28 Items in 28 Days

 Here we are at the end of the month and how did we all do?

Everything on the seat of the sofa, other than the register vents on the left hand side of the seat (I am going to sell those), I will be donating, including that arrangement thing on the right hand side floor.

I found two boxes and filled those.  Very pleased with what I found and had a good start on the Spring Cleaning.

Which brings up the subject, do you do a "Spring Clean," every year?  I don't.  I clean in spits and spurts throughout the year.

Out of our hands now.........

Got the passport info in the mail Thursday afternoon.  All four went in one envelope with reference numbers all over it to ensure there is no confusion about any paperwork included, along with a cover letter!!!!

Sent it airmail, with signature required.  Didn't require me to take out a second mortgage to pay for the postage...LOL  So all in all happy with that.

So now we wait.......Canada Post told me 6 business days for delivery in the UK.  They did say there had been a number of these same envelopes going to the same address over the past few days from a lot of disgruntled people....no kidding!!!

Back in the 80's.......

 Saw this and thought I'd share.........

Do you agree?

What a kerfuffle............

 

Hubby, I and our two children were all born in the UK and despite us being Canadian citizens, we are also British citizens so we hold dual nationality.  Imagine our surprise when we found out over the weekend that as of today, February 25th, 2026 we were no longer eligible to travel to the UK on our Canadian passports, that we had to have a UK Passport 😕😠

These past few days have been interesting to say the least trying to sort all this out.  We have family in the UK and my mother is getting up there in years, so the ability to travel to the UK is paramount.  We have no intention of going this year, but I will be probably going next year to celebrate my mother's 80th birthday.  Our daughter and family were there last year and we were all over in 2024 for a funeral.

We have ran into numerous issues sorting all this out but are slowly getting through the issues.  Our last UK passports ran out in 2000, and the kids were on my passport at the time.  Both kids are applying for their own passports, so they need my birth certificate to include with their paperwork.  I need my birth certificate for my passport.  No photocopies are allowed.  Luckily the UK government were very prompt to our son's email enquiry about this and we are all sending our applications in together as a family group.

Because our UK passports had expired, we all need our parents dates of birth and places of birth, plus the info on whether they were married or not.  Hubby is in his late 60's, his dad died 43 years ago, so he has no idea of their dates of birth etc.  So when we put unknown he had to supply names, dates of birth etc of his grandparents, didn't know that either 😕All to prove he was born in the UK.

All these changes have been in the works for a while now, but were done very quietly.  I hadn't heard of this happening.  To my mind it's a total waste of time and a money grab, but what do I know???  It cost us just under 130 British Pounds which included 20 British pounds for courier costs from them to mail them back to us.  I am praying and hoping it's for a 10 year passport, as that wasn't made clear?

Overall no one is impressed with this, especially as we have never ever had an issue entering or leaving the UK.

So if you hold a dual citizenship with the UK, don't even think of traveling to the UK without have a UK passport.

Full English..........

I have been meaning to check out a local British Tea Room for ages.  I have followed them on Facebook for a while, and I saw they had a buy one get one free for their breakfasts before 12 noon through the end of February.

At the end of last week, we decided to give it a go.

I will say ahead of time a "fry-up/full English breakfast" is not a favourite meal of mine.  I can live without them.

This was called a standard breakfast and was I think around $17 or $18 each.  However we got one for free.  The coffee was I think around $3.25 or $3.50 a mug, and honestly it was the best part of the meal.  They made it with fresh ground beans, and I would go back to there just to have their coffee, it was that good!

Hubby had a hash brown with his meal, it's under the toast.  You could have fried bread or regular toast, we both chose the regular toast.

I chose the potato scone with mine instead of the hash brown.

My taste buds have changed over the years it seems, and I prefer a Canadian style breakfast.  They serve "back bacon," I prefer regular bacon done extra crispy.  The potato scone was as flat as a pancake, I am no expert on potato scones but I thought they were fluffy inside?

There was a slice of black pudding on our plates.  I ate around a third of it, as I found the consistency of it odd.  It was more cake like and quite dry and full of grains, but not oats?  There are generally globules of fat in black pudding?  However it's been donkey's years since I ate black pudding, and it's not something I would rush out to eat normally.

Loved the toast, sausage (and I am not usually a fan of breakfast sausage), eggs and beans.

There are plenty of other breakfast places around which do better meals and a lot cheaper.

BUT, these guys do afternoon tea, so we booked to go there next month for my birthday.  It's $42.50 each so I have high hopes.  However, nothing will compare to the Afternoon Tea we had in the Lake District, but I am looking forward to it.

