A new post.

I know that everybody has given up on me pretty much, but here I am with a new post and some food pics.





That is some lovely teriyaki salmon with sauteed potatoes we had for Valentine's Day. Our nanny situation was not sorted yet so we stayed at home. We also had some cake which I have dubbed "Toxic cake" because it was so sweet even the smallest bit gave me a massive sugar high.



I have also been perfecting my curry, here is a king prawn massaman curry with brown rice. I think Im getting quite good at it even if I say so myself.



Doesnt that look nice? It was yummy in any case.
Last Sunday we took kids to the British Museum to see the mummies. They didnt have any mummies unfortunately but we still had a lot of fun running around some Egyptian statues and sarcofaguses, counting legs of the sphynx and eating warm squashed egg sandwiches and some rather dry cake for lunch. I deemed it a success.



There you go, my attempt to catch up. Who knows, i might even actually post some knitting pictures next time. If you are lucky....

Well hello there

Hi, just a quick one to explain why i didnt blog for so long, went gray and lost a little bit more of my mind. Well, its very easy - I have been looking for an aupair. At first it seemed easy enough, i found a Spanish girl and she was sweet and lovely and was supposed to start on 14th of February.
On the 12th she rang me up and told me that sorry she is not gonna do it. Angry, upset, desperate, I had to organize our old aupair, who has already moved out, to pick children up for about million pounds per hour and no end of greaf. Meanwhile I desperately tried to find someone new. And on Sunday we finally met a girl, a Brazilian, lovely, smart, ready to start on the next day.
Oh well that is great you'd say. Listen to this: on the way back home from the interview she was robbed and hit in the face, resulting in her suddenly deciding that she wanted to be aupair no more and wanted to go back home. And this is where I have discovered something new about myself: when i got her hysterical email (after i sent all the other possible candidates an email saying we've found someone,) first thing I thought wasn't a "Oh no, poor girl," but a "Shit, back to square one". Does that make me a bad person? Probably...
Anyway, then i decided to pay for an online advert and as soon as I've pressed "pay" button, I got an email from an older russian lady I have been trying to convince to come work for me a while back, asking if we are still looking for someone. Hell yeah!!!
So now she is starting on Monday (given the bus doesnt run her over or the ground doesnt open under her feet) and all is well. For now.
I will be hopefully returning back soon with some more food and knitting pics.

Nice food and snow

It has been so cold here, I seem to have developed a constant need to eat comfort food.
I made this soup on a weekend, with some rye bread it was absolutely fantastic. It is a carrot honey and ginger soupand it was very successful, especially with children.





I also made some Russian cake, its called "cream cheese and nut pleat."



That was truly great! I would have to translate the recepie somepoint, because it is in Russian.
I also have been knitting slowly (no change there then) on Mila's baby blanket and it is coming along nicely. I will have to hurry up with it a bit because Mila has given birth on Monday, so theoretically I'm late already.
The snow fell on London on Monday and it stayed, thick and wet, for three days. All of the transport stopped and all the schools and the nurseries were closed, and there was no way we could get out from our part of town on Monday, so we had to stay home with children and have fun instead. I felt like a child myself, distant memories of playing in the snow suddenly becoming a reality once again. We have build a Giant Snowman in the garden and played snowballs of course. We also spent 4 hours making a slide from a garden chair, few bricks, a plywood board and vast quantities of snow. And when it was done, i brought some baking trays from the house and children used the baking trays as sledges, sliding down and falling and rolling around in the snow. It was a wonderful day.

Back to reality

It only now starting to feel like im actually back from all the holidays, trip to Tallinn to visit grandma, sleepless nights with Unity's chickenpox and other various multitude of little things that have happened since New Year. Funny thing is when on my Facebook a friend of mine asked if there was anything new going on, i couldnt come up with an answer. Everything is still the same and everything is changing at the same time.
We have asked our aupair to leave, the new girl is starting on the 14th of February. Im really happy about that, i decided long time ago that i really didnt like the current girl for no other reason than she doesnt care about anyone or anything apart from herself. Its not a sin, i know, but when you have someone living in your house, I think it is only natural to want to get along/ have something in common with the person. I care about people, I care about the enviroment, I care about our bills, about house being clean, about things happening on time, I care about the quality of food that children eat, that they dont watch TV all the time, BUT I DONT CARE about buying new clothes, conversations about ex boyfriends, types of make up or mobile phones. Shoes and bags leave me cold. So yeah, Im happy she is going.
I've been cycling lately and really enjoying it again, I love my little bike, we are a great team.
I also have been knitting, I started a baby blanket and ripped it all because i hated the yarn so much, so now I started another one. I got some great yarn on sales (thats why Im broke at the moment) and now i just have to finish all the things Im doing for everybody else and then I will knit for myself.
However my main exitement at the moment is cooking and baking, I have been making new things and it always makes me happy to do new things. I found some Russian sites with recepies and there are some fantastick cakes there, so i'll be posting some recepies and pictures soon.
Ah, we also started chanting again and it feels great. For someone calling themselves a Buddhist its been way too long without practice.
So there, its all good so far.

One month later

Well technically it is more than a month now, and the funny thing is that i havn't even noticed it go by...
First things first, some pictures from Christmas:
Reminds me of a certain Bond film....
All of us.
My baby, such a big boy now but still my baby. Wonder if that how it feels even when he is 32?
Grandad cutting Christmas Turkey.
Fast and happy, that is Unity.
We had a bout of stomach flu over Christmas which wasnt great, we all had it one after the other, not very Christmas dinner friendly disease, i have to say. Didnt help that my mother in law has decided that it was my evil secret plan to ruin their Christmas by giving everyone the flu. Well, tell you what, if that was my secret plan, it defenatly has worked! I just wonder what logics would dictate that i would make myself suffer more than everybody else, because i ended up not just changing the baby and washing the poo clothes 20 times a day, but also tolerate motherinlaw's horrible mood.
Oh well, children enjoyed all the presents and attention so i guess it was worth it.

We still had the illness over the New Year so we had to cancel the party and have a quite one with homemade nonalcoholic mulled wine(grape juice) and a DVD.

I still have a very fragile relationship with my mother. I have decided I will not see her for next few month, I think it's the best. Talking to her doesnt work, she doesnt believe that i can say anything remotely interesting or meaningful.
Anyway, I have been knitting and have finished hat-scarf for my little sister, very pretty scarf for my mother, and now I'm halfway with a baby blanket for my sweet friend Mila.
Thats all folks.

Progress

I thought i need to write down what i have left to knit.
So in the next 10 days:
1. Finish Linda's scarf (15% left)
2. Finish Stuart's scarf (half left)
3. Finish Delia's top (30% left)
4. Weave in the ends and saw Colin's Christmas Cobblestone
5. Start Tom's scarf.

Before New Year:
1. Grandma Unity's red scarf
2. Jane's throw.
3. something for Mother (no idea what yet but has to be quick)
4. Beret for Daniella

In the nearest future:
1."little sister dress" for Unity
2.wool vest for Leo
3. Cabled hoodie for Colin's birthday
4. Josh's socks
5. Mo's doggy jumper

Only after i have done all those things i can think about knitting something for myself.
Do you know of any knitting deity i should pray to? Let me know if you do.


Only

Leona Lewis

Cheese, i know. But how do you explain goosebumps on my skin and knot in my throat? Beautiful voice. Beautiful instrument. That girl is blessed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovGFPKZ3lgM