New Page!

I’ve added another blog to my collection of blogs. This one is a recipe blog.
So far there is only one recipe – with a picture though! I hope that I will be able to add more exciting recipes as time goes on. I will put my recipe for teacakes on here too, when I finally learn it.

Calming Influence

As I have mentioned more than once, I have been going jogging quite regularly. This is an excellent cardiovascular exercise, although it is a little hard on the joints! I have been trying to do some strength training as well as the jogging, but I have been finding it difficult, especially to do on the same day as a run.
As you know, last weekend we tidied the lounge. There is floor space. There is, in fact, enough floor space for one of our camping roll-mats. Another use for such a mat is to do yoga. So, I dug out my yoga DVD while Leon was out driving on Monday night. It takes about an hour, including the warm-up and warm-down. It was quite pleasant, and more challenging than I expected, but not so challenging that I couldn’t finish it.
Last night Leon wanted to do weights and I didn’t fancy going out in the cold and windy nastiness that was the weather (okay, it could have been worse…) so I decided to do another hour of yoga instead. This was an excellent plan, with only one minor flaw. The minor flaw was that during the “relaxation and cool down” where you should be almost meditating, Leon had finished his weights and came downstairs and proceeded to make more noise than your average brass band, in the kitchen. Very distracting. Otherwise, it was a very pleasant, but again taxing, hour. I ache slightly in some of the muscles that are used during yoga, but that can only be a good thing as it shows that I am working those muscles. I may try to do yoga on the days I am not running. This should mean that I improve my core strength, balance and posture (and maybe even my state of mind!)

Successful Bank Holiday

Yes, the long weekend has been a success! Hooray! We did extend our weekend by taking the Friday off as a holiday too. Friday I got my haircut, bought some jeans which did not drag on the floor and that top I’ve been lusting over in H&M. I also tried on a dress in there, but it looked silly. I bought some sunglasses and treated Leon to two new tops. Did a two-mile jog, of which all but 2 mins was actual running! We went out for drinks and a Chinese. Very pleasant. Saturday Got up at a sensible hour! We tidied the entire lounge, including all paperwork and other silly mess. Sunday I “helped” Leon finish the sweeping of the lounge. Leon evicted several spiders from behind the chair. Cleaned chairs, and Leon vacuumed them too. I completed Eeyore on my cross stitch kit. Leon cooked a fab leg of lamb with some funky coating (which is still making the fridge smell – but in a nice way). We went out for drinks at Brigantes. Mostly amusing, but I may have been a little harsh on Rich. (sorry) Paid up my entry fee for the Race For Life. Monday I had a lie-in, and then got up and we went to Clifton Moor. Bought Leon some underwear and I also bought a new night dress for myself. (No new dressing gown yet…). We also picked up some new bake ware. Had a slightly disappointing lunch in the “Flying Lettuce”(1). Baked a Victoria sponge and a dozen fairy cakes, and then frosted them all. I did a full hour session of Yoga (on a DVD) without getting bored, while Leon was on his driving lesson. Went to “Big Ian’s Ludicrous Pub Quiz” and came second. So now we have four more cans of rubbish beer. 1. The Flying Lettuce pub is actually called the Flying Legends, but as always, I couldn’t read it very well without my specs…

Magic

I have cut off my hair. Well, no - I paid someone else to do it.

And I have discovered something - my hair was heavy! So, I lost a whole pound in weight just by cutting off my hair. Brilliant!
No, I don't want to lose a further 10lb by cutting off my head, thank you.

Rubbishness leads to Change

My website doesn't like me looking at it - I exceed the download limit (!)
So I've gotten myself a flikr thingy. Woo.

Random

So, last night I planned to go to the quiz… it didn’t happen. I got wet on the way home due to rain, and couldn’t use my brolly because the wind was stronger than me. So, I changed into my long jogging bottoms, rather than my new cropped ones, and waited for Leon. We went out jogging. We did most of the usual route, but not all of it because my foot was still not being totally normal and I didn’t want to cripple myself for a long time. Then Leon showered and went for his driving lesson. I showered and settled down to watch some rubbish TV. Then Gemma called – she’s one of my friends from before I went to uni. So I spent a while chatting to her about the youth of today and the drawbacks of jogging. Then I cooked some fish for dinner.
Today I learnt: if you put oil on fish skin it spits, and this causes smoke if the oil lands on the filament of the grill.
So, then we settled down to eat the fish. By this time it was almost 9 o’clock and I was still in my dressing gown from having showered. i crossed the room in said dressing gown and L was overcome by laughter (well…) as I had managed to rip my dressing gown. Now there is a big tear on it all down the left-buttock covering bit. Bother. I do have another much nicer dressing gown, which is zebra print. It’s full length too, but not designed for people as fat as the blue one I ripped. The benefit of getting a dressing gown that’s too big is that it wraps around you further. Which I like; it makes it cosy and warm. Perhaps I’ll buy a new dressing gown. I should add it to my list of things I should do this year. The trouble is that dressing gowns aren’t the most exciting thing to buy. I could do with some new pyjamas too, but not the little vest-and-pants variety, which are nice but not warm, but the big t-shirt or shirt and trousers variety. I could, therefore, go all-out and buy matching dressing gown, pyjamas and slippers (can never have too many pairs of slippers, and I do need a pair to wear while I wash my current ones)
Of course, if I do buy new pyjamas etc I must throw away the old ones – I'm terrible for not doing that. I buy something to replace something I have and then I don’t get rid of the thing. I’ve stopped trying that with shoes anyway, but I do try not to have too many similar pairs… try is the operative word though!

