We made a fish pasta bake last night (like a fish pie but with penne pasta mixed in instead of potato on the top), mostly based on St Delia's recipe. I'd snaffled and frozen salmon at 80p a pack along with smoked haddock and it was delicious. Leftovers today, probably with garlic bread.
That sounds rather divine, Arethosemyfeet! A good smoked fish pie is a Thing of Beauty - and substituting pasta would work really nicely. There was a restaurant in Londonderry we used to go to occasionally that was really just the (slightly done up and licensed) back room of a fish-and-chip shop. They were best known for their (excellent) fish and chips, but they did other pescatory goodies as well; my default when we went there was smoked haddock and tarragon tagliatelle, which was utterly heavenly and easily justified the 140-mile round trip from Belfast!
Yet another consignment of food arrived this morning; S. has really been going mad for the food-delivery craze. Today's box included kale, broccoli, grapes, many berries (blue, black and rasp) and a watermelon. That should sort out our five-a-day ...
Not quite sure what culinary adventures I'll have today: we've got smoked salmon that really ought to be used (although it's in a vacuum-pack and has been in the fridge, so should be OK), so I could do that with scrambled eggs and possibly a few slices of avocado. Whether S. will think that's sufficient to count as proper supper may be another matter.
It's another glorious day: the BBC says it's 15°, but I've just been for my amble, and it feels warmer than that. It can stay like this for just as long as it likes.
Our weather station put it at 20.1C about half an hour ago. I suspect it has climbed a bit higher. I was reading a book in a hammock but I started to melt.
We also had pasta bake last night, to which I added some salmon I'd thoughtfully cooked the day before. I also, for the first time, made home made Slimming World friendly chips and they were amazing. Tonight we have chicken fricassee, more commonly known at Chateau Nen as Chick Frick.
We've had wonderful steady rain for most of the day, it's doing my garden no end of good.
I'll be thinking of @Piglet tomorrow, let us know how the interview goes. 🍀
We have had a lot of rain, though not as much of some parts of South Waless (Pentre in the Rhondda, Killay in Swansea) which have had flooding. More is forecast.
Spent 3 hours this morning sorting out my teaching availability for two modules I teach, so that was tedious. Then I re-wrote a piece I want to submit to an academic blog about researching students with mental health challenges. I've also applied for some funding for a conference in July - now everything is online it makes it far more accessible for someone like me who gets anxious.
Looking at the fridge, I'm guessing it is pork casserole with dumplings. And I've bought some new gin, Lunar by Hendricks.
Our local sorting office was apparently a victim of the rain, so hopefully the father's day cards will reach my Dad before the day. The roof caved in during the most torrential bit, so they are trying to get the outgoing mail processed with some help from the other regional mail centres, but local deliveries are going to be disrupted for a few days as it sounds like that side of the building came off worst.
The other benefit of online events is that you have no travel and it's easier to arrange diaries. We have a county Guide camp at home event coming up, which will be less of a logistical challenge than the original planned event, and it'll be a lot easier to do it with the Dragonlets in our own garden than if I took them with me.
I have the advantage of teaching online for the OU so I think online conferences are normal and I attend our internal one every year, though I will miss the face to face regional conference if it doesn't happen in December because it is the only day of the year I meet my fellow lecturers in the flesh. There's also a risk that it'll disappear for good as we no longer have a regional office in our area (the main university is now the regional office for us).
About 33C here today - it's now down to 28 (at 7:30pm). Too hot for me!
I had a bit of smoked salmon for lunch -- brought it home from work the other day. Pretty tasty.
I had smoked salmon and scrambled eggs for lunch - very nice it was too.
It was apparently 35° in Fredericton yesterday - am I ever glad I'm in Edinburgh!
I've spent the morning swotting up on things that I hope they'll ask me at the interview, and panicking. Thanks for the good wishes - I'm just messing about on here to try and take my mind off it for a wee bit before I wait for them to phone me. Will report back.
I hope it went well piglet.
First thing this morning, a local cat tried to get in the bathroom window while I was on the toilet. I'm not sure which of us was more surprised! It was quite an attempt on his part, he jumped from the conservatory roof to a tiny window at the top of a bigger pane and was trying to get his upper arms and head through while scrambling on the glass- then promptly fell back again when he saw me. I assume he is okay as he wasn't around when I checked outside.
