Is that the champagne talking..

Posted on August 8, 2011 by nicdempsey

Christelle gave me this card for my birthday..

She said she saw it and thought of me!

I don’t know if I should worry but it made me laugh….

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Advice

Posted on August 7, 2011 by nicdempsey

Heather had a great post on Friday about advice and asked for the best piece of advice that we’d been given.  I wrote this and I think it’s worth repeating!

Three things:
1) If it’s something you can’t tell your mother or your best friend, don’t do it!
Whether it’s the bitching about someone, giving up on the run, being involved with someone unsuitable, if you’d be too ashamed to admit to the people that love you, that’s a pretty good guide that you shouldn’t be doing it!!
2) You can do anything for a minute.
Running that bit further or faster, doing a plank, dealing with something I don’t want to be that housework, filing etc, you can do it for a minute and then see how you feel!
3) If no one died or got seriously hurt it’s not a disaster or a crisis.
It might feel like it but really it’s not, take a breath, you’re allowed to be upset/stressed whatever but normally it’s not the end of the world.

I think those three cover most situations.

Posted in How I Live | 1 Comment

Sunday Music

Posted on August 7, 2011 by nicdempsey

Pink Martini. Just because they are fabulous, this year martinis were the birthday drink of choice and ‘Hang on Little Tomato’ fit where I am right now…

so I hold on to this advice/when change is hard and not so nice/if you listen to your heart the whole night through/your sunny someday/will come one day soon to you..

Jillian’s favourite (in fact Olly thinks that Dosvedanya is Russian for Grandma!)

I don’t won’t to work, I don’t want to lunch, I just want to forget, so I smoke..

Over the Valley

 

 

Posted in Music | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Zombie Dodging…

Posted on August 6, 2011 by nicdempsey

Oh for the money to leave the country and do this…

Run for Your Lives

never have I wanted to run a race more….

Posted in Random, Running | Leave a comment

It’s my birthday…

Posted on August 6, 2011 by nicdempsey

I’ve had a fantastic birthday weekend!!

Yesterday people came to my house and we drank cocktails and pizza and it was lovely.

Today, the flat was filled with family and friends with babies and it was chaos. Nice chaos but two toddlers can cause havoc…especially when one of them is Olly and he pretty much knows he can just smile at Aunty Nic and get what he wants (today mostly to splash water around!!)

I got lovely presents, spent time with my lovely friends and even though it’s raining (actually bucketing down) I couldn’t have had a better time.

I wish I had remembered to take some photos.

It’s still my birthday for another four hours so I going to eat some cake…

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Busy, busy

Posted on August 5, 2011 by nicdempsey

Most of today is going to be spent baking.

I’m going to make these..

and these

and some ginger cakes (special request from my mother!)

I’ll also be making some of these..

Yes I know, it’s all carb heavy but we’ll need it because on Friday evening, we will be drinking these…

Some of these

Maybe some of these..

The reason for all this eating, drinking and making merry is Friday Night Cocktails: Birthday Edition

Yep on Saturday, I get to celebrate making it through another year and my brother gets to point out I’m older than him…

On Saturday afternoon, (assuming that it’s not raining, our 3 day ‘heatwave’ just broke and it been raining a bit!) we’re going for a picnic and if I’m very lucky there will still be a merry-go-round and I’m so going on that!!

Yay for birthdays and weekends with people I love!

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Tina

Posted on August 4, 2011 by nicdempsey

This is my favourite photo of Tina.  She’s in her kitchen and it conveys (to me anyway) the way she is always moving!

I’ve known Tina since I was 16 and babysat for her children, Christina and Tom, who are both ‘responsible’ adults now. I lived in their house for a while in my 20’s and as role models go, she’s a fabulous one (although really she would utterly reject any notion of her being a role model at all!).

She’s responsible for me owning a magimix for which I paid her in cake, the only thing she doesn’t cook. I still remember my horror when Tom told me that he knew how to bake a cake, you started with opening a box. The horror….

Aside from cake she is an amazing cook, she doesn’t make a big deal out of it but I’ve never had a bad meal at T & C’s! In fact a lot of the staples of my cooking started as something I ate at Tina’s and she is entirely the reason that I can make jam.

Cooking isn’t the only thing she’s taught me though, good places to go for a walk in Ealing, how to just get on with it and not to be silly about things, the importance of surrounding yourself with people that enrich your life, how to agree to disagree and the importance of houses being clean, if not tidy!

