I decided on Sunday after a spectacularly bad week of eating crap and being late-ish for work that there had to be improvement. I began the week with a few small aims, best to keep them real and achievable otherwise there's just no point. In no particular order here are my aims and a brief description of progress so far, almost halfway through the week:
1. Drag my sorry ass out of bed before 7am and get to work by at least 8.30 every day. Progress: started off the week well, today only 15 minutes behind arriving at a quarter to nine, aim to do better tomorrow
2. Eat much better. Progress: taken my own lunch each day, only eaten what I have taken with me, turned down cake twice (!!), so far so okay
3. Exercise! Progress: a brisk 15 minute walk each morning from my park and "walk" carpark, downloaded an app to do daily yoga, yet to begin said daily yoga, aim to begin yoga in the morning but this will only work if aim #1 is achieved...
4. Wear a pretty dress for work every single day. Progress: Success! Yesterday I was all casual and floral, today also floral but with some va-va-voom ruffles, both accompanied by most favourite new black "slipper" shoes with gold studs (bling, tough, happenin')
What can I say, clearly I excel in style aims and in all others I border on failure possibly leading to epic failure, only Friday will reveal all...
Tuesday, 9 October 2012
Sunday, 7 October 2012
Bramley apple spongey pud
It was a double whammy of yummy creations in the kitchen today. Here's my next recipe of the day:
Ingredients:
2 oz butter
2 oz caster sugar
1 egg
2 oz self raising flour
Splash of vanilla essence
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 bramley apple, peeled, cored, grated
Handful of almond pieces / slices
Cream the butter, sugar and egg until a nice fluffy mixture. Add a splash of vanilla essence and stir gently. Grate the apple directly into the mixture adding a small amount of flour with each chunk you grate. Once the apple is grated, add in all the flour, the teaspoon of cinnamon, and the almond pieces and stir to a yummy mixture. Measure into individual dishes that can be used in the microwave. When you're ready to have pud, heat the puds for 4 mins in the microwave, leave to cool slightly before tipping upside down into a bowl and serve with custard. Deelish and a thumbs up from Wavey!
Ingredients:
2 oz butter
2 oz caster sugar
1 egg
2 oz self raising flour
Splash of vanilla essence
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 bramley apple, peeled, cored, grated
Handful of almond pieces / slices
Cream the butter, sugar and egg until a nice fluffy mixture. Add a splash of vanilla essence and stir gently. Grate the apple directly into the mixture adding a small amount of flour with each chunk you grate. Once the apple is grated, add in all the flour, the teaspoon of cinnamon, and the almond pieces and stir to a yummy mixture. Measure into individual dishes that can be used in the microwave. When you're ready to have pud, heat the puds for 4 mins in the microwave, leave to cool slightly before tipping upside down into a bowl and serve with custard. Deelish and a thumbs up from Wavey!
Carrotish and coriander soup
My thrown together in a pot soup recipe was so successful I'm going to share it right here!
Ingredients:
1 glug of sunflower oil
Generous pinch of cumin seeds
1 onion, chopped
4-5 big carrots, peeled and chopped
Chunk of swede, peeled and chopped
1 cup of red split lentils
Vegetable stock
Salt and pepper
Fresh coriander
Heat the sunflower oil and throw in your cumin seeds to toast. Once they become aromatic and yummy smelling chuck in your onion and give them a good old stir around until coated with the cumin seeds, heat gently until soft. Next add the carrots and the swede for a couple of minutes. Add the vegetable stock and cup of lentils, season with salt and pepper, bring to the boil, simmer for approximately 40-45 minutes. Once all the veggies are soft and cooked, transfer to a blender and whizz it all up. Add the whizzed up mixture back to the soup water, stir well, season to taste. While the soup is heating up, chop up the coriander, serve the soup in bowls, add the coriander garnish. Serve with tasty crunchy bread and enjoy!