I've done a little work, read some research papers and established contact with a non-academic colleague who is doing research similar to mine but looking at curriculum not tutor support. I can use some of her work on language and disability in my theses.
Plus: we had our first actual social occasion in three months, meeting friends in their back garden.
Minus: I fell off a too-high step and landed backwards on some stone coping. Discovering the extent to which back muscles are involved in everyday activities.
Lots of showery downpours here - the grass is loving it! I’ve protected my lettuces 🥬
This rather gives the impression that you've been standing by them with a pitchfork (or tin of slug pellets), ready to repulse any potential caterpilline attackers ...
Did any of you UK (ers) spot the Red Arrows/Patrouille flypast yesterday afternoon? I swear they must have been practising over our small town as they flew over several times before their officially scheduled time. Truly impressive, despite the cloud cover.
... I fell off a too-high step and landed backwards on some stone coping ...
Very ouch! Hope you're not too seriously broken.
Well, I gave the interview my best shot, but as I haven't heard back from them (they said if I was successful I'd hear by the end of the day), I'm assuming it wasn't good enough.
Did any of you UK (ers) spot the Red Arrows/Patrouille flypast yesterday afternoon? I swear they must have been practising over our small town as they flew over several times before their officially scheduled time. Truly impressive, despite the cloud cover.
I doubt they had much chance to practice beforehand, and even 'basic' formation flying needs lining up. We were once on holiday in Suffolk, and on the beach at Southwold when the Lowestoft air show was on, and had a good view of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight lining up. (Their planes all have different standard speeds so they have to get into formation carefully.)
for Piglet. I've had far too many 2nd choice interviews lately and have had to put getting a promotion into a slightly different line of work on hold for a while.
Ipswich, where I used to serve, is on the direct fly-past line into central London. Once I conducted a wedding on the Queen's Official Birthday, and the happy couple were greeted by a flypast as they left the church (no coloured smoke though).
Even better, some years previously when we were in London, it was my wife's School Fete day. I was on the microphone and I had literally just said, "I now declare the Fete open" when the Red Arrows flew over in all their glory. The timing was immaculate!
Lots of showery downpours here - the grass is loving it! I’ve protected my lettuces 🥬
This rather gives the impression that you've been standing by them with a pitchfork (or tin of slug pellets), ready to repulse any potential caterpilline attackers ...
Better luck next time, Piglet - it must be disheartening.
Yesterday my pulse was very normal all day for the first time in 3 months so I’m hoping that will continue. It has been noticeably improving for about 2 weeks. I have a cardiology appointment on Monday for some investigations.
Today my main aim is to encourage my husband to lay some ground covering for an area of decking. I need to do some light weeding of the veg patch. I’ve also got some large Really Useful boxes arriving so I can sort my spinning stuff out into more manageable piles.
Did any of you UK (ers) spot the Red Arrows/Patrouille flypast yesterday afternoon? I swear they must have been practising over our small town as they flew over several times before their officially scheduled time. Truly impressive, despite the cloud cover.
I doubt they had much chance to practice beforehand, and even 'basic' formation flying needs lining up. We were once on holiday in Suffolk, and on the beach at Southwold when the Lowestoft air show was on, and had a good view of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight lining up. (Their planes all have different standard speeds so they have to get into formation carefully.)
for Piglet. I've had far too many 2nd choice interviews lately and have had to put getting a promotion into a slightly different line of work on hold for a while.
Must have been planned then. It was thanks to one of our dogs picking up on the noise, that I got out into the garden in time to catch the first lot flying over, 20 minutes before they were officially due. After their first appearance, we had a good ten minutes of intermittent flypast. I was wondering if they were flying lower than usual because of cloud cover.
Ipswich, where I used to serve, is on the direct fly-past line into central London. Once I conducted a wedding on the Queen's Official Birthday, and the happy couple were greeted by a flypast as they left the church (no coloured smoke though).
Even better, some years previously when we were in London, it was my wife's School Fete day. I was on the microphone and I had literally just said, "I now declare the Fete open" when the Red Arrows flew over in all their glory. The timing was immaculate!
Ipswich, where I used to serve, is on the direct fly-past line into central London. Once I conducted a wedding on the Queen's Official Birthday, and the happy couple were greeted by a flypast as they left the church (no coloured smoke though).
