Articles by Bee Orchid

After what seemed like an interminable week, I am at last, free. Including my usual 2 days off a week, I’m now off work for 9 days. 9 whole days! During my time off I plan to go to South Wales to visit family and my friend. I haven’t seen either for almost 2 years. Money, or lack of was the initial reason, then I got a job, so money wasn’t so much of an issue but then of course we went into various forms of lock down. It’ll be so nice to get away and see other people for a change, and to go shop…

This week, in a roundabout way, I’ve found out that in less than 4 weeks’ time, the NHS will be sharing GP data with third parties, and whilst they are not charging for this, they are seeking a payment for supplying the data. Hmm, sounds like selling data to me! Many GPs are against this, though they have been overruled. Basically, they state that names and addresses will be removed from the data, but would you trust that? I don’t. Third parties will have access to what is private information ab…

After a week of unrelenting sunshine, and increasing temperatures, Sunday saw some welcome rain. I like the sunshine, don’t get me wrong, however the bedrooms are maxing out at 25C which makes for a very uncomfortable night. I’ve stated before, after having a bat in the house (previous house) twice, and moths aplenty, neither of us can sleep with the windows open. If it does get too much, I’ll open my bedroom window the merest crack though I’m then ‘fretting’ about bugs in the bedroom. Seriously…

The weather here has finally improved with sunshine aplenty, and warm days too that are great for drying laundry on the rigging. The downside of sunshine and dry conditions, is that certain neighbours have had a party, in their garden, that went on until after 11.30pm. Much noise, much drunken carousing. I couldn’t sleep for ages, then had to get up around 04.30am for work. Lovely! I often wish I could up anchor and sail away to somewhere quieter. Quieter is often costly though, so until I wi…

This week, my son turned 25. Where did the time go? He makes me feel old lol. We’re making an Indian meal – very mild chicken Malay (pineapple) curry for me, hot beef curry for my son, with samosas I’d made previously, and maybe I’ll make onion bhajis too. I’ve made a vegan coconut cheesecake at his request. I’ve tasted it whilst it’s chilling and it puts me in mind of coconut ice cream. Cheesecake it is not! His choice though I wish he’d gone with our usual sunken chocolate cake. His Dad sen…

Well, I’d written a blog last week, detailing my week, though was unable to post it so most of it seems a tad moot now. This new blog has been heavily edited. Last week I had my second dose of the Covid vaccine. A man this time and boy did I feel the needle! No chills this time around but very tired and lethargic. By the evening, my arm was hurting considerably so I dosed up on pain meds. The agent for the landlord phoned and after introducing herself, told me not to panic. O…K… Anyway, no…

This past week, the weather has been the pits! Last Sunday I came out of work to glorious sunshine, a nice breeze, and blue skies. Since then, the temperature has dropped like a stone and we’ve been ‘enjoying’ temperatures around 2C, and a frozen windscreen. Once the day warms up, it rains. Lots. Judging by what’s in the buckets in the garden, we’ve had about 3 inches of rain in a week. It’s hard to be sure because the dog, despite having access to clean water, likes to get his head in the bucke…

This week, others have been harshing my mellow. Since I took early retirement a few years ago, each and every year I’ve had a percentage increase in my pension, often resulting in between £10 and £15 extra a month. For reasons known only to themselves, the tax office has split my ‘tax free allowance’ between my pension and my salaried, part time job. Makes no sense to me, but there you go. The raise this year on my pension was less than £3 a month, and out of that, I paid 40p tax. WTF! Was it…

… I have had a haircut. I went to a different hairdresser as although the one I’ve gone to in the past is cheaper by far, she rarely does what I ask for, and frankly, she talks too much! This new hairdresser asked what I’d like, cut the length, showed me, then cut some more off which is what I wanted. She then took time to put in some layers. My hair is very fine, but there’s a lot of it, and it often looks ‘flat’ and lacks body. This cut is great! She spoke a little, but not much which is prefe…

Last week was a slow week, and each day couldn’t finish fast enough. After around 10 days, my stomach ‘issues’ finally eased up and at least I’ve been able to enjoy some meals, albeit very plain meals. I cut right down on coffee, I’m down to one a day now (it was creeping up to 3 or 4). I have tea in the morning, ginger tea in my break, and I don’t have a coffee until I come home from work. Now, if I could stop having a ‘coffee withdrawal’ headache I’d be laughing. I’ve been more stringent on ha…

You know when you’re not getting enough of something (food-wise) when you keep dreaming of big slabs of the stuff. What I’m dreaming of would curl a vegan/vegetarian’s hair! You know it’s d*mn cold when the large saucer of water left out for the birds has frozen. You know you need to be careful what you touch when you get very static. Whenever it gets very cold, I get very static. Over the years I’ve broken a pair of glasses – I will never buy plastic frames again, 2 hairbrushes - just by…

Happy Easter! Sunday, our store is closed. Weirdly, Easter Sunday is not a bank holiday, so we’ve had to take a day’s leave, or else work our hours on other days. I seem to have done both! I said I’d use a day’s leave which was accepted, then managed to work 5 hours overtime anyway lol. Oh well. At least I now have 3 days off to recuperate and enjoy a nice meal with my son; full roast, with a half-price beef joint – can’t fault it! I had planned to get some shopping, however there were no…

Happy Birthday Gracie for Saturday. Hope you have a lovely day!

This week was busy yet again. Monday, the car was booked for an MOT – road worthiness test. It failed. Though only due to the handbrake; it seemed fine to me, though the garage stated it needed adjusting. They did that, then had to re-test the car. All in all, they had the car for 3 hours! Man, it was stressful, though thankfully they’re within walking distance of the house so I didn’t have to stay. Once home, I did some tidying in the garden. We’d seen a large mouse/small rat in the back gar…

Just lately, life has been one long rush rush busy busy. There are time constraints on my job; customers want their orders, drivers have to go out, and it all feels like one big rush. When I get home, I rush to let the dog out, put away any shopping, grab some lunch, then it’s a rush to get dinner ready. Some days I have to tell myself to slow down; there is no time constraint on dinner, or the ironing and so on. In my late teens and early twenties, I rushed everywhere, and my Mother would of…

This week has been another busy one. I had my remainder of the eye test that was curtailed due to being sent to the emergency eye clinic. Sad to say, I need new lenses. Whilst the infection has gone, I’ve been left with some corneal scaring that will take time to heal and must use the lubricant more often. Both eyes look healthy, though my vision has deteriorated in both eyes. Bummer! I looked at new frames, and watched another customer pick up, and put back numerous frames despite being told no…

This week, I have been mostly working. When I started this job, I worked temporarily 12 hours a week and that was nice. Once my contract ended, they kept me on and increased my hours to 22 hours a week. The extra money was well received, though some days it is tiring. Over Christmas and New Year, we worked an awful lot of extra hours, and were then advised that there was no more overtime. Many of us received that news with a sigh of relief. Not long after that news, the overtime started to pile…

I had an email recently, that stated that Ofgem – energy regulator - has announced an increase to their energy price cap. Basically, the power companies are being allowed to gouge even more money out of us. I live in a ‘modest’ 2-bed end of terrace. We don’t have the heating on as much as I’d like, we only have the hot water boiler on for less than an hour a day, and a third of the house isn’t on the central heating system. Despite all this, I’ve had notice that my gas and electricity bills will…