The secret life of me...

Someone has brought back some really weird things from a holiday in the US and stuck them on the cupboards immediately in front of my desk...
They're called 'chippies' and they're basically crisps (of the lightly salted variety) covered with an (extremely thick) layer of chocolate...
Sounds absolutely disgusting, but in fact, pretty tasty - though if I were making them myself, I think I'd opt for a much thinner layer of chocolate (particularly if I were using American chocolate, which, as we all know, is not really chocolate at all)...
They must also be amongst the least nutritious thing ever to have been dreamed up by anyone ever (though, from the nation which brought us chocolate covered peanut butter as a tasty snackette, I guess it's not really a surprise).

I had one in the spirit of experimentation, swiftly followed by another two, as they are a trifle moreish (mostly likely packed with mouth-watering MSG I suppose) and felt all nice in my mouth.

However, now I feel kind of sicky, and the smell from the remaining ones is not helping at all
I am a very bad girl!

Someone has just pointed out that deep fried mars bars are probably worse, and were invented by the proud nation of Scots to which I'm so closely aligned - I have to agree with this and hence (perhaps) be a bit less judgemental about American chocolatiering...
On this note, I realise that probably the worst culprit is really the deep fried pizza - something which has to be seen (although preferably not tasted) to be believed... For all those who haven't had the pleasure, it may be worth noting that if you simply ask for a pizza in a Scottish chip shop, they will assume that you want it to be folded in half, battered and deep fried...
I have a lot of love for the Scottish people (one in particular, I suppose ) but this is insane!!!

So I'm addicted to lolcats...

It's quite bad.

I have known for some time about the magic of lolcats. However, in the last week, I have developed a worrying dependence on them.

This is bad as:
- it is a waste of time (a LOT of time)
- I am running out of lolcats to feed my addiction (it seems that there are only so many in existence.

Consequently I find myself following my kittens around with a camera encouraging them to do visually amusing things...
I also find myself speaking the language of lolcats with a worrying frequency. And not just to the cats!

1. What was the last thing you cooked?

Nothing very exciting - roasted vegetables and rice last night...
It all came out a bit pink actually, because I put beetroot in the vegetables.
I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing though!
Oh, and I had porridge this morning - does that count?

2. What was the last thing you tried on?

Hmm.... Nothing for quite a long time, I think, unless you count the multiple pairs of tights I put on this morning before find the one with the least holes?
I bought a lovely, lovely evening dress in the sales just after Christmas (I know - just call me practical ) and I tried that on before buying (which I can't always be bothered to do) due to excessive cost!

3. What was the last thing you purchased on credit?

I've just ordered a shiny new laptop, although it probably won't arrive for a week or two...
It is on my credit card, but I'll pay it off at the end of the month when my bonus comes through, so I'm not sure that it really counts - I won't have to pay any interest or anything...

4. What was the last thing you put a postage stamp on?

I dropped in an SAE to my doctor yesterday to send my prescription to me in...
There HAS to be a better system for getting prescriptions electronically (or something) - I either have to order them via Boots (but not Tesco, who refuse to do this, even though they advertise the service in my store!!) many weeks in advance (in fact, pretty much at the time I pick up the previous one) who take ages to get the stuff from my doctor and usually get it wrong, or I have to take time off work to go and order from my doctor, who is very quick but only open during working hours (and pretty short ones at that)... At least with the sae though, I don't have to go in and get it as well...

5. What was the last thing you took a photo of?

My kittens :-)
They are extremely cute.

Sorry no Blog for so long...

Had lovely Thursday Friday off last week - went champagne tasting (v v good), had lovely Valentine present and meal and went to Ikea - all v good!

Then Friday night and weekend had food poisoning - not so good!

And since then - work v v v v busy - not much going on in the way of lunchtimes so no time to write :-(
And this site crashes all my browsers at home, so no writing there either...

Hopefully lovely new computer (tee hee - new toy!) which I frivolously ordered yesterday will see to that problem...

Must work now...

Well hello everyone...
I didn't manage to write anything bloggy yesterday, as I discovered, on sitting down at my computer, that I had absolutely nothing to say (So what's new? I hear you cry...)
Is not often I'm completely lost for words - think I must have just been a bit tired - looking back, I did seem to be at work for a painfully long time yesterday... Maybe it's always like that, I suppose, but Tuesdays do seem to drag (see previous Tuesday post for my thoughts on this!)

Anyway, not much has happened to me since then either, but I find myself a lot more full of words (actually, they're all piling up a bit, so this post is a bit like opening a valve to siphon off the ones from the top and stop too much pressure building up...)

Today is Wednesday (as you probably know ) but as I'm off work for the rest of the week, feels a whole lot more like Friday to me!

