... un-snowbound!

I yet again have gone more than a week without blogging. I really mean to set aside time, but it seems to run away a lot at the moment! This turned out to be a very long post, please do get yourself so beverages and treats for the journey!

Firstly, I'd like to say thank you for everyone's responses to my last post. I though I was doing a good job of slightly covering up my glums, but clearly not! Things sort of came to a head at work on Tuesday last week, because I felt extremely overwhelmed and I still had the stinky cold. I got very upset when I came home, but some attention from Dave (hugs, beer, pizza) a rather sweet email from a friend (you know who you are lady) and a day off sorted me out. I had a good day on Thursday, and am now really annoyed that the bloody snow has stopped me getting to work this week.

The snow, by the way has put quite a big spanner in the works for Dave and I this week! We travelled down to Paisley on Friday so that I could meet the new addition to our family on Saturday. Having had a few drinks with friends, we walked home in the completely clear night. Half an hour after we went to bed, I looked out of the window to see a blizzard.

The snow had settled, but stopped in the morning, so we went to visit baby Adam. who is utterly perfect, what Dave calls 'a wee smasher' looks very like my sister-in-law, and is very, very sweet. He began to cry a little when I was holding him, and I managed to get him to calm down and he fell asleep on my shoulder, so I feel I'm doing ok with my first nephew so far!

Having visited them, we moved on to visit our friends who have also just had a wee baba, she is coming on well and her parents are doing brilliantly, which is always lovely to see. I'm sure you are all aware by now that I love babies, so this was a very good day for me. Afterward, we went to see out friend's band, which was followed by meeting more friends and going to a club, for some fun and drinks and dancing to mostly pop punk from when I was a teenager. It was ace. The evening culminated in Dave trying to get a rickshaw person to take us to Paisley from Glasgow (9 miles on the motorway when it was minus 10, no thanks) and me hiding behind a bin, before we eventually got a taxi home. All in all it was a good day!

Overnight, as I was sleeping the comatose sleep of someone who had had a bit to drink, it snowed a LOT. we work up to a 10 inches of snow and an ominous sky, and decided to head back to Dundee as soon as possible. After a walk from our house to the flat that made me feel a bit like i was walking across Russia, we boarded the train to Glasgow, which took half an hour to do a 5 minute journey. On then walking up the huge slippy hill to the bus station, we discovered there were no buses...

The downside of this was 3 hours of travelling to get only as far as Glasgow - as I said, 9 sodding miles. The upside is that we got to spend the rest of the day with our nephew and his parents, AND they gave us dinner. We watched Downfall, about the last days of Hitler, which was very good.

After Sunday's epic journey, there wasn't a chance we were leaving the warmth of the flat unless we knew we were getting back to Dundee. The buses were cancelled and trains were intermittent, so we stayed in, Dave played guitar, I read, and we have a couple of mini snowball fights. The day was capped off by Dave's parents taking us for tea.

And so it was today. Today has included an epic journey back through some beautiful and scary scenery, a train, two buses (the exhaust was falling off the first bus we got on, which was an hour late), finally getting home, cottage pie, telly and our Christmas tree being put up. It awaits it's ornaments - it's tradition in my family for the tree to be done on the first of December(known as tree day). I am a bit afraid I'll get to work(I am bloody determined to get there!) and then not get back to dress the tree, so in the morning, we are going to put the star, lights and tinsel on, so that it has some of it's finery :).


Oh, also, CHRISTMAS SWAP PEOPLE, unless otherwise arranged with your partners, mind you should be aiming to post by Monday at the latest!I can't wait to see what you have all done!!!

... busy and tired but happy.

I haven't blogged for quite a while. I'm finding it hard to actually come up with anything blogworthy at the moment, because really, all I've done is work and sleep.

A change is my bosses' situation means that instead of having two relatively capable toddlers to look after with the occasional addition of the baby, I have him pretty much all day, every day. I've also begun to work more days, and the travelling on top of that is taking it's toll. I have the cold as well, so I am trying to lay low on days off to shift it. Also, this is fairly small in the scheme of things, but i am really behind on washings and things and the flat is a mess, and it's one more thing to do.

This all reads as a dreary existence, but actually the addition of the baby to my work routine at worst means things require more thought and juggling and occasionally one of them has to just cry for a few minutes, and at best that as well as the two fantastic wee people, I have a cheery, smiley baby to spend time with. It's hard work and it's draining, but I have alot of fun, and am extremely fond of the family I work with. I feel I'm providing them with support in a slightly fraught time, which in itself is of value.

In other, less worky news, yesterday should have been the day I met my new nephew. Since I have a horrible cold, I decided (with much sadness - I love babies and I'm actually related to this one!) not to go with Dave to meet him, as I feel risking giving a week old baby the cold is an awful and rather selfish thing to do. I am going to go next week when I'm healthy :)
Yesterday was not all sadness and gloom, because I went to see Harry Potter with my Dundee girls for our friend's birthday. Even with the horrid cold and no baby visiting, I couldn't fail to be cheered by spending time with all of our group together. The film was spectacularly good, the best in the series in my opinion, and I can't wait to see the next one. It was an emotional rollercoaster, so I expect the next one will bring lots of tears, laughs and anxiety!

