Hello and Happy New Year - if we’re allowed to say that at this point in time. I reckon we’re good for the first half of the month, and I’m just squeezing in there, so greetings of the New Year etc etc.
That said, I bloody hate January. It is simply the worst month: cold; dark; financially stricken. I had just finished paying my Christmas credit card bill and various school invoices (music lessons etc etc) and was feeling reasonably financially smug when I checked exactly how much I need to pay HMRC by the end of the month and OH MY GOD. It is an obscene amount of money. Which means I really need to pull my finger out and work bloody hard to afford everything else, although January as we all know is mostly conducive to hibernating under the covers, not working. So that’s minor (major) irritation number one.
Anyway, January makes me grumpy, to the extent that I started making a list of all the small things that are annoying me lately (which of course I now can’t find) thinking I would make a Substack post about them to see how many fellow grinches I have out there. In all seriousness though, I would really like to spend less of my life feeling irritated. India Knight wrote a post recently which was a list of all the things she knows about herself, one of which is that she basically doesn’t sweat the small stuff, and I thought ‘Oh! I wish I was like that’. I am actually quite good in a crisis or a massive life change: I have handled juggling two small children and being pregnant with a third while my husband was deployed for nine months (yes, the exact length of a pregnancy); I have negotiated moving 200 miles and finding schools for my children; I am in the middle of logistics for another big move (to be revealed). I can do this stuff, but if I lose my keys or drop something on the floor or forget an appointment it feels like the world is exploding. I am simply unable to just shrug and smile about it; instead I rant and scream and swear, in an exceptionally childlike and unedifying manner.
There are also things that just excessively annoy me even though I really shouldn’t allow them the headspace/ability to affect my mood, but they do. Some are obvious external ones like the weather, or bad news; some are stupid irrational personal bugbears, like the sound of a metal water bottle rolling around in the car (this is such a trigger for me that my children now instantly know when they need locate, and anchor, said water bottle). Other things are external but specific. Here are some of the things that have really pissed me off lately:
Weather warnings.
It’s been exceptionally cold up here recently; minus 4 last week, with all the attendant ice, snow etc etc. It’s winter, it’s January, not entirely surprising. And yet the hysteria! The warnings to stay inside/stock up on food/turn the heating on. What on earth have we become, if we haven’t worked out those entirely sensible responses for ourselves? Surely someone who doesn’t realise you need to put a hat and gloves and an extra layer on when it’s cold is either a) a child or b) an idiot who probably isn’t going to listen to the news anyway. The rest of us are perfectly capable, thanks v much. I keep thinking about things like the Great Frost of 1683. They didn’t have alarmists all over the news then. Admittedly, many people also died, so maybe I should be grateful for modern mollycoddling. Just as long as I don’t have to listen to it.
Theatre bookings.
We went to the theatre over the Christmas holidays, to see The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at the Leeds Playhouse, which was excellent. HOWEVER when I was booking the tickets online, despite the fact that we are a family of five the website wouldn’t let me book five seats in a row because, it informed me, this would leave a single seat on the end of the row. Instead it forced me to book four seats, and a single seat which on the theatre plan looked as if it was the other side of the aisle. I grumpily conceded - no other choice (no other tickets available; I’d left it quite late) and then, lo and behold when we got there it turned out the other other side of the aisle was actually the other side of the massive sound/light desk which meant I couldn’t see the rest of my family AT ALL. I was actually feeling a bit grumpy with their general ungratefulness at the time, so it was quite peaceful, but it did really annoy me that the website had been all prissy about leaving one single seat unbooked and then split me up from my entire family, and the tickets weren’t that cheap either. Anyway, I fired off a cross email and to their credit they emailed back apologising and saying they needed to make it clearer on their website. Yes they do - but at least they acknowledge that fact; well done the Leeds Playhouse.
Changes to the bus timetable.
My children start school at two different times, and neither of their schools are within walking distance (I wrote about my nightmare school run here, if anyone’s interested) which means the mornings take ages. Until last term we would quite often take the bus, with my elder son catching a slightly earlier bus and me and the eight year old getting on the 8.07 which got us to near school for 8.30; time for a leisurely stroll down to the playground in plenty of time. Then for reasons unknown, First Bus cancelled the 8.07 service and now we have to choose between the 7.55 or the 8.20 which is just impossible: 7.55 is psychologically impossible and the 8.20 gets us there too late. So of course we pile in the car, sitting in traffic for ages and killing the environment. Not cool, First Bus.
Aldi getting rid of its weighing scales.
I now do quite a lot of my supermarket shopping in Aldi, and anything they don’t have I get by nipping to the big M&S round the corner. It’s a situation that suits me down to the ground, as I love Aldi (and Aldi’s prices) but they don’t always have things like e.g. preserved lemons. Anyway, I was in there before Christmas buying bits to make my red cabbage, and it turns out Aldi has got rid of the weighing scales it used to have in the fruit and veg section, which pissed me off no end, because I needed to work out how many Bramley apples was 600g. I searched around and couldn’t make the shop assistant understand that it wasn’t because I was concerned about the price, but because I wanted to make sure I got enough/not too many. I registered my displeasure, but I’m not sure he got it.
But seriously, Aldi, if you’re trying to appeal to your increasingly middle class customer base, taking away the scales is the wrong way to go about it. If you cook from scratch, like I mostly try and do, you need to know what things weigh, especially if you also prefer to buy them loose if possible. Taking away the scales is literally the worst thing you can do for cook from scratch customers.
I still have about six Bramley apples in my fridge, and keep meaning to make them into apple puree or sauce, but obviously haven’t got round to it.
What’s been yanking your chain recently? Let me know in the handy box below.
*I was going to include what to do about these irritations within each point BUT I have just started an excellent new course which I believe might solve my minor irritation once and for all - we shall see. I will report back.
Yorkshire excellence of the week
How do we feel about Sunday lunch? For me, it’s something I generally prefer to make and eat at home, and when I’m in the right mood I love doing it with all the trimmings: a really decent piece of meat/chicken from the butcher; Yorkshire pudding; roast potatoes; maybe a cauliflower cheese; a proper pudding with custard; red wine, Sunday papers; a nice snooze on the sofa after. I also like being invited to other people’s houses to follow much the same pattern. But generally, although I LOVE going out for lunch, ordering a roast is not something I will do in e.g. a pub or restaurant, as I usually feel I can make it better at home.
HOWEVER, just before Christmas I was given the chance to test out the Sunday Feast menu at Roots in York, and I have to say, it was rather splendid. I took my husband as a bit of a birthday treat, we sent the kids off to the school fair with a fiver each and bus money home and settled in for a couple of hours, that started off very nicely with a couple of cocktails - something whisky-based for him and a sort of modern kir for me - ran through a selection of appetisers, then some roast pork with all the bits, then pudding. For me, the best bit was the cocktails and the appetisers as those are things I’d never bother to do for my own Sunday lunch at home; I also dearly loved the fact that everything got cleared away and I didn’t have to do the washing up. Will it replace the joy of a really good roast? Not sure. But I can’t say I’m not tempted to do it again.
Conundrum of the week: is swanky dog food worth it?
We acquired a dog last year; our first family hound. I’m not really a dog person and never wanted a dog until suddenly, it felt very urgent that we get one, so I did some research and decided I wanted first, a whippet, as they’re low maintenance and don’t need loads of exercise, and then that morphed into wanting a Bedlington Whippet which are similarly low maintenance but a bit less shivery. Serendipitously, a friend of a friend was about to produce a litter, and so into our lives came our sweet Juno, companion and thief supreme. She’s basically pretty good, except from when she sees a squirrel which she’s convinced she’s going to catch.
Of course Instagram etc now know this about me and spam me with loads of dog related stuff, one of which I was suckered into recently, filling in a questionnaire for a company called Butternut Box that makes fresh dog food that gets delivered frozen, in pouches. The man who rang me up after I’d filled in the form told me he had a whippet, although I’m not sure I believed him and surely he’d just pretend he had whatever dog the person on the other end of the phone has? Perhaps I’m being cynical.
Anyway, I wouldn’t usually have bothered but last time we went to the vet she said Juno could do with a bit of fattening up (prior to this I was still basking in the previous vet visit when the vet had remarked on how lovely it was to see a dog who wasn’t overweight for a change), and it has been very cold, so I thought I’d sign up to the trial scheme. Juno of course loves it as it’s very much more exciting than her usual dry kibble. But the question is, does she now need it forevermore? Or am I signing myself up for a whole lot of financial pain and further hassle with fridge space? Answers on a postcard please.
