Ouch !

Last weekend was rather pleasant, well at least it was in sunny Watford. With this in mind I decided to tackle some odds and ends that needed doing in the garden, namely

Loading the car with bags of tree clippings and taking them to the dump
Weeding some of the borders
Replacing the broken trellis panel that collapsed under the weight of the snow
Putting in a new garden spotlight to illuminate my Acer tree
... and generally chilling out and fussing the cats

and so it came to pass that I thought the cats might like some nibbles as they were sitting with me in the sunshine. So as I went into the house I managed to kick this paving slab which has been there for the past 14 years minding its own business. Now I'm never very good with blood, so when I touched the bottom of my foot and felt a big flap of skin that really shouldn't have been there, I started to feel a bit giddy, then came the blood !  Thankfully I managed to make it into the bathroom so I could have a sit down (talk about a drama queen !)
So anyway, I just found the biggest plaster that I could find and whacked it on top of the loose skin, holding it firmly in place for a good ten minutes - that seemed to stem the flow of blood. That was on Saturday, its now Tuesday and I still haven't been able to bring myself to look at it properly - I know theres no infection there but sooner or later I'm going to have to attack it with some nail scissors and I'm not looking forward to it at all !

In other news I bought a bread machine at the weekend and I'm going to christen it this evening

I managed to find this one in Currys for £49.99 after a £30 reduction, which was pretty good in my book. Unfortunately the first one that I collected didn't have any instructions or anything in the box apart from the machine itself. This despite being assured by the assistant that 'because the box didn't have a special sticker on it, it meant that it was all in there' - yeah right !

anyway, if its a resounding success, I'll post some pictures later of my first loaf - fingers crossed !

St Patricks Day

First I must apologise for the lack of postings recently - I had a rather nasty bout of man flu last week and it left me feeling rather lethargic and sorry for myself - all back to normal now though I'm happy to report.

I'd not been to the gym for over a week due to my dibilitating runny nose, so heading back there on Saturday morning I was feeling a bit aprehensive. Thankfully it all went well and I managed to run off nearly 800 calories which I was very pleased with. Subsequently I have been on Monday, Tuesday and Weds nights this week, managing to do gradually less each night as the tiredness kicks in. I've decided to take a break from it tonight, just to allow my batteries to recharge - I might try to have a go on the bike at home instead.

Yet again I'm on annual leave from work next week, and seeing as the weather is getting better, I'd like to think that I could get some bits done in the garden. I need to replace a couple of sections of trellis which broke during the recent snow we had, but I was shocked at the prices - I'm not mean but fifteen quid for some badly nailed together bits of wood - thats taking the biscuit !

In other news, my friend Sara lent me her bread maker on my last visit.
I'd said to her previously that I fancied trying to make my own bread and had been looking at getting a cheap bread machine.

So, to take a break from baking cakes I've started dabbling with bread.
I'm currently on my third loaf - my first attempt was a plain white loaf which I added some wheatgerm to, just to zhuzh it up a bit. It looked really good and the taste was ok, but there seemed to be something missung.

My second loaf was another white loaf, but this time I added some chopped walnuts and pecans into the mix, and gave it a liberal squirt of maple syrup. Again it rose like a dream and smelt fabulous whilst cooking, but the taste just seemed not to be right.

My third loaf which I baked earlier this week was a wholemeal one - I figured it might be the flour that I'd been using that wasn't giving me the right taste. This time I threw in a handful of chopped walnuts and sunflower seeds to give it some texture.

I didn't take a picture of this one as they all look very much the same - next week I might use it just to knock up the dough, and I'll shape and bake the loaf in the oven - that might be more fun.

I gave a couple of slices to Baked by Brian last night for him to give me his verdict - hes been emailing me today so it obviously didn't kill him !

Times flies

Well will you look at that - my last post I was half way through my week off and then suddenly I've been back at work for a week and not given you any updates !

ok, so here it is in a nutshell
I had a lovely day out with Sara and the kids and dogs at Black Park - I took the camera and managed to get some nice pictures which I have put on Flickr. Sara had very kindly got me £20 worth of vouchers for that cake shop I told you about in Rickmansworth (Cinnamon Square), so I shall be making full use of those before too long.

On the Friday my boss was having his leaving drinks 'do' after work. It started off in our regular lunchtime haunt (Passion Bar) where he had got them to lay on some food which was really tasty. KSR had quite a good turn out of people and it was a nice atmosphere in there. We left Passion at about 6:30 and caught the train to Oxford Circus, where he had reserved places in a club called Loop (which was right opposite John Lewis in Oxford Street) despite it not being too bad in there, I didn't really want to spend the night in a straight bar with my workmates, so I had arranged to meet up with my friend Brian in Soho.

We did a bit of a pub crawl (The Village, Comptons, The Yard) and ended up in Bar Code which was surprisingly good. Brians friend Dr Napper had joined us during the night and suggested we went downstairs in BarCode to the 'Bear Cage' - not something I'd have normally done but I'd been drinking on an empty tum and was game for most things !

Now, my usual routine when I go to London is to have a few drinks and start posting rubbish onto Facebook - however my phone inexplicably died half way through the night and left me unable to do any updates

so consequently I had noting to keep me occupied on the train
I fell asleep
woke up in Berkhamstead
and had to pay £30 for a taxi to get home - but it was a Lexus !

never again - until the next time !

Hopefully baking this weekend, so there should be more to read on Monday !

Home again

It was my 49th birthday on Sunday and I decided to go and stay with my friend Jane in Lincoln for a couple of days. I had a nice slow morning and opened my cards and gifts which were cake related but very useful - Baked by Brian had bought me a cake thermometer / tester probe, and one of the girls at work had got me the Baking made Easy cookbook by the woman on BBC2 (Lorraine Pascal) thank you both very much !

I arrived at Lincoln around three thirty which was pretty good going really - after a cuppa and a biscuit I had to go into the front room where Jane had been practising a dance game on the wii - it was so funny to watch. I did grab a video but this little clip doesn't really do it justice !

Once we'd got ready, Jane took me out to a great restaurant called Damons, where we had a really lovely meal. They do this offer that if its your birthday and you show some ID, you get your meal for free, which was really smart. We both had this 'combo' meal of ribs, chicken / pork steak, chips, coleslaw and onion rings fried into a loaf - so tasty !

So that was Sunday really, on Monday we went to Lincoln and had a wander around the shops and had lunch in Lloyds bar which was down on the riverside - I'd guess its lovely there on a summers day, but on a damp February afternoon it was a bit fresh ! After lunch we went to see a couple of Janes sons which was nice - they both have children of their own now and its scary just how fast they grow up.

Then we stopped in at Janes work place so she could show me where she worked and I could put a few faces to peoples names that she mentions. In the evening we just chilled with some wine and pork pies. Sarah came over from over the road and stayed for a while but thankfully there was no dancing this time !

On Tuesday morning I needed to get some petrol before heading home, so we popped to some shops on the way - Jane is hosting an Anne Summers party at the weekend so she had to get some food and drink in for that. We also went to a place called B&M homestore which was a nightmare - have you ever been to a shop where everything that you touch either falls over, falls off the shelf of just breaks ? I'm sure I was being videoed for some prank show !

Can you believe that they had a chrome and glass shelf unit that I brushed against and one of the legs fell off ! I tried to put the leg back but that just made it worse - Jane was no help, she just ran off laughing - poxy thing !!

So after a final coffee I left Janes just after two, and made it back here for around 4:45 last night which was excellent - no hold ups and I missed all the rush hour traffic as well. I did go to the gym last night as well because I'd eaten too much bad stuff up north.

This morning I had to be at the garage for 8am as the car was having a belt replaced - luckily I waited for it to be done and it was all finished within an hour ! The rest of the day was just spend washing and cleaning up really. I did go to teh gym again this evening, but didn't manage to burn off quite as much - oh well !

I was supposed to be going to the seaside tomorrow, but the weather looks like its going to be a bit pants, so Sara, the kids and myself are taking a run out to Black Park near Slough with her dogs, then having a BBQ in the evening - more food to be worked off !

thats all for now !