Wednesday Hodgepodge - 3/6/26

Joyce provides the questions, we prepare our answers then the link up is here.  Have fun.

1.What's something you find extremely difficult that most people would say is simple?

Making small talk.  I hate going into situations where I don't know anyone and starting up conversations.  Although I think there might be quite a lot of people who agree with me so how about keeping houseplants alive.  I'm not too good at that either.

2.  "And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow fast in movies I  had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer." 

~F. Scott Fitzgerald

Does the season of summer make you feel this way? Elaborate. 

I think Spring makes me feel more like that than summer.

3. Pickles. Love 'em or no thank you? What's your favourite type of pickle? What's something you eat that definitely needs a pickle added?

Some I like others no thank you.  I like pickled onions and cheese just has to have pickle with it.

4. Tis the season...do you know any June brides? Are there any weddings on your summer calendar? What's your favourite movie wedding? 

I'm a June bride!  Will be celebrating 42 years next week.  We're invited to a wedding in September so almost the summer.

Four weddings and a funeral.  

5. June 1st is/was National Say Something Nice Day...say something nice here. 

Joyce deserves a medal for turning up every week and keeping this Hodgepodge community together.  Thank you Joyce.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

We have rain and much cooler temps!  Last week's heatwave was unbearable so it's lovely being cooler and we needed some rain.  Just wish the weekend forecast was looking a little better.

In the News this Week - 2/6/26

As usual the news is not very cheerful.  The saga relating to the appointment of Peter Mandelson as American Ambassador rumbles on and Kier Starmer's position becomes ever more precarious.

The other scandalous story in the news today is how Peter Murrell the former SNP Chief (Scottish Nationalist Party) managed to embezzle £400k from the party's funds over a 12 year period.  He has now pleaded guilty and details of what he spent the money on are emerging.  

They range from things like gardening equipment and electronic equipment purchased from Amazon to expensive watches, but the biggest expenses seem to have been for a Jaguar car and a deluxe Motor Home costing £124,550 that was driven only 4 miles to his Mother's house where it remained until confiscated.

More details can be found here.

What I find puzzling in all of this is that Murrell's wife (now estranged) is Nicola Sturgeon who was the First Minister of Scotland from 2014 to 2023 and she is claiming she was unaware of what was going on despite many of the Amazon purchases being delivered to her home.

Really?  I don't think so.

A late bit of Waffle - 2/6/26

And just like that it is Tuesday!

I was busy yesterday morning doing chores and then I did relax and finish a book I was reading in the afternoon.  I was going to fit a walk in but that didn't happen so I walked up to the Foodbank for my Monday evening slot rather than drive.  And yes it is mainly uphill.

I fully intended to blog after I got home.  I'm usually home by 10 and it's nice to wind down a bit before going to bed.  Except best laid plans and all that.  I didn't get home until gone 11 as one of the stores had problems with their scanners.  All the food they donate to us is the already reduced in price stuff that has to go because of sell by dates etc.  They have to scan it all though for their records.  The store was the one at Ponders End which is a huge Tesco.  We probably get as much stuff from there as we do from all the other stores together.  So it's worth waiting for.  But we waited and waited!  Plus the poor guy doing the collection was on his own last night so that didn't help.  Anyway he finally arrived and our team of 3 set to work at getting the stuff sorted and put away in the fridges/freezers as quickly as we could.  Thankfully one of my colleagues lives just around the corner from me so she gave me a lift home.  Walking home at that time wouldn't have bothered me, it's only a 10 minute walk, but I was really tired by then.

So I got home to see that Hubby obviously hadn't seen my message about putting out the dustbins.  He was too busy playing his guitar.  I don't like putting them out that late as it's hard to do it quietly but doing it in the morning isn't an option as the one bin is collected as early as 6 am most weeks. 

I definitely needed winding down time before going to bed after that.

And I've overslept this morning so no exercise class for me today.  I might join friends for coffee afterwards.  I'm waiting to here what the plan is.

As yet I have no plan! Oh except I have to make an appointment to pick up my new glasses.