JMD's Profile

Finding a decent local pub is vital, one where you feel welcome and like you fit into the community there. Also I always join the local hockey club which gets me out and is social as well as exercise. Knowing where to walk the dog is helpful too!

We are rubbish at quick dinners, even reheating and cooking rice/veg seems to take us an hour.

What do people prep at the weekends in advance? I don't understand. Veggies must dry out, don't they? And what else can one do? Can pasta be reheated (but fresh only takes 4 mins anyway). I know rice isn't safe after a day or so. And I never understand what people do with a weeks worth of roasted vegetables. Sigh. I don't work so mostly I cook in the daytimes and it lasts a few days or gets frozen for quick meals or we cook in the eve and it takes probably an hour.

Hmm, I have never tried it raw. Maybe in the summer. I love Russian Kale, and curly kale is ok. The greener, tougher stuff is less to my taste but when it's in season, that's what we eat! We get various types at the Farmers Market and its all local and fresh so it's pretty good. We just boil it and add a little butter.

Yep, we have a window cleaner too, although ours only comes every 8 weeks and costs a bit more than that since we have a lot of sliding doors and high roof lights to get at. Well worth it though, and I am looking forward to his next visit which should be soon.

Depends on what I feel like making. We rarely eat until 9pm and I'm home most of the day so sometimes I cook stuff in the afternoon which we then heat up, like spag Bol, or chilli or whatever. Sometimes we have really quick pasta dishes, and sometimes its easy stuff like sausage and chips :-) I like to cook but I don't like to cook that late as I'm really tired by then so this way I can enjoy cooking, and just heat it up later.

I'm afraid to say we often take our dog to the market but we do make sure we go early so it's not too busy. It's really good for her socialisation and she never causes any trouble. If its a hot day she can't always have a long walk but being highly stimulated at the market wears her out.

I find people who take the supermarket shopping trolleys around the market extremely rude. They are too big and unwieldy.

We have two guys come over for just a hour a week and they do the kitchen, bathroom and hoover everywhere plus a bit of dusting. It's so worthwhile and costs us (I think) £12 person/hour so maybe ~£100 a month.

We have to tidy up for them so they can do a good job, and allows me to concentrate on keeping things tidy and getting laundry done and so on.

In the UK, many of the spaces at the front of the house (few people have actual lawns there) are now parking spaces. Ours will be much the same soon which is a shame but necessary.

When we lived by the river in Cambridge, we sat in our front garden a lot and drank wine and watched the world go past. I loved it and really miss it now that we have moved to a cul-de-sac, although we still chat to neighbours at the front when we see them.

We assign our annual leave to always be used for 'holidays' (away from home) since staying at home always feels like a waste, but recently I have taken a few days at random times, and it's so nice to have a free day. I've since extended that to have every Friday off, and I love it! Of course, I always have chores and things to do, but I can at least plan my own day :-)

I can't imagine living in the USA and not taking every single leave day I was entitled to. We get 25 days and it's never enough.

Our cul-de-sac is really friendly and open and I love it. I've had summer days when I have spoken to about 60% of the people just by being around and about my garden. While we're renovating we have moved out, and I really miss it! When we go to check on the house we always chat to someone or other about it.

Two houses sold recently, and I'm so pleased that the new neighbours are both friendly and chatty so hopefully the feeling will continue.