26th May 2010 (Wednesday)

I really must get back t taking pics of the dishes we put up – got a bit fed up of the tiny hiatus between plating and devouring so it’s gone by the wayside. My other blog is looking a bit bereft as a result.


Mind you, what am I TALKING about, who needs pics of chicken stew when you can see Leo’s creations – BLIMEY!!!! MOSES!!! Dear lord – you need to put him on the web to shame some of those pathetic housewives into damn well cooking something instead of just going to McDonalds as if there were nothing hideous about it. BLIMEY! Words fail me – how happy must he be with himself! Mind you, by the way his face is shining and fair splitting in two with the grin on his face, I think it’s obvious he’s pretty pleased with himself. WOW but he’s amazing. Totally bowled over.

It’s raining again here. Cold, wet, and raining – so British. Well – when I say cold, it’s probably still about 10 degrees minimum at night but you know. Just not Australia. …Well, obviously it IS Australia but not as one would picture it. Ah well, at least there’s none of that little space between about the end of August and the start of May that’s far more miserable in the UK.


We had Possums yesterday night! What fun. They are such dopey creatures – the two of them (must have been Mummy possum and Baby possum) just sat and stared at us for ages – we took some pics, I’ll have to try and load them up later. Weren’t very concerned about us at all, and didn’t seem to have anywhere in particular to go to or business to attend to, they just mooched about the place and stared at us for ages before we all got bored and wandered back to our respective indoor / outdoor mooching. Have often heard them in the tree (it’s always laden with blossoms) but never been able to see them. First possums we’ve seen here, a bit of an event.

Went to the Wednesday Phonics group today – last Phonics week, next week they’ll have a rest and then they’ll start up on the reading groups – have yet to be told how those’ll run but no doubt we’ll get to hear about it. In the meantime I think I’ll just enjoy not being with them for a week. The impossible behaviour is apparently not confined to the Littles – the whole class was behaving like that. Giggling, juggling, looking right left and round about anywhere but where they ought to be, hands flailing and doing anything apart from what they’re meant to be doing, numerous toilet breaks, knees up on this edges of seats when they’re meant to be typing, children tipping their seats up, lolling to their sides, poking their neighbours, stealing their neighbours’ mice, poking noses, downright disappearing (found one in the stationery cupboard), running around and jumping on and off chairs when they’re meant to be doing Phonics on the big screen, yelling, screaming, lying on their stomachs when they’re meant to be sitting down and listening…. Well, they weren’t on top form today, I think I can safely say. Left the place as fast as I could. Although I have to admit even I realise I’m being an amazing Miss Grumpy a the moment but sorry just can’t help it. It’s cold and wet and I’m sitting here the whole time doing stuff that seems to be getting me absolutely nowhere and when I have to tell the Littles for the hundred-thousandth time not to chew on the side of her bed (I mean REALLY, who needs to chew on the side of their bed? She does it every night without fail), really the will to be smiley and fabulous is left quite a long way behind.


Ah, bored by now. Lots of love to you all, and a ZILLION thanks to everyone for strenuous comments, pics and so on, V xxx

Oh p.s. Pie, I’d LOVE to hear about the polenta balls in more detail (gosh sounds awful when one puts it like that), and thank you so much for the calcium tabs – you are an absolute rock. I was going to tell you there’s been a bit of a breakthrough – she’s finally taken to chocolate milk and drinking considerable quantities of it, AND she’s even having her cereal with a dash of milk too! Unthinkable. I am also able to get some ricotta down her in spinach mixes and so on.. so much better than it used to be. Hell of a way to go, but hey. Plus she’ll still eat the cheese on a pizza, but you know, one only has pizza a couple of times a month at most so it’s hardy a stable source of calcium. Oh, and regarding beans and flatulence… don’t I know it. HOWEVER (and I’m sure this depends on the recipient stomach as much as anything else) but I certainly find that the very worst things are:

Category 1: Kidney beans, pinto beans, baked beans (same thing),

Category 2: cabbage, other brassicas (they seem to be swifter acting but shorter lived).

Goodness knows what the other categories are, I’m in trouble the whole time for wind but kidney beans and pintos are just death. Yellow lentils are not great either. On the other hand, pui lentils, green lentils, red lentils – all of these are not actually very bad at all, barely notice them. Cannelini are also not too dreadful. I try and avoid black beans altogether. Thing is, now that I send both of them (the husband and child, that is, not the lentils) out to school and work with a predominantly meat-based sandwich every single day, we really end up eating too much meat if I serve it up as an evening meal as well, it’s not too healthy. Been trying to tone it down considerably recently. Tomorrow is a veggie-lentil lasagne – green and red lentils in an nice sauce as the ‘meat’ bit and the rest as usual. It’s a good way into the non-red meat side of things and very tasty. Oh, and LOVED the ‘how to peel and egg’ – the littles and I were just sitting there watching and suddenly nearly peed ourselves laughing. Must try that! Anyway really must go – lots of love all round again, V xxxx