Friday Links

Posted on April 22, 2016 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday! My Friday plans have been slightly derailed by a poorly foot (I really should look into learning to walk on my hands!) but I am on holiday and tomorrow we head north. Here are this week’s links, not many this week ’cause I’ve been busy…

Obama on what fundraising does to politicians

I’m not a monarchist and Joan Smith makes some good points but I can’t help but feel they are overshadowed by her dislike of Prince Charles! Although as my Ma (who is a  couple of weeks younger than Charles) as often pointed out that the Queen has the power to change stuff but doesn’t.  The Queen and a reign of abject failure.

Stella Creasey writing about the sale by a charity of Butterfields Estate. I find this shocking and those involved should be ashamed of themselves but probably aren’t…

How Boots went rogue. This is important.

The people I know who are pro Hilary Clinton (I know a surprising amount of Americans!) have told me that one of the reasons that they don’t like Sanders is that he doesn’t support Democrats. John Fetterman’s Senate campaign is still waiting for Bernie Sanders.

 

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Holiday Plans

Posted on April 20, 2016 by nicdempsey

On Saturday, Ma and I are heading up to Amble for the week.

I love Amble and last year when we didn’t go felt like a loss. For someone who until 6 or so years ago did not do holidays, I’ve been very lucky to be able to visit Jo in Africa and Strasbourg and Matt in DC since then, but the Amble holidays are the ones that recharge me. You will tear me out of London by my cold, dead fingers but if I had to live somewhere else it would be there, it’s beautiful and the sky is bigger (having said that I do know that the economy sucks and winter would probably be my idea of hell!) but I always come home recharged and refreshed.

Part of the joy is doing the things we always do.

We’ll walk on the beachesDSCF4278

We’ll go to Barter BooksDSCF2682

Visit Warkworth and Dunstanburgh20140914-204725-74845859.jpgOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThere will be a day in NewcastleDSCF4845and on the way home we’ll stop at BelsayOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

There are always new places to visit though, here are a couple, I’d like to fit in, depending on how Ma feels about it!

Seaton Delaval Hall

Cragside House

Brinkburn Priory

 

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Food and Budget Update: 09/04 to 15/04/2016

Posted on April 19, 2016 by nicdempsey

SHOPPING 
So I blew through the £15 budget limit this week with the shopping coming to a grand total of £18.24. Not good.
Here’s what that bought:

 

COOKING AND EATING 

Saturday night dinner was amazing.

 We had an aubergine and spinach pasta bake with roasted broccoli and garlic and herb bread, for pudding we had chocolate mouse with cherry sauce.

Weekend breakfasts were toast and eggs and toast and marmalade

 Weekday breakfasts were protein pots (quinoa, lentils, rice mixed with carrots and tuna) and lunches were vegetable tart with salad. I got on the snack bandwagon this week and had flapjacks, fruit and chocolate buttons to hand, which I completely failed to eat due to the sick. The flapjacks were a godsend though and dinner on Wednesday and Thursday.

Sunday night dinner was also really good, chicken marsala rice. I’ll need to measure everything the next time I cook it and post because it was so much better than I was expecting…img_4030By Monday night, the sick was gaining ground and I repeated lunch because it was minimal washing up and that way I could go to bed early (7:30pm!)On Tuesday, I didn’t go to work and dinner was pasta and herb butter.img_4034I didn’t manage dinner on Wednesday or Thursday. I just came home, ate a flapjack and went to bed. Which should demonstrate how not well I was feeling, eating during the day fine but by the time I was home, I was just overcooked and ready for bed.

On Friday, I did manage dinner but it was salad and the breakfast pot that I hadn’t eaten that morning, again cooking was just too much effort and this way I was using everything up!img_4044

LESSONS LEARNED 

Don’t overspend, don’t get sick. Although I’m actually not that worried about the overspend because there is still plenty to eat and next week needs to be a £5 shop anyway because it’s “clear out the fridge before the holiday week” and everything I bought will be used. I need to stick to a list and plan effectively, I did say that if there was a danger this month it was that I’d get cocky and this week proved that.

Best thing I ate this week? Saturday night dinner was really lovely but the breakfast protein pots were a close second.

