Wednesday

Yesterday went to Partheney. Had a walk round the old town and took a lot of photos. Then went to check on Jill and Mick's house - currently undergoing signification renovation.

Was supposed to be going to some Roman ruins today but Mom decided she wanted to clean up the house before Grandma arrives with Dad tommorow. We finished pickling the beetroot and set some raspberry vinegar to soak. Should be ready for the next stage in 7 days time.

Wind howling and blowing a gale today. No rain yet though.

People working on the pool for the third day in a row now! It looks like the lining is going down.

Sunday

Slept terribly last night. My sun allergy was itching like crazy.

Got up at 8.30. Dad decided he wanted to pickle beetroot so put two huge pans on the stove. Then went and took the dog and left me to watch it. The kitchen was filled with steam and the stench of beetroot.

There was some really ugly beetle in the garden. Like a stag beetle but with these huge long feelers. It could move really quick too. Mom got it in her net and slung it over the hedge at the bottom of the garden.

The hosepipe came off the wall while Dad was concreting and got water everywhere.

Whatever the French is for Saturday

Got up about 8.30 am which is really late for me. Had woken up an hour earlier but sat in bed and finished my first book. One down. Three to go.

Then Mom showed me some photos of the snow last winter. Really deep and great big icicles.

Took the dog for a walk about 11 am. We found some lettuce leaves by the gate and were really confused until we went down to near the veg patch and found Marie (neighbour) had left Mom some lettuces there. We picked a couple of butternut squashes for her and took them to her house as we walked Polo.

After the walk we dug up a load of potaoes - well Mom did the digging I put them in the bucket. Also we picked some more squashes and some sweetcorn. We tried to get some of the salsify but it had not done well. Soil too tough for root vegetables to go down very deep really.

Had melon and chicken and salad for dinner. Stayed out in the sun too long as my upper chest is now bright red. My arms are fine though.

Slept through the hotter part of the afternoon.

Later on had a rabbit stew for dinner. Later when it got dark Dad got out his telescope and we looked at the moon. Then it clouded over.

First full day

Woke up a couple of times in the night. At one point when it was raining on the roof I thought it was someone typing on a PC keyboard.

Got up about 8 am and took the dog down the lane with Mom. Then we went to Super U to do the shopping. On the way there we saw a camel. Circus in town and this being France they had just tied the camel up by a roundabout to chew the grass there.

On the way back a chap was driving a lorry full of lions round the supermarket car park to advertise the show. Seemed pretty mean on the poor lions.

Deadheaded some roses and picked some raspberries when we got home. Nice salad for dinner.

Dad has a terrible cold and was taking his frustrations out on the gates by "fixing" them.

Arrive en Francais

Well it is about 8pm at night here and I have pretty much just got to my parents house.

Got up at 6am. Did all the last minute washing up n stuff so I don't come home to a stinky flat.

Left the house at 10.00am. Got the train at 10.38 to Victoria. Met Dad there just before 12. Proceeded to catch the Stanstead Express from Tottenham Hale.

Flight was delayed at Stanstead. They didn't bother to tell us but we had to wait ages to board at the gate.

Mom picked us up at Poitiers Airport. About an hour drive to the house. Short tour of the veg garden - by the way it is raining here!!!!

Cup of tea and Mom is now peeling spuds for dinner, which is in the oven. Chicken and butternut squash n garden veg.

Saturday - countdown begins

This morning was spent trying to organise my stuff for flying out to France on Thursday. Figured if I put my various clothes in piles on a towel on the lounge floor then I will know what I have of what and when everything is together and dry then I can attempt to stuff it in my case. Trying not to wear anything that I want to take with me.

Bought a cardboard gift box yesterday to put my evil free crackers in so they don't get squished in my case.

My jade butterfly necklace arrived this morning and it is very beautiful.

Played Civ 4 for a bit. Wiped out the Egyptians and the Dutch.

Deep fried some sweet potatoes last night. Heavenly! Had the same again for dinner tonight. I luv teh calories!

Moar Chips

Last night I continued my journey to deep fried potato perfection - this time using my new potato cutter. I made the oil a little hotter too.

Only Tuesday

Tuesday today but I feel tired enough for it to be a Thursday. Slept ok though. Just really need my holiday.

Disaster of disasters the chatbox on CD2 was working early this morning but it was not by the time I got to work. UES one down too. Xatech's main site down as well (they host the kind of chatbox we use). Maybe the lonley and desperate will all be on TS tonight.

First use of my fryer last night. In case you are curious yes they were amazingly, crunchtastically delicious!

Sunday

Played a little Civ 4 today. Was on Thurd's TS server a bit.

My fryer arrived yesterday. My cute baby, one person fryer. Alas I have no potatoes so the chips will have to wait until tommorow.

Drama and potato croquettes

Someone hacked a freind's TS server yesterday evening. Circumstantial evidence points to some members of the extended ES community who think this kind of shit is funny. My freind had to cancel his credit card and wipe his PC in case he had a keylogger. The hackers made out they were German but they sounded too faux German to me. I went on the chatbox at the same time as the prime suspect and told him if he was responsible he was a shit and not fit to walk the face of the earth. I also said if any member of the wider community was found to be responsible I would rip out their liver with my bare hands.

Inbetween all this I was popping in and out the kitchen making potato croquettes. Mashed potatoes, salt, pepper, egg, ground almonds, dried shallots and dried parsley. Shape em then bake em. You could deep fry them but I don't have a fryer yet.

Tuesday

Sunny in the morning. A alarm of some kind was going off for ages outside work and was very annoying. Kept stopping and starting.

Enough leftovers from last night's leftovers to have for tea tonight. Nearest I have to a cooking free night.

Leftover surprise

A day of using up leftovers creatively.

Half a bottle of passata and some turkey mince. What to do?

Made meatballs with the mince, an egg, ground almonds, evil free flour, garlic, herbs, salt and pepper.

With the passata made a sauce with oodles of smoked paprika, mushrooms, green beans, some honey, garlic, olive oil, Chinese cooking wine and salt.

Then baked the meatballs in the oven for a bit. Then added them to a dish with the sauce in the oven for a bit longer.

Leftover surprise is once again edible! Not just edible but very very nice!

Sunny Sunday

Hot day today for once. 28 degrees. I was a good girl yesterday. Weeded the front garden so I can slob about for the rest of the weekend without feeling guilty.

Played Civ 4 this morning. Then slept through the heat of this afternoon. Talked to Gorz on MSN in the evening.

My magnolia has a flower that is gradually opening. I hope the sun does not burn it before it is fully open and I can get a photo.

Friday

Nice sunny warm day. Went to the pub at lunchtime for a work birthday. Had lemonade and chips.

To Bruges!

Yesterday was the annual work day out and we went on the Eurostar to Bruges in Belgium.

Got up at 4.30am. Left the house at 6. Took the bus to Westminster and then walked over the bridge to Waterloo. Got some good pictures of the London Eye and Big Ben while I was walking. I like London better at the crack of dawn when it is quieter.

Arrived at Waterloo just after 7am. Me and Dorrell were the first there. Kenny arrived not long after. Jude was almost last and I didn't think she was going to make it but in the end we all got there and got on the train.

Because the tickets were just given out by Marion in the order in which you turned up I ended up sitting next to Dorrel. Jude and Simon Braidley were sat behind us.

I began to feel a little queasy as the journey progressed and made a mad dash for the loo. I was really, really sick. Only just made it in time. Then found out the flush on the crappy Eurostar loo didn't work. Too late and I suppose it was at least better than me throwing up all over the train.

Felt horribly nauseous for the rest of the journey to Brussells and then we had another hour journey on a local train to take us on to Bruges. Felt very ill on that too but I was not physically sick again.

We then had a short bus ride from the station to the city centre. I actually felt better once I got on the bus.

We went to a Resturant called (I think) Pannier D'or in the main market square. The starter was a piece of smoked salmon. I could eat that. Then a tiny bowl of tomato soup which they assured me had no milk in so I could eat that ok. Then the main course was a horror. All the non vegetarians got some barely cooked horror of a roast beef thing with croquette potatoes and the worlds nastiest ever horror mush of reheated, unidentifiable vegetables. The vegetarians got just the potatoes and the veg horror mush. I could not eat the potatoes as they were coated in breadcrumbs (Rich ate mine) so I was left with a plate of something that I could easily have thrown up several hours earlier. I picked a few mushroom looking things out of it and was left hungry. The dessert was an apple pie that I could not eat either.



Anyone reading this please do me a favour. Do not go to this restaurant. They had seemingly edible food that they were serving to their regular diners. They seemed to think that as a group booking we could be palmed off with hardly edible stuff that could honestly have been recooked leftovers. It was nasty. Also the service was really slow and we wasted too much of the day waiting inbetween courses in there.

After that we took a short walking tour of the city and pootled about for a bit. Then took a canal trip which was really good - although the boat was moving quite fast so it made taking photos quite tricky.

After that we headed back to the train station and commenced the journey home. It was early evening by this time. Everyone else was pretty much rat arsed by the time the journey started and we continued in this vein. Tins of cherry beer seemed to be quite popular and Alibhe (who I was sitting with on the way back) had a couple of cans of Kronenberg.

Christine was trying to look at Phil's red underpants and Steve was trying to gross everyone (most especially Phil) out by talking about when he has his wing dang doodle pierced and showing round photos of said procedure on his mobile phone.

Got into Waterloo just before 10pm. Took the tube to Westminster. There was a mouse on the platform that was freaking a few people out. Waited a while at Westminster for a bus. Bus was delayed in Brixton because two complete fucktards would not pay the bus fare and would not get their ugly moronic asses off the bus. The bus driver would not move until they did.

Got home about 11.15 pm. Uploaded my photos to my PC. Had a bath. Got to bed about half past midnight.

Got up at 6.15 this morning. Left later than normal to collect a parcel from the post office but the depot is closed today due to industrial action. Will have to collect it tommorow. Just want to go back to sleep right now.