Time flies!

My shift at work sped by again as I had so much to do. As soon as I clear the emails, another load appear! I drove home at 2pm and spent an enjoyable afternoon catching up with chores and writing. 

Keith was out again this evening to see Sileby play, this time at home but a match against Moulton for the second time this week. Sophie and I enjoyed nibbles with wine - a fruity and full-bodied red for me and a white for Sophie. It's so cold at the moment that we are having the heating on every night, but this hasn't stopped the cats, in particular Gomez, from going out for most of the day. He was out all last night and only appeared as I got into my car this morning!

Our dinner was a simple one this evening - new potatoes, salads and little cocktail sausages. The nibbles we'd eaten earlier had filled me up a bit!

Keith came home at about 10pm and looked as chilled as ever, but he was pleased that Sileby had won this evening. Perhaps Sophie and I are not good luck for the team!

Little annoyances...

Sophie went to the gym a little later this morning and I had a lie-in. I do love Wednesday mornings! Once up and showered Keith and I drove to Burton Latimer to find the football ground there because Keith wants to see Sileby play on Saturday. Three games in one week! You can tell it's the end of the season!

We found the ground and headed back to Kettering to have a sandwich at Costa Coffee before popping into Tesco to get something for dinner this evening. There was a strange, sad atmosphere in Tesco today which I wasn't keen on, and I was glad when we'd completed our shopping and had left!

Back home, I pootled about and then popped over to see my parents. My Dad had asked me to get a book for him about life in Rome in ancient times and it had been delivered this morning. When I arrived at the care home he was sitting in reception. Asking what he was up to, I was told he was off out in the "Party Bus" (the care home special car) which I had noticed staff decorating with balloons as I walked in. Why didn't my Mum want to go?

I went up to see her and she looked a bit sad as well. I was annoyed that she'd turned down the invitation to go out and have a break from the room, but she said she wanted to see me. I spent an hour trying to reconnect the television to Netflix for her, but I couldn't remember which email address I'd used, so I was forced to give up, something that I always find annoying! Grrrr!

I went back home and did some housework and started the shopping list. This is the bit about Wednesday that I hate! Trying to come up with meals for the next few days and make the dishes interesting and appealing to all of us, is never an easy task! My Dad called minutes after I had hit my still-poorly thumb on the sink so I was in a foul mood. Rather than saying thank you for the book, he asked me for more things that he needed!

When Sophie returned from work we each made a drink (red wine for me, a vodka and tonic for her) and we settled down to watch the last half hour of Masterchef, which was bliss!

A testosterone-fuelled evening...

I had another busy shift at work and managed to get all the emails answered before I left at 4pm. I sped home as tonight we were eating far earlier than normal... we were all going to see the Mighty Sileby play! They were playing another local team, the Moulton Magpies, in a cup match in, of all places, Newport Pagnell! I knew the ground had to be neutral but it seemed crazy that two teams, only about fifteen minutes from where we live, had to play in another county!

Keith had said he wanted to go but didn't fancy the drive on his own, so Sophie and I said we'd accompany him. I was looking forward to seeing Sileby play for the first time but Sophie was worried she would know some of the Moulton team as she'd gone to school in the village!

We had dinner early and set off at about 7pm, taking the B526 to Newport Pagnell. With the aid of Googly, we found the ground easily and managed to squeeze into one of the last car parking spaces. There were cars parked everywhere, which surprised all of us!

It cost £8 each for Sophie and me to get in (£4 for Keith) which I thought was quite expensive! We took seats in the stand and settled down to watch the match. I'm glad we had all wrapped up as it was cold!

Sileby in red and black, Moulton in blue

Sophie did indeed know two of the players! One from Sileby who she sees in the gym, and one of the Moulton players went to her school! She huddled down further inside her coat!

