Last day of the holidays..

... and where did that week go ? I wish the week at work would fly past just as quickly !

So where were we, oh yes, Tuesday's post and the date on Wednesday. Well I met the guy as arranged at 12:00 outside WHSmiths in Rickmansworth, good place for a meet eh ! Having previously decided that I wanted to try eating something at the Cinnamon Square bakery, that was where we headed.
I had a coffee and a small cinnamon square bun (having bought a large one last Saturday and taken nearly all day to eat it - they're massive) D had a hot chocolate and a Danish something with almonds on top. We grabbed a table upstairs and spent a good couple of hours chatting which was good - turns out that we have a couple of mutal friends which isn't that surprising really. D went to a 33rd birthday party in London at the weekend which I had been invited too but just didn't fancy it on the night - small world.
I'll probably see him again but who can tell.

As for the rest of the week its been a bit of a blur really. I had a day in the garden clearing up leaves and dead plants, then taking them to the dump. I semi sorted out the front bedroom and got rid a lot of the clutter in there, there is still a bit more to go but its not as frightening now.
I did a bit of shopping grabbing some bargain quilts in TJ Hughes which pleased me quite a lot and thats sort of been it really.

I did manage to squeeze in a couple of sessions at the gym, but didn't go today as it was an 'open day' so it would have been full of people trying things out for free - I'll go back tomorrow afternoon for my regular session.

Then thats my week over, I'm going to do a spot of baking tomorrow night just to take some bits into work as a 'welcome home' for Chris (he's been on holiday for three weeks to Australia and Fidji) I'm thinking Lemon Maderia cake and salty chocolate peanut torte (one of Nigellas creations)

so I'm going to finish with a couple of pictures of my new garden lights, courtesy of QVC, they're solar and seem to be working pretty well despite the weather having been really naff the last day or two.

There are three of them and they colour change - its so me !!



Tuesday

I had quite a nice day today. I got up reasonably early and drove to my cousins in Pinner for 9:30 ish, from there we headed up to Ikea in Brent Park, which is about a 30 minute drive from her house - depending on the traffic.

We did a circuit of the upper level and stopped off in the cafe for a coffee and a danish pastry which was really tasty. Once refreshed we went downstairs and mooched about in the market place picking up odds and ends as we walked and chatted. Once we'd paid for our stuff which came to a very reasonable £35, we went to the hot dog bar and re-filled our bellies with hot dogs and fizzy pop, which was just what we needed.

Ikea is a strange place - no matter how much you say you are going there 'just to look', you always end up walking out with something. In my case a bunch of ten artificial gerbera flowers, three storage boxes, a jar of jam, some freezer bag clips and the obligatory scented tea lights !

After I dropped Allison home and had a coffee, I detoured into PC world and finally bought the wireless keyboard thing that I'd been harping on about in my previous post - unfortunately they wouldn't give me any more money off for the damaged box, but they opened it in store to show me the contents were fine - hurrah !

So now I have the internet up here in my spare bedroom and also down in the lounge (although the downstairs one is really only for browsing and you-tube as it's only a baby and has a really small hard drive)

Logitech diNovo mini

Oh and I gymmed tonight as well - bully for me !

Early night tonight, I've got a 'date' tomorrow lunchtime and I need my beauty sleep. I'll tell you how it went tomorrow - goodnight all

Lazy Monday - I wish !

Today is the first day of my weeks leave and I was hoping for a nice relaxing one. I'd already arranged to go and see my friend Joyce for lunch, and as a surprise I wanted to bake her a Victoria Sponge - nothing too difficult there !

Unfortunately, I managed to oversleep this morning and finally work up at 11am, which gave me an hour to bake, clean up , shower and get to Brickett Wood. After a mad rush in the kitchen I managed to knock up a very reasonable Victoria sandwich with strawberry jam and vanilla buttercream, dusted with icing sugar. (I didn't have time to grab a photo, but you all should know what a sponge cake looks like !)

Had a nice afternoon with Joyce and the cake managed to go down very nicely with a couple of cups of tea.

Unfortunately I didn't stay over there as long as usual, as I had to get back home and do some more baking for this evening. One of my 'friends' on facebook (who must have been a random add as we don't have any mutual mates) was chatting last night and asked how much I'd charge for a batch of double choc chip cookies - I really didn't have a clue as I've never reallly made cakes or baked for a profit. After some deliberating we settled on a price, and so there is now a batch of cookies in the kitchen waiting for be dropped off tonight. If he likes them he'll order more - if he doesn't he won't, can't say fairer than that can you ?

gym later on as well, I need to work off last nights bread !!

