5th February

 
There was a spectacular start to the day when the rising sun met a bank of storm cloud.  I was up early feeding the cats.  They are all in various stages of recovery.  I do this on autopilot and am glad to snuggle back down into bed afterwards.  Our bed is just so cosy I love it.  My plan to stay in there for as long as possible was thwarted by John reminding me that CYTA may come - as it happened they didn't - I wonder if they do the residential fix that we need on a Saturday anyway.  I looked wistfully at the bed but knew that it was not to be.

The cats don't like this cold wet weather.  They want to be out but don't want to get wet and who can blame them so they run around causing havoc in and out of the curtains and then using the rugs as bumboards.   In some ways I preferred it when they were in the early stages of their laryngitis and sleeping all day.

They wreak havoc until their batteries run out and then they settle down and sleep.  The conservatory is by far the preferred place as it is the warmest part of the house.  We did have some brief spells of sunshine today so it kept the temperature in there at a level where we didn't need to put any other heater on.  The same cannot be said for the lounge area which verges on brassic!  

We had some hot and spicy carrot and peanut soup for lunch and wandered around like the kids on the old ReadyBrek advertisement with a glow of internal heating.  I shall need to make some more for next week.

I spent time getting our meal ready for tomorrow - we have persuaded Mum to stay at home as the weather forecast is not good and we are taking a meal down to her.  I was making a beef in beer casserole with carrots and potatoes already inside - I can easily heat some beans and carrots.  For pud a marmalade bread and butter pudding and some cream.  Cooking at Mum's is a challenge - she has never used the oven at the bungalow and has relied on two ancient combi microwaves for years.  I have had my doubts about her microwaves and yesterday she told me that one of them had died, no longer heating up.  I don't think it has been heating up properly for a very long time.  We will have to take it away and dump it at the metal man on our way home tomorrow.

Spending time in and around the house during this cold and wet snap means that I have had loads of ideas about things I would like to do.  Having bought some new bedside lamps (which have proved a massive hit because they are stylish and touch and were cheap as chips) it left the old ones looking for a home.  I have always like the style of them - we bought them second hand for about 15 euros the pair - and they have a distinct Bauhaus vibe to them.  I didn't want to get rid of them so between us we agreed to put them on the dresser for some ambient light.

We battened down the hatches early.  As there is this bad storm due at some point we wanted to get the house nice and warm and eat a decent evening meal just in case we are without electricity which is normally what happens.

Tonight we had earmarked to have some fillet steak from Shuks with paprika chips, baked onion rings, peas and my home-made mustard sauce.  We had been looking forward to it that much that it would have been criminal for us not to enjoy it.

John decided that we should open a nice bottle of wine to accompany the meal.  We had a nice bottle of Aeon which we had been given by the winery.  It deserves a good meal and goes particularly well with steak.  Interestingly this bottle was 2017 and dispels the myth that Cypriot wines don't keep beyond a couple of years because this was actually smooth, full bodied and fruity in flavour and a little too easy to drink.

John put himself through the pain of watching Sheffield United grind out a draw in a match that they should have won on paper.  The pain was eased somewhat by having a decent supper before retiring to bed at which point no storm had arrived which was good news.