Wednesday Hodgepodge - 4/2/26

It's Wednesday so that means it's time for the Hodgepodge which is hosted by From this Side of the Pond.  Thanks Joyce.

1. The Winter Olympics kick off on Friday, February 6th...on a scale of 1-10 how excited are you? (1= eh and 10=watching every event all day every day). What's your favourite Winter Olympic sporting event?

I'm probably a 5.  I know it's happening - BBC keep running ads for it - but I just had to google where it's happening lol.  (Milano Cortina) Thankfully there isn't a massive time difference (+ 1 hour) between here and where the games are being held which makes viewing easier, although with today's technology that isn't as much of a problem as it used to be.

I like watching the Ice Skating and we've often done well at Curling so that's one I might check out.  Ice Hockey isn't really my thing but I was just reading an article which suggests one of the rinks may not be completed by the start of the event plus:

"The rink in Milan, approved by the International Ice Hockey Federation, is shorter than the minimum requirement in the NHL, leading to suggestions there could be an increase in high-speed collisions. The quality of the ice has also been questioned.

The NHL said it was "pleased" with the test event at the arena in January, although that did not pass without incident. During the event there was a short delay while a small hole in the ice had to be repaired." (Taken from the BBC website.)

2. In other sporting news, the Superbowl (American football's championship game) will be played on Sunday, February 8th. So tell us...what's your superpower?

Oh gosh I wish I had one.  I guess I'm quite organised and logical and usually calm in a crisis but I really wish I could teleport.

3. Are you a romantic?

Not really (see above) but I do like to be surprised with flowers and reading romance books.  (In between the crime thrillers that are my favourite genre lol.)

4. Blue cheese-yay or nay? How about feta? If you said yes to one or both, what's a dish you like that calls for one of these?

NO AND NO! I do like plain cheese though - especially a really mature cheddar.

5. What's more important-doing what you love or loving what you do?

Ummm is this a trick question?  It seems not. (Thank you AI.)  In an ideal world we'd be doing what we love and following our passions.  Unfortunately we don't live in an ideal world so I think it's more important to love what you do and find ways of getting the most out of what we're doing.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

One of the things I do is to keep our bird feeders topped up and today I'm loving watching the antics of the birds as they come and feed.  The parakeets are usually the first followed by the smaller birds but the pigeons hover on the ground waiting for anything that drops.  Until the squirrel appears.

Have a good day all.

In the News this Week - 3/2/26

Well I'm trying to keep my blogging up so I'm resurrecting this idea which I was doing 10 years ago!  The idea is to find stories under the headings of:

LOCAL

INTERNATIONAL

SPORT

ENTERTAINMENT and

MISCELLANEOUS

LOCALLY the big talk seems to be about the works that Thames Water are doing in our area.  This has led to various temporary traffic lights all over the place where the road is restricted to single file traffic.  There are also some roads that have been completely closed involving diversions.  These are often planned works - our Victorian infrastructure is gradually being updated but.....then add in works due to burst pipes here and we have chaos, particularly when some bus routes are on not one, but often 2 diversions.  It's produced some heated discussions on Facebook and there is no end to this in sight. Sigh!

One of the big INTERNATIONAL story that keeps rumbling on is all about the Jeffrey Epstein files and why no one is being prosecuted despite their clear associations with Epstein.  Prominent figures here in the UK are of course Andrew Mountbatten (the former Prince) and Peter Mandelson (former US Ambassador).   Although it seems clear that if any prosecution were to be brought against Andrew he would not be getting any support from the royal family.

In SPORT - well who knew that the production of cricket bats was such a complicated thing?  Not me for sure.  But the MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) which seems to be the authority on all things cricket, will be amending Law 5.8, entitled "categories of bat" to allow bats that were previously illegal to be used.  As well as 72 other changes to the Laws.  And I thought it was just a game lol.  People do seem to take it very seriously though. 

One big ENTERTAINMENT event this week was of course The Grammys.  Obviously a star studded affair with all sorts of wonderful (?) outfits on display which you can read about here.  Many of the names were completely unknown to me including that of Olivia Dean (winner of the Best New Artist award) despite the fact that apparently she grew up in Highams Park where I live.

