Light film we made for Cringleford youth group.

Life has been busy - as well as getting the house sorted we've been getting involved in church (oooh), church study group, been roped into helping with the youth group and the band, we've watched a lot of our box set of Jonathan Creek, I've nearly finished module 10 of the interior design adventure, I've discovered I'm not very good at being an Avon lady, we've met three week old Caleb, I've started lobbying Ben for a baby (let me know if you want to sign my petition), he's started getting annoyed with me, we've had the last week off which has been really cool, getting to know our house and new neighbours. Back to work on Monday, but off on Wednesday for my birthday, hooray! That's about all. A whirlwind adventure indeed. We like Cringleford :)

New house new house new house new house new house!

Newspapers

Made me laugh, from The Student Room:

"The Times is read by the people who run the country. The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country. The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country. The Morning Star is read by the people who think the country ought to be run by another country. The Independent is read by people who don't know who runs the country but are sure they're doing it wrong. The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country. The Financial Times is read by the people who own the country. The Daily Express is read by the people who think the country ought to be run as it used to be run. The Daily Telegraph is read by the people who still think it is their country. And the Sun's readers don't care who runs the country providing she has big tits." -- from Yes Prime Minister (from the 1980s, it doesn't have quite the same resonance today)

"The Star is read by the people who think the Sun is a bit too upmarket." -- anon

"The Sport is read by the people who think that Elvis is running the country from his secret lunar bunker assisted by a team of topless aliens." -- anon

People with cool walks

King Rollo

 

Dr Greg House

  

Donald Duck

I wonder...

I'm not meant to use annuity jargon on the phone at work because it confuses customers... I wonder what church would be like to outsiders if jargon was banned?

Diary of a weekend

* Started with a Pizza Hut takeaway (note to self: stop eating Pizza Hut food, it's rank)
* Watched Harry Potter 3 (way better than I remembered)
* Went to work agaaaaain (sigh)
* Went everse shopping (second note to self: stop buying things only to take them back)
* Sleeping (need more of that)
* Finished Harry Potter 6 (didn't cry this time but still cool)
* Started Harry Potter 7 (awesome!)
* Read Module 10 (excited about this one)
* Fruity smoothies (yum)
* Went interior design window shopping (felt like I was in a different city today, we went to so many previously unexplored shops - Perfect Pad, Wesley-Barrel, Mark Elliot)
* Had tea and scones in John Lewis (is it a sign of getting old when you start to love department stores?)
* Cycled to our house which finally has internal walls (woop!)
* Watched House (up to series 2 now, still loving it)
* And Top Gear (actually got bored and read Easy Living during this episode, weird)
* Had ides about fabric and dress and peg bag ideas and thought about how busy my sewing machine is going to be when I've saved up for it.

Yay for weekends. Four working days now until a long weekend in Wales (on Ben's birthday again!) and the rest of the week off.

New blog

Robert is aiming to stay sober for the next six months and update his new blog every day. He's much more than an interesting read!

Things in my head

Sorry I haven't blogged for so long. Working lots of overtime lately which is going to make an awesome July pay cheque but not good for keeping up with superfluous extras.

House purchase is going okay. We're getting a bit lost in all the legal jargon and stuff but we have a pretty nice mortgage broker and have instructed a recommended solicitor now. There's a pile of paperwork building up on the dining table that I keep meaning to read through. Urghh.

Florence and the Machine's first album is coming out on 6 July. I don't normally keep up with modern music, not being very cool (MySpace describes her/them as "Grindcore / Acousmatic / Tape music / Melodramatic Popular Song", I don't really understand any of those terms) but Florence Welch's amazingly powerful voice caught my ear.

Ben's birthday is coming up in next month (it's all about July today which seems weird, June has flown by without me realising) and he said he'd like to go on the London Eye. I was looking up ticket prices for trains and other things to do and thought it would be cool to see Harry Potter 6 at the IMAX cinema in 3D - I don't know WHY that hasn't occurred to me before! Mega excited :)

I've been thinking about lots of things lately including reading the book How to Win Friends and Influence People and how to improve my people skills especially at work, wondering if I really want to stick out church boringness, and other things. It's all such hard work and my brain is tired. Oh, and I'm supposed to finish my never ending interior design course by the end of July. Thus as per normal a month after our holiday I need another one!!

Scotland

 

Ferry to Mull - all calm at 7am

 

Interior of the Queen Mother's summer house at Edinburgh Botanical Gardens

Falkirk Wheel - replaced 10 lock gates on the canal

 

Beautiful Oban/Kerrera coast line

 

Tropically warm waters on Iona

Recommended Read

Tips for Vintage Style by Cath Kidston - loads of great ideas!

Wall art

Spied in the gift shop in the Royal Arcade in Norwich along with loads of other cool designs.

The coolest shop ever!

Lisbeth Dahl

Dream garden accessories

Holiday

We're off to Oban bright and early this morning. While I'm gone there will be pretty picutres every so often. Enjoy :)

Breakfast Epiphanies

I picked up Breakfast Epiphanies in the library a few weeks ago and wondered immediately why, as I'm still trying not to read trashy chick lit! But despite the cover it's blurb caught my attention and I read on.


It tells the story of Toby and Sara. After they decide to get married, Sara realises that the big Catholic wedding she had always imagined didn't feel right anymore with her having lost grip on her childhood faith and Toby's agnositicism. She gives herself a year to go on a quest for renewed faith. They visit countless religious leaders and follwers around the world to contemplate following a complately new religion together. The thing that annoyed me about this quest was that they never properly investigated Christianity, but thought they had it covered by going to Lourdes and talking to lapsed Methodists (who only went to church out of routine). So many of the failings they found with a lot of the beliefs they looked into might have been answered for them.

I was hoping the book might give me some insight into how other couples deal with differences in their faith lives - if an agnostic and former Catholic can work it out I thought, a minor quibble about church between Ben and me might fade into insignificance. And it did in a way. By reading the book I was able to assess what it is I'm really looking for in my faith life and maybe it encouraged me to be a bit more independent in that process. Maybe more on my conclusions in a couple of weeks.

Leek Tart

That cooking I did a few weekends ago now was leek tart, recipie here. It was really easy to make and was very yummy!

Two gentle exercise videos

Didn't fancy doing tae bo today so found these on Youtube - they're nice and gentle, yay!

15 minute abs workout
10 minute cardio kickboxing workout

The exciting news

Our weekend tale starts a few weeks ago in my unassuming mind, when I had a bizarre dream about looking round a new estate. There was a show house and flags, a hill with new houses and lots of people around. The bed in the house we saw was sunk into the floor like a swimming pool but that's beside the point...

Two weeks ago Ben went to see a financial adviser to find out about setting up a pension. In conversation he happened to mention that we were trying to save up for a house deposit. The adviser just happened to be linked with a broker who deals with a shared equity scheme for Bovis - a scheme I might add that is pretty cool as you don't even have to pay rent on the part of the property that the developer retains, you just need to pay them back within 10 years (so selling the house would cover that).

Hmm, we thought.

Last Sunday we cycled over to this local estate and had a look at the block of four flats available on this scheme. And what do you know? As soon as the lady handed us the key we walked up an inclining road (I can hardly use the word hill in Norfolk!) And there were more people around than we expected. But thankfully there were no sunken beds in sight.

A sunny day, French doors from the bedroom to the south facing garden, an open plan kitchen/dinner/lounge and it being on "Lobelia Lane" were all we needed to fall in love!

Today we went to see it again and put down our holding deposit so it's ours! We're waiting for some legal details before we can start the process and it won't be complete for another 10 weeks or so, but this seems to have fallen into our laps in some divinely inspired way.

