Chateau Peo

Monday was uneventful and if memory serves me correctly I walked into work all 3.2 miles of it in practice of my 13.1 mile walk on 16 May 2009 (but will tell you more about that later), and Gethin cycled in with the intention of cycling in at least 4 days out of 5 for the week.

Tuesday, I cycled in as well and as usual Gethin was to head over to my office in Holborn to meet me so we could cycle home together. I got the call from Gethin at 5.30 to say he was just leaving the office and would meet me at the cycle shop just down the road from my office so we could both get ourselves some new cycling gloves. About 5.50 (there or there abouts) I received a call from Gethin, and his first words to me were “don’t worry I am fine!” so I reacted how most wives would react and panicked. Well I was right in doing so. On his way to my office he was cycling down a dedicated cycle path and was knocked off his bike by another cyclist. Gethin managed to make his way to my office at which point we left his bike there as he wasn’t in a fit state (or the bike for that matter, bent front wheel and a damage front brake) to ride home. I went home to pick up the car so I could go and collect the bike and Gethin headed up to the hospital to get checked over as he was struggling to move his left arm. 5 hours later he been x-rayed and told that he had a hair line fracture in his left elbow. They put his arm in a sling and he was given an appointment for the fracture clinic on the Thursday afternoon.

Wednesday morning Gethin got up with me so I could help him get sorted but agreed he wouldn’t go into work and rest his arm. Because I had cycled in on Tuesday and with everything that went on, I had left my bike in work so I was looking forward to cycling back home in the evening as the weather had been gorgeous and with the nights getting lighter it makes cycling home so much nicer. By the time I had got home in the evening, the patient was doing well and the swelling had gone in his elbow enough that he had gained some movement back in his arm, and had even managed to cook himself some lunch!!

Thursday morning I left the patient in bed as I knew he was more than able to look after himself without the assistance of his wife!! In the afternoon Gethin headed to the hospital for his appointment at 2.30 and in the usual style of our local hospital he didn’t get seen till just under an hour later!! The doctor confirmed it was a fracture and that there was nothing they could do that would speed up the healing and gave him a better sling and said that it would heal in about 4-6 weeks which means no cycling for him.

Friday, Gethin went to work and got the stick he was expecting from his work colleagues and in the evening we went via Heathrow to pick his mum up from a trip to Dusseldorf and headed to Cardiff so that we could watch the Wales v Ireland RBS 6 Nations Rugby that was being played at the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff. We didn’t have tickets but we knew we would be able to find a pub that was showing the game, and forgive me if I leave it there, as the result of the game yesterday wasn’t the one any of the Wales fans wanted, but personally I believe it was the one they deserved. Oh and well done Ireland!!

for neglecting the blog over the last couple of months. I have been meaning to update it but time and work have been getting the better of me, not a real excuse I know but it is the only one you are going to get!!

So what has been happening in our lives over the last couple of months.

Both of us have been megga busy in work, you would never know there is a resession happening with the amount of hours we are working!

Christmas
We held our very first Christmas lunch at our house. We had my folks, sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew over for lunch. Gethin did a turkey (alla Nigella Lawson), which goes into a brine bath 24 hours prior to the day and is then left outside overnight. As we don’t have anywhere secure to leave it we decided the safest and coldest place would be the boot of the car!! We did all the trimmings and I even made my very first christmas cake, which even if I do say so myself turned out very well. Having my folks in London for Christmas meant that we didn’t have to head up to London between Christmas and New Year and therefore gave us slightly longer in Cardiff than we would normally of had, which was lovely.

New Year and Snow
The new year came and went as quickly as it usually does and we even had some snow in early February. As usual the snow brought London to a standstill including the whole of the bus network! Gethin didn’t venture into work, me on the other hand did and haven’t seen the tube that busy for a long long time. The centre of London had more snow that I have ever seen in the 10 years of living in London and I would even go as far to say it was worse in the centre that it was at our house.

Fitness
In February both Gethin and I bought ourselves new bikes (of the manual variety). Mine is for the first time in my life a proper womens frame, and therefore better for my shoulder/neck. Gethins bike like mine is a hybrid bike which means it is designed to be ridden in the city but can also be taken off road. My journey to work and back is about 7 miles where Gethin’s is closer to 16 miles. Due to work commitments I haven’t been able to ride to work as much as I would have liked, but this week the weather is meant to be lovely so I am hoping to cycle in on at least 3 days.

Right I believe I have wibbled enough and promise to update the blog more than I have done over the past 6 months.

Rhi’s after easy recipes – I had this one typed up for Nikki so thought i’d post it up here….

Serves: 2 hungry people or 3 normal ones!
Prep time: 10 mins (plus an hour marinating time if you’re not in a rush)
Cooking time: 30-35 mins

** The Essentials
450g canned tomatoes
1 crushed clove garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 bunch (15-20g) FRESH Basil. Stalks removed and roughly torn or chopped
2 medium chicken breasts sliced into cubes about 2-3cm

** The Extras
1 chopped red chilli
1 medium red onion, quartered and separated into layers
150-200g mushrooms
½ red or yellow pepper cut into 3cm squares
Any other veg you fancy – I’ve added Broccoli and Aubergine in the past – both of which work well
50 g Chorizo sausage (in sausage form – not slices) chopped into rings about 1cm thick, then halved so you end up with half moon shapes

** Right at the end
1 ball of PROPER Mozzarella cheese chopped/torn into chunks
Pasta for 2 or 3

** How to make it
This is might look complicated but it’s actually pretty easy to make. The prep work is almost all you have to do. Before you start doing the prep work turn on the oven to 160C

Put the “Essentials” into a mixing bowl – the chilli is an optional extra but if you’re using it, add it now – give it all a good stir together.

Chuck in whatever else from the extras list that you fancy and give it a good mix so that it’s all well coated with tomato. If you’ve got time give it 30-60 minutes in the fridge but it works well with no marinating time as well.

Pour the mixing bowl into an oven dish (I use a chunky ceramic one but anything will do) Whack it in the oven for 25-30 minutes. To test if it’s ready, take a piece of chicken out and cut it in half and make sure it’s not pink inside.

If you’re adding the Mozzarella chop/tear it into chunks. Take the dish out of the oven 5 minutes before the end and stir in the cheese and return it to the oven for the final 5 minutes. It goes nice and gooey by the time it’s ready.

Serve with pasta (usually use Fresh Tagliatelli) or on it’s own

If you’re on WeightWatchers leave out the Chorizo and Mozarella
Olive Oil – 1 point
Chicken – 5 points (2.5 points per breast)
Pasta – depends how much you have – 60g uncooked dried pasta is 3 points

I like to think of myself as pretty open minded especially where motorbikes are concerned, but that was not so the other week.

There is a gorgeous silver Suzuki – SV650s in our street and I have been admiring it for some time. I have always assumed that it driven by a male, don’t ask me why, I think it is just that the bike looks so big you kinda think it can’t be driven by a woman.

And for that I need forgiving, because it was coming into the street when I was coming back from work on evening and as I got round the corner its rider was parking up, with the visor up and I was shocked to realise that I had been so wrong and it was a female driving the bike. She is about 5’6-5’7 and about the same build as I am but it really just threw me to see a female on the bike, a mistake I don’t plan on making again in the future.

It’s been a while since I blogged.

I guess moving back into the house took more out of us than we thought as we’ve hardly felt like doing anything for the last few weeks.

We did get down to Wales for a week – spent it at Mary & Paul’s (my Aunt and Uncle) place in St Davids in West Wales – pretty much as far west as you can go in Wales. It’s a beautiful part of the world and their house is amazing – build out of an old ruin, right next to St Davids Cathedral. Great for just getting away from it all for a few days. Alex came and joined us for a few days and it was great to be able to spend some time with him after barely seeing him for 4 years whilst he was America in Uni

I can’t speak for Nik but personally I can’t get enthusiastic about anything at the moment. I’ve got no interest in hockey – to the point where I’ve given up DJing for the Greyhounds and have no interest in going back to playing with the Legion. It’s a shadow of the team that it used to be – every time I go it just feels stagnant. When we handed over running the team we *thought* that the people who took over would be doing all the things that we didn’t have time to – tours, new website, more games. None of it happened and it’s really sad to see all the hard work we put in just wasted.

