, honestly we do not or have not used but that he would.

Like the NEW pasta making machine which is the same model as the one his mama uses to make her pasta! (Wizard is Italian). And several other gadgets that he was thrilled to receive. He will have to come back with his car another day to collect this swag but she was SO happy knowing that all these items are going to a good home.

Today it was time for her to finish clearing and tiding the bedroom, she's going to ask the guys to start in this room. They only have to fit the new radiator to the wall and take the two pipes through the wall to connect up with the pipes that will connect to and feed the hall radiator.

If they do this room, which requires the least amount of work, on the first day, then at least she has a quiet clean place to retreat to when they're pulling all the pipes and cables about. Poor sitting room which, normally, is a charming room is in a dreadful state as absolutely EVERYTHING is piled on top of everything else and when she sent a photo of this hideous mess to Tereza, the response was "Oh mon Dieux, as some people say. Courage is what you need and tons of it!"

So now you see why she needs a calm place whilst all this is going on around us! She stripped the bed down including the mattress cover, this went off to be washed with the sheets, pulled out a spare one, put the old comforter out in the hall to take to the laundry on Monday plus the lightweight banket, pulled out a clean comforter with its' matching bedlinens and two dark blue Vellux blankets.

Yes, we have spares of everything! Why do you think she has three trunks that 'live' underneath the bed, if you store things with lavender bags or cedar sachets, they're fresh and ready to use. Winter weight blankets, bed valance, summer quilt, etc.

But back to the list of chores that she did and that I watched the doing of..

And made the bed with pretty Wamsutta sheets, using extremely neat and tight hospital corners with the blankets and shook the comforter to get it fluffed up. She found an old, quite wide wooden shelf in the store room and yippee, it fitted into the tight space and so that makes the perfect bottom shelf of the new shelf unit.

Her treasures have been packed away into boxes, a box for each shelf means that the displays of 'whatever' will be the same without her having to remember "did the Spill vase go with that or this?" Then it was out with the big step ladder and up on to the top rungs to do cleaning work on the top of the cupboards.

She 'mucked' me out, taking away the old paper and dragged the vacuum up into the air to suck up all the old seed shells and shredded paper, I am a mucky 'pup' and this was a really big clear-up job! That done, she got one wet microfibre cloth, two dry ones and polished the mirrored cupboard doors, these cupboards form a lobby into the bedroom and it is on top of these that I spend most of my day.

Working downwards, she dusted the bedside tables, window ledge, watered the orchids, brushed the bedside light lampshades to get them dust free, (fabrics HATE dust) and wiped the bedside light bulbs with a dry cloth.

Next it was the turn of carpet to get extra special treatment in the form of an old fashioned scrubbing brush, with which she brushed carpet on her hands and knees.. eureka, old bashed knee didn't moan or squeak with pain, it is still bruised but no longer paindul. Phew.

Working backwards towards the door, she used the vacuum in conjunction to suck up all of the quite considerable amount of dust that this excellent hand brush was clearing out of the carpet, it's not a pleasant job but it gets carpets clean, brushes the pile up properly AND it what you should use on any old rug, vacuums are not good for antiques rugs.

We didn't stop for lunch.. so by seven o'clock.. she was bushed! She'd drunk lots of glasses of water but our tumtums said "Hello, remember us", so she finished the last rug, put every tool back into its' rightful place, put the step ladder into the hall and we went to YumYum HQ.

Steamed vegetables with the last scrappings of Goaty Curd was our treat!  I also demolished a raw sweet corn cob and chucked that about a fair bit, I could tell she was tired as she just looked at me but said nothing. (You all know that look when mothers are too tired to make a fuss!)

But when all was done and we walked back into the bedroom.. it was all worth it. For the room is tidy, immaculately clean, her bed is divine with fresh sheets and snug with another blanket as the nights are cooler.

So maybe we don't need to run away to join the circus yet.. but watch this space as Wizard and she discovered that the cold water supply in the kitchen is NOT running off the mains supply.. oh dear!

But tomorrow, guess what today is Dear Readers? Do you count your Sundays? We do and this Sunday it's that special one for Selina's Malaysian Dumpling with Goaty Mum at the Marylebone Farmer's Market.

Oh yes! And with minced garlic, some soya sauce and eye wateringly hot hot chillies and perhaps a morsel of Goaty curd and maybe some small, sweet yellow beetroots from Edwin, oh, today is our happy Sunday! For yeah, it's Dumpling Day.. and if you're in Europe.. we hope you remembered to 'Fall' back in time? Yes, the clocks went back an hour last night.

GeeGee Parrot.
October 25th, 2015.