Fanfare Le SNOB

The opening of the Festival couldn't have been more captivating! During the first song I was a bit afraid of Fanfare Le SNOB - they seemed mystical, something like the witches out of Macbeth with a sinister edge. Ben said their pointy hats made him think of the KKK... but by the end of the performance they felt like friends and I didn't want them to leave. If you ever get a chance to see Glissssssendo take it!

Here's a video of them - not a patch on actually being there but it gives you a sense of what it was all about.

Looking forward to the fireworks in Earlham Park tomorrow night!

(updated as found embedded video)

Quote

Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.

~ Sir Winston Churchill

Fond memories

I was just browsing Amazon and came across 'Dear Zoo' for sale! I feel a bit stupid considering buying it without giving it to a child but it was one of my favourite books when I was little, and is only a bit older than me - it's celebrating it's 25th anniversary this year. Maybe I will buy it anyway and keep it in a cupboard for a future Blahlette...

I haven't forgotten I've promised posts on last weekend's cooking adventures and our exciting excursion but I'm feeling a bit under the weather, and judging by work people's Facebook statuses I'm not the only one. Cosy childhood memories and hot drinks are where it's at this evening!

Grin!

New bike! All it needs is a basket. We cycled somewhere REALLY exciting during this hot and sunny afternoon but depending on what happens on Tuesday I'll blog more. Don't want to get our hopes up...

The beat goes on

I have some cooking to blog on but while I find my USB cable here's a song suitable for hot hazy lazy days :)

Oh, and jazz reminds me - if you're not watching the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency on BBC at the moment you should be, it's great!

Lazy weekend activites

Lack of spare cash and inspiration have stopped me putting our wedding album together for a shocking year and a half now. But I was inspired when I spied a couple flicking through a photograph book on an old episode of Relocation Relocation last week. They look really good so I've been using Bob Books this afternoon to create my own. Let's hope it turns out well...

The other thing I wanted to mention was The Narnia Code, a programme on BBC iplayer about the book Planet Narnia. The author, Dr Michael Ward, suggests that there is a hidden code behind the Narnia books, that CS Lewis intended for each one to be based on the seven planets from the ancient understanding of the universe. It was only a little bit hyped up when it said this discovery could completely change the way we understand Lewis' view of the world, but interesting nevertheless.

The Painted Veil

Next on my reading list is The Painted Veil. Having watched the film a few days ago I highly recommend it. Full of good acting (Ed Norton and Naomi Watts), haunting music (Satie's Gnossienne No. 1 is the theme) and a brilliant plot.

The film is based on the novel by W Somerset Maugham - a story made into a film three times since its publication in 1925. It was inspired by a tale in Dante's Divine Comedy which tells of a man who suspected his wife of having an affir. As punishment he took her to a place where she was likely to catch a deadly illness. She didn't die soon enough for his liking so he pushed her out of a window. The film doesn't follow its inspiration exactly, rather it portrays a rather surprising and smoulding love story.

Mother Superior played by Diana Rigg, had a few lines that have stayed with me over the weekend:

I fell in love when I was 17... with God. A foolish girl with romantic notions about the life of a religious, but my love was passionate. Over the years my feelings have changed. He's disappointed me. Ignored me. We've settled into a life of peaceful indifference. The old husband and wife who sit side by side on the sofa, but rarely speak. He knows I'll never leave Him. This is my duty. But when love and duty are one, then grace is within you.

The title The Painted Veil is taken from a poem by Shelley:


‘Lift not the painted veil which those who live
Call Life: though unreal shapes be pictured there,
And it but mimic all we would believe
With colours idly spread,--behind, lurk Fear
And Hope, twin Destinies; who ever weave
Their shadows, o'er the chasm, sightless and drear.
I knew one who had lifted it--he sought,
For his lost heart was tender, things to love,
But found them not, alas! nor was there aught
The world contains, the which he could approve.
Through the unheeding many he did move,
A splendour among shadows, a bright blot
Upon this gloomy scene, a Spirit that strove
For truth, and like the Preacher found it not.’

(My crude interpretation - Walter Fane, a man who lifted the veil, was looking for things to love and thought he'd found this in Kitty, but sadly there was nothing in her of which he could approve after she was unfaithful. The painted veil hid their loveless marriage from the outside world and tricked everyone into believing that they were in love, that Kitty followed Walter into a cholera-infested land out of devotion, when in fact Walter, like the Preacher in Ecclesiastes, found that he was searching for a love that didn't exist).

Incidently, Shelley's biography is quite interesting. He abandoned his pregnant wife and child for Mary Godwin (later Shelley, authoress of Frankenstein), who he married after his first wife drowned herself in the Serpentine in Hyde Park. He died at just 29 years old yet has become one of the great English poets, influencing the likes of Tennyson, Byron and Keats.

Brief Encounter and the chick flicks it's inspired...

Ben gave me Brief Encounter for Christmas (was intended for my birthday last year but it was hidden so well that it got lost for a while!)

It's one of my favourite films and has beautiful music, notably Rachmaninov's Piano Concert No. 2 which sounded strangely familiar...



Recognise it? It took me a few minutes to place the song inspired by it - a song that has become synonymous with chick flicks in the shape of Bridget Jones.

End of Lent

For the sake of accountability at work our Lent fasts ended yesterday. About four of us (out of maybe 15) stuck it out right to the end. The other three gave up fast food, chocolate and crisps and their indulgences yesterday seem to match my experience. I didn't find much pleasure in going shopping again, I spent ages deliberating over possible purchases, annoying myself with my indecisiveness. I bought a few items and ended up taking most of them back today. It was a little depressing but I feel surprisingly free, not feeling as much compulsion to buy things. Maybe my fast has taught me more than I thought it would.

Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2009

1-16 May 2009 is the Norfolk and Norwich Festival. There's lots of really interesting performances going on, these are the ones I've got my eye on at the moment...

Glisssssssendo - 1 May on Millenium Plain, 5.15pm and 10.15pm (FREE!)

Dressed in cone-shaped gowns and hats spouting flames and performing on an assortment of brass, percussion and plucked instruments, the members of Fanfare Le S.N.O.B move swiftly and silently, morphing as if by magic into transfixing choreographed routines. These magnificent musicians/comedians are by turns heroic, glorious and hilarious, pushing the limits of a mere fanfare to create, in their own words, generous and humorous shows.

Bombs per Minute or Tres Mechant -2 May at Earlham Park (FREE)

A clock ticks. Bells begin to toll. Fireworks start to errupt into the night sky in a continuous, almost hypnotic flow. The tempo quickens and a torrent of light and sound is unleashed – a furious but beautiful explosion of energy that will set your pulses racing...

Phillip Glass - Etudes and Other Solo Works for Piano - 15 May at the Theatre Royal - I really wanted to see this but all the cheap tickets have gone already!

The Garden Party - free performances in Chapelfield Gardens during the middle weekend including...

Levity III - Adults £4, children £3 - this will be open throughout the festival

A kaleidoscope of liquid light, gentle surround-sound and psychedelic colour. Levity III is a 10,000-square foot inflatable, walk-through sculpture inspired by Islamic architecture and the beauty of natural geometry. It’s also a fantastic chill-out zone, so come on in and lose yourself in multicoloured bliss!

There's much more going on, have a look at the website. A lot of performances have tickets for £5 for under 26s if you book in advance.

Prettier in pink 2 (before and after)

Ben did the sourcing, cycling it home, the screwing and gluing, we both did the sanding and painting and I did the upholstering. A perfect weekend couply project!

