...and I wanted to do so much this week ( Read more... )

I have been quiet on lj recently ( Read more... )

My shingles are getting much better. I can now bear for my arm to be touched and I didn't need a nap today ( Read more... )

In a social education class in the 6th form, we were asked what made a society truly civilised. One of the things we all agreed on was free healthcare. That is, apart from an American girl who was highly offended that we were essentially saying her society was not civilised. Of course most of us didn't even realise that the States didn't have free ( Read more... )

So I had 3 days of running around. I didn't have to do any personal care for Mum - she and Dad managed that between them - but I made pretty much every cup of tea/ did the washing up/ did the fetching and carrying. This meant Dad could go out for the daily paper in the morning, go to orchestra in the evening and even have a little lie down one ( Read more... )

Inspired by lamentables I decided to make soup out of some of the random left over veg. As there were 3 beetroot, I decided to make vegan borscht. I started with this recipe to get some idea of ingredients - especially a replacement for the cream ( Read more... )

Thank-you all for your good wishes ( Read more... )

I am so happy at the moment. I am not stressing or worrying, even when things don't go according to plan. I am really enjoying my job - some days I actively look forward to going to work. I am working with people who have an equal dillettante curiosity to my own and laugh at my surreal comments. I am given realistic deadlines and when I get given ( Read more... )

Yesterday at lunchtime in the scrubby strip of woodland I saw
2 blue tits
1 great tit
1 robin
1 blackbird
1 pigeon
1 magpie
1 lbj (possibly a wren) and...

1 jay!

I think this is only the second time in my life I have seen a (British) jay.

Today I saw 2 blue tits and 2 magpies - but someone had walked past just ahead of me.

At my new work, there is a small group of us who go to lunch at the same time. The Indian developers are keen to talk about food and share whatever they have brought in. So I asked them what the difference is between palak and saag, or whether it was different words for the same thing. Our local Indian restaurant only does palak, whereas in other ( Read more... )