365 Project, Weeks 18+19

So, I should really stop going away at the weekend and coming back too tired to upload these… But here we are, weeks 18+19. They’ve not been good weeks for photographs…

Monday of the first week, we had our piping in the garden fixed, which means all the rubbish piping that was ripped out has been left to make our garden even more attractive… One day it will be nice, but for now, and the foreseeable future, it’s looking like a building site.

Fortunately, there were plenty of cakes left over from the party to keep my spirits up.

I decided to do a bit of cooking, after being given my weight in mushrooms by Mum. I laid the table nicely, bought posh red wine (and drank leftover Archers alcopops myself), though it was very difficult to photograph without getting the garden in the picture!

I made Mushroom Ragout with aromatic polenta, which was actually quite easy and quite fun to cook. Usually I hate cooking, but it wasn’t the sort of dish where you’re waiting forever for things to happen – while the mushrooms cooked down, you were busy making the polenta, so it kept me busy.

The Boyfriend said it looked like a river of poo on scrambled egg, but he helped himself to seconds, so I guess it didn’t taste like one.

We were away all weekend at a family do for one of the Boyfriend’s extended family. They live up north, so it was a long car ride to get there and back. I totally forgot to take any photos, as I was feeling a bit sleep deprived, and not really in the partying mood. We did have a colourful treat when we got back though – our rose bush had bloomed

Photo taking throughout week 19 didn’t go too well either. I got a few good nights sleep, but with the Boyfriend on lates, we didn’t really do much, besides the already discussed I Date. The next interesting thing that happened was Mr T’s birthday. He arrived to his own party late, drunk, and then had to put up a gazebo. It was great entertainment. After that I got too drunk, I mean, I was having too much fun to take any more photos.

Which brings us to today. Despite dancing my heart out until about 11 last night (not that late, I know, but it was really energetic dancing) I was up and ready for the triathlon challenge. The swimming went fine, but my bike riding was slightly hampered by the fact I haven’t ridden a bike in about 6 years. I know it’s something you never really forget, but my confidence wasn’t great, nor was my stamina, and the ride ended with me failing to bump up a (tiny) curb and falling onto the pavement with quite a bang.

My leg took the worst of it. My elbow wasn’t looking too good either, though the photos don’t really do either scrape justice. The Boyfriend, ever the sympathetic, on inspecting my elbow said, ‘Ooo, that looks really sore… no, wait, that’s just your eczema.’ I guess that means I’ll live.

I’m just glad I was wearing a helmet, or my face would not be looking too good right now. I had to duck out of the running after that, as I was both too shattered and too wobbly to really carry on, but I did get back on the bike and cycle the last little bit home. An achievement to be proud of, I think, though I probably won’t be thinking the same thing when I wake up stiff as a board tomorrow!

I is for Indian

I’m not having a dyslexic moment. I’m aware that H comes before I, but the Alphabet Dates have become a bit sidelined, and the Boyfriend and I wanted to kick start things. We will be spending an evening in a hotel soon, but due to shift patterns, it will be a while, so we wanted to count this as our I date.

The evening was almost a non-starter, with the Boyfriend not sure he could get the time off work to attend the charity dinner at our local Indian. We booked tickets, but were preparing back up plans if he couldn’t make it. Fortunately, the morning of the meal, he got told he could go.

After being told that the Boyfriend categorically, ‘wouldn’t dress up’, I decided to go ahead and wear nice clothes anyway. In fairness to him, his ‘you can go’ was actually ‘you can go the minute it turns 8:30′ which was the time the meal started, so it wasn’t like he had time to do more than pull a t-shirt on. My attempts at elegance didn’t go much better, with the shoes I chose to wear hurting my feet on the walk to Mum’s, so I had to swap them for a dirty pair of plimsols belonging to Taylor…

When we finally arrived, the Boyfriend fashionably late, it was a perfect evening. The Indian had a set menu for the charity night, but provided us with our favourite Paneer Tikka as an extra. Mum got ridiculously excited by a table magician, and a comedy auction of unwanted raffle prizes went on a little long, but raised a few extra quid for the Air Ambulance.

I think the nicest thing about it though was the fact that it was midweek. It reminded me that it doesn’t have to be the weekend to do something nice – although I was dead on my feet at work the next morning, but I’m usually that anyway!

The only downside to the evening was the fact that, after two glasses of complementary champagne (I drank the Boyfriend’s while he wasn’t there) I foolishly agreed to take part in a Triathlon next sunday. I didn’t post my photos of the week last sunday because I was away all weekend. If I don’t post them next weekend, you’ll know it’s because I died somewhere in between the swimming and the running…

365 Project, Week 17

Despite my being on holiday, I have spent a lot of time this week with this as my field of vision.

I had always planned to get 20,000 words done before this week, and a further 20,000 done (to finish the current WIP) in the six weeks after, but I was on a roll over the weekend, and just kept writing. I’ve got five holes to plug in the manuscript, and proof reads to do, but I am very nearly done. In fact, this is what I have left:

So, two big things this week. Carole moved into her new flat, which we celebrated with alcohol, and when we got peckish, Chinese takeaway. The ‘spring rolls’ I requested weren’t quite what I was after…

In another eating disaster, the Boyfriend decided to microwave some camembert, after another failed attempt at making camembert fondue. It wasn’t very appetising.

So we got out the cookbook I got for my birthday and made african egg curry, which was decidedly more tasty.

The other big thing to happen was Taylor turning 18. Mum made a zillion cakes, and we did our best to eat them. I helped to make the butterfly cakes pictured below. Well, I helped put the jam in them. It was something, okay!?

We were all a little caked out when it came to the lighting of the birthday candle, but the candle was pretty spectacular, so that was something.

And the Boyfriend got a bit trigger happy with the chiminea and nearly burnt a piece of Ivy’s childhood. Which she rescued just in time to save the seat, but its legs had already gone on the fire…

She guarded it with her life for the rest of the night.

365 Project, Week 16

We started the week with a re-run of port and cheese night, sans port and cheese. The weather this time was much more appropriate, and we didn’t really need the roaring fire to stay warm in the balmy heat.

After that I took no pictures for four days, so who knows what happened?? Oh yeah, I worked. A lot. Not much of interest. But on friday, the Boyfriend and I went round Mum’s for dinner, which involved a boat load of chips, and a rather over enthusiastic game of volleyball. The Boyfriend got a little too excited and decided to show off his climbing prowess. Mr T couldn’t resist the temptation or challenge, and was soon up there too.

Poor Charlie was on the receiving end of some more of the Boyfriend’s enthusiasm, and, rather foolishly, pushed him, which resulted in the Boyfriend trying out some of his police manoeuvres in a little wrestling match. Charlie put up a good fight, but undoubtably came off worse.

They weren’t very good at volleyball either (part due to an inappropriate ball, but also a complete lack of skill) and the ball went into the neighbour’s garden and up really tall trees a number of times.

On saturday, I finally got my piano tuned and voiced. They fixed my sticky F key, but it will need tuning another couple of times over the next year before it really sounds how I want it to. You can’t voice it too much without risking damaging the strings. Apparently we need to get the humidity level down as well, as that can do damage too, so the dehumidifier has been running non-stop. Unfortunately the dreadful weather means I can’t get the windows open.

Later on Saturday, the band played a small set for the Party in the Park celebrations in a local town. It was very windy, and our music kept blowing away, but I think we did okay.

Then it was back to Mum’s again for Jubilee dinner. Which meant using up all the old chips from the day before. Mum decided to make ‘Sausage and Chip Curry’, an unusual concoction that was strangely delicious.

Mum made us sing a rousing chorus of God Save the Queen before we could eat, which bemused Ad and terrified Dyl. Also, Taylor and Ivy didn’t know the words. Shocking behaviour.

June Reading List

This month is going to be a busy one, so I’m only putting two books on the list. I have 25000 words to write as quickly as possible so I can finish my current WIP, and will be starting a new stage of my career at work, so lots going on. Last month I managed to read The Adamantine Palace by Stephen Deas (finally!), The Boy Who Could See Demons by Carolyn Jess-Cooke, POD by Stephen Wallenfels, Clarity by Kim Harrington, Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett and Caressed by Ice by Nalini Singh, so hopeful I’ll be able to keep up this good streak and read more than the two books I’ve pick. But we shall see.

June Reading List

Mort by Terry Pratchett

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood