Occasional Notes

Merry Christmas, flist! I am very fond of you all and hope you all have a wonderful day.

I'm hosting Christmas on my own this year -- read: with plenty of help, but without my mother to oversee. I have a date with my family in Canada over the webcam after lunch, which is very exciting. We've got five people coming around to our little flat, making seven in total. I think the polite term is 'cosy'. Fortunately we all like each other.

I am very organised. I've made lists and schedules and things. I made the pumpkin pies, the stuffing, and stuffed onions yesterday. Got up this morning and put the turkey in. To make yet today are the vegetables, roast potatoes, toast, and parma ham and pear bites.

We've invited an elderly neighbour from upstairs down for a glass of wine just before lunch time, so we're having the stuffed onions and pear bites then. For an appetiser, we're having toast, different types of paté, and a bit of salad. The main is the traditional turkey, stuffing, potatoes, cauliflower, carrots, brussel sprouts, yorkshire puddings, gravy, and cranberry sauce. Then pumpkin pie, Christmas pudding, mince pies, cream, and ice cream for dessert, followed by cheese, chocolates, and port.

I, er, may have gone a bit overboard? But that only means lots of Christmas leftovers. Woot woot!

Oy-oi. After the debacle (wonderfulness?) of an easter break were I did not stop moving and occupied four separate countries and two separate continents in two weeks and my plane was cancelled and there was stress and I made it home only eighteen or so hours before I had to be back in a classroom teaching? It's been two very busy weeks. Not just because I wasn't mentally or physically prepared to go back to teaching as of arriving back in England from Africa and I was faced with school the next morning. But also because it is a very, very, very busy and stressful time of year. Just generally.

Which is why I needed this long weekend.

So far, I have gone to the pub and for a curry after work Friday. Slept in this morning. Went shopping and finally bought REAL food. Bought a new coffee maker after ours tanked about a month ago ( no more instant! *spit, spit, spit*). Had coffee in the local coffee shop, zenning for about 40 minutes watching people walk by on the street outside. Cleaned the flat (it was getting disgusting, and now smells clean and fresh and slightly citrusy!). Sat on the couch, watched BF kick ass at online WII Mario Cart whilst drinking wine and catching up on LJ.

Further plans include: Cooking a lovely dinner of mahi mahi fish with lemon and cracked pepper, new potatoes with fresh rosemary, green beens in melted butter, and an avacado and prawn starter. Curling up on the couch and watching Serenity, which I still love like crazy. Sleeping in again tomorrow. (A little work, let's not talk about it.) Roast dinner at a local pub that makes especially good roast dinners with BF's parents. Stupid girly movie and dinner out with a friend. Possibly new glasses? And lots more zenning and wine and generally good times. All this before Tuesday, when the classroom and children kick back in.

I am feeling relaxed for the first time in a really long time.

Also, summer is starting to kick in! It's great!

I will be making shrimp etoufee for dinner tonight. I feel like actually cooking for a change, which is not a feeling I've had often lately.

I used to really like cooking, before I moved out of Ottawa a couple of years back. Having your own kitchen makes a difference, I think. Last year I was tripping over my mother in her kitchen and here I share a kitchen with eight other people, six of whom I dislike, one of whom I dislike intensely, and one who is lovely. As a result, I tend to make things that are easy and fast and can be taken back to my room to be eaten in peace.

But, tonight? Shrimp etoufee. A huge batch of it, because my general opinion is that if a thing is worth doing, it's worth overdoing. Half-assing it is for losers -- go whole-ass or go home!

Mm, dinner. So exciting!

I was going to post this last night, but then the internet most inconveniently turned off. So I was forced to stay over at lazlet's (no, I promise, it follows):

So. INTERNET. How about that.

Am over visiting with lazlet, who continues to be ever-so-tolerant of the fact that I always pack my laptop along when I drop by.

I am overwhelmed with things to say, so I probably won't say too terribly much.

School starts next week. I find that I am really terrifically nervous. I am trying not to think about it.

lazlet fed me Battenberg cakes. They alone make moving to England worth it.

Now, off to get ready for day two of induction and orientation to teaching in England. Oh, joy.

I am preparing to leave the house under my own power (being carried out does not count) in over a week. I am starting physiotherapy up at the hospital and my first appointment is this afternoon. I am slightly frightened of the outside world omg looking forward to it.

In other news, for no apparent reason, I have been overdosing on science websites of late. I have learned many interesting things. For example, the Big Bang? Probably made a sound that was more like a deep hum. There's an audio file. Other sounds of space may be heard here.

Oh so cool.

Also this morning, I made a cake. I am concerned that the icing is too sweet, though. The cake itself turned out great. Go me.

Long day and I feel as though I should have some emotion at the end of it (happy? depressed? tired?), but am coming up blank.

Irrespective, watching TV on DVD, tucked into bed with home-made Indian food, totally unconcerned about the fact that it's midnight-forty is nice.

I have a date to go bike-riding with a friend of mine tomorrow morning. Yay!

I had a really, truly, fantasticly wonderful sandwhich for lunch. It was sliced turkey breast with tomato and pepper, accompanied by carrot sticks and sliced apples. Very simple, but so enjoyable as to be worth posting about.

For dinner, we are having company and pad thai. I am looking forward to the pad thai, as I have been craving it for months.

This message has been brought to you from my belly, which has dealt with my body's jetlag by being hungry all the time on the theory that at some point it will be meal time and it is best to be prepared.

Do you know what is really very nice? Freshly washed sheets.

Also very nice, toast.

*brushes crumbs off of freshly washed sheets*

As a result of having a toasted sandwich for lunch, I have now got crumbs down my shirt.

They're like sand. You never get rid of them.

Speaking of sand, this morning I put on a pair of pants that I apparently haven't worn in a year and a half, since the Christmas my family went to Hawaii. I found sand in the cuffs and bus transfers and a luau ticket in the pocket.