Tomorrow we're going champagne tasting in the evening (in honour of Valentine's Day) and then coming back home for a (lovingly cooked by me) Valentine dinner... Am thinking of lamb valentine steaks (appropriate, no?) and maybe some kind of tasty potato based thing with spinach followed by some kind of delicious heart shaped dessert, the nature of which is to be determined when I make it tomorrow morning ;-)
I also have a delivery due from Fish Man tomorrow, including romantic oysters (mmmm.... oysters...) which I was considering as a starter with some lovely prosecco. Might have to rethink though, as there will be canapes with our champagne, so we'll probably not need to eat that much for dinner - also will be pretty late by then.
Perhaps we can instead have them for lunch. Also must decide whether they're to be au naturel or grilled in garlic... Maybe a bit of both, I guess...
Who would have guessed that Valentine's Day would bring so many difficult decisions

I'd really like to tell you about the lovely lovely present that I've got for LBF, but I'm aware of the fact that he'll probably read this, so will have to keep my mouth shut for just a little bit longer!
On the same principle though, I'd like to tell you that I'm secretly hoping for some heart-shaped Valentine champagne infused marmite (have you seen these? they're really good!) though would, of course, be very happy with a nice big kiss

Hope everyone has a nice day today...

Merry Monday and I hope you all had a nice weekend!

I was very pleased about all the lovely sunshine - I had been previously lamenting the lack of snow, but had such a nice time in the sun that I might almost be prepared to give up on it for another year...

I had a fairly lazy day on Sat, with only a small singing lesson and a couple of hours of (surprisingly painless) rehearsals - not really sure where the rest of the time went - don't really remember doing anything else at all... Was pretty nice - is sometimes good just to slob around...

On Sunday, we drove down to Suffolk for lunch, cake and evening country dancing to celebrate my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary, which was quite fun, although we had to leave before the dancing (which I'd been quite looking forward to) as LBF and one of the cousins wasnted to go home...
Lunch was fabulously organised by my aunt and cooked variously by members of the family (v tasty), had nice afternoon walk on the beach in the sunshine (though did get a bit mucky, slipping in the v muddy mud of the sea wall) and LBF was overjoyed that there was a piano, so he could show off his (considerable) skills to the old ladies (and teenage girl groupies that he always seems to attract) during the cake portion of the day...

On a less cheery note, the Camden Market fire left me a bit speechless - until a year ago (and a spell at university) I've lived my whole life in Camden, and my parents are still there, so this was, literally, rather close to home for comfort...
The epicentre was about 5 minutes away from my parents' house and shop - apparently the flames were v v high in the sky - pretty scary for anyone close by, and devastating for the people whose flats/shops/stalls were burned...
I hope it all improves soon - might go and have a look at the charred remains a bit later in the week...

1. What would be the contents of your perfect pie?

This is a very difficult question - so many pies are good...
I particularly like steak and kidney (bit mundane, I know) but might be swayed by rhubarb (though only if it's cold - hot desserts make me all yuck and squirmy...)

2. Lift your eyes from the screen - what's the first thing you see and how did it get there?

A little tub of tasty flapjacks.
They're on top of the filing cabinet/drawers thing just in front of my desk and I'm fairly sure someone put them there to celebrate the fact that it's Friday...
I seem to have inadvertantly ended up sitting at the designated cake desk - there's an awful lot of cake in the department I work for at the moment (birthdays, leavings, Fridays, month-ends - any excuse, or so it seems) and they all get displayed immediately in front of my desk. I can reach them without even leaning forwards very much.
Is extremely dangerous place to sit!
Is lucky I have will of iron ;-)

3. What, if anything, would you like to get rid of in your life and why?

Old TV - is currently sitting in middle of living room floor taking up space! I've offered it to a Freecycling man though, so hopefully it will be gone by the end of tomorrow :-)
Can't really think of anything more meaningful - probably have many insecurities which I'd be happy to be rid of, and I guess there's the diabetes, but to be honest, the TV is the most pressing thing...

4. If you were building your own house what one room would you include that you don't have now?

Does garden count? Would really like garden!
I have little wee balcony, and I grow as many things on it as I can fit (much to the chagrin of LBF, who finds it a bit cluttered...) but would really love to hhave garden to grow things in, sit in and play in...

5. When you were little people asked "what do you want to be when you up?". Does your answer then match what you do now?

Don't think I've ever really wanted to grow up - am still holding out against it pretty well :-)
Although, if I have to grow up one day, I'd like to be an opera singer...

I'm tired today...

But the cleaner (as per previous post) did an utterly splendid job yesterday, so am pretty happy.

Hope everyone is having a nice Thursday.

So, in all the pancake-induced excitement yesterday, I forgot to mention the momentous event in my life the day before...

Our new television was delivered!!!
It is enormous and very very heavy and also clearly marks the end of my ever needing to leave the house again (except for mundane things like work...) - which is probably a good thing as I am now officially never allowed to spend any money again...

We celebrated with Die Hard on Monday and the Matrix last night - I'm thinking perhaps Star Wars tonight...

