Weekend Tasklist – What Got Done

Posted on February 17, 2014 by nicdempsey

I have to confess, I still haven’t hoovered the hall and I’ll have to do it tonight because I’m not sure I’ll be able to look at myself in the mirror if I don’t! I did pretty well and am generally happy with the state of the flat. There is stuff that I need to do but lazing around reading books seemed to be more important this weekend!

Kitchen

  • General clean (sort out the recycling and rubbish, mopping the floor and general cleaning)
  • Spray paint the other frames for the picture wall.
  • Find a frame for my artwork by Oli!
  • Buy some more photo paper.

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Cooking

  • Food prep for next week.

Bathroom

  • General clean (mop floor, change towels, empty bin, clean bath, sink and toilet)

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Bedroom

  • General clean (sweep floor, change bed, dust, general tidy)

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Living Room

  • General clean (sweep floor, dust, tidy sofa, put things away etc)

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Hall

  • Hoover

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General things

  • Shopping
  • Washing (clothes wash, white wash, towel wash)
  • Ironing
  • Wash make up brushes
  • Wash hair brushes
  • Water plants
  • Back up laptop
  • Charge kindle, ipad and camera batteries
  • Handwashing

What did you cross off your list this weekend?

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The Weekend

Posted on February 17, 2014 by nicdempsey

Happy Monday!

After a very stormy Friday night, the weather in London was glorious! Blue skies and sunshine all around.

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This weekend, I ate salad (and steak – not pictured!)

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Baked cakes and bread. Ma came for Sunday lunch and I failed to take many pictures at all! I also spoke to Sarah, Ryan and Christelle, saw Michael, drank whiskey and generally had a great weekend.

Plans for this week are scarce. I’m at the theatre on Friday night (Red Velvet at the Tricycle), I’m also going to try and see Ryan and Christelle but that may not work out, because I love my friends but we all need sleep more than sociability during the week! I also need to start thinking about packing and at some point locate my passport (don’t panic Mother, I know where it is!) and other holiday stuff.

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Weekend Tasklist

Posted on February 15, 2014 by nicdempsey

After last week’s slacking/nephew time, I have some serious catching up to do! Depending on the weather, Ma is coming over one day this week, to help me with thinking about clothes for my holiday. I’m really bad at packing and I need options if DC is still experiencing the polar vortex! I’m supposed to be seeing Ryan and Claire on Saturday night but as yet, I haven’t heard from Ryan so who knows if that will happen!

Kitchen

  • General clean (sort out the recycling and rubbish, mopping the floor and general cleaning)
  • Spray paint the other frames for the picture wall.
  • Find a frame for my artwork by Oli!
  • Buy some more photo paper.

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Cooking

  • Food prep for next week.

Bathroom

  • General clean (mop floor, change towels, empty bin, clean bath, sink and toilet)

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Bedroom

  • General clean (sweep floor, change bed, dust, general tidy)

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Living Room

  • General clean (sweep floor, dust, tidy sofa, put things away etc)

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Hall

  • Hoover

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General things

  • Shopping
  • Washing (clothes wash, white wash, towel wash)
  • Ironing
  • Wash make up brushes
  • Wash hair brushes
  • Water plants
  • Back up laptop
  • Charge kindle, ipad and camera batteries
  • Handwashing

What are you crossing of the list this weekend?

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Friday Night Cocktail

Posted on February 14, 2014 by nicdempsey

This weeks drink is all about leftovers. I know, it sounds weird, it is a bit strange. However, I can’t abide waste and every week when I make the blueberry or cherry compote for my breakfast pots, there’s leftover liquid. I don’t want it in my yoghurt so I pour it in a jar and bung it in the fridge. Is not quite juice and it’s not quite syrup and it seemed like a waste to pour it down the sink.

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So I put it in the saucepan and cooked it until it reduced down and was a jammy syrup and this was born. (If you don’t have the leftover juice/liquid, and why would you, take some blueberry jam, heat it up and sieve it, that should do as a replacement.)

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I wanted to use vodka in this and I’m really keen on grapefruit at the moment, I think it must be an age thing as my love of sour things has really grown, I wouldn’t go near a grapefruit in my 20’s, now I actually eat the things…

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What

1oz vodka

2oz pink grapefruit juice

1oz blueberry syrup/jam

How

Add ingredients and ice to a shaker. Shake and strain into a rocks glass with ice.

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Friday Links

Posted on February 14, 2014 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday! I hope you’ve all had a good week, here is some reading material!

1) Britain and its Coast. This was fascinating, I knew that the coastline was in trouble and the flooding and damage this year has been awful but I had no idea how bad it was or that you’re never more that 75 miles from the sea.

2) Even the penguins hate our weather.

3) Crisis Pregnancy Centres that tell women lies about abortion. Time for Crisis Centres to start undergoing the same scrutiny that BPAS is subject to.

4) Private schools keeping almost everything the same and receiving state funding. I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry.

5) We’re flooded and the East Coast is freezing. I’m selfishly worried about my holiday…

6) Pictures of the 1953 flooding.

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Buy Your Own Flowers

Posted on February 12, 2014 by nicdempsey

Somebody, and I really can’t remember who, once told me that a woman should never buy her own perfume or flowers. The theory was that flowers and perfume should always be bought for you by the men in your life.

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I think that’s a fairly ridiculous statement, what if the men in your life, aren’t really the flower buying type or you’re single? You’ll just sit waiting for someone to buy you flowers. Maybe feeling sad and lonely because you’re not worthy of flowers.

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No that’s a rubbish idea, so I buy my own. At least once a month, I buy some flowers. It could be daffodils or lillies but I buy myself something. They are a reminder that things can’t be that dreadful because I can afford that luxury, they smell nice, look gorgeous and make me smile.

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This weekend, I bought irises.

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I realised as I was writing this that it’s Valentines Day on Friday. The day when the trains are full of men holding flowers to give to girlfriends or women on the train having had flowers sent to them at work. It’s lovely to see and it’s then I’m really glad that I buy my own flowers because I don’t wait for the day that someone else gives me flowers, without wanting to sound too hippy, I am my own valentine. I love myself and my space enough to have flowers all the time.

So if the thought of Valentine’s Day is stressing you out, go and be your own valentine and buy yourself some flowers!

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Freezer soup

Posted on February 11, 2014 by nicdempsey

I make something like this maybe twice a month in winter, it was inspired by Becca’s Black Bean Soup, but I’ve never really followed an exact recipe and always use what I have, which with the exception of the carrots and peppers comes from the freezer. It’s not quite a soup and not quite a stew, you could blend it to make it smoother and/or add more water to make it soupier. It doesn’t look very pretty but it tastes really good.

I eat a lot of beans, nowadays and very rarely buy tins of them, instead, I buy dried beans, soak them overnight and then cook them in the slow cooker for 4 to 8 hours (it really depends on the beans and how old they are!). Once cooked I weigh them into freezer bags of roughly 200g to 240g, so about the weight of a tin of beans, and bung them in the freezer ready to use. I usually have black beans, pinto beans and chickpeas in the freezer ready to go. I do the same with refried beans, making a big batch and dividing them up into ‘can size’ (about 200g) for use in this soup or bean beer stew. I’m pretty sure that you could leave them out entirely and I know that you could just buy a can of refried beans and dump them in too. I generally always have frozen corn, peas, cauliflower and spinach the freezer, which is what makes this so easy to make.

I get about 4/5 servings. lots of vegetables and don’t have to think to hard about cooking, win/win..

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Freezer Soup

480g frozen black or pinto beans

8 chunks frozen spinach

1 bag frozen (or one tin) refried beans

1 400g tin chopped tomatoes

2 to 3 grated carrots

1 red, yellow or orange pepper (don’t use green ones they’re horrible!)

