I haven't got a clue what to ask for for christmas. What I really really want is a cocker-poo coz I met one while out shopping the other week and fell in love. But I'm not going to be able to get a dog of my own for years yet I should imagine, if ever. I'd also quite like the bright pink Laguiole cake set from Habitat or the Laguiole 'Brights' sets from John Lewis but when I pointed them out in a magazine mum was all dismissive saying that £35 was a ridiculous price for some forks. I see lots and lots of little things but you can't really ask for things so specifically, I just have to assume that my family, having spent 25 years with me, will actually have a clue what I'm into... I'm usually wrong. Ordinarily I'm easy to buy for, if it looks like something you'd find in Cath Kidston I'm sold! But I don't want homeware this year because I have no home. I'm in limbo here and I don't want to get loads of kitchen and home stuff just for it to sit in a box in the garage waiting for life to finally cut me some fucking slack.
I see stuff around and I think it looks good but if I actually ask for something I get told it's not suitable, so no doubt mum'll just buy me whatever she thinks I should have and pay no attention to what I actually want... if only I could make up my mind about what I want. This is yet another lesson I leanred from a young age. Don't ask for what you really want coz you sure as hell won't get it. Perpetual disappointmet is better than hope any day. If life has taught me anything it's that hope is the shittiest emotion going coz there's never any point. Life has fucked me over at every opportunity. Christmas presents are no exception.
( And this is where I veer off on a little emotional breakdown so I'm cutting this. )
- Location:bed
- Mood:
sad
- Location:bed
- Mood:
sleepy
Who wants one? Doesn't matter where in the world you are either, I'm feeling all chirpy and joy to the world-ish! Addresses in the (screened) comments please (and let me know if you have any preference for christmas/solstice/generic too).
- Location:bed
- Mood:
chipper
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food_porn . 200!
- Location:bed
- Mood:
impressed
Gran's birthday present from us was a trip to the hairdresser for the first time since the war. She always used to cut her hair herself but she's hurt her shoulder recently and can't do it any more. As a bit of a pamper we thought she'd like this. Luckily, she did! I took her this morning to act as translator and make sure she didn't come out with a mohawk or anything.
Then my uncle and aunt and other uncle and I took her for lunch at the village pub. I had to dash off for a few hours as I had an appointment in Northallerton but then I was back for more family time with mum in tow too. I'm lucky, I have a small family and we usually only get together for gran's birthday, used to do christmas too but since Uncle John and Auntie Mavis moved to France and their daughter Claire moved to Wales and had Ellis, now 4, we don't do a big family boxing day anymore. Instead we have gran and uncle Richard (divorced) over for christmas day.
Thank god we don't do this more than once a year coz my family are all batshit crazy and can talk the hind leg off a donkey. You haven't heard rambling til you've sat in a room with my family for 4 hours. Oh and John, the Uncle Knobhead of my family, is apparently writing a book. May god save us all!
- Location:bed
- Mood:
cheerful
- Location:bed
- Mood:
hopeful
Does anyone know how I can make a collage of photos to a specific pixel by pixel size in something other than sodding paint? Yes, paint, I'm currently at that level so use small words. I want to keep the clarity of the pictures instead of losing everything to blurs when I resize them!
- Location:bed
- Mood:
depressed
Does anyone know if I can get replacement keys online anywhere from the UK?
I phoned the helpline and the guy said I'd have to send the laptop in for an assessment and then they'd probably send it back with a quote coz it's accidental damage and then I could send the laptop back in for repair. Which is fucking stupid! I need a little white clip thing not a whole new sodding keyboard like he said! ARGH!!!! Could cheerfully kill the dog and the "help"line guy too!!!!
ETA: FIXED IT!!!!!!!!!!!! There was a bit of plastic that had flown across the room and once I found that it all went back together again!!! Yay!!! The dog is forgiven, the helpline guy is not.
- Location:bed
- Mood:
pissed off
OMG, I LOVE these things!!!! I used ot eat these nearly every day in Japan, always had some in my freezer. They're essentially a little rice cake/ mochi filled with ice cream and they are lovely. I was bopping about York after my interview (I don't want to talk about it) and found a tiny little oriental supermarket, mostly Japanese stuff too and lo, in the freezer there were the yukimi daifuku!!! I never thought I'd be able to find them outside of Japan. Now if only I could find Pino too I'd have all of my Japanese ice cream needs seen to. Oh and if Mr Donut could launch over here that'd be swell coz I've been craving an angel cream for an age!
