Grooving to ...

With bells on!

Mary at work set me the challenge of making her a card hanger to go along a wooden beam which spans her living room ceiling. At 11 feet long it was going to be a bit of a task, and I wasn't sure how to approach it at first.  I decided to make some Christmas bunting using red bias binding folded in half and some fat quarters of christmas material that I bought a few years back.  I got some small gold pegs off ebay which are perfect for hanging the cards onto.  Finally, whilst in Hobbycraft last week I saw some tiny gold bells which would make the perfect finishing touch for the points of the flags.

I'd cut all the pieces out a couple of weeks back, and damn and blast my sewing machine wouldn't work.  I had another go tonight and managed to coax just enough life out of the machine to get it finished. It's not perfect but not too bad as a prototype I thought.

Hope Mary likes it!

. 

It would be nice ...

to have some good news for a change.

Sadly today brought the news that my Aunty Margaret in Newcastle had suffered a stroke last night and passed away this morning after a massive heart attack. She had been a bit of a creaking gate for some years with chest problems, but nobody expected this to happen. Not now. Not so close to Christmas. Not so close to Sylvia's anniversary. My Uncle Malcolm will be lost, and their children Darren and Caroline devastated.

We will be making the journey north again next week sometime for the funeral. It's Micky's 21st birthday on 18th (the 1st anniversary of Sylvia) and we were hoping to go up there to spend the day with him and Les but I guess it will all depend when the funeral is going to be.

The 19th is Eileen's court case, so it's going to be a hell of a week.

I was so looking forward to having a peaceful Christmas this year, but it ain't looking like happening.

Much missed ...

London - Les Miserables

 23 November - Queens Theatre, London

It had been a long time trying to arrange a suitable date, but finally, myself and two work friends, Mary and Lesley trundled off on the early morning train to London to go and see 'Les Mis'.  Mary is a huge fan of the show, having seen it about 11 times, and had gone on and on (and on ... and on ...) about it so much that I said 'Yes, I would love to come to London with you to see it!!!!

London was a bit cold, but we hopped into a taxi once off the train at St Pancras.  The plan was to zip off to The Air Gallery on Dover Street to see the 'Art of Mapping' Exhibition, where the sister of my friend Lily had some artwork displaying.    London between 12 noon and 2pm however, is worse than rush hour.  The cabby even said that it wasn't looking good, would take too long and the pounds were racking up, so we made the executive decision to be dropped off at the theatre instead.

I wasn't sure what to expect.  All I knew was that the show was about the French Resistance ... erm ... how wrong can you get?   Once the curtain came up it all became clear that it was actually set during the French Revolution and not WWII!!!.  Before seeing it I didn't know what the story was about but was completely blown away by the tale of unrequited love, heartening grace, forgiveness and redemption, and how sometimes, we cannot escape our past.   I sat and cried my way through about half of it much to Mary and Lesley's amusement,  What a wonderful production though and fabulous experience all round.  I will be making a return trip with Jenny in the not too distant future, as she had hoped to come with us originally but couldn't in the end.

Afterwards we wandered off up Regent Street looking at the magical Christmas lights and stopped for some tea at Piccolino's which was yummy if a little pricey.   It was a long walk back to St Pancras and we stopped at the new and wonderful St Pancras Rennaisance Hotel for a quick drink (which wasn't forthcoming in the end) and just had a bit of time to do some shopping at the station before heading back to Chesterfield on the train. 

Billy Bragg & The King Blues - Left Field in Motion Tour

15 November 2011

I love the Leadmill, we always manage to get a spot to the left of the stage where there is a bit of room and a good view.   We walked in mid-way through The Sound of Rum's set. Kate Tempest was in full flow splattering the back wall of the venue with verbal shards.  On stage she is a force of nature, energetic and bold.  Off stage she looked a lot younger and more vulnerable as she stood near us watching The King Blues.

