I could get used to this!
We have tomorrow off for the big wedding, and Monday off for "Early May Bank Holiday", or May Day as it always used to be called until Mrs Thatcher decided it sounded too Commie!
But I still call it May Day! Me? A Commie? Perhaps.
Not sure what will be happening over the weekend. I hope to have a barbeque or 2 but the weather is looking a bit patchy so maybe not. We will see.
Will I be watching the wedding? Not sure. I suspect we will have the TV tuned to it, whatever happens. I am quite a Royalist (a Commie Royalist?) and think they do a great job (have really believed this since I saw the Queen eating sea slug during a state visit to the far east...), but I don't find these big occasions exciting. Everyone else seems to be getting full of it, though. I was listening to the radion this morning and they were saying that the Australians are so caught up in it all that the government has postponed a vote on whether to keep the royal family or not! Presumably they feel that they won't get the result they want if they hold it right now...
That is about all I can come up with today - have a great weekend, back again soon!
Thursday, 28 April 2011
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
I think I need...
...a cold beer, while sitting in my garden.
...to sleep in until noon.
...to read a really good book, preferably involving wizards, elves and nasty monsters.
...to get some new strings for my guitars. It is amazing the difference a new set of strings makes, it is almost like having a new guitar!
...a new guitar. OK, that is not a need but a big want. Might sell an old one to make room too...
...to cook a huge steak on my barbeque and slowly eat the whole thing, washing it down with another beer.
...to finish and start reading something useful.
...to sleep in until noon.
...to read a really good book, preferably involving wizards, elves and nasty monsters.
...to get some new strings for my guitars. It is amazing the difference a new set of strings makes, it is almost like having a new guitar!
...a new guitar. OK, that is not a need but a big want. Might sell an old one to make room too...
...to cook a huge steak on my barbeque and slowly eat the whole thing, washing it down with another beer.
...to finish and start reading something useful.
Tuesday, 26 April 2011
Easter...
Had an utterly wonderful weekend!
The weather was amazing - the doom and gloom that was predicted failed to happen, so we had 5 days of hot sun!
Thursday evening I made TZ's Tres Leche Cake.
When I told the family what was going into it they looked at me with horror, muttering things about heart attacks and diabetes, but I made it anyway. The resulting cake is in the photo above. It was utterly wonderful, everyone agreed. The mutterings suddenly stopped when they tasted the sweet, somewhat sticky goodness. It mysteriously vanished during the course of Good Friday...
And I will let you into a secret - I had never made a sponge cake before. I used Mrs RC's recipe for the sponge as it is nice and simple, merely involving a bit of arm work to mix. Mrs RC refuses to allow a food processor into her kitchen, believing that hand mixing is the only way to do it properly. She always makes great cakes so I find it hard to fault her argument.
Friday evening, Number One Son was supposed to go to a sleepover party with a bunch of friends. At the last minute it was cancelled, so we moved it to our house instead. They all had great fun - I bought in some Pepsi and made a huge batch of pizzas to feed them all and they stayed up most of the night talking and playing computer and xBox games. Good harmless fun. My son has great taste in friends...
The rest of the weekend was very relaxing - sitting in the garden, painting toy soldiers, playing guitar, walking dogs, etc. This was broken a little yesterday when I found that a neighbour was digging up the brick paving in his front garden. When I asked what he was going to do with them he said he was getting rid of them and did I want them? Mrs RC never has enough bricks for things she wants to do in the garden, so I marched back and forth with the wheel barrow rescuing bricks. At a rough count I took nearly 300 in the end. My back and wrists are now complaining about it, but Mrs RC was very happy so I can take it :-)
So, back to work and on the run up to exams. I am now in "gentle revision" mode - can't cram at my age as trying to stuff too much in at once causes everything to burst out of my ears! Easy does it...
Have a great day! Hm, looks like the sun has arrived again! Time for lunch!!!
The weather was amazing - the doom and gloom that was predicted failed to happen, so we had 5 days of hot sun!
Thursday evening I made TZ's Tres Leche Cake.
When I told the family what was going into it they looked at me with horror, muttering things about heart attacks and diabetes, but I made it anyway. The resulting cake is in the photo above. It was utterly wonderful, everyone agreed. The mutterings suddenly stopped when they tasted the sweet, somewhat sticky goodness. It mysteriously vanished during the course of Good Friday...
And I will let you into a secret - I had never made a sponge cake before. I used Mrs RC's recipe for the sponge as it is nice and simple, merely involving a bit of arm work to mix. Mrs RC refuses to allow a food processor into her kitchen, believing that hand mixing is the only way to do it properly. She always makes great cakes so I find it hard to fault her argument.
Friday evening, Number One Son was supposed to go to a sleepover party with a bunch of friends. At the last minute it was cancelled, so we moved it to our house instead. They all had great fun - I bought in some Pepsi and made a huge batch of pizzas to feed them all and they stayed up most of the night talking and playing computer and xBox games. Good harmless fun. My son has great taste in friends...
