Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 13 October 2019

Oh dear OG what a calamity. Do hope you can get things fixed before too long. At least the compost heap will be well fed. At least you've managed to salvage the mincemeat and pastry for pies and Canada Cakes, yes probably you could be having them for breakfast. LOL

OG: That sounds terrible.  So both the oven and the fridge are kaput?    I'd hate to have to relegate those lovely veggies to the compost heap.  :-(     Good luck getting hold of the fix-it folks.  

Heather: I see your first post has disappeared.  I bet that would've raised some eyebrows among the moderators.  :-)

Lindybird: Wonder what's up with your WiFi.  Ours has been especially lack lustre lately;  also our cell phone signals (from different providers).  

AQ:  The BBC web site has a wonderful section called Reel, which has a short video about Coober Pedy (in SA's opal country) and the underground homes some of the people live in. One guy was constructing anunderground bathroom and found enough opal to finance the work!   Of course, I then had to zoom off to Google Earth for a visit. Looks very isolated and hot and flat.  It's an 8-hour drive from you, so assume it won't be anywhere you'll be visiting soon.

Hallo to Rosy, Lynette, and PatO.  Off to see what's been going on (I've been out all day), then to sort out dinner for OH and then to yoga.  

OG - I am so sorry for the appliance catastrophe!! I know that I would have been sick if that had happened to me in my younger days when we gardened, canned and froze for the winter!!!
Hope they can get everything running soon.

Evening all:  Rounded the corner to our house this evening and was met by spectacular Harvest/Hunters Moon, low in the sky so larger than now, and a lovely gold......

Hi bjane!

Good Morning. Not so good for OG and EE, I suspect. .. Just awful, losing all that produce.

Damp here at present but a drier day to come. We have a busy day ahead, starting with a visit to Sue, my OHs sister.

Good morning - was tired enough to sleep till 6:40, so got up early. Got to catch up on the phone calls after breakfast.

ANNETTE - thankfully, the fridge is okay. It was the big chest freezer which went. We are so lucky that we have alternatives to both oven and freezer.

We were to go to M&S today, but most of the shop would have been chilled food to freeze, so will make do with a local trip to Tesco for milk and maybe fresh veg.

OG - I'm so sorry to hear of your electrical/white goods disaster. Sadly, it seems quite common that when one thing 'goes', it is quickly followed by another. Is it because we buy new things at the same time, and they wear out at the same time? I don't know ... I had a freezer die on me several years ago. I had no compost heap, so had to load rotting food into black bags and take them to the tip. The smell was horrible. I do hope the items are able to be repaired quickly. The timing for all your lovely fresh produce could not have been worse.

Yes, I am reasonably organised. I have to be. But it doesn't stop frustration building up, when I feel I am not doing things as well as I should, or things are piling up. Hardly surprising I sometimes have sleepless nights ... you'll find me at the computer, editing the magazine or polishing the last thing I had written! Or catching up with e-mails at 3.00am!

Wet and horrible here this morning - again. Where does all this rain come from?!!? The forecast told me it was going to be dry today - wrong again.

PAT - the chest freezer was 26 years old, so it had served us very well! The oven is about fifteen years, or, at least, I don't remember replacing it since we put a new one in soon after moving here. The oven repair man is coming tomorrow morning - but I suspect he will need to take it to his workshop for a repair, unless he declares it irreparable and we would get a new replacement.

OH is still washing freezer containers which he had to empty- not sure where to store them all.. I went to cut the mincemeat tarts into portions, and discovered severely soggy bottoms, so we put them back in the oven upside down and made a mental note that the combi-oven is no good for baking cakes and pastries! But the rescue trick seems to have been successful, and the kitchen smells good.

Weather here is "average" - some sunshine earlier but dull now - no rain. We are intending to have lunch at Loch Arthur tomorrow, but it depends how early the repair man comes - we need to buy a few organics there, and the menfolk always like any excuse to eat pie! I may have pie too, especially if their lovely Homity Pie is on the menu.

OG - I had a Neff double oven but in it's time here - can't remember how long but probably 12 to 15 years, needed two new elements (fan oven).Both times I got a new element fitted, no requirement to take oven away. Hope that you will get it sorted soon.