Incognito

 Apologies, I have just realised that I have commented on several of your blogs (and replied to comments on my own) as anonymous…tut tut…

All down to new set up hiccups…hopefully now resolved.

Been having a few days off, today is dull and pretty lifeless here. Not sure how we’ll be affected by the impending storm but feeling unsettled knowing that I will have to travel to work.

Fire lit, and my first ever pitta bread dough currently rising to take care of some leftover lamb bits languishing in the fridge.

Thinking I have a case of the January blues…not helped by the recent stress…just can't get my head around the paperwork at all…brain feels stuck and know it’s not worth trying as I’ll just make mistakes at the moment. Be kind to self, be kind to self!

I spent half the night down on the sofa, though think the culprit to have been the mixture of butter and cream in my sliced potato and onion dish topped with some leftover pastry. It tasted wonderful, but in hindsight could have been the cause of my 2am wake up and subsequent failure to get back to sleep, at least in part.

Is that a glimmer of sunshine I see through the kitchen window? I really ought to fetch in some logs for the next few days as be it rain or snow, neither will make for fun trips to the log store. It will probably help lift my mood also. Best foot forward and all that…but it’s so hard when an invisible thread holds you back.

Not a very interesting photo, however this was our turkey after I spent an hour deboning, stuffing and rolling it. It made for much easier carving, and we’d sorted the carcass and eaten the stew and orts before the big day. I do not however own a boning knife so managed a small self inflicted injury during the process using a carving knife.

Make sure to keep warm and safe in the coming few days, unfortunately I return to work tomorrow, and will be taking stout boots and extra clothing with me just in case of unforeseen circumstances on my journey home.  

Blessings J. x

About Time Too!

 I fear I owe an apology for my prolonged absence however unfortunately there has been good reason for it. 

Back in November, life was good, and we even went on a short turkey and tinsel break with some of our friends.

The morning after we came back I found an unpleasant message on my phone. It was unsettling, even though I didn’t believe it to be true, it was from a new FaceBook account with no profile picture and referenced one of my daughters. Indeed after a few days mulling it over and chatting with work colleagues I reported it as harassment, not mentioning it to daughter.

A week or so later I had the good fortune to finish work a little early. I had an anonymous phone call which I only answered as I had sent off my bowel screening test the previous week. This caller hung up but then phoned again and advised me my daughter was in danger. I don’t wish to go into all the horrid details, however they seemed to know names. They rang again later to say they knew how upsetting this all was. Strangely no actual facts.

Hubby came home and having not mentioned the original message to him I decided I needed to tell him what had happened. He too had had anonymous calls that afternoon. I think it was 37 in under an hour.

After contacting my daughters Mother in Law we decided that we really needed to make them aware of what had happened, they had had nothing untoward, but us two Mothers put on a united front and went to the nearest police station that you could actually get to talk to someone. 

They thought it was some sort of scam, as did we but were then at a loss as to how it would develop.

Then whilst in dazed anxious mode I noticed our online accounting software was opening on a different page than it normally did. It also requested me to renew the bank feed, and in a totally different way to normal. Thankfully I did not carry this request out.

Passwords changed and the software went back to normal. I think we dodged a bullet aimed at us when we were very stressed.

I think just about all our passwords have now been updated, An old out of date laptop hubby was using has been evicted and new up to date device set up.

I stopped all media browsing, checking…everything…and am only now tentatively stepping back online.

So belated Merry Christmas to you all, and a Happy Healthy New Year be Yours.

I’m hoping to look back over my regular reads in the coming weeks to have a catch up.

Sorry it’s taken so long, my confidence was really knocked, then work became a whole lot more stressful than it needs to be due to staffing issues.

Just a photo of our tree this year, which sadly I had to remove earlier today due to it dropping needles, I wasn’t ready to say goodbye, having only put it up on the Winter Solstice!

And so January is our new master for a few weeks, we have had a little snow, and lots of hail and ice.

Keep safe, blessings, J. x