Sunday Music: Whiskey and You

Posted on January 15, 2017 by nicdempsey

Last Friday would have been my parents 44th wedding anniversary, I feel I ought to mark the occasion in some way (I don’t really know why either but go with me on this) Sunday Music has featured the song that most reminds me of my parents marriage, their ‘song’ and the song that we played at Dad’s funeral. There is other music that played through my childhood but it all seems to be Mum’s not Dad’s. Dad’s domain was the living room and there wasn’t a radio in there,  Ma’s rooms were the kitchen and dining room where the radios were and we were just with her more. Also Dad’s music taste wasn’t all that good, lots of Rod Stewart (who has his place but there’s only so many times as a teenager you can listen to Maggie May…) So, given Ma’s known love of a man with a beard! I’m going bad to Chris Stapleton. I think Noel would like this one, mostly because it’s so full of tragic self pity…

Posted in Music | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Friday Links

Posted on January 13, 2017 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday! Today is also Friday 13th for the superstitious among you, and my parents wedding anniversary, you know if my dad was alive and my parents (ok my mum) hadn’t called it quits after 20 long suffering years…

Here are this week’s links…

London breaches annual air pollution limit for 2017 in five days. This is why I don’t want to walk home from work anymore (and also why I have asthma!)

The things you can learn from books

The NHS is in crisis and while I don’t want to add to the ‘all politicians are liars’ mindset, I believe the doctors on the ground rather than Jeremy Hunt.

Ex Mexican President Fox Trolls Trump on Twitter: “Are You a Legitimate President?. He’s only saying what we’ll all thinking…

David Squires on Millwall and the New Den’s uncertain future. So right about Danny Baker and a bottle of red..

Donald Trump is lost, wandering in a labyrinth of lies and trying to drag the country in with him

Here’s what section 40 would do to the British press – and it’s not good I’m not sure what I think about Section 40. Here is the other side of the argument, Section 40 will curb media abuses and protect the press from litigious oligarchs. Generally, I think that Impress and Ipso aren’t strong enough against the likes of Murdoch and the Daily Mail and I recognise that Section 40 is designed to help protect people who are libeled by the tabloids and can’t afford libel action but at the same time I don’t believe the arbitration rules are good enough to protect papers like the Guardian from the likes of Murdoch, so it’s a conundrum and I’m not sure this is the answer. I guess the answer would be to have a press system full of honourable people but I think we have to accept that age is long dead (if it ever existed!!)

 One blunt heckler has revealed just how much the UK economy is failing us

Day job stuff. The Year Coal Collapsed: 2016 Was A Turning Point For Britain’s Electricity

How Japan has almost eradicated gun crime

Lego Green Gables.

When you’re the only one who shows up to church

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

12 Days in January

Posted on January 12, 2017 by nicdempsey

We are 12 days into January. Time flies even if you’re not having fun. One of my little resolutions for 2017 (little as in I didn’t want to make it a goal or anything, I just wanted to try) was to try and take more photos. I hardly even take my camera out anymore and I find that my view of the world changes if I have a camera with me.

So I wanted to try and be in that mindset every day and use my phone camera for more than just food, trains, the allotment and nephews…

It’s not been a raging sucess so far but here’s what I’ve managed since 1st January

Leaving for work in the dark, or ‘what fresh hell is this?’ – 3rd January

Finding art on a lunchtime walk and recognising the sculpture. I felt so educated (I’m not!) – 3rd January

Frustration at Paddington. You can’t board a train if it’s not there – 3rd January

The last of the days of the Christmas Tree – 3rd January

Bauble. I love my Christmas decorations – 5th January

Friday Night Pizza – this was so good and I love a pizza with an egg on it – 6th January

Uncle Ian – we when to Fulham, we talked, we drank whisky… – 7th January

Tube Strike – couldn’t get a bus, had to walk to Paddington in the rain. but I kind of love the blurry reflections. – 9th January

View from the sofa – I have been trying to spend some time in the living room each night. At some point I need to talk about my new curtains too… – 10th January

Wine Wednesday- drinks with Ma before cinema-11th January

Posted in Photos, Random | Leave a comment

Other People’s Recipes – January 2017

Posted on January 10, 2017 by nicdempsey

A lot of cooking and creativity in the kitchen comes from reading recipes. I read about food a lot and I follow lots of cooking blogs. Sometimes, I cook a recipe as written, more often, I tweak a recipe to accomodate my tastes and what I have to cook with. At the beginning of the year, when it’s cold and grey and I’m skint, I’m more likely to look and bookmark recipes, so I’d thought it would be useful to have them all in one place (hence the very specific post title!) maybe you need some winter inspiration too…

Rachel Roddy’s recipe for pasta with potatoes and provola cheese

I would never have thought to put pasta and potatoes together but this looks like winter comfort food heaven and if the Italians do it, it must be ok, right?

Nigel Slater’s macaroni, chickpeas and tomato sauce

I still use Nigel Slater’s old cookbooks but I very rarely use any of the newer recipes in the Observer, they look great but I find them a bit otherworldly. How we cook and eat is very determined by how we live and Nigel’s life and mine nowadays are very far very removed from one another. Having said that, this looks good…

Stuffed Peppers

I don’t reall need help with stuffed peppers but these are intriguingly light on vegetables and carbs and full of cheese!

Chicken Piccata

I’m a sucker for chicken and lemon combinations. I can’t see a world where I would cook this recipe but maybe lemon roasted chicken thighs with some olives?

Kale pasta with chilli and anchovy

I bought kale this week and I have all of the other ingredients at home so this is probably getting made that week. Also I have plans to grow cavolo nero this year, so the more kale recipes I can acquire, the better. Speaking of which, Cavolo nero with rosemary and chilli

Swiss Chard Pancakes.

This looks like a use for the chard I’m growing, I would probably play with this a bit, but there’s something about the simplicity of this for family dinner that doesn’t work when it’s just you. Also it requires milk, which I almost never have in the house.

Spicy Carrot and Lentil Soup.

I actually make this and it was my lunch last week. It’s good and also uses milk, don’t be like me and burn the cumin!

Chickpea and vegetable hand pies. 

I’ve had these bookmarked for ages because I think they would be a perfect thing to make ahead and freeze, have I got around to doing anything about it? No. 2017 will be the year!!

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

Monday, Monday

Posted on January 9, 2017 by nicdempsey

This is usually where I put a ‘Life Happened’ post but they were getting a bit dull, I don’t find my life to be at all dull but it basically consists of the same elements; sleep, allotment, friends, housework, reading, wrangling the nephews occasionally, being ill (something I’m really hoping to do less of this year) and repeat.img_5475Like I said, I really love it but I’m not really enjoying writing about it and from the stats on the blog, you’re not really enjoying reading about it either! I honestly don’t know if there is anything to replace it with, the blog is my space and functions as something between a journal and a spare brain, I’m not sure who reads it or why they read it and that works for me because I think if I tried to change it to grow an audience or to make money, it would fundamentally change the space from what I need it to be.img_5403What am I saying? That I may not post on Mondays anymore, that it may be less about what I’ve done and more about what I’d like to do or about something that occured to me over the last week, it may be a photo I’m particularly happy with or a chat about what the week has in store and what I’d like to do about it. I’m not sure. I committed to focus this year but in this space, I’m giving myself room to be less focussed, I’m not committing to any definite weekly posts, generally, if it’s a recipe, it’ll go Thursday, Links with go on Friday and if there’s music it’ll be Sunday but I’m not going to be rigid about things having to go up or being in a particular strand because that felt quite constraining.img_5225This week I’m all about my routine and work, which is going to be busy. I know that we’re past the shortest day but it’s still pretty dark and I need a routine more in the winter than the summer, so I want to start to bed that in properly for the rest of winter, with emphasis on yoga and walking so I’m more likely to sleep better and be calmer about the business at work. I had a idea about the plan for the allotment, so I want to look at that. It’s the second week of January so I’m going to be gentle with myself about everything else and focus on the art of surviving January!

What are you doing this week?

