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Aug. 16th, 2019 05:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
turpsTwo days ago we took my niece and nephew out for the afternoon. Included in that was taking them to the aquarium, and man, I'd forgotten how expensive it can be to do things as a family. Over £30 and that was with me getting in free as James' carer and two kids tickets. Then we were in for less than 30 minutes. Thankfully things are looking up for my in-laws. My SiL is still working side by side with social services doing everything they ask, and it's working out for her.
Yesterday I went to see The Art of Racing In the Rain at the cinema. We were talking to one of the men we know who works there and he was joking we should just take a sleeping bag with us and stay there. I didn't tell him we also regularly go to two other Odeon locations. Anyway, I enjoyed the film, though as it focussed on a dog and had a warning of emotional scenes I knew I'd come out crying, and yep.
After that, we met up with Corey for some dinner. He's doing so well right now. For various reasons, he didn't fully graduate uni but a letter came for him and we took it to him and it's his degree certificate, so while he didn't do the whole walking on stage thing, he's still got his qualifications. I'm so incredibly proud of him, uni was so hard for him, especially losing his granddad, great nanna and then nanna during his time there. He was diagnosed with SAD a while back and ended up on meds to help cope and looking back repeating the last year was probably a mistake as uni wasn't a good fit for him at that point. But he tried his best, has worked full time through all the years to self-fund himself and has a good job now. He's also recently cold turkey stopped his meds which I wasn't impressed about and told him so, but he says he's feeling better off them than on, and that he thinks having left uni completely has done more for his mood than any meds. It's still nothing I would have advised, but I'm taking him at his word as he does seem happier now. Though he'll be happier when the freshers come to the city as he'll get more shifts at work.
It's been another horrible rainy cold day again today. We did grocery shopping earlier and have been in since, candles lit, salt lamp on, and it very much feels more like autumn than summer. Though I did pick a few more courgettes that caught my eye when I was putting rubbish in the bin. I have seven huge ones in the kitchen right now. So, some sweetcorn and courgette fritters may be in my future soon.
We paid the remainder of Freesia's vet bill, and while I'm glad the debt is settled it's still a case of, ouch. But at least we won't starve with our glut of veggies.
Yesterday I went to see The Art of Racing In the Rain at the cinema. We were talking to one of the men we know who works there and he was joking we should just take a sleeping bag with us and stay there. I didn't tell him we also regularly go to two other Odeon locations. Anyway, I enjoyed the film, though as it focussed on a dog and had a warning of emotional scenes I knew I'd come out crying, and yep.
After that, we met up with Corey for some dinner. He's doing so well right now. For various reasons, he didn't fully graduate uni but a letter came for him and we took it to him and it's his degree certificate, so while he didn't do the whole walking on stage thing, he's still got his qualifications. I'm so incredibly proud of him, uni was so hard for him, especially losing his granddad, great nanna and then nanna during his time there. He was diagnosed with SAD a while back and ended up on meds to help cope and looking back repeating the last year was probably a mistake as uni wasn't a good fit for him at that point. But he tried his best, has worked full time through all the years to self-fund himself and has a good job now. He's also recently cold turkey stopped his meds which I wasn't impressed about and told him so, but he says he's feeling better off them than on, and that he thinks having left uni completely has done more for his mood than any meds. It's still nothing I would have advised, but I'm taking him at his word as he does seem happier now. Though he'll be happier when the freshers come to the city as he'll get more shifts at work.
It's been another horrible rainy cold day again today. We did grocery shopping earlier and have been in since, candles lit, salt lamp on, and it very much feels more like autumn than summer. Though I did pick a few more courgettes that caught my eye when I was putting rubbish in the bin. I have seven huge ones in the kitchen right now. So, some sweetcorn and courgette fritters may be in my future soon.
We paid the remainder of Freesia's vet bill, and while I'm glad the debt is settled it's still a case of, ouch. But at least we won't starve with our glut of veggies.
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Date: 2019-08-16 04:54 pm (UTC)Can you freeze courgettes? might be useful when we crash out of the EU.
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Date: 2019-08-17 03:52 pm (UTC)I think you can. I'm going to have to bite the bullet and freeze some soon as I do like the things. Just, can't keep up with eating them.
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Date: 2019-08-16 06:29 pm (UTC)good luck finding ways to fix the courgettes - my sister makes a great quick bread with grated zucchini (what we call courgettes in the heathen US); maybe you can find a recipe and experiment a bit? and the bread freezes nicely, so you wouldn't have to eat it all immediately
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Date: 2019-08-17 03:13 pm (UTC)Funnily enough, I just saw a post on Insta about zucchini bread, so your comment and that has prompted me to look up a recipe. Hopefully it works out.
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Date: 2019-08-16 07:01 pm (UTC)Hee, that guy is not wrong!
I’m glad he passed!🖤
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Date: 2019-08-17 02:39 pm (UTC)Ha, I know. He's not wrong at all. It's probably best we do go to three or they'll be giving us our own seats *g*
Me too. So very glad.
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Date: 2019-08-17 01:13 pm (UTC)Congrats to Corey! The walking/stage/mortarboard routine isn't everything. What matters is that he passed!
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Date: 2019-08-17 02:37 pm (UTC)I'm so proud that he passed. I would have liked to see him walking, but ultimately, he did what he needed to and like I said, I'm incredibly proud of him.
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Date: 2019-08-17 05:40 pm (UTC)You'll not starve, but might you turn into a courgette?
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Date: 2019-08-18 08:02 am (UTC)I may turn into a courgette *g*
I made a very delicious veggie sauce thing in the slow cooker yesterday. Basically a load of courgettes, onion, tomato, sweetcorn, passata and herbs with a pack of veggie sausages and it was so good. And so cheap which is always an excellent bonus.
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Date: 2019-08-18 09:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-08-17 09:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-08-18 08:05 am (UTC)Corey's found his place in Newcastle and has a group of fantastic friends, and now has a load of debt and qualifications in things totally unrelated to his job. But, talking to him he's glad that he did it, but also glad it's over now.
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Date: 2019-08-18 06:38 pm (UTC)Well done, Corey!! (Even though I can still not get into my head he's old enough to have graduated from uni :-)
It's been grey and rainy here all weekend. Not very cold though but still quite dreary and definitely more autumn than summer.
Sounds like you could soon write a book about All the Things You Can Do With Courgettes But Didn't Know About ;-)
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Date: 2019-08-19 03:16 pm (UTC)Yeah, autumn is very much on the horizon. Which is a shame, the insanely hot days aside, it's been a good summer. Just I'm sick of the weather see-sawing now.
That sounds like a book I could easily write *g*
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Date: 2019-08-19 05:29 am (UTC)All good wishes to your in-laws. I’m sure a fun day out did the kids a lot of good.
Maybe you could start looking into vegetable sculptures?
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Date: 2019-08-19 03:15 pm (UTC)I like the idea of vegetable sculptures. People would be able to find my house easily as I'd just tell them to look for the courgette statue on the front lawn *g*