Experimental Cooking Day!

Thursday 28 January was experimental cooking day! I decided to go for an Eastern theme and finally had opportunity to plan one of these days properly! Due to the slightly unusual present domestic situation I invited myself to my sisters to experiment, initially I went totally overboard and planned to do Chinese, Malaysian, Thai, Japanese, Indian, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Filipino, Korean and Taiwanese dishes before realising that I was overcomplicating things, couldn't source many of the ingredients I needed and couldn't afford all of the rest! There's a fantastic website full of eastern recipes here!

I eventually settled on Japanese Shoyu Tamago (boiled eggs coated in soy sauce - popular in bento boxes and at Japanese street martkets)for the office.


Image by Rasa Malaysia

Vietnamese Bo Luc Lac (aka shaking beef - rump steak marinated in all sorts of stuff served with watercress, tomatoes and picked red onion),


Image by Rasa Malaysia

Thai Gai Pad Krakow (spicy minced chicken with chillies and basil),


Image by Rasa Malaysia

Jasmine rice and a bottle of Korean plum wine were the choices for the evening 'experiment'!

Unfortunately other commitments (well, flexi leave) dictated that the office part of experimental cooking day be brought forward to Wednesday 27 January - well done to Paul, Denis and Martin for being willing guinea pigs (well we only had to force Denis a little bit lol)! I boiled the eggs 3 at a time (largely because I know exactly how long to boil 3 eggs for whilst avoiding the horrid green/black line that appears around the yolk when they're cooked for too long!)so ended up doing 4 batches of the things, by the last batch I was getting the hang of it although the house did have a not entirely pleasant aroma of burnt soy sauce!

Experimental cooking day itself was great fun, after viewing the perfect property (which the owner then decided wouldn't accept pets) Bernie (sister) and I headed back to hers to do as much prep work as possible in the latter part of the afternoon. Occassionally Bernie and I spend time together when we both seem to be 'on form' and life becomes like a episode of Friends - this was one of those afternoons - I love it when we spend 'quality' time together lol!

Bernie often says that if there's a hard way to do an easy task I'll find it (I'd like to say that this generally happens when I'm stressed and concentrating on several things at once - which is true - but I can't deny that often I'm dim witted with no excuse whatsoever!) and this was never more true than the black pepper incident! It made perfect sense to me at the time to measure out half a teaspoon of black pepper by putting the measuring spoon on the counter and grinding the pepper mill over it!

Roll on broccoli appreciation day!

Pamper Yourself Day 1

Yay! So, Thursday 21 January was the first pamper yourself day (is it just me or would this be a better idea on a weekend??), as it was a working week day I took a few bits and pieces in to pamper myself with at my desk. The peel off face mask was a moderate success (note to self - never remove a peel off face mask without the use of a mirror, this will avoid you sitting at your desk looking like you've eaten cobwebs for breakfast (and mostly missed your mouth in the process)), the hand cream and white cotton moisturing gloves were much less problematic and strangely comforting at work?!

Than, as it was Thursday, it was off to line dancing with Broadie! I'm classing this as pampering myself because it's about 6 weeks since I last went and it always makes me feel good! And to top it all off I pampered myself with a chinese takeaway, smothered myself top to toe in super moisturising cream (and wore the special cotton gloves and socks) and went to bed!

Wonderful Wednesday!

Hmmm, not started off so wonderfully - attempted to get work and discovered the pavements and side roads were coated in black ice so turned round and came home again (after sliding off the pavement into a main road - wonderful huh?).

Ok, managed to get a lift to work and let's just say the day didn't get any more wonderful (for those of you who know how bad Monday was - today was almost the new Monday!). Got a bit of work to do then going to sit back with a glass of wine and some chocolate and read something that's pure escapism - ah, wonderful (at last!)!

Guilt Free Pottering Day!

Sunday 10 January was guilt free pottering day, I didn't have a problem with the pottering bit but struggled with 'guilt free'! I called Auntie Betty (must tell you all about the legendary Auntie Betty at some point!), did my nails, packed the front room up (slowly, in a pottering fashion), got my work gear ready for the week ahead and visited friends! There's really no way to make this day sound any more exciting than that!

Power Ballad Day!

Today is Power Ballad Day, being a little under-prepared (I need to start planning in advance for these days!) I decided to acknowledge and celebrate the day by using as many power ballad song titles and lyrics as possible in conversation etc throughout the day. This proved quite difficult as the continuing weather issues and resulting reduced workforce has impacted on the opportunity to have conversations, however this did provide opportunity to use 'With or without you', 'Here I go again on my own' and 'Alone'!

Boss made great effort (and kept me entertained) with his support of the occassion via telephone including some classic Chicago lyrics! 'Keeping the dream alive' came in useful on several occasions when dealing with ongoing, going nowhere tasks and John Parr's St Elmo's Fire (Man in motion) entertained Broadie and I on the way home! I did try but unfortunately couldn't fit in anything from Eye of the tiger though!

So, that was Power Ballad Day that was, 'If I could turn back time' (see what I did there?!) I'd be better prepared!

BTW - 'Who wants to live forever?' is NOT an appropriate comment for a Personal Safety meeting!

Superfabulous Tuesday!

So, Tuesday 5 January was Superfabulous Tuesday - what was fabulous about it you ask? Could it have been the 2 hour walk to work in almost knee high snow, the hour and a half spent at work before the site was closed, the walk back home again or the numerous slips, several near misses and one fall that occured during said walk?! Of course once I got home and warm and dry again it did look pretty Superfabulous outside so I guess that counts!