Lang zal ik leven in de gloria

Well....I have to say... that was (and is) a huge success!

My brother and I were able to keep my presence a secret until the unveiling moment so that was nice. I told my (now 4 year old niece) that when grandma came in the door she first had to open her presents and only then could come and get me (because I ran upstairs). Very cute to hear her say after every present 'you can't go upstairs Oma' hehe... anyway finally when the ordeal of opening presents was over she came and got me and that did surprise my mother as much as we expected. 'Oh I feel all tearful' she said... bless.. it was cute...

Then a few days later, my birthday..... remember when I bought that watch a few weeks ago? I love it, it is ever so cute but it does clash with my pink/purplish clothes a lot sooooo.. when I said that I wanted another watch to be able to swap according to what I am wearing, my bestest friend in the world immediately said 'I want to give that for your birthday'. WOW!! So now I am the proud owner of a proper Swatch Bubblehop!

Then... I went to the lenses people.. turns out that even though my lenses were so old that the right one is all deformed (oops) my eyesight didn't deteriorate as much at all as B&L had said. I am SO happy I only ordered a weaker pair of glasses, they now happen to be about just right. He explained that even if I could see sharper with the prescription they gave me that I would have problems since my eyesight would be distorted and I would see everything smaller than it actually is. And to be honest I already noticed that with my glasses, everything looks a lot different but still workable. So glad I made this decision!

So.. long story short, I can pick them up on Friday!! How smooth is that!

A few days ago I went to see Kevin and his dad and of course his squeeze was there as well, made a nice picture:
And now.. lots and lots of proper snow here in Rotterdam after having a few days of wet snow! Wemyss Bay has been gorgeous all week, now... WHY? ;-)

Secrets and lies

Well... after I got over my anger about my lenses I got an idea...

'Why don't I call my old contacts providor in Holland and check what they charge me?'

Would you believe that it is less EVEN if I calculate in my flight to Holland?

So guess where I am going Friday afternoon?

Yay!!

I am going to stay another 9 days like last time, that seems to work really well, arriving Friday evening, going back the Sunday a week later so I have 2 weekends in Holland and can fit in seeing everybody.

and... added bonus this time.. my little niece celebrates her birthday the 3rd and it will be lovely to actually be there for a change.

and here is where the secrets and lies come in...

Is it considered a lie when one omits facts from ones communication?

Coz... my brother and I thought it would be great to surprise my mum, who will be on that particular birthday as well.. we did think about her having a heartattack but she is not that kind of person really :-) (she says full of hope)

So.. this will be fun for her... expecting only my brother and his kids she will get me thrown in as well as Kevin who takes the opportunity to see his mum and eat nice 'Disney Princess' cake baked in a tin that I ordered on eBay. ;-)

I do feel a bit guilty though when I write her mails and she says 'going to Michelle's birthday Saturday' and instead of saying 'Yeah, me too, I see you there', I say 'have fun!' which of course is perfectly allright except for that big void where I should come clean ;-)

Can't wait ;-)

Oh and.. my birthday is the 5th, so that will be different as well (since we normally don't even acknowledge the fact really ;-))

So, to celebrate that day I made the appointment with the contacts people, they are going to check my eyes, order my lenses and send them to the UK registered mail. How international.

I feel like such a foreigner running back home but come on.. they only charge me 175 euro in total which is about 120 pounds which is 130 pound cheaper than here! Tsk...

AND... I can fill my suitcase upto the limit with cheap red wine to take home! Getting better all the time. :-)

Anyway, hope y'all can keep a secret, 3 more days I need to sit on this before I can shout SURPRISE! ;-)

An eye for an eye

Well... when I was 16 I looked absolutely horrific... you know that part of adolescence where you are not quite 'finished'? I was very chubby (fat of course in my eyes) and I wore glasses that made me look SO ugly it is a good thing I don't have any pictures anymore of that time.

Anyway...... I think my father agreed so he forced me to a contactlens specialist to get contacts, it took me forever to get used to them since the only lenses I could have were the 'hard' ones that let some oxygen through, called Rigid Gas Permeable lenses in English apparently. I must say though, after I got used to them they have done me proud until at some point soft lenses were the vogue and I got to try those. They screwed my eyes up so badly that I wasn't allowed to wear any lenses for over a year and was told that I could never ever have soft lenses again. (bum!)