Oh yeah, the other thing, we harvested our mushroom crop today! I bought dad mushroom plugs last christmas and today we ate the delicious results. Mushroom Bruschetta and pictures of our monster oyster mushrooms over at Annainthekitchen.
- Location:bed
- Mood:
happy
- Location:bed
- Mood:
annoyed - Music:wopwopwop
When we're in Italy staying with Emily she brings up brioche for breakfast and they are divine! They're shaped like a croissant but they're made of a delicious sweet bready dough and often have jam inside. I think they're particular to the Como region. I have been desperately searching for a recipe to make these lovely things for months and I could only seem to turn up two recipes that even seem to come close. Well, strike one off the list, it's very nice but it is so not what I was after!
The dough was HELLISH to work with. I dug out mum's kenwood to do the mixing for me as it was so wet and even then I had to add tonnes of flour to even begin to roll it out. This dough was a right diva. Absolute nightmare! Took me a good 4 hours to get, well it'll do for breakfast tomorrow... and the day after that... and the day after that for that matter (didn't think the recipe was going to give that much as it did, when I wrote it down I got the conversions wrong and then once I'd started had to scramble to get it right). Anyway, the hunt for a brioche recipe continues. If I spoke Italian I'd probably be away, alas I don't. But I'm totally getting Emily to ask the local bakery for their recipe. Hopefully they'll give it to me on the basis that I'm in another sodding country and can't nab market share!
- Location:bed
- Mood: annoyed
After weeks of searching for the perfect madeleine tin I gave up and bought the almost perfect madeleine tin. As a result I have made madeleines twice in the last two days. I bloody love madeleines! Essentially it's a sponge but it's so light and airy in little easy bite sized scallop shapes. I may be in love! Recipe and pics over at Annainthekitchen as always.
Another discovery was that I am allergic to hyacinth bulbs. Seriously allergic. I'm allergic to a lot of things but usually it takes a while before I notice symptoms. This evening I was putting the bulbs in the bulb vases to force them and within 5 minutes I felt like my face and neck were being bitten all over by ants. It was awful, spiky, prickly, itchy, nasty! I was trying to claw off my face within a minute of it starting. I gulped down an antihistamine and the second I was able I raced upstairs to wash my face, hands and neck and slather on antihistamine cream but it took a while for the redness to fade. Luckily it wasn't more serious than that but it was the most unpleasant feeling. I thought the way my hands swell up and itch when I'm exposed to some plastics was bad but this was torture!
- Location:bed
- Mood:
bouncy
All of a sudden I'm really really excited about Christmas. I have no idea why, it's just come on in the last hour. I have done no shopping or even planning of gifts, nor have I asked for anything, food is the same every year so no need to get all experimental and excited there. All there really is to get excited about is decorating and the general christmas feeling. You may well be dead inside if hearing the "Dub a dub a dum dum" from Stop the Cavalry doesn't make something well up inside you, religion aside I just think that there's something special about the general feeling of christmas time and tonight it snuck up on me... heh, I've been joking that as soon as I got Bonfire night out of the way I could start the christmas music, may be I'll have to do just that!
- Location:bed
- Mood:
excited
I did drag myself out to the village bonfire last night though. It took them an age to get the damned thing lit, it was hilarious! Back in the day Big Ron would be in charge and put a massive fuel soaked round bale in the middle with little bales leading out the the edge under the rest of the stuff. It would go up a treat! Last night no such planning had occured. They just had a pile of stuff, wet stuff, and a few handfuls of straw. The best part was when the curate's husband clumbed up the lit bonfire (only parts of it were burning at that point) and grabbed some dry stuff off the top to try and get it going. Also the bloke with a jerry can of fuel liberally splashing it on the burning heap. We were just waiting for him to go up in flames but it must have been diesel, or just incredible luck, coz nothing happened... in fact the bit he splashed all over didn't even catch light, it just smouldered a bit round the edges. The fireworks were, well, fireworks to be honest. I may have been spoilt for fireworks forever by Chinese new year in Hong Kong. But, hey, we're a small village we don't really have a budget for anything, it's just a social event with added fripperies like a sausage-in-a-bun (I don't think any of the people on food duty read Pratchett as I was sniggering away to my self). Anyway, it was fun and having worn myself out in the cold I came home, ate my dinner then crashed.
