Hnnnnnnggggggggghhhhhhhh

Which is the sound made by someone who has no energy for anything outside of work and children and desperate scrabbling around for time to write about ANYTHING.

Ah well, it's been a busy old month what with one thing or another, what with racing across London to see a man in Stratford of all ghastly places, wrestling Lucy from school to school to French Club, to Rainbows, to Cubs, to ballet, to Costa, to exhaustion and tears, hothousing Hattie in playgroups, baby French clubs, trips to the park and Waitrose.  Hattie can now sing "Brille, Brille", which is "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" in French (in so much as she can sing anything using words), and Lucy is interesting, interested and can write her own name and count up to 100, so it must all be worth it, mustn't it?

I even have time for myself occasionally, knitting and crocheting away, making baby gros, tending the orchids (which are thinking about flowering again, how exciting) and even sometimes sleeping, although never enough.  I've even had a chance to dye yarn, in order to make a new Rainbow cardigan for Lucy.

October Unprocessed is nearly over and I will have a Diet Coke on Thursday.  I have missed it like crazy, but as that is really the only thing I feel I just couldn't make at home, I felt that the letter of the law had to be applied in that case.  We have a variety of wonderful meals recently; tonight we are having Ox Cheek stew with Mushrooms and Orzo.  Ox cheeks are cheap and very meaty, although I don't really recommend cutting them up.  

Ginger biscuits

Five years ago, on honeymoon in Egypt, we bought a bag of gnarly dried ginger.  Obviously we haven't used it for anything, as it requires grinding before being anything approaching useful, and until my first pregnancy, I was never very keen on ginger.  Since everything I ate made me gag, I tried all sorts of old wives tales, and the only one that seemed to work was eating vast quantities of ginger biscuits.  I am now very keen on ginger, and use it a lot, particularly as the fresh root, but still haven't made anything like a dent in the ginger stash.

One of the blogs I enjoy, domestic sluttery, posted something about making ginger biscuits, promising that they were easy and delicious.  This is apparently in tribute to the Great British Bakeoff, something I really can't be bothered to watch, as I don't particularly enjoy that sort of thing, I'm not a competitive person.

I started making them tonight, thinking that Simon would be playing tennis, so I'd have all evening, but as it's been either raining or hailing on and off all day, I was able to go to my knit night, and thought I'd rustle up a batch before going out.  Of course, we had no eggs, so the ginger biscuit experiment was shelved until about 10 minutes ago, and I can confirm that the biscuits are incredibly easy to make, smell fantastic, but take 15 minutes in our oven, not 12.  The ginger, on the other hand, remains a major pain in the bum to grind, mostly because the spice grinder is difficult to clean afterwards.  

The hole, by the way, is from me giving them a poke to check readiness, and is not a design flaw.

October Unprocessed is still going well.  Hurrah for October Unprocessed.  I am still craving diet coke, and find myself feeling very, very tired without the boost it provides at about 5pm.  Ah well, I suppose it is good for me., and at least I don't feel like I have to give up things I enjoy that I make myself.

You say Chermoela, I say Chermooula

October Unprocessed continues with bread and honey for breakfast, carrot and apple for lunch and  aubergines with chermoula paste, feta and giant couscous for supper.  It takes about 40 minutes to cook and smells delicious.  I am, unfortunately, craving diet coke, but am trying to be strong and drink water (no ribena) or wine (which counts, I could totally make it at home, but it would probably taste disgusting).


Edit: It's taken me so long to think of anything else to write, so my food is cooked, eaten and it tasted fantastic.

It's been another jolly day in Nursery.  I will leave it there otherwise I may be verging into bringing the profession into disrepute territory and that would not be the wisest thing to do.  I do wish that children who have additional needs were dealt with more sensitively.

The learning to love crochet as a way to reduce the stash project is going well - I have two cushion covers that need cushion pads, and am nearly finished with the blooming flower cushion cover that will grace our front room.  I cannot say that I love crochet, but I do find it considerably faster than knitting.

Who says er-sters anyway?

7 day week

What's a weekend?  I've spent the last 7 days looking after other people's children, and sometimes even my own.  Don't get me wrong, I sometimes quite enjoy Nursery, and I really enjoy Rainbows and Junior Church, but I am tired, and I need a break from the whole volunteering/working thing.  Unfortunately, that won't happen until the Ally Pally Knitting and Stitching Show in a fortnight's time, which will be a yarn heavy weekend with a great deal of petting and sighing and buying.

On Saturday, we took the Rainbows to London Zoo.  There were a lot of Rainbows there.  It was as you would expect it to be, so I will draw a veil over that part of the weekend.  One girl was sick, a couple were a bit tearful when we left, my own daughter was as good as can be hoped for, and the whole thing went with a swing.

The gorillas were my favourite animals by far, and they make me feel sad, as they are clearly too intelligent to be in captivity.  They have very sad faces, she says, with great profundity.

Simon went for a date with my friend Lyn's husband on Sunday - they went to get "manscaped", which in practice meant a wet shave with hot towels, rather than a back, sack and crack, but that took the whole afternoon, so further child entertainment was provided in the form of Lyn and Laura, Pizza Express, some swings and a lot of food.

I am doing the October Unprocessed thing again this year, so tonight we are having home made from scratch spaghetti bolognese with parmesan and extra wine.  Yum.