T'eyla Minh

Today there is an Away Day for Legal Services, so we have a skeleton staff base of the WPOs, secretaries, clericals and a few random fee earners (in here, we have one Legal Assistant and one Senior Solicitor). It's going to be a very quiet day. So obviously, I'm writing an LJ entry.

This weekend was quite hectic, but enjoyable. On Friday night, we had the usual fare of television... though unfortunately, thanks to Channel Four not bothering to compete with Children in Need last week, the UK are now a full two weeks behind the US with regards to Ugly Betty, rather than one week. Whilst this is still better than being months behind, it does make the spoiler temptation rather worse, as there are (admittedly hidden beneath LJ-cuts) discussion entries over on daniel_betty which are impossible to avoid, and besides that, the episode summaries (and titles, more often than not) give away more than they should...

But anyway, it's all good. Also, Thursday night's Boosh was bloody brilliant, but I've always liked Inner Space and the "You shall not pass!" made me giggle. Also, I'm quite terrified by how much a bit of makeup and a beehive haircut can make Noel Fielding look like Amy Winehouse... (And I'm still totally crushing Noel Fielding; as ever, it's a cheekbone thing. Or a generalised angular face thing.)

Also on Friday I made the nicest lasagne ever. I made the bolognese sauce, and the white sauce was from a jar (need to learn to make it), and put in a layer of cheesy brocolli, and WOW. My Secret Ingredient^TM really makes all the difference. YUM.

So, anyway, weekend.

On Saturday morning, my mum and David brought over our 'new' oven (by which I mean, their old one). Paul then had to go out and buy a set of pliers, because the cable was bolted to our old one, leading us to further suspect it to be as old as the previous boiler, if not older... Anyway, other than that it was quite straightforward, it works fine, and David also sealed our kitchen sink at the back, so hopefully that'll stop it leaking...

The rest of the day was spent getting veg and meat and picking up my prescription from Boots, which I'd dropped off on Friday. ( Possibly TMI. )

The rest of the day was spent tidying, hoovering and dusting in preparation for Jen and Dave coming over for dinner on Sunday, and also rearranging the kitchen appliances a little bit to try and make more room. Not sure if it worked, but anyway, it looks a bit better, and at least the breadbin won't get covered in washing-up water all the time.

On Sunday morning Paul nearly set fire to the hob by turning on the wrong hotplate whilst the cover was still on... The covers are new, unfortunately, and one of them is now an interesting shade of dark grey. Bah.

After Paul had done the washing up I set about making a batch of (Irish) Yorkshire puddings (secret family recipe...), as we've run out. Unfortunately, I'd mixed the batter before I realised I'd run out of suet, so had to send Paul out to Sainsbury's for some more... and then I didn't put enough milk in the mixture anyway, so they were a bit dry...

Jen and Dave (and Lisa) arrived at about 3.30, bearing Christmas gifts and a wedding invitation, and we had a very nice dinner at 4.00 of roast pork with all the trimmings, followed by a home-made apple crumble made by Lisa. The rest of the evening was then spent playing Pictionary and Zobmongo, a strange "would you rather" game involving predicting what your team-mates would say... Most bizarre. Jen won both games, incidentally... I think it's a fix. :P

After they'd gone at about 10.00pm, I read through Paul's work report thing and inserted appropriate commas (his colleague needs some report-writing lessons, by the looks of things, not to mention some grammar skills) and then we went to bed.

All in all, quite an enjoyable, if tiring, weekend. Next weekend I really need to start thinking about sorting out Christmas, given it's only a couple of weeks until the Messiah and carol concerts (my voice is almost back to normal, thankfully) and then the day itself will be upon us. Meh. Being off sick the other week completely threw me off kilter. I will attempt Christmas cards again this week, possibly after I've tried to buy a craft knife... I got some PVA glue, so that's a start.