Prettier in pink (before and after)

Lent update

I very nearly caved yesterday - I still haven't got into a Spring routine yet and finding it hard to shake Winter-esque tiredness in the mornings. In my sleepy state I forgot Ben's key had broken in the lock the day before so managed to lock him in the house. Felt very stupid and miserable when he called me up at lunchtime, late for work because he couldn't get out of the house and I couldn't rescue him in time. Felt rotten by the end of the day, left work early and browsed the shops, but forced myself to leave before finding anything I liked. Bad day!

My work gives out 'VIP' awards if you get enough nominations and I was presented one last week in the shape of £30 of Next vouchers!!!!! Determined not to spend them til 13 April. 20 days to go...

Decorative Arts

There's a fabulous new permanent exhibition at the Castle Museum in Norwich called Decorative Arts. Lots of interior design inspiration! There's a great fashion section with fabulous examples from the Carrow Road textile archive - this isn't easily accesible to the public (I think you have to book an appointment) so it's great to see some items on display. They will be rotated every so often.

The exhibition is also made up of items that families in Norfolk have collected over the last few centuries. There are beautifully made pieces from all around the world including exquisite embroidered sleeves from China, Art Deco and Nouveau jewellery and many beautiful knick knacks like the girl below. It's a fascinating glimpse into the the work of some very talented people.


You can get in to the Castle for £1 if you go for the last opening hour any day or between 12-1pm on weekdays during term time. I find an hour is perfect to take in one or two sections before I start needing a cup of tea. Make the most of it!

Play

For Lent Ben has given up being stupid and is trying to be more cultured (this includes not reading The Sun!) It was one of our goals for our second year of marriage to share some form of learning together. We thought originally we might tackle an interesting book together but after our trip to the jazz bar in Bath it's turned into seeking out things like music and plays.

From this season's Playhouse programme we thought the play Dai (Enough) looked like the most interesting. It was given rave reviews at the 2007 Fringe festival so we thought we'd go for it.

Set in a Tel Aviv cafe, it portrayed several different characters talking about their lives and views on the Israel/Palestine war in the moments before a suicide bomber blew up the cafe. It was acted and written by Iris Bahr who was amazing - to be on the stage for nearly 2 hours must have been an exhausting experience for her and it was a brilliant performance. There are some clips on her website here.

I hate lent in a childish way :(

This morning I had a clothes crisis. It happens every so often... I experience a feeling of complete and utter despair about my wardrobe and hate my curves and have a little strop in front of my mirror. All this takes about an hour which means my flex time suffers and this morning I woke Ben up prancing on squeaky floorboards between the wardrobe and mirror.

Normally a morning like this would bring on a guilty shopping spree at lunch but as it's a week before pay day and I'm doing this STUPID lent thing I couldn't spend a thing. Plus the winter to summer season change is the one I find most exciting and want to embrace as soon as possible. It feels wrong wearing winter dresses!

I guess this is all part of going cold turkey from a bad habit - it's just my inner child needing to have a strop until I get over it and feel mentally ready to complete the rest of lent with a smile. As my dad would say, it's character building (GRR) and maybe this will have more of a spiritual impact than I first thought.

Talk of the lillies in the field and starving Africa will have to come later. I feel so immature!

Credit Crunch Part 2

It's affecting us all which makes everyone want to talk about it, especially when the share price at work fluctuates so much every day and people are becoming fractions of civil servants. Which means people strike up conversations with me about the economy or buying shares or whether we'll have jobs next month, and I just want to say: learn my limits!! I don't understand such things and my poor brain is scrambled enough as it is, especially living with Ben's lenten abstinance from everything thick.

But I still don't like kittens because they make my throat sieze up, so don't talk to me about them either!

Weekend Experiment, or Credit Crunch Part 1

This week I bought a medium sized chicken for exactly £3.

On Friday I made a simple roast dinner for 2 - extra ingredients were half a brocolli and roast potatoes cooked in goose fat (YUM). Bit of an odd time to have a roast but it meant having time to use the rest of the chicken for my weekend experiment.

