Thursday, February 14, 2008

Leek and carrot soup

2 medium sized leeks
1 large carrot
25g cooking margerine eg Stork
2 pints of vegetable stock - can be made with Oxo or Knorr cube



Chop the leeks long ways then into small slices. Sweat in a saucepan with the margerine. Add the carrot, chopped into small pieces. Once heated through add the hot stock. Leave to simmer for 2-3 hours. If desired blend half of the soup to make a thicker consistency. Serve hot with fresh bread.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

The greatest fun you can ever have with your other half...

... is karaoke courtesy of Youtube.


Search for all your favourite songs and sing along - if you're unsure of the words have a lyrics website open alongside!

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Shrove Tuesday

Delia to the rescue again!

January reads

I'm keeping a note of the books I read this year in the back of my new diary. January has been a mixed month, each book good in its own way. A lot of these were Christmas presents. Saturday was definitely the highlight, The Savage Garden disappointingly the lowest point I've visited in a while. I heard mixed reviews of the latter and although the plot had the potential to be gripping the prose lacked fluidity and it was impossible to get lost in.

This is what's been occupying my 30 minutes on the train each day:

Chloe by Freya North
Saturday by Ian McEwan
The Savage Garden by Mark Mills
Bridget Jones 1 and 2 by Helen Fielding
The Daydreamer by Ian McEwan
My Best Friend's Girl by Dorothy Koomson
Shopaholic and Baby by Sophie Kinsella

Taking me into February is Beloved by Toni Morrison - a book I studied for A Level and haven't revisited since.

On my list to get hold of is On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (do you see a theme emerging?! I've just discovered him and he's totally awesome) and Marshmallows for Breakfast by Dorothy Koomson. I've been blacklisted by the library for owing them too much though so will have to steal Ben's card until a cheque reaches them!

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Friday, February 01, 2008

Into the second month of the year

Janaury seems like the quickest month ever and at the same time the slowest. The beginning was spent with a quiet new year, seeing family and meeting Ben's maternal grandmother for the first time, all of which seems an age ago.

Since then Ive been super busy at work training seven new entrants who are all fresh from college, without much experience of the working world and with no idea what an annuity is. I'm their trainer for 8-10 weeks with my friend and colleauge Lauren. Today was tough as one of the newbies is seriously underperforming compared to the rest and I had to give feedback to my manager so he could consider if it's going to be worth spending time training him. Being a trainer takes much more time than a normal 35 hour week.

As a result January has flown by and I haven't started on many of my new resolutions, which are:

1. Lose winter/Christmas weight and maintain enough for the nurse to not look condescending at my next checkup
2. Whip finances into shape
3. Invest time and effort in a lot of relationships - increasingly this is turning out to be important at work as well in order to progress
4. Practise flute - I don't want this skill to rust any more than it already has
5. Complete my Certificate in Financial Planning 1 - boring but has to be done, another work thing
6. Finish my patchwork quilt - a project I've had going for many years since I was given a kit one Christmas. It's made steady but very slow progress and I'd like to have it hanging on the wall by the end of the year.

The Daily Motivator

http://greatday.com/ is a nice website, it has a daily motivational message without any added cheese.