So.. not a problem, swapped to hard lenses again and have been happy with them ever since. I am a horrible lens wearer though, I have been told from my 16th that I should take them out a few hours before going to bed and a few hours after waking up. Well.. of course when my glasses were still alive I did that, sometimes. When those broke 20 years ago (yep...) I gave up on any glasses on the side. So.. it goes like this: Wake up, open eyes, have wee and insert lenses. (Sorry for that mental picture but wanted to make sure you realise how efficient I am). Same again when I go to bed but then the other way around. Suffice to say I am not very nice to my eyes.

Since it is 6 years or so ago that I got a new pair of lenses (right before we left Holland) they have become more and more difficult to look through comfortably. They are supposed to have 2/3 year lifetime. I also got told off by my brother when I dropped him off at the busstop last time he visited because I mistook a truck for the bus coming, then when I needed the bus myself later I could only see the number when it nearly drove over me. Not so good.

So, I went to Black and Lizars in Greenock for an eyetest which, would you believe, is free! All eye tests in Scotland are free. But wait for it, I understand why now! Pfah...

Anyway, I had to come to my appointment without my lenses in (had to officially not have worn them for 24 hours but Celebrity Big Brother eviction was on so, come on, surely 11 hours will do!) they gave me the once over, tested every eye disease under the sun and it turned out that my eyes had deteriorated with 2 points... I now have 8.50 and 8.25 (minus, for short sightedness). I never really noticed this change myself in daily life (unless trying to read the busnumber) since due to old age I need reading glasses as well and apparently those two factors have levelled eachother out quite nicely as long as I stay inside.

Luckily (in retrospect) I ran out of time so I asked them to call me with a price for the lenses. Now.. when I left Holland I got the pair I have now for about 100 quid including all tests.

So today, the call. And suddenly it became clear how they get the money for that free eyetest back! The pair of lenses would cost me £150 so I thought oh, that is not too bad, even though I have seen them on the internet for £60 including postage, I know that when you buy them in a shop and you had a test and all that it will be more expensive. JUST when I wanted to open my mouth and say 'oh ok then, that is not too bad' she said 'and on top of that there will be £100 for fitting them.'

'Oh', I said all optimistic that would not be for me since I have been wearing lenses for 30 years, I just need a new pair with higher prescription. 'Oh no, you will have to be tested what sort of lenses you need'. 'Huh? I have had to come without my lenses on a special day to meet the contact lens specialist? Who has written it all down? Checked my Curve, axis and everything?' ,'No, that was something different, if you want to buy these you have to be tested all over again'.

WHAT!!! Anyway, I was being British and I said 'OK, I will get back to you'. And that is quite funny about communicating in British. Both of us knowing I was totally pissed off and would never contact them ever again. Ever.

Pfah!

I did a good thing though (since this was my only new year resolution; to take care of my eyes), I ordered with the prescription I got from them (hehe, they are obliged to give you the basic info) a pair of glasses online for only 20 quid. I am sure they will be obnoxious because of their jamjarbottom properties since I of course was too mean to pay for the sexy 'flatter than flat' lenses and because I have ordered minus 7.75 (they didn't have any higher, or lower depends on how you look at it for that price) the jamjarbottom factor will be quite high.

Bought these, but then in black.











Got painfully clear again that I have a huge head. Already knew of course that I have the tendency to be big headed and I had already noticed that hats in general do not fit. And I have had enormous embarrassing moments at the hairdressers in the time that I wanted highlights and the plastic hat didn't want to stay on my head! Got the solution as far as glasses go though, I just check for gents or unisex glasses and pick the one with the biggest bridge, widest frame and longest arm.

I can't wait.... do you know what having glasses on the side again means? That means that if I wake up in the middle of the night I can grab my lenses and read the clock projected on the ceiling, when I then waddle to the kitchen I can see that Johns slippers are in the middle of the hall and prevent tripping and all those scary shadows in the night will suddenly be recognisable as things!

Note to self when wearing glasses: 'Avoid mirrors!'

Jurification

Well.....

I didn't even make a point of it but on Christmas Eve this year it was my 5 year anniversary of living in this country. The 8th of January was my 5 year anniversary of working for BAC. I didn't make a lot of that at all, I don't do birthdays and celebrations like that and anniversaries in general have never meant anything at all to me (which makes remembering other people's birthdays and special dates REALLY hard!)

Anyway... I have this feeling that it was no coincidence that Saturday I suddenly got a letter which said that because I was on the electoral role I was asked to be a potential juror and that I had to return the letter within 7 days (or otherwise get a fine of upto 250 pounds) saying when I was going on holiday so they would know not to invite me then.

Of course, my initial reaction was 'oh this is not for me' since I am not even allowed to vote for this countries government. Strangely enough I am allowed to vote for the local government but I am ashamed to say that I can't care enough to actually get to the voting place so I let my vote pass. I even wondered if I still wanted to be on the electoral role last time they asked us (they always send a letter to confirm you are still alive, kicking and want to participate in the voting). Since I didn't have a clue if that would have any effect on my status in this country I thought I'd better...

So, I thought I would have a good look at the back of the letter which stated lists with ineligible people (like policemen, lawyers and people who have ever had a more negative run in with the law) and other reasons why you couldn't partake but 'being Dutch' was not one of them! It did say that you can only partake if you have been in this country for more than 5 years.

Now... can it be coincidence that 5 years after starting my job with the Big American Company I suddenly get this letter with this invitation? I wonder how that all works!

Anyway.... for a Dutch (and very curious) person like me this is SO exciting.. I mean.. in Holland we don't have juries, we have a judge or 3 judges if it is serious stuff but that is it. As I understand it in Scotland there are 15 jurors in each case (dear me) which are chosen by the lawyers of the prosecutor and defender I think. If this is really going to happen I do have to read up on it a bit more!

Apparently this entire process is normally considered by normal people to be a 'drag'. Something that if it happens you are not happy because you need to travel to the court, be off work and... well sorry.. for the life of me I can't think of any negatives about it. To me it all sounds like good fun, something to look forward to, a new experience.

So.. now it is waiting for the invitation.. listening to people who have had experiences with this (= read blogs) when you get one of these letters, the invitation is imminent. All that then needs to happen is that somebody actually wants you on their jury.

I will keep you informed! :-)

Storm

Received a bit of a disturbing mail from my brother saying:

'We are going to get a WF 9 storm and it is all your fault'

Huh????

Luckily he pasted the link to an article which said that due to a depression over Scotland a storm is developing which will hit Holland on Thursday :-)

Told you he was funny!

Now all we have to hope for is that what they get is the offspring of the big daddy that starts here, so far it sounds REALLY ominous - it makes us think at a regular basis if it was a good idea to be perched on a cliff.. John reckons that if a roof tile or other projectile hits our window the roof will come off because of the air pressure....

Watch this space, that is what I say, fingers crossed those roof tiles stay were they belong!

Happy New Year!

It was an eventful end of the year indeed! My job got manic since we had to finish a big job before the 21st (and I was flying to Holland the 22nd!)
But.. of course we DID it....I still feel elated, this has been really good for our PR.

Anyway feeling like I earned a present I bought myself a new watch on Schiphol right on arrival in Amsterdam. I always want a swatch because they are all plastic and anything that even remotely looks like any kind of metal on my skin makes me break out in a mega rash, not nice. So.. a swatch.. the way to go. I also like the way they go mental with their watch designs so I bought one that so far only *I* like.. everybody looked at it and sort of politely hummed hehe..

Meet Funky Red Tie:


Well I love him anyway, he is my special friend!

Then onto Rotterdam Central where Karin (bless her) picked me up and took me to Dordrecht to a cafe where a friend was performing, very nice jazzy Norah Jonesie type music. Lovely.. Had a Shoarma (doner kebab I think they call that in the UK) at 0200 in the morning which is a must on a night out and.. I didn't faint once! :-)

Saturday was about doing shopping with THE family which was great, all of course to prepare for Christmas. Can't even for the life of me remember what I did Sunday, old age is a horrible thing. Probably tonight in bed I will suddenly remember!

Anyway, Christmas was great, Kevin has a girlfriend now (which of course immediately pushes me into the next generation, funny :-)) They were adorable together all over eachother like a rash all day :-) An impression:


And now it is 2007... my resolution for this year is to get my lenses sorted out, I have had this pair since end of 2001, worrying really, problem is I don't have any glasses anymore, I am so used to wearing them it gives me no problems. But.. when I took the bus to the airport I couldn't read the number on it and it was a guess if I was halting the right bus which was a bit embarrassing so I reckon my eyesight has deteriorated quite dramatically. Exciting.. I have an appointment on the 20th and need to be without lenses for 24 hours (yeah right as if that is going to happen!! ;-))

Still playing with my iPod, what a great little thing, totally discovered Christina Aguilera, I feel she brushed up and grew up and is now making grown up music which touches my heart, listen to 'The Right Man', 'Hurt', 'Oh Mother' but also 'Still Dirrty' :-)

Preferably REALLY loud with a lot of BASS which I can now do because we - very decadent - bought yet another Logitech Z2300 PC speaker set, now for in the lounge (we already had one in the room John always works in) so we can alternate our music sessions, love it!