Bread - is it easier to buy it ??

I'm on a roll today (pardon the pun) ! Gymmed, fitted the cat flat and looking forward to a weeks holiday.

I've been meaning to try baking some bread for a while now. I think I have the knack of making cakes, so trying bread seems a natural progression.

I've just finished all the messy stuff, mixed up the dough and kneaded it for the required ten minutes - now the dough is relaxing in an oiled bowl in the airing cupboard (where hopefully it will rise like some huge balloon, ready to go in the oven)  If everything goes to plan, I should have a batch of about 16 soft dinner rolls at the end of this blog entry - watch this space !

Well two hours after I started I have a batch of rolls ! ok,  they could have done with slightly less time in the oven as they are quite crusty on the outside, but the inner texture wasn't too bad at all - I've eaten worse !

Cat flapping

I decided that it was time that I fitted a cat flap.
When I just had Jade I used to leave my bedroom window open at night and she could jump in and out as she liked. Good during the summer but not so hot in the winter when she'd be soaking wet and still insist in walking across my face to get to her side of the bed - typical woman. Since Sooty has moved in as well, I started to close the window as it was just too much with both of them coming and going all night - added to that the glass roof that they jump down onto is really quite unsafe now and I didn't want them cutting their paws or anything like that.
So yesterday I went to Pets at Home and found a rather neat cat flap that wasn't hugely expensive (you'd not believe the price of some of them, shocking !!), and I fitted it this morning.

Sooty seems to have taken to it like a duck to water, hopping in and out quite happily. Jade on the other hand isn't too sure at the minute. I was trying to coax her to use it and she sniffed at it, but still sat there miaowing for the door to be opened. Its amazing how the sight of the flea spray bottle can focus the mind - I've just got to see if she can make it back in now !

In other news I went to PC World yesterday to see if they had this wireless keyboard thing that I've been looking for - bearing in mind on their website its advertised for £82.00, it was on the shelf at £134.99, but the box looked as if it had been dropped, trampled underfoot and had everything done to it to make it unsaleable. When I asked the assistant about the shop price, he said that I could 'buy' it online and collect it from the store, saving myself around £55 which is good, IF they had a different one in stock. I got home and tried to buy it online but the site told me that Watford Arches doesnt have any in stock, "but they do" I argued to a very uninterested pc screen. I'm debating whether to go in and buy the one on the shlef, but haggle for a bigger discount as it might be suffering from its boxy beating - decisions decisions !

The holiday starts here

Ok, I know its only been three weeks since Christmas but I thought it was time that I booked some leave from work - it never pays to run yourself into the ground, does it ! So I've got all of next week off (which is good) and I've also booked off the week following my birthday in February (which is better). That leaves me with just one more week to use up before the end of March, when the whole thing starts over again (which is better still).

I've not really got any definite plans for the week because at this time of year you can never be certain what tricks the weather will play on you. If its nice I'd like to get a bit of work done in the back garden, if its wet and horrible, I'm going to get my back bedroom decorated. Add into that a trip to Ikea with my cousin, a 'date' on Wednesday, various visits to the gym and it won't leave me very much time at all !

In other news, I went to the gym last night but felt thoroughly shattered before I'd even got there - consequently I only managed to shed 400 calories in my 50 minute stint, which was not very good at all - slapped legs for me !

Brian's Danish pastry as mentioned in my previous post was very nice, although in my view it could have done with being about twice the size - you never skimp when it comes to cake :)

I'm hoping to do a bit of baking myself next week - I really want to have a stab at baking some bread which I've never tried, plus I've got some friends birthdays coming up, and thought it would be nice to give them something home made. I just need to hone my icing skills because at the minute it generally end up as 'slapping on the icing with a palette knife' and then disguising the cake with sprinkles or jelly beans and a touch of glitter.

I'm sure there will be pictures of my efforts on here if I do bake, and whoever gets the cakes are bound to eat them. In the words of good 'ol Nancy Lam as she said in her restaurant "If you don't like it - don't come back"

Back on track

I've not felt right over the last few days, not ill or unwell, nothing like that, I've just not been feeling myself (go on, laugh now, get it out of your system).