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Life Happened: Full of Cold (again)

Posted on April 18, 2016 by nicdempsey

As noted last week, I have no immune system to speak of and I caught another bug, as you can imagine that made me really happy, especially as it was the only week where I really need to be at work for the monthly meeting I’m semi-responsible for.

But there was good news, on Monday morning, Ryan and Claire’s baby arrived, welcome to the world little Noah and I’ll meet you just as soon as I don’t have any nasty germs you could catch..

On Tuesday, I couldn’t pretend that I was getting better and I took the day off, I had to be at work on Wed and Thursday and was hoping that I could rest up enough to get better for the rest of the week. Which sort of worked. I was in on Wednesday and Thursday and I worked from home on Friday but I was still sick and starting to get whiny about it. How much rest is too much rest? Who knows?

I did need to achieve something though and on Friday, it was that I cleaned the oven. That was great but left me too tired even to cook pizza! On Saturday, I managed a load of laundry, to change the bed and do some food shopping and admire the blue sky.img_4046That left me ready for bed and I bailed on Adam’s birthday party, which I was looking forward too but I was in bed at about 9pm and asleep shortly after.

Which meant that I was awake about 5am and still full of snot. So I went to the cinema at 10am on a Sunday morning, it was quite empty.img_4049The film was Eye in the Sky and it was very good, if quite harrowing. Then home, food prep, bed.

I’m still full of mucus, not all that happy and tired but it’s a four day week and then Amble…

 

se days..

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Sunday Music: Go to Get You off of my Mind

Posted on April 17, 2016 by nicdempsey

Sunday Music has been a little bit quiet recently, but I heard this on the radio yesterday night and I need to play it lots…

  

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Friday Links

Posted on April 15, 2016 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday! I’m working from home today, because I’m still full of germs and I just don’t have a conversation in me but became aware I’m tired when I engage in convesation I’m like a manic five year old before bedtime. Anyway, here are this week’s links….

Motivational advice. Unless it’s drinking gin, sleeping or reading a book, I apply this to everything that I don’t want to do!

Off-shore companies explained via piggy banks. Now explain tax and why it’s important to all civilised nations.

Francis has style but no substance. The Pope is the definition of overhyped…

One man’s trash. I have no idea why, but I found those photos compelling…

The Real Whittingdale Scandal. This is the article that prompted John Whittingdale’s admission that he dated a prostitute that he met on a dating site.

I didn’t see working class identity in books when I was growing up. I was sort of with her until I got to this:

The community spirit and tight-knit ethos that meant every door open and the smell of coal fires burning and the laughter and the tears and the music, there was always music! We didn’t have money for entertainment but we had imagination, a huge band of kids we did everything together every day was a forest or farm adventure because we pushed ourselves to invent and make do with what we had. We lived for the moment

This is a fantasy of working class life, so I’m trying hard to remember that the general point is good but the example is rubbish.

This is Victorian. Full time workers having benefit docked under new rules. Also having ‘experienced’ the professionalism of job centre employees, most of them couldn’t mentor anyone out of a paper bag, let alone into a new job..

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My immune system is basically worthless

Posted on April 13, 2016 by nicdempsey

I have another cold. I thought I was doing fine, I would work through it, sleep, take the drugs, and it’d be over in a couple of days. You know what that was folks? Hubris.

I spent yesterday in bed, throat swollen and feeling miserable.IMG_2807I have to be at work today and tomorrow so I am but it’s not fun and I’m fed up.

 

 

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Food and Budget Update: 02/04 to 08/04/2016

Posted on April 12, 2016 by nicdempsey

This was a pretty normal week, except that I had Monday off and came down with a cold mid week, it’s been going around the office, so not unexpected

SHOPPING 

This is what I bought. It was a grand total of £13.84

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

COOKING AND EATING

I didn’t eat at home this week until Sunday and then only a bit because I was feeling very lazy. Breakfasts were a combination of toast and eggs, breakfast wraps and pineapple and yoghurt.

Lunches were shallot tart and salad

I skipped dinner on Monday because it was too late when I got back from Ryan and Claire’s.

On Tuesday, I cooked an aubergine with onions, mushrooms, celery and capers and added an egg.

On Wednesday, I roasted chicken thighs and frozen broccoli in a smoked paprika and garlic marinade. This hit the magic low faff, high reward cooking spot and resulted in minimum washing up, the magic unicorn of my cooking life.

On Thursday, I did the aubergine thing that I did on Tuesday and ate it with tortillas – I was tired and this was easy.

 Friday is normally pizza night but I was tired and full of cold so I had cheese on toast with veg, sort of pizza

 LESSONS LEARNED

I didn’t really get my act together for breakfasts this week, which was frustrating in some ways but useful in others. Having to give some brain space to the what am I going to have for breakfast every night was annoying but it also taught me to think outside of the box a bit, on Tuesday morning I had a slice of bread and a boiled egg with celery and carrots and I enjoyed it! I also used up the pineapple and yoghurt that hadn’t been used up and cut down on potential waste.

Things I really need to get a grip on are snacks, I get snacky mid morning and afternoon and it can lead to bad choices so I need to plan for that.

 

 

 

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Life Happened: Sniffly..

Posted on April 11, 2016 by nicdempsey

The joy of waking up on a Monday morning when I don’t have to go to work never gets old. Especially as I had plans. I met Kathy for coffee and catching up. Made bread, went to the library and took the very pregnant, very bored Clare bread and marmalade. All Mondays should be like this!

Then it was Tuesday and back to work and the work week passed as usual but with slightly more work than normal thanks to the 4 day week and it being the busy part of the month. Half way through the week, I caught something cold like, it wasn’t bad, I just felt tired and got the usual sore throat, under chin rash and bunged up nose. Everyone at work has had some kind of cold/flu something over the past couple of weeks so it’s not that much of a surprise, it’s just really bloody annoying.

By Friday, I was ready for the weekend and some rest.

Saturday morning was spent at Kathy and Adam’s, watching the boy so Adam could do some DIY. We had fun with bubbles. Then I walked into Ealing, took some books back to the library and after the food shop, went home and cooked an amazing (even if I do say so myself) dinner!  Saturday night is when the cold really took hold and by Sunday I was feeling pretty miserable and lethargic. I walked Ma to the station, bought some cold medicine and sorted out food prep for next week and went to bed early.

This week is a busy work week and I’m not feeling my shiny best but in two weeks time I’ll be on holiday and my brother sent me this photo to cheer me up…img_4032Aren’t they cute?

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Little Goals – April 2016

Posted on April 9, 2016 by nicdempsey

April has lots of good things in it. At the end of the month, I’m going on holiday, we’re going up to Northumberland again and I get to visit castles and go to Barter books, we will almost certainly go into Newcastle for the day and I’m really looking forward to it. Assuming that April goes as planned, I’ll only work for 13 of its 21 days, which isn’t too terrible at all! Also due in April, Ryan and Claire’s baby, it’s weird but I’m really looking forward to meeting the little chap and seeing Sarah as a Grandma (I’m sure she’ll take to it!!)20140914-204723-74843564.jpg

In addition to keeping on top of my 2016 goals and I really need to try and focus ’cause as I said last week, I feel that danger is that I’m getting cocky! I want to do the following:

FINANCE

Have one week this month were I only spend £5 on groceries. This will probably be the week before I go away. The last couple of weeks, it feels like I have masses of food in the house and it’s good practice for me to think about using what I have before I shop for the things I always eat!OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

HOME

Focus on de-cluttering. Because Ma will have the car at the end of the month, there is a trip to dump planned! But it’s not just rubbish, I need to look, really look at what I have and whether I use it (it may finally be time to get rid of the pasta maker!)

Deep clean. It’s that time anyway but I’d like to do this before I go on holiday so I come back to a clean house and don’t any chores other than unpacking.IMG_3150

BODY AND MIND

Three times a week walk from the station to the office. I confess, I’ve stalled a bit on the walking because I am really scared of pushing it with my foot but the better weather should be just around the corner, although with England ‘better’ is subjective, and three times a week feels doable.

Get to bed before 10pm on schoolnights. This just needs a re-focus to make sure that I’m getting my z’sIMG_2825

 

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