Sunday night chit-chat and sealed pot/stretch it out October update

Three down, two to go.  This is lovely cotton I have to admit, soooo soft and the colours are so nice, too.

 What are you:
Reading
1984 - haven't read this for years and it's one of those books that, although I remember the story and what happens, I don't really remember all that well. The writing is blowing me away and I know my changed views of the world, not to mention the ways the world has changed in the years since I read this (I think it was in the late 90s), are also having a huge impact on my reaction to this great book.

Watching
I've been watching Nashville. Tried and didn't even make it through the first episode a couple of months ago but I think sometimes you just need to get something in the right mood and it makes all the difference. Really enjoying it now but then again I do love some country music. Even if I don't keep up to date with it.

Listening to
Not much of anything. Just quiet at the moment before getting up to do the dinner. Might throw on The Creation while I'm doing that since our concert is coming up soon.

Cooking/baking
I prepared carrot, cumin and kidney bean burgers earlier so just need to fry a couple of them up. Going to have them with pumpkin wedges with a parmesan lemon crust (Ottolenghi recipe) and I've already chopped the pumpkin so just need to put together the rest of it and get them in the oven. I also made soup with the other half of the pumpkin earlier so lunch for tomorrow is all set.

Happy you accomplished this week
Made it through another week of work. And I managed to pull myself together enough to phone a psychologist to try and organise an appointment - I don't think I'm dealing too well with the grief since ignoring it isn't really the way to go, at least not for more than a week or two. This week was definitely better than the week before so I also got a couple of other things done that just seemed so overwhelming then. For example, I read through a friend's husband's first few chapters of a book (he wanted to know if his English was good enough to justify going on with it as it's a particular type of humour that he thinks only really works in English) and was glad to get that done, too. And I kept to my Stretch it Out October goal, too.

Looking forward to next week
My friends from Frankfurt will be up to watch the football in Cologne next Friday evening. I will watch it in the pub here (it's the German/Irish Society meet-up) but we will do something together on Saturday.

Grateful for this week
My lovely brother, who has been extra good about phoning to make sure I'm alright. And that although he dealt with things by going on a bender it seems to have been of relatively short duration and over now. Also my lovely colleague, K. who I share and office with and has been very understanding the last few weeks. And who also came to help me choose new glasses when I was being indecisive. And my lovely blog followers who have also offered me lots of support from a distance.

Bonus questions: What are you doing tonight?
Knitting more dishcloths for my sister's birthday present.

That's it for Sunday night chit-chat - if you want to join in post away and then head on over to Half-Daily Dozen to link up.

Sealed pot and SIOO update
Feeling very pleased with myself for having kept to my goal this week. I wanted to try and spend just what was in my purse (it was about 12 euro), keeping my planned budget of about 25 euro until the weekend so that I could spend it at the material market in a nearby town. And I did it, including still managing to go out one night (it's amazing how long I can make one cup of mint tea last. LOL), spending just over 5 euro from my allotted budget and still having a few euro leftover in my purse which went into my sealed pot on Friday evening. So when I went to the market yesterday I really enjoyed having that 20 euro in hand and being able to buy something just for fun.

For next week I have a 30 euro budget but that needs to cover two nights out (only one if I decide not to go out after choir). I spent nearly 10 of that yesterday on food so I really need to try and not spend anything at all if possible. I'd like to still have at least 10 left by Friday - that's enough for three pints (well, the 0.4l that they serve here) plus tip in the pub, which would be enough for the length of a match, I think. Now I just need to make sure I get up in time every day to eat breakfast at home and heat up lunch to bring in my flask, I'll be sorted.