Laundry room progress.............

First my apologies; I did not take any before photos.....feel free to yell at me!!

Suffice to say it's come a long way since we moved in.  There was drywall on the window wall and on the wall where the washer and dryer is.  There was no ceiling, nor flooring down.  The rest of the walls were bare and hubby framed in more walls; amongst other things.

I have said this before and will say it again; people who think/or have a little bit of knowledge make more of a mess than folk with no knowledge!  So thanks to that hubby had more work than he intended to do, as many things had to be corrected.  Including a gale force wind coming in from outside 😟 The electrics were dodgy, and on and on it went!

The room size is around 16 feet 9 inches long, by 12 feet wide at the widest point (in the alcove) but around 9 feet without adding in the alcove.

So this is the entrance to the laundry room.  All new trim had to go in, as there wasn't any.  New drop ceiling.

This is looking towards one end of the room.  Although you can't see it in this photo, the ceiling had to be angled so we can "escape" in the case of fire through that window.  It's a requirement by law.  The flooring is a vinyl planking and has made a huge difference in that room.  We went with a mid-price one from Home Depot and that extra cost was well worth it. 

This is the other end of the room, where the washer and dryer is.  There is a sink unit to go in on the left hand side by the washer.  The washer and dryer needs to be pushed back into place.  We are going to add an upper cabinet on the wall above the washer and dryer.

This is the alcove part of the room.  The chest freezer will more or less stay in the exact place.  The door frame has still to be installed.  Through the door way to the left is where the furnace and water heater are.  It can be accessed by another door in the main room in the basement as well.

This room is big enough it could have been made into two rooms.  We just decided to keep it as one big room.  Between the two windows we are going to add a double door base cabinet and probably and upper cabinet for more storage.

So our next plan of action in this room is to add the sink unit and get that plumbed in; and yes the guy screwed up the plumbing as well {{{SIGH}}}  We'll then add the cabinets.  I have started to move things back into the room.

Then we'll tackle to room through the alcove.  That needs beadboard adding to the walls.  The flooring installed and the trim.  All trim to be painted in that room as well as the door in the laundry room.  I figured I would do the door when I did the other trim.  

The goal for all this is by mid-April, before golf season starts!!!  Overall very pleased with how it looks.

How to Get to Heaven from Belfast

As the Olympics are on we are watching a bit of tv for a change......hubby normally watches the hockey.  I saw this advertised on Netflix, and as I thoroughly enjoyed The Derry Girls, and as this series was also made by the same writers, figured we would give it a go..........

I have come to the conclusion I spent my time watching this series in a state of confusion .  It took me until around the 6th episode to figure out what on earth was going on.  I mean seriously; what is going through these writers heads when writing these shows?  Saoirse-Monica Jackson's character Feeney looks as though a unicorn/rainbow sprinkles/my little pony had all vomited all over her. How they came up with her character boggles my mind, they had to be on something to imagine that?😂

Anyhow, feel free to watch the series if you want.  The way it ended there will be a second series........I'll pass............Derry Girls was way better.

28 Days, 28 Items, Part 3

 Another week, and more things collected.  I can safely say I have found way more than 28 things to donate, as I cleaned out the kids books and the games and puzzles cupboards this week.

Bit of a heads up here.  I couldn't be bothered to show you things individually.  Suffice to say there are way more than 7 things there.  However, all things we haven't used in a long time, so someone else may as well get the use of them.

The things I am donating are things on the seat of the sofa, not on the back of the sofa.

I already have an idea what I am clearing out next.

Have you managed to clean out a couple of drawers or cupboards this week?

Fashion for a vacation...........

Never thought much about what clothes I did or did not need on a vacation to the Caribbean.  I just figured some shorts and t-shirts.  A bathing suit, a cover up and a couple of dresses.  However after being there and I learned such a lot.

First a two piece bathing suit is the way to go.  Bottoms and a tankini/long top.  Have you ever tried to wrestle taking off a wet bathing suit to go pee?  I thought I was going to do myself a mischief trying to get it off.  Then it wasn't much better trying to put it back on!!

As things seem to take forever to dry, despite the heat, a couple of bathing suit options is the way to go, so you don't have to put on a damp suit in the morning.  Same goes with cover ups.  I actually used a shorter t-shirt type dress as a cover up and it worked a charm.