On Saturday I made a chicken pie for 4 - extra ingredients mushrooms, white sauce, shortcrust pastry and the other half of the brocolli and a carrot on the side.

On Sunday I made chicken stock with the carcass - extra ingredients garlic, a carrot and a few peppercorns.

Today with the stock and leftover meat I'm making chicken soup, probably 6 portions - extra ingredients butter, carrots, handful of rice, bread rolls to serve.

Half of the stock will make vegetable soup next weekend if I can work out a way to freeze it????

That's 12 meals out of £3 of meat and £7.14 of extra ingredients (according to Tesco.com, although much of it I had in the cupboards already)...

= average 84.5 pence per meal.

This housekeeping lark is starting to make sense, thank goodness poor hubby isn't fed up with chicken yet. Credit crunch? What credit crunch?!

Holy whispers

Ben gave me this Chant CD for Christmas - I love presents like albums or books that take a while to unwrap. The music is sung by the Cistercian Monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz. Cistercians have a reputation of being silent and making good beer. Their music is very calming, nice for background while savouring the last moments of a weekend.

Lent and life update

It's the end of the 8th day of lent. I felt my first pang of serious temptation to go shopping today. Luckily I've been too preoccupied lately to have any time for shops. Only 38 days to go.

I've discovered Thai Wellbeing in the city, the big purple gym and beauty place opposite Debenhams. They run classes which normally I find at gyms are really full, out of my way and intimidating places to be. But this place is very friendly (and purple!) and on my way home. I went to a 20 minute abs session yesterday which only had 3 other girls attending. I'm aching now but looking forward to go back next week.

Other things keeping me busy have been finishing my third interior design module. I'm working on my fourth now which is all about floor plans and space. This is the first module where the assignment feels true to life - I've been given the floor plan of house with the client's brief and need to come up with a solution.

I've also landed my first proofreading job - a whole novel! And had a request to help the author and his wife with their house decorating project in the next couple of months. Exciting times - my CV is going to look even more awesome by the summer!

Eat the seasons

I came across this website on my travels somewhere, I can't quite remember where to. But find it I did and I thought you might like a look, especially if you like your food fresh and green.

Lent

I missed the day before Lent at work because I was away in Cardiff and Bath. But when I returned I noticed a long list of things people were giving up stuck on the window. It's funny how Christianity has permeated the lives of Brits even though we're no longer a Christian country. It's meant a couple of conversations being struck up about the C of E calender (which I don't know much about!) and the traditions of lent.

So for my office, according to Wikipedia...

In Western Christianity Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and concludes on Holy Saturday [the day before Easter Sunday]. The six Sundays in Lent are not counted among the forty days because each Sunday represents a "mini-Easter", a celebration of Jesus' victory over sin and death.

And because the Sundays are a day of celebration, my office will be pleased to hear you don't have to fast on that day!

So there have been numerous promises made - to buy only one luxury item per month, to give up fizzy drinks, give up smoking, stop wearing skanky shoes, give up Facebook... I decided mine should be to stop spending my disposable income. Working near St Stephens with nowhere pretty to go at lunchtime makes this difficult and overspending has become a bad bad habit. I've made a temptation box on my desk and in it I'm putting a slip of paper with the things I think of to buy that tempt me.

In the first couple of days I've added about 20 slips, one of them appropriately being to see the new Shopaholic film... not that I would have actually bought most of the stuff but it's things that go round and round my brain until I cave and buy them. The box idea is really helpful to help me stop dwelling on the item. It reminds me of Bree...



I'm not sure if anything spiritual will come out of my abstinence, but if it starts a habit of being more responsible then I'm sure God and Ben will be pleased.

Bath

Bath is quite simply the most refined city I have ever visited. Above is the Circus (Number 8 is Nicholas Cage's pied a terre) and the Royal Cresent, home to a £300+ a night hotel.

