Monday, 28 January 2013

Made some Marmalade!

Its amazing what a spell of bad weather will bring on and in my case this weekend, whilst watching with glee, the melting of the wretched white stuff, I came upon a bag of summer in the form of a netted bag of Seville Oranges.

Now normally I would not have given the bag a moments thought but next to it (product placement in a huge vulgar fashion) were boxes of Preserving sugar......and my mind said "Ooh - Lets Make Marmalade!"

I have never made marmalade before but have watched my Mum over many years creating slightly different variations of what to place on my toast, so I thought, lets have a go.

Trusty Delia's Complete Cookery Course came out from her hiding place in the cupboard and the session began.  It was very therapeutic cutting up the oranges, wiping my smarting eyes when a few became over excited and squirted juice into my retina, but within minutes of the boiling process, my house became infused with a smell of hope.....sunshine and warmth.

Note for next-time - I will remove all the pips like Delia suggested before getting to the stage of testing on a saucer.

After sterilising some old jars (Yes, it is worth keeping some back instead of recycling, but maybe not Pickle Onion ones), I felt rather satisfied with a few hours work - see below for evidence.

Tastes good too according to my highly critical testers.


Tuesday, 22 January 2013

Snow Kayaking in Crickhowell

To avoid the onset of cabin fever brought on by the recent snowfall, we decided to pull on extra socks, pack a flask of coffee along with a  huge slice of leftover Christmas cake and made our way up to the Table Mountain overlooking Crickhowell.

It was a rather cold slog up through some impressive snow drifts and the temperature chilled as we progressed towards the top but the views were spectacular, not least because we could enjoy them in peace (the children were kindly being looked after and we discovered after, had enjoyed their first ever viewing of Teen Wolf).



The coffee and cake came as welcome relief in the little rocky shelter on the top, not least because the wind had teeth and was positively gnawing away at my nose and ear lobes.  It dawned on me that I should have worn a balaclava perhaps but I always feel I should be wielding a gun and painting my face with mud in order to justify this "look".

Anyway - on our descent, we came across two young men who were clearly up to fun and by this, I mean placing their bottoms into kayaks and then paddling down the snowy steep slopes.  At first I will admit to thinking that perhaps this was not a sensible idea but when I actually saw the one boy travelling at break neck speed,  his paddles acting as both brakes and ballast, I did have a severe moment of "extreme fun envy".    It looked totally exhilarating.    We did wonder at how he would stop prior to slicing through the hedge and potentially decapitating his head but after a few controlled doughnuts, he came to a perfect parallel stop.

I really wished I had been able to film it on my phone but my hands were bloody freezing.  This winter sport appears to be quite popular and when you see it in first person, you really can see what all the potential fuss is all about......Fun Fun Fun.




Thursday, 10 January 2013

It's not going well......

Well - I have to admit to not behaving particularly well on the plan to limit my intake of "crap" since my last posting.

It all went wrong when a colleague brought a load of semi-out of date mince pies into the office and I fell at the first hurdle.  In my defence I was sat in a freezing office in one of thee most depressing areas on earth and my cup of tea craved company whilst it travelled down my oesophagus.

Since then, I have also eaten some Celebrations (mostly Twix and Mars) whilst holding back tears when watching the baby elephant starve and die on the recent episode of BBC's brilliant new documentary Africa.

Today, despite the fact that I have eaten a load of dried Apricots and raisins at the desk, I now feel bloated, full of "farts with teeth" and cannot bring myself to get Davina out of her box.

I am planning a muddy run on Sunday.....does that mean I can have a slice of Christmas cake?


Sunday, 6 January 2013

2013 - RIGHT THEN!

Well, the Xmas tat and decorations are packed away in the shed and I am going to try and be a bit more consistent with my Blog postings as I have been truly useless over the last few months.

I would love to say that I have been busy (which is not totally far from the truth) but the sad fact is that I have been struggling with a low mood and hence any blog posts would have only darkened the screen upon which it was read and who needs to read about boredom and negativity - we have access to the news and the Daily Snail for that.

I am going to focus on losing a bit of weight over the next few months and firm up on the wobbly bits which I must blame on the ease of eating the childrens' chocolate without guilt.  I have done a few small jogging sessions over the Christmas period (well, two) but in fairness, the River Usk did pop over its banks during the Christmas holidays due to all the rain - probably some of that "Extreme" variety all the meteorologists are going on about.

Good old Davina Body Buff is going to help me burn some calories in the privacy of my lounge - (I will have the decency  to draw the curtains) and I also plan a little Zumba - again from the lounge, as I cannot face going to the local sessions, get knocked in the head by a strangers flailing hand (or worse - foot) and pretend I am Madonna......I AM NOT.

So - having just downed a cup of mint tea, I am going to finish watching the second episode of Borgen and plan my fat attack for the next few weeks.   If you are really lucky - I might just bore you with the plan, the "action" and the results......which means I might have to buy a weighing scales tomorrow in Asda on the weekly shop.   

Toodle Pip