I first heard of the King Blues a few years back, liked them and even plugged them on The (now defunct) Hack, but didn't really follow them up, so I was intruiged to see them tonight. If The Sound of Rum are a force of nature, the King Blues are a force to be reckoned with.   In the best tradition of protest singers, they mix 'take no prisoner' lyrics with up beat melodies.  It was a pleasure.

An even greater pleasure was finally getting to see Mr Billy Bragg in all his glory.  He is one of those folks I wanted to see play a full set before either he, or I, shuffle off our mortal coil. I saw him once on the Red Wedge Tour back in the mid-80's but had just never gotten around to a proper Bragg Gig.  So tonight put that right and what a show.

As he has done in each town he's visited, he had attended the local Occupy camp earlier in the day and there were various protestors in the audience handing out manifestos.  As it's well over a week ago and my memory isn't what it used to be I can't remember all the songs he sang.  He did do a couple of new-ishly topical ones, most noteably 'Scousers Never Buy The Sun' and 'Last Flight to Abu Dhabi' along with some older ones like 'The Milkman of Human Kindness', 'Sexuality' and the very wonderful 'I Keep Faith'.  

A few photos from the weekend:

Men cooking!

and men eating!

Kings Arms for a spot of lunch

Bolton Abbey

Bolton Abbey

Bolton Abbey grounds

Halloumi Stuffed Peppers

Well, we had a brilliant weekend up in Silsden. Weather on Saturday was perfect for walking, in fact it felt like August and not mid-November. All of the food went down well, everybody brought loads, and enough to feed us Saturday night too.

I loved my stuffed pepper recipe which I'd found on the BBC Good Food Guide so much that I thought I would share it with you here. I tweaked it a little so will give you my version rather than theirs.

Halloumi Stuffed Peppers (Serves 8)

Ingredients:

1tsp olive oil
Salt & Pepper
4 Large Red Peppers
290g jar of marinated mushrooms
100g couscous
200ml hot water
2 tsp swiss vegetable boullion
500g halloumi and chilli cheese - finely diced


Method:

Cut the peppers lengthways in half right through the stalks. Scoop out the seeds and any fleshy bits. Drizzle the olive oil over and sprinkle with salt and black pepper. Cook on a baking tray in a moderate over for 15 - 20 minutes.

Meanwhile make the vegetable stock by mixing 2tsp swiss vegetable boullion with the boiling water and pour this over the couscous. Leave for 5 - 10 minutes until liquid is fully absorbed then fluff up with a fork. Add the chopped mushrooms and halloumi cheese and mix well.

When the peppers are ready, tip off excess olive oil and fill with the couscous mixture. Cook again for 15 minutes and serve warm.

The peppers can be made in advance, omitting that last 15 minute of cooking time until you are ready to eat them. Keep in fridge

I found out tonight that there has been a myriad of emails to Simon about our forthcoming weekend away (in less than 24 hours time). I'd not been made aware of any of the emails or attempts to organise what was going to happen beyond the mezze night tomorrow night, so it came as some surprise to me that there had been various attempts to organise a meal out on Saturday and other events, which to all intents and purposes we appear to have ignored.

I sent out a mass email declaring that maybe my husband had forgotten I was actually part and parcel of the weekend and and letting folks know what our preferences were.

In response I received the following (originally sent in September) which made me laugh so much. The accommodation for the weekend is a 5 bed barn conversion and there may be a bit of a bun fight for who gets which room as only 2 rooms have double beds, and only 3 rooms are ensuite.

To place it all in context though, you need to know the following:

1. Andy is 6ft 5.
2. Paul and Sheila are 3ft 2 (...ish)
3. Steve hates flying but has a flight simulator installed inside one of his wardrobes at home.
4. On a previous weekend away to West Yorkshire, Andy and Sally ended up in Middlesbrough. No, we don't know why either!
5. I have no idea where the motorbike reference comes from!

I hope this translates well and at least makes you smile.

