iPoditis

Well...

That was a REALLY exciting trip!

I had been invited to go over to Southampton for the BAC's yearly xMas do.. ehm.. of course I had 'other' business to do as well (yeah right)

My visit was great, it was lovely to see all my colleagues, worked hard on Tuesday then chilled a bit on Wednesday because that was 'DO' day and we went to the 'DO' pub where we played 'skittles'. I hardly threw a ball though because I had too much fun just being with my colleagues, felt absolutely fine, had a few glasses of wine but was definitely not drunk or even close.

We had dinner (which was not nice at all which made me think later that that was already a sign) and after coffee and exchanging silly presents we all got an iPod Nano 2gb engraved with 'Team Award 2006' because we did so well. Never getting a lot normally from the BAC made us all extremely ecstatic, I wanted one for ages but could never come up with a valid reason to buy one since I haven't an idea when I would use it if not on the yearly visit to Southampton!

I don't know if it was the excitement that did it but I suddenly felt VERY weird, nauseous, I thought the food was not agreeing with me so I had the idea to go to the toilet and see if I could evict it before I was going to feel even worse.

Well... I reached the toilet, managed to sit down but got SO dizzy that I was terrified because I felt I would never be able to get off the toilet ever and was half worried about all the fuss that that would cause. After a few minutes the wave of dizzyness and nausea went down a bit and I thought that if I hurried I could warn someone to tell them I wasn't feeling too good.

So.. I sort of made a run (read: stumble) outside the toilet and could only sort of shout 'Pete (my colleague) I need help' before I fell on the floor.

Apparently there was a huge panic at that time but luckily Pete was being a rock, put me into the recovery position and had someone call 999 or whatever they call it here.

I vaguely remember answering all sorts of silly questions (well.. they weren't silly I suppose, things like is she diabetic, does she take medicine, does she have allergies that sort of stuff) and apparently within a few minutes they were there talking to me and feeling me all over.

The ambulance men were very quick to come to the conclusion that I probably over ate and over drunk (which so wasn't true in this case ;)) and I just tried to tell them that this was SO not like me, that I do not GET fainty like that normally at all and things. They then sort of said 'lets try and sit up' and I did but never made it to the chair they wanted to put me on, passed out immediately again, can't even remember that happened, I was still on the floor in my perception and felt quite nice actually, like all was right with the world and why would one want to sit up anyway ;-)

The waves started to subside a bit and I managed to get to the ambulance where they did things like take my bloodsugar (spot on apparently) and took my bloodpressure (126 over 67) which apparently was very very good as well.

They explained to me that my body probably wanted all the energy to go to the stomach which is why my blood pressure dropped which is why I felt so awful and why I was breaking out in cold sweats.

So I got the choice of either going to the hospital or staying in the hotel (where the do was held, I had a room booked there) so I opted for staying in the hotel. Didn't fancy being on my own just then though I felt I could 'go' at any time again so my boss (bless him) went with me to my room and stay with me until I felt a bit more stable. Once I felt 'normalish' again I sent him home... (1.30 I hear, poor guy!) Didn't sleep much that night, I bet it was some sort of subconscious fear of not being able to wake up again but I did survive it so that was good! :-)

Next day was quite horrific because I felt so out of it due to lack of sleep and whatever it had been what took over my body! My colleagues were all lovely though, I told them I would try and milk this for a very long time! ;-)

So.. flying back in the afternoon of Thursday was OK, J. picked me up and I zonked out on the couch at 9, only woke up to go to bed and slept until 10 yesterday morning which made me feel a bit better. Today another 09:30 morning and I am slowly getting back to my 'normal' self.

According to my boss I had 'iPoditis', I was so thrilled with it that he thinks that is what made me pass out. :-) And I must say it is GREAT, it is magnificent the sound it produces through our proper computer speakers, fantastic!

Orange delight

Yesterday was the monthly 'I cook for Gran' Saturday.... since our mother in law lives in our street we have fallen into a rythm of doing shopping on Saturday morning and then having lunch at Johns mums place who lives in our street. Very nice actually because she is a very good cook (even thogh she doesn't think so herself) and it is fantastic to be cooked for especially since she makes these 'old fashioned' dishes like kedgeree and shepherds pie and desserts like steamed pudding. Yam!

She is not so good herself in anything non British she always stays on the safe side so we have decided a few months ago that on the first Saturday of the month I make her lunch. I then always try to do something she would never make like pasta dishes and like yesterday vegetable curry (I don't think she was too sure about that one though, it might have been a step too far from the bland British customs ;-))

I also try to make a bit of an effort with a dessert and turned to lovely Delia. The idea was to do something with the leftover navel oranges I had lying around from a bogoff Tesco offer!
I fancied something like a trifle so..

What is needed if you plan to do this spiked caramelised orange trifle:

Sponge for 3 people (or check what I did)
Bit of liqueur (anything but orangy/fruity stuff preferred)
2 juicy navel oranges
2 table spoons of soft brown sugar
1 table spoon of brandy
1 table spoon Custard powder
1 table spoon sugar
250ml milk


I made my own sponge (since I had none in the house) by combining 1 egg, 60 gr self raising flour, 60 gr caster sugar and 60 gr flora butter and baked it in a cake tin on 180 degrees for 25 minutes. Since this amount is very small the 'cake' is very flat which gave it a lovely crunch all over, perfect for a trifle sponge.

I took 1 of the oranges and zested it, put zest aside. Then peeled both oranges and started on trying to cut the flesh out and leave the stringy bits. (Over a bowl) Well.. that totally failed so I gave up and just cut the orange parts in half making sure I cought any leaking juice from them in the bowl, I added the parts to the zest.

Then I took the brown sugar (well to be honest I didn't have any so I took 1,5 table spoon of demarara and added half a spoon muscovado sugar) added the about 1 spoonful orange juice in a small pan and heated it, first slowly to dissolve the sugar, then a bit more fierce until it really started foaming and waited until it slightly changed colour and got syrupy, then I added a splash of brandy and poored the mixture over the oranges.

Then I made custard, very easy to do in the microwave, 15 gr custard, 10 gr sugar, 250 ml milk. First add a bit of milk to the sugar custard mixture and stir to dissolve, then add the rest of the milk and put in the microwave for 2 minutes, then stir and keep on putting it back in the miccie 1 minute at a time check through the window constantly if it doesn't overflow, this should give a nice glossy creamy mixture which I left to cool a bit.

In the meantime I cut the left over sponge (oh ehm.. I forgot to say, careful if on a diet, it is impossible to not nibble the hard bits off and then have a gooey bit for good measure when the thing comes out of the oven!

Anyway, cut the left over sponge and divided it over 3 bowls, sprinkled liqueur over it then strained the oranges, set juice aside, added the orange and zest to the sponge then added the caramelised juice to the custard making the custard taste all orangy and luxurious because of the brandy. Then poored custard over sponge and oranges and put in fridge to stiffen.

It was a magnificent success! This will be an evergreen!