Posted in How I Live | Leave a comment

January 2017 Goals

Posted on January 7, 2017 by nicdempsey

January is a month to be endured, the aim is survival but on the off chance that January will set the tone for the rest of the year. Not much happens in January, but Ben and Laura are moving and I want to be around to help them if they need it. I generally want to focus on making some gentle changes that will help me survive the month and prepare me for the spring. It’s also a time to re-set my good habits that I’ve slipped with over December and the Christmas break.img_5725

  • Use Bright Light Therapy Headset every day. I was given a bright light headset for Christmas. I’ve started to use it first thing in the morning. When the alarm goes off, I put this on for the prescribed 12 minutes and then I get up. This is something I want to do every morning to see if it has an impact.
  • Get out of the house by 7:30am on workdays. I get to work by 9am every morning, but the day goes better if I get into work earlier and have some time before people come in and start asking me for things. So I’m committing to getting out of the house in time for the 7:56 train in the morning, which will get me in the office by 8:30 at the absolute latest.
  • 10pm lights out on schoolnights. This really goes with the ‘get out of the house’ goal. Christmas holidays really mucked up my sleep patterns so I need to reset them. I need to sleep train myself again. This also means no screens after 9pm and making sure that ‘bedtime’ starts before 10pm, so I’m already in bed at 10pm.
  • Daytime walk in the park. I want to start walking more again. I really enjoyed it in 2015 and it sort of fell by the wayside in 2016 as I didn’t feel that my foot was up to it. So this month, I’m going to commit to a lunch time walk (providing it’s not raining!). 30 minutes in Regents Park, which is just next door to the office and kills three birds with one stone; I get a walk, I get outside in the daylight, and I get out of the office.
  • Drink two litres of water every day. I’m pretty good at this usually but I didn’t drink enough water over Christmas, so I just need to get back into the habit.
  • Yoga. I need to make time for this more consistently. When I do, I feel better, but I tend to let it slide. So I’m going to commit to 4 times a week and see how it goes. I signed up for this so that should help.img_5597

These are the focus for the month, there are other things I want to do but I think that these six things will help me set the tone and the other stuff will happen more naturally. Those things include taking care of myself (cleaning my face properly every night, moisturing, cutting back from December’s alcohol and bad food fest), taking care of the house (hoovering, getting housework routines re-stablished), blogging (here and on the EDAS website), the allotment (more weeding, planning for next year, thinking about how I’m going to start seeds etc!)img_5716

Posted in Goals | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Friday Links

Posted on January 6, 2017 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday!  The first week back to normal after Christmas is often full of resolutions and confusions. Hopefully, you all transitioned seemlessly back to real life. I more or less did aside from a doozy of a migraine yesterday. However, it’s Friday and life is back to normal so here are some links…

Underwhelming NYE photos. These are fab and I give you mine!img_5720

Ma rang me to tell me about this. A letter to all of the permissive parents. She thinks it could have been me. I think the author of said letter is far nicer to those parents than I would be!

Christmas isn’t over yet! Exactly, I think that New Year should really be in March or April, when it feels like a new year, it seems wrong to have it in the middle of Christmas.

We dedicated a year to self help and this is what it taught us. I found this hilarious…

I loved the response to this. Ask Polly. I’m pretending I’m happy single but I’m not. I would have used less words, more of the ‘get over yourself’ variety’ but it’s good advice. Make your life. I’m a firm believer in ‘if you build it they will come and if they don’t, it’ll still be amazing and yours’ school of living…

We’ve all been playing UNO wrong. We haven’t because Ma read the rules to stop Ben, Lu and Oli’s shameless cheating, but it’s easier to play the way everyone else does!

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

Food and Budget Review 2016

Posted on January 5, 2017 by nicdempsey

One of last year’s goals was about food and budget. I wanted to see if I could set a budget of £15 a week for my food. That’s roughly £2.14 a day. There were some things that budget didn’t include, booze, coffee and entertaining. So family celebration meals and people coming over for dinner weren’t included in that £15 although feeding Ma when she stayed over (which is most weekends during the summer) was.

I did really well. I stuck mostly to within my limits and while I didn’t save the change, I still feel good about it.

Here are the things I learned:

You have to plan and prepare – I’ve always been a fan of food prep and menu planning and this is really important when you are sticking to a budget. You have to work out what you have, what you need and make sure that you have something that you like to eat, if you don’t plan it, it all goes wrong.

You have to find alternate sources of protein – I’m always going to be a meat eater, I like meat but I eat less meat than I did because meat is expensive. I’ve noticed that I eat more eggs and cheese than I used to but I also eat more beans and lentils than I used to. img_5408

I still make my own bread – with the exception of tortillas and french bread, it’s easier and cheaper for me to make my own bread. That’s rolls, bread, flatbread mostly. I appreciate that if you have children or make a lot of sandwiches, it might not be but it works for me.

On toast will save you when you’re too tired to cook. Mushrooms on toast, cheese on toast, hummus on toast. When you can’t be doing with making an effort, something on toast is the answer.img_4625

I know what costs what where –  I have two Lidl’s near me but I generally go to the bigger one in Hanwell because it has the best deals but that doesn’t mean that everything is cheaper. I very rarely buy peppers from Lidl because they always have green ones in them, dried beans are cheaper in Waitrose than in Tescos. I’ve learnt to keep an eye on offers and check prices more.

I don’t waste food. I was always pretty good at this but I’m even better at it now, I also have a better appreciation for the effort that goes into food production whether that’s growing the vegetables or making dinner.

Of course things happen and one of the biggest impacts on my diet this year was the allotment. In the summer I was mostly trying to keep up with the produce and did less planning. Next year, we have plans to grow a lot more veg and to stretch out the season, so hopefully I should be getting some veg into October and November and start getting stuff off earlier than June, although you can never tell what the weather is going to do! I want to grow leeks and other winter vegetables. We’ll also grow some crops just for the freezer and work on preserving something other than courgettes!

We didn’t grow anything we wouldn’t have eaten but the quality of what we grew was so much better than anything I could buy. Ma became a fan of salad leaves, I ate raw tomatoes, there weren’t a lot of peas but they were amazing, I became a fan of beetroot!img_4760Overall, it was useful for me to look at the amount of money that I spent and the food I bought. I know people who spend less on food and people who spend much more but I feel that I have the balance right for me and I will continue to set a £15 a week budget, I won’t be updating you here though because it’s been really lovely not to take a photo of everything I eat!

This year I want to spend some time thinking (and posting) about how I do things, I may post menu plans too. Is there anything you want to know about any of this? I think one of the more interesting things for me is how my view of ‘what’s enough’ has changed. At the start £15 seemed a real challenge (and some weeks it really was!) but now it just seems normal and relatively easy to do. So if you are thinking about cutting back on food spending or changing how you cook and eat, don’t panic, it’s very doable!

Posted in Cooking, Food, Money | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

What I’ve Read – December 2016

Posted on January 4, 2017 by nicdempsey

I didn’t read much in December. Nine books might seem like a lot but I took most of the month to read Gentleman Bastards book and A Darker Shade of Magic. Most of the rest were read in the last week of December after Christmas!

Once Upon a Christmas – Sarah Morgan (Kindle TBR list)

I love Sarah Morgan, this one is a category Mills and Boon which I’m guessing has been re-packaged. The men are steely and determined, the woman virginial but at least they have a career. As I get older, I get less tolerant of the ‘alpha-hole’ in romance and the hero verged on that in this. Having said that, snowy Cotswold setting and I’m happy.

Managed – Kristen Callihan (bought)

I liked this so much better than the first one. Read it in a day, it had all the usual NA ridiculousness that I know and love.

A Darker Shade of Magic – V. E. Schwab (Kindle TBR list)

I really enjoyed this one and read it at the right time, I have the next on the TBR list AND the third is due out either this or next month!  I loved the concept of the different London’s and loved that there’s still more to learn.

The Lies of Locke Lamora: The Gentleman Bastards – Scott Lynch (Kindle TBR list)

This was recommended to me ages ago and has been sitting on the TBR list forever, I think I bought it as Kindle deal before I started to limit my book buying in 2015! It was clever and detailed and I was always waiting for the other shoe to drop. I will read the others at some point.

Bittersweet (True North Book 1) – Sarina Bowen (borrowed)

Fast and easy reading which I really enjoyed. One of my issues with NA is that the settings are so unrealistic. A theme through all three of the books is about things not working out as you planned and how you come back from that. This was the least dramatic. I know nothing about Vermont or apple growing or cider making. If the hero was making calvados with his apples (or maybe even gin a la Chase) I would have been more invested!  But I liked that both the hero and the heroine still had things to learn and that neither of them was sure about their lives all the time. Also that the hero worried about doing the right thing by his family and farm and employees.

Steadfast (True North Book 2) – Sarina Bowen (borrowed)

I wasn’t sure about this. The whole thing looks pretty hopeless and was quite NA in that both hero and heroine had horrible parents AND the hero was an addict. I liked that her chapters started with a song (and that I recognised some of them!) and his with a craving scale. I really liked that it dealt with addiction head on and had some stuff about chemical help for that. It was a bit melodrama-rama but there’s a scene near the end of the book where the heroine’s mother wakes the hell up, which I cheered at! I also really liked the realistic way the heroine described her career choice and not choosing to sing for a career. Like I said the books seem to reflect some of the growing up that happens in your 20’s..

Keepsake  (True North Book 1) – Sarina Bowen (borrowed)

I liked this one least, because the heroine really annoyed me but I still read the book in a day, I liked that the hero wasn’t pushy and that he did the right thing, even though he wasn’t sure. I also liked the theme of family that ran through all the books but really played up in this one.

Archangel’s Heart (Guild Hunters Book 1) – Nalini Singh (borrowed)

More Singh book crack. Although I got that this was about the change that Ellie had on Raphael, I really, really could have done without the repetition. I get it, they have a love for all the ages but show me, don’t tell me. Also and this is something I’ve noticed in all of her books, she tries to have the characters make jokes but they aren’t funny!  Still read the hell out of it though!

Magnus Chase and the Hammer of Thor – Rick Riordan (library book)

One of the things I really like about Rick Riordan is how he’s introducing diversity to his books. I don’t know if someone talked to him about it or he’s always wanted to do it and can because the books are so sucessful. However, Magnus has a Muslim character (who has to work out how to be Muslim and work for Odin) and her brother/sister, Alex is gender fluid (which makes perfect sense given who his/her father is). This book didn’t question the right of the character to be who the hell they wanted but did deal with the confusion of other characters (Magnus) about how to understand and be appropriate. I don’t know how a trans person would view it but I liked that Magnus notes that he’s never felt like that and the closest he’s come is being made to right with the wrong hand, which he knows isn’t the same but is the best he can come up with to try and understand the sense of wrongness a transgender person might feel. I’m all for diversity in books and for explaining and then getting on with it. I also really liked that Alex is better than Sami at some stuff because Alex knows who she/he is (and I’m using he/she because the character specifies that using ‘they’ doesn’t work for him/her, although it may work for others). Other than that, it’s a typical Riordan romp through the Viking deities and in the next book, Percy Jackson. Fun times…

Posted in Books, Reading in 2017 | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

New Year, New Goals – 2017

Posted on January 3, 2017 by nicdempsey

This post has been sitting half written since before Christmas. The run up to Christmas was trying in a way I didn’t expect, it was fine, I was fine but I was tired and just trying to get to Christmas and a rest. I didn’t write any Christmas cards and did most of my Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve! I was really not ready for Christmas.

But you know, Christmas happened anyway and it was fine.img_56482017 started as well and I’m not really prepared for that either but here it is.

I hit 2016 feeling that there were things in me that needed to change and 2016 changed them, ok I did some of that work too but 2016 happened and overall it was pretty damn good. I know, the narrative is that it was a terrible year, but I’m going to say it, 2016 was a good year for me. So now we’re in 2017 and the question is what do I do with this new and shiny year?

I’ve been thinking about goals and setting specific goals like I did last year but that didn’t quite fit. I still have most of the same aims, work on paying off my debt, stay employed, keep in control of the house, work on the allotment, be healthy. Life will change in 2017, it always does, but my needs and aims are pretty much the same.

The thing that keeps coming to me is focus…

So that’s the word for 2017.

Focus. I want to focus on the things that are important to me. I’ll set monthly goals as usual but they will be in the same vein as last year.

So ready or not, here it goes!

 

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