WOW! SHE'S FOUND A HUGE STASH OF LOST aka FORGOTTEN TREASURE!

If you're up to date with reading this 'ere Blog, you will recall that in order for the gas man to fit the new system he needs access to the main gas pipeline. This is located in a secret space in her hall and it was full of 'stuff'!

He had asked her what was in there, she said that she couldn't remember, aka not a clue but that it would all be cleared out so that he could have access when he needs it. Today was the day she decided to get the flat sorted out, trunks were pulled out from underneath her bed and her summer clothes were packed away.

Then she pulled out the big stepladder and took down the bedroom curtains, for Wizard is coming tomorrow to make a frame to the window and move the curtain track out further into the room so that the curtains won't hang so close to the new radiator which will be fitted next week.

She pulled the furniture away from the walls where the new heating pipes will go, collected four bags of rubbish and old newspapers which she should have taken to the allotment but didn't and together with the old curtain track, made two trips to the recycling unit in Danyers Street and one trip to New Horizons with a load of unwanted books.

We had supper at half past seven and then she ventured into the secret space, I was banished to the bedroom.. it would have been too dusty and I would have, undoubtedly, played the fool. The usual rubbish appeared, an electric fan, a couple of buckets with mops and stuff like that. Then an expresso machine, from the days when she used to drink short sharp lethal shots of caffeine for breakfast!

Then her luggage trolley, this dates from the 70's, 80' & 90's when you could travel with unlimited luggage and boy, did she!

Then.. Eureka! Constance's own edition of Wicker Wheelie. She had completely forgotten that her mother had left it with her, it is slightly wider than our own WW and she'll keep it because our WW will fade and pass over one day and then she'll have his replacement tucked away. But first he has to go down to David to have his standing legs repaired.

Then she came across a packing blanket.. you know what they are, they're the big grey blankets that moving companies use to protect furniture when they're packed into crates. How curious, she thought, I wonder what's underneath and lifted it up.

OH, my giddy aunt! For there, where they've been sitting, completely forgotten about for at least nine or even maybe ten years, were thirty lamps! All with gilded wooden tops and bases, brass fittings and gold silk flex, these lamps, apart from one pair which were ones she used in her bedroom in Spain which she had refurbished, have never been used. A mix of various shapes and sizes.

And.. there was even more treasure underneath the gas meter, for sitting on the floor, were ten vases! Waiting to be made into lamps! When the work is done and her poorpoor sitting room is no longer a depository, she'll photograph the lamps and vases and email the photos to clients who are still working.

Everything is now out of this space, she swept it and it is ready for the guys to do the pipe work. Plus more of the long wall bits of the tracking system for shelves. When the gas work is done Wizard is coming back to turn this place into a proper store cupboard.

How about that? Lots of pretty lamps! Mostly Chinese vases, some old, some new and they can all go to light up other peoples lives, but not her old Spanish lamps.. they'll go very well on the shelf above the new radiator in her bedroom.

And also in there, carefully wrapped up in a large bag was a pair of pleated and gathered Imperial Yellow silk lampshades, with finials fittings, 18" base diameters, 12" slopes and 12" tops, they'll fit the Spanish lamps as if they were made for them!

They were the first ever pair of lampshades that her much beloved and treasured Linda made for her back in 1993. Dearest Linda, what fun they had those two, what gloriousglorious lampshades they made together. What treasures!

Happy days folks, veryvery happy days.

GeeGee Parrot.
October 22nd, 2015.

SWEET POTATO SWEET POTATO SWEET POTATO.. YUM!

We both love these vegetables and have thrilling news for those of you who live in the UK and like them too. Do you have an ASDA shop near to you? We do, there's a huge one at Clapham Junction. It is up on the hill behind the big BOOTS store which is behind LIDL.. hello, are you up here with me or are you still wandering around down by the Falcon pub at the junction?

There is a very clever farmer, name unknown otherwise we'd be singing his or her name out loud! What have they done? What they've 'done', is to 'crack' growing Sweet Potatoes in England! In Kent, to be precise. And they've sold their entire crop to Asda and it will be in the stores soon or even now may already be on the shelves.

But why all this excitement.. well, you see NO ONE has ever managed to grow them commercially on a big scale in the UK before and they've always been imported, hence their high cost, but now this clever person has managed it and Asda are / will be selling them at 80p a kilo! 

She goes through Clapham Junction on her way to Streatham High Road and will shortly be paying Messrs Asda a visit, with WW in attendance, for several kilos of these wondrous vegetables will be coming home with her, several will be baked, their flesh scooped out, mashed and frozen for future use, don't worry, we'll be eating those skins! And another favourite recipe is boil them with carrots and mash them with a dash of oil, ginger and spices, it makes a delicious nest for a poached egg.

It was raining 'slabs' of cold rain this morning.. and brrr it was too! Very brrrr indeed. Brass Monkeys and ChillyBilly would describe the wait for a bus to take her to the hospital. One of her hearing aids had given up working and the clever technician in the Drop in Clinic in the ENT department fixed it in a nano-second, all it needed was a new wire.

Yesterday was heavenly, a sunny warm day with no hint of this deluge of cold rain heading our way, she had legal stuff to do which took her down into the Victoria area and it was an extremely pleasant walk there and back, as she cut across town to avoid busy roads and the crowds of tourists that are all milling about.

Lordy, such an upheaval is happening! For the new heating system is going to be installed next week, gulp! Tomorrow is the day for emptying the secret stash of goodies from the boiler room, the gas engineer has to be able to access the inlet pipe and there's not a chance in hell he could even see the pipe at the moment, let alone work on it!

But tomorrow is another day and having done a lot of work today upon returning from the hospital, she's collecting together the library books that she's read and heading on out to change them in the Kings Road.

Books into WW, raincoat, keys, umbrella.. she's off out and I'm off to doze on pole.. PipPip.

GeeGee Parrot.

October 21st, 2015.

SIZE DOES MATTER..

Yes, I know, that is a very thought provoking title.

She came across some small grapefruit in the market on Monday, the size of an orange. "Ruby's" said Karen "very sweet and six for a pound", at that price, how could you leave them behind? Into WW they went along with two fennel bulbs, a large celariac and a large bowl of big fat carrots.

A mixed vegetable with coriander seed soup was on the menu and, whereas we like small juicy carrots to nibble on, when you are making soup you need those old fat ones.

The grapefruit were delicious but she treated them differently. For the first time ever in her life, she ate them like an orange, instead of cutting them in two and using a grapefruit knife, she peeled them. Ooooh, SO sweet!

And happy autumn days are truly here! For her favourite big 'greens' are back in season!

Spring Greens (I know, we're in autum but they've always been called this by her family), I think they're called Collards in the USA. Sliced and put into a very little amount of boiling water with onions and cooked for only a few minutes (you can drink the vegetable water which is mighty tasty), we eat them drizzled with olive oil and lots of pepper, two big ones plopped into Wicker Wheelie.

Who has had a facelift! Joska, an allotment friend and our opposite neighbour, gave her some willow clippings and she has made WW a new top edge but curiously, the wicker, although very supple, has dried and turned black! But its' done the trick, the top edge is now bigger and much stronger.

And yippee, the BIGGEST variety of persimmons are back in season! Oh, indeed, autumn fruits are so very slurpicious. The trick is to buy them hard, take them home and ripen them in a brown paper bag. Do NOT put them into the fridge! When they're soft, you eat them with a teaspoon like a boiled egg. Makes old Beaky drool just to write about them!

What else is newsworthy and of a special size?

Ah yes, our apples! It is now the third week of October and the last three apples trees are laden with their spectacular fruit! Red, russetty, tawny coloured 'lanterns' are hanging in profusion on these trees. The tastes of these different varieties is glorious, we have had a couple of chilly nights but the days are still warm, this has to have been one of the best seasons in a long time for apples.

Crab apples and medlars.. now for these babies we need Jack Frost. He 'sharpens' them up and gets them ready to ripen. Strange fruits, so sour and quite bizarre in looks and taste, they, like our much beloved quince, require cooking for them to give up their unique flavours which are glorious in both their taste and the colour of their jellies. On hot rye toast with goaty curd.. dreamy dreams.

Well, I've come to the end of my list of different sizeable things to eat but this is the truly the best amazingamazing news! She's half a lb over her half-way mark, having lost 2.5lbs last week, she was happy with that! HAPPY? She's thrilled (so are her knees)! She's smaller.. but still my mum.

So big or small.. you see, everything has a perfect size!

GeeGee Parrot.
October 21st, 2015.

YES, I KNOW WE'VE BEEN 'AWOL' & A VITAL BIT OF KIT!

Phew.. she's getting there folks.. she ain't quite as quick on her pins as normal but she's a'gettin there!

Poorpoor old knee, how it aches and grumbles away to itself, not too loudly I might tell you because she gave it a good talking to and told it in no uncertain terms that it was veryvery lucky not to have been broken.

Yesterday she went to weigh-in and she was, oh, so happy! For she lost a lb, despite her insides being in a real old muddle. First of all, they hate not having coffee in the morning and secondly, the hospital doctor who gave her the pain killers said "these may make you constipated".. nothing but truthful is my blog!

Lots of vegetables and non acidic fruit for us this week! Did you know that meat is very acidic? And that it takes the longest time to be digested? Anyway, she's off meat for a bit to let her poor digestive system right itself but what isn't happening, is gardening!

The doctor told her "NO walking about on uneven ground and NO digging, you have given that knee a really hard time and it must be allowed to recover properly". So she's going there to pick her apples and will chat to various friends, pity 'cos the weather is fine and there's nothing like pottering about in a t.shirt on a fine October day.

Hey-up.. Christmas is a'comin! We've been invited to a Christmas bash down in Kent by Ellie's Dairy, the Goaty folk people. Apparently they want to meet the 'mad parrot woman', now, you're all quite bright, do you think the 'mad' bit refers to me as the mad parrot or do you think it refers to her as the mad woman who has a parrot?

Answers please in my comments box which you'll find at the bottom of this post.

Ah.. now why was she so happy about the loss of just one lb when she's lost more in previous weeks? Well, it signifies that she's lost a fraction over 10% of her body weight and is almost halfway down to her desired weight.

And the other brilliant thing is this piece of rivetting news!

Do you have an adjustable wrench in your tool box? Do you have a tool box with any tools it it? Well, she's got a well equipped tool box but she didn't have a BIG wrench.

Yesterday morning she noticed the bathroom basin was taking a long time to drain, so she cleared the shelf under the basin, put a plastic bowl underneath the drain and went to undo the U bend, nah, it wasn't going anywhere, so after weighing in, she went down to get fruit from Karen and a large adjustable wrench from the reallyreally good hardware shop on North End Road at the junction of Lillie Road.

When she got back, she unpacked it from its' security wrapping and showed it the problem. The wrench opened its' jaw and clamped firmly upon the U bend screw, with a couple of twists later.. all was revealed! Feathers (!), a couple of tooth picks and congealed soap had formed a bung, no wonder the drain was not draining quickly.

She cleaned out the U bend with hot water plus a squirt of sterilisation fluid and clamped it back into position. Job done and cost? £7.99. Saving her lots of dosh for not having to call out a plumber who would have done exactly the same but charged her between £45 - £60 for his call-out fee.

Moral of Tale.. buy a wrench!

PipPip.. fast breaking time. an egg for me and apples for her, aren't I lucky!

GeeGee Parrot.
October 13th, 2015.

RTI STANDS FOR 'ROAD TRAFFIC INCIDENT'.. HOW DO I KNOW? 'COS SHE WAS IN ONE THIS MORNING!

What a gruesome day.. my mum has finally come home after a very unpleasant day. She left the house just before 11.15am and at 11.25am, she was lying injured in the road.

She was walking fast up Pont Street when she remembered her bus pass was in another jacket, so she turned around and walked towards home.

She is very careful crossing roads and was half way across one, just about to pass behind a stationary car which was waiting for another car let it go ahead, when, suddenly a van came charging towards it forcing the car backwards.

He saw her too late, she tried to get out of the way but fell.. luckily to one side and not underneath his back wheel. There was a screech as the van saw what he had caused, reversed and was gone.. as if the hounds of hell were after him!

The driver leapt out, as did his passenger and four other men appeared out of nowhere. One huge guy picked her up like a baby and carried her out of the road and put her down gently onto her feet.

Badly cut right knee, poor old right knee, it is always this one that gets whacked or badly hurt and cut arch of right foot but she could stand, nothing broken. But she was shaking and in shock, one minute she was carefully crossing the road, the next minute she was flat on the ground.

The car driver said "can we take you to hospital, can you walk, are you ok, did you hit your head".. she said "I'm fine, thank you, I am ok", he gave her his card, he's a driver for a limo service and then he said "please go to A&E when you're not so shaky if you won't let us take you now" and then the housekeeper of the house came running up saying "what has happened, a neighbour has just told me you were hit, are you ok?"

The kindness of these men was amazing, there were now seven men making sure she was ok and her housekeeper said "I'm her housekeeper, I'll take her to her home" and he walked her slowly home.

She walked very slowly down our stairs, put neat Hydrogen Peroxide on the cuts, took a slug of Rescue Remedy and walked slowly to the bus stop to take her to A&E at Charing Cross. Why there and not Chelsea & Westminster Hospital?

Well, she's an out patient of four different departments at this hospital, she knows her hospital number backwards but the first thing she had to do was report the loss of one of her hearing aids, in the sudden movement of falling, the skinny little device had flown out of her left ear!

Having told them about the loss, she limped off down to A&E, she was seen pretty quickly by a doctor and given two pain killers for the knee was swelling into a huge mess and becoming more painful by the second.

"Xray for you lass, that's one hell of a bang you've taken there", off she went to have xrays done. The results show a chip off the outside of the upper bone and severe trauma - swelling. Back to the doctor who cleaned it up and put on bandages, "Report this to your local police station, keep it elevated and don't do any unnecessary walking for three to four days, take this pill last thing at night and these for the pain, bandages on until Monday morning and then keep it dry and get a Tetanus shot from your GP on Tuesday".

So that's where she went next.. the cops were NOT happy at all.. and were furious about the van driver who caused the accident, they took the car drivers name and details, gave her the crime number and then made her laugh when one said "And if we see that escapee hearing aid, we'll bring him home".

So there you are.. but hey.. she's reallyreally lucky, it could have been a broken leg or worse.. a hip.. ugh, it doen't bear thinking about, we are now in bed and she getting drowsy, so we're off to sleep.

Horrid to think of my mum being a number.. just one of the many hundreds of people hurt by careless drivers who are 'in a hurry'. Grrr.

GeeGee Parrot.
October 9th, 2015.

THE RHS AUTUMN FESTIVAL SHOW AT VINCENT SQUARE.. WOW!

On a dismal wet day, where better to go than an Autumn Festival Show and not just any Autumn Festival but the RHS Show at their London HQ. 

Yes, the RHS does fruit and vegetables as well as flowering plants and this fruit and vegetable show is a cracker! She was struck dumb by the perfection of parnips which were over five feet in length, of leeks which would make enough soup to feed a family of six.

The Muscat grapes.. slurp! The dark purple bloom on the massive bunches of black grapes.. they could have been a picture drawn in crayon. 

The autumnal fruit baskets which held a selection of everything including medlars and cob nuts. These were heavenly! 

The competitors, all of whom were the very best at their job or hobby, were sweet, she chatted to a couple of men down from Fife, one of them had won First Prize for his parsnips and he told her how he grew them and what he grew them in! 

And, Dear Readers, it was not just any old soil, that's for sure! 

Having raided a stall of a hefty bag of packets of seeds and a few different varieties of garlic, she thought she'd just go and look at the childrens' section. 

Incredibly impressive! The results of the effort and work of these quite young children was outstanding, then she wandered along towards an apple nursery stand which she'd missed by being transfixed by the giant parsnips.

Only to come to a screeching halt! For there.. as large as life.. with her 'goodies' in a pan was Selina! 

You'll know her as the supplier of that 'chilli hot stuff' that Debbie and she are addicted to at Marylebone Farmer's Market, yes, that Selina, the maker of scrummydumptious Malaysian Dumplings!

Such hugs were hugged.. for they haven't seen each other since the early summer because she's been in Malaysia with her family.. and as they were chatting with Tom, who sometimes runs the stall for her, Selina was busy with a pan and before you could say "hot chilli sauce", she'd been given a helping of dumplings! 

She took her mobile and snapped Selina with the dumpling pan and send it to Debbie Goaty Mum saying "LookieLookie, look who I've found at the RHS show?" 

If you want to eat some of Selina's food in the week, head for Borough Market from Wednesday to Saturday.. for her food is fab! And she and her teams do lots of the Farmer's Markets during the week.

Every fourth Sunday in the month - October 25th - both Ellie's Dairy and Selina, with her Malaysian dumplings, are to be found at Marylebone Farmer's Market. Which is behind the Waitrose store on Marylebone High Street in the car park.

What a surprise, so with a helping of slurpicious dumplings, topped off with very hot chilli sauce, in her tummy, why, she almost didn't register that it was pouring with rain when she left. 

What a great afternoon. Lots of knowledgeable folk to answer any manner of question about anything that you wanted to know about, great nursery suppliers of all manner of edible produce and truly breathtakingly, wondrous displays of fruit and vegetables

She's going to settle down with a soft fruit catalogue but before we go, we're saying a BIG "Thank you Tereza" for her ticket.

GeeGee Parrot.
October 6th, 2015.

HE HAD BULLIED & BEEN MEAN TO HER. SHE DIDN'T WANT HIM TO PLAY WITH HER PUPPY. SO HE SHOT HER DEAD. HE IS 11 & SHE WAS 8.

There's bad stuff in today's papers, enough, Dear Readers to make you weep.

In Tennessee an eight year old girl is dead because an eleven year old boy, who had bullied and been mean to the girl, shot her. She almost certainly didn't count him as a friend, so why would she let anyone, especially someone who hadn't been nice, play with her puppy?

I cannot, and almost certainly neither can you, imagine what is going on in the minds of the families involved in this tragedy. The family of the little girl will have to live with her loss. Meanwhile, the parents of the young boy, who shot her with his fathers 12 gauge shotgun from inside his house, have to live with this death caused by their young son.

There are a lot of words one could say about this but she's going to keep her mouth shut and pray for those concerned.

GeeGee Parrot.
October 6th, 2015.

SHE'S OK BUT HER BODY IS VERY GRUMPY & IT'S RAINING.. BIG SIGH.

She's happy but her tumtum isn't! Oh no, poor old tumtum is veryvery unhappy indeed, it's missing that black stuff aka proper coffee that she used to drink and is refusing to 'work', to put it politely.  She hasn't drunk coffee since Wednesday morning and, oh dear, is all I can say.

She has tried upping the amount of fresh vegetables and fruit, drinking more water but not a lot is happening and to add insult to injury, she registered a gain of 1/2lb on the scales at weigh-in this morning. That, I can tell you, did not please her one bit. Huh.

She had probably the last fine day yesterday at the allotment. We're in for serious rain as Hurricane Joaquin comes towards us, it was either drizzling or rain hard all today and she thought, as she had a lot of trotting to'ing and fro'ing to do, 'I'll wear my waterproofs' which kept her dry and snug and she was asked by two friends this morning 'Where did you get those?'

Yesterday was a busy day. Grass was cut, allotment tidied, the rain will be good as we've had a dry hot week last week, she wants moist ground in which to plant garlic, the apples are amazing! The various varieties are truly spectacular with their different colours and the pear tree leaves are turning to red and gold.

It is such a gloriously vibrant and colourful season, especially as some of the apples look like Chinese lanterns hanging on the trees.

To Vincent Square tomorrow to the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) Autumn Festival, the perfect place and time to speak to nursery growers and get tips on pruning. Then to Leyland's to buy a big wrench, the bathroom basin is not draining properly, so she has to take the U bend off to see if it is silted up, the plumber who installed this basin must have applied huge pressure when he tightened the last seal as it wil not budge.

Why the U bend should have silted up is beyond her but she'll try cleaning that first rather than just calling out a plumber, who may find just what she will when she gets it off. No point in paying someone to do something when you can do it yourself, PLUS she'll have a wrench in the tool box.

Wednesday she goes L'Oreal to have magic fingers work on her hair colour, goodness knows what it would cost in a salon as they do several techniques on her and it is looking amazing!

She followed a different recipe for Goaty curd yesterday, it wasn't a great success, the yield, out of 4 pints, was significantly lower that her usual recipe and the taste nowhere near as good, it's now hunt the original curd recipe time plus also the original recipe for ricotta. They'll be either in Favourites or Reading List on her iPad.. hopefully.

She'll buy beets from a farmer's market this Saturday, she has some whey from making the curd last Saturday, it means she now has the ingredients to make a couple of large jars of Beet Kvass, ohhh, how she loves this stuff and with proper Goaty curd - that she got given on Saturday - it is altogether a very slurpicious light meal.

And meanwhile.. there are two jars of Goaty Kefir hubble-bubbling away. These three things should cheer her poor old tumtum up, shouldn't they?

Now we're off to play chase the almond before I go to bed at a 'sensible' hour.. how boring.

GeeGee Parrot
October 5th, 2015.

IT WAS BANG & SCREW INSTEAD OF BEND & STRETCH!

After finishing chores she was getting into ballet clothes when she thought.. "huh, I had better start getting this place ready for the upheaval that is going to take place and the first place I ought to start is the bedroom".

At the head of her bed is a radiator that she turned off when she built the cupboards, she couldn't sleep with it on as she'd have boiled in her sleep but there was no other place for the bed to go. Now with the guys coming to put the new system in, she asked them if she could have the new radiator in a different place, of course, was the reply.

Where the new one is going there was a book case, which was lying on its' side in which she kept dvds and cds, she dragged the unit across the floor to the other side of the bed and stood it up on its' base against the back of a big cupboard. She's been meaning to do this for many a year but today's great news was the motivator!

It fitted perfectly and guess what, on the top shelf is the perfect place for the television! She took a couple of little angle brackets and screwed the shelf unit to the back of the cubboard. The shelf is deep enough for it to swivel on its' stand so now we'll loll in bed and watch tv in comfort and all the dvds fitted in underneath and on the top will live the big radio that she switches on for me when she goes out. How neat is that!

Then it was off down the Kings Road to Leylands for a few supplies. Underneath a set of existing shelves on the bedroom wall there is now a big empty space, if she put up two metal shelving tracks, this will give her four wide new shelves.

Taking WW meant she'd walk through St.Luke's garden and up to the library, change some books, then continue on past Beaufort Street to the ironmongers, she bought a little hacksaw, screws, a new masonry bit, rawl plugs, a box of small tacks and a new draught excluder for the front door and had a pleasant walk home in glorious sunshine.