- Location:bed
- Mood:
thirsty
Can I actually sleep sitting up crosslegged? I can't stretch my legs out coz the dog is fast asleep at the end of my bed!! If I move my legs I wake up the dog and he looks so confused and upset and his little sleepy face just says "why?!" So may be I will keep playing on the internet until the dog moves. *sigh* This dog is so spoilt!
- Location:bed
- Mood:
awake
In more positive news I managed to pick the last of the apples. (Shush, I'm trying here!) I walked round the long way instead of across the field because I was not up for any agro from the Barningham brat. It is not their field, they don't even pay rent for it, they just sometimes keep stock there but last time I was there picking apples, with permission from the actual owner, he rode by on his bike yelling "Gerrof our land!" ignorant shit. It's common knowledge in the village that they're tenant farmers through and through, they own nothing of the farm at all. But still it had been a shitty day and I wasn't up for any unnecessary agro so the long way round I went!
But yeah, the last of the cooking apples are now picked and stored. Mum got us some of the fruit separating cardboard sheets from the grocers so they're on those in a plastic box to keep the mice out with a layer of rice in the bottom to soak up any excess moisture. Hopefully they'll keep for a bit coz I have a few dozen! I did damage a few getting them down though. The higher up ones I hooked down with a shepherd's crook and half a dozen or so bounced off branches and punctured their skins so I'll be making apple pie and sauce tomorrow I think!
- Location:bed
- Mood: annoyed
Then I moved on to an elaborate fantasy/plan involving what would happen if someone were to spill coffee down me in Starbucks prior to the interview. Then the dog left me. He absconded in the middle of the night to go back to sleeping in mum and dad's room the little turncoat!! So then I was unsettled coz I missed the dog. Then the rabbit started thumping her feet out in her hutch but it took me about half an hour of freaking out to figure out that it was the rabbit. Eventually I just passed out from exhaustion but I didn't get more than 4 1/2 hours sleep and woke up feeling like death.
The high point of my day was supposed to be finally buying the madeleine tin I've been lusting over for weeks, only when I got to the shop they'd put up the price by £1, making amazon much cheaper instead of mildly cheaper so I didn't buy it and will now have to hit google again. ARGH!!!
I did, however, get some shoes that don't fit but are exactly what I was after. My left foot is a size(ish) smaller than my right foot and I have very wide feet. I tried on 10 pairs of shoes today in 3 different shops and the bigger size was always too big, the smaller size far too small. I'm hoping to work something out with socks and insoles coz otherwise I'm fucked! I also got some shorts for winter wear with tights, a pretty top and some mittens for 99p. Interestingly these exact same mittens with little pearls sewn on cost £7.99 in the same shop. Apparently pearly plastic is expensive!
And to top it all off I am starting with the cold that's been going around the family. My throat is scratchy, my nose is stuffy, my head hurts and my sinuses are complaining loudly. I don't want to be ill. I am supposed to be going out with gran this friday, just for a drive about and lunch but I'm looking forward to it and if I'm ill I can't go! I'm now curled up with a box of biscuits I made in the shape of ghosts and bats turning my tongue a lovely shade due to food colouring and feeling sorry for my self. I expect to wake up tomorrow and have a better day or else!
- Location:bed
- Mood:
sick
Right, I've a job interview tomorrow at noon, any positive thoughts you can spare for me are always welcome! Legal Secretary job, could be interesting but it's a job and this is the first interview I've had in months!
The pics and recipes for my Halloween Feast are up over at Annainthekitchen, I'm rather proud of this one!
In news that is utterly irrelevant to anyone other than me the shower in my bathroom was finally fixed today, the new one is AMAZING, powerful and really hot, love it!
Now bed before I stay up reading fic until 4am and cock up the interview before I've even got there!
- Location:bed
- Mood:
determined
I've pretty much spent the last 24 hours cooking, bar a few hours sleep in the middle there. Bliss!!! I'll post tomorrow aboout the epic halloween cookfest coz now I'm a little bit tipsy and going to bed!
- Location:day bed
- Mood: cheerful
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