And for MISCELLANEOUS  I give you SKIPTON, apparently the happiest place to live in the UK.  Not in the news this week, the poll results were back in December but hey my blog, my rules.

As you can see I've stayed away from too much doom and gloom or anything contentious but I'm working my way back into this gradually.

And did you know that the BBC are about to air a four part dramatisation of William Golding's "Lord of the Flies"?  There's an article about it here but personally having read the book I'll be giving it a miss.

A bit of Waffle - 2/2/26

Waffle Cartoon PNGs by Vecteezy

Mmm that's how I like my waffles.  Sorry if I'm making you hungry.  I've just finished my dinner but no waffles in sight.  We had chicken with a pesto and leek sauce and small crunchy roast potatoes plus some brussel sprouts that needed to be used.  The meal was a HelloFresh meal which actually came with peas but we switched them.  That's the royal "we" of course because apart from unpacking the HelloFresh box when it arrived I did nothing to get the meal prepared.  Thank you Hubby!

I like to think I'm a fairly organised person but not when it comes to planning meals in advance, especially not for the whole week.  I commented on Kim's post today - we have 3 HelloFresh meals coming which will take care of Monday - Wednesday.  After that who knows?

I've actually had a fairly productive day - got quite a few chores done, including changing our bed and doing some laundry.  The big thing ticked off my to do list though was renewing my passport.  It was really easy to do online, the only annoying thing was having to get a new photo done.  I thought I might get away with using the photo I had done for my free travel pass but that was over 6 months ago and the photo has to be within the last month.

Thankfully our local supermarket has a photo booth that does a digital code to use online and I had a bit of shopping to do so I did that, got the photo done and the application is now complete - they just need my old passport to process it and that's also now in the post to them.

But why do passport photos always look so grim?  Mine looks like a mug shot.

I mean would it really be so bad if we smiled?

I'm off to pay some bills now and then I'm off the the Foodbank to take deliveries in.  Hopefully it won't be raining.

Weekly Photos 25th - 31st January 2026

Well this week the photos are all from the correct day lol.

Starting at the top and working left to right:

Sunday - Playdoh with Granddaughter Ella.  One of her favourite activities.

Monday - spotted this pair of Egyptian Geese on my walk around the lake

Tuesday - Hubby took a long nap in the afternoon so we ended up having an Indian takeaway.  I had lamb tikka masala with mushroom rice.  Yummy.

Wednesday - yes that is all bird and swan food!

Thursday - the daffodils are still doing well.

Friday - Spotted this sign while on my walk around the lake and yes we do have toads crossing the road there to get to the lake and there are volunteers who will watch out for them.

Saturday - I started this on Friday night and finished it on Saturday.  I gave it 3 stars.  It was a real page turner but getting my head around all the different characters was tricky at first and there wasn't a lot of depth to the book.

And just like that January is done.  I've managed to blog every day thanks mainly to Linda who hosted the Just Jot it January challenge.

I'm hopefully going to keep to the following routine going forward:

Sunday:        Weekly Photos

Monday:        A bit of waffle

Tuesday:      In the news/ Did you know?

Wednesday: Hodgepodge

Thursday:    What I'm reading this week

Friday:        Fridays Fave Five

Saturday:    Stream of Consciousness Saturday

Having the regulars such as photos/Hodgepodge/Fave Five/SoCS gives a good framework and I'm always reading so that was another easy one to slot in.  I'm also good at waffling but Mondays might be one you want to give a miss lol.  And Tuesdays?  Well at one point I did do a regular post about what was in the news that week but it fell by the wayside.  I'd like to start something up again but nothing too heavy - the news can definitely be depressing at times most of the time hence the Did you Know alternative.

We'll see how things go.  Don't hold me to account.

Plus it's only another couple of months before the A-Z challenge.  I have a plan for that which I actually started work on before Christmas which I need to get back to.  Thank goodness I'm retired!