iRamble.co.uk

posted by Kate on Sep 14

As usual this time of year approaches and I need to convert my amazing mint leaves into mint sauce.

I have tried many different ways to chop the leaves small enough not to give the diner a huge mint leaf to chew with roast lamb, but mostly have ended up chopping the leaves for hours with scissors. Effective but soooo boring and time consuming.

This year I searched the internet as usual looking for ways and found out that some people use a food processor.

I remembered that I had one somewhere - it was one I had bought in 1970 when I used to make wedding cakes for my friends. It had been stored in a box in a cupboard (the worst thing you can do with a kitchen gadget) and had even moved house with me six years ago only to be stored in the same box in a different cupboard.

I got it out - noted that the newspaper it was wrapped in was twenty years old, gave it a wash and loaded it up with washed mint leaves.

It was a success, although the leaves get a bit mushy and a little vinegar and sugar mix was called for but, no problem and my mint sauce was made for another year.

Fired with enthusiasm I knocked up a batch of pastry mix for the fridge - much easier than mixing and rolling all in one go!

And then I decided to make yorkshire puds for the freezer - and they were amazing - just look…

And all this in minutes from my 38 year old Braun food processor - it will no longer be kept in a cupboard but on the worktop - possibly not next to my more up to date items, as you will agree it does look a little dated….

But obviously built to last!!

posted by Kate on Jul 18

Work related stress causes two things in my case - so far one of them has been almost ten weeks off work and this causes the other problem…. more stress worrying about whether I will have a job at the end of this and whether I can survive the time off financially.

In either case it has been a difficult time so far. My family have been amazingly supportive, contacting me daily and arranging visits. My daughter’s greyhound Hippie has given me a great deal of love, company and pleasure, and, I have met many new friends on the way, some virtual and some amazingly real!!

The obvious thing a lot of people do when on long term sick leave is watch an awful lot of TV. I have never watched TV much and he thought of watching some of the daytime rubbish filled me with more dread. Added to the fact that because of the aforementioned anxiety I couldn’t sit down for long without panicking that I should be doing something.

I decided to devise a routine of sorts to keep me sane.

Every morning I get up early, shower and dress - Okay I’m not going anywhere but why become a slob because of it?

Then I make a list of things to do today - at the beginning this was just basic housework and cupboard sorting but they needed doing. then as each task is completed I strike through it. I also try to drive a little every day as that’s where the panic hits me the most - and guess what? I can go quite a distance now. Nothing like I used to but its getting better.

Some days I have to go shopping - I don’t like supermarkets much because the milling throng get in my way - but I do it!

Then there’s my laptop and broadband - thank you God!!!!!

I have my own websites - four of them, much the same as this one, and I hadn’t been keeping up with them at the beginning because it seemed that my creative spirit had disappeared. But then my son showed me how to get to other peoples sites and just read some of their posts. It was great, there are some funny, crazy, wonderful people out there and it made me laugh just reading what they had to say.

There is one special site where an elderly pipe smoking gentleman posts his daily thoughts. Sounds quite gentle eh? Sometimes it is, but sometimes he is controversial, or serious, and sometimes so funny the tears stream down my face. But his persona of being Grandad makes me forgive the swearing etc just thinking he is cantankerous and cannot help it. I have been brave enough to comment on some of his posts and have been pleasantly surprised that he doesn’t ‘give out’ to me like he does with others.

See, if I had a persona I could play act and be ……. what? A cranky old woman? No - I’m not far off that already. A young teenager? God no I remember what that was like. A bloke? I’d never get away with it…

Maybe I’ll just have to be me. I was never any good at pretending.

Anyway I’ll post this as a big thank you to my family and friends both on and offline - you are helping me to get through this! Oh and the house is clean, paintings done, slabs have been pressure washed - its all coming together. Just need to get back to work now!!!!!

posted by Kate on Jul 6

My son and daughter-in-law took me to the Piri Piri Restaurant last Tuesday evening. This is a Portuguese tapas bar/ restaurant in Swindon and an absolute delight to visit.