The cakes are in the oven.  There are two 18" tins and three small pie tins in there as I'm making three baby cakes to go with the main one for Alison.  When I've had tea (Sainsbury's instant curry) and the cakes are cool I'll make the icing, although I created the uber-lemon flavour last time by accident.  I'll just keep adding lime until it works, I suppose.

In the meantime, here is a photograph of the parfait.  I've taken the strawberries off again and wrapped it in foil for the meantime, in order to transport it to the party... although I think I need a cool bag or something in case it tries to melt.  We'll see.

( YUMS )

I need to set the video for Ugly Betty and try and watch the DVD I rented last week... it's a film made entirely using marionettes.  And no, it's not Team America. :P

Edit, 21.13: Cakes are iced as iced can be. Please confirm, cooks on my friends list: it is, in fact, impossible to do anything with icing sugar without covering the entire kitchen with it...

This is one of those annoying weeks where I don't have enough days to do everything...

Tonight I should probably stay late (as in until 5.15) rather than leaving early to make up for the hours lost at the team lunch yesterday. (Pizza Express do very nice lasagne.) Except technically I can't, because I need to eat before going swimming I need to be back fairly early in order to cook. I'll just have to leave on time on Thursday and do all my cooking then...

So, tomorrow I need to: bake & ice Lemon Cake, and make meringues for the parfait. And then on Friday I'll make the parfait, as the only thing I need to do to that once it's made is freeze it...

I also have to get something else to go with Alison's present, which I'm going to try and do this lunchtime.

( Money moan )

Anyway. It doesn't help that this month I've bought a lot of stuff from Argos, probably about £40-worth of house things. Next month I'm going to try not to spend any money at all except for the allocated £20 a week. It CAN'T be that difficult.

In other news, I got absolutely soaked last night walking the 10 minute walk from work to choir. Annoyingly enough, if I'd left 15 minutes later I would have been fine. Also, when the rain started up again at 8.00, we were all trying to sing over the racket and failing. The room where we rehearse has a flat roof and large skylights, so I'm sure you can imagine the noise...

My work shoes were still damp this morning. Also I forgot to put the washing machine on before I left. Bugger.

Only one work annoyance today: my typing has been pretty much left alone this week because one WPO's dictation machine isn't working (and subsequently her help was more of a hindrance because it took her so long), but as soon as I went out for my lunch this afternoon - with only about 7 things left in the tray, it should be noted, and only three of those from today - two of them were taken. Bah.

During lunch I bought Part Two of Alison's present, which she technically already knows about, a new purse / wallet / whatever for myself, and some shoes from Priceless Shoes as it's closing down. They're patent black slight-wedge-heeled creations with a criss-crossing pattern, so I'm hoping to wear them with skirts rather than my boots now it's getting warmer. Slightly tacky, but hopefully smart enough for it not to notice as they're a fairly classic shape.

I'm going to investigate the Priceless Shoes in Kings Heath on the way home; they've had bags of various sizes in the window for ages, including a rather lovely turquoise one. They are now on sale and I can't see the turquoise one any more, but I spotted a nice dark green one in town earlier that I might get instead. Admittedly they were only a tenner to start with, but I think I can stretch to their reduced price of six quid. My current work bag is ugly and the suede covering is peeling off.. shame, really.

Aaaanyway. I must now sign this off and get back to doing some work.

(PS: At some point I may have to write an Ugly Betty fic. Watch this space.)

Last night I made possibly the healthiest meal in a while, though that was rather negated by the sheer amount of it.

( Pesto chicken pasta )

I also did this with home-made garlic bread (yes, I am a kitchen goddess) and it was lovely. There was rather a lot of it, so I had the rest for my lunch today... The only bad thing was that the yoghurt overpowered the pesto flavour a little bit, so I might try it with double cream next time (just to make it slightly less healthy...)

Tonight I'm leaving work at about 5.30 to go to a rehearsal for the City of Birmingham Choir (if I can find the bloody place), in the hope of auditioning next week. Christmas just isn't Christmas without a good sing-song, so I'm biting the bullet and trying to join up. Here's hoping my soprano hasn't withered and died. Wish me luck!