Today, I have done pretty much nothing, other than dishes and some washing, and straightening up the flat a bit. Pottering essentially. Next, I'm away to catch up on what you have all been doing!

...back and baking (more spiced stuff, are you shocked?!)

First can I just say that everyone's comments on my last post were lovely, and very much appreciated. I find that people who don't blog question the realness of blog friendships, but I think all of the thoughtful comments show just how real they are. You are all lovely! This is the best photo I got of the fireworks, they were magical, though there were a few hiccups with getting them going!

Also, everyone who sent me their Crimble swap email should now have a partner, let me know if you don't!!!


Now, to get on with the regularly scheduled programme. I said a few posts ago that I was a bit disappointed about how often I was buying things for dinner on the way home from work, often the things for whole meals, or pizza or pots of 'fresh' soup. This month I have been doing much better' and other than a few takeaways at the beginning fo the month, we have been eating good, fresh, home cooked food. I present, for your reading, viewing and if you want, trying, Sweet Potato Chilli, and Spiced Plum Pudding.


Sweet Potato Chilli
(adapted from Sainsbury's Winter Recipe Collection)

(this looks a bit more red than it is, taking a pic of food 

in winter is a nightmare)

1tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped roughly
2 cloves garlic, peeled and squished
itsp chilli flakes
2tsp ground cumin
2tsp hot chilli powder
1tsp ground coriander
1 red pepper, de-seeded and diced
450g sweet potato cubed (1cm ish cubes)
800g tinned chopped tomatoes
400g kidney beans (I used tinned)
400g pinto beans

• heat the oil in a soup pan on medium heat. 
• saute onion, garlic and chilli for 2 mins
• add spices, red pepper and sweet potato, stir well and cook 2 mins
• stir in tomatoes, beans and 200ml water
• cover and simmer till sweet potato is tender (mine took 20 mins) and liquid has become thick.

Dave and I both like really spicy food, so the amounts have been doubled. It's kind of medium spicy, so if you don't like uber-spice, halve it, and if you like lots, mabye ad another half!

Spiced Plum Pudding

(made up from an expereiment last week, measured just for you lot)

For the plum bit

500g plums/8 smallish plums quartered

100g sultanas (optional)

150g light brown sugar

100ml water

100ml red wine

1/2tsp ginger

1tsp cinnamon

For the spongey bit

150g light brown sugar

150g self-raising flour 

2 medium eggs

1/2tsp vanilla extract

150g butter, melted

• if you are going to bake straight away, pre-heat oven to 180c/gas 4 before you start
• put all of the 'plum bit' ingredients on a pot
• bring to boil and simmer for 10 mins
• plums should go a bit soft(mine aren't even that ripe, and all of the sugar should have melted in)
• in the meantime, put everything but the butter for the sponge in a bowl and whisk till combined (10 seconds with a hand whisk)
• put in melted butter (make sure it's cool) and do another whisk till it's combined
• when read to cook, put fruit in the bottom on a pudding basin/dish. I only put in a few spoonfuls of the liquid, but you can judge from how thick your is. you want the fruit to stick out of the top though.
• pour over the sponge mixture
• bake for 30-35 mins, till the top is puffy and golden and a knife comes out clean if inserted!

The plum sauce is quite nice with ice cream too! We had it with toffee ice-cream last week, which is where the idea for this pudding came from. It is a tiny bit mulled wine-ish, but it's super good and it made my tummy very happy!

...remembering.

I've been wanting to write a proper post for a couple of weeks now, but the truth I haven't done much to write about.

Tomorrow it will have been seven years since my mum died, and Sunday is her birthday, and at this time of year I always sort of go into hibernation and comfort mode. I cook and I clean, I read alot, huddled up with blankets and hot drinks and i seem to sleep a bit more. These are normal things for me, i like comfort, but they become more crucial.

Seven years might seem like a long time, but it doesn't feel like it around this time. I'm ok, I don't have the completely raw, ripped apart feeling I've had for a few years, but my heart does hurt a bit, and I get a bit melancholy. I remember my mum by doing things she loved to do and that I loved to do with her, and these things make me feel better, and still connected. When i have children, I hope to pass them on so that they have some idea of who she was.

In past years, because I needed to, i spent this time crying and being miserable.  More recently, it has been spent doing things in my mum's memory, and making new memories as I do it. Tomorrow, Dave and I will watch the fireworks in the park - a fitting tribute for someone for whom Bonfire Night came second only to Christmas, and on Sunday, as was my mum's tradition, we will have cream cakes. My mum's whole focus in life was the happiness of Hazel and I, so I feel I'm remembering her the right way.

Hazel, I know you'll read this, and I know you feel the same and I love you xxxx

Everyone else, thank you for reading this, the fact that you might think about the lovely person that my mum was makes me happy :)