Even better, some years previously when we were in London, it was my wife's School Fete day. I was on the microphone and I had literally just said, "I now declare the Fete open" when the Red Arrows flew over in all their glory. The timing was immaculate!
Thanks, folks - I've e-mailed the interviewer to ask for feedback, and applied for another two jobs this morning.
I'm trying to accustom myself to a new watch (which I ordered from Am*z*n a couple of nights ago, and received the next day - whatever one thinks of Mr. Bezos, their service is pretty damn quick). I'd been using D's watch, as my old one finally gave up the ghost just after he died, and my sister said why not use his one? Its battery has now given up, and I'm not sure when I'm next likely to be at a battery emporium.
The new one looks nice, but I'm finding that I can feel it being there*, IYSWIM, and it'll take a wee bit of getting used to.
It's a beautiful day, with just a little breeze, so I'm off for an amble shortly.
* especially when using a computer mouse - I really ought to just take it off ...
Thanks, folks - I've e-mailed the interviewer to ask for feedback, and applied for another two jobs this morning.
I'm trying to accustom myself to a new watch (which I ordered from Am*z*n a couple of nights ago, and received the next day - whatever one thinks of Mr. Bezos, their service is pretty damn quick). I'd been using D's watch, as my old one finally gave up the ghost just after he died, and my sister said why not use his one? Its battery has now given up, and I'm not sure when I'm next likely to be at a battery emporium.
The new one looks nice, but I'm finding that I can feel it being there*, IYSWIM, and it'll take a wee bit of getting used to.
It's a beautiful day, with just a little breeze, so I'm off for an amble shortly.
* especially when using a computer mouse - I really ought to just take it off ...
Can you put it on the non-mouse wrist? I know I can't wear bracelets on my right wrist for the same reason, but my watch is on my left wrist.
Sorry to hear your news, @Piglet ; I'm sure there's something better just around the corner.
I've got a new little plant to put into one of the borders and will then be cracking on with cooking our tea - stir fry, the usual Saturday evening fare. Mr Nen and I are planning to watch the last two episodes of a series on Netflix called "Unorthodox" which we've found gripping but traumatic. I just need to get it watched and over with. I'll be opening a bottle of wine to have with tea and probably consuming a fair amount of it to get me through the watching.
Our son has come home for a staycation. Both he and husband have next week off. We've just been for a walk and are now going to cook a mezze dinner, with each doing a dish. Trouble is our kitchen is very small, so I think we'll be eating it rather late as we're doing it in relays. Oh well there is wine and olives to keep us going. It's very nice to see him after more than three months.
It's official: I no longer have a job 😧. I'm setting the lawyer on them.
Today was a better day though: husband en rouge volunteered to look after Captain Pyjamas all day and I went on a nice walk in the country with a couple of friends. There were trees and flowers and cows. I came home with some cheese and unpasteurised cream bought straight from the farm. So it's not all bad.
Hope the lawyers get you lots of compensation, and that you get a much nicer job pronto @la vie en rouge . Sorry that didn't work out @piglet, but you seem to have a lot more irons in the fire.
Our dinner is nearly ready to eat. Husband is setting up his tripod to take a picture of our efforts.
We have a new Turkish shop in our road where son and I went for the ingredients. The red onions were rubbish, but everything else has been really good.
We had fish and chips for the first time in a while as well.
This afternoon was spent listening to the YouTube broadcast of 'Not the twelve bell live', as it should have been the national twelve bell ringing contest in Sheffield today, and being closer than some years we probably would have gone to listen. (It's a combination of serious ringing and a lot of socialising with other ringers over serious quantities of beer.)
This evening I have been continuing with my current project of sewing my badge backlog onto my camping blanket. We're having a county Guide camp at home event at the start of July, and I want it up to date for then, but I had over a dozen badges waiting to go on. Tonight was all the yellow edged ones, including wrangling with the one from our trip to the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway with my parents last year. It's an iron-on one, and even having removed the backing the edges were a bit unyielding. (I imagine that the RHDR hasn't had this many mentions on the Ship in such a short space of time before!)
I have soon got to repeat the exercise on the blankets for the Dragonlets, although I need to buy No. 2 a suitable blanket first.
Dinner of veal chops in rosemary and lemon butter, with a Cremant de Limoux we actually bought in Limoux. At twelve years old probably hitting its apogee.
We had a tomato, pepper and broad bean risotto, followed by red currant tart with fresh red currants from the garden. Apart from the white wine (a basic supermarket Soave) it was rather a red meal!
We had baked potatoes stuffed with smoked mackerel, beetroot and horseradish, plus a handful off home-grown salad leaves.
Pudding was rhubarb (2018 vintage from the freezer) and custard (Birds, naturally).
As Sunday is leftovers day, the remaining rhubarb will become rhubarb crumble to follow "Italian casserole", the remains of a pasta dish from Friday, with additional mozzarella
@Piglet - if or when you get a memory teddy made could it wear D's watch? (Possibly as a belt).
Ooh - that's not a bad idea! Or, now I think about it, I might be able to put it on Quite Large Bear when he arrives from Canada - he's got fairly broad arms (and he was one of David's favourite bears)!
Sorry to hear about your job, La Vie - as the others have said, set your lawyers on them, preferably with teeth ...
Our supper last night was ready-steamed salmon (S's default purchase from M&S) with a whole shedload of veggies that I roasted: potatoes with wild garlic and mint, aubergine, courgettes, red pepper, asparagus and kale.
I might do pasta with broccoli tonight if we've got any crème fraîche.
I ought to go and amble; I didn't yesterday, as we went to my nephew's and spent a lovely afternoon in the garden with him and Archie (who's now toddling about all over the place ) and my niece and Harvey the cockapoo.
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Yet another consignment of food arrived this morning; S. has really been going mad for the food-delivery craze. Today's box included kale, broccoli, grapes, many berries (blue, black and rasp) and a watermelon. That should sort out our five-a-day ...
Not quite sure what culinary adventures I'll have today: we've got smoked salmon that really ought to be used (although it's in a vacuum-pack and has been in the fridge, so should be OK), so I could do that with scrambled eggs and possibly a few slices of avocado. Whether S. will think that's sufficient to count as proper supper may be another matter.
It's another glorious day: the BBC says it's 15°, but I've just been for my amble, and it feels warmer than that. It can stay like this for just as long as it likes.
Tomorrow is to be a typical June day - cloudy.
We've had wonderful steady rain for most of the day, it's doing my garden no end of good.
I'll be thinking of @Piglet tomorrow, let us know how the interview goes. 🍀
Looking at the fridge, I'm guessing it is pork casserole with dumplings. And I've bought some new gin, Lunar by Hendricks.
The other benefit of online events is that you have no travel and it's easier to arrange diaries. We have a county Guide camp at home event coming up, which will be less of a logistical challenge than the original planned event, and it'll be a lot easier to do it with the Dragonlets in our own garden than if I took them with me.
I had a bit of smoked salmon for lunch -- brought it home from work the other day. Pretty tasty.
It was apparently 35° in Fredericton yesterday - am I ever glad I'm in Edinburgh!
I've spent the morning swotting up on things that I hope they'll ask me at the interview, and panicking. Thanks for the good wishes - I'm just messing about on here to try and take my mind off it for a wee bit before I wait for them to phone me. Will report back.
Lots of showery downpours here - the grass is loving it! I’ve protected my lettuces 🥬
First thing this morning, a local cat tried to get in the bathroom window while I was on the toilet. I'm not sure which of us was more surprised! It was quite an attempt on his part, he jumped from the conservatory roof to a tiny window at the top of a bigger pane and was trying to get his upper arms and head through while scrambling on the glass- then promptly fell back again when he saw me. I assume he is okay as he wasn't around when I checked outside.
I've done a little work, read some research papers and established contact with a non-academic colleague who is doing research similar to mine but looking at curriculum not tutor support. I can use some of her work on language and disability in my theses.
Minus: I fell off a too-high step and landed backwards on some stone coping. Discovering the extent to which back muscles are involved in everyday activities.
Yep. Thermite.
Very ouch! Hope you're not too seriously broken.
Well, I gave the interview my best shot, but as I haven't heard back from them (they said if I was successful I'd hear by the end of the day), I'm assuming it wasn't good enough.
Must try harder ...
Thanks for the prayers and good wishes though!
I doubt they had much chance to practice beforehand, and even 'basic' formation flying needs lining up. We were once on holiday in Suffolk, and on the beach at Southwold when the Lowestoft air show was on, and had a good view of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight lining up. (Their planes all have different standard speeds so they have to get into formation carefully.)
