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FastFreddy2

"Last minute" meeting around the UK?

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Just been to B+Q for some bits. Absolutely bitter outside. Good decision to stay in today. Only out for a short period, but it was enough. Now back home warming up.

Sky is overcast and looks to be full of snow. :huh:

 

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Great afternoon for heavy suede otk boots. Been wearing them around the house as I do some writing today and very grateful for the warmth. I like to keep the house fairly chilly, but myself nice and warm. Boots, heavy jumper - ideal.

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11 hours ago, Tacchi Alti said:

Sunny here today, but still not warm. We had a slight frost this morning. Throw the cat off your lap and get out in those heels!

The cat likes me more than Mrs Freddy does, so I wouldn't be throwing him anywhere.

Sunny but cold day, so we had a joint visit to I.K.E.A. during the afternoon. Me with my M+S pointy boots on.

Felt like we had joined a school outing. We expected to see some children there, it being half-term, but hadn't expected so many parents to keep their children busy walking around a furniture store. It being so busy meant there was little opportunity to spot my shoes. As they are so pointy and the heel fairly high, only a small triangle of toe is visible from the hem of my jeans. (Usually, a bit of a give-away.) Not today. B) 

Spent so much time there, we didn't have time to visit Brent Cross too, which was part of the original plan.... :rolleyes: :D

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I haven't yet shown my wife my new shoe boots, which have pointy toes! Unfortunately she doesn't like the new block heeled boots, which is a disappointment as I'd thought they were as masculine as possible. So I'm still looking for some wedge boots/shoes and also some closed toe mules or sandals to wear as slippers. Both seem very elusive.

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Nearly that time of the year when 'traditionally' we profess out undying love to our significant other.  I remember those days well. :P :D

Of course years ago Valentines day wasn't the PR exercise it seems to have become. I remember when you could get a table at a restaurant on the 14th without booking ....  A bunch of flowers not only had a smell,  they weren't dead on the 15th either.....

Not only was sex guaranteed to be part of the days routine, 'slackers' (anyone not appearing to be gagging for it) were challenged as to their reasons why! B)

Dressing up for the evening was part of the tradition, with some women wearing the 'presents' men had bought them, with both parties understanding the men had really bought the 'presents' for themselves to see (and enjoy) on their S.O. 

While I make light of it, really, I miss the 'excitement of youth' around the event. A time when household burdens were either virtually non-existent or absent, jobs and money were plenty, and life didn't revolve around mobiles and social media. I would imagine when young men take a girlfriend out on Valentines in 2018, her date isn't just taking her out, but her whole social media group with the pluses and minuses that can bring. Go somewhere lavish and spend silly money, girl gets to brag, you are very popular. Take her somewhere cheap, underwhelm her, and both her and her media social group will be looking to put your head on a pike. :o

Since being with Mrs Freddy, I have had an escape route. She has a birthday around this time, and I'm not expected to do anything special twice with the dates relatively close together. Better still, her friends want to take her out around this time, and her close family like to treat her too. It's allowed me to be properly slack about it all. :lol: It's usually the end of March before she feels slim enough to eat out again. ;)

Just for the record, it had no influence on my decision to suggest marriage. ;) :D

 

Edited by FastFreddy2
Grammar.

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As I loathe crowded places, pretentious restaurants and being ripped-off, Valentine's Day is a non-event for me as far as going out is concerned.   Likewise giving flowers.   

The event is essentially for the unmarried (or for those enjoying whatever status is a marital substitute in these enlightened times) but generally survives the ceremony and becomes an established, if rather hackneyed, tradition.   However, presentation of a small gift, with a card bearing a genuine (and ideally witty) message, is expected and should be appreciated - and reciprocated.

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11 hours ago, Puffer said:

However, presentation of a small gift, with a card bearing a genuine (and ideally witty) message, is expected and should be appreciated - and reciprocated.

"Gift"? Blimey, that's pushing the boat out a bit ..... :o

My minimum/maximum is a card. Flowers would be welcome (at any time) but Mrs F is due a fairly large bouquet soon, and it would dwarf anything I might purchase. We used to do 2 cards each, one jokey, one sincere, but we agreed to exchange only one from last year. Cost was a small issue, but finding any suitable card had become a challenge, and finding two almost impossible. 

This year I was bought some chocolate (which Mrs F knows I'm trying to cut down on), so rather than buy her some (as I was), we've agreed to share. (Ahhhhh... :wub:)

 

What I did do, is put together a three course meal. We both got to have a glass of drinkable wine, as there was no driving involved, and we didn't need to venture out into the cold or the wet during the evening either. With Mrs Freddy up for work at 5.15am, a large glass of wine and an unusually large meal had her falling asleep on a comfy couch in a warm room. 'An early night' means just that in our house, :rolleyes: but given the hours Mrs F works and how hard she works, I don't begrudge her at all.  B)

 

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By a 'small gift', I mean something like a modest packet of sweets or chocs, or an item that might be both useful and personal - such as a pen or a tool.   If there is an amusing aspect to it (e.g. a wooden spoon!  :P), so much the better.   This year, as it happens, I spied a small framed print in a charity shop window which I knew Mrs P would like so she got that - and she was indeed pleased with it.   (She gave me some chocs - I usually get fudge!)

Cards are invariably either too soppy or over-priced (or both), but the Card Factory came up with one that was both apposite and just about affordable (99p), so she got that.  :o

Who says romance is dead?   (Ailing, perhaps, but not yet deceased.) :angry:

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12 hours ago, Puffer said:

Cards are invariably either too soppy or over-priced (or both), but the Card Factory came up with one that was both apposite and just about affordable (99p), so she got that.  :o

Who says romance is dead?   (Ailing, perhaps, but not yet deceased.) :angry:

99p!! I paid 79p for mine ..... tut tut ... ;) :P :D

I think Mrs Freddy might have gone a bit overboard with the chocolates she bought for me though. 'Hotel Chocolat Batons' if you don't mind. Possibly leveraging some goodwill with her impending birthday on the horizon.  :blink: 

 

 

 

 

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9 minutes ago, Shyheels said:

Hotel Chocolat makes nice stuff...

When it gets soft, it's quite pleasant, but it does seem fairly solid until warmed?

Maybe I'm not used to 'quality' chocolate? ;) :D

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Chocolate should be at room temperature for the flavours to come through. But solid chocolate, like the batons, are going to be hard - that is the nature of the beast. Fine chocolate, like that of Hotel Chocolat have a high percentage of cocoa solids. That’s what makes them nice - and more expensive too - as opposed to the naturally softer chocolates such as Cadbury and Galaxy which often as not have vegetable oil in them as well

Edited by Shyheels

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2 hours ago, Shyheels said:

Chocolate should be at room temperature for the flavours to come through. But solid chocolate, like the batons, are going to be hard - that is the nature of the beast. Fine chocolate, like that of Hotel Chocolat have a high percentage of cocoa solids. That’s what makes them nice - and more expensive too - as opposed to the naturally softer chocolates such as Cadbury and Galaxy which often as not have vegetable oil in them as well

I don't mind veg oil.... But we have recently banned Nutella and copies of it, because of the high palm oil content. As far as convenience is concerned, it's something of a blow because it was useful to jazz up things like pancakes. But I don't want to be using anything with palm oil in it if I can avoid it, and sacrifices are good for the soul (I'm told). B)

I'm no connoisseur of chocolate, and don't get the 'satisfaction' I should from a seriously high cocoa content chocolate, much to my disappointment. I have in the past eaten some that was so strong (and a little bitter), I couldn't manage much, but otherwise I tend to eat it until it's gone. Unlike Mrs Freddy, I don't seem to have a saturation level, which of course is not good for my waistline. Hence my reducing my intake, mostly by not having access to it. :)  

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I am a chocolate snob and like my proper chocolate. I tend to prefer 70% cocoa to the 85% variety, but I like that too.  Because if it’s cloying richness/bitterness I find I can get the satisfaction of having had a dessert by having just a square or two, whereas if I go for the milliner varieties 40% or so, I will tend to eat more.

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The 70% stuff may well have been the grade I tried and couldn't eat much of, like a couple of squares? 

I'm more your 'dalliance' choco-fiend, preferring sweet over hard-core. My current fav, is the soft gooey stuff sitting on top of an M+S eclair. 

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I just can't eat that stuff - it's too sweet. 

Yes, the 70% (or higher) grade chocolate can be pretty cloying and a couple of squares is usually enough. I have had 99% chocolate and, while nice, in its own unusual way, one square was plenty.

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Temperature is taking a nose dive during the next week. Maybe a little drier which will be a welcome change. Proper sub-zero temperatures in the offing next week, care of Siberian air. 

Am hoping to get out somewhere this coming Thursday, maybe in London, maybe not. My tendons need some action, and I don't own a treadmill. :D

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We exchanged cards on Valentines Day, and my wife said she hadn't bought me chocolate because she knew I wasn't eating it at the moment (dieting!). I said I hadn't bought her flowers because I knew she wasn't eating them at the moment. For some reason she put that up on Facebook.

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Well.....

Managed to make a quick visit to Brent X en route, for coffee and half a scone, then on to Westfield. Not much going on in either place. Sensible people stayed home in the warm. I got some (much needed) exercise, so all good for me. 

In Debenhams, finally found some of this on sale .....

shopping?q=tbn:ANd9GcQB3Xf4dKP-1AS6epHZ4

 

Carolina Herrera 'Good Girl' Eau De Parfum

£50, £72-50 and £94-50. Quite a pleasant smell, but nothing that would knock you over.

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