Just January

I feel all washed out, buggering about like a burp in a bottle.  I feel like I am not even good for spares. 

Strawberry has been very cross at not being let in, although she has only been in a time or two.  I have put down some food for her but my conscience has been eased a little as it appears that the local pizza parlour have been feeding her.  They have form for feeding strays and good for them!  She has spent a large part of the afternoon glaring at me through the kitchen window whenever I have made token efforts in there.  I still haven't managed to get the pan clean, the one that had the curry which set the fire alarm off.  I have been simmering it with oxyaction in, and I am waiting and seeing if that does it. 

I've managed to write 1200 words today, and I should have written a lot more as it is a big bit of dialogue and I usually get lost in those bits.  I may have to abandon this story altogether as it is fighting back.  Or it may just be January. 

My Lakeland delivery arrived.  There was a new cutlery tray.  I didn't need it at all.  On the other hand, the current one was bought in 1994 (from Lakeland) and has a thingy that slides across the top.  It has been driving me nuts recently with the influx of cutlery that came with darling father which meant the bit that slides across is always bouncing off things.  And I keep losing the scissors under the tray and this new one has a bit of a space.  I didn't need the utensil tin either, but the Remoska is now on permanent station near the cooker, and I like to keep my big utensils near my cooker, and there is only the top of the fridge near my cooker which is in a corner next to the door so there is a limited place to put my utensil holder - which was a large plastic 3kg plastic Vanish tub.  I had taken the label off, and the Remoska hadn't melted it yet.  But I didn't need it.  Nor the new bathmat which will be infinitely easier to wash.  OH had insisted on the wipes for the tv and he would be a bit tetchy if he found me cleaning the tv with anything but something specialist - but that is not unreasonable. He deals with a lot of damage reports that include, 'I was trying to clean the tv when...'  The only thing I really needed was the mould killer - and that could have waited until the roof was fixed. 

I saw a soup maker on offer and nearly bought one.  It is still touch and go.  The thought of being able to just switch on the stuff and forget about it is lovely.  I also saw a Tefal 8 in 1 cooker advertised.  I love Tefal, I have had some really good results from Tefal.  But I don't really have the counter space for anything new let alone a soup maker or a 8 in 1 thingy maker. 

We had a home made tea tonight, and it is looking like it could be chicken with a jar of hoi sin sauce tomorrow.  I need to get more enthusiastic about cooking.  I also need to learn to make pastry.  I watched a recording of Gordon Ramsay making pastry on YouTube and while he looked very confident about it all, I have never yet created edible pastry.