Even better, some years previously when we were in London, it was my wife's School Fete day. I was on the microphone and I had literally just said, "I now declare the Fete open" when the Red Arrows flew over in all their glory. The timing was immaculate!
This is the truth of the matter.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/BxcRDHwxLf21gCX2A
Yesterday my pulse was very normal all day for the first time in 3 months so I’m hoping that will continue. It has been noticeably improving for about 2 weeks. I have a cardiology appointment on Monday for some investigations.
Today my main aim is to encourage my husband to lay some ground covering for an area of decking. I need to do some light weeding of the veg patch. I’ve also got some large Really Useful boxes arriving so I can sort my spinning stuff out into more manageable piles.
Must have been planned then. It was thanks to one of our dogs picking up on the noise, that I got out into the garden in time to catch the first lot flying over, 20 minutes before they were officially due. After their first appearance, we had a good ten minutes of intermittent flypast. I was wondering if they were flying lower than usual because of cloud cover.
Impressive!
I'm trying to accustom myself to a new watch (which I ordered from Am*z*n a couple of nights ago, and received the next day - whatever one thinks of Mr. Bezos, their service is pretty damn quick). I'd been using D's watch, as my old one finally gave up the ghost just after he died, and my sister said why not use his one? Its battery has now given up, and I'm not sure when I'm next likely to be at a battery emporium.
The new one looks nice, but I'm finding that I can feel it being there*, IYSWIM, and it'll take a wee bit of getting used to.
It's a beautiful day, with just a little breeze, so I'm off for an amble shortly.
* especially when using a computer mouse - I really ought to just take it off ...
Can you put it on the non-mouse wrist? I know I can't wear bracelets on my right wrist for the same reason, but my watch is on my left wrist.
I've got a new little plant to put into one of the borders and will then be cracking on with cooking our tea - stir fry, the usual Saturday evening fare. Mr Nen and I are planning to watch the last two episodes of a series on Netflix called "Unorthodox" which we've found gripping but traumatic. I just need to get it watched and over with.
Today was a better day though: husband en rouge volunteered to look after Captain Pyjamas all day and I went on a nice walk in the country with a couple of friends. There were trees and flowers and cows. I came home with some cheese and unpasteurised cream bought straight from the farm. So it's not all bad.
I just had proper fish & chips for the first time in over 3 months
Our dinner is nearly ready to eat. Husband is setting up his tripod to take a picture of our efforts.
We have a new Turkish shop in our road where son and I went for the ingredients. The red onions were rubbish, but everything else has been really good.
This afternoon was spent listening to the YouTube broadcast of 'Not the twelve bell live', as it should have been the national twelve bell ringing contest in Sheffield today, and being closer than some years we probably would have gone to listen. (It's a combination of serious ringing and a lot of socialising with other ringers over serious quantities of beer.)
This evening I have been continuing with my current project of sewing my badge backlog onto my camping blanket. We're having a county Guide camp at home event at the start of July, and I want it up to date for then, but I had over a dozen badges waiting to go on. Tonight was all the yellow edged ones, including wrangling with the one from our trip to the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway with my parents last year. It's an iron-on one, and even having removed the backing the edges were a bit unyielding. (I imagine that the RHDR hasn't had this many mentions on the Ship in such a short space of time before!)
I have soon got to repeat the exercise on the blankets for the Dragonlets, although I need to buy No. 2 a suitable blanket first.
Pudding was rhubarb (2018 vintage from the freezer) and custard (Birds, naturally).
As Sunday is leftovers day, the remaining rhubarb will become rhubarb crumble to follow "Italian casserole", the remains of a pasta dish from Friday, with additional mozzarella
Ooh - that's not a bad idea! Or, now I think about it, I might be able to put it on Quite Large Bear when he arrives from Canada - he's got fairly broad arms (and he was one of David's favourite bears)!
Sorry to hear about your job, La Vie - as the others have said, set your lawyers on them, preferably with teeth ...
Our supper last night was ready-steamed salmon (S's default purchase from M&S) with a whole shedload of veggies that I roasted: potatoes with wild garlic and mint, aubergine, courgettes, red pepper, asparagus and kale.
I might do pasta with broccoli tonight if we've got any crème fraîche.
I ought to go and amble; I didn't yesterday, as we went to my nephew's and spent a lovely afternoon in the garden with him and Archie (who's now toddling about all over the place