Friday Links

Posted on March 22, 2013 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday! Another week of not much..too tired to read…

1) Britain has a farming crisis. Surely if we can bail out the bankers, we can work something out for the people who produce our food? I can’t be the only one that thinks that importing more of our food is a bad thing.

British farming is in the midst of a very deep crisis. After a drought in its first months, 2012 went on to become England’s wettest year on record, and the second wettest in the UK as a whole. Early summer was a deluge. High summer was sunless, resulting in silage that was as much as 40% lower in all-important sugars. The rains came again for the heart of the growing season. “This crisis compares to both BSE and foot and mouth,” says the farmer and agriculture expert, Donald Curry, who chaired the government inquiry into food and farming after the foot-and-mouth outbreak in 2001, and who now sits in the Lords as a crossbench peer. “The weather has affected the entire country and some have had the double whammy of bovine TB and Schmallenberg in sheep.” There are also price pressures on both inputs – feed and fuel – and the amount retailers are prepared to pay. “We know it’s going to affect farmers for this year and next year. For the farming help charities this has become a very serious issue.”

2) Who hasn’t done this?

As regular readers of this blog will know, I am no slackard in the kitchen, but this was insanity. The fury of generations of Italian women before me welled up. (No wonder women didn’t have bingo wings back then. Stirring polenta for ninety minutes is a serious work out.)

3) I wish it felt like spring here…this will have to do for now.

 

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The Day in Food: Bad day

Posted on March 21, 2013 by nicdempsey

So this my Tuesday in food. Not the best of days, when I’m unhappy and/or stressed my food choices go one of two ways. Either I eat loads to comfort myself (bad habit) or I don’t really eat because I don’t feel hungry (which is why when Stef was ill, I lost 2 and bit stone in three months, not really sustainable or healthy, I was miserable but dammit I was thinner, which was the only good thing about a really bad time.

In the great scheme of things Tuesday wasn’t actually a really bad day but food was not a priority, looking at it as I write this, I realise I started well and then it sort of trailed off as the day went on.

Anyway, this is what I ate

green smoothie/coffee/berocca

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I decided to start having this smoothie again as it makes me feel better, coffee is making a comeback this week, I didn’t have it on Sunday or Monday but I could not have got out of bed and to work without coffee. The berocca is just ’cause I need all the help I can get, I haven’t been taking any vitamin supplements recently and I think I need them!

Kinder treat/fennel tea

Laura came back from holiday with loads of kinder chocolate but no eggs! I had this with my tea which I didn’t take a photo of.

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Two oatcakes with smoked salmon/a pepper

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Mid morning snack that I got around to eating at noon, I was leaving early to go to the dentist and it was busy!

Roasted vegetable, chickpea and pearl barley salad

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This was technically lunch but it was 4.30pm before I ate it. After the ‘disaster at the the dentist’ and me being all emotional, I needed to logged on and had been working for over an hour when I remembered that the step I’d missed this afternoon was lunch! This is a typical lunch for me, the only thing that really changes is the grain, today it was pearl barley (which I’ve really gotten into recently, it’s lovely and chewy) instead of my usual lentils.

Kinder maxi bar

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Because I could. I also drank a couple of pints of water but no photo of those.

That was it. I spoke to Ma about 7pm and I was intending to eat soup but I just didn’t feel hungry so didn’t get around to it. While I know that it’s not good to skip meals, if I’m not hungry and I’ve eaten during the day, I don’t think that it’ll do me much harm!

Do you skip meals? Which ones and why?

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Tuesday

Posted on March 20, 2013 by nicdempsey

Yesterday was difficult. I went to the dentist, there was bad news and I’m tired (almost as tired as you are of listening to me whine on about it) and hormonal. I came home and I was a bit teary when I spoke to Tina. She was lovely, she was both sympathetic and bracing, which is typical T and she didn’t say (although I thought it) that crying about bronchitis, a dodgy tooth and bronchitis to someone with liver cancer is just bad manners, compared to her I do not have things to cry about.

There is a general assumption that you get the friends you deserve but to be honest I’m not sure I did anything good enough to have T as a friend.

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I though that I had pulled myself together until I started crying whilst on the phone to Ma. I was all, I don’t want to cry but everytime I talk about it I burst into tears. She said I could either have a wallow and cry for a bit or just not talk about it until I could. We are English after all.

Ma has been a star the last couple of weeks while I have been sick and moaning about it all the bloody time. I remember her having bronchitis, pneumonia and pleurisy and I only remember her taking time off for the pleurisy. So I shall follow her example and just get on with it because honestly I’m tired of all of it. Time to do something different!

Happy Wednesday people!

Posted in Sick, Whining | 1 Comment

The Weekend

Posted on March 18, 2013 by nicdempsey

My weekend started on Friday afternoon when I left work to go to the doctor about the cold/cough/sore throat, if you read Saturday’s goal update, you’ll know that she diagnosed bronchitis. Instructions were to carry on doing what I’m doing and rest, maybe take next week off sick. I can’t really take time of work but it was nice to have someone tell me that I was sick and not malingering!

I came home did some washing and had an early night.

On Saturday, Ma and I returned to Ikea to get one more set of shelves. Once they were put together, we went to Sainsburys to shop and by the time that was done, I was flagging and Ma decided to take me home so I could have a nap!

Ryan came for dinner and we spent some time catching up, I should have cancelled but it’s been ages since I’ve seen him and I had been looking forward to it.

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I didn’t sleep well on Saturday night and spent a lot of it coughing, so hard that the temporary filling that the dentist put in last week, fell out, unfortunately the toothache persists, though not quite as badly as before – root canal here I come!

By Sunday I was done in, it doesn’t seem over the top to say I was exhausted, so I did very little and tried to get some rest. Normally over a weekend I try to think a bit about the blog and content for the coming week, I did none of that this weekend, as I can’t really muster the necessary brain power! That means that I probably won’t post very much this week to give myself some rest!

What did you get up to on the weekend?

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Sunday Music

Posted on March 17, 2013 by nicdempsey

This is a really sad song. Sometimes you need to hear them. This song reminds me of my Dad and the mad murals he painted (that I loved and I miss) that unlike Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings don’t survive him anywhere apart from our minds on the plus side Dad died with all his ears in tact..

Don McLean was also one of the musicians that Ma and Dad agreed on, so I heard a lot of them growing up but I only really got this one when I was a grown up.

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March Recap 2

Posted on March 16, 2013 by nicdempsey

If you’ve looked in on the blog at all this week, you’ll know I haven’t been very happy.  The cold that won’t go away is actually bronchitis, I’ve had toothache from hell (filling fell out, dentist put a temp in and it hit the nerve) and my first ever nosebleed, I have been in the wars and very unhappy about it. Normally, this is the point I make a joke about being grumpy and move on but today I want to actually talk about it.

The bronchitis is two weeks old and because I’ve been on my own at work, I’ve had to go in. I’ve not been sleeeping properly, doing anything strenuous makes me cough and wheeze, and my temperature control is all over the place. I’ve been doing all the sensible things because surely it’ll be over soon. I’m just tired and fed up with being tired, my sunny attitude has completely vanished. It’s got to be over soon.

The toothache added to this has just made everything feel impossible to cope with, the last time I was in this kind of pain was when my wisdom teeth were pulled out. Generally, I cope with pain in a traditionally English fashion and carry on as best I can, but dental pain is the one thing that I really can’t cope with, I think it’s because nothing seems to help and it’s not at all predictable. I’ve been near tears on more than one occasion (except that also makes me cough!). Yesterday it had finally calmed down enough that it didn’t hurt all the time.

Friday was the only day this week that I felt ok and life started to feel that it might be worth living. What it has done is made me realise how lucky I am that I’m not chronically ill and don’t suffer from chronic pain because if I did, I could not concentrate on anything and be at all productive. So the story of this week is it was grey and dull. I’m back at the dentist next week and the doctor said that it should be over in a week or two! Fingers crossed.

