Nic Dempsey

Busy time

Posted on June 3, 2014 by nicdempsey

Yesterday, I looked at my diary for the next couple of weeks.

I’m going to be a little busy over the next couple of weeks. I know that for some people, my diary doesn’t look at all busy but I know myself well enough to know what I can cope with. I don’t do well if I don’t spend huge chunks of time by myself, I’m an introvert. Although most of the people I meet think I’m not because I like people and I’m interested in them. This is true I do like people but too much interaction drains me, I don’t come away from spending time with people feeling energised and ready to rock, I come out thinking that I could really do with being home in my flat with nothing but Radio 4 and a book for company. I try to ensure that over a weekend, I have at least half a day but more often a whole day where I don’t have to see anyone and the only people I talk to are the ‘non draining’ people, for me that’s basically, my mum…

So this week and the next two weekends are going be something approaching my worst nightmare, full of people to see and things to do. May and June, in the industry I work in, are always busy because everyone is trying to get work out of the way before the school summer holidays so it’s will be full on until the end of July. We also have two staff events, on Thursday and Friday afternoon and evenings. Friday is also Stef and Kier’s birthday, so at some point, I’ll need to check in on Michael and maybe L and H (although they need that less and less). Saturday afternoon will be spend in Watford,with the family to admire Ben and Lu’s new bathroom, do the family World Cup draw (I would really like to win this year!) and probably play Uno. Saturday night sees me in Woking to spend some time with Mike and Christelle. The weekend after there are haircuts, and World Gin Days and a visit to Apsley House. It all feels quite busy.

So I need a plan to help me cope. First up, no more commitments, I’m not putting anything in my diary until after the 15 June. I have made the menu plan for the next two weeks really easy (I shall mostly be eating stir fry, roasted veg, soup and yoghurt!) and I’ve made a plan to ensure the housework gets done, during the week so the weekends don’t feel so stressed. Sleep is going to be important, because when I feel busy, my need for sleep increases, so strict weekday bedtimes of 10pm and no screen time after 9pm, I’m also adding a small piece of exercise, a very gentle 15 minutes of yoga to relax and centre me before bedtime, I’ve been doing it a little bit during May and I’ve noticed that I sleep better when I do it so it’s worth a shot.

So that’s the coping mechanisms in place.

How do you deal with busy times? I need all the help I can get so anything you can suggest is useful!

Posted in How I Live | Tagged busy, coping, preparation | 2 Comments

Spinach and Feta Smoked Paprika Muffins

Posted on June 2, 2014 by nicdempsey

This is another recipe that didn’t start off as mine but is going to become a staple in my house!

I’ve made these a couple of times now and have started to deviate from the recipe to make it easier. Mostly that’s about packet sizes. Feta comes in 200g packets and spinach in 150g ones. So it’s easier to use the packet as is rather than faff with weighing the ingredients. I never cook spinach in water, I stick it in a pot and cook until it wilts, when I’ve done that for this recipe, I just put the spinach in a strainer for a bit and squeeze as much liquid out as I can before I chop it up. I also weigh the yoghurt because it’s just easier than measuring! I use more smoked paprika and less sugar and I occasionally add cooked bacon bits to them because I can.

They are fantastic for lunches and breakfasts and at some point, I’m going to make it in a loaf tin because I think it would make amazing toast. One last thing, make these in muffin cases, don’t put them straight into the muffin tin as Matt did when he was making them, it was a bit of a disaster, I’ve learn from his mistakes and you should too!

What

150g spinach, cooked and drained and cut up
240g flour
15g caster sugar
1¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
¾ tsp salt
2 eggs
50ml extra virgin olive oil
180g plain yoghurt
2 tsp smoked paprika
200g feta, diced

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5. Sieve the dry ingredients, then lightly whisk the eggs, oil and yoghurt together. Now mix this into the dry ingredients – don’t mix it too much, just bring it together.

