Sunday Music

Posted on January 12, 2014 by nicdempsey

The Heavy – What Makes a Good Man

’cause it’s been an earworm all week

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Weekend Tasks

Posted on January 11, 2014 by nicdempsey

More of the same this weekend. I’m also going to Kathy and Adam’s on Saturday afternoon to take some photos and I’ll be at Grace on Saturday evening. On Sunday afternoon, Ma and I are going to the cinema to see Frozen. We looked at all the grown up films that are out at the moment and decided that the kid’s film was where we needed to be!

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Kitchen

  • General clean (sort out the recycling and rubbish, mopping the floor and general cleaning)
  • Clean oven

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)

Living Room

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

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Hall

  • Hoover, lots and lots of hoovering of pine needles

General things

  • Shopping
  • Washing (clothes wash, white wash, towel wash)
  • Ironing
  • Wash make up brushes
  • Wash hairbrushes
  • Water plants
  • Back up laptop
  • Charge kindle, ipad and camera batteries
  • Pick up dry cleaning
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Friday Links

Posted on January 10, 2014 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday! This week’s links!

1) If you want to curb immigration, enforce the minimum wage. It won’t please the Daily Mail but it does make a lot of sense.

2) PJ Harvey’s guest editing of the Today Programme has caused a kerfuffle. Honestly, I wasn’t keen, I’m not really one for music and verse while I’m getting ready in the morning! However, the whole point of the guest editors is to shake things up and give a different view and she did that. Also the Tory screaming about left wing bias at the BBC is ridiculous, like evangelical Christians in the UK claiming to be discriminated against. It’s not happening, you’re making it up!

3) They’ve unlocked the 1984 Cabinet archives. I think someone owes Arthur Scargill an apology!

4) Simon Hoggart died. This makes me sad.

5) Language is dynamic, should be dynamic. But maybe not in France. Académie Française condemns use of abbreviation of as soon as possible, and adoption of score as a verb

6) Was South Sudan a mistake?

7) Why we shouldn’t be closing down Fire Stations. If we can afford the dangleway, we can afford to fund the Fire Brigade.

8) A map of how many ‘bisou’ should be given in various regions of France. I do two as taught by Christelle, Tina and Tess. Who are all French or lived in France. This catches quite a few of my friends out, who like to do the English one!

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Brilliant things to do…

Posted on January 9, 2014 by nicdempsey

Anyone else in January gloom?

I am, some of it caused by a 24 hour-ish migraine on Monday/Tuesday, other causes are a quiet week at work and the normal January SAD stuff.

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How do you solve a problem like being miserable? If you’re me, you plan stuff.

So I’ve invited a friend over for dinner next week, I’ve sorted some things out that were on the ‘to-do’ list, I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to do on my holiday in seven weeks time (Washington here I come!) and in the process of having things to do that don’t involve sorting out the mould in the bathroom and finding the time to actually sort out the mould in the bathroom and accidentally bleach one of my favourite articles of clothing, I’ve cheered up a bit. Also I painted my nails, which always makes me a bit more cheerful.

I also found this. Anybody else fancy learning to swing dance? Or what about a hoola hooping masterclass?

If learning isn’t your thing, what about culture? English Heritage have exhibitions on through the year at the Wellington Arch. In fact join English Heritage and do some of the members events like the Duke of Wellington specialist tour of Walmer Castle or the Belsay tour both of which I would do in a heartbeat. I wrote about Belsay when we saw it last year   and I loved it although I didn’t expect to.

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I also want to do the now sold out photography tour although Lincolnshire is a way to go for it!

City Academy courses look interesting too. I really want to the sausage making course at the Ginger Pig this year too!

There’s lots of good theatre coming up this year too. This is just the upcoming stuff at the National.

So that’s how I’m cheering myself up. What are you doing?

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A grey Monday morning

Posted on January 6, 2014 by nicdempsey

It’s not been a great start to the week. It’s rainy and horrible, everybody has had a difficult journey into work because of signal failure and people under trains (so it could actually be worse) and we all a bit jaded after the break and half of us are sick. It’s completely fair to say that no-one is feeling epic, I’m not.

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However, it is Monday and I find some comfort in the predictability of the rubbish weather and bad moods. It’s January, this is what January is like. We have Christmas in December to power our trudge through the winter and into spring. I’m not alone in feeling less that stellar and I’m doing the things that need to be done and getting through the rest.

I don’t have much more of a plan for this week than get through it, go to work, read books, watch Sherlock, sleep and generally live as well as I can. I do want to work to avoid being miserable. It is a miserable time of year but all of the things I had to be grateful for in December, I still have to be grateful for in January. Home, family, friends, job. I also have other things just for January, I’m not flooded out of my home, it’s not -30C in London, the sun occasionally shines.

So this week, I’m going to work on being cheerful and optimistic, even though I’d rather be gloomy and grumpy!

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Sunday Music

Posted on January 5, 2014 by nicdempsey

Season Change

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Weekend Tasklist

Posted on January 4, 2014 by nicdempsey

Four days into the New Year and my life reverts back to reality! So the tasklist is back and my need to sort the flat and myself out so that next week goes smoothly.

Why? Because next week is a full five days at work and EVERYBODY with a job is back at work doing it, which means some of them will need/want me to do things, it’s almost like they expect me to work! Also I seem to be a bit poorly again. It’s not a cold, I thought it might be but I just feel really rubbish and like someone is standing on my chest. Not a fun sensation! Now it could be nothing and it might just go away over the weekend but last year’s brush with bronchitis has made me a little bit paranoid, so I want to make sure that I have clean clothes for next week, that the flat is tidy and that I know what I’m eating and that it needs minimal effort. That way if I am sick and it’s horrible, I can get through the week doing the bare minimum. I have a menu plan, a house plan and all I need to do is tick the jobs off one by one!

Kitchen

  • General clean (sort out the recycling and rubbish, mopping the floor and general cleaning)

Cooking

  • Cook lentils
  • make sourdough bread
  • Strain yoghurt
  • Make blueberry compote
  • Make hummus
  • Roast chickpeas

Bathroom

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

Bedroom

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

Living Room

  • General clean (sweep floor, dust, tidy sofa, put things away etc)
  • Take the tree and Christmas decorations down on Sunday.

Hall

  • Hoover, lots and lots of hoovering of pine needles

General things

  • Shopping
  • Washing (clothes wash, white wash, towel wash)
  • Ironing
  • Wash make up brushes
  • Wash hairbrushes
  • Water plants
  • Back up laptop
  • Charge kindle and camera batteries
  • Put Christmas decorations in cupboard
  • Put some boxes in the loft
  • Pick up dry cleaning
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Friday Links

Posted on January 3, 2014 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday!

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I hope you’ve had a good week, I’m slightly discombobulated because of the day off on Wednesday but pleased that I got to spend some time with Jo and Ms T! It’s time get back to normal after the lovely Christmas madness. Plans this weekend include taking down the tree, lunch with Christelle and Mike, time with the godchildren, who turned 13 this week (it really doesn’t seem that long ago!), I’m hoping that the weather is good enough to go for a  walk too but I don’t really hold out that much hope for that!

Anyway I hope you have a lovely weekend, here’s the stuff I thought was worth sharing this week!

1) Laurie Penny on what happened when her father died. Everybody experiences the death of the people we love differently, but we survive and live and breathe after because of the people around us that are still here. So she’s nailed that!

2) Do we still need the Foreign Office? Jo says yes but I suspect she might be biased, given that she works for them!

3) Northern Ireland is going to be hard hit by austerity. Although sometimes, ok most of the time, I just want to bang their heads together and tell them to grow up!

4)Don’t go dry for January, resolve to drink better alcohol instead!

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Chorizo, Bean and Barley Stew

Posted on January 2, 2014 by nicdempsey

Today, most people are going back to work after Christmas and New Year. The tubes are crowded again and everybody is slightly grumpy about being back at work and having to adjust to being up early again.

I worked over Christmas and New Year and have been slightly grumpy about that all the way through so today doesn’t mark the start of being back at work but it does mark the start of my getting back into a routine. Work will be busier today, there will be more people in the office and I’ll have to be in by 9am rather than the 9.30am I’ve been getting away with for the last couple of working days.

My eating habits need to get back on track too. I’ve loved Christmas and enjoyed the treats and chocolate, but I really need to eat food that’s good for me as well as tasting good!

Lots of blogs that I read are based in the US and I love the idea of eating black eyed peas for good fortune in the coming year. So I decided to do something similar. I soaked 205g black eyed turtle beans overnight and then rinsed them and bunged them in the slow cooker with a tin of chopped tomatoes and 250g of chorizo that I’d sliced up, I added a bit more water and left it on high for about 6 hours. Then I added a couple of handfuls of pearl barley and left it for about half an hour. Lastly, I dumped a bag of sliced up winter greens and left it for another half an hour.

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Not the prettiest dinner and the quick phone snap of it isn’t doing it any favours but it’s hearty, easy to make and tastes great. It would happily serve 4 greedy people, so I’ll be eating it for lunches for a little while!

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2014

Posted on January 1, 2014 by nicdempsey

A New Year.

I always thought that the New Year comes at the wrong time. I think the accountants have it right and a New Year should start in Spring, not in the depths of winter. It’s also hard to celebrate the end of the year and the beginning of a new one, in the middle of Christmas and I am still in Christmas, the tree doesn’t come down until the weekend when Christmas ends.

20131223-093816.jpgHowever, the calendar, tradition and everyone else disagrees with me and today is the first day of 2014.

Last year, I set goals. This year I’m not going to.

I did think about it, I thought of all the things I could push myself to do and then I decided that I really couldn’t be doing with it.

Yes, I am a naturally indolent person and no I’m not too bothered about it any more. I used to be and I’ve spent a lot of my life beating myself up over my ‘inability’ to motivate myself and be a grown up, responsible and active person. This year I’ve decided to stop doing that.

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2013 marked the year where I realised that I really like who I am and I really don’t care if anyone else does or not. It was the year when I stopped trying to be who I thought I should be and got happy about being who I was and at 40 years old it was way past time.

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So this year, I want more of that. I want to read more books, spend more time with my friends, drink more cocktails, laugh more, live the best life I can and be completely unapologetic about it.

So this year, there are no goals, no plans, no reflection on last year and no grand visions for this. There is a word. Enjoy.

This year, I’m just going to enjoy my life and do the very best I can with it.

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