While Ben was off mountain biking in Wales for the day I wandered around the city soaking up the sights. The Mayor of Bath has volunteers who provide a free guided walking tour which was a brilliant way to see everything of importance. I need a week there to go and do everything I heard about, like a trip to the Thermae Spa and cream tea in the Pump Room (which would set me back £17!) I'd also need a day just to do the Jane Austen things as well, walking tour and museum.

My weekend was filled with lots of interior design inspiration and Bath is a fantastic example of Georgian architecture. There are numerous bylaws protecting the outer appearance of the buildings which has created a beautiful and historic city. I highly recommend a visit to Bath if you ever have the opportunity, I can't wait too go back one day.

Every time I travel back to Norwich from other parts of England it reminds me how much of a backwater Norfolk is. I love our county and its fine city but sometimes I crave more excitement and opportunities than it can offer. Ben blogged on a jazz bar we stumbled across and we've resolved to seek out more culture in Norwich - we know it's there somewhere!

I need to blog on lots of things...

Bath (the city, not the noun)
My New Dressing Gown (yes it's cool enough for a blog)
Castle Museum exhibition
Alpha
Lent at work
Sewing boxes
Weddings
Patchwork quilt which is nearly finished
Eternal Sunshine
Culture

If some or all of that interests you check back in the next few months!

OMG

Found this open when I was reading my husband's latest dedication to me...

http://www.rhymezone.com/r/rhyme.cgi?Word=mind&typeofrhyme=perfect&org1=syl&org2=l

Chicken with garlic and rosemary potatoes

During November and December I made more roast dinners than usual to practise for Christmas, so now I'm feeling more confident and able to experiment! Chicken seems the cheapest and most versatile meat as we usually have one roast dinner then use the leftovers for a curry, stir fry or chicken pie.

Normally I melt some butter in the microwave, baste it all over the chicken, sprinkle salt over and just cook it for however long it says on the packet.


Today I did the same and also added garlic cloves chopped into chunks to the bottom of the tray around the chicken and put it in the oven. Then I cut the potatoes into small cubes, par boiled them for about 5 minutes and added them to the chicken tray with a sprinkling of dried rosemary (fresh would probably be better though!) I basted the potatoes occassionally during cooking.

When the chicken was done I took it out of the oven and left it to rest (it's easier to carve then). I scooped out the potatoes and put them on another tray and put them back in the oven on the highest heat to brown. They went more crispy and than they look in the picture.

Meanwhile I made gravy - the potatoes being in the tray had made more juices than usual, so I used my superduper gravy jug to get rid of the fat, made a rue with plain flour and added chicken stock and seasoning.

It was all really tasty! Next time I want to try Jamie Oliver's Spanish chicken which looks more exciting.

Mack and Mabel

14 February was Torvill and Dean Day in our house last year as that was when they danced their famous Bolero in 1984. Here's another of their awesome dances - they look like one person!

My eyes are going square from Google image searches...

I was going to post this last weekend and never got round to it - and unfortunately it's still relvant this week!

I'm working on my third interior design assignment at the moment and trawling the web for pictures of "a room with something wonderful about it that you wish to emphasise". If you have such a room in need of some cohesion or design that you want to send me a picture of it would give me valuable practise.

You might get a few design tips for free in exchange - I can't promise the finished product will be any good but it might get better the closer I get to August and finishing my course!

Revolutionary Road

I don't often get excited about films but I'm really looking forward to this one:



(Ha! I managed to do that all by myself!)

I'm

Following Ben's itheme there's a new initiative set up by Microsoft to give money to charity and it doesn't cost you a penny...

You can find more information here but all you need to do is type a code into your display name in MSN to chose the charity you want to support. You'll see a little logo appear next to your name and Microsoft will donate a percentage of the revenue they get from advertising to your chosen charity. You can also set up a signature in your Hotmail account to do the same thing.