Hi Pauline

This was my room allocation , sent to all the boys

Righto, here's the task for the weekend

Now that Andy has done all the legwork, sifted public opinion, negotiated times/costs and the quality of the door handles, not to mention stumping up the dosh for the damm thing, we have to decide the following important stuff

1) Who gets which room?

2) Who actually gets which room? (I know this is technically the same as 1, but its so important I thought I'd say it twice.)


Several alternatives present themselves:

a) First up, best dressed (i.e first to arrive gets the choice). Historically, this suits Steve, but only because he usually packs three days earlier than anyone else and sets off before dawn breaks, armed with marmalade sandwiches and a Thermos (its Paddington innit). Again, historically, Simon usually gets there a day after everyone else, meaning its down to Andy and me to race for the line. As Middlesboro is a mighty detour, I consider I have a good chance of second place.

b) Lottery allocation - a kind of prize draw with something along the lines of keys in a hat drawn against room numbers. This lends itself to a total mix up of rooms/wives/suitcases and could effectively end any future trips unless handled responsibly. Do we know anyone responsible???

c) The sympathy vote - this usually involves the Goldilocks principle where Daddy bear gets the biggest bed (or at least one long enough), meaning me n Sheila will end up in the broom cupboard under the stairs. Alternative criteria usually involve the height of the ceilings, whether there's enough room to bring the flight simulator - and cupboard, are we on the flight path by any chance, or even agoraphobia, which has nothing to do with spiders and everything to do with getting the best view from the bedroom window.

d) A brawl, but we all know who's gonna win this one.

e) The spreadsheet option - best handled by Simon due to his insurmountable knowledge of this particular subject (and the fact that we don't understand them), this will probably involve some degree of internet trawling for the cheapest parts, a complete risk assessment of the property rooms for obvious person incompatibilities, and some alignment of individual feng shooee to suit people to the colour of the bedspreads. However, I have my doubts about this method based on the old saying "the motorbike isn't dangerous until I get on it" although we aren't taking a motorbike I think this is pretty self explanatory*. Also, this is not by any means a two minute solution and the cottage is booked for November, depending on the availability of good plumbers**

* If it isn't then the person punching in the keys to the spreadsheet could be working on an entirely different set of principles to the ones everyone else thought were important.

** No plumbers will actually be going with us unless you know one that has a motorbike, in which case I'm wrong on all fronts.

Finally, I have what I consider the most civilised solution to the problem ...........................

GIVE IT TO THE GIRLS AND LET THEM SORT IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Any alternative opinions are welcome.

Paul

Mezze !!

I'm so excited.  Tomorrow Simon and I are off to West Yorkshire for the weekend with the 'Stockport Lot'.   We've hired a barn conversion in Silsden, near Keighley for 2 nights.  Tomorrow night we're having a 'mezze' evening,where we all bring a selection of dishes to share,  so I have spent the best part of today either at the supermarket or in the kitchen whizzing things up in my blender and cooking.

Here's my offerings for the evening:

At the top we have peppers stuffed with couscous, chargilled cardoncelli mushrooms and halloumi cheese with chili.  I'll warm this through when we get there so the cheese melts and it can be served hot.  The meat at the side is lamb which is currently marinading in soy sayce, cumin and chilli and will also be cooked when we get there.  In the middle we have spicy pototoes - boiled new potatoes fried in garlic infused olive oil and some Cajus spices.  To the left, the green dish at the side is Chimichurri sauce - recipe courtesy of my friend Wooders - full of spring onions, green chilis and parsley, and it blows your socks off. The cream dish at the bottom is butterbean and cumin pate and is mmmmm, as is the other cream dish above it which is hummus, made to my friend Lily's recipe.   I'll take some carrotts, cucumber and celery to dip along with some breadsticks and crostini.  And lots of wine. And toothpaste!!

Recurrence

Last year, I was reading a book and I came across the term 'Tempus Fugit'. I'd never heard the term before so looked it up and it means in the simplest terms 'time flies'. In a more protracted sense it means 'time is a wasting' i.e. we waste time on insignificant things of no value. I found it interesting.

I found it more interesting a couple of days later when I found myself under a jewellers clock outside a shop in Leeds which bore the inscription 'Tempus Fugit', and even more interesting a few days later again, when the term cropped up in a television programme I was watching.

I dunno what that is called. Just plain co-incidence? Or something deeper?

But it's happening again. Like before, it's started with a book I'm reading, and the term (another Latin one - lol) E Unum Pluribus. It means 'Out of many, one' and is on the Seal of the United States. When it was originally used after the American Revolution it's meaning was that out of many colonies or states emerged one nation. In later days it has come to mean that out of many peoples, races, religions and ancestries has emerged a single people and nation.

Now unlike before it's not the latin phrase that has occurred again, within hours of me reading it, but the meaning. There's a picture that has appeared in my inbox this evening which says 'Nam Myoho Renge Kyo' - which in it's simplest terms means 'from many, one' or 'many bodies, one mind'. It's actually a buddhist chant that is used to bring peace to yourself and peace to the world.

I'll be thinking on that and investigating it a bit further methinks.

And I'll let you know if there's a third occurrence of 'from many, one'.!!

Restoration

I haven't talked about it very much to anyone - but the past year has been a bit of a toughy. Yes there have been some really good times, but behind it all has been the biggest sadness ever. But you have to keep on going don't you. And you do. But it's just going through the motions. And some of the time you look like you're enjoying yourself but the sadness, the anger, the bewilderment and the disbelief is still there. Because it's not something that you can come to terms with in a few days, weeks or even months.

But today, for the first time in months, I finally felt something akin to genuine enthusiasm.

And it felt really good.

Pink Floyd & Fajitas

Sunday morning we went back to Jenny's around 10.30 then took her off to Tesco's to get a big shop in. Mostly stuff she finds difficult to carry i.e. bottles of fizzy water and boxes of Magners!!!! Once we'd stocked her up we headed to The Anchor for some lunch.

The Anchor sits right on the River Cam, and started life as a boat house, which explains why the floors all tilt downwards towards the water!  It also used to be a jazz bar, and one of it's patrons was a young chap called Roger Barrett, who would sit and listen to the music, especially admiring the drummer, Sid 'the beat' Barrett.  Roger eventually changed his name to Syd Barrett and along with other locals formed the band Pink Floyd.   A specially commissioned muriel adorns the restaurant wall.

As well as it's musical heritage The Anchor does gorgeous food at a very reasonable price.   Sizzling vegetables fajitas were the order of the day for Jenny and I - sooo nice, although it's the first time I've had roasted vegetables that included shredded white cabbage and beetroot. Funnily enough though it worked well. The portions were huge and Jenny and I wished we'd got one to share. We'll know next time! The portion size didn't stop me having blueberry and gooseberry crumble for afters, again which was gorgeous. A definite recommendation if you are ever in Cambridge - the food is lovely, portions large and costs very reasonable!

Simon wanted a rest before we drove back home so he wandered off to Jenny's halls whilst me and Jenny had a last wander through the town centre. Jenny wanted to show me one of the art galleries that had a Rob Ryan exhibition. So glad she did. There were some items on display that I'd not seen before and I ended up buying a couple of greeting cards.

Cambridge is so full of history and it's hard not to stop and snap some piece of the past every few minutes.  This plaque is on the wall of Kings College:

One final photo - looks like the bin man has Sundays off!

It's always poigniant at the end of the visit and I have to steel myself for the goodbyes. Still, its only 4 weeks and she will be home for Christmas so not too long to wait.

Stardust and Galaxies

We always try to get a visit down to Jenny at University mid-term. So far we have only visited for the day, but I decided it would be nice to stop over night this time, to spend a bit more time with Jenny and also to see a bit more of Cambridge than we can usually fit in during a day.

