Thursday Links – 24 December 2015

Posted on December 24, 2015 by nicdempsey

We’re going a day early on links because of Christmas…

The Tories are unstitching the tapestry of our democracy. Last week, John Major was on the radio and I found myself wishing that he was still Prime Minister. I remember the years that John Major was PM and it was bad. I didn’t agree with his policies and I didn’t want him to govern but I did feel that he was a decent (if misguided) human being. David Cameron and George Osborne, they don’t have that. They seem to be completely void of all humanity and seem to have no understanding of the greater good. They will take us back to hypocrisy of the Victorian era where if you didn’t have money, you had no value. And now they are pretty much rigging it in their favour.

An Unbelievable Story of Rape. This is long and difficult but worth reading.

Food banks and giving.

Because that’s what austerity is: a battening down to bare necessities. Goodbye to pleasure and frivolity; top up the calories if you want to survive. That’s where the tinned macaroni cheese comes in – about 390 calories for 45p

Flint, Michigan and lead in the water – I heard about this on the World Service. Lead Poisoning is effectively brain damage in children. It doesn’t sound like an honest mistake when you think about the problems that Flint already has, it sounds like they thought they could get away with it!

Happy Books to cheer you up

 

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Christmas Radio

Posted on December 23, 2015 by nicdempsey

Christmas is going to be a low key affair this year, Ma is coming to me and we will conduct all of our usual traditions. We’ll decorate the tree (assuming I get one) tomorrow night, we’ll watch The Philadelphia Story, at some point I will watch Doctor Who on the iPlayer and Ma will get cross because it doesn’t make any sense. Mostly we’ll listen to the radio, mostly Radio 4 but here’s a brief round up of the stuff I’m looking forward to…

Stars of Wonder – because I don’t know a child in England who hasn’t been in a nativity play or Christmas concert and I think it might be interesting. (for the record, I’ve been the Angel Gabriel – nursery, one of the Three Kings, a street urchin and a narrator for the history of the school mostly because I was loud and everyone could hear me!)

The Educators – This is not at all Christmassy but it is interesting and it’s nice to be indoors to hear it.

A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols – this is when my Christmas actually starts.

Let’s Go Round Again – The Story of the Magic Roundabout – Because I am a product of my era and the Magic Roundabout was a part of that!

Soul Music – The Fairy Tale of New York – Soul Music does Christmas…

Saturday mornings are for 6 Music and Boxing Day will be no different. The Huey Show.

A Meaty Problem – Henry Dimbleby unravels the deep-seated attachment of the British to eating meat.

The Sound of Motown – This is about the Ready, Steady, Go aired in 1965, hosted by Dusty Springfield, it was dedicated to Motown and the line up, excepting Dusty, was all black. Which was quite a feat for then, could be interesting…

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Food and Budget: 12/12 to 18/12/2015

Posted on December 22, 2015 by nicdempsey

I was determined to put more fresh fruit and vegetables in my diet this week but I was also still getting back into the swing of meal planning, although with Christmas so near that may not properly bed in until sometime in January.

Here is the list and the receipts

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Lidl had a cherry tomato mix and pears for 59p each so I snapped those up too!DSCF5074Lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.DSCF5075

Once I unpacked the shopping, there was just so much food. On Sunday, I made a batch of hamburger buns and froze 20 because they are handy to have, my plan was to use some stuff from the freezer and lots of veg.

