Soldiers' bravery

I got in contact with an old school friend yesterday. He's been in the Army for many years and has just returned from Afghanistan again. I have lost count of how many times he's been over there. This time it has really affected him. He's now lost 15 friends out there, right in front of his eyes. He's come home and life cannot be the same.

I can't imagine the things he's seen and done. He told me, the thing that kept him going all that time was thinking about how life would be when he got home and saw his loved ones. Not least his baby son who was born only a few weeks before he was last deployed out there. What did he come home to? A country that's moved towards a recession, everyone down and sad and not the least bit grateful towards him. What did he spend the last 6 months out there fighting for?

In a bid to help him I looked on the internet to see what is out there to help him. Not a lot it would appear, as he's not lost a limb. So what is there for him to look forward to? Another 18 months here before being sent back there AGAIN. There are no words to explain how much respect I've gained for these people in the last 24 hours.

2008 is nearly over

It feels like an age since I posted on here. I was an absolute wreck in the run up to Christmas - too much work, ill health and general fed-upness with the dark. Fortunately that is now behind me.

Although a bit sniffly I had a good xmas. I got lots of time with the people who matter most to me, lots of yum food and great presents. Who could ask for more?

I love the time between Christmas and New Year and this year has been the best yet. Cunningly we made very few plans. This left me with plenty of time to play my new MarioKart DS game, cook and eat a lot and generally be lazy. To counteract all the laziness we went shopping yesterday to Bluewater. What a busy place! I am sure it was more busy than before Christmas. Mad groups of people we wandering aimlessly among the shops with shelves heaving with unsold Christmas merchandise.

I cannot understand these groups of parents with GIANT pushchairs going shopping at this time of year with a couple of kids also wandering about and an elderly relative also in tow. Surely they can see what a nightmare it will be before they even leave the house. No-one looks like they're having a good time. Being pushed and shoved is not a leisure activity as far as I am aware.

Today has been a curry haze. Tomorrow we're having family over for a big curry feast. So far I've made dhal, fish curry, mushroom bhaji, tamarind chutney, coconut sambal and pea & potato samosas. Phew!

Cakes and fish pie

Sunday already. The week has gone in a flash and what have I got to show for it? A lot of greeting cards.

That's about it. So I thought I should do something productive and my fiance joined me. He made this amazing fish pie with 4 kinds of fish/seafood in it. He doesn't usually cook often but this weekend he has excelled himself. I love this fishpie. Now I can never make a fishpie again because it would never turn out as lovely as the ones he makes.



To match his good work I have made lots of fairy cakes. They were going to be butterfly cakes but then I found my sugar strands in the cupboard and butterflies were forgotten! I also used up my lovely jelly diamonds. They look slightly sinister on these cakes but, having taste tested them (just to check that they are ok, of course!) I can assure you they are a tasty treat rather than something to pick off the top and hide under a napkin politely when I am not looking.

Rugby at Twickenham

Yesterday I went to my first major rubgy match. Here I am posing in my new England top!
The game was much more interesting live than it is on tv. Now I actually get what they are trying to do!
The whole experience was really very different to going to see the England football games. I went to one of those matches at Old Trafford a few years ago. I enjoyed that too, but there's a whole different crowd at a rugby match. I felt a little bit common!!!
Twickenham was a nice town and the whole area was very well organised. We managed to go for a nice curry right after the match. We left the curry place at about 6.30pm and it was dark. It felt really late! Off we went to go to the pub and it was FULL to bursting with drunk rugby fans singing to the Grease mega-mix. Quite a sight...

Blunt hedgehog cake

This is the cake I made for my Mum's birthday today. It's a normal vanilla victoria sponge made with 4 eggs. The icing is made from cream cheese, icing sugar (I used golden), lime zest and lime juice. Then I topped the cake with yummy blueberries. I thought it looked a little like a hedgehog who's prickles have been squished!! Thankfully it tasted better than squashed hedgehog.

Clotted cream spinach soup

The title conjours up a strange soup. It was more a soup of what needed eating from the fridge.
I simply steamed some spinach and blended it, added it to some lightly fried onion and garlic, added water and stock powder and heated. When the soup was hot I stirred in some clotted cream. It was an incredibly rich soup and the bread you see in the background barely got a look in!
It was a lovely lunch on a cold autumnal day.

House selling

Another exciting development this month is we've put our house on the market. We've found one we like up the road so we thought we'd see if we can sell our house to buy this one! It's only been a couple of weeks and we've had a few viewings but this has also been stressful.

For those of you who know me in person, I am not a tidy person. My idea of tidying up is to put everything into a pile and hope it disappears. It's been tough to have everything put away all the time. Even in the kitchen I have to keep everything all nice and clean. It's killing me! So the sooner we sell and can get moving the better.

Obviously a big barrier to us moving is the state of the economy. Or maybe I should re-phrase that into the state of the economy according to the scare-mongering media. Yes, I agree prices have gone up and that we're likely to go into recession at some point but I am getting sick to death of all the news stories implying that the world is about to end.

Even if the world is about to end, there really is no point in getting everyone into a complete frenzy over it. Recession is a natural thing to occur and we should be grateful that it's not happened before now as we're due one approximately every 20 years. But really, what is the point in making everyone sad and fearful when there is actually little anyone can do?

I think that we'll probably go into a recession quicker because of the media. People are cancelling plans and putting spending on hold. That is just the kind of behaviour that will push our country into a recession. I guess the only up-side to all this Credit Crunch hoo-haa is that we're not having to hear quite so much about the US election!