The menu is long and varied and we decided to order tapas dishes plus bread rather than just one main course each. The waiter was wonderful and explained the menu to us - I speak some Spanish and although Portuguese is a very different thing they’re are some similarities which the waiter was happy to discuss with me - for instance ‘obligado’ is Portuguese for thank you!!!

But to get back to the food.

We ordered Tortilha de Ovo which is a traditional omelette with bacon,onion and Portuguese chourico, Feijão Com Bacon (red beans with bacon bites) and Ensopado De Borrego, a delicious roasted lamb dish made with coriander,garlic and white wine,Batatas Bravas (or fierce potatoes), Enchidos, which is a plate of different cold meats topped with olives, a salad (be warned it carries a spicy dressing), Calamares Fritos - fried squid rings, Almondegas com Salsa (meatballs in sauce).

The bread came out first accompanied by virgin olive oil mmm home made batons - wonderful!

We ordered a bottle of house white wine and soon the familiar small tapas dishes came out and we started to eat. The food was all delicious, I really enjoyed the lamb dish.

A word of warning for the uninitiated the batatas bravas look quite innocuous just nicely cooked potatoes with a sprinkling of spice - but wait…. they are extremely spicy and I could only eat one piece, my daughter-in-law put quite a few pieces on her plate and discovered they were too hot for her. Even my son who loves hot spicy food found them a little too fierce and could not finish them. I asked our waiter what was on the potatoes and he said it was piri piri which is a small fierce chilli and also the name of this restaurant.

All in all it was a lovely evening, not a ‘posh’ restaurant by any standard but it definitely gives a feeling of being in a different country and sampling a new culture. Well worth a visit!!

Obligado senor!!!

posted by Kate on Jul 5

What is with supermarkets and the way they package cheese? My newly purchased slab of Red Leicester was plastic wrapped so tightly the corners were rounded. And, could I open it without hacking into the cheese? No!

Why can’t supermarkets come up with an easy way to open and close cheese so that it doesn’t go dry or sweat so much that it forms mould?

They should take a leaf out the Cathedral City manufacturers book and provide a resealable packet so that consumers can enjoy it all without forever having to chop the edges off.

It really cheeses me off!!!!!

posted by Kate on Jun 3

My telephone rang a total of 24 times today and only one of those calls was worth having!

I have been registered with the Telephone Preference Service for a very long time and my home telephone number is also ex-directory.

So can someone please tell me why I have had so many calls offering me goods and services from companies I have never heard of?

A new mortgage? Why? I don’t even have an old one. New windows and doors - I don’t need them. A special offer on orthopaedic pillows, new blinds, a loan… the list is endless and some of them hung up when I answered.

Why me? Do they know I’m off work? Is it a plot hatched by the people who stressed me out in the first place, trying to make it worse?

I have been a database administrator for more years than I care to mention and at work I check my data every month for customers registered with the Telephone Preference Service to make quite sure that nobody calls them on an ad hoc basis - only when necessary.

It is ridiculous and a waste of money to make these calls in the vain hope that someone will buy a product. Surely the art of marketing is to reach somebody who is interested in buying the company product.

AND the biggest irritation and the reason for this post is - when I explained to one caller that I was registered with the TPS - she said “TPS? What does that mean?

I rest my case and before anyone tells me that its not just happening because I’m off work - it probably happens every day. I need to say that I realise that and I am now going to train the dog to answer the phone and growl down it.

That should stop them!!!

posted by Kate on Jun 3

I only wanted to park my car for ten minutes while I picked up the flowers for my daughters floristry course this evening.

There was an available space next to  a small red vehicle with an elderly lady sitting in the passenger seat with a mug of tea and some biscuits on the dashboard. I smiled at her as I checked my purse for the 30p ticket fee - murphy’s law was with me yet again as I realised I had no change.

I rushed to the nearest shop, got the right change for the machine and was just about to collect my ticket when I noticed the car park attendant standing next to my car. I legged it over to him in an attempt to stop him writing me a ticket, foolishly thinking I could explain….. but, he was having none of it:

"You parked without getting a ticket, are you disabled? where is your badge?"

I found my self stammering:

"I only went to get some change for the machine, I have it here look!"

"But you haven’t bought a ticket with it have you?"

"I was just going to when I noticed you standing beside my car. I can go and get it now."

