Happy Birthday!

Dear Colette, this is part of your 2011 birthday present!  Yes, it's the gift that keeps giving, whether you want it to or not.  Hopefully it'll be like a magazine subscription to Grazia rather than to Horse and Hound, (no offence to H&H.)  I'm still going to email you with annoying regularity, but I know that your email time is a rare and snatched affair at present and so I try to keep them short and snappy.  Combine this with the fact that given the time, you're an avid reader, so  I decided to write you a book, well, blog, which you can pick up and put down whenever you like.  I'm free to ramble incessantly and you can read...whenever.

No idea how this will work but we can try can't we?  I have a feeling this may turn out more Alan Bennett Talking Heads than Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones, but we'll see.

01.01.11

As with any New Year's Day, I wanted to tackle about a million different jobs from making soup to stripping the beds to sorting my wardrobe.  I was my Starbucks first customer of the year, and I'm not saying I'm a regular but Carol, the manager, gave me a hug and a kiss Happy New Year!  I tried an Orange and Jasmine tea, probably won't be doing that again, then drove home under a very heavy, grey sky with only the smallest window of blue peaking through the blanket.  It only lasted a couple of minutes but it was nice to be reminded that blue is actually up there even if I can't always see it.

I made veggie soup, (probably enough for all of Hamilton,) with extra garlic and lemon grass as these sound like health boosting ingredients, and, in the deepest, darkest depths of winter...I need it.

I worked out on the "broken" ankles, did I tell you about the ankles?  They are not technically broken but lets just say that the pain implies that they are not in fact...whole.  I Googled last night and self diagnosis went from, "it's all fine," to possibly a sprain on the left and tendinitis on the right, still, at doctor's on Tuesday so I'll find out then if my hopes for London 2012 are shot.

The soup went well I think, I found this amazing garlic press in my kitchen drawer, (who knows what else is in this relatively uncharted territory?)  Remember that 99.9% of the utensils were Mum's so the garlic press is a bit of a puzzle as she hated garlic.  Anyway, I was marvelling at how brilliant it was, then wondered if it was an old family heirloom?  Was Grandad a closet cook?  He was a butcher so maybe he brought home the odd steak or two and rubbed it with crushed garlic?  On further investigation, I discovered marvelous garlic press was, "made in Taiwan."  Grandad was born in 1884 and I'm not exactly sure when Taiwan started exporting garlic presses but I'm pretty confident that it wasn't Granddad's garlic press.

Anyway, I had one and a half packets of organic red lentils, the half was best before Dec 2009, that's not a typo, still, they looked the same as the in date ones and figured I would only poison myself if they were off so in they went.

You know how you have to skim off the water as you heat the lentils?  Well I did that, chopped everything and threw it in, but after I added the onions, the whole thing started to foam.  I'm not sure soup is supposed to foam?  Still, I fished off the foam and it looked relatively normal after that and a couple of hours later, it was done.  I hadn't overdone the garlic and the lemon grass was a nice addition.

I did manage a million jobs; washing, ironing, taking the decorations down, bed making etc, so I did get a fair bit done, so much still to do though.  I can't remember who I've said this to in the last couple of days, but I feel like I want to de-clutter and sort like I'm getting ready to move.  Don't get excited...yet, but I don't know how you did it and  I don't know where to start.

02-01-11

Slept like the proverbial last night, think I was exhausted from all the veggie chopping.  Drove to beloved Starbucks this morning, much colder than yesterday, sky is a blue, grey and white dappled affair and is really quite pretty.  I'm sitting here writing to you with a filter coffee, much more agreeable than the orange and jasmine of yesterday.  Heading home shortly to workout, (gently,) heat soup, do some sorting then I'll find a job that can be done while I watch...think I'm in the mood for Pride and Prejudice, the Keira version, did you ever get the BBC version on DVD?

Really need to do something drastic with the wardrobe and drawers, I have plenty of space, it all just needs reorganising.  I'm going to stop now as I'm even boring myself.  I'll be back with more ramblings shortly.  Love you x

3.1.11

Saw bunny on the way home yesterday, (squished,) and two hawks, one standing majestically on a fence post and the other in flight, beautiful.  Emptied "walk in" cupboard which I haven't actually been able to "walk in" to for some time.  Found plastic bag of white powder with the washing stuff and thought I'd found a way to fund next trip.  Upon inspection, plastic bag had "Borax" printed on it.  Googled and sadly Borax is not in demand on black market and suffice to say, will not be funding trip after all...shame.

Last day of freedom then back to the 9-5 tomorrow.  Contents of "walk in" are now filling the dining room so home to sort that, workout, and spend last few hours pottering before I get myself ready for tomorrow, back to reality eh?