Keep your eyes open for the launch in the UK as it's currently only running in the US.

Hidden gem

I moved offices in January, for the fifth time since working for Norwich Union! Sentinel House on Surrey Street is supposed to be my department's final resting place for at least a few years now.

Sentinel was built in the 1980s as a flagship building for the company, complete with spire to match the NU logo. It has a well kept secret which you can see from the outside, but stained glass needs to be viewed from the inside to see it in all its glory. Unfortunately this one, four storeys high, has a column of lifts and balconies just a few feet away from it so it can't be seen properly.

There's probably an analogy in there somewhere with being cooped up in an office and not reaching your full potential...

Blogs on Blahtop

Ever so often my darling (but slightly weird) husband texts poems to people. He has a special blog which he updates from time to time with his better offerings but I think it's probably little frequented because he's a bit bashful about it.

If you like a chuckle and don't mind some idiosyncratic grammar add it to your sporadic bloggers folder.

I'll explain: on our trusty laptop we have a very organised favourites folder (because I'm anal like that) and the blogs are split into 'Blogs' and 'Sporadic Bloggers' (which DH changed to 'Spraddick'). Those who are sporadic bloggers don't enjoy our patronage so much! If you don't blog for two or three months you'll probably end up there but we still love you.

Resolutions for 2009

This post is overdue, not being quite the new year anymore, but here are my resolutions for 2009:

• Finish interior design course in good time
• Lose winter weight - helped by having weekly weigh-ins with a group of people at work!
  
• Be more groomed, have regular hair cuts (I hate hairdressers), don't go to work with wet hair etc - I did this on a regular basis because sitting under a hair dryer for 10 minutes (long hair) is just too boring. But make more effort I will.
• Spend more time with God and get involved with a church

That's it for this year and I'm pleased to say I've made a start with all of them. I still have my patchwork quilt to finish from last year's resolutions and I'll post pictures as soon as it's done. One more square to go.

I signed up to 43 Things which is handy for keeping track of goals and cheering each other on, although it doesn't always seem that active. I got an email from my past self yesterday asking me how things were going with God - handy nudge!

Making my new year's resolutions coincided with starting a new diary - I've kept a diary pretty consistently since I was about 14. I have a bit of a thing about stationery and was pleased to discover Laurel Burch's artwork through picking up this blank book in Waterstones. Keeping a diary is always more satisfying when writing in pretty books.

New art

New look for the new year, hope you like it. The new heading is from a painting called Dance by Alphose Mucha - one of the prettiest google image search results I've ever seen!

I came across Mucha while reading about the history of design. Born in 1860 in Moravia (now part of the Czech Republic) he trained in Paris after his work impressed one of his employers enough for him to pay for education. He began his career as they typical penniless artist, drawing pictures for magazines. His lucky break came in 1895 when he was commissioned to create a poster for a play, Gismonda. His work became an overnight senstation and his style became known as Art Nouveau. The movement's belief that everything was and should be art inspired a wealth of design, including the entrances to the Paris Metro* designed by Hector Guimard:



Mucha died from pneumonia. He contracted the infection after being arrested by German troops when they invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939 - he was still influencial enough to be one of the first arrested. He was eventually released but he never recovered from seeing his beloved homeland invaded and died soon after.


* Who would have believed underground systems could display such stunning design! Even London makes this list.

A prayer for the new year

Almighty God,
by whose mercy my life has been
yet prolonged to another year,
grant that thy mercy may not be in vain.
Let not my years be multiplied to increase my guilt,
but as age advances,
let me become more pure in my thoughts, more regular in my desires, and more obedient to thy laws.
Let not the cares of the world distract me, nor the evils of age overwhelm me. But continue and increase thy loving kindness towards me,
and when thou shalt call me hence,
receive me to everlasting happiness,
for the sake of Jesus Christ,
our Lord.

Samuel Johnson (1709–1794)