Monday 21 June 2010
I love Apple
Of course, having played with the iPad extensively and fallen in love with it my resistance to its charms (and Stephen's pleas) was completely worn down. He went out and bought one today. We are now reduced to having timed slots to ensure that we don't argue over it....
Social butterflies...
Stephen came back from watching the football at Richard's on Friday with a whole load of invitations for the weekend. There was a lot of "My people will speak to your people"...
We went to Steve and Graham's for dinner on Saturday (slow cooked Moroccan lamb - DELICIOUS!) and got to have a serious play with his iPad. What a cool thing it is!! Hours were spent proving that I am pathetically crap at games on this format as well as Wii and PS3! Despite the fact that everyone else was tiddly and I was stone cold sober I still managed to display the reflexes of a sloth and a lack of coordination that should make me afraid of leaving the house for fear of what may happen to me, but does perhaps explain why I'm always covered in bruises! I did gain some revenge for this on-going, multi-platform humiliation though....I introduced them to Bubble Bang, the Worlds most addicitive game. I will play this until my iPod battery goes flat. Once you pop - you can't stop!
I also need to check what fragrance my shower gel is. I could have sworn it was Rose and Geranium, but given Bournville's reaction it was Pedigree Chum!! I obviously tasted good!! He was licking my hands, arms and ankles any chance he got!
We spent Sunday in the garden after a rush round to the grocery store first thing. I was flicking through something I'd recorded when I saw an advert for half price Champagne which caused me to frantically rewind and then grab Stephen and run for the car. We got Taittenger for GBP 16 per bottle. Actually slightly less as you also got a 10% additional discount if you bought 4 bottles... Bargain!! I am looking forward to the night when I'm actually able to drink some of it!!
On Sunday evening we went to Richard & Justine's for Movie Night. We got a Chinese take out and settled down to watch the Star Trek movie on Blu-ray. Or half the Star Trek movie as we'd got the timings a bit wrong and it was getting really late! Stephen is on holiday this week, but I had to go to work and I can't stay up too late on a school night. Not to mention the kids of course, who really were up late on a school night!!!
We went to Steve and Graham's for dinner on Saturday (slow cooked Moroccan lamb - DELICIOUS!) and got to have a serious play with his iPad. What a cool thing it is!! Hours were spent proving that I am pathetically crap at games on this format as well as Wii and PS3! Despite the fact that everyone else was tiddly and I was stone cold sober I still managed to display the reflexes of a sloth and a lack of coordination that should make me afraid of leaving the house for fear of what may happen to me, but does perhaps explain why I'm always covered in bruises! I did gain some revenge for this on-going, multi-platform humiliation though....I introduced them to Bubble Bang, the Worlds most addicitive game. I will play this until my iPod battery goes flat. Once you pop - you can't stop!
I also need to check what fragrance my shower gel is. I could have sworn it was Rose and Geranium, but given Bournville's reaction it was Pedigree Chum!! I obviously tasted good!! He was licking my hands, arms and ankles any chance he got!
We spent Sunday in the garden after a rush round to the grocery store first thing. I was flicking through something I'd recorded when I saw an advert for half price Champagne which caused me to frantically rewind and then grab Stephen and run for the car. We got Taittenger for GBP 16 per bottle. Actually slightly less as you also got a 10% additional discount if you bought 4 bottles... Bargain!! I am looking forward to the night when I'm actually able to drink some of it!!
On Sunday evening we went to Richard & Justine's for Movie Night. We got a Chinese take out and settled down to watch the Star Trek movie on Blu-ray. Or half the Star Trek movie as we'd got the timings a bit wrong and it was getting really late! Stephen is on holiday this week, but I had to go to work and I can't stay up too late on a school night. Not to mention the kids of course, who really were up late on a school night!!!
Saturday 19 June 2010
Hubris
Oh dearie, dearie me... Despite the pre-tournament confidence, and frequent mentions of 1966, England aren't doing terrifically well in the World Cup.
Before the first game against the USA the whole of England was supremely confident. The papers were full of quotes from Hollywood stars saying things like "I'm looking forward to the USA playing Manchester United", leading to a contempt of the US team (as the whole US nation - including their team - obviously knows nothing about soccer) and a confidence that England would give them a thorough thrashing on the field.