Stir in the smoked paprika, feta and spinach, then spoon into the muffin tin, this makes anything from 10 to 12 muffins. Bake for 18-24 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Posted in Cooking, Food | Tagged baking, feta, paprika, spinach, Spinach and Feta Smoked Paprika Muffins | 6 Comments

Friday Night Cocktail

Posted on May 30, 2014 by nicdempsey

When we were in Brighton a couple of Fridays ago, it was hot and went we stopped for lunch at Lucky Beach (which is worth a visit, best fish and chips I’ve had in ages). Christelle and Natalie ordered a carafe of Elderflower and Apple fizz. It was one of the non alcoholic options because Christelle was driving and Natalie is a lightweight, I had an aperol spritz and then stole some of their fizz. It was refreshing and lovely.

The menu said that the drink had elderflower cordial, apple juice and fizzy water, there was mint, cucumber and lime in the carafe as well so it was fairly simple to replicate.

It’s lovely on it’s own and although I haven’t done it, if you wanted to I’m sure that it would suit the addition of gin or vodka or maybe even white rum. Or you could try replacing the elderflower cordial with St Germain. It’s a drink you can play with.

What

1 lime, quartered

mint

a chunk of cucumber

50ml elderflower cordial

150ml apple juice

fizzy water

ice

a jug or carafe, to give you an idea, mine holds a litre.

How

Squeeze the lime quarters into the carafe and drop the limes in. Thinly slice the cucumber (I use a vegetable peeler) and add to the carafe.

Add the apple juice, cordial and mint leaves and give everything a bit of a stir.

Add as much ice as you can to the carafe, top up with fizzy water, and give it all another stir.

Posted in Booze | Tagged apple juice, Elderflower and Apple Fizz, Elderflower cordial, Friday Night Cocktail, limes, mint, the non alcoholic Friday Night Cocktail, water | Leave a comment

Friday Links

Posted on May 30, 2014 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday. It’s fair to say that this week completely got away from me. I’ve been swamped at work and have not had many conversations in me. In fact, I’ve spoken to Ma twice, Sarah once and Ben once and that’s as social as I’ve been able to be. However, the weekend is here as soon as 5pm hits and I’m out of the office and recharging my batteries! This week links…

1) Grace Dent on Elliot Rodgers. Yep..

2) Endangered English accents and dialects. None of them really mine but interesting anyway.

3) London is UKIP’s worse nightmare. There’s a lot being said about UKIP’s success in the local and European elections. There’s a lot that isn’t being said. Turnout was roughly 35% and than says more about what the people think that the rise in the UKIP vote. I also think that it’s time to stop calling the people who did vote for UKIP ‘racist’. Is some of UKIP’s support racist, yes but not all of it is. I think that the majority of it is about fear. This is the first time since the 1940’s where people cannot see that the lives their children and grandchildren will have will be better than theirs. UKIP says quite loudly that the fault is immigration. When you’ve lived somewhere for decades and you can’t afford to live there any more and you can’t get a council flat but you read about someone who does and doesn’t speak English, when the children of the nice Polish lady get into the local school and yours doesn’t, it’s easy to feel that you’re missing out. Then you read the stories in the Daily Mail about how we’re all being forced to eat halal meat and Nigel Farrage tells you that all Bulgarians are criminals, it’s easier to blame the ‘other’ for you not getting that house or school place or job.

4) The other thing that needs to happen is compulsory voting.

5) Service pensions from the Spanish-American and Civil Wars are still being paid. War has consequences that ripple through generations..

6) How to tell you are in a Jane Austen novel

7) How to fix politics.

Posted in Links | Tagged accents, American Service Pensions, dialects, Elliot Rodgers, Grace Dent, How to Tell if you are in a Jane Austen novel, Jonathan Freedland, low voter turnout, Max Benwell, Santa Barbara, Suzanne Moore, The Guardian, The Independent, The Toast, UKIP and London, voting, Wall Street Journal | Leave a comment

Sunday Music

Posted on May 25, 2014 by nicdempsey

Yesterday, there was football, QPR beat Derby 1-0 (in the 89th minute & down to 10 men) and won their playoff and have been promoted to the Premier League. The Champions League final happened and Real spanked Atletico 4-1. I was hoping for QPR and Atletico wins. 50% is better than nothing. I do like to see QPR do well, Ma and Ben are QPR fans, my Dad was too and I spent a lot of my childhood at Loftus Road. Having said that, I am a Chelsea fan (much to Ma and Ben’s disgust) and Chelsea are my team because, like me, they can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They seem to do that a lot around the R’s and I’ve seen QPR annihilate us when we should have won, so there are now going to be at least two days a year when I’m just not going to speak to my brother. Having said that B was at the match today and I’m glad the R’s won. So here’s what they were singing at some point today

But today’s music is The Replacements – Alex Chilton, just because I can

Posted in Music | Tagged Alex Chilton, football, football not soccer, QPR, sunday music, The Replacements | Leave a comment

Friday Night Cocktail

Posted on May 23, 2014 by nicdempsey

This cocktail came from the comments of Cassie’s post about a virgin cucumber mojito. In the comments someone mentioned a foghorn and it sounded pretty good. I mentioned the summer classics of G&T, Pimms, and for people not drinking alcohol, rock shandy and anything with bissap in it. The Foghorn though, is right in my flavour profile, gin and lime and ginger, all things I love.

This feels more like a fancy twist on a gin and tonic than an actual cocktail, but like a G&T, you could make it without the gin for the weeknights when you really want a drink but don’t want to actually drink.

What

2 oz gin (I used Beefeater here)

3/4 oz fresh lime juice

ginger beer

How

1) Pour gin and lime juice into an ice filled rocks glass.

2) Top up with ginger beer. Garnish with lime wedge.

Posted in Booze | Tagged Friday Night Cocktail, gin, ginger beer, lime juice, The Foghorn | 1 Comment

Friday Links (23/05/2014)

Posted on May 23, 2014 by nicdempsey

1) Sarah Millican on body shaming and why she’s working this year instead of going to the BAFTA’s.

2) Nike’s World Cup ad, is fun.

3) Best example of how not to write a book review. William Giraldi managed to tell us a lot more about his twisted ideas about woman and some of the books they read than he did about the book he was supposed to be reviewing. It’s an unpleasantly misogynist rant about people he feels aren’t intelligent enough to read proper books and by proper books he means books written by men, about things that are important to men and a certain type of man, Giraldi also hates the readers of Tom Clancy. I don’t understand the 50 Shades phenomenon but equally I’m not going to judge others on what they like. After about a year at secondary school, my English teacher, Mr O’Brien, realised that it was going to be pretty difficult to stop me reading in all my classes. As I walked into his class, he would check out what I was reading and if he thought there was too much of one type of book, he would remove whatever I was reading and replace it with something else. No judgement, just an observation that I might need a bit more fibre in my reading diet. He taught me for 5 years and during that time (often in his class) I read Clarissa when I was at school, I also read the Brontes and Austen and Arthur Conan Doyle and Kipling, I also read speeches, and Sweet Valley High books. My tastes were broad and I learned not to feel that any book was above or beneath me. I learnt to be a reader. It horrifies me to learn that Giraldi teaches, fortunately at college, hopefully he won’t destroy the pleasure of reading for his students. There are other better responses to that horrible review, here is Alyssa Rosenberg’s and of course the Smart Bitches and please read the comments on that one!

4) David Lebovitz on a Smithsonian exhibit, Food: Transforming the American Table 1950-2000

I spent a very lovely afternoon wondering around this in March, and had an interesting conversation with the security guard about my choice of reading material. (apparently I shouldn’t want to read about a war my country lost!). That day was an education in cultural difference!