HOT sunshine too! Today was a great deal warmer than many of the days we had in the summer months. Tomorrow she'll put up the metal tracks, meet Debbie Goat at Bute Street Farmer's Market between 2.30 and 3.00 and go up to Nu-Line at Ladbroke Grove, this is one of the few places left in central London who have a timber yard AND a cutting service.

Yes, it would have been good to go to ballet but she has to get this place ready for the guys to do the work. She may get asked if they can start in a couple of weeks time and as she is pretty busy for the next two weeks, she had better 'rock on' and get wherever they need to have access to cleared out!

THAT, Dear Readers, means she has to take everything out of her secret hidy-hole.. this is the place where the main gas pipe comes into our flat and where the gas meter is.

I don't envy her this job as it is where she has lamps in boxes and other treasures but taking one box out at a time, she can do it.. she has to do it.. because they'll be needing to run a new gas pipe out and down into the bathroom where the new boiler will be situated.

So no frolicking about this week, she'll go to what she has to but come straight home to get the place cleared to give the the guys room to work. Bah.. what's another box or two in the sitting room?  In fact, she'll have a look at what is stashed in the hiding place and if she doesn't need or want it any longer, it, whatever it might be, can go!

Donate, give or sell.. but out it can and out it will go.

GeeGee Parrot.
October 2nd, 2015.

THE GAS MEN CAME AND..

She's having to have an entire new system put in! Richard, one of the men, has dealt with the boiler and electrics for the forty plus years that she's lived here, so he knows the whole system well. Milford, the man who will be doing the gas work, is new to us but efficient and understood exactly what was needed and so what is happening is there will be.

A new combi-boiler, because as he said "there's only you using the water, if it was a large family then it makes sense to have a large tank of hot water but for one person who also has and uses a power shower, why waste money?"

Four new radiators will be fitted as the old ones are micro-bore, the location of the one in her bedroom is going to change ~ yippee ~ the huge old boiler is coming out ~ yippeeyippee ~ the only gruesome bit is she has to take the chest on chest out of the bathroom and it's big!

But heyho.. it might be time for that to be taken apart, it is two units and for it to go to Little Shed at the allotment and for her to have a simple chest of drawers in its place. It will be sad for me because that is where Wallaby and I play but we'll find somewhere else I'm sure.

They were here on the dot of 09.30 and left an hour later with their list of measurements, luckily there is a false ceiling above the hall so that the pipework will disappear out of sight as it travels up and down the hall from the gas supply inlet to the bathroom, where the new boiler will be located in the cupboard where the existing water tank is situated and into the sitting room. There is no need to dig up the concrete flooring.. thank goodness, as that was her main concern.

Milford beamed when she said that the bathroom cold water supply ran straight off the mains supply and that there is a waste pipe in the corner underneath the existing water tank, "oh, that makes my work so much easier".

This means that the work of tiding and sorting and throwing away of stuff in the sitting room has to be speeded up, unfortunately these three actions are way back on the her back burner as the weather, which again today is perfect, is making her want to be out and about in it rather than in and slaving over a hot shredding machine!

But, as this winter is supposed to be going to be chilly-billy, ain't this news grand? A cosy home and with hot water at anytime. No having to have the boiler on for a couple of hours so she can wash her face in the morning! AND, as Rob, the Wizard, pointed out to her, the two pipes (15ml) running along the top of skirting boards to the radiators give off heat as well!

So that was all good, they arrived on time, there will be minimal disruption, she now HAS to get on and finish the sorting out ~ THIS IS VERY GOOD NEWS ~ it will be done. Now she has to finish doing her chores and get dressed in suitable clothes to do 'Bend & Stretch' exercises at the barre.

I wish I could watch them do this, I'm sure the ballet mistress wouldn't mind if I was very quiet.

GeeGee Parrot.
October 2nd, 2015.

THE WEATHER WAS PERFECT.

After doing a few chores and feeding the beast.. aka me.. she dressed in allotment clothes, including her waterproof trousers, gave me a kiss on Beaky and went to do hard work at the allotments.

There were a couple of her old friends there including DirtyGirty, a charming Jack Russell who is an ace mouser and rater, we LOVE Girty and she's welcome to come and whizz over our plots any time she wants.

No digging today, it was out with the petrol tank, 2 stroke oil, the measuring cap and the grass trimmer. Vroom, it sparked on the first pull and off she went. Having done her plots, she went down the main track, clearing away nettles and grass from the centre and doing the sides to keep the track clear.