We took our bikes down, and shortly after we arrived at her halls, after the hugs and kisses and quick catch ups, we set off for an hours cycle around the outskirts of Cambridge. Thank goodness the area is so flat though, it's a few years since I even got my bike out of the garage, so thought I might struggle a bit, but it's true what they say - it's like riding a ...

Next off we headed into Cambridge centre for some lunch at Carluccio's an Italian cafe/shop that a friend on Facebook had mentioned a couple of days ago. It was divine. Jenny and I had a Fiorentini - which is a thick chocolate drink in an esspresso cup - out of this world. Simon had a regular hot chocolate drink and we all had some cakes. They are some fabulous foodstuffs on sale in the shop and we've already decided that there will be a couple of hampers winging their way to various family members for Christmas. 

On the way to Carluccio's we passed bin man again, entertaining the crowds! I'm beginning to think he lives in that little container there. 

After lunch we hot footed it off to the cinema to catch up with the latest adventures of Johnny English. We'd all heard poor reviews of the film, but decided to go nontheless. We all really enjoyed it. It's not rocket science but it was quite a giggle.

We were well placed for a short walk to Midsummer Common where Cambridge was holding its annual Bonfire Night shenanigans. There was a fun fair which gave me and Jenny loads of photo fodder, followed by a fire poi demonstration which was really, really cool. Jenny does poi and is wanting to venture into fire poi at some time in the future. I have visions of my back garden going up in flames.

After the poi it was time for the main fire work display - which was phenomenal. It's amazing that the council provide all of this for free, asking only for donations. We'd read that in previous years the event had attracted 25,000 people, and could well believe it as the crowd was about 30/40 deep around the barriers to the fire.

Apart from some naughty donuts before the fireworks, we'd not eaten since lunch time so wandered off back into the town centre to find somewhere to eat. Places were starting to fill up but I think we got there just in time and settled on another Italian at Ask. It was the perfect end to a really lovely day. We took Jenny back to her rooms before heading off to our travel lodge for the night.

Derby

After promising myself that I would take it easy on my week off, well, it didn't happen.

I found myself off visiting Derby on Thursday afternoon (long story!) to be a bit of shopping and to take some photos of the Cathedral and city centre.

Simon was working in the office that afternoon, which is just 10 mins away from Derby center, so he picked me up around 4 and I had my first visit to the new office.  It's rather nice  and smack bang on top of Spondon Railway Station (I think it used to be one of the old station buildings).  Whiled away an hour or so there before he dropped me back at the Westfield Centre where I met up with Rue and Liz for a spot of tea.  It was so good to see them, it really has been too long between visits.

After a bite or two to eat at TGI Friday's we had fun on trying to nagivate Derby Town Centre in order to find the Flower Pot where Mike Peters was playing.  I was put in charge of the sat nav, but we had to abandon that as I am so shit at following those things.  Due to Rue's good driving sense, we did get there in the end though.

The gig was good and it was marvellous as always to meet up with Soda, Emma and Andy.  Set list was interesting and Mike played The Wasting Land, the name of the song our forum is taken from.  It's almost as if he knew some of us would be in attendance - lol.

Swallows and Stars

I've just finished another card commission! My brief was to make a wedding card to go with the theme of 'Stars and Swallows'. It took me a while and lots of searching for images before I found the perfect picture ... on a tattoo site! Yes, somebody somewhere is sporting the central image of my card as a tattoo - I hope they don't mind me pinching it!

I thought the image was sort of victorian so searched for ideas for victorian weddings cards. A lot of the results came up with lacey border effects, so I found some paper doily craft strips on ebay which have made the perfect backdrop to the image. I found a lovely heart border punch at the weekend, so started off the card by punching the design down the front right hand edge.

I thought I would bring  the card up to date by adding some bling so set about attaching some flowers the same colour as the background, but with different coloured sparkly centres. Some pearls and a few more sparkles dotted here and there, and a 'wedding' banner finish it off nicely.