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

Yarn disaster

So i was happily knitting along on Linda's scarf when it suddenly dawned on me that i dont have enough of yarn to finish it. You see i wasnt happy with the original pattern, because i thought it was too narrow. So i have doubled up the stitches. Disregarding the fact that if i do that, I'd need double the amount of yarn. It didnt help ether that this particular yarn is discontinued and i had to order it online and hope that it will arrive before next week. Fool you say? Too right I say. But now i have started on the blue scarf and hoping it is gonna take me very little time to knit it.

Nakered

I am absolutely, completely, totally shattered. I got barely any sleep this weekend because Unity had a cold and teething, but last night was the worst ever. She winged and cried and moaned and screamed out. I did absolutely everything i could to comfort her, but she gets very frustrated and almost lashes out when you try to pick her up or cuddle her. She also hates to sleep in our bed so me and poor Colin had to take turns to get up and comfort her. And just when she finally fell quite, Leo woke up about 4am and decided that he wanted to sleep in our bed, so we were all squashed and hot together.
On the positive side we had a great laugh on Saturday because we made our festive gingerbread and decorated the tree.

The brown-haired boy is Alex our neighbour and Leo's best friend. They constantly bicker but miss each other profoundly if dont see each other on the weekend. Here we are cutting the cookies.



Unity getting a bit overwhelmed and dramatic. " Oh, creative decisions." May be she will grow up to be an art director.
And here is decorating. I got different food colorings and mixed up very bright liquid icing.
There also were silver balls, hundreds and thousands, raisins, yoghurted fruit bits and lots more of things to put on top. So it all end up looking like Jackson Pollock


I didnt take the picture of the Christmas tree yet, but i will. by the way, if you want a recepie of great gingerbread, here is one:

12oz Plain Flour
1 teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda
2.5 teaspoons of ground Ginger
1 teaspoon of mixed spice
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
4oz unsalted butter
6oz Light brown soft sugar
1 egg - beaten
4 tablespoons Golden Syrup
pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees C

sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger and spices together in a mixing bowl

chop the butter into small pieces, and rub into dry mixture until the consistency of fine breadcrumbs, then add the sugar and mix together

mix the beaten egg and golden syrup together, and add to the mixture, mixing together to form a dough

Now the fun begins!
Roll out on a floured surface to about 3mm thick, then cut out what ever shapes you want. Put onto a lightly greased or lined baking sheet, decorate and cook for approximately 10 to 15 minutes depending on size of biscuit. I tend to check the colour and spread of the biscuit.

When they are cooked, leave on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack, and leave to cool completely.

The trick is to try and roll the dough quite thin because it actually rises quite a lot.
Have fun! (thats in case someone does actually reads my blog because the numbers seem to go up, however i dont get many comments)

Boob Job

I have just created a boob out of girl's knee. To explain: Im doing an advertising campain for a well known underwear brand. Now, if you are a logical person, you'd think: I have to advertise these large bras, so i should get a model that has enough boob to actually fill the cups. Well in art director's world it doesnt work like that. They got this very pretty and rather skinny girl to model the enormous bras and the poor girl hasn't got any boobs to speak of. So now for the third day in a row i'm creating boobs to fill the cup. On this one i just made a top of the breast out of the girls bent knee. Trust me, you'd never ever be able to tell. Only I and the client will ever know. Well and the girl of course.

So close

And yet so far! Im knitting and kitting and still only just past the second decrease on the yoke of the Christmas Cobblestone. im starting to get seriously twitchy about the whole thing, i still got million things to knit before Christmas and very little time to do it. May be i should just give up and put the needles aside and just admit that im no good..... (sobbing with self pity).
Now, i have to remember that Im tough and strong granddaughter of a hardcore woman , who came from the communal farm and end up a head engineer in one of the top factories of USSR and never never gave up (or remarried after becoming a widow at 32). There is will and determination worth mentioning, not my wining over slow knitting. I am ashamed. What would grandma say.
I dont know if i should put the Cobblestone aside though and start on those scarves. May be I'll give it till Thursday.

Proof

Just in case if you started thinking that im a big fat liar and not a knitter at all, here is some proof that i was in fact working very hard (and rather slow) on Christmas Cobblestone.
It is so tantalizingly close to finishing it! I recon (perhaps foolishly) that i will finish it this week. It is quite tough on the wrists to knit with bamboo tape, it has zero bounce so you have to keep constant tension.
Another thing i made is some Very Sticky And Spicy Gingerbread with fruits and nuts.


This picture really doesn't do it justice. It was delicious.

It is Thanksgiving today in USA and I wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends and also mention few things Im thankful for:

my children
my husband
my house
my patience
my sanity
our health
that there is still compassion left in the world
that i still got a job
for yummy yarn
that despite of being very slow i still manage to finish things

I think thats about it. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Struggle

The heating briefly went on in the morning and then stopped once again. Its freezing. My everything cold despite me wearing thermal underwear (yes, it does go below my knees) and about 15 layers. You might say im not a real Russian, i hate being cold.
I started knitting some mittens for baby Unity yesterday. I was so ambitious and arrogant thinking i could do it in an evening. I couldnt. Not only that, but i couldnt even work the pattern out. Now i decided that it was all pattern's fault and who has heard of knitting mittens on two needles anyway? So today im going to try gain, with a different pattern, this one.
To add insult to the injury Colin went out and bought some mittens today. He said he understands everything but it is far too cold for Unity to wait whilst I work out patterns. He is right. But i will try again and see if it works. Never give up, thats what my grandma says.

