London Tuesday

I just got back from a day out in London. Veggie Hubby came into London with me, which was fun. I had to attend a seminar in the afternoon, but decided to spend some extra time in London after work.

VH and I wandered around Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square, then went out to Pizza Express for dinner. It was a nice meal, but there was surprisingly little vegetarian choice, and even things that should have been vegetarian, like an aubergine parmagiana and a spinach and ricotta cannelloni weren't. Also, there were a lot of people eating out in that particular restaurant that we randomly happened upon on a Tuesday night. I would never have imagined that so many people would be eating out on a Tuesday. I also noticed that most people were in groups of two women, and that we were one of the only male-female couples there. I do miss going out for lunch with friends.

Anyway, it felt good to be back in London, and when I was on the Underground I felt like I'd never been away, despite having not been into London for over a year.

Ice cream Saturday, TV Sunday

Recently I seem to have lost inspiration for my blog and blogging, I don't know why but I'm much preferring to read other people's blogs than contributing to my own. I think it is the impact of my new job which seems to be eating up my time and energy. Blogging seems too much like extra work. Or maybe it is since we lost internet connection for a week, and I got out of the habit. I do want to get back into the habit though, so here goes...

Summer seems to be coming at last... or at least so it seemed yesterday. It was a lovely day, and Veggie Hubby and I went for a walk in the park and had an ice cream. Our first ice cream of the year! I always see this as a good marker for summer. I can't even remember having an ice cream last summer - oh yes, I remember, there wasn't a summer in 2007! The weather was pretty much miserable all year, even on my wedding day. Today, it is rainy again. So it has been a bit of a TV Sunday for Veggie Hubby and I. Right now, it is last night's 'Britain's got Talent' (does it, really?). I think we need to get out more. Saying that, we are off out!

The lure of baking

I couldn't resist. I have put off baking thinking I would at least wait till the weekend, however the lure of baking just got too much, especially since I have been browsing cupcake blogs again. So i made these carrot, cardimom and pistachio cupcakes today. I must say using the icing piping tube is very fun! However I dont actually like eating my creations myself, I always find food made my someone else to be more appealing!! One slice of chocolate catastrophe cake please!!

Weather

Oh how I have missed my blog! I admit I am getting too busy with my job, and feel exhausted when I get home eleven hours later, so my poor blog has been getting rather neglected.

Today is St. George's day, England's national day. Being English, we don't celebrate it or even get a holiday for it, it goes by sadly unnoticed. However, I will note it in one way, by talking about what British people do best... the weather. This morning, it was very rainy and miserable. It made my commute my longest yet (a colleague said the traffic gets much worse in the rain, as most parents drive their kids to school) - it took a staggering one and a quarter hours for 15 miles (24km). I was practically sitting in a traffic jam the whole way, how I hate commuting. There is an alternative route which has less traffic but it scares me as the roads are incredibly hilly and wild, when I go that way I feel like I am driving on a roller-coaster, but it is probably quicker. What do you think I should do: a) slow traffic jam route or b) scary hilly roads with less traffic?

Anyway, I digress... back to the weather. It got very sunny before long, you wouldn't have thought it was so rainy not so long beforehand. I am loving the summery weather, and especially the longer days.

It was also Veggie Hubby's birthday a few days ago, and he made this fantastic catastrophy cake! His catastrophy cakes are becoming quite a tradition. He makes one every birthday, be it mine or his and I just love them - they are so funny! They never turn out right, but their imperfection makes them perfect to me.

Dating Veggie Hubby

Just came back from a date with Veggie Hubby (of course!). We went for a yummy meal at an Italian restaurant a few steps from home that I have always been very curious about. I don't think we've been for a proper date since we married, but think we should go out more often, as just because we're now married doesn't mean that we shouldn't date anymore, right? This was our first married date I believe (I don't think that going for the occasional drink or pub meal counts). I had a glass of white wine and am feeling a bit tipsy now.... Veggie Hubby is probably more tipsy than me as had he two drinks, but then he is more accustomed to drinking alcohol than me, as he appreciates it more. The main meal was ok, I had a mushroom ravioli (not many vegetarian options) and almost Veggie Hubby had veal with mushrooms. The waitress then brought out a large trolley filled with a tempting selection of absolutely delicious looking desserts. How could we could we resist? We shared a slice of delicious chocolate cake with cream, which was one of the best cakes I have tasted as it had chunks of chocolate in it mmmm. That was certainly the highlight of the meal. Overall the meal was quite over-priced I think, but definitely worth it once in a while.