Simple things…

I have recently purchased a cross-stitch kit. It’s nice to have something a little creative to do while I’m watching telly, which isn’t really productive at all. Anyway, the cross-stitch is a Winnie-the-Pooh limited edition one, which came with over thirty colours of thread. So far I have sewed Eeyore’s hind legs and part of his ear. I’ll be going on to sew the rest of his body and then his tail with the pretty bow on it. it takes much more time than I thought it would! It’s quite soothing, which anyone who’s met me knows is a good thing! I must try to remember to wear my specs though, as I’m giving myself eye strain! Tut.
I was planning on going out to get an embroidery hoop today, but the weather is all horrible. So I didn’t. it’s not too hard to do without, but the tension isn’t so good when you’re not using a hoop.
I’m hoping that once I’ve done this one, I might be able to make up some of my own patterns. That would be wicked!

And so, despite the rain I’ll be running tonight, for the first time since I hurt my foot…

Item: Make/Buy Cushions – Complete!

Yes, I have made six cushions in varying designs. Now all we need is the matching sofa...

PTH 12?

So, Bad Data came a measly 17th in the PTH (That’s Pub Treasure Hunt) – though our friend Lint’s team won. Well done them.
Bad Data were "the Dukes of Hazzard"

(I’ve cropped the picture so that you can’t see my thighs! Ick!)

We spent the evening of the 11th May wandering around York dressed like this, answering a range of questions (incorrectly, it seems) and not drinking any of the special drinks. L and The Black got called Gay Cowboys rather a lot, which sucked.
I did quite like some of the other costumes, so I don’t mind not being the best at that. We did get the most points for origami, with L’s amazing Paper-General-Lee.
It was rather a shame that the routes didn’t overlap slightly more, we only saw one other team of people we knew while trekking round. It also sucked that only the special drinks counted. Still, we could have cheated and lied about our drinking like Chip’s BBBs.
I may try to get the ear of the new organisers and see if I can convince them that using a letter as the theme would be good. That said, the last one that Lint organised was great (Theme was Cartoons and we were the Wacky Races – I will eventually put a picture of that up!)

Nuke 'Em?

Yeah, normally I just write mundane posts about nonsense, but I fear that over the coming weeks this blog may become a little bit political!
So, in the news recently they’ve been talking about the prospect of renewing our aging nuclear power plants. Yes, they are still working at present. However, we need to begin at least getting organised to build new ones now, if that’s what we are going to do.
Well, this has all come about due to posturing on the part of Mr Blair. Despite having commissioned a report into what the future holds for UK power, and what the options are, he then gazumps the report and decides that the future is radioactive. Okay, maybe that’s a little extreme, but he has jumped the gun. Speculation has it that he is doing this because he’s tired of the rest of his party being in the news more than he is.
But, back to the actual issue: should we be building more nuclear power stations, or should we be finding the alternatives. Believe me there are a lot of alternatives! I can see that nuclear power has its advantages, lower carbon emissions I think is one of them. It does also have the disadvantage of producing great piles of waste which are radioactive for a very long time and have to be buried. Coal seems to have been largely discounted from the equation these days as it has high carbon emissions, and also emits other gases, depending on where the coal is from. Coal is also quite expensive to produce. I saw a TV show a while ago about a coal-fired power station which captured the carbon it released and then used that to provide some more power somehow (I’m not clear on the detail) which seems quite good. That way you’re getting extra power from what is effectively a waste product. There are other options than just coal, gas and nuclear power though; there is the much under-utilised wind power. It is windy quite often in this country, and we could harness this much better. Of course then some argue that the turbines are an eyesore, and that they are destroying the countryside. Perhaps they would be more suitable on a smaller scale… Then there’s solar power, which I have to admit may be pushing it a bit in Aberdeen, but in the southern counties where sunshine is a bit more common, we could easily have solar powered things. Water power could be used on almost all of the country’s rivers (though possibly not the Trent and the Severn…)
Is it possible to get all of our power from renewable/green sources? Not at present. Should that stop us from trying? No.
It’s not just up to the politicians though, it’s up to all of us too. We have energy saving bulbs throughout our house, the dishwasher is rating B and the washing machine is rating A (the dryer is D, but we only use that rarely) I have to admit to being a fan of having a bath, which does use more water than a shower. I turn off the tap while I'm cleaning my teeth. I walk almost everywhere (though I don’t drive…) we have a compost bin in the garden to reduce the amount of rubbish we send to the tip, and we also recycle paper. Bottles go to the bottle bank whenever someone with a car visits us, and we give our carrier bags back to the delivery man. We prefer to get loose vegetables (using less packaging) and re-use jars. We still have more to do, but every little thing helps.
Did You Know…?
A dishwasher uses less water to wash the pots than washing them in the sink does, provided that the dishwasher is full.