Lunch that wasn’t leftovers was an egg roll and vegetables, I also took a pear and a clementine into work every day which worked as breakfast/snack and ate some of the fruit that work provides on Monday and Wednesday. Fruit became my breakfast/snack everyday.  I was determined to eat more vegetables this week so roasted veg (aubergine, onion, peppers and cherry tomatoes with capers is my standard mix) with flatbread and balsamic vinegar reduction (sounds posh, isn’t, just put some balsamic in a saucepan and boil until it’s syrupy!) was a brilliant dinner and the leftovers were lunch the next day.DSCF5085By Wednesday, I was beginning to tire and had a very easy dinner of baked potato and coleslaw. I took a quarter of each of my red and white cabbage, about 5 carrots and two small red onions and sliced & grated them (I love my magimix!), I soaked the onion in red wine vinegar to take some of the bite away.  I didn’t have any mayonnaise or any inclination to make any but I did have some of a bottle of Pizza Express Salad dressing, so I used that and felt virtuous about using something up! It wasn’t the most pretty dinner or lunch the next day but it was just what I wanted.DSCF5086Thursday is often a ‘make it up using any leftovers day’  and that’s pretty much what I did. Onion+cabbage+leftover baked potato+bean thing that needed to be used up+egg+cheese and cooked in cast iron pan = dinner.DSCF5088

Kathy asked me over on Friday, did I mention how much I love it when other people cook? I do, we had pizza, it was great.

I felt like it was a good week for food, that I ate well and didn’t waste anything, it didn’t feel like I was in a December ‘eat all the things’ place that often happens in the run up to Christmas, which was down to having good food in the house and being aware of when I was actually hungry and in need of food and when I was eating to distract myself. The one food thing this week that has nothing to do with the budget is that I didn’t drink enough fluid, so that’s my goal for Christmas week, drink lots of water!

 

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Life Happened – Aunty Duty

Posted on December 21, 2015 by nicdempsey

This week was a better work week, ok so I was grappling with minutes, which hands down, the least favourite of all my work duties but my head was a bit more in the game!

Also last week, I missed the office lunch that included the Secret Santa and got it this week. Clearly my colleagues know my interests, books and gin!I completely botched the Secret Santa because I forgot and couldn’t sort my life out  in time. So I brought in mince pies and cheese stars!   Friday night I spent the evening at Kathy’s, reading to her mad (and very cute) children, catching up with her and admiring the sparkly lights that Adam had put up!  On the way to Watford, I took note of how my hair is behaving with it’s new style
  Saturday was spent with the nephews (for me that was mostly with the littlest one), I was pretty proud of myself, Joe doesn’t like taking a bottle but I got him to take a full 7oz and got him off to sleep, it’s been a while but it’s good to know I haven’t lost my touch! The biggest nephew was out at the panto with his Grandma and I didn’t get a photo of him once he was back because he just didn’t stay still long enough. Over the last couple of months, it feels like Oli trusts us more and knows that he’ll have fun even if Mum and Dad aren’t there. He was great, showing me how well he could spell (I was genuinely impressed!), we watched Strictly and he did his ‘famous’ victory dance (once you’ve seen it, you’ll never forgot it!) when ‘his’ couple won, overall he’s just lovely and although I’ve always liked being with him, it’s nice to feel that he enjoys it too!

The only bad thing about my week is the vexing issue of my right knee. Because I’m leaning to the right on the crutches, I’m obviously putting the weight I can’t put through my left foot, through my right side. My knee has been niggling on and off since I started to get more mobile and I’ve been stretching it as much as I’m able. However, this week it’s in full on rebellion. It’s twice the size it should be, painful (like more painful than the foot was after surgery!) all the time but especially when I’m walking and it gives out under me. I’m not happy and at a loss what to do, painkillers, ice and stretching have all been applied with limited effect and it’s making doing anything tricky. My foot is doing really well, minimal swelling and feeling like it’s getting back to normal, but I’m going to have to see the GP which is pretty much a nightmare this time of year! It will sort itself out but the timing is frustrating.

That was last week. How was your week?

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Sunday Music

Posted on December 20, 2015 by nicdempsey

Last week, I heard this on the radio, I knew two things, first that it must be from Hamilton and second that this was George III because Farmer George was a bit manic about the Colonies…

I think that I may have to buy the soundtrack but I’m putting it off because I have a feeling it will lead to a huge reading jag about the early years of the US and honestly I’m not sure my brain can take it, I’ll forget something important, like who won the War of 1812 (we did, it wasn’t a draw, they sued for peace, we had to go and deal with the Corsican…again. And yes, just in case you were wondering I’m still sore because they bloody started it. Ok, we shouldn’t have pressed their sailors but they declared war to try and get Canada AND they killed Ned Pakenham….)

