Thursday, November 29, 2007
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Parom Pom Pom
Hiya. So I appear to have lost my husband to the weird virtual world that is 'Second Life'. This is an online world with literally millions of people logged on and they all interact with each other. You create an avatar, or character, and go flying around cities exploring cool stuff. It is very freaky but I can see how it could be very very addictive. I spent about an hour tweaking Nicks characters face to make it look like him.
I had to go to a work do last night for one of our local advocates firms. Wasn't as boring as last year, but that could be cos I decided to drink lots of wine this time around. There were nibbles.
Also this week we went to our friends Sue & Laurie's gorgeous cottage out on the west coast for a meal. She has this hot plate thing made of stone that you put in the middle of the table and then you chuck meat & fish on it. It has a grill underneath and you each have a tiny frying pan that we loaded with cheese and put under, It was great fun, although very messy and there were a few plate smashes/drink spillages by the end of the night! It got quite hot though and we had to open all the windows as we sat around the table.
Nick is away this weekend as he is up for another RTS award. He won one last year and this time around he is up in a different category which is the documentary one. It would be awesome if he won it! While he is away I have a Wii night planned round at a mates, I have never been on a Wii and am very excited. I also am going around to my Dad's for tea on Sunday and we are going to get out loads of old photos and have a laugh looking through them.
My sister's little twins, Rowan & Ralph, have not been very well and had to go into hospital : (
They have had this nasty brochalitis thing which makes it hard to breathe and because they were not eating they had to be monitored and fed by a drip. Poor things. Rowan is back at home now but Ralphie is still in. Suz is staying with Ralphie and sleeping at the hospital while Si as at home with Row. Poor Simon has a food poisoning so they are all under the weather. I so wish I was there to help! I wish they lived closer.
Well, that's all I can think of to write for now, hope you are all well my blogging chums! xxx
I had to go to a work do last night for one of our local advocates firms. Wasn't as boring as last year, but that could be cos I decided to drink lots of wine this time around. There were nibbles.
Also this week we went to our friends Sue & Laurie's gorgeous cottage out on the west coast for a meal. She has this hot plate thing made of stone that you put in the middle of the table and then you chuck meat & fish on it. It has a grill underneath and you each have a tiny frying pan that we loaded with cheese and put under, It was great fun, although very messy and there were a few plate smashes/drink spillages by the end of the night! It got quite hot though and we had to open all the windows as we sat around the table.
Nick is away this weekend as he is up for another RTS award. He won one last year and this time around he is up in a different category which is the documentary one. It would be awesome if he won it! While he is away I have a Wii night planned round at a mates, I have never been on a Wii and am very excited. I also am going around to my Dad's for tea on Sunday and we are going to get out loads of old photos and have a laugh looking through them.
My sister's little twins, Rowan & Ralph, have not been very well and had to go into hospital : (
They have had this nasty brochalitis thing which makes it hard to breathe and because they were not eating they had to be monitored and fed by a drip. Poor things. Rowan is back at home now but Ralphie is still in. Suz is staying with Ralphie and sleeping at the hospital while Si as at home with Row. Poor Simon has a food poisoning so they are all under the weather. I so wish I was there to help! I wish they lived closer.
Well, that's all I can think of to write for now, hope you are all well my blogging chums! xxx
Friday, November 23, 2007
* _ + _ * _ + _ *
What ho. Ten to five on a Friday, my stomach is grumbling, I'm out of scrabulous moves and I want to go home. I have spent the entire day feeling vaguely sick and sleepy after a Christies drinking session last night and I just want a log fire and a bar of dairy milk, in that order.
I have been rereading the Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon and marvelling at how completely great it is, thinking that it would have been amazing to have lived through that culture and how something that was written so long ago can be just so entirely brilliant and true. The stuff it contains is so true today. For instance when Shonagon writes a list of things that she dislikes, and one of them is 'the inside of a cat's ear'. I inspected Molly's after reading that and it was black and sticky looking. Not nice at all.
I have been rereading the Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon and marvelling at how completely great it is, thinking that it would have been amazing to have lived through that culture and how something that was written so long ago can be just so entirely brilliant and true. The stuff it contains is so true today. For instance when Shonagon writes a list of things that she dislikes, and one of them is 'the inside of a cat's ear'. I inspected Molly's after reading that and it was black and sticky looking. Not nice at all.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Possible Prom Party Outfit!
Eeeeh! I am excited. I found a red and white polka dot dress at the fancy dress shop that I am going to wear for this 50's prom party I'm going to. So, then I went on Ebay and bought these white shoes, and a pink cardie with bowtie buttons (close up below) to go with it. The dress comes with a headband and an original 1950's petticoat. I now just need a bag to go with. I'm thinking shiny bright red or white vinyl...
This is my artistic impression of what I will look like in it. I have made my boobs bigger and waist smaller, that is what is called artistic licence.
Can't hear myself think right now
So, outside of my office there are two burly workmen digging up the footbath - with pneumatic drills. I can feel the vibrations through my desk/keyboard and can't hear a damn thing. We are having to shout across the office to one another. A great Monday morning!!
SoooOOOooooo, the weekend has again passed by... I worked on Sat morning then had a big house clean in the afternoon then popped into town for some Christmas shopping. I managed to get a fair amount done. I also took delivery of a rather large box which contained a cross trainer machine that Nick had ordered. He assembled it yesterday while I was asleep in bed. It is rather large and annoying to look out, but it strengthens my argument that we need a piano so...
On Saturday night we had the most fabulous meal out, at Christophes restaurant, which has a Michelin star and is very posh and la de da. It was a friends 30th and he wanted to try the 'Gourmand' menu which is 7 courses with different wines all included. OK it wasn't cheap, but we were there for a good 4 1/2 hours eating and drinking so all in all not too bad for £50. So, what did we have?
On sitting down at the table we were all presented with a small blue cheese profiterole and a green lipped mussel on a silver spoon. This was to get the tastebuds going. Then, they came around with a sweet white dessert wine. This was to go with course no.1 - fois gras in a creme caramel sauce with a sweet cinnamon biscuit. It was delicious and my favourite course.
Course No.2 was a small portion of lobster rissotto with a white Chablis - very very nice.
Then we each were given a small coffee cup filled with a white creamy bean soup with truffle oil. Again, really beautiful but I could have downed a pint of the stuff.
Course 4 was the main course and was venison in a wild mushroom sauce with a kind of cheesy pureed pumpkin roulade on the side. Awesome. This came with a gorgeous red rioca.
After this was the cheese round - Oh, the cheese round! The waitress came out with a trolley with about 20 incredibly stinky interesting cheeses on it and asked all in turn what kind of cheese we liked and then made up an individual array of cheese to suit. I said I liked everything and ended up with a really stinky Rocquefort, a goats cheese, a cheese from the Champagne region of France, a very rich Brie sort of one and I can't remember the last. We ate this with a glass of port, grapes, walnuts and homemade biscuits. Nick had a cheese that was literally grey in colour and couldn't eat it - it was so strong.
Then we each were given an ice cold shot of passionfruit juice with ginger. Very refreshing. By this stage we were all getting a bit full and sweaty and having to pop out for cigarette breaks.
The final food round was a sort of pear cheesecake with a blackberry sorbet. It came with a sweet Italian red wine - very unusual and quite similar to the port in taste. This was perhaps my least favourite course as I'm not a huge fan of sorbet -too cold!! After that we had coffees/teas and homemade chocolate truffles and biscuits.
So that was my meal out, if anyone is thinking of doing the meal there I would recommend it, you can see what we had was amazing but they change it in line with what is in season.
SoooOOOooooo, the weekend has again passed by... I worked on Sat morning then had a big house clean in the afternoon then popped into town for some Christmas shopping. I managed to get a fair amount done. I also took delivery of a rather large box which contained a cross trainer machine that Nick had ordered. He assembled it yesterday while I was asleep in bed. It is rather large and annoying to look out, but it strengthens my argument that we need a piano so...
On Saturday night we had the most fabulous meal out, at Christophes restaurant, which has a Michelin star and is very posh and la de da. It was a friends 30th and he wanted to try the 'Gourmand' menu which is 7 courses with different wines all included. OK it wasn't cheap, but we were there for a good 4 1/2 hours eating and drinking so all in all not too bad for £50. So, what did we have?
On sitting down at the table we were all presented with a small blue cheese profiterole and a green lipped mussel on a silver spoon. This was to get the tastebuds going. Then, they came around with a sweet white dessert wine. This was to go with course no.1 - fois gras in a creme caramel sauce with a sweet cinnamon biscuit. It was delicious and my favourite course.
Course No.2 was a small portion of lobster rissotto with a white Chablis - very very nice.
Then we each were given a small coffee cup filled with a white creamy bean soup with truffle oil. Again, really beautiful but I could have downed a pint of the stuff.
Course 4 was the main course and was venison in a wild mushroom sauce with a kind of cheesy pureed pumpkin roulade on the side. Awesome. This came with a gorgeous red rioca.
After this was the cheese round - Oh, the cheese round! The waitress came out with a trolley with about 20 incredibly stinky interesting cheeses on it and asked all in turn what kind of cheese we liked and then made up an individual array of cheese to suit. I said I liked everything and ended up with a really stinky Rocquefort, a goats cheese, a cheese from the Champagne region of France, a very rich Brie sort of one and I can't remember the last. We ate this with a glass of port, grapes, walnuts and homemade biscuits. Nick had a cheese that was literally grey in colour and couldn't eat it - it was so strong.
Then we each were given an ice cold shot of passionfruit juice with ginger. Very refreshing. By this stage we were all getting a bit full and sweaty and having to pop out for cigarette breaks.
The final food round was a sort of pear cheesecake with a blackberry sorbet. It came with a sweet Italian red wine - very unusual and quite similar to the port in taste. This was perhaps my least favourite course as I'm not a huge fan of sorbet -too cold!! After that we had coffees/teas and homemade chocolate truffles and biscuits.
So that was my meal out, if anyone is thinking of doing the meal there I would recommend it, you can see what we had was amazing but they change it in line with what is in season.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Soooooooooooooo Sleepy...
I am absolutely falling asleep at my desk.
Reason being is that I got up early this morning in a French house(!!) and had to get to the airport really earlyish. Then I had to fly home here to Guernsey, on Joey the little yellow plane(!!!) which rocked, then peg it here into work by 10:15am. I haven't had a lunch break and I am so completely full of yawns it's not true. Ahhh, but I had a lovely time, and that is what counts. My husband has the day off today, as do several of our friends, and when I spoke to him an hour ago they were all at our house drinking cups of tea which is very frustrating. Boo.
I have been in Dinan! That is in Brittany, and not too far from St Malo. In fact we arrived in St Malo on Friday evening and the ferry crossing was in fact OK. I took my stugeron and didn't feel ill at all. We were staying in Lanvallet, which is across a big viaduct from the walled town of Dinan and a 10 minute walk to the main shops and restaurants. It is very quiet and extremely pretty. Our friends parents have a farmhouse and they let us have it for the weekend. They also have a large wine cellar which we enjoyed rather a lot. We visited the very cool city of Rennes on Saturday, where I found a L'Occitaine shop, yum, and also an Espirit clothes shop where I bought a great top. We ate a lot of food, walked round a busy French market, listened to Samba, then went to a big Intermarche and bought a shitload of king prawns and had a big feast. We played lots of charades, did a big walk along the river and ate bucketloads of moules. I will put some pics up when Nick sorts them out for me!
Well, writing this is killing the final half hour of the working day thank goodness. I have to pop to the fancy dress shop and see if they have 50's prom dresses, as we have a prom night themed party in Jersey next month, then I have to go home and drink tea and collapse. ZZzzzzzzz.....
Reason being is that I got up early this morning in a French house(!!) and had to get to the airport really earlyish. Then I had to fly home here to Guernsey, on Joey the little yellow plane(!!!) which rocked, then peg it here into work by 10:15am. I haven't had a lunch break and I am so completely full of yawns it's not true. Ahhh, but I had a lovely time, and that is what counts. My husband has the day off today, as do several of our friends, and when I spoke to him an hour ago they were all at our house drinking cups of tea which is very frustrating. Boo.
I have been in Dinan! That is in Brittany, and not too far from St Malo. In fact we arrived in St Malo on Friday evening and the ferry crossing was in fact OK. I took my stugeron and didn't feel ill at all. We were staying in Lanvallet, which is across a big viaduct from the walled town of Dinan and a 10 minute walk to the main shops and restaurants. It is very quiet and extremely pretty. Our friends parents have a farmhouse and they let us have it for the weekend. They also have a large wine cellar which we enjoyed rather a lot. We visited the very cool city of Rennes on Saturday, where I found a L'Occitaine shop, yum, and also an Espirit clothes shop where I bought a great top. We ate a lot of food, walked round a busy French market, listened to Samba, then went to a big Intermarche and bought a shitload of king prawns and had a big feast. We played lots of charades, did a big walk along the river and ate bucketloads of moules. I will put some pics up when Nick sorts them out for me!
Well, writing this is killing the final half hour of the working day thank goodness. I have to pop to the fancy dress shop and see if they have 50's prom dresses, as we have a prom night themed party in Jersey next month, then I have to go home and drink tea and collapse. ZZzzzzzzz.....
Friday, November 09, 2007
Off to France
I'm off on the ferry this afternoon to St Malo for a weekend in Dinan.
Only slight problem is that the shipping forecast says rough, force 5-6 decreasing to moderate force 4 this afternoon. This means I will have to go and get me some Stugeron from Boots before I set off. It seems to work, although it makes me a wee bit drowsy. I am somewhat dreading the ferry crossing, I just can't wait for it to be over and to be there. Luckily we are flying back on Monday which is my much preferred form of transport.
It's been a quiet old week, I have been mainly snuggling down for the Winter time. Lots of hot food and telly in the evenings. How very lazy.
Only 23 minutes of work left before I can go home and pack! Eeeeeeeeeeee!
Only slight problem is that the shipping forecast says rough, force 5-6 decreasing to moderate force 4 this afternoon. This means I will have to go and get me some Stugeron from Boots before I set off. It seems to work, although it makes me a wee bit drowsy. I am somewhat dreading the ferry crossing, I just can't wait for it to be over and to be there. Luckily we are flying back on Monday which is my much preferred form of transport.
It's been a quiet old week, I have been mainly snuggling down for the Winter time. Lots of hot food and telly in the evenings. How very lazy.
Only 23 minutes of work left before I can go home and pack! Eeeeeeeeeeee!
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
*~*~ FiReWoRks~*~*
OOOoooooh
Aaaaaaahhh
I do like fireworks. Generally. Sometimes they can be a little too close though. Take last night for example - around at our friends house in their fairly smallish garden, about thirty people, plus about 100 fireworks that people had brought along with them, including, one called 'The Apocalypse'. I kid you not. Every time a fuse was lit the crowd surged back into the corner, everybody trying to protect themselves by having other bodies in front of them so it was a bit of a scramble, ha ha. Luckily, there were no injuries (well, none by the time we left) and it was all very exciting. A couple of large sparks came very close and I ended up with grit and smoke in my eyes but what's a little discomfort when there are big sparkly things to enjoy!? We even has toasted marshmallows and hot fudge sauce, as well as bean jar and mulled wine. Aimee & Gareth are officially great hosts.
I have my husband back. After over two weeks away he has returned home finally. I am so so pleased to have him back, even though I have a touch of PMT and feel a bit overemotional this week and have been feeling teary and wobbly more than usual. It is so nice to have the house full and busy again, it felt really empty without him around. Apart from I did have Molly for comfort, but she isn't great at conversation and to be honest just uses me for food, and body heat.
I had my hair done last weekend, had some more blonde put in as I was feeling a bit drab. Looks nice, got much shorter layers put in the back as well so it's not as big and heavy. Now it kind of curls up when I scrunch dry it. I have also ordered a load of scrumptious things on the Lush website, as I realised they knock the VAT off when they send to Guernsey, so I've got a box of hair and body treats on the way! Nick already bought me some delicious smelling lemon and tea tree deodorant that is so nice I just want to make love to my own armpits. Yum Yum.
Aaaaaaahhh
I do like fireworks. Generally. Sometimes they can be a little too close though. Take last night for example - around at our friends house in their fairly smallish garden, about thirty people, plus about 100 fireworks that people had brought along with them, including, one called 'The Apocalypse'. I kid you not. Every time a fuse was lit the crowd surged back into the corner, everybody trying to protect themselves by having other bodies in front of them so it was a bit of a scramble, ha ha. Luckily, there were no injuries (well, none by the time we left) and it was all very exciting. A couple of large sparks came very close and I ended up with grit and smoke in my eyes but what's a little discomfort when there are big sparkly things to enjoy!? We even has toasted marshmallows and hot fudge sauce, as well as bean jar and mulled wine. Aimee & Gareth are officially great hosts.
