So much has happened since I last put fingers to keyboard so best we catch up a little. I am going to do this in categories...
Note to reader: This blog entry is not as interesting as others. Mostly for own future reference
Category 1: Work
Sheesh, this has been mental over the last few weeks. We are about to finalise the restructure of 150 posts in housing which will likely leave most of the workforce having to reapply for their jobs. Who says the public sector is boring heh? Add onto this that the whole of Local Government (except me...) goes on holiday for August and not much gets done. It's been a minefield of restructure, dodgy consultants, staff stress and not enough hours in the day before I have to come for category 2.
Category 2: Children
EEROD turned 2 last week. She is particularly cute and spent most of her special day announcing that it was 'my birfday'. We certainly got the hang of cards and presents rather quickly. In typical second-child fashion, she didn't get a party but our lovely neighbours came round for pizza and Peppa Pig cake. I was proud of my Peppa Pig cake. We still do not have a single photograph of EEROD up in the house. How do second (and subsequent) children survive into adulthood?LOD starts school next week. Mental. Where have the last 4 years gone? She is on fine form and thoroughly enjoying taking everything EEROD is trying to play with. They are very sweet together as EEROD talks more (a lot) and seem to get on relatively well. In big LOD news, we had a breakthrough on the feeding the animals front. She finally decided that feeding the sheep and goats at Bocketts farm wasn't akin to throwing yourself into a pit of hungry crocs. LOD is still asking for new princess / Ariel / Elsa dresses all the time which leads onto category 3.
Category 3: Sewing
I have been very busy on the old machine. I did my pattern cutting course in July and while I don't think I will sit and make my own patterns, I am certainly a lot wiser about to tailor commercial patterns to fit me better. Here are some pics of my latest creations..... I am still really enjoying my challenge but the list of sewing projects and finding the time to get round to them all is tough. I now need to move onto winter clothes which feels a bit dull but hopefully with category 4 nearly at an end, there will be more time to devote to indoor pursuits.
Category 4: The garden
I feel like 2014 has been a bit of a veggie disappointment. The tomatoes are only just starting to ripen and the peas and beans just died in the heat. Courgettes have been fabulous as usual and although the sweetcorn again looks good, it was a bit disappointing to eat. I think we will have to accept corn as a more ornamental plant. The carrots weren't as good as last year but local residents have a superb year with apples so the kitchen has been busy
Category 5: The kitchen
There has been one new recipe attempted in recent weeks which is an awesome 10 minute King Prawn Curry (recipe in a sec) but the kitchen has mainly produced an obscene amount of apple and chilli jelly. Will be selling some for the WI in late Sept but I am still left with 19 jars of the stuff. Guess what people will be getting for Christmas???!!!???? Obviously the Peppa Pig cake was a kitchen highlight but otherwise, cooking has taken a bit of a back seat to categories 3 and 4 over the summer. Lots of yummy braais and salad while the weather has been fabulous
10 minute King Prawn Curry:
SERVES 2 Calories per serving 222 (suspect this number does not include the rice....)
2 tbsp medium or hot curry paste (Patak’s Tikka Masala paste
works well)
2 tbsp cold water
1 red onion, finely sliced
1 red pepper, halved, deseeded and sliced
1 whole red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
1 tbsp mango chutney
3 large ripe tomatoes, cores removed, roughly chopped
150ml half-fat coconut milk
200g cooked or raw peeled king prawns
100g baby spinach leaves
fresh coriander and lime juice to serve
Heat a large pan and add curry paste, water, onion, pepper,
chilli and cook for 4 minutes, until softened, stirring well. Add chutney,
tomatoes and coconut milk and simmer for 3 minutes. Add prawns and spinach,
cook for 3 minutes until prawns are pink and the spinach has just wilted. Serve
with a squeeze of lime and coriander leaves.
Category 6: Pets
Well Simba decided to go walkabout last weekend and having not seen him this evening, I suspect when he returned home and discovered not much has changed, he has headed off again to whomever is giving him more kitty cuddles. Poor Lion-O is wandering around not entirely sure if he is allowed to assume top cat position or not. We also have a new fish and a few snails in the fish tank so the Farquhar Road menagerie is growing.
Category 7: Husband
We've nearly been married 7 years. Excitingly, the in-laws have agreed to have the girls for a night while we are in Ireland over our anniversary and we are going to slope off to a posh Dublin hotel for the night and luxuriate in waking up without a small person whining 'muuuuuummmmmy' before 7am! COD works hard too but continues to be fantabulous at sorting out small person breakfast and picking them up from nursery every day. I still get a cup of tea in bed every day x
Category 8: Everything else
Fuck all time for anything else. Occasionally we find an hour to watch crap telly and increasingly I am sneaking in time to do some exercise. We do have a lovely local teen babysitter and so do get out and about sometimes and then spend most of the evening reminding ourselves about how brilliant life was before we entered categories 2-6.
A post note - COD and I have just done the diary reconciliation for September. This is our first attempt at gauging the 'school impact'. I feel slightly ill.
No comments:
Post a Comment