This recipe will come in handy when you are left to your own devices for 3 days.
Ingredients
- Extensive DVD collection
- A craft of some sorts to keep you occupied
- 2 fur balls (can be any colour but I went with ginger & white and black & white)
- Comfy clothes
- Change of location
- Boring work
Method
Step 1: Take the comfy clothes and apply to the body. Add the craft to keep you occupied (I went with cross stitch but reading, sewing, whatever will do)
Step 2: Mix in the extensive DVD collection - I found a mixture of Sex & The City, House, Wedding Crashers and The Breakfast Club worked well.
Step 3: Stir in the fur balls to 'help' with your craft and most importantly keep you company during the night.
Step 4: Move comfy clothes, craft and fur balls to a different location (a.k.a. the fur balls' real home) and leave to simmer for another day.
Step 5: Remove from fur ball location, back to original location, add in a good dose of boring work and bring to the boil.
Step 6: Give up on the work and return to craft and DVDs and await boyfriend's return.
It's been a lovely relaxing weekend (work aside) but I kinda him want back now.
Monday, 31 August 2009
Saturday, 29 August 2009
Why?
Why when there is a whole bed available does the cat insist on lying on your clothes?
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And not just the clothes, but the one item of clothing that is black?
Friday, 28 August 2009
Why I am loving this Friday...
a) I've been working from home so I can chuck all my papers all over the floor and spread myself out. My desk at work doesn't have enough room and I think people would look at me a little strangely if I put them on the floor
b) I can stay in my pyjamas all day.
c) Whenever I got bored of doing my work I could get up and go and see what the furballs were up to (they've come to stay for the bank holiday weekend). When they weren't sleeping and climbing on things they shouldn't be, they were mainly sitting in our bedroom window, chittering at pigeons.
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b) I can stay in my pyjamas all day. c) Whenever I got bored of doing my work I could get up and go and see what the furballs were up to (they've come to stay for the bank holiday weekend). When they weren't sleeping and climbing on things they shouldn't be, they were mainly sitting in our bedroom window, chittering at pigeons.d) We're getting a takeaway tonight - I'm thinking Chinese, haven't had one in ages.
e) It's Saturday tomorrow.
f) It's a Bank Holiday plus I get the Tuesday off as well so I don't have to go back to work until Wednesday!
Hurray for this Friday.
Thursday, 27 August 2009
This blog will change your life (Part 2)
Family is very important to me (actually I should probably scrap that comment because when is family not important to anyone?)
It is a strange one though - here are these random people who you sometimes have nothing in common with except the fact that you have the same DNA running through you. This makes it difficult at times to say the least.
Take me and my brother and sister for example. I have to admit that we don't talk to each other as often as we should. In fact, if I'm going to be really honest we don't talk to each other at all. The only reason we know what's happened in each other's lives is because of the one thing that connects all of us - Mum.
There isn't really an excuse for it. Except that there always is isn't there? There's always something. My sister is a big high powered business lady person and never replies to texts or e-mails because she never has the time. She then comes home to 2 children, (although technically there are 4 children if you count the dog and the husband) so she never calls and then I feel bad about calling in case I'm bothering her so that never happens. My brother? Well he's just selfish. I'm going through a bit of a not liking him phase at the moment which is new for me because I've always thought he was the bees knees. He used to do the whole protective older brother thing and although it frustrated me how mean he could be to some of my boyfriends, I secretly liked it. At the moment though, I don't know, I just feel like I don't have anything in common with him, we have a completely different set of values and most of the time his general attitude to life and those around him annoys the hell out of me.
So no-one calls each other and then it gets harder to call each other because you haven't called each other. So nothing happens until Mum goes over to see one of them and I say I'll go with her.
"You'd better not die" I said to my Mum a while ago (I say quite strange things to my Mum at times, it's ok, we're cool with each other), "if you do the three of us will probably never see each other again."
I laughed but it actually hit me hard inside because it was at that point that I realised. Although we might be totally different people and would never be friends in the 'real' world, we are connected, we do have something fundamental in common, and if blood isn't enough to keep you together then what is?
At around the same time as this dawned on me, my friend introduced me to the Nie Nie Dialogues and from there I started reading Stephanie's sister's blog, cjane enjoy it. As I said in my previous post, this family is something else. You couldn't help but want to be part of it. And in Cjane's writing the importance of family shines though. Whether she's talking about her husband Chup and son The Chief, or when she was blogging about having 3 of her sister's children live with her while her sister was in hospital, or whether she's talking about another sister dropping by, it's perfectly clear - she loves her family. She doesn't have a bad word to say about them. Which is strange because surely they must bug each other sometimes? Surely they must be different people?
Maybe they do, maybe they don't and maybe they are and maybe they're not but what's important is that they're family. It doesn't matter if you aren't the same people, there's a bond there that runs deep and must act as some kind of anchor, pulling you in whenever you try to go astray. I'm sure that if some calamity should befall us then the others would be there immediately, doing everything they could to help. But it shouldn't come to that. It shouldn't take a disaster to reaffirm what you should already know.
So taking cjane as my inspiration I vow to be a better sister. To be less consumed with my own worries and to think and do more to solidify the bonds between my siblings. I will be undeterred by the fact that when I ask my brother when I can pop over to York (which is about 45 minutes away from Hull) he will say that he will have to "check the diary" and I will want to beat him round the head with a club saying with every swing "I. shouldn't. have. to. make. an. appointment. I'm. family." I will just say "Ok. When's good for you?" I will be undeterred that when I call my sister for a chat and she doesn't really have anything to say she doesn't make any effort whatsoever to further the conversation and will let it get to the point where there are uncomfortable silences on the end of the phone. I will just continue to blather away until I run out of things to say.
And I will try and not bitch about either of them.
(On a separate note about Cjane's blog. What I really love about it, apart from all the schmaltzy family stuff I just talked about it are the lovely pictures she puts on there and most of all her writing style. She writes in a way I wish I could and it makes me more than a little bit jealous that I can't.)
It is a strange one though - here are these random people who you sometimes have nothing in common with except the fact that you have the same DNA running through you. This makes it difficult at times to say the least.
Take me and my brother and sister for example. I have to admit that we don't talk to each other as often as we should. In fact, if I'm going to be really honest we don't talk to each other at all. The only reason we know what's happened in each other's lives is because of the one thing that connects all of us - Mum.
There isn't really an excuse for it. Except that there always is isn't there? There's always something. My sister is a big high powered business lady person and never replies to texts or e-mails because she never has the time. She then comes home to 2 children, (although technically there are 4 children if you count the dog and the husband) so she never calls and then I feel bad about calling in case I'm bothering her so that never happens. My brother? Well he's just selfish. I'm going through a bit of a not liking him phase at the moment which is new for me because I've always thought he was the bees knees. He used to do the whole protective older brother thing and although it frustrated me how mean he could be to some of my boyfriends, I secretly liked it. At the moment though, I don't know, I just feel like I don't have anything in common with him, we have a completely different set of values and most of the time his general attitude to life and those around him annoys the hell out of me.
So no-one calls each other and then it gets harder to call each other because you haven't called each other. So nothing happens until Mum goes over to see one of them and I say I'll go with her.
"You'd better not die" I said to my Mum a while ago (I say quite strange things to my Mum at times, it's ok, we're cool with each other), "if you do the three of us will probably never see each other again."
I laughed but it actually hit me hard inside because it was at that point that I realised. Although we might be totally different people and would never be friends in the 'real' world, we are connected, we do have something fundamental in common, and if blood isn't enough to keep you together then what is?
At around the same time as this dawned on me, my friend introduced me to the Nie Nie Dialogues and from there I started reading Stephanie's sister's blog, cjane enjoy it. As I said in my previous post, this family is something else. You couldn't help but want to be part of it. And in Cjane's writing the importance of family shines though. Whether she's talking about her husband Chup and son The Chief, or when she was blogging about having 3 of her sister's children live with her while her sister was in hospital, or whether she's talking about another sister dropping by, it's perfectly clear - she loves her family. She doesn't have a bad word to say about them. Which is strange because surely they must bug each other sometimes? Surely they must be different people?
Maybe they do, maybe they don't and maybe they are and maybe they're not but what's important is that they're family. It doesn't matter if you aren't the same people, there's a bond there that runs deep and must act as some kind of anchor, pulling you in whenever you try to go astray. I'm sure that if some calamity should befall us then the others would be there immediately, doing everything they could to help. But it shouldn't come to that. It shouldn't take a disaster to reaffirm what you should already know.
So taking cjane as my inspiration I vow to be a better sister. To be less consumed with my own worries and to think and do more to solidify the bonds between my siblings. I will be undeterred by the fact that when I ask my brother when I can pop over to York (which is about 45 minutes away from Hull) he will say that he will have to "check the diary" and I will want to beat him round the head with a club saying with every swing "I. shouldn't. have. to. make. an. appointment. I'm. family." I will just say "Ok. When's good for you?" I will be undeterred that when I call my sister for a chat and she doesn't really have anything to say she doesn't make any effort whatsoever to further the conversation and will let it get to the point where there are uncomfortable silences on the end of the phone. I will just continue to blather away until I run out of things to say.
And I will try and not bitch about either of them.
(On a separate note about Cjane's blog. What I really love about it, apart from all the schmaltzy family stuff I just talked about it are the lovely pictures she puts on there and most of all her writing style. She writes in a way I wish I could and it makes me more than a little bit jealous that I can't.)
Monday, 24 August 2009
Why I love this boy of mine...
...because he brought me pretty flowers and when I asked him why he said
"Because it's Monday"
(And yes they are in a glass tumbler rather than a nice fancy vase but when the flowers are this pretty I figured it wouldn't matter)
Saturday, 22 August 2009
Mushroom & Prawn Risotto with lemon and marscapone
Last night I was the risotto queen. I came across this recipe that I have copied down from somewhere, although I have no idea where. I have a box stuffed with random recipes that I've photocopied or scribbled down and I occasionally have a dig through to look for something I fancy.
(Would serve 4 if you're serving it with something else, however on it's own you can get 3 servings out of it)
I like risottos. I know people always complain that it's a bit of a faff but I don't think it really is. Yeah you have to do a bit of stirring but it doesn't take any longer to make than any other meal, you're just standing over it a bit more. Plus there are things you can do whilst you're stirring,
- text people with your free hand
- read a book
- get lost in random thoughts
- make lists of things that need doing
Anyway, the result was more than worth a bit of stirring - it was gorgeous! If I do say myself.
MUSHROOM & PRAWN RISOTTO WITH LEMON & MARSCAPONE
(Would serve 4 if you're serving it with something else, however on it's own you can get 3 servings out of it)Ingredients
125g spring onion - finely chopped
2 sticks celery - finely chopped
2 sticks celery - finely chopped
1 small lemon
300g mushrooms - finely sliced
50g butter
2 chicken stock cubes
175g cooked, peeled prawns
125g marscapone (about half a tub)
Method
- Remove the zest of the lemon and chop to dust
- Dissolve stock cubes in 1l of water
- Melt butter in pan and stir in celery and spring onion and cook for 5 minutes
- Add lemon zest, mushrooms and rice and stir until the rice is coated
- Add 2tbps on lemon juice and then add the stock ladle by ladle until all the liquid is absorbed
- Add in the prawns and stir then add in the marscapone
- Stick a lid on the pan (or if you're like me and don't have a lid for your pan, cover it in tin foil!) and leave for 5 minutes.
- Bask in the glory of producing a damn fine meal!
Friday, 21 August 2009
This blog will change your life (Part 1)
A few months ago I got an e-mail from my friend in America telling me to go and read this blog.
The back story
Stephanie Nielson had a blog called the Nie Nie dialogues which documented her life with her 4 children and husband, Christian, in Arizona. Her life was like some kind of fairy tale - she was only a couple of years older than me and had 4 children! Yet despite this her life seemed perfect and her love for Mr Nielson is the kind that melts you on the inside. The blog was filled with gorgeous photos and her life just seemed wonderful.
However in August 2008, Stephanie and Christian were involved in a plane crash which left them fighting for their lives.
While they recovered the blogosphere went into overdrive with outpourings of love and support for this person that most had never met.
A year after the accident, Stephanie is back blogging, telling the story of her recovery.
It was a particularly slow work week when my friend e-mailed me and I managed to read the whole blog in 2 days - every single post. Now I eagerly gobble up every new post and sometimes randomly pick a month from the archives to read.
Her story cannot fail to affect you and make you think about your own life. How many of us possess the kind of determination that allows you to recover from an accident in which 80% of your body is burned? How many of us could go through something like that and still come out positive? How many of us share a love like she has with Mr Nielson? How many of us have the family that she does that rallied around, took in her children and kept the faith that she would pull through and come out the other side.
Aaah that family...this blog has left me longing to be part of that clan. From reading Stephanie's blog and her sister's (more on that in another post to come) I rather worryingly feel as if I am.
"Lucy's had her baby" I said, running through to the boyfriend one evening.
He looked at me. I could see his brain running through the names of my friends and coming up blank.
"She's Stephanie's sister"
Still blank
"You know from that blog I read"
The light dawned in his eyes. I think he's probably a little concerned about me. He's heard a lot about this blog in the past months.
At the beginning of this week she posted a picture of herself. It was a moment I think I and a lot of other bloggers have been waiting for for some time. When I saw the picture, tears came to my eyes. Not out of pity but out of a realisation. Yes obviously she looks different but she's still the same and that's something that hadn't quite twigged in my head. The same person was still talking to me from her blog posts, that hadn't changed at all. If you ever needed proof that it is what is in the inside that counts this was it. How hadn't I realised that before? (And to be honest I wasn't so much looking at her face as much as I was staring and coveting the amazing necklace she was wearing in the picture)
One of the things that Stephanie has done for me is help me start to come to terms with my feelings about religion.
It scares me to be honest. I guess you'd call me faithless. I was christened and went to Sunday School but I was brought up to find my own way in life and I just drifted away from it. I've swayed from being totally convinced there's nothing out there, to being sure that there has to be. Now I'm somewhere in the middle. I'm reluctant to call myself an agnostic because it's not so much that I don't know it's been more of a case that I just don't really care.
I've just never had a burning desire to want to know one way or the other. I've just removed myself from the whole question altogether. I also happen to have a friend who was part of a religious group (I won't name them here) whose experience was so awful that it just confirmed my belief that this religion game was something I didn't want to be part of. It just seems to cause so much trouble - people use it as an excuse for politically motivated moves and it just makes me not want to be involved.
I used to say that I thought that people who believed in God, whatever form he took, were copping out, that it was too easy to say that one person was controlling everything, meaning that no matter what you did, you were following someone else's path.
Now I realise how stupid I was.
I was the one that was copping out.
It's so much harder to keep the faith in God when something horrific happens. For me, I can just say that bad things happen sometimes, if you believe in God then you have to believe that he caused that pain, that he wanted that to happen to you and made that happen.
How did Stephanie's family cope with that? The God that they believed in made their daughter/sister/aunt/niece/whatever fall out of the sky. How can you come to terms with that? How could that happen to someone who was so good? Who loved being a Mormon, raised her children according to their principles and lived her life as a good Mormon should? What sort of reward is that?
However without that faith I don't see how they all could have recovered. If you don't believe that this is all part of some greater plan then what incentive do you have to keep going? When someone manages to recover against all odds isn't there a part of you that must believe it's because someone wanted you to get better?
The other thing that Stephanie's writing made me realise is that religion isn't really something to be scared of. Although I could never be a Mormon most of the things they stand for make excellent values by which to live your life.
They value family over and above everything else and I find this incredibly touching, I'd love my family to be closer than they are. They have family home evenings. They have date nights. They are just good people. Those aren't particularly bad things are they? To me it doesn't really matter whether you think those values came written on stone tablet, were sent down by an angel, were found at the cabbage patch at the bottom of the garden, they are good values.
From reading the Nie Nie dialogues I am determined to try and become a better person. I'm certainly no closer to coming to a decision on where I stand with actually believing in God but I'm trying to be a better family member. I'm trying to be kinder to people. I try to make sure that the boyfriend knows how much I love him.
It's not easy but at least I have a great role model.
I still don't feel like I can properly explain how this blog has affected me. I don't have the words. I've tried and tried to find them but they escape me.
I guess I just want to thank her.
Thank her for giving me, someone with no religion, a little bit of faith.
Faith that there are good people out there.
The back story
Stephanie Nielson had a blog called the Nie Nie dialogues which documented her life with her 4 children and husband, Christian, in Arizona. Her life was like some kind of fairy tale - she was only a couple of years older than me and had 4 children! Yet despite this her life seemed perfect and her love for Mr Nielson is the kind that melts you on the inside. The blog was filled with gorgeous photos and her life just seemed wonderful.
However in August 2008, Stephanie and Christian were involved in a plane crash which left them fighting for their lives.
While they recovered the blogosphere went into overdrive with outpourings of love and support for this person that most had never met.