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!

My Brother

is the funniest guy I know...

I might be biassed, him being my brother and all, but the things he comes out with are so off the mark that it always seems to tickle my funny bone.

I suppose that since he cracks them in Dutch and they are a bit intranslatable they probably don't come across as well as they do in Dutch.

His newest one yesterday:

Me: 'So, has living on your own made you slimmer or fatter than you were?' (yeah this weight obsession is a family thing)

He: Well I am not sure but every time I step on the scales they start screaming NO, NOT WITH 2 PEOPLE AT ONCE!!!!!!

Hahaha..

Still makes me titter, even when knowing the punch line :)

Busy busy busy!

Would you believe I have a new job?
Well.. more of an extra job really...

I got a nice new guy at work 'helping' me, which basically means that he does all the boring stuff (he doesn't think that it is though, that is lucky!) and I get to do the more in depth so for me more interesting stuff. Yay for me!

On one of the many conference calls I attend I made a few clever remarks and that same afternoon some hot shot called me and sort of begged me if he could ask my manager to help them implement something. Poor people had apparently tried to implement something for 7 months and I was the first one they met who actually seemed to know how to move on. Bless...

So.. my manager checked with me if I really thought I could handle this (YES YES I am EASILY bored, do give me more different things to do, PLEASE)

So now I am called a project manager and need to help implement a new thingy. Ooh.. the importance ;-)

My manager then sent the sweetest mail that has ever been sent out on an occasion like this, thought I'd share the bits that made me go 'ahhhh'...

Folks, we all know Tanja is a talented lady and it is only fair we share her talents with the rest of the organisation. We have received a plea to allow her to work with on the new . Her knowledge of is key to us getting a robust solution.
Tanja will continue to perform the while doing this.
This is a great opportunity for Tanja and I am sure you join me in wishing her well in her new adventure.

How sweet does that sound then!? Well.. anyway, it made me very happy :)

I must say I am busier than a busy thing now but enjoying every second of it!

Still managed to fit in a very nice way of making brussels sprouts pallatable even if you didn't fancy brussels sprouts!!

I cleaned and cut in half enough sprouts for 2 people and cut 1 big potato in chunks, then boiled them together for 20 minutes. In the meantime I chopped an onion and browned it slowly in a tiny bit of butter, then added a tin of ham (also in chunks) to it and browned it all nicely. Then added some chopped tomatoes and a few garlic cloves in bits to it all and stirred until softened.
Drained the sprouts and potatoes put them in an oven casserole, added some salt, pepper and nutmeg and put the ham tomato stuff over them, then let it stand to cool. (did this in my lunchbreak)

Then before I wanted to start dinner I made a roux (bit of butter, bit of flour and milk, all in a pan and boil, strangely enough it all comes together as a sauce :-)) melted parmesan and a few generous lumps of blue cheese in it, poured the mixture over the sprouts and tomato mixture and put the lot in the oven on 180 degrees (hot air oven, otherwise 200) for 20 minutes which made the top nice and brown.

Man.. what a FANTASTIC way to eat sprouts I tell ya!

Living healthily ever after

It's autumn.
Raining all day here and blowing gails making me very chilly all over AND inside.
So .. what to have for lunch?
The normal 2 slices of bread? A salad? Brrr.... all too cold...
Pancakes then? Hmm.. bit fatty and stodgy and not good for all sorts of reasons.
Even more because I am REALLY trying to get this 'eat more fruit and veg rule' into my daily routine.

So... SOUP

The day that someone showed me how to make soup I didn't realise it was such a special day. My father always said that they could wake him up for 2 things, soup. and snigger

Anyway, it must be hereditary! I looooooove soup... so in our family we always used loads of cans, my mum worked so opening a can of soup was about all she fancied doing some days. Bit of bread with it, lovely.

I am not sure though if it is that 'way back when' the soups were nicer or that my taste has changed so much but I think all soups from cans are absolutely horrendous. Maybe I should try the 'fresh' variety but since that one not so famous day someone told me how to make soup I have given up on ready made.

Here is how to incorporate an example soup in your life :-)

First, the most important thing, a blender, now... loads of people (even Saint Delia Smith) always tell everybody to use a blender like what they use in American soaps to make milkshakes in. Totally silly I think, since the soup will then not only be stuck to the pan you make it in but also to the blender plus if you make soup for more people you have to blend in batches, totally rubbish I say!

