Hot Hot Hot

So here we are, Tuesday the 19th April and summer has arrived ! Ok, maybe not arrived officially, but in my office, we claim summer starts on the first day that we have to turn the air conditioning on so todays the day!

This building has got to be the worst place to be on a summers day when its hot, namely because

• its south facing
• its got a flat roof and we are on the top floor
• its not a proper building, more like one of those temporary site huts that you get on building sites, so insulation and ventilation are non existant

So I'm sitting here with an air conditioner throbbing its way into my left ear, the blinds all down to try and keep it cool, and the thermometer is still saying that its 86 degrees in here - phew !

There is one consolation to this though, and thats the fact the are are only in here for 4 days this week thanks to Easter coming so early this year - and the BBC weather reports are saying that we are in for a couple of weeks of this lovely weather. Hopefully they will prove to be correct and I can start working on the tan !

In other news I took the new camera out for a spin at the weekend and I was very happy with the results, the pictures are on my Flickr feed. I only managed to get to St Albans but I had a nice wander around the cathedral and then down through the park afterwards.

I went to the gym last night and met Baked by Brian there, which was nice as I'd not seen him for ages. Managed to burn through 850 odd calories last night so it was a very worthwhile session - I wonder how much I'll shed this evening if it stays as warm as it is now !

The weekend starts here !

Well my camera arrived at 8:55am Thursday morning and I have to say its even better in the flesh than it is in the pictures. The only downside that I can see at the minute is the chrome band which runs around the edge of the camera - its a fingerprint magnet !

I had a bit of a play around with it last night at home and took some of the cats (which are on Flickr - follow link to the left hand side) Weather permiting I want to get out with it at the weekend and give it a thorough test drive, but I'm very happy.

I went to the gym last night and managed to get shot of another 800 calories which was very pleasing. 600 on the crosstrainer and another 200 on the treadmill. I actually ran for a fair amount of the time, so my stamina levels are definitely improving. OK its not exactly London Marathon standards yet, but I'm getting better !

I don't really know whats happening this weekend - I would dearly love to get out with the camera but I've got a bit of running about to do, so I might not get the chance. Still its Easter next week and I have a nice eleven days off from work, so maybe I will be able to get out with it then, fingers crossed.
My cousin has invited me down to her chalet at Selsey for a break so I think I will take her up on the invite - the cats are more than able to look after themselves for a day or two  :)

Itching like a dog with fleas ...

Unfortunately I suffer with prickly heat - I don't get it all the time but when it happens it lasts for days. Its probably one of the few traits that I inherited from my dad :(    It all started at the weekend, what with the nice weather it was top off, shorts on and start doing stuff in the garden :) I just didn't realise how strong the sun must have been, despite giving myself a good coating with sun protection spray.

So last night (Monday) when I got home from work I had a little itch on my chest which I scratched, then it moved to my stomach, so I scratched it there. Fifteen minutes later I was going frantic - I was itching so much I was in danger of tearing my skin - stress major ! Luckily I found some Piriton tablets in the cupboard so I took a couple and went to the gym figuring that being there and doing something would take my mind off things, which it did.

I had another bout of it at work today so I went to Boots at lunchtime and bought some anti histamine pills and a cream which has certainly calmed it down a bit - fingers crossed it will be back to normal by tomorrow.

and in other news, I made a mad impulse buy on QVC on Saturday - I've been thinking of getting a new camera for a while and they had this little beauty on a Todays Special Value offer.

You had a choice of black, red, blue or white - initially I was going to go for the red one as I think they look really smart, but after seeing the white one being demonstrated I opted for that one.

Its on 4 easy pay installments, but I can try it for 30 days and still send it back if it doesn't cut the mustard.

The courier tried to deliver it today but I was at work, so I will call them tomorrow to get it delivered to the office.

I also ran out of bread this evening so I made another loaf with the bread maker - this time I used Allinsons 'Seed and Grain white bread flour' and it looks pretty good .

Overall I'm very pleased with the bread machine, although for my taste the loaf could do with being slightly crustier - next time I'll just use it to make the dough and then I'll finish the bread off in the oven, that way I should have a bit more control over the crust colour.

a quick morning update

Well I christened the bread machine last night and it was pretty successful to be honest - the brown loaf setting took three and a half hours as opposed to the five that it took with Sara's machine - however there are a couple of drawbacks

1. Its SO noisy ! - I don't know if its because its new and the parts have to work themselves in a bit, but when it started whirring away, the cats took off and flew into the garden

2. Its got an annoying bleep that tells you when to add the nuts / seeds and when its starting to bake for the final time (plus when its finished) Theres no way that you could have that on over night unless you wanted to use it as an alarm clock !

So this is my first attempt, its a wholemeal loaf with Poppy Seeds, sunflower seeds, chopped hazelnuts and  pecan and walnut pieces. It does look slightly insipid but I had it on a medium crust setting - I'll put it on the dark one next time and see how that turns out.

But if you close your eyes when you eat it, the taste was very good - big up for me !