Opalite by Taylor Swift

 See how many celebrities you can name in this video:

The beach...............

 The one thing I did not enjoy while away was the beach.  I felt it wasn't looked after.  The water was full of little bits of seaweed........I know it's a little thing but not my cup of tea.

Places we have been before they rake the sand on a night, don't think that happened here.

The sea was a stunning colour though.

However as you can see by the bouys bobbing in the water, you weren't allowed to go very far out in the sea.  I think there are coral reefs quite close to shore.

I only walked on the beach once, as I found it very uneven and it killed my feet.  So I was hobbling after half an hour.  The sand though was lovely to feel in my toes, even for such a short time.

Trending..........

 Did you know one of the biggest trends on Tik Tok is reading?  I didn't.  So I guess I am trendy, who knew😉

We had a doctors appointment last week, so called in at the Indigo Book Store while there.  Lots to see of course, in fact I spent a whole hour wandering around the store.  Took random photos of things I liked.

They have such lovely sweatshirts.  Shame I am always too hot to wear a sweatshirt......

I love the concept of book clubs, but generally hate going to them as I never like the books..........

The sign "Read More Scroll Less," caught my eye........I should do that!

I always check out the 3 for $10 books, did pick three up, but put them back.

Loved the colourway of these items, but I am not a journal writing person, are you?

These book sleeves/bags are popular.  I did buy one for grand daughter for her birthday last year, as she is a big reader.

I did pick this book up for $6 as it's one I have never read.  Have you read it?

I love this British magazine, I have bought it regularly since it was first published in the early 80's.  Fun fact, the lady on the front Helen Skelton;  she came from the same village hubby was brought up in.  He played football with her dad, although the dad is 3 years older.  Her brother is or was an assistant coach for the football team hubby supports.  She went through a rough time with her now ex-husband, it was splashed all over the newspapers.

Finally a bit of an update, as we are talking about books and reading in this post.  I have started reading Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen and have to say I am struggling with it.  Probably less than a third of a way through it.  It's the language in it, and the way she writes.  I am having to reread things to make sure I have understood what she is saying.  Did anyone else have to same issues when reading her work?  The rate I am going It's going to take me better part of February to read the one book!

28 Things in 28 Days Part 1

 So I said I would check in with you every 7 days to see how you are doing with collecting things to donate, and I would show you what I had collected.

I am donating three books.  Two I have read and one I picked up "The Joke" while on vacation, in the lobby (as someone else had left it and it was the only English book there), as I ran out of books to read and thought if I were desperate enough I could read this one.  I was never desperate enough......LOL

We cleaned out our sock and underwear drawers before we went on vacation and hubby had enough socks to last him a life time, so we decided to donate these brand new pairs that he wasn't keen on.

I cleaned out the toy box of all the baby toys, and decided to include this one toy that I got for free using points back in the day.  It's a great little toy and the kids all loved playing with it.

So those are my things for this week.  I will donate everything at the beginning of March.

How did you get on?

HIS & HERS | Official Trailer | Netflix

We watched this series the other week and I must say the ending wasn't what I was expecting!!!  Well worth watching........

Also binge watched the first four episodes of series 4 of Bridgerton:

Enjoyed it, but very predictable.......no real surprises........

Nana Power

 

That is the "key" to the room I am wearing on my wrist.  We all got one when checking in, and if we lost it, we had to pay for another one!!  You just held it up to a spot on your door and it opened it.  It was cut off when we left the resort, though the guy let the kids keep theirs.

The kids got a red one and I saw a green/blue one on older kids.  If you didn't have one, you couldn't get served, as it showed you were a guest of the resort.

Now youngest grandson (age 4) decided his bracelet had special powers, so of course I decided mine had special Nana powers as well!!  We would touch ours together and say Nana power, just like the Power Rangers!!!!

We had great fun using those powers.  I must admit I did like this bracelet idea, as they were waterproof and you didn't have to worry about losing your room key.

The gift that keeps on giving..........

 {{{SIGH}}}

As I mentioned before our 7 year old got food poisoning in the Dominican, which resulted in a trip to the doctors and meds prescribed.

