Friday Links on Saturday night

Posted on February 13, 2015 by nicdempsey

Friday was cancelled because of a migraine and Saturday has been quite busy. So this is a bit late!

1) Giles Fraser on Thomas More and the human capacity for love and cruelty.

2) Dresden, bombing and the rise of Pegida. I’ve always had an ambivalent attitude to the Allied bombing on Dresden because I know that the Allies shouldn’t have done it but at the same time, I grew up in city scarred by the Blitz and I know about the bombing of other British cities. So I don’t condone it but I can understand why the Allies did it. I think it’s fascinating the way consequences play out over generations.

3) Obama says something perfectly reasonable about religion, Fox News and it’s friends go nuts. It was ever thus.

4) Why grown ups shouldn’t drink milk. Milk is the devil’s work but cheese, that’s a completely different thing..

5) Valentines Day blues or not as the case may be.

6) This is a rubbish list. I can think of 4 better ruins in Northumberland alone, and what about Middleham?

 

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Penne Rosa

Posted on February 12, 2015 by nicdempsey

One Saturday I made dinner and it was amazing, one of those dinners that is so much more than the sum of it’s parts.IMG_2758

 

It was from Back to Her Roots although of course I made some changes.

  • I didn’t use whole wheat pasta and I used rigatoni rather than penne.
  • I used cooked prawns, in fact a packet of these
  • I don’t often use raw tomatoes in anything but I do have cherry tomatoes around a lot so I used a packet of them, they weighed about 9oz
  • I used six blocks of defrosted and drained whole leaf spinach, instead of fresh
  • I didn’t weigh the mushrooms but probably used half a pack, so about 4oz
  • I made the marinara sauce. I took two tins of chopped tomatoes, a finely chopped onion, about 4 cloves of garlic and a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and cooked it down. (Obviously that made loads more than the half cup required but who can’t find a use for marinara sauce?)

Seriously folks, it’s easy and quick and my mother was impressed enough to think about cooking it herself (this is high praise indeed!)

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Coping with the cold that will not die

Posted on February 11, 2015 by nicdempsey

Anybody reading this that doesn’t know I’ve had a cold (and a cough and sore throat) for what feels like forever but has actually only about 4 weeks….but 4 weeks is long enough to be really, really fed up.

I’m in that twilight zone of not being well but not being sick enough to stay off work. So this is how I’m coping.

SleepIMG_2726Possibly because I’m so rubbish at it, sleep is my go to cure for everything. Staying asleep is hard when you have a cold and over reliance on Night Nurse is a thing. So back to sleep hygiene basics (regular waking up times and no screens half an hour before bed) and going to bed early. I’ve been in bed by 9.30pm every school night because 5 hours sleep is better than 3 and small sleeps at the weekend so I can stay awake in company. Yes, I do feel like I’m 87 instead of 41 but I’m significantly more cheerful as a pretend 87 year old, than I would be if I was trying to carry on as if I wasn’t ill and I have to confess, that isn’t much more cheerful!

Gentle ExerciseDSCF4422I’ve been trying to get my steps in and do my yoga (although I’ve stopped this week on account of not being able to bend down without wanting to faint!), I’m not advocating a 10k run but making sure I’m a little bit active is helping me feel the good kind of tired that comes from doing something and getting out in the fresh air (or as fresh as the air gets in London) and that is helping to lift my spirit because when you feel rotten there is something amazing about knowing that despite that, you got some exercise in.

Eating rightDSCF2723Comfort food is great when you’re sick and my inclination when I’m feeling this grotty is to eat lots of ‘junk’ food that doesn’t take a lot of work because cooking feels like an effort and I want something tasty and easy. So I’ve planned lots of easy food that means I can get home and eat well without too much effort. For me that’s lots of vegetable soups, dahl and extra vegetables generally. Lunches are easy to prep and eat, my standard combo of vegetables, boiled eggs, hummus and oatcakes and I’m ensuring that I drink loads of liquid and herbal teas. I do eat treat food you won’t be able to tear my daily Dark Chocolate Tunnocks Caramel Wafer from my cold, dead hands but I’m trying to fuel my body with what it needs to get better.

Vitamin SupplementsIMG_2647A daily berocca and a multi-vitamin. Are they helping? I’m still not feeling better, but every little helps!

Sinus Rinsing

At week three the biggest problem I was having were the coughing caused by the nasal drip and the ‘squeaky’ noises my draining sinuses made at night (seriously weird!), so brought out the big guns and started rinsing my sinuses out using this. The first day I did it, the noise stopped and I didn’t wake up at 4am in the morning with a coughing fit but it’s not actually stopping anything. I’m told it takes a while for this to change anything so I’ll continue.

Cough SyrupIMG_2741The NHS says that most cough syrups you can buy over the counter don’t work. My doctor says that pholcodine syrup is the only thing that works to suppress a cough but that has it’s issues so I made one. 5 tablespoons of honey (I used this one, because much as I’m told manuka honey is the thing, that stuff is expensive and this is minimally processed and tastes good), 5 tablespoons of water, the juice of a lemon. Heated and reduced, take as needed, adding ginger to this works too.

I have a doctors appointment next Monday, so for now I’ll just have to keep on with this. Everyone seems to have a version of this going around and it’s really, really boring.

 

 

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The Kitchen Chair Issue

Posted on February 10, 2015 by nicdempsey

In June, I’ll have been living in my flat for 6 years! Which is be the longest time I’ve spent in one place since I was a kid. We were in North End Road for nearly 17 years, I think, before Ma, Ben and I moved out when I was 20.

When I moved in, I knew that it would take a while to get it exactly as I wanted it, mostly because I was moving into a completely unfurnished space, with furniture that came from lots of different places. I took the view I would live with as it was, decide what I really needed and then eventually get what I really wanted. I wanted to get things that worked, that would last, investment furniture. Not necessarily the most expensive furniture but things that suited me, the flat and how I lived.

No-where was that more clear than in the issue of the kitchen chairs. When I moved into the flat, I had 3 Ikea folding chairs and a directors chair. Eventually after much thought, I pulled the trigger and bought two new kitchen chairs. I was planning on buying more and eventually, I would have lovely, comfortable kitchen chairs, done and done.DSCF3199

It didn’t work out quite like that. They were very rubbish and the legs were a bit bendy and dangerous – one of them, collapsing when I was sitting on it, with a small child on my lap. We were unharmed but clearly they were not the solution I’d hoped for.

Kitchen chairs are expensive so I soldiered on with what I had. Then Ma moved out of her flat and I inherited two more chairs. Another directors chair and a proper old fashioned kitchen chair. My chair. in fact. It was one of our dining room chairs, painted brown and later, I took off all the paint and varnished it (not a great job but I was a teenager!), it was my desk chair. The amount of bad essays and angst written while I was sitting in that chair is best forgotten! Now it’s mine again.

I think the perfect solution my kitchen chair issue, may never exist. I think a mishmash of chairs may be the way it plays out and it probably suits my ‘no decoration’ style of interior decoration. Having said that, all three of my kitchen chairs are comfortable and sturdy so provided that I don’t have more than two people over to dinner at a time, it’s fine!

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Life Happened – this is getting silly

Posted on February 9, 2015 by nicdempsey

I’m still not very well and really, really grumpy about it. My head is full of things that it shouldn’t be, my ears hurt, my sinuses make draining noises when I’m lying down and I’m wheezing. I can’t do yoga either, because the pressure in my head makes bending very painful. I know that there are worse things to be sick with but I’ll like it to stop now, it’s getting boring.

So I spent this week, in much the same way as I spent last week, working, getting to bed early and coughing. I averaged about 4 and a half hours sleep a night, which is not helping with the grumpiness.

On Thursday night, I went for dinner at Christina and Fred’s, it was lovely to see them and Tom and Yoey.

Friday morning was a bit of a mess, I was tired and the trains fell over so it took ages to get on a train and I was late to work…IMG_2742Thanks heavens for pain au raisin, quiet work days and telephone conversations with my brother…IMG_2744I may have spent my lunch hour working out cocktail measures, how many bottles of booze Christina would need to make 50 odd cocktails for her birthday party at the end of the month. I’m not obsessed, I’m helping a friend and it was good distraction from thinking about what I’m going to wear for the party, the dress code is black tie or superhero, so I’m a tiny bit stumped!

Friday Night PizzaIMG_2748And a cupcake followed by bed!IMG_2749I skipped the allotment volunteering on Saturday morning in favour of rest and coffee. Ma came for dinner on Saturday night. I cooked a variation on Cassie’s Penne Rosa which was really good.IMG_2758IMG_2754

 

We arsed about as we do and the next morning had cheese on toast for breakfast and went Ma went home, I went to Kathy and Adam’s to play with their kids, while they did some organizing. We made rice krispie cakes (and the kids got covered in chocolate!), it’s been nearly a year since they arrived and it’s been lovely to watch them become a family unit and see how ordinary and extraordinary the process has been for all of them. It’s easy to take our experience of being loved by our families for granted but sometimes we need see it from another angle to appreciate the miracle of it.

Did you know that Saturday was National Libraries Day? I didn’t until someone pointed it out, but it was also the day that my library sent me a reminder that my books were due back on Monday!  So on Sunday after I left Kathy and Adam’s, I took a walk into Ealing and went to the library. I love that Central Ealing Library is open on Sundays! I got some new books, wondered about and walked home through the parks because it was such a beautiful day.IMG_2763

 

Now it’s Monday and back to work…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Friday Links

Posted on February 6, 2015 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday! Last day of the week, I’m pretty much alone in the office, all the others are on leave due to sick parents, hen weekends and weddings, so it’s going to be a quiet day!

Here are this weeks links…

1) Paying everyone a basic wage would kill off low paid and menial jobs. It’s an interesting idea.

2) An explanation of the planned Marvel films. This is really for Ma, so I don’t have to explain it when we go and see them (and we will, Ma has never come across a Marvel film she didn’t like!)

3) On the removal of the affordable housing levy. Find me a politician with the sense to sort housing out, please. It isn’t difficult and if the market worked, then we wouldn’t have a housing crisis.

The story seems familiar: a crisis is growing, while the government still tells us to put our faith in the market. But housing is more visible than finance – if your neighbours are evicted, you’ll see; if social housing is demolished to build luxury flats, you’ll see. For the thousands who joined the March for Homes on Saturday, the solutions were straightforward. No one proposed letting luxury developers run roughshod over the metropolis, trousering wads of cash.

Their demands have been unchanged for years: more council housing and rent controls, secure tenancies, and a halt to evictions. All these proposals, especially rent controls, are popular and, most importantly, something the government can deliver. They’re simple, manageable and achievable. There’s no point waiting for the invisible hand of the market to sort out the housing crisis when property speculation is one of the main causes of the country’s wildly unequal and increasingly unaffordable housing market.

4) Kitchen Disasters. The comments are great, I have had many kitchen mishaps, the boiled eggs that I complete forgot about (I left the house – they were cremated) . The pan of oil also forgotten about and left on the hob as I went to answer the door which erupted into flames. I also have a bad habit of setting tea towels on fire. Also worth an honourable mention are disaster that was my attempt at key lime pie and the several failed attempts at meringue (although I have that sorted now!)

5) Giles Fraser nails what I found so wrong about Stephen Fry’s (and indeed all atheists arguments about God and His existence). Also why so bloody angry with a God you don’t believe exists?

6) The different portrayals of Thomas Cromwell by Ben Miles and Mark Rylance. I haven’t seen the RSC plays but I’m completely surprised by how good Rylance is (I was dubious about the casting). I love the slowness of him, when he’s around situations that are dangerous and the lightness when he’s at home. I also love the lighting and the pace of the series so far and the way that the actors are showing us character with actions. I loved last week, when Henry just holds his arm  out and expects Cromwell to sort out his sleeve. This is a man who always gets what he wants and who generally never has to ask. You understand why it’s a shock to him that the Church isn’t giving him the divorce he wants. And I need to go and read the the books again…

7) Linda Grant on housing prices.

8) Money, family spending and explaining it to the kids. It’s interesting to see how people do this. I don’t think we knew how much money was coming into the house ever. We knew when things were difficult and we knew that Ma was the one carrying it but we didn’t ever have a sense of what money went where.

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Food this week

Posted on February 5, 2015 by nicdempsey

My cooking has not been imaginative this week, mostly it’s been easy food that doesn’t require too much effort. Having said that, it’s still been pretty healthy..

What I mean by healthy, is unprocessed food. My diet doesn’t have much processed food in it and really like it like that. Yes, I do recognise that all the food I eat is processed to some extent, frozen veg doesn’t magically freeze itself, yoghurt doesn’t come into being and leap into cartons without processing in some way, neither does cheese for that matter, carrots do not clean and walk themselves to the supermarket!

I mean ready meals, food that has additives I can’t pronounce or things I wouldn’t put in the food I cook. This week (and I did have to look at this week’s food plan and think hard) the processed food, I’ve eaten consists of caramel wafers, oatcakes, a fruyo, this fish and some coffee ice cream.  I’m not knocking the occasional ready meal, our entire Christmas dinner was prepared by M&S and I’ve never cooked a fish pie in my life but I wouldn’t eat like that all the time. I couldn’t afford to eat like that all the time but even if I could, I don’t think it’s healthy.

Anyway this is what I’ve eaten /am going to eat this week

Saturday night was fish and chips. Fish from a packet and home made oven fries and it was really good but I will talk about it properly another time because we were far too interested in stuffing it in our gobs for me to take a proper photo!IMG_2740

Frittata for dinner on Sunday and then breakfast for 3 weekdays. My basic recipe is based on what’s always in the fridge, 6 eggs, a pepper, an onion, a carrot, mushrooms, feta. Other times, I chucked in leftover green beans and peas, leeks, roasted vegetables. Like my anything soup, which I’ve never put a recipe up for because it doesn’t have one, frittata is a great use for vegetables on the turn and is endlessly adaptable.DSCF2723

Monday night was French Onion Soup with extra sautéed vegetables.DSCF3946

Tuesday was a feta, grilled courgettes and rocket thing and there are no photos because I was hungry and wasn’t planning on telling you about what I ate this week.

Wednesday was the chickpea and spinach thing with a poached eggs.  This is still one of my favourite things to eat. I used 6 blocks of frozen whole leaf spinach (which I buy from Iceland because it’s nicer than the chopped frozen spinach from Sainsburys and to go completely off on a tangent, frozen veg and whole frozen fish fillets are good value from Iceland, provided you’re not one to go for the 100 different types of processed food you can buy there…)DSCF3038

Tonight, I’m out at Christina’s for dinner so who knows what’s for dinner! Tomorrow is Friday though so breakfast will be pain au raisin and dinner is Friday Night Pizza!20140317-065757.jpg

 

Lunches have been vegetables (carrots and peppers mostly) with boiled eggs and oatcakes or leftover chickpea thing. Snacks and puddings have been fruit and Dark chocolate tunnocks caramel wafers.

What have you been eating?

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What I’ve Read – January 2015

Posted on February 4, 2015 by nicdempsey

It’s a new reading year! In line with my stated aim of not buying booked and getting through my ‘To Be Read’ pile and kindle list and to keep me honest, I’m going to list where the books came from mostly that should be

A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong – Cecilia Grant (Kindle TBR list)

This is a short novella in the Blackshear Family books. I love Grant’s writing style and this was delightful.

One Summer: America 1927 – Bill Bryson (Library book)

I love Bill Bryson, he has a great writing style, informative, funny and you want to keep reading. This is no different, things I didn’t know and learnt, what a git Herbert Hoover was, how many new things were happening in the 20’s, pretty much everything about Charles Lindbergh and early aeroplanes. Seriously, go and read.

The State We’re In – Adele Parks (Kindle TBR list)

I read it, I was underwhelmed. It was all too tidy and easy, even though I suspect the the the end was supposed to make people cry, I did not. It was free from Amazon and it’s one more book that I can take off the TBR list so I guess that counts for something!

Tigerman – Nick Harkaway (Library book)

Another Nick Harkaway book I love. That’s 3 for 3. Harkaway’s books are all utterly fantastic but also funny and sometimes wise. I love the plotting. This made me laugh out loud on the train:

You had to listen to what a Brit was saying – which was invariably that he thought XYZ was a terrific idea and he hoped it went very well for you – while at the same time paying heed to the the greasy, nauseous suspicion you had that, somehow the sum of the whole was that you’d have to be a mental pygmy to come up with this plan and a complete fucking idiot to pursue it. After six years working with the Brits in various theatres he’d come to the conclusion that they didn’t do it on purpose. The thing was, Brits actually thought that subtext was plain text.

The Second Chance Cafe – Alison Kent   (Kindle TBR List)

This came recommended but I didn’t like it at all. The characters felt flat and there was so much going on that wasn’t focused on the main couple, their story got lost.

Lady Windermere’s Lover – Miranda Neville (Kindle TBR List)

I did wish that the hero wasn’t such an idiot at the beginning and that the heroine and hero would just use their words but I enjoyed it and am seriously considering the rest of the series

Red Rising – Pierce Brown (Kindle TBR List)

I’m not sure if this is YA or not. I’m told it is, but apart from the age of Darrow, I can’t see why, it reads like science fiction and I’ve seen it shelved in Sci Fi at the library – which is what prompted me to read it. I liked it, I want to know what happens now and what the bigger plot is. I’ve reserved the next one at the library.

It Takes a Scandal – Caroline Linden (Kindle TBR List)

This was an easy read when I was ill, it’s a measure of how ill  I was that it took me 4 days. It’s nice to read a historical where the hero is a flawed human being, instead of a fabulously wealthy duke!

The Hydrogen Sonata – Iain M. Banks (Library Book)

The last Iain M. Banks novel I read was The Algebraist and I didn’t finish it (I generally enjoy his science fiction books but I couldn’t get into it) but I saw this in the library and decided to give this one a go.

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The Cold that will not die and other things I’m not happy about…

Posted on February 3, 2015 by nicdempsey

Ok it’s official, this cold will not go away…IMG_2724I’m now on the third week of feeling grotty. I have a sore chest, coughing fits and am bunged up, in fact at night when I turn over, I’m woken up by the squeaking noise that my draining sinuses make, coughing also wakes me up and last night was so bad I threw up. I’m tired and fed up, I’m not properly sick but I’m not properly well either and just done with this. What’s it going to take to get this sodding virus to leave me the hell alone?

We had a tiny bit of snow overnight. Although there seems to be a fair amount of train chaos at the moment, none of it was on my line or seems to be caused by the snow. Yay. London didn’t fall over because of half an inch of snow. Finally! Mind you it wasn’t proper snow!OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I’m really trying hard not to be grumpy, with only partial success, provided no one speaks to me after about 7pm, I can do it. After that I really don’t have a conversation in me or the ability to be nice. I’m blaming tiredness but I do sometimes wonder if it’s age and I’m slowly turning into my father, except without the beard and the drinking! I’m not impressed with life this week, Ol’s face here perfectly sums up how I feel!20140721-072332-26612119.jpg

 

Right I’m going to boil my head and try and cheer the hell up!!

 

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Life Happened – Normal-ish

Posted on February 2, 2015 by nicdempsey

After the week of sick, I went back to work on Monday. I was (in fact, still am) a bit croaky and I have a cough from hell but was in that in between stage that everyone who has gone down with cold seems to have, not sick enough to be in bed but feeling quite miserable. Mostly I was just really, really tired and went to bed really early!

Work was busy and frustrating, mostly because I was playing catch but also because people don’t read emails, it’s very frustrating to be constantly repeating myself because people don’t take time to hear me the first time! Life will be much easier when I am the benign dictator of the world!

I did pop round to see Kathy, Adam and the children. K&A are tired, toddlers will do that to you, but the toddlers in question are delightful and they like me, so that’s quite an ego boost!

Friday was also a team building afternoon! (My company is very keen on team building and my boss is very anxious to ensure that they don’t take away that budget!). We went to  a paint your own pottery place. The challenge being to paint a mug for another member of the team that reflected what you know about them.IMG_2734I have zero artistic talent. I used to joke that my art teacher had a death wish….my death. I also got the boss.  So I went with a very simple idea and it wasn’t too horrendous..IMG_2737When it’s fired, it should come out in company colours!

That done we went for dim sum and I had a cocktail.IMG_2738

I then went home for a ‘disco nap’ so I had enough energy to go to Jenny’s for dinner. It was delightful, the food was amazing, the company excellent and I was in bed by midnight.

Saturday was chore day and Ma came for tea. We had fish and chips and fizz.IMG_2740And after a quiet Sunday, due to resurgence of the sore throat. I’m back at work.

The plan for this week is mostly to survive it. I’m at Christina and Fred’s for dinner on Thursday and volunteering at the allotments on Saturday morning aside from those things, I want to get to the gym, go to the library and get lots of sleep!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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