She trimmed two friends small plots, one is her Sicilian friend who 'pays' her in either zucchini or wild rocket, then went down to the very end where Ros has her two plots. A quick whizz around the front and along her boundaries and then back up the other side of the path.

The temperature today was perfect and so it would be glorious if the rest of October and perhaps even November were like this, it makes Winter (brrrr) seem not so long, but it is amazing how quickly the sun seems to slide across the sky and slither off down into the west.

She caught the 17.08pm bus home and, as luck would have it, made an immediate connection with a 74 bus on Lillie Road which meant she was home in just over an hour. We've had an early light supper, she is a bit disturbed but caffeine withdrawal will do that to you, especially if you go cold turkey and just stop, like she's done.

Not a lot to report. Except Tereza has very sweetly given her a ticket to the RHS Harvest Festival at Vincent Square for next Tuesday! Yippee.. she'll talk with a couple of nurseries about ordering a few things and discuss fruit tree and bush pruning.

Just a lovely sunny Autumnal day spent outside in the sunlight, it sounded pretty good to me, despite the fact I didn't want to go. But then, as you know, I'm tricky sometimes. No gardening tomorrow, for someone's coming at 09.30am to look at the boiler which is over 50 years old and not up to new flue safety regulations.

Then bend and stretch.. aka ballet at 13.00!

GeeGee Parrot.
October 1st, 2015.

BACK TO THE BARRE & A GREAT FIND!

It's alright for me as I see her all the time but there are some of you who know her, who won't know her or recognise her soon. For she's on that merry losing streak and now, Dear Readers, she's going to sign up to join a bunch of creaky friends to take ballet classes again!

"Bending and stretching, my dear, will keep you strong", was said by Waveney Provatoroff,a great friend of Constance. Waveney was older than her mother and what stories, all true my dears* she told! Waveney and Constance walked their dogs across the marshes at Sandwich and she always said that being with Waveney was the BEST fun.

*Kenneth Carten was her brother and was a theatrical agent, whose clients, besides others,  included.. Laurence Olivier and Noel Coward!

So the stories were truly amazingamazing! And the combination of the family's much beloved friends, Judy and Richard Calidicott, with Waveney and Vladimir, her husband who had been an SOE Agent during WW2, was memorable!

So it is backwards in time she zooms.. for it is fifty, yes fifty, years this year that she last took a ballet class! Plies should be done by everyone every day.. and this is why.

For the proceedure of bending both your knees at the same time with your feet in several different positions uses and strengthens your thigh muscles - and others - and, as you get older, if these muscles are not strong, you'll have dificulties getting up out of a chair, the bath and walking properly.

Other vital muscles are your tumtum ones! So pull and hold your stomach in, keep it in and your back will thank you. Your core muscles are vital. Think about it and suck your gut in and up!

GRIM start to a glorious day, for her, not me! For today is the first day for many years that she's not had her much beloved Vellutto Nero coffee. She's giving nice Tim's recommendation of not drinking coffee a six months trial to see if her digestive system appreciates the lack of coffee.. are you up here with us or still lolling about working that out?

But green tea is not going to take the place of coffee, of this you can be sure, it's the smell my dears.. ugh. Today our old favourite Lapsang was drunk but, whereas, we love that as our reallyreally first cup of anything drunk in bed tea, it didn't taste quite right with her grapefruit and boiled egg.

Ahha.. she's had a eureeka moment! Kefir will do the trick! Now let's hope Debbie Goaty mum remembers her request for some Kefir grains and brings them up this Saturday. If she's going to overhaul her eating and drinking, she might as well go the whole hog and change lots of things.

Going to Baldwins is always fun because she can and does slip across to the extremely well stocked Asian supermarket.. slurp.. a new variety of Kimchi made of radish leaves was beyond wonderful last night and the new very fine stainless stell steamer ball is brilliant.

Taking a fat fresh chicken breast, she sliced some slices off the end, put a couple of homemade frozen chicken stock cubes into boiling water water with dried tarragon and fresh lemon peel - the steamer ball is about four inches in height and width - and having laid the chicken strips into the bottom section and reduced the stock to a rolling simmer, she screwed on the lid and lowered the steamer into the stock.

Where, in less than a minute, it poached and all she had to do was lift the steamer out. The meat, which was perfectly cooked, drained immediately! How clever is this little gadget? For it means you can cook anything for however long you like and then whip it out and it drains itself.. no more putting through a sieve to drain anything! It will be fabulous for vegetables.

Time for us to start our day.. the sun is 'ris and shining happily on this first day of October.. Autumn is here, well, it got here is September but we think it is October that is the best month of all. The colours are stupendous and the weather, usually, perfect. So off we go..

GeeGee Parrot.
October 1st, 2015.