Monday Miscellany: November

Posted on November 2, 2026 by nicdempsey

Happy Monday!

  • The allotment pumpkin walk happened on Saturday, 3,000 people and a lot of work (none of it mine!) I turned up to help at the bar!
  • I’m so close to finishing this cross-stitch I just need an uninterrupted afternoon, having to work is cutting into my sewing time!
  • I caved and bought the M&S version of Roses/Quality Street, they are nice and come in a tin, as all Christmas chocolates should!
  • Last week Christelle and I had lunch at Cote in Richmond, and the fizz came in coupes. I was not impressed
  • From the week before last. I arrived at mums to find she’d dropped some eggs. She didn’t clean it up in case she fell over and we do keep saying we’d prefer things on the floor to mum on the floor!
  • In my one adult thing, this week, I did my six monthly pension check. How much is in them, what the projections are and so on. If you haven’t done it in a while do as it’s good to know where you are and think about what else you could do. That could be checking your on track for state pension, confirming your retirement age, or using the pension tracker to find any old pensions knocking around. It’s worth it, I was pleasantly surprised!

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Monday Miscellany: Dead Cat Bounce

Posted on October 26, 2026 by nicdempsey

Happy Monday!

  • The clocks went back over the weekend and we got an extra hour (parents and pet owners probably didn’t!) and we are now in the season of the ‘dead cat bounce’. It’s lighter in the mornings for a little bit so I feel marginally better but it’s still getting darker overall so I’m still SAD.
  • My new motto for mum is ‘things on the floor are better than mum on the floor’. Her falls often happen as she’s trying to pick things up when she drops them and Ben and I are encouraging her to kick them out of the way for me to deal with later. Which means that last Monday I arrived at mum’s to find an egg on the floor! Which was easier to clean up than on Saturday she cut her finger as she fell and I kept finding blood on various surfaces!
  • I spent a day and a half off work sick last week. It was the weirdest thing, I started the week being really sick and spent the first half of the week feeling hungover, which is always unfair if you’re not drinking! Then I got this weird rash on my neck and under my chin, the rash on my neck was new but the one under my chin is usually a sign that I have a cold or asthma flare up, no cold materialised but I was running a slight temperature and I was very tired. So on Thursday afternoon, I called it and stopped working. A Friday off to just sleep, seems to have fixed me but it was odd. I running at about 85% of normal and feel that a couple of nights of good sleep will fix me.
  • I did get to see Christelle over the weekend, we went for lunch at Côte. Which has had something of a re-brand and I was very in-impressed with the wine glasses! Coupes are only good for cocktails in my world…
  • Last week I re-waterproofed my coats and a friend commented that it felt like I’d unlocked another level of adulthood. So this week in really adult things, I submitted gas and electricity meter readings and fixed my electricity prices for another year! Which should help because I’m paying £80 a month for electricity, which is bananas given how little time I’m in the flat! And also 17 years ago my energy bill for electricity was £19 a month and gas was £39. I budgeted £60 a month. Now for both it’s about £120. I have a better paid job now but not 203% better which is the increase in energy prices!
  • Plans for this week are the usual. I’m at mums until Saturday morning when I’m going home for the pumpkin walk to serve mulled wine! We are finally getting mum’s hot tap fixed on her bathroom sink today, (I’m very much looking forward to washing my face in warm water again!). I think my uncle is coming to visit too. I have an office day and it’s the last week of the month so I need to do reporting prep and also the boss returns from his holiday so email is going to go crazy and I have project to do for my training course. If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much room!!

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Cooking: Cherry Almond Marzipan Cake

Posted on October 22, 2026 by nicdempsey

Last week, I saw this cake on instagram and mentioned it to Mum. The parent is off cake at the moment, so I was surprised by the enthusiasm from her so ordered the ingredients I didn’t already have at home (cherries and almonds) and baked it on Sunday.

The recipe is from Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen and I followed it exactly. It’s a cake you can serve with coffee or for afternoon tea but slightly warm and with cream for when you invite people to dinner!

A couple of notes from me. I didn’t have an 18cm deep pan, so it got cooked in my 23cm pan, which meant that mine is slightly thinner. I reduced the baking time by 5 minutes but should probably have reduced it a bit more and only baked for 40 minutes.

