Gracie’s Life Experiment

Had a small soiree (ooh that’s a bit posh).  Actually it involved me cooking dinner for friends, copious amounts of wine (not for me though) and playing board games.  Rach and Lou have a new game called Ticket to Ride and it’s about trying to build railway lines between cities in the US.  The gameplay is actually very simple (you try and build railroads across the country to gain points).  You collect a different number of coloured carriages in order to build from city to city.  At first it seems pretty trivial until you realise that you COULD concentrate on building your routes to gain points, or you COULD just sit there scuppering other people’s lines by building between crucial cities!!  Mwa ha ha.

So what was on the menu for our party?   Well we had antepasti for starters (consisting of a salad with feta, sundried tomatoes and olives, onion chutney, oven roasted cherry tomatoes and peppers, salami and ham with warmed ciabatta).  Salmon carbonara for mains (oops I cooked enough for about 10 people so we’ll be having derivations of this for our meals for the weekend now).  Then cheese and crackers for dessert (in between the games playing). 

Summary of the day:  Went to Boots to find my free changing bag (they had none in store - boo), Went to pick up some bits and bobs for Antepasti, Prepared and cooked dinner, Served up and played board games all night (went to bed past midnight!!)

It was the “Ex versus Current” archery club shoot today.  The weather forecast was quite pleasant - sunny intervals, around 20deg.  Hmm in reality it really was sunny intervals - but more like overcast and windy with about 2mins of sunny intervals every 1/2 hr.  The shoot took around 5+ hours and I was Lady Paramount for the day (what with being 7 months pregnant and far too off balance I couldn’t really shoot) so spent the time blowing whistles, judging and helping to find arrows.  It was so cold I had my jacket on as well as hubby’s waterproof jacket as well as my hat on.  I must have looked like a really strange looking tourist, already extremely rotund from the baby, but even more padded from the 4 layers of clothes and then a sun hat on top!  We had found a more sheltered spot after the shoot and had a BBQ.  Then the sun was out and it was lovely.  Unfortunately I was totally knackered, and my cheeks were very sore - something like sunburn AND windburn at the same time.  I had to go have a lie down in the car for while to recover.  Then we retreated back to our house for a mini-Eurovision party.

Summary of the day: Spent most of it standing in the middle of 5 sports pitches at the mercy of the weather!!

Went for a day trip to Wales to visit our friend Cat whose birthday it was on Friday (in fact it was also my other friend Em and also hubby’s brother’s birthday too). She lives in Cwmbran. It was absolutely baking in the car on the way down - luckily we opted to go in my car which has aircon (very uneconomical but a lifesaver on a 3 hr drive). I know when we have BBQs we always get enough food for everyone, but people still bring stuff and we end up eating sausages all week long and Cat said not to bring any BBQ stuff. So we thought, hmm let’s bring a birthday cake then (unfortunately so did 3 other lots of guests at the party). Not really a problem as Cat’s blokey likes cake - A LOT!! We went A512, A42, M42, M5, M50, A40, A449, M4 route this time. The A40/A449 bit was really scenic and Wales looked really quite lush - last time we drove down it was November and was seriously soggy and cold.

It was a great party.  Nice and chilled, good mix of people (i.e. lots of different groups all mingling), and the weather was fantastic.  Our friends Lis and Rol were also there, Lis is 7 weeks behind us with her pregnancy and it was quite fun comparing experiences so far.

Summary of the day:  Went to buy a birthday cake, Drove down to Wales (took just under 3 hrs with some jams on the M42), BBQ party, Socialised with lots of mutual friends, Drove back to Loughborough (only took 2.5 hrs at 8pm)

The weather forecast said sunny and 19deg C.  We had friends coming to visit.  Great- let’s have a BBQ.  We usually end up having loads of BBQs all summer (and sometimes through till Oct) as we have a nice garden.  Gave the mutt a haircut (it’s like shearing sheep), gave hubby a haircut.  Then we got to doing a bit of light gardening.  Hubby had already mowed the lawn mid week, but there was a lot of twigs and general debris on the patios. I was armed with the broom and the hoe, hubby got the secateurs and collection duties.  It was quite therapeutic hoeing the beds - they were full of weeds but they come up nice and easily.  Over the next month we’ll start planting out the seedlings into the beds and the garden will be lovely again.  The busy lizzies are almost there (and already starting to grow flower buds).  We sowed some seeds into trays and will see what we get there.  Strawberries have started to flower in the greenhouse already and the tomato plants are about 8″ high already.  The vine had a good year’s growth last year so am hoping for at least one grape to come into fruition before we sell the house.  Have run out of pak choi seeds this year so will have to find some more from my Dad and see if I can score some lettuce or spinach too.  I love summer and growing veggies in the greenhouse.

We had the first BBQ of the year on our newly tidied garden.  Just had 6 of us so didn’t go overboard on the food.  The usual burgers and sausages, but also tried out a new recipe for Indonesian Satay (which was scrummy).  Creamy garlic mushrooms done on the BBQ.  Potato salad, green salad and garlic bread finished off the menu.  It’s lovely eating outside and it was warm yet still with some sun.  Better still we had wonderful company to share it with.  My friend Cat and her new beau Lyn (it’s a Welsh boy’s name) as well as Rach and Lou came over and we had a chilled evening.

Summary of the day:  Woke up, Sheared various family members, Tidied garden, Went for a walkies round Woodhouse, Had a BBQ, Watched Dr Who (oooh Sontarans), Played board games and wii

Earth Hour is a big thing in Australia.  It was on all the news and telly for the week.  Basically from 8-9pm everyone switches off all the lights and extraneous electronic goods to save some energy.  It’s quite nice as you get to eat by candlelight.  Was spectacular at by brother’s house as we ate on the upper balcony and had views across the water to Cronulla and even further Sydney CBD.  When Earth Hour started it was really impressive as it went very dark on the horizon (no orange glow from the city) and after 5 mins of eyes acclimatising there were so many stars in the sky.  It’ll take some getting used to identifying the constellations of the Southern Hemisphere.

We had a dinner party where each person made a certain dish and each rated each other’s food.  Sadly we didn’t win, but at least we ended up with a mark in the +ve integers.  My brother got -ve marks for his course (oysters - although I got served a lump of cold tofu in an oyster blob shape, pretty grim).  Everyone else got absolutely blottoed as each course also had to go with a selected alcohol (we did bloody marys). 

Summary of the day: Met up with Dick (hubby’s teacher friend who moved to Sydney last year) for lunch, Went grocery shopping for dinner party, Went to Bundeena house, Ended up doing gardening for bruv before other guests arrived (John got bestowed with the strimmer, I got a weeder tool), Did Earth Hour whilst having a dinner party (which ended up lasting 5 hrs - we didn’t get onto the dessert course till 1am!).

Today was a scary day for hubby.  He had an interview at Cranbrook School in Sydney (which is very prestigious and a bit posh).  He didn’t know what the job was nor when it would start or anything, we just got an email from them asking him to come for a chat.  He had his interview and was quite happy (even though they are looking for a Science/Biology teacher and he teaches Physics).  Not really sure how it went though, seems to be a bit of a “don’t call us, we’ll call you” kind of affair so not holding out too much hope.  Although if he gets a job then that would be a load off our minds.  It won’t be fun moving out in December with a 5 month old baby and no job to support us!  Whilst hubby went for interview, GH and I went for a pose around Double Bay area.  Now, the area is something akin to Knightsbridge in London.  Even the simple, 2 up 2 down terrace houses there are $2.2m (~1m GBP) so there’s no way we can afford to live round there!  Was a really lovely area, lots of cafes and boutiques.  There was even a poodle parlour and we stopped to watch a little black and white dog being coiffeurred (reminded me of Mocha, apart from this dog was not misbehaving).

Summary of the day:  Went to Double Bay, Hung around posing, Went for late Yum Cha lunch in China town,  Had dinner party with brother’s neighbours

Most of today was taken up by preparing and then actually partying!  We had about 20 people over for a Chinese New Year party.  I have one most years (of similar magnitude) and always cook a lot of different dishes.  It’s a tad stressful but I really enjoy cooking and getting it all on the table.  Forgot to take a photo otherwise I would have posted it on here.  There were 17 different dishes.  Spent the whole morning cooking and then needed to have a bit of a rest in the afternoon during the rubgy - hey it’s hard work cooking food as well as cooking the bun in my oven at the same time.  A couple of friends turned up early and were drafted in to help with a bit of tidying - mostly just moving furniture to play Wii and a bit of hoovering.  Was v thankful for their help.  Started the cooking again at about 4 and by 7.30 all the food was warmed up and on the table.  Was all looking and tasting good and people were going back for 3rd/4th helpings!  Played loads of Wii.  Was a bit strange not drinking whilst all around were, but didn’t feel like I was missing out (if anything it was enjoyable because I could watch all the funny things people were doing).  I went to bed at around 1.45 am (hence I am actually writing this on Sunday but back timing the post).  The last lot of people left/crashed out at around 3.30 am.  Got up at 8 because I had to play piano in church.  Surprised to find that there was only really a bit of sauce and a couple of spoonfuls of noodles leftover (good because otherwise John and I would be eating leftovers for the whole week).  Was a great party and was brill seeing all our friends, some local and others who had come to visit.

Summary of the day:  Cooking, Cleaning, Cooking, Napping, Cooking, Cooking, Eating, Playing Wii! Eating far too many Cadbury’s Roses.

So, we’re having a BIG party on Saturday night to celebrate Chinese New Year (which is today - “Gong Xie Fat Choy” everyone).  This week’s 10 things are things I’m planning to make for the buffet:

1. Crispy Wontons
2. Spring Rolls
3. Sweet and Sour Chicken
4. Tofu, Baby Sweetcorn and Straw Mushrooms
5. Char Siu Soh (BBQ pork in puff pastry)
6. Lamb or Beef Rendang
7. Thai Fish Curry
8. Roasted Belly Pork
9. Coconut Jasmine Rice
10. Egg Fried Rice

A mixture of the usual Western style Chinese takeaway-esque food which people tend to like and some more interesting options. Thinking it will be a great success - and anything that doesn’t get eaten within an hr or two seems to disappear in the middle of the night when guests get drunken nibblies!

Summary of the day: Had a student meeting, Worked on analysis all day, Gave a piano lesson, Made the Char Siu Soh filling, Had a nice hot bath

Our friend reached the big 30 milestone.  She is officially XXX rated!!  Suppose what’s scary is that we’re not too far off that ourselves.  When I was young I don’t think I ever contemplated being 30 or what I would have expected to achieve by then.  Lou had a massive house party with the first BBQ of the year (luckily it wasn’t raining/snowing, but was bloody cold)!  Mocha made a new friend called Maggie, who’s an 11week old staffie.  Mocha didn’t quite know what to make of her and kept hiding (think Mocha is finally getting a taste of her own medicine for when she was a boisterous little puppy harrassing older doggies to play).

Summary of the day:  Went food shopping (by myself, so proud I only spent £39 on the week’s shopping which included £15 on a present), Cooked canneloni for lunch, Went to Lou’s 30th party, Managed to stay up till midnight!

Got back from Preston at 1am.  Absolutely cream-crackered!!  We had the first of this year’s steamboat dinners.  Mostly a bit of a practice run for Chinese New Year (which is 7th Feb this year and going into Year of the Rat).  Steamboat is like an electric fondue which contain a light soupy stock (rather than cheese or chocolate).  Each person has their own little net and ladle and you lay out lots of thinly cut small pieces of raw food that you put in the net and cook in the steamboat.  It’s great fun (John is very naughty and pretends he is taking out his net, but swirls it so it knocks stuff out of other people’s nets for him to scoop out - tsk tsk).  So here’s all the stuff we had…

- fishballs (no not fish testicles, but spherical bits of processed fish)
- minced pork & chopped waterchestnut meatballs
- chicken breast marinated in rice wine
- sandwich steak marinated in teriyaki sauce
- salmon marinated in mirin
- chinese sausage (lup cheong)
- small cubes of soft tofu
- blanched rice noodles, carrot and beansprout (put in bowls not in the steamboat)

A veritable banquet!

Summary of the day: Got home in the wee early hours, Slept well, Went to supermarket to get party supplies, Had some friends over for steamboat, Played Wii.