I don't want to go to Chelsea

That's a lie. Chelsea seems to be rather nice. The bits of it I have seen so far, anyway.

Wednesday already. Where does the time go, eh? Well, stopping up in London certainly made the first two days of the week fly by.

I stayed at my mate's lovely Chelsea flat again on Monday. It is great to be able to actually enjoy a bit of a social life after work, rather than spending hours on the train. I even managed to walk to and from her flat without having to admit defeat and call a cab, which was nice.

We went out for an Italian meal, and had the most fantastic HUGE wooden board covered with antipasti, which was a meal in itself. However, being brave girls, we scarfed it all down and then managed to cram in a main course each too.

They sell pizza by the metre at this place, with one person's portion being a 25cm size. So if four of you order a pizza, you get a metre long pizza delivered to your table. What a great idea. All food should be sold that way.

"I'll have 2.5 metres of cheese please...we're having a fondue party."

"Hm, just 25cm of eggs this week, I'm not making any cakes."

"How much spaghetti do we need? 10 metres? Really? Ok..."

I ordered a calzone with ricotta cheese, ham, and whole teeny tomatoes in it, and the bloody thing was bigger than my head. Which is pretty big, let me tell you. I managed about two thirds of it, then had to admit defeat.

Should have got a doggy bag, I could fancy it now.

Mr WithaY and I are planning a trip up there later in the month, and I will have to take him to this place and see what he thinks of it.

Other news: Had some cabin hooks fitted to the French doors in the kitchen, so when they are open in the summer they won't slam back and knacker the hinges.

When we had the doors put in, I asked if they were going to fit hooks, and they said "Ooh no love, you won't need hooks! These doors'll stay where you put them."

What utter bollocks.

First sunny day we had the doors open, a gust of wind slammed them back against the wall and the hinges were distorted so badly that the doors wouldn't lock again. Mr WithaY had to spend bloody ages with a screwdriver tweaking them back to normality.

So, now they have hooks.

We finished the lovely dinner party goulash tonight. Mmmm. Beef.

Right. Bedtime, as I have to be up at 0-ffs-hours tomorrow.

Porkers

That's what we are, here in the WithaY household. We decided to have a slightly impromptu* dinner party on Saturday night, and Mr WithaY did the most fantastic "belly pork with stuff on it" dish.

It's a Rick Stein Mediterranean recipe, and basically involves making up a marinade/paste thing out of garlic, rosemary, chilli, loads of black peppercorns and olive oil, rubbing it all over the meat, leaving it to itself for many hours, then roasting it slowly in the oven. Bloody great, it is.

I did my becoming-famous Indian baked yoghurt pudding, and we got through a lot of port. Great fun.

This morning (even allowing for the clock change) has been very lazy and relaxing. We lounged about on our respective sofas and watched "Paint Your Wagon" on TV, which was excellent. Perfect lazy Sunday morning viewing.

No other plans for today except doing the washing-up as and when I feel like it, and possibly doing some sewing if I can be arsed.

Other news: Got my car back, after having to fork out over £240 for a service, new brake bits and some other stuff. Gah. And it still has to have the mystery possibly-terminal problem looked at.

Most depressing.

On the bright side, the weather today is glorious, and I think we have a lot of birds nesting in the garden. Hurrah.



*i.e: Invited people on Friday night if they happened to be free on Saturday.

Gold! And cake.

Well, so many exciting* things have been going on. Where to start?

I have new glasses, which is very pleasing. They are much smarter than my old ones, and give me much better peripheral vision, which is good. And they make me look brainier, so I can impress people.

Had my hair cut yesterday and despite her taking about 4 inches off the layers, it looks longer than it did before. So that's a good result.

It snowed! I got home mid-afternoon and half an hour later it was like Narnia out there. All gone by morning though.

We had some mates round for dinner last night. Was intended to be a very casual supper kind of thing, but I decided to make a pudding, and things escalated.

I flicked idly through my Green and Black Chocolate cookbook and selected a pudding that seemed reasonably quick, and potentially impressive. I got creating, and it went in the oven in good time.

I kept checking the progress, as it baked in the oven. It wasn't ready when the recipe said it would be, so I gave it another 5 minutes. Then another 5 minutes. Then another 5 minutes.

Tempers (well, mine at least) began to fray.

Finally it was ready. Well, ready-ish. I decided to make it less bizarre looking by using some funky edible gold stuff I found.



Which could be used for other things as well as cake.



I finished laying the table, and as I put the paper napkins out, I said to Mr WithaY "This is how I define an informal supper".

He replied "What? By shouting 'The fucking cake still isn't ready'?"

Heh.

Anyhoo, guests arrived and a grand time was had by all. Especially me. And the cake was a success.



Am a bit hungover today though. Can't think why.




*Assuming your expectations raised by the word "exciting" are not very high

oops, forgot a title

Well, my back is still bloody painful, but at least it's not stopping me sleeping any more. Gah. I passed up a trip to London with Mr WithaY and his mum today as I thought a long train journey was not a good idea, and am now bored. They're meeting Mr WithaY's big brother for lunch. I hope they go somewhere fabulous.

Still, there's plenty of tidying up after last night's "last minute" dinner party". I will go and empty the dishwasher, refill it and then make some lunch. And then maybe watch the tv for a while. Ahh, plans, plans, plans.

Did some excellent guitar practice last night before our guests turned up - Mr WithaY's mum came in and said "Oh! I thought you were listening to a record!" which was gratifying.

Phoned my Mum for a quick chat, she is still not too well, but seems to be on the mend, thankfully. I have booked some time off at the end of the month and she is coming up to stay for a few days. We plan to take some day trips to Bath, Stonehenge, Longleat etc, so I hope the bloody weather improves.

I know I'm getting old, the thing I like most about not having to go to work is the extra sleep and no driving.

Ah well, time for some leftover lamb tagine and couscous for lunch. Mmmmmm. Spicy.