Cool and happy about it

We got a new air conditioner this week. It may seem a bit late in the season to be buying a new air conditioner but we currently have a heat wave that shows no sign of ending.

The air conditioner we had was inadequate....well actually it didn't work at all.... and as I now work from home I can no longer escape to my tax-payer funded, icily air conditioned office and work all day in cool comfort, blissfully unaware of the searing heat outside. No, now I am stuck with the heat day in, day out. It gets to me. I'm not a great lover of the heat and regularly whine about it on this blog (yeah, sorry about that). If I'm whining about it a lot here you can imagine how much I'm whining about it in person. To Tom mainly. That got to him. Also he felt guilty because he received a lot of the whining by telephone as he sat in his tax-payer funded, icily air conditioned office.

So he organised a new one. And it's not hot in here anymore. Huzzah!

So now I have think of a new excuse for not getting any work done.

Heatwave

It's hot again. It's been in the mid to high 30s (95+ for non-metrics) for the past 5 days and I just checked the weather bureau and it's continuing for another 7 days.....reaching over 100 at the weekend. I say 7 days but that is only because they only forecast 7 days ahead at a time. It might be longer.

I might die.

To avert this disaster I just keep taking my medicine.

Oh Autumn....why hast thou forsaken me?

Eclectic Sundays

Today Hannah I watched the Transformers movie. It was my choice. Because when it comes to sci-fi, vampires, zombies and robots I have the mentality of a 14 year old boy. I have no idea how this happened and no, it doesn't clash at all with my equal love of Shakespeare, Jane Austen and anything to do with The Crusades. It's just all part of the rich tapestry that is ME.

So we watched Transformers and I spent the rest of the morning striding around saying 'I AM OPTIMUS PRIME' in my best deep, robotic voice.

Once I was over that we completely changed pace and made potato scones. Kathyann sent me a parcel with, among other things, a couple of books of Scottish recipes (because I was complaining of homesickness). Today I introduced my children to more 'food of their heritage'.

Their Scottish blood flows so strongly that they loved them and wolfed down several in one sitting. Of course the other half of their heritage is equally strong and there was nothing I could do to stop this...

Now in case anyone is wondering if I am gradually turning this into a food blog, don't worry, it will never happen. I will from time to time display examples of things I make. This is due more to the fact that I hate to cook, so when I do cook I want it recorded for posterity. I have no desire to pretend I'm Delia Smith nor any delusions about the results of my efforts. I really loathe cooking, I do it because I have to feed my children and occasionally I want to eat.

Tom finds this completely bewildering because I watch TV cooking shows like there's no tomorrow. Hannah and I settle down a couple of times a week to watch the likes of Nigella, Rick Stein and Maggie and Simon . Everyone must be quiet and I must not be disturbed while I watch. Last night Tom was talking about this strange phenomenon. He insisted that I must like something about cooking because I love those shows so much. Then I realised what it was, it isn't about food or cooking or even eating. It's about watching someone create something. I also like to watch Star Portraits and I'm willing to tolerate Rolf Harris because I love to see the paintings being created, I like watching Grand Designs to see some amazing houses being designed and built. I have many different outlets for my own creativity but it doesn't mean I don't enjoy seeing what other people do, and really I'd much rather it was them than me slaving over a hot stove, painting some stroppy celebrity or stressing over the budget and time constraints of a new build.

Music......

...to fly to

and music to cry to.......

Enjoy!

**Updated - that video isn't working because it showed a scene from the movie 'Once' - copyright issues - however you can hear the same song here....

Harrods tea, better than sex (almost)

I love tea. I could probably leave this post at that really, but perhaps not.

My in-laws recently went off travelling and among the many, many things they brought us back was a tin of Harrods morning blend tea. It's fantastic, we've been rationing it to make it last but alas, it's nearly finished. I checked Harrods online and it's not available to order that way (except as part of a hamper) so I guess I'll have to wait until I'm next in London - although by then we'll all be wearing one piece space suits and tea will come in pill form.

So, inspired by this post over on my sister Moyra's blog I decided to honour the diminishing tea by using a nice cup. This cup belonged to my mum, I don't know that she used it very often either but Moyra's right, nice things should be used.

And the tea definitely tasted better from this cup.

**Oh and God knows what kind of traffic I'll get because this post has 'sex' in the title - tsk**

Poor neglected blog

It's been 8 days! EIGHT! Unbelievable. Why so slack I hear you ask? I don't know I reply.

Well ok, I have been busy with work, developing some business, working on the you-know-what and generally getting back into work mode after several months off. Here's some evidence in case you don't believe me...

Hmmm, not there yet but getting close. In some ways I'm quite proud of the fact that I managed to work this long without procrastinating by blogging instead. But I feel a bit bad that I ignored my blog.

I've also been busy receiving parcels from blog friends...well one parcel from one blog friend, Kathyann at Meg's Mum's Muffins read my homesick post and sent me all this....

So first on the agenda is potato scones this weekend while torturing entertaining the family with the Scottish accordion music. Actually the girls love it, Tom's suffers in silence, he knows the risks involved in marrying a Scottish woman - it's not all bagpipes and haggis. Thanks again Kathyann, oh.. and Aislin and I have reached an 'understanding' over the lavendar bag.

We are also enjoying our abundant crop of tomatoes. We have three varieties and they are all fantastic. We're getting a good dose of Vitamin C and Lycopene just now. There are so many we're going to have to start bottling sauce and making chutney soon. In the meantime lunch today was wholegrain toast with sliced 'just picked' tomato (still warm from the sun) with a sprinkling of Malden. Yum. It really is the simple things isn't it?

Let them eat cake

We had four children this weekend. I've previously mentioned the deal we have with Tom's brother and his wife where one month we have their boys for a weekend and the next month they take the girls. It's a win-win, every two months each couple has a whole weekend to themselves and the kids get to spend a weekend every month with their cousins. It's no hardship having the boys, the kids all play happily and pretty much entertain themselves (we keep the sugar to minimum* otherwise it starts to look a bit like Lord of the Flies). Then there's the added advantage that at the end of it we get to be grateful once more that we decided to stop at two.

This time we decided to have a lunch when the boys' parents (let's call them A & S to maintain their privacy) came to pick them up on Sunday. It's Tom's birthday this week so an early party seemed in order.

It was a hot day so we dusted off the Weber, set a table under the Willows and T cooked roast beef for the carnivores, we had Greek salad (using our own tomatoes and basil), a fabulous vegetable bake provided by A & S, some crusty bread and nice wine. I made Nigella's Quadruple Chocolate Loaf Cake for the birthday boy (on Hannah's request) and we all have a sugar high that it will take a week to come down from. Happy day.

Here's the evidence (deliberately obscured to protect privacy) just enjoy that dappled sunlight.

Here's the cake....looks pretty deadly on the outside doesn't it?

Check out the inside - yes it's meant to be as moist and gooey as that - the 'quadruple chocolate' is cocoa, dark chocolate chips, chocolate syrup poured over the cake so that it soaks in and dark chocolate pieces sprinkled over. Sugar overdose. Delicious sugar overdose.

I'd love to provide the recipe but it would be breach of copyright however I may or may not be able to provide it by to any one who emails me. For the law-abiding among you it's in this book.

Alternatively it might be a safer option for your blood sugar levels and your BMI to just bask in it's chocolatey glory vicariously through these pictures.....nah, make the cake (it's very, very easy).

* While we try to keep sugar to minimum over the weekend we are quite happy to sugar them up before sending them home. We're evil that way.