I have my husband back. After over two weeks away he has returned home finally. I am so so pleased to have him back, even though I have a touch of PMT and feel a bit overemotional this week and have been feeling teary and wobbly more than usual. It is so nice to have the house full and busy again, it felt really empty without him around. Apart from I did have Molly for comfort, but she isn't great at conversation and to be honest just uses me for food, and body heat.
I had my hair done last weekend, had some more blonde put in as I was feeling a bit drab. Looks nice, got much shorter layers put in the back as well so it's not as big and heavy. Now it kind of curls up when I scrunch dry it. I have also ordered a load of scrumptious things on the Lush website, as I realised they knock the VAT off when they send to Guernsey, so I've got a box of hair and body treats on the way! Nick already bought me some delicious smelling lemon and tea tree deodorant that is so nice I just want to make love to my own armpits. Yum Yum.
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Animal Products in food...
Now I am not a vegetarian. I enjoy meat and eat a fair amount of white meat and fish, and occasionally red meat. (However, I am planning on cutting down on bacon and salami products, because of their recently found links to cancers. Besides which, they are generally not all that good for you with all the salt and blah blah.)
However, a story about Masterfoods on the BBC website has enlightened me about the product 'rennet', which I had never heard of before and which has, quite honestly, horrified me. Basically, if you want to look it up on Wikipedia go ahead, but rennet is a product that occurs naturally in the stomachs of baby mammals. It helps to break down the mother's milk and basically turns milk into curds and whey inside the stomach so they can digest it. It is extracted commercially from the stomachs of young calves and is put into quite a few food products. Mainly dairy.
Masterfoods have announced that they will now be putting it into a lot of their products, a basic list is:
Bounty, Mars Bar, Twix, Minstrels, Maltesers, Mily Way, Snickers and all Masterfood icecreams, which I'm guessing is the Mars icecream type things.
For the BBC article all about it click HERE. Personally, I won't be able to enjoy a Mars bar ever again without thinking that Im eating a baby cow. Call me a hypocrite if you like because I'm not a veggie, and I know I am one, but I would never feel right eating veal or a meat I know came from a baby animal, so I can't see myself eating these things again. What is more annoying is that these products didn't previously contain rennet, it is a recent decision to include it.
That was quite an impressive rant for me, I hope you're not too bored. I'm off to the supermarket in a bit and am going to examine all the ingredients thoroughly! Of course, there is also gelatine but I don't see this as quite as bad as it is a genuine by-product (the animals are going to be killed anyway and presumable aren't babies) but I am going to try to avoid that as well, at least for a bit.
However, a story about Masterfoods on the BBC website has enlightened me about the product 'rennet', which I had never heard of before and which has, quite honestly, horrified me. Basically, if you want to look it up on Wikipedia go ahead, but rennet is a product that occurs naturally in the stomachs of baby mammals. It helps to break down the mother's milk and basically turns milk into curds and whey inside the stomach so they can digest it. It is extracted commercially from the stomachs of young calves and is put into quite a few food products. Mainly dairy.
Masterfoods have announced that they will now be putting it into a lot of their products, a basic list is:
Bounty, Mars Bar, Twix, Minstrels, Maltesers, Mily Way, Snickers and all Masterfood icecreams, which I'm guessing is the Mars icecream type things.
For the BBC article all about it click HERE. Personally, I won't be able to enjoy a Mars bar ever again without thinking that Im eating a baby cow. Call me a hypocrite if you like because I'm not a veggie, and I know I am one, but I would never feel right eating veal or a meat I know came from a baby animal, so I can't see myself eating these things again. What is more annoying is that these products didn't previously contain rennet, it is a recent decision to include it.
That was quite an impressive rant for me, I hope you're not too bored. I'm off to the supermarket in a bit and am going to examine all the ingredients thoroughly! Of course, there is also gelatine but I don't see this as quite as bad as it is a genuine by-product (the animals are going to be killed anyway and presumable aren't babies) but I am going to try to avoid that as well, at least for a bit.
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