I will say it obviously doesn't matter what size you are and I saw all sorts of shapes of people wearing the skimpiest of bathing suits.  The amount of old guys with HUGE beer bellies wearing speedo's was mind boggling.....LOL

The amount of young ladies wearing the skimpiest of bikini's taking 7,000 selfies of themselves by the pool while trying not to get wet was also mind boggling!!  Just between me and you; I may or may not have encouraged youngest grandson to splash as much as he wanted to with his toys while they were doing that!! 😜

I had a pair of croc sandals that I used for pool shoes, but wasn't keen on them.  I did end up using my birkenstocks but didn't like getting the footbed wet.  I have a couple more pairs of croc sandals so need to see if they will work.

I was told to pack light and I did and it worked a charm.  Daughter-in-law had some lovely vacation dresses, so I may have to invest in a couple more.  Overall though, other than some shorts I think I may just use what I have..........

Do you have clothes that you use exclusively for vacation?

Swimming pools on vacation.......

There were numerous swimming pools where we were on vacation.  There was an adults only pool, but you had to have booked the adults only package to use and had to have a special wrist band to access it.

There were two of these pools below.  One was for the people who paid extra.........obviously not us! That one was below where we were staying and the one below was opposite it.  Both of the pools were very quiet with very few children using them as they were more lap pools and had no shallow end.

I actually spent most of one day reading by one of the pools, as there was quite a bit of shade.

This was the main pool, it was pretty large.  There was a shallow pool below it where you could do a spin cycle class, and aquatics.  Also the foam parties were held in the shallow pool.  I did participate in the aquatics class with daughter-in-law, though we were in the upper pool doing it as it was probably less than four feet at the deep end. Oh and we couldn't be bothered to go to the other pool....LOL

I took this photo from one of the upper floor restaurants.  You can see the separate shallow pool there.  When we did plan on a day by the pool, we did get there to deposit our towels on the chairs to save them.  We were always on the second row back which suited me just fine, as that was we weren't bothered by the guys selling trips and trying to get you to participate in things!!

Here is another view.  I will say none of the pools were heated, and I ended up getting out of the pool on the last day as it was a tad on the cool side........I know third world problems 🙄

There were also two water parks.  One was for smaller children and funnily enough had hardly any shade.  It was flipping stinking hot there.  The other one was a larger water park for all ages.

All in all something for everyone.......and I wish I could be there now!!  Sick of this flipping snow!

Birthdays............

It was my mother's birthday at the beginning of this week and she was saying she always associates her birthday with spotting the first of the early Spring Lambs, and the first of the early daffodils.  Obviously she's in the UK, as at this point, I would just love to know where the garden is.........can't see it for a pile of snow!!

It got me thinking as to what I associate other people's birthday's with.

For mine, it's the middle of March, so it's always March break here in Canada when it's my birthday, so the kids are on holiday.

Hubby's is September, so I always think of it's vacation time for us, on or around his birthday.

Our son's birthday is the beginning of April, so his birthday is always around Easter time.

Our daughter's is in November and I always think of pomegranate's being in season when it's her birthday.  

What do you associate with your birthday and/or other people's birthday's in your life?

Some food pics from our vacation..........

One night we went to the Mediterranean restaurant in the resort.  The presentation was perfect, the taste not so!

The beet salad was actually tasty, but nothing exciting.

I ordered the the vegetarian roll.  It looked great but I wasn't too keen on the taste.

Hubby and daughter-in-law had the beef stew.  We were confused how beef stew was a Mediterranean dish?  They both said it was good.

Son had this shrimp and rice dish.

I had the strawberry pavlova for dessert and I can actually say it was the worst meringue I have ever had!  It looked lovely but the taste didn't match.

We ate lunch at a buffet place called the Goldfish a couple of times and I did enjoy the variety there.  Plus the view was gorgeous.

I did try a pina colada and a margarita while on vacation, never had either.  Loved the pina colada, hated the margarita.  

The gift that keeps on giving part 2!

 Not sure if you remember, but when we came back from vacation, we brought an extra gift back with us; a stomach bug!  I posted about it here.  Son came down with it the worst and was pretty sick for well over a week.  Hubby also had a shorter second bout of it a few days after he finished with the first bout........basically he never got over it.

Fast forward to last Thursday (12th of February) and I felt like death warmed over with a terrible headache.  The next day the diarrhea started and the stomach cramps.  I pride myself on being a pretty clean person and keeping a clean house, so we were puzzled as to why I came down with this?

I am writing this on the 15th to post on the 16th.  Fingers crossed I am hoping to be over the worst, as in no more stomach cramps, but have no idea why this happened.  I don't think it would be from the vacation, I could have picked it up while out grocery shopping?

Suffice to say I have not left the house!!!  And will probably be staying put until further notice...LOL  I had bought a jigsaw puzzle the other day at Costco, so have been busy doing that and reading.  