Now, admittedly, soccer is not a particularly mainstream sport in the US, and perhaps the general man in the street doesn't know a huge amount about it having not played since school, but US athletes take their sports really seriously! It doesn't matter if that sport is baseball, football, hockey or soccer they will want to be the very best at it. I think it surprised people that they turned up with the correct number of players and understood the offside rule...
They held England to a deserved draw. They were cruelly robbed of a victory against Slovenia (Stephen made me watch the highlights and we can't see any reason why the goal was chopped off) and are now second in the group.
In contrast, England are third after a disappointing draw against Albania. There could be an upset on the cards! We'll need to do some advanced maths to see what results are needed and who might go through. Roll on Wednesday!!
I have to say that I'm not one of the Scots who supports anyone that plays against England. We've lived down here far too long for that! But perhaps being Scottish (and having quite frankly a rather rubbish national team) you learn to have a little humility and a sense of perspective about the glorious game!
Okay. So England won it once....but that was 44 years ago. Lets take one tournament at a time! Winning the World Cup in 1966 does not automatically give you a free pass to the final. These guys are all tired after a long season and carrying niggling injuries. They are also carrying that heavy burden of expectation - all of England's hopes and dreams of footballing glory are resting on their shoulders....
Before the first game against the USA the whole of England was supremely confident. The papers were full of quotes from Hollywood stars saying things like "I'm looking forward to the USA playing Manchester United", leading to a contempt of the US team (as the whole US nation - including their team - obviously knows nothing about soccer) and a confidence that England would give them a thorough thrashing on the field.
Now, admittedly, soccer is not a particularly mainstream sport in the US, and perhaps the general man in the street doesn't know a huge amount about it having not played since school, but US athletes take their sports really seriously! It doesn't matter if that sport is baseball, football, hockey or soccer they will want to be the very best at it. I think it surprised people that they turned up with the correct number of players and understood the offside rule...
They held England to a deserved draw. They were cruelly robbed of a victory against Slovenia (Stephen made me watch the highlights and we can't see any reason why the goal was chopped off) and are now second in the group.
In contrast, England are third after a disappointing draw against Albania. There could be an upset on the cards! We'll need to do some advanced maths to see what results are needed and who might go through. Roll on Wednesday!!
I have to say that I'm not one of the Scots who supports anyone that plays against England. We've lived down here far too long for that! But perhaps being Scottish (and having quite frankly a rather rubbish national team) you learn to have a little humility and a sense of perspective about the glorious game!
Okay. So England won it once....but that was 44 years ago. Lets take one tournament at a time! Winning the World Cup in 1966 does not automatically give you a free pass to the final. These guys are all tired after a long season and carrying niggling injuries. They are also carrying that heavy burden of expectation - all of England's hopes and dreams of footballing glory are resting on their shoulders....
Corn bread
Before I had to retire to the sofa last Saturday I had a go at making corn bread for the World Cup BBQ that friends were hosting. As it was England vs USA I said I'd do some good ol' Southern corn bread and chicken wings.
There are many, many recipes for corn bread on the interweb. I should maybe have thought more carefully before picking the one from a UK supermarket, but it got good reviews so I got to work. It obviously got good reviews from people who have never tasted corn bread before!!!! It was disgusting! All the corn bread I've had has been slightly sweet and very delicious. This was way too buttery, and had not the slightest hint of sweetness. It went into the bin and I went back to the internet. This time I picked a recipe from a US website. Luckily for me I had a whole set of measuring cups and enough ingredients to give it a good go. This lot was better, but still not quite up to scratch. (Two attempts at corn bread - is it any wonder I had to go for a lie down?!)
I need a handed down from mother to daughter, generations old, never fails, recipe. Can anyone oblige?
There are many, many recipes for corn bread on the interweb. I should maybe have thought more carefully before picking the one from a UK supermarket, but it got good reviews so I got to work. It obviously got good reviews from people who have never tasted corn bread before!!!! It was disgusting! All the corn bread I've had has been slightly sweet and very delicious. This was way too buttery, and had not the slightest hint of sweetness. It went into the bin and I went back to the internet. This time I picked a recipe from a US website. Luckily for me I had a whole set of measuring cups and enough ingredients to give it a good go. This lot was better, but still not quite up to scratch. (Two attempts at corn bread - is it any wonder I had to go for a lie down?!)