Hubby got on the plane and his tummy started rumbling..........fast forward until we got home (thank goodness) and he started with the diarrhea, which lasted a few days.

Next younger grandson started vomiting and had diarrhea.  He wasn't well but made a nearly full recovery.......get back to him later......

Then son came down with it, just diarrhea, but bad enough that he had to go to hospital.  Got the results back and he has salmonella (food poisoning)  The doctor prescribed antibiotics, as in adults, they don't bounce back as fast.

Younger grandson is still vomiting once on a night (??) otherwise he is full of beans and bouncing.  Doctor told son to just let it run it's course, as other than the vomiting he's fine.

As I mentioned earlier this is the third time son and family have been to the Dominican, and twice son has had food poisoning.

Neither myself or daughter-in-law fell ill.  We only drank bottled water.  With oldest grandson we blamed all the burgers he ate.  With the rest of them, no idea.

According to the hospital and other people we have talked too, the Dominican is renowned for stomach bugs.........which is a shame as we had a super time while we were there.

Punta Cana Airport.........

I have never been as overwhelmed in all my life as I was when we went through Punta Cana airport to leave the Dominican last week.  I was so upset tears were just rolling down my cheeks, it was crazy.

We got to the airport just over 3 hours ahead of our departure.  The first line up was at the Westjet counters, where there had to be a few hundred people lining up, as there were multiple planes leaving within a short time of one another........I know poor planning on someone's part.

We then went through security, where there was barely a line up.  We then went into another area where the s*it hit the fan as they say.  We had to go through these kiosks/counters, to have our passports stamped and photos taken????  The place was packed, the lines were huge and half the kiosks not manned.

For some unbeknown reason we got stuck in amongst a huge group of people who we later learned were going back to Columbia.  They were in a panic as the line up was going so slow that they thought they were going to miss their flight.  They kept whistling to one another and they doing these group whistles and shouting which was deafening.  There was mass surges to try and get to the front and pushing and shoving, it was awful.

Meanwhile as I said we were stuck in amongst this with the kids.  The line up where the parents with younger kids was as slow.  Poor women were breastfeeding standing up in line.  Other toddlers were crying.  Our 4 year old went from being rambunctious and not listening to crying and whining, as we were in this line up for probably 90 minutes or more.  Then to add to it all, our 7 year old came down with food poisoning on the Monday night and was doped up with meds (this was Wednesday) and was not well at all, and kept sitting down on the ground as he was so tired.  The adults were all loaded up with bags.

The add me into the mix.  I had been on my feet for a couple of hours at this point.  Hadn't eaten in hours, and had nothing to drink.  I am feeling very lightheaded.  I was terrified the kids were going to get trampled on.  We finally got a few feet from the kiosk and the worst was over with, and that's when the tears started falling.  The kids saw me and then they started crying, so I am telling them to stop crying as Nana is fine, she's just tired...LOL 

What a flipping fiasco.  We got through the kiosk and we were all desperate for a pee.  Luckily the plane wasn't boarding, so we got a pee and the hydro went out while I was peeing.  I could have cried at that point, but was pleased to say it came back on right away.  By the time we all peed, the gate sign was flashing to board.

I quickly grabbed a bottle of water and a package of Pringles ($13 USD 😕 for both)  Son was able to grab a pizza for each of them and off we went to get on the bus to take us to the airplane.  We were all shocked that we were able to take off only 30 minutes late.

Everybody on the plane was saying the same thing; what a horrible experience it was going through the airport.  We also discovered later that it was a software issue that had caused the problem.  However it was just absolute chaos and the security could do nothing about the crowd of people surging towards these kiosks.

Now this is the third time Son and family have been to the Dominican and it has never been as bad as this.  Daughter and family have been a couple of times with no issue.  

Regardless I hope I never have to go through something like that again, it was just awful.

Going through Toronto airport was a breeze, after all that drama.

Christmas Cross stitch.........

 I finally got it back from Michael's just before we left for vacation.

I went for a plain frame as the cross stitch itself is so busy.  It cost just under $145 to have it framed and that was with a 60% discount!  However it does look good, and they did "stitch it" at the back so it came out all even.  I am very pleased with it.  It's just a shame it will be hidden away until next November, but I am not a fan of having Christmas things up year round.

Books I read in January..............

I made a dent in the pile of books I had laying around!  Most I bought, but a couple I borrowed from daughter-in-law.

 "Fly Girls, by Keith O'Brien

Between the world wars, no sport was more popular, or more dangerous, than airplane racing. While male pilots were lauded as heroes, the few women who dared to fly were more often ridiculed—until a cadre of women pilots banded together to break through the entrenched prejudice.

Fly Girls weaves together the stories of five remarkable women: Florence Klingensmith, a high school dropout from Fargo, North Dakota; Ruth Elder, an Alabama divorcée; Amelia Earhart, the most famous, but not necessarily the most skilled; Ruth Nichols, who chafed at her blue blood family’s expectations; and Louise Thaden, the young mother of two who got her start selling coal in Wichita. Together, they fought for the chance to fly and race airplanes—and in 1936, one of them would triumph, beating the men in the toughest air race of them all.

Honestly, I nearly gave this book up without reading it all.  I got a third of the way through and found it hard going.  However, I did carry on and will say I did enjoy the last third of the book a lot.  I appreciated all the hardship these ladies went though to pave the way for women in aviation.  It was really quite annoying at what certain men put these ladies through and how they were treat.

I did learn a few things, but I did find it quite drawn out and confusing as there were so many people included in this book, it was quite hard to remember who was who!  I actually bought this book from Dollarama of all places.

"The Man Next Door, by Sheila Roberts"

Zona never thought her life was headed this way, but here she is, newly divorced and moving back in with her mom, Louise. After her gambling addicted ex-husband lost all of their savings, including their daughter's college fund, she doesn't really have a choice. She's cutting every coupon she can and she's going to help put her daughter through nursing school, even if it kills her.

This wasn't Louise's plan, either, laid up at home with a broken leg after one unfortunate tumble on the senior singles cruise she'd been looking forward to for months. But if she's going to spend all her time at home, at least she's got her daughter there with her. And there's some hot new eye candy next door to distract them both from their troubles. He appears to be single and just around Zona's age. Could his arrival be the universe making amends for everything it's put her through?

Maybe the universe isn't feeling as generous as Louise hoped. There’s something lurking under that mans surface charm, something…dangerous? And who's the woman they can hear him in all-out shouting matches with on the other side of the fence? When the woman seems to disappear without a trace, imaginations run wild. Or at least, Zona hopes it's just her mother's imagination...

It's marvelous what a vivid imagination can doo, taking an innocent interaction and turning it into a whole different kettle of fish!!!  This rom-com is a perfect light hearted read, that doesn't require you using a lot of brain power.  It's a fast read, with a typical predictable ending.  This would be a perfect book to take on vacation.  I actually enjoyed it, as it was a perfect distraction from the rotten weather and life's up's and down's.  This was from Indigo/Chapters, one of the 3 for $10 ones.

"The Things We Leave Unfinished, by Rebecca Yarros"

Twenty-eight-year-old Georgia Stanton has to start over after she gave up almost everything in a brutal divorce―the New York house, the friends, and her pride. Now back home at her late great-grandmother’s estate in Colorado, she finds herself face-to-face with Noah Harrison, the bestselling author of a million books where the cover is always people nearly kissing. He’s just as arrogant in person as in interviews, and she’ll be damned if the good-looking writer of love stories thinks he’s the one to finish her grandmother’s final novel…even if the publisher swears he’s the perfect fit.

Noah is at the pinnacle of his career. With book and movie deals galore, there isn’t much the “golden boy” of modern fiction hasn’t accomplished. But he can’t walk away from what might be the best book of the century―the one his idol, Scarlett Stanton, left unfinished. Coming up with a fitting ending for the legendary author is one thing, but dealing with her beautiful, stubborn, cynical great-granddaughter, Georgia, is quite another.

But as they read Scarlett’s words in both the manuscript and her box of letters, they start to realize why Scarlett never finished the book―it’s based on her real-life romance with a World War II pilot, and the ending isn’t a happy one. Georgia knows all too well that love never works out, and while the chemistry and connection between her and Noah is undeniable, she’s as determined as ever to learn from her great-grandmother’s mistakes―even if it means destroying Noah’s career.

This book is a two-fer, meaning there are two stories being told in this book.  One from the past, another from the present.  The more I got into the story to more invested I got into it.  There were a number of twists and turns in the stories, some I guessed, other's came as a surprise.  I will say I was brought to tears with one part of the story.  This book is well worth reading.

"One of the Girls, by Lucy Clarke"

WE WERE DYING FOR A HOLIDAY

The six of us arrived on that beautiful Greek island dreaming of sun-drenched beaches and blood orange sunsets, ready to lose ourselves in the wild freedom of a weekend away with friends.

On the first night we swam under a blanket of stars.

On the second night the games began on our clifftop terrace.

On the third night the idyll cracked, secrets and lies whispering on the breeze.

And by the final night there was a body on the rocks below . . .

WHO WOULD KILL FOR IT?

It's one of those books you'll not be able to put down.  The photo below says it all:

You think you know what's going to happen next, but then something else pops up.  You are kept trying to think one step ahead only to be wrong.  The tension just builds and builds.  You know something is going to happen, you just don't know what!  I read it in one sitting as it was that good.  I honestly didn't have high hopes for this book when I read the back blurb,  but was totally wrong.  A super good read.  Perfect for a beach vacation read, with it being set in Greece!

"The Little Bookshop on The Seine, by Rebecca Raisin

When bookshop owner Sarah Smith is offered the opportunity for a job exchange with her Parisian friend Sophie, saying yes is a no-brainer—after all, what kind of romantic would turn down six months in Paris? Sarah is sure she’s in for the experience of a lifetime—days spent surrounded by literature in a gorgeous bookshop, and the chance to watch the snow fall on the Eiffel Tower. Plus, now she can meet up with her journalist boyfriend, Ridge, when his job takes him around the globe.

But her expectations cool faster than her café au lait soon after she lands in the City of Light—she’s a fish out of water in Paris. The customers are rude, her new coworkers suspicious and her relationship with Ridge has been reduced to a long-distance game of phone tag, leaving Sarah to wonder if he’ll ever put her first over his busy career. As Christmas approaches, Sarah is determined to get the shop—and her life—back in order…and make her dreams of a Parisian happily-ever-after come true.

This is one of those books that doesn't make you have to pay attention too.  I think I have called them Shopping List books.  You can read them and you can think of other things at the same time.  Now saying that, I did enjoy this book, maybe because it was set in Paris.  Maybe because I would love to work in a book store, or just because it was a good story.

There were some twists and turns along the way.  I pretty much guessed all the "whodunit's/mysteries."  Perfect book to take on vacation.  Not a long read; picked my copy up at Indigo/Chapters in the 3 for $10 section.

"The Novelist from Berlin by V.S. Alexander"

1920s Germany: Though the world has changed in the wake of the Great War, it is still ruled by men. Even a woman as resourceful and intelligent as Niki Rittenhaus needs alliances in order to survive. Her marriage to Rickard Länger, a movie producer for Berlin’s Passport Pictures, seems convenient for them both. When Rickard succumbs to increasing pressure from the Nazis to make propaganda movies, a horrified Niki turns away from her own film aspirations and instead, begins to write.

Niki’s first novel, The Berlin Woman, is published under a pseudonym to great success. But Niki knows she cannot stay anonymous for long. The Nazis are cementing their power over Germany—and over her husband. Though she succeeds in escaping Rickard, he directs Hitler’s Brownshirts to do the unthinkable: kidnap their daughter. With her books blacklisted, her life in danger, and Europe descending into war, Niki travels to Amsterdam, joins the Dutch Resistance, and then returns to war-torn Berlin determined to claim freedom for herself and her child, and to write her own story at last.

Started this book before we went away and read the rest while on vacation.  Really good book with plenty of twists and turns.  Well worth reading.

"The Inn Boonsboro Trilogy, by Nora Roberts."

The historic hotel in BoonsBoro, Maryland, has endured war and peace, changing hands, even rumored hauntings. Now it's getting a major facelift from the Montgomery brothers and their eccentric mother. As the architect of the family, Beckett has little time for a social life. But there’s another project he’s got his eye on: the girl he’s been waiting to kiss since he was sixteen.

After losing her husband and returning to her hometown, Clare Brewster soon settles into her life as the mother of three young sons while running the town’s bookstore. Though busy, Clare is drawn across the street by Beckett’s transformation of the old inn, wanting to take a closer look…at both the building and the man behind it...

Don't miss the other books in the Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy
The Last Boyfriend
The Perfect Hope

I read all three of these books while on vacation.  They can be read as stand alone books or can be read individually.  Perfect romance books and perfect vacation reading.

28 days, 28 items start tomorrow........

I first posted about this earlier in the month on this blog post.  If you need a reminder please click on the highlighted text.

I have made a start on collecting things to donate.  I will check back in with you on the 7th of February to see how you're doing and to let you know how I'm doing as well.  February is a perfect month to do this as it's the shortest month of the year, and for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere probably the coldest month of the year.  So something to keep us busy.

I am also going to try and do some of these throughout the day.

All little things to chase away the February blues, as I find February a hard month.

Back from vacation

Sorry for not posting yesterday, but I needed a full day to decompress from the trip home.  It was more eventful than anticipated!  I will do a separate post on our adventures in Punta Cana airport at a later date.

We have just spent a week at the Lopesan Costa Bavaro Resort, Spa and Casino in the Dominican Republic.  As I said before we have never been to an all inclusive resort before; nor have we ever been to the Caribbean.  So I am no expert but these are my opinions/observations.  We went with our son, daughter-in-law and their two small boys ages, 7 and 4.  We booked a king garden view room and were upgraded to a pool view room.  Son and family were upgraded to an ocean view room, and their view was lovely.

This resort is around 30 minutes from the airport, however if you have a kamikaze driver it probably only takes 20 minutes......just saying 🤨

Here are some photos of the front of the resort and the lobby:

This was our room.  Pretty standard room and very comfortable.

It was an open plan bathroom.  Never had one before.  The frosted door to the right of the photo, that is where the shower is.

The frosted door to the left is where the toilet is.........yep not overly private.  With the sink in the middle, open to the rest of the room.

Below is a view from our balcony.  We were on the third floor. 

I put a link to the hotel in the second paragraph of this post, where you'll see more information about the resort.  We booked through Expedia, no idea if we got a good deal or not?

Pros of this resort:

Reasonably compact, everything easy to walk too.

Pools were great.  Multiple of them, you could be in the large pool with many people or go to one of the smaller lap pools.  Plus there were two water parks.  A smaller one for younger children and a larger one for all age groups.

Many restaurant options to choose from.  Also numerous bar options to choose from.

Well maintained and very clean.

Staff very friendly and polite.

The buffet options were good, with something for everyone.  Bottled water was served at every meal.

Plenty of bottled water supplied in the hotel rooms.  You cannot, nor should you drink the tap water!!

Great coffee shop, went nearly everyday.

Cons of this resort:

None of the shows started until at least 10pm at night.  

There was very little entertainment between 6pm and 10pm if you had children, just a guy playing the saxophone or another guy playing music.

The casino was very basic, only went the once.

We couldn't get reservations to any of the good restaurants for the first two days.  When we did eat at the nicer restaurants, the presentation was spot on for the food, but the taste didn't match.

The beach wasn't that well taken care of, lots of seaweed, and not a lot of swimming in the ocean, as it was cordoned off with buoy's.

This was as much our fault, as it was theirs but the language barrier was frustrating at times.  As I don't speak Spanish and some of the staff's English skills was lacking.  We had a couple of issues with our room, and we ended up just giving up with it, as we were not getting anywhere........again as much our fault as theirs.

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  I loved the all inclusive idea, as I neither had to cook or clean for a week, my idea of a holiday.  I managed to read 3 1/2 books (I was half way through one that I also took on vacation) while away, and could have done with taking another couple with me.  Enjoyed having the family with us to show us the ropes, and enjoyed having extra time with the boys.

We spent very little all week, and what we did spend was mainly tipping the staff.  Even then it was only a couple of dollars (American) here and there.  We did give the lady who cleaned our room $20, as the poor woman spent all week trying to teach me Spanish!!!  Hola! 

The older of the two grandsons did come down food poisoning on the Monday night, which was unfortunate.  So took him to the doctors and get some meds, as there was a doctor on site.  He was well enough to travel on the Wednesday.  I had an iffy tummy one day, but other than a bit of sunburn we all faired well during the trip.

So all in all a success with a lot of great memories made.  I think we will be doing this sort of trip every year from now on.  We were booked to go to Jamaica but due the the weather damage they had last year we had to cancel, so maybe Jamaica will be our next place to visit?

Vacation

Depending on when you are reading this post, we will be heading home from a week away in the Dominican Republic.  In fact we will be home later in the day today.

I prepped posts for the week away, as I knew I wouldn't be posting while we were away.

This is the first time we have been on an all inclusive vacation since we went on our honeymoon to Tunisia back in June of 1983. 

Going on an all inclusive vacation is on my bucket list.  We are going/went with our son, daughter-in-law and the two boys.  We were going to go with them in 2025, but plans changed.

So I am giving you a heads up you're going to be truly sick of vacation posts before I am finished!!!!

We Bought an Abandoned Victorian Mansion… This Is It Now | TIMELAPSE

I have been following along with this renovation.  It's 40+ minutes long but well worth watching.

Bathroom Shower..........

 September/October of 2024 we had our shower retrofitted by Bathfitters.  If you look at this post you will see what it looked like before hand.  The tiles had started to have pressure cracks in them at the bottom.  Structurally the shower was fine, but cosmetically it was not looking fine.  So rather than pull the whole bathroom to bits, we decided to have paneling put over it.  Over a year later we are still very happy with it and it works perfectly for us.

Now our shower is twice the size of a regular shower, which we love, no squishing inside a tiny thing.  We had a grab rail installed for when we get older and need something like that; truthfully though we use it now.

This is the other end of the shower and the floor is also made of the same material.

It goes right to the ceiling.  We could have had a ceiling panel fitted to match, but we chose not too.

Now the one thing we forgot about at the time was shelving as we were using the baskets from Amazon, which you would see in the post from 2024.  We just had these installed as the plastic has a ripple effect on it and we were finding the baskets wouldn't stick to the surface properly.  These ones won't move anytime soon.  We are very happy with them.  The hook is one of the Command Hooks, that I installed.

So if you are thinking of using Bathfitters for anything, I would recommend them.  They are not cheap, but it was cheaper than redoing our whole bathroom.  We have a bath area, with the same tiles, so all those tiles would have had to be removed also as we couldn't get the original tiles.

Also I love the look of glass shower doors, but hate the upkeep of them to having them sparkling clean all the time, so shower curtain's are the way to go for me!!

As promised another candid photo of one of the grands.........

 this time the youngest one.  He was 3 at the time and his expression says it all!

What is funny about this, is I have seen this expression numerous times.  From the age of 5 months until around 15 months he hated everyone other than a couple of people.  I just had to look at him and he started crying.....LOL  Thankfully he was the youngest of my 7 grands, so I wasn't upset, I know he would get over it and he did.

He has to be one of the most loving kids out there, along with his cousin Paige.  We always get a huge hug and told "I love you Nana."  He is super close to his Grandad as well.  When I babysit, and put him to bed.  Rather than read with him, we have a talk about everything good that had happened to him that day.  He loves that, and now his older brother wants me to do that with him as well.

I have this photo "living" here:

So that every time I need cheering up I look at that photo and smile!

The larger picture is a photo of the sunrise from when we lived at the farmhouse.

Top 20 - 1970s One Hit Wonder Songs We'll Never Forget

The Number 1 is my favourite of the bunch.  I knew all but a couple of them.....

What was yours and had you heard of all those songs?

February is going to be a

... Jane Austen reading month for me.

I picked up this Jane Austen boxed collection on half price at Christmas for $15 which I thought was a good deal.

This is what is in the set:

Not sure in what order I should read them?  

Is there a right or wrong way in the order they should be read?

I have probably read these books at some point in my life, but I can't remember when?  I am a sucker for a historical British romance, so must say I am looking forward to reading these.

I will probably end up donating these to one of the "N's" both are bookworm's.  Would you believe Nora turned 12 in November and Nitara turned 13 earlier this month.........where has the time gone too?  Both are in Grade 7.......high school is just around the corner!

Are you a Jane Austen fan?  When was the last time you read one of her books?

This popped up in my memories

 over on Facebook.  It made me smile.......

This is Miss P. when she was around 6 months old.  Her sister was singing and playing the ukulele.  I guess she wasn't impressed!!😂  I need to scan a photo of our youngest grandson, as I have a great photo of him as well that makes me smile!!

21 Foods British Families Ate to SURVIVE 1970s Winters

Fray Bentos pies, loved those

Canned corn beef hash, have a can of that in the cupboard....

Spam fritters, haven't had that in years.........

Findus pancakes, I had forgotten about them..........

Instant potatoes, I remember them, and the advert........

Vesta curries.......don't remember those, but remember the name.

Liver and onions, still a firm favourite for me, with plenty of mashed potatoes.....

Cauliflower with cheese sauce, we often have this for supper by itself, and yes I add mustard to my cheese sauce.

Toad in the hole, haven't had this in a while.

Lancashire hotpot, haven't had that in years........

Mince and tatties, yum!

Bread and dripping, never remember having it.

Fish finger sandwiches.............my mother always tells me if she had to pick her last meal on earth it would be a fish finger sandwich.........

Bubble and squeak, loved it........

Semolina with jam always loved it.  Loved rose hip syrup also with it.  I now have a craving for that......

Angel Delight..........it was a treat...

Artic Roll..........I think you can still get those, always enjoyed that........

Tinned pears with evaporated milk, we also had tinned peaches........don't have them now because of the sugar in the juices

Beef stew and dumplings, I remember those as well

Margarine on toast.........had that........

Tripe and onions, don't remember having that at all........

From that list, the way I cook is very influenced from the 1970's.  I also remember when the electric/hydro went out as well.   

Dollar Stores...............

Not sure about where you live, but when I go to the dollar store, there is very little in the store that actually only costs a dollar?  I go to two main chains of dollar stores, Dollarama which is a Canadian chain and Dollar Tree which is US chain.  Dollar Tree, I think things are either $1.50 or $1.75 each.  However many, many things are much higher.

In Dollarama, their prices are all over the place.  I picked up a 2 package of Command Hooks for $4.25 the other day.  A loaf of bread for $2.  The name brand cleaning products can be $3+.  Now granted it's still generally cheaper than the regular stores, but gone are the days of everything being a dollar.

In Canada the food sold in the dollar stores are all shelf stable foods, whereas in the States, they sell frozen foods also.  I do find it interesting how many videos there are out there of people cooking full meals only using food purchased from the dollar stores, like the one below.

Do you shop at dollar stores?  Have you found their prices increasing?

Pots and Pans............

I need new saucepans.  I am fed up with buying them, saying they are non-stick and only lasting a short while before everything starts stinking to the bottom of them.

So I am looking for recommendations.  Do you have a brand that you swear by?  Extra points if it's a Canadian brand!!

Currently I own Heritage, The Rock brand from Canadian Tire.  These ones:

Our son has this set from Our Place.  I used them when we last babysat and thought they were good, but they are pretty pricy.

I have seen on the internet, people using pans that the handles come off, that may save on storage space?  I have had T-Fal in the past and been happy.  For reference, I cook on an electric flat top stove.

I am willing to pay a lot more, if I know they will last.