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Advent – Preparation and Change for 2016.

Posted on December 19, 2015 by nicdempsey

I’ve been using Advent to reflect on how I felt 2015 went for me. Rather than focus on the goals I set for 2015, this is more about the other stuff, the things that touched a nerve or places where I recognised that the issue was emotional and couldn’t be changed without some acknowledgement of that. The last two weeks have been about money and relationships, this week is all about health.

It’s worth separating this into two strands, mental and emotional health and physical health.

First mental and emotional health. I feel that I’m doing well here and that 2015 saw me in a really healthy place. I actually covered some of my ‘weak’ areas in the focus on money and relationships, I do have a tendency to isolate myself and to carry on as if nothing is wrong but generally my moods are even and I’ve gotten really good at recognising what’s going on with me and adjusting accordingly. This autumn was the first time in ages that I didn’t feel totally bent over due to SAD, which I thinks was because of the 6 weeks off to recover from the osteotomy and while I can’t do that every year, it gave me some perspective on it which I will try and carry into next year.IMG_3417I guess the biggest change for me over the last 4 or so years is that I’m both happy and content. Sure, life isn’t as I imagined it and there is room for improvement, but I don’t feel that I’m doomed and I’m appreciative of the life I have. Part of that is knowing that it could be so much worse, part of it is that this year I made more of an effort to help others and get more involved in some different things, the allotment volunteer day, using one of my CSR days to go and help sort out the foodbank, babysitting and helping friends when I could.IMG_2518

Overall my physical health is pretty good, I eat well, my blood pressure is good for a woman my age (and really good if you factor in my weight!), my cholesterol levels are ok, I’m active and walk a lot. Introducing the 35 minute walk on the way to and from work, has also had a positive affect on my mental health too, as did the regular Body Balance classes that I did earlier in the year.

One of the lovely things about the osteotomy was how positive the health professionals were about my general health, they were expecting bad things and apart from my weight I was within all the normal parameters. My weight may become more of an issue as I age though and before the osteotomy, I was just at the cusp of being uncomfortable about it. Oddly enough the six weeks stuck indoors while my foot got better has been instructive. I eat good things, I just eat too much of them. Portion size and boredom eating are my issues, six weeks on the couch helped me reset my eating a little and that needs to continue into 2016.DSCF5005Despite being generally well, at the beginning of the year, I had the cold and cough that would not die and turned into a chest infection and a whole week off work and this year I’ve taken more antibiotics than I have in the previous 5 years! It seemed like I just couldn’t get better and my breathing has been wheezy for a good portion of this year. According to the doctor, I haven’t been alone, it’s been a bad year for coughs and colds, I notice that I seem to have a couple of years when I have really bad reactions to infection (coughs, tonsillitis, chest infections etc) and then go bad to just getting colds. So I can only hope that 2015 marks the end of the bad reactions!

Migraines are the other major recurring issue for me. I don’t like to talk about them in case it makes them worse. The thing is that I know what causes them, I get them about the same time each month and the doctor doesn’t think there is much I can do about them, basically I have to wait them out and in 10 or so years they’ll stop (no HRT for me!). Meanwhile, things I do notice, they are worse in winter (well isn’t everything) and when I don’t exercise. Worse is this scenario means harder to fend off and longer. Alcohol doesn’t seem to make them better or worse but sugar and caffeine can help stave them off when they are imminent.IMG_2807The final health issue this year has been the osteotomy and recovery. It’s been the major issue in the last bit of the year. It wasn’t nearly as painful as I expected but I am and continue to be annoyed/surprised/frustrated by how long recovery is taking, while at the same time being impressed at how well the scar is healing. My foot is still swollen and walking is difficult. I’ve had to cancel my gym membership until July and accept that I will not be resuming my walking in January as I had hoped.IMG_3510So overall, 2015 was a rough year for being ill but I’m not feeling too down about it because mentally I’m in good shape. I have a fair idea of what I need to do in 2016, which starts off with rehab for my foot, regular and consistent exercise and not eating more than I need.