I need a handed down from mother to daughter, generations old, never fails, recipe. Can anyone oblige?
Pain...
Oh, its been a week and a half I can tell you! Remember I had the gum issue just before tripping off to St Lucia? Well it came back with a vengeance about 2 weeks ago. It began with a dull ache over the weekend and rose to excruciating pain on the Monday.
Now the Monday was not the best of days. Our leadership conference was beginning and we needed last minute alts to the communications approval....and the man who approves them was en-route somewhere in the US with his blackberry switched off. Plus, my counterpart in the US was in doctors appointments but doing her best to get hold of him and keep me informed. We got within 30 minutes of having to pull the extra people off the bus and telling them they couldn't go to the first event. Instant grey hairs all around! Then came the saga of trying to send me the approval... She sent it. I didn't get it. She tried again. Again nothing. This went on until about 8:30pm when someone else managed to send me it. It turns out that their firewall didn't like one of the delegates surnames as it contained the word "cock". How very puritanical! In this day and age that barely is worth raising an eyebrow about! Even the BBC allow their presenters to use it. Top Gear episodes would be a good few minutes shorter in fact!
So after all of this palaver I was tired. I think I sent my last work email about 9:30, took a painkiller and staggered through to the sitting room so say hello to Stephen who was still burning our CD's onto a hard disk. About 10pm I headed for bed as I could barely keep my eyes open, only to find that I couldn't sleep due to the sudden escalation of pain from pretty damn sore to completely excruciating. On the point of tears at about 1am I got up and came downstairs to read my book and wait until I felt I could take another painkiller. I went to bed about 2:30am for a few fitful hours of sleep. Honestly, I can say that this was the worst pain I've ever experienced. I could have undergone root canal work without anaesthetic and not felt more. I can't compare it with childbirth, not having experienced it - but at least they give you gas and air during that!!
Thank goodness I managed to get an appointment with my dentist for that afternoon. He gave me more antibiotics - double strength this time, and again with the warning that alcohol was a bad idea (projectile vomiting etc). OMG! These were horse pills compared to the previous lot! I am not good at taking tablets and getting these over 3 times a day was a struggle. On more than one occasion I choked it back up and ended up with a rapidly dissolving tablet in my hand, which made it harder to swallow as by now it tasted foul. They also knocked me sideways. You push and push to keep going, but on Saturday I couldn't do any more. I felt sick all the time and so tired. I pulled out of the footie BBQ and slept on the sofa for most of Saturday and Sunday. I was so happy to finish the course of antibiotics on Tuesday. I was not so happy that there was still some achiness in my jaw. Back to the dentist...
Its better than it was, but not entirely healed so I'm now on another course of antibiotics. These ones (he warned) can give you an upset tummy. Joy! I explained about the problem swallowing of the tablets and so he's given me medicine! I am now feeling about 5 years old with my bottle of bright yellow medicine. It tastes foul. Of course it does. But a spoonful of sugar really does help the medicine go down. Or a square of chocolate. Or a couple of Starbursts....! I woke yesterday with less of a disgusting taste in my mouth...don't get me wrong my tongue is still a yellow shag pile carpet and there is still germ warfare going on in there, but it was less disgusting than it had been!
I've now been off the booze for 2 weeks. I am going to be such a cheap date by the time I finish this course of antibiotics. A mere sniff of alcohol and I'll be frightfully tight!
Now the Monday was not the best of days. Our leadership conference was beginning and we needed last minute alts to the communications approval....and the man who approves them was en-route somewhere in the US with his blackberry switched off. Plus, my counterpart in the US was in doctors appointments but doing her best to get hold of him and keep me informed. We got within 30 minutes of having to pull the extra people off the bus and telling them they couldn't go to the first event. Instant grey hairs all around! Then came the saga of trying to send me the approval... She sent it. I didn't get it. She tried again. Again nothing. This went on until about 8:30pm when someone else managed to send me it. It turns out that their firewall didn't like one of the delegates surnames as it contained the word "cock". How very puritanical! In this day and age that barely is worth raising an eyebrow about! Even the BBC allow their presenters to use it. Top Gear episodes would be a good few minutes shorter in fact!
