T'eyla Minh

I'm only doing a three-day week, y'see. My goal for my three-day week is to finally drag my flex into a sensible negative, and seeing as I got in at 8.25 this morning (because Paul had a meeting at 8.30 so we both left early) I should be able to gain an hour if I leave at 5.15 - assuming I have anything to do, that is. (David is out at a meeting all morning and there's barely anything in typing either.) I'll get my standard 7.18 hours for Thursday and Friday so anything over and above that for the next couple of days is a bonus, basically. :)

Yesterday was deathly boring, but thankfully I've got just enough writing energy left to see me through. ( Fandom Stuff, as ever. )

In other news, I've been thinking how to tackle Lisa's rainbow birthday cake and I have a pretty good idea how to achieve it. Probably the easiest thing is to make a double-batch of cake mix (so four eggs / 8oz ingredients), weigh it, divide it into seven and colour each bowlful separately, then essentially bake seven different cakes and stick them together. Works in theory, whether it works in practice remains to be seen...

The whole thing is going to get covered in chocolate fudge anyway, so as long as the layers look neat on the inside I'm not too worried about the outside - assuming it doesn't collapse under its own weight, obviously. That being said, not sure on filling - chocolate spread? Nutella? Marmelade for a chocolatey-orangey flavour? Answers on a postcard...

Right, this has killed the morning, at least. Hopefully I'll have something to do after lunch.

Soooo yeah. I had a week off and did bugger all really. SO TIRED. Hardly surprising as it seemed to comprise a lot of walking - walked to the allotment and back on the Saturday (in heatwave), walked to Oldbury on Sunday (in heatwave), walked to allotment and back again on Monday (in heatwave - a pattern is forming), walked back from allotment on Thursday (got bus there from town), and then again there and back on Sunday (in downpour - got drenched), and then we walked into Bearwood on Monday.

The walking to Oldbury and Bearwood was because our bus is rubbish on Sunday service and in both cases we'd just missed one.

We have a half-strimmed lawn because our 10m extension lead wasn't long enough, and now we have a 30m lead of course it's been raining. The heatwave made me dehydrated, the walk in the rain made me cold. I can't win.

Also today at work it's been frigging freezing because the heating is off (because it's June, duh) and someone left a window open over the course of the bank holiday weekend. Cheers for that!

Anyway, Friday to Tuesday have basically been spent watching Paul play Red Dead Redemption on the X-Box and yesterday I did some embroidery, so here are some pictures.

( Scans 60-62/?? )

So that's that.

Also yesterday I made blueberry muffins out of boredom. I was going to make patriotic Jubilee biscuits with Union Jacks and crowns and stuff on them, but couldn't be arsed. The muffins were sort of doomed, really: I ran out of plain flour so about a third of it was self-raising (they flattened like cupcakes instead of retaining their shape), and I'd literally just sifted the dry ingredients when I realised we'd run out of eggs, so I had to sent Paul out for some. Still, they taste okay.

Actually, we've done quite a bit of Proper Cooking this long weekend. On Friday we went to the fish market to fill a freezer drawer - £40 spent on mackerel, sea bream, some frozen queen scallops and king prawns, three chilli-flavoured lobster tails, two swordfish steaks and a bit of monkfish (the latter two are for special occasions). Saturday we did paprika beef in the slow cooker, which was very nice, with leftovers on Sunday with baked potatoes. On Monday I did a Goan fish curry (leftovers for lunch today), which was a bit too hot for Paul but very tasty indeed, and then yesterday Paul did a cottage pie. Tonight we're having lamb koftas with tzatziki to go with some mini pittas in the fridge, assuming I don't pass out from exhaustion first. :P

Last week my intention was to do a bit of work on my latest Pirates-fic, "Oranges to Florida" (songfic), as I'd done about 600 words at work on Friday. Of course, I didn't even look at it. Now watch it eat my sleep because I'm back at work.

I now have no more leave until September (excluding 17th August for Richie's wedding) unless I can sneak in a day or so in July. We're going away at the start of September and then I have a week off in October for my birthday, so I suspect the next two months are going to be long and arduous. :(

This was supposed to be a short entry so I'll sign off now. :P

I have been stupidly productive on this since realising how close I am to finishing it. With any luck I'll get it completely done during my week off in May. :)

( Scans 43-51/?? )

That's more than enough for now, and the product of a weekend's work so there's quite a lot.

On Sunday it was not only Easter but my grandmother's birthday, so we had invited her and my uncle over for dinner. They were due to arrive at 1.00, for lunch at 2.00, which Paul figured would be ample time considering they're always late. I managed to time lunch for 2.20 to give them plenty of time, and they were, indeed, an hour late. Just as we were trying to decide what to do for the best (finish cooking all the roasted stuff, keep it warm and then do the pans of veg when they arrived), they rang the bell.

I also made a summer fruits pavlova for dessert, which I thought was very impressive considering it was my first attempt:-



It came out of the oven perfect, but started to cave in under the pressure of the whipped cream and fruit - also I have no clue how you're supposed to achieve a "light dusting" of icing sugar because it goes everywhere. :P Still, it was very nice indeed.

Nowt else to report. Back at work tomorrow, but thankfully only for three days. Bit of a busy weekend, including (hopefully) a barbecue on Friday at my mum's if the weather holds out, and then the Bach concert in Worcester on Saturday. And then another week off, huzzah!

Right, going to sign this one off now as I have hiccups. Bah.

As promised, some photos of my latest attempts at baking.  I'm no krispen when it comes to decorating, but the Toppled Cake is certainly interesting...

( Cake or death? )

And, also as promised and more for thefleshfailure's interest than anyone else's, my desk:



Post-its!  They'll breed and take over the rest of the desk eventually (the ones under the printer are real fic/story notes, the lined up ones on the door are my 'legend' of what note/pen combination stands for what) and maybe the side of the monitor and any other available space.  It's going to be very exciting. :D

Yes, that is Vampira, and the feet on either side of the printer belong to Rocky and Ginger from Chicken Run...