Ingredients:
1 glug of sunflower oil
Generous pinch of cumin seeds
1 onion, chopped
4-5 big carrots, peeled and chopped
Chunk of swede, peeled and chopped
1 cup of red split lentils
Vegetable stock
Salt and pepper
Fresh coriander
Heat the sunflower oil and throw in your cumin seeds to toast. Once they become aromatic and yummy smelling chuck in your onion and give them a good old stir around until coated with the cumin seeds, heat gently until soft. Next add the carrots and the swede for a couple of minutes. Add the vegetable stock and cup of lentils, season with salt and pepper, bring to the boil, simmer for approximately 40-45 minutes. Once all the veggies are soft and cooked, transfer to a blender and whizz it all up. Add the whizzed up mixture back to the soup water, stir well, season to taste. While the soup is heating up, chop up the coriander, serve the soup in bowls, add the coriander garnish. Serve with tasty crunchy bread and enjoy!
Domestic bliss
There was a time, not that many years ago, where I would literally sleep the whole weekend away. I thought nothing of sleeping in until 11am, lounging around catching up on tv, reading books, drinking cups of tea; I would get dressed sometime after lunch and then repeat the above until it was time to go back to bed. I even did this when I had my own house to take care of, so basically I was lazy and didn't dig housework. That hasn't changed, I still firmly believe that dusting is the biggest waste of time ever and Wavey is a champion at the hoovering (though don't tell him I said that will you, sshhh...) however something has changed.
Most weeekends now I wake up between 9 and half past and after the compulsory breakfast in bed that begins both the weekend days, we are generally up and about by half 10. That probably seems really late to most people but for me it's like mega early. And I no longer lounge around wasting the time, I'm busy doing loads of housey stuff be it boring housework or more fun stuff like weekend baking and cooking. The hours fly by and by the end of the day I feel like I've achieved so much. The funny thing is that none of this feels like chores. There's actual pleasure taken in all this buzzy activity.
Take today for example, up and about by half 10 I headed straight down to the bottom of the garden to finish clearing the veggie patches that I started yesterday. Wavey surprised me with a cuppa and we sat on the bench in the sunshine and talked strategy for next years crops. Now I'm in the kitchen creating something that was supposed to be carrot and coriander soup but has somehow ended up with cumin seeds, some swede, and some red lentils in there too...I never can resist messing. Oh and I'm roasting beetroots that I dug up yesterday. I'm also reading a recipe for chocolate and beet cake, deciding how many apples to use in my apple sponge pud later, and typing this blog post! Multi-tasking-tastic!
Is this some kind of age thing? Do you hit 35 and realise that lounging around and wasting time just ain't all that? I still love a bit of a lounge but it's usually only for an hour maximum. Maybe aliens have come down and kidnapped the old Dizz and replaced her with this other variety? While I ponder over that I shall just get back to my kitchen tasks...
Most weeekends now I wake up between 9 and half past and after the compulsory breakfast in bed that begins both the weekend days, we are generally up and about by half 10. That probably seems really late to most people but for me it's like mega early. And I no longer lounge around wasting the time, I'm busy doing loads of housey stuff be it boring housework or more fun stuff like weekend baking and cooking. The hours fly by and by the end of the day I feel like I've achieved so much. The funny thing is that none of this feels like chores. There's actual pleasure taken in all this buzzy activity.
Take today for example, up and about by half 10 I headed straight down to the bottom of the garden to finish clearing the veggie patches that I started yesterday. Wavey surprised me with a cuppa and we sat on the bench in the sunshine and talked strategy for next years crops. Now I'm in the kitchen creating something that was supposed to be carrot and coriander soup but has somehow ended up with cumin seeds, some swede, and some red lentils in there too...I never can resist messing. Oh and I'm roasting beetroots that I dug up yesterday. I'm also reading a recipe for chocolate and beet cake, deciding how many apples to use in my apple sponge pud later, and typing this blog post! Multi-tasking-tastic!
Is this some kind of age thing? Do you hit 35 and realise that lounging around and wasting time just ain't all that? I still love a bit of a lounge but it's usually only for an hour maximum. Maybe aliens have come down and kidnapped the old Dizz and replaced her with this other variety? While I ponder over that I shall just get back to my kitchen tasks...
Monday, 24 September 2012
Publicity hound
I recently found myself having one of those conversations where you're kind of out of your body and not really thinking about what you're saying which resulted in me offering to help with the publicity for my theatre group. I didn't think much more about this initial weird conversation cos I went on holiday and switched off my brain for 2 weeks. Upon my return I was given a list of email addresses, oh what are these, says I? These are the people you must contact and tell them all about how fab and groovy our theatre group is and please come and see all our shows this season. Actually that's not what was said at all but this is how I have chosen to interpret what was actually said as that was to be honest rather blah and not really very encouraging.