In other news - LBF and I have finally agreed to get a cleaner for the flat (or, at the very least, to give it a try) and she's there right now, hopefully meaning I should get back after work to a sparklingly lovely home ;-)
It was actually quite a difficult decision to make - I had always considered it a totally ridiculous idea, but was increasingly finding it depressing to live in a mire of filth... It's not that I don't mind cleaning, you understand, but with the hours I work, there's no time in the week to do anything other than cooking, laundry, washing up and possibly clearing any major spillages and, whilst I'm fairly happy to dedicate the large part of my weekend to domestic drudgery, my LBF is a lot less keen on the whole arrangement. Aside from the feeling that I'm lazy and really ought to be dealing with the filth myself, I'm fairly uncomfortable about having what is, effectively, a servant - that might take a little longer to get over...
LBF, on the other hand, seems surprisingly (for the rampant socialist that he is) at ease with the idea of employing someone, but is more worried about having to pick the pants up off his floor in preparation for her arrival, and, more pressingly (but, hopefully, also more unfoundedly) he is extremely concerned that she might (intentionally or not) do something terrible to the kittens...

Anyway, we're giving it a go today - I'm consoling myself with the fact that we're paying her comparatively well (and resigning myself to being a lazy slob) and LBF is dealing with the fears by ignoring the pants and being there to keep an eye on the kits...
I'll let you know how it goes, but am quite looking forward to everything being beautiful tonight!

Hope everyone had good pancakes last night - mine were pleasingly successful :-)

Happy Pancake Day everyone....

I'm quite excited about having pancakes tonight (and they're fairly nutritious, I guess) - I really like them, but rarely think of making/eating them except on pancake day, which is a bit sad really - I'm thinking that I shall have to institute some kind of bimonthly (by which I mean once every two months as opposed to twice a month - seems that you can describe both things with the same word - weird, no?) pancake day into my life, so as to maximise my pancakey goodness intake without having them so often that they become mundane or run-of-the-mill...

I realise that the advent of pancake day (the real one, not my supplementary ones) means that I have to make some important decisions:
1. What to have on my pancakes - am currently thinking some tasty garlic mushrooms for savoury and maybe some lemon/sugar ones for pudding... Though I did also buy maple syrup last week (in preparation, you understand), so should perhaps also work that it somewhere - maybe with bacon, like the Americans do ;-)
Am also open to other tasteworthy suggestions...
2. What to give up for Lent - I feel like I really need to do this to justify my celebration of pancake day.
I actually quite like giving things up, in a funny kind of way... I like the sense of virtue and achievement, and I'm quite good at doing it for a finite period, so Lent is really ideal. The only question is what to sacrifice - all suggestions welcome, once again...
I'm not a massive consumer of cakes/sweets/chocolate anyway - I'm diabetic, so that stuff is not so good - although I do like to have them occasionally, so I guess they would do if I can't think of anything better.
I don't drink tea/coffee, though am a dedicatee (read - addicted to the caffeine and delicious fizziness) of diet coke - might be a difficult one though - and I can't give up alcohol as myself and LBF are already booked in (and paid up) to do a lovely Valentine champagne tasting next week...
Hmmm - I guess I have the whole day to contemplate...

And finally, it strikes me that I might seem a little bit food obsessed in this blog - I'm not sure whether it's an accurate picture or not, but just so as not to perpetuate the image too much, I shan't be wishing you a belated Happy National Yorkshire Pudding Day for last Sunday OR telling you how we celebrated in my household ;-)

1. What was the last thing you complained about?
Not sure - am not a big complainer in an official way...
Ooh - though was moaning about not knowing what to have for lunch about 20 minutes ago - does that count?

2. When was the last time you really got really great customer service?
I ordered some things from a mushroom (tasty edible mushrooms, not the naughty kind) website - it was the first week of their online shop and the system apparently lost lots of order data, but they called me a day or two after I placed my order and explained in a really nice way and also sent me some free tasty mushrooms - which were great!

3. What's your policy on leaving a tip?
I'd always tip for good service. My usual policy in restaurants is to leave 12.5% (10 is not enough) and round it up to the nearest £5. I'd leave more if it was really good though and mayb less for substandard service.

4. Are you one of the people trying to reclaiming your credit card or bank charges?
No

5. Call centres are, in my experience, not nearly as evil as most people seem to think...

It's the beginning of month-end today (a slightly weird concept for people who don't work in finance and consider the month to be already over, I guess) so I have a million things to do.

It's a little bit depressing to have it fall on a Friday, as it means that, far from the going-home-early (or on time, which is much the same here) perks of the end of the week, I'll probably be here well into the night...

Still, the Friday aspect means that there might, at least, be some consoling Nandos for lunch today.
There are few problems in life that cannot be solved (or, at the very least, seriously reduced) with the application of extra hot chicken :-)