The rest of the weekend was very relaxing - sitting in the garden, painting toy soldiers, playing guitar, walking dogs, etc. This was broken a little yesterday when I found that a neighbour was digging up the brick paving in his front garden. When I asked what he was going to do with them he said he was getting rid of them and did I want them? Mrs RC never has enough bricks for things she wants to do in the garden, so I marched back and forth with the wheel barrow rescuing bricks. At a rough count I took nearly 300 in the end. My back and wrists are now complaining about it, but Mrs RC was very happy so I can take it :-)
So, back to work and on the run up to exams. I am now in "gentle revision" mode - can't cram at my age as trying to stuff too much in at once causes everything to burst out of my ears! Easy does it...
Have a great day! Hm, looks like the sun has arrived again! Time for lunch!!!
Wednesday, 20 April 2011
A Riparian Lunch Break
I had lunch by the river today. It was idyllic, warm sun, gentle breeze, the barely perceptible sound of the river making its way to the sea....
I was amazed at how much life is in this little river. The shallow were full of these tiny fish...
...while the deeper waters were occupied by larger fish, lurking shadows moving silently in the cool water.
A hopeful water vole scampered up and down the water's edge, too fast for me and my camera to catch.
Half heard converstions reminded me that I was still in the middle of the city - school children enjoying the perfect combination of great weather and not being at school - a German couple on holiday - a businessman trying to seal a deal on his mobile - a teenager in a wheelchair being told by his friends how dumb he was to injure himself...
I just sat on the river bank, switched my brain to neutral and soaked it all up. It was too nice to waste those moments on serious thought.
*******************************
The long weekend starts tonight! Ooh yeah! Nothing really planned, except for dinner with some friends tonight. I hope to slip some revision in for my exams but, as usual, family time gets priority. I am sure the weekend has a barbeque tucked away somewhere. I just hope the weather holds out - I hate the thought of being at work on a day like today and then having rubbish weather when I am off! Selfish? Yep!
Have a great Easter! I might do a post at some point over the weekend, but doubt any of you will be online to read it so maybe not!
Back soon!
Tuesday, 19 April 2011
Legs!
Great weather today - everyone seems to be in shorts, including me!
It is amazing how fast the temperature changes at this time of year. A couple of mornings ago I was walking the dogs in a cold fog - the sort of fog where you can see banks of the stuff moving across the fields, coming to get you. The dogs were a bit spooked by it, to be honest!
Things are really quiet at work so I am able to get on with stuff uninterrupted, with a bit of music to reduce the loneliness (all together - Awww...) Currently playing is some classic Thin Lizzy, before that it was Foo Fighters...
Heading for a nice long weekend - the Uni closes at lunchtime on Thursday (Maundy Thursday) so I booked to morning off too giving a 5 day weekend! Ooh yeah!
Unfortunately the weather forecast is typical Easter:
Snow, Sleet And Wind Forecast For Easter
As I was saying to someone only yesterday - in UK we are more likely to have a White Easter than a White Christmas!
Ah well, tea break is over, better get back to it!
It is amazing how fast the temperature changes at this time of year. A couple of mornings ago I was walking the dogs in a cold fog - the sort of fog where you can see banks of the stuff moving across the fields, coming to get you. The dogs were a bit spooked by it, to be honest!
Things are really quiet at work so I am able to get on with stuff uninterrupted, with a bit of music to reduce the loneliness (all together - Awww...) Currently playing is some classic Thin Lizzy, before that it was Foo Fighters...
Heading for a nice long weekend - the Uni closes at lunchtime on Thursday (Maundy Thursday) so I booked to morning off too giving a 5 day weekend! Ooh yeah!
Unfortunately the weather forecast is typical Easter:
Snow, Sleet And Wind Forecast For Easter
As I was saying to someone only yesterday - in UK we are more likely to have a White Easter than a White Christmas!
Ah well, tea break is over, better get back to it!
Back again!
This is for Shrinky (and anyone else who was expecting a photo of legs):
Yes, I know I am wearing socks...
Monday, 18 April 2011
Our baby is 6 months old!
No, not this one!
Here she is!
Just like children, our dogs always want the same toy...
How cute is she? (Yes, she stole the toy from poor Custard...)
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
Catching up
I am catching up in a couple of ways.
Firstly, I have started revising for my exams next month - typing up lecture notes, filling in gaps, expanding here and there, reading a new journal article or book chapter each day - all good so far.
Secondly I have also caught up with the rest of the civilized world by transfering my CD collection onto PC. Yes, I now know the joys of play lists, etc! Mrs RC is loving it too - when I phoned at lunchtime she was playing music that she hadn't listened to for a long time purely because she could not be bothered to dig out the CD! Click, on it comes! We now have this PC in the kitchen/diner (the hub of our house) acting as a music centre/accountant (i.e. we use Excel on it to track our finances).
Oh well, better get back to it!
Firstly, I have started revising for my exams next month - typing up lecture notes, filling in gaps, expanding here and there, reading a new journal article or book chapter each day - all good so far.
Secondly I have also caught up with the rest of the civilized world by transfering my CD collection onto PC. Yes, I now know the joys of play lists, etc! Mrs RC is loving it too - when I phoned at lunchtime she was playing music that she hadn't listened to for a long time purely because she could not be bothered to dig out the CD! Click, on it comes! We now have this PC in the kitchen/diner (the hub of our house) acting as a music centre/accountant (i.e. we use Excel on it to track our finances).
Oh well, better get back to it!
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