I bought this one as I thought it would be difficult, it wasn't too bad it turned out.........

House of Guinness - Netflix

 

Late to the party as always, but we finally watched the House of Guinness on Netflix.  It reminded me of Peaky Blinders in the way it was filmed, but Peaky Blinders was way better!!

The way it finished makes me think there should be a second series.  It does clearly say this is a work of fiction loosely based on facts. I agree with that, as I looked up the history of the Guinness family and some things don't add up.  I do find the Irish accent a bit strong at times, so didn't catch everything that was said.  Saying that Peaky Blinders was as bad at times.  Will I watch a second series, maybe if there is nothing else on!

Talking of strong accents I had to have subtitles on when watching Brad Pitt in Snatch...LOL  Great movie but that Irish accent.................

In case you think I am being "racist" on Irish accents, believe me when I say I have to listen very carefully when talking to people with a Scottish accent as well!!  Plus where we come from in Cumbria, we have what we call a "broad fell back" accent, and I really have to listen carefully or tell folk to slow down when talking (a couple of nephews are really broad).  I was standing in line at the chip shop in Carlisle, Cumbria where I was born.  I was attempting to listen in on someone's conversation 😁 and couldn't understand a bloody word, as they were talking in a broad Carlisle accent!!!  I have been living in Canada too long....LOL

28 Days, 28 Items, Part 2

 Another week, and more things collected to donate.  As youngest grandchild is a boy and now four, these things are too baby-ish for him, so off they go to a new home.  Daughter gave me all these for when the girls came over, so they are probably 12 years old.......

I did also get another good job done, I cleaned out the bill drawer, where I keep all the credit card and bill statements.

I only got a partial bag of shredded paper, so put it back under the desk for the next time I do some shredding.  I need to clean out the filing cabinet at some point, so there will be more shredded paper to put in the bag.

How did you do this week?

Any ideas?

I bought four bottles of this Aveeno Moisturizer back in the Fall to use over the winter on my legs.  It's a pump top and everything has been working great, it's so much easier on my hands.  It stopped pumping out the moisturizer so I figured it had ran out.  However when I opened it up there was plenty left in the bottom.  I drew a line on the left hand side to show you how much is left.

So I took the top off and jiggled it around and got some more out.  Normally on a regular container I would turn it upside down to get the stuff out of the bottom, but with a pump top that's not the solution.  With conditioner I would normally add some water to thin out the liquid to make it pump better, but not sure if I can do that with this?

Has anyone else run into this situation?  What was your solution?  Or do you have any ideas on how to make the pump work until I finish the bottle?

I may also contact the manufacturer to see what their solution is.

UPDATE:

I did contact the manufacturer customer service.  Long story short; they pack the bottle with the expectation that you won't be able to get all the product out.  Fair enough, but 2 inches worth of product to be wasted?  That to my mind is not acceptable, and I told them so.

Anyhow, I have to send this container back (prepaid UPS) and they will reimburse me with a free product coupon and a couple of other money off coupons.  Now as I told the guy, I have no complaints about the product, it works perfectly fine, they just need to figure out a better way of getting the last couple of inches of product out of the bottom.  If you say turn it upside down, yes, but you have to balance it against something as the pump top is not level.

It's been a while..........

 since I have bought a fruit and veg bag which costs $20 a month.  I picked it up yesterday and thought it was good value for money.  What do you think?

The only thing I think we will have trouble using is all those potatoes.

I did have leftover mashed potatoes in the fridge, so decided to make some fish cakes using a can of tuna.  I added some of the garlic and herb cream cheese to the mix, for extra flavour.  I also add the organic no salt flavouring to the breadcrumbs, which I made from some bread I had in the freezer.

I used some of the cucumber with a little ranch dressing on it as a veggie and fried the fish cakes in a little bit of oil.  I guess I could have put them in the air fryer..........I just thought of that???

Will say they were nice and tasty......

Comfort food at it's best........

Such a comforting meal and super cheap to make.

Baked potatoes topped with a knob of butter, baked beans and grated cheese.  I bought the potatoes on clearance, a 10 lb bag for $1.99.  Bought the Heinz baked beans when they were $1 a can at Metro the other week, a price which I haven't seen in a long time.  The cheese we bought as a splurge at Costco.  I would reckon all in all this meal would cost under $2 per person and was yummy.

As I said we bought the cheese at Costco.  It's called Leerdammer and is Dutch cheese and is a cross between Gouda and Edam.  It's pretty tasty.

I love a sharp cheese, and other than blue cheeses which I dislike, I could eat cheese each and every day.

Do you make baked potatoes?  If so what do you put on them?

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?