Tuesday evening I couldn't even motivate myself to go to the gym, I just stayed indoors, had a nice supper and then cooked myself a huge pot of soup, something that I'd never made before.
I have to say it was very easy to do and I was really pleased with the way it tasted - it was called Moroccan Tomato, which I guess was because the recipe uses Cumin and chick peas (although I don't like Cumin, I think it tastes like mud so I used coriander instead)

So yesterday (Weds) I felt a bit more positive when I woke up. I had a decent day at work, got home and had a big bowl of soup and a slice of sourdough toast. Then I went to the gym for an hour and met up with Brian which was good. He bought me some samples of his latest baking session - peanut cookies and a Danish pastry. The cookies were really good - I woofed those down with a cup of tea when I got home.

Ok, purists might argue 'whats the point in gymming if you eat biscuits afterwards' - however I saw something much worse on Monday night. When I arrived there was a guy who was on the far end treadmill by the window - he wasn't pressing himself too hard (in my opinion) and after about ten minutes of a leisurely workout, he went to his bag and pulled out a Crunchie bar which he then walked about the room eating. Even the girl on the machine next to me stopped and mouthed 'whats the point' as he walked past !

I'll rate Brians Danish pastry once I've chomped it this afternoon - it looked to tasty good for elevenses !

What is it with cats ?

Avid readers will know that I have two cats - Jade, the one I adpoted from the RSPCA and Sooty, a stray who just sort of moved in and made himself at home.

Sooty is a lovely cat, and I guess that somebody somewhere is really missing him. He runs to greet me at the front door at night, standing on his back legs and reaching up as high as he can. He jumps on my lap as soon as I sit down and makes himself cosy, and he's got a wonderful habit of breathing up my nose, whenever he's eaten anything smelly.
I kid you not, he seems to revel in it, its got to be a cat equivilant of 'dutch ovens'. His favourite time is when I'm on the pc - he'll sit on the desk between me and the keyboard, stick his face in mine and you can see him breathing out.

Still, things could be worse, at least its the right end !

Gymboree !

Well tonight was the third day on the trot that I've been to the gym, and I have to say I'm feeling pretty good for it. Saturday and Sunday afternoon I managed to burn off 900 calories in each session. This evening I only managed 800, but I was a bit limited for time.

You see I'm not mean, but I object for paying to park the car at night, in a deserted car park. On a weekend I generally park in Sainsburys where you get two hours free parking - that gives me time to walk to the gym, have a good hour and a half in there and then have a quick wander round the supermarket to pick up my essentials. During the week its easier to park in the multi storey right next to the gym, but you have to pay if you are there longer than an hour, so my week night sessions usually last 45-50 minutes - hence the reason for a lower calorie burn

OK that was a bit wordy but it made sense in my head as I was typing it !

In other news, the cakes that I took to work went down very well. The carrot cake muffins were undoubtedly the best ones that I have ever made, light and fluffy with a really great texture. The victoria sandwich was equally tasty, but some of the cream leeched into the sponge overnight, so it wasn't as light and fluffy as it had been the day before - never mind, it still tasted fine (yes, I did have to try a bit of each!)

oh yes, and my gym partner arrived tonight in what I thought was a 'self portrait' t-shirt - sorry Mr H :O)

Where did the weekend go ?

If I didn't know better, I'd swear the sleep pixies had crept in and stolen one of the days over the weekend - it feels like it was no sooner Friday evening than I was slapping my alarm clock to silence Steve Allen and get up for work - ho well !

I did manage to get a fair bit done, which was quite pleasing. Some of it was housework which included changing all the beds, washing down the woodwork and windows, and shampooing the bedroom carpets. Having two cats in the house makes a fair amount of mess as it is, and seeing as one of them had trodden mud all over the quilts it needed to be done.

I took a drive up to Brent Cross on Saturday as I'd seen a couple of baking items in the sales that I wanted to purchase. Just my luck when I went into Fenwicks, that all the items that I'd gone to buy had been snapped up. I had a bit of a wander around and then dropped in at Lakeland on the way home to see what they had to offer me. Thankfully they had the things in there that I couldn't find in Fenwicks, and they were just as cheap so it wasn't a wasted journey. (Just in case anybody is remotely interested in what I bought it was some pastry / icing cutters, a cake leveller and a 'daisy' baking tin which was an impulse buy)

I also managed to do two sessions at the gym which was really pleasing - I burned off 900 calories on both days which is my best effort yet, and I felt remarkably sprightly at the end of it too - I must be getting fitter !

Yesterday I had a nice lazy afternoon. I cooked myself a rather tasty Sunday lunch, and then decided to rustle up some cakes for work as I had some odds and ends in the fridge which needed using up. I made a batch of 12 carrot cake muffins and a victoria sandwich.

