Notes on a Sunday

Haven't the wherewithal to write a particularly cogent post today but had things I wanted to write about so perhaps a few notes will just do for now. Don't let the perfect (ha!) get in the way of the good and all that.

• Blogger is letting me post pictures again so I've added the two random ones I wanted to add ot my last post to this one. 
• I've never paid a huge amount of attention to the stats on this blog but used to look every once in a while (or every day for a while and then not at all for ages) and noticed that one search term that seem to lead people here a lot was "how not to get overwhelmed" - except they mostly landed on this post, in which I talk about how overwhelmed I am. I have thoughts about this and it's one of those things I have wanted to write about for years, ever since I noticed it. Maybe one day.
• Went to the doctor on Friday and got a referal note to go and see a psychologist again and even spent a half an hour searching for one in my area and sent one an email to see if they have a free spot. I'm very all over the place at the moment, possibly with some delayed shock from a minor car accident I had in December and had a bit of a breakdown the week before last related to that so I just need to go and get help. Feeling very alone, especially because my brother, when I have phoned him over the last few weeks, has not been answering. I know he finds January tough and is extremely busy at the momeny, especially helping a friend whose husband had to go into hospital but I have seen that he has been on social media so I'm not too worried about him. Just a bit hurt because this time around I needed to talk to him and he hasn't phoned back. But I haven't actually sent him any messages saying I need to talk either. Not sure why but just couldn't manage to type any messages. At any rate, I hope the doctor I contacted has a place free soon.
• In the meantime, I'm trying to keep going with all the stuff that I know is helpful and that I need to do.

Light dusting of snow near work

• Went to third aquajogging session yesterday - I am really enjoying it. I did a full hour on the bike at the gym on Friday evening, too, and then walked home (it's about 25-30 minutes to walk at my speed). I had two heavy bags with me though and between that and the aquajogging yesterday, I was really feeling it in my arms yesterday - especially my lower arms. 
• Yesterday I made cabbage soup using a recipe from a Jane Grigson book I bought a few years ago on the strength of a recommendation from a blog I read. A book I have only glanced at before. But a recipe for cabbage soup that consisted of cabbage, onions, apples, garlic and ginger seemed like a good idea. It's nice, although more watery/liquidy than I was expecting. 
• Read about Zuckerberg deciding to integrate Whatsapp and Instagram into FB - not impressed. I suppose I'll replace insta with more blogging again. And I've now installed telegram, too - now to just get everyone I know to do the same so we can telegram instead of whatsapping.

 

• I took the pork that I bought last July and never got around to using out of the freezer yesterday and even mixed up the spice mix so that I could give it a few hours with the rub before putting it into the slow cooker today. As soon as I got up this morning I checked and it had finally defrosted so I did the spice rub immediately. 
• Also made "fake" tomato ketchup last night to use as the basis of the braising sauce for the pork today. By fake I mean that I mostly used my recipe for tomato ketchup but used a tin of tomatoes rather than fresh and not bothering with the whole sieving and reducing aspect. This comes from my first adventures in pulled pork where I used up jars of runny tomato ketchup I had made and it was so good, I was disappointed when I had no more of those jars left.
• Got the pulled pork into the slow cooker about two hours ago. Instead of making another soup, which I had bought other veg for, I just decided to add that veg to the pulled pork. So I sauteed two leeks, three onions, five cloves of garlic and a kohlrabi. Put most of that into the bottom of the slow cooker but held back a couple of spoonfuls to use in my breakfast (which I ended up not actually eating until about  half-three - it has just been that kind of day). Added the meat with it's lovely spice rub. Made up the brasing sauce using about a litre of water, a couple of spoonfuls of veg stock powder, two teaspoons of honey, a big glub of white wine vinegar (the last of the bottlw) and the ketchup I prepared last night. 
• Brought washing down to the cellar to get it into the machine. Someone got there before me so I came back upstairs and when I went back down I brought down the rubbish and the recycling. That's a win. I've even put a new bag into the bin already. Going to go down to collect my washing now and it just occurred to me that I never emptied the bins in the bathroom and sitting room. So I'll do that and feel like I'm one step closer to a clean home. 
• Breakfast was leek/onion/garlic/kohlrabi mix with the chopped up leaves of the kohlrabi, the last slice of ham and last two slices of cheese, all scrambled with two eggs and eaten along with a slice of toast. It was very tasty, even if I do say so myself.
• I even did most of the washing-up while the eggs were cooking.
• My two-euro coin to use in the lockers at the swimming pool is stored in the little case I have for my business cards. Forgot about that yesterday until I was nearly ready to leave the pool and was trying to think of where I could store my coin so that I wouldn't have to ask them for change every single week.

Found dolphins on my ukulele!

• I cleared off the top of the chest of drawers in the sitting room to put the slow cooker on top off. It has been a landing ground for junk ever since I moved here. I put away the things that do already have a place to live and the rest is in a big shopping bag. Need to start doing small amounts of sorting every day. I put clear off writing desk and file stuff from table on my to-do list for January and haven't done either of those things yet. Although I have cleared up the table a bit and tided up the non-paper stuff that had gathered. 
• I bought a special flat-plug extension lead to plug the slow cooker into. Most of the sockets in this place have ended up behind pieces of furniture so I was glad I thought to check if such a thing as a flat-plug exists. Now I won't have to have multiple pieces of furniture with a two or three inch gap to the wall. Need to get one or two more for other spots but this was definitely a purchase that sparks joy!