 

 

 

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Friday Links – 18 December

Posted on December 18, 2015 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday! I managed a full (ish – I’m still on reduced hours!) working week this week, and I’m still happy to get to the end of it. Here is some reading for the weekend.

When bad boys lose appeal. Or as like to describe it “when you grown the hell up and stop letting treat you badly”

Councils with failing children’s services will have control taken away. I’m going to say it again, good social services, especially children’s services, require money and resources. I wish it wasn’t so but the only way to truly help and reset families that are in chaos is consistent support and that costs money. I’m sorry, it’s not really about having social workers with better degrees, some of the best social workers I know had difficult childhoods and no degrees. We need to start asking social workers what they need to be effective and start giving that support.

Are you a council tenant? Then you must be punished. Both my parents grew up in council flats. After I was 4, they rented privately, there has never been enough money to buy somewhere. Ma had lived in her flat in Surbiton for over 10 years and then the new landlord put the rent up £100 a month, just as Ma retired. (Slight correction, Ma would like it noted that the tent actually went up £170 a month!).She went on the list for sheltered housing and last year moved into her new flat. It’s social housing and the relief we all felt was that she was safe. That’s what lifetime tenancy gives you. Safety. I don’t have that safety, I have a really good landlord but my rent is going up next year, I don’t know by how much, currently my rent is half my monthly income and it’s quite a bit below the going rate but if the landlord does want what he could get, then I’m buggered and probably looking never having the heating on again and eating porridge for the rest of my days, which would be cheaper than moving. This is why council housing is a good thing, it gives you safety, it’s not subsidized, it pays for itself and it gives people who aren’t wealthy and don’t earn a lot of money somewhere decent to live.

David Cameron needs to learn to control himself. Who didn’t already know that?

Death and Shopping: the story of Oxford Street. Ma and I used to shop there loads when we lived in Fulham. I had my ears pierced in Selfridges! I work nearby and last year I did some Christmas shopping there but I haven’t been there since…

Milk taken from cows at night may help insomnia. If only I drank milk…

The perfect fish finger sandwich. Ketchup for me but I’ll take one with tartare sauce!

 

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Chicken Stock

Posted on December 17, 2015 by nicdempsey

I’ve been making stock for years but it’s never made it to this space as a recipe although I talk about and use homemade chicken stock a lot. There are a couple of reasons for this, the first is that like a lot of things that I cook, it’s a really simple, pared down method and not really a recipe. The second related reason is that if you are the chicken stock making type, you probably have a really good recipe that you love and if you’re not, there are hundreds of more accomplished recipes out there. But Christmas is just around the corner and I want to encourage you to make stock with your leftover turkey or chicken bones after Christmas dinner!

I really like food and cooking but there are loads of great options out there for people who don’t make stock, from stock cubes to ready made stock you can buy from supermarkets and I have used them all at one time or another, so I’m not saying you should make stock or ‘bone broth’ because it’s better than a cube. The entire reason I make my own stock and think that maybe you should give it a try is that it’s frugal (you are essentially using things that you’d throw away) and easy (because if it wasn’t easy, I wouldn’t do it because I am a very lazy cook!)

When I roast a chicken (or chickens) I put the carcass in a bag and freeze it. Then the bag gets filled with scraps of vegetables (onion, mushrooms, carrots, celery and leeks are the ones I most commonly eat and so are the ones that go in). DSCF5052The bag sits there and then when it’s full, the contents get dumped in the slow cooker. DSCF5056I fill the slow cooker up with water, switch to low and it sits there happily becoming stock for (and this is the bit people get a little bit funny about!) a couple of days. Look, it’s never made me sick, you may feel differently, in which case, put it all in a saucepan and do it all on the same day.DSCF5067 DSCF5058Once I decide it’s ready, I strain it into 1 and a half cup portions and freeze.DSCF5060 DSCF5065Anyway stock, simple, easy, free.

 

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Eye Eye

Posted on December 16, 2015 by nicdempsey

I read somewhere that women in their 30’s should use eye cream daily. That it didn’t have to be fancy but that using it would help prevent wrinkles.

I completely failed with this. The only eye area problem I had was dark circles and I couldn’t see that eye cream made that much difference to those so I just skipped the extra step. (Even Sali Hughes isn’t convinced about their effectiveness!)DSCF5076However, in my 40’s I’ve begun to notice that my skin around my eyes do have wrinkles and the skin doesn’t bounce back like it used to. Eye cream is one of those beauty products that feels expensive, I see those cute little pots and am shocked at the prices, it seems like a lot of money to spend if it doesn’t work and how am I going to know if it works? Sure you only use a little but then with the pots, there’s all that time I’m sticking my fingers in it. So I went for something lower down the scale and bought a bottle of the Waitrose Pure Eye Gel seemed like a good place to start. I was looking at eye cream when I was in Waitrose and the oney other ones they had was over £20! The Pure at £2.99 was a bargain and also had a pump avoiding the fingers in pot problem.  I like all the other Pure products I’ve tried (the face oil is my favourite of the range). It has some form of menthol in it so it is helping with the puffiness but the jury is out on whether it’s helping with the wrinkles!DSCF5077If anyone has a suggestion for an eye cream they swear by please let me know…

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Food and Budget: 5/12 to 11/12/2015

Posted on December 15, 2015 by nicdempsey

This week was back to work and family lunch for Ma’s birthday. Ma had requested roast chicken and chips because it’s easy, Oli will eat it and who doesn’t like chicken and chips? I had bought 2 chickens a while ago and planned pavlova for lunch. It’s been ages since I’ve had to plan for bringing lunch to work and there are a couple of work things on this week so I had a basic list to keep it simple.

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Also, I’ve decided that all non food items have to be separate from my food budget. Having said that I didn’t buy foil and I forgot to add sugar (the major component of pavlova!) to the list so that’s the additional thing I bought!  The total bill was £13.19, which left me £1.81 to go in the money pot. DSCF5042DSCF5043The cream, most of the potatoes and blueberries were used for the lunch on Saturday.IMG_3558For the rest of the week, I intended to use what was in the freezer and the vegetables, fortunately there were a couple of things on for Christmas at work so I didn’t have to put too much thinking into meal planning for the week, thank goodness, because work was tiring and I didn’t have much brain space to think about it!

On Sunday, I made a saute with the leftover new potatoes from Friday and the chicken from Saturday. I know that lots of people would have had loads of chicken left over but my family likes to eat and there wasn’t much left from those two small chickens, although the bones went in the freezer to be made into stock some other time.

I’m completely out of the habit of eating breakfast so I didn’t at all this week. I was out for work lunch on Monday and that was all I ate that day because by the time I got home I just wasn’t hungry and I was so tired, the downside of that was that I didn’t sufficiently prep for Tuesday so instead of bringing lunch in, I bought a sandwich. On Tuesday night I made a rice and black bean thing which was lovely and was lunch on Wednesday!

It with a fried egg and some carrots was dinner on Wednesday night too!DSCF5071Thursday, I was out for another work Christmas lunch and I didn’t eat at home all day. Friday I was home resting my poorly foot and realised that the yogurt in the fridge was nearing it’s dead date so I made flatbreads and dinner was some of them with sauted peppers and onions.  I also quick pickled some carrots nearing the end of their lives.DSCF5070

This week’s diet was lacking in fruit and vegetables, so I’ll make a bigger effort to include those next week and because there are Christmas meals out, my food plan will settle down.

 

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