The muffins were my best attempt ever, really light and fluffy with loads of air bubbles in them - I can't comment on the victoria sandwich as its still in the fridge waiting to be sliced and diced.

Looks like another 900 this evening isn't even going to scratch the surface today - oh well !

Its Friday :O)

Not much has happened in the last couple of days so rather than waffle about nothing, its easier not to do a post - I hope you understand !

Yesterday, my friend Julie called in for a coffee after work. It was nice to see her as we'd not really had a catch up since before Christmas. By the time she'd left and I'd got something to eat it was far too late to go to the gym - shame ! To keep myself occupied, I faffed around trying to set up my notebook pc to run through the tv in the lounge - surprisingly for me it all went pretty well and it worked perfectly. I just need to get myself a wireless keyboard and mouse now and I'm in business. I have seen one that I like, but it is a tad expensive, plus I'd like to see it in the flesh before shelling out on it.

There will be no gym for me this evening either because it closes early and I don't have enough time to get home, sort out the cats and get up there - I guess it just means that I'll have to do a session on both Saturday and Sunday this weekend - no rest for the wicked eh !

hmmmm...

I don't know what went wrong last night. I got home in good time, fully expecting to have dinner and then head to the gym around 8:00 as per usual.

Somehow I managed to doze off and woke up at twenty to nine which scuppered any plans I had to get hot and sweaty for the evening :O(

Added to that I've had a really bad nights sleep and for some reason the top of my head is really tender, it even hurts to run my hands thru my hair. I've not bumped it or anything like that, I do hope that I'm not going down with a bug !

Shock in the litter tray

Ok, this isn't the most pleasant of posts but I've got to post it !

I bought the cats some treats at the weekend, as I'd been to the pet shop to get them a sack of food. I've recently been spraying stuff with catnip scent which they seem to love, so when I saw a bag of catnip treats I thought they would go down really well.

When I got home and opened them, Sooty turned his nose up and walked away - Jade on the other hand ate her pile, then ate all Sootys ones, and stood there miaowing for more.

The following morning I was 'clearing up' and had to empty the litter tray, oddly enough the catnip treats come out exactly the same colour as they go in - dark bottle green !!!

yeuch ! (and no photos coming either - I promise )

Bargain hunting

I don't know about you but I think the sales have been really lame this year. Its either the same old tat that they've been pulling out for the last four or five years (Next) or they've reduced the stuff that nobody wants. Take Boxing Day for example, any self respecting bargain hunter would go out looking for reduced wrapping paper and christmas cards - I did, only to find that the shops had taken all the stock off the shelves - thats just plain mean ! Whats the point in having sales if you can't stock up on bargains for next year !

So anyway, this morning I went to BHS in Watford as I'd picked up two cushions last weekend that were a good match for my settee, and during the week I decided that I wanted a third one. Blow me if the mountain of cushions that they had last week had all but vanished and I just couldn't find the elusive third one anywhere. So as I left the shop I spotted the missing cushion in the window display, so I went in and asked the assistant if I could have it and luckily she got it for me - hurrah ! (A very respectable reduction from £22 down to £8.80)

I was intending to go to the gym this afternoon, but got sidetracked and ended up going to the Galleria in Hatfield where I found some mark down baking tins which I wanted, and I also bought a new water bowl for the cats, some drinking chocolate from Whittards and some Pecan Nuts from Julian Greaves. I feel a bit of baking coming along tomorrow !

This evening I went to my see my brother in Hayes, as he wanted me to clip his rabbits claws and in fairness, they are difficult to do on your own - especially when you have two rabbits as big as his ones are.

So thats been it really, not a really eventful day, but I got some bits done which was good.

Oh and last night I went to my cousins to give her the cake etc, and we had some while I was there - it was a bit firmer in texture than I would have liked, but they all seemed to like the taste which was the main thing.

TGI Friday !

Its been a strange old week - I've never been very good at starting work on a Tuesday (or any other day come to that !) It just throws my body clock out of kilter and I feel like I've lost a day somewhere along the line. Thankfully I've got the weekend to get myself sorted out.

Last night was quite good, not only did I manage to make the cake for my cousin (as posted in my previous entry) but also went to the gym and had a pretty decent session there too - yay for me ! Tuesdays and Wednesdays sessions had been a real struggle, but last night everything seemed to fall into place and I had no trouble in staying there for an hour and a half.
It probably helped that my 'gym buddie' was there last night, it's always easier when you have somebody there to gee you along and have a chat to as you're pounding the treadmills !