I’m very lucky to have had strong women in my life as role models and Tina (as much as she would tell me not to talk nonsense!) is one of them. So there..

Posted in Friends | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

What I’ve Read – July 2011

Posted on August 3, 2011 by nicdempsey

Got my reading bug back this month, largely by not trying and just reading what I fancied. It has to be said that none of it was great literature and didn’t require too much brain space. I’ve read over 50 books this year but really need to start working on the big list.

43. Just Listen – Sarah Dessen

My first Sarah Dessen and this month not my last
44. Blood Red Road – Moira Young

I loved this, once I’d gotten into the groove of the writing style. (and yeah more dystopia!)

45. Someone Like You – Sarah Dessen

Second Sarah Dessen, with mother issues and teenage pregnancy added to the mix. I enjoyed reading it but it did worry me a bit and if I had a teenager reading this, I’d really hope that they had access to other points of view.

46. Ultraviolet – R.J. Anderson

Not what I was expecting at all, but really good fun anyway.

47. Heartless – Gail Carriger

I now have Kindle for my iPhone and this book is the reason I’m considering a Kindle, it was silly, fun and the type of book in physical form that I wouldn’t make space on the bookshelf for (space is limited!!)

48. When God Was a Rabbit – Sarah Winman

I really wasn’t sure about this one, but I really enjoyed it. Anything that has me laughing out loud on the tube is worth reading especially when this book deals with some really difficult stuff. I read somewhere that Sarah Winman, wanted to convey that stuff happens and children get on with it, if that was her intention, she does it brilliantly.

49. A Storm of Swords 1: Steel and Snow – George R. R. Martin

Mixed emotions, loving the story, really want to find out what happened next but at the same time, I’m a bit scared about what Martin is going to do to next. Also wondering if I can drag the next 3 published books out until book 6 comes out. Somehow, I think that’s not going to happen but the story is getting more and more twisty and I have no idea where it’s going.

50. Whatever Happened to Goodbye – Sarah Dessen

Another Sarah Dessen, another Kindle book and more mother/daughter issues. After 3 Sarah Dessen books I’m getting the hang of the style (which I love) and I like that the adults have issues too.

51. Jean of Storms – Elinor Brent Dyer

This is a typical Elinor Brent Dyer story. Written for adults and not as much fun as her school stories but interesting if you’ve read the Chalet School books and very much of it’s time (1930). The heroine ends up married to the nice doctor and the spoiled children come good with some common sense parenting!! Another Kindle buy.

Posted in reading in 2011 | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Cake

Posted on August 2, 2011 by nicdempsey

This was emergency cake. Max was coming for lunch and I had promised cake, however, the night before I’d been out and hadn’t really given baking much thought.  I found myself with about an hour to get ready and bake. There were nectarines in the fridge and this was the result.

I decided to go with a nectarine version of the summer strawberry cake on Smitten Kitchen. The strawberry version is amazing so I didn’t think I could go much wrong but I didn’t have any milk so used plain yogurt instead! They were really good!

Nectarine summer cupcakes

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

What

3oz unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 cup golden caster sugar (2 tablespoons for the nectarines)
1 large egg
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract

How

1) Preheat oven to 180°C

2) Put cake cases in muffin pan (I got 15 cakes out of this).

3) Cut nectarines into small pieces, put in small bowl stir in 2 tablespoons of sugar

4) In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy.

5) Add egg, yogurt and vanilla until just combined.

6)  Add flour, baking powder and salt to the mixture and mix in until just smooth.

7) Divide cake batter into muffin pan and add nectarines to the top. (As much as you can fit in!)

8) Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until skewer comes out free of cake batter. (my oven runs hot so it may take slightly longer for people with normal ovens!)

9) Eat!

 

 

Posted in Cooking, Food | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Too much fun..

Posted on July 30, 2011 by nicdempsey

I’m on the way to meet my mother and I have to confess I’m feeling slightly jaded. OXO in Thursday followed by birthday and leaving the country drinks (my friends, not me!) have left me feeling a bit sluggish.

20110730-130216.jpg

Last week was dedicated to getting on top of the flat (and there is a bathroom to be painted this week because being grown up is just one domestic task after another!), next week is going to be about strapping my running shoes on and getting back into my slightly (ok hugely) wheezy groove. I get Tuesday off because Max and I are taking Murphy for a long walk and Friday for birthday party prep. Every other day this week will see me out in the park for at least 20 minutes. Time to focus on putting the miles on those shoes!!

20110730-130846.jpg

Posted in Booze, Family, Friends, London | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment