Friday Links

Posted on December 29, 2017 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday! This week I have survived Christmas, a trip to the dump, and IKEA and these two nutcases!! (I kid, they were lovely and we had a lovely family Christmas with no rows!)

I’m currently waiting for my new bed to be delivered which I am very excited about and I hope you had a restful week if you needed it or a busy social one if that’s what you wanted!

Here are some links…

Being organised is the gift I give myself and other people. This is me nowadays, becoming my mother and being quite happy about it!

Ex footballer George Weah to become President of Liberia. He’s also an ex Chelsea player. I just hope that he’s up to the job.

Peter Capaldi is a marvellous human being and his advice is good for things other than the regeneration of Dr Who!

Recipes for the New Year. They look good, although my New Year’s dinner will, as always be steak! I’m a creature of habit and I don’t care…

I’m resisting the urge to start sowing seeds until at least February but I can start thinking about how to label my plants!

Every Christmas Eve, I watch the photos come in, I slept in my own bed on Christmas Eve but Christmas night saw me on the sofa at my brothers house! #duvetknowitschristmas

Tomasz Schafernaker: the forecast is good. This is one of those things that only make sense if you know who Tomasz Schafernaker is, I do, because Radio 4 and I like the sound of his name, Schafernaker….

Milliennial Catholics and the wearing of veils in church. I am completely weirded out by this, the only time I’ve worn a veil in church was for my first communion and I’m bemused by the return of this it feels to me like form over faith…

Posted in Links | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Happy Christmas

Posted on December 25, 2017 by nicdempsey

Last night we did the tree. Today, we brave the excited nephews!

Happy Christmas if you celebrate it. Happy Monday off if you don’t! And a have good day if you are working. 

Enjoy!

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Sunday Music: Must Be Santa

Posted on December 24, 2017 by nicdempsey

So here we are, it’s the last Sunday before Christmas and Christmas Eve and so it’s got to be Dylan…

Must be Santa – Bob Dylan.

I love this, somehow Dylan is doing an impression of my Dad…

Posted in Christmas, Music | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Friday Links

Posted on December 22, 2017 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday! This is probably the last Friday Links of the year so make the most of it.

This is so sad. Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

The winter solstice isn’t a relief: it marks months of dashed hopes to come. This all of this…

Come to debtors’ court. See how ministers destroy businesses, and lives. I just have the sense that everyone is living on the edge of disaster right now.

Are the days of Christmas wrapping paper and cards over? I haven’t sent any Christmas cards this year and I’ve received one (thanks Jo!). I don’t wrap many presents either..because I love a gift bag, so maybe it is!

The childhood gift we always wanted – would it change our lives today?  I really wanted a Girls World, I got one for my birthday and about a month later my brother gave it a haircut! Other than that I don’t remember really wanting anything for Christmas, I don’t remember letters to Santa (Ma did used to pretend to phone him up if we were naughty!). We got a book every year most of which I still have but honestly, I don’t really remember any particular Christmas presents. So it probably wouldn’t have changed my life even then!

Lights Fantastic!

Are you an Order or Chaos Muppet? I’ve pretty much spent the day dividing people into Chaos and Order Muppets. I’ve also decided that I’m an order muppet with chaotic tendencies!

Damian Green sacked. Finally…

Bussed out: how America moves its homeless I’d like to see something like this on UK homelessness..

Homelessness is now the public face of this Tory era

 

Posted in Links | Leave a comment

Mulled Wine Syrup for cocktails

Posted on December 21, 2017 by nicdempsey

I don’t really drink mulled wine, I’m not keen on hot alcohol, which is why I’ve had two gifted bottles of mulled wine kicking around the house for the best part of a year.

I had a vague notion of making them into jelly but it didn’t happen and then I saw this recipe for a mulled wine bellini. It starts off with mulling a bottle of wine. I decided to make syrup instead.

I took two bottles of mulled wine, 200g of sugar, a sliced orange, 8 cloves and a handful of dried hibiscus flowers, I put it all in a saucepan and reduced it down until I had 500ml of syrup.

You can use it in a bellini or as the syrup component of a whiskey sour, it’s really good with gin. (1.5oz gin, 1 oz syrup, 0.5oz lemon juice – shake and serve straight up or on the rocks). You could also just dilute a shot of it with hot water and drink it as ‘mulled wine’. It could even be the basis of a Christmas present, like this.