Moulton took the lead, scoring two goals and then Sileby equalised. Sophie and I were a bit surprised by how much shouting was going on, and how much swearing... it was testosterone-heavy! Although I have seen Newcastle play twice, there's nothing like standing very close to a football match to get the real atmosphere and I loved it! The players were very passionate, and the supporters did their bit as well! We had to watch out for the ball coming towards us, and I was glad that Mikey didn't take up the game as a lot of the players were constantly heading the ball, which made me wince!

At half-time, we had a hot chocolate and a shortbread biscuit served by a very jovial couple who obviously loved their job. 

Sophie's hot chocolate

When the game started up again we stood on the other side of the ground, and Keith chatted to a couple of fellow Sileby supporters. The team are playing Moulton again on Thursday but at their own ground this time.

Sadly, Sileby had had their goalkeeper sent off in the first half so they were down to ten men and Moulton scored another two goals. We left just before the end of the game and relied on Googly to get us back to Northampton. She took us home on the M1, which was busy with lorries, but it was a lot quicker!

We arrived home at about 10.30pm and managed to lure the cats inside before bed. It had been a brilliant evening and, who knows, we may be allowed to go again!

The highs and the lows

Sheila is off on annual leave all this week so I was facing the daily cash-ups today, made a little more complicated by the addition of our two new soft play centres. They don't use the same computerised system as us, and also take cash, so I knew that it would take me a little while to input all the figures! Once they were done, I concentrated on the emails, so today flew by!

I was delighted to find Masterchef on BBC iPlayer this evening and planned to watch it when Sophie returned from work. Keith and I had prepared the vegetables for dinner and all we needed to do was bung everything in the oven, as we had decided on a chicken traybake served with cous cous. 

When Sophie came home, we put Masterchef on and watched most of it before dinner. We've noticed some brand new trends, and once fashionable cooking terms have fallen out of favour.

Ascending:

Risky fondants (whether chocolate or potato) are still popular. So far...7

Home-made pasta (always a risk, especially in the first round)...13

Panna cotta...4

Oils feature heavily too...10

There have been 4 veloutés, 3 crisps and 4 tuiles.

14 contestants have cited parents or grandparents as the inspiration for their cooking, while 11 liked to brag about travel as their driving force.

We've noticed new terms - fennel snow, compressed tomatoes, a parmesan collar (!) and a beetroot blanket.

Greg constantly uses the word "cookery" rather than just plain cooking and I wish we'd started counting that as well!

Descending:

So far, we haven't had any soufflés, poached pears, soils, consommés, sous-vides emulsions or creme pats. Obviously fallen way out of favour!

We've had 4 contestants crying, 4 sob stories and a vegan contestant cutting off the top of her finger. Arrgggh!! We really didn't need to see the little bit of skin on the knife! Happy watching!

If only dreams come true!

This Sunday morning was an almost exact replica of last Sunday! We took Soph to the gym, sat and read the papers and then popped to Boots. Back home, we made a belated breakfast of leftover new potatoes, bacon, and bread and butter, washed down with mugs of coffee.

I'd planned on cutting the back lawn, but the weather was chilly and breezy, and I just didn't fancy going out in the cold! Should the weather be a bit warmer by now? The grass is also quite damp and I don't think we've had a day without rain for ages (I'm probably wrong but it feels like that!).

I'd changed our bed first thing, so I needed to remake it with fresh sheets, and I gave the en-suite bathroom a good clean. We really need someone to replace the floor tiles, which we learnt a while ago, shouldn't be on the floor... A lot of them are cracked but it would mean either replacing all the tiles, including the ones on the wall which are the same, or matching floor tiles with the existing wall tiles. We'll get around to it one of these days!

I spent some of the afternoon relaxing on the bed with Gomey-cat and Sophie and then pootled about downstairs. Sophie went over to see Vikesh at about 4pm before they met up with his family for a birthday celebration meal in Wellingborough.

I decided to read some of my earlier blog entries from 2017 when we went to Florida, and I remembered that the bigwigs from Universal are gathering views from local residents regarding the prospect of having a theme park near Bedford... it sounds like an April Fool's joke but it's real, and if the plans get the go-ahead, we will have my favourite theme park less than an hour away! Can you imagine? I would be beside myself with excitement! The only thing missing will be the glorious (and sometimes too hot) Florida weather!

