January's Numbers

Earlier in the month I bit the bullet and made a page about my goals for 2012 - craftily mostly crafty, as I know full well that major life-style changes are more difficult and less pleasurable to effect!

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Januaries (!) in numbers

I've managed 2 pages for my BOM, 1 of which is put away already; I've de-cluttered the dining room, the utility and made a start on my bedroom;  I've not only remembered two birthdays in good time, but sent  home-made cards and made some in readiness for next month too!  I've joined in with several on-line challenges and now I'm joining in with Julie Kirk's "My Month In Numbers".  Julie doesn't scrap her month, though some of her friends do.  I fully intend to make a page a month, but will blog the numbers first and see what happens!

So here goes:

84 = £ spent on a new tyre after a midnight mounting of the kerb outside our friends' house caused a flat!  None of us were dressed to change tyres by moonlight, but luckily our friends had a torch I could hold while the men-folk got down & dirty putting the spare into place!

75 = the approximate number of Black Dice watches that No.1 Son didn't want for his 22nd birthday - we eventually found just 1 that had the right combination of colours of strap, fascia and hands (at a price we were prepared to pay).  Sometimes I wish that on-line shopping didn't give us quite so much choice - there is something to be said for going to a real shop and selecting something from the things they have in stock that we can actually see, touch and try on for size!

13 = the number of people attending our 10th crop.  Though as usual I only managed 1½ pages and even they weren't 100% finished!

2 = new recipes tried: Harvest Pork Casserole with Apple & Parsnip was not an unmitigated success thanks to our dinner guests turning up about an hour later than anticipated.  The Grilled Pears with Stilton we had as a starter was much better, partly because I didn't start cooking that until after they'd arrived.  Simple too - toasted baguette, covered in watercress, peeled, sliced pear and slices of Stilton which is all grilled until attractively browned.  The watercress was not very obedient and kept poking out from under the pear, even tipping it off the bread, and the bits that were exposed to the grill were ash by the time the Stilton was melted.  It all got eaten though - but another time I think I'll try spinach leaves instead. 

2 = also the number of Book Club books I have read this month - "Room" by Emma Donoghue was my recommendation for December and was just as thought provoking a second time around.  Thankfully the rest of my group also found it a good read - always a worry when I've chosen the book!  This month's book was "The Crying Tree" by Naseem Rakha; quite a slow starter with two, rather confusing, time strands at the beginning, it explores the effects of the murder of a teenage boy on his family & friends, his killer and the prison governor.  There are many, many secrets to uncover and while I suspected some of them, the final chapters had plenty of surprises.  Tissues required though!

228 = £ saved on buildings & contents insurance in just 5 minutes!  To say that I was surprised when the renewal quote came over 50% higher than last year would be an understatement - shocked, but certainly not speechless!   I immediately phoned to complain and the insurance company immediately found me a better deal which came out £7 cheaper than last year's policy!  Good news, but why couldn't they have done that in the first place?

4 = the number of hours driving to & from Bangor to spend 3 hours with No.2 Son.  Well it was one way to spend a day off work and did allow us to treat him to some supply shopping and a lunch in Weatherspoon's.  Shame about the atrocious weather - alternately windy, rainy and haily (is that a word?)  We also got to see inside his house (he didn't have a key to the front door when I dropped him off in August last year), but still haven't seen inside his room as he'd apparently left that key at a friend's house - Yeah right!