5) Why is Napoleon not treated with more respect in France?

I put this one in especially for my mother, who is currently spitting her coffee across the room and muttering about ‘le petit corporal’…

6) More Old Crow and a playlist!

Posted in Links | Tagged bad book reviews, BAFTAs, Body Shaming, David Lebovitz, Food: Transforming the American Table, idiots, Napoleon, Nike, Old Crow Medicine Show. Esquire, Radio Times, Sarah Millican, The Independent, The New Republic, The Smithsonian, winner stays, World Cup | Leave a comment

Reset

Posted on May 22, 2014 by nicdempsey

For the last month or so things have not been as organised as I’d like or to be honest as organised as I need them to be. I’ve spent too much time not doing things that need to be done.

It’s not been the major stuff, the flat is basically tidy and I’m on top of most of the general stuff. The bed gets made in the morning, food is planned, the dishes and clothes are washed. I just haven’t been on top of the minor, more irritating chores that I’ve been ignoring, the ironing pile, the junk mail on the stairs, dishes and clothes were washed but not put away.

It’s those little things that make me feel that I’m not in control of my space. Out of control sounds like a big thing but it’s not really it’s little. It’s the sense that life is riding you instead of you riding it. As those things built it felt harder and harder to fix it because there was so much that I hadn’t done and mostly I wanted to sleep. I always want to sleep but the state of the flat was not helping at all. The worst of it was that, it wasn’t even that bad, as I get older my tolerance for mess lessens, which I never thought would happen!

Last weekend put it right. It could have been spending Thursday night at the OXO, or Friday in the sunshine, maybe a dose of vitamin D kick started a ‘can-do’ attitude.

Whatever it was, on Saturday morning, I picked myself up and organised my space, it wasn’t big stuff, I swapped out my winter wardrobe for the summer one, sorted the recycling, I tidied the living room, cleaned the bathroom. Then I went to the theatre and seriously if you are in London, A View from the Bridge at the Young Vic is really worth seeing, even though I have a fundamental problem with what happens in the play. There is a point in all tragedies, when I just lose patience with the characters because they are idiots. I studied A View from the Bridge for GCSE over 20 years ago and my fundamental opinion of the characters is unchanged – “use your words, don’t be stupid” or as Ma said “Men are stupid”. The production is great and Mark Strong is superb.

Oli sitting was cancelled because Laura was ill, so Ma and I headed back to mine for pizza and a movie.

On Sunday, we were up early-ish to go have breakfast at Papillon and do the food shopping. Before lunch, while I was sorting out food stuff for the week, Ma did my ironing, it’s always amazing when Ma does my ironing, I think that’s why she didn’t do it when we was a teenager because that way Ben and I will always be grateful if she does now!

Because of the weekend, Monday got off to a clean start. On Monday night, I put the washing away and did ironing that needed doing from that wash. I shut down the electronics at 9pm. I’ve been doing this all week and although I still feel tired, I’m not sleeping any better, I also feel in control.

My days are easier because I’m prepared for them. This morning I was out of the house in time to vote (if you live in the UK or Europe and can vote please make sure that you do today!) and was in the office early.

It’s not rocket science, I know that it works, but usually resetting my life is part of a big effort to do something but this weekend, it was an easy, gentle weekend with people that I care about doing things that I like, with an assist from Ma!

So I’m calling it progress.

Posted in How I Live | Tagged control, home, house, Relearning stuff, stuff | Leave a comment

Cous Cous

Posted on May 21, 2014 by nicdempsey

Over the last couple of weeks, there has been a big bowl of cous cous in the fridge, I eat it for lunch and dinner.

There isn’t really a recipe for it but I cook the cous cous with chick stock, mix it with grated carrot, quick pickled red onion, feta, black olives and spring onion. The dressing is oil, lemon juice with salt, pepper, cumin and smoked paprika.