Passing time whilst commuting

When I commuted into work in London, I travelled in by train. This was a 1.5 hour journey each way. I initially just sat doing nothing, but before long I started reading to pass the time. I really enjoyed reading all of the free London papers. I think newspapers are often the best to read on a train journey as you can dip in and out of them, and it doesn't matter too much if someone is distracting. It was also useful that there was a library right next to my work place, and despite being small it was the best library I have ever used, as it stocked such a range of new books. I suppose I could have bought an iPod or MP3 player, but I preferred to read. Being silent seemed to fit in with the mentality of people commuting into London; I have never been on such quiet trains.

Now I am driving to and from work everyday on a 45 minute commute either way, and this will get longer next week when the schools re-open after the holidays. At first I was driving doing nothing else, and concentrating on the driving as it was a new route, but before long I felt confident enough to start listening to music. When driving, in general I prefer listening to easy to listen to music, nothing too upbeat but rather music that relaxes me, that isn't too distracting. At the moment, I enjoy listening to albums by James Blunt, and Duffy which I bought last week. Today I bought Take That's album so I will be listening to that this week. If I am not careful I will end up buying an album every week! I don't feel too guilty, but see buying albums for my commute a bit like buying lunch, an essential part of working life.

Cupcake Obsession

I must confess I had not really looked at any blogs before VeggieCarrie's. Nor had I baked since I became busy with my baby. However I was inspired by the yummy looking desserts on this blog, and it seemed to spark my interest. So much so, I must confess that I have become highly addicted to cupcake blogs!! I had no idea there were so many out there, or that it had become such an art! In America especially they seem to love these sugary bites of yumminess, people actually queue outside the street in front of some bakeries. Anybody who has seen pictures of these cakes will understand, they are little works of art, the icing is the best bit, so many colours, varieties and sprinkles!! So i decided to bake! However encountered many of the same problems as Veggiecarrie, firstly i needed all the proper equipment. Then i realised supermarkets only stock the basic products. SO in the end its taken me about 4 weeks to collect up all the beautiful gold sprinkles, and coloured foil cases, and sugar flowers. Then my next hurdle, Almost Dentist Hubby declared cupcakes were a, for girls. b, pointless as shop cakes are tasty too, c, can be made by anyone as all you need is some icing and sprinkles!!! However, he soon changed his mind when i presented a tray of my mini whipped date and cream cupcakes! even cutybaby gobbled a few up!!

Prickly Pets

Veggie Hubby wants a cat. A basil plant doesn't quite cut it! He keeps bringing back adverts from the local paper for rescue cats, and searching on local cat rescue websites. I find his love for cats really sweet. When we went to baby-sit for my cousins a month ago, he loved their cat, and my cousin diagnosed that he needs a cat! One of his housemates had one when he lived in Liverpool, it was her only redeeming feature actually as she refused to pay her share of the bills or to wash her dishes. She named her lovely black cat...Cat! She was undeserving of such a lovely pet, Veggie Hubby often ended up taking care of Cat, and now misses Cat a lot as he will never see her again. He took some photos of Cat on his disposable camera, but when we took them to be developed they weren't there. My cousin is right, Veggie Hubby does need a Cat replacement. The problem is that we move around too much, and when renting it is difficult to find somewhere that will accept pets. I grew up with lots of weird and wonderful pets. Tabby the cat; Indy, Pip and Thursday the jirds; Nessy, Daisy, Sugar and Spice the guinea pigs; Merlin the chinchilla; Trojan the rat; Sky the dog; degus and countless fish. Veggie Hubby never had his own pet.

On BBC breakfast this morning, I saw that people now want to keep hedgehogs as pets. I do find this a bit strange, hedgehogs are cute but not exactly cuddly, who would want to stroke one? However, I don't really understand why people would want to keep reptiles either. Animal welfare groups are apparently in uproar, but I don't think that keeping tame hedgehogs is any worse than keeping any other pet. I believe that a lot of people aren't responsible enough to keep pets whatever the pet is. They are usually looked after by children who aren't the best owners. My niece has got a new badly behaved dog Gus, who I have yet to meet. Veggie Hubby pointed out that a dog can't be well behaved if it is being raised by her! Even as a child I wasn't the best pet keeper... I nearly drowned my pet jird Thursday in the bath once, managed to rescue him, and then tried to dry him off with a hairdryer but it was too hot and made his eyes bleed. I still feel guiltly about that to this day.

Pot of Basil

At last, we have the internet back!! That made my day, we were expecting to have it back on Monday 21st April. I would like to welcome my co-blogger & friend Ms Cocoa who has been posting in my absence. I hope she will keep posting!

I had a few blog ideas in my blogging absence (e.g. a squirrel that I may or may not have ran over) but now they seem slightly out of date. Today has been farily non-eventful, just boring commuting to and from work and not much to do once there. I had a desk health and safety session this afternoon, about sitting in a good posture at the right height and holding the mouse correctly.

Here is my basil plant. Veggie Hubby and I bought it after Christmas to make a pasta recipe that required fresh basil and chives. Unfortunatlely the chives didn't last long, but the basil is still going strong. I was worried about leaving it when we went to Brittany for 10 days, and when we got back I thought my fears were realised as it looked dead. I gave it loads of water, and it somehow revived, and is now even flowering. I didn't even realise that basil could flower. At the weekend I removed the remaining dead leaves from it, and now it looks healthy again. I am amazed by the resilience of plants, how they can come back to life. It is a pet substitute I think, as we can't have pets while living in this flat. We rarely eat any basil from our plant, as we usually prefer to use dried basil, which perhaps defeats its purpose, but it is nice having it living in our kitchen.

Basil always reminds me of the poem by Keats 'Isabella; or the Pot of Basil.' In this bizarre gothic poem, Isabella's brothers disapprove of her love Lorenzo, lure him to the woods and murder him. Isabella sees a vision of him in her dreams, and he tells her where to find his body. She digs him up from his grave, and then plants Lorenzo's severed head in a pot of basil where she lovingly cultivates it. "And so she ever fed it with thin tears, Whence thick, and green, and beautiful it grew, So that it smelt more balmy than its peers" Eventually her brothers find out, steal her basil pot and she dies through sorrow. "O cruelty, To steal my Basil-pot away from me!"

Beautiful Orwell Quay

I hope veggiecarrie is having fun in her new job! Meanwhile here are some photos of the views from my 'back garden'.......

Ode to my Dishwasher

Dear readers, 2 years ago I brought a mini dishwasher. BUT for 2 entire years it has remained dead to the world and has never once washed a plate in its life. I have dutifully lugged it around Cardiff, to Essex, to Ipswich, it has sat on 3 different kitchen counters, it has blocked sunlight from one window, and acted as a nice storage cupboard in wales, it even ended up left forgotten (almost) in Basildon Hospital once. Oh how i tried to make it work, i actually walked heavily pregnant to a DIY store to find a tap adapter, and then back again to return the tap adapter. I fitted it up so many times i know the instruction manual off by heart, in every location i thought it will work this time, but no, it had other plans. Now this weekend, after another disappointing attempt, reading the manual, adding all the powders and liquids and hearing it groan. I was tempted to throw it into the River Orwell. However as fate had it, that particular day i had to wash alot of dishes (not something i enjoy as you readers can probably tell by now!!) so i gave it yet again another go. This time spoke very nicely to it, fed it some water and lo behold it lived!!!!!!!!!!!!! Almost Dentist Hubby swiftly proclaimed it was very lazy to have a dishwasher for just 2 and 1/2 people! However i disagree, why not?? So i say, heres to sparkly plates yay!

PS i should mention that I am not VeggieCarrie, this is her friend, the friend from the ' Pug, Tugg and Ugg' incident! More about me later.....

The many uses of Veggie Hubby...

BT (British Telecom, our internet service provider) has decided for some unknown reason to decline our home internet connection. Very puzzling, we will have to wait for it to be reinstalled meaning that we don't have internet for at least a week, but also that we will get this month for free. I'd rather have the internet. Luckily I have it here at work, but I don't want to spend too much time blogging here (I'm currently on my lunch break). Veggie Hubby is more annoyed about the lack of internet than me, as he needs it at home for job-hunting and will get very bored without it. It is funny how much these days we depend on the internet, isn't it? To think that ten years ago most people didn't even use the internet, now it used for practically everything! So anyway, I probably won't be updating my blog much until we get the internet back...

Meanwhile, I have been thinking a bit about the many uses of Veggie Hubby:

1) Veggie Doctor- My husband gets very worried whenever he thinks there might be something wrong with me. He rushes to find me if he suspects there might be something wrong, and if I get sick he will really look after me.