Finally, I made this with the kitchen aid and it was very easy (would have been easier if I hadn’t knocked the flour off the counter!), it’s low effort, high reward because it looks so pretty.

Anyway this is a lovely cake and I throughly recommend it.

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Monday Miscellany: Rain in the Wrong Places

Posted on October 19, 2026 by nicdempsey

Happy Monday!

  • October is really beginning to October, sunrise at 7:30am and getting up in the dark sucks. This weekend I started doing 25 minutes with the light lamp, it does work but I don’t like it.
  • Last Friday, Mum had a hospital appointment, the heavens opened and we got very wet. It’s a theme the last big rain we had was when Mum had her flu jab.
  • As a consequence this weekend, I re-waterproofed my rain coat and my winter coat. which was simple but it was the first time I’ve ever done it..
  • In Saturday the weather was much better and we came across a sunbathing cat on the way to the farmers market
  • I’m also really close to finishing the cross stitch that Mum bought me last Christmas, all I really want to do is sit and sew..

Plans for this week are a haircut, work, seeing Christelle and surviving the October-ness of October!

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Sunday Music: The Temptations – Can’t Get Next to You

Posted on October 18, 2026 by nicdempsey

My parents musical taste was broad. Mum was responsible for the Motown part of my education. We even went to see the Temptations at some point in the 80’s….

This popped up on shuffle the other day and it’s just good…

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Recommended: Vimto Electrolyte Tablets

Posted on October 17, 2026 by nicdempsey

I have a very sensitive stomach, it’s not debilitating but fruit and veg goes right through me.

It could be IBS but I’m not in pain, there’s no blood and honestly given how difficult it is to get the doctor to take me seriously for things that do hurt, I’m ok to just deal with it.

Someone suggested that some electrolytes might help and when they suggested it, we were in a heatwave and anything that made water taste different sounded like a good idea, especially when I found out that you could get Vimto flavoured ones!

I bought mine from Sainsbury’s but I’m guessing they are available in most places.

I have them in the morning when I’m sitting in front of the light lamp and while I can’t say they’ve made an enormous difference to my stomach, my hands and ankles aren’t as puffy after exercise so that’s a small win and getting a pint of water down me first thing in the morning seems to help me overall!

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Friday Links: When Will There be Good News?

Posted on October 16, 2026 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday! I’ve not been doing Friday Links much because the world feels like a bin fire and it seems that there is no good news. So some of these links will be old..

About 1,500 Britons a day quitting their jobs to become unpaid carers. I can believe it, my life would be much easier if I didn’t have to work, but then I would have no pension and no money and where would I live? I’m lucky that I work for a really supportive company that has been understanding of me working from Mum’s house but if they weren’t, I probably would have to give up work. Which means as I age, I’ll rely more on the State for support. The 10 days paid leave or paying carers allowance to people who are caring even if they are above the income threshold, is a small amount of money for a saving down the line. I currently burn through all my leave doing things for Mum and I can’t afford to take the 10 days unpaid leave I could get. If I had the carers allowance it would allow me to take the leave if I needed. It sometimes feels like the system is designed to squeeze everything out of me, before it’ll help.

Badenoch’s inheritance tax gambit makes no economic sense

Israeli settlers attack olive farmers and Washington Post journalist in West Bank. This is unsurprising but still bloody awful…

How Shakhtar Donetsk made Stamford Bridge home: ‘We brought smiles to children under attack’. If we’re not playing European football it’s good to see Stamford Bridge being used for this..

They asked for 80 homes – she gave them 157! Council-housing miracle named Britain’s best new building

Stevie Wonder review – playing ​his greatest album in full, he knocks everyone sideways. This surprises me not at all, Mum took me to see Stevie Wonder years ago, best concert ever, the man is amazing…

The Good List: 6 Things to Add Joy to Your Day This is a US list but the last one, about Brother of the More Famous Jack. So true, go and find a copy, it’s such a good book, and I have several copies of it!

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Cocktails, Catching Up and Twenty Year Friendships

Posted on October 14, 2026 by nicdempsey

On Friday, I met Max and Chrissy in Covent Garden and we drank cocktails.

I’ve known Max and Chrissy since I worked at Ealing, which is a while ago, and we don’t see each other a lot, but I love that we just pick up where we left off.

First we went to The Haunting at Russell Street. Which is a pop up for October. It was very silly!

It’s timed ticket so we went at 5:30 and stayed until 6:45, which was enough time to have two drinks each while catching up.

I started with a poisoned apple

Max with A Tangled Web

Chrissy with a Liquid Lobotomy

The next round I went for The Severed Sun, Max for a Liquid Lobotomy and Chrissy for the Hex Appeal

It was fun, apparently the same people do a Christmas themed pop up at the same place for December.

Max trying to get a selfie with the skeleton!

We had a hour or so to kill before Max and Chrissy headed off to the theatre (Six the Musical) so we popped into Balthazar. This place is a definitely a Jillian place, Mum in her working heyday would have loved it.

Drinks were not themed. I had a Vieux Carré

Max and Chrissy went for French Martini’s

I haven’t done a night out with drinks for ages, I’m so glad that I did. Next time I do it, I don’t want to have my work bag with me!

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Monday Miscellany: Autumn Grumpiness

Posted on October 13, 2026 by nicdempsey

Happy Monday! (Yes I know it’s actually Tuesday!)

  • Last week I was tired and grumpy. I deal with a certain level of tiredness (I’m a menopausal, middle aged woman, if I wasn’t tired, I’d think I was ill) but this was much more tired than usual. I did all the right things and carried on but by Wednesday, all I wanted was to go and have a nap. Instead, I took Mum for her flu jab, it was raining and I was just done. My poor mum has been so patient with me and my grump. But it’s also worth noting that the days I have been most tired and grumpy are the days I didn’t sit in front of the light lamp. So I think the lamp works…
  • Because of all the things going on with Mum this week, I got Sunday and Monday at home. I don’t often get two full consecutive days at home nowadays and boy was it motivational. I got caught up on loads of things I’ve been putting off, and the flat looked much better. As a consequence I felt much better about leaving it to go to Mum’s. There’s a lesson there somewhere.
  • I had a night out last week, it was lovely, i loved catching up with Max and Chrissy, I probably need to do more of it but I’d already had a tiring week and it took me most of the weekend to feel human again!
  • It’s October and this morning I left the house in a linen short sleeeved shirt and jeans, coat in bag. Guys this is wrong, we have fucked the planet to get warm October mornings.
  • I made my first (of three) Christmas cake yesterday. It’s this one and it’s still our favourite. As I get into October, I’m starting to assemble stuff for Christmas. I know it goes against my usual policy of not thinking about it until after Mum’s birthday in early December. However, last year taught me that that isn’t sustainable while also caring for Mum. Last year, Christmas was really hard, I was exhausted. So this year, I’ve made mincemeat (lots of it, thanks to a gift of apples from Deborah and Jo), I’ll do cakes and mince pie pastry this month. Cheese star dough for the freezer in November, and I’ll take a day off in December to do Christmas shopping. This stuff is the stuff I enjoy at Christmas, we’re not having a big roast dinner (sandwich Christmas for the win) but these things I do love, so I’m making time for making them now..
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Recommended: Plug Extension with Independent Switches

Posted on October 10, 2026 by nicdempsey

There are never enough plug sockets. Aside from the plugs for the fridges, oven and washing machine, I have eight plug sockets in the kitchen and it’s still not enough.

Mum’s flat is worse, her living room has two plug sockets, which is ridiculous. She needs three (for her blanket, her lamp and her laptop), I need at least four (my work laptop, lamp, wake up light, charging plug) then there’s things like the treadmill, iron and anything else that needs electricity. There have been lots of extension cords but with mum getting less and less mobile and falling over, I don’t like having too much on the floor and they are so messy. I also worry because this year I had an old one that tripped electric at my house so I’ve been replacing them in both houses.

These are the ones that I have, they rotate so you can have them above or underneath the plug and also come with sticky things so you can stabilise them to the wall. I prefer being able to switch each socket on and off and while it’s not ideal, it’s better than 20 year old extension cords.

It’s a small thing but it feels tidier and safer and we do what we can.

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