So after all of this palaver I was tired. I think I sent my last work email about 9:30, took a painkiller and staggered through to the sitting room so say hello to Stephen who was still burning our CD's onto a hard disk. About 10pm I headed for bed as I could barely keep my eyes open, only to find that I couldn't sleep due to the sudden escalation of pain from pretty damn sore to completely excruciating. On the point of tears at about 1am I got up and came downstairs to read my book and wait until I felt I could take another painkiller. I went to bed about 2:30am for a few fitful hours of sleep. Honestly, I can say that this was the worst pain I've ever experienced. I could have undergone root canal work without anaesthetic and not felt more. I can't compare it with childbirth, not having experienced it - but at least they give you gas and air during that!!
Thank goodness I managed to get an appointment with my dentist for that afternoon. He gave me more antibiotics - double strength this time, and again with the warning that alcohol was a bad idea (projectile vomiting etc). OMG! These were horse pills compared to the previous lot! I am not good at taking tablets and getting these over 3 times a day was a struggle. On more than one occasion I choked it back up and ended up with a rapidly dissolving tablet in my hand, which made it harder to swallow as by now it tasted foul. They also knocked me sideways. You push and push to keep going, but on Saturday I couldn't do any more. I felt sick all the time and so tired. I pulled out of the footie BBQ and slept on the sofa for most of Saturday and Sunday. I was so happy to finish the course of antibiotics on Tuesday. I was not so happy that there was still some achiness in my jaw. Back to the dentist...
Its better than it was, but not entirely healed so I'm now on another course of antibiotics. These ones (he warned) can give you an upset tummy. Joy! I explained about the problem swallowing of the tablets and so he's given me medicine! I am now feeling about 5 years old with my bottle of bright yellow medicine. It tastes foul. Of course it does. But a spoonful of sugar really does help the medicine go down. Or a square of chocolate. Or a couple of Starbursts....! I woke yesterday with less of a disgusting taste in my mouth...don't get me wrong my tongue is still a yellow shag pile carpet and there is still germ warfare going on in there, but it was less disgusting than it had been!
I've now been off the booze for 2 weeks. I am going to be such a cheap date by the time I finish this course of antibiotics. A mere sniff of alcohol and I'll be frightfully tight!
Sunday 6 June 2010
Its raining....its pouring....
There is a very strange weather phenomenon going on in our garden at the moment. It is raining on the border beside the fence and yet, on the patio which is only about 10 ft away it is not! That sure is some highly localised rainfall!
It was certainly raining all over the garden earlier. I was inside when I noticed it had gone exceedingly dark outside. As I had loads of washing outside drying I gave a squeak and rushed outside to get it all gathered in. Not a moment too soon. I had only just got back inside the kitchen door when fat spots of rain began to darken the paving. Only too soon the heavens opened and the thunder and lightning began.
It was certainly raining all over the garden earlier. I was inside when I noticed it had gone exceedingly dark outside. As I had loads of washing outside drying I gave a squeak and rushed outside to get it all gathered in. Not a moment too soon. I had only just got back inside the kitchen door when fat spots of rain began to darken the paving. Only too soon the heavens opened and the thunder and lightning began.
Wednesday 2 June 2010
Trip Down Kennedy Lane
Still on CD's... I've just found a CD of the "Kennedy Experience". This is Nigel Kennedy when he stopped playing Vivaldi and began playing Hendrix. I'd totally forgotten we had that! We actually saw Nigel Kennedy performing it live years ago back in the days when he still lived in Malvern.
He used to play gigs at one of the local pubs. A friend of ours lived nearby and tipped us off when the "He's playing Saturday" rumours would go round. We saw him a couple of times and he was AWESOME, so when we heard that he was playing a proper concert in the local Community Centre we rushed to get tickets. He played two concerts. The first night was classical, the second night was Hendrix.
I don't think there was seating. We certainly didn't sit! Everyone seemed to be hanging about towards the back of the hall. Stephen scanned the room and said "Sod that, we're going to the front". I imagine people were thinking of the possible hearing impairment, and not wanting to stand in front of the banks of amplifiers, but we laughed in the face of tinnitus and went for the full on Kennedy Experience! We were right at the front. I mean RIGHT at the front. Close enough that Nigel Kennedy dripped sweat on us!! Close enough that my ears rang for days afterwards. It was amazing!
Watching an undoubted musical genius play the violin (he even got the Strad out at one point), inspired Stephen the genius guitarist to go "Pah. I could do that. I'm going to learn to play violin. It'll be easy. I play guitar. Its a transferable skill." I can tell you right now that it is most certainly NOT a transferable skill! Not even close! I bought him a violin for Christmas and after a few days of unspeakable cat torturing noises it was put away in its case and never mentioned again!!
He used to play gigs at one of the local pubs. A friend of ours lived nearby and tipped us off when the "He's playing Saturday" rumours would go round. We saw him a couple of times and he was AWESOME, so when we heard that he was playing a proper concert in the local Community Centre we rushed to get tickets. He played two concerts. The first night was classical, the second night was Hendrix.
I don't think there was seating. We certainly didn't sit! Everyone seemed to be hanging about towards the back of the hall. Stephen scanned the room and said "Sod that, we're going to the front". I imagine people were thinking of the possible hearing impairment, and not wanting to stand in front of the banks of amplifiers, but we laughed in the face of tinnitus and went for the full on Kennedy Experience! We were right at the front. I mean RIGHT at the front. Close enough that Nigel Kennedy dripped sweat on us!! Close enough that my ears rang for days afterwards. It was amazing!
Watching an undoubted musical genius play the violin (he even got the Strad out at one point), inspired Stephen the genius guitarist to go "Pah. I could do that. I'm going to learn to play violin. It'll be easy. I play guitar. Its a transferable skill." I can tell you right now that it is most certainly NOT a transferable skill! Not even close! I bought him a violin for Christmas and after a few days of unspeakable cat torturing noises it was put away in its case and never mentioned again!!
Burn 'em baby
We've decided to load all of our CD's onto an ipod to save a little shelf space...okay, quite a lot of shelf space! Aside from being a long, slow, mind-numbingly boring task it has provided a few surprises.
There are a lot of albums we'd forgotten we had, by a lot of artists we'd forgotten existed! Who knew we had so much obscure 90's music? Kula Shaker anyone?! Or Aleisha's Attic...you must remember them! The Lemonheads were maybe a little less obscure...and who'd have thought that we'd have two Moby CD's. I've found loads of 80's stuff I'd forgotten about too - Japan (David Sylvian was so...hot/beautiful/hot..?), Everything but the Girl, T'Pau, Terence Trent D'Arby... It has to be said that some of my more embarrassing 80's purchases are on vinyl (and I'm talking "Rick Astley embarrassing" here) for which I'm kinda grateful. I'm not sure I want to go back and listen to "Never gonna give you up"!
Its certainly a trip down memory lane! Who knows what we're going to find next!
There are a lot of albums we'd forgotten we had, by a lot of artists we'd forgotten existed! Who knew we had so much obscure 90's music? Kula Shaker anyone?! Or Aleisha's Attic...you must remember them! The Lemonheads were maybe a little less obscure...and who'd have thought that we'd have two Moby CD's. I've found loads of 80's stuff I'd forgotten about too - Japan (David Sylvian was so...hot/beautiful/hot..?), Everything but the Girl, T'Pau, Terence Trent D'Arby... It has to be said that some of my more embarrassing 80's purchases are on vinyl (and I'm talking "Rick Astley embarrassing" here) for which I'm kinda grateful. I'm not sure I want to go back and listen to "Never gonna give you up"!
Its certainly a trip down memory lane! Who knows what we're going to find next!
Tuesday 1 June 2010
I fought the rose, and the rose won
I took Friday off to work in the garden. When I say I took the day off, I of course mean that I dealt with all the work email before setting foot outside. As it turned out, being able to duck inside and check email was a brilliant excuse for having a rest!
My garden had gotten a little overgrown. Shrubs were seriously out of hand. It was time to be brutal! I lopped, I pruned, I dug out shrubs. I even had to climb amongst the branches of my corkscrew hazel in order to lever out a stubborn plant. I had branches sticking in all sorts of places. I couldn't stand up. I seriously began to think that I might not be able to make it out of the clutches of the tree and would be stuck there until Stephen got home from Finland!! I hadn't realised that I had contortionist skills until I was trying to get out... I was twisting round on one leg trying not to stand on any delicate plants, and trying to keep from being smacked in the face by one branch whilst another was deciding it would look better in my jeans than I do!
It was a pretty intensive yoga workout! I started in the Five Pointed Star, went through Eagle, Chair, Goddess Squat, Half Bound Lotus Forward Fold, Warrior, Reverse Warrior and Crescent Moon before finally making it out of the shrubbery. This was an excellent point at which to catch my breath, check emails and pick the bits of leaf, twig and insect out of my hair!
I also picked a fight with a standard rose which had fallen over. This was a fight to the death. It was me or it.... I attacked it with loppers and it attacked me with many, many thorns... I had taken off the branches, just leaving the trunk and began to dig it out. OMG! This thing had rooted to Australia!! I could barely budge it. I had the spade and fork underneath it, but could only move it a couple on inches, no matter how hard I levered or with how much vigour I chopped through the roots. I could practically feel blood vessels bursting with the effort!! I was bleeding from the many scratches on my arms, I was sweating and I had managed to achieve 2 inches of movement. I fought the rose...and the rose fought back! I think I won in the end though...but it took our neighbour to help. Brute force won out in the end!
My garden had gotten a little overgrown. Shrubs were seriously out of hand. It was time to be brutal! I lopped, I pruned, I dug out shrubs. I even had to climb amongst the branches of my corkscrew hazel in order to lever out a stubborn plant. I had branches sticking in all sorts of places. I couldn't stand up. I seriously began to think that I might not be able to make it out of the clutches of the tree and would be stuck there until Stephen got home from Finland!! I hadn't realised that I had contortionist skills until I was trying to get out... I was twisting round on one leg trying not to stand on any delicate plants, and trying to keep from being smacked in the face by one branch whilst another was deciding it would look better in my jeans than I do!
It was a pretty intensive yoga workout! I started in the Five Pointed Star, went through Eagle, Chair, Goddess Squat, Half Bound Lotus Forward Fold, Warrior, Reverse Warrior and Crescent Moon before finally making it out of the shrubbery. This was an excellent point at which to catch my breath, check emails and pick the bits of leaf, twig and insect out of my hair!
I also picked a fight with a standard rose which had fallen over. This was a fight to the death. It was me or it.... I attacked it with loppers and it attacked me with many, many thorns... I had taken off the branches, just leaving the trunk and began to dig it out. OMG! This thing had rooted to Australia!! I could barely budge it. I had the spade and fork underneath it, but could only move it a couple on inches, no matter how hard I levered or with how much vigour I chopped through the roots. I could practically feel blood vessels bursting with the effort!! I was bleeding from the many scratches on my arms, I was sweating and I had managed to achieve 2 inches of movement. I fought the rose...and the rose fought back! I think I won in the end though...but it took our neighbour to help. Brute force won out in the end!
An unusual gateau topping
I've just watched a cookery programme and it triggered a holiday memory I forgot to share!
Rendezvous has two restaurants. One is the Trysting Place a la carte and the other is the Terrace which is buffet. Stephen and I were choosing food from the buffet when I ended up behind a young lady holding a dessert plate with a slice of rather delicious gateau on it. Nothing unusual about that you may say....except she was piling vegetables onto the plate as well. Then she got a slice of nicely rare beef wellington. And then...she spooned on horseradish sauce....!!!! Eurgh! Most people would pair cream with a gateau!!
All of that one one teeny little plate....horseradish and gateau and beef wellington and carrots!!!! I suppose it all goes down the same way, but a little separation (separate plates, or even separate courses!) might make it more pleasant!
She did the same the next night too. I began to wonder if this was some new diet fad... Or did she think this was Sizzlers where you are only allowed one pass at the buffet??
Rendezvous has two restaurants. One is the Trysting Place a la carte and the other is the Terrace which is buffet. Stephen and I were choosing food from the buffet when I ended up behind a young lady holding a dessert plate with a slice of rather delicious gateau on it. Nothing unusual about that you may say....except she was piling vegetables onto the plate as well. Then she got a slice of nicely rare beef wellington. And then...she spooned on horseradish sauce....!!!! Eurgh! Most people would pair cream with a gateau!!
All of that one one teeny little plate....horseradish and gateau and beef wellington and carrots!!!! I suppose it all goes down the same way, but a little separation (separate plates, or even separate courses!) might make it more pleasant!
She did the same the next night too. I began to wonder if this was some new diet fad... Or did she think this was Sizzlers where you are only allowed one pass at the buffet??
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