"Its a bit too late now isn’t it" he sneered "I’ll give you one of my tickets, next time you’ll remember to bring the right change."

I was just about to lose it with him, after all I am off work suffering from stress, when the door of the little red car opened and the elderly lady started to speak:

"Young man?"

Young? Well I suppose he appeared that way to her.

The man turned as she spoke.

"Leave the girl alone, she went to get change, she’s got change now let her buy a ticket. Stop bullying her - surely you’re not employed to do that?"

Girl? mmmmm well in the scheme of things I must fit the category, chronologically at least.

The attendant started to bluster:

"Well actually, it is my job to fine payment evaders."

The lady looked at me:

"Go and get your ticket my dear and let me speak to this young man while you do."

I did as I was told and went over to the machine and got a ticket, but when I turned to go back to my car I noticed the attendant was walking away, in the opposite direction to me.

I got back to my car and put the ticket on the screen. I turned and looked at the lady who had shut the door again and was sipping her tea. She looked at me and winked. I asked her what had happened.

"Nothing much my dear - I just told him what I thought of him and he left."

I thanked her for her help and she just smiled and went back to her tea.

So I have decided to look around for my Fairy Godmother the next time I meet a bullying Jobsworth. She is magnificent!!!!

posted by Kate on Jun 2

It is indeed a sad day marking the passing to a higher place of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.

I have never been a dedicated follower of fashion, as the song says and anyone that knows me will testify but the haunting scent of Rive Gauche has been more than a passing fancy with me for many years.

This perfume has been on every one of my Christmas and Birthday lists and fortunately my partner is aware of my obsession and I am never left without.

May your God go with you Yves, you will never be forgotten in this house!!!

posted by Kate on Jun 2

Ah - this wonderful time of year has arrived, the heady smell of blooming flowers as industrious gardeners work their way around their gardens is only overtaken by the odour of burning food as they sit and eat al fresco whilst viewing their neat lawns and beds.

When I moved here some 6 years ago I liked the idea of the small slabbed area at the rear of the property, my idea was to grow the things that I liked in pots and make a magnificent display with no lawn mowing involved.

This has worked to a certain degree but the row of conifer trees at the end of the property have always been a problem.

When I moved in their leafy branches reached the ground and it seemed that the whole view from my kitchen window was….. conifer!!

I started by cutting off the lower branches to a height of six feet so that the earth they were planted in was visible - then I planted spring bulbs there. But the tops of the trees were obviously still growing and very much out of control.

Last Saturday a friend was coming over to decapitate the trees, the effect would be that they would look almost like conifer lollipops, tall trunks and not much foliage. It worked beautifully and the garden gets so much more natural daylight.

But, the bulbs under the trees had finished and no bedding plant will grow there so i was left with the dilemma of how to make it look good.

On a shopping trip to Tesco I discovered they were selling solar lighting at half the original price - in fairness I have tried solar garden lights before but have not found them to be very good, mostly because the solar panel was on top of the lamp and quite small. But the colour changing globe sticks that I bought had a solar panel that could be placed in the sunshine and a long wire so that the globes could be placed under the trees.

That night they looked amazing and by day they are still attractive as garden ornaments with their chrystal globes.

Fired with enthusiasm I went back to the store and bought two sets of blue LED string lights which now wind through the bottom branches of the trees and around the trunks.

The effect is stunning!!! Initial outlay £40 altogether and no running costs.

Okay - lets get the barbeque going and burn some food!!!!!

posted by Kate on Jun 1

It’s true - I do ramble. I write short stories, the odd poem, reviews and letters of complaint! I like rambling and now I have the perfect place to do it!!!

But what shall I ramble about on here? Life? Probably the best thing - after all its the one thing we all have in common and we all moan about its vagaries at times - yes I think that there will be a few posts about life in general and the way it treats me in particular.

Work? Now there’s a subject - and one which I have many a rant (sorry ramble) to make. I feel there will be many posts on this.

People? Oh yes, I meet some of the strangest and some of the nicest people and this may be the place to discuss them, protecting the names of the innocent of course.

I might add a short story at times just for added interest, and, maybe a few photographs.

How great is this? My own place to share my views!!!

Watch this space!!!