February 26, 2009 at 16:42 · Filed under Daily Life
If you’ve been following me on twitter/facebook, you might be aware that I’m having to make some life changingcareer decisions, y’know, with that lovely little job I do where I float round the whole of a rather large law firm.
Because in two months time I won’t be floating round the whole of that rather large law firm, because they’re breaking our team up into three parts. We’ve had meetings and planning and briefings for months now, and by the end of next week we all have to have made a decision as to which of the three teams we want to join. Order of preference. One. Two. Three.
Number one is simple. I know where I want to be. A month ago I only had experience of one division of the three that comprise the team, yet even then I could’ve told you that it was worth putting up with the other two to chance working in that one. In the past month I’ve had my time split between the other two divisions and I’ve loved working in both of them. Preference number one solved.
And I’d thought about numbers two and three. Honest, I had. But I just couldn’t make up my mind. I guess it’s difficult to decide on a fallback position in case you don’t get the outcome you’re after. The form came out on Monday morning. I thought printing it out and seeing my choices on paper would help me come to a decision. It didn’t. And so I only got as far as marking down my name and number one.
At lunch, whilst I was picking up my oversized plastic bowl of broccoli, celery and sunblush tomato I ran into J, the leader of the team I want to join. She asked if I was enjoying my current seat. I am. It makes decisions much easier to make, I told her. I knew that I definitely wanted to join her group. I jokingly asked her what the chances were and she seriously replied, in not so many words, that she’d be kicking up trouble if I didn’t get in, that a number of partners would also be making noise if I didn’t get my choice, that I didn’t have to worry about what to put as my second choice.
So, when I got back to my desk I entered those numbers, two, three, into their boxes and mailed off my form. Two weeks to go and I’ll know.
February 25, 2009 at 15:17 · Filed under Daily Life
…by falling frying pan pancakes.
So, Shrove Tuesday, otherwise known as pancake day, because we all know that’s what it’s really about, not obtain absolution for one’s sins by way of Confession and doing penance or using up ingredients such as fat and eggs, the consumption of which was traditionally restricted during Lent.
I avoided the pancakes they were serving up in the canteen. from the makers of red cabbage, grape and dessicated coconut salad, you never quite know what might have gone into them. So, of course, we were going to have pancakes for dinner. Had to get my pancakes in there somewhere.
I got home and asked who wanted, only for the husband to announce that the boy had already had pancakes twice that day. Did the boy care? No. Why care when you can shovel more in. So we headed off to the supermarket cos you can’t make pancakes with only two eggs and no filling.
We did the run and the boy decided he wanted to be masterchef. This involved generally getting in the way whilst I tried to weigh out items, drop whole egg shells in batter mixture, forget to melt the butter before dumping it in and show fear when I turned on the mixer. That last one I understand; that electric whisk is like an instrument of torture.
Safety first; he was going out of the kitchen once the fire went on. Not wanting to miss out on the action, he pulled up a chair to the edge of the room so he could silently creep back into the kitchen and get in the way watch.
There I am, making pancakes: batter, cook, flip cook, slide, repeat when all of a sudden the boy shouts ‘mum, look’ and I look, at him, cos isn’t that what you do when your kid shouts ‘look’?
But no, he’s pointing behind me, and I turn around to see the frying pan wobbling, yet precariously balanced on the edge of the stove, bound to fall off and crash into me.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the boy saved me from near certain death by pancake.
And for those of you interested in exactly what we had in our pancakes, I followed Saint Delia’s pancake recipe, doubling the ingredients and adding rather a large amount of smoked paprika. The filling was one onion, two peppers, two cloves of garlic, quite a few mushrooms, a pack of frying steak, a tin of chopped tomatoes, two tablespoons of tomato puree and quite a bit of steak seasoning. The filling got rolled in the pancakes which were chucked in a dish and covered with lashings of mozzarella before being finished in the oven. See, I could be a food blogger.
And in other news, I’m giving up chocolate for lent. Not, mind you, for any religious reasons, but merely to kick my appallingly awful habit. 40 days is a good excuse for a start. It also stopped me picking up another of those bags today, because you know I only want the choc inside them. However, chocolate is one thing; you won’t find me kicking my coke zero addiction as well.
February 23, 2009 at 14:21 · Filed under Daily Life
.!.
There’s these choco dessert things. A while back we went to Nan’s for the day, and in the bag of food she always sends us home with was a choco dessert. Not wanting to pig out on the whole thing in one sitting waver in my resolve to eat better I took it over to Mum’s when I went over the next day. Surely someone would appreciate a choco dessert.
It was so bad that even B2 wouldn’t eat it. And he eats anything.
We went over a few weeks later and there, sitting on top of the bread bin, was another choco dessert. You guessed it: Mum tried to force me to take it donate it to us. Meh! I was having none of it.
The next time we went up to Nan’s we came back with another of the damned things. It may even have gone in the bin, because I don’t remember how we got rid of it otherwise. Of course this is the point where the husband will comment to say he ate the whole thing in one sitting, proving why I don’t remember how we got rid of it.
So yeah, we went to Nan’s last week. Guess what we brought back home.
This morning the boy was kicking up a fuss. What did he want for breakfast? Toast? No. Sandwich? No. Yogurt? Neston? Nesquik? Fruit? No. No. No. No. Hula hoops. Well there was no way he was having hula hoops for breakfast. And then he said cake.
And all I could think of was that choco dessert.
*He did end up eating an apple as well, so maybe I’m not all that bad a mother.
February 20, 2009 at 12:08 · Filed under Daily Life
The boy is rather particular about his music. If a song comes on that he doesn’t like, you can guarantee he’ll make it known.
Now he’s got a new favourite song, one that accompanies his new favourite TV show: Demons. Sitting in the car: we have to play it. Lounging around the house: we have to sing it.
Only a few days ago, I felt the need to correct his use of the lyrics. “It’s ‘like screaming motorcycles’, TB.”
“Is it?” he asked. “I thought it was ‘life screaming motorcycles’.”
“No TB, it’s ‘like’.”
“Oh, ok. ‘Like screaming motorcycles’” he sang whilst standing outside the front door.
February 13, 2009 at 15:13 · Filed under Daily Life
Last night we took what we hope to be our final trip to CostCo before the Hub opens. A little more relaxed than our previous shopping attempts and I managed to throw in a few goodies for me too. We finished about nine and it was snowing quite a bit out there. I was tired, hungry and ready to go home and crawl into bed. But, seeing as we were in Croydon any way, the others felt it would be a good chance to descend on Ikea and get some more bits there. Oh! The joys!
My first stop had to be a 50p hotdog and some soda. I don’t honestly think anything else would have persuaded me on to the escalator. We played with some ideas and managed to make it round with relatively few arguments creative differences of opinion and squished ourselves back into the car.
We dropped the stuff at the Hub on the way back, and I was pleased to see they’ve made some progress since I was last there. Even so, there’s still a hell of a lot of unpacking and setting up left to do.
The husband wants to do a trial run this weekend, but we realised last night that we’d neglected to buy a coffee grinder. So, this morning, whilst I was hard at workinstead of working, I was scouring the internet for commercial coffee machinery in London that would allow us to pick up something this afternoon.
The last on my list of tasks was a little commercial espionageresearch. My lunch hour was spent checking out all the major coffee shops around the office trying to work out exactly what we can get away with charging per cup. I’ve done spreadsheets and everything! I’m also very pleased to report that CrackBucks is no longer the most expensive coffee place in town.