Food

1) Coffee and alcohol, no more than 3 times a week.

9/6 on the coffee, some days the thought of coffee was the only thing that got me out of bed in the morning.

7/6 on the alcohol, this was because on Wednesday night in desperation I used whiskey as a mouthwash,  a remedy of last resort (after painkillers, asprin paste and bonjela.) Not a lot of whiskey less than 10mls, it was surprisingly effective!

Self care

2) No computer after 9pm on a school night (Sun to Thurs).

10/10 honestly I’ve been too tired to concentrate, you will have noticed how the blog has suffered this week!

3) Paint my nails!

Fail, took the varnish off at the weekend and didn’t get around to replacing until Friday. They are painted this morning and I could fake it but that feels like cheating!

4) Book an appointment with a dentist.

I went to see them and you know the result!

Home

5) Sort out the DVD’s in the living room.

Done, I need to blog about it

6) Sort out the pictures in the kitchen.

Not done as I need a trip to Ikea first, which is happening tomorrow.

Exercise

On the advice on the doctor I am not doing any gym until I can breathe properly that will probably be April, I may do some shorter, slower walking as the doc feels that some fresh air will do me no harm (although where I find that in London, I’m not sure!)

7) Gym twice a week.

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8) 2 10k walks in March

Not in one go, I walked to the dentist and back twice which was 8km in all!

So my week was horrible, how was yours? Hopefully better than mine, tell me about it!

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Friday Links

Posted on March 15, 2013 by nicdempsey

Hello, I haven’t done much reading this week. Two things that I did read are below..

1) Not all chemicals are toxic. This is something that has been bugging me lately, people saying that something is chemical free. Can’t be. It can be free of toxic chemicals, it can be free of man-man chemicals but it cannot be chemical free. ‘Cause that state doesn’t exist in nature. Words are important and we should not play fast and loose with their meanings!

Describing toxic and harmful chemicals as just plain “chemicals” comes from a good place. It is true that not all chemicals are good for us, and even those that are (like water or fluoride) can be harmful if we are exposed to too much or in the wrong way. However, all matter is made of chemicals, so it’s important to be more explicit.

2) Just because you’re middle class, you’re not immune from the law. Some comment on why Chris Huhne and Vicky Price deserve to go to prison, like everyone else.

Those who believe they are above the law, who are convinced they can manipulate the system and get away with it, are a tangible danger to others. And when they happen to be in positions of great power – whether in politics or in the media or in an investment bank – that danger is amplified. This arrogance, this hubris, this sense of invincibility conferred by position is precisely the link between the Huhne case, the financial crisis, the Savile scandal and the phone-hacking affair.

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Four things

Posted on March 14, 2013 by nicdempsey

After yesterday’s moaning, I thought I’d go for something that keeps me sane. So the four radio programmes I feel that I can’t live without!

In Our Time.

I’ve probably wittered on before about how much I love In Our Time. I like Melvyn Bragg, I like the questions that he asks and I like how he gets four people who are experts in their subjects (which can be anything from Bismark, the Industrial Revolution and the Founding of Rome to absolute zero, gravity as a concept and anything else inbetween) and gets them to explain in words and ways that I understand. Every Thursday, I finish listening and I feel enlightened.

The Now Show and/or the News Quiz

These programmes fill the same slot at 6.30pm on Friday Nights and I love them both because I need to laugh at things by Friday night.

The Today Programme

Every weekday at 6am or 7am on Saturday, the radio is tuned into this. I love the Today Programme, my mornings feel weird it’s not on because I set my morning to it’s rhymthms, so I’m always out of bed by the first business update at 6.20am, I have to be out of the shower, dressed and putting my makeup on by the 7.30am news, I should be ready to leave the house just after Thought for the Day. I know that lots of people find the Today Programme annoying and shouty. I am not one of them.

The Russell Davies Show

This is an hour of music on Sunday night at 9pm, it’s about the history of popular music and is fascinating. I sort of want Russell Davies to be my dad!

Are you a radio person? What programmes do you love?

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The cold that will not die..

Posted on March 13, 2013 by nicdempsey

I was going to write about yorkshire puddings today but I’m afraid it’s just not going to happen because yesterday was a rubbish and terrible day and it was all I could do to get through a day of work and then go home to bed.

So instead of talking you through how to make yorkshire puddings, I’m going to whine about how it all sucks, you’ve been warned….

1) I woke up at 3.30am and the resulting coughing fit led to me actually being sick.

2) My favourite (and yes, ok very old) work trousers finally gave up the ghost, when the zip jammed and I had to rip myself out of them.

3) Delays on the Piccadilly line meant that I had to wait 50 minutes, in the cold (0oC with a nasty windchill factor) for a train I could actually get on. It took about 3 hours for me to get warm again.

4) I sound like my tonsils belong to a toad, so croaky it’s painful to hear.

5) I got told by someone (not my boss thankfully) that my not being in on Friday afternoon because of a doctors appointment was letting the team down. Seriously, I can’t believe I even came into work but my fellow team member is on holiday and I thought I ought to try, it’s not like I want to be here coughing and croaky.

6) The earliest doctors appointment I could get was Friday. I’m not an emergency case, I just can’t speak and regularly have coughing fits, this would only make me an emergency case if I was under 10 or over 70. I love the NHS but sometimes…

7) A meeting to discuss a meeting. Yep, sometimes it really is bureaucracy gone mad (and they say the private sector is more effiecient than the public – ha!)

Ok so I’m going to end this rant with something that cheered me up.  Ladies and gentlemen, this is my nephew doing incy wincy spider.

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Hero product

Posted on March 12, 2013 by nicdempsey

Last month I found another use for my favourite all purpose product and I thought it was time to share.

It’s Waitrose’s Baby Bottom Butter*. There’s been a lot of talk about this, I think it started on Mumsnet (not a place on the Internet I have anything to do with) but people were using it on themselves rather than their babies and saying how good it was so of course, word spread. I’d seen a couple of people talk about it on their blogs and because it was only £2.89, picked some up, to try.

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It has 4 ingredients in it, olive oil, hydrogenated olive oil, vanilla and camomile, so it’s got no major nasties in it and it’s a fairly heavy moisturiser, like more natural Vaseline! I mainly use it as a body moisturiser, on my feet, as a cutical mosturiser and as a lip balm.  I’ve also mixed it with Benetint to make a coloured lip balm and used it on my face when I felt it needed something a bit richer during the winter.

Since last month, I’ve used it as a cleanser.  My cleansing routine has been the same forever, I use Liz Earle Hot Cloth Cleanser at night and wash my face with a facewash (normally this one) and microfoliant in the shower in the morning. It works pretty well and as a general rule I don’t have any issues with my skin. I’ve read about the Oil Cleansing Method and and I’ve used and liked Dermalogica’s Pre Cleanse, which is based on a similiar principle, which is that you rub the oil onto your face and it picks up the dirt. I wanted to try it but I’m lazy (and cheap!) and going out and buying the various oils, blending them and then working out the balance that worked for me was so not going to happen.

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The Bottom Butter is prety much just olive oil so I tried it to replace the Liz Earle and it works really well. I just massage it into my face and wash it off as I normally would. The only change I’ve made is to use a flannel rather than a muslin cloth, the butter is heavier and works better with a flannel. After cleansing, I don’t need to use much mosturiser because apart from on my cheeks, my face doesn’t feel tight, which it did after the Hot Cloth Cleanser.

Over the last couple of weeks, with the weather not sure if it’s proper winter or spring (seriously, it snowed yesterday, in Central London, in March ridiculous!) and my two colds,  my skin should have been acting up but it’s behaving beautifully to the point that people have asked me what I’m using on it.

So Waitrose Baby Bottom Butter, no nasty ingredients, cheap and a total multi tasker, if you can, go and buy some!

*I should point out that I have nothing to do with Waitrose, other than occasionally shopping there, no-one is paying me to say any of this or giving me free stuff, I just really like this product.

Posted in How I Live, Things I Like | Tagged , , | 7 Comments