A year after the accident, Stephanie is back blogging, telling the story of her recovery.
It was a particularly slow work week when my friend e-mailed me and I managed to read the whole blog in 2 days - every single post. Now I eagerly gobble up every new post and sometimes randomly pick a month from the archives to read.
Her story cannot fail to affect you and make you think about your own life. How many of us possess the kind of determination that allows you to recover from an accident in which 80% of your body is burned? How many of us could go through something like that and still come out positive? How many of us share a love like she has with Mr Nielson? How many of us have the family that she does that rallied around, took in her children and kept the faith that she would pull through and come out the other side.
Aaah that family...this blog has left me longing to be part of that clan. From reading Stephanie's blog and her sister's (more on that in another post to come) I rather worryingly feel as if I am.
"Lucy's had her baby" I said, running through to the boyfriend one evening.
He looked at me. I could see his brain running through the names of my friends and coming up blank.
"She's Stephanie's sister"
Still blank
"You know from that blog I read"
The light dawned in his eyes. I think he's probably a little concerned about me. He's heard a lot about this blog in the past months.
At the beginning of this week she posted a picture of herself. It was a moment I think I and a lot of other bloggers have been waiting for for some time. When I saw the picture, tears came to my eyes. Not out of pity but out of a realisation. Yes obviously she looks different but she's still the same and that's something that hadn't quite twigged in my head. The same person was still talking to me from her blog posts, that hadn't changed at all. If you ever needed proof that it is what is in the inside that counts this was it. How hadn't I realised that before? (And to be honest I wasn't so much looking at her face as much as I was staring and coveting the amazing necklace she was wearing in the picture)
One of the things that Stephanie has done for me is help me start to come to terms with my feelings about religion.
It scares me to be honest. I guess you'd call me faithless. I was christened and went to Sunday School but I was brought up to find my own way in life and I just drifted away from it. I've swayed from being totally convinced there's nothing out there, to being sure that there has to be. Now I'm somewhere in the middle. I'm reluctant to call myself an agnostic because it's not so much that I don't know it's been more of a case that I just don't really care.
I've just never had a burning desire to want to know one way or the other. I've just removed myself from the whole question altogether. I also happen to have a friend who was part of a religious group (I won't name them here) whose experience was so awful that it just confirmed my belief that this religion game was something I didn't want to be part of. It just seems to cause so much trouble - people use it as an excuse for politically motivated moves and it just makes me not want to be involved.
I used to say that I thought that people who believed in God, whatever form he took, were copping out, that it was too easy to say that one person was controlling everything, meaning that no matter what you did, you were following someone else's path.
Now I realise how stupid I was.
I was the one that was copping out.
It's so much harder to keep the faith in God when something horrific happens. For me, I can just say that bad things happen sometimes, if you believe in God then you have to believe that he caused that pain, that he wanted that to happen to you and made that happen.
How did Stephanie's family cope with that? The God that they believed in made their daughter/sister/aunt/niece/whatever fall out of the sky. How can you come to terms with that? How could that happen to someone who was so good? Who loved being a Mormon, raised her children according to their principles and lived her life as a good Mormon should? What sort of reward is that?
However without that faith I don't see how they all could have recovered. If you don't believe that this is all part of some greater plan then what incentive do you have to keep going? When someone manages to recover against all odds isn't there a part of you that must believe it's because someone wanted you to get better?
The other thing that Stephanie's writing made me realise is that religion isn't really something to be scared of. Although I could never be a Mormon most of the things they stand for make excellent values by which to live your life.
They value family over and above everything else and I find this incredibly touching, I'd love my family to be closer than they are. They have family home evenings. They have date nights. They are just good people. Those aren't particularly bad things are they? To me it doesn't really matter whether you think those values came written on stone tablet, were sent down by an angel, were found at the cabbage patch at the bottom of the garden, they are good values.
From reading the Nie Nie dialogues I am determined to try and become a better person. I'm certainly no closer to coming to a decision on where I stand with actually believing in God but I'm trying to be a better family member. I'm trying to be kinder to people. I try to make sure that the boyfriend knows how much I love him.
It's not easy but at least I have a great role model.
I still don't feel like I can properly explain how this blog has affected me. I don't have the words. I've tried and tried to find them but they escape me.
I guess I just want to thank her.
Thank her for giving me, someone with no religion, a little bit of faith.
Faith that there are good people out there.
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