Diary of a 60 Something......Thursday and Friday

Thursday  23rd March 

Today is very much an exercise day as I am joined by my husband.  We go relatively early and spend an hour there.  My husband does the treadmill and weights and me the cross trainer. 
We return home and I eat earlier than usual as I am going to my Pilates class at 1pm and need to digest! 

I have got back into the swing of Pilates again - I always felt the benefits but somehow going on holidays disrupts the pattern but now I am determined to be consistent and go to my twice weekly sessions.  Its surprising how much better my joints are now and my back is much stronger.








Feeling virtuous I return home and plan the evening meal.  Quiet evening tonight watching TV....bliss!

Friday 24th March

Put a load of washing on and catch up with the ironing. Quick session at the gym and then home. Hung out washing and then go to Lidl with my husband....when I tell my daughter what I have been up to in the day she usually mocks me by saying  "living the dream"😁

Back home have lunch and then I dedicate the afternoon to painting. One of my hobbies is painting

portraits.  Just recently my granddaughter asked me to paint her so she can put on her new bedroom wall.  She is delighted with it, however my grandson wants me to paint his portrait which is fine but I am struggling with his likeness.  Children have such perfect skin no blemishes no wrinkles and  its hard to identify distinguishing features.  Its much easier with craggier older faces!

Evening we have dinner with friends then home to bed....zzzz


So ends my week long diary.....as you can see quite unremarkable but very busy and we think very fulfilling.  

Now the weekend look forward to - the weather is going to be good so look like gardening will be on the agenda!

Diary of a Sixty Something......Wednesday..

Day starts like any other - I didn't think I would have such a good nights sleep given that we watched the last 2 episodes we had recorded of "Line of Duty". Excellent series really kept us on the edge of our seats! As usual when I watch these very tense and intriguing productions I keep wanting to make a cup of tea - my husband made me stay put and watch.  Superb acting and excellent outcome. Now looking forward to next series which begins at the weekend.

Major points of the day include  usual trip to the gym - much easier day today surprisingly some days work better than others...
Before I left for the gym I prepared lunch  ....chicken wrapped in parma ham leftovers

I heard a report on the news about food going up in price...well these people do not know where to shop...we now go to Lidl and have reduced our bill by at least a third. We have plenty of meat , fish and vegetables and have a variety of food which challenges some of the outlets!

Wednesday is PMQs this is sacrosanct in our house our interest in politics drives this day... starting at 11.30 with Daily Politics on BBC with Andrew Neil (only reason why we are so committed to analysis of day) . Watch the debate and then have our own analysis ....sad I know but we enjoy...😀

1pm Hairdressers  - appointment I don't relish  nothing to do with my wonderful hairdresser .....I am one of those rare females who  endure "beauty treatments" - I regard this as a necessary evil....so much time oh I wish I could leave my hair and come back later!   I only started going to hairdresser when I was 50 .....you recognise that the grey is winning and also skin tone is not what is was therefore a lighter colour may be the way forward!

At 3pm I emerge switch on the radio in the car and hear what is unfolding in Westminster.,,,,,,,absolutely shocked and desperate feeling as my children and their spouses work in the area.... go home and receive reassurances from my family but feel so awful for those whose day isn't so positively resolved.  

In the evening we go out for a Chinese meal...we are both subdued hard to remove yourselves from the events of the day.

All our thoughts go out to the victims and families and friends....

Autumn Comfort Food....

While we were way last week we had to eat out........it was enjoyable but we reflected on the fact that we really didn't eat much veg. We felt quite uncomfortable and we realised that our normal eating pattern had been compromised.  Sometimes though you need to be less good than usual and let your hair down but my husband and I felt we couldn't do this long term.

When I was working and travelling a great deal it was a work of art trying to find things on the menu which would be healthy, satisfy my hunger and not have too many calories.

With my last blog I talked about obesity and I have had mails saying that people can't afford to eat healthily.  I really challenge this.  The couple in the hotel I mentioned must have had some funds to stay in the hotel.  There were healthier options and not unattractive options but the woman I mentioned chose  not to opt for them.

If we are talking about day to day meals again it is a nonsense you can eat healthy and it is probably cheaper than buying prepared meals.

Take today I prepared a large pan pan carrot and coriander soup....onion, carrots, stock, coriander (fresh or dried) salt + pepper  on hob for 20 mins liquidise serves at least 8 people, very filling and nutritional ....cost £1.50  calories v low

I also cooked batch of fish pies ....contained salmon, cod, smoked haddock home made white sauce fish stock cube, mashed potatoes salt + pepper  cost under £6 for 5 pies

All ingredients from Lidl!!

Next bleat is I don't have the time....before I retired and when the children were young I spent a couple of hours at the weekend making meals to freeze for the week - I was always determined that the children would not lose out because I had to go to work - meals were great, provided wholesome cost effective ingredients and I knew what had gone into them and that they were not eating rubbish. It really was not a big deal!  People watch cookery programmes showing how to do the everyday simple cheap meals and regard it as entertainment rather than a way of life to follow.

People look for excuses it is a matter of knowing the cooking basics which I learned at my mothers knee and applying yourself.  If you don't know how to book basics theres lots of help out there. If you think it is a big problem it probably will be........

Every Lidl bit helps!!

Now we have got the Newark Election out of the way, the discussions will resume.........usual topics on economy, cost of living and austerity.

None of us are immune to the impact of things which seem beyond our control.  However do we have any way of improving our positions?

Well we were very surprised to see just what you can do if you are prepared to change habits of a lifetime!

For years we have been going to Sainsburys to do our weekly shop.  Its convenient, staff are pleasant, the store is well laid out and roomy.  We also occasionally use other big name supermarkets.  Over the past few weeks we have noticed that our weekly shop on regular items has increased.  The total spend has been increasing steadily despite taking advantage of offers.  We reckoned we are now spending about £120 per week on average.
This seems to be too high considering what we have bought on staple items and not being extravagant.

The papers have been full of comments about smaller outfits such as Aldi and Lidl making inroads into the big names business. There has also been extensive marketing of Lidl and Aldi demonstrating what you can save.  So we decided to check out our local Lidl.

Certainly the shop is smaller, the aisles cramped and presentation of products is quite rudimentary. You do not get many alternatives or brand names for same product. There is good choice of meat, chicken, fruit and veg and freshly baked bread.

We have done our weekly shop here over the past 3 weeks and we have been pleasantly surprised.  The quality of the products has been excellent - there are only a few items which we couldn't obtain here..........and ............we have saved £50 per week!!!  Now this is certainly worth having!!

Okay the shopping experience may not be quite as pleasant but we have concluded that this is small cheese compared with the considerable savings.

I am only annoyed we didn't consider this alternative before!!

When we mention our little shopping project we have noticed that some people are quite snobbish about where they shop and say that you can't get the quality.......well you can  - and well more fool them!!

We can do something about our cost of living!!!