And finally I’ve had a benign cyst (slightly larger than a pea) removed from my head today. Whilst it’s benign it’s still kind of worrying, especially because it’s a recurrence of one that I have removed in May 07. I’ve been told it’s harmless but it’s been sent away for analysis and I get the results in three weeks. Hopefully this is the last I’ll see of it.

Yours, apathetic with a sore head

Gethin

Which is what I currently am, an A grade one!

Why? I hear you cry. Well for the last 6-7 years at least I have had a special pillow for my neck and I never leave the house without it if I know I am not going to be sleeping in my own bed, until today that is.

Gethin and I drove down to Cardiff this morning as we are about to spend the next week at Gethin’s Aunts house in West Wales. Just before we left the house Gethin said “Go have a look around the house to make sure you have not forgotten anything” as it is something I tend to do on a regular basis. I walked round the house and confirmed that no, there was nothing I had forgotten. I didn’t even have the nagging feeling I usually get which I took as a positive sign.

We got to Cardiff and I sat down having a drink and something in the back of my mind said “I think I have forgotten something” but could not think what until we emptied out the car and I looked at Gethin and said PILLOWS!!!

Yup my pillow is currently in London Cathy has found me some substitutes that I am going to try tonight otherwise I could be going out shopping tomorrow for a new pillow, and if that is the case I may leave it in Cardiff just in case I have another bout of muppetism, which in my glass is half empty mode probably won’t happen again

But for the first time in over 12 weeks I have baked again

Both receipts that I have done today are new ones, the first was Crumbly cookies from Waitrose. They have a board full of recipes and every month it changes, I saw these a while ago but decided to do something about it today, and they are not half bad, even if I say so myself.

The other is a dense chocolate loaf cake from the Nigel Lawson How to be a domestic goddess. It is currently cooling but I think it will be another one of the ones I use on a regular basis.

Tomorrow I am going to try to make scones.

Yeah I know it’s self indulgent…..but it’s a blog!

A couple of weeks ago a story leaked out that Liverpool’s main sponsor for the last 16 years, Carlsberg were planning a “free pint” give away with The S*n newspaper.

Nothing too unusual about that you might think until you consider that the tabloid shit rag is still boycotted by Liverpool fans, and Liverpudlians in general after printing this on ther front page the week after the Hillsborough Disaster in 1989

“The Truth.
Some fans picked pockets of victims
Some fans urinated on the brave cops
Some fans beat up PC giving kiss of life.”

This was all proved to be as untrue as it sounds – but no apology has ever been made for it – hence the boycott 19 years on. You can find more on the Hillsborough Justice Campaign website which is well worth reading if you don’t know the background.

As you can imagine, seeing our main sponsor associating with The S*n went down exceedingly badly. Showing what you can do by mobilising the power of the internet, Carslberg were made aware of the strength of feeling surrounding the paper and forced into an exceedingly quick climbdown , cancelling the giveaway at very short notice.

Chalk one up for people power…

If you ever needed a reason not to buy The S*n other than the fact it’s toilet paper read by people with the IQ of a slug, this is it

Now that the stress of moving is mostly over, we can look back and laugh….
Thursday: Collect Alex (hired help) from coach station
Friday: Pick up 5 transit van loads of boxes and Furniture. Unload into the two bedrooms at the house working around builders
Saturday daytime: I go to work for 5 hours to cover a software release, Nik and Al go into town to pick up some stuff for the house.
Saturday evening: Start doing the heavy lifting getting boxes in place after builders have left.
Sunday: Unpacking. Chucking everything that we don’t need immediately in the loft
Monday: Shopping!

Not everything is finished yet but we’re 75% there. I’m assured the rest will be finished on Friday but I’ll believe it when I see it!

In the meantime it’s great to be back HOME. I was particularly worried about how the bathroom would look but it’s great – the water effect tiles are a bit of childish fun but who cares – we’re both childish so it’ll fit in well

Just cooked our first meal in ther new kitchen (steak sandwiches) and it’s fulfilled two of its main aims
1) Look great
2) Allow both of us to use it without getting under each others feet.

Anyway – enough….rest of the piccies can be found here

Here’s to the return of what passes for normality….