I'm giving it a miss this evening as I'm going to my cousins after work, and by the time I get home and have something to eat it will be too late. It also closes earlier on a Friday so I think I'm entitled to skip a night once in a while :O)

Not sure what I'm getting up to this weekend, but I'm pretty sure there won't be a repeat of last weeks 'Dancing on Ice'. Whatever happens, if its good I'll post it on here with photo's to prove it !

have a good one !

It's time for cake !

But fear not dear reader, I've not given up on my resolutions just yet ! Its my cousins birthday tomorrow and as a surprise I thought that I would take her a cake around after work.

Just before Christmas I bought the new Nigella Kitchen book which is a stunning book crammed full of tasty looking recipes, some of which she cooked in her recent TV series. I was flicking through it looking for inspiration and saw this Maple Pecan cake recipe which looked pretty easy to make apart from requiring me to purchase a new cake tin - well I wanted a Bundt tin anyway, so I thought it was the perfect time to buy it !

So this evening I came in from work and set about the cake - everything was as she described apart from her warning of the stickness of the cake mix. She did say to be prepared for a firm mix, but I wasn't prepared for something that you had to fight to pull out of the bowl !

So its cooking away in the oven and has about 5 minutes left before its done - if it's a success you'll see a picture of it here later on, if not, I'll just say I dropped it getting it out of the oven !

so here is it nicely turned out of the tin - I was a bit disappointed that the pattern didn't show through a bit clearer, but I'll know for next time. The brown parts round the edge are where the Maple and Pecan filling has oozed to the edge of the cake

and the picture below is the finished article - dusted with icing sugar and looking good enough to eat !

Get behind me temptation !

Well I managed to get a good 45 minutes at the gym last night which was pleasing. It was quite a bit busier than usual but unfortunately there didn't seem to be very much to look at, which was a shame. I managed to burn off 500 calories which was reasonable considering the time I was there.

So this morning I get into work and its the guy in my offices birthday - he greets me with a big grin and says "Theres a box of Krispy Creme donuts there, help yourself" . Blow me if I hadn't sat down for 10 minutes and Jacquie calls up from downstairs - "It was my sons birthday yesterday and theres a shedload of cakes down here if you want to come down" - Doh and double doh !

I managed to resist going downstairs until 11am, consoling myself with an apple and a satsuma, but the lure was too damn strong and I succumbed to a thin (and I do mean thin) slice of strawberry Victoria Sandwich with a buttercream topping - it was fabulous !
Then after lunch I was passing the office again and just had to stick my head around the door to see if there was any left (which there was) so I had another slice - slapped legs for me.

.... and now its ten to five and I have the crumbs of half a Krispy Creme iced ring in front of me, which although I tried telling myself looked like a coil of doggy doos', it tasted great !

New year, new start

Well thats the plan !

Crikey, over two years since my last entry and I bet you never missed me at all did you :)

So anyway, the 'new start' is my promise to myself to eat more healthily, exercise more and try to reach my goal of being 11 stone before I hit 49 in February - some chance of that !.
In all honesty I did pretty well over Christmas, managing to resist all kinds of sweets, chocolates and other bad things that were just everywhere - the downside to that was I did sort of let the gym slip a little and unfortunately you have to stay on top of these things.

Consequently, I'm now a bit further away from my target than I want to be - bad times !

So having gone back to work today, I figure that the best option is to throw myself back into the gym with all guns blazing and see what I can do. (and its got nothing at all to do with the fact that there's bound to be 'fresh meat' there tonight trying to shed the Xmas pounds ! )

In other news, New Years Eve was my usual 'hide myself away and wish it all over' affair - I plonked myself on the settee with a bottle of Baileys and watched about 6 episodes of 'Benidorm' on ITV2 - I think my brain was so dumbed down that I didn't have the strength to reach for the remote - even QVC would have been better viewing !

Headed up to London on New Years Day - I wanted to get some pictures of the skating rink at Somerset House, so I went up with a couple of mates. However once we got there one of them decided that he wanted to skate and I just had to join him on the ice (it'd have been rude not to otherwise) I'd forgottten that its been about 20 years since I pulled on a pair of skates, but thought that seeing as I'd been ok when I went skiing a couple of years ago, I'd be fine !
To say that my circuits of the rink were laborious would be a major understatement, but it was a laugh and I'd like to try it again before too long.
Afterwards we headed up to the bright lights of Soho, where unfortunately my skill at drinking too much and talking utter crud came to the fore - good times :)

catch you laters !