Thank God for internet shopping: the quick* cure for depression. Behold my latest purchase:
It is going to sit on our hallway table (which I intend to sand down, then repaint in International Klein Blue) and make that lovely old-fashioned brring-brring noise when people phone.
*quick, yes. And also quite expensive. And, sadly, temporary. Which is why I am going to call the BUPA helpline and talk about finding ways to make me happy again. Preferably ways that don't include typing in my credit card details and a delivery address.
The agency guy who sits in the spare desk next to me has clearly just been out for a cigarette. It's really rather unpleasant sitting here now.
Luckily I am now heading off to attend a great-aunt's funeral in place of my parents... and tomorrow I am working from home because I need some peace and quiet.
I am feeling less stressed. I have decided to marinate the chicken for Saturday night in coconut milk (partly to infuse it, and partly to tenderise it), I shall then bake it in the oven with some stock poured over. For Sunday's main meal I think I shall do roast lamb... (slow cooked with rosemary and garlic so I can leave it and go and do things), with roast potatoes etc. I know my sis in law loves roast potatoes.
Today is the day that no teddy bears are having a picnic - as it is too fucking grey outside* - but the day I am having my electrics done.
I have made a list to discuss with my wonderful Aussie electricans. Look away now if this is boring to you:
- Fit New consumer unit and certificate
- Check supply to kitchen and upgrade if necessary to cope with new appliances
- Fit new LED low energy downlighters in the hall and bathroom (x 12)
- Change out ancient dimmers for new (x 2)
- Replace bathroom fan to new ICON humidity activated fan and change fan isolator position
- Change position of bathroom light control to outside the room
- Hang three antique chandeliers
- New socket for dishwasher.
That'll do to be getting on with.
Tomorrow the sash man arrives.
* Walking past a pub in Kemp Town yesterday their blackboard said "It's still Summer! (But only in our hearts)"
As I got home from the cinema last night (Mamma Mia was a lot of fun, but I thought that the girls were brilliant, but the men more awkward. I thought Amanda Seyfried has an amazing voice and Julie Walters is looking good for her age), a few things were slightly off.
Agnes doesn't seem to be eating - she's a bit on the porky side anyway, but she's been off her food. She seems fine otherwise, being affectionate etc as normal, just doesn't seem to be eating. Mind you, neither of them ate their wet food last night, and I suspect they just don't like those pouches very much. Maud had poo on her tail which was delightful. She eventually washed it off after I'd tried wiping it. Nick noticed when he got home that she's lost her collar too.... so I'm not sure what's going on there, but we'll have to get her a new one. Luckily the cat flap is programmed to their microchips, not a tag on their collar (one of the main reasons we bought it!). They also seemed to be scratching a bit, so we dosed them up with Frontline.
I was tossing and turning for about an hour as I have Nick's parents, sister and her 2 kids coming for the weekend, and I don't feel prepared. One of the recipes I wanted to cook is, we think, in our itinerary, which we think Nick left behind at his parents! I went through recipes this morning, and have decided on menus. I'm going shopping tonight on the way back from my great-aunt's funeral, where I and my sister are representing my mum, who is on holiday. And I forgot the shopping bags, which means I'll need to try and find some boxes in the store.
My car is filthy and I wanted to get it valeted before the in-laws arrive, and I've only got enough fuel to get me to the funeral, possibly not back again.
I'm not happy with my outfit today - polo necks do not suit me, so I'm going to have to try and leave here a little bit earlier to go to H&M and get a top that I saw yesterday.
So, menus for the weekend:
Friday Supper: Tagliatelle with Lemon Pork Ragu, Salad, Chocolate and Beetroot loaf with ice-cream (just hoping the kids will eat it).
Saturday breakfast: Croissants, cereal, toast etc. Will have to leave Nick in charge while I head to the gym.
Saturday lunch - they're all going off to Legoland, so they can eat what they want there!
Saturday Supper: Corn Casserole, Squash rolls, green beans with griddled cherry tomatoes, and some sort of chicken dish, but I'm not sure what yet.
Sunday breakfast: Pancakes, bacon, maple syrup
Sunday lunch: no idea yet, and no idea what I'm going to do with them all during the day while Nick is out rehearsing!
Sunday Supper: no idea yet.
I'm thinking this was a bad idea.
Tonight I have beds to make, food to prepare, tidying to do... and that's all after I've gotten back from doing the shopping and have cooked us something for dinner.
What with the amount of work I have to do today and tomorrow, I'm starting to panic a little.
...but hopefully it's the last day tomorrow. I got time off for good behaviour over the weekend and was then back on site first thing Monday morning, continuing the take down of the 'V' festival. There's an awful lot of work so a few hundred thousand people can have four days of fun.
I hope they appreciated it.
What's the best pick up line you've ever heard?
I believe it was 'you can stay a bit longer if you like'. This was after all of our mutual friends had retired to bed...
We've seen lots of online chatter about flipbooks in the last year or so - people using video footage, pulling out key frames and making new school versions of the stick-men adventures from the old days.
Nicky - one of our awesome developers - spotted this blog post about creating your own flip books, recently. Using a combination of After effects and Photoshop, Alphonse has set up templates to help you make flipbooks of your own. If you check out the videos, you'll see they work really well.
Now, is it just me, or do they look roughly Business Card sized? As Nicky says, adapting this to the Business Card format, and printing on Green Stock (which is slightly 'flippier') could be perfect. Bind the book nicely at one edge, put back in the nice little holder, and bingo - what a cute memento for newly weds, or a great little keepsake for new parents. Alternatively, as someone suggested in the comments, what a cool, hands-on way to show new people your video work... No cables required.
So nearly there... Costs have been totalled, submitted and approved. (Continued profitability has been applauded.) Final extents have been submitted and production are happy. Just waiting on one last change from the typesetters to insert filler ads into the blanks, and then it can all go to the printers.
I wonder whether I can get away with buggering off early.
What's your definition of home?
Submitted by NayNay72
Home is anywhere where the hedges are a bit scruffy, where the pavements and things are aged rather than new, and where I can smell a bit of cow poo in the air. Home is the smell and look of proper countryside. Kent as opposed to (manufactured) Surrey. or Wenvoe (near Cardiff, where it's easy to say I'm from) in Wales. Home calms me down. It makes me relax. It's not the excitement of London (which I love and live in, but which isn't mine) but is about quiet country lanes, cattle, birds, dogs, cars, mud, and it is old and worn. But home is not where I go to when I visit my family. That's home plus something else - annoyance, tension, frustration. I'm waiting for the day when I can call London home. I've been waiting throughout my twenties and it doesn't seem to have come. But in a way I already can, because home is where my friends are, my life is, those darn cats are, and where I can buy a pint of milk at midnight without having to think about where I'll get it from. My current partial home is very urban, very immediate, very quick and easy, very ready for anything. I wonder if I could ever leave it behind - if the countryside could ever be big enough for me and my future life. It wasn't big enough in my past. I was desperate to leave my home with my parents at eighteen and I never looked back. For years I ran from it, emotionally distanced myself from them, went back as rarely as possible, both loved and hated going back. These days I love to be an aunt to my nieces, a sister to those two, a grandchild, but less a child. Home is no longer Wales because my parents drive me up the wall to think about, and I get frustrated and upset about so much that involves them - and I could never be so close, could never leave my turf for theirs again - but one day - if I can re-learn to be polite and walk slowly enough and limit my midnight milk requirements - maybe it will be somewhere in the countryside of England. And then I can look at the stars through the new telescope that I'll have and continue to be a melodramatic bugger into my thirties and more.
I've been asked to make a friend's wedding cup cakes. I've tried and tested the actual recipe, so I'm happy with that.
However, I'm stumped on how to make or source the flowers that she wants on top of each cake. (Also, I'm assuming that I can buy white butter to make sure that the frosting on top is white, not cream as you get with normal butter....)
I've emailed a few Cake decorating websites, and they've kind of described how I would make them, and so has my brother, but I'm a complete novice, and I'd much rather buy them if I can... I need about 70 in total.
This is what the end product will hopefully look like!
Any help would be appreciated! Ideally I'd like to find someone who could make them for me and ship them to me from the UK, but failing that, clear step by step instructions and a list of tools and materials would be welcomed!
Thanks!