Tonight was the night. From this very laptop, sitting in this very seat where I now type this blog, I have written, attached and despatched emails to several publicity folk out there in the real life meeedja world! Eep! I have to admit it was kind of buzzy. I couldn't resist putting in a bit of my cheeky mischievous ways and I was struck by an ingenious idea that what these emails also needed was a bit of bribery. Couple of phone calls later and I'm offering these people complimentary tickets to come and see our fab and groovy shows for themselves! I am now crossing everything in the hope that something comes out of at least one of the emails or I'm going to look like a total sap who can't do anything other than paint walls in battered jeans (which admittedly I do make a mighty fine job of but expanding one's world is always a good thing).
So in honour of this I'm also putting the pulicity information out there to you all, my wonderful blog friends, who will read and perhaps be inspired by how we have managed to recreate practically all of Whitby town in our small but perfectly formed theatre; how you can come and have a welcome drink in our "bijou" bar before the show starts at 7.30pm; how said show: The Good Hope, runs from Monday 8th - Saturday 13th October and tickets are very reasonably priced and available from several outlets, all of which are detailed on our (in development) website which is found here.
What do we reckon? Will the charm of me be enough to secure these meeedja people in my pocket? It's a tough world, I'm not sure that I'm entirely ready for it but I'll give it a blimmin' good go! Come on nice publicity people, be kind to a newbie!
Tonight was the night. From this very laptop, sitting in this very seat where I now type this blog, I have written, attached and despatched emails to several publicity folk out there in the real life meeedja world! Eep! I have to admit it was kind of buzzy. I couldn't resist putting in a bit of my cheeky mischievous ways and I was struck by an ingenious idea that what these emails also needed was a bit of bribery. Couple of phone calls later and I'm offering these people complimentary tickets to come and see our fab and groovy shows for themselves! I am now crossing everything in the hope that something comes out of at least one of the emails or I'm going to look like a total sap who can't do anything other than paint walls in battered jeans (which admittedly I do make a mighty fine job of but expanding one's world is always a good thing).
So in honour of this I'm also putting the pulicity information out there to you all, my wonderful blog friends, who will read and perhaps be inspired by how we have managed to recreate practically all of Whitby town in our small but perfectly formed theatre; how you can come and have a welcome drink in our "bijou" bar before the show starts at 7.30pm; how said show: The Good Hope, runs from Monday 8th - Saturday 13th October and tickets are very reasonably priced and available from several outlets, all of which are detailed on our (in development) website which is found here.
What do we reckon? Will the charm of me be enough to secure these meeedja people in my pocket? It's a tough world, I'm not sure that I'm entirely ready for it but I'll give it a blimmin' good go! Come on nice publicity people, be kind to a newbie!
Tuesday, 18 September 2012
Befuddlement
I would hardly say it's breaking news but this work lark is a bunch of old balls. I've been back there for two days, it already feels like I've never left the place, I'm sooooo sleepy because after two weeks of sleeping in and no alarms the beep-beep-BEEP is a smidge too much at 6.30 in the a.m, it's cold and windy, and I'm still not entirely convinced that I've fully remembered how to be at work. On Monday morning I tried to get into the car on the wrong side to drive it. I had 242 emails, most of which were just rubbish and were promptly deleted. I genuinely couldn't get my head around the idea of what I was supposed to be doing, and we had moved back to the ground floor so I was totally disorientated. Summing up, tis all a bit rubbish really. Perhaps some photos of the holiday will explain why I am feeling this way...
Please can I go back? Please?
Sunday, 16 September 2012
Adventures in holiday reading
Always thinking about new posts for blogs I started off just taking photos of the books that I'd finished on holiday:
Then I decided it was time to get a bit more adventurous and add a book to the shelf to take a photo:
Then I just got photo happy and started putting books into strange places:
Number 7 is still being read but I shall honour it with some kind of holiday type photo once I'm done.
2 weeks.
6 books.
Holidays are truly the bestest!
2 weeks.
6 books.
Holidays are truly the bestest!
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