Happy Tuesday, Readers.
No doubt this entry will take me all evening to compose. I usually start writing (typing) early on and add bits throughout the day. I never learn though and frequently have to re-structure parts of entries to alter the tense which is annoying to say the least. Today, however, I intend to get round that by stating when I’ve left the computer and then come back to it to carry on, or perhaps I may have broken off to play “Treasures of Montezuma 3” which I’m no embarking on for a second time having finally beaten all the levels. Being rather mindless it means I can think of other things, such as subjects to write about, while I’m playing it. In a way it’s quite therapeutic.
So, it’s about half five in the afternoon and the house smells delicious. Drew has been baking for the first time in months and months having given it up last year when we embarked on our weight loss endevours. He was producing cakes, buns, biscuits, fudge (not baking really but what the hell) and some a couple of kinds of bread and got very good at it. This time he was inspired by some pictures of Oreo bun-type small cake thingies and decided to make some himself. A few years ago you wouldn’t have easily found Oreos in the UK but they’ve recently had a bit of an advertising splurge, although they irritatingly mostly showed American adverts badly re-dubbed with English accents (you can tell by looking at the background, the way the actors’ mouths move and because the picture quality is always slightly fuzzier that they aren’t native ads.) There was one British-made one which was quite funny but it was on ALL THE BLOODY TIME which I think defeats the whole object because people mentally switch off when something is suffering from overkill. Anyway you can now easily get hold of them, so Drew bought some at the weekend having seen pictures of these layered cakes on Twitter or Instagram or whichever corner of the internet he was visiting at the time. The idea is that you sandwich two of these biscuits together using peanut butter as a kind of cement, coat it in peanut butter and then cover all of that with chocolate brownie mix. Sounds delicious, looks delicious on those photos Drew saw. So after doing some housework and while I was upstairs sorting out my clean washing and stripping and remaking the bed Drew got on with being a domestic goddess.
I can now testify that they are indeed as delicious as the photos looked. They don’t look as tidy as those pics but who cares. My only disappointment? When Drew showed me the original pics it only showed one cut in half and I thought it was a full-size cake. I’d have noshed a slice of that, no problem.
As a bonus there was enough brownie mix to make some brownies as well! So there goes the weight loss for this week.
Actually today is shrove is Tuesday or Pancake Day, as we call it. Wikipedia has all the info here ,should you been interested. I’m sure some people have pancakes fairly often, but it’s the only time that we ever do. My Mum used to do them with Golden Syrup or with lemon juice and sugar, which is what we’re going to do tonight. The plan is to take The Girls for a walk afterwards since we’ll no doubt be feeling a bit sick by then – I always think I’ll be able to eat loads of of pancakes, but invariably end up feeling as though I’ve eaten an entire 6 course meal after just a few. We’d better not walk round the hilly way – I don’t think I’ll be able to drag my leaden carcass up even the shallowest of slopes.
Even though I’ve only just a week’s holiday from work at the end of this week I begin another one, which is the last of the 2012-2013 quota. I’m getting ridiculously excited about it because not only is it my birthday but ON my birthday we are going to London for the day, something I always look forward to. There is something special about London; I love the buzz of it, the crowds (despite my claustrophobia,) the sounds and scents. As you step off the train at Liverpool Street Station, the main line station which serves my part of the UK, you are assailed by what I think of as the smell of London. Diesel, hot metal, petrol, the aromas of the many food outlets. It has never changed in all the years I’ve been going to London and if you could bottle that smell I would buy a crate full. It fills me with anticipation.
When I was about eight years old Dad and I went to London for the day. We spent the day travelling round the underground and visiting all the different large stations that London is home to. It is a memory I treasure and I particularly remember going to King’s Cross in all its Victorian glory, going into the wood panelled ticket hall and staring up at the vast ceiling. We ate cucumber sandwiches sitting on a bench on the South Bank, looking out over the Thames in the sunshine and I recall trying to soak it all in at once so I would never forget it. Some memories from childhood have faded, but this is one of the ones that has stuck. Many years later, during the short time I lived in London, my friends thought it hilarious that I was excited every day about going on the tube to get to work. For them it was a necessary evil and one they would have loved to do without, but for me everyday was another chance to enjoy the experience. I can’t imagine ever finding myself bored by the prospect.
We are intending to visit two exhibitions while we are there. One is at the British Museum, a place I think it would be necessary to visit every day for a week or more in order to see everything there is to see. Drew and I are members of the museum which means we can get into their special exhibitions without having to pay or queue, although obviously we pay an annual fee in order for that to be possible. Since we signed up as members there have been at least a couple of exhibitions a year that we have been to. This year’s is Ice Age Art.
It looks to be fascinating.
I’m not sure the above link to the museum’s own video will work.
Last week there was a wonderful BBC programme about it.
I’m not sure if the BBC stuff works outside the UK.
We’re also going to the Museum of London to see Doctors, Dissection and Resurrection Men.
The last time we were in London we visited both museums but we didn’t have time to see the Doctors, Dissection and Resurrection Men. In any case the MOL has had a major refit and we wanted to see all of that, which took ages. Thankfully it’s on for a while, so we’ll have time this trip. Also we’re going up on the train a bit earlier than last time, when we travelled at the weekend when engineering work makes travelling a nightmare. This time it’ll be a week day, so hopefully the journeys there and back will be uneventful.
Later: Hello. It’s just after 10 in the evening and I’ll be off in a minute to have a shower and then go to bed because I’ve got to be up at 5 for my first long day, which I’m dreading. What I fear the most is being moved to another ward to cover an absence. Bad enough when it was for an old 7 and a half hour shift, a nightmare for 12 hours! I messaged a friend on Facebook this morning to ask her how her first long shift had gone and she replied that it had been exhausting, difficult to get everything done and she had spent most of the next day, her day off, recovering. She’s been there for years, so for her to be so disgruntled is alarming.
But we shall see what we shall see.
The pancakes have made me feel sick. I hope it wears off soon.
And so to bed.