Freeeezzzzing

The boiler broke in the office. Its 42 F outside and Arctic wind. It is about 60F in the office and we are sitting down all day so its cold cold cold. I had to wear my mittens all the day because my fingers got so cold they were unable to hold my tablet pen. Speaking of mittens, i have to knit some for Unity tonight and finish them because poor baby is mittenless.

Update

I will not bore anyone with my lame knitting progress (half way up second sleeve if you really wanna know) But here is a couple of pictures from my birthday.

Tate:
Got to love the giant cat skeleton.


And then my camera had totally freaked out and did this:


It is quite beautiful i think and the funny thing is that it would be quite hard to fake that.
And then there is the picture of the food from the party. I dont know if it looks nice, but it tasted great! And even after i gave all my guests doggy bags to take home, there was still enough for lunch next day.Mmmm massaman prawn curry. And there you can just see the side of the pot with spicy rice.

Dance moves

Check out these dance moves! The first guy is not too good but the last one rules!
It hard to believe a human can do that..
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=EcUF3vGgwNc

Birthday grump.

It was my birthday on Sat. Im 31 now, going on 78. My mother took the children (which admittedly was nice of her) for a weekend so me and Colin got to spend some time together. Well Sat anyway. We were planing to go to Kew Gardens but it was raining and without driving it would have taken us 2 hours to get there. So we went to Tate Modern instead. I didnt bring my camera with me today, so i'll post some pictures later. It was nice and i got a great book for Leo from their shop. After that we indulged in a long peaceful walk along the southbank of the Thames, past the National Festival Hall and the Wheel down to Waterloo. There i remembered that i saw on Ravelry a knitting shop iKnit just around the corner from there, so we went to check it out. It was a lot smaller than i thought, they evidently used wide angle lens to take photos of it for their website. I asked the owner about their weekly meetings and he told me that yes, they have weekly meetings and 20-50 people turn up. Well first, i cannot possibly imagine 50 people fitting into that shop without it being some kind of train in a rush hour experience, second there is a bar there! You see i dont drink, i have intolerance to alcohol so the idea of being stuck standing up with a lot of drunk women in a very small space does not rock my boat. Not one bit. And the owner told me (proudly) that yes, on meeting days there tend to be more drinking and chatting than knitting. Hmmm.

Anyway, they had a sale on so i got myself some Noro Cash Iroha 2 balls in purple and Regia Sock yarn in beautiful varigated whites with pastel rainbow colors. Love love love varigated yarn.

So after that we had lunch in a small Japanese place in Soho and then got some DVDs and went home, to curl up in front of Sin City. I liked it. Violent yes, but beautiful too.
On Sunday it was party time. I started cooking at 10am, people were coming at 3pm. Now i would much rather not to have a party, but you know Russians, they like to celebrate every possible occasion so i sort of had to for my family.

I made a massaman prawn curry, fragrant rice, yellow mung dal, lime and ginger chicken hot pot with sweet potatoes and grated beetroot with garlic and herbs. For dessert i made a poppy seed and tahini roll and carrot cake. I really did cook a lot of food.

My mother arrived in a terrible mood. Absolutely rotten. And from then on it all just went down the hill, with her criticizing everything about me, my house, my way of life, the way i look and the way i bring my children up. With a full blast of " your children will grow dumb because you dont spend time with them and you will burn in hell because you have a Buddha statue in your bedroom". And so on and so forth for 4 hours non stop. Now i know my mother and i know how difficult she is at times, but it was my birthday party and i did make a huge effort cooking. So i could do with a well done or thank you or any of those things. And so eventually my patience run out and i told her (very calmly, honest) that if she hated everything about me and my life so much, then she should leave. To which of course she grabbed her coat and my 15 year old sister and stormed out. Well she tried to storm out but it didnt quite work because she forgot first her bag then her umbrellar and had o send my little sister to fetch it.
So there, im still a bit uneasy about the whole thing and i know she is my mum and all, but iam not apologizing, and im not even feeling guilty. There has to be a limit to how much abuse i can take at one time. And that was it.

Hell

I think if hell exist then my personal hell would be that job i have just finished. i had to change all the colors to the one two tones colder. like red to yellow, orange to
green, yellow to blue on the pictures of dancing people, that includes their skin. Now
go figure that one. My eyes hurt!

Super Leo

In Leo's nursery teachers have asked parents to create a front page for child's achievement book. It had to represent something that the child likes. So today, when there was a break between jobs coming in, me and my darling husband came up with this masterpiece:


I admit it is slightly over the top, but hey, it made everyone laugh and Leo will surely love it. So it must be good!

Obsessive behavior

This is where my true craziness comes out: obsessing over things. I have been looking for a book that i dont remember the name or the writer of, but remember the plot. It was given to me by a good friend of my ex husband about 9 years ago, and after reading it i have lent it to my sister's ex boyfriend never to see it again. I have completely forgot about it until something in my head (probably some chemical instability) made me
remember it and so i have been feeling in desperate need to read it again for past .. five weeks! It is terrible. Im trying to go on about my daily life as usual, but there is that constant nagging thought in my mind about the book, and what i can possibly do to find it. I have spoken to my sister in hope she could remember the name of the guy (of course she laughed) then i spoke with my mother wondering if she remembered the name of the guy (she told me to stop waisting her time). Then i have registered with 4 sci fi forums, describing the plot to see if anyone recognizes it (the book is sci fi) still no result. I am even considering contacting my ex to try to get the contact of his fried that gave me the book in the firs place. And i know that is a bad idea. But im so desperate it hurts. Now does that sound just a bit crazy? So, if anyone does read my blog, please, please i beg you, do you have any ideas how would i find a book by just its plot?