So.. please, believe me, buy one of these
It doesn't have to be that brand or anything, anything with a bit of wattage will do.

So, here goes:

Say.. you work from home and you only have an hour of free time to take care of lunch and have a 20 minute walk because that is so good for you?

Get for 1 person:
Bit of butter or oil
1 small onion
2 tomatoes
small potato
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
stock cube
250-300 ml hot water
blue cheese

Chop onion, melt butter, insert onion and glaze, in meantime chop potato in small chunks, add to onions and stir, then chop tomatoes in chunks and add with stock cube, water + bit of white pepper, no salt and bring to the boil while stirring.

Then turn heat down so it is just simmering and go for your afternoon healthy walk. (20mins)

Come back, turn heat off, stick blender in and whiz until it is nice and smooth without bits.
Add crumbs of blue cheese to taste.

So.. why is this such a good recipe?

• Dishes, only 1 pan, a choppingboard and knife and the blender stick all easy to clean. (okay to be fair all the plastic involved will turn into a nice orangie colour but eh!
• Licopene! Or Lycopene? Don't know really.. but that is the red stuff, apparently that is so healthy for one because this fights all sorts of nasty cancerthingies and is apparently especially very good for men to ward off prostate cancer...
• Low calories, even though there is butter and cheese involved, the butter is needed to deal with the vegetables and actually get out of them wat you can on the vitamine front, the cheese is so strong that you will only have a little bit but a huge taste experience so you won't need any extra salt.
  
• The texture of the soup is out of this world, so smooth because the blender also adds some air to it, the potato works in a starchy way and links it all together.
• Cheap, Tesco sells value tomatoes, onions are dirt cheap as well as potato's and even the blue cheese I bought for only 89 pence in Tesco and will last me for loads of soup experiences.
• It has all the major foodgroups, protein from the cheese, fat from the butter, carbs from the potato and of course the great things from the veg. How is that for a balanced meal!

And the great thing is that you can make soup in the same way with any vegetable you like, I think I have done a few in this blog already like broccoli soup with sunflower pits, cauliflower leek soup with bacon and such.

The trick to all soups is, butter, onion, potato and any vegetable you like, then cook for 20 minutes and when you are a smooth soup fan like me, whiz it all together and enjoy!

(Any other soup recipes always welcome!)

Back!

Well.... I can't say anything else but it has been LOVELY!

A whole month in Spain...

Before we went we were terrified that we would be bored out of our skull after 2 weeks but luckily the weather was so fantastic (4 weeks straight 30C) that it was enough to get in bathing gear and making the main event of the day getting in and out of the pool!

A bit sad though too... we are selling up so if you know anyone who wants to buy a house in Spain make sure to show them ours (www.elcalon.co.uk)

There is nothing whatsoever wrong with the house, it is perfect, we noticed that again when living in it for a month, there is nothing at all that I would like to change about it but..

.. we have changed so much...

The whole idea was to buy a house in Spain and then live there once we were retired, thinking we would have nothing to do so it would be nice to do the nothing in Spain for say 3 months a year over the winter period.

Then we found eBay and we love it, we like being busy and suddenly the idea of doing nothing was more scary than something to look forward to!

At the same time we would like to move to Norfolk to be closer to Johns kids and away from the Scottish weather which is slightly getting to us.

So, since our house in Scotland would not cover a house in Norfolk we have to sell the house in Spain, it is just to expensive to have all this money stuck there when we can use it so well here!

If we still want to have a holiday in that area we will have to rent a house, lots cheaper!

Now.. an impression :-)



This is me pointing to a mountain that we climbed, ever so brave I think :)



And dawn coming up (of course that was John, not me :-))

So.. now.. back to WORK (boohoo)!

Boxes and Blind Spots

Did you see the news the last few days?
About this 12 year old girl called 'Molly' who went to Pakistan with her father and sister without telling her mother?

Apart from the discussion about how stupid it is to just take off and go to a far away country and not even leave a 'TTFN' note to your mum, I was fascinated by something else.

Did you see the mum? Hardly able to speak, move or do anything else that seemed remotely 'normal', trembling all over, taking small steps out of the press room. Her appearance a mess with a haircut that has probably been applied by either herself or a neighbour with kitchenscissors. How did she come across to you?

Now.. I totally understand that in the midst of despair one does not think of how one might come across on telly. (Although I promise you no amount of distress would keep me away from applying a bit of make up before going on camera knowing that every news room desperate for ANY news in this time of the year will repeat my shiny red face and puffy eyes about, oh, 100 times a day for a week, ok, you can call me vain!)

Anyway.. then today.. the father... dressed in one of those, famous for Pakistan, male dresses which probably have a name which I don't know. He looked magnificent with his big black beard, a bit like this guy who sings 'if I was a rich man'. Saying that Molly can do whatever she wants.

And of course there was Molly, beaming, radiating love for her daddy.

So... did she get shipped out to get married in Pakistan? Do I really care?

No...

I cared about my own reaction which was 'If I had a say I knew which parent I wanted her to be with'

It would definitely be mr Rich Man.

So.. .I wondered, why...

Why on earth do I think I can judge someone by looking at them for 20 seconds and reach conclusions like 'very emotionally instable, not quite there, missing a few bits here and there, not capable to look after a child'

AWFUL!!!!

But.. it is reality.. I liked this guy with the beard saying that the girl can do what she likes and if I was her I would like to stay with him as well even if I wouldn't approve of his clothes choice.

But... after having stopped beating myself up over it I realised that people do that with me too, all the time.

They look at me and decide who I am, what I am capable of, or not and they put me in one of the boxes they have in their heads for that purpose.

And I can't help being so curious - where do I fit, how am I perceived?

Talked to John about this and he just says he doesn't care. And I suppose I should go there, I am what I am and what everybody else believes is not important.

And he is right, it isn't, it wouldn't change me but I would try and set the record straight if I felt they had me all wrong. (thinks.. why is *that* so important to me.....)

I would for instance love to know how my manager perceives me, does he see me as some sort of clever secretary? Or as a full blown member of the department capable of proper project management? Does he look at my face and thinks 'gosh she has a lot of confidence' when I constantly think that the reason they pay me pittance and don't give me a proper contract MUST be because they think I am stupid but just didn't tell me yet and am a bundle of insecurity about loads of things a lot of the time.

Is the picture I have showing on our internal HAL website saying 'nice competent woman', 'uptight bitch', 'nice try', 'looks like a librarian' or 'clueless'?

When I was doing my college education we were told that everybody had a blind spot, that you know certain things about yourself ,that there are things you DON'T know about yourself but are able to learn through the course of your life but also that everybody has their blind spots.

That unsettled me a lot, I thought I quickly had to find out all there was to know about myself because the idea that someone could confront me with my blind spot and me not recognising it was too scary to contemplate (no idea why, I suppose I still cared a lot back then :-))

Anyway, off I went trying to find out as much as I could about myself so I would be prepared for that day that someone would say 'you are such and such' and I would gently smile and say 'yeah I know' and have one up on them.

And now.. because of this experience today, I know that it is all out of my hands, that no amont of me getting to know myself will prevent people reaching their conclusions in 2 minutes flat and of course, not telling me! So I can't check if they are right and adjust any misconceptions they might have.

So... the morale of this story?

It is *all* in the eye of the beholder and I just *have* to let it go.

I thought I would share this insight with you.

:-)

BIRD

I had a bit of an unsettling day!! I am terrified of birds, stemming from an early childhood experience when my parents took me to Amsterdam to feed the pigeons and all those birds were all over me picking my hands and clawing in my head, when you are 5 pigeons are really big and somehow I have always been unable to get over this fobia!!

There is not a lot of need for me to get over it I suppose, as long as birds stay where they belong I am fine but this morning they didn't!!

Well, it didn't...

From my bed working away on my laptop (thank god for wireless) I heard a squeek from the kitchen and feared the worst, peeked from my bed through to the kitchen and yep... A FLYING THING. I totally panicked and ran to the bedroom door and closed it so I was safe.

After initial panic subsided I decided this was silly, I couldn't even go to the toilet so I was really brave and opened the door and peeked if I could see it just when I thought I couldnt' and thought of going into the kitchen to make a cup of coffee I heard another sound and a squeek so I threw the kitchen door shut giving me access at least to the bedroom, bathroom and back garden!

Still slowly de-panicking I decided to have a shower and review the situation after that. I know we have steps in the garage which I thought I could use to peek into the house from the outside. So.. that is what I did, started to look through the kitchen window and hooray, no bird, I really hoped it would have found its way out through the same window it got in!

But no.... when I looked into the lounge window I heard a bang and again a bang and it was clear that birdie was trying desperately to get out. Unfortunately time ran out... I had to attend a conference call for BAC and concentrate on that, so back into the bedroom and get laughed at by my Indian colleagues who just wanted to know what breed of bird it was!!! No sympathy there then!

After the call and getting really hungry and desperate for coffee I had another look from the steps into all the windows but couldn't see any bird, a lot of tiny bird poo droppings though.

Contemplating going in and it being stunned or dead or flying around frantically (can't decide which option would be worst!!) made me shiver so bad that I went to my last resort in the form of Johns mum who lives in our street. She laughed (of course pffff :-)) and came with me to slay the dragon.

So I let her go in all alone, while keeping the protecting kitchen door firmly closed and of course.. no bird.... nowhere... she was clapping her hands fiercely (as if her presence alone wasn't enough) but no moves at all.... all we could assume is that it flew out again.

And I know I should feel all better now, crisis averted, bird safe, me safe, all safe.

But of course with every 'strange' sound I think it came back to haunt me and it will take days before I don't get a reflex shock if a bird flies past our window a bit too close!

New shoes

Well, yeah, I know.. haven't been writing for ages.. don't really know what about but since Marije asked me if she could link to my blog I was reminded about it again :)

So.. yeah.. I've been busy, first been to our department 'do' which meant that I had to fly to Southampton, 'work' for 1 day, had the do all Tuesday and 'worked' again on Wednesday when I flew back again.

Well.. that was exciting!!
There was some sort of communication disruption (BT they said) on Southampton and they cancelled all !!! flights!

In itself minor crisis, I mean .. BAC pays for my flights and hotels so that was covered, BUT ,it turned into major crisis because the next morning I was supposed to fly to Amsterdam to be part of Kevins birthday! (My OLD kid is now 21 and officially a grown up!)

Anyway.. .it is was definitely a case of adopting the great BAC adagio of 'how am I going to project manage my way out of this one!!'

So... put down the strategic model of :

Current situation vs Wanted situation hampered by what helped by what.

(Did you know hot shots earn thousands by milking this model?)

It was easy to determine what hampered me getting to my wanted situation of getting my butt into Glasgow ASAP - Bloody Southampton Airport.

Luckily I had my mobile and the phone number of my favorite colleague and he directed me to the train where I found out how to get to Heathrow while he booked a ticket with BA to Glasgow for the pricely sum of 191.10 pounds! Dear me! So glad I didn't have to pick that bill up myself!

So, after 3o minutes train, an hour in a hot bus, a 2 hour wait on Heathrow and an hour flight to Glasgow I arrived home at 23:30.

Only to leave again on the Prestwick bus the next day at 13:09

How is that for having a pitstop!

Then.. Holland.....

Kevin was over the MOON with his present (notice the birthday hat that I specially brought for him) and all the attention and I am so glad I went after all, we had a brilliant evening.. I must say.. loads of wine went through my system lately!
So now.. I am trying to get used to living a stable less exciting life which is a bit weird after all this excitement!

The weather is threatening to get bad here for days now but it has been nothing than holiday weather and my system has enormous trouble accepting that I need to work!

How one suffers!

Big city

Well... I am here... in the middle of London..
I can't believe how not used I am anymore to a city.
Walking to where my course is is plain dangerous, cars everywhere!
And noise...

It is unbelievable what an assault a city is to your senses, screeching tubes, roaring motors, masses of taxis and buses, bad singing in the metro stations, so much to see, all that dust everywhere, I forgot how DIRTY cities are.

The area I am in is very close to 'Liverpool Street', which apparently is the heart of the financial part of the city, which means there are masses of 'suits' running around, and I mean running, nobody seems to just pootle along, it is all QUICK QUICK QUICK, frantic!!

For someone interested in food it is absolutely magnificent the amount of choice one has here. A lot of 'latte' factor.. I think half of all these running around people have either a big cup of expensive coffee in their hands or a mega big baguette.

My hotel is simple but SO exactly right. It has all I would ever want.. well... maybe a bath would have been nice but the powershower is lovely too! I even have a nice little couch in my room and a desk and a hair dryer and coffee and tea things and I get a showercap every day (which I then steal of course) - no cool shampoo and stuff to take home though, they have these dispensers with shampoo and showergel and other soap. Oh well... can't have it all I suppose!

Found the greatest little restaurant across of the hotel.. it is a pizzeria but the posh trendy version where they sell the pizza per yard. Quite nice.. they consider 'a glass of wine' to consist of 250ml.. thinks... how many units is that!!! It is a good thing I only have to roll 'home'. :-)

Oh and what is this thing about 'water'? Everybody is walking around with bottles of water, all the shops are overflowing with bottles of posh stuff and in my favorite restaurant they keep on asking if I would like some water and look really surprised and worried if I said, tapwater will be fine. I first thought it was because they can't really charge me for that but I think it is more that for them it it so rare to meet someone who dares drink tapwater. Interesting! Oh well. since they do know how to make good food I will let them off!

And the course is fun too would you believe! Almost forgot to mention that.. normally I am really really bored on courses, they are too slow in general.. this one is different, yesterday the teacher almost went too fast for me which is something that never happened to me. Today was a bit better because it is getting more difficult now and the rest of class is struggling so she needs more time to save them :). It is a bit unfair on them though, I have been working with all of this for about a year now and just lack the basic structure when they probably see all of it for the first time, it is fantastic to get all my blanks filled in!

Only 2 nights before I fly back again, then a month pause and then flying to Southampton again, pff.. .rains it pours and all that! Wish I had something like this in boring end of November or something... maybe I should try and steer in that direction :-) Having said that.. part of the enormous fun I am having at the moment is the lovely weather I suppose, can't really expect that in November ;)

It is also lovely to watch all my rubbish on TV WITHOUT feeling guilty :) Poor John has to suffer so much, from Strictly Dance Fever to Big Brother to xFactor Battle of the Stars etc... when he is more interested in the digestive system of the egyptian tigershark or something like that! Only downside is I miss him like hell.. it is just not the same without him snoring next to me on the couch and me trying to find the perfect balance between the volume just so I can hear it over the snoring but not so loud it wakes him up. :-)

The little joys in life eh... for now I will have to cope with a big double bed just for me :-)

How I suffer....

Wine and Dine

Oh joy... temperature is rising - Sunday morning I am flying off to LONDON
Big city girl - same girl, different city

I wonder how it feels, I thought Glasgow was overwhelming, wondering if I am de-city-ing without realising it.. maybe I am more a suburb girl than a city girl after all :-)

Anyway, it will all be good fun, leaving early on Sunday, going to the hotel and trying to get online (everything feels more organised if you have access to the internet don't you think? Me? Addicted? Neh!! :))

Then going to THE SHOPS I think... or just browse and see where I have to be on Monday to attend this cool Domino Designer course. Had to ask my boss person what it is I am actually doing. Bit embarrassing really. I knew I was working with databases and manipulating data and that I work with developers and have to tell them what to code (using the agreed processes).

Learned now that it is a database application that I work on, very educational indeed. And now I am going to be taught the fundamentals of designing one of those databases because I keep on feeling I have fallen right in the middle of all this code and miss the basics. So hope I will not be bored out of my skull. But eh.. I like the hotel experience in itself and the fact that I can choose which restaurant to use as long as I keep under 25 quid. Not sure if that is enough in London, I guess I will be OK as long as I stay away from the Ivy or Fifteen.

I saw this advert though, that you could go to the musical 'Les Miserables' including dinner at Planet Hollywood for 25 quid!! Now.. that sounds interesting.. decided to not book but see how it all feels when I am there though. :)

Apparently I am in the middle of the financial part of the 'City' - Liverpool Street is on walking distance.. so nice of BAC to organise a course in the middle of where things happen. Much better than in the middle of nowhere where I have to go when I visit my yearly do in July, lovely hotel but NOTHING around but country roads, this is a lot better!! :)

So tomorrow, packing, bbq-ing, wining, sleeping and go...

Exciting!

Release your inner bag lady....

This has always been my biggest fear:

http://wanderingscribe.blogspot.com

And I am not talking about how she got a book deal and all came good after all...

:-)

David Blaine and Magic

So, am I the only one?

Who does not just hate David Blaine and all his stupid undertakings but hates anything magical apart from Eurodisney?

It is supposed to be great, to be entertainment, we are all supposed to be in awe when they do their magnificent tricks but it just makes me very very very VERY uneasy.

Like... in the program about David Blaine tonight (Drowning Alive) they showed clips of him asking a person to think of a card and a minute later that person gets a call on their cell phone showing that particular card as the caller.

Very clever indeed.

So why does it leave me angry?

I suppose I feel fooled, embarrassed, left out, stupid, unable to work it out and I can't get ANY pleasure of something I do not 'get'.

It is probably very clever that he and all the other magicians are able to do these tricks but if I never ever see another magic trick again it will be too soon!

Sometimes... it *is* gorgeous here!

The picture doesn't do it justice really.... the dark rocks in the front, the houses on the other side but I think you get a good idea how nice it is when it doesn't rain for a little while :)