It will mean a huge number of jobs and an incredible boost to the local economy. I hardly dare dream about it, but who knows? And how long will it take to build once it gets the go-ahead? It seems amazing that Universal has parks in Orlando, Hollywood, Beijing, Singapore and Japan. And now, maybe, Bedford!

Universal UK Project |

As Sophie was out, Keith and I had a quiet evening,  but our daughter wasn't late. They had booked the table at the restaurant for 5pm so she was home for 8.30pm and suffering a little bit of Sunday syndrome!

An indulgence or two!

After a relaxed start to the weekend with Nutella-smeared hot cross buns, coffee and Matt Tebbutt, Sophie and I popped over to Tesco at Kettering to buy a few treats. I bought a pair of rubber gloves to cover my thumb, a bottle of Bourbon and a pack of ginger ale. Sophie treated herself to some new clothes, a bottle of Triple Sec and Angostura Bitters. She was planning to make some delicious cocktails this evening and drink them while we played Scrabble, something we haven't done for ages!

When we arrived back home, I put on one glove to protect my thumb and went outside to strim the front verge and weed the border. Sophie came out with me and we chatted for ages with a neighbour who has one of the biggest dogs I've ever seen! He came rushing at us to be stroked and nearly bowled us over! This neighbour actually has two massive dogs, but can only walk them one at a time!

Sophie disappeared back inside and prepared tonight's dinner, a Chinese chicken and broccoli stir fry, and I finished outside, making it look so much better. I put grass seed down onto the bare patches and cut back the bushes a little more. I'm determined to keep on top of them now and let the grass grow back. 

Keith went off to see Sileby play, and Vikesh came around to see Sophie, bringing with him lots of treats. He can definitely come again! We spent a very pleasant hour and a half chatting in the kitchen and Sophie made two delicious cocktails containing Bourbon, raspberry purée, Triple Sec and whole raspberries. I voted the drink the best she'd ever made!

Once Vikesh had gone, Sophie made us Cosmopolitans and we played Scrabble while listening to music. 

Her dinner was lovely, and she'd even made a cucumber salad to accompany the meal. After we'd eaten, we watched the film, The Sixth Sense, starring a gorgeous and youthful Bruce Willis. The film was brilliant but creepy!

We then discovered that on BBC2 there was a programme celebrating 60 years of music with 60 songs from over the years. It was worth staying up for! Outside, there was a stand-off with our cats and a neighbour's two moggies, but we were able to get them in for the night and have a cuddle before bed!

It's Friday!

I had great difficulty getting ready for work this morning with my poor thumb! The plaster became wet in the shower (obviously) and fell off so I attempted to dress and brush my hair with a flap of skin hanging loose and blood oozing out of the cut. I was unable to put socks on, and I managed to run my hand through my hair and get a couple of strands caught in it, which was excruciating! And buttoning up my trousers really hurt! I managed to put another two plasters on and I just hoped that it would be on the mend over the next couple of days!

Sara was off today, so I concentrated on answering emails, sorting out any stray orders that had slipped through the net, putting on a couple of weeks of films, and finishing the moan report. The time flew by, and before I knew it, it was 4pm and time for the weekend!

This evening, Sophie and I watched a brilliant documentary about a Parisian burglar who was nick-named Spider-Man because he stole from apartment blocks by scaling the walls and literally jumping from one roof to another. He had pulled off a spectacular art theft from the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, stealing paintings worth over 100 million euros! It was riveting and the man himself, Vjeran Tomic, was mesmerising! Amazingly, the police respected him as he never used violence and stole only from the wealthiest people. They were a bit miffed about the art thefts, though, and I won't give away the ending, but it was intriguing!

Keith had gone to the pub and Sophie and I enjoyed a bottle of Pinot Gris and nibbles to celebrate. It's Friday!