Saturday 29 November 2008

Oh Tannenbaum, oh Tannenbaum, Wie glänzend sind deine Blätter! (Trans: O Christmas tree! How are thy leaves so shining!)

Hurrah, it's almost December! I've got my tree all up and prettily decorated, plain white fairy lights, chocolate and gold baubles, chocolate beads and glass snowflakes, all topped with a gold wire and bead star! I'm glad we chose the gold in the end, it does go so nicely against the cream and yellow wallpaper in here! The pelmet has a swag of chocolate and gold tinsel with matching baubles, ditto the clock, and He wanted a something to hang on a spare picture hook, so I made a little wreath with more of the tinsel and little baubles. Ky has her wire and baubles tree again, and Tsam has a cone of gold loop sequins and beads. They're both sat under their trees!

I also noticed another present has mysteriously appeared under the tree - I was a little puzzled, because I hadn't put it there, but it was done in my paper with my ribbons and very much in my style: I'll give credit to His artistic side, it nearly slipped my notice! Greatly amused me anyway. (He's happy.)

Madagascar: Escape to Africa! Well, blow me over with the draft from the fibres of a coconut shell! I'm impressed! For a sequel, this was pretty damn amazing, as most follow-on movies are often dismally poor (Garfield 2 is a perfect example of sellout-letdown). I mean, I loved the first Madagascar, but the second was just spot on for me. Alright, it was a little predictable, but then with kids films that's nice - you have an idea of what's happening, so you can just sit back and enjoy it. Hank has rated it as "up there on my list of this year's funnies." His Lordship's relatively high praise: "It was definitely a good chuckle, worthwhile." So yes, this one earns a "Yeah!" out of OK.

More good news, Ky has started eating a little on her own again, munching on one of her usual favourites, morio worms. She's also taken to stalking us around the house, up to following me into the kitchen, where I have a good laugh at lack of grip with claws on vinyl flooring. Bless her, I also forgot she was out and about when we went to the cinema, but she stayed happily fast asleep in their new hut. Fortunately, I thought it'd be a good idea to put a nice new heat mat in the bottom of it - she stayed toasty in there for about nine hours.... Tsam has had a look at the hut and decided it was a threat, so bobbed at it. I think the fairy lights spooked him. (Pic: Tsam's spiny scales and rich shades of grey, cream and brown.)

We also had the first sprinkle of snow down here today. Not that it lasted long, but still. Time for winter food! We had ostrich in mushroom sauce yesterday and today I have to stretch a chicken chasseur to three boys and me...

Quote of Today: "Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it." - heelarious.com

Thursday 27 November 2008

Fabulous Floors and Terrific Tanks

The lizards are very pleased this week! They've got lovely wall to wall carpetting in their tanks now, which is a whole lot healthier than sand. Well, remember how sand sticks to a wet finger? Now consider that the dragons lick just about everything on a minutely basis... So they've now got brown astroturfed tanks! Ky thought the whole process was fascinating, insisting on sitting on the pile of sand whilst I tried to sweep it up and chuck it in a bucket, and then running all over the carpet as I cut it to size. She licked it about a million and one times as I slid it into place - sat on it, sliding along the tank floor. Tsam was generally confused about the whole thing and sat UNDER it whilst I tried to fit his. But apparently, it's good for digging on. It's soft enough to sleep on, tough enough to resist digging, bouncy enough to jump from the highest object in the tank onto, and firm enough to run around like a lunatic. Hurray for brown astroturf and for eBay's mats-n-floors company for finding and measuring it, and the wonderfully good value!

Quote of the Day: My Nan made me chuckle this week; she was telling me about one of her best ever prize wins: she won a film camera, projector AND screen by writing off to Macleans. "I'm glad I didn't have to send in a label or anything - I HATED Macleans' toothpaste!"

Wednesday 26 November 2008

Crazy for Cooking!

Seems we've developed an affinity for basic cooking in this house too! His Lordship and I were stumped for what to feed the Housemates on our Sunday - especially with a budget of not-what-you-might-call-a-lot-if-anything. But it seems you can make a bloody good stew out of roughly not much! We had a big chunk of cheap steak in the freezer (the butcher wanted to shut his stall for the afternoon, so we got it less than half price) and some frozen veg. A forage in the veggie cupboard revealed some slightly hairy carrots and some ought-to-be-used-so-discounted potatoes. A further dig in the big cupboard pulled up some stock cubes, half a bottle of red, some garlic bulbs, an old onion, going-cheap mushrooms and some jarred things like pepper. A quick foray into the garden pulled up some lovely thyme, rosemary and basil - chucked all in my massive bought-in-the-sales steel pot and left it for a few hours. Impressively, after a quick stir (and some more red wine, just in case) it was actually pretty good. Hank and George sufficiently impressed. I'm glad we used the wine in the stew, it was a bit vicious. Visual representation auf das Pixdaus.com.

I also make nice cake. After the lovely Lemon, we experimented with a few things, like using lime marmalade (great if the mix is a bit dry!), extra eggs and less marg (creates a souffle-ish effect, very light), and the top favourite so far: cupboard leftovers cake. Which was some Somerfield's cocoa (there hasn't been a Somerfields here for YEARS) and some old packeted ginger left over from the Days of Dan (ditto above). The remains of some old Bird's powder, the last of the "thin sugar" and some random banana-milkshake-maker-stuff, and we had a rather scrummy pud!

Quote of the Day: "I accidentally turned the devil into a hobo but I never intended to melt off a characters hand. And then they all communicate by magical toaster. I still don't know how that happened." - My mad sister, writing her new book.

Monday 24 November 2008

A Worthwhile Week (?)

I think it's one of those sort of weeks already. I called up 118 to get a number, and said " I wonder if you can help me, I'm looking for Mr Wright." Cue uncomfortable pause, until he goes "Aren't we all, honey!" I suddenly realised and fell about laughing.

His Lordship has rediscovered an old love. And I tell you, He's going to be high on Es, Fs G, H and Is before long if he keeps munching all those sweets. Hes, he's rediscovered AlphaLetters. Mum says we ought to save all the letter e's for when we go out somewhere, go up to people and start offering them out to see how long it is before we get arrested. Ah, sadly, there's a lack of them. I think they may be making a point about their E numbers. He's been writing lots of sweet messages (oh dear, bad pun, sorry) for me, ooh, and He's just written another. Oh. He's written "D O U F A R T." Oh well, He's still wonderful and makes me laugh.

Is it weird to be carpeting my vivariums? Ah well. The dragons are getting soft new flooring in a lovely brown Astroturf. Think of it like this: have you ever stuck a damp finger in dry sand? Yeah. And these Dragons go round licking it every so often - I'm worried they'll get bellies full of sand, it can't do them any good. So they're getting some nice soft fake lawn to dance around on, pull up, sleep in etc. Will keep Tsam occupied for a while, trying to tear bits off.

Ah well, at least that warm weather I was promised has arrived. By which, I don't mean it's sunny glorious skies, but that it isn't chuffing it down with snow like it is back home. This Larry. Apparently there's hail and wind too. Just not here.

The Quote: "I accidentally turned the devil into a hobo but I never intended to melt off a characters hand. And then they all communicate by magical toaster. I still don't know how that happened." - Bogle, writing her new book.

Saturday 22 November 2008

Awaiting the Advent...

I have bought a Christmas tree! It is gold and sparkly and I'm so looking forwards to putting it up and making the room sparkle. I have got lovely chocolate and glittery baubles to go with my clear glass stars and snowflakes, and a big gold tree topper star. I look forward to getting the Dragon Trees out too, giving Ky her funky wire tree with acrylic drops again and amazing Tsam with his cone of large looped sequins. I look forwards to going home with presents and making my family smile. It's not even December yet, but I'm READY for my first PROPER Christmas. (Image: Marks and Sparks, where I got some of my baubles.)

Oh, and you'll be pleased to know I'm not likely to suffer depression and neither am I unstable in any way. A couple of months ago, work pressure was giving me panic attacks, but it's all sorted out now. I saw a councellor this week that was "surprised by the way you handle things, you've got extremely good coping methods and a lot of strength." Nice to know! Even with the risk of genetic depression (bi-polar) it seems I've got an inbuilt coping tactic - if I have a problem, I look for the answer, except at times when I can't do anything right then, like bedtime. I have my family, my Blokey, my reptiles, my health and my books - i'm happy. Alright, so I don't curl up with a cat and a book, it's a lizard, but it works for me. Well, I've tried being rebellious, it's too much like hard work, especially when Mum thinks everything is great. Red hair: cool. Motorbike: cool. Tattoo: cool. Peh!

Tsam and Kyle have gone temporarily (I hope) insane, because thanks to Hank turning off the heating in the coldest point of this year so far, they think winter has been and done already and now they think it's breeding season. Tsam is pretty normal, but very confused that Ky no longer runs away when he bobs and dashes at her. He's also very baffled that she thumps him back, and will pointedly ignore him and breezily walk straight past him back into her tank. She seems to know what she's doing, even if she has no appetite. I don't mind syringing her chicken babyfood with calcium. Tsam'll eat anything. He especially likes chocolate cookie. (NOT recommended.)

Relevant QOTD: "I'm medicated. I cannot freak out." - Mum.

Tuesday 18 November 2008

Caution: Cuisine!

His Lordship really makes me laugh sometimes. We were walking home from town and stopped into Monties to pick up some Swizzells lollies for Him and noticed the girl in front of us was buying two big bottles and four cans of cola. I was amused to notice they keep the coffee in the same lockup as the JDs she wanted and commented to Him on this; it's one of the most commonly stolen items from convenience stores - bacon, cheese and coffee. The till chappy nodded and I explained to His Lordship that the coffee was most stolen, because sniffer dogs can't pick up a scent through it. He laughed and said "Well, you don't need to tell him, he's a coke dealer! Look at the load he just shifted!" After a moment of befuddlement I realised. Coke. Coca cola. Oh dear. (Image: Corner. Corner Shop? Oh yeah, I made that joke.)

I have just been informed that a local store was actually done for dealing behind the scenes! There's one to go with the Dalmation burgers on Take Away Alley. Oh NASTY, I've just found out that the Dalmation burger place used to top up the mayonnaise. I won't explain for fear of truly grossing. Safe to say someone enjoyed it at least.

I HAD got 100 codestones. I sold them for a tidy 355k!
We did see the new James Bond, Quantum of Solace. If I'm being nice, I'd say it wasn't so much "Bond, James Bond!" as "Bland, very Bland." The girls were a little mediocre, the ripoffs just a little too obvious, the product placement too blatant, the effects just a little too much and the story just a little too bland.

Sunday 9 November 2008

Loathesome Last Week...

Not my finest weekend, I have to admit.

I'm in a bit of a way with a nasty cold. I can taste four things: warm, sweet, sour or snot - which is pretty much comprised of the first three I note. Hurray for the variety of flavours in modern day cardboard. It's got to the point where, when blowing my nose, the tissue is just spreading snot around my face. Not pretty.

It's a bit better on Day Three. Like two european eagle owls have gots stuck up my nose.
It's that fluffy, stuffed, tickly feeling with nasty scratchinessess... just like two owls.

His Lordship has been laughing at me. I got fed up of sneezing all over and went for a shower - reached out and pressed the button - for the button to come off. Do you remember ever playing with Smarties, licking your finger and trying to get them to your mouth before they fell off? It was one of those moments, realising it was stuck to my finger - and then it fell off. Oh dear.

And there's a bizarre movie on that I just DON'T get. There's a man painted metallic green with jewels stuck to him and silver glittered eyes in a white paper house tying rubber dolls in knots, with a another man in purple velvet platforms and lilac velvet leggings peeping in the window, short pink hair fluttering over grey-green eyeshadow... Let's just say it has quite a ZIggy Stardust feel to it. Thanks to Velvet Goldmine on Myspace for providing a somewhat rare image of Johnathan Rhys Meyers in glorious glitter!

We've also discovered Tesco do their own Cheapest, No Frills box of chocolates - for 98p! I have to say, there were quite a lot for under a pound - but they all needed altering slightly to make them properly good. The hazelnut praline was oddly lacking, it needed smashed hazel peices in to be convincing, there were too many yicky coffee ones and the "caramels" were far closer to fudges. Rename them Fudge and I'll believe you. The caramel cluster would have been good, but it needed a soft caramel, like the middle of a Rolo, whilst the hazelnut trio needed whole hazelnuts in. The apricot cream was good, if the flavour a bit too strong and still needed proper bits of dried apricot in for extra whumph. The nougat duo needed a proper SNAP to the chocolate, a simple treatment of cooling it so it cracks properly, whilst the chocolate coconut needed more coconut, less filler. But oh GOD, please, PLEASE fix the so called raspberry and orange creams. They're definitely FONDANTS, and I don't know WHAT you did to the raspberry, but it tastes like... perfumed ARSE. I shudder to recall.

Oh, and I told Him I brought Him home a present in my bag. He went to go get it and came charging back - "YAY! I LIKE BUNS." He was so enthusiastic about the bread rolls, I hadn't the heart to tell him I meant the cookies...

"All that glitters - is gay!" - headline quote from Velvet Goldmine.

Wednesday 5 November 2008

Nice Day at Nine Springs.

Well, since time of last typage, my family have been down to visit again. All hell broke loose as per usual once my mother tried to combine a dubious concoction of Snekeh and Stepfather - but at least it stopped him using that annoying megadeathflashofdoom! It goes "kchkchkchkch-kuh-CHOOM" you know, if light was in an audiable form.

The dragons were perfectly happy once they'd discovered that my little brother had brought along his extensive range of electronic toy gadgetry. (Only joking, this is someone else's shot, but the resemblance to my two is stunning! Contact me for reference, not sure where it came from.) He was amazed at just how HUGE Tsam has grown, having confused him with Ky at first. But then he is a whopping 19 inches or so. Ought to measure him...

Shortly after wrestling Snekeh back into her tank (we never have all the animals out at the same time), we threw her in a defrosted mousey to yomp down. Mum was quite surprised when, having voraciously vanished said mouse, Snekeh charged round the tank looking for more. "Poor Snekeh!" - Stupid Snekeh more like, she only tried to attack the wiggling fingers and smacked her head on the glass. But then she always does that. Snekeh had her lunch, so we went out for ours. We headed into town somewhat late, and met His Lordship whom had gone before us to pay in a cheque. Except the silly man had forgotten his wallet, so we had to do that anyway.
So after a slight detour, we ended up in Mocha cafe. I know, I know, I've mentioned it on a few occasions, but their hazelnut hot chocolate is the BEST! Mum was a little apprehensive (not many things meet her high standards) but I was confident, and rightly so. The owner's loud and cheerful South African manners and impeccably swirled cream toppings won her over. Even picky brother ate most of his dinner! My sister and I split two paninis half and half, salami and mustard in one, ham and cheese in the other - we all dined well. Just as well really, as we all hared off into Nine Springs to hide from my Stepdad! ( -50 points if you spot Mum!)

We spent some considerable time amusing the locals by going "under cover" in our best disguises. Mostly so that my Stepdad wouldn't get a good photo with his insane megayougettheideaflash. My sister definitely had the best, His Lordship had a similar oak twig and a maple leaf on his head, my brother had three large leaves of various species attached around his glasses, Mum was hiding in some lovely spiny chestnut and laurel leaves, I wandered round for some time oblivious of the nut-leaf Mum deposited in my hair and a large ... bouquet isn't quite the right word (or the right spelling I fear) of various colourful Autumn leaves. Stepdad was boring, just blasting us with high levels of light pollution from his large camera.

Nine Springs is truly quite beautiful, even at this time of the year, when the water has turned a chilly crystal clear and the spiralling bracken waves damp curls amongst the colourful leaflitter. The fish had converged in the main lake in a large, slowly shifting mass, something akin to watching a silver lava lamp. The smaller pond had a group of fish leaping out to snatch the small flies skittering across the surface - it kept us quite distracted for a while. Even when the kids threw in little pebbles, the big group of gently shifting fish paid it little heed, barring a slow, almost un-noticable slide further to the depths.

It was at this point the youngsters pegging in the pebbles noticed our "disguises", but sadly my brother had already wiped off his pen moustache. Talking of moustaches, the presentation of the fruit still continues; we were the proud owners of a large green watermelon called Sanchez. With a moustache. Of course.

I have been really good - I haven't opened my early Christmas presents yet!