Matters domestic

Well, the dining room is now equipped, at last, with a full complement of sealed double-glazing panes following the umpteenth and finally successful visit from a fitter from Jokers"Я"Us Home Improvements.  As ever, a polite and competent young man.  Such a shame their back office, though much improved, still screws up so comprehensively.  The warranty on the sealed units expires next year, and I gather that we may be invited to buy an extended one.  Meanwhile, another unit upstairs has also blown, so we've zeroed the stopwatch and started it again. A large number of the sealed units on the sunny side of the house have had to be replaced, some before we moved here (the original installation was in 2001) and quite a few since.  I may research what some of our local firms would charge to replace a blown sealed unit.  I'm disinclined to buy from Jokers"Я"Us in view of the collossal costs of failure that must be factored into their prices.

As for the hobby, I spent a couple of enjoyable evenings last week chatting up groups of people who want to join in, prior to more formal interviews next month.  In between those two sessions, I'd a day at the hobby proper, earning a streaming cold in the process, dammit.  I'd just about completed the 100-day cough that followed the one I got in Portugal last October, so have no doubt started again on that cycle.

Still, the garden is starting to look encouraging.  We have crocuses and snowdrops in flower, plus a few primulas.  I did a few minutes' token gardening this afternoon until rain stopped play, so can admire the snowdrops at the front as we come in without wincing too much at the bittercress, couch grass and moss.  I noticed some daffodils in flower as I walked down to the village a few days ago, so spring isn't too far off.

I'm less than six months away from a change in my relationship with the Department of Work and Pensions, so recently sent off for a statement of my entitlements.  It seems that I qualify for a full state pension, plus a few quid a week from the graduated pension scheme of the 1960s and 70s.  Just as well I don't rely on it, however: after income tax it will pay the council tax, gas and elec and maybe some of the water in and out charges, but not the bread and butter, let alone the jam.  I'm not sure I have the energy to enquire more than perfunctorily whether social security payments were made on my behalf when I worked in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Germany.  I continued to pay into the UK while I was abroad, but imagine my host countries will have exacted their dues.  My brother is in receipt of a pension for the time he worked in France, so it may be I'm entitled to a few bob as well. 

For those who don't follow one's facebook ramblings, you might like to know of our canelloni trick.  If you fancy a meaty pasta-bolognese supper, canelloni offer a much easier deal than lasagne.  Lardons, finely chopped onion, garlic to taste, red pepper, carrot and celery sweated and set aside.  500g good mince browned, previous act heaved in together with a can of chopped toms and a belt of passata, seasoning, herbs, or however you'd prepare the meat for lasagne, simmer gently for a good hour.  (Plenty of other veggie possibilities, of course.)  Count out the tubes you need to fill your gratin dish (for this amount of bolognese, twelve, to feed four), strap them together with an elastic band, and spoon in the filling.  You will in any case want the fallout in the bottom of the gratin dish.  Once the tubes are filled and the filling firmed down with the handle of your wooden spoon, pour any remaining bolognese sauce into the dish, cut the elastic band and arrange the tubes horizontally.  Top with béchamel and whatever grated cheese comes to hand, slap it in the oven until it starts to brown, dish up, wash down, doze off.  Observera: do not get distracted by a phone call while filling the tubes.  When in due course you return to the task, the tubes will have softened and stuck together, and you'll finish up with a random dish of pasta and bolognese.  Learned the hard way.  Of course, when buying the tubes, you have to select your product carefully.  I bought some from M*rr*s*ns a while back, and had to sort through all the packets on the shelf before finding one with a reasonable number of unbroken tubes.  The more recent purchase from S**nsb*rys was better, but there were still rejects.