Header makers, HELP!!!!!

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!

The bastard dog just jumped up onto my laptop and has snapped of the bloody Q key!!!!!!!!

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.

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. 

Ok, this has gone on long enough.  I understand they need to practice manoeuvers but surely they could practice somewhere else?  All day there have been helicopters going over the village every 20 minutes or so and I am about to crack.  The jets I don't mind, 10 seconds and they're gone but the copters give you a good 5 minutes of wopwopwopwwopwopwop and the thrumming hurts my ears.  Also helicopters seem to me to be very easy to shoot down, they're easy to pinpoint, even in the dark, especially when they have the blinky lights on them.  Tell me we turn off the blinky lights in places like Afganistan at least?  And I have to admit that at the minute I'm idly contemplating what I could russle up to get rid of the damned things!  Potato rocket launcher anyone?

*sigh* I tried to make Italian Brioche/Cornetti this evening.  FAIL. 

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!

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!

I slept for 12 hours and woke up feeling remarkably better.  Hopefully I will continue to be better coz I have an interview next Tuesday for another Legal Sec. job.  I can only hope I get this one.  I haven't been doing much recently other than staying in bed and being ill.  I made bread on wednesday but other than that I haven't even cooked (a major benefit of living at hope, when sick other people cook for you!)  So nothing to report on that front either. 

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. 

Here is the problem:

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!

I didn't get the job.  Absolutely nothing wrong with me at all, in fact they said I was brilliant.  They just gave the job to the other woman.  I had a 50/50 chance, I just ended up in the wrong 50!  They did also say that if another job were to come up I would be the first person they called so that's something.  And yet again I've had it reinforced that I'm an excellent candidate, just noone wants me.  Story of my fucking life!  See, this is also why I don't date.  I'm lovely, pretty, wonderful personality (most of the time!) but noone wants me.  *sigh*  Such is life I guess! 

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! 

Well, I didn't stay up reading until 4am.  Didn't get to sleep before then either though!  I was tossing and turning all night stressing about EVERYTHING.  At one point I was worrying about de-algaeing my fish tank with an anti-algae thing but I don't want to hurt Spot in case he's sensitive and I was trying to work out approximately how many cubic cm there were in my tank and how that converted to litres/gallons.  In My Head!  Eventually I got up and used a calculator so I could move on and stop worrying about the problem.  (About 6 gallons, fyi.)

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!

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!

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!

I keep hearing Christmas songs on the TV and getting excited but it's too damned early!!!!!  Halloween isn't even out of the way yet.  I was excited about Halloween coz I wanted to make lots of cool foods but mum is sick and grumpy so I lack people to feed.  So making biscuits and cakes tomorrow even if I have to eat nothing else for a week!!!  But I must hold out against Christmas at the very least until Bonfire Night is out of the way!!!

Well, I ended up watching True Blood for nearly 24 hours in the end. I've still got 4 episodes to see but I passed out last night after over 24 hours awake so I'm saving them for later.  Not as keen on the second season.  It all got a little odd but, whatever, I watched Buffy for 7 years, odd I can handle!

Just to mention, has anyone noticed how much better I'm being with the !'s?  I used to put 3 on the end of every sentence, I annoyed even myself but I'm learning restraint and only need !!!!!!'s if I'm really really excited/pissed off about something.  It's been 10 years or so so it's an ongoing process but I'm weaning myself off them. 

In other news hits on Annainthekitchen have picked up a lot in the last week and I'm very googleable.  I'm in the first ten hits if you're looking for a recipe for Christmas muffins (which, if you're searching for those, god are you ahead of yourself!), nikuman and spicy butternut squash soup.  Yay!  If you do happen to drop by please do leave a comment as I know that people are looking but I'd love to know what you are thinking too!   I enjoy it a lot and I love the experimentation it has encouraged me to do in the kitchen, it's a very rewarding hobby.  Tomorrow I will be making Boeuf Bourguignon for the first time.  Mum has handed it over totally to me so we shall have to see if I do a Julie and burn it! 

Frodo was sent to the vets last week.  He is no longer an "entire" dog as they so charmingly phrase it!  He was developing a mean streak and other behavioural problems and it just seemed the best course of action.  Which is not to say that he wasn't/isn't a sweetie, he was but occasionally he was pushing it on how violent he could get and he was running away after scents, we assume a bitch, and not coming back until he wanted to.  The poor thing is all distressed though (as you would be!) and even worse than having one's 'boys' cut into he had an allergic reaction to the dressing they stuck over the wound! 

He also had the weirdest reaction to the anesthetic.  He is a lovely dog and has never bitten anyone, only nipped in play, even when he got snarly and growly he never actually made contact, just snapped at you.  Well, mum got bitten when the vet tried to fit an elizabethan collar on him.  He turned really really violent!  He's totally better now but for about a day he was totally out of sorts.  The vet said he'd never seen anything like it, if a dog is a biter, sure he'll bite but to have such a change in temprement before and after surgery was just weird.  Our next door neighbour Ez is a bit like that though, she's so lovely in person but she once decked and knocked out her anesthetist because she gets really violent and curses a lot under anesthetics!  Anyway, he's fine now and seems to have forgiven us.  He's got anti inflamatory drugs that seem to knock him out at night so he's currently asleep under my bed and not coming out.  I have a growling bed!

I've been going through a little bit of a funk recently.  I ran out of my B6 pills on Friday and couldn't get any more til today, add to that that I stopped taking my pill today and I've been a right treat!  I was sleeping a lot and finding it very hard to get out of bed because I couldn't see the point.  It doesn't help that jobhunting has slowed right down either, it's a knock to my self esteem even after this long!  Any way, I was cutting up onions for dinner and the knife slipped, I didn't cut myself, only took out a chunk of skin leaving a 'dent' but it was a hell of a shock so I burst into tears and cried all over the onions for a bit.  It was just a shock but I'm all off kilter so my grip on my emotions is a bit off at the moment.  I'm thinking it's going to be a fun week. 

In other news, Dad shaved off his beard today and looks like he's lost a stone, mum insisted on making sandwiches for her lunch again as there was leftover roast beef (totally typed beast there, twice) but I wrestled her lunchbox off her and added white sugar paper RIPs to make them gravestones and a  sugarpaper ghost too.  I try!

Since Torchwood broke my little heart I've not really been into watching TV of any kind but I have just spent 6 hours watching True Blood online coz each on ends with a bloody cliffhanger.  Robyn and I are hooked!  I've even gone so far as to download the 2 eps we couldn't find off iTunes beacuse WE NEEDED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!!!! 

I have to say it took me a little while to get into it because I'm a tiny bit of a prude at heart (ignore my browser history, thank you very much) and all the sex scenes were a bit explicit but I've adjusted and now I'm just hooked!!!  I've always gone for the vampire so this is working well for me, plus there's plot, lots of plot!  Happy Anna!!!

Off to find fic and icons now while I wait for the next ep to buffer.  This icon has the wrong vamipre!  Bugger fixing my sleep cycle, there are more important things to be doing at 3am, like making cheese on toast.  I have now perfected my cheese on toast, it is a thing of beauty.  Although I have discovered that two slices is one slice too many.  That was lies sickness and cheese dreams!

ETA:  *sigh*  I went, I looked, I'm mighty confused.  I shall have to go back once I've caught up with the US coz the fandom seems to be all about a certain pairing, half of which I've only seen once in the show so far.  Once I've seen everything I can go back and possibly understand or otherwise join the minority.  I fear I may ship this fandom's Gwack! 

I'm reading an AU highschool fic at the minute.  I have to take a moment here to laugh furiously at the notion that British sixth formers wouldn't be getting absolutely staughtered at every opportunity.  They keep having house parties and drinking coke!   It's an AU alright!  I've never drunk more than when I was 17!  After that it just wasn't as much fun anymore. 

Well, I went along to the WI thing this evening.  Was quite good.  Not too sure about a talk from a domestic violence charity for the first meeting but there was cake!  I did not enter one as I didn't think it would survive my driving on the way there.  I dragged deedeedee123 along with me for moral support.  There was a news crew there doing a piece for the local news and Dee and I are sitting there in the back of the shot the whole time!  Eek!!!  If you fancy having a look it's the last 5 minutes of this but you have to get through the rest of the news first!  Go make a cup of tea for 25 minutes.  This is as close to fame as I get!!! 

After that I met up with Dee again, she'd had to leave early to meet another friend, and we went to see some light shows around York.  They were rather cool!



This one was an interactive projection, basically a big neon doodlge projected onto the tower wall, rather cool.  The really cool one was again a projection onto a building but it was a sort of film with a sound track depicting a hedgehog, a fox, eyes in the dark, an owl hunting.  Really really hard to adequately describe.  I'll upload the video tomorrow but due to my shitty broadband it'll take a few hours and I am going to bed now!

This is the little autumnal display we have in the porch on the way into the house... you know, along with piles of wellies and waterproofs!  We always have something seasonal and when I was at the farmers' market I saw these guys and decided to bring them home. The one exception is the kabocha on the right as Mum grew that one all by herself!!  Theoretically we're going to eat them some time before christmas.  Look at the itty bitty buttnernut!!!! 

The little guys in the front there are the house guardians 'Aa' and 'Nn'.  Let me tell you about them because I love this little story!  Aa is the one with his mouth open and Nn is the one with his mouth shut.  The reason they have these names is because Aa is the first noise you make as you enter the world and Nn is the last noise you make as you leave it.  They are also the first and last letters in Japanese writing as you see here.  One of my students gave them to me as a leaving gift the first year I spent in Japan and they've been guarding the house ever since!

I just got back from finally seeing the film!  I really enjoyed it and managed to drag my mum and sister along too.  Mum didn't really want to go and was kicking up a fuss because of that and Robyn is home sick so she wasn't feeling great but I enjoyed the film none the less.  I am left with an overwhelming urge to make boeuf bourguignon.  I bet I'm not the only one! 

When we came out of the cinema we popped into Tesco to grab some dinner and saw them stuffing the contents of the reduced counter in sacks to go into the compressor.  I managed to rescue some mince and some mushrooms but it was just scandalous the amount of food being thrown away!  At least 3 large sacks of stuff were there.  If the freezer weren't full I'd have been grabbing loads of stuff but unfortunately I just don't have the space nor do I have time to cook anything as the next few days are organised!  It just really pissed me off.