I’m mostly drinking it with fizzy water or tonic, it’s a useful thing to have in fridge over Christmas.

Posted in Booze, Christmas, Cooking | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

The Annual Cold

Posted on December 19, 2017 by nicdempsey

I’ve been full of cold over the last two weekends and it seems as though it’s going to last into Christmas.This cold seems to have bought it’s friend, hacking cough, along too. Any of you that have been following along for a while may remember the cold that would not die from Jan 2015 which hung around until March and turned into a chest infection/flu. It was a while after that that I finally got the GP to agree that the cough was asthma not acid reflux and prescribe something for it. Since then I have caught colds but not had the barking cough. Until this one. Last night the cough was so bad, I threw up and honestly it’s pretty frightening. I was in bed early and it seems better today, I am at work (because you should avoid being sick in your first week of a new job!) but I’m really not sure what’s going to help.

So far my honey, lemon and ginger drink is helping but other than my inhalers, there isn’t much else that helps.Fingers crossed that I’ll get better soon because it’s really not good and I’m fed up of it and myself right now.

Posted in Sick, Whining | Leave a comment

Best/Worst – 11 to 17 December 2017

Posted on December 18, 2017 by nicdempsey

Happy Monday!

Best

A successful interview. As of Monday I have a job, it’s a three month contract but it’s work and I’m happy about it!

Worst

Sick. My annual December cold, it has completely trashed two weekends and a haircut, I’m full of snot and coughing and I’m fed up and want it to be over but it’s still hanging around. I just want to be better. On the other hand, I went for an interview with a cold and got the job, oh the irony…

Honourable mentions to salt dough decorations, Grey’s Anatomy, making fudge, Oli as a star, being “grown up and ordinary to look at” from the child that calls himself “oatman” I shouldn’t be surprised! And finally losing my purse and having to cancel all my cards, only to have the bank call me to tell me it has been found! I picked it up last night and I hope the lady who found it enjoys the fizz!

Posted in How I Live | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Sunday Music: A Willie Nice Christmas

Posted on December 17, 2017 by nicdempsey

Kacey Musgroves – A Willie Nice Christmas feat. Willie Nelson (of course!)

Christmas needs more silly songs….

 

Posted in Christmas, Music | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Friday Links

Posted on December 15, 2017 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday! This Friday, I am having my haircut and getting myself sorted for working next week, that should be interesting…

Nope, nope, nope. Napoleon was the best general ever and maths proves it.  So much no for this, the maths cannot be right because it’s not possible…

Kale loaf with feta and roasted squash. Ma made this last week with our kale and a squash we grew in the summer. She said it was awesome…

Renting: why are we seeing the death of the living room?

Four in 10 right-to-buy homes are now owned by private landlords. Right to buy has been a disaster for housing in this country, and I say that as someone who has close friends and family that have profited from it. It shouldn’t have happened but we can stop it now.

Muslim foster parents: ‘We’d never had a Christmas tree – it made them so happy’ This is worth reading.

How to make a Christmas party playlist. Honestly, I’ve never made playlists for Christmas parties and my Christmas CD’s do have a lot of Jesus in them. While I will play ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’ and ‘Blue Christmas’ over and over in all the versions I can get, I will also play ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’ and ‘Go Tell It On The Mountain’ until everyone is bored of them.

I’m quitting as a hospital boss: dire NHS funding problems give me no choice

$30 for three brownies! The takedown on the concept is priceless.

Posted in Links | Leave a comment

Handmade Christmas: Salt Dough Decorations

Posted on December 14, 2017 by nicdempsey

Yesterday, I babysat for the Baxters. The children, especially the eldest, are really into making things and the youngest has been telling me that I don’t spend enough time playing with them! So after checking with their mum, I arranged to come over early and decorate some salt dough ornaments with them. Time after school is tricky, children are tired and time before dinner and bedtime is short, so I didn’t want to do the actual making with them because it would take to long to get to the good bits.

On Tuesday, I made the ornaments. I used this recipe on Wholefully and baked them. Mine turned out a bit puffy but I quite liked the effect!After they had cooled I used a spray paint primer on them and allowed them to dry over night.On Wednesday, I let the children loose on them!A quick spray with clear sealer and we were done. You may not get so much glitter all over the place! I think if you just spray painted them, they’d make really good gift tags.

Posted in Christmas, Handmade, How To | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment