Life Happened – Being Sick

Posted on January 26, 2015 by nicdempsey

This was my view Tues to Friday.IMG_2724

On Friday, Ma came over to rescue me…

I showered, did some shopping and changed the bed. It’s amazing how much better clean sheets make you feel.

On Saturday, I was up about 8.30am and launched into the laundry, I hadn’t done any for the whole week so everything I’d arrived back from France with was sitting in the washing machine! I’d got all the things that I needed for next week and didn’t get on Friday with Ma and took a trip to the laundrette to dry the sheets (I just couldn’t be doing with having drying laundry hanging around the flat!). By 7.30pm, I was contemplating bed

I had a bath and was in bed at 8.25pm!

Sunday was another trip to the laundrette to dry towels this time and an afternoon on the  sofa with a book and to catch up with Spiral. I know that Scandi-noir is all the rage but I’ve always preferred Spiral!

That was possibly the high point of the weekend. I retired to bed on Sunday, all laundry done and put away, as prepared for the coming week as I could be but still slightly husky.

Next week is going to be deliberately quiet, I’m not going to the gym and plan early nights  so I can really kick this bug and be well enough for dinner at Jenny’s on Friday.

Hopefully everyone else had a better, and more social, week. Tell me what are you all up to?

 

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It lives Igor…

Posted on January 24, 2015 by nicdempsey

It being me.

I’m mostly recovered, Ma came over yesterday and helped me do some shopping and change the bed. IMG_2726I’m feeling much better but have strict instructions to take it easy. So the only thing on my to do list this weekend is laundry and afternoon naps..

 

 

 

 

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Sick day

Posted on January 20, 2015 by nicdempsey

The cold I came back from France with has turned into a sore throat, a hacking cough and an overwhelming desire to sleep.

If you need me, I’ll be in bed!

 

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Life Happened – Strasbourg and Pretend Parenting

Posted on January 19, 2015 by nicdempsey

So this week was all about Strasbourg, Despite that I spent Monday and work and Monday evening stressing about packing.

On Tuesday I had a slight problem before I eventually got on my plane and the second plane (from Amsterdam to Strasbourg) was the smallest plane I’ve ever been on.IMG_0029

 

Strasbourg Airport is about 10 minutes on the train from the airport but still felt like the middle of nowhere,IMG_2670At Strasbourg, Jo met me and took me to her flat where I spent most of the week, not that I was complainingIMG_2687IMG_2676IMG_2680I spent most of the week with Ms T, taking her to school and all the other things that parents and grandparents and nannies and godparents etc doIMG_2697

Ms T was mostly a trouper and yes some of it was difficult but I maintain my position that parenting effectively is not difficult but it is hard!

Jo came home on Saturday and we had a wander about Strasbourg in the rain.IMG_2718I came back to London with a cold but was really happy to have spent time with Ms T and Jo!

This week is all about work, what are you up to?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Friday Night Cocktail – Party Planning

Posted on January 16, 2015 by nicdempsey

No new cocktail this week, because I’ve not been home to make one.

My thoughts have turned to Christina’s birthday, I’m going to make drinks for it. We (she) needs to pick 3 or four drinks to offer as well as the usual wine or beer. Christina is  all about the gin but not everyone is so I’m thinking about what drinks she could have. So I’ve been thinking about my parties and past Friday Night Cocktail posts to narrow it down.

The Summer in a Glass is my favourite party cocktail. Although, I use homemade cocktail cherries and we don’t have any of those on hand. Maybe the rhubarb version of this that uses the same ingredients with rhubarb syrup replacing the sugar syrup.DSCF4330

Christina tells me that she’s been drinking gin sours and I love the basic building block of triple sec + lemon juice + spirit.

Which gives us options for the non gin drinkers as well.

There’s a Japanese Slipper and/or an amaretto sour, Japanese Slipper

 

I was also thinking of jam jar cocktails and this grapefruit rosemary sour would be idea for that.

Clearly this is all leading up to a cocktail tasting night so Christina can make an educated choice!

 

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Friday Links

Posted on January 16, 2015 by nicdempsey

Links this week are few because I’ve been away, not a lot of reading has been happening!

Growing pea shoots, I’m going to try this.

 The resentment between London and the rest of Britain is turning into a poisonous political debate. This. It’s time for everyone to grow up!

A night in A&E. Horrific

Fox News terrorism ‘expert’ claims that Birmingham is a no-go area for non-muslims. Oh dear. the best thing about this has been the response on Twitter, the #foxnewsfacts. It’s such an English response.

https://twitter.com/rosamundi/status/554400262748930048

https://twitter.com/SouthySteve/status/554583747300196352

https://twitter.com/TheMightyGusset/status/554583728585183232

 

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Potato Bread

Posted on January 15, 2015 by nicdempsey

As part of my use all the vegetables in the house cooking festival on Sunday, I made potato bread.

The potatoes had been hanging around since before Christmas but were in surprisingly good nick. I had originally planned to mash and then freeze them but bread just seemed like a good idea. Once peeled and cooked, I had 2 cups of mashed potato and made 4 loaves, two plain and two with carmelised onion and rosemary.IMG_2665-0This makes a really soft bread and with hindsight, I wouldn’t have put the onion and rosemary bread in a tin but shaped it so it was more like focaccia, because the the bread is so soft it had trouble supporting the weight of the onions, you live, you learn. I used this recipe as a kicking off point but felt that it had a lot of sugar and yeast in it, so I cut that back and gave it a longer rise time. IMG_2663-0

What

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 1/2 teaspoons fast action yeast
1 cup mashed potato, made with fresh potato
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 tablespoon salt
3 to 6 cups strong white bread flour

How

  • In a bowl, add the yeast to the warm water and yeast and let stand for 5 minutes
  • Stir in potato, sugar, butter, and salt, it looks horrible at this stage, don’t worry too much about it!
  • Stir in flour until you have a soft dough. I used about 4 cups.
  • Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. I oiled my hands during kneading to stop it sticking too much.
  • Place dough in bowl, cover, and let rise 2 hours.
  • Punch dough down and shape into rectangle, roll up from the long side, cut in half and place each half into a loaf tin. This is the point that I added a the onions and the rosemary, I didn’t measure it so use your eye.
  • Cover, and let rise for anything from 1 to 3 hours, until doubled.IMG_2658-0
  • Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 30-35 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool on wire rack.

 

 

 

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Drink More Gin Water

Posted on January 14, 2015 by nicdempsey

One of the easiest ways for me to feel better about the state of my health is to stay hydrated. The recommendation is for about 1.6 litres a day and includes all non-alcoholic liquids not just water but advises you to watch out for sugary drinks.  I’m usually pretty good about this, I drink fizzy drinks occasionally (IBC Rootbeer is my weakness and if I lived in the US, I’d drink a lot more than I do now!), after my morning coffee, I switch to herbal tea and I have (and use) a water bottle on my desk at work.IMG_2653During December, I wasn’t as great at staying hydrated as I could have been. I was busy at work and I just didn’t make it a priority to fill up my water bottle, and I’m not as consistent about my water intake when I’m at home.

After Christmas, I decided to up my game and ensure that I drank 2 litres of water a day, the key to my plan was using a couple of empty Champagne bottles, filling them water and putting them in the fridge.

It’s an idea I stole from my friends Jenny and Jonny who always have a bottle of chilled water stored like this in their fridge, jugs don’t really fit fridges but these bottles do and look nice on the table.IMG_2666When I’m at home, I put a bottle and a glass on the kitchen table and having it, right there in front of me encourages me to drink it. Who knew it was that simple?

 

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Life Happened – Establishing Routine and Celebrating Birthdays

Posted on January 12, 2015 by nicdempsey

Last week was all about being back at work and settling into a routine, that I’m going to fall out of this week!

I made sure to drink lots of waterIMG_2653

 

Took the Christmas tree down and restored my living room to it’s natural orderIMG_2646

 

On Friday, the weekend started with a much needed haircut

Rather than go all the way home, I stayed at Ma’s on Friday night!

I started Saturday by putting up some pictures for Ma and then flooded her bathroom (it wasn’t my fault!)IMG_2657

 

The rest of Saturday was quiet and on Sunday, I got up and sorted things out. Because I’m going to France tomorrow, I turned all the vegetables left in the fridge into soup, and made some potato bread.IMG_2658-0Then I went to Charles’ birthday party.IMG_2659Now I’m tired!

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Things that made me happy this week

Posted on January 10, 2015 by nicdempsey

This week has been tough. First full week back at work, getting up in the dark, the miserable January weather and horrible commute, it all feels like the grey gloom will never end and I really wouldn’t mind spending the rest of my life in bed weeping or asleep. The news doesn’t help, Paris, an NHS crisis and currency worries for the Euro, snow falling in the Middle East and Syrian refugees. It all feels like the world is going to hell in a handcart.20131211-085105.jpgI know I’m not alone, everyone seems to be struggling right now. It’s easy to be miserable in January and I while can’t do a lot about events, I can do something about my own personal gloom, ’cause actually things aren’t actually all that bad in my life at the moment. So these are some of the random happy things and happy thoughts I’ve had over the last week.

Being part of the village

Last week, Christina and Tom came for drinks and it’s a thing of beauty to have watched two people go from being children to be responsible (and lovely) adults and to have them still want to hang when they really don’t have too.IMG_2636Next week, I get to go to Strasbourg and look after Ms T because Jo is on a course. IMG_2587I always reckoned that I would get married and have kids and it didn’t happen and yeah, it sucks. What I got instead was something else, I’ve become something like a Universal Aunt. Whether, that’s babysitting, building lego with the nephew, being the sympathetic adult to the tortured teenagers, running the book club with the god-children, all of it fills the space were children of my own would have gone and I didn’t get the chronic sleep deprivation either!  I am a part of the village and mostly it makes me happy.

Friday Pain au Raisin

It’s back, my reward for a week well done! 20140324-094017.jpg

Business as Usual

I’m not going to lie, I enjoyed the hell out of my two week Christmas break and taking the tree down on Epiphany made me sad but there is something reassuring about getting back to every day life, eating normal food, not drinking every day and having the living room back to normal. 20141109-192556-69956545.jpg

 Books and Reading

I read every day but sometimes I read because there’s nothing else to do and sometimes I chose to do nothing but read because I enjoy it so much. This week it’s the later and it makes me happy.photo

What’s making you grateful for your life at the moment?

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