1 teaspoon cumin

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

How

Throw it all in the slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4

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Weekend Tasklist What Got Done

Posted on February 10, 2014 by nicdempsey

This weekend goes down as the weekend that nothing in the house got done! You could choose to see that as failure but I don’t. Having a clean and organised house is lovely and important but this weekend, I spent time with my mum and my nephew. We had Oli on Saturday overnight. Babysitting Oli has been a little bit traumatic for him and us recently, he’s an only child and used to the attention of his parents and he doesn’t like change so he’s been very upset when Grandma and Aunty Nic come to the house and his parents leave, without him. This weekend he was delightful and it feels like major progress. This week I’m going to have to do a bit more housework when I get home from work but it’s a small price to pay for hearing Oli tell me that he and I are friends!

Kitchen

  • General clean (sort out the recycling and rubbish, sweep floor) This gets done tonight in time for the Tuesday rubbish pick up!

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Cooking

  • Food prep for next week. This I did get done, come on, I’m always going to prioritize food and sleep!

Bathroom

  • General clean (sweep floor, change towels, empty bin, clean bath, sink and toilet). Towels were changed but that and scrubbing the toilet is all I did. Bathroom will get a proper clean on Tuesday night. 

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Bedroom

  • General clean (sweep floor, change bed). Nope nothing done, a task for this evening.

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Living Room

  • General clean (tidy sofa, put things away etc). Fortunately, I’ve hardly been in the living room so it’s pretty tidy and can go another week.

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Hall

  • Hoover – Not done, needs doing, not likely to get done until next week – I hate hoovering!

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General things

  • Shopping
  • Washing (clothes wash, white wash, towel wash)
  • Ironing
  • Wash make up brushes
  • Water plants
  • Back up laptop
  • Charge kindle, ipad and camera batteries
  • Handwashing

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The Weekend

Posted on February 10, 2014 by nicdempsey

Happy Monday people! Ready to tackle this bright and shiny week? No, can say I am either but the week is here whether we’re feeling up to it or not!

My weekend was tiring but fun, Oli was delightful, which we honestly weren’t expecting but with 4 year olds, you take what you can get! He’s also at the stage where he’s starting to try and tell jokes and not quite succeeding but is always absolutely delighted when he makes you laugh. We played lots of games, made jelly, went shopping, (Oli scanned the shopping!). He did have moments of being ‘sad’ but we didn’t have hours and hours of crying!

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There was pizza for dinner, with vegetables for the grown ups

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and just ham and cheese for the boy.

 

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I got to watch Match of the Day, which much to my surprise is the biggest thing that I miss about having a TV! Oli played on the iPad a lot, it’s my secret auntie weapon!

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Then on Sunday, Ben and Laura came home and Ma and I headed out.

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This week is going to be about surviving the second tube strike, getting some work stuff out of the way so I can go on holiday at the end of the month with a clear conscience and doing all of the things at home that didn’t get done this weekend!

How was your weekend? What are your plans for the week?

 

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Weekend Tasklist

Posted on February 8, 2014 by nicdempsey

Ok, you know the drill. Below is a list of things I hope to accomplish this weekend. If you read these posts every week, you’ll notice that the list is much shorter this weekend because I’m spending most of it babysitting the nephew, while his parents get some time together without him. Oli isn’t happy about this. He’s told my brother that he “doesn’t want Grandma and Aunty Nic to look after him”. Life is hard when you’re 4!

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Kitchen

  • General clean (sort out the recycling and rubbish, sweep floor)

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Cooking

  • Food prep for next week.

Bathroom

  • General clean (sweep floor, change towels, empty bin, clean bath, sink and toilet)

DSCF4039

Bedroom

  • General clean (sweep floor, change bed)

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Living Room

  • General clean (tidy sofa, put things away etc)

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Hall

  • Hoover

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General things

  • Shopping
  • Washing (clothes wash, white wash, towel wash)
  • Ironing
  • Wash make up brushes
  • Water plants
  • Back up laptop
  • Charge kindle, ipad and camera batteries
  • Handwashing

What are you crossing of the list this weekend?

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