2) Veggie Cleaner- My husband is also very useful when it comes to cleaning up, particularly when it comes to doing the washing up, or cleaning the bathroom! He is better at the washing up than a dishwasher!

3) Veggie Chef- VH is very happy to do the cooking, for instance when I get back from work and feel tired, I don't have to cook the evening meal. I suppose this is what comes with his new reluctant title of house husband.

4) Veggie Hero- VH doesn't mind dealing with spiders, which I have a huge phobia of. He will even now get rid of them in a glass without killing them. There was one in the bathroom yesterday and he calmly removed it for me. I'm not sure he would be such a hero if there was a rat in the flat though!

5) Veggie Translator - Having French as his mother-tongue is really useful when it comes to visiting my parents who live in Brittany, as he can help me get through everyday situations and give my dad useful phrases too to help him integrate.

6) Veggie Odd Job man- Veggie Hubby will often do random things for me. Yesterday, he constructed some curtains out of old blankets, bathrobes and shirts as our bedroom curtain is thin and white, so lets too much light in and wakes us up too early.

7) Veggie Gift Giver - Veggie Hubby just loves buying gifts for me :-) I am not sure if this actually classifies as a 'use' but they certainly cheer me up sometimes. His gifts are often really cute and thoughtful. Yesterday for instance he bought me some pink eclairs, and on my first day at work he gave me a bouquet of pink roses.

Veggie Hubby is certainly a man of many talents. Therefore, I think Veggie Hubby pretty much deserves the title of Super Hubby!

First day

I started my new job today. I made it there and back without getting lost so I am now feeling very pleased with myself... It looks like it will be quite a varied job, and the people seem welcoming and friendly but I am just feeling totally exhausted after a stressful first day. The best part was coffee in the morning and Starbucks at lunchtime, perhaps that says something? This is the slightly frustrating thing about writing an open blog, in that I can't be that specifc & talk about it much.

On another note, a personal irritation of mine... Cyclists on the road. I am all for cycling, but riding a bike is too much of a hazard on the road. In narrow roads, it is difficult to overtake a cyclist, whilst also avoiding traffic going the other way, so you have to crawl along behind them. Before I could drive, I used to find it scary being a cyclist on the road, but now I can drive and no longer own a bike (since both of mine were stolen within the space of a year) I find cyclists scary. In France they are even worse as they can often be seen without wearing cycle helmets on main roads. I think that more cycle lanes should be put in place, as it would be a safer world for cyclists then.

As I am in the mood for posting random things, when I was very young I used to sing the following song to my sister all the time! We were watching old home videos together recently, and I just couldn't stop singing it. I never realised that I was such a big Elvis fan when I was young!

Sun, sea and snow...

In France it was quite sunny at times, the pretty pink flowers are from my parents' lovely garden. There are also some sea photos from the ferry at St. Malo. We didn't see much of St. Malo but it really looked beautiful from what we could see; I don't think these photos really do it justice.


Earlier this morning, we had a scattering of April snow, I don't think it will stay around for long though as it is already melting. Snow is always quite a novelty in England, but it is never anything like the crazy snow in Canada. It seems rather modest and British in comparison.

A - Z

Here is an A-Z shamelessly stolen from H!

A- Available or Single? – Aren't these the same thing? Neither, I'm happily married :-)

B- Best Friends? – I have several close friends. I don't believe anymore that one should make a hierarchy and have a single 'best friend' ...

C- Cake or Pie? – Cake, without a doubt

D- Drink of Choice? – Mocha/cappuccino

E- Essential item? – Money!

F - Favourite Colour? - Pink

G- Gummi Bears or Worms? – Neither to eat (not vegetarian) and I don't like worms alive either. I really like the French for worm though, un verre de terre.

H- Hometown? – I don't know where my home is anymore really :-( Probably the village in Derbyshire where I grew up... I couldn't say it is where I am currently living as it is temporary; I've only been here for a few months, and hopefully will only be here for a few more...

I- Indulgence? – Chocolate, and a magazine

J- January or February? – February, as the days are slightly longer

K- Kids and Names? – N/A

L- Life is incomplete without? – Kids

M- Marriage Date? – August 2007 :-)

N- Number of Siblings? –One older brother, and one younger sister

O- Oranges or Apples? – Oranges

P- Phobias/Fears? – Spiders, yuk!

Q- Favourite Quote? – ... And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew; And then they came for me ... And by that time there was no one left to speak up. Pastor Martin Niemoller (1892–1984)

R- Reasons to smile? – My Labrador - Sky. She is so cute when she rolls on her back for a tummy rub.

S- Season? – Summer

T- Tag 3 People? – No, but copy if you wish

U- Unknown Fact About Me? – I have grade 8 flute but haven't played it properly for ten years, it is currently in an attic in France...

V- Vegetable You Hate? – Asparagus or cabbage

W- Worst Habit? – According to my sister, walking too heavily.

X- X-rays You've Had? – Teeth

Y- Your Favourite Foods? – Chocolate and pasta, but not together!

Z- Zodiac? – Scorpio

Bad boys

This is my third post for today- a record! I just wanted to share this little anecdote. This afternoon, I went into the local library, and was reading a magazine waiting for Veggie Hubby. There were some young boys on a computer behind me in the corner, sniggering occasionally. I was minding my own business trying to ignore them. I was slightly suspicious at first but then I heard them saying something about cars or football. One kept moving his chair every now and then to look into the main section of the library (later I realised, on look-out). After about ten or fifteen minutes, I turned around noticed that they were looking at a picture of a woman posing in sexy red underwear. I think I must have looked horrified and they noticed, and one commanded 'Let's go now!' and they legged it out of the library. I tried to find them, as I naively thought maybe their parents were there, but the boys had already left. I was shocked as they were probably only seven or eight! I considered saying something to a librarian but Veggie Hubby thought it was best to leave it, the boys were just being 'silly' and had 'outwitted the system'. Besides, I reasoned, it was none of my business. However, perhaps I am a prude, but I am still quite shocked that children so young would sneak into a library to look at online images of scantily clad women. I am also surprised that such material can be accessed with ease by unsupervised children in a public library, surely there should be some controls in place?

Godmother

Ok my mood has significantly improved since my last post an hour or two ago... my cousin just phoned and asked me to be godmother to her gorgeous little baby daughter born last month :-))) I'm feeling so happy, excited and honoured.

Veggie Hubby became a godfather in 2005 to his cheerful little godson, who we unfortuately don't see enough as he is so far away in the remotes of Canada. Now I am a godmother to a completely different child. I feel everything is right in the world.

Changes ahead

I am back home now... so long to my photo holiday diary from Brittany, and I will get back to my usual blogging... I have lots of things to sort out here, inlcluding finishing off Max the rabbit whose remains were happily waiting for me. :-)

Then, on Monday I am going to start my new job which is making me feel very....nervous. I don't know why, perhaps because I had a bad experience in my last job, or most likely because of all of the driving that I will have to do/worries I will get lost even finding my workplace. I think it is mainly fear of change. I have been used to working on part-time short-term contracts recently (and in 2008 not working at all!) and the thought of working in one job full-time scares me- what if I don't enjoy it? Well at least it will enable me to pay the rent and bills....

In a way though I am looking forward to it. As this job is so-called 'permanent' a rarity these days, it is potentially a career. I am also getting very very bored here without a job, having one gives life a sense of purpose. It will also enable me to do and buy things without using my savings and feeling guilty. Which means some nice new clothes, and maybe a honeymoon at last.

Animals of Brittany

A little lizard we spotted whilst walking through some woods, it came out of a hole in a tree to see us. There is also a cat that we saw near some disgusting public toilets (holes in the ground) and my baby dog Sky with her new best friend, 'Duck'.

The Enchanted Wood

When I was much younger, I used to love Enid Blyton's The Magic Faraway Tree series, about an enchanted wood. Yesterday, we went to visit a real life enchanted forest, Brocéliande, which Veggie Hubby was very keen to see as part of his thesis focused on this forest. We saw many different things: a golden tree, a fountain of eternal youth, Merlin's tomb, a King Arthur centre and a gigantic hollow oak tree.

We also ate some delicious traditional Breton crepes and galettes. I was really pleased as they let our dog into the restaurant, and she was very well-behaved (I don't think food hygiene standards are quite the same in France). They must have thought us Brits were very strange as some of the group of eight, myself included, had a sweet crepe followed by a savory galette, as the galettes looked (and tasted) so good.

The crêperie was near to a beautiful old Abbey. This is one of things I find fascinating about Brittany; the strange juxtaposition of seeing for instance, a weather-vane witch next to a statue of